Posts tagged with "terrorism"
Saturday, 5. December 2009, 03:48:53
terrorism
From ninemsn.com comes this disturbing report:
Photographs of toddlers grasping high-powered firearms have emerged online in a reported propaganda stunt by a terrorist organisation.
The set of pictures show a girl in full Muslim dress, aged about two, sucking her fingers while holding an AK-47 assault rifle and have been linked to extremist group the Islamic Jihad Union.
The IJU has been linked to al-Qaeda and has clashed with western forces in Afghanistan.
Pictures like this really make me feel sick to the stomach. This has nothing to do with Islam. I've seen similar abominations from other evil groups including the IRA, the Tamil Tigers and the abominable Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.
What values are these children being taught? Why would you plant in a bundle of life the ambition of death?
What twisted mind comes up with the idea of "Let's have children so we can have even more suicide jihadists?
Just the one- satan.
Saturday, 8. August 2009, 00:23:47
terrorism, politics, Australia, islam
It amazes me that the ABC and other media organisations keep up the myth of generalised terrorism. In the article below, and in a 5 minute AM item broadcast this morning there was not one mention of Islam as the ideology underpinning terrorism and extremism.
We are not worried about radical Buddhists, extremist Anglicans or youthists. It is not extreme capitalist Chinese immigrants or radical suburbanist Korean imports we have to fear.
It is one sub-group of one religion, namely Islam.
That sub-group of that one religious group is spitting in our face, disrespecting our culture and plotting to destroy our nation.
And we are afraid to name them.
Not only does refusing to name Islam as the ideology that fosters and breeds extremism allow these people to hide behind a facade of religious respectability, it also deprives the ethnic communities of the tools they need to fight the extremists.
The Federal Government is considering ways to counter radicalism among young people in Australia.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland is examining community mentoring programs in Victoria and in prisons to find the best ways to stop violent extremism.
He told ABC Radio's AM program the aim is to stop young people joining terrorist organisations.
"These programs involve introducing a role model into their lives, working out what pressures they're confronting, working out what needs to be done to ensure they have every opportunity to succeed, preventing youths becoming vulnerable to extremist teachings, giving them a sense of belonging," he said.
Mr McClelland also says the Federal Government plans to unveil changes to the system for banning terrorist organisations in the coming weeks.
Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab is alleged to have been behind the foiled plot to target a Sydney army base.
"[We will be] specifically identifying the informal criteria that are applied by the security agencies," he said.
"There will also be ideas about a closer engagement of the relevant joint committee on intelligence and security, looking at the role it has in over-viewing these recommendations."
Monday, 9. March 2009, 02:06:55
terrorism, media, islam
Andrew Bolt reports on the latest PC language at Voice of America- how far does appeasement have to go before we find it doesn't work?
And a memo goes out:
The answer just arrived, in the shape of a leaked memo dated March 2 from Jennifer Janin, head of the Urdu service at the Voice of America… Addressed to the Urdu radio, television, and web teams, as well as to the director and program manager of VOA’s South Asia Division, her diktat insists on no connection being drawn from Islam to politics. In gist:
Islamic terrorists: DO NOT USE. Instead use simply: terrorist.
Islamic Fundamentalism/Muslim Fundamentalists: AVOID.
Islamist: NOT NECESSARY.
Muslim Extremists: NOT NECESSARY. Extremist serves well.
Article
Monday, 9. March 2009, 02:04:27
terrorism
Britain's process of negotiating for peace in Northern Ireland has bought a measure of stability, but the terrorsim is breaking out again in the form of the Real IRA. This is particularly worrying with the new U.S. Administration showing its determination to ignore the age-old adage "never negotiate with terrorists."
From Melanie Phillips:
Replacing the sheep
Oh dear. Just when the forces of surrender engagement had steamrollered any opposition to talking to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taleban, Syria, Iran and any other enemy of civilisation they could find to make nice with -- all on the basis that the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’ proved that through talking to terrorists swords would be beaten into ploughshares and lions lie down with lambs -- Northern Ireland terrorism picked up its automatic weapons and started firing again.
