This past week one rocket was fired into the western Negev from the Gaza Strip, as Hamas maintains its policy of restraint. Another rocket was fired at the Kiryat Shemonah region from south Lebanon, apparently by global jihad elements.

American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference. Secretary Clinton said that the United States accepted the Israeli position regarding the renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians without preconditions. Mahmoud Abbas and his aides reiterated their position that a relaunching of negotiations would have to be based on the absolute cessation of building in the settlements.

Gaza Strip

Rocket and mortar shell fire

One rocket hit was identified on November 2. It landed in an open area; there were no casualties and no damage was done. Light arms were fired at an IDF force near the Karni crossing on October 28. There were no casualties.

Rocket and mortar shell fired into Israeli territory ¹

Fatah forums report that Hamas continues operating against rocket launching squads

Surfers on various forums, especially those belonging to Fatah, reported that the Hamas security forces continued their operations against squads launching rockets from the Gaza Strip:

On October 27 Hamas chased seven members of a Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades rocket launching squad. According to the report, they were chased after they fired two rockets into Israeli territory (Fatah forum, October 27, 2009).

On October 29 Hamas prevented the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from a firing rocket from the area around the Sufa crossing (Fatah forum, October 29, 2009).

In addition, Hamas reportedly uncovered a Palestinian Islamic Jihad lathe for manufacturing rockets and had the owner brought in for interrogation (Fatah forum, October 29, 2009).

Judea and Samaria
Counterterrorism activities

The Israeli security forces continued their counterterrorism activities this past week, detaining Palestinians suspected of participating in terrorist activities. Throughout the week there were various incidents, primarily the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails. The most prominent were the following:

November 1: Palestinians threw stones at an Israeli bus west of Bethlehem. There were no casualties but the bus was damaged (IDF Spokesman, November 1, 2009).

October 29: Stones and five Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Qalandia checkpoint south of Ramallah. There were no casualties and no damage was done (IDF Spokesman, October 29, 2009).

October 29: Stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle west of Bethlehem. An Israeli woman was injured and the vehicle was damaged (IDF Spokesman, October 29, 2009).

Jewish terrorist detained

On November 2 it was reported that Yaakov Teitel, a resident of the settlement of Shvut Rachel, had been detained on October 7 on suspicion of a series of serious crimes. They included the murder of two Palestinians, setting bombs, a grievous attack on a Messianic Jewish family in Ariel and the wounding of Professor Zeev Sternhell. A large quantity of weapons was found in his possession. During interrogation he admitted having committed the crimes attributed to him (Haaretz, November 2, 2009).

Rocket fire into Israel

Left: Remains of the rocket fired at Kiryat Shemonah. Right: The fire caused by the rocket hit
(Photos by Avihu Shapira, reproduced courtesy of Ynet, October 27, 2009).

At 18:50 on the evening of October 27 a rocket, apparently 107mm, was fired into Israeli territory from the area of Wadi Jamal near the Shi'ite village of Houla in the central sector of south Lebanon. The rocket hit was identified in an open area near the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shemonah. There were no casualties but vegetation was burned (IDF Spokesman, October 27, 2009). The IDF responded by firing shells at the area from which the rocket was launched.

Immediately after the rocket fire UNIFIL and Lebanese army forces arrived to investigate the incident. According to a statement from the Lebanese army, the following morning four additional rockets ready for firing were discovered at the launching site. They were found in the yard of a house under construction on the outskirts of the village of Houla. The house belonged to Houla mayor Feisal Hejazi (Lebanese News Agency, October 28, 2009). Interviewed on television, Feisal Hejazi claimed to have been surprised that the rockets were found in his yard, stating that they were apparently put there during the night (NTV, October 2 8 , 2009).

Searching the yard in Houla (Al-Arabia TV, October 28, 2009).

The rocket was the sixth fired since the end of the second Lebanon war (2006). On September 11, 2009, three rockets were fired at the western Galilee and north Israel on from the region of the town of Qulaylah. In our assessment, most of the fire was carried out by local networks affiliated with the global jihad in an attempt to challenge the Lebanese government and Hezbollah with attacks clearly violating UN Security Council Resolution 1701.²

The crossings

This past week the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip were open and 340 trucks entered the Strip to make deliveries.

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip opened for three days on November 1 to allow 3,000 Palestinians with humanitarian issues to leave and 1,500 detained in Egypt to enter. During the past months there was a significant increase in the activity at the Rafah crossing, especially for humanitarian reasons, as an alternative to the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The Egyptians allow the crossing to be used as a safety valve and have opened it more frequently than in the past.

Two Popular Resistance Committees terrorist operatives killed in a "work accident"

The military-terrorist wing of the Popular Resistance Committees reported the deaths of two of its operatives. Both were residents of Rafah and according to reports from members of the Salah al-Din unit for weapons manufacture, they were apparently killed in a "work accident" (Qawm website, October 27, 2009).

On October 31 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  met with American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Secretary Clinton said that the United States accepted the Israeli position regarding the renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians without preconditions. She said that what Netanyahu said was "historically accurate" and that there had never been a "precondition." She added that "[w]hat the prime minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements, which he has just described - no new starts, for example - is unprecedented in the context of the prior two negotiations." Referring to the building in the settlements, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel "would not build new settlements, not expropriate land for addition for the existing settlements, and that we were prepared to adopt a policy of restraint on the existing settlements, but also one that would still enable normal life for the residents who are living there."³

The Palestinians reiterated their refusal to relaunch the negotiations with Israel without the following preconditions:

• Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that he "completely rejected" the American proposal to renew the negotiations with Israel as stated by Secretary Clinton before a cessation of building activity in the West Bank. He said that most of the meeting with Clinton dealt with Jerusalem, and that without Jerusalem "there will be no peace with the Israeli side." He also stressed the problem of the refugees and the so-called "right of return" (Agence France-Presse, Wafa News Agency, Palestinian Television, October 31, 2009).

• Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the BBC in Arabic that relaunching negotiations with Israel without a complete freeze on building in the settlements and in Jerusalem would be "useless." That, he said, was because it would "bulldozers and settlements would determine the results of the negotiations regarding Jerusalem, borders and territory" (BBC in Arabic, October 31, 2009).

• Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said that Mahmoud Abbas' position was that negotiations had to be based on the complete cessation of building in the settlements. He added that any proposal that did not include a complete cessation of building in the settlements and Jerusalem would not lead to full peace and a genuine peace process (Al-Arabiya TV, October 31, 2009).

Elections for the Palestinian Authority institutions

The Palestinian Authority continues its preparations for general elections in January 2010. The Palestinian elections committee said in an announcement to the media that anyone who had been on the 2005 and 2006 election staffs who wanted to join the 2010 election staff should go to the committee's offices in the various districts of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The announcement included the addresses and telephone numbers of the offices, including those in the Gaza Strip (Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 28, 2009).

In response, the interior ministry of the de-facto Hamas administration announced that Hamas would not allow the elections to be held in the Gaza Strip because they were illegal and were not going to be held "through national consensus." The ministry also made it clear that it would punish anyone in the Gaza Strip who collaborated with the Palestinian elections committee (Qudsnet website, October 27, 2009).

FRESNO, Calif., November 6 (Compass Direct News) - Malaysian port and customs authorities have seized at least 15,000 Bibles in recent months because the word "Allah" for God appears in them.

Some 10,000 of the Bahasa Malaysia-language Bibles, which were printed in Indonesia, are in Kuching, capital of Sarawak in East Malaysia, and another 5,000 copies are in Kelang near Kuala Lumpur.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) on Wednesday (Nov. 4) called for the immediate release of the confiscated Bibles.

At the same time, CFM Executive Secretary Tan Kong Beng told Compass that the federation is striving for amicable relations with government authorities.

"We are open to and desire further discussion with officials so that this problem can be resolved," the CFM official said.

The CFM officially represents the three major Christian groups in the country: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, the Council of Churches of Malaysia, and the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Malaysia.

A strong Christian community in Indonesia, estimated 37 million by Operation World, has long produced large amounts of literature for export to Malaysia. In 2005 the government of Malaysia agreed to allow the use of "Allah" in non-Muslim literature, according to CFM.

"The government and CFM have exchanged letters on this matter previously," reads the CFM statement, "and we have a written agreement in December 2005 that Bahasa Malaysia Bibles can be distributed so long as the symbol of the cross and the words 'A Christian publication' are printed on the front page."

With the exception of the temporary suspension of publication of the Roman Catholic Herald newspaper in 2007 and the ongoing court battle over the weekly's use of "Allah," few problems were encountered in the policy. This past March, however, authorities suddenly began seizing CDs, Sunday school materials, and Bibles containing the word "Allah."

Church leaders were stunned that no one had informed them of a change in policy. Quiet negotiations failed to resolve the situation, and several lawsuits began working their way through the court system. These suits challenge the right of the Minister of Home Affairs to restrict the use of "Allah" and to limit freedom of religion.

"To withhold the use of the Bahasa Malaysia Bibles is an infringement of Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, which gives every Malaysian the right to profess his/her faith as well as to practice it," according to the CFM.

A government official in Malaysia was unavailable for comment. Officially, the government says only that use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims could create "confusion" among Muslims.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court in Malaysia was scheduled to determine the legality of the word "Allah" in non-Muslim literature on July 7 but postponed the decision. The newspaper had been allowed to use the term until a final court decision was to be handed down, but the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 30 overturned that brief reprieve. 

The Rev. Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, has cited examples from Malay dictionaries going back to the 17th century that use "Allah" as the vernacular translation for God. He has also noted that "Allah" is an Arabic term derived from the same roots as the Hebrew Elohim, and that the word pre-dates Muhammad, Islam's prophet.

The Herald has a circulation of 13,000 and an estimated readership of 50,000. The newspaper is sold in Catholic churches and is not available from newsstands.

While the issue is tied up in the courts, many are hoping for a more harmonious solution to the problem. Both Indonesia and Malaysia use variations of Malay as their national languages, and all translations of the Bible in both countries used "Allah" for God until Malaysian authorities decided in the past few years that it was an Islamic term that should be used only by Muslims. In so doing, Malaysia effectively shut off the importation of Christian literature from Indonesia.

Malaysia's population is about 60 percent Muslim, 19 percent Buddhist and 9 percent Christian. About 6 percent are Hindu, with 2.6 percent of the population adhering to Confucianism, Taoism and other traditional Chinese religions.
-------------------

Copyright 2009 Compass Direct News
Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.
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Compass Direct News
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----------------------------

"Why Didn't You Tell Me Your Panel Declared Israel Guilty From the Start?

Why Were You Silent When I Was Attacked?"

Israeli terror victim challenges author of ignominious Goldstone Report, who fumbles and fails to answer her simple questions.

Newly available on YouTube video, this compelling UN Watch speech by Dr. Mirela Siderer, victim of a May 2008 Palestinian rocket attack, was quoted in the U.S. Congress yesterday by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, as she introduced House Resolution 867, adopted by an overwhelming vote of 344 to 36, that condemned the "irredeemably biased" Goldstone Report, in advance of today's vitriolic UN General Assembly debate.

Judge Goldstone and his political allies on the far left launched a full court press to block the resolution. But Rep. Howard Berman, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, cited UN Watch legal analysis in beating back the Goldstone campaign's specious arguments.

Related Special Topic Pages

• Surveillance and Countersurveillance
• Terrorist Attack Cycle

Al-Wahayshi, an ethnic Yemeni who spent time in Afghanistan serving as a lieutenant under Osama bin Laden, noted these simple attacks could be conducted with readily available weapons such as knives, clubs or small improvised explosive devices (IEDs). According to al-Wahayshi, jihadists "don't need to conduct a big effort or spend a lot of money to manufacture 10 grams of explosive material" and that they should not "waste a long time finding the materials, because you can find all these in your mother's kitchen, or readily at hand or in any city you are in."

That al-Wahayshi gave these instructions in an Internet magazine distributed via jihadist chat rooms, not in some secret meeting with his operational staff, demonstrates that they are clearly intended to reach grassroots jihadists -- and are not intended as some sort of internal guidance for AQAP members. In fact, al-Wahayshi was encouraging grassroots jihadists to "do what Abu al-Khair did" referring to AQAP member Abdullah Hassan Taleh al-Asiri, the Saudi suicide bomber who attempted to kill Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef with a small IED on Aug. 28.

The most concerning aspect of al-Wahayshi's statement is that it is largely true. Improvised explosive mixtures are in fact relatively easy to make from readily available chemicals -- if a person has the proper training -- and attacks using small IEDs or other readily attainable weapons such as knives or clubs (or firearms in the United States) are indeed quite simple to conduct.

