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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (584184)	6/20/2004 3:04:44 AM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

It is you and the Kool Aid drinking left that doesn't understand plain English. The NYT has an agenda, and without people like you they would be nothing. Not to worry though....they are slowly proving they are. Talk about deception M Saturday, June 19, 2004 12:28 a.m. EDT NY Times Flip-flops on Iraq-al Qaida Ties The New York Times is so determined to discredit evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaeda that it's now contradicting its own earlier reports that Iraq-based WMD specialist Abu Musab al Zarqawi was ever a key member of al Qaida. In its lead editorial on Saturday, the Times complains that President Bush has cited Zarqawi "as evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda*." Story Continues Below "Mr. Bush used to refer to Mr. Zarqawi as a 'senior Al Qaeda terrorist planner' who was in Baghdad working with the Iraqi government," the paper adds. "But the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, told the Senate earlier this year that Mr. Zarqawi did not work with the Hussein regime, nor [was he] under the direction of Al Qaeda." It turns out, however, that President Bush isn't the only one who used to say that Zarqawi worked closely with al Qaida. Just last month, the Times wrote this about the notorious terrorist: "He is thought to have extensive ties across the militant Islamic movement and is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda's leader. A letter that the American authorities said had been written by Mr. Zarqawi and that they released in March claims his responsibility for some 25 bombings in Iraq." [NYT - May 14, 2004] Two days before that, the Times cited Zarqawi's activities as an example of how al Qaida had decentralized as the U.S. racheted up the pressure in the war on terror: "Though Mr. Zarqawi reportedly has strong ties to Al Qaeda, American officials say he and Al Qaeda operate separately. He is often cited as an example of how Al Qaeda has transformed itself from a tightly knit organization into a far-flung operation comprising free-lance terrorists, drawing on Mr. bin Laden mostly for inspiration and technique." [NYT - May 12, 2004] But Zarqawi wasn't always "free lance," at least not according to what the Times reported in 2002. Back then the paper cited European intelligence experts who had no doubts about Zarqawi's leadership role in al Qaida: "Magnus Ranstorp, a professor at the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, described Mr. Zarqawi as 'one of the top four or five Al Qaeda figures,'" the Times noted without a hint of skepticism. [NYT - April 26, 2002] The paper also quoted Mr. Ranstorp as saying, "Aside from Osama bin Laden, Mr. Zarqawi was one of the most senior Qaeda officers who have been neither captured nor killed." In fact, according to the same Times report, German prosecutors believe that Zarqawi was behind the foiled Millenium bomb plot to blow up LAX airport in December 1999 - considered by experts to be the biggest al Qaida plot against the U.S. before Sept. 11. What about Zarqawi's Iraq connections before the Iraq war - at a time when he was still working under the direction of bin Laden? The Times, along with most media sources, doesn't say much beyond noting that he was fitted with an artificial leg at a Baghdad hospital after fleeing Afghanistan when the Taliban fell. But there's much stronger evidence that Zarqawi was working with Iraq well before the U.S. attacked in March 2003. At least one of the al-Qaida plotters arrested in Jordan in April as part of a foiled WMD plot that Jordanian officials say could have killed 80,000 people, has confessed that he was trained by Zarqawi in Iraq two years before the U.S. attack. In a confession first broadcast on Jordanian television, then rebroadcast by ABC's "Nightline" on April 26, the unnamed WMD conspirator revealed: "In Iraq, I started training in explosives and poisons. I gave my complete obedience to Zarqawi. . . . After the fall of Afghanistan, I met Zarqawi again in Iraq." U.S. forces vanquished the Taliban government in Kabul in December 2001 - fifteen months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Apparently the Times wasn't convinced that a videotaped confession by an al Qaida detainee detailing a pre-war Iraq-Zarqawi-al Qaida connection was very important, since they have yet to cover the story.

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (584184)	6/20/2004 3:49:50 AM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Instapundit - JOE LIEBERMAN UNDERSTANDS what's going on: The Islamist jihadist terrorists who wage holy war against us in Iraq and elsewhere represent a system of values exactly the opposite of America's. There is no better way to know this enemy than to read their words. The father of the jihadist movement, Sayyed Qutb [KUH-tahb] of Egypt, wrