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The United States' Clandestine Armies Plunge Us Deeper Into Violence

The United States' Clandestine Armies Plunge Us Deeper Into Violence

Monday, 20 August 2012 09:23

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed

 

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(Photo: Shadow figure via Shutterstock)

A Swedish documentary filmmaker released a film last year called "Last Chapter—Goodbye Nicaragua." In it he admitted that he unknowingly facilitated a bombing, almost certainly orchestrated by the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, which took the lives of three reporters I worked with in Central America. One of them, Linda Frazier, was the mother of a 10-year-old son. Her legs were torn apart by the blast, at La Penca, Nicaragua, along the border with Costa Rica, in May of 1984. She bled to death as she was being taken to the nearest hospital, in Ciudad Quesada, Costa Rica.

The admission by Peter Torbiornsson that he unwittingly took the bomber with him to the press conference was a window into the sordid world of espionage, terrorism and assassination that was an intimate part of every conflict I covered. It exposed the cynicism of undercover operatives on all sides, men and women who lie and deceive for a living, who betray relationships, including between each other, who steal and who carry out murder. One knows them immediately. Their ideological allegiances do not matter. They have the faraway eyes of the disconnected, along with nebulous histories and suspicious and vague associations. They tell incongruous personal stories and practice small deceits that are part of a pathological inability to tell the truth. They can be personable, even charming, but they are also invariably vain, dishonest and sinister. They cannot be trusted. It does not matter what side they are on. They were all the same. Gangsters.

All states and armed groups recruit and use members of this underclass. These personalities gravitate to intelligence agencies, terrorist cells, homeland security, police departments, the special forces and revolutionary groups where they can live a life freed from moral and legal constraints. Right and wrong are banished from their vocabulary. They disdain the constraints of democracy. They live in this nebulous underworld to satisfy their lusts for power and violence. They have no interest in diplomacy and less in peace. Peace would put them out of business; for them it is simply the temporary absence of war, which they are sure is inevitable. Their job is to use violence to purge the world of evil. And in the United States they have taken as hostages our diplomatic service and our foreign policy establishment. The CIA has become a huge private army, as Chalmers Johnson pointed out in his book "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic," that is "unaccountable to the Congress, the press or the public because everything it does is secret." C. Wright Mills called the condition "military metaphysics"—"the cast of mind that defines international reality as basically military."

Since the attacks of 9/11 the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)—which includes the Green Berets, the Army Rangers and the Navy SEALs—has seen its budget quadrupled. There are now some 60,000 USSOCOM operatives, whom the president can dispatch to kill without seeking congressional approval or informing the public. Add to this the growth of intelligence operatives. As Dana Priest and William M. Arkin reported in The Washington Post, "Twenty-four [new intelligence] organizations were created by the end of 2001, including the Office of Homeland Security and the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Task Force. In 2002, 37 more were created to track weapons of mass destruction, collect threat tips, and coordinate the new focus on counterterrorism. That was followed the next year by 36 new organizations; and 26 after that; and 31 more; and 32 more; and 20 or more each in 2007, 2008, and 2009. In all, at least 263 organizations have been created or reorganized as a response to 9/11."

There are now many thousands of clandestine operatives, nearly all of them armed and equipped with a license to kidnap, torture and kill, working overseas or domestically with little or no oversight and virtually no transparency. We have created a state within a state. A staggering 40 percent of the defense budget is secret, as is the budget of every intelligence agency. I tasted enough of this subterranean world to fear it. When you empower these kinds of people you snuff out the rule of law. You empower criminals and assassins. One of these old CIA operatives, Felix Rodríguez, was in El Salvador when I was there during the war in the early 1980s. He wore Che Guevara's Rolex watch. He had removed it from Guevara's body after ordering Guevara to be executed in the Bolivian jungle. I would later run into clandestine operatives in the Middle East, Africa or Yugoslavia I knew from the wars in Central America. We would invariably chat briefly in Spanish. It was a strange fraternity, even if I was the outsider. The Great Game.

These black forces have created as much havoc, or blowback, in the Middle East as they did in Latin America. And by the time they are done there will be so many jihadists willing to blow themselves up to vanquish America, the Islamic radicals will be running out of explosives. These clandestine operatives peddle a self-fulfilling prophecy. They foment the very instability that allows them to continue to proliferate like cockroaches. The dozens of CIA kidnappings—"extraordinary renditions"—of radical Islamists in the late 1990s, especially from the Balkans, many shipped to countries such as Egypt where they were tortured and murdered by our allies, was the fuse that lit the al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the attacks on the Navy destroyer Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000. Militant Islamists had publicly vowed reprisals for these renditions.

"Let me tell you about these intelligence guys," President Lyndon Johnson is quoted as saying in Robert M. Gates book "From the Shadows." "When I was growing up in Texas, we had a cow named Bessie. I'd get her in the stanchion, seat myself, and squeeze out a bail of fresh milk. One day, I'd worked hard and gotten a full pail of milk, but I wasn't paying attention and old Bessie swung her shit-smeared tail through that bucket of milk. Now, you know, that's what these intelligence guys do. You work hard and get a good program or policy going, and they swing a shit-smeared tail through it."

These operatives invariably prey on the useful idiots, those naive idealists who bind themselves to a cause and are oblivious to the evil they serve, or to those simply greedy for money and a little power. Joseph Conrad got it right in "The Secret Agent," his novel about anarchist revolutionaries who recruit the mentally disabled Stevie to place a bomb at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Al-Qaida repeated this scenario when it convinced Richard Reid, a petty criminal who was challenged mentally, to get on an airplane with a shoe bomb. The CIA is no different. When the CIA could not induce the Chilean army commander, General René Schneider, to overthrow the elected government of Salvador Allende, it recruited Chilean soldiers to assassinate him. The CIA provided submachine guns, ammunition and $50,000 to the group. It shipped the money and weapons from Washington to Santiago in the regular diplomatic pouch and then hand-delivered the cash and guns to the hit men. On the afternoon of Oct. 22, 1970, the killers surrounded Schneider's car and shot him. He died three days later. Allende was overthrown in a U.S.-orchestrated coup on Sept. 11, 1973. And this is, basically, what happened in the La Penca bombing in Nicaragua in 1984. Torbiornsson, one of those dimwitted "internationalists" who showed up in Managua under the guise of journalism or solidarity, allowed himself to be used by the Sandinista intelligence service. The target of the bombing was the mercurial rebel leader Eden Pastora, once a commander with the Sandinistas who had defected to fight for the U.S.-backed Contras (the CIA found him as unmanageable as the Sandinistas had) before returning to become part of the Sandinista government in Managua. Pastora was wounded in the blast.

I was in El Salvador in May 1984 when Pastora offered to hold a meeting with journalists in La Penca. It was a long way to travel for one story. I decided in the end not to make the trip with my colleagues. It was a decision that may have saved my life.

What none of us knew until Torbiornsson's admission is that he had been approached by Sandinista intelligence officials and asked to take along a Sandinista spy whose name was supposedly Per Anker Hansen. When the bombing was first investigated, Torbiornsson lied. He told investigators that he had met Hansen, who passed himself off as a Danish photographer, six weeks before the bombing, when they stayed in the same hotel in Costa Rica. Now Torbiornsson concedes he was introduced to Hansen in Managua. He said that though he knew Hansen was a spy he had no inkling he was an assassin.

"It took me a long time to understand that it was my friends who put the bomb," Torbiornsson told the BBC in speaking of the Sandinistas. "It has been like a wound in my soul. ... I cannot emphasize how sorry I am."