As STRATFOR has noted for several years now, with al Qaeda's structure under continual attack and no regional al Qaeda franchise groups in the Western Hemisphere, the most pressing jihadist threat to the U.S. homeland at present stems from grassroots jihadists, not the al Qaeda core. This trend has been borne out by the large number of plots and arrests over the past several years, to include several so far in 2009. The grassroots have likewise proven to pose a critical threat to Europe (although it is important to note that the threat posed by grassroots operatives is more widespread, but normally involves smaller, less strategic attacks than those conducted by the al Qaeda core).

From a counterterrorism perspective, the problem posed by grassroots operatives is that unless they somehow self-identify by contacting a government informant or another person who reports them to authorities, attend a militant training camp, or conduct electronic correspondence with a person or organization under government scrutiny, they are very difficult to detect.

The threat posed by grassroots operatives, and the difficulty identifying them, highlight the need for counterterrorism programs to adopt a proactive, protective intelligence approach to the problem -- an approach that focuses on "the how" of militant attacks instead of just "the who."

The How

In the traditional, reactive approach to counterterrorism, where authorities respond to a crime scene after a terrorist attack to find and arrest the militants responsible for the attack, it is customary to focus on the who, or on the individual or group behind the attack. Indeed, in this approach, the only time much emphasis is placed on the how is either in an effort to identify a suspect when an unknown actor carried out the attack, or to prove that a particular suspect was responsible for the attack during a trial. Beyond these limited purposes, not much attention is paid to the how.

In large part, this focus on the who is a legacy of the fact that for many years, the primary philosophy of the U.S. government was to treat counterterrorism as a law-enforcement program, with a focus on prosecution rather than on disrupting plots.

Certainly, catching and prosecuting those who commit terrorist attacks is necessary, but from our perspective, preventing attacks is more important, and prevention requires a proactive approach. To pursue such a proactive approach to counterterrorism, the how becomes a critical question. By studying and understanding how attacks are conducted -- i.e., the exact steps and actions required for a successful attack -- authorities can establish systems to proactively identify early indicators that planning for an attack is under way. People involved in planning the attack can then be focused on, identified, and action can be taken prevent them from conducting the attack or attacks they are plotting. This means that focusing on the how can lead to previously unidentified suspects, e.g., those who do not self-identify.

"How was the attack conducted?" is the primary question addressed by protective intelligence, which is, at its core, a process for proactively identifying and assessing potential threats. Focusing on the how, then, requires protective intelligence practitioners to carefully study the tactics, tradecraft and behavior associated with militant actors involved in terrorist attacks. This allows them to search for and identify those behaviors before an attack takes place. Many of these behaviors are not by themselves criminal in nature; visiting a public building and observing security measures or standing on the street to watch the arrival of a VIP at their office are not illegal, but they can be indicators that an attack is being plotted. Such legal activities ultimately could be overt actions in furtherance of an illegal conspiracy to conduct the attack, but even where conspiracy cannot be proved, steps can still be taken to identify possible assailants and prevent a potential attack -- or at the very least, to mitigate the risk posed by the people involved.

Protective intelligence is based on the fact that successful attacks don't just happen out of the blue. Rather, terrorist attacks follow a discernable attack cycle. There are critical points during that cycle where a plot is most likely to be detected by an outside observer. Some of the points during the attack cycle when potential attackers are most vulnerable to detection are while surveillance is being conducted and weapons are being acquired. However, there are other, less obvious points where people on the lookout can spot preparations for an attack.

It is true that sometimes individuals do conduct ill-conceived, poorly executed attacks that involve shortcuts in the planning process. But this type of spur-of-the-moment attack is usually associated with mentally disturbed individuals and it is extremely rare for a militant actor to conduct a spontaneous terrorist attack without first following the steps of the attack cycle.

To really understand the how, protective intelligence practitioners cannot simply acknowledge that something like surveillance occurs. Rather, they must turn a powerful lens on steps like preoperational surveillance to gain an in-depth understanding of them. Dissecting an activity like preoperational surveillance requires not only examining subjects such as the demeanor demonstrated by those conducting surveillance prior to an attack and the specific methods and cover for action and status used. It also requires identifying particular times where surveillance is most likely and certain optimal vantage points (called perches in surveillance jargon) from where a surveillant is most likely to operate when seeking to surveil a specific facility or event. This type of complex understanding of surveillance can then be used to help focus human or technological countersurveillance efforts where they can be most effective.

Unfortunately, many counterterrorism investigators are so focused on the who that they do not focus on collecting this type of granular how information. When we have spoken with law enforcement officers responsible for investigating recent grassroots plots, they gave us blank stares in response to questions about how the suspects had conducted surveillance on the intended targets. They simply had not paid attention to this type of detail -- but this oversight is not really the investigators' fault. No one had ever explained to them why paying attention to, and recording, this type of detail was important.

Moreover, it takes specific training and a practiced eye to observe and record these details without glossing over them. For example, it is quite useful if a protective intelligence officer has first conducted a lot of surveillance, because conducting surveillance allows one to understand what a surveillant must do and where he must be in order to effectively observe surveillance of a specific person or place.

Similarly, to truly understand the tradecraft required to build an IED and the specific steps a militant needs to complete to do so, it helps to go to an IED school where the investigator learns the tradecraft firsthand. Militant actors can and do change over time. New groups, causes and ideologies emerge, and specific militants can be killed, captured or retire. But the tactical steps a militant must complete to conduct a successful attack are constant.

It doesn't matter if the person planning an attack is a radical environmentalist, a grassroots jihadist or a member of the al Qaeda core, for while these diverse actors will exhibit different levels of professionalism in regard to terrorist tradecraft, they still must follow essentially the same steps, accomplish the same tasks and operate in the same areas. Knowing this allows protective intelligence to guard against different levels of threats.

Of course, tactics can be changed and perfected and new tactics can be developed (often in response to changes in security and law enforcement operations). Additionally, new technologies can emerge (like cell phones and Google Earth) -- which can alter the way some of these activities are conducted, or reduce the time it takes to complete them. Studying the tradecraft and behaviors needed to execute evolving tactics, however, allows protective intelligence practitioners to respond to such changes and even alter how they operate in order to more effectively search for potential hostile activity.

Technology does not only aid those seeking to conduct attacks. There are a variety of new tools, such as Trapwire, a software system designed to work with camera systems to help detect patterns of preoperational surveillance, that can be focused on critical areas to help cut through the fog of noise and activity and draw attention to potential threats. These technological tools can help turn the tables on unknown plotters because they are designed to focus on the how. They will likely never replace human observation and experience, but they can serve as valuable aids to human perception.

Of course, protective intelligence does not have to be the sole responsibility of federal authorities specifically charged with counterterrorism. Corporate security managers and private security contractors should also apply these principles to protecting the people and facilities in their charge, as should local and state police agencies. In a world full of soft targets -- and limited resources to protect those targets from attack -- the more eyes looking for such activity the better. Even the general public has an important role to play in practicing situational awareness and spotting potential terrorist activity.

Keeping it Simple?

Al-Wahayshi is right that it is not difficult to construct improvised explosives from a wide range of household chemicals like peroxide and acetone or chlorine and brake fluid. He is also correct that some of those explosive mixtures can be concealed in objects ranging from electronic items to picture frames, or can be employed in forms ranging from hand grenades to suicide vests. Likewise, low-level attacks can also be conducted using knives, clubs and guns.

Furthermore, when grassroots jihadists plan and carry out attacks acting as lone wolves or in small compartmentalized cells without inadvertently betraying their mission by conspiring with people known to the authorities, they are not able to be detected by the who-focused systems, and it becomes far more difficult to discover and thwart these plots. This focus on the how absolutely does not mean that who-centered programs must be abandoned. Surveillance on known militants, their associates and communications should continue, efforts to identify people attending militant training camps or fighting in places like Afghanistan or Somalia must be increased, and people who conduct terrorist attacks should be identified and prosecuted.

However -- and this is an important however -- if an unknown militant is going to conduct even a simple attack against some of the targets al-Wahayshi suggests, such as an airport, train, or specific leader or media personality, complexity creeps into the picture, and the planning cycle must be followed if an attack is going to be successful. The prospective attacker must observe and quantify the target, construct a plan for the attack and then execute that plan.

The demands of this process will force even an attacker previously unknown to the authorities into a position where he is vulnerable to discovery. If the attacker does this while there are people watching for such activity, he will likely be seen. But if he does this while there are no watchers, there is little chance that he will become a who until after the attack has been completed.

News without commentary, you read and connect the dots

North America
October 15, 2009
USA
Update on Rifqa Bary.

October 20, 2009
USA
If making Islam a "greater and more authentic part" of Muslim's lives results in the implementation of sharia law, based not in mythology but in contemporary practice, the predictable outcome is the furtherance of backwardness, repression, intolerance, and inequality afflicting the Muslim world today.

October 21, 2009
USA
A father ran down his "too Westernized" daughter in an attempted honor killing. October 30, 2009 Update. LINK Comment on this crime:LINK.

October 22, 2009
USA
With a few exceptions, the mainstream media continue to kill stories about honor killings and attempted honor killings in North America.

November 1, 2009
USA
Honor killings are on the rise in the United States.

Asia
October 11, 2009
Pakistan
A Christian schoolgirl in Pakistan's Punjab province was recovering Sunday, October 11, after she was allegedly "ruthlessly beaten" with a bamboo stick by a Muslim headteacher for saying she is "a Pakistani" citizen.

October 15, 2009
Indonesia
A controversial bill that includes a provision for the stoning to death of adulterers is now officially law.

October 17, 2009
Pakistan
The Taliban threatens to kill more Christians and treat their women as sex slaves.

October 27, 2009
Indonesia
Women are banned from wearing trousers and jeans.

October 27, 2009
Turkey
Two British sisters and their friend endured a two-hour rape ordeal during a holiday trip to Turkey.

October 29, 2009
Malaysia
Malaysia's conservative Islamic party has urged Muslim men to marry single mothers as additional wives instead of "young virgin girls".

October 30, 2009
Indonesia
A photo of Islamic women at the Feast of the Sacrifice.

November 1, 2009
Pakistan
Jihadis blow up a girls' school, wounding four people.

Europe
October 17, 2009
UK
A woman sexually assaulted by an immigrant yesterday won her six-and-a-half year battle to have her attacker deported.

October 19, 2009
Finland
Immigrant women in Finland are increasingly the victims of violence perpetrated in the name of family honor.

October 19, 2009
UK
British virgin girls as young as 12 are being sold to mega-rich Arabs for sex at up to £50,000 a time.

October 20, 2009
UK
Mother in Tulay Goren 'honour killing' tells of daughter's last day.

October 22, 2009
Denmark
A Palestinian father hits a primary school teacher and bites his ear after he had shaken the hand of the man's daughter.

October 22, 2009
Switzerland
Campaigners have welcomed government plans to impose tougher penalties on those found guilty of imposing forced marriage.

October 22, 2009
UK
An asylum seeker and his wife blackmailed a Muslim friend by threatening to show photographs of her wearing jeans and a T-shirt to her devout family.

October 28, 2009
UK
A teenager is accused of raping a young woman after locking her up for nine hours.

October 29, 2009
UK
A Muslim rapist used social networking site to find victim.

October 30, 2009
UK
Muslim women will be allowed to don burkas under their mortar boards at Cambridge University graduation ceremonies.

Middle East
October 18, 2009
Kuwait
Man uses 'power of the ring' to sexually abuse 30 women.

October 24, 2009
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi lawyer says a female journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes for her involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex.

October 29, 3009
Afghanistan
Afghan girls burn themselves to escape marriage.

Africa
October 27, 2009
Somalia
Christian woman in Somalia who refused to wear veil is killed.

October 28, 2009
Somalia
Somali women are being beaten for violating Sharia law.

October 29, 2009
Somalia
Hundreds of people have attended a wedding in central Somalia between a man who says he is 112 years old, and his teenage wife.

Produced by www.politicalislam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner; Editor: Asma Marwan
 

Compass Direct News

CHINA

Worship Site Demolished, Pastors Arrested

October 7 (Compass Direct News) - Following a mob attack on a church in northeastern China and the demolition of their worship site last month, the government put officials on alert to use military force against churches to quell potential "unrest," according to a leading advocacy group.

Citing reliable government sources, China Aid Association (CAA) reported that the central government on Sept. 26-27 ordered officials in "all relevant government agencies" to prepare to use military force against Christians who might react to the attack on the Fushan Church branch congregation in Linfen city, Shanxi Province.

