Updates from johnpi RSS

  • johnpi 1:25 pm on March 7, 2010 | 26 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: adam gadahn, , Azzam al-Amriki, Azzam the American, , ,

    Adam Gadahn arrested: Al Qaeda’s American spokesman arrested in Pakistan.

    Enemy combatant or American citizen?

    Military tribunals or civil courts?

    The charge against him, treason, is a death penalty offense for which no one has been executed since the 60s. This is going to be high in the news for a long time and will prompt some major constitutional questions.

    Gadahn was just in the news yesterday for a new tape calling on Western Muslims to attack their own countries and suggesting targets. It will also probably feature prominently in media coverage.

     

  • johnpi 1:25 am on March 5, 2010 | 12 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , ,

    Willow wrote:

    There is clearly something deeper going on that you’re worried about or have doubts about

    You are correct about being troubled, specifically, spiritually troubled. This response is to Aziz too. Abu Noor, I think you’ve been reading too much of Umar’s long goodbye and seem to be stuck on the notion of ‘progressive devils’ being a fifth column of something or other…

    When I first exchanged some emails with Aziz and he invited me to blog here, I told him that I had been closely following TI for some time, but I hadn’t really engaged or participated because I wasn’t in a very good headspace, I was somewhat angry about some of my conversion experiences, and I didn’t want to engage poorly or from a bad place (I was also upset about how some orthodox problem-solving seemed to create dysfunction in modern life – Islam should give us all the tools we need to succeed anywhere at any time). I was particularly upset about feeling ’silenced’ (don’t ask disrespectful questions) and how – internally – that imbued those questions or concerns with more power and interest than they probably merited just from being bottled up. The initial blogging I did was helpful for deflating that material and kind of getting it out of the way, and it was at about that point that I started blogging here.

    I’ve continued to use the blogging to try to ‘process’ what comes in from the dunya and from other Muslim perspectives and communities, but I think that what may be happening is that in driving myself up against every point of contention in the media and every point of seeming incoherence within the ummah and within Islam, that it’s having an unhealthy spiritual effect, and I’m falling back into that bad headspace again, or at least not a very good space in which to be engaging other Muslims.

    So I need to take a break from being a media junkie, abstain from the blogging and find other diversions for awhile. Finding more and new Muslim community offline in another context might be a good idea too.

    To try to sum up the point, I do believe it’s a matter of spiritual integrity not to ignore the world and what’s happening in it if it challenges your faith or your practice, but wading out into this stuff day after day – seeking it out – for too long is also bad for your spiritual health.

    So I’m going to dial my blogging way back for a bit…

     

  • johnpi 1:56 pm on March 2, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Western culture

    One wonders how far claims that contemporary Western culture is compatible with science can be taken:

    Cyber-bullying rises as climate data are questioned.

    The e-mails come thick and fast every time NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt appears in the press.

    Rude and crass e-mails. E-mails calling him a fraud, a cheat, a scumbag and much worse.

    To Schmidt and other researchers purging their inboxes daily of such correspondence, the barrage is simply part of the job of being a climate scientist. But others see the messages as threats and intimidation – cyber-bullying meant to shut down debate and cow scientists into limiting their participation in the public discourse.
    ….

    Trenberth says that is the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails: Facts don’t carry more weight in the public debate. The nature of public discourse – be it climate change or health care – has changed; information that does not fit one’s worldview is now discounted or rejected.

     

  • johnpi 9:48 pm on March 1, 2010 | 14 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,

    Darkness begets dishonesty, study finds.

    Dim lights can make it seem as if no one is watching, triggering moral transgressions in many people, a new study suggests.

    Past research has shown that when people are concealed from view by others, say when they are wearing hoods, these individuals will be more likely to commit criminal acts and other bad behaviors.

    But what about times when we’re not actually anonymous – people can see us – yet we feel like we’re hidden? The researchers of the new study describe it as the adult version of hide-and-seek: Kids often believe no one can see them when they cover their eyes even though they are hiding in plain sight. Turns out, a dark room can have a similar psychological effect on adults.

