News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

 Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK
By Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite
(Filed: 19/02/2006)

Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country, a survey reveals today.

The ICM opinion poll also indicates that a fifth have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers who attacked London last July 7, killing 52 people, although 99 per cent thought the bombers were wrong to carry out the atrocity.
    
Muslim woman and Union flag
50pc said interracial relations were worsening

Overall, the findings depict a Muslim community becoming more radical and feeling more alienated from mainstream society, even though 91 per cent still say they feel loyal to Britain.

The results of the poll, conducted for the Sunday Telegraph, came as thousands of Muslims staged a fresh protest in London yesterday against the publication of cartoons of Mohammed. In Libya, at least 10 people died in protests linked to the caricatures.

And in Pakistan, a cleric was reported to have put a $1 million (£575,000) bounty on the head of the Danish cartoonist who drew the original pictures.

Last night, Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP involved with the official task force set up after the July attacks, said the findings were "alarming". He added: "Vast numbers of Muslims feel disengaged and alienated from mainstream British society." Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "This poll confirms the widespread opposition among British Muslims to the so-called war on terror."

The most startling finding is the high level of support for applying sharia law in "predominantly Muslim" areas of Britain.
    
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan: 'Alarming'

Islamic law is used in large parts of the Middle East, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, and is enforced by religious police. Special courts can hand down harsh punishments which can include stoning and amputation.

Forty per cent of the British Muslims surveyed said they backed introducing sharia in parts of Britain, while 41 per cent opposed it. Twenty per cent felt sympathy with the July 7 bombers' motives, and 75 per cent did not. One per cent felt the attacks were "right".

Nearly two thirds thought the video images shown last week of British troops beating Iraqi youths were symptomatic of a wider problem in Iraq. Half did not think the soldiers would be "appropriately punished".

Half of the 500 people surveyed said relations between white Britons and Muslims were getting worse. Only just over half thought the conviction of the cleric Abu Hamza for incitement to murder and race hatred was fair.

Mr Khan, the MP for Tooting, said: "We must redouble our efforts to bring Muslims on board with the mainstream community. For all the efforts made since last July, things do not have appear to have got better."

He agreed with Sir Iqbal that the poll showed Muslims still had a "big gripe" about foreign policy, particularly over the war on terror and Iraq.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "It shows we have a long way to go to win the battle of ideas within some parts of the Muslim community and why it is absolutely vital that we reinforce the voice of moderate Islam wherever possible."

A spokesman for Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said: "It is critically important to ensure that Muslims, and all faiths, feel part of modern British society. Today's survey indicates we still have a long way to go… [but] we are committed to working with all faiths to ensure we achieve that end."

Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK

[Shammu]

U.S. soldier successfully sues al Qaeda suspect

Sunday, February 19, 2006; Posted: 10:02 a.m. EST (15:02 GMT)

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A soldier wounded in Afghanistan and the widow of his slain comrade were awarded a $102.6 million judgment from the estate of a suspected al Qaeda financier.

U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said the lawsuit may be the first filed by an American soldier against terrorists under the Patriot Act.

But Sgt. Layne Morris, of West Jordan, and the family of medic Christopher Speer, could have a difficult time collecting their award, because the assets of the suspected financier are unknown.

Other soldiers have difficulty identifying their attackers, making it difficult to hold individuals responsible.

Morris cited news reports -- including interviews with his attacker's immediate family -- indicating that Omar Khadr, then 15, had wounded him and killed Speer. The ruling, released Friday, cited similar evidence that the boy's father, suspected financier Ahmad Sa'id Khadr, was linked to al Qaeda and trained his son to attack American targets.

Morris and Speer, who served with the 19th Special Forces, were attacked with grenades and automatic weapons in a remote Afghanistan village. Shrapnel severed the optic nerve in Morris' right eye, blinding him.

Soldiers arrested the boy, who is being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The Canadian government has protested the boy's imprisonment, because he is a minor.

In November, the U.S. government charged the boy with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy.

The ruling said the younger Khadr was 4 years old when his family moved from Canada to Pakistan, where his father co-founded a humanitarian relief organization that supported al Qaeda terrorist training camps. The boy returned to Canada in 1994, where he attended school for a year while his father was imprisoned in Pakistan on charges of financing the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, the court said.

The next year the family allegedly traveled throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, meeting al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden. It is believed the father was killed in a firefight in Pakistan.

Attorney Dennis Flynn said the U.S. and Canadian governments have frozen the assets of the elder Khadr.

