500 Most Influential Muslims – 2011
A new book has been released very recently (available here).
This is the third edition of the book, which came out for the first time in 2009 and has since been updated annually.
The price of the book is $39.99, and in fact this new edition may be a must-have book for anyone writing about Islam, as it provides snapshots of many key and influential people, not to mention a snapshot of Islam itself.
There are several new qualities in this new edition. The size and layout have been changed; there is an essay on the Arab Spring; there are quotes from the top 25 and from some others; there are statistics about the top 25 and some others; the bios have been expanded; there is an “Arab Spring box†for the top 50 to show whether the Arab Spring was a plus or a minus for each of the top 50; higher quality photography; expanded honorable mentions section, new obituaries section; updated Muslim population statistics; new maps; expanded glossary.
There is also a companion website (www.TheMuslim500.com).
The format is improved and despite some changes in position, mostly the same people are in the book.
Hamza Yusuf has fallen a few places. The USA is very well represented as before. Tariq Ramadan is among the honorable mentions but not in the top 50.
There is an excellent discussion of the major schools of thought in the book.
The book’s Introduction was written by a Muslim convert from Judaism, Prof. Abdallah Schleifer, who teaches at the American University in Cairo. In his introduction he provides an excellent defense of monarchy based on Qur`an, ahadith, and Islamic scholarship, quoting Ghazi bin Muhammad at length, who in turned argued: “Traditional, Orthodox Islam has always endorsed monarchy as such.â€
It is “the best – and perhaps only conceivable form of government because it can best deliver justice and adherence to God’s laws.†Islamic Monarchy, he says, “whilst not democratic as such in the modern sense of ultimate power being derived and delivered through universal suffrage, nevertheless makes participative consultation (shura) of experts, the learned and the wise (16:43; 21:7; 4:83) incumbent on the ruler…â€
Moreover, he also gives extensive time to Dr. Yusuf Ibish, who taught political thought at the American University of Beirut and who taught a “rather obscure†course on Islamic Political Thought, meaning traditional Sunni Islamic political thought of Imam Abdul Hamid Al-Ghazali†and others. “Modern Islamic or Islamist political thought is usually a coupling of any number of 19th and 20th century Western ideologies – be they left-wing Leninist (Marxist) or right-wing Leninist (Fascist—be that hyper-nationalist or racist) or the kinder ideologies of Social Democracy (the welfare state) and Democracy blended with Islamic pieties…â€
Schleifer gives these arguments in defense of monarchy into the context of the modern tumult in the Arab world and in turn argues that perhaps the grass roots efforts to topple the leadership in Egypt and Tunisia was actually not responsible for their success, but rather the interference of the armies in those two countries.
The House of Islam. The book has a brilliantly written 10 page introduction to Islam (reprinted by permission of Vincenzo Oliveti) followed by several charts, which manages in such a brief space to define all or most of the major subsets or alternative (and sometimes complementary) models of Islam that exist until today.
This overview is followed by the “Amman Message†(see more at www.ammanmessage.com) which is a restatement of the “historical 2005 international Islamic consensus on the three points of the Amman Message,†namely (1) that the four Sunni schools and the two Shi’a schools adherents are Muslim. Calling any of those people an apostate is impossible and impermissible. His/her blood, honor and property are inviolable. Further, it is impossible and impermissible to declare anyone who subscribes to the Ash’ari creed or who practices real Tasawwuf (Sufism) an apostate. Further, “it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to true Salafi thought an apostate.†(2) There exists more in common between the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence than there is difference between them.†(3) Acknowledgment of the schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Islam means adhering to a fundamental methodology in the issuance of fatwas; no one may issue a fatwa without the requisite personal qualifications which each school of Islamic jurisprudence determines [for its own adherents]. No one can claim unlimited ijtihad and create a new school of Islamic thought.
After this brief but excellent introduction, the book dives into the top 50 influential Muslims. The first, again, is His Majesty King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The second is the king of Morocco, King Mohammed VI. Third is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan—who has gone several steps up since the issue of 500 Muslims from two years ago. Most of the top 25 are politically powerful people. Slipping to fifth place was Grand Ayatollah Hajj Syyid Ali Khamenei.
Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi, leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order, is listed by the book at number 48. Sheikh Ahmad Tijani Ali Cisse, leader of the Tijaniyya Sufi Order, is listed at number 26.
The first scholar listed is Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al Tayyeb, the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar University and Grand Imam of the Al Azhar mosque. In fact, of the top 25, eight are scholars from across the world, representing several different schools of thought. Three are leaders of movements, including Tablighi Jamaat, Ikhwan and Hezbollah. Sheikha Munira Qubeysi, leader of the Qubeysi movement of scholarship for Muslim women, is among the top 25
The book’s top 25 also includes Dr. Amr Khaled.
Where before (in 2009) the book seemed to sway towards political correctness, by being sure to mention a prominent Shi’a political leader after mentioning the Saudi political leader, now it seems to focus more clearly on those people that the authors consider important—although there seems to be some bias in the still very high status of Hamza Yusuf Hanson (43), disproportionate to his world stature. While Mr. Hanson is building the Zaytuna Institute, he hardly compares with some of those ranked below him; and also does not compare with those near in proximity but above him. Does it make sense that the president of Palestine is only seven ranks above Hamza Yusuf? Mahmoud Abbas has the capacity to move newspapers by the ton simply by saying a choice sentence. By contrast, Hamza Yusuf Hanson’s influence is really confined to an investment in the future of traditional Muslim scholarship in the US. Certainly his influence is not more powerful than the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, who is ranked at #44, immediately Hanson’s junior.
Sheikh Hisham Kabbani is listed among the top 500, as a spiritual guide in North America.
Paging through the book you will notice a huge improvement in the quality of the pictures—this book is one that is suitable to display on a coffee table.
Unique Ceremony to Celebrate Positivity in the Community
Grand Honoring Event for Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi
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| Large Number of Persons Attended the Honoring of Deputy Sherrif Nasir Abbasi Event |
More than two hundred persons were in attendance to honor one of the first Pakistani-Americans to have become Deputy Sheriff after the completion of his training. He is Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi in the Harris County Sheriff Department.
Honorable Sheriff Adrian Garcia with his wife attended this honoring event for Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi this past weekend. Very few events in the community happen to celebrate the true success of Pakistani-Americans; and this was quite a unique & encouraging occasion for the whole community. Special flowers bouquet and traditional Sindhi & Hazara Cap and Shawls were both Sheriff Garcia and Deputy Sheriff Abbasi.
Deputy Abbasi was very gracious in inviting and profusely recognizing during the program four Pakistanis during the event, namely Sergeant Sajid Rasheed (very first Pakistani-American in the Houston Police Department HPD 1993), HPD Officer Muzaffar Siddiqui, HPD Officer Asim Qureshi, and HPD Lt. Sohail Aziz.
This event was held at and sponsored by La Sani Restaurant, in collaboration with community organizations like Houston-Karachi Sister City Association (HKSCA), Sindhi Association of North America (SANA), Hazara American Welfare Association (HAWA), Pakistani American Council of Texas (PACT), Pakistani-American Association of Greater Houston (PAGH), Pakistan Chamber of Commerce USA (PCC-USA), and SindhInstitute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT).
Program started with Matloob Khan of Bear Creek ISGH Masjid welcoming all the guests, followed by heartwarming recitation of Quran and its translation in English & prayers by young Hafiz Tauqir Shah, followed by national anthems of both USA & Pakistan. Emcee of the program was Ms. Natashah, who in her eloquent British style English made the event further exceptional.
HPD Lieutenant Harry Zamora, who recently got the Medal of Valor Award, attended the ceremony with is family members, & congratulated Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi and the Pakistani-American Community.
In his short presentation, Saeed Sheikh of HKSCA thanked Nadeem Malik, Faisal Ahmed, and all the team members of La Sani Restaurant, in coming up with the idea of the honoring a successful person in the community, and arranging everything in most befitting manner. He added that for any thriving community, city, county, country, and in fact the world, safe and serene environment is one of the most important ingredients; and that people in Harris County are lucky that they have the most competent leadership of Honorable Sherriff Adrian Garcia in providing that important security and peaceful environment for us, which help us in bringing up our families in the right manner and that in turn positively contribute towards the betterment of our society.
P. J. Swati of PCC-USA requested Sheriff Garcia to appoint Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi as Liaison for the Muslim-Pakistani-Communities. His cousin Mazhar Chaudhry talked about how he & Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi, used to have long talks about his future and how every time they used to conclude that he should go into law enforcement agencies. He informed that during his student life, Mr. Abbasi was very active in students’ union political process.
Others, who spoke included Farah Iqbal (inspirational poem), Faisal Ahmed (La Sani Restaurant), Gul Faraz Khan (HAWA), Taslim Siddiqui (PAGH), Talat Talpur (SANA), and Ghulam Bombaywala.
In his largely expressive presentation both in English & Urdu, Deputy Sheriff Nasir Abbasi created inspirational atmosphere by first kissing the American and then the Pakistani flags; and on his death, he would like to be wrapped in Texas flag, saying being loyal to the place where one lives is among the teachings of Islam. He further made the atmosphere warm by reciting in Urdu the famous Supplication Poem of Allama Iqbal (Lab-e-Aatee Ha Duwa). He thanked everyone for the ceremony and inviting his boss Sheriff Garcia and his wife. said initially due to less resources of his father, he studied at low grade schools, but his parents were very visionary and made sure that eventually he gets the best possible education, which is the biggest gift any parent can give to their children. He quoted famous personality Helen Keller, who was blind, that what is her biggest fear; and she said if someone has sight, but has no vision. He said he wants to give this message to his Pakistani-American Community to have a vision. He had a vision and dram to serve the humanity. For that he transformed his vision into smaller goals; and today is thankful to God that he has achieved his dream of becoming Deputy Sheriff and is able to serve his fellow human beings. He admired and recognized his wife Ms. Siddiqua and his father-in-law, who had travelled all the way from New York for this ceremony.
Honorable Sheriff Adrian Garcia in his speech thanked the Pakistani-Americans for giving the son of the community to his department. He said his policy is to diversify his department, since in Harris County, the third largest in USA, more than 100 languages are spoken, and he needs at least one officer if not more, who can speak one of these languages: “Many Nasirs are neededâ€. He said we are public servants and should never forget that, as we continue to make the community safer & healthier for businesses and families.
Event ended with scrumptious dinner of La Sani Restaurant.
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Safe-Haven Status Puts UAE Luxury Car Sales in High Gear
By Martin Dokoupil and Martina Fuchs
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Emirati men check technical specifications of a Porsche Cayenne at the Dubai International Motor Show November 10, 2011. Mother-of pearl dashboards and diamond-encrusted hood ornaments at the Dubai International Motor Show this week underlined how the safe-haven status of the United Arab Emirates is fuelling dramatic growth in sales of luxury cars. Picture taken November 10, 2011. REUTERS/Martin Dokoupil |
DUBAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Mother-of pearl dashboards and diamond-encrusted hood ornaments at the Dubai International Motor Show this week underlined how the safe-haven status of the United Arab Emirates is fuelling dramatic growth in sales of luxury cars.