On Sept. 13 some 400 uniformed police and civilians bearing shovels, batons, bricks, iron hooks and other weapons beat members of the church who were sleeping at the nearly finished factory building used as a worship site.

With several Fushan County officials involved in the attack, dozens of Christians were seriously injured among the more than 100 who were hurt, according to CAA. On Sept. 25 Shanxi Province officers of the Public Security Bureau detained nine Fushan Church leaders on their way to Beijing to protest the attack, and the next day authorities placed state military police inside and around the main Fushan Church building in Linfen city, the advocacy organization said. In Beijing, the crackdown ahead of the Oct. 1 National Day included the arrest of an internationally known house church rights defender. Public Security Bureau and State Security agents from Fengtai district in Beijing seized Pastor Hua Huiqi of Tent-Making Ministry on Sept. 17; his whereabouts are unknown.

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EGYPT

Christian Arrested For Distributing Tracts

October 6 (Compass Direct News) - An Egyptian Christian arrested in Cairo for handing out gospel leaflets and held in prison illegally for four days has been released, the freed Protestant Copt told Compass. Abdel Kamel, 61, was arrested on Sept. 23 in downtown Cairo for handing out copies of a Christian leaflet. As they arrested him, police told Kamel it was "unlawful" to hand out religious information on public roads. When Kamel countered that Muslims commonly hand out Islamic literature, police told him it was "more unlawful" for Christians. Kamel also didn't have his identification card. Attorney Nabil Ghobreyal said there is no law in Egypt forbidding the distribution of religious material. While in police custody, Kamel said, he remained in handcuffs for hours, was thrown to the ground, spit upon and threatened with violence. Kamel said he wasn't tortured, but when asked to describe his ordeal, he wept uncontrollably. "Why, when we are [sharing our faith], are we not even allowed to put our view across?" he said. "Why aren't we treated the same?"

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EGYPT

Coptic Family Forced To Surrender Rescued Woman

October 9 (Compass Direct News) - State Security Investigations (SSI) forces in Egypt arrested, abused and then extorted money from a Coptic Christian for rescuing his daughter from her Muslim husband, who was holding her against her will in Alexandria, according to sources in Egypt. Security forces also arrested 10 people in Alexandria and tortured them in an attempt to find all those involved in the rescue. Authorities are preparing to make a new wave of arrests, the sources said. On Sept. 30, they said, the only daughter of Gamal Labib Hanna called home and asked her family to save her from her Muslim husband.

How Hanna's daughter, Myrna Gamal Hanna, came to marry Mohamad Osama Hefnawy is disputed, but sources said the now-20-year-old woman was 19 and under the age of marital consent when she and Hefnawy were wed 10 months ago. After the rescue, Hefnawy and his neighbors filed a report with local police and the SSI. Soon after, Hanna's brothers, one brother-in-law and his mother-in-law were rounded up, charged with abduction and detained.

According to sources in Egypt, at least one of the family members was tortured until Hanna turned himself in. Sources said security forces pressured Hanna until he agreed not only to hand his daughter back to Hefnawy but also to give him several thousand dollars. "Cases like this are very common, they happen every day," said Rasha Noor, an Egyptian human rights activist and journalist living outside of Egypt. "That's usually what happens when families try to rescue daughters from their kidnappers."

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EGYPT

Coptic Blogger Pressured To Convert In Prison

October 31 (Compass Direct News) - A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt entering his second year of prison without charge is being pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for his freedom, his attorneys said. On Oct. 3, 2008, Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog "Karz El Hob," was arrested by Egypt's State Security Investigations and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Gamel Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said Nazeer upset Islamic authorities by criticizing the increasing Islamization of Egyptian civil society and irked church leaders by lamenting political involvement of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Police had detained Nazeer's relatives at a police station and threatened to hold them until he came out of hiding, Eid said, and Nazeer turned himself into a police station in October 2008 - on the advice of Bishop Kirollos of Nag Hammadi. Nazeer reported to his attorneys that Kirollos had told him he would be in jail only four days, and his lawyers suspect collusion between Egyptian and church authorities. "Hani is in between the hate of the Islamists and the hate of the Christians," Eid said. "The Islamists of course are against him, and the church [leadership] is against him, so he's being badly squeezed between the two."

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ETHIOPIA

Jailed Evangelists Win Appeal But Remain In Prison

October 8 (Compass Direct News) - Two Christians in Ethiopia who had been sentenced to six months of prison on false charges of offering money to people to convert have successfully appealed their sentence, only to be kept in prison on a new charge. After a lower court in Amhara state threw out their appeal on Sept. 21, the State Supreme Court in Bahir Dar last week ordered Temesgen Alemayehu and Tigist Welde Amanuel to be released after paying a 500 birr (US$40) fine each, Christian sources said.

Yesterday, as the evangelists were appearing before a court in Debiretabor regarding the decision of the Supreme Court in Bahir Dar, a new charge was brought against them, Christian sources said: Inmates had signed a petition asking the district prosecutor to prosecute them for insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) while in prison. The judge set Oct. 14 for the Christians to appear in court to answer to the new charge and ruled that they be kept in prison at least until then.

The maneuver shattered the two Christians' hopes of being released, church leaders said. "We are asking for the continuation of prayers," said one church leader who requested anonymity for security reasons. "We are thinking of reporting to the State's Supreme Court in Bahir Dar and see what would be the next move." Alemayehu and Amanuel, of Wengel Lealem church in Addis Ababa, had gone to Debiretabor, Amhara state in July to help establish a church.

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ETHIOPIA

Two Evangelists Released From Prison

October 28 (Compass Direct News) - The latest in a series of false charges against two Ethiopian evangelists was put to rest on Friday (Oct. 23), and they were released. A court in Debiretabor, Ethiopia acquitted the two evangelists of insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) in prison, an accusation made by fellow inmates after the two were jailed on false charges of offering money for people to convert. The charge that the two Christians insulted the EOC was orchestrated by EOC members both inside and outside the prison, according to area church leaders.

Temesgen Alemayehu and Tigist Welde Amanuel had been sentenced to prison for six months on the false charge of offering money to people to convert but successfully appealed the punishment; after a lower court in Amhara state had thrown out their appeal on Sept. 21, the State Supreme Court in Bahir Dar ordered them to be to be released after paying a 500 birr (US$40) fine.

Before they could be released, however, inmates signed a petition raising the second charge against Alemayehu and Amanuel. On this charge of insulting the EOC while in prison, the judge rejected witnesses' testimony as contradictory and of no value. "Thank you to those who prayed for us," Alemayehu said after his release, adding that he was eager to return to ministry.

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INDIA

Hostilities Flare In Bjp-Run Madhya Pradesh

October 14 (Compass Direct News) - Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003, Christians in the state have suffered increased attacks and concerted efforts to tarnish their image, church leaders said. Before the BJP took office the state recorded two or three attacks against Christians per year, they said, whereas Jabalpur Archbishop Gerald Almeida said that in the past five years 65 baseless charges of forceful conversion - commonly accompanied by mob violence - have been registered in his diocese alone.

The state is not able to control these groups, he added. Indeed, police routinely working with Hindu extremist groups filed an average of more than three unsubstantiated complaints of "coerced" conversions each month in the past five years, according to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Madhya Pradesh.

The Rev. Anand Muttungal, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Madhya Pradesh, said growing attacks on Christians were a symptom of fear among Hindu extremists that the Catholic Church's influence is spreading. "The Church as an organization is doing very well in many fields," Muttungal said. "It causes those fundamentalists to worry. It could be one of the main reasons for the continuous attacks on Christians."
 
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INDIA

Pastor Lured Into Violent Trap

October 21 (Compass Direct News) - A group of Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month beat a pastor unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, pelting him with stones after he fainted from the pain. Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured him into a house in Malphalia village, Jhabua district with an offer of water on Oct. 4. The 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from his regular Sunday service in Malphalia at 4 p.m. when six men sitting outside a house invited him in for a glass of water. When he saw a photograph of Jesus Christ in the house, he knew they had set a trap for him - Pastor Ninama said he knew they would accuse him of providing them the photo and trying to "forcibly" convert them. "I immediately turned to escape when they all jumped on me and started to beat me, accusing me of luring people to convert," he said.

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INDIA

Massive 'reconversion' Event Aimed At Christians

October 27 (Compass Direct News) - Hundreds of tribal Christians and adherents of aboriginal religion from villages in Maharashtra state were reportedly "reconverted" to Hinduism yesterday in the Mumbai suburb of Thane at a ceremony led by a Hindu nationalist cleric. Swami Narendra Maharaj's goal was to "reconvert" 6,000 Christians in the so-called purification ceremony, reported The Hindustan Times, which put the number of "reconversions" at around 800.

Hindu nationalists believe all Indians are born Hindu and therefore regard acceptance of Hinduism by those practicing other religions as "reconversion." A Hindu cleric known for opposing proclamation of Christ, Maharaj has allegedly led anti-Christian attacks in tribal regions. Maharaj told the Press Trust of India that those who "reconverted" were not coerced. Many reports of "reconversions," however, have been found to be false. In 2007, Hindi-language daily Punjab Kesari reported that four Christian families in Nahan town in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh had "reconverted" to Hinduism. But a fact-finding team from the All India Christian Council revealed that none of the members of those families had ever converted to Christianity.

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INDIA

New, More Dangerous Hindu Extremist Groups Emerge

October 29 (Compass Direct News) - After more than a decade of severe persecution, India's Christian minority is growing increasingly concerned over the mushrooming of newer and deadlier Hindu extremist groups. Gone are the days when Christians had to watch out only for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, which are closely linked with the most influential Hindu extremist umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). With voter support faltering for the RSS's political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), moderate and extremist sections within the Hindu nationalist movement are blaming each other, and militant splinter groups have emerged.

 Claiming to be breakaway factions of the RSS, new groups with even more extreme ideology are surfacing. The Abhinav Bharat (Pride of India), the Rashtriya Jagran Manch (National Revival Forum), the Sri Ram Sene (Army of god Rama), the Hindu Dharam Sena (Army for Hindu Religion) and the Sanatan Sanstha (Eternal Organization) have launched numerous violent attacks on Christian and Muslim minorities. The new groups, formed mostly by former members of RSS-connected outfits, find the Hindu nationalist conglomerate too "mild" to be able to create a nation with Hindu supremacy.

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INDONESIA

Islamic Groups Shut Down Worship Of Church

October 5 (Compass Direct News) - Several Islamic organizations have pressed officials in a sub-district near Indonesia's capital city to forbid Jakarta Christian Baptist Church to worship in a house, resulting in an order to cease worship. The Islamic Defenders Front, the Betawi Forum Group, and political party Hizbut Tahrir have told officials in Sepatan sub-district, Tangerang district, near Jakarta that worship activities cannot be conducted in a residence.

The house belongs to the Rev. Bedali Hulu. Both District Officer Ismet Iskandar and a sub-district officer support the closure and have ordered Hulu to use his home only as a residence, the pastor said. The sub-district officer, who goes by the single name of Rusdy, has sent a notice ordering an end to all worship at the house. "But they have not put forth a solution," Hulu said. "For a long time we have suggested that we build a place of worship, but there has been no response from the local government." Church members feel terrorized by mobs that have stopped services, the pastor said.

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INDONESIA

Two Churches Receive Bomb Threats

October 13 (Compass Direct News) - Two churches in the greater Jakarta area have received bomb threats. In East Jakarta, the pastor of a Batak Protestant Christian Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) on Bogor Street received a threatening phone call before Sunday services on Oct. 4. The unknown caller to the Rev. Abidan Simanungkalit's cell phone said the bomb would explode during the morning worship service, the pastor told Compass.

Bomb squad officers discovered a black package in a garbage container near the front of the church building but determined that it was not a bomb. In north Bekasi, a church leader of a Bethel Indonesia congregation received a similar threat the previous day, Oct. 3. Jeffry Lalamentik said he received the threat on his cell phone, with the unknown caller also saying, "Your church will be bombed during morning worship." Lalamentik said there was reason to take the threat seriously. In July a number of radical Islamic groups, including the Islamic Defenders' Front, Iqra Echo and the Forum for Communication and Hospitality of the Musala Mosque in Bekasi demanded that the church close.

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INDONESIA

Theology Students To Be Evicted From Campground

October 20 (Compass Direct News) - Approximately 700 students from Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) are facing eviction at the end of the month from a campground where Muslim protestors drove them last year. Education will end for students who have been living in 11 large tents and studying in the open air at Bumi Perkemahan Cibubur (BUPERTA) campground, many of them for more than a year.

