Posts by Emiliano

FBI and military intelligence officials in Washington say they were prevented for political reasons from carrying out full investigations into members of the Bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist attacks of September 11.

US intelligence agencies have come under criticism for their wholesale failure to predict the catastrophe at the World Trade Centre. But some are complaining that their hands were tied.

FBI documents shown on BBC Newsnight last night and obtained by the Guardian show that they had earlier sought to investigate two of Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington and a Muslim organisation, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), with which they were linked.

The FBI file, marked Secret and coded 199, which means a case involving national security, records that Abdullah bin Laden, who lived in Washington, had originally had a file opened on him "because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - a suspected terrorist organisation".

WAMY members deny they have been involved with terrorist activities, and WAMY has not been placed on the latest list of terrorist organisations whose assets are being frozen.

Abdullah, who lived with his brother Omar at the time in Falls Church, a town just outside Washington, was the US director of WAMY, whose offices were in a basement nearby.

But the FBI files were closed in 1996 apparently before any conclusions could be reached on either the Bin Laden brothers or the organisation itself. High-placed intelligence sources in Washington told the Guardian this week: "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis".

They said the restrictions became worse after the Bush administration took over this year. The intelligence agencies had been told to "back off" from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.

"There were particular investigations that were effectively killed."

Only after the September 11 attacks was the stance of political and commercial closeness reversed towards the other members of the large Bin Laden clan, who have classed Osama bin Laden as their "black sheep".

Yesterday, the head of the Saudi-based WAMY's London office, Nouredine Miladi, said the charity was totally against Bin Laden's violent methods. "We seek social change through education and cooperation, not force."

He said Abdullah bin Laden had ceased to run WAMY's US operation a year ago.

Neither Abdullah nor Omar bin Laden could be contacted in Saudi Arabia for comment.

WAMY was founded in 1972 in a Saudi effort to prevent the "corrupting" ideas of the west ern world influencing young Muslims. With official backing it grew to embrace 450 youth and student organisations with 34 offices worldwide.

Its aim was to encourage "concerned Muslims to take up the challenge by arming the youth with sound understanding of Islam, guarding them against destructive ideologies, and instilling in them level-headed wisdom".

In Britain it has 20 associated organisations, many highly respectable.

But as long as 10 years ago it was named as a discreet channel for public and private Saudi donations to hardline Islamic organisations. One of the recipients of its largesse has been the militant Students Islamic Movement of India, which has lent support to Pakistani-backed terrorists in Kashmir and seeks to set up an Islamic state in India .

Since September 11 WAMY has been investigated in the US along with a number of other Muslim charities. There have been several grand jury investigations but no findings have been made against any of them.

Current FBI interest in WAMY is shown in their agents' interrogation of a radiologist from San Antonio, Texas, Dr Al Badr al-Hazmi, who was arrested on September 12 and released without charge two weeks later. He had the same surname as two of the plane hijackers.

He was also questioned about his contacts with Abdullah bin Laden at the US WAMY office.

Mr Al-Hazmi said that he had made phone calls to Abdullah bin Laden in 1999 trying to obtain books and videotapes about Islamic teachings for the Islamic Centre of San Antonio.

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

Oh by the way did you know that the scalping thing was something that was first done by the settlers to the indians? But hollywood portays it a diffrent way.

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

crazy

Yes thats the one. Do you know the story?

Terror breeds terror.

In north america the american indians were known to scalp the pale faces. All that hasd an explanation. Its kinda similar

Edited by - Emiliano on 13 January 2003 16:59:29

103

Do We Really Know Who Is Responsible For 9/11?

by SpannerintheWorks in

jw
friends

to this date, it has never been proved who is responsible for the atrocities of the twin towers' destruction.

an absolutely appalling act.

who is responsible?

Emiliano

heathen

the us policy stinks? You think so?

The United States and Middle East:

Why Do "They" Hate Us?

(revised, 12 Dec. 2001)

By Stephen R. Shalom

The list below presents some specific incidents of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The list minimizes the grievances against the United States in the region because it excludes more generalized long‑standing policies, such as U.S. backing for authoritarian regimes (arming Saudi Arabia, training the secret police in Iran under the Shah, providing arms and aid to Turkey as it ruthlessly attacked Kurdish villages, etc.). The list also excludes many actions of Israel in which the United States is indirectly implicated because of its military, diplomatic, and economic backing for Israel.
Whether any of these grievances actually motivated those who organized the horrific and utterly unjustified attacks of September 11 is unknown. But the grievances surely helped to create the environment which breeds anti-American terrorism.

