Saturday, July 23, 2011

Doubts Grow in Egypt About Trial for Mubarak

Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
Sentiment against former President Hosni Mubarak has been expressed in various ways in Cairo since his ouster, including posters, burning images and graffiti.

CAIRO — Former President Hosni Mubarak is officially scheduled to go to trial in 10 days on charges that could carry the death penalty. But the question preoccupying Cairo right now is not whether he will be found guilty, but this: What will happen when his trial is almost certainly postponed?
Of concern now is how the sentiment against Mubarak might be expressed if his trial, scheduled to begin early next month, is postponed, as many believe it will be.
 
A man burns a picture of former President Hosni Mubarak.

In anticipatory anger, some are already planning protests. Setting the trial date, activists say, was just an element of political theater, part of the ritual of superficial concessions that the military-led transitional government has made after each big new demonstration in Tahrir Square.

“The signs show that there is no intention to try him,” said Mahmoud el-Khodeiry, a former senior judge who a few months ago participated in a mock trial of Mr. Mubarak in the square. He is so sure, Mr. Khodeiry said, that he is planning to travel to Sharm el Sheikh, where Mr. Mubarak is under guard at a hospital, to participate in a protest scheduled for Aug. 5. The announced trial date, for the record, is Aug. 3.

No one expects it to start then, said Sayed Salmony, 26, an informal master of ceremonies in Tahrir who leads chants demanding the trial. “It will definitely be postponed,” he said.
The prospect of a once-untouchable autocrat brought down before the law has captivated the Arab world. Some in power fear that a trial will embolden protesters in other countries. Some in the streets of those countries worry it could harden the resolve of embattled leaders not to give up power.

In Egypt, though, the immediate concern is about what happens in the meantime. After five months of mounting demonstrations calling for swift justice against Mr. Mubarak, who faces charges of corruption and of ordering the killing of protesters, some warn of an explosion of rage if he fails to appear on schedule in the metal cage that Egyptian courts use as a docket.
“I think it will be a critical situation if he doesn’t show up,” said Mohamed Sabry el-Gazzar, 34, a protester who was taking refuge from the blistering sun in a makeshift tent on Friday. “At the end of the day, you can’t make fools out of 85 million people.”

But there are many reasons to doubt it will come off. For one, the current trial date is during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when most Egyptians fast all day, feast much of the night, and little else gets done. And even without the excuse of Ramadan, almost every other trial of a Mubarak government figure has been postponed at least once.

Then there are the questions about Mr. Mubarak’s health that have so far kept him from any jail or courthouse. He has remained in a hospital near his summer home in Sharm el Sheikh since he complained of heart pains during his initial interrogation. Government officials have deemed his health too delicate for incarceration.

As the scheduled trial date has drawn near, his lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, has twice raised alarms about other maladies that might keep Mr. Mubarak from trial, including a recurrence of cancer and a stroke-induced coma, although doctors speaking in the official media have denied both reports.
Mr. Deeb said in a brief interview that no one had given him a firm date for Mr. Mubarak’s trial. “We are currently waiting for an official announcement from the military council,” he said.

A senior prosecutor who was said to be working on the case was on vacation last week, according to his secretary. Interior Ministry officials, meanwhile, say they have made no plans for security or other logistics. And Abdel Aziz Omar, chief of the Egyptian appeals court, said in an interview that top judges had not settled on even a short list of possible venues, in part because they were busy with a judicial reorganization and in part because they were looking for a big enough courtroom. Then it will be up to the judge in charge of the case to decide whether to postpone it, Mr. Omar said.

Many doubt that the generals now running the country — or, for that matter, the Mubarak-appointed prosecutors — have much enthusiasm for humiliating their former boss. And many note that the military continues to resort to swift military trials for certain street crimes but insists on methodical due process for the man who ruled Egypt so completely for 30 years.

Egyptians also insist, despite official denials, that rich oil monarchies — and potential aid donors — like Saudi Arabia are lobbying against a public trial, for fear that it will encourage insurrection elsewhere in the region. “There is obviously a lot of pressure from Arab countries not to prosecute him,” said Mr. Khodeiry, the former judge.

In Tahrir Square, the stage for the protests that ousted Mr. Mubarak, the anger is intensifying as the doubts pile up. On Friday, several people there said independently that if Mr. Mubarak’s trial was put off, Egyptians should take justice into their own hands.

“Bad things will happen,” said a 58-year-old carpenter whose identification card read Gamal Abdel Nasser — the name of the Egyptian officer who led the last revolution, in 1952. “People are fed up.”
One suggested planting a bomb, and three said that aggrieved citizens should take their wrath out on police officers suspected of violence. “An eye for an eye,” said Mohamed Abdel Hamid, 25, a contractor.

But Mr. Salmony, who helps lead the demonstrations, said he believed that protest leaders would escalate “civil disobedience” only gradually, for fear of alienating the public. “Right now people don’t trust the government,” he said, “and they don’t trust us, either.”
Heba Afify and Dina Salah Amer contributed reporting.

The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle

The Southern Poverty Law Center
The apparent recent surge in popular anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States has been driven by a surprisingly small and, for the most part, closely knit cadre of activists. Their influence extends far beyond their limited numbers, in part because of an amenable legion of right-wing media personalities — and lately, politicians like U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who held controversial hearings into the radicalization of American Muslims this March —who are eager to promote them as impartial experts or grassroots leaders. Yet a close look at their rhetoric reveals how doggedly this group works to provoke and guide populist anger over what is seen as the threat posed by the 0.6% of Americans who are Muslim — an agenda that goes beyond reasonable concern about terrorism into the realm of demonization.
Of the 10 people profiled below, all but Bill French, Terry Jones and Debbie Schlussel regularly interact with others on the list. Most were selected for profiling primarily because of their association with activist organizations. People who only run websites or do commentary were omitted, with two exceptions: Schlussel, because she has influence as a frequent television talk-show guest, and John Joseph Jay, because he is on the board of Pamela Geller's Stop Islamization of America group. Three other activists, Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney, have interacted with many of the core group as well and also have offended many Muslims, but they are somewhat more moderate in their views of Muslims than those who are profiled below.
Bill French
Bill French
BILL FRENCH
ORGANIZATION
Heads the for-profit Center for the Study of Political Islam in Nashville.
CREDENTIALS Former Tennessee State University physics professor; author of Sharia Law for Non-Muslims (2010; under the pen name Bill Warner).
SUMMARY French has no formal training or background in law, Islam or Shariah law — which in any case is not an established legal code, as the book title implies, but a fluid concept subject to a wide range of interpretations and applications. He garnered attention recently by leading the opposition to a proposed mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
IN HIS OWN WORDS "The two driving forces of our civilization are the Golden Rule and critical thought. … There is no Golden Rule in Islam. ... There is not really even a Ten Commandments."
—Quoted in The [Blount County, Tenn.] Daily Times, March 4, 2011
"This offends Allah. You offend Allah."
— Quoted in The Tennesseean, Oct. 24, 2010, speaking to opponents of the Murfreesboro mosque while pointing to an American flag

