Sectarian violence continues in Iraq

"Two car bomb blasts near the Shi'ite shrine city of Karbala in southern Iraq have killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 50 others.

Iraqi officials say the attacks targeted Shi'ite pilgrims heading to Karbala for an important Sh'ite holiday this week.

Earlier Monday, another car bomb exploded in front of the Baghdad offices of Al-Arabiya television, killing at least four people and wounding 16 others. Al-Arabiya staffers said the explosion badly damaged the building and left a huge crater. Iraqi officials had previously warned the network about the threat of an insurgent attack.

Monday's bombing was not the first time Al-Arabiya has been targeted in Iraq. The network's Baghdad bureau chief escaped harm in 2008 after a bomb was found strapped to his car. The Arabic-language station is owned by Saudi Arabia and based in Dubai."

Talibini defends Sultan Hashim al-Tai

I was not surprised to read that Adnan al Dulaimi wants to see Sultan Hashim al-Tai released, but I was very surprised to see that Jalal Talabini has also defended al-Tai as a patriot.

PS: After reading the article a second time, I realized that Talibani did not defend al-Tai as a 'patriot' (Dulaimi did that) - Talibani called al-Tai an excellent officer who could not disobey orders. There were many of those in Saddam's military, it seems, and for good reason - disobeying Saddam's orders was punishable by death.

Iraq Sunnis urge release of 'patriot' death row general
1 day ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's main Sunni bloc called on Friday for the release of a high-ranking general who served as defence minister under Saddam Hussein and is on death row for his role in a 1988 Kurdish massacre.

The National Concord Front (NCF) said the execution of general Sultan Hashim al-Tai would be "revenge on patriots on behalf of the enemy," in allusion to Shiite Iran.

Sultan Hashim was sentenced to death in June, along with Ali Hassan al-Majid better known as "Chemical Ali", and Hussein Rashid al-Tikrit, the former armed forces deputy chief of operations.

The supreme court upheld the ruling on September 4 and said that all three should hang within 30 days for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds in the so-called Anfal (Spoils) campaign of 1988.

An estimated 182,000 Kurds were killed and 4,000 villages wiped out in the campaign of bombings, mass deportation and gas attacks.

But some leading Iraqis believe that the general was fearfully following Saddam's orders during the atrocities and was a proven patriot due to his previous military service during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

"The Iraqi government must respect Iraqi officers that are known for their patriotism and courage, who defended our homeland and confronted external aggressions," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leading figure in the NCF.

"The government has no right to try the men of Iraq as a punishment for defending Iraq and for their participation in the Iran-Iraq war," Dulaimi added.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is himself a Kurd and saw many of his supporters fall victim to the Anfal campaign, has repeatedly come out in defence of Tai and has said he will refuse to sign any execution order.

The Iraqi government said on Thursday that the executions of Sultan Hashim, Rashid and Majid, which have been delayed for weeks due to Muslim holidays and legal hitches, would happen in the coming days.

"This man does not deserve execution," Talabani said in an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. "He was a capable and excellent officer who implemented Saddam Hussein's strict orders. He could not disobey orders."

Terrorism must be tackled ideologically

The director of Al Arabiya is correct: We 'Need to Wage War Against Extremist Websites'

'Who Turned Abdulmutallab into a Terrorist?

"Less than a day after the failed attempt to bomb a plane that was flying over the U.S. city of Detroit, a different kind of hunt began – the hunt for the person who instructed Omar Abdulmutallab [to carry out the operation], the person who turned Abdulmutallab into a terrorist. Omar Abdulmutallab is a Nigerian man who left Nigeria young and innocent and left London a prepared terrorist.

"Attention turned towards the Yemeni Sheikh Anwar Al-Awlaki, once again, who believes that he is the Sheikh of the new terrorists. It was this same Sheikh who instructed Major Nidal Hasan, an American of Arab origin, to commit the Fort Hood killings."

"The First Priority Should Be To Confront Extremist Ideology, Its Theorists, and Its Scholars, Before Its Students and Its Soldiers"

"So as not to further complicate this already complex issue, we can sum up the incident as follows: attention turned from pursuing Al Qaeda's army to pursuing its Sheikhs.