Two British soldiers were killed and four other people injured yesterday when masked gunmen opened fire on a group of soldiers outside the Massereene Barracks in Antrim. Tonight, the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack followed hard on the heels of a warning by Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, that the threat against his officers and military personnel was at its highest for almost a decade.
Today, the former Northern Ireland Secretary Lord Mandelson dismissed the attack as the work of a splinter group which would have no effect on the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’. But with Irish terrorism, you never could see the wood for the splinters. The Provisional IRA, after all, had itself originally splintered off from the Official IRA because the PIRA thought the Officials had sold out to the British. Now that Sinn Fein/PIRA is in the government of the province, violent Republicanism has splintered again into several different groupuscules of which the Real IRA is but one, all fuming that the Provos sold out to the British.
The fact is that the ‘peace process’ resulted in a Faustian pact. It is undeniable that the situation in Northern Ireland has been transformed for the better and that its children are now being brought up in a world unknown to their parents -- a world without bombs on the streets. And that is a benefit which cannot be gainsaid or ignored, not least by those who have not experienced a life lived under the terrible shadow of such terror.
But it has come at a high cost. Because the dynamic of the ‘peace process’ is that the process itself becomes all consuming as it must be kept going at all costs. So to keep the men of violence on board, no price is too high and any downside is denied.
Read the rest of the article
here
Friday, 23. January 2009, 23:12:53
Israel, terrorism, Gaza
From Melanie Phillips
Tunnel vision in Gaza
A new mechanism is apparently now in place, agreed between Israel, America and Egypt, to stop Hamas smuggling weapons through the tunnels on the Egyptian border with Gaza. That is one of the reasons Israel gave for stopping the war. Now we read this:
Hamas has seized control of all the smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza and has been moving additional arms into the Strip since Operation Cast Lead ended on Sunday morning...The tunnels in Rafah are usually run by local Palestinian clans, and Hamas's decision to take control is believed to be part of the group's attempts to re-establish its regime in Gaza. Hamas can now decide what is smuggled into the Strip and give priority to weapons and explosives. On Wednesday night, CBS News reported that the US Navy had intercepted an Iranian ship in the Red Sea carrying arms allegedly on their way to Gaza. Israel is concerned that Iran will try to transfer long-range Fajr missiles to Hamas capable of hitting Tel Aviv.
Well, waddya know. I am shocked. Meanwhile, the actual number of Gazans killed during Operation Cast Lead remains opaque. The Hamas claim that 1300+ died of whom only 50 were Hamas and the rest were civilians, including 400+ children. These figures have been largely recycled by the UN and NGOs and disseminated by the western media as true. Israel however has vehemently denied them and says the vast majority of those killed in Gaza were Hamas operatives – and it has their records to prove it. The Jerusalem Post reports:
The IDF privately told Israeli reporters Thursday, by contrast, that only 150 of the 900 fatalities it has checked were civilians and that it was likely that the rest were Hamas combatants. But Israel has presented no formal alternative information.
Well they’d better do so fast because the frenzied blood libels of ‘genocide’ and ‘war crimes’ are putting down deep roots, with human wrongs lawyers sharpening their lawsuits even now for the planned legal pogrom designed to deal a mortal blow to the legitimacy of the State of Israel – outlined in this analysis of the monstrous manipulation of international law to that end that is now under way.
At the Corriere della Serra, reporter Lorenzo Cremonesi has been trying to establish the truth. His article (a somewhat idiosyncratic auto-translation from the Italian can be located on Israelly Cool yesterday) has made waves by claiming the true Gazan fatality figure was not 1300 but 500-600 people, of whom the vast majority were Hamas operatives. He appears to have based this figure on a claim by an anonymous doctor at Gaza’s Shifa hospital, who told him:
‘The deaths could not be more than 500 or 600. Mainly boys between 17 and 23 years recruited from the ranks of Hamas that has literally sent to the massacre... It was strange that the non-governmental organizations, including Western ones, repeated the number without checking, but the truth will come to light in the end. It's like what happened in Jenin in 2002. At the beginning they spoke of 500 dead; afterwards it was clear there were only 54 dead, at least 45 of them who were fighters’.
Israel, as noted above, disputes this anecdotal estimate and says its records show 900 were killed. But the real importance of Cremonesi’s article lies in his revelation that some Gazans at least understand exactly what Hamas has done to them, that it was responsible for the disaster – and that it has manipulated information to produce utterly false claims about the situation.