Brigitte Gabriel
Brigitte Gabriel
BRIGITTE GABRIEL
ORGANIZATIONS Founder and head of ACT! for America and American Council for Truth.
CREDENTIALS Author of Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America (2006) and They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (2008). Co-producer and co-host of weekly ACT! for America television show.
SUMMARY Gabriel views Islam in absolute terms as a monolithic threat to the United States, Israel and the West. She is prone to sweeping generalizations and exaggerations as she describes a grand, sophisticated Muslim conspiracy bent on world domination. Of the people profiled here, she alone has focused on building a grassroots organization, claiming 155,000 members and 500 chapters around the country. Questions persist about the accuracy of her autobiographical account of being a victim of Muslim militancy in Lebanon.
IN HER OWN WORDS "America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America. They have infiltrated us at the C.I.A., at the F.B.I., at the Pentagon, at the State Department."
— Quoted in The New York Times, March 7, 2011
"The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arabic world is quite simply the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil and this is what we're witnessing in the Arab and Islamic world. I am angry. They have no soul! They are dead set on killing and destruction."
— From a speech delivered to the Rev. John Hagee's Christians United for Israel Convention, July 2007
"Tens of thousands of Islamic militants now reside in America, operating in sleeper cells, attending our colleges and universities, even infiltrating our government. They are here — today. Many have been here for years. Waiting. Preparing."
— ACT! for America website, undated

P. David Gaubatz
P. David Gaubatz
P. DAVID GAUBATZ
ORGANIZATION Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE).
CREDENTIALS Co-author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America (2009). As director of operations for SANE's Mapping Shariah project (see David Yerushalmi, below), a privately operated effort to infiltrate American mosques in an attempt to expose radical elements, Gaubatz was paid $148,898, according to Sheila Musaji of The American Muslim website.
SUMMARY A civilian agent who worked in the Middle East for the U.S. Air Forces Office of Special Investigations, Gaubatz made it a personal project — and the theme of his book — to prove the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is linked to international terrorism. In October 2009, four members of Congress led by Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) held an embarrassing press conference claiming the book revealed a Muslim plot to infiltrate government. Their hardest "evidence" was a document showing that CAIR had encouraged young Muslims to become Capitol interns — much like many other Washington, D.C., interest groups.
IN HIS OWN WORDS "As an ideology [Islam] is a terminal disease that once spread is hard to destroy. Once the ideology (cancer) takes hold it is like trying to remove millions of cancerous cells in one's body. Not impossible to remove, but very, very unlikely."
— Essay on the Northeast Intelligence Network website, June 10, 2008
"[T]he political ideology of winning over the West and the world for an Islamic Caliphate is NOT specific to some extremist group of Muslims. This is mainstream Islam and Shari'a. … The goal remains the same: all of the non-Islamic world, and indeed all of the Islamic world, must submit to Shari'a. A Muslim who refuses to do so will be killed. … A non-Muslim, assuming he is not a pagan (typically a Christian or Jew) might be given the opportunity to live in a subservient status in an Islamic society and pay a special head tax to prove his submission. But this option is left to the Caliph or ruler at the time."
— Essay carried by the Assyrian International News Agency, Feb. 13, 2008

Pamela Geller
Pamela Geller
PAMELA GELLER
ORGANIZATIONS Executive director and co-founder (with Robert Spencer; see below) of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), an umbrella group encompassing SIOA. Both are listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Runs the Atlas Shrugs blog.
CREDENTIALS Self-styled expert on Islam with no formal training in the field. Co-produced with Spencer the film "The Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks," which was first screened at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference. Co-author with Spencer of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (2010).
SUMMARY Geller has seized the role of the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and influential figurehead. Her strengths are panache and vivid rhetorical flourishes — not to mention stunts like posing for an anti-Muslim video in a bikini — but she also can be coarse in her broad-brush denunciations of Islam. Geller does not pretend to be learned in Islamic studies, leaving the argumentative heavy lifting to SIOA partner Spencer. She is prone to publicizing preposterous claims, such as President Obama being the "love child" of Malcolm X, and once suggested that recent U.S. Supreme Court appointee Elena Kagen, who is Jewish, supports Nazi ideology. Geller has mingled with European racists and fascists, spoken favorably of South African racists and defended Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. She is a self-avowed Zionist who is sharply critical of Jewish liberals.
IN HER OWN WORDS "Islam is not a race. This is an ideology. This is an extreme ideology, the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth."
— On Fox Business' "Follow the Money," March 10, 2011
"No, no, they can't. … I don't think that many westernized Muslims know when they pray five times a day that they're cursing Christians and Jews five times a day. … I believe in the idea of a moderate Muslim. I do not believe in the idea of a moderate Islam. I think a moderate Muslim is a secular Muslim."
— Quoted in The New York Times, responding to a question as to whether devout practicing Muslims can be political moderates, Oct. 8, 2010
"In the war between the civilized man and the savage, you side with the civilized man. … If you don't lay down and die for Islamic supremacism, then you're a racist anti-Muslim Islamophobic bigot. That's what we're really talking about."
— Quoted in The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2010

David Horowitz
David Horowitz
DAVID HOROWITZ
ORGANIZATION Front Page Magazine (online), published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
CREDENTIALS Organized "Islamofascism Awareness Week" which brought prominent anti-Muslim activists to college campuses in 2007. Author of several books including Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (2004), which claims that American leftists support Islamic terrorists.
SUMMARY Horowitz, who spent his young years as a Marxist, has in recent years become a furious far-right antagonist of liberals and leftists. He also provides some funding support for other anti-Muslim ventures, including, according to the blog SpencerWatch.com, paying Spencer $132,537 to run the JihadWatch website. Horowitz sees no philosophical gradations; if you're not in total agreement with his view of Islam, you're in favor of Muslim hegemony. He believes the Muslim Brotherhood and "Islamofascists" control most American Muslim organizations, especially Muslim student groups on college campuses.
IN HIS OWN WORDS "I spent 25 years in the American Left, whose agendas are definitely to destroy this country. The American left wanted us to lose the Cold War with the Soviets and it wants us to lose the war on terror. So I don't make any apologies for that."
— On the "Riz Khan" Show, Al Jazeera, Aug. 21, 2008
"Some polls estimate that 10 percent of Muslims support Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. An al-Jazeera poll put the number at 50 percent. In other words, somewhere between 150 million and 750 million Muslims support a holy war against Christians, Jews, and other Muslims who don't happen to be true believers in the Quran according to
bin Laden."
— In the Columbia Spectator, Oct. 15, 2007
"There are 150 Muslim Student Associations on American campuses. The Muslim Student Associations were created by Hamas and funded by Saudi Arabia. … [The associations] are Wahhabi Islamicists, and they basically support our enemies."
— On Fox News' "Neil Cavuto Show," Aug. 15, 2006