Hundreds of protestors shouting "Allahu-Akbar ["God is greater]" and brandishing machetes forced the evacuation of staff and students from the SETIA campus in Kampung Pulo village on July 26-27, 2008. The Jakarta provincial government has ceased paying the rental fee of the campsite in East Jakarta, a bill that now totals 2.7 billion rupiahs (US$280,000), which camp officials said will result in the eviction of the students and the end of their studies at the end of the month.

Umar Lubis, head of BUPERTA campground, said camp officials have provided the students great leeway and shown great tolerance in the year that rent has not been paid. A Jakarta Province official told Compass that beginning in October 2008, the provincial government was no longer responsible for campsite rental for the SETIA students because the seminary refused to move to Jonggol, Bogor, West Java, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the old campus. The Rev. Matheus Mangentang, rector of SETIA, said that they refused to move to Jonggol because obtaining a permit there would have been "an extremely difficult process." Many of the students have fallen seriously ill.

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INDONESIA

Islamists Bully Villagers Into Revoking Church Permit

October 26 (Compass Direct News) - The regent of Purwakarta regency, West Java has revoked his decision to permit construction of a Catholic worship building in Cinanka village after Islamists threatened residents into withdrawing their approval. Dedi Mulyadi on Oct. 16 revoked the permit for construction of Catholic Church of Saint Mary after Islamists intimidated some of the local residents whose approval is required by Indonesian law, the priest of the church told Compass.

"Those who had signed were continually terrorized by the FPI [Front Pembela Islam, or Islamic Defenders Front]," the Rev. Agustinus Made said. "They became so frightened that when they were called to a meeting by the Interfaith Communications Forum, many did not attend. Also, the members of the Interfaith Communications Forum and the Department of Religion were also terrorized by the FPI so that they were afraid to say that they agree to the church building."

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INDONESIA

Seminary Students Evicted From Two Locations

October 30 (Compass Direct News) - In the past week hundreds of students from Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) were evicted from two sites where they had taken refuge after Muslim protestors drove them from their campus last year. With about 700 students earlier evicted from Bumi Perkemahan Cibubur campground, officers appointed by the West Jakarta District Court on Monday (Oct. 26) began evacuating more than 300 other students from a former West Jakarta municipal building.

In response, the more than 1,000 evicted SETIA students demonstrated in West Jakarta on Tuesday (Oct. 27), clogging traffic and leading to altercations with police that led to the arrest of at least five students. Six officers were injured. The eviction from the former West Jakarta mayoral office came after the city settled accounts last week with the Sawerigading Foundation, which officially gained ownership of the site from the city after a long court dispute. The Jakarta provincial government has offered to house students at city-owned office building in North Jakarta that SETIA officials said was unfit for habitation. "A barn for water buffalo is much nicer than that place," Ronald Simanjuntak secretary of the SETIA Foundation, told Compass.

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MEXICO

Prisoners Freed In Acteal Case Yet To Return Home

October 12 (Compass Direct News) - Alonso Lopez Entzin, a Tzotzil-speaking Christian in Chiapas state, Mexico, spent 11 years and eight months in prison for a crime he did not commit. Accused of participating in the tragic "Acteal massacre" in December 1997 in which 45 persons died near San Cristobal de las Casas, he and more than 80 of his neighbors were summarily arrested and charged with the murders.

On Aug. 12, the Federal Supreme Court of Mexico ordered that Lopez Entzin and 19 other indigenous men accused in the Acteal killings - 18 are Christian, including Lopez Entzin - be freed from El Amate Penal facility in Chiapas. The court is reviewing the cases of another 31 men convicted in connection with the massacre. Six more defendants will be granted new trials. Lopez Entzin added that winning their freedom will not be easy. "There are thousands and thousands of brothers who prayed for us inside the jail - thank God He answered those prayers," he said through tears. "That's why those brothers who remain behind in El Amate believe that if God's will is done, they will soon be free." Despite being freed, the 20 men have yet to resume normal life with their families. They are living in makeshift half-way houses provided by the federal government in hot, bustling Tuxtla Gutierrez, awaiting re-settlement on land that state authorities have promised them.

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PAKISTAN

Police Torture Christians Arrested In Islamic Attack

October 23 (Compass Direct News) - Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on Aug. 1 told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them. Only one of the hundreds of Muslim assailants responsible for burning at least 50 homes is in jail for the fire assault on Gojra's Christian Town, but sources said Islamists have provided police a pretense for arresting the two Christian brothers who gave shelter to 300 people.

Naveed Masih, 32, alias Fauji ("the Soldier") and his 25-year-old brother Nauman Masih were arrested on Sept. 2 and Sept. 7 respectively for "rioting with deadly weapons and spreading terror with firing," although the latter has been released on bail. From his jail cell, Naveed Masih told Compass that he and his brother were taken to the Police Training Centre in Choong, where they were kept in illegal detention for 18 days. Police kept them hungry for days, he said; when they asked for food, officers told them to confess that they had fired weapons, he added. Naveed Masih also said police tortured them to try to force them to say they had links with terrorist organizations that provided arms and ammunition to them. "Sometimes we were hung in a dark well while our faces were covered with a cloth," Naveed Masih said. "They beat me with cane sticks on the back of my hands and sometimes hung me upside down and then brutally beat me."  

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SOMALIA

Islamic Extremists Kill Another Church Leader

October 1 (Compass Direct News) - Islamic militants in Somalia this week killed a woman who led an underground Christian movement in the war-torn country. Sources told Compass that a leader of Islamic extremist al Shabaab militia in Lower Juba identified only as Sheikh Arbow shot to death 46-year-old Mariam Muhina Hussein at 2 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 28) in Marerey village after discovering she had six Bibles. Marerey is eight kilometers (five miles) from Jilib, part of the neighboring Middle Juba region.

Local sources said that on Sunday (Sept. 27) Arbow sent his wife to the house of Hussein, a Somali Bantu, to confirm the presence of the Bibles. Pretending to be interested in Christianity, the militia leader's wife confirmed the existence of the Bibles. The next day, Arbow arrived at Hussein's house and, in a friendly manner, claimed that he wanted to check something in the Bible. Knowing only that Arbow was a fellow ethnic Somali Bantu and having met his wife the previous day, Hussein innocently gave one to him, sources said. Arbow then told her that he was looking for "Christians who have defiled the Islamic religion," a source said, and he ordered her to get the other Bibles. Upon receiving the Bibles, sources said, Arbow fired three bullets at Hussein, who died instantly.

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SOMALIA

Imprisoned Christian In Somaliland On Hunger Strike

October 15 (Compass Direct News) - A convert from Islam in Somalia's self-declared state of Somaliland has staged a hunger strike to protest his transfer to a harsh prison in a remote part of the country. Osman Nour Hassan was arrested on Aug. 3 for allegedly providing Christian literature in Pepsi village, on the outskirts of the breakaway region's capital city, Hargeisa. On Sept. 9 authorities transferred him from Hargeisa to Mandere prison, 60 kilometers (37 miles) away - a difficult, week-long trip for visitors that is expensive by Somali standards.

His Muslim family and area sheiks arranged for the transfer, said a source on condition of anonymity. Leaving Islam and promoting any religion other than Islam in Somaliland is prohibited, contrary to international standards for religious freedom such as Article 18 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Authorities have thwarted efforts to secure an attorney for Hassan by insisting that he cannot appeal his sentence, the source said. No Christian has ever tried to address a religious rights violation through the courts in Somaliland, he said. "He is in need of a lawyer to help him, which seems not forthcoming," he said. "But he cannot be allowed the right to a defense anyway. He feels neglected, so he rejected to eat food to protest the mistreatment."

 
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SOMALIA

Christian Who Refused To Wear Veil Is Killed

October 27 (Compass Direct News) - Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, according to a Christian source in Somalia. Members of the comparatively "moderate" Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on Oct. 19 at 9:30 p.m. in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia's autonomous Puntland region, said the source. Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam.

She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a Christian. The source said Ali had called him on Oct. 4 saying, "My life is in danger. I am warned of dire consequences if I continue to live without putting on the veil." Speaking by telephone from Somalia, the source told Compass, "I was shocked beyond words when I received the news that she had been shot dead. I wished I could have recalled her to my location. We have lost a long-serving Christian."

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TURKEY

Lawyer Calls Christians' Trial A 'scandal'

October 16 (Compass Direct News) - After three prosecution witnesses testified yesterday that they didn't even know two Christians on trial for "insulting Turkishness and Islam," a defense lawyer called the trial a "scandal." Speaking after yesterday's hearing in the drawn-out trial, defense attorney Haydar Polat said the case's initial acceptance by a state prosecutor in northwestern Turkey was based only on a written accusation from the local gendarmerie headquarters unaccompanied by any documentation.

"It's a scandal," Polat said. "It was a plot, a planned one, but a very unsuccessful plot, as there is no evidence." Turkish Christians Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal were arrested in October 2006; after a two-day investigation they were charged with allegedly slandering Turkishness and Islam while talking about their faith with three young men in Silivri, an hour's drive west of Istanbul.

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TURKEY

Police Official Axed Amid Allegations In Murders

October 22 (Compass Direct News) - The head of Turkey's police intelligence department was removed on Friday (Oct. 16) amid allegations that he failed to prevent the murder of the Christian editor of an Armenian weekly and the slayings of three Christians in this city in southeastern Turkey. Ramazan Akyurek is also accused of withholding evidence in those cases and improperly investigating the murder of a Catholic priest in 2006.

After a Malatya trial hearing on Friday, prosecution lawyers in the case commended the removal of Akyurek for negligence but said it came too late. Akyurek has been placed in a different position within police headquarters in Ankara. Prior to the January 2007 murder of Hrant Dink of the Armenian weekly Agos, Akyurek reportedly received a report about the orchestrated plan to kill the editor.

That clearly implied that he was one of the masterminds behind the murder, according to Erdal Dogan, one of the prosecuting attorneys in the Malatya case. While heading the investigation of the Dink murder, Aykurek allegedly not only witheld intelligence but also tried to affect the outcome of the trial, claiming in his investigation report that a group of "friends" planned to kill Dink because he offended Turkey. "This is a disaster," Dogan said. "The same happened with the Malatya massacre. "We know he had information on all the developments of the massacre, but he didn't act on it. He tried to cover it up. We know that they were following the movements of the killers."

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VIETNAM

Church Registration Inches Along

October 22 (Compass Direct News) - The Assemblies of God (AoG) in Vietnam on Monday (Oct. 19) received an "operating license," which the government described as "the first step . . .before becoming officially legal." This operating license gives permission for all of the congregations of the Vietnam AoG to "carry on religious activity" anywhere in the country for the next year.

During this time the church body must prepare a doctrinal statement, a constitution and bylaws and a four-year working plan to be approved by the government before being allowed to hold an organizing assembly. The operating license is the first one granted since five were granted two years ago. The last of those five churches, the Christian Fellowship Church, was finally allowed to hold its organizing assembly in late September. With no more operating licenses being granted, the future of registration is in a kind of limbo.

Sources said a lower level of registration in which local authorities are supposed to offer permission for local congregations to carry on religious activities while the more complicated higher levels are worked out has largely failed. Only about 10 percent of the many hundreds of applications have received a favorable reply, they said, leaving most house churches vulnerable to arbitrary harassment or worse.
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"Israel Official Says Hamas Rockets Can Reach Tel Aviv (Update2)," by Gwen Ackerman and Calev Ben-David for Bloomberg, November 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip can now launch rockets capable of reaching the Israeli metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said at a Jerusalem briefing.

"We know they have tried to, and have obtained missiles that reach 60 kilometers (37 miles)," Ayalon said today. "Tel Aviv and its vicinity are now under the range of Hamas."

During Israel's military operation against Hamas in Gaza, which ended in January, the farthest rocket strike was some 40 kilometers into Israel, endangering southern cities such as Ashdod and Beersheba.

Since the three-week operation, Hamas has been able to replenish its stock of military equipment and explosives as well as upgrade its rocket capability, Ayalon said. Hamas is receiving support from Iran, which is using the Islamic movement to increase its influence in the region, he said.

Hamas recently successfully tested a rocket with a 60- kilometer range, Major General Amos Yadlin, chief of military intelligence, told a parliamentary committee in Jerusalem today, according to the YNet news Web site.

When reached for comment, Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas's military wing, said: "We are not interested in responding to the Zionist intelligence reports. They can say whatever they want."...