1947-48: U.S. backs Palestine partition plan. Israel established. U.S. declines to press Israel to allow expelled Palestinians to return.

1949: CIA backs military coup deposing elected government of Syria. 1

1953: CIA helps overthrow the democratically‑elected Mossadeq government in Iran (which had nationalized the British oil company) leading to a quarter‑century of repressive and dictatorial rule by the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.

1956: U.S. cuts off promised funding for Aswan Dam in Egypt after Egypt receives Eastern bloc arms.

1956: Israel, Britain, and France invade Egypt. U.S. does not support invasion, but the involvement of its NATO allies severely diminishes Washington's reputation in the region.

1958: U.S. troops land in Lebanon to preserve "stability".

early 1960s: U.S. unsuccessfully attempts assassination of Iraqi leader, Abdul Karim Qassim. 2

1963: U.S. supports coup by Iraqi Ba'ath party (soon to be headed by Saddam Hussein) and reportedly gives them names of communists to murder, which they do with vigor. 3

1967‑: U.S. blocks any effort in the Security Council to enforce SC Resolution 242, calling for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the 1967 war.

1970: Civil war between Jordan and PLO. Israel and U.S. discuss intervening on side of Jordan if Syria backs PLO.

1972: U.S. blocks Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat's efforts to reach a peace agreement with Israel.

1973: Airlifted U.S. military aid enables Israel to turn the tide in war with Syria and Egypt.

1973‑75: U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq. When Iran reaches an agreement with Iraq in 1975 and seals the border, Iraq slaughters Kurds and U.S. denies them refuge. Kissinger secretly explains that "covert action should not be confused with missionary work." 4

1975: U.S. vetoes Security Council resolution condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. 5

1978‑79: Iranians begin demonstrations against the Shah. U.S. tells Shah it supports him "without reservation" and urges him to act forcefully. Until the last minute, U.S. tries to organize military coup to save the Shah, but to no avail. 6

1979‑88: U.S. begins covert aid to Mujahideen in Afghanistan six months before Soviet invasion in Dec. 1979. 7 Over the next decade U.S. provides training and more than $3 billion in arms and aid.

1980‑88: Iran‑Iraq war. When Iraq invades Iran, the U.S. opposes any Security Council action to condemn the invasion. U.S. soon removes Iraq from its list of nations supporting terrorism and allows U.S. arms to be transferred to Iraq. At the same time, U.S. lets Israel provide arms to Iran and in 1985 U.S. provides arms directly (though secretly) to Iran. U.S. provides intelligence information to Iraq. Iraq uses chemical weapons in 1984; U.S. restores diplomatic relations with Iraq. 1987 U.S. sends its navy into the Persian Gulf, taking Iraq's side; an overly‑aggressive U.S. ship shoots down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing 290.

1981, 1986: U.S. holds military maneuvers off the coast of Libya in waters claimed by Libya with the clear purpose of provoking Qaddafi. In 1981, a Libyan plane fires a missile and U.S. shoots down two Libyan planes. In 1986, Libya fires missiles that land far from any target and U.S. attacks Libyan patrol boats, killing 72, and shore installations. When a bomb goes off in a Berlin nightclub, killing three, the U.S. charges that Qaddafi was behind it (possibly true) and conducts major bombing raids in Libya, killing dozens of civilians, including Qaddafi's adopted daughter. 8

1982: U.S. gives "green light" to Israeli invasion of Lebanon, 9 killing some 17 thousand civilians. 10 U.S. chooses not to invoke its laws prohibiting Israeli use of U.S. weapons except in self‑defense. U.S. vetoes several Security Council resolutions condemning the invasion.

1983: U.S. troops sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force; intervene on one side of a civil war, including bombardment by USS New Jersey. Withdraw after suicide bombing of marine barracks.

1984: U.S.‑backed rebels in Afghanistan fire on civilian airliner. 11

1987-92: U.S. arms used by Israel to repress first Palestinian Intifada. U.S. vetoes five Security Council resolution condemning Israeli repression.

1988: Saddam Hussein kills many thousands of his own Kurdish population and uses chemical weapons against them. The U.S. increases its economic ties to Iraq.