John Joseph Jay
John Joseph Jay
JOHN JOSEPH JAY
ORGANIZATION summer patriot, winter soldier (a website; Jay doesn't use capital letters in his website's name or in his writings). Board member, SIOA. Listed as one of the founders of American Freedom Defense Initiative, SIOA's umbrella group (see also Pam Geller, above).
CREDENTIALS Jay worked for 25 years as a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. Geller's Atlas Shrugs blog describes him as a constitutional scholar. In addition to his anti-Muslim commentary, Jay blogs prolifically on the right to bear arms.
SUMMARY Jay is remarkable for his unreconstructed hatred of all Muslims. He believes attacks by Muslim terrorists justify any violence directed at any Muslim, adding that, as he sees it, the Koran itself justifies such blind retaliation.
IN HIS OWN WORDS "every person in islam, from man to woman to child may be our executioner. … there are no innocents in islam. … there is no innocence in islam. all of islam is at war with us, and … all of islam is/are combatant[s.] … islam has established without intellectual doubt that there are no innocent muslims, that the myth of the ‘moderate muslim' is precisely that, and that muslims are no more entitled to exemption or protection from retaliation that [sic] any of the other ‘non-innocent' combatants in the world. … there are no innocent muslims.  islam is subject to killing on grounds of political expediency on the same basis as islam kills its victims, and islam cannot ethically and morally claim otherwise."
— From his website, July 14, 2010
"in short, dear muslims, g_d in his infinite wisdom saw in advance this struggle between men and religions to win his favor, and the only thing that is foreordained, is that the strong and the resolute shall win his favor, and so far, it has been amply demonstrated that he has chosen the jews as his people, and favored christianity with science, technology, culture and military power. to islam, he has given the hind and dry tit, and the sewers and the deserts of the world in which to inhabit, and in which to fester."
— From his website, June 27, 2010

Terry Jones
Terry Jones
TERRY JONES
ORGANIZATION Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Fla. Listed by the SPLC as a hate group.
CREDENTIALS Pastor of Dove World; instigator of "International Burn a Koran Day," which was slated for Sept. 11, 2010, but canceled after worldwide protests and calls from senior officials of the Obama Administration. On March 20, however, Jones did burn a Koran, leading to several days of rampages in early April by religious rioters in Afghanistan, including the storming of a United Nations compound, that resulted in the deaths of at least 20 people. Jones showed no remorse over the deaths, which included at least seven foreigners. Author of Islam is of the Devil (2010). Jones has admitted never having read the Koran. He has no academic or theological degree; his "doctorate" is honorary.
SUMMARY A true fanatical extremist who seems to be driven mostly by the need for self-promotion and publicity. Operates entirely outside of the core circle of anti-Muslim activists. Jones is also virulently anti-gay.
IN HIS OWN WORDS "Here's your opportunity, all you so-called peaceful Moslems [Jones' pronunciation]. … We are accusing the Koran of murder, rape, deception, being responsible for terrorist activities all around the world. … Present to us your defense attorney who is going to defend the Koran. Let us really see. We challenge you: do it. Let us not talk. Let us have some action and proof. … The Koran, if found guilty, can be burned … Or the Koran will be drowned. Or the Koran will be shredded into little bitty pieces … or the Koran will face a firing squad."
— From an undated video on the Dove World Outreach website announcing "International Judge the Koran Day"
"The world is facing a great danger, which, if it is not stopped, will sooner or later be a threat to freedom in all nations and specifically to the United States. This danger is the growing religion of Islam."
— From the introduction to Islam is of the Devil, 2010

Debbie Schlussel
Debbie Schlussel
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL
ORGANIZATION Columnist; eponymous website.
CREDENTIALS The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Schlussel is a Detroit-based attorney and MBA. Frequent guest on conservative talk shows.
SUMMARY Uncompromising, viciously anti-Muslim commentator who dismisses ostensible allies if they are willing to believe in the concept of moderate Islam. She has even berated Hollywood for its failure to depict Muslims as sufficiently villainous. She has referred to Muslims as "animals." Her intense animosity toward Muslims appears rooted in strong pro-Israel sentiments.
IN HER OWN WORDS "So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows. Or so we'd hope. … How fitting that Lara Logan was ‘liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the ‘liberation.' Hope you're enjoying the revolution, Lara! Alhamdillullah (praise allah) [sic]."
— From her website, following the gang sexual assault on CBS Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo, Feb. 15, 2011
"[T]he fact is that the majority of Muslims support terrorism. The vast majority. Not just a few hijackers and a few suicide bombers. But the MAJORITY. This isn't me saying it. It's Muslims saying it. And not just in poll after poll of Muslims around the world including in America. Go to the streets of ‘moderate Muslim' Dearbornistan [Dearborn, Mich.] and see how many Muslims dare condemn Hezbollah and HAMAS. It's like playing "Where's Waldo?"
— From her website, Oct. 8, 2008

Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer
ROBERT SPENCER
ORGANIZATION Runs the Jihad Watch website, a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Co-founder with Pamela Geller (see above) of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative.
CREDENTIALS Spencer has a master's degree in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Co-produced with Geller the film "The Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks" (2011). Author of numerous books including The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (2007) and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) (2005).
SUMMARY Spencer is entirely self-taught in the study of modern Islam and the Koran. Critics have accused him of doggedly taking the Koran literally — Spencer considers it innately extremist and violent — while ignoring its nonviolent passages and the vast interpretive tradition that has modified Koranic teachings over the centuries. Spencer believes that moderate Muslims exist, but to prove it, they'd have to fully denounce the portions of the Koran he finds objectionable. Spencer has been known to fraternize with European racists and neo-fascists, though he says such contacts were merely incidental. Benazir Bhutto, the late prime minister of Pakistan, accused Spencer of "falsely constructing a divide between Islam and West" in her 2008 book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. Spencer, she wrote, presented a "skewed, one-sided, and inflammatory story that only helps to sow the seed of civilizational conflict."
IN HIS OWN WORDS "Osama [bin Laden]'s use of these and other [Koranic] passages in his messages is consistent … with traditional understanding of the Quran. When modern-day Jews and Christians read their Bibles, they simply don't interpret the passages cited as exhorting them to violent actions against unbelievers. This is due to the influence of centuries of interpretative traditions that have moved them away from literalism regarding these passages. But in Islam, there is no comparable interpretative tradition."
— From The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), 2005
"Where is moderate Islam? How can moderate Muslims refute the radical exegesis of the Qur'an and Sunnah? If an exposition of moderate Islam does not address or answer radical exegeses, is it really of any value to quash Islamic extremism? If the answer lies in a simple rejection of Qur'anic literalism, how can non-literalists make that rejection stick, and keep their children from being recruited by jihadists by means of literalism? Of course, as I have pointed out many times, traditional Islam itself is not moderate or peaceful. It is the only major world religion with a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers."
— Jihad Watch, Jan. 14, 2006