    So does it follow that women who don’t cover are likely to be more honest and have fewer moral transgressions than those who do?

     

  • johnpi 3:47 pm on March 1, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,

    Website of anti-coed Saudi cleric shut down.

    The website of a top Saudi cleric who issued an edict calling for those who support co-educational environments to be put to death has been shut down on Sunday.

    Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak’s website was shut down following a barrage of criticism from religious scholars in Saudi Arabia and Egypt condemning his fatwa (religious ruling) as a call for violence.

    Many religious scholars in Saudi Arabia denounced Barrak’s ruling, saying it was similar to rulings once issued by religious fundamentalists, or Takfiris, accusing other Muslims of apostasy and condemning them to death.

    The important thing here is not that he said it, but the response that it got.

     

  • johnpi 3:35 pm on March 1, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , ,

    This is dumb: Afghanistan bans coverage of Taliban attacks.

    Afghanistan on Monday announced a ban on news coverage showing Taliban attacks, saying such images embolden the Islamist militants, who have launched strikes around the country as NATO forces seize their southern strongholds.

    The Taliban are making their own videos, they don’t need the media to get video drama when they’re standing right next to it. Here’s a Frontline documentary that aired on Tuesday, “Behind Taliban Lines.” At one point one of the fighters is shown holding up a small device – either a cell phone or a small digital camera – showing off video of one their own attacks.

    This ruling is self-serving on the part of the Afghan government.

     

  • johnpi 2:26 pm on February 27, 2010 | 6 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , ,

    Lucky you…’Brighton Tea Party’: Tea Party movement spreads to Britain.

    Apparently some character named Daniel Hannan is involved:

    In addition to being anti-tax and a vocal Eurospectic, Hannan is also well known for his outspoken criticism of publicly funded health care. Last summer he appeared on Fox News to bash proposals to fix the US health care system as well as rail against Britain’s health services.

    ‘Eurospectic’ – Did they mean ‘Eurocentric’?

    Who knew Brits were pining for a US-style health system…

     

  • johnpi 8:40 am on February 25, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , ,

    Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor, writes in Al Jazeera about Israel’s recent annexation of several mosques in the West Bank by designating them “Jewish Heritage sites.”

    Abdullah writes that there has been some speculation that this is an effort to create a distraction from the developing negative media frenzy over Mossad’s recent assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

    A very good point:

    Observers have rightly noted that while the European Union maintains its proscription of Hamas as a “terrorist organisation”, they are yet to produce any evidence that the organisation has carried out a single military operation outside Occupied Palestine.

    This is in stark contrast to the Israeli government, which threatens, attacks and occupies the lands of neighbouring countries, and assassinates its opponents in other sovereign nations.

    Related: Dubai has now named 26 suspects in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabouh, the Hamas figure.

    Israel’s use of counterfeit foreign passports led one Australian reporter to worry about “terrorists” ability to do the same thing. Richard remarks:

    Doesn’t this tell you heaps about western prejudices in favor of our own and against the unwashed hordes, that this reporter would not have realized that any nation that carries out an assassination on foreign soil while abusing the security of numerous erstwhile allies is engaging in terrorism. Why can’t these Mossad agents be called terrorists too?

    If Israel would lift one finger to make a genuine effort toward peace and resolution I’d be happy to promote it, but everything Israel does seems to go in the other direction.

     

  • johnpi 8:17 pm on February 22, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Lee Rodgers, , radio hate

    Bay Area hate radio jockey Lee Rodgers has been fired. Some memorable moments:

    “You [Iraqi] people do what ever you want to each other and this country just don’t give us a reason to come back or we’ll massacre every last damn one of you.”

    “Indonesia is really just another enemy Muslim nation. … You keep screwing around with stuff like this we are going to kill a bunch of you. Millions of you.”