‘Practically all the buildings highest in Gaza that have been hit by Israeli bombs, as Dogmoush, Andalous, Jawarah, Siussi and many others had on the roof ramps rocket launchers, or points of view of Hamas...’
The hospitals had not been overwhelmed by casualties at all. Moreover, the men of Hamas
‘used ambulances and forced ambulanzieri and nurses to remove their uniforms with symbols of paramedics, so they could be confused and better escape Israeli snipers. This has reduced a lot of the number of beds available in health institutions in Gaza. ‘
And as for Shifa hospital (underneath which, Israel has claimed, the Hamas high command hid out for the duration of the war):
‘Hamas had hidden there the cells and the emergency room for interrogation of prisoners of Fatah...’
Now look here at who is bemoaning the fact that Israel stopped the war too soon:
Israel made a ‘big mistake’ by ending Operation Cast Lead without overthrowing the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah said on Thursday...‘It was a big mistake to end the war this way,’ the official said. "The fact that Hamas is still in power is bad for all.’ The PA leadership had decided to take draconian measures to thwart any attempt by Hamas to stir unrest in the West Bank, the official also said. ‘There's no room for these Hamas thugs in the West Bank,’ he said. ‘We won't allow Hamas to turn the West Bank into another Islamic republic.’
Strange kind of ‘genocide’, eh, when the reputed victims complain that it didn’t go far enough?
Article:
Sunday, 30. November 2008, 02:08:46
terrorism, India, islam
From Melanie Phillips.
The war against civilisation
The atrocities in Mumbai have left reporters and commentators floundering for explanations. Why India? Was this a local terrorist group or al Qaeda? Why single out Americans and Brits if they also targeted Indians in the railway station? Why attack some obscure Jewish organisation? And so on.
They are floundering because they still just don’t get it. The atrocities demonstrated with crystal clarity what the Islamist war is all about – and the western commentariat didn’t understand because it simply refuses to acknowledge, even now, what that war actually is. It does not arise from particular grievances. It is not rooted in ‘despair’ over Palestine. It is not a reaction to the war in Iraq. It is a war waged in the name of Islam against America, Britain, Hindus, Jews and all who refuse to submit to Islamic conquest.
The Mumbai atrocities told us very clearly a number of things.
The Islamists want to murder as many Americans, Brits, Hindus and Jews as possible. That is because they are waging all-out war against civilisation.
They singled out Americans, Brits and Indians in the financial heart of India to break the ever-more important strategic alliance between India and the west.
They went to some lengths in addition to single out a centre for observant Jews. Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were murdered not because of Palestine but simply because they were Jews. That is because hatred of Jews as Jews is fundamental to the Islamists’ hatred of the west – and of Israel.
The Islamists showed a degree of organisation and co-ordination which are more akin to commando raids by an army than acts of terrorism.
They have the capacity not merely to commit mass murder but to cause mortal damage to a country’s economy.
If they can do this in Mumbai, they can do it in London or other British cities; the infrastructure of Islamist terror is more extensively developed in Britain, and the authorities more paralysed in the face of what they have allowed to grow in their midst, than anywhere else in the west.
And yet still the west is scratching its head...
Article
Monday, 24. November 2008, 08:51:01
piracy, terrorism, society, rights
International lawyers should walk the plank Saturday, 22nd November 2008 In the Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick makes the point about the piracy in the Gulf of Aden that I made here back in April and repeated on Question Time this week– that a major reason this menace has got out of hand is the spineless response of Britain and other western nations which have tied up their own hands through international law and ‘human rights’ doctrine. A Wall Street Journal article a few days ago made exactly the same point, noting that the British Foreign Office instructed the British Navy not to apprehend pirates lest they claim that their human rights were harmed, and request and receive asylum in Britain. Glick broadens it out to the wider moral bankruptcy which is bringing western civilisation down: The west’s perverse interpretations of human rights and humanitarian law, which bar it from handling one of the most acute emerging threats to the international economy, is a consequence of the West's abdication of moral and legal sanity in its dealings with international terror. In the 1960s and 1970s, when international terrorism first emerged as a threat to international security, the West adopted international treaties and conventions that tended to treat terrorism as a new form of piracy. Like piracy, terrorism was to be treated as an attack on all nations. Jurisdiction over terrorists was to be universal. Such early views were codified in early documents such as the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft from 1970 that established a principle of universal jurisdiction over aircraft hijackers...