David Yerushalmi
David Yerushalmi
DAVID YERUSHALMI
ORGANIZATION President of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE); principal of Stop the Madrassa.
CREDENTIALS General counsel for the Center for Security Policy (see Frank J. Gaffney Jr., above); also, an attorney representing SIOA. Yerushalmi drafted a proposed law filed this year in the Tennessee legislature that would subject anyone who advocates or adheres to Shariah customs to up to 15 years in prison; he drafted a similar bill in Georgia in 2008.
SUMMARY Yerushalmi equates Shariah with Islamic radicalism so totally that he advocates criminalizing virtually any personal practice compliant with Shariah. In his view, only a Muslim who fully breaks with the customs of Shariah can be considered socially tolerable. He waxes bloodthirsty when describing his preferred response to the supposed global threat of Shariah law, speaking casually of killing and destroying. Ideally, he would outlaw Islam and deport Muslims and other "non-Western, non-Christian" people to protect the United States' "national character." An ultra-orthodox Jew, he is deeply hostile toward liberal Jews. He derides U.S.-style democracy because it allows more than just an elite, privileged few to vote.
IN HIS OWN WORDS "On the so-called Global War on Terrorism, GWOT, we have been quite clear along with a few other resolute souls. This should be a WAR AGAINST ISLAM and all Muslim faithful. … At a practical level, this means that Shari'a and Islamic law are immediately outlawed. Any Muslim in America who adopts historical and traditional Shari'a will be subject to deportation. Mosques which adhere to Islamic law will be shut down permanently. No self-described or practicing Muslim, irrespective of his or her declarations to the contrary, will be allowed to immigrate to this country."
— A 2007 commentary entitled "War Manifesto — The War Against Islam," as reported by The American Muslim
"The more carefully reviewed evidence, however, suggests that because jihadism is in fact traditional Islam modernized to war against the ideological threat posed by the West against Islam proper, there is no way to keep faithful Muslims out of the war. If this is true, any Muslim who sticks his neck out of the mosque to yell some obscenity at the West should be considered an enemy combatant and killed or captured and held for the duration of the war. If you kill enough of them consistently enough, those disinclined to fight in the first place will find a way to reform their religion."
— Review of Mary Habeck's book Knowing the Enemy on the American Thinker website, Sept. 9. 2006

Protesters clash with knife-wielding men in Cairo

Saturday, July 23, 2011
By SARAH EL DEEB
The Associated Press

CAIRO — Groups of men armed with knives and sticks attacked thousands of protesters trying to march to the headquarters of Egypt's military rulers Saturday, setting off fierce street clashes and leaving more than 100 injured, most lightly. Security fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.


The clashes come as tensions mount between the military council that took control of the country after a popular uprising ousted ex-President Hosni Mubarak and activists who want them to move faster in bringing former regime officials to justice and setting a date for the transition to civilian rule.

The military has appeared impatient with the pressure, accusing activists of treason, warning protesters against "harming national interests" and calling on "honorable" Egyptians to confront actions that disrupt a return to normal life.

An estimated 10,000 people set out from downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square but were stopped from reaching the military headquarters in the eastern Abbasiyah neighborhood by a line of army barricades. Along the way, they chanted slogans against the military council's delay in implementing their demands.

The march coincided with the 59th anniversary of the 1952 military coup that toppled the monarchy and brought a series of military leaders to office, ending with Mubarak.

"Down with the ruler of the military," the protesters chanted.

Bands of men armed with knives and sticks set upon them from side roads and from in front of the military barricades, setting off pitched street battles in which both sides threw punches and hurled rocks.

Gunfire was heard, but it was unclear who was shooting. Some firebombs were thrown, igniting large blazes in the middle of the street and near buildings.

The identity of the attackers could not immediately be determined. Similar groups of men have tried to break up other rallies, and Mubarak's regime often used hired thugs to attack protesters. Some witnesses said they might have been residents or shopkeepers angry at the loss of business as a result of the protests. Others said local residents threw water bottles to the protesters and helped them reach safety.

At one point, a man perched over a female protester, squeezing her against the wall where she was taking cover from the flying rocks. The man cursed her and accused her of being hired to cause chaos.

The man shouted: "Damn your revolution!"

An Associated Press reporter saw a firebomb flying from inside a garden lining a side street, landing at a distance from the protesters. The attackers then charged toward the protesters and accused them of throwing the flaming bottle.

"We are extremely angry. These are Egyptians beating us," said protester Selma Abou el-Dahab.

A medical official said more than 140 people were hospitalized with wounds from thrown rocks and falling in the stampede. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press.

The violence broke out following a televised speech by Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling military council, who attempted to diffuse the tension by praising the youth who led the uprising that toppled Mubarak. The speech was to commemorate the 1952 coup anniversary.

Many protesters have grown distrustful of the military rulers who assumed control of the country on Feb. 11. A few hundred have been camped out in Tahrir Square since July 8 to pressure the military to bring those accused of killing nearly 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising to trial.

So far, only one low-ranking policeman has been charged in absentia for killing protesters.

Critics accuse the generals of dragging their feet in bringing former regime officials to trial and purging the government of Mubarak loyalists as well as trying civilians in military courts.

But not all activists supported the march toward the military council. Hafez Abou Saada, a prominent human rights activist and longtime democracy advocate, said the rally was a call "for confrontation that no one needs."

Saturday's march was the second consecutive day that protesters tried to reach the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. On Friday, crowds tried to reach the building to denounce the purported beatings of demonstrators by military forces during another rally in the city of Alexandria.

Tantawi appealed for national unity and called the youth activists "a great product of Egyptian soil."

The military council has promised to hand over power to an elected civilian government within six months. Parliamentary elections are now set for October or November, followed by presidential elections, likely next year.

In a statement released on its Facebook page, the army denied using violence against protesters in Alexandria on Friday and accused activists of seeking to drive a wedge between it and the people.

"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces urges the public to exercise caution and not to be drawn into this suspicious plot that aims to undermine Egypt's stability," the statement said in unusually strong language.

It singled out the April 6 movement, one of the largest groups behind the protests that forced Mubarak to step down.

Activists responded by saying the army rejects all criticism of how it is ruling the country.

Mohammed Adel, an April 6 spokesman, said "defaming" the group is reminiscent of the language used by the previous regime against its opponents. "It is the army that is driving a wedge between it and the people by accusing others of treason," he said.

Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard contributed to this report.

At Least 80 Dead in Norway Shooting

July 22, 2011
By ELISA MALA and J. DAVID GOODMAN
NYT

OSLO — A lone political extremist bombed the government center here on Friday, killing 7 people, the police said, before heading to an island summer camp for young members of the governing Labor Party and killing at least 80 people.

The police arrested a 32-year-old Norwegian man in connection with both attacks, the deadliest on Norwegian soil since World War II.

The explosions in Oslo, from one or more bombs, turned the tidy Scandinavian capital into a scene reminiscent of terrorist attacks in Baghdad or Oklahoma City, panicking people and blowing out windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, who was unharmed.

The state television broadcaster, citing the police, said seven people had been killed and at least 15 wounded in the explosions, which they said appeared to be an act of domestic terrorism.

Even as the police locked down a large area of the city after the blasts, the suspect, dressed as a police officer, entered the youth camp on the island of Utoya, about 19 miles northwest of Oslo, a Norwegian security official said, and opened fire. “He said it was a routine check in connection with the terror attack in Oslo,” one witness told VG Nett, the Web site of a national newspaper.

Of the at least 80 people killed on the island, some were as young as 16, the police said on national television early Saturday.

Terrified youths jumped into the water to escape. “Kids have started to swim in a panic, and Utoya is far from the mainland,” said Bjorn Jarle Roberg-Larsen, a Labor Party member who spoke by phone with teenagers on the island, which has no bridge to the mainland. “Others are hiding. Those I spoke with don’t want to talk more. They’re scared to death.”

Many could not flee in time.

“He first shot people on the island,” a 15-year-old camper named Elise told The Associated Press. “Afterward he started shooting people in the water.”

Most of the campers were teenagers but there were also adults on the island, who may have been among the victims.

After the shooting the police seized a 32-year-old Norwegian man on the island, according to the police and Justice Minister Knut Storberget. He was later identified as Anders Behring Breivik and characterized by officials as a right-wing extremist, citing previous writings including on his Facebook page.