1988: U.S. vetoes 3 Security Council resolutions condemning continuing Israeli occupation of and repression in Lebanon.

1990‑91: U.S. rejects any diplomatic settlement of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (for example, rebuffing any attempt to link the two regional occupations, of Kuwait and of Palestine). U.S. leads international coalition in war against Iraq. Civilian infrastructure targeted. 12 To promote "stability" U.S. refuses to aid post‑war uprisings by Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north, denying the rebels access to captured Iraqi weapons and refusing to prohibit Iraqi helicopter flights. 13

1991‑: Devastating economic sanctions are imposed on Iraq. U.S. and Britain block all attempts to lift them. Hundreds of thousands die. Though Security Council had stated that sanctions were to be lifted once Saddam Hussein's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction were ended, Washington makes it known that the sanctions would remain as long as Saddam remains in power. Sanctions in fact strengthen Saddam's position. Asked about the horrendous human consequences of the sanctions, Madeleine Albright (U.S. ambassador to the UN and later Secretary of State) declares that "the price is worth it." 14

1991-: U.S. forces permanently based in Saudi Arabia.

1993‑: U.S. launches missile attack on Iraq, claiming self‑defense against an alleged assassination attempt on former president Bush two months earlier. 15

1998: U.S. and U.K. bomb Iraq over the issue of weapons inspections, even though Security Council is just then meeting to discuss the matter.

1998: U.S. destroys factory producing half of Sudan's pharmaceutical supply, claiming retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and that factory was involved in chemical warfare. Evidence for the chemical warfare charge widely disputed. 16

2000-: Israel uses U.S. arms in attempt to crush Palestinian uprising, killing hundreds of civilians.

Edited by - Emiliano on 13 January 2003 16:31:8

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

Just out of curiosity, how many of you here had ever heard about a place called Timor?

How many knew about the extent of the suffering there?

What about human rights? Do these people have human rights? Freedom, The pursuit of happiness and blah,blah, blah .

Edited by - Emiliano on 13 January 2003 15:52:53

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

"The problem with liberals is that they are dreamers, and dreamers don't understand human nature. I doubt humans will ever come close to reaching the utopia they desire."

The founding fathers in this country were dreamers.

Whats wrong with making the effort to reach? I think what is wrong is not to reach.

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

Here is a little bit more of information for any of you who dont wish to stay ignorant.

Genocide in
East Timor

Made in the USA

By Michael Steinberg

The U.S. role in the recent catalog of horrors in East Timor is deep and far reaching, the culmination of over three decades of nurturing the Indonesian fascist regime. Just as the U.S. mainstream media has attempted to suppress the clear connection between the Indonesian military and its militias in carrying out genocide in East Timor, the U.S. government and its corporate sponsors vigorously deny any role in the slaughter and devastation there.

Fortunately alternative sources of information are still available to those who take the trouble to seek them out.

In Jakarta on September 30, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen declared that the Indonesian military "aided and abetted violence in East Timor."

Cohens belated self-righteous denunciation was a far cry from a visit in 1998, when he spent quality time at the headquarters of the Indonesian armys notorious special forces, Kopassus, in the company of its then commander, General Prabowo Subianto. According to journalist Allan Nairn, who reported this in the April 20, 1998, Nation, Cohen and the general "watched the U.S. trained killers execute maneuvers for their sponsor from Washington" for three hours.

Nairn further reported that "Prabowo is Suhartos son-in-law, the Indonesian business partner (through his wife) of Merrill Lynch, and one of the key sponsors of the U.S.-Indonesian Society, an influential pro-Suharto U.S. front group launched in 1994 and backed by ABRI [the Indonesian military], U.S. corporations, and former Pentagon, State Department and CIA officials."

A 1994 Amnesty International report on Indonesia stated, "Army personnel and members of elite military units, such as the Special Forces Command (Kopassus)...have been responsible for the most grave violations against suspected political opponents." Because of the well-documented record of human rights violations by Kopassus and other elements of the Indonesian military, in the early 1990s the U.S. Congress cut off funding for training of Indonesian military personnel by U.S. forces

But the Pentagon did an end run around this prohibition by quietly pushing through Section 2011 of Title 10 of the U.S. code. This law allowed the Pentagon to send U.S. Special Forces to other countries, not as congressionally forbidden trainers, but ostensibly to be trained by foreign military personnel. This fine distinction was more fiction that fact. In Pentagon doublespeak, even training foreign soldiers under this program was considered a form of training for the U.S. trainers. The program was dubbed Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET).