    It wasn’t a ‘friendly’ firing if there is such a thing, and there’s no information on what was the catalyst. He finished his regular show and was called into the front office. No goodbyes, no swan song for the listeners…

     

  • johnpi 6:36 pm on February 22, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,

    Glenn Greenwald putting the conclusion of the Najibullah Zazi criminal case in perspective:

    Najibullah Zazi, was charged in a civilian court with plotting to blow up subways in New York City, was given a lawyer, was Mirandized, was not sent to Guantanamo, was not subject to “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and was not put before a military commission. Today, he pled guilty, ensuring he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

     

  • johnpi 12:55 pm on February 22, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,

    EDL leadership arrested, Pamela Geller claims its part of the Shariah law rollout (lol). Bartholomew has the story.

     

  • johnpi 9:13 am on February 22, 2010 | 7 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,

    There is a Facebook page called “Reasons when it is acceptable to punch a woman in the face.” It has almost 27,000 fans, and is described by its administrators as ‘off-colour humour.’ There is a move afoot to get Facebook to shut it down. To participate, go to the page and click the “report” button, which is located on the left hand side at the bottom of the page.

     

  • johnpi 11:25 pm on February 20, 2010 | 9 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Abdalqadir as-Sufi, , , gold, Islamic currency, Islamic economy, Islamic money, silver

    The Indonesian followers of Sheikh Abdalqadir as-Sufi are “shunning” “worthless” paper money in favor of gold and silver coins for their daily transactions.

    The followers of Sheikh Abdalqadir as-Sufi — born Ian Dallas — trade goods such as food, medicine, clothes and phone cards with gold dinars and silver dirhams in line with a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

    An official reports that the number of dinars on the local market more than doubled to 25,000 pieces last year.

    “We decided to mint silver and gold coins in Indonesia following a fatwa issued by Sheikh Abdalqadir as-Sufi in Cape Town of South Africa, banning Muslims from using paper money,” Azis told AFP.

    Abdalqadir, a former playwright and actor who converted to Islam in the late 1960s, bitterly opposes modern capitalism and advocates a return to forms of Islamic law practiced by the first generations after Mohammed.
    ….

    Some Muslims have countered that a world economy based on gold coins would lead to a powerful cartel of gold-producing countries, while others have noted the potential for market chaos if gold replaced the greenback.

    But for the sheikh’s followers, such issues seem remote compared to the straightforward injunction to obey the Quran and emulate Mohammed.

    We’ve had lively discussions about the Scottish-born Sheikh Abdalqadir as-Sufi’s ideas before at Talk Islam with the Granada bloggers…

     

  • johnpi 9:37 pm on February 20, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, , , , , , ,

    Long Wars Journal publishes a very personal defense of Rashad Hussain, Obama’s newly-announced envoy to the OIC, written by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

    Before I address the various controversies that have surrounded Rashad, I’d like to make clear that I have known him for a considerable length of time, since 1998. Those familiar with my own biography will realize that I was a practicing Muslim back then. So I have known him as a co-religionist; and know him now as someone who worships a different God than I do, but whose religious practice I respect.
    ….

    I think the dozen years in which I have known Rashad and had the opportunity to assess his beliefs and character provide important context for this defense. Many of the attacks on him are the proverbial view from 50,000 feet: and it is sometimes easy to misunderstand what you see from that distance.

    I’m surprised to see this coming from Gartenstein-Ross, who (according to his Wikipedia bio) has worked for Smearcaster Steven Emerson (also one of the media persecutors of Sami al-Arian) and who wrote a book, “My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir” that the Wiki bio says has been called the American version of Ed Hussain’s “The Islamist.” Here’s the first sentence:

    Before I was an FBI informant, an apostate, and a blasphemer, I was a devout believer in radical Islam who worked for a Saudi-funded charity that sent money to al-Qaeda.