The acting police chief, Sveinung Sponheim, said the suspect’s Internet postings “suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but if that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen.”

He said the suspect had also been seen in Oslo before the explosions. The police and other authorities declined to say what the suspect’s motivations might have been, but many speculated that the target was Mr. Stoltenberg’s liberal government.

“The police have every reason to believe there is a connection between the explosions and what happened at Utoya,” the police said. They said they later recovered explosives on the island.

Mr. Breivik had registered a farm-related business in Rena, in eastern Norway, which the authorities said allowed him to order a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, an ingredient that can be used to make explosives. Authorities were investigating whether the chemical may have been used in the bombing.

A Facebook page matching his name and the photo given out by the police was set up just a few days ago. It listed his religion as Christian, politics as conservative. It said he enjoys hunting, the video games World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2, and books including Machiavelli’s “The Prince” and George Orwell’s “1984.”

There was also a Twitter account apparently belonging to Mr. Breivik. It had one item, posted last Sunday: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.”

As the investigations continued, the police asked people to leave the center of Oslo, stay indoors and limit their cellphone use. They also said they would initiate border checks.

The attacks bewildered a nation better known for its active diplomacy and peacekeeping missions than as a target for extremists.

In Oslo, office workers and civil servants said that at least two blasts, which ripped through the cluster of modern office buildings around the central Einar Gerhardsen plaza, echoed across the city in quick succession around 3:20 p.m. local time. Giant clouds of light-colored smoke rose hundreds of feet as a fire burned in one of the damaged structures, a six-story office building that houses the Oil Ministry.

The force of the explosions blew out nearly every window in the 17-story office building across the street from the Oil Ministry, and the streets on each side were strewn with glass and debris. The police combed through the debris in search of clues.

Mr. Stoltenberg’s office is on the 16th floor in the towering rectangular block, whose facade and lower floors were damaged. The Justice Ministry also has its offices in the building.

Norwegian authorities said they believed that a number of tourists were in the central district at the time of the explosion, and that the toll would surely have been higher if not for the fact that many Norwegians were on vacation and many more had left their offices early for the weekend.

“Luckily, it’s very empty,” said Stale Sandberg, who works in a government agency a few blocks down the street from the prime minister’s office.

After the explosions, the city filled with an unfamiliar sense of vulnerability. “We heard two loud bangs and then we saw this yellow smoke coming from the government buildings,” said Jeppe Bucher, 18, who works on a ferry boat less than a mile from the bomb site. “There was construction around there, so we thought it was a building being torn down.”

He added, “Of course I’m scared, because Norway is such a neutral country.”

American counterterrorism officials cautioned that Norway’s own homegrown extremists, with unknown grievances, could be responsible for the attacks.

Initial reports focused on the possibility of Islamic militants, in particular Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or Helpers of the Global Jihad, cited by some analysts as claiming responsibility for the attacks. American officials said the group was previously unknown and might not even exist.

There was ample reason for concern that terrorists might be responsible. In 2004 and again in 2008, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over after the death of Osama bin Laden, threatened Norway because of its support of the American-led NATO military operation in Afghanistan.

Norway has about 550 soldiers and three medevac helicopters in northern Afghanistan, a Norwegian defense official said. The government has indicated that it will continue to support the operations as long as the alliance needs partners on the ground.

Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.

“If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington. “One lesson I take away from this is that attacks, especially in the West, are going to move to automatic weapons.”

Muslim leaders in Norway swiftly condemned the attacks. “This is our homeland, this is my homeland,” said Mehtab Afsar, secretary general of the Islamic Council of Norway. “I condemn these attacks, and the Islamic Council of Norway condemns these attacks, whoever is behind them.”

Elisa Mala reported from Oslo, and J. David Goodman from New York. Reporting was contributed by Souad Mekhennet, Ravi Somaiya and Matthew Saltmarsh from London; Katrin Bennhold from Paris; and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 22, 2011

An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Utoya is about 25 miles northwest of Oslo. In fact, it is 19 miles from central Oslo.

Norway attack: Likely suspected groups

CORRECTED-Norway attack: Likely suspected groups
Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:49pm GMT
(Corrects to remove reference to Osama bin Laden)

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - A massive bomb shattered Norway's main government building in Oslo on Friday, killing two people, police were quoted as saying by local news agency NTB.

There was no claim of responsibility, though NATO member Norway has been the target of threats, if not bombs, before, notably over its involvement in conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was safe, NTB said.

Here are details of some of the Islamist militant groups with a record of links to plots in Europe.


* AL QAEDA:

-- Al Qaeda is seen as the militant group that poses the more serious international threat because it is has highly experienced bombmakers and a long-established transnational networks of financial, logistical and ideological support.

-- Though the militant group was weakened after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, it has survived by deepening its alliances to local militants in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.

-- In an audiotape released in January 2010, the group claimed responsibility for the Dec. 25 attempted bombing of a U.S-bound plane and said it was a continuation of al Qaeda policy since the Sept. 11 attacks.

* ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF UZBEKISTAN:

-- The IMU emerged from the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan and has also fought in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan with the aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate.

-- With many of its supporters holed up in the tribal areas of Pakistan, it has forged close links with al Qaeda.

-- Earlier this month intelligence sources said there was a plot against European targets reportedly originating with a group in mountainous northern Pakistan, some of them believed to be European citizens.

-- One security official in Germany said word of the plot had probably come from the interrogation of a German-Afghan suspect in Afghanistan. The suspect was identified by media as Ahmed Sidiqi, a German of Afghan origin and IMU member.

- German media said he came from Hamburg and had been held in the U.S. military prison of Bagram in Afghanistan since July.

-- Counter-terrorism expert Guido Steinberg said Sidiqi was a member of a cell of militants from Hamburg that was believed to be a central component of the conspiracy and he said that the cell left for Pakistan in March 2009 and joined the IMU.

* LASHKAR-E-TAIBA/JAISH-E-MOHAMMED:

-- Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed are militant groups based in Pakistan's Punjab province and once nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to fight India in Kashmir. They have since been banned.

-- Western security sources say both are obvious points of contact for Europeans travelling to Pakistan seeking help to travel to the tribal areas to join up with al Qaeda.

-- Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the attack on Mumbai that killed 166 people, has generally focused on Kashmir and India, though it has been linked in the past to some plots in the west.

-- David Headley, an American arrested in Chicago in 2009, has pleaded guilty of working with Lashkar-e-Taiba to plot attacks in India, including surveillance of targets in Mumbai.

Headley is also charged with plotting a revenge attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

-- LeT's humanitarian wing, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, enjoys support in the Pakistani diaspora and security sources have said they feared LeT could exploit this network to facilitate an al Qaeda-inspired attack on the west.

-- Jaish-e-Mohammed has also been linked to plots in the west. It is seen as closer to al Qaeda than Lashkar-e-Taiba.

* AL SHABAAB:

-- Al Shabaab, which means "Youth" in Arabic, has taken control of large areas of south and central Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

-- Somali officials said the bomber who killed 22 people, including three government ministers, at a graduation ceremony in Dec. 2009 was a 26-year-old Danish citizen of Somali descent. One of the bombers that struck an African Union base in Sept. 2009 was reportedly from Seattle, while about 20 young men were said to have disappeared from Minneapolis's large Somali community in the last two years to join al Shabaab.