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The uranium enrichment draft agreement between Iran and
the West creates internal disagreements in Iran

There was once a swindler who coveted his friend's ring. In order to have it, he said to him, "Give me your ring, so that I remember you each time I look at it." His friend answered, "I will not give you my ring, so that each time you look at your ring-less finger, you remember asking me for it and not getting it" (the daily Keyhan on the proposal to transport enriched uranium from Iran to a third country, October 27).

In anticipation of Iran's answer to the uranium enrichment draft agreement, which was formulated between Tehran and Western powers, Iran's conservatives expressed their reservations last week about the understandings achieved. According to the draft proposed in the talks between Iran and Western countries held in Vienna last week, Iran is to transport most of the enriched uranium it has to Russia and France for processing to 20 percent enrichment for the nuclear reactor in Tehran.  

Majles Speaker Ali Larijani said last Saturday that the West attempted to mislead Iran and force it to enter an agreement that would require it to give up the enriched uranium in its possession. He noted that he saw no connection between the West's willingness to transport enriched nuclear fuel for the reactor in Tehran and transferring responsibility for uranium enrichment to the West, and that such a transaction was illogical and unjustified. Larijani's assessment was that the Americans had made a secret deal with certain countries in order to take 4.5 percent enriched uranium from Iran under the pretext that the West would provide it with 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel (ISNA, October 24). 

Majles National Security and Foreign Policy Committee chairman Ala'eddin Borujerdi also expressed his reservations regarding the draft agreement, saying it was better for Iran to purchase 20 percent enriched fuel from the West instead of transporting low-level enriched uranium which it needs for electricity production to a third country for further processing. He said that Iran must consider the possibility that Western countries would break the agreement with Iran and ultimately refuse to provide it with the enriched nuclear fuel (ISNA, October 24). Borujerdi suggested last week that Iran transfer the enriched uranium it has in several stages to guarantee that the West meets its obligations to provide fuel for the reactor in Tehran (ILNA, October 27). 

An editorial published earlier last week in the conservative daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami strongly criticized the draft proposal for transporting enriched uranium to a third country. According to the daily, that proposal, initiated by the US, was meant to nullify Iran's achievements in the sphere of uranium enrichment and prevent it from achieving independent uranium enrichment capabilities, a goal which Iran's authorities and nuclear scientists worked hard for decades to achieve. Accepting the proposal to transport most of the enriched uranium from Iran to foreign countries would block Iranian scientists' efforts to achieve independent nuclear capabilities and paralyze the nuclear program. The daily warned that after transporting the uranium from Iran, the Americans would start playing new legal, political, and scientific games to force Iran to sign the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran must not fall in the trap set by the Americans and give up its achievements. Iran is willing to agree to a solution of the nuclear issue and guarantee that its nuclear program is meant for peace, the article says, but it must not agree to give up its right to achieve independent uranium enrichment capabilities. The Iranian people are determined to reach that goal and no one is able to oppose their wish (Jomhuri-ye Eslami, October 25). 

An editorial published last week on the conservative website Alef claims that there is no connection between Iran's enriched uranium stores and IAEA's duty to provide fuel for the reactor in Tehran. Iran does not trust the West, the article says, and does not forget that Russia, too, had failed to meet its obligations about completing the construction of the Bushehr reactor and providing air defense systems.

Accordingly, Iran must not give away its enriched uranium unless it does so through an apparatus that would assure that the West meets its obligation to provide fuel to Iran. The author of the article, Mohammad Ja'far Ansari, even warned that transporting most of Iran's enriched uranium to a third country would reduce the potential threat posed by Iran to Israel and may encourage it to take advantage of such an opportunity to attack Iran. Ansari suggested that, at any rate, Iran does not transfer the enriched uranium out of its borders until it receives the necessary fuel for the Tehran reactor from the West (Alef, October 27).

On the other hand, Ahmad Qarib, member of the Iran Atomic Energy Organization's Scientific Committee, said in an interview to ILNA, a reformist news agency, that there was no reason why Iran should not transport enriched uranium to a third country. He claimed that the issue of transporting enriched uranium abroad was greatly exaggerated. According to Qarib, the research reactor in Tehran is now the only operational nuclear reactor in Iran, since the Bushehr reactor is still incomplete and it is Russia that is supposed to provide the nuclear fuel for it. Accordingly, he believes there is no reason to make such a big deal out of the nuclear fuel.

Iran currently has 1600 kg of uranium which it does not need, and therefore nothing stops it from transferring it outside of Iran. He added that during Mir-Hossein Mousavi's tenure as prime minister (1981-1989), Iran had purchased 680 tons of uranium, of which only 12 tons were used so far for the research reactor in Tehran. Qarib said that the reactor in Tehran was expected to operate effectively for only ten more years and therefore did not require such a large quantity of fuel (ILNA, October 26).

Commentator Ali Mousavi Khalkhali also recommended adopting the proposal to transport enriched uranium from Iran in exchange for nuclear fuel for the research reactor in Tehran. In an article published last week on the Iranian Diplomacy website, Khalkhali noted that the draft agreement was an important achievement for the Iranians, for the first time reflecting the West's recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium on its territory. The proof is that Israel, which demands the total cessation of uranium enrichment on Iranian territory, expressed reservations regarding the draft agreement.

Transporting the enriched uranium to Russia does not mean suspending uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear facilities, the article says, and therefore the quantity of enriched uranium in Iran's possession is not expected to decrease (Diplomasi-ye Irani, October 25).

A report by the Majles Research Center warns that within eight years Iran could
go from being an oil exporter to being an oil importer

A report published by the Majles Research Center last week warns that within the next eight years Iran could go from being an oil exporter to being an oil importer. The authors of the report note the continuing decrease in Iran's oil production (an average of about 8 percent a year) coupled with the increase in Iran's consumption of oil and petroleum products (an average of 5 percent a year), saying that if current trends continue and no foreign investments flow into Iran's oil fields, Iran, which is now the fourth largest oil exporter in the world, will become an oil importer in as little as eight years. The report states that Iran's oil production is currently in crisis. 

According to Majles Research Center experts, Iran must invest about 4.5 billion dollars a year in its oil fields in order to increase its oil production and maintain the current oil export capacity (about 2.5 million barrels per day). However, faced with the drop in foreign investments in Iran, the experts indicate that it is unlikely that Iran will manage to raise the necessary funds.

The authors of the report claim that according to the economic five-year program which ends this year, about 70 percent of investments in Iranian oil and gas field development were supposed to come from foreign investments; in practice, however, in recent years there has been a considerable drop in the extent of foreign investments in Iran's oil industry. Foreign investments in Iran's oil fields amounted to about 2 billion dollars in 2005, only to drop to about 980 million dollars by 2007. This means that Iran will be unable to raise the necessary funds for developing its oil fields and maintaining current oil production rates.

The report also points out the aging of Iran's oil fields and the continuing decrease of oil well pressure, requiring gas or water to be pumped into the wells in order to be able to continue extracting oil. The authors of the report claim that, despite that fact, in recent years Iran has chosen to increase its oil production by digging new wells instead of trying to increase the production capability of existing ones. Since fewer oil fields have been discovered in recent years compared to the past, the increase of Iran's oil consumption cannot be compensated for by relying on new oil fields.

The report examines three major scenarios for the coming years concerning Iran's ability to continue exporting oil. According to the first, most optimistic scenario, Iran will manage to raise the necessary funds to continue exporting oil at the current levels. Even in that scenario, however, global demand for crude oil is expected to increase until 2030 and the share of Middle Eastern OPEC member countries will increase by 25 percent. Since Iran will be unable to increase its oil production, its part in OPEC's total production is expected to decrease, thus diminishing its influence in that organization, in the region, and in the international community.

According to the second scenario, Iran will manage to raise a certain amount of external funds that will allow it to make up for the decrease of about half of its oil export. In that case, Iran will be able to export oil at current levels up until 2025. According to the third, most pessimistic scenario, Iran will be unable to raise investment funds for its oil fields, while its local oil consumption will continue to rise. In such case, Iran will be unable to export oil after the year 2017, that is, in only eight years (www.majlis.ir/pdf/reports/9889.pdf, October 23).

Swine flu scare continues in Iran

At least three schools were shut down in Tehran last week over concerns about swine flu spreading among the students. Seyyed Ali Yazdikhah, director of the Tehran district Education Organization, said last week in an interview to ILNA news agency that the schools were shut down on instructions recently issued by the Education Ministry to keep the epidemic from spreading in schools. According to that instruction, every educational institution where at least 15 percent of the students contracted the disease will be shut down.

Figures released last week by Iran's Health Ministry show that over 1630 people have contracted the disease across Iran so far, and that 22 of them died (various news agencies, October 26, 28). Meanwhile, the World Health Organization representative in Iran announced last week that Iran had purchased one million swine flu vaccines (Fars, October 26).

ILNA news agency reported last week that many of Iran's schools are currently empty, with parents not wanting to send their children to school due to the spread of the epidemic and many teachers missing, also due to contracting the disease. The news agency reported that the number of absent school students multiplied by two last week and that many schools were shut down as a result, even though the health and education ministries did not officially close the schools.

A member of Iran's national swine flu committee warned last week that closing schools could cause significant economic damage since it forces parents to stay with their children at the expense of going to work. He said it was important to make sure that infected teachers are replaced in order to keep schools from closing (ILNA, October 27).

Islamic technology: Iran launched the first Quran search engine

The Press TV news website reported last week (October 25) the launch of the world's first search engine for Quran-related websites. Created by Iran, the search engine allows web surfers to easily look up information on Islamic religious law. Ali Ismailpour, the director of the search engine (www.quransite.ir) said that it was designed to promote Islamic culture by providing convenient access to websites pertaining to the study of Quran. **The search engine currently provides access to over 360 different websites, he added. **

In recent years Iran has launched several Islamic-oriented technological services. For example, an Islamic version of Windows XP was released in Esfahan in March 2007, which included unique Islamic features. Among other things, the program makes it possible to download the full text of the Quran with audio, and provides access to over 200 Islamic websites and a collection of dozens of Islamic prayers through its "favorites" tab. In June 2008, the beginning of the production of the first Islamic cellular telephone with integrated "unique Islamic features" was announced in Iran.

Among other things, it allows to display the Quran in eight different fonts, the interpretation of the Quran in three languages (Persian, Arabic, and English), as well as Islamic and Shi'ite books on religious law and religious works by several prominent Shi'ite clerics. In addition, the device translates verses from the Quran to ten languages, displays the prayer direction worldwide, provides written transcripts or audio broadcasts of prayers at mosques, converts dates from the solar calendar to the lunar calendar, gives dates of religious events, and displays prayer times in 4500 cities in Iran and across the globe. 

Picture of the week: reformist leader Mehdi Karoubi pulled from the Tehran
media expo after being assaulted by the president's supporters

Related Link  Special Series: Obama's Foreign Policy Landscape

Strategy, as we have argued, is less a matter of choice than a matter of reality imposing itself on presidents. Former U.S. President George W. Bush, for example, rarely had a chance to make strategy.

He was caught in a whirlwind after only nine months in office and spent the rest of his presidency responding to events, making choices from a menu of very bad options. Similarly, Obama came into office with a preset menu of limited choices. He seems to be fighting to create new choices, not liking what is on the menu. He may succeed. But it is important to understand the overwhelming forces that shape his choices and to understand the degree to which whatever he chooses is embedded in U.S. grand strategy, a strategy imposed by geopolitical reality.

Empires and Grand Strategy

American grand strategy, as we have argued, is essentially that of the British Empire, save at a global rather than a regional level. The British sought to protect their national security by encouraging Continental powers to engage in land-based conflict, thereby reducing resources available for building a navy. That guaranteed that Britain's core interest, the security of the homeland and sea-lane control, remained intact. Achieving this made the United Kingdom an economic power in the 19th century by sparing it the destruction of war and allowing it to control the patterns of international maritime trade.

On occasion, when the balance of power in Europe tilted toward one side or another, Britain intervened on the Continent with political influence where possible, direct aid when necessary or -- when all else failed -- the smallest possible direct military intervention. The United Kingdom's preferred strategy consisted of imposing a blockade -- e.g., economic sanctions -- allowing it to cause pain without incurring costs.

At the same time that it pursued this European policy, London was building a global empire. Here again, the British employed a balance-of-power strategy. In looking at the history of India or Africa during the 19th century, there is a consistent pattern of the United Kingdom forming alliances with factions, whether religious or ethnic groups, to create opportunities for domination. In the end, this was not substantially different from ancient Rome's grand strategy. Rome also ruled indirectly through much of its empire, controlling Mediterranean sea-lanes, but allying with local forces to govern; observing Roman strategy in Egypt is quite instructive in this regard.