    Here, he offers an insight into Rashad’s remarks about al-Arian:

    Rashad’s concerns about the al-Arian prosecution, and other prosecutions that he discussed in that context, stemmed not from an Islamist ideology but rather from a civil-libertarian ideology. It is clear from his 2004 speech that Rashad is a Kerry-supporting Democrat rather than a bin Laden-supporting jihadist.

     

  • johnpi 7:40 pm on February 20, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Joe Stack, terrorism supporters

    Joe Stack is a “true American hero”: Facebook groups support domestic terrorist.

    “Finally an American man took a stand against our tyrannical government that no longer follows the Constitution,” wrote Emily Walters of Louisville, Ky.

    One IRS worker was killed and 13 injured when stack flew a small plane into an IRS building in Austin last week.

     

  • johnpi 2:21 pm on February 20, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , translators,

    Army finds no evidence of poisoning plot at Fort Jackson.

    A U.S. Army program at the center of a probe into allegations that Muslim translator trainees threatened to poison soldiers at Fort Jackson was moved to a post in Arizona last month.

    Spokeswomen at both Fort Jackson and Fort Huachuca, Ariz., confirmed the program — which trains non-citizen native speakers of languages such as Arabic and Farsi to become soldiers and translators — has been relocated.
    ….

    On Thursday, a report by the evangelist Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network and Fox News stated that five Muslim translators had been arrested at Fort Jackson in December for threatening to poison other soldiers. The Army has not reported making any arrests.

    A statement Friday from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division confirmed an investigation into the allegations has been ongoing “for almost two months.”

    “But … we have not found any credible information to substantiate the allegations,” the statements said.

     

  • johnpi 2:11 pm on February 20, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: '30 dead', magic number 30,

    The magic number 30 strikes again, this time in South Waziristan.

     

  • johnpi 9:34 pm on February 18, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,

    The Tea Party movement is eclectic and sometimes contradictory. I find it hard to understand or describe as anything other than ‘right wing’, but this insight from a NY Times profile pulled it all together:

    It is a sprawling rebellion, but running through it is a narrative of impending tyranny. This narrative permeates Tea Party Web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and YouTube videos. It is a prominent theme of their favored media outlets and commentators, and it connects the disparate issues that preoccupy many Tea Party supporters — from the concern that the community organization Acorn is stealing elections to the belief that Mr. Obama is trying to control the Internet and restrict gun ownership.

     

  • johnpi 8:50 pm on February 18, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,

    Israel’s hasbara ministry launches new PR campaign to improve the country’s image.

    One main message of the campaign is that Israel is a technically advanced and diverse society and that its government policies are not the source of regional conflict. It notes that a number of important agricultural breakthroughs have occurred here, including drip irrigation and the development of the cherry tomato.

    Mmmm, cherry tomatoes…sorry, what were we talking about?

     

  • johnpi 8:44 am on February 13, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,

    Tariq Ramadan’s article in The New Statesman, ‘Good Muslim, bad Muslim.’

    It’s hard to excerpt a Ramadan article and do representative justice to the whole of his points, but I found this interesting:

    Those of us who consider ourselves reformists are often attacked in internal Muslim debates for having “gone out of Islam” in our search for context and new understandings of religious texts. In the west, as well as in Asia and Africa, including in some Muslim-majority countries, I have repeatedly been called a kafir (disbeliever), a murtad (apostate) or an impostor seeking to adulterate Islam and destroy it from within. This happens to a large number of Muslim reformists – who, paradoxically, are at the same time considered “fundamentalist” and “extremist” within some right-wing circles in the west.

    More troubling, perhaps, and making outside categorisation even more hazardous, is the tendency for some reformist, rationalist or mystic groups to develop, internally, the same dogmatic attitude towards their Muslim co-religionists, casting doubt on their legitimacy in the most categorical and exclusivist fashion. Moderation is multidimensional, and is not expressed only with reference to the west or to “non-Muslims”.

     

  • johnpi 8:33 am on February 13, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , ,

    Green light for Muslim girls’ boarding school in Burnley.