-- Shabaab's external reach has been highlighted after January 2010's attack on cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in Copenhagen, as well as its pledge to support Yemeni insurgents linked to al Qaeda who are believed to be behind the foiled Christmas Day bombing of a commercial airliner over Detroit.

-- It also claimed responsibility for the attack in Uganda in July 2010 when bombers killed 79 people in Kampala at venues packed with fans watching the World Cup final.

TEHRIK-E-TALIBAN PAKISTAN:

-- The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, is the group most influenced by al Qaeda and focuses on attacking the Pakistani state, which it considers illegitimate.

-- The TTP claimed responsibility for an attack in Mohmand, a Pashtun region on the northwestern border with Afghanistan which killed 102 people and wounded at least 80.

-- Earlier this month a British man, Abdul Jabbar, reportedly killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, had ties with the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani intelligence official said. The man had also been in the process of setting up a branch for the Taliban in Britain.

-- The TTP in September had threatened attacks on the United States and Europe. Shahzad was the closest it came to success.

* AQIM:

-- Led by Abdelmalek Droukdel, AQIM burst onto the public stage in January 2007, a product of the rebranding of fighters previously known as Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

-- The Salafists had waged war against Algeria's security forces but in late 2006 they sought to adopt a broader jihadi ideology by allying themselves with al Qaeda.

-- Security officials were particularly concerned that rebels, who belong to AQIM, could use cash from drug smuggling to recruit new fighters and finance violent attacks.

-- U.S. officials have said traffickers use the Sahara as a staging post for flying illegal drugs from South America into Europe and that AQIM could also tap into the smugglers' network of aircraft and secret landing strips. (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

(If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

Friday, July 22, 2011

famine in two southern Somali regions

internally displaced women wait for food rations with their children at a distribution center in Dharkenley district in Somalia, on July 16 2011

Norway attack: Likely suspected groups

Reuters – 7/22/2011

LONDON (Reuters) - A massive bomb shattered Norway's main government building in Oslo Friday, killing two people, police were quoted as saying by local news agency NTB.

There was no claim of responsibility, though NATO member Norway has been the target of threats, if not bombs, before, notably over its involvement in conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was safe, NTB said.

Here are details of some of the Islamist militant groups with a record of links to plots in Europe.

* AL QAEDA:

-- Al Qaeda is seen as the militant group that poses the more serious international threat because it is has highly experienced bombmakers and a long-established transnational networks of financial, logistical and ideological support.

-- Though the militant group formerly led by Osama bin Laden was weakened after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, it has survived by deepening its alliances to local militants in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.

-- In an audiotape released in January 2010, bin Laden claimed responsibility for the December 25 attempted bombing of a U.S-bound plane and said it was a continuation of al Qaeda policy since the September 11 attacks.

* ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF UZBEKISTAN:

-- The IMU emerged from the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan and has also fought in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan with the aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate.

-- With many of its supporters holed up in the tribal areas of Pakistan, it has forged close links with al Qaeda.

-- Earlier this month intelligence sources said there was a plot against European targets reportedly originating with a group in mountainous northern Pakistan, some of them believed to be European citizens.

-- One security official in Germany said word of the plot had probably come from the interrogation of a German-Afghan suspect in Afghanistan. The suspect was identified by media as Ahmed Sidiqi, a German of Afghan origin and IMU member.

- German media said he came from Hamburg and had been held in the U.S. military prison of Bagram in Afghanistan since July.

-- Counter-terrorism expert Guido Steinberg said Sidiqi was a member of a cell of militants from Hamburg that was believed to be a central component of the conspiracy and he said that the cell left for Pakistan in March 2009 and joined the IMU.

* LASHKAR-E-TAIBA/JAISH-E-MOHAMMED:

-- Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed are militant groups based in Pakistan's Punjab province and once nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to fight India in Kashmir. They have since been banned.

-- Western security sources say both are obvious points of contact for Europeans traveling to Pakistan seeking help to travel to the tribal areas to join up with al Qaeda.

-- Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the attack on Mumbai that killed 166 people, has generally focused on Kashmir and India, though it has been linked in the past to some plots in the west.

-- David Headley, an American arrested in Chicago in 2009, has pleaded guilty of working with Lashkar-e-Taiba to plot attacks in India, including surveillance of targets in Mumbai.

Headley is also charged with plotting a revenge attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

-- LeT's humanitarian wing, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, enjoys support in the Pakistani Diaspora and security sources have said they feared LeT could exploit this network to facilitate an al Qaeda-inspired attack on the west.

-- Jaish-e-Mohammed has also been linked to plots in the west. It is seen as closer to al Qaeda than Lashkar-e-Taiba.

* AL SHABAAB:

-- Al Shabaab, which means "Youth" in Arabic, has taken control of large areas of south and central Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

-- Somali officials said the bomber who killed 22 people, including three government ministers, at a graduation ceremony in December 2009 was a 26-year-old Danish citizen of Somali descent. One of the bombers that struck an African Union base in September 2009 was reportedly from Seattle, while about 20 young men were said to have disappeared from Minneapolis's large Somali community in the last two years to join al Shabaab.

-- Shabaab's external reach has been highlighted after January 2010's attack on cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in Copenhagen, as well as its pledge to support Yemeni insurgents linked to al Qaeda who are believed to be behind the foiled Christmas Day bombing of a commercial airliner over Detroit.

-- It also claimed responsibility for the attack in Uganda in July 2010 when bombers killed 79 people in Kampala at venues packed with fans watching the World Cup final.

TEHRIK-E-TALIBAN PAKISTAN:

-- The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, is the group most influenced by al Qaeda and focuses on attacking the Pakistani state, which it considers illegitimate.

-- The TTP claimed responsibility for an attack in Mohmand, a Pashtun region on the northwestern border with Afghanistan which killed 102 people and wounded at least 80.

-- Earlier this month a British man, Abdul Jabbar, reportedly killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, had ties with the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani intelligence official said. The man had also been in the process of setting up a branch for the Taliban in Britain.

-- The TTP in September had threatened attacks on the United States and Europe. Shahzad was the closest it came to success.

* AQIM:

-- Led by Abdelmalek Droukdel, AQIM burst onto the public stage in January 2007, a product of the rebranding of fighters previously known as Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

-- The Salafists had waged war against Algeria's security forces but in late 2006 they sought to adopt a broader jihadi ideology by allying themselves with al Qaeda.

-- Security officials were particularly concerned that rebels, who belong to AQIM, could use cash from drug smuggling to recruit new fighters and finance violent attacks.

-- U.S. officials have said traffickers use the Sahara as a staging post for flying illegal drugs from South America into Europe and that AQIM could also tap into the smugglers' network of aircraft and secret landing strips.

(This story has been corrected in paragraph 4 to show that Osama Bin Laden is the former leader of al Qaeda and removes reference of his hiding place)

Amnesty: Saudi plans anti-terror law to stop dissent

ReutersBy Asma Alsharif | Reuters – 7/22/2011

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia of planning a crackdown on public dissent with new anti-terror legislation that it said was a cover to stop further pro-democracy protests in the absolute monarchy.

The Draft Penal Law for Terrorism Crimes and Financing Terrorism, published by Amnesty on its website, would allow extended detentions without charge or trial and impose a minimum 10 year jail sentence on anyone who questions the integrity of the king or crown prince.