The market was hit hard by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and recovered only partially last year. But this year’s political unrest in the Arab world boosted sales in the UAE, which was spared such turmoil. Companies and individuals from around the region looked for a safe haven in Dubai, a key Gulf business hub.
“The uprisings…have provided confidence that Dubai is important from a security point of view,†said Michel Ayat, chief executive of AW Rostamani Automotive, which sells Nissan’s luxury Infiniti models.
With Brent oil prices above $100 a barrel, promising continued economic growth for the UAE, a debt crisis in Europe and financial stormclouds in the United States have also largely failed to deter wealthy consumers. The UAE economy is expected by analysts to grow about 3.8 percent this year.
“The crisis is everywhere. (But) even if the local has nothing to eat, that’s no problem if he has a luxury car,†joked Emirati businessman Salem Seif, 28, eyeing a new Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicle at the motor show.
Porsche in Dubai sold 211 new cars in August, the best-ever performance for any Porsche showroom globally, with the Cayenne remaining the brand’s top seller. Sales for the first eight months of this year are up 46 percent from a year earlier, said Vijay Rao, the showroom’s general manager.
In the UAE, the Gulf’s largest market for luxury cars, total sales are expected to jump 32 percent to 25,010 this year after a 16 percent rise in 2010, consultants IHS Automotive forecast.
That would be the fastest growth in the Gulf and exceed volumes seen in the oil-boom years before 2008, when access to credit was easier. Luxury cars account for 9 percent of the country’s car sales.
And many of them are being bought by young customers just getting a taste for such vehicles; some 66 percent of all new car purchases in the UAE, which has the world’s sixth highest per capita income at over $47,000, are made by customers between the ages of 18 and 29, according to Business Monitor International.
EUROPEAN IMPACT
A moderate economic slowdown looks likely in the UAE next year if the global outlook worsens, and this could cool the luxury car market. Dubai’s safe-haven effect may also fade as partial political stability returns to other Arab countries; in the last few months, rapid growth in deposits at UAE banks has slowed, central bank data shows, suggesting there are no longer big inflows of foreign money seeking a refuge from political turmoil.
Ayat estimated the luxury segment of the UAE car market would grow around 15 percent next year, but that is more optimistic than the 8 percent growth forecast by IHS. Gulf car sales data are not available on an aggregate basis, posing a challenge to industry forecasters.
Overall UAE passenger car sales of all types are expected to rise 15 percent to 273,924 this year and climb a further 13 percent in 2012, after a 6 percent increase last year, IHS said.
Even if growth in the luxury market does slow, the top-end brands such as Rolls-Royce, which sells cars priced above $270,000 mainly to royalty and expatriate entrepreneurs, may see little impact.
“In the third quarter this year, with the problems in the euro zone, the market slowed down a little, but let’s emphasise that we will still continue to see growth in the market compared to 2010,†said James Crichton, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ regional director for the Middle East and Africa.
“In the UAE, we are up 78 percent this year, and in Saudi Arabia we are up almost 60 percent,†he said at the motor show, where the automaker displayed its blue and white “Riviera Phantom†with the iconic flying lady figurine, covered in 2,300 diamonds, perched on its brushed stainless steel bonnet.
Home to some 5.4 million people, the UAE is the world’s fourth-largest market for Rolls-Royce.
“There is a crisis and tension around the globe but people who are luxury spenders by nature, they will continue to spend,†said Adham Charanoglu, chief executive of Aston Martin Middle East and North Africa.
“This is completely separate from the retail market,†he said at the launch of the $530,000 Aston Martin Zagato in Dubai.
DIVERGING SPEEDS
Car sales trends diverged in the Gulf in 2011. In Bahrain, hit by the worst political unrest since the 1990s, luxury car sales are projected to fall 19 percent this year before rebounding 20 percent next year, IHS said.
Oil giant Saudi Arabia, which saw only minor political protests, is forecast to see a 4 percent drop in high-end sales this year before growth takes off strongly — at a 24 percent clip — in 2012. That would far exceed the 8 percent rise predicted for overall Saudi car sales next year.
Dealers see potential for further growth if the kingdom eventually allows women to drive. In September the government decided to let women vote in municipal elections, a step which could presage further social change.
“In Saudi Arabia, 20 percent of our customers are women, and the number is increasing,†said Umberto Cini, managing director at Maserati Middle East and Africa. At present, women are driven by relatives or chauffeurs. (Editing by Amran Abocar and Andrew Torchia)
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Clogged Reforms a Speed Bump for Indonesia’s Economy
By Neil Chatterjee
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Commuters standing in the doorways of a train and sitting on its roof, are seen as they travel to work in the capital Jakarta November 10, 2011. Indonesia’s economy has shown strong growth this year, but failure to improve a stifling bureaucracy, to end wasteful subsidies and to systematically curb graft, could derail a growth story that has made resource-rich Indonesia into Southeast Asian’s sweet spot. Doubts are growing that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono can deliver on promised reforms that improve creaky infrastructure and creating higher-value jobs for the young in the world’s fourth most populous country. Picture taken November 10, 2011. REUTERS/Supri |
JAKARTA, Nov 22 (Reuters) – At a time when many countries are slipping off investors’ radar screens, Indonesia is a beacon with stable finances and the fastest growth rate in Asia outside China and India.
Yet its failure to improve a stifling bureaucracy, to end wasteful subsidies and to systematically curb graft could derail a growth story that has made resource-rich Indonesia into Southeast Asian’s sweet spot.
Doubts are growing that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who’s been in office seven years and has three left, can deliver on promised reforms that would improve creaky infrastructure and creating higher-value jobs for the young in the world’s fourth most populous country.
While Indonesia has had solid growth rates during Yudhoyono’s tenure, much of that is rooted in demand from overseas for the country’s coal and other commodities.
If there’s a major global slump that depresses demand, Indonesia could fail to get needed investment because it remains a difficult place to do business and one where personalities matter, not process.
There has been no real reform of the inefficient civil service – where bribery remains rife — and no sustained progress in building institutions that enhance the business climate such as credible courts.
“The political elite in the parliament and the government are busy with politicking, ignoring an urgent and important economic agenda that needs to be dealt with,†said Syamsudin Haris, senior political analyst at the government-funded Science Research Institute.
After getting improved grades in recent years as a place for business, Indonesia’s position has slipped. In the World Bank’s 2012 rankings for ease of doing business, Indonesia was 129 out of 183 countries, down from 126 a year earlier.
Re-elected by a landslide in 2009, Yudhoyono has so far squandered a mandate to drive reforms and, according to polls, has lost popularity. His long-awaited cabinet reshuffle last month reflected a desire to shore up political support more than to initiate real change before a presidential election in 2014 which he cannot contest.
“We haven’t seen any headline reforms done, which has led to some market disappointment and also to disappointment among voters,†said Prakriti Sofat, an economist at Barclays Capital in Singapore.
“If Yudhoyono and company don’t put things in order, and there’s not a good candidate coming through in 2014, then the risk will go up.â€
Having solid GDP growth by itself does not mean trends are good. Just look at India: Although growth is still relatively strong, its image as an emerging market star is losing its shine as corruption scandals, high inflation and a flagging reform agenda have dented investor confidence. Business leaders openly fret that the government may be squandering India’s chance at the big time.
Azim Premji, billionaire chairman of outsourcing giant Wipro , summed up a sense of policy paralysis in India when he recently attacked a “complete absence of decision-making among leaders in government.â€
The result has been investors fleeing from Mumbai stocks , making it one of the world’s worst performing major markets in 2011.
While Indonesia has been drawing investors, “long-term, if there are better opportunities elsewhere, money will go somewhere else,†said Sofat.
Yudhoyono’s government has been often commended for good macroeconomic policies. It has maintained fiscal discipline, steadily cutting the debt-to-GDP ratio and boosting foreign reserves, while lifting its budget for infrastructure by 28 percent this year.
But the government’s administrative mechanism is often clogged. Lifting budgets is not translating into spending in the real economy. Overall, government spending grew just 2.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, a slower pace than in the second quarter.
“The government has never shown any reliable track record of efficient budget spending and I don’t think that will change in the foreseeable future,†said Lanang Trihardian, investment analyst at Jakarta-based Syailendra Capital, which manages around $460 million. “The impact of that is I don’t believe Indonesia can grow above the 8 percent level as seen in China and India.â€
Officials often rush to spend some of a budget overhang in the fourth quarter. A much-needed project to improve woeful drainage in Jakarta recently started on the main thoroughfare — just as the torrential rainy season began, causing gridlock terrible even by the capital’s traffic standards.
“You know what the bureaucracy is like for government projects — long and complicated,†the head of Jakarta’s public works office, Ery Basworo, told a press conference called to address complaints. “For us to even get the project started in September was an achievement.â€
At one time, many Indonesians felt Yudhoyono was making good gains to combat the old, damaging problem of graft, but it remains entrenched. To some citizens, corruption has worsened, in part because of decentralisation since the era of strongman Suharto.
In the remote provinces of the scattered archipelago, greater regional autonomy has sometimes resulted in corrupt local authorities to siphon off resource wealth meant for development.
Yudhoyono has declared eradicating corruption a top priority and said no official is above the law. But his recent cabinet shuffle did not signal a tougher or more effective approach. Two ministers whom the Indonesian media alleged to be tainted retained their seats.
Meanwhile, political squabbles led to a demotion of the trade minister and the narrow survival of the finance minister, both well-respected internationally.
The reshuffle “was an opportunity for Yudhoyono to have a stronger team and he missed it,†said Erman Rahman, director of economic programs in Indonesia at The Asia Foundation, a San-Francisco-headquartered nongovernmental organisation.
Another longtime impediment to business, the bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, remains a source of big frustration. “It will take more than very strong leadership to change this,†Rahman said.
So far, there are no signs of planned reforms for the police department or justice system, which are often the source of complaints.
TRACKING SPENDING FLOWS
Polls show that many Indonesians, used to Suharto’s 32-year rule, want another military man to run the country from 2014. Yudhoyono, the first directly elected president, is a retired army general but is seen by many as unable to make bold decisions to promote institutional change.
Analysts say Vice-President Boediono, a former central bank governor, is trying to improve efficiency and governance by steps such as putting into ministries computer systems that track spending flows.
In the important area of infrastructure, investors have been waiting for a long-mooted land reform bill that would speed up the acquisition of land for state-backed projects, such as $150 billion of public-private partnerships the government wants to see.
But as the end of another year approaches, it has still not been passed by a cantankerous parliament, and Yudhoyono has been silent on the issue.
Another issue that needs addressing is subsidies. With inflation significantly easing this year, the government has missed an opportunity to phase out fuel subsidies for private cars, backtracking on a planned April move and delaying it indefinitely.