Empires are not created by someone deciding one day to build one, or more precisely, lasting empires are not. They emerge over time through a series of decisions having nothing to do with empire building, and frequently at the hands of people far more concerned with domestic issues than foreign policy. Paradoxically, leaders who consciously set out to build empires usually fail. Hitler is a prime example. His failure was that rather than ally with forces in the Soviet Union, he wished to govern directly, something that flowed from his ambitions for direct rule. Particularly at the beginning, the Roman and British empires were far less ambitious and far less conscious of where they were headed. They were primarily taking care of domestic affairs. They became involved in foreign policy as needed, following a strategy of controlling the seas while maintaining substantial ground forces able to prevail anywhere -- but not everywhere at once -- and a powerful alliance system based on supporting the ambitions of local powers against other local powers.

On the whole, the United States has no interest in empire, and indeed is averse to imperial adventures. Those who might have had explicit inclinations in this direction are mostly out of government, crushed by experience in Iraq. Iraq came in two parts. In the first part, from 2003 to 2007, the U.S. vision was one of direct rule relying on American sea-lane control and overwhelming Iraq with well-supplied American troops.

The results were unsatisfactory. The United States found itself arrayed against all Iraqi factions and wound up in a multipart war in which its forces were merely one faction arrayed against others. The Petraeus strategy to escape this trap was less an innovation in counterinsurgency than a classic British-Roman approach. Rather than attempting direct control of Iraq, Petraeus sought to manipulate the internal balance of power, aligning with Sunni forces against Shiite forces, i.e., allying with the weaker party at that moment against the stronger. The strategy did not yield the outcome that some Bush strategists dreamed of, but it might (with an emphasis on might) yield a useful outcome: a precariously balanced Iraq dependent on the United States to preserve its internal balance of power and national sovereignty against Iran.

Many Americans, perhaps even most, regret the U.S. intervention in Iraq. And there are many, again perhaps most, who view broader U.S. entanglement in the world as harmful to American interests. Similar views were expressed by Roman republicans and English nationalists who felt that protecting the homeland by controlling the sea was the best policy, while letting the rest of the world go its own way. But the Romans and the British lost that option when they achieved the key to their own national security: enough power to protect the homeland. Outsiders inevitably came to see that power as offensive, even though originally its possessors intended it as defensive. Indeed, intent aside, the capability for offensive power was there. So frequently, Rome and Britain threatened the interests of foreign powers simply by being there. Inevitably, both Rome and Britain became the targets of Hannibals and Napoleons, and they were both drawn into the world regardless of their original desires. In short, enough power to be secure is enough power to threaten others. Therefore, that perfect moment of national security always turns offensive, as the power to protect the homeland threatens the security of other countries.

A Question of Size

There are Obama supporters and opponents who also dream of the perfect balance: security for the United States achieved by not interfering in the affairs of others. They see foreign entanglements not as providing homeland security, but as generating threats to it. They do not understand that what they want, American prosperity without international risks, is by definition impossible. The U.S. economy is roughly 25 percent of the world's economy. The American military controls the seas, not all at the same time, but anywhere it wishes at any given time. The United States also controls outer space. It is impossible for the United States not to intrude on the affairs of most countries in the world simply by virtue of its daily operations. The United States is an elephant that affects the world simply by being in the same room with it. The only way to not be an elephant is to shrink in size, and whether the United States would ever want this aside, decreasing power is harder to do than it might appear -- and much more painful.

Obama's challenge is managing U.S. power without decreasing its size and without imposing undue costs on it. This sounds like an attractive idea, but it ultimately won't work: The United States cannot be what it is without attracting hostile attention. For some of Obama's supporters, it is American behavior that generates hostility. Actually, it is America's presence -- its very size -- that intrudes on the world and generates hostility.

On the domestic front, the isolationist-internationalist divide in the United States has always been specious. Isolationists before World War II simply wanted to let the European balance of power manage itself. They wanted to buy time, but had no problem with intervening in China against Japan. The internationalists simply wanted to move from the first to the second stage, arguing that the first stage had failed. There was thus no argument in principle between them; there was simply a debate over how much time to give the process to see if it worked out. Both sides had the same strategy, but simply a different read of the moment. In retrospect, Franklin Roosevelt was right, but only because France collapsed in the face of the Nazi onslaught in a matter of weeks. That aside, the isolationist argument was quite rational.

Like that of Britain or Rome, U.S. grand strategy is driven by the sheer size of the national enterprise, a size achieved less through planning than by geography and history. Having arrived where it has, the United States has three layers to its strategy.

First, the United States must maintain the balance of power in various regions in the world. It does this by supporting a range of powers, usually the weaker against the stronger. Ideally, this balance of power maintains itself without American effort and yields relative stability. But stability is secondary to keeping local powers focused on each other rather than on the United States: Stability is a rhetorical device, not a goal. The real U.S. interest lies in weakening and undermining emergent powers so they don't ultimately rise to challenge American power. This is a strategy of nipping things in the bud.

Second, where emergent powers cannot be maintained through the regional balance of power, the United States has an interest in sharing the burden of containing it with other major powers. The United States will seek to use such coalitions either to intimidate the emerging power via economic power or, in extremis, via military power.

Third, where it is impossible to build a coalition to coerce emerging powers, the United States must decide either to live with the emerging power, forge an alliance with it, or attack it unilaterally.

Obama, as with any president, will first pursue the first layer of the strategy, using as little American power as possible and waiting as long as possible to see whether this works. The key here lies in not taking premature action that could prove more dangerous or costly than necessary. If that fails, his strategy is to create a coalition of powers to share the cost and risk. And only when that fails -- which is a function of time and politics -- will Obama turn to the third layer, which can range from simply living with the emerging power and making a suitable deal or crushing it militarily.

When al Qaeda attacked what it saw as the leading Christian power on Sept. 11, Bush found himself thrown into the third stage very rapidly. The second phase was illusory; sympathy aside, the quantity of military force allies could and would bring to bear was minimal. Even active allies like Britain and Australia couldn't bring decisive force to bear. Bush was forced into unilateralism not so much by the lack of will among allies as by their lack of power. His choice lay in creating chaos in the Islamic world and then forming alliances out of the debris, or trying to impose a direct solution through military force. He began with the second and shifted to the first.

Obama's Choices

Obama has more room to maneuver than Bush had. In the case of Iran, no regional solution is possible. Israel can only barely reach into the region, and while its air force might suffice to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, and air attacks might be sufficient to destroy them, Israel could not deal with the Iranian response of mining the Strait of Hormuz and/or destabilizing Iraq. The United States must absorb these blows.

Therefore, Obama has tried to build an anti-Iranian coalition to intimidate Tehran. Given the Russian and Chinese positions, this seems to have failed, and Iran has not been intimidated. That leaves Obama with two possible paths. One is the path followed by Nixon in China: ally with Iran against Russian influence, accepting it as a nuclear power and dealing with it through a combination of political alignment and deterrence. The second option is dealing with Iran militarily.

His choice thus lies between entente or war. He is bluffing war in hopes of getting what he wants, in the meantime hoping that internal events in Iran may evolve in a way suitable to U.S. interests or that Russian economic hardship evolves into increased Russian dependence on the United States such that Washington can extract Russian concessions on Iran. Given the state of Iran's nuclear development, which is still not near a weapon, Obama is using time to try to head off the third stage.

In Afghanistan, where Obama is already in the third stage and where he is being urged to go deeper in, he is searching for a way to return to the first stage, wherein an indigenous coalition emerges that neutralizes Afghanistan through its own internal dynamic. Hence, Washington is negotiating with the Taliban, trying to strengthen various factions in Afghanistan and not quite committing to more force. Winter is coming in Afghanistan, and that is the quiet time in that conflict. Obama is clearly buying time.

In that sense, Obama's foreign policy is neither as alien as his critics would argue nor as original as his supporters argue. He is adhering to the basic logic of American grand strategy, minimizing risks over time while seeking ways to impose low-cost solutions. It differs from Bush's policies primarily in that Bush had events forced on him and spent his presidency trying to regain the initiative.

The interesting point from where we sit is not only how deeply embedded Obama is in U.S. grand strategy, but how deeply drawn he is into the unintended imperial enterprise that has dominated American foreign policy since the 1930s -- an enterprise neither welcomed nor acknowledged by most Americans. Empires aren't planned, at least not successful empires, as Hitler and Napoleon learned to their regret. Empires happen as the result of the sheer reality of power. The elephant in the room cannot stop being an elephant, nor can the smaller animals ignore him. No matter how courteous the elephant, it is his power -- his capabilities -- not his intentions that matter.

Obama is now the elephant in the room. He has bought as much time as possible to make decisions, and he is being as amiable as possible to try to build as large a coalition as possible. But the coalition has neither the power nor appetite for the risks involved, so Obama will have to decide whether to live with Iran, form an alliance with Iran or go to war with Iran. In Afghanistan, he must decide whether he can recreate the balance of power by staying longer and whether this will be more effective by sending more troops, or whether it is time to begin withdrawal. In both cases, he can use the art of the bluff to shape the behavior of others, maybe.

He came into the presidency promising to be more amiable than Bush, something not difficult given the circumstances. He is now trying to convert amiability into a coalition, a much harder thing to do. In the end, he will have to make hard decisions. In American foreign policy, however, the ideal strategy is always to buy time so as to let the bribes, bluffs and threats do their work. Obama himself probably doesn't know what he will do; that will depend on circumstances. Letting events flow until they can no longer be tolerated is the essence of American grand strategy, a path Obama is following faithfully.

It should always be remembered that this long-standing American policy has frequently culminated in war, as with Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson and Bush. It was Clinton's watchful waiting to see how things played out, after all, that allowed al Qaeda the time to build and strike. But this is not a criticism of Clinton -- U.S. strategy is to trade time for risk. Over time, the risk might lead to war anyway, but then again, it might not. If war does come, American power is still decisive, if not in creating peace, then certainly in wreaking havoc upon rising powers. And that is the foundation of empire.

The recent Arab riots on the Temple Mount and inside Jerusalem's Old City are part of the ongoing war against Israel.  The Arabs employ a number of psychological techniques to demoralize Israelis in order to convince them that their county has usurped Arab lands, is unjust and morally bankrupt. Their ultimate objective is for Israel to abandon the idea of a Jewish state, allow the Arabs to establish their own country, and then purge the Jews.

In this "war of nerves," the Arabs borrow from revolutionaries including Carlos Marighella, a leader of the Brazilian guerrilla organization ALN.  Marighella urged his followers to use the mass media, foreign embassies, the U.N., international commissions, and Vatican representatives to spread their lies and false rumors in order to discredit the government.  Acts of terror, assassination, sabotage and kidnappings further create an environment of uncertainty, anxiety and apprehension. 1

During the first Intifada (December 1987 to October 1991), the Arabs manipulated the international press by placing individuals affiliated with the PLO and other Islamic political groups into their media bureaus. Rather than hide these connections, the Arabs used them to enhance their attraction to their employers. 2

Developing personal relationships with Israelis who oppose Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, meeting with them in Israel and taking them on tours of the refugee camps helped solidify support for the Arabs, and created a sense of guilt among those who know little about the history of the conflict .3

Semantics is another weapon used against Israel. Instead of describing insurrections as riots, the Arabs call them demonstrations. This is in keeping, they assert, with their basic right in a democracy to protest against unfair government policies. What they don't say is that the riots are designed to hasten the demise of Israel.  After the Arabs continually used the term "demonstration," members of the media adopted it as their own.

When a demonstration becomes violent after the military intervenes to disband the crowd, the Arabs allege that they are being oppressed. Often they charge Israelis with committing atrocities. This is after trying to goad the army into committing indiscriminate acts of force, particularly against women and children.

Contrived shootings, protests, arrests for the Western media is another technique Arabs use. Dutch television showed an Arab boy being aggressively arrested by Israeli soldiers while he was walking on the street. To ensure that the TV crew noticed that he was "innocent," he yelled to them to take notice of what was happening.

An investigation later revealed that the youth had purposely violated curfew after seeing the TV crew. He knew he would be apprehended, that his violent arrest would be recorded and the broadcast would help to discredit Israel. This was an isolated event, yet Israeli intelligence claimed that journalists knew how much they would have to pay for a stone throwing or a demonstration. The Arabs instructed the journalists when and where to stand in order to get the best shot. 4

At the beginning of the second intifada in 2000, Muhammad al-Dura, a 12 year-old Palestinian boy, was reportedly shot by Israelis in a cross fire near the Netzarim crossing in Gaza while being shielded by his father. The episode was filmed and broadcast on France TV 2.