Hansen was, according to an investigation carried out by reporters Juan Tamayo and Doug Vaughn at The Miami Herald, in fact named Vital Roberto Gaguine. He worked clandestinely with the Sandinistas in the 1980s and was a member of the Argentine People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). He brought and ignited the bomb. He reportedly died in 1989 while carrying out an armed assault with 18 others on army barracks outside Buenos Aires. Enrique Haraldo Gorrioran, who was the commander of the ERP cell in Managua and who ordered the barracks attack, but who did not take part, is reputed to have been a double agent, sending Gaguine and his companions to assured slaughter. He is reportedly living in Brazil from the earnings the revolutionary group made from kidnappings and bank robberies. Trust is exiled in this world. Those who willingly sacrifice others are often themselves sacrificed.

The Newsweek correspondent Susan Morgan, standing in the front, shielded Torbiornsson from the full force of the blast. Morgan suffered serious injuries in one arm, her legs and face. The BBC recently ran a video clip of Morgan confronting the hapless Torbiornsson, who seems still unable to fully understand his culpability.

The killers and the paymasters, the spies and gangsters, the terrorists and jihadists, on all sides of the divide, have grown in numbers to carry out a vast war in the shadows. They are determined to perpetuate the senseless violence and mayhem that are the currency of their profession. And they make peace and diplomacy impossible. That is their goal. Sen. Frank Church in 1975, after chairing a Senate committee investigation into U.S. intelligence activities, defined "covert action" as a "semantic disguise for murder, coercion, blackmail, bribery, the spreading of lies, and consorting with known torturers and international terrorists."

The multitudes of crimes these killers, torturers, kidnappers, propagandists, special operations units and spies have carried out in our name are well known to those outside our gates. There are hundreds of millions of people who have a tragic intimacy with the twisted and brutal soul of American imperialism. Okinawans. Guatemalans. Cubans. Congolese. Brazilians. Argentines. Indonesians. Iranians. Palestinians. Panamanians. Vietnamese. Cambodians. Filipinos. South Koreans. Taiwanese. Nicaraguans. Salvadorans. Afghans. Iraqis. Yemenis. Somalis. They can all tell us who we are, if we can listen. But we do not. We are as ignorant, gullible and naive as children. We celebrate fictitious red-white-and-blue virtues while our clandestine armies, which at times achieve short-term objectives but always finally plunge us deeper into violence, have steadily weakened and discredited the nation as well as the purported values for which it stands. These clandestine armies travel the globe, awash in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, sowing dragon's teeth that rise up later, like the warriors in the myth of the Golden Fleece, to become mirror images of our own monstrosities.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.

CHRIS HEDGES

Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.

Islam and Taxation

Islam and Taxation

Tax is one of the very few aspects of life which are certain alongside death according to the well known saying. Taxation is the system states use to raise money to finance government spending. Governments use tax revenues to pay the army and police, to build dams and roads, to operate schools and hospitals, to provide food to the poor and medical care to the elderly, and for hundreds of other purposes. Without taxes to fund its activities, government could not exist.

Throughout history, people have debated the amount and kinds of taxes that a government should impose, as well as how it should distribute the burden of those taxes across society. Unpopular taxes have caused public protests, riots, and even revolutions. In political campaigns, candidates' views on taxation often determine their popularity with voters. From an economic aspect taxation transfers wealth from households and businesses to the government of a nation. The side-effects of taxation and theories about how best to tax are an important subject in microeconomics. Taxation is almost never a simple transfer of wealth. Economic theories of taxation approach the question of how to minimise the loss of economic welfare through taxation and also discuss how a nation can perform redistribution of wealth in the most efficient manner.

Taxation and the Economy

Fiscal policy is used by governments around the world to influence the level of aggregate spending in the economy, although this method has lost influence as a lever by most governments until the 1980's this was the main method to ensure an economy never overheated and curtail inflation, during the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan using taxes to control an economy gave way to monetarism i.e. the use of interest rates and money supply.

Taxation is the most important source of revenues for modern governments, typically accounting for 90% or more of their income. The remainder of government revenue comes from borrowing Countries differ considerably in the amount of taxes they collect. In the United States, about 30 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of economic output, went for tax payments in 2000. The 30 percent figure is relatively low from a historical standpoint. As a result of a new round of tax cuts in 2003, the tax percentage share of GDP was expected to be lower than at any time since 1959 when many major government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, did not exist. In Canada about 35 percent of the country's gross domestic product goes for taxes. In France the figure is 45 percent, and in Sweden it is 51 percent.

Types of Taxes

Governments impose many types of taxes. In most developed countries, individuals pay income taxes when they earn money, consumption taxes when they spend it, property taxes when they own a home or land, and in some cases estate taxes when they die. In the United States, federal, state, and local governments all collect taxes. Taxes on people's incomes play critical roles in the revenue systems of all developed countries. In the United States, personal income taxation is the single largest source of revenue for the government. In 2006 it accounted for nearly 50% of all federal revenues.

Consumption taxes symbolise the West, such tax is levied on sales of goods or services. The most important kinds of consumption taxes are general sales taxes, excise taxes, value-added taxes, and tariffs. A general sales tax imposes the same tax rate on a wide variety of goods and, in some cases, services.

When the British government implemented a system of local poll taxes in 1990, citizens considered the tax so unfair that they held demonstrations-some violent-around the country. The extreme unpopularity of the tax contributed to the downfall of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her successor, John Major, repealed the tax in 1991. In the United States, the 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited the payment of poll taxes as a requirement for voting in federal elections.

Issues in Fiscal policy

The level of taxation in any nation will affect people's behaviour, including their choices in working, saving, and investing. Taxation in the West has created a number of problems in wealth distribution where the burden falls heavily upon the poor with the rich utilising tax loopholes and tax havens.



A simple example to understand this is in the UK one would be liable for Income tax and national insurance contributions which brings the tax burden to 34%. Add to this consumption taxes, local government taxes, road taxes and other indirect taxes then the tax burden falls close to the 50% mark. Whichever tax regime is used progressive or regressive the tax burden remains very high in the West and drastically affects consumer spending. The level of spending in any economy is affected by the level of taxation. A high tax burden can have a drastic effect on the overall economy especially in the West where spending plays a key role.

Investment decisions by companies are also affected by taxation, investment includes such items as machines, factories, computers, trucks, and office furniture. The return on a physical investment is the amount by which the investment increases the business's revenues. How do taxes affect physical investment? In effect, a tax on business income is a tax on the physical investment's return-the tax reduces the firm's income and thus the benefit from making the investment. Most economists believe that business taxes decrease the amount of physical investment by businesses.

Taxes also influence the types of physical investments that businesses make. This is because the government taxes returns on some types of investments at higher rates than others. These differences cause businesses to make investment decisions based on tax consequences, rather than whether they are sound from a business point of view. By distorting physical investment decisions, the tax system leads to an inefficient pattern of investment.

The amount of taxes represents a recurring debate in the West as an example in the UK Companies are liable for an excise duty when they drill oil from the ground, once it leaves the factory after being refined it is liable for tax and then motorists are liable for either a duty or a consumption tax when they fuel their vehicles. Here the same oil was taxed three times. Fundamentally the problem or debate remains should income be taxed or wealth, governments in the developing world continue to argue that the level of taxation is necessary for them to carry out the functions of the government. More then 40% of government expenditure every year is spent on social security and national health systems.

Islamic Tax?