Indonesia was one of the prime beneficiaries of this program. In his 1998 Nation article, Allan Nairn reported that "at least thirty-six [JCET] exercises" in Indonesia "with fully armed U.S. combat troops ... including Green Berets, Air Force Commandos, and Marines."

Nairn further reported that "By far the main recipient of the U.S. special training has been a force legendary for specializing in torture, disappearances and night raids on civilian homes. Of the twenty-eight Army/Air Force exercises known to have been conducted since 1982, Pentagon documents indicate that twenty have involved the dreaded Kopassus Red Berets."

Nairn wrote that U.S. exercises with Kopassus included Sniper Level II, Demolition and Air Operations, Close Quarters Combat, and Advanced Sniper Techniques.

In July 1998, the Washington Post ran a major series on JCETs. In a lead story in its July 12 edition, the Post confirmed Nairns assertions: "In Indonesia [U.S.] special operations forces have conducted 41 training exercises since 1991.... Most of the exercises involved Indonesias elite Kopassus troops, whom U.S. officials have accused of involvement in kidnaping and torture of anti-government activists."

The Post article also reported an October 1997 exercise in Jakarta conducted by "12 U.S. Army Special Forces troops" for "60 troops from... Kopassus and the Jakarta area military command." The mission: "Find the enemy somewhere in a warren of plywood rooms, blow a hole in the wall and kill or capture as many as possible...," "how to plan and conduct close-quarters combat and other fine points of urban warfare."

"We just showed them how we do it and they adopted what they want," a U.S. participant in such exercises told the Post.

Less than two years later, just exactly how these lessons were adopted exploded into the worlds view in the streets of Dili, East Timors capital in September 1999. Throughout East Timor thousands were murdered, hundreds of thousands made homeless, entire cities burnt to the ground. There is ample evidence that the U.S. government knew this was coming, and that their trained killers would play a leading role.

Largely due to Nairns and then the Posts articles, Congress also prohibited JCETs in late 1998. At the end of October, the East Timor Action Network, another major player in bringing about this change, reported that Indonesian military confidential documents it had obtained revealed a troop buildup in East Timor. This included "one Kopassus company and Kopassus intelligence and headquarters units still in the territory. Indonesia claims that all Special Forces have been withdrawn."

The report also stated that "the documents contradict the claim by Indonesia that paramilitary groups are not under ABRIs command," and quoted an Australian group that released the documents as stating that "these forces are perceived by ABRIs administration to be part of their operational structure."

Following attacks by pro-Indonesia militias in Dili in April 1999, Human Rights Watch put out a report on the connections between the militias and the Indonesian military. The report stated that Eurico Gutteres led Aitarak, the militia responsible for the attacks. The report described Gutteres as "a leading figure in Gardapaksi," a pro-independence youth gang whose "members were reported to receive military training and non-lethal equipment from Kopassus."

The Human Rights Watch report also stated that a letter sent threatening Australian journalists and diplomats in Indonesia "was faxed from a hotel in Jakarta where Gutteres and other militia leaders were meeting with President Habibe."

Another militia in East Timor, Besi Mara Rutih, was said to be responsible for massacring dozens of people in a church in Liquica in April. The report stated that the group "claimed by early February [1999] to have a membership of 2890 and was going on joint patrols with Battalion 143 of the Indonesian army." A week after the church massacre, this militia attacked the convoy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Belo. The Human Rights Watch report stated that "Eyewitness accounts from both attacks indicate that troops from the Liquica district and Maubara sub district commands were present at the time of the militia attacks and far from trying to prevent violence provided active support to their operations."

The report further stated that yet another militia in East Timor, Suka, "is led by Sgt. Jaonico da Costa ofKopassus, and most of its members worked as guards or logistical support for the army."

All Hell Breaks Loose

When all hell broke loose in East Timor in early September following the announcement that 78 percent of voters chose independence from Indonesia, the U.S. media by and large reported this as the reaction of militias gone mad. But there was a method not solely of their own in this madness.

On September 11, Melbourne, Australia, newspaper The Age reported that, before the elections were held, Australian "intelligence services have warned that the Indonesian military was orchestrating a violent campaign to hold on to the territory." The Age reported that Australian intelligence had intercepted mobile and satellite phone communications between militia and military leaders and "intercepted damning conversations."