"After years of violent war, the image has become clear to everybody today; that 'Al Qaeda' is an ideological problem rather than an organizational one. Whilst there is a lot to do on the ground in order to eradicate this malignant disease, the first priority should be to confront extremist ideology, its theorists, and its scholars before its students and its soldiers. They are the secret to the organization and the reason for its continuation and its ability to recruit [people] and raise money, despite the great losses it has suffered all over the world.

"Abdulmuttalab, who was arrested in Detroit, and is only 23 years of age, spent three years studying mechanical engineering at a London university, and comes from a very moderate Muslim family; his father is a well-known banker in Nigeria and former chairman of First Bank, one of Nigeria's biggest banks.

"Farouk, Abdulmuttalab's father, was so concerned about his son that he alerted authorities, which is quite a rare thing to happen.

"The important question remains: Who convinced the young man [to carry out the operation] and prepared him for the operation? Abdulmuttalab is now in prison, whereas dozens of others or even hundreds like him are still at large."

Al-Awlaki, "The Source of the Problem," is "The Bin Laden of the Internet"

"Al Awlaki is now most wanted – and the source of the problem with regards to at least two crimes: that of [Major] Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people, and [Omar] Farouk Abdulmuttalab, charged with attempting to blow up a plane and with the attempted murder of the 279 passengers on board.

"Al-Awlaki is an important character and it seems he is the bin Laden of the Internet, the leader of an organization that brings together thousands of young men who are communicated with firstly via websites and then dealt with on the ground later. He became a leader and a Mufti who communicated with his students electronically, and he takes part in extensive Daawa [Islamic preaching] through the World Wide Web.

"Just like bin Laden, a cat with nine lives, he was targeted in two similar raids a few days ago and it is possible that he escaped despite news reports of his death."

"Al-Qaeda is an Extremist Ideology That Must First Be Tackled Ideologically"

"The events of the last few weeks have revealed that the war on terror did not end with George W. Bush's absence, and that terrorism did not stop after the release of dozens [of prisoners] from Guantanamo Bay. The retirement or capture of leaders such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed did not and will not stop the recruitment and activity of this terrorist ideology.

"In fact, all of this has only confirmed the old truth that Al-Qaeda is an extremist ideology that must first be tackled ideologically, along with the prosecution of those who support it and the need to wage war against extremist websites in general – which have become larger camps than the first camp that gave its name to the 'Al-Qaeda' organization."

Latest Anti-Terror Ad

This is the latest Iraqi anti-terrorism ad, which I saw yesterday on Al Arabiya. I find it strange that Al Arabiya is funded by the Saudi government, and yet they continue to broadcast these ads, while Al Jazeera no longer airs them.

In the video an Iraqi is kidnapped by terrorists and asked at gunpoint if he is Sunni or Shi'i. "I am Iraqi" he finally answers.

Iraqi Tribal Chief Slams Al Qaeda

This guy is awesome.  You will not see this on Al Jazeera or Al Arabiya. Thanks dad for sending me this. Update: MEMRI's clip is longer than the one below.

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iraqi tribal Chief Sheik Th'aban Al-Bazoun, which aired on Al-Fayhaa TV on December 4, 2007:

Sheik Th'aban Al-Bazoun: [We say] to the terrorists, the supporters of takfir, to Al-Qaeda: If you want Iraq to be as Islamic state so badly, shouldn't you make your own countries Islamic first? What, they come from Morocco to establish an Islamic state in Iraq?! Why don't they turn Morocco into an Islamic state? They come from Saudi Arabia to turn Iraq into an Islamic state. They cross the border and blow themselves up - why don't they blow themselves up in Saudi Arabia? After all, the Americans are present in Saudi Arabia, as well as in the UAE, in Bahrain, in Egypt, and in all the Arab countries. They have bases there. Go blow yourself up there. Instead of blowing up Iraqi children in schools, universities, and markets, go blow yourself up there. Go establish an Islamic state in Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan. But one cannot establish an Islamic state by blowing up children, women, schools, or universities, or by means of terrorism and murder. We've become victims of people who come here from across the borders in order to kill Iraqi citizens, because they want to establish an Islamic state in Iraq. They want to force women to wear the veil. In their own countries women do not wear the veil. They want to force Iraqi Christian women to wear Islamic gowns. Christian women here do not wear these gowns. In their own countries, people wear pants and cowboy jeans. In your country, Saudi Arabia, people smoke marijuana on the beach, yet you come to Iraq to establish an Islamic state?!