Islam has a completely different perspective on the economy and tax as the Islamic basis is different to that of capitalism. Fundamentally taxation in Islam and under the khilafah puts the emphasis of taxation on wealth rather than income. The Islamic taxation system does not tax income, but taxes wealth. This means that the average person will be left with more disposable income and will be liable for tax on whatever wealth is left at the end of the year. This will have a significant effect on the economy. If we take figures from the British economy, and incorporate them in an Islamic model we can demonstrate the effect of this. In 2007 the average UK salary is £23,244, and the tax burden on this salary is 34% (income tax and National insurance together), which is just under £8000. This alongside indirect taxation (that is taxation on spending rather than income) as well as council tax, road tax, sales tax and so forth mean that the real tax burden falls at closer to the 40-50% mark. This means that the average person in this country is losing between £10,000-12,000 to taxation.

In Islam although simplified, the wealth tax falls at 2.5%. This means that the within one year, the average person can save at is at least £10,000. This means that the average person will have an extra £700 to spend each month as he will not be taxed on his income. Taking into account that the total UK workforce is approx 31 million this means that the extra money flowing around the economy would be £240 billion, if the income was not taxed. Therefore two or three people could easily enter into a business contract to supply some of the demand in the economy for consumer or manufactured goods thereby creating more employment in the economy. The net effect of this is that it will increase demand for goods and services right across the economy which will generate an increase in trade and in turn an increase in wealth for businesses.

The main revenues of the khilafah are:

1. The different types of public property revenues
2. The properties of Zakat
3. Booties (Fai'),
4. Land Tax (Kharaj)
5. Head Tax (Jizya)

The different types of public property revenues

Islam funds the basic needs of its entire population by designating any utility regarded as indispensable for the community, such that its absence would require people to search far and wide for it, i.e. the asset is difficult to find and make use of as it requires refining, as a public property. This means the utilities would be publicly owned and the revenue generated would be administered for the benefit of all citizens. This is derived from the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم "Muslims are partners in three things: in water, pastures and fire". Although the hadith mentioned just three things we can utilize qiyas (analogy) and extend the evidence to cover all instances of indispensable community utilities. Thus water sources, forests of firewood, pastures for livestock and the like are all public utilities as well as oil fields, electricity plants, seas, lakes, public canals, gulfs, straits, dams etc. The Khilafah will impose an admin charge on the people which will be revenue for the state. It will also export oil to nations abroad which will bring in huge amounts of wealth to the states treasury. In 2006 81 million barrels of oil were produced a day 45% of this was from the Muslim world that's nearly 38 million barrels a day, at current oil prices $80 a barrel (12th Oct 2007) that's income of $3 billion a day!

The properties of Zakat

Zakat, the alms is a wealth tax liable on 2.5% of people wealth held for a year. The Zakat properties are kept in a special place in the Bait ul-Mal (state Treasury) and they are not spent except for the eight categories mentioned in the Qur'an. But the Khalifah is allowed to spend them, according to his opinion and Ijtihad, for whom he sees fit of the eight categories. This tax is a wealth distribution tax which is re-distributed to the poor, the needy, those with debts and for the dawah amongst other categories.

Booties (Fai')

This is the wealth that will come under the jurisdiction of the khilafah via the integration of the Muslim world. Islam obliges the Muslims to live under the khilafah which is the political structure of the Islam. The net result of this is the khilafah's economy will continually be integrating other economies as they come under its jurisdiction.

Land Tax (Kharaj)

The Kharaj is a levy imposed on land; it's a type of land tax. The tax is calculated according to the quality of the land and the possible production worth. This will change the landscape of the Muslim world as much of the productive land remains unused today or in the hands of land owners who inherited vast amounts of land by the departing colonialists. This tax will be coupled with a number of other policies; the khilafah will initiate an agricultural revolution by providing grants, cheap rental of land to all its citizens to ensure its agricultural policy is met. Those landowners whose land remains unused for 3 years will have their land confiscated.

Head Tax (Jizya)

The jizya tax is applied to all mature, male dhimmi (non-Muslim citizens) who have the means to pay it. Women and children are exempt as are the poor who have no livelihood.

The jizya is applied according to the prosperity of the dhimmi. In the time of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه he established three different bands of jizya depending on the prosperity of the person.

Islam spreading in southern Maya Mexico - International - Catholic Online

Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Islam spreading in southern Maya Mexico

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) 

August 31st, 2011

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Muslims have settled in rural Mexico and converted at least 500 locals, mostly indigenous Mayans, to Islam in the impoverished state of Chiapas. The conversions are still ongoing but began in 1996 as Europeans arrived in the aftermath of civil conflict in the region. 

CHIAPAS, MEXICO (Catholic Online) - Deep in southern Mexico, one does not expect to find Islam. Mexico is a very Catholic country although protestants, Jehovah Witnesses, and Mormons have made significant inroads there. Islam arrived in Chiapas brought by activist Europeans who came to rebuild the troubled communities.

The first arrivals came in 1996 just as the government started peace talks with the Zapatista rebels. Many locals were converted to evangelical Christianity, at the urging of missionaries from the U.S. and Europe, but Muslims quickly followed and spread a different message beside the Bible. Local converts explain that the Muslims and their families that settled in Chiapas have brought opportunities as well as faith to the people. 

Among the opportunities are  work--for a price. People who convert to Islam are frequently given jobs, which means a stable income. It is mostly Spanish-Muslims that have settled and established restaurants and carpentry shops, and are responsible for most of the conversions, although the sect's spiritual leader is reportedly a Muslim from Scotland. 

In a popular move, the some of the Muslims have proceeded to align themselves with the Zapatistas, and echo their message of rebellion. With this, the Muslim outsiders quickly became insiders amongst the impoverished people. They have spread a message that is anti-capitalist, anti-government, and that people ought to return to the traditional life of Mohammed. 

The traditional life appeals to many who say such ways are also the ways of their ancestors. While acknowledging such ways are primitive, several converts simply say they are more comfortable living in that way and that modern western practices are unnatural for them.

Many complain that evangelical Christianity does not offer enough. Wanting community, and more than just the Bible, newly arrived Muslims have satisfied the people's desires where evangelicals did little by comparison. 

The indigenous Mayan people of Chiapas are ripe for conversion. They have been largely dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of the government who they accuse of seizing land and aligning with wealthy interests at the expense of the native peoples. They claim such abuse has always been. 

Associating Christianity with the establishment, and with their native religion long extinct and impractical, many are more than willing to take up the Quran and listen to a different message. 

In the village of San Cristobal de las Casas, local Muslims have built a mud hut for a mosque and they gather there regularly to pray. Local Muslim immigrants have even paid to send converts on pilgrimages to Mecca.

Mexican-Muslims say they are happy with their conversions. They claim their community is close-knit and relatively free of vice. Such benefits are doubtless attractive to the poor and often troubled people of the region. For now, there are only 500 converts in the region, but with ongoing strife and a continuing influx of Muslims, those numbers are likely to change.

© 2011, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM. 

Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The Long War Journal - Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2011

Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012

Created by Bill Roggio & Alexander Mayer

Since 2004, the US has been conducting a covert program to target and kill al Qaeda and Taliban commanders based in Pakistan's lawless northwest. The program has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters that threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states. See LWJ report, "Analysis: US air campaign in Pakistan heats up" for more details on the program and its effects. Also see "Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012" for the data on the airstrikes.

Information on this page will be updated after each strike. This page was last updated on Jan. 26, 2012.

Killed in 2012:

Abu Yahya al Libi
Abu Yahya was a Libyan citizen, and served as al Qaeda's chief of staff and senior cleric and ideologue.
Date killed: June 4, 2012.

Abu Usman Adil
Abu Usman Adil was the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and spearhead the expansion of the group's operations in Afghanistan.
Date killed: April 29, 2012.

Badr Mansoor
Mansoor, a Pakistani citizen, served as al Qaeda's leader in Pakistan and a key link to the Taliban and Pakistani jihadist groups.
Date killed: Feb. 9, 2012.

