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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (113537)	8/31/2003 5:55:19 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Salam Pax is good today, mostly about the car bomb in Najaf: dear_raed.blogspot.com He links to Riverbend, the "girl" Iraqi blogger: >>The ride that took 20 minutes pre-war Iraq, took 45 minutes today. There were major roads completely cut off by tanks. Angry troops stood cutting off access to the roads around the palaces (which were once Saddam’s but are now America’s palaces). The cousin and E. debated alternative routes at every checkpoint or roadblock. I stayed silent because I don’t even know the city anymore. Now, areas are identified as “the one with the crater where the missile exploded”, or “the street with the ravaged houses”, or “the little house next to that one where that family was killed”. The looting and killing of today has changed from the looting and killing in April. In April, it was quite random. Criminals were working alone. Now they’re more organized than the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) and the troops combined. No one works alone anymore- they’ve created gangs and armed militias. They pull up to houses in minivans and SUVs, armed with machineguns and sometimes grenades. They barge into the house and demand money and gold. If they don’t find enough, they abduct a child or female and ask for ransom. Sometimes the whole family is killed- sometimes only the male members of the family are killed. For a while, the men in certain areas began arranging ‘lookouts’. They would gather, every 6 or 7 guys, in a street, armed with Klashnikovs, and watch out for the whole area. They would stop strange cars and ask them what family they were there to visit. Hundreds of looters were caught that way- we actually felt safe for a brief period. Then the American armored cars started patrolling the safer residential areas, ordering the men off the streets- telling them that if they were seen carrying a weapon, they would be treated as criminals. Most of the gangs, at least the ones in Baghdad, originate from slums on the outskirts of the city. ‘Al-Sadir City’ is a huge, notorious slum with a population of around 1.5 million. The whole place is terrifying. If you lose a car or a person, you will most likely find them there. Every alley is controlled by a different gang and weapons are sold in the streets… they’ll even try out that machinegun you have your eye on, if you pay enough. Americans don’t bother raiding the houses in areas like that… raids are exclusively for decent people who can’t shoot back or attack. Raids are for the poor people in Ramadi, Ba’aquba and Mosul.<< riverbendblog.blogspot.com and Shiapundit: >>still in existence. Bill points to this footnote on page 78 of The Qur'an: A Short Introduction: The Rafidis, usually descripted as "a group of extremist Shi'is" alleged the 'Uthman had expunged some verses from the Qur'an (Zarkashi 1972 1:240). Literally, meaning "repudiators", the term was also used as a term of abuse by some Sunni theologians for all Shi'is. None of the earlier Shi'i groups that rejected the authenticity of the 'Uthmannic canon are still in existence. and notes "The last sentence is phrased oddly." Agreed. It is interesting to see how the Qur'anic sanction of taqqiyyah (dissimulation) is interpreted by Sunni polemicists. Thankfully, their scorn blinds them to its use.<< shiapundit.blogspot.com Taqqiyyah - oh taqqiyyah - is this the reason the Middle East is such a pit of snakes and hall of mirrors (these metaphors demand a suitable mix but can't think of one)? It's ok to lie to an unbeliever, and anybody who doesn't believe exactly the same way you do is an unbeliever. al-islam.org

To: Ilaine who wrote (113537)	8/31/2003 7:34:18 PM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Jack Van Impe Question Of The Week Do you think President Bush, a Christian man, believes or knows he's involved with prophetic events concerning the Middle East and the final battle between good and evil? Response: First of all, Billy Graham led George W. Bush Jr. to the Lord Jesus Christ when he visited the White House. President Bush has attended many of Billy Graham's crusades and during those crusades, Billy Graham always preaches once or twice on Christ's return and all the prophetical signs. Secondly, Rexella and I were in the home of President Bush Senior. What a great time we had with his wife Barbara, in fact, she's even written us four personal letters and we have them hanging up in our memorabilia room. We gave her the message on video, "The Coming War with Russia" and many of our books to share with her husband, George Bush Sr. Of course, I now have sent the video, "Jerusalem: War or Peace" to all the leaders of our nation. A teacher from Texas who lives down the street from the Bush's and is a personal friend to them, asked me to come to Texas so I could personally hand him a copy. I said I couldn't because I'm just swamped with work to do, so she said she'd personally see that he gets a copy. I know that he as seen this video, "Jerusalem: War or Peace". His brother in Florida, Jeb Bush, has seen it because he wrote me the most heartfelt letter. So, yes, I think George W. knows that he's destined for this final hour in prophetic history. jvim.com