U.S. soldier successfully sues al Qaeda suspect

[Shammu]

Russia sees U.S. as barrier to WTO
Published February 18, 2006
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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russian Economy Minister German Gref expressed frustration with the United States yesterday over Russia's stalled effort to join the World Trade Organization.
    "Unfortunately, we see that the only country with which we do not have a final agreement is the United States, which has promised [to be] the driving force behind Russia's bid for WTO membership," Mr. Gref told a conference in Moscow.
    He said he still hoped Russia would be able to join the WTO in 2006, "but of course that will depend on the political will of our partner countries."
    Russian officials have long predicted that the talks -- which have stumbled over issues ranging from energy pricing to farm tariffs -- would be over soon.
    But along with violations of intellectual-property rights, access to financial markets remains a key sticking point.
    President Vladimir Putin alarmed financial markets in December when he said the activity of branches of foreign banks working in Russia must be banned, a remark seen by the business community as threatening to foreign operators in Russia.
    Mr. Gref said Russia had difficulty understanding the U.S. side at times and had exhausted its potential for compromises.
    He said Russia particularly did not understand the U.S. position on financial services. "We see this stubborn position not being resolved for now," he said.
    Washington wants Moscow to allow foreign bank branches in Russia, but Moscow says it will only endorse banking subsidiaries to protect its weak and fragmented financial sector.
    Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said this week that Russia would raise the share of foreign ownership of banks to 50 percent of its banking system's aggregate capital, but that Moscow was not ready yet to allow foreign banks to establish local branches.
    Mr. Kudrin said Moscow could make concessions to foreign insurance companies and in particular was ready to discuss access by U.S. insurance firms to this market segment.
    "We have used up our negotiating resources in terms of getting further compromises from industry groups, and our own ministries, in terms of finding compromises to move forward," Mr. Gref said.
    Russia, a major energy producer that has seen its trade weight boom amid soaring world oil prices, is the biggest power still outside the currently 149-member WTO, which acts as a forum for international negotiations and as a trade watchdog.
    Mr. Putin has said it is one of his top economic priorities to bring Russia into the Geneva-based body, a move that would ensure its exports would not face barriers in key markets.
    While appearing to the Russians to be offering a cold shoulder, the United States in a separate development yesterday recognized Ukraine as a market economy.
    It was a step seen as a boost for President Viktor Yushchenko's administration in advance of a parliamentary election next month.
    Mr. Yushchenko, who rose to power after the Orange Revolution, saw market status as a critical stage in his drive to push the ex-Soviet state closer to the West. He said the decision confirmed his administration was on the right course.
    The news on the largely symbolic measure was brought to Ukraine by U.S. Commerce Deputy Secretary David Simpson.
    "I congratulate all Ukrainians for making positive changes and achieving market-economy status," he said in a statement.
    Mr. Yushchenko, who has kept membership of the European Union and NATO his main focus despite a difficult first year in office, said the recognition "will help boost economic ties, expand trade between the countries; in particular it will facilitate access of the Ukrainian goods to the U.S. market."
    Mr. Yushchenko is now battling widespread public disappointment after his first year in power was marred by a serious economic slowdown and constant infighting within the government team.
    His party, Our Ukraine, is running second in opinion polls for the parliamentary election on March 26, behind Regions of Ukraine, led by Viktor Yanukovich, whom Mr. Yushchenko defeated in the presidential election in 2004.

Russia sees U.S. as barrier to WTO

[Shammu]

Iran to pursue atomic research despite Russian plan
Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:19 AM ET167

 By Meg Clothier

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran vowed on Monday to pursue nuclear research even if talks in Moscow lead to agreement on a Russian offer to enrich uranium for Iranian power plants -- a plan aimed at defusing fears Tehran wants atomic bombs.

"If we reach some compromise ... (on the Russian proposal), we continue our cooperation from where we are now. That is, the research department will continue its activity," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news briefing in Brussels.

His remarks poured cold water on Russia's plan, which proposes enriching Iranian uranium on Russian soil to prevent Tehran diverting it for weapons. Iran says it needs atomic power for electricity, not bombs.

Russia hopes its formula can keep Western threats of sanctions against Iran at bay, but the low-key format of the closed-door talks and the tone of officials' comments suggested little prospect of an immediate breakthrough.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin he felt "reserved" about the outcome, but promised Moscow would do all it could to stop the dispute between Iran and the West turning violent.

Russia says it will insist Iran reinstate a moratorium on uranium enrichment before creating a joint venture to supply it with the low-enriched fuel -- which could not be used for bombs.

Mottaki said the Russian plan must satisfy four criteria: who would take part in the project; where enrichment would take place; how long the project would take; and whether the West accepted its right to peaceful nuclear activities.

TALKS WITH EU

The United States and the European Union trio of France, Britain and Germany -- the countries pressing Iran hardest on its nuclear program -- have welcomed the Russian plan.

But privately Western diplomats are skeptical, saying Tehran is keeping the Russian offer on the table to buy time.

Earlier, Mottaki met EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, whose spokeswoman said afterwards the European Union remained keen to find a diplomatic solution.

"We have no wish to isolate Iran, we hope Iran will not choose to isolate itself," the spokeswoman said, calling on Iran to return to a suspension of uranium enrichment.

Mottaki said Europe needed to meet it halfway: "I unfortunately have to say we can't recognize that our European friends accept sincerely the right of Iran to have nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."

And the leader of Iran's delegation to the Moscow talks made clear he was not ready to give ground.

"We will not step back one inch from our obvious right (to nuclear technology)," Ali Hosseinitash, a deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by Iranian television as saying before the meeting in Moscow began.

Mottaki said it was wrong for the West to use the U.N. Security Council to promote punitive measures against Iran.