Apart from small protests in the oil-producing east that ended with some arrests, Saudi Arabia has not seen the kind of mass street upheaval of Bahrain and other countries in the region since Tunisians ousted former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January. Ben Ali is in exile in Saudi Arabia.

"This draft law poses a serious threat to freedom of expression in the Kingdom in the name of preventing terrorism. If passed it would pave the way for even the smallest acts of peaceful dissent to be branded terrorism," Amnesty said in a statement.

A justice ministry official said he had no comment and a Shura Council spokesman Mohammed Almohanna said he was not aware of the draft.

Activists say thousands are held in Saudi prisons without charge or access to lawyers, despite a law that limits detention without trial to six months. The draft law would largely formalize such practices.

The draft law considers "endangering... national unity" and "harming the reputation of the state or its position" as "terrorist crimes" and allows suspects to be held incommunicado for an indefinite period, if approved by a specialized court.

Independent rights activist Ibrahim Almugaiteeb said the new measures, if passed, would be a step back for Saudi Arabia, which has advanced some social and economic reforms under King Abdullah.

"If this law is passed as is it's going to be a total disaster for freedom of expression and all activism in Saudi Arabia including human rights," said Almugaiteeb, who heads the Human Rights First Society.

"I call on the Shura Council to be very careful before passing this law and on the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to stop this massacre of freedoms."

The draft published by Amnesty gives wide-ranging powers to the Minister of the Interior to take action to protect internal security, without requiring judicial authorization or oversight.

Sixteen Saudi pro-democracy activists are being tried on sedition and terrorism-linked charges in a Jeddah villa that belongs to the Interior Ministry after more than four years in detention.

The group of lawyers, professors and activists were mostly detained in 2007 after they met in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah to discuss reform in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

Al Qaeda launched a campaign of attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2003 which fizzled out in 2006 but the government fears al Qaeda militants could use their base in Yemen to restart operations.

The government also fears that Shi'ite Iran could stir up dissent among minority Shi'ites to destabilize the kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites.

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally and the world's leading oil exporter, has no political parties and its parliament is an appointed body with limited powers.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

The Mullah Krekar Show

Is this the man behind the Oslo terrorist bombing?

BY J.M. BERGER |JULY 22, 2011
FP

Two years ago this month, the U.S. television network NBC had the bright idea to create a reality show about vigilante terrorist hunters who would do something unspecified to terrorists who had evaded the long reach of justice.

The first episode of the execrable series, The Wanted, put the spotlight on Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi national flagged by the United States, the United Nations, and Interpol for his involvement with Iraqi terrorist groups.

The program showed NBC's terror team stalking Krekar on the streets of Oslo, a venture that was depicted as extremely dangerous, though Krekar was always just a phone call away from any media outlet that would give him airtime. Somehow Krekar escaped NBC's brand of rough -- or at least itchy -- justice. For a while, at least.

The Wanted was canceled after two episodes, but the Mullah Krekar Show continued until last week, when he was arrested for threatening Norwegian politicians.

Today, at least one bomb went off in Oslo, targeting government buildings. It's far too soon to draw any conclusions about who is responsible for the attacks, but Krekar's long history in Norway will likely be thrust into the spotlight after today's events.

An Iraqi Kurd, Krekar fled Saddam Hussein's regime after years spent working with Islamist and jihadi movements. He relocated to Norway under refugee status in 1991.

In Oslo, Krekar enjoyed tremendous freedom to operate as a preacher and an organizer.

Allegedly traveling freely in violation of Norwegian asylum law, he helped create Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist group that enforced Taliban-style governance in Kurdish areas of Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. After the invasion, Ansar al-Islam became part of the Salafist insurgent alliance known as Ansar al-Sunna.

Although Krekar played an important inspirational role in the insurgency, the Norwegians couldn't successfully mount a terrorism case against him. Extradition requests reportedly came from Jordan, Iraq, and the United States, but efforts to deport him ran aground on red tape and Norway's robust legal protections and benefits for refugees.

"He is a walking provocation and is making a mockery out of Norwegian respect for human rights," said Ola Flyum, a Norwegian journalist with whom I have worked, in an e-mail this morning. Flyum has investigated Krekar's story for years.

"He and his whole family are supported by the Norwegian government, but he continues to threaten people and central leaders," Flyum said. "The Norwegian government has for years tried to find a way out of this dilemma."

Indeed, Krekar showed little concern about losing his safe haven, running his mouth to the press at every opportunity.

In his autobiography, he wrote of meeting Osama bin Laden during the 1990s and called the al-Qaeda leader "a jewel in the crown of Islam."

In a 2003 interview with Dutch TV, he urged terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in Iraq. "Not just the officers, but also the civilians who help the Americans. If anyone so much as fetches them a glass of water, he can be killed," Krekar said.

But in the end, his words would be his downfall. Krekar was indicted last week for threatening death against Norwegian politicians should he be deported.

Among the many indiscriminate statements cited in the indictment, ironically, were statements he made in an interview with the makers of The Wanted -- a small posthumous vindication for a really terrible TV show.

J.M. Berger is editor of Intelwire.com and author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

Exclusive: Inside Darpa’s Secret Afghan Spy Machine


Read more »

world will end October 21, 2011

Posted at 11:13 PM ET, 05/23/2011

Harold Camping says May 21, 2011 was ‘invisible judgment day,’ world will end October 21, 2011



An organization run by Harold Camping of Oakland, Calif. has purchased billboards all over the country proclaiming May 21st would mark the end of the world. (Chris Pietsch)
You’ve been warned.
Radio evangelist Harold Camping said in a special broadcast Monday night on his radio program Open Forum that his predicted May 21, 2011 Rapture was “an invisible judgment day“ that he has come to understand as a spiritual, rather than physical event.

“We had all of our dates correct,” Camping insisted, clarifying that he now understands that Christ’s May 21 arrival was “a spiritual coming” ushering in the last five months before the final judgment and destruction.
In an hour and a half broadcast, Camping walked listeners through his numerological timeline, insisting that his teaching has not changed and that the world will still end on October 21, 2011.
“It wont be spiritual on October 21st,” Camping said, adding, “the world is going to be destroyed all together, but it will be very quick.”
Camping had previously pointed to October 21 as the last day on earth for all humanity.
His former assertion was that a faithful three percent would be physically pulled into heaven by God through the Rapture on May 21, to be followed by a five month period of great suffering known as the Tribulation, ending, finally, on October 21. On Monday’s broadcast, Camping speculated that perhaps a merciful God decided to spare humanity five months of “hell on earth.”
Camping’s belief system is one part mainstream Christian teaching and another part pure Camping. While many Christians accept similar teachings on the end times, (Pew has found that 41 percent of Americans think Jesus will “definitely or probably return to Earth before 2050”) most reject the idea that you can either know God’s exact timeline or that the Bible is embedded with secret codes.
See you in October.

Palestinians face a dangerous U.N. clash on statehood

By Ziad J. Asali, Published: July 21
WP

A potentially dangerous confrontation looms in September over the question of Palestinian statehood, one that threatens significant negative consequences for all parties. It is in the interests of all constructive actors to find a compromise that avoids such a confrontation.