The government fears hiking gasoline costing just half the price of the market rate could dampen the domestic economy or spur the kind of riots that contributed to Suharto’s fall in 1998.
Yet not ending subsidies only stores up inflationary problems for the longer-term. The “ruinous middle-class subsidiesâ€, as one economist has dubbed them, could instead go to building roads and ports, argue economists and rating agencies who see weak infrastructure and high inflation as key risks.
“Progress on structural reforms appears to have slowed in the past year. In particular, there has been limited progress in reforming the composition of spending,†said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings at Fitch.
($1 = 9050 Rupiah)
(Additional reporting by Andjarsari Paramaditha in JAKARTA and Matthias Williams in NEW DELHI; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
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Dubai Diversifies with Push into Diamonds
By Nour Merza
DUBAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter and home to gold trading hub Dubai, is rapidly becoming a force in trade of another highly valuable commodity: diamonds.
Dubai, the UAE’s centre for gem trade, handled $35 billion worth of rough and polished diamonds in 2010, a leap from an annual figure of just $3 million a decade ago, according to Malcolm Wall Morris, chief executive of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC).
In the first half of this year Dubai traded $25.3 billion, a 55 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. Much or most of the rise was due to surging diamond prices rather than growing volumes — but the increase nevertheless underlined Dubai’s success in competing with other trading centres.
“Part of the UAE’s policy is to diversify its income and gradually move away from one or a few sources of income,†UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri told Reuters on the sidelines of a diamond exhibition in Dubai. “So there must be manufacturing and other sources of income we can depend on and that are also sustainable.â€
The DMCC, which provides the infrastructure for commodities trade in Dubai, now ranks the emirate as the world’s fourth largest diamond trading hub, behind Antwerp, New York and Mumbai. Antwerp, through which more than half of the world’s diamond production passes, saw $48 billion of trade in the first ten months of 2010, according to data from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.
The UAE has competed with traditional diamond centres by keeping customs duties for diamond jewellery as low as 1 percent, a tiny fee compared to major diamond producer Russia’s 23 percent duty and 18 percent value added tax, according to Maximilian Artsinovich, founder of London-based retailer Maximilian Jewellery.
“Because of these duties, jewellery and imported watches in the Ukraine, Russia and Khazakhistan cost double their price in Dubai, or are at least 50 percent more expensive,†Artsinovich said after opening a boutique in Dubai.
The UAE also tightly regulates the quality of diamonds coming in and out of the country to increase investor confidence, says the DMCC.
But some traders still question Dubai’s ability to rival more established centres. A major obstacle keeping Dubai from becoming one of the world’s top three hubs, according to Mitesh Surti of Antwerp-based diamond seller Beyroha, is local banks’ lack of expertise in the diamond industry. Diamond traders have had difficulty setting up accounts with services catering to the industry, such as overdraft facilities, he said.
Another problem is the UAE’s inability to attract Israeli jewellers, who play a prominent role in the industry; for political reasons, Israeli nationals are generally not allowed into the country.
“A lot of Israelis cannot come here, and that’s a major problem because they are (one of) the industry’s main pillars. In Antwerp that is not a problem,†said Surti.
And while much of Dubai’s diamond trade comes from shipping the precious gem abroad, traders say the emirate’s reliance on tourists rather than the local market for most of its retail sales is a weakness.
Saurabh Shah, a seller at Antwerp-based diamond manufacturer Rosy Blue’s Dubai arm, said that if tourism in the UAE falls, diamond sales also drop because Arab locals and the large Arab and Indian expatriate communities traditionally prefer to buy gold.
“For Dubai, sales are mostly from the tourists. Indians (living here) buy only gold jewellery, and locals don’t buy diamonds very often,†said Shah.
Demand for diamonds in the Gulf is rising, however, and today stands at $15 billion annually compared to around $2 billion a decade ago, Shah said. By 2015, China, India and the Gulf could overtake the United States as top diamond consumers, analysts believe, creating more opportunities for Dubai, which is located between diamond producers in Africa and processors and buyers in Asia.
“Dubai is not rivaling Antwerp — Dubai is taking a new spot,†said Victor van der Kwast, chief executive of ABN AMRO Bank’s international diamond and jewellery group. Commodities flowing from Africa to China naturally tend to move through Dubai for geographical reasons rather than Antwerp, he said.
PROCESSING
While Mumbai has a long tradition of diamond cutting and polishing, Dubai hopes to control more of the industry’s supply chain by processing rough diamonds domestically rather than sending them to Mumbai and then re-importing the finished product into the UAE for retail sale.
“Eventually, that’s one of the aims. Dubai will try to do as much of the diamond processing as possible,†said DMCC business director James Bernard.
The DMCC has a diamond boiling centre, which removes dirt and trace materials from the gemstones, and a light jewellery manufacturing center. But some traders think bypassing Mumbai, which processes seven in every 10 of the world’s diamonds, will not be possible on a mass scale because of labour costs.
“Manufacturing diamonds needs different skills and a labour force, and the labour which is in India is more economical,†said Amit Dhamani, chief executive of Dubai-based jeweller Dhamani.
But he acknowledged Dubai’s potential in processing high-end products at lower volumes. “More processing in terms of high-end cutting of diamonds can be an interesting point — that is more quality-oriented, in that labour is not a major factor.â€
Economy Minister Mansouri was adamant that Dubai could incorporate manufacturing into its diamond industry.
“We are confident that Dubai can be number one in a variety of sectors, including attracting investors and in areas like polishing diamonds and manufacturing diamonds,†Mansouri said. “Dubai does not know the impossible.†(Editing by Andrew Torchia)
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This Struggle Has Re-awakened Our Imagination
By Arundhati Roy
Text of a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the People’s University in Washington Square, NYC on 20 November, 2011.
Tuesday morning, the police cleared Zuccotti Park, but today the people are back.
The police should know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We’re not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or there. We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for the people of the US, but for everybody.
What you have achieved since September 17th, when the Occupy movement began in the United States, is to introduce a new imagination, a new political language into the heart of empire. You have reintroduced the right to dream into a system that tried to turn everybody into zombies, mesmerized into equating mindless consumerism with happiness and fulfillment.
As a writer, let me tell you, this is an immense achievement. And I cannot thank you enough.
We were talking about justice. Today, as we speak, the army of the United States is waging a war of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. US drones are killing civilians in Pakistan and beyond. Tens of thousands of US troops and death squads are moving into Africa. If spending trillions of dollars of your money to administer occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan is not enough, a war against Iran is being talked up.
Ever since the Great Depression, the manufacture of weapons and the export of war have been key ways in which the United States has stimulated its economy. Just recently, under President Obama, the US made a $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia – moderate Muslims, right? It hopes to sell thousands of bunker busters to the UAE. It has sold $5 billion-worth of military aircraft to my country, India, which has more poor people than all the poorest countries of Africa put together. All these wars, from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Vietnam, Korea, Latin America, have claimed millions of lives — all of them fought to secure the “American way of lifeâ€.
Today, we know that the “American way of life†— the model that the rest of the world is meant to aspire towards — has resulted in 400 people owning the wealth of half of the population of the United States. It has meant thousands of people being turned out of their homes and their jobs while the US government bailed out banks and corporations — American International Group (AIG) alone was given $182 billion.
The Indian government worships US economic policy. As a result of 20 years of the free market economy, today, 100 of India’s richest people own assets worth one-quarter of the country’s GDP while more than 80% of the people live on less than 50 cents a day. Two hundred and fifty thousand farmers, driven into a spiral of debt death, have committed suicide. We call this progress, and now think of ourselves as a superpower. Like you, we are well-qualified. We have nuclear bombs and obscene inequality.
The good news is that people have had enough and are not going to take it any more. The Occupy movement has joined thousands of other resistance movements all over the world in which the poorest of people are standing up and stopping the richest corporations in their tracks.
Few of us dreamed that we would see you, the people of the United States on our side, trying to do this in the heart of Empire. I don’t know how to communicate the enormity of what this means.
They, the one percent, say that we don’t have demands†perhaps they don’t know, that our anger alone would be enough to destroy them. But here are some things — a few “pre-revolutionary†thoughts I had — for us to think about together:
We want to put a lid on this system that manufactures inequality. We want to put a cap on the unfettered accumulation of wealth and property by individuals as well as corporations. As “cap-ists†and “lid-itesâ€, we demand:
One, an end to cross-ownership in businesses. For example, weapons manufacturers cannot own TV stations; mining corporations cannot run newspapers; business houses cannot fund universities; drug companies cannot control public health funds.
Two, natural resources and essential infrastructure — water supply, electricity, health, and education — cannot be privatized.
Three, everybody must have the right to shelter, education and healthcare.
Four, the children of the rich cannot inherit their parents’ wealth.
This struggle has re-awakened our imagination. Somewhere along the way, capitalism reduced the idea of justice to mean just “human rightsâ€, and the idea of dreaming of equality became blasphemous. We are not fighting to just tinker with reforming a system that needs to be replaced.
As a cap-ist and a lid-ite, I salute your struggle.
13-48
Pakistan: Islamic Social State
By Abdul Quayyum Khan Kundi (Abdul.Kundi@GMail.Com)
In the West and most of the Muslim world there is a wrong perception that the struggle to establish Caliphate is mandated by the Quran. The reality is far from that. There are many verses in Quran which points to formation of local governments while there are none that mandate a Caliphate. Ummah itself is not a political concept but rather a social one where people from diverse cultures share a set of common spiritual and social values. That is the reason we find common cultural traits in food, clothing, family rituals and celebrations of Muslim countries around the world. Many of Pakistan’s political party’s manifesto include establishment of an Islamic social state. If this is the objective then it is very important to understand what it entails and what the society will look like if we achieved it. We have already covered the Islamic economic model in last article (published on November 2, 2011), this article will focus more on the social aspect of it.
The first order of business to establish an Islamic Social state will be to change the current Westminster form of parliamentary system to an American style Presidential system which is quite close to an Islamic concept. Islam emphasizes election of individuals who then have executive authority to run the state in consultation with a shura comprising of professionals with knowledge of government, administration and law. In Pakistan, we don’t have to write a new constitution rather amendments to existing one will achieve the objective. In Turkey the ruling AKP party in the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it part of their election manifesto that a presidential form of government will be introduced through constitutional amendment. In Pakistan many leading politicians have already expressed their preference for a Presidential system.
Majority of Muslims go to great lengths to tell the world that Islam is the religion of peace. But in reality the essence of Islam is justice. Peace and harmony are the outcome of a just society. Promotion of justice is an active persuasion while peace is more passive approach to society. In an Islamic state introduction of an affordable and efficient system of justice is one of the top priorities of the state. The procedures for the discharge of cases should be such that decisions does not cost so much that people can’t afford it or take so long that it is a hindrance for people to seek justice. Independence of the judiciary is important. State has to ensure that life and property of judges are protected as well as their verdicts are executed without delay.