And yet, over the years, states have managed to ignore or invert international laws on terrorism to the point where today terrorists are among the most protected groups of individuals in the world. Due to political sympathy for terrorists, hostility toward their victims, or fear of terrorist reprisals against a state that dares to prosecute terrorists found on its territory, states have managed to avoid not only applying existing laws against terrorists. They have also refrained from updating laws to meet the growing challenges of terrorism. Instead, international institutions and ‘enlightened’ Western states have devoted their time to condemning and threatening to prosecute the few states that have taken action against terrorists....
One of the reasons the international community has failed so abjectly to take reasonable measures to combat terrorism is because international terrorism as presently constituted is the creation of Palestinian Arabs and their Arab brethren. Since the 1960s, and particularly since the mid-1970s, Europe, and to varying degrees the US, have been averse to contending with terrorism because their hostility toward Israel leads them to condone Palestinian Arab terrorism against the Jewish state.
Until and unless the west comes to understand that its insane hatred of Israel – the country that serves as the west’s own forward salient against global terrorism – has been given traction by the international law and ‘human rights’ doctrine to which it so slavishly adheres, it will continue to write its own suicide note.
The Spectator
Thursday, 25. September 2008, 02:28:15
world-view, terrorism, UN
From Melanie Phillips:
The UN hosts death and tyranny; Israel hosts life, peace and rock'n'roll
There cannot be a more graphic demonstration of the UN’s bankruptcy and negation of its own ideals than the events of today. It gave a platform to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who is an enemy of the civilised world, the Prime Minister of a country which has repeatedly declared its intention to wipe out one of the UN’s own member states and is building the nuclear weaponry to enable it to do so, a country which is the subject of Security Council sanctions because it pursues a nuclear weapons programme and supplies weapons to terrorist organizations. It gave him a platform not only to accuse the Jews of playing an ‘underhanded’ role in the crisis in Georgia, and to reiterate his call for the demise of the ‘Zionist regime’ – ie, Israel -- and its replacement by a Palestinian state, but also to accuse the Jews of secretly conspiring to manipulate and dominate the international money markets, a claim which comes straight from the lexicon of Nazi demonology:
The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support. This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.
Classic Jew-hatred straight out of the Nazi lexicon – delivered in the institution which supposedly embodies the protection of freedom against tyranny to which the world committed itself after the Holocaust. Yet here was that body giving a platform to a man who denies that Holocaust and intends to bring about another – and giving him also the opportunity to threaten America that unless it submits to Islam it will be destroyed. And actually applauding him for it.
While America was hosting this obscenity, another man was showing exemplary courage in standing up for sanity and decency. Sir Paul McCartney has arrived in Israel to play there tomorrow in the teeth of threats to his life for doing so (and, dismayingly, threats of disruption by Israeli extremists who seem to think that the way to protest against anti-Israel prejudice in Britain is to target one of its few high-profile and fashionable British friends; is this not also a type of derangement??) The Times reported McCartney saying:
'I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think and I have many friends who support Israel...I've heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and experiencing it for yourself is another,’ he said before his departure. ‘We are planning to have a great time and a great evening with the people of Tel Aviv and we can't wait to get out there and rock.’
While the UN boosts the tyranny and the cult of death, it takes a rock star to affirm life and peace.
Article:
Friday, 29. August 2008, 11:15:50
terrorism, politics, India, Australia
It's amazing- the AFP have finally worked out that Haneef, wrongly accused of being a terrorist and then deported in a politically motivated fit-up, is actually innocent! Most of us worked that out last year. From the ABC:
AFP drops case against Haneef
The AFP has declared that the Indian-born doctor Mohamed Haneef is no longer a person of interest.
The Gold Coast-based doctor was charged over a terrorism plot in the UK but the case against him later collapsed.
In a statement, the AFP says there is insufficient evidence to charge Dr Haneef with any criminal offence.