"We believe the time of threats is over. The Security Council should not be considered as a tool in the hands of some countries," he said.

The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency this month reported Iran to the council, which is awaiting a report from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei on March 6.

The U.N. watchdog sent the dispute to the Security Council after Iran removed IAEA seals on uranium enrichment equipment at its Natanz facility in January after suspending work there for 2-1/2 years while it negotiated with the three EU powers.

Russia has often said it opposes sanctions and says the dispute should be solved via negotiations under the umbrella of the IAEA. As a permanent member of the Security Council it could veto any U.S. or European-backed resolution seeking sanctions.

Russia does not want to forfeit its close diplomatic and commercial ties with Tehran but neither does it want Iran's hardline leaders to acquire nuclear weapons. Only the Caspian Sea state Azerbaijan separates the two countries.

Europe, smarting from disruptions to its Russian gas supplies, would also like closer energy ties with Iran, which has the second largest gas supplies in the world after Russia. But EU energy chief Andris Piebalgs, visiting Shanghai on Monday, said the nuclear row had to be solved first.

If Monday's talks end inconclusively, Russian officials are pinning hopes on a visit to Iran later this week by Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom, Russia's nuclear agency, to produce progress.

Iran to pursue atomic research despite Russian plan

[Shammu]

Iran wants 20 nuclear power plants

BAGHDAD, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- An Iranian official said that country plans to construct 20 nuclear power plants.

The Fars News Agency reported Mohammad Hosein Farhangi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, said the next Iranian state budget bill orders regulation of the plan, study and construction of the 20 plants.

Farhangi made the announcement at a convention of "resistance units" commanders, the agency said.

"The country needs this technology and energy in various fields, including the medical and agricultural industries as well as for the accomplishment of many other projects," the official said.

However, he said, "the West intends to impede the Islamic Iran in particular, and the world of Islam in general, from making scientific progress and development so that it could continue with its arrogant superiority over the nations and governments."

Farhangi said Iran does not need nuclear weapons, "since possession of the weapons of mass destruction is basically considered something irrational in Islam."

Iran wants 20 nuclear power plants

[Shammu]

'Signs of Life' Heard in Buried School

By OLIVER TEVES, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

GUINSAUGON, Philippines - High-tech gear detected "signs of life" Monday at the site of an elementary school buried under mud that swept down a hillside soaked by rain in the eastern Philippines, the provincial governor said.

Sounds of scratching and a rhythmic tapping were picked up by seismic sensors and sound-detection gear brought in by U.S. and Malaysian forces, said South Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias. Generator-powered lights were set up to allow teams of rescue workers to dig through the sludge during the night.

"To me, that's more than enough reason to smile and be happy," Lerias said. "The adrenaline is high ... now that we have seen increasing signs of life."

The search for survivors in the farming village of Guinsaugon had focused on the school because of unconfirmed reports that some of the 250-300 children and teachers believed trapped inside may have sent cell phone text messages to relatives soon after Friday's disaster.

No survivors had been found by Monday night, said U.S. Marine Capt. Burrell Parmer, who spoke to Marines at the site. Most of the 1,800 villagers were feared buried under the earth, boulders and trees that thundered down a rain-drenched mountain. A few survivors were pulled out in the first hours after the disaster.

Rescuers said the noises might have come from shifting and settling mud covering the school. But the discovery offered a glimmer of hope to rescuers who had all but abandoned expectations of finding anyone alive.

"We know there's something down there," said U.S. Marine Lt. Richard Neikirk, pointing to a spot under a big boulder, where seismic sensors detected sounds. "The farther down we went, the signals grew stronger."

A Malaysian team using sound-detection gear picked up noises, too.

"We have a sound," said Sahar Yunos of the Malaysia Disaster and Rescue Team. "Knocking, something like that."

Workers were digging in two places. One — where the sounds were heard — is believed to be the original site of the school, close to the mountain that collapsed. The other is 200 yards down the hill, where the landslide could have carried the building.

There was no visible sign of the school, believed to be under some 115 feet of muck. Philippine Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio said teams had dug about half way down.

Dozens of U.S. Marines and Philippine soldiers, along with local miners, were digging in a watery spot, using shovels on the muck and moving it with body bags, while draining the murky fluid with large water bottles.

They deployed nine seismic sensors that can detect vibrations underground. With everyone standing still, one man used a steel bar to hit on a rock several times and waited for any kind of response from beneath the mud.

Four sensors detected some noise or vibration, but the men could not tell what it was. Rescuers radioed for water pumps and floodlights to keep working through the night.

A 15-man Malaysian team using sensor gear called Delsar employed similar techniques. Five Taiwanese, who brought heat-sensing equipment, were also checking for signs of life. A sniffer dog stopped three times at one spot near the digging.

In new international pledges of aid, South Korea said it would send $1 million, and New Zealand promised to give $133,000. Australia offered engineers to help assess the damage.

Rescuers have pulled out 76 bodies, but estimates varied on the number of survivors and people missing. Lerias said Monday that 928 were missing. National disaster officials in Manila said the number of missing was 1,350, including 246 schoolchildren. Official have reported between 20 to 57 survivors. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies.