Obama Talks to Arabs & Muslims

Obama gave his first televised address as President to Al Arabiya! WOW! This is huge. Obama continues to make history. Did he actually say that a Palestinian state should be contiguous? Did I hear that right? That's amazing. The American President said that??

I love what he said about Usama bin Ladin and Al Qaeda. He said that Al Qaeda isn't talking about how Muslim kids should get an education; AQ isn't doing anything good for Arabs and Muslims. Yeah baby! That's what I'm talking about. "...their ideas are bankrupt. There's no actions that they've taken that say a child in the Muslim world is getting a better education because of them, or has better healthcare because of them."

"Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries," the President said.

I am pleasantly surprised by how quickly our new President has jumped into the role of peace broker in the Middle East.

This is the part where the President talks about Al Qaeda:

US Officials meet with Izzat al Duri??

It seems very odd to me that US officials would meet Izzat al Duri, with a $10 million bounty on his head!  What is going on?? (Thanks Fayrouz)

Allawi says US officials met with ex-Baathists
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Saturday, September 08, 2007

DUBAI: Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in comments aired Thursday that he had organized meetings between senior US officials and representatives of the banned Baath Party of executed dictator Saddam Hussein. Allawi said he himself had taken part in some of the meetings, which involved representatives of Saddam's fugitive number two Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head. "The dialogue took place at the request of the United States," the former premier said in the comments broadcast by Al-Arabiya television. "It took place in an Arab country and partly in Iraq in my presence," Allawi said. "The meetings were aimed at reaching a mutual understanding between the Baathists and the US government which was represented at a senior level." Allawi gave no date for the talks. Allawi said that at the center of the talks had been moves to relax the ban on former senior or middle-ranking Baathists taking up government or military jobs that has been in force since 2003. - AFP

Iraqi Jews were expelled by Arab nationalists

"Iraqi Author Dr. Rashid Al-Khayoun: Iraqi Jews Were Driven Out of the Country by Pan-Arab Extremists, Led By Nazi Ally, Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini"

It's good to see this on Al Arabiya, one of the most popular media outlets in the Arab world.

The Ugly Arab

The vast majority of Arabs I have known in my lifetime have been wonderful people. I spent a total of eight years in Iraq, and during those years I met all kinds of Arabs - poor, rich, educated, illiterate, Shia, Sunna, and Christians. On our street in east Baghdad there lived families of various ethnic and religious backgrounds. Across the street from us lived an Armenian Christian family, and next to them lived a large Sunni Arab family - they were always kind and most gracious to our family. Here in the US I have also met many Arabs, mostly educated and well off - about half of them are Sunni Arabs. I have met only one Arab I did not like, and the reason I disliked him was because he believed that Saddam Hussein was good for Iraq, and that Iraq needs a 'strong' leader like Saddam. He is half Saudi, half Palestinian, and he shared his theory with me in 2000, more than ten years after I first met him - I considered him to be a friend until then. I have heard this theory from different people, especially in the last three years. Even western reporters like Kevin Toolis argue that Saddam's terror in Iraq was needed to 'suppress greater horrors'. Perhaps Mr. Toolis should ask himself why a dictator's terror was not needed to suppress 'greater horrors' in Iraq before 1980, or how Iraq survived on its own without sectarian tensions, without the aid of a tyrant, before Saddam Hussein and his Tikriti mafiosi came onto the scene.

The US has been culpable to an extent in creating Saddam Hussein and the murderous mafiosi who have become so powerful in Iraq, but I think it is very clear who is responsible for the mayhem we see in Iraq today: it is the UGLY Arab. The Ugly Arab has been murdering innocent Iraqis for decades. In the 1980s Ugly Arabs murdered only Allah-knows how many innocent (and often educated) Iraqis - it didn't matter whether an Iraqi was Sunni or Shii - he would be alive as long as he was loyal to the filthy dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Saddam and his Baathi mafiosi were equal opportunity murderers, and that is why so many Arabs love him - he even had a Christian as his foreign minister! How benevolent of the Ugly Arab. During the 1990s, the Ugly Arab killed tens of thousands more innocent Iraqis by various ingenious methods that have not been discussed on Al Jazeera or Al Arabiya. In 2000, Ugly Arabs apprehended the wife of an Islamist who was opposed to Saddam's regime, took her away from her kids and beheaded her on the street in front of her neighbors - this was not covered by all those progressive Arab news media outlets - only Amnesty International had the courage to report on that sad story. Today the Ugly Arab has sharply escalated murderous attacks on Iraqis and uses such clever methods as luring Iraqi job seekers and detonating explosives among them to prove to the world that life was indeed better for Iraqis before 2003.