In an Islamic state the security policy will be oriented towards defensive rather than aggressive posture. This should become corner stone of Pakistan’s foreign policy position to initiate negotiation to sign non-aggression and non-interference bilateral agreements with its neighbors and focus more inward than outward.
Prophet Muhammad (s) in his last hajj sermon to Ummah clearly stated that in an Islamic state there will be no preference given to anyone based on their ethnic identity. Quran makes it clear that God, the ultimate sovereign, does not differentiate based on ethnicity among its creation to bestow its blessings on them. Quran does not mention that punishment of Shirk or Kufar is awarded in this world rather that it is a sin judged on the Day of Judgment which in a way is an opportunity for an individual to find the truth. Quran mentions that people were divided in tribes and nations to be identified rather than discriminated or preferred. In an Islamic social state everyone will be allowed to practice their cultural heritage without any discrimination or hindrance from the state. At the federal level decisions will be taken only considering the well being of the people. In this scenario provinces will be created not on ethnic lines but administrative basis as Islam gives preference to the well being of individual citizens. In the same vane the quota system has to be abolished and only merit should be the basis of all appointments in state and private enterprises. Similarly, Islam recognizes that non-Muslims are full citizens of the state and have the right to practice their faith without recrimination from the State which has to ensure safety of their prayer places.
The very first verse of Quran Iqra was to encourage acquisition of knowledge of life, universe and the spirituality. Islam looks down upon ignorance and mandates that everyone should seek knowledge which means that the state should ensure that adequate educational institutions are available throughout the country. In an Islamic state the religious seminaries will be required to provide education in science and technology. As centers of learning and prayers mosques will be required to hire religious scholars that can provide spiritual enlightenment to the people. These religious scholars should be educated not only in science, social sciences and anthropology but also aware of the spiritual difference between Islam and other religions.
Quran does not differentiate between men and women in terms of their participation in the society. Islam encourages that all members of the society regardless of their gender should participate to establish a just and equitable society. Islam acknowledges that women have much higher responsibility than men because of their critical role in development of a nation as mothers. But this domestic role does not preclude them from pursuing a career to express their talent and exercise their capabilities. In an Islamic state the role of women has to be recognized as full participant. This was evidenced from the lives of Khadija (RA) and Aisha (RA) who took active roles in business and politics respectively.
Many Muslim countries are now realizing the true meaning of a social state and embarking on reformation. Turkey, Malaysia, and Indonesia are good examples from which other countries can learn. Pakistan seems to be waking up to its true potential as freedom of speech is encouraging debates to create greater understanding of our religion, history and social values at the same time destroying dogmas.
13-48
Hot Air Balloons
In 1783, two French brothers, Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michel Montgolfier, invented the hot-air balloon and sent one to an altitude of 6,000 ft (1,800 m). Later that year, the French physicist Jean Pilatre de Rozier made the first manned balloon flight. While balloons could travel to high elevations, they could not travel on their own propulsion and were at the mercy of the prevailing winds. The shape of the balloon was determined by the pressure of the air or gas (such as hydrogen or helium).
In 1852, Henri Giffard built the first powered airship, which consisted of a 143-ft (44-m) long, cigar-shaped, gas-filled bag with a propeller, powered by a 3-horsepower (2.2-kW) steam engine. Later, in 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany invented the first rigid airship.
The rigid airship had a metal framework — 420 ft (123 m) in length, 28 ft (12 m) in diameter — containing hydrogen-gas-filled rubber bags. The first Zeppelin had tail fins and rudders, and was powered by internal combustion engines. It carried five people to an altitude of 1,300 ft (396 m) and flew a distance of 3.75 mi (6 km). Several models of Zeppelins were built in the early 1900s. These vehicles were used for military and civilian purposes, including transatlantic travel. The most famous Zeppelin was the Hindenburg, which was destroyed by a fire in 1937 while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey. See Fall of the Hindenburg to learn about the ship and the crash.
In 1925, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company began building airships of the blimp design. These aircraft were used for advertising and military purposes (such as surveillance and anti-submarine warfare) throughout World War II. In 1962, the U.S. military stopped using blimps in their operations. Today, blimps are used mainly for advertising, TV coverage, tourism and some research purposes. However, the airship is coming back.
Airships are called lighter-than-air (LTA) craft because to generatelift, they use gases that are lighter than air. The most common gas in use today is helium, which has a lifting capacity of 0.064 lb/ft3 (1.02 kg/m3). Hydrogen was commonly used in the early days of airships because it was even lighter, with a lifting capacity of 0.070 lb/ft3 (1.1 kg/m3) and was easier and cheaper to acquire than helium. However, the Hindenburg disasterended the use of hydrogen in airships because hydrogen burns so easily. Helium, on the other hand, is not flammable.
While these lifting capacities might not seem like much, airships carry incredibly large volumes of gas — up to hundreds of thousands of cubic feet (thousands of cubic meters). With this much lifting power, airships can carry heavy loads easily.
Because gas provides the lift in an airship or blimp, rather than a wing with an engine as in an airplane, airships can fly and hover without expending fuel or energy. Furthermore, airships can stay aloft anywhere from hours to days — much longer than airplanes orhelicopters. These properties make blimps ideal for such uses as covering sporting events, advertising and some research, like scouting for whales.
Recently, there has been renewed interest in using rigid airships for lifting and/or transporting heavy cargo loads, like ships, tanks and oil rigs, for military and civilian purposes. Modern airships, such as theZeppelin NT and CargoLifter, use lightweight, carbon-composite frames that allow them to be huge, light and structurally sound. In addition to hauling cargo, airships may once again be used for tourism. So, the sight of a large airship moving across the sky may become more common in the near future.
13-48
Community News (V13-I48)
Imam Abu Bakr Salahuddin receives social justice award
Imam Abu Bakr Salahuddin of the Islamic Centre of Redding received the Peace and Social Justice Award from the Shasta County Citizens Against Racism, the Redding News reported.
He’s consistently served the community since moving to Redding, said Eddie McAllister, a community organizer with Shasta County Public Health. McAllister nominated Salahuddin for the award.
“I’m very honored to be chosen for this award because as hard as a person works, it’s getting awards like this that you know you have touched someone in the community somewhere,†Salahuddin said.
Muslims distribute meat to soup kitchens
Muslims across North America reached out to the needy by organizing meat drives for the soup kitchens. These are part of the larger celebrations of Eid ul Adha.
On Wednesday, Nov. 16, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined Turkish Cultural Center Brooklyn and other supporting organizations at Brooklyn Borough Hall to distribute more than 700 pounds of packaged beef to food pantries and soup kitchens throughout the borough.
In New Brunswick, Canada, too the small Muslim community donated more than 350 pounds of ground beef and stew beef to the Fredericton Community Kitchen.
“We’re just overwhelmed by the generosity of this community to help us,†said Cheryl Mercer, who’s the bookkeeper for the kitchen.
“It means that we’re going to be able to put food on the table, good quality beef that arrived,†she said, estimating it will produce about 600 meals.
Newburgh Muslims hold free clinic
NEWBURGH,NY–Free flu shots, cholesterol and blood-pressure checks, and diabetes tests were among services offered at a no-cost health clinic Sunday at the Masjid Al-Ikhlas mosque in the City of Newburgh.
Doctors with different specialties were also on hand to talk one-on-one with participants and answer questions.
The mosque members say that the clinic might become a weekly service in the future.
Fraudsters use “Muslim†sounding names for mortgage scheme
SACRAMENTO,CA–United States Attorney Benjamin B Wagner announced that Glenn Watkins, 31; Kevin Watkins, 26; and Frederick Davis, 41, all of Elk Grove, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud for a mortgage fraud scheme.
According to court documents, co-defendant Jake Weathers, 35, of Elk Grove, orchestrated a scheme where the defendants changed their names to Muslim-sounding names in order to obtain new credit and to conceal poor credit histories and other liabilities. For instance, Glenn Watkins legally changed his name to “Rasheed Khaleb†to fraudulently purchase two homes. Once those homes fell into foreclosure, he legally changed his name to “Jason Johnson.â€
Likewise, Kevin Watkins changed his name to “Jamal Ali,†then to “Calvin Carter.†Their uncle, Frederick Davis, changed his name to “Ammar Rashad,†to purchase a home, then to “Corey Green†once that home fell into foreclosure. According to the plea agreements, the defendants admitted that their income and employment histories were falsified on loan applications.
13-48
Fake Terror Plots, Paid Informants: the Tactics of FBI ‘Entrapment’ Questioned
Critics say bureau is running a sting operation across America, targeting vulnerable people by luring them into fake terror plots
By Paul Harris
David Williams did not have an easy life. He moved to Newburgh, a gritty, impoverished town on the banks of the Hudson an hour or so north of New York, at just 10 years old. For a young, black American boy with a father in jail, trouble was everywhere.
Williams also made bad choices. He ended up going to jail for dealing drugs. When he came out in 2007 he tried to go straight, but money was tight and his brother, Lord, needed cash for a liver transplant. Life is hard in Newburgh if you are poor, have a drug rap and need cash quickly.
His aunt, Alicia McWilliams, was honest about the tough streets her nephew was dealing with. “Newburgh is a hard place,†she said. So it was perhaps no surprise that in May, 2009, David Williams was arrested again and hit with a 25-year jail sentence. But it was not for drugs offences. Or any other common crime. Instead Williams and three other struggling local men beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues were convicted of an Islamic terrorist plot to blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.
Even more shocking was that the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI, and an informant paid to pose as a terrorist mastermind paying big bucks for help in carrying out an attack. For McWilliams, her own government had actually cajoled and paid her beloved nephew into being a terrorist, created a fake plot and then jailed him for it. “I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone,†she told the Guardian.
Lawyers for the so-called Newburgh Four have now launched an appeal that will be held early next year. Advocates hope the case offers the best chance of exposing the issue of FBI “entrapment†in terror cases.
“We have as close to a legal entrapment case as I have ever seen,†said Susanne Brody, who represents another Newburgh defendant, Onta Williams.
Some experts agree. “The target, the motive, the ideology and the plot were all led by the FBI,†said Karen Greenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, who specialises in studying the new FBI tactics.
But the issue is one that stretches far beyond Newburgh. Critics say the FBI is running a sting operation across America, targeting – to a large extent – the Muslim community by luring people into fake terror plots. FBI bureaux send informants to trawl through Muslim communities, hang out in mosques and community centres, and talk of radical Islam in order to identify possible targets sympathetic to such ideals. Or they will respond to the most bizarre of tip-offs, including, in one case, a man who claimed to have seen terror chief Ayman al-Zawahiri living in northern California in the late 1990s.
That tipster was quickly hired as a well-paid informant. If suitable suspects are identified, FBI agents then run a sting, often creating a fake terror plot in which it helps supply weapons and targets. Then, dramatic arrests are made, press conferences held and lengthy convictions secured.