The AFP says it has concluded its active inquiries, but that some overseas inquiries are yet to be resolved.
But Dr Haneef's lawyer, Peter Russo, says he is highly sceptical about the AFP statement.
"It is hard to know with the AFP; they don't deal with things with a straight bat," he said.
"So only time will tell, but it would be comforting for him to know that the AFP no longer regard him as a suspect in any wrongdoing in Australia or elsewhere."
Mr Russo says he does not trust the AFP, saying it has taken the police far too long to declare Dr Haneef no longer a suspect.
"This announcement should have been made way back when the DPP discontinued the charges," he said.
"It would be interesting to know why it has taken them so long and what has motivated them to make the announcement today."
Tuesday, 24. July 2007, 09:51:51
terrorism
I love these guys- "Guerrilla Gardening". I love the fact that they get mistaken for terrorists in their evil plans to transform dreary city locations. 
The Guerrilla Gardening Homepage
Monday, 23. July 2007, 02:54:27
terrorism, society, freedom
From the ABC today:
Yesterday Mr Beattie said the AFP's handling of the case had been reminiscent of the "Keystone Cops". His comments today came as The Australian newspaper reported that AFP officers wrote the names of terrorism suspects in Haneef's personal diary after he was taken in for questioning in Brisbane.The paper said police then asked Haneef if he had written the names, before admitting their mistake.
Govt hiding behind anti-terrorism cloak: Beattie - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
This just gets worse. It's clear that the AFP are trying to frame this guy, for reasons I don't understand.
It is a very frightening situation and our politicians need to get their heads around this. Australians do not want a corrupt police state, even in the process of fighting terrorism Blogged with Flock
Thursday, 19. July 2007, 23:40:04
terrorism, society
New revelations today on the awful abuse of power happening in respect of Dr Haneef who has been charged and, it seems, found guilty (by members of the Government at least) of helping the Glasgow terrorists.
The infamous SIM card which he "recklessly" supplied to a member of a "terrorist organisation" was supposedly found in the Jeep which had been driven into the airport terminal. The prosecutor had told the magistrate in the bail hearing that this card was in the vehicle, in possession of the man who committed the atrocity.
In fact, the card was in the possession of another man, the cousin of Dr Haneef who has just been released WITHOUT CHARGE.
So the crime now is that Dr Haneef recklessly supplied this card to his cousin who had no direct connection with the incident.
We live in a country where Government ministers leak so-called classified information to the media to influence a case before the courts.
We live in a country where Government ministers attack the personality and integrity of lawyers who represent those who defend people they have determined are supporting terrorism.
we live in a country where those who uphold the rule of law themselves lie in court.
We live in a country where administrative procedures are abused to keep in custody a man whom the legal process has said should be free.
Have a good weekend
Monday, 16. July 2007, 23:49:56
society, terrorism
The crazy processes at work in our latest terrorism threat Dr Mohomad Haneef is a warning of the ways in which our freedom and rights are being eroded, in the name of the "war" on terror.
Dr Haneef was first detained for nearly two weeks simply because he was related to one of the perpetrators of the London and Glasgow bombings.
After rendering his house unfit for habitation, and finding that the magistrate was starting to get impatient with the lack of evidence being presented, the police finally charged him with "recklessly supplying a phone SIM card to a terrorist organisation."
When the magistrate ordered him released on bail, the Immigration Minister immediately revoked his visa and announced he would be locked up again in Immigration Detention.
Let's deconstruct the charges and the process.
1. "Recklessly supplying a SIM card." A phone SIM card is not a dangerous, deadly or even valuable item. He gave the card to his cousin a year ago to use up unused calls. If the terrorists had not received this card from Dr Haneef they could have got one from almost any shop in the UK. When you give a small, disposable gift to a friend or relative do you stop to ask if they could use it in a violent way? Why have the police not charged the retailer of the SIM card for being equally reckless? Remember the Cronulla riots and the unprecedented use of SMS to organise the attacks on both sides? Where were the "reckless use of SIM cards" charges then?
2. "A terrorist organisation." This phrase hardly describes the ham-fisted attempts at jihad by these men. Al-Quaeda have distanced themselves from the group because it was so singularly unsuccessful! The UK police have NOT charged the perpetrators of belonging to a terrorist organisation, so clearly there is no organisation.