The Ugly Arab does not exist only in Iraq. Yesterday, at least 30 Ugly Arabs in Saudi Arabia announced that Sunnis must band together against the Shia in Iraq and urged clerics to "educate the public about the Shiite threat." At least they are being honest - I have never seen such a level of honesty from Saudi clerics before! The Ugly Arab travels from Egypt, passes close to occupied Jerusalem (occupied for almost 40 years now) and the West Bank where Palestinians work for Israelis, and ends up in Iraq to murder innocent Iraqis who work for the American occupiers and Iraqi Shia shopping for fruits and vegetables. To date, far more Arabs have been murdered by the Ugly Arab than by the Ugly American and the Ugly Israeli combined.

Arabs who believe that Americans (Bush's CIA perhaps) are responsible for the car bombs that have murdered so many innocent Iraqis should consider that the Republicans (Ugly Arabs must be told that Bush is a Republican) lost control of the House and Senate primarily because of the violence in Iraq, so it would not make sense for Bush's CIA or any American agency to cause this kind of violence in Iraq. But it makes perfect sense to the Ugly Arab - logic is not a strong suit of the Ugly Arab. After the Americans leave Iraq, it is unfortunate for ordinary Iraqis that thousands of Ugly Arabs will continue to infest Iraq like the cockroaches they are. But perhaps then, the mafiosi from Anbar will once again be in control of Iraq, security in Iraq will return to 'normal' and the Ugly Arab will be happy.

Fundamentalists Impede Progress

I'm sure by now you've all heard or read about Shatha Hassoun, the Iraqi Moroccan contestant on Star Academy. All the Iraqis I know are happy for Shadha and happy for Iraq. But not all Iraqis are pleased. Some of the reactions out of Iraq are predictable, and yet still bizarre:

The Voice of Iraq Radio website ran a scathing editorial attacking the Sharqiya satellite channel without naming it for its repeated ads for Shada Hassoun, the Iraqi contestant on the Star Academy show. The radio station, which covers central Iraq and is owned by the clerical Shirazi family in Karbala, described the Shada frenzy as a “media attempt to misrepresent Iraq and the Iraqi identity, which is not reflected by Shada Hassoun’s behavior.” Iraqi women are not honored to be represented by an ambassador such as this woman, who lacks the most basic criteria of honorable Iraqi women, the editorial said.

Al-Najaf News reported that several citizens in the holy city of Najaf demanded that Shada Hassoun and her father be stripped of their Iraqi citizenship for taking part in a dubious program that “aims to destroy Islamic morals and spread indecency because of its segments that include mingling and touching between the sexes and semi-nudity.” Callers to Radio Najaf FM called for suing the Lebanese LBC satellite channel that runs the show and Al-Arabiya TV for airing a short video of Iraqis in Najaf celebrating Shada’s victory. A source close to the Marja’iya refused to comment, but he described the news as a “farce.”

The Iraqi Rabita website, on the other hand, featured a mock voting campaign for “the ideal Iraqi woman,” with Shada Hassoun running against Um Qasim, an Iraqi woman from Fallujah, shrouded in black, who refused to leave her house during the U.S. military campaign so that she could bake bread for the Mujahideen. Voting results on the website so far are 960 votes for Um Qasim and 199 for Shada.

Iraq will need many years, maybe generations, to become a truly free and secular society where women are allowed to wear what they want, hold hands with their boyfriends/husbands in public without being threatened. Iraq will naturally become more secular as it becomes more prosperous and as Iraqis experience different cultures, and this is assuming that Iraq will not be controlled by fundamentalist groups like the Mehdi Army, SCIRI, or the Da'wa party. I expect that Néjéf and Kérbéla, being the Meccas of Shia Islam, will always be fundamentalist in nature, but I hope that secularism will be the norm in Baghdad, just like it was when my family lived there.