But what is not clear is if many real, actual terrorists are involved.
Another “entrapment†case is on the radar too. The Fort Dix Five – accused of plotting to attack a New Jersey army base – have also appealed against their convictions. That case too involved dubious use of paid informants, an apparent over-reach of evidence and a plot that seemed suggested by the government.
Burim Duka, whose three brothers were jailed for life for their part in the scheme, insists they did not know they were part of a terror plot and were just buying guns for shooting holidays in a deal arranged by a friend. The “friend†was an informant who had persuaded another man of a desire to attack Fort Dix.
Duka is convinced his brothers’ appeal has a good chance. “I am hopeful,†he told the Guardian.
But things may not be that easy. At issue is the word “entrapmentâ€, which has two definitions. There is the common usage, where a citizen might see FBI operations as deliberate traps manipulating unwary people who otherwise were unlikely to become terrorists. Then there is the legal definition of entrapment, where the prosecution merely has to show a subject was predisposed to carry out the actions they later are accused of.
Theoretically, a simple expression, like support for jihad, might suffice, and in post-9/11 America neither judges nor juries tend to be nuanced in terror trials. “Legally, you have to use the word entrapment very carefully. It is a very strict legal term,†said Greenberg.
But in its commonly understood usage, FBI entrapment is a widespread tactic. Within days of the 9/11 terror attacks, FBI director Robert Mueller issued a memo on a new policy of “forward leaning – preventative – prosecutionsâ€.
Central to that is a growing informant network. The FBI is not choosy about the people it uses. Some have criminal records, including attempted murder or drug dealing or fraud. They are often paid six-figure sums, which critics say creates a motivation to entrap targets. Some are motivated by the promise of debts forgiven or immigration violations wiped clean. There has also been a relaxing of rules on what criteria the FBI needs to launch an investigation.
Often they just seem to be “fishing expeditionsâ€. In the Newburgh case, the men involved met FBI informant Shahed Hussain simply because he happened to infiltrate their mosque. In southern California, FBI informant Craig Monteilh trawled mosques posing as a Muslim and tried to act as a magnet for potential radicals.
Monteilh, who bugged scores of people, is a convicted felon with serious drug charges to his name. His operation turned up nothing. But Monteilh’s professed terrorist sympathy so unnerved his Muslim targets that they got a restraining order against him and alerted the FBI, not realising Monteilh was actually working on the bureau’s behalf.
Muslim civil rights groups have warned of a feeling of being hounded and threatened by the FBI, triggering a natural fear of the authorities among people that should be a vital defence against real terror attacks. But FBI tactics could now be putting off many people from reporting tip-offs or suspicious individuals.
“They are making mosques suspicious of anybody. They are putting fear into these communities,†said Greenberg. Civil liberties groups are also concerned, seeing some FBI tactics as using terrorism to justify more power. “We are still seeing an expansion of these tools. It is a terrible prospect,†said Mike German, an expert at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former FBI agent who has worked in counter-terrorism.
German said suspects convicted of plotting terror attacks in some recent FBI cases bore little resemblance to the profile of most terrorist cells. “Most of these suspect terrorists had no access to weapons unless the government provided them. I would say that showed they were not the biggest threat to the US,†German said.
“Most terrorists have links to foreign terrorist groups and have trained in terrorism training camps. Perhaps FBI resources should be spent finding those guys.â€
Also, some of the most serious terrorist attacks carried out in the US since 9/11 have revolved around “lone wolf†actions, not the sort of conspiracy plots the FBI have been striving to combat. The 2010 Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, only came to light after his car bomb failed to go off properly. The Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot dead 13 people on a Texas army base in 2009, was only discovered after he started firing. Both evaded the radar of an FBI expending resources setting up fictional crimes and then prosecuting those involved.
Yet, as advocates for those caught up in “entrapment†cases discover, there is little public or judicial sympathy for them. Even in cases where judges have admitted FBI tactics have raised serious questions, there has been no hesitation in returning guilty verdicts, handing down lengthy sentences and dismissing appeals.
The Liberty City Seven are a case in point. The 2006 case involved an informant, Elie Assaad, with a dubious past (he was once arrested, but not charged, for beating his pregnant wife). Assaad was let loose with another informant on a group of men in Liberty City, a poor, predominantly black, suburb of Miami. The targets were followers of a cult-like group called The Seas of David, led by former Guardian Angel Narseal Batiste.
The group was, perhaps, not even Muslim, as its religious practices involved Bible study and wearing the Star of David. Yet Assaad posed as an Al-Qaida operative, and got members of the group to swear allegiance. Transcripts of the “oath-taking†ceremony are almost farcical. Batiste repeatedly queries the idea and appears bullied into it. In effect, defence lawyers argued, the men were confused, impoverished members of an obscure cult.
Yet targets the group supposedly entertained attacking included the Sears Tower in Chicago, Hollywood movie studios and the Empire State Building. Even zealous prosecutors, painting a picture of dedicated Islamic terrorists, admitted any potential plots were “aspirationalâ€, given the group had no means to carry them out.
Nonetheless, they were charged with seeking to wage war against America, plotting to destroy buildings and supporting terrorism. Five of them got long jail sentences. Assaad, who was recently arrested in Texas for attempting to run over a policeman, was paid $85,000 for his work.
This year the jailed Liberty City men launched an appeal and last week judgment was handed down. They lost, and officially remain Islamic terrorists hell-bent on destroying America. Not that their supporters see it that way.
“Our country is no safer as a result of the prosecution of these seven impoverished young men from Liberty City,†said Batiste’s lawyer, Ana Jhones.
“This prosecution came at great financial cost to our government, and at a terrible emotional cost to these defendants and their families. It is my sincere belief that our country is less safe as a result of the government’s actions in this case.â€
The Guardian (UK)
13-48
Fake Terror Plots, Paid Informants: the Tactics of FBI ‘Entrapment’ Questioned
Critics say bureau is running a sting operation across America, targeting vulnerable people by luring them into fake terror plots
By Paul Harris
David Williams did not have an easy life. He moved to Newburgh, a gritty, impoverished town on the banks of the Hudson an hour or so north of New York, at just 10 years old. For a young, black American boy with a father in jail, trouble was everywhere.
Williams also made bad choices. He ended up going to jail for dealing drugs. When he came out in 2007 he tried to go straight, but money was tight and his brother, Lord, needed cash for a liver transplant. Life is hard in Newburgh if you are poor, have a drug rap and need cash quickly.
His aunt, Alicia McWilliams, was honest about the tough streets her nephew was dealing with. “Newburgh is a hard place,†she said. So it was perhaps no surprise that in May, 2009, David Williams was arrested again and hit with a 25-year jail sentence. But it was not for drugs offences. Or any other common crime. Instead Williams and three other struggling local men beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues were convicted of an Islamic terrorist plot to blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.
Even more shocking was that the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI, and an informant paid to pose as a terrorist mastermind paying big bucks for help in carrying out an attack. For McWilliams, her own government had actually cajoled and paid her beloved nephew into being a terrorist, created a fake plot and then jailed him for it. “I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone,†she told the Guardian.
Lawyers for the so-called Newburgh Four have now launched an appeal that will be held early next year. Advocates hope the case offers the best chance of exposing the issue of FBI “entrapment†in terror cases.
“We have as close to a legal entrapment case as I have ever seen,†said Susanne Brody, who represents another Newburgh defendant, Onta Williams.
Some experts agree. “The target, the motive, the ideology and the plot were all led by the FBI,†said Karen Greenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, who specialises in studying the new FBI tactics.
But the issue is one that stretches far beyond Newburgh. Critics say the FBI is running a sting operation across America, targeting – to a large extent – the Muslim community by luring people into fake terror plots. FBI bureaux send informants to trawl through Muslim communities, hang out in mosques and community centres, and talk of radical Islam in order to identify possible targets sympathetic to such ideals. Or they will respond to the most bizarre of tip-offs, including, in one case, a man who claimed to have seen terror chief Ayman al-Zawahiri living in northern California in the late 1990s.
That tipster was quickly hired as a well-paid informant. If suitable suspects are identified, FBI agents then run a sting, often creating a fake terror plot in which it helps supply weapons and targets. Then, dramatic arrests are made, press conferences held and lengthy convictions secured.
But what is not clear is if many real, actual terrorists are involved.
Another “entrapment†case is on the radar too. The Fort Dix Five – accused of plotting to attack a New Jersey army base – have also appealed against their convictions. That case too involved dubious use of paid informants, an apparent over-reach of evidence and a plot that seemed suggested by the government.
Burim Duka, whose three brothers were jailed for life for their part in the scheme, insists they did not know they were part of a terror plot and were just buying guns for shooting holidays in a deal arranged by a friend. The “friend†was an informant who had persuaded another man of a desire to attack Fort Dix.
Duka is convinced his brothers’ appeal has a good chance. “I am hopeful,†he told the Guardian.
But things may not be that easy. At issue is the word “entrapmentâ€, which has two definitions. There is the common usage, where a citizen might see FBI operations as deliberate traps manipulating unwary people who otherwise were unlikely to become terrorists. Then there is the legal definition of entrapment, where the prosecution merely has to show a subject was predisposed to carry out the actions they later are accused of.
Theoretically, a simple expression, like support for jihad, might suffice, and in post-9/11 America neither judges nor juries tend to be nuanced in terror trials. “Legally, you have to use the word entrapment very carefully. It is a very strict legal term,†said Greenberg.
But in its commonly understood usage, FBI entrapment is a widespread tactic. Within days of the 9/11 terror attacks, FBI director Robert Mueller issued a memo on a new policy of “forward leaning – preventative – prosecutionsâ€.
Central to that is a growing informant network. The FBI is not choosy about the people it uses. Some have criminal records, including attempted murder or drug dealing or fraud. They are often paid six-figure sums, which critics say creates a motivation to entrap targets. Some are motivated by the promise of debts forgiven or immigration violations wiped clean. There has also been a relaxing of rules on what criteria the FBI needs to launch an investigation.
Often they just seem to be “fishing expeditionsâ€. In the Newburgh case, the men involved met FBI informant Shahed Hussain simply because he happened to infiltrate their mosque. In southern California, FBI informant Craig Monteilh trawled mosques posing as a Muslim and tried to act as a magnet for potential radicals.
Monteilh, who bugged scores of people, is a convicted felon with serious drug charges to his name. His operation turned up nothing. But Monteilh’s professed terrorist sympathy so unnerved his Muslim targets that they got a restraining order against him and alerted the FBI, not realising Monteilh was actually working on the bureau’s behalf.
Muslim civil rights groups have warned of a feeling of being hounded and threatened by the FBI, triggering a natural fear of the authorities among people that should be a vital defence against real terror attacks. But FBI tactics could now be putting off many people from reporting tip-offs or suspicious individuals.