In addition, the newspaper reported that "In July leaked Indonesian Government documents predicted a win for independence supporters "in East Timor," outlined a scorched-earth plan," and "said Jakarta should put the army on alert and consider increasing its support for the militia groups."

The Australian government learned of these documents too, and passed on all this information to the UNand presumably to the U.S. as well. But despite this, the UN decided to believe the Indonesian governments promises of controlling violence in East Timor. A few examples of the horror that followed should suffice to demonstrate the terror unleashed by the U.S. trained and armed Indonesian forces. All are from reports by The Age. The Melbourne newspaper reported on September 17 the eyewitness testimony of Joao Brito, 15, of Ermera in East Timor: "He told of events on 3 September, the day the result of the 30 August autonomy referendum was announced."

"An hour after the announcement, two trucks of Kopassus special forces arrived in Ermera. The men were dressed in the black T-shirts of the Aitarak militia. Militia members recruited in West Timor accompanied them. Joao and others watched their arrival from a hillside coffee plantation."

"The soldiers, armed with automatic weapons and carrying cans of petrol, were after independence leaders."

"They called house-to-house and they burned out the political leaders," Joao said. "When the houses burnt, they let the women and children out, but they pushed the men back into the fire where they died."

Then the terrorists marched through the village, burning buildings, shooting, and slashing people with machetes. "After they cut with machete, they shouted and danced because they are happy they kill people," Joao said. "They say you dogs. You do not have the right to independence."

On September 12, The Age reported that on September 5, Inge Lempp, an election observer with the International Federation for East Timor (IFET), intercepted "radio communications between Indonesian arm operatives and militias around the town of Same in East Timor."

"Those blondies from IFET. Take them out of the car and kill them," ordered the army leader, "then throw their bodies in the river."

"Throw their bodies in the river. I heard that repeated three times to different militia heads," Lempp reported. Lempp escaped safely, but thousands of East Timorese were not so fortunate. The Age reported that on September 8, the Timorese wife of an Australian aid worker saw stacks of corpses in police headquarters "in a building once used as a torture cell for political prisoners." In Indonesia the police are part of the military.

"My wife told me she saw bodies stacked high, thousands of them," Ira Bainbridge said. "She smelt the bodies.... My wife saw arms and legs and dripping blood."

The U.S. has not been alone in supporting the Indonesian fascist regime. As recently as August 27, The Age reported that Australias government "will maintain its close links with Indonesian military forces despite evidence that he military has committed atrocities throughout Indonesia during the past nine years."

"The continuing contact will include the controversial practice of joint exercises and training exercises with Kopassus, the Indonesian elite Special Forces most heavily implicated in the atrocities." Following the September atrocities Australia canceled these plans.

The Vancouver Sun reported in 1997 that "Canada is currently considering a series of requests by the Indonesian armed forces to establish closer ties potentially by agreeing to train Indonesian officers in Canada," since this practice had been banned in the U.S. The article went on to note that "From the perspective of Canadian investment and the safety of the 5000 Canadian expatriates living on the islands, that decision might make sense.... Canadas business prospects in Indonesia are extremely bright, with exports exploding from $350 million in 1991 to $825 million in 1996."

Fascism proved to be very good for business until the economic collapse of recent years. Through it all the main sponsor and beneficiary has been the USA. Now that the recent horrors in East Timor have finally pricked the worlds conscience, it is the height of hypocrisy for Clinton and Cohen to condemn the bloodbath that was the end result of a policy of protecting U.S. interests and investments in Indonesia at all costs. After all, the Indonesian fascists have only learned their masters lessons all too well. Z

Michael Steinberg is an investigative journalist based in Durham, NC. He is the author of Millstone and Me: Sex, Lies and Radiation in Southeastern Connecticut.

Realist, you were mentioning scruples.

Edited by - Emiliano on 13 January 2003 15:3:45

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

realist

I think that JW elder were basically WT yes men. Pushing the wt partyline. Its good that Farkel is out now.

97

North Korea's Threat

by Shakita in

jw
friends

http://www.msnbc.com/news/850567.asp?0cv=cb10

north korea has said that this standoff with the us could lead to world war iii.

scary words, huh?.

Emiliano

Change is a gradual process. It starts with self analyis. If eough people care about it, some change may be possible. But how can anybody care if they are not informed or aware.