    The new college will have 1,500 students, 230 of which will be boarders from all over Europe.

    Vice principal of the new college Jean Weston told the committee: “The college will improve achievement in the town and will raise aspirations locally.

    “People from the college will go on to employment locally and will be of benefit to the town.

    “They will shop in Burnley and will use local services while the boarding part of the college will create jobs for local people.”

    One key to the success here was that a school had been housed there previously that had 4,500 students. I think it was hard for opponents to argue against 1,500 with that history.

     

  • johnpi 8:02 am on February 13, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , ,

    New Newsweek article: ‘How moderate Muslim leaders waged war on extremists—and won.’

    More than eight eventful years have passed, but in some ways it still feels like 2001. Republicans have clearly decided that fanning the public’s fears of rampant jihadism continues to be a winning strategy. Commentators furnish examples of backwardness and brutality from various parts of the Muslim world—and there are many—to highlight the grave threat we face.

    But, in fact, the entire terrain of the war on terror has evolved dramatically. Put simply, the moderates are fighting back and the tide is turning. We no long-er fear the possibility of a major country succumbing to jihadist ideology. In most Muslim nations, mainstream rulers have stabilized their regimes and their societies, and extremists have been isolated. This has not led to the flowering of Jeffersonian democracy or liberalism. But modern, somewhat secular forces are clearly in control and widely supported across the Muslim world. Polls, elections, and in-depth studies all confirm this trend.
    ….

    The most influential statement on Islam to come out of the post-9/11 era was not a presidential speech or an intellectual’s essay. It was, believe it or not, a United Nations report. In 2002 the U.N. Development Program published a detailed study of the Arab world. The paper made plain that in an era of globalization, openness, diversity, and tolerance, the Arabs were the world’s great laggards. Using hard data, the report painted a picture of political, social, and intellectual stagnation in countries from the Maghreb to the Gulf. And it was written by a team of Arab scholars. This was not paternalism or imperialism. It was truth.

    There are a lot of assertions made in this article that are disputable.

     

  • johnpi 9:46 pm on February 12, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Hazaras, , , , Marjah, , , , , Tajiks, , , ,

    I am so completely unsympathetic to Pakistani criticism of America for its conduct in Afghanistan as represented in this Imran Khan documentary.

    Early in the video a group of “young cosmopolitan” Pakistani women at a pop music concert are portrayed razing America for imperialism and terrorism.

    My response as an American is to just throw it right back in their faces.

    The lack of self-awareness or self-examination is just amazing. America left the region after the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan in 1989. Gone. And in that time until 2001 Pakistan decided to play ‘masters of the universe’ and support the Taliban throughout its campaign to take over Afghanistan. Pakistan provided unlimited military equipment and supplies, it provided military intelligence and advisors that traveled with the Taliban forces, and tens of thousands of Pakistanis volunteered and fought with the Taliban in Afghan campaigns that had the character of ethnic violence in parts of the country largely inhabited by the Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, etc. And these educated middle-class Pakistanis are sitting around getting all indignant about America’s conduct?

    Please…I wonder if any Pakistani veterans of the Afghan campaigns brought captive Hazara concubines with them back to Pakistan…

    Related: Speaking of foreign fighters marines and Afghan troops have started their attack on the Taliban-held city of Marjah. A tribal elder reports most of the Afghan Taliban have already fled the area, but

    Militant commanders from the Middle East or Pakistan have stayed on “and they want to fight,” he said.

    I guess it will be foreign fighters versus foreign fighters then. Too bad the Pakistani and Middle Eastern fighters in Marjah won’t allow Afghan civilians to flee the city, thereby putting them potentially in the line of fire.

    How nice of the Pakistani volunteers to come to Afghanistan and take the Afghans hostage…

     

  • johnpi 12:23 am on February 12, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: enemies of God, , , mohareb, , , , ,

    Iran hanged two men at end of January.

    …whatever their earthly crimes were, the two men executed last month were also accused of another offense far more serious than simply protesting against a government.