What has happened is Dr Haneef has been found guilty of being related to some bad people- guilty by association.
What particularly concerns me is that having had the their case thrown out of court the government then uses an administrative ruse to further detain Dr Haneef. They keep hinting at information that can't be released to the public as justification for their actions. Yet a magistrate has seen the best case the police can put up and has considered it inadequate. Haneef's lawers believe that when the visa decision is reviewed by an independent tribunal it has a good chance of being overturned.
It is obvious to me that the Government is seizing this case as an opportunity to bolster its claim to be tough on terrorists in an election year, when it is facing a very difficult battle to be re-elected.
We live in a society that traditionally values individual freedom. It used to be said that it was more important to risk one guilty person go free than to risk that innocent people be locked up.
But that high value on freedom is being whittled away year by year. As politicians increasingly take away the rights we take for granted- open trials, presumption of innocence, due process- we will see more and more people being locked up for no good reason.
If that's the way we are going we might as well let the jihadists win- what they are demanding seems no worse than what the politicians are delivering in the name of "freedom."
Saturday, 31. March 2007, 01:58:32
terrorism, politics
David Hicks has finally confessed to being a terrorist... well sort of.
He's done a deal with the US Government which sees an end to his incarceration in return for him staying quiet about his experiences in Guantanamo. He has also said that he did not engage in any terrorist actions and wanted to be a soldier in a war.
It seems he has renounced his conversion to Islam.
He is probably one screwed up man... but he may have been that to start off with anyway.
The biggest issue that I had with the whole deal was that the US Government itself acted as a terrorist organisation with its "renditions" and its reluctance to go through due legal process.
We could have got to this point 5 years ago if Donald Rumsfeld hadn't been such a fascist in his role as Secretary of Defence.
Hicks and the others should have been dealt with under the existing military or civilian justice systems.
The great superiority of democratic systems is that we have the rule of law, under which everybody, including the government is theoretically subject to the same rules which aim to ensure that guilty people are punished and the innocent go free.
David Hicks should have been tried within 12 months under the existing justice systems, and found either guilty or not guilty. Who knows the idea might have caught on in the countries currently serving as breeding grounds for terrorism. Wouldn't it have been cool if the US, the great defender of "freedom" had actually shown its enemies and their supporters what "freedom" really means in practice?
Maybe the idea might have seemed so attractive that a few al-Qaeda supporters might have switched their allegiance. Maybe a few of the less dictatorial states in the Middle east might have decided that democracy really is an ideal worth fighting for.
And if John Howard and Philip Ruddock had also shown the same respect for human rights and the rule of law, they might have become legends in Australian politics.
Saturday, 3. February 2007, 06:42:18
faith, world-view, salvation, terrorism
...
From Signposts.org.au
Irony?
I don’t know whether this is irony or what. A church puts a sign in front of its building saying “Jesus loves Osama”, and prompts pretty universal condemnation. The PM says that people will think that the priorities of the church in question should be elsewhere. Philip Jensen suggests that the sentiment, posted along with the verse “Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you”, is “misleading”.
What a fabulous illustration of how confonting the message of Jesus is. Nobody denies Jesus said it, but everyone wants to qualify the sentiment and distance themselves from the presentation of the sign. It attracts comment from denominational and governmental leaders. John Howard suggests that churches have MISDIRECTED PRIORITIES for daring to suggest that Jesus loves our enemies.
It’s straight from the sermon on the mount for crying out loud!!!
I guess the lesson is that you can mention this, but you aren’t allowed to flesh it out with any of those confronting real life examples.
Via Matt
Friday, 19. January 2007, 08:03:13
terrorism
The new procedures and rules for the trials of the Guantanamo Bay inmates are clearly there to deny their rights to natural justice.
The new rules will allow hearsay evidence and confessions gained under coercion. Under most "normal" justice systems, including both the civilian and military justice systems in the United States, exclude both these types of evidence because they are considered unreliable.
Under the new rules prosecutors will have access to classified information but the defence won't. But a fair trial requires that both sides have access to all the available information.
It is a crazy situation that the US which prides itself on defending freedom is denying the very freedoms that the rule of law is meant to guarantee to everyone.