Aslam Awan
Awan, who is also known as Abdullah Khorasani, is a deputy to the leader of al Qaeda's external operations network and a Pakistani citizen.
Date killed: Jan. 11, 2012.

Killed in 2011:

Hazrat Omar, Khan Mohammed, Miraj Wazir, and Ashfaq Wazir
Omar was Mullah Nazir's brother who served as the group's operational commander in Afghanistan. Mohammed, a senior deputy to Nazir. Miraj Wazir and Ashfaq Wazir were senior commanders.
Date killed: Oct. 27, 2011.

Ahmed Omar Abdul Rahman
A senior al Qaeda operative with ties to the Haqqani Network. Rahman was a son of the 'Blind Sheikh,' the spiritual leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group who is in prison in the US for his involvement in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
Date killed: Oct. 14, 2011.

Abu Miqdad al Masri
A member of al Qaeda's Shura Majlis who also was involved in al Qaeda's external operations.
Date killed: Oct. 13-14, 2011 (exact date is unclear)

Abd al Rahman al Yemeni
A senior operative who was involved in al Qaeda's external operations network.
Date killed: Oct. 13-14, 2011 (exact date is unclear).

Jan Baz Zadran
Siraj Haqqani's deputy who served as the number three for the terror network.
Date killed: Oct. 13, 2011.

Haleem Ullah
A deputy commander to North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar.
Date killed: Sept. 30, 2011.

Abu Hafs al Shahri
A senior al Qaeda leader who served as the operations chief for Pakistan.
Date killed: Sept. 11, 2011.

Atiyah Abd al Rahman
A senior al Qaeda leader who served as Osama bin Laden's chief of staff and a top operational commander.
Date killed: Aug. 22, 2011.

Ilyas Kashmiri (Unconfirmed)
The leader of al Qaeda's Lashkar al Zil and the operational commander of the Harkat ul Jihad-i-Islami. He also was a member of al Qaeda's external operatiosn council.
Date killed: June 3, 2011.

Abu Zaid al Iraqi
A senior al Qaeda operative who served as the top financial officer in Pakistan.
Date killed: Feb. 20, 2011.

Killed in 2010:

Ibn Amin
A senior al Qaeda and Taliban military commander who led forces in Swat in Pakistan.
Date reported killed: Dec. 17, 2010.

Sheikh Fateh al Masri
Al Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan (or the Khorasan).
Date reported killed: Sept. 25, 2010.

Saifullah Haqqani
A Haqqani Network military commander in Afghanistan and a cousin of Siraj Haqqani. Date reported killed: Sept. 14, 2010.

Qureshi
An Islamic Jihad Group commander who trained Germans and other foreigners in North Waziristan and then sent them back to their home countries.
Date reported killed: Sept. 8, 2010.

Inayatullah
A Taliban military commander based in North Waziristan.
Date reported killed: Sept. 3, 2010.

Abu Ahmed
An al Qaeda military commander who conducted operations in Afghanistan.
Date killed: June 19, 2010.

Sheikh Ihsanullah
An al Qaeda military commander who conducted operations in Afghanistan.
Date killed: June 10, 2010.

Ibrahim
The commander of the Fursan-i-Mohammed Group, an al Qaeda group based in North Waziristan.
Date killed: June 10, 2010.

Osama bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Damjan al Dawsari
A senior operative and key link with the Taliban in South Waziristan, Pakistan. He also facilitated operations in Afghanistan.
Date killed: May 28, 2010.

Mustafa Abu Yazid
Yazid, who is also known and Sheikh Saeed al Masri, is al Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan and top financial official.
Date killed: May 21, 2010.

Sadam Hussein Al Hussami
A senior operative in al Qaeda's external operations network who was involved in the suicide attack that killed seven CIA officials in Khost. Hussami is also known as Ghazwan al Yemeni.
Date killed: March 8, 2010.

Qari Mohammad Zafar
A leader of the al Qaeda and Taliban-linked Fedayeen-i-Islam wanted by the US for attacking the US Consulate in karachi in 2006
Date killed: February 24, 2010.

Mohammed Haqqani
A mid-level Haqqani Network military commander and brother of the group's top military commander Siraj Haqqani.
Date killed: February 18, 2010.

Sheikh Mansoor 
An al Qaeda Shadow Army commander who was based in North Waziristan and operated in eastern Afghanistan.
Date killed: February 17, 2010.

Abdul Haq al Turkistani
A member of al Qaeda's Shura Majlis and the leader of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party.
Date killed: February 14, 2010.

Abdul Basit Usman
The US has a $1 million bounty on Abdul Basit Usman, an Abu Sayyaf master bomb maker, for conducting attacks that murdered civilians. Usman's death is unconfirmed, however.
Date thought killed: January 14, 2010.

Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim An Abu Nidal Organization operative who participated in killing 22 hostages during the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am flight 73.
Date reported killed: January 9, 2010.

Mansur al Shami
An al Qaeda ideologue and aide to Mustafa Abu Yazid.
Date killed: Exact date is not known, he was last seen on As Sahab on January 4, 2010.

Killed in 2009:

Haji Omar Khan
A senior Taliban leader in North Waziristan.
Date killed: December 31, 2010

Abdullah Said al Libi
The top commander of the Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army.
Date thought killed: December 17, 2009 (exact date is not known)

Zuhaib al Zahib
A commander in the Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army.
Date killed: December 17, 2009

Saleh al Somali
The leader of al Qaeda's external network.
Date killed: December 8, 2009

Abu Musa al Masri
A senior al Qaeda explosive expert and trainer.
Date killed: October 21, 2009

Najmuddin Jalolov
The leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, a breakaway faction of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
Najmuddin was closely allied with al Qaeda.
Date killed: September 14, 2009

Maulvi Ismail Khan
A military commander in the Haqqani Network.
Date killed: September 8, 2009

Mustafa al Jaziri
A senior military commander for al Qaeda who sits on al Qaeda's military shura.
Date killed: September 7, 2009

Tahir Yuldashev 
The leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
Date killed: August 27, 2009

Baitullah Mehsud
The overall leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.
Date killed: August 5, 2009

Kifayatullah Anikhel
A Taliban commander under Baitullah Mehsud.
Date killed: July 7, 2009

Mufti Noor Wali
A suicide bomber trainer for the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Date killed: July 3, 2009

Khwaz Ali Mehsud
A senior deputy to Baitullah Mehsud.
Date killed: June 23, 2009

Abdullah Hamas al Filistini
A senior al Qaeda trainer.
Date killed: April 1, 2009

Osama al Kini (aka Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam)
Al Qaeda's operations chief for Pakistan who was wanted for the 1998 bombings against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Date killed: January 1, 2009

Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan
A senior aide to Osama al Kini who was wanted for the 1998 bombings against the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Date killed: January 1, 2009

Killed in 2008:

Abu Zubair al Masri
Served as an explosives expert for al Qaeda as well as a leader.
Date killed: November 21, 2008

Abdullah Azzam al Saudi
Served as liaison between al Qaeda and the Taliban operating in Pakistan's northwest. Azzam facilitated al Qaeda's external operations network. He also served as a recruiter and trainer for al Qaeda.
Date killed: November 19, 2008

Abu Jihad al Masri
The leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and the chief of al Qaeda's intelligence branch, and directed al Qaeda's intelligence shura. He directed al Qaeda's external operations in Egypt.
Date killed: October 31, 2008

Khalid Habib
The commander of the Lashkar al Zil or the Shadow Army, al Qaeda's paramilitary forces in Pakistan's northwest and Afghanistan.
Date killed: October 16, 2008

Abu al Hasan al Rimi
A senior al Qaeda operative.
Date killed: October 2008 - exact date unknown