Though few Americans ever heard of Muhammad al-Dura, to "a billion people in the Muslim world, " his name had become "an infamous symbol of grievance against Israel" and "a potent symbol of the genocidal intentions of Israel's government. " 5

After conferring with Israeli soldiers and photographers who were at the scene and reviewing unedited videotape from the area of the incident, Israeli physicist Nahum Shahaf found that the Palestinians had cooperated with foreign journalists and the U.N. to arrange this staged production.6

Historian Richard Landes began investigating the case as a blood libel after seeing this incident as "One Jew allegedly kills a gentile child in cold blood, and all Jews everywhere are responsible. That's the beginning of the wave of anti-Semitism that literally has marked the 21st century, and we have not seen the end of it. This is where cyberspace can play a crucial role."7

Landes coined the phrase "Pallywood" to describe this and other "pernicious productions staged by Palestinians in front of (and often with cooperation from) Western camera crews, for the purpose of promoting anti-Israel propaganda by disguising it as news."

While examining footage from another alleged incident, Landes noticed a Palestinian with "blood" on his forehead ostensibly from a head wound running without any sign of trauma. 8

After giving what appears to be a Molotov cocktail to a colleague, the Palestinian darts into the crowd. In the next frame, he is put on a stretcher and taken to an awaiting ambulance, while keeping his head high though allegedly suffering from a head injury. "It's really obvious that it's fake," Landes concludes.9

In the Gaza beach explosion on June 9, 2006, eight Palestinians were killed and 30 or more injured. Though very compelling evidence shows they were killed by Palestinian land mines, the Palestinians accused Israel.
The foreign media sided with the Arabs. Landes noted  "And herein lies another real tragedy: The eagerness with which the media seize upon anything negative about Israel, and the reluctance with which they reveal anything negative about the Palestinians, have radically skewed the world's view of what's going on here."10

In Rhetoric, Aristotle claimed that "Men have a sufficient natural instinct for what is true, and usually do arrive at the truth."  When it comes to the Arabs, many in the West and Israel have yet to use their natural instinct. 

----------------------

Dr. Grobman is a Hebrew University trained historian. His is the author of a number of books, including Nations United: How The U.N. Undermines Israel and The West, Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? and a forthcoming book on Israel's moral and legal right to exist as a Jewish State to be published by Balfour Books.

-------------------

FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES

1.       Carlos Marighella, Mini-Manuel Of The Urban Guerrilla (Toronto: Abraham Guillen Press and Arm The Spirit, 2002), 28-32; Maurice Tugwell, "Terrorism and Propaganda: Problem and Response," Conflict Quarterly (Spring 1986): 5; Abu Iyad with Eric Rouleau, My Home, My Land: A Narrative of The Palestinian Struggle (New York: Times Books, 1978), 69, 136-138;  Shaul Mishal and Reuben Aharoni, Speaking Stones: Communiqués from the Intifada Underground (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press,  1994).
2.       Ron Schleifer, Psychological Warfare in the Intifada (Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press, 2006), 94.
3.       Ibid. 31, 78.
4.       Ibid.21, 48, 95, 97.
5.       James Fallows, "Who Shot Mohammad al-Dura," Atlantic Monthly (June 2003); Nidra Poller, "Myth, Fact, and the al-Dura Affair," commentarymagazine.com (September 2005); Doreen Carvajal, "The Mysteries and Passions of an Iconic Frame," NYT (February 7, 2005); James Fallow, "News on the al-Dura front-Israel finding that it was staged," Atlantic Monthly (October 2, 2007); Martin Patience, "Dispute rages over al-Durrah" BBC News (November 8, 2007); Gabriel Weimann, Communicating Unreality: Modern Media and the Reconstruction of Reality (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 1999).
6.       Amnon Lord, "Who Killed Muhammad Al-Dura? Blood Libel-Model 2000" Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs No. 482. (July 15, 2002)
7.       Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, "One on One: Framing the Debate" The Jerusalem Post (March 27, 2008).
8.       Ibid.
9.       Ibid.
10.    Ibid.

 

ISTANBUL, - A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt entering his second year of prison without charge is being pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for his freedom, his attorneys said.

On Oct. 3, 2008, Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog "Karz El Hob" ("Love Cherries"), was arrested by Egypt's State Security Investigations (SSI) and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Although police never charged him with any crime, Nazeer has been detained for more than a year under Egypt's administrative imprisonment law.

Gamel Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the group representing Nazeer, said Nazeer was arrested unfairly and now is being coerced to abandon his faith.

"Hani complains about that, it happened, and it's true," said Eid. "But the police do it in a subtle way. They do it by inspiring the inmates to suggest to Nazeer that if he converts to Islam, police will work to get him out of prison."

Nazeer is confined in what is commonly known as the "general population" area of the prison, meaning he is housed with both violent and non-violent felons. Nazeer told his attorneys he is often treated harshly. Despite this, Eid said Nazeer is constant in his faith.

A few days before his arrest, on Oct. 1, 2008, a group of young Muslims in Nag Hammadi saw his website and clicked on a link to an online copy of "Azazil's Goat in Mecca," a novel written under the pseudonym "Father Utah." The book is a response to "Azazil," a novel critical of Christianity by Yusuf Zidane that is famous in Egypt.

While Zidane's critique of Christianity garnered him awards throughout the Arab world, locals protested the link to Utah's site.

Insulting religion is considered a crime in Egypt, although typically the law is only enforced when Islam is criticized. Police have not publicly produced any evidence linking Nazeer to Utah's work. After Nazeer was arrested, posts continued on Utah's website. It is unclear if the teenagers who saw Nazeer's website and were offended were students at his school.

Eid said the deeper issue was that Nazeer upset Islamic authorities by criticizing the increasing Islamization of Egyptian civil society and irked church leaders by lamenting political involvement of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In one post, Nazeer wrote said that a gathering of activists at a Coptic church was inappropriate because churches were meant to be venues for prayer, not for politics.

Police had detained Nazeer's relatives at a police station and threatened to hold them until he came out of hiding, Eid said, and Nazeer turned himself into a police station in October 2008 - on the advice of Bishop Kirollos of Nag Hammadi, Nazeer reported to his attorneys.

Kirollos assured Nazeer he would be detained no more than four days and then be released. According to Nazeer and the ANHRI, the bishop colluded with authorities to get rid of Nazeer, whose online criticism had become bothersome.

"[Kirollos] is the one who turned me in after he denounced me to security," Nazeer told his attorneys. "He bluffed [that] we were going for a short investigation and it will be all over. Then I found out it was a charade to turn me in to state security."

Eid claimed the arrest achieved two complementary goals for police and Kirollos - calming those protesting "Azazil's Goat in Mecca," and silencing a blogger who had been critical of Islamic hardliners and the Coptic Orthodox Church.

All attempts to reach Kirollos were unsuccessful. Several attempts to reach Bishop Anba Yoannes, authorized to speak about the case on behalf of the Coptic Orthodox Church's Pope Shenouda III, were also unsuccessful. Egypt's SSI, a political police force run by the Interior minister, routinely declines to comment on cases.

Release Orders Invalidated

Nazeer's attorneys are set to appeal his imprisonment on Sunday (Nov. 1), but it is unclear how or even if the appeal will affect his case. Courts have ordered Nazeer's release several times before. The SSI has rendered the orders for release invalid by invoking the country's longstanding emergency law, which supersedes court authority.

When local police execute a court order to release prisoners held under the emergency law, security police commonly re-arrest them minutes later. The law, enacted after the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, allows authorities to hold people without charge. Eid estimated that there are approximately 14,000 people imprisoned under this law.

Eid said Nazeer's case is extremely difficult.

"Hani is in between the hate of the Islamists and the hate of the Christians," he said. "The Islamists of course are against him, and the church [leadership] is against him, so he's being badly squeezed between the two."

Kalldas Fakhry Girgis, Nazeer's cousin, saw him 15 days ago. Girgis said that despite Nazeer's confinement, he is in good spirits. He remains strong in his faith and his convictions.

"He wants to know why he's been arrested," Girgis said about his cousin. "He's hopeful. His morale is high. But he is feeling stressed."

**********

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The attempts to destroy the fresco at San Petronio, by the way, have taken place at the site where Muslims in their hysterical rage held demonstrations recently. The serried ranks of organized Islam took over the parvis and the plaza beyond, to prostrate themselves Mecca-wards, in a Nuremberg-rally where the simultaneous prostration of thousands eerily echoes, in its dismal collectivism and non-thought, the Heil-Hitlering of yore.

Meanwhile, it is not just curators and connoisseurs who should be quietly or noisily alarmed by these attempts to destroy this venerable fresco. The whole artistic heritage of the West is potentially -- more than potentially -- is really at risk. Who wants to talk about Muslims and art (the lack thereof)? Who wants to discuss, openly, what will happen to the statues, the pictures, the churches, the cathedrals, the everything of Europe, as Muslim numbers swell, and the non-Muslims are intimidated, and so fearful that all they can think of doing is hushing up those who, like Geert Wilders, refuse to be intimidated themselves?

Go to any great world museum. Look at the Western riches. Look at the Asian art. Look at the pre-Columbian art of the Americas. Look at the rooms full of pre-Islamic artifacts from Egypt. Look at the African masks. Look at what was produced in Polynesia. Look, look, look. And then look at the pitiful room or two of so-called "Islamic art" which consists, usually, of some ceramics with what is Arabic calligraphy. But if you recognize the motifs, or can read the writing, you can sometimes detect the fact that the stuff was produced in lands where Muslims ruled, but from the Christian or Jewish imagery, not necessarily by Muslims. Aside from Qur'anic calligraphy and mosque architecture (the building itself based on the Byzantine squinch), what is there in the way of Islamic art? This is not to dismiss what there is, but compared to what non-Islamic societies produce, it is undeniably paltry. And this should not be surprising to anyone, keeping in mind the vast destruction of art and monuments that has taken place wherever Islam has gone. Here is a tentative list off the top of my head:

• Bamiyan Buddhas, 1,500 years old, in Afghanistan, destroyed by Taliban with explosives, and technical help from Saudi and Pakistani engineers.
• Tomb of Joseph in Israel, reduced to rubble by the "Palestinians," despite that site supposedly being sacred to Muslims as well as to Jews.
• A Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, where Hindus and Chinese both labor under the disguised Jizyah of the Bumiputra system.
• Orthodox churches and monasteries, destroyed in Kosovo and Bosnia, in full view of NATO troops, the U.N., and the world's media.
• And then, of course, the thousands of churches destroyed in Indonesia, as recorded by the Barnabas Fund.
• The remaining Greco-Bactrian artifacts among the tiny holdings in the Kabul Museum.
• The damage done to the Temple Mount structure by the excavations and vandalism to Solomon's Stables from the "Palestinians."
• Statuary vandalized by Muslims -- both Christian statuary in a church in northern France, and pagan statuary in the Piazza del Popolo.

Why should it be any different in Western Europe in the years to come?

North America may now be the center, politically and economically, of the West. But Europe contains the greatest store of art that was formed by, and helped to form, Western man.

Quaere: Who's minding the store?

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City-Journal.org

 Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West, by Christopher Caldwell (Doubleday, 432 pp., $30.00)

When the British government recently announced a plan to spend nearly $20 million to reassure "white enclaves" that they had nothing to fear from nonwhite immigrants, it was a tacit admission that much of the public harbored serious doubts about the virtues of immigration. This is not exactly news. Polls show that some 70 percent of Britons believe that there are too many immigrants in their country.

Majorities throughout Western Europe agree, and Muslim immigrants in particular are viewed with suspicion. Though we're often told-not least by Europeans-that Europe has moved beyond such archaic notions as ethnicity, religion, and nationhood to embrace multiculturalism, the widespread concern over Islamic immigration suggests that Europeans have not made peace with the demographic changes reshaping their societies.

What are those changes and how did they come about? More pressingly, what do they portend for Europe's future?

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe is Christopher Caldwell's effort to answer these questions. It is a judicious survey of mass immigration, specifically Muslim immigration, and its impact on Europe over the past half-century. Caldwell, a well-traveled columnist for the Financial Times and a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, is not the first to take up this subject. But his learned, levelheaded, and elegantly written study may be the finest and most insightful diagnosis of Europe's immigration woes to date.

In Caldwell's account, mass immigration in Europe was predicated on several assumptions, nearly all of them false. Needing cheap labor to fuel their expiring postwar industrial economies, Europeans assumed that the immigrants they turned to would be temporary; that they would not qualify for welfare; and that those who remained would assimilate and shed the cultural mores and habits of their home countries. The Europeans were wrong on all counts. When its textile mills and factories closed in the sixties and seventies, Europe was left with a vast, imported underclass with one tenuous link to its adopted countries: the welfare payments on which it had come to rely.