The search has been a painstaking process slowed by rain, shifting earth and fears of fresh landslides. Officials discussed turning the farming town of Guinsaugon into a massive cemetery, similar to other Asian areas ravaged by the 2004 tsunami.

Trapped survivors of past landslides or earthquakes have sometimes held out for days, communicating with search parties by calling out or tapping on rocks.

But hopes of finding people alive in Guinsaugon have seemed remote because the village was inundated by a dense wall of mud and rock, making it unlikely that many air pockets would form beneath the sodden surface.

Spain's canine association sent three dogs to join those already at the scene.

With no one left to claim the dead and bodies quickly starting to decompose in the tropical heat, victims were being buried in mass graves.

On Sunday, a Roman Catholic priest sprinkled holy water on 30 bodies laying side by side in a mass grave, some wrapped in bags, others in cheap wooden coffins, then said a prayer through a mask worn to filter out the stench.

The only witnesses were local health officials, the provincial governor, some of her staff and a few nearby residents. None knew the victims.

Two shiploads of U.S. Marines, diverted from joint military exercises elsewhere in the Philippines, joined rescue efforts Sunday. Helicopters ferried men and supplies to the site, and Marines surveyed roads and bridges to see if they could support the weight of heavy military vehicles and equipment.

'Signs of Life' Heard in Buried School

[Shammu]

Iranian Urges End to Violence Over Drawings

By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 59 minutes ago

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Iran's foreign minister called Monday for an end to violent protests over the Prophet Muhammad caricatures that have left at least 45 people dead in the Muslim world during the past month.

Pope Benedict XVI also tried to soothe the tensions, saying religious symbols must be respected but violence can never be justified. Malaysia's prime minister warned that mistrust and fear of Islam is growing every day in the West.

In Afghanistan, where 11 people were killed in three days of prophet protests earlier this month, about 2,000 students protested Monday, shouting "Long live Osama!," burning Danish and American flags and photos of
President Bush.

In Indonesia, about 100 protesters shouting "God is Great!" burned a Danish flag in Java province, a day after protesters attacked the American Embassy in the capital, Jakarta.

"We should try to cool down the situation. We do not support any violence," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a visit to Brussels.

But he also cautioned that freedom of expression must be exercised with sensitivity and full respect of other people's values and beliefs.

"We are facing ... angry Muslims all around the world. We have to try our best to avoid any violence. This is what we are trying to do in Iran," he said during a news conference at Iran's embassy to the European Union.

"So many of our policemen were attacked by angry people on the streets."

Mottaki said he had contacted European foreign ministers as well as officials from Islamic countries, trying to calm the protests.

The caricatures first printed in a Danish newspaper in September and republished recently in other European papers, offended many Muslims. One depicted the prophet with a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

Demonstrations have turned increasingly violent and claimed at least 45 lives worldwide, including 15 who died in Nigeria on Saturday and 10 killed in the Libyan coastal city of Benghazi on Friday.

The Libyan riot outside the Italian consulate apparently was sparked by a right-wing Italian Cabinet minister who wore a T-shirt bearing one of the prophet caricatures.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller warned extremists would try to exploit the anger over the drawing. He condemned a Pakistani cleric's offer last week of a $1 million bounty for killing one of the cartoonists behind the drawings as "insane" and tantamount to terrorism.

"It's the extremist forces that wish to keep it going," he told reporters in Copenhagen. "There is no doubt that all extremists will exploit the situation. Al-Qaida, too, will use it and fan the fire."

He noted that protests have been tapering off in many Arab countries, while escalating in Pakistan and Turkey.

"When money is put on the cartoonists' heads, then terror is also being used," Moeller said after meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. "It's incitement to murder. Murder is also banned by the Quran."

In Pakistan, radical Islamic leaders called for more prophet drawings protests after the upcoming Friday Muslim prayers and lawmakers disrupted a session of Parliament, protesting sweeping arrests before a banned demonstration over the weekend.

The rallies in Pakistan appear to be taking on more of an anti-government dimension. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is a close ally of the United States.

Iran's foreign minister said European governments were being hypocritical in their respect for freedom of expression, pointing to the example of Holocaust deniers, who he said were being put in jail for expressing their opinions.

"When we are talking about the freedom of expression ... it is very strange to see some European authors, some European members of parties are kicked out from their post or their position because they are making or creating some doubt about some part of some historical happening," Mottaki said.

In predominantly Muslim Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called for a high-level dialogue between Muslims and the West to prevent disputes such as the one over the prophet drawings and offered to host talks.

Abdullah told the Associated Press in an interview the reprinting of the cartoons by some European newspapers in the name of freedom of press was a grave provocation, especially when the Muslim world is gripped with a sense of injustice over the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

"In fact there was already lack of trust, and now what has happened has further (exacerbated it)," he said. "It makes us feel that we are living in a world of fear and that's no good."

Asked whether the drawings controversy indicated that Europe was becoming xenophobic and anti-Islam, Abdullah said: "I fear that this feeling toward Islam is deteriorating today, and that is a very sad thing."