Abu Ubaidah al Tunisi
An al Qaeda military commander who fought against the Russians in Afghanistan.
Date killed: September 17, 2008

Abu Musa
An al Qaeda operative from Saudi Arabia.
Date killed: September 8, 2008

Abu Qasim
An al Qaeda operative from Egypt.
Date killed: September 8, 2008

Abu Hamza
An explosives expert from Saudi Arabia who served as al Qaeda's commander in Peshawar.
Date killed: September 8, 2008

Abu Haris
A senior al Qaeda military commander from Syria who led more than 250 Arab and Afghan fighters under the guise of the Jaish al Mahdi in Helmand province. He became al Qaeda's operations chief in the tribal areas in 2008.
Date killed: September 8, 2008

Abu Wafa al Saudi
An al Qaeda commander and logistician.
Date killed: September 4, 2008

Abdul Rehman
A local Taliban commander in the Wana region in South Waziristan.
Date killed: August 13, 2008

Abu Khabab al Masri
The chief of al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction program and a master bomb maker.
Date killed: July 28, 2008

Abu Mohammad Ibrahim bin Abi al Faraj al Masri
A religious leader, close to Abu Khabab al Masri.
Date killed: July 28, 2008

Abdul Wahhab al Masri
A senior aide to Abu Khabab al Masri.
Date killed: July 28, 2008

Abu Islam al Masri
Aide to Abu Khabab al Masri.
Date killed: July 28, 2008

Abu Sulayman Jazairi
The chief of al Qaeda's external network. Jazairi was a senior trainer, an explosives expert, and an operational commander tasked with planning attacks on the West.
Date killed: May 14, 2008

Dr. Arshad Waheed (aka Sheikh Moaz)
A mid-level al Qaeda leader.
Date killed: March 16, 2008

Abu Laith al Libi
Senior military commander in Afghanistan and the leader of the reformed Brigade 055 in al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army.
Date killed: January 29, 2008

Killed in 2007:

No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders or operatives were reported killed during the strikes in 2007.

Killed in 2006:

Liaquat Hussain
Second-in-command of the Bajaur TNSM.
Date killed: October 30, 2006

Imam Asad
Camp commander for the Black Guard, al Qaeda's elite bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. Asad was a Chechen with close links to Shamil Basayev.
Date killed: March 1, 2006

Killed in 2005:

Abu Hamza Rabia
Al Qaeda's operational commander. He was involved with two assassination plots against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Date killed: December 1, 2005

Killed in 2004:

Nek Mohammed
A senior Taliban commander in South Waziristan who had links to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
Date killed: June 18, 2004

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes-hvts.php#ixzz23dCTbyTJ

Terrorism in guise of night raids

Terrorism in guise of night raids

Friday, 20 April 2012 05:10 -

The invading forces top commander, John Allen and stooge administration’s Defense Minister, Abdu-ur-Rahim Wardak in Afghanistan signed a deal Sunday, Apr. 08, 2012 supposedly giving the Afghan puppet forces authority over night raids on homes of Afghan civilians.

The head of the puppet administration, Karzai regarded this move as a great step towards the national sovereignty.

A day after this on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby told reporters, "In practical terms, not much has changed." He pointed out that U.S. forces may only obtain an official warrant from an Afghan panel, and that the President Karzai will not hold "a veto" over U.S. night raids carried out in Afghanistan.

“This is not about [giving Afghan officials] a veto at all,” he said.

 Because Afghan law allows warrants to be issued retroactively, that is, the raids could take place before a warrant is obtained, he said

He explicitly said that although the warrants are required for the night raids in accordance with the deal but warrants can be obtained after rather than before the raids.

Lisa Curtis, a South Asia specialist at the Heritage Foundation believes that the US will retain control over night raids conducted by the CIA or associated paramilitary groups.

All the US national security analysts view the agreement as largely symbolic and which will ensure and justify the US permanent military presence after the withdrawal in 2014, however, the night raid operations will continue to happen as they used to do.

The puppet forces will apparently take initiating in the night raids but, in practice,  they will act on the order of the US invading commanders and allow the warrants of what the US invaders want them to be issued.  Afghan judicial officials will not be authorized to prevent the capture of civilians and that the instruction and permission of the US commanders will be sought before every night raid and release of a detainee captured in nigh raids.

In such circumstances, as they put it (quick reaction times) the US will hold the veto-power, that is, the US forces will have authority over the capture or release of the detainees.

Giving that, what may “the Afghans authority over night raids “signify? Will this “pact “not imply throwing dust into the eyes of Afghans and the world?

The “agreement” follows the martyrdom of the renowned sharia scholar, Ustad Qayam-ud-Din and the capture of his family members in Frayab district, Afghanistan suggesting that the existence of such “deal” has not changed the US strategy and attitudes in Afghanistan.

As a matter of fact, “night raid operation” is a form of state terrorism or terrorism, one of the most malicious of its kind the invading forces use for mass harassment, torture and massacre Afghan nation and disrespect of Afghan national culture which contradicts and violates Geneva and United Nations Conventions and all human rights.

According the western media account and statistics, the invading forces conducted 2200 night raids, involving the mass murder of thousands of innocent and defenseless civilians including children, women, and the aged within their compounds before very eyes of their family members, not to mention those held as captives who have disappeared as if vanished in the thin air.

Some western writers have taken the lid off few of  the invading forces shocking war crimes in a series most appalling and malicious ones committed by the invaders across Afghanistan. In one of the articles Jerome Starkey is quoted as saying that there was the heart-breaking incident in an outskirt of Gardez city in Paktia province of Afghanistan in which US forces conducted a night raid and brutally murdered two pregnant woman and a teenage girl and the US forces later claimed that it was done by Taliban, in attempt that the invaders would pin their crime on Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate.                       

 

 After investigations, a British journalist revealed that all victims were civilians and the two pregnant women and teenage girl’s bodies had been manipulated after their deaths in an attempted cover up so as to make it appear as if the crime had been committed by Taliban.

It is not clear how many other similar Afghan civilian casualties have been caused by the western invading forces and have been successfully covered up, as the article put it.

To put it simply, in the first place, do the western invading forces have any evidence to prove that the Afghan civilians detained and martyred during the night raids were or are involved in any destructive activities in America or Europe? If any, they are to come up with the proof, if not, on what grounds and under which law do the western invaders invade and break into the homes of Afghan civilians and martyr the Afghans in their own houses and homeland under the guise of war on terror and involve the Afghans in their own (invaders) brutal terrorism.

On the other hand, it is crystal clear that Mujahideen always conduct their operations during the day and their frontlines and bulwarks are open book across the country.

Why, then, the western invading forces pusillanimously invade civilian homes and murder defenseless Afghan children, women and men in night raids? Why not advance toward the frontlines of Mujahideen during the days (if man enough)?

Isn’t it (night raids) in itself a kind of admission of defeat of the US invaders despite their technological superiority and advanced and superior weaponry against Mujahideen resistance?

A puppet general in Kabul admits, ‘however they (Mujahideen) have upper hand in daytimes but nights are ours’

In fact, even the night raids are not in their (invaders and puppets) favor; nevertheless, Mujahideen are cautious and unwilling during the nights for the fear of taking out the civilians rather than the main targets due to darkness, for what a Mujahid never ever wish to happen is to martyr his own countryman (civilian) with his own hand.