Tunisia moves towards democracy

'Prime Minister Mohammed Ghanouchi said late Friday in a televised address that President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has surrendered power and left Tunis.

Ghanouchi said that he would serve as interim president, Reuters reported.

Al Arabiya said a six-member leadership council would be formed to rule the country until elections. The council will be led by the head of Parliament and will include the defense minister. The news service said he had fled to Malta.

"I vow that I will respect the constitution and implement the political, economic and social reforms that have been announced ... in consultation with all political sides including political parties and civil society," he said in the live address to a nation rocked by unrest.'

Rogue elements of Mehdi army threaten to kill UK hostage

Shia militias have not participated in hostage taking as much as AQI, so I was surprised when I saw this.  I do not know how a computer consultant can be considered a combatant.  How embarrassing for Iraqi Shia to see that some Shia fighters are this cowardly. 

 

Last Updated: 04/12/2007  15:27

Iraq captors threaten to kill UK hostage

Kidnappers holding five Britons seized in Iraq in May threatened to kill one hostage in 10 days as a "first warning" unless Britain withdraws from Iraq, in a video aired by Al Arabiya television today.

The video, dated November 18th, showed a hostage sitting on the floor flanked my masked gunmen pointing assault rifles at him.

A statement said that if Britain failed to leave Iraq within 10 days after it was broadcast, "this hostage will be killed as a first warning, which would be followed with details that you would not want to know".

Britain has not disclosed the names of the five Britons - a computer consultant and his four bodyguards -- who were snatched from a Finance Ministry data processing centre by gunmen wearing police commando uniforms in May.

"My name is Jason. Today is November 18th. I have been here now 173 days and I feel we've been forgotten," said the hostage on the video as he sat in front of a banner of the Shi'ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

continued

Beheading Wives: NOT an Islamic Practice

I like Bill Maher. I think he's very funny and I agree with many of his views. In his first episode of the season, however, he said two things in his monologue that are not quite true. In praising President Obama, Maher claimed that Obama "closed Guantanamo" and "ordered the planning of our withdrawing from Iraq" without elaborating. The President has not closed Gitmo and will begin withdrawing troops from Iraq only because violence in Iraq is a fraction of what it was a year ago, thankfully, and we want to see violence and crime in Iraq disappear completely so that ALL US troops can be withdrawn.

Then Maher spoke with Ron Paul, who believes that America's war on drugs must end, but he also believes that American government should not be allowed to bail out any company, and that the Federal Reserve is the real cause of the economic crisis. I don't want to see bank executives who receive bailout money buy themselves $50 million private jets after they receive government stimulus funds, but I don't want to see Bank of America go belly up either. Maher did hit the nail on its head with his jokes about Dick Fuld and Bernard Madoff.

One of Maher's guests was Brigitte Gabriel, who was invited to speak about the Pakistani American man, Muzzammil Hassan, who recently beheaded his wife in Buffalo. Maher wanted to point out the irony of a man who starts "Bridges TV" to reach out to non-Muslim Americans and show how moderate Muslims are and then ends up beheading his wife, so he invited Gabriel, the author of "They Must Be Stopped". I had never heard of Gabriel before seeing her on Bill Maher tonight, and I was expecting her to explain that beheading one's wife is not a popular Islamic practice and that honor killing (if this was in fact an "honor" killing) has more to do with culture than religion. I was expecting her to warn about the dangers of Wahhabism and the Saudi Wahhabi influence in Pakistan. Instead she said that "this is strictly an Islamic practice". An Islamic practice?? Is this what Muslims do in her native Lebanon? Maher had to point out to her that American men have also killed their wives, and that OJ Simpson nearly beheaded his ex wife with a big knife. Maher asked her what she thinks of Obama's interview with Al Arabiya. She said she believes that Obama should not have "kind of apologized to the Arab world for America's ills in the last 30 years." Maher had to point out that President Obama did not apologize, and that in his inaugural speech he said that America should not apologize for our way of life. I was embarrassed by Gabriel's remarks, and overall I think his first episode of the season was more depressing than funny. I think Bill Maher could do better.

P.S.: Somebody should tell Brigitte that "exemplatory" is not a word.