The pope also tried to encourage calm.

"It is necessary and urgent that religions and their symbols are respected, and that believers are not the object of provocations that harm their progress and their religious feelings," Benedict said.

"However, intolerance and violence can never be justified as responses to offenses. One can only deplore the actions of those who profit deliberately from the offense caused to religious feelings to foment violence."

Last week, Benedict expressed support for peaceful demonstrations in the Muslim world against the cartoons.

Iranian Urges End to Violence Over Drawings

My note;  What they started, can they stop? Some how, I don't think so, unless they are ready to run a cartoon, of there own.

[Shammu]

Monday, 20 February 2006, 16:43 GMT
Al-Qaeda 'will use cartoon row'

Al-Qaeda will try to exploit the Muslim uproar over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller has warned.

He also said a $1m (£573,000) offer by a cleric in Pakistan to anyone who killed one of the cartoonists was incitement to murder and "un-Islamic".

The cartoons, first printed in Denmark, have angered Muslims worldwide. At least 44 people have died in protests.

Islamic tradition prohibits any depiction of Allah or the Prophet.

In other developments:

    * The head of Pakistan's six-party Islamic coalition vows to continue street protests and says he is aiming at bringing down President Musharraf's government

    * Pope Benedict XVI says "it is both vital and urgent that religions and their symbols are respected and that believers are not the object of provocations"

    * Iran's foreign minister calls for an end to violent protests over the drawings

    * Russia's newspaper that reprinted the caricatures, Nash Region, is shut down by its owners.

'Fanning the fire'

Mr Moeller told a news conference in Copenhagen it was "the extremist forces that wish to keep... [the situation] going".

"All extremists will exploit the situation. Al-Qaeda, too, will use it and fan the fire," he said.

Mr Moeller also condemned the $1m bounty put on the cartoonist's head by Peshawar cleric Maulana Yousaf Qureshi and his followers on Friday.

"It's murder and murder is also forbidden by the Koran," Mr Moeller said.

"Islam is also a religion of peace, mercy and forgiveness. That is why it is my opinion, but also the opinion of many Muslims, this is un-Islamic," he added.

Mr Qureshi last week defended his move.

"If the West can place a bounty on Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri, we can also announce a reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," he said, referring to the al-Qaeda leader and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Envoy returns

Meanwhile, the Danish cartoonist behind some of the drawings has said he has no regrets.

Kurt Westergaard has gone into hiding since the Pakistani cleric offered a bounty for his death.

Last week, he told Scotland's The Herald newspaper he had not anticipated the controversy sparked by his work.

He said the cartoons were intended as a protest against double standards in Denmark and Western Europe - a reference to perceived taboos in addressing aspects of Islam.

Denmark's ambassador to Pakistan has returned to his home country.

The Danish foreign ministry said it was "practically impossible for him to do his job under the current circumstances".

The Danish embassy in Islamabad was temporarily closed on Friday.

Al-Qaeda 'will use cartoon row'

[Shammu]

U.S. hits Muslim charity in Ohio; suburban tie told
   Advertisement
      
By Jason George
Tribune staff reporter

February 20, 2006

The U.S. Department of Justice raided and the Treasury Department froze the assets Sunday of an Ohio-based Muslim charity whose founder was once an official with a defunct Muslim charity in Bridgeview, the department said.

No charges were filed Sunday against Khaled Smaili, the founder of KindHearts of Toledo, but the charity's assets were frozen pending further investigation into claims that the group gave money to Hamas, an Islamic organization that the U.S. considers a terrorist group, the department said.

In January, Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

"KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the facade of charitable giving," said Stuart Levey, a Treasury undersecretary.

The department said Smaili was a former official of Global Relief Foundation, the Bridgeview-based charity whose assets were frozen in 2001 on suspicion of funneling money to Al Qaeda. The government never proved that claim in court, although Global Relief's founder, Rabih Haddad, was deported to his native Lebanon in 2003 because of a visa violation.

Attempts to reach Smaili were unsuccessful Sunday. Ashraf W. Nubani, a former Global Relief attorney, who said that Smaili never held a substantial post with the Bridgeview organization, criticized Treasury's move.

"To the American public it looks like another terrorist organization has been shut down, but all it really does is hurt most the people that are in need," he said, mentioning a Gaza Strip hospital KindHearts was building.

That $6.3 million project was scheduled to be completed next January, according to the KindHearts Web site.

U.S. hits Muslim charity in Ohio; suburban tie told

[Shammu]

 MUSLIM HACK ATTACK ON WESTERN WEB SITES

By NILES LATHEM Post Correspondent
   
February 20, 2006 -- WASHINGTON — Muslim computer-hacker gangs have launched a massive attack on Danish and Western Web sites as part of the mass protests across the Arab world over the publication of cartoons making fun of the Prophet Mohammed.

The cyber-crime monitoring group Zone-H.org said in a statement that more than 1,000 Danish, Israeli and European sites were defaced or shut down by Islamic hackers in the last week.

And experts fear that's just the beginning of what could be a massive cyber-jihad stretching from the Middle East and Europe to the United States and dominating cyberspace for weeks, costing millions of dollars. "We have definitely seen a spike in the number of attacks. This definitely appears to be the result of the controversy over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons," said Jim Melnick of the cyber-security firm iDefense. "A full-blown e-jihad is a real possibility."

In Denmark, where the cartoon crisis first erupted, more than 578 Web sites have been struck by hackers, Zone-H.org reported. Web targets included Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that published the 12 cartoons, a Danish country-music site, a gambling site and a motorcycle-fan site, experts said.

Most of the attacks are "defacements," in which sites are hacked and sprayed with messages.

The e-graffiti mixes profanity with calls for an Islamic boycott of Danish goods and warnings of suicide bombings.

In a message on a defaced Danish Web site, infamous retired hacker "Darkblood" said he returned to hacking because of the "heinous mistake and dreadful deviation from the path of justice, reverence and equality" brought on by the cartoons' publication.

MUSLIM HACK ATTACK ON WESTERN WEB SITES

Note; I subscribe to this paper, unless you subscribe to the on-line paper you won't see the whole news.

[Shammu]

Scientists at Meeting Rally for Evolution

1 hour, 51 minutes ago

ST. LOUIS - Scientists at a large gathering in St. Louis didn't just defend evolution — they rallied in support of it.

Many at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation's largest gathering of scientists, spoke out over the weekend against what they called religious pressure in public schools. And they enlisted the help of about 300 teachers from across the Midwest who attended the conference to discuss the national debate over evolution.

"We are not rolling over on this," Alan Leshner, chief executive of AAAS and executive publisher of the journal Science, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It's too important to the nation and to the nation's children."

Some teachers told of parents who insist they abandon high school biology texts in favor of biblical creationism or intelligent design — the theory that life is so complex that it must be the work of a supernatural designer. They told of school board pressure in the science classroom.

On Sunday morning, scientists announced the formation of the Alliance for Science, a new organization of scientists, scientific groups and supporters. The goal is to fight what they see as an assault on science from religious conservatives.

The new organization will seek to create graduate fellowships, increase funding for research, train math and science teachers, and build tax incentives for research and development, said co-chairman Paul Forbes.

Earlier last week, a panel outlined tactics that public school teachers and scientists can take, including using the media, educating voters and going to court, if needed.

Critics saw the gathering as a sign of insecurity.

"I don't understand how you can have a discussion of intelligent design if you only invite critics," said John West, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank that supports scholars researching intelligent design. "That sounds like a monologue, not a discussion. I thought this was supposed to be science, not a pep rally."

The Cleveland, Mo.-based Creation Science Association for Mid America believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible as a basis for much of science. President Tom Willis called the scientists "desperate."

"Most would be out of a job if they couldn't sell evolution to children," Willis said.

But at the conference, middle school teacher Liz Petersen of Ladue said that every year a parent steps close, puts a finger to her nose and says she doesn't want her child to learn evolution. Petersen shrugs it off.

The debate has hit public schools across the country. In December, a judge in Dover, Pa., ruled that intelligent design "is not science."

Last year, a federal judge ordered a school system in Georgia to remove from biology textbooks some stickers that called evolution into question.

Dozens of states are debating the issue. Missouri legislators have tried three times since 2003 to change how science is taught in public schools. Each ultimately failed, but another bill has been introduced this year.

Scientists at Meeting Rally for Evolution

My note; How can scientists be so smart, and dumb at the same time...............

[Shammu]

Bird flu likely to burst out again and again: study

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Mon Feb 20, 8:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bird flu is likely to cross over into people again and again if it ever even once acquires the ability to pass from human to human, experts predicted on Monday.

In theory, the virus only has to mutate once, in one person, to spark a pandemic. But the researchers argue that this could happen again and again, in several places around the world.

They said even if the current pandemic killing birds passes, no one should breathe a sign of relief because the threat to people will not be gone.

"At best, a containment policy will only postpone the emergence of a pandemic, 'buying time' to prepare for its effects," Dr. Marc Lipsitch and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health and Dr. Carl Bergstrom from the University of Washington wrote.

This is what officials hope they are doing now by culling birds when new outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza occur. Public health experts agree the world is nowhere near ready to cope with a pandemic, but with a few years' preparations, some countries might be.

"We argue here that if a single introduction of a pandemic-capable strain is expected, multiple introductions should also be expected," Lipsitch's team wrote in the Public Library of Science Medicine, an online medical journal.

"Each containment effort would likely be more difficult than the last as manpower, antiviral stockpiles, and other scarce resources become depleted," they wrote.

H5N1 avian influenza has spread in chickens from Korea, across China, south into Indonesia, west across Turkey into western Europe and into the African continent.

It has killed or forced the culling of more than 200 million birds in 32 countries and Hong Kong. While it does not easily infect people yet, it has sickened 170 people and killed 92, according to the latest
World Health Organization figures.

No one can say if or when it would happen, but if H5N1 acquired the ability to pass easily from human to human, it could spark a pandemic that would kill millions or even tens of million within a few short months.