In towns and villages of Afghanistan a characteristic tribal problem is personal enmity. The villagers sometimes , pursue rivalry and enmity  due to property or residential matter in which they seek revenge or  never forget personal enmity or violent hostility rises between cousins, particularly over family matter  or other tribal conflicts, as a result, an individual may link or associate his enemy, an ordinary villager with Mujahideen or as someone involving in the provision of food or shelter for Mujahideen and gets one or another ordinary civilian captured in the Name of Mujahideen commander or governor on the basis of false information provided to the invaders due to personal hostility or tribal conflict who (victim) may later turn out to be an ordinary villager, and about whom the invader may offer their apology saying that it was a mistake on their part and so on. Hundreds of such causes have taken place over and over again.

Thus, yet again, all the US officials and rulers and world nations are reminded that the prevailing ruthless war in the guise of war on terror is not only an illegitimate and colonial war but also an organized butchery and those murdered in this war are either the oppressed civilians or freedom fighters who have not done any harm, injustice and cruelty nor do they indent to do so. They are those with a clear political stance conforming to their religion and culture, who only want to lead a free life in their homeland in the light of such an Islamic system as to secure the rights of all Afghans and religious minorities which may be the hub of peace, justice and progress.

Denial of Afghans’  due rights is a denial of and violation of all human rights and United Nation Convention and amounts to an open hooliganism and explicit cruelty on the part of invading forces who continue with the same in Afghanistan every day.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 April 2012 08:57 )

Video shows Nigeria 'executions' - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Video shows Nigeria 'executions'

Footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show civilians being shot in wake of Boko Haram clashes.

Wiki Defines Boko Haram 

"The group conducted its operations more or less peacefully during the first seven years of its existence.[7] That changed in 2009 when the Nigerian government launched an investigation into the group's activities following reports that its members were arming themselves.[69] Prior to that the government reportedly repeatedly ignored warnings about the increasingly militant character of the organisation, including that of a military officer.[69]

When the government came into action, several members of the group were arrested in Bauchi, sparking deadly clashes with Nigerian security forces which led to the deaths of an estimated 700 people. During the fighting with the security forces Boko Haram fighters reportedly "used fuel-laden motorcycles" and "bows with poison arrows" to attack a police station.[70] The group's founder and then leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed during this time while in police custody. After Yusuf's killing, a new leader emerged whose identity was not known at the time.

Reemergence

After the killing of M. Yusuf, the group carried out its first terrorist attack in Borno in January 2011. It resulted in the killing of four people.[75] Since then, the violence has only escalated in terms of both frequency and intensity."

  

Nigerian police and military units carried out extra-judicial killings last year in the aftermath of clashes with members of a Muslim group in the north of the country, footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to confirm.

An estimated 1,000 people were killed as Nigerian government forces fought Boko Haram in Borno, Yobe, Kano and Bauchi states in July and August of 2009.

But the footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows that many of the deaths occurred only after the fighting was over.

Elements of the police and army staged a follow-up operation in which house-to-house searches were conducted and individuals were apparently selected at random and taken to a police station.

'Shoot him in the chest'

In the video, a number of unarmed men are seen being made to lie down in the road outside a building before they are shot.

As one man is brought out to face death, one of the officers can be heard urging his colleague to "shoot him in the chest not the head - I want his hat".

IN DEPTH

  Profile: Boko Haram 

  Timeline: Tensions in Nigeria

  Nigeria's sectarian crisis

  Rights groups claim police killings

As the executions continue another man is told: "Sit properly we want to take your picture."

The shootings continue as a crowd gathers further up the street in front of the police station.

Voices can be heard saying: "No mercy, no mercy."

After the executions, the army officer who appears to have been in charge of the operation is seen to be handing over command to a senior police officer. Both men are clearly identified by the name tags on their chests.

The family of Baba Fugu Mohammed, a respected community leader, told Al Jazeera that he was among those put to death outside the police station.

"He was killed, he was killed, that's what we believe. He was shot by the police," one relative said.

Fugu Mohammed was the father-in-law of Mohammed Yusuf, the Boko Haram leader whose group had battled the police, but the two had become estranged.

His family said that he had come to help police restore order, but was shot.

'Killings of the innocent'

In the days following the clashes between the police and Boko Haram, the government, police and military repeatedly denied that civilians had been killed by their personnel.

Baba Fugu Mohammed's family says he was among those killed But Nigerian officials have since acknowledged that extra-judicial killings took place and an inquiry was set up to investigate the incident.

"It was obvious [from] what we have seen and from the eye witnesses that the government police were doing the killings of the innocent," Abubakar Umar Garda, a senator and a member of Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic party, told Al Jazeera.

"The government is investigating the incident and as we go along the perpetrators will be put in front of the law and the law will take its course ... the government acknowledged that this was a crime against humanity ... you cannot shoot an unarmed civilian."

Fugu Mohammed's family have given their story to the government commission set up to investigate the events that took place, but they are still waiting to receive an official explanation for the deaths.

Senator Umar Garda could not confirm to Al Jazeera whether there had been any arrests relating to the killings and there have been few tangible signs of the inquiry bringing anyone to account.

Boko Haram leader killed

Aster Van Kregten, a Nigeria expert with rights group Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that the group's research suggested extra-judicial killings were widespread in Nigeria.

An estimated 1,000 people died as police and soldiers battled Boko Haram fighters [AFP] "Our research shows that the Nigerian police are getting away with murder, they killed hundreds of people a year without any investigation - any investigation on whether the use of force was lawful or not," she said.

"What we saw on the footage happened seven month ago and we haven't heard anything from the government whether they have arrested anyone and how far the investigation is going."

Among those killed in the aftermath of the clashes between Boko Haram and the police, was Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf.

In the Al Jazeera footage, he is seen wearing handcuffs and surrounded by heavily armed police officers.

Nigerian police have said that Yusuf was killed while attempting to escape, but he died still wearing the handcuffs.

In another video, which was made available shortly after last year's fighting, Yusuf is shown inside the police station, his body covered with marks and bruises, as he is questioned about the organisation that he led.

It is not known whether the injuries were caused during the fighting, arrest, or detention.

'Extra-judicial killing'

The New York-based Human Rights Watch described Yusuf's death as "an extra-judicial killing".

"The extra-judicial killing of Mr Yusuf in police custody is a shocking example of the brazen contempt by the Nigerian police for the rule of law," Eric Guttschuss, the organisation's Nigeria researcher, said.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is prohibited" in the local Hausa dialect, has called for the nationwide enforcement of a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, even among non-Muslims.

Last year's clashes took place after suspected Boko Haram members, armed with machetes, knives, bows and arrows, and home-made explosives, attacked police buildings and officers.

Nigeria's 140 million people are nearly evenly divided between Christians, who dominate the south, and the primarily northern-based Muslims.

Islamic law was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of military rule.

Jewish settlers spray toxic substance, kill herd of sheep

Jewish settlers spray toxic substance, kill herd of sheep
AUGUST 13, 2012 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE  0 COMMENTS

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– Jewish settlers sprayed toxic substance in Palestinian grazing fields near the town of Yatta, southern al-Khalil, causing the death of a herd of sheep.

The coordinator of the popular committees against the wall and settlement in Yatta, Ratib Al-Jabour, asserted that the herd of sheep, which belonged to Jihad Noajah, had died after grazing in wild herbs, which were sprayed with toxic substances by settlers from Susiya settlement to the southeast of Yatta.

Meanwhile, the head of Wadi al-Maleh village council, Aref Daraghmeh, stated that the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) have ordered Palestinian Bedouins in Wadi al-Maleh in the Jordan Valley to pay excessive fines of up to 15 thousand shekels to retrieve their cattle confiscated a few days ago.

He added that the residents lost numbers of their cows which died during the confiscation raid while others were still held by the IOA even after paying the fines.

Islamic School Hit With Acid-Filled Bottle In Lombard « CBS Chicago

LOMBARD, Ill. (CBS) — An Islamic school in west suburban Lombard is at least the second Muslim institution to report an attack this past weekend.