    They were convicted of being “mohareb,” enemies of God.

    That is the worst possible crime in Shiite Muslim law, according to Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian studies at Stanford University.
    The legal implications are clear, he said.

    “A mohareb, according to Shiite law, is executed,” he said.

    That the regime is labeling its opponents enemies of God is a sign of how rattled it is by the protests, he said.

     

  • johnpi 11:48 pm on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,

    Airport body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslims say.

    Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a “fatwa” – a religious ruling – that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports.

    The Fiqh Council of North America – a body of Islamic scholars that includes some from Michigan – issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty.

    “It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. “Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.”
    ….

    Muslim groups say the scanners go against their religion. One option offered to passengers who don’t want to use the scanners would be a pat down by a security guard. The Muslim groups are urging members to undergo those instead.

    The council website doesn’t list any new fatwas, but CAIR put out a press release.

     

  • johnpi 6:59 pm on February 11, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Tennessee mosque vandalized after local tv station airs irresponsible report on ‘homegrown jihad.’

    The local news report prominently referenced a ‘documentary’ by the Christian Action Network about Jamaat ul-Fuqra communities, including one in central Tennessee called Islamville. I blogged about both the alarmist irresponsible CAN film and the Fuqra last year (also here and here).

    Amanda Terkel writes about what happened in Tennessee:

    …the Nashville CBS affiliate (Channel 5) decided to give the film legitimacy by conducting an “EXCLUSIVE” investigation into a Muslim community in rural Tennessee called Islamville, which is featured in the movie. “Some believe it is a secret Islamic terrorist training camp,” reads the Channel 5 article. “Others have said that’s simply not true.

    The two-part ’special’ report found nothing of concern, but the two days of hype leading up to the report may have precipitated this:

    Photobucket

    There was also a note taped to a youth facility nearby with a bunch of comments about Islam being the enemy, satanic, etc, etc. A spokesman for the mostly Somali mosque said:

    “It’s unexpected,” he adds. “The only thing I can think of is the sensationalized reporting [by Channel 5] over Sunday and Monday. That’s the only thing I can think of. Even after 9/11 we have never had any vandalism.“

     

  • johnpi 10:42 am on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

    Pentagon quietly explores de-citizenship of US citizen terrorists.

    At the highest levels of the US military, a quiet discussion is going on about putting in place a legal framework that would permit the US government to strip American citizenship from terrorists.

    The case of Las Cruces, New Mexico born al Qaeda commander Anwar al-Aulaqi, who has been a key organizer and recruiter for the terrorist organization in Yemen is the primary driver of this exploration of possibly modifying US law to allow “de-citizening.”

    As the Washington Post’s Dana Priest recently revealed, al-Alaqi was added recently to a short list of other Americans for whom there are kill orders in place.

    A senior Member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has told me that to his knowledge, there has been no serious discussion in the Committee of stripping US citizenship from terrorists, but a senior Pentagon official has confirmed that some in the military are exploring the upsides and downsides of such a more routenized mechanism for stripping citizenship.

     

  • johnpi 9:00 am on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,

    Former Blackwater employees report that the company charged the US government for prostitutes.

     

  • johnpi 8:38 am on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , flying while learning Arabic,

    Student detained for toting Arabic flash cards sues police.

    “As someone who travels by plane, I want TSA agents to do their job to keep flights safe,” Nick George says. “But I don’t understand how locking me up and harassing me just because I was carrying the flashcards made anybody safer. No one should be treated like a criminal for simply learning one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world.”

    Here’s Nick George, who was asked about OBL and if he was a communist, in a video talking about what happened to him.

     

  • johnpi 7:42 am on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,

    Lebanon backs Hezbollah against Israel.

    Lebanon’s prime minister voiced concern Wednesday about “escalating” Israeli war threats, and said his government will support the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah if a new war breaks out with the Jewish state.

    Saad Hariri’s comments come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest exchanges in years between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

     

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