The demographic transformation was profound. Europe has always had immigration, but the scale of its midcentury influx was without precedent. And one group led the way. In the middle of the twentieth century, there were practically no Muslims in Europe; today, it is estimated, there are about 20 million, including 5 million in France, 4 million in Germany, and 2 million in Britain. Equally dramatic was the change in immigrants' economic fortunes. In the sixties and seventies, Germany's Turkish migrant workers actually boasted higher labor-force participation than native Germans did. Today, unemployment in Germany's Turkish community tops 40 percent-three times the national unemployment rate. Nor is Germany an outlier. Some 40 percent of Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands are on welfare, Caldwell reports, as are two-thirds of French imams.

Europeans bear much of the blame for this bleak state of affairs, Caldwell argues. In their shortsighted focus on the economic fruits of foreign labor, they never developed an effective strategy to integrate immigrants into society. Instead, they drove them apart with flawed public policy. Welfare is one example; the segregation of immigrant communities is another. In a fascinating chapter exploring the emergence of "ethnic colonies" in Europe, Caldwell considers the case of Bergsjön, a suburb of Gothenburg in western Sweden. Built in the sixties as a vacation retreat for working-class Swedish families, it had by 2006 become a dumping ground for immigrants from countries like Somalia. Cut off from the country at large, and with few job prospects in their area, 40 percent of Bergsjön's families are on welfare. Caldwell sees this as part of a destructive tendency in European countries to "warehouse immigrants" in places rejected by their own citizens.

Yet the immigrants themselves are far from faultless. One of the immigration debate's inconvenient truths is that Muslim immigrants have been so difficult to assimilate into European societies because they're unwilling: many Muslims simply choose religious ties over national loyalties. This hardening of religious belief is especially striking among younger Muslims. In the United Kingdom, for example, 74 percent of Muslim girls between the ages of 18 and 24 wear the veil, compared with 28 percent of women over 55. Even that can seem like progress alongside predominantly Muslim enclaves like Sweden's Rosengård district, where 90 percent of women-and, critically, their daughters-go veiled.

Even when young Muslims outwardly embrace European culture, they often continue to reject its values. In a 2007 study, the British think tank Policy Exchange highlighted that disconnect, finding that 31 percent of British Muslims felt they had more in common with the people of Muslim nations than with their fellow Europeans. More disturbing evidence that we cannot judge assimilation by its cover was provided by the failed July 21, 2005 London terror plot-an attempted follow-up to the July 7 subway bombings-in which four Muslim men tried to detonate homemade bombs made of hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour. The popularity of Pakistani food with British natives is sometimes taken as a sign of successful assimilation. But the fact that the plotters had used a Pakistani staple to make their shrapnel-packed bombs symbolized that such acceptance doesn't necessarily go both ways.

Faced with evidence of extremism in Muslim communities, European elites' typical response is to blame society for driving disaffected Muslims to lash out. Caldwell aptly describes this as high-minded "provincialism": a refusal to understand Muslims on their own terms. In this connection, he argues against the oft-heard claim that a lack of economic opportunity fuels the growth of religious fervor and radicalism in Muslim immigrant communities. He points to a 2007 German study finding that Muslims living in areas with lower unemployment actually had stronger Muslim identities. What's more, European Muslims seem more extreme than their counterparts in the Islamic world. Surveys show that Muslims in Europe dislike Westerners more than Muslims in Nigeria, Indonesia, and Turkey do. Thus does official guilt over Europe's failures, real and imagined, become a way to avoid reckoning with the specific problems of Muslim immigration.

In policy if not in principle, Europeans have been willing to recognize this. Whether it's the French ban on religious symbols in state schools (a measure that officially prohibits "visible" symbols but is enforced mainly for Muslim headscarves) or Danish marriage laws that make it difficult for native Danes to marry foreigners (an indirect way of preventing Muslims from bringing in foreign spouses, often through forced marriages), European governments have tried to curb the public influence of Islam, even as they disguise their intent. Caldwell writes favorably about such measures, but he also expresses reservations about their rationale. If Europe wants to challenge Islamic values, what values does it offer instead? It's all well and good to curb the more reactionary Islamic practices, but at some point Europe must offer its own affirmative vision. As Caldwell points out, "you cannot defend what you cannot define."

Where does that leave Europe? Disappointingly, Caldwell withholds direct judgment on that all-important question. Yet his book does suggest that Europe's current path is not the only one available. He points out that Denmark and the Netherlands have recently tightened their immigration laws, with no adverse impact on economic growth. Caldwell himself seems to lean toward the model of France's Nicolas Sarkozy, who has called for "immigration choisie," or selective immigration. The United States has followed that model to some extent, but the American experience is an imperfect guide for coping with Muslim immigration. As Caldwell acknowledges, the main reason that the U.S. has proven so successful in assimilating Muslim immigrants is that it has fewer of them: only around 2 million.

Caldwell is careful to avoid gloom-and-doom prophecy, but the portrait that emerges from his book is grim. Diverging birthrates are dramatically altering the composition of European societies. If current trends hold, between 20 and 32 percent of major European countries' populations will be of non-Western origin by the middle of this century. At that point, Europeans will have little choice but to confront the issues Caldwell raises in this valuable book. By then, it may be too late.

Jacob Laksin is the managing editor of Front Page Magazine.

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City Journal is the nation's premier urban-policy magazine, "the Bible of the new urbanism," as London's Daily Telegraph puts it. During the Giuliani Administration, the magazine served as an idea factory as the then-mayor revivified New York City, quickly becoming, in the words of the New York Post, "the place where Rudy gets his ideas." The Public Interest goes further, calling City Journal "the magazine that saved the city."

Friday, 10/30/09

El Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua)  10/29/09

"Joint Operation Chihuahua" deemed a failure

Nineteen months after the start of Joint Operation Chihuahua [the assignment of more than a thousand military to assist civilian law enforcement agencies in the area], the state of Chihuahua Secretary of Public Security now says that the war against organized crime is being lost. Since the start of the program, 3,670 persons have been assassinated. This includes 127 members of law enforcement, who are considered at a disadvantage because of being outgunned. The 1,200 soldiers currently assisting in patrolling the streets of Juarez will remain there until December 31.

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El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador)  10/29/09

Russia & Ecuador: an association

The Presidents of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, and of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, today signed a "strategic association" declaration. The document points out that this does not aim against any nation or group of nations and that it does not presume the creation of a politico-military alliance. At the same time, Russia and Ecuador declare their disposition to strengthen the "cooperation in the realm of security and defense, in particular by means of active consultation between the corresponding agencies."

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Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala)  10/29/09

Vigilante justice

Ten people were assassinated in various parts of Guatemala yesterday. One was a bus driver, shot in cold blood while at work; other bus drivers said this happened because the owner of the bus had failed to pay extortion demands. Officials believe a second bus driver, also killed, was carrying out extortions against his fellow workers.

Four other men who had assaulted and robbed a currency exchanger were tracked down by an enraged throng of local villagers; the four were beaten and then burned alive.

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Cuarto Poder (Tuxtla, Chiapas) 10/29/09

Mexican state relies on Central American field hands

The Mexican state of Chiapas [on the border with Guatemala] is currently expecting the arrival of 25,000 to 40,000 Central American farm workers, most of whom stay in Chiapas for the coffee harvest. Chiapas is both a recipient and place of origin of these workers. In the last few years, Chiapas has been "seriously affected due to the departure of young Chiapans, who seek new opportunities in the agricultural fields of the United States." This has caused state officials to grant temporary work permits to field workers from Central America to meet the demand for field hands in coffee plantations.

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Diario de Yucatan (Merida, Yucatan) & El Sur (Acapulco, Guerrero)  10/29/09

Another hung from overpass

On the coastal highway between Zihuatanejo and Lazaro Cardenas, up from Acapulco: the body of a man, hung from an overpass. He'd been shot in the head and the killers left threatening messages on him.

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La Jornada (Mexico City)  10/29/09

News, or not?

An article described a firefight that ensued when military personnel attempted to search a locale near the Guadalajara airport. It mentioned the number of arrested thugs (14), the number and type of weapons and ammunition seized, as well as that of tactical equipment and vehicles. The article was then followed by this commentary from a reader:

"Gentlemen, please, this is not news. A real news item would be:

'There has not been a single criminal act in 14 days. The citizenry is at peace.'

Until that ceases to be news."

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Milenio (Mexico City) 10/29/09

"The importance of obedience" Full transl. of op/col. by Roman Revueltas, whose previous column appeared in the M3 Report of 10/28/09.

People throw out garbage. That means, we have to change the people. Imagine a country of very civilized people: people who don't park their car in the middle of a cross street; people who take their turn in line; people who respect; people who do as they say; people who obey. Well, that country, of people who know how to behave, would be much more livable than another, for instance, where people do whatever they feel like doing without any consideration toward their fellow man.

Last week I was walking down the street and a fellow who was walking ahead of me stopped, picked up a plastic bottle dumped on the sidewalk and went into a store to put it in a waste bin. I waited for him to come out and congratulated him. I later thought that this is the way that all of us Mexicans ought to be. I ask you, then, to imagine a territory populated by orderly and reliable persons: almost paradise.

People usually follow rules for fear of punishment. This explains the colossal growth of criminality in Mexico due to the scandalous lack of punishment for the criminals: if you murder and nothing happens to you, well then, you kill again and you go on kidnapping. But, it's not a matter of bringing up the death penalty scarecrow; it's an issue of applying the laws, and nothing more. The great question is why is it that millions of citizens exist here who want to commit all sorts of infractions: throwing out garbage is a small transgression; ignoring a traffic light is a minor crime; assassinating a kidnapped child is a monstrosity perpetrated by a beast . Nevertheless, the common denominator of disobedience is present in all cases.

The more highly evolved individuals do not abstain from committing a crime for fear of jail but due to a clear conscience of what is right and what is wrong. Their personality has been structured based on moral values. That is precisely where our failure is as a society: Mexico is a jungle dominated by disobedient, quick tempered and irresponsible individuals, Calderon cannot change this. We change it ourselves.

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- end of report -

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis.

Middle East

September 23, 2009
Palestine
A Hamas children's television program calls for the slaughter of the Jews.

Sep 27, 2009
Israel
Twelve policemen and 15 rioters were wounded Sunday in riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and later in the Old City. Approximately 150 Muslim worshipers participated in the disturbance on the Temple Mount, which began when a group of Jewish visitors was admitted into the compound. Rioters hurled rocks at the group and at policemen who were escorting them, lightly wounding two policemen. More

October 14, 2009
Israel
The Muslim World League, an organization with close ties to Saudi Arabia publishes a magazine with anti-semitic material.

October 16, 2009
Palestine
The Hamas children's program "Pioneers For Tomorrow" talks about the enemies language. (from Palestinian Media Watch)

October 25, 2009
Jerusalem
Muslims riot at the Temple Mount. Nine policeman and a reporter were injured.

October 25, 20090
Jerusalem
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal declared that "Jerusalem's fate will be decided with jihad (holy war) and resistance, and not negotiations."

Europe

September 21, 2009
Russia
Neo-Nazis Attack Synagogue, Policeman's House
Russian neo-Nazis attacked a Russian synagogue and the home of a police official who has been investigating terrorism. The attack on the home represents an escalation in violence on the part of the neo-Nazi movement, which targets Jewish, Christians, Muslims and foreigners.

North America

September 24, 2009
Texas
A jihadi in Texas wanted to kill Jews and Christians.

October 14, 2009
California
A complaint was sent to the Feds that funds raised at a recent event for Brit George Galloway at UC-Irvine were sent to the terrorist organization Hamas.

October 13 2009
USA
A New York bicycle cabbie who last year used his Web site to mock the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl posted a prayer calling for the murder of Jews and exhorting Muslims to "throw liquid drain cleaner in their faces." UPDATE, October 17, 2009 Yousef Al-Khattab's anti-Semitic website http://www.revolutionmuslim.com has been shut down..

October 18, 2009
The Blogsphere
Jew Hatred of every imaginable area.

October 22, 2009
Toronto, Canada
A Toronto-area imam is under fire for using derogatory language against Jews and Christians, calling for Allah to "destroy" the enemies of Islam from within . . . and as well, the imam asks Allah to "damn" Christians and Jews.

Produced by www.politicalislam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner; Editor: Asma Marwan