The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago says the College Preparatory School of America, an Islamic school at 331 W. Madison St. in Lombard, was subjected to vandalism on Sunday night.

The council says someone hurled a 7-Up bottle filled with acid and other unspecified materials at the school during the nighttime Ramadan prayers.

During the prayer session, worshipers heard a loud bang and went to find an empty bottle thrown on the window of the school. No one was injured.

No one was in custody as of just before noon Monday, and there were on suspects, Lombard police told CBS 2.

The latest incident comes just two nights after air rifle shots were fired at a mosque in north suburban Morton Grove.

Authorities began investigating after a Friday night shooting, while worshipers were celebrating the holy month of Ramadan at the Muslim Education Center, 8601 N. Menard Avenue, about 9 p.m., according to police and mosque officials.

Off-duty Chicago Police officers, who have been hired to provide additional security at the mosque during Ramadan activities, called Morton Grove police after they saw an object whiz by and hit the building just above the head of one of the officers, according to Kamran Hussain, Vice President of the Muslim Community Center of Chicago, which owns the mosque.

No one was injured in that incident.

The man suspected of firing the shots – David Conrad, 51, who lives just east of the house of worship – was charged with three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, a class X felony, and one count of criminal damage to property, a class 4 felony.

Police in Morton Grove said prosecutors rejected hate crime charges.

The man’s home abuts the mosque parking lot, which has been cause for a number of disputes between the building’s owners and the neighbor, Hussain said. He has lived there for about 12 years.

Muslim Traitor wants to Assist Enemy

Abbas urges Egypt to destroy underground tunnels 
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
08/11/2012 19:17

For first time, Palestinian Authority publicly calls for destruction of underground tunnels, asking Egypt to destroy those along its border with Gaza to tighten blockade.
PHOTO: ASHLEY BATES
Buoyed by growing tensions between Hamas and Cairo in wake of last week’s terrorist attack in Sinai, the Palestinian Authority on Saturday called on the Egyptians to tighten the blockade on Gaza by destroying all tunnels under their border with the Strip.

The PA said the tunnels did not contribute to the economy in the Gaza Strip and were being used only by a small number of people for personal gain.

Related:
Egypt continues Sinai raids, arrests '6 terrorists'
'IDF entering Egypt to stop entry of asylum seekers'
This was the first time the PA has called publicly for the destruction of the tunnels.

The appeal came as PA officials continued to insist that some of the terrorists who killed 16 Egyptian border guards had come from the Gaza Strip.

The officials hope that tough Egyptian security measures in Sinai, including the destruction of the tunnels, will undermine Hamas’s rule in Gaza and possibly bring about its collapse.

In the past few days, senior officials in Ramallah have been working hard to convince the Egyptians that Hamas and other radical groups in the Gaza Strip were linked – in one way or another – to last Sunday’s attack.

The PA has also provided the Egyptian authorities with the names of several suspects from the Gaza Strip, a PA security source in Ramallah disclosed.

“We have good security ties with the Egyptians and we are trying to help them capture the terrorists,” the source explained. “We have good reason to believe that terrorist groups from the Gaza Strip were involved in the attack.

These groups operate under the watchful eye of the Hamas government and sometimes even receive support from it.”

The Sinai attack came at a time when PA leaders in the West Bank were beginning to express concern over improved relations between Cairo and Hamas in light of the election of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy as president.

Many Egyptians have held Hamas responsible for the attack, claiming the terrorists entered Sinai though tunnels that are under the strict supervision of the Hamas government.

Some Egyptians have urged their government to retaliate by destroying the tunnels and permanently closing the Rafah border crossing to Gaza.

“The Palestinian presidency renews its rejection and condemnation of the criminal act carried out by murderous fundamentalists in Sinai last week and affirms its full solidarity with Egypt,” said Tayeb Abdel Raheem, a top aide to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

“We also fully support all measures carried out by the Egyptian leadership and security forces against the radical and suspicious terrorist groups, including measures needed to close the smuggling tunnels that harm the interests and relations of Palestinian and Egyptians.”

Abdel Raheem said the tunnels had for some time been posing a threat to Egypt’s national security and the unity of the Palestinians.

Dismissing claims that the tunnels were being used to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Abdel Raheem said they served only a small group of people – a reference to Hamas leaders.

“The tunnels have nothing to do with economic prosperity in the Gaza Strip,” he stressed. “The Palestinian Authority allocates more than half its budget for the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas strongly condemned the PA leadership for calling for the destruction of the tunnels and accused Abbas of “cheap opportunism.”

Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, denounced the call as “immoral and irresponsible.”

VERDICT CONCERNING THE DISBELIEF OF THOSE WHO ASSIST UNITED STATES

VERDICT CONCERNING THE DISBELIEF OF THOSE WHO ASSIST UNITED STATES AGAINST THE MUSLIMS OF IRAQ

Translators Preface

All Praises be to Allah Azzawa Jal and His Salat and Salam be upon His Prophet, Muhammad SallaAllahu Allayhi Wassalam and his companions, may Allah be pleased with them all. In the midst of the ongoing events taking place between the United States and the Muslims of Iraq, there are innumerable verdicts that are emerging from the Muslim world. Various scholars throughout the Muslim world in general and in the Arabian Peninsula in particular, have recognized the duty that lies upon their shoulders; therefore, they are freeing themselves from the blame that may fall upon them on the Day of Judgment by informing us of what our stance should be towards this impending war. The verdict given below is just one of the many verdicts that have emerged from the land of the two holy mosques. Seven well-known scholars gave this verdict. Allah Ta'ala granted me the ability to translate it into English so that some of my fellow brothers can also benefit from it. I hope that Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala makes us benefit from what is mentioned in this verdict.
Your brother in Islam,

Abu Qatada

VERDICT

All praises belong to the Lord of the universe, and may His Salat and Salam be upon the noble Prophets, the Messengers and upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and his companions (May Allah be pleased with them all).

To proceed:

Whoever supports the disbelievers, i.e. Americans, or the British, or anyone besides them against the Muslims in Iraq or elsewhere, by any means of support, then it will be considered assisting the disbelievers (Mudhahara) against the believers. Such is disbelief and apostasy that takes one out of the realm of Islam (Millah) as is evident from the book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the consensus of the scholars.

Evidences from the Quran:

Allah Ta'ala says:
O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliya' (friends, protectors, helpers, etc.), they are but Auliya' to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong­doers and unjust). (The Quran 5:51).

Allah Ta'ala also says:

Those of the children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus, son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress. They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily evil was that they used to do! You see many of them making friends with those who disbelieve. Surely ill for them is that which they themselves send on before them: that Allah will be wroth with them and in the doom they will abide. (The Quran 5:78-80)

Evidences from the Sunnah:

Jarir narrated that I came to the Prophet SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam and gave allegiance upon his hand on the conditions that I will worship Allah alone, establish Salat, and pay Zakat, that I will be sincere to every Muslim and that I will leave the Mushriks (polytheists). (An-Nisaai)

Jarir narrated that Allah does not accept the deeds of a disbeliever after he accepts Islam until he separates himself from the disbelievers. (An-Nisaai)

Amr bin Al-'Aas may Allah be pleased with him narrated that I heard Allah's Apostle SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam stating overtly and not secretly that the people of Bani such and such are not my friends (Awliyya), for surely my friend is Allah and the righteous believers. (Bukhari)

Ibn Ishaq and others have narrated an incident on the authority of Yazid bin Roman who narrated on the authority of 'Urwa, who narrated on the authority of Az-Zuhri, who narrated on the authority of others that he named that Abbas, (the uncle of the Prophet SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam) came out with the disbelievers on the day of Badr and was taken as a captive. Abaas said: "O messenger of Allah, (in reality) I was a believer. The Prophet SallaAllahu Allayhi Wassalam said, "Allah is well aware of your Islam. As for your apparent action, it was against us." The Prophet took the ransom of Abbas's freedom just as he took it from the rest of the disbelievers. "You also have to pay for both your own and your nephew's freedom." (Ibn Hisham) [1]

Evidences From the Consensus of the Scholars:

Ibn Hazm Stated in Al-Muhalla (11/138):

"What is correct is that His statement, the Most High, "And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of them." (The Quran 5:51), should be understood on the basis of its apparent meaning. The person being referred to is a disbeliever from the generality of disbelievers, and no two Muslims disagree regarding this."

Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, may Allah have mercy on him, gathered ten actions that negate one's Islam (Nawaqid ul-'Ashr), the eighth one of which states:

"Assisting the disbelievers (against the believers) (Mudhaharatul Mushrikeen) and supporting them against the believers (is from the actions that negates of one's faith). The Proof being the statement of Allah, "And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust). (The Quran 5:51)."

Sheikh Abdul Latif bin Abdur Rahman bin Hassan Aal-Sheikh, may Allah have mercy on him stated (Ad-Durrar 8/326):

"Whosoever helps the disbelievers or draws them to the country of Ahl Al-Islam (People of Islam), then such is a manifest apostate by consensus."

Sheikh Abdullah ibn Humaid may Allah have mercy on him, stated(Ad-Durrar 15/479):

"Whoever expresses Tawalli [2] towards the disbelievers (Tawalli Kuffar) and supports and helps them against the believers, then such constitutes apostasy by one's (proceeding) actions. It is obligatory to apply the rules of apostasy upon such a person as is proved by the book, the sunnah and the consensus of the scholars.

Sheikh Ibn Baz stated (Al-Fatawa 1/274):

"There is a consensus amongst the scholars that whoever supports the disbelievers against the believers (Dhahar Al-Kuffar 'Ala Al-Muslimeen), and assists them by any means of assistance, then he is a disbeliever just like them (the disbelievers he supported)…"

Innumerable scholars both from the past and the present have passed multiple verdicts that helping the disbelievers against the believers is an act of clear apostasy.

We are well-aware that the reality of this current conflict that is taking place between the Americans and their allies against the Muslims in Iraq is only a segment from the segments of the crusade that was announced last year by the head of the crusaders, George Bush. It began in Afghanistan, and this upcoming war on Iraq will be its second segment. The Americans, and their allies will fight against Islam and the Muslims in order to achieve various objectives. Allah Ta'ala says:

Never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him) till you follow their religion. (The Quran 2:120)

Some of the desired objectives of this war are as follows:
1. Continuation of the crusades against the awakening of As-Salafia and Al-Jihadiyaa
2. Curtailing the growth of Salafi Jihadi thought and facilitating its abolishment in the Persian Gulf region, specifically, the Arabian Peninsula and Northern Iraq.
3. Assuring the destruction of any strength that might later gain significance.
4. Gaining complete control over the oil wells.
5. Guaranteeing the security of the Jewish state
6. Terrorizing the Muslims continuously till they submit to the American Taghoot [3].
7. Attempting to divert attention from the devastation that occurred in Afghanistan by achieving a speedy victory in Iraq
8. Altering the geographic map of the area to achieve their own personal benefits.
9. Compensating for the economic loss caused by the Mujahideen (in America)

Knowing such, we should also know that our animosity for the Taghoot of Iraq i.e. Saddam Hussein, and the disbelieving Bathists party does not necessitate that we must help United States against our weak Muslim brothers in Iraq. Neither does our animosity towards America necessitate that we must grant victory to Saddam Hussein, the Taghoot of Iraq and his disbelieving party (Hizb-ul-ba'ath).

On the other hand, we are undoubtedly obliged to assist our Muslim brothers in Iraq (and not the disbelieving government) as is mentioned by Allah Ta'ala:

And what is wrong with you that you fight not in the Cause of Allah, and for those weak, ill-treated and oppressed among men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You one who will protect, and raise for us from You one who will help." (The Quran 4:75)

Muslims in all places are obliged to assist their Muslim brothers in Iraq. Such assistance includes: financial assistance, assisting them in military strength, assisting them with one's own self, with one's speech, by one's pen, with one's counsel and prayer, making dua' ul Qunoot, enticing others to help them, and warning against those who assist against them. Allah Ta'ala says:

And verily! This your religion (of Islamic Monotheism) is one religion (The Quran 23:52)

The Prophet said, "The example of the Believers in their mutual love, mercy and compassion is like the example of a single body; if one part of the body feels pain, then all the body responds with sleeplessness and fever."(Muslim recorded it, narrated by Nu'man ibn Bashir)

We also advise our Muslim brothers in Iraq and elsewhere that they take the appropriate measures (Asbab) for the achievement of victory and establish Tawheed by singling out Allah in worship, abandoning shirk, they must disbelief in Taghoot, and that they perform the obligatory deeds and leave the prohibitions.

Allah Ta'la says:

Worship Allah and join none with Him in worship (The Quran 4:36)

O you who believe! If you help (in the cause of) Allah, He will help you, and make your foothold firm. (The Quran 47:7)

(Verily, Allah will help those who help His (Cause). Truly, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty. The Quran 22:40 )

Verily! Allah will not change the good condition of a people as long as they do not change their state of goodness themselves (by committing sins and by being ungrateful and disobedient to Allah). (The Quran 13:11)

Wa Salla Allahu 'Ala Nabeena Muhammad Wa 'Ala alihi Wa Sahbihi Ajma'een

Names of the Signatories
Ali Al-Khudair
Hamd bin Raees Ar-Raees
Abdullah bin Abdur Rahman As Sa'd
Hamd bin Abdullah Al-Hamdi
Ahmad bin Salih As-Sanani
Nasir bin Hamd al-Fahd
Ahmad bin Hamood Al-Khalidi

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[1] Ibn Ishaq narrates an incident in which he mentions that Quraish sent their representatives to negotiate the release of their prisoners. When the deal was finally negotiated, Abbas, (Uncle of the Prophet SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam) said: "O messenger of Allah SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam, I was compelled to come out with the disbelievers in the battle of Badr, but in reality I was a believer. The Prophet SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam said, "Allah is well aware of your Islam and if it is as you have just stated, then your reward is with Allah. As for your apparent action, it was against us. You also have to pay for your personal and your nephew's freedom." Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) was compelled to come along with the disbelievers and fight the believers but the Prophet SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam dealt with him according to what was apparent for him. He SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam dealt with Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) the same way he dealt with other disbelievers. Then how severe would be the case of those who voluntarily rally to support the disbelievers and give victory to them?

[2] Some scholars have differentiated between Al-Muwalat and Tawalli. Such was the opinion of the scholars of Najd. They have mentioned that Muwalat is like soft speech, and to appear cheerful towards them. As for Tawalli, that entails honoring them (the disbelievers), praising them, to assist and support them over the believers, and other similar actions. For detailed discussion, see (Ad-Durar 15/479)

[3] Taghoot refers to all false gods and leaders. The Taghoot of every people is whoever they worship besides Allah, judge to besides Allah and His Messenger SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam; obey in what is not the obedience of Allah and His Messenger SallaAllahu Alayhi Wasallam.
Disbelief in Taghoot implies five matters:
1. Believing that it is false to worship others besides Allah.
2. Forsaking the worship of others besides Allah.
3. Hating the worship of all others besides Allah.
4. Calling those who worship others besides Allah infidels (kuffar).
5. Showing enmity to those who worship others besides Allah.