Palestinians are impelled by frustration and despair about the impasse in the peace process — a frustration shared by many Israelis, Americans and others. It is, however, Palestinians who live under occupation, which gives them a justified sense that the status quo is intolerable. The diplomatic impasse created a demand for any mechanism for progress; hence the appeal of approaching the United Nations with a request for membership.

But as Palestinians started pursuing this policy, several crucial facts become clear:

First, the United States indicated unequivocally that it would veto in the Security Council a Palestinian application for U.N. membership, making such membership impossible at this time. Moreover, Congress has sent a strong message that U.N. action on Palestinian statehood would result in a cutoff of U.S. aid, and the United States is the single biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority.

Second, Palestinian hopes for securing support for U.N. membership from a unified European community have been dashed by the open opposition of some countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, and by a lack of support from nations such as Britain and France, which hold key swing votes.

Third, Israel is threatening unspecified unilateral retaliation.

Fourth, there is a significant danger of widespread outrage among Palestinians if a U.N. effort fails, with serious potential for unrest. Outrage can also be expected if a U.N. initiative succeeds but produces no improvement or even leads to deterioration in Palestinians’ living conditions.

The significant gains that Palestinians have made recently in building institutions and preparing for their state must not be put at risk. And, regardless of what happens at the United Nations, Israel must cease its policy of publicly adopting a two-state solution while undermining the realization of that outcome with counterproductive actions.

Perhaps the most significant concern for Palestinians would be the potentially grave consequences of a U.S. veto in the Security Council on the question of statehood.

Last year the United States vetoed a resolution regarding Israeli settlement activity. Despite some Palestinians’ claims of a political victory, the cost of that defeat was enormous. Since then, Israel has effectively had a free hand in settlement expansion, with virtually no international, and even muted Palestinian, objections. If the veto on the settlements resolution effectively killed that issue, what would the consequences be of a veto on a statehood resolution?

There are, at least, options for avoiding this confrontation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestine Liberation Organization officials have repeatedly said that they prefer negotiations and have asked for clear terms of reference to be presented. In that event, they have promised to negotiate and shelve any approach to the United Nations.

The Obama administration has been attempting to lay the groundwork for resumed negotiations on the basis laid out by the president in May: talks based on the 1967 borders with mutually agreed-upon land swaps. President Obama promised the Palestinians a “full and phased withdrawal of Israeli forces” from the area that will become the Palestinian state and called for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state.” The Obama principles have yet to be translated into clear negotiating terms of reference. The international group known as “the Quartet” — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — has failed to agree on these ideas, but efforts continue with Tony Blair, its representative, returning to the region to pursue discussions with Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

A confrontation could be avoided by crafting a resolution in the General Assembly that would upgrade Palestinian representation at the United Nations, with an outline of the final-status issues based on the Obama speeches. Such a compromise could produce a limited but tangible Palestinian diplomatic accomplishment without a veto of statehood in the Security Council.

There is no doubt that Palestinians, with the support of their allies in the Arab League, are well within their rights to seek U.N. membership and to push for bilateral recognition from the rest of the world after decades of occupation, failed resistance and negotiations.

But all parties must seriously evaluate the consequences of any action that could damage the real prospects for Palestinian statehood in the near term; further degrade relations with the United States and possibly lead to a cutoff in American aid; and yield no improvements in Palestinian living conditions under occupation.

Countries that support a potential Palestinian confrontation with the United States at the United Nations in September should be ready to shield Palestinians from its financial, political and security consequences. If not, they should help them find a workable compromise.

The writer is founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine.

Send suspected terrorists to Guantanamo — not New York

By Joseph I. Lieberman and Kelly Ayotte, Published: July 21
The Washington Post

The United States has a first-rate, professionally run facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that is designed for terrorist detentions, interrogations and military trials. So why would a suspected Somali terrorist, captured half a world away, be held on a Navy ship for two months of interrogations and then brought to a New York federal court for trial? In our opinion, there is no good reason.

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a member of al-Shabab with close ties to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was captured in April on a boat traveling between Yemen and Somalia. He stands accused of providing material support to AQAP and al-Shabab, as well as conspiring to teach the making of explosives.

AQAP is a franchise of the al-Qaeda terrorist network that operates out of Yemen and is widely viewed as the most dangerous and operationally active al-Qaeda affiliate. The group played an important role in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempted “underwear bombing” of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009 and the 2010 plot to ship package bombs to the United States.

Al-Shabab has traditionally focused on Somalia but in the past pledged its allegiance to Osama bin Laden and claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Uganda last year that killed more than 70 people. Increasingly, al-Shabab appears to be adopting an agenda that extends well beyond Somalia.

Given the activities that Warsame is suspected of having engaged in and his affiliation with two groups the State Department has designated as international terrorist organizations, the logical place for the Obama administration to have sent him was Guantanamo Bay — he is a suspected enemy combatant in our global war against Islamist terrorism, not a suspected common criminal.

When an enemy combatant is captured, the primary focus should be intelligence-gathering, not criminal prosecution. This is because intelligence allows us to stay ahead of the enemy and prevent future attacks. If enemy combatants know that they will be held on naval vessels at sea for a relatively short duration before being transferred to civilian courts, they will have every incentive to refuse to cooperate. In contrast, the enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay for long-term detention under the law of war or awaiting a military tribunal can be interrogated for as long as necessary in order to gain intelligence needed for operations such as the Osama bin Laden raid. The Guantanamo detainees are treated in a manner that conforms to international law and honors American values.

Moreover, the administration’s decision to send Warsame to New York ignores the advantages of trying suspected terrorists at Guantanamo and is in direct contravention of Congress’s clear intent that terrorists captured abroad should not stand trial on American soil. Guantanamo has a state-of-the-art courtroom that was designed to safeguard classified information and avoid the risks associated with a terrorism trial in a U.S. city. Americans overwhelmingly opposed Attorney General Eric Holder’s plan to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York — a decision the administration later reversed, sending Mohammed to Guantanamo for a military tribunal.

The events surrounding the Warsame case are not the only evidence of the need for a clear, cohesive policy for detaining and interrogating terrorists.

In June, we had the opportunity to question Adm. William McRaven during his confirmation hearing to be the next head of Special Operations Command. McRaven, who oversaw the raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed, testified that it “would be very helpful” to have a designated location for the long-term detention and interrogation of terrorist detainees.

Given the administration’s unwillingness to use Guantanamo for new detainees, we discussed with McRaven where the military would detain a terrorist captured outside of Iraq or Afghanistan. He said such detainees would be transferred to a third country, prosecuted in an American court or released. That is an unacceptable set of choices to give our military.

In the Senate, we have written a number of legislative proposals that aim to establish an effective terrorist detention policy. Our legislation would keep the Guantanamo Bay facility open for the detention, interrogation, and trial of current and future terrorist detainees; prevent Guantanamo detainees from being brought to the United States; and permanently limit the transfer of detainees from Gitmo to foreign countries.

With our nation at war against violent extremists, our military should not be pressured to detain and interrogate dangerous terrorists on an ad hoc basis or even to release them. The Warsame case highlights the urgent need for a legislative solution that sets forth clear guidelines and protects the American people. We believe that is exactly what our legislation would accomplish.

Joseph I. Lieberman is an independent Democrat from Connecticut. Kelly Ayotte is a Republican from New Hampshire. Both serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.