I have a theory that this is just a ploy by the Government to prolong the detention by Guantanamo inmates. It seems very obvious to me that they are expecting the defendants to again appeal to the Supreme Court against the unfairness of the system. This will take over a year to hear and then another year to come up with another unfair set of rules which will again go to the Supreme Court. They will be able to hold these people in an indefinite detention regime while all the time claiming to be upholding the rule of law.
I'm not an apologist for terrorism. But the way to win the so-called "war on terror" is through justice and honesty not through cynical manipulation.
Monday, 18. September 2006, 07:08:44
islam, terrorism
A blogger in London posted some pictures and thoughts about the very offensive, intimidating demonstration by Muslims outside Westminster Cathedral on Sunday.
http://catholiclondoner.blogspot.com/2006/09/very-rushed-post.htmlDon't these people realise the irony of their threats?
If you haven't been seeing the news lately, the Pope made a comment, quoting a pope from 500 years ago who said that Muslims hadn't brought anything to the world other than violence. Numerous muslim groups have responded by threatening violent attacks against the Pope and against churches-- proving the truth of the quote.
Sunday, 17. September 2006, 07:05:46
humour, islam, terrorism
It appears that the Taliban, the extremely violent, "fundamentalist" group that once ran Afghanistan is offended by the Pope's recent suggestions that Islam promotes violence.
Tim Blair writes in his blog:
Words fail:
Afghanistan Taliban on Saturday demanded Pope Benedict XVI to apologise for remarks linking Islam with violence.
A hard-line cleric linked to Somalia powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to unt down and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam ...
Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim,[Sheikh Abubukar Hassan] Malin, a prominent cleric in the Somali capital, told worshippers at a mosque in southern Mogadishu.
UPDATE. The Sword of Islam wants an apology, too:
We want to make it clear that if the pope does not appear on TV and apologise for his comments, we will blow up all of Gaza churches.
UPDATE II. The, hem, Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalion joins the list of apology-demanders:
This group threatens to kill all Christians in Iraq if the Pope does not apologize in three days in front of the whole world to Mohammed.
UPDATE III. The New York Times:
He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.
It is unclear how many people the Times will kill if their demand isn't met.
Sunday, 10. September 2006, 05:25:57
prophecy, terrorism, world-view
As you might gather from previous posts, I'm not overly excited aobut the response of governments to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Don't get me wrong, I think the attacks then, and since (including Bali, London, Madrid, and all the others) were evil acts, perpetrated by people who were motivated by demonic spirits.
As christians we have to look at things from a spiritual point of view rather than from a natural point of view.
This article from The Elijah List gives some clues to the question of what God was doing on September 11.
Thursday, 31. August 2006, 06:56:55
Australia, terrorism
The United States army can't find Osama, but the Australian Federal Police think a guy from Melbourne might try to contact him if they don't prohibit it in a control order. The Federal magistrate hearing the case thinks it's a joke-- so do I!
Here's an idea. Why don't they lift the control order on Jack Thomas and follow him secretly when he tries to contact Osama bin Laden. They would catch him in no time.
If this guy is such a threat to society, why not just monitor all his phone calls, emails etc, follow him 24 hours a day and round up all the terrorists? You've got to wonder if this thing is just a political beat-up.
Here's the article from the ABC
Lawyers defend linking Thomas to bin Laden
Lawyers for the Australian Federal Police have defended a control order for Victorian man Jack Thomas.
The restrictions, which were put in place after his terrorism-related convictions were overturned, include a ban on Mr Thomas contacting the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.
The Federal Magistrates Court has been hearing whether a control order imposed on Mr Thomas should remain in place.
Today Mr Thomas' Melbourne-based lawyers challenged the control order, via a video link with the court in Canberra.
They say it is unrealistic to ban their client from contacting bin Laden.
Magistrate Graham Mowbray agreed and said that including the Al Qaeda leader's name looked farcical.
But a lawyer for the Federal Police says they cannot safely presume there is no possibility of contact between Mr Thomas and bin Laden.
The magistrate has ordered Mr Thomas be subject to the curfew, and the hearing has been adjourned until mid-September and transferred to Melbourne.
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