TEMPORARY CONTAINMENT

Some experts have published theoretical models showing that quick action with antiviral drugs, culling of birds and isolation of cases could quell such a pandemic before it started.

But it would require a lot of luck, noted Lipsitch and colleagues -- not the least identifying those cases right away, before they spread the disease.

Other experts have also noted this and also said there is no reason to believe that the mutations needed to make H5N1 a human disease would occur only once. Lipsitch's team ran some mathematical models based on known disease outbreaks.

Their article, published online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030135, suggests that an H5N1 pandemic could only be contained temporarily. And the longer the virus is around, the harder it will be to stop it from spreading.

"Even if each successive containment effort is no more difficult than its predecessor, the chance of at least one failure increases with the number of introductions," they wrote.

"Since the last pandemic nearly 40 years ago, we have observed dramatic changes in social and ecological factors thought to facilitate emergence of a pandemic-capable strain," the researchers wrote.

"Surging human and bird populations in Asia have increased the frequency of contact between birds and humans -- and these changes might facilitate emergence by permitting 'crossing over' of a mutated avian influenza to humans, or by allowing human and avian influenzas to reassort in the same animal host."

Bird flu likely to burst out again and again: study

[Shammu]

Court Allows Church's Hallucinogenic Tea
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Feb 21, 10:42 AM (ET)

By GINA HOLLAND


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.

Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision.

The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.

New Justice Samuel Alito did not take part in the case, which was argued last fall before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before her retirement. Alito was on the bench for the first time on Tuesday.

Roberts said that the Bush administration had not met its burden under a federal religious freedom law to show that it could ban "the sect's sincere religious practice."

The chief justice had also been skeptical of the government's position in the case last fall, suggesting that the administration was demanding too much, a "zero tolerance approach."

The Bush administration had argued that the drug in the tea not only violates a federal narcotics law, but a treaty in which the United States promised to block the importation of drugs including dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.

"The government did not even submit evidence addressing the international consequences of granting an exemption for the (church)," Roberts wrote.

The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, which could consider more evidence.

Roberts, writing his second opinion since joining the court, said that religious freedom cases can be difficult "but Congress has determined that courts should strike sensible balances."

The case is Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, 04-1084.

Court Allows Church's Hallucinogenic Tea

[Shammu]

500 doctoral scientists skeptical of Darwin
Growing list of signatories challenges claims about support for theory
Posted: February 21, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
More than 500 scientists with doctoral degrees have signed a statement expressing skepticism about Darwin's theory of evolution.

The statement, which includes endorsement by members of the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences, was first published by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute in 2001 to challenge statements about Darwinian evolution made in promoting PBS's "Evolution" series.

The PBS promotion claimed "virtually every scientist in the world believes the theory to be true."

"Darwinists continue to claim that no serious scientists doubt the theory and yet here are 500 scientists who are willing to make public their skepticism about the theory," said John G. West, associate director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture.

The institute is the leading promoter of the theory of Intelligent Design, which has been at the center of challenges in federal court over the teaching of evolution in public school classes. Advocates say it draws on recent discoveries in physics, biochemistry and related disciplines that indicate some features of the natural world are best explained as the product of an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.

West said Darwinist "efforts to use the courts, the media and academic tenure committees to suppress dissent and stifle discussion are in fact fueling even more dissent and inspiring more scientists to ask to be added to the list."

The statement, signed by 514 scientists, reads:

    "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."

West said the Discovery Institute was encouraged to launch a website for the list because of the growing number of scientific dissenters.

"Darwin's theory of evolution is the great white elephant of contemporary thought," said David Berlinski, a signatory and mathematician and philosopher of science with Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. "It is large, almost completely useless, and the object of superstitious awe."

Other prominent signatories include U.S. National Academy of Sciences member Philip Skell, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow Lyle Jensen, evolutionary biologist and textbook author Stanley Salthe; Smithsonian Institution evolutionary biologist and researcher at the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Biotechnology Information Richard von Sternberg, editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum – the oldest still published biology journal in the world – Giuseppe Sermonti and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences embryologist Lev Beloussov.

The list include 154 biologists, 76 chemists and 63 physicists. They hold doctorates in biological sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, computer science and related disciplines.

Many are professors or researchers at major universities and research institutions such as MIT, The Smithsonian, Cambridge University, UCLA, University of California at Berkeley, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University, University of Georgia and University of Washington.

[Shammu]

Three Charged in Plan to Attack U.S. Military in Iraq
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
By Liza Porteus


CLEVELAND — A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted three naturalized U.S. citizens in Ohio for their role in assisting terrorism on U.S. targets overseas, specifically American military personnel and their allies in Iraq.

The indictment, which was unsealed Monday, said the men plotted to kill U.S. and coalition military personnel in Iraq and other countries. On at least two separate occasions, among other charges, at least one of the men verbally threatened to kill or inflict bodily harm on President Bush, the indictment says.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the five-count indictment during a press conference Tuesday.

"These defendants have been living in the United States, where they have been engaging in weapons training and seeking help in order to kill people abroad, including our troops," Gonzales said.