“They are making mosques suspicious of anybody. They are putting fear into these communities,†said Greenberg. Civil liberties groups are also concerned, seeing some FBI tactics as using terrorism to justify more power. “We are still seeing an expansion of these tools. It is a terrible prospect,†said Mike German, an expert at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former FBI agent who has worked in counter-terrorism.
German said suspects convicted of plotting terror attacks in some recent FBI cases bore little resemblance to the profile of most terrorist cells. “Most of these suspect terrorists had no access to weapons unless the government provided them. I would say that showed they were not the biggest threat to the US,†German said.
“Most terrorists have links to foreign terrorist groups and have trained in terrorism training camps. Perhaps FBI resources should be spent finding those guys.â€
Also, some of the most serious terrorist attacks carried out in the US since 9/11 have revolved around “lone wolf†actions, not the sort of conspiracy plots the FBI have been striving to combat. The 2010 Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, only came to light after his car bomb failed to go off properly. The Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot dead 13 people on a Texas army base in 2009, was only discovered after he started firing. Both evaded the radar of an FBI expending resources setting up fictional crimes and then prosecuting those involved.
Yet, as advocates for those caught up in “entrapment†cases discover, there is little public or judicial sympathy for them. Even in cases where judges have admitted FBI tactics have raised serious questions, there has been no hesitation in returning guilty verdicts, handing down lengthy sentences and dismissing appeals.
The Liberty City Seven are a case in point. The 2006 case involved an informant, Elie Assaad, with a dubious past (he was once arrested, but not charged, for beating his pregnant wife). Assaad was let loose with another informant on a group of men in Liberty City, a poor, predominantly black, suburb of Miami. The targets were followers of a cult-like group called The Seas of David, led by former Guardian Angel Narseal Batiste.
The group was, perhaps, not even Muslim, as its religious practices involved Bible study and wearing the Star of David. Yet Assaad posed as an Al-Qaida operative, and got members of the group to swear allegiance. Transcripts of the “oath-taking†ceremony are almost farcical. Batiste repeatedly queries the idea and appears bullied into it. In effect, defence lawyers argued, the men were confused, impoverished members of an obscure cult.
Yet targets the group supposedly entertained attacking included the Sears Tower in Chicago, Hollywood movie studios and the Empire State Building. Even zealous prosecutors, painting a picture of dedicated Islamic terrorists, admitted any potential plots were “aspirationalâ€, given the group had no means to carry them out.
Nonetheless, they were charged with seeking to wage war against America, plotting to destroy buildings and supporting terrorism. Five of them got long jail sentences. Assaad, who was recently arrested in Texas for attempting to run over a policeman, was paid $85,000 for his work.
This year the jailed Liberty City men launched an appeal and last week judgment was handed down. They lost, and officially remain Islamic terrorists hell-bent on destroying America. Not that their supporters see it that way.
“Our country is no safer as a result of the prosecution of these seven impoverished young men from Liberty City,†said Batiste’s lawyer, Ana Jhones.
“This prosecution came at great financial cost to our government, and at a terrible emotional cost to these defendants and their families. It is my sincere belief that our country is less safe as a result of the government’s actions in this case.â€
The Guardian (UK)
13-48
Egypt Protesters Battle on to End Army Rule
By Patrick Werr and Alastair Macdonald
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s army chief, seeking to defuse street protests that have left 37 dead, promised a swifter handover to civilian rule but failed to convince thousands of hardcore demonstrators, some of whom battled police through the night.
One man was killed in clashes early on Wednesday in the second city Alexandria, one of several towns that saw unrest.
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who has run the ruling military council since mass protests unseated his long-time ally Hosni Mubarak in February, made a faltering televised address on Tuesday in which he promised a civilian president would be elected in June, about six months sooner than planned.
Confirming Egypt’s first free parliamentary election in decades will start on Monday, the council also accepted the resignation of the civilian prime minister and his cabinet, who had incensed democrats with a short-lived proposal that the army remain beyond civilian control under any new constitution.
But Tantawi angered many of the youthful demonstrators on Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other cities by suggesting a referendum on whether military rule should end earlier – a move many saw as a ploy to appeal to the many Egyptians who fear further upheaval and to divide those from the young activists.
“Leave! Leave!†came the chants in Cairo and, in an echo of February’s chorus: “The people want to topple the marshal.â€
Long into the night, while small groups on the fringes skirmished with police in clouds of teargas, those occupying the main square sang: “He must go! We won’t go!â€
It is a battle of wills whose outcome is hard to predict.
PROTESTERS DIG IN
The field marshal, hanged in effigy on Tahrir Square in a visual echo of Mubarak’s final days, seems intent on preserving the armed forces’ vast business interests built up over six decades of effective military rule. But there was no renewal of earlier heavy-handed efforts to clear the area.
Parliamentary elections will start this coming Monday – a plan confirmed at a meeting between the army and politicians – but they will take till January to complete. It is not clear how a referendum on military rule might be organized, nor what alternative might be proposed until June’s presidential vote.
Tantawi, 76 and defense minister under Mubarak for two decades, appeared hesitant, speaking in field uniform, as he told the 80 million Egyptians his army did not want power:
“The army is ready to go back to barracks immediately if the people wish that through a popular referendum, if need be.â€
Tens of thousands packed Tahrir, the seat of the revolution which ended Mubarak’s 30-year rule, from Tuesday afternoon and, though most drifted away, thousands remained camped through the night into Wednesday, while, in tense side-streets skirmishes, diehards pelted police who hit back with batons and teargas.
In Alexandria, a 38-year-old protester was killed. A Health Ministry official said the man was shot in the head during a confrontation outside a state security building.
Police have denied using live ammunition but most of the 36 dead in the preceding five days of protest have had bullet wounds, medics say. And demonstrators have shown off cartridge casings they say come from weapons used by the authorities.
“We will stay here until the field marshal leaves and a transitional council from the people takes over,†said Abdullah Galal, 28, a computer sales manager, as people set up tents across the sprawling Tahrir traffic interchange which has become the abiding symbol of this year’s “Arab Spring†revolts.
A stream of motorbikes and ambulances ferried away the injured from the skirmishing on the outskirts of the protest, while at the center of the square a mood of quiet occupation set in as blankets were brought out and small bonfires lit.
REFERENDUM SCEPTICISM
Many of the protesters saw the suggestion of a referendum, vague in its content, as a ploy to split the nation:
“He is trying to say that, despite all these people in Tahrir, they don’t represent the public,†said 32-year-old Rasha, one of dozens huddled around a radio in the nearby Cafe Riche, a venerable Cairo landmark. “He wants to pull the rug from under them and take it to a public referendum.â€
A military source said Tantawi’s referendum offer would come into play “if the people reject the field marshal’s speech,†but did not explain how the popular mood would be assessed.
Tantawi may calculate that most Egyptians, unsettled by dizzying change, do not share the young protesters’ appetite for breaking from the army’s familiar embrace just yet.
For many Egyptians, trapped in a daily battle to feed themselves and their families, the political demands of some of those they view as young idealists are hard to fathom:
“I have lost track of what the demands are,†said Mohamed Sayed, 32, a store clerk in central Cairo as the capital went about its normal business before the start of what protesters had hoped might be a “million man march†on Tuesday.
“If you talk to the people in Tahrir, they have no clue,†added Sayed. “I don’t know where the country is headed. I’m worried about my life.â€
On the square, however, demonstrators believed the army’s reluctance to cede power could see an escalation, as activists tried to complete what some call an “unfinished revolutionâ€:
“All they are doing now is forcing people to escalate,†said Mohamed, 23, a financial analyst. “They are leaving. There is no question about that.
“This opens the door for instability.â€
UNCERTAIN OPTIONS
When it was clear Mubarak had lost his potency, it was his former colleagues in the army who delivered the coup de grace. If it were now to be the turn of those generals themselves to have lost the legitimacy they won by easing Mubarak out with little loss of life, it is unclear who might replace them.
Some have raised the possibility of more junior officers ousting their superiors, though so far the ranks seem solid.
Using a computer analogy, protester Abdullah Galal said: “There are many viruses in the system. It needs to be cleaned out entirely. We want to delete, reformat and reinstall … We need to change the regime like they did in Tunisia and Libya.â€
While the scale of protests is far short of the mass street action that ousted Mubarak, there is unrest in other cities.
In Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, protesters waved shoes in a sign of disrespect. In five days of protests in various cities, at least 1,250 people have been injured in addition to the 37 killed – a figure that includes Wednesday’s death.
The United States, which gives Egypt’s military $1.3 billion a year in aid, called for an end to the “deplorable†violence in Egypt and said elections there must go forward.
“We are deeply concerned about the violence. The violence is deplorable. We call on all sides to exercise restraint,†White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The unrest has knocked Egypt’s markets. The benchmark share index has fallen 11 percent since Thursday, hitting its lowest level since March 2009. The Egyptian pound fell to its weakest against the dollar since January 2005.
Political uncertainty has gripped Egypt since Mubarak’s fall, while sectarian clashes, labor unrest, gas pipeline sabotage and a gaping absence of tourists have paralyzed the economy and prompted a widespread yearning for stability.
(Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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Interfaith Statement: “Don’t Cut Programs that Will Cost Lives, Harm America”
Nation’s faithful down to the wire with Super Committee, Congress:
By Church World Service
Washington, November 21, 2011 — While members of the Congressional Super Committee all but acknowledged their failure to reach an agreement on the federal budget, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches and representatives of Church World Service joined with people of faith in cities across the United States on Sunday to warn that cuts to programs for the most at risk families and children in the United States and abroad would cost lives and harm America.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC general secretary, said NCC member communions agree on one message for U.S. political leaders: “Do not try to solve America’s budget problems by taking away from those who have least to give.
“That’s why we are part of the Faithful Budget Campaign, and why we are taking part in Sunday’s interfaith Super Vigil, asking God to move the hearts of policy makers in order that fairness and compassion will guide their decisions,†Kinnamon said.
As part of a nationwide Super Vigil, people of diverse faith communities united in prayer at public rallies in cities across the country. At a rally in Washington across the street from the White House, the crowd heard national leaders representing Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths speak to the moral imperative to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Church World Service (CWS) Advocacy Director Martin Shupack was among the Washington faith leaders calling on members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to not reduce the deficit by placing an undue burden on the poor while shielding the wealthiest from additional sacrifice.
Shupack, one of four faith leaders who led the rally in a Litany for a Faithful National Budget, said, “We live in a world that is intensely interconnected. Loving our neighbors requires that we promote the global common good. Yet, programs may be severely cut that respond to HIV and AIDS, extreme poverty, food insecurity, overwhelming debt, violence against women, natural disasters and other urgent needs.†The rally group responded, praying “for a just and compassionate budget†for those “who live on the margins of our world.â€
“Members of Congress are listening to the top 1 percent of Americans who take home 25 percent of all household income. They’re listening to Wall Street bankers and the Tea Party, bankrolled by billionaires, who want their tax cuts,†Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, told the ralliers. “Like Old Testament prophets, we stand here today to say that any political leader or system that pursues profits and power at the expense of the common good stands under divine judgment.