"Individuals who aid terrorists within our borders threaten the safety of all Americans," he continued. "We are committed to protecting Americans, here and overseas, particularly the brave men and women of the U.S. armed forces who are serving our country and striving valiantly to preserve democracy and the rule of law in Iraq."

The men named in the indictment are: Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, who was a citizen of Jordan and the United States who lived in Toledo until August 2005; Marwan Othman El-Hindi, a 42-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Amman, Jordan who lives in Toledo; and Wassim Mazloum, a 24-year-old legal U.S. resident who operated a car business with his brother in Toledo after entering the United States from Lebanon.

The indictment also notes that a fourth person, referred to as "the trainer," was a U.S. citizen but was not named as a conspirator. One official told FOX News that law enforcement was tipped to the activities of these three men by this informant, who is an ex-U.S. military man who fought overseas and was living in Toledo. He is described as "a respected member of the Muslim community" who came forward and gave information to the authorities.

The Justice Department said "the trainer" was working on behalf of the government and was cooperating from the beginning of the investigation.

The three men were arrested over the weekend and are currently in custody, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bauer in Toledo. They were to be arraigned in federal courts in Cleveland and Toledo on Tuesday afternoon.

"This is classic treason — waging war in the United States," said FOX News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano. "Ohio is Middle America ... it's just not the place you'd expect something like this to be hatched."

The charges outlined in the five-count indictment include: conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure people outside of the United States; conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, distributing information regarding explosives and making threats against the president of the United States. The most serious count that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison if prosecutors prove intent to kill.

Amawi is accused of twice threatening in conversations to kill or injure Bush. He also is charged with distributing information about the making and use of an explosive device.

The indictment accuses Mazloum of offering to use his car dealership as a cover for traveling to and from Iraq so that he could learn how to build small explosives using household materials.

El-Hindi is accused of trying to get "the trainer" to travel with him in November 2004 to the Middle East as part of the suspects' plan to establish a terrorism training center.

Officials told FOX News that the three men went as far as identifying a trip Bush was planning to Toledo and talked about ways of trying to get to him, including ramming his motorcade. But they eventually decided that security was too tight and that they were likely to get caught or killed and not be able to kill the president in the process.

The indictment says that from at least as early as November 2004 until the present, the defendants and others got together in Ohio to hatch a plan to kill people, including U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq. It says the men knowingly provided material support for this terror mission. They even tried to set up a non-profit organization through which to funnel money for their mission.

Amawi traveled to Jordan in October 2003 and returned to the United States in March 2004 after an unsuccessful attempt to enter Iraq and wage jihad, the charges state. He returned to Jordan in August 2005.

But in 2004 and 2005, the suspects recruited others to train for a violent holy war against the United States and its allies in Iraq, the indictment said. The group traveled together to a shooting range to practice shooting guns and studied how to make explosives, the indictment said. Around Jan. 27, 2005, Amawi communicated by computer with individuals in the Middle East, who told him some of the "brothers" were preparing to enter Iraq, according to the charges.

In 2002, "the trainer" was solicited by El-Hindi to assist in providing security and bodyguard training, and too travel with the suspects to the Middle East for firearms training and to help coordinate jihad training activities. The "trainer" also instructed the men on how to make improvised explosive devices and was asked if he knew how to procure chemical explosives for individuals in the Middle East.

"As we know, one of the greatest dangers to our men and women fighting in Iraq is the IED," Gonzales said.

On or around Feb. 16, 2005, Mazloum, Amawi and El-Hindi debated what the insurgents in Iraq needed most — money, weapons or manpower, and discussed the effectiveness of snipers against U.S. military personnel, the charges state.

Two of the men discussed plans to practice setting off explosives on July 4, 2005, so that the bombs would not be noticed, the indictment says.

"This is not the end, this is the tip of the iceberg. There are many other cells that are being looked at, I can assure you," said former CIA operative Wayne Simmons.

One interesting aspect of the case is that officials seem to have intercepted e-mail communications from the suspects to their jihadist brethren in the Middle East. The indictment shows the nature of the e-mails, including a concern the men needed to use code words to conceal what they were talking about.

One official told FOX News that this investigation used all the tools, including FISA warrants.

"A lot of FISAs," one source said, referring to the warrants obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Law enforcement officials also told FOX News that if it were not for the Patriot Act, authorities would not have been able to bring the charge of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

The issue of warrantless wiretaps has been a controversial one after information regarding such a program being conducted by the National Security Agency was leaked to the New York Times. Since then, a firestorm of criticism has been heaped upon the administration, which argues that the president has the authority to allow warrantless wiretaps in a time of war if it is in the national security interest of the United States.

When asked during the Tuesday press conference whether any of the information obtained to make the case against the three men presented, Gonzales said all law enforcement and legal officials are very concerned about not jeopardizing any investigation or case by using faulty intelligence-gathering means.

"We feel very, very strongly about this case, otherwise, we would not have brought forth the indictment," he added.

Three Charged in Plan to Attack U.S. Military in Iraq