“God will not be mocked. Greed will not go unpunished. Justice for the common man is our cry,†he said. “Let’s fund not tax cuts for the wealthy but our nation’s future competitiveness. That means funding programs that build skills and productivity.â€
Rabbi Jack Moline, Director of Public Policy, The Rabbinical Assembly, told ralliers and Congress, “When the Torah tells us that the poor will never cease from the land, we are not to read those words as an excuse for neglect.â€
Rev. Jennifer Butler, executive director of Faith in Public Life, told the assembly, “As a pastor I cannot stand idly by as more and more families struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. And I cannot remain silent as misguided politicians push an immoral agenda that punishes these people to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.â€
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, national director for Interfaith and Community Alliances, Islamic Society of North America, said, “The federal budget reflects the moral conscience of the American people and so it must reflect our moral commitment to protect those who are poor and vulnerable here in America and around the world.â€
Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, Director of Public Witness for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) said, “We are witnessing through the Faithful Budget Campaign growing numbers of persons of faith who declare that our Creator has something to say about political leaders using people in poverty as political pawns in their fight over the federal budget. . . . God’s truth will not be silenced in this federal budget debate.â€
In addition to the D.C. prayer rally, religious Americans gathered this weekend for prayer demonstrations and other acts of religious activism in Richmond, Va.; Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., Dallas and Midland, Texas, Phoenix, Ariz., Cincinnati, Ohio, Seattle, Wash. and Sarasota, Fla. In Los Angeles, the Sisters of Social Service are celebrating their 85th anniversary as a congregation featuring a Super Vigil as part of their basic mission to respond to the social needs of society.
Following Sunday’s Washington rally, CWS’s Shupack said, “If no acceptable agreement is reached by the Super Committee in the short time before the deadline, Congress will now have an immediate need to vote to continue payroll tax relief and unemployment insurance for the sake of working Americans and the unemployed, and for the sake of an economy that needs this money circulating.
“During the months ahead, Congress will have to make decisions that are going to be fair and just before January 2013 when automatic deep cuts come in,†he said. “Congress will have to find a way to fiscal health by putting people back to work, increasing revenues and instituting only cuts that don’t harm the poor here and abroad.â€
Shupack and the Interfaith leaders presenting at the Washington vigil are among those spearheading a Faithful Budget Campaign in recent months.
In July, the campaign organized high-level meetings with policymakers, a Washington fly-in of top religious leaders, daily prayer vigils near the U.S. Capitol Building and a peaceful demonstration in the Capitol Rotunda just days before Congress passed the debt ceiling compromise that culminated with the arrest of CWS’s Shupack and 10 other faith leaders for refusing to stop praying for the nation’s most vulnerable.
Over the past six weeks, the Faithful Budget Campaign and its network of religious worshipers have flooded congressional offices with telephone calls and letters encouraging them to preserve vital funding for the most vulnerable at home and worldwide.
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My Education Key Fundraiser at Tawheed Center in Farmington
By Adil James, TMO
Sohail Khan of MyEducationKey.com, with many prominent supporters, described his website and performed a fundraiser this past Saturday evening at the Tawheed Center. About 200 people attended the fundraiser. Sohail Khan described the MyEducationKey project, emphasizing its themes of being useful to people everywhere, empowering people world-wide with high quality education–for everyone, everywhere. The website provides all levels of education through video-taped lectures. Interactive education is available from kindergarten through graduate school, including ACT/SAT prep, and professional development. Instruction is provided by excellent professors.
Some of the universities that have already contributed lecture series are MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and more.
In the future, Mr. Khan explained to TMO, there may be degree programs available and possibly accounting, but for now students pursue their educations on the site on an ad hoc basis.
The site is perfect as a supplement for a separate educational system–high school students (including non-Muslims) through testimonials on the site have explained that they use Myeducationkey to cover holes in their understanding of what they have learned in their full time school.
Several of the evening’s speakers spoke of their deep happiness at being able to, in a sense, attend MIT for the purposes of learning a subject. People in their sixties expressed the hope that in fact the site provided a way for them to continue to learn.
The site already has very impressive statistics. 13,500 video lessons have been uploaded to the site. 47,000 lectures have been watched. The site has received 800,000 hits. Students, (university and primary/secondary), in the US, Pakistan, India, and China, have sought knowledge through the site.
Future plans for the site include global outreach, courses of professional development, teachers being able to create their own courses, mobile apps, multiple languages, virtual classrooms, and much much more.
This is a project helpful to all of humanity that was started by Muslim insights and contributions, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Several educators including Dr. Mohammed Syed, Dr. Nasser Ahmed, and Mr. Saleem Khalid spoke of their admiration for the project.
If you are interested in donating, please visit myeducationkey.com.
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Is Mideast Sleepwalking … into a War?
By Aijaz Zaka Syed
YOU may fool some people some of the time, counseled Abraham Lincoln, but not all the people all the time.
The earthy wisdom of the US president credited with uniting America and ending slavery has been repeatedly challenged by his own country.
Seems you can’t just fool all the people all the time, you can get away with murder by lying through your teeth.
What happened in Iraq eight years ago appears all set to repeat itself as the Western powers gang up against Iran. And you thought the world has learned its lessons from the catastrophe of Iraq.
Savaged by the trillion dollar wars being waged by the US and its NATO allies, coupled with the open loot and corruption on the Wall Street, the world economy is battling for its life. Look at the God-awful mess in Europe. Who would have thought a decade ago, or at the time of Western invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the rich European Union and its much-wanted euro would be faced with the calamity they are facing today? Even the “with-us-or-against-us†leader of the free world, who had persuaded himself he was on a divine mission to save Israel from its imagined enemies, seemed to have his share of doubts about the whole circus when he left the White House.
Of course, those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was supposed to have piled up to attack the peace-loving, democratic state of Israel are yet to be found, not to mention the million plus Iraqis who have paid with their lives for the Oedipal insecurities of the most powerful man on the planet.
Yet here we are back once again sleepwalking, eyes wide shut, toward yet another calamitous showdown. It’s déjà vu all over again as the Goebbelsian propaganda machine bombards us with the characteristically disingenuous fiction masquerading as “facts†and “expert opinion†about the clear and present danger the world faces from Iran.
Just as the UN and its numerous experts were used to build the case against Iraq, IAEA’s services are being employed today to corner Tehran. In its latest report, the UN nuclear watchdog suggests Iran may have developed necessary know-how and expertise to build a nuclear weapon after receiving “critical support from foreign scientists.â€
Since when has knowledge become a crime? In doing so, the IAEA has trashed its own findings and numerous reports by its experts presented over the past decade following endless visits to Iran’s nuclear sites, ruling out the possibility Tehran is working on the bomb — a fact corroborated by America’s own intelligence agencies in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate.
The latest IAEA report is based on the “evidence†provided by a Russian scientist, who is supposed to have helped the Iranians in building the detonation system for nuclear weapons, and data found on a stolen laptop! Russia, which has helped Iran with its nuclear power program over the years, has dismissed the claim and IAEA report with utmost contempt. Tehran has, of course, rejected the IAEA report as being stage-managed by the West. Considering the US contributes 26 percent of the IAEA’s annual budget and has many US officials serving in senior positions, the Iranian claim is hardly exaggerated, especially after the Russian “nuclear weapons expert†has turned out to be a specialist in the production of nanodiamonds!
The IAEA, instead of enforcing Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty and confronting big powers on their hoards of nukes, is increasingly acting like a US government outfit. Unlike Israel, North Korea, India and Pakistan, Iran is a signatory to the NPT and has allowed regular international inspections of its nuclear sites.
But we have been here before, haven’t we? In the run up to the Iraq invasion, many such experts were produced out of Uncle Sam’s hat. From the fiction of Iraq sourcing uranium from Niger to Blair’s claim of Saddam being within the 45-minute striking distance of a WMD attack on the UK, the history of colonial deceptions is endless. And thanks to the blessings of Internet, every blatant lie and every piece of the charade that passes for international diplomacy in the run-up to the Iraq 2003 has been preserved for posterity. Just Google and see for yourself. The resemblance with Iran 2011 is uncanny.
The same saga of subterfuge and plotting continues against Iran, notwithstanding the historical irony that it was the US and Israel that had helped Tehran build its nuclear program in 1970s, in an attempt to check the Arabs. Indeed, Israel was supposed to supply Reza Shah Pahlavi with missiles and nuclear warheads. The program was abandoned in haste when the people power threw the Shah out in 1979, forcing him to seek refuge with the very Arabs he loved to hate. His old friends in the West had spurned him, just as they recently abandoned Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali and Qaddafi. The Shah died a broken man in Cairo in 1980, only a year after the Revolution.
What cruel irony of history that today the same Arabs are being hammered into believing that the Islamist Iran, and not Israel and its powerful partisans with a large nuclear arsenal and a long history of aggression, is their worst enemy!
For eight long years, George W. Bush and the fellow crusaders obsessed over Tehran dreaming of doing an Iraq to Iran. Not because the long sanctioned Iran with its archaic weaponry and crippled economy was a threat to world peace but because Israel said so. Indeed, but for the “shock and awe†that the empire faced in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran might have been the third front in America’s war. And the irony of ironies, the man who as a senator voted against the Iraq invasion eight years ago, is now parroting and reading from the same hymn sheet that his predecessor did. The script of the Middle East’s theater of the absurd remains unchanged; only dramatis personae have changed. As Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector who exposed his own government’s game on Iraq, puts it, it’s the same bull…. with a different president!
So as Israel steps up the beating of war drums on Iran with the politicians in the US competing with each other to woo the Zionists, can Obama afford to be left behind? So promising more “effective†sanctions against an already much punished country over the past 33 years, he thunders “all options are on the table,†reminding one of W’s rhetoric. So much for the audacity of hope!
The irony of it all may not be entirely lost on the Nobel laureate president. But with the reelection battle fast approaching and all Republican hopefuls, except Ron Paul and Herman Cain, promising to hit Tehran, how can Obama appear “weak on national security� The rejection of the Palestinian state was part one of the strategy for the Jewish vote and money. An attack on Iran would seal the pact with the devil.
— Aijaz Zaka Syed is a commentator on the Middle East and South Asian affairs. Write him at aijaz.syed@hotmail.com
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Fake Terror Plots, Paid Informants: the Tactics of FBI ‘Entrapment’ Questioned
Critics say bureau is running a sting operation across America, targeting vulnerable people by luring them into fake terror plots
By Paul Harris
David Williams did not have an easy life. He moved to Newburgh, a gritty, impoverished town on the banks of the Hudson an hour or so north of New York, at just 10 years old. For a young, black American boy with a father in jail, trouble was everywhere.
Williams also made bad choices. He ended up going to jail for dealing drugs. When he came out in 2007 he tried to go straight, but money was tight and his brother, Lord, needed cash for a liver transplant. Life is hard in Newburgh if you are poor, have a drug rap and need cash quickly.
His aunt, Alicia McWilliams, was honest about the tough streets her nephew was dealing with. “Newburgh is a hard place,†she said. So it was perhaps no surprise that in May, 2009, David Williams was arrested again and hit with a 25-year jail sentence. But it was not for drugs offences. Or any other common crime. Instead Williams and three other struggling local men beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues were convicted of an Islamic terrorist plot to blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.
Even more shocking was that the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI, and an informant paid to pose as a terrorist mastermind paying big bucks for help in carrying out an attack. For McWilliams, her own government had actually cajoled and paid her beloved nephew into being a terrorist, created a fake plot and then jailed him for it. “I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone,†she told the Guardian.
Lawyers for the so-called Newburgh Four have now launched an appeal that will be held early next year. Advocates hope the case offers the best chance of exposing the issue of FBI “entrapment†in terror cases.
“We have as close to a legal entrapment case as I have ever seen,†said Susanne Brody, who represents another Newburgh defendant, Onta Williams.
Some experts agree. “The target, the motive, the ideology and the plot were all led by the FBI,†said Karen Greenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, who specialises in studying the new FBI tactics.
But the issue is one that stretches far beyond Newburgh. Critics say the FBI is running a sting operation across America, targeting – to a large extent – the Muslim community by luring people into fake terror plots. FBI bureaux send informants to trawl through Muslim communities, hang out in mosques and community centres, and talk of radical Islam in order to identify possible targets sympathetic to such ideals. Or they will respond to the most bizarre of tip-offs, including, in one case, a man who claimed to have seen terror chief Ayman al-Zawahiri living in northern California in the late 1990s.
That tipster was quickly hired as a well-paid informant. If suitable suspects are identified, FBI agents then run a sting, often creating a fake terror plot in which it helps supply weapons and targets. Then, dramatic arrests are made, press conferences held and lengthy convictions secured.
But what is not clear is if many real, actual terrorists are involved.
Another “entrapment†case is on the radar too. The Fort Dix Five – accused of plotting to attack a New Jersey army base – have also appealed against their convictions. That case too involved dubious use of paid informants, an apparent over-reach of evidence and a plot that seemed suggested by the government.
Burim Duka, whose three brothers were jailed for life for their part in the scheme, insists they did not know they were part of a terror plot and were just buying guns for shooting holidays in a deal arranged by a friend. The “friend†was an informant who had persuaded another man of a desire to attack Fort Dix.
Duka is convinced his brothers’ appeal has a good chance. “I am hopeful,†he told the Guardian.
But things may not be that easy. At issue is the word “entrapmentâ€, which has two definitions. There is the common usage, where a citizen might see FBI operations as deliberate traps manipulating unwary people who otherwise were unlikely to become terrorists. Then there is the legal definition of entrapment, where the prosecution merely has to show a subject was predisposed to carry out the actions they later are accused of.
Theoretically, a simple expression, like support for jihad, might suffice, and in post-9/11 America neither judges nor juries tend to be nuanced in terror trials. “Legally, you have to use the word entrapment very carefully. It is a very strict legal term,†said Greenberg.
But in its commonly understood usage, FBI entrapment is a widespread tactic. Within days of the 9/11 terror attacks, FBI director Robert Mueller issued a memo on a new policy of “forward leaning – preventative – prosecutionsâ€.
Central to that is a growing informant network. The FBI is not choosy about the people it uses. Some have criminal records, including attempted murder or drug dealing or fraud. They are often paid six-figure sums, which critics say creates a motivation to entrap targets. Some are motivated by the promise of debts forgiven or immigration violations wiped clean. There has also been a relaxing of rules on what criteria the FBI needs to launch an investigation.
Often they just seem to be “fishing expeditionsâ€. In the Newburgh case, the men involved met FBI informant Shahed Hussain simply because he happened to infiltrate their mosque. In southern California, FBI informant Craig Monteilh trawled mosques posing as a Muslim and tried to act as a magnet for potential radicals.
Monteilh, who bugged scores of people, is a convicted felon with serious drug charges to his name. His operation turned up nothing. But Monteilh’s professed terrorist sympathy so unnerved his Muslim targets that they got a restraining order against him and alerted the FBI, not realising Monteilh was actually working on the bureau’s behalf.
Muslim civil rights groups have warned of a feeling of being hounded and threatened by the FBI, triggering a natural fear of the authorities among people that should be a vital defence against real terror attacks. But FBI tactics could now be putting off many people from reporting tip-offs or suspicious individuals.
“They are making mosques suspicious of anybody. They are putting fear into these communities,†said Greenberg. Civil liberties groups are also concerned, seeing some FBI tactics as using terrorism to justify more power. “We are still seeing an expansion of these tools. It is a terrible prospect,†said Mike German, an expert at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former FBI agent who has worked in counter-terrorism.
German said suspects convicted of plotting terror attacks in some recent FBI cases bore little resemblance to the profile of most terrorist cells. “Most of these suspect terrorists had no access to weapons unless the government provided them. I would say that showed they were not the biggest threat to the US,†German said.
“Most terrorists have links to foreign terrorist groups and have trained in terrorism training camps. Perhaps FBI resources should be spent finding those guys.â€
Also, some of the most serious terrorist attacks carried out in the US since 9/11 have revolved around “lone wolf†actions, not the sort of conspiracy plots the FBI have been striving to combat. The 2010 Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, only came to light after his car bomb failed to go off properly. The Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot dead 13 people on a Texas army base in 2009, was only discovered after he started firing. Both evaded the radar of an FBI expending resources setting up fictional crimes and then prosecuting those involved.
Yet, as advocates for those caught up in “entrapment†cases discover, there is little public or judicial sympathy for them. Even in cases where judges have admitted FBI tactics have raised serious questions, there has been no hesitation in returning guilty verdicts, handing down lengthy sentences and dismissing appeals.
The Liberty City Seven are a case in point. The 2006 case involved an informant, Elie Assaad, with a dubious past (he was once arrested, but not charged, for beating his pregnant wife). Assaad was let loose with another informant on a group of men in Liberty City, a poor, predominantly black, suburb of Miami. The targets were followers of a cult-like group called The Seas of David, led by former Guardian Angel Narseal Batiste.
The group was, perhaps, not even Muslim, as its religious practices involved Bible study and wearing the Star of David. Yet Assaad posed as an Al-Qaida operative, and got members of the group to swear allegiance. Transcripts of the “oath-taking†ceremony are almost farcical. Batiste repeatedly queries the idea and appears bullied into it. In effect, defence lawyers argued, the men were confused, impoverished members of an obscure cult.
Yet targets the group supposedly entertained attacking included the Sears Tower in Chicago, Hollywood movie studios and the Empire State Building. Even zealous prosecutors, painting a picture of dedicated Islamic terrorists, admitted any potential plots were “aspirationalâ€, given the group had no means to carry them out.
Nonetheless, they were charged with seeking to wage war against America, plotting to destroy buildings and supporting terrorism. Five of them got long jail sentences. Assaad, who was recently arrested in Texas for attempting to run over a policeman, was paid $85,000 for his work.
This year the jailed Liberty City men launched an appeal and last week judgment was handed down. They lost, and officially remain Islamic terrorists hell-bent on destroying America. Not that their supporters see it that way.
“Our country is no safer as a result of the prosecution of these seven impoverished young men from Liberty City,†said Batiste’s lawyer, Ana Jhones.
“This prosecution came at great financial cost to our government, and at a terrible emotional cost to these defendants and their families. It is my sincere belief that our country is less safe as a result of the government’s actions in this case.â€
The Guardian (UK)
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Come Visit Israel. Before It’s Gone.
You’re going to have to hurry.
By Bradley Burston
I have a nephew who’s never seen Israel. I have young cousins, and friends and children of friends, who have never been here, but who have long wanted to come visit.
I want them to come soon. Before it’s all gone.
The Israel I want them to see is dying by the day.
It’s the Israel I saw when I myself once came to visit. A place which had a calm but breathtaking belief in a better future. A place that still had a shot at just that. It was this Israel that convinced me to stay.
This is this Israel that this government, and this parliament, has decided, once and for all, to finish off, precept by democratic precept. As they see it, the sooner, the quieter, and the more permanently, the better.
My nephew is going to have to hurry.
I want him to see what’s left of a place of quietly extraordinary people who dreamed of decency and peace, who envisioned making a place in the world where both we and our immediate neighbors could live together: no longer hated, no longer hating.
It was a place where there was an overriding belief that democracy was sacred, that minority rights should be respected more and more, rather than less and ultimately not at all.
This was the place I came to so many years ago, unfamiliar with its rude clamor and its face-slap smells, the directness of its language and its unfamiliar concepts of personal space.
Foreign. It was a place that believed that affordable housing and quality health care and reasonable living costs and reliable employment should be available to the poor as well as the well-off, to the elderly and infirm and the pre-existing condition, to the Arab as well as the Jew.
I want my nephew to know that there was once a place that his great-grandparents, believers in social justice who had been anarchists in Bialystok and became anarchists in Boyle Heights, could take pride in.
I want him to see it before they kill it. Kill it with settlements. Kill it with privatization and Social Darwinism and the lie they call the free market. Shred by shred, what is good is being drained away, voted away, diluted away in secret, or torn away by force.
Every morning we wake to it. Dreading it. Every morning, a new abomination, an obscene policy proposal, a rabbinical outrage, new plans to expel Palestinians from homes in Jerusalem, new plans to drive Bedouin from homes in the Negev, new steps taken to insult the United States, new ways of threatening a free press, new permits to expand settlements, an endless stream of opaquely worded legislative assaults on democracy, from ravenous middle and back-bench politicians on the make.
Last week, as Israel marked the watershed of the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, I was thinking about the place this could have been. The Israel, for example, that was the promise of the Rabin government.
A government that related seriously to the needs of Israeli Arabs. A government that more than doubled the education budget for all Israeli children. A government that fostered construction of thousands of homes for young couples and families within Israel, that invested millions in depressed outlying towns rather than new settlements, that dramatically expanded ties with the Muslim world, and with developing nations.
I want my nephew to meet my heroes, the people who have made it through wars and tragedy and this government and who still believe in that Israel whose future is one of social justice and peace.
I want my nephew to know that most Israelis believe that settlements do little other than ruin their lives, stain their country, and block the way to peace.
I want my nephew to see that people here have let down their guard and have let the people in power run and ruin their lives. When scouts in the Book of Numbers called this a land that eats away at its inhabitants (13:32), they knew what they were talking about.
I want my nephew to meet my heroes, the people who still believe in the Israel that can endure. Not one big ghetto of a doomed settlement, but one modest jewel of a country. People who hope for good, people who see all people as deserving of respect, safety and freedom, are heroes. And, for the time being at least, they’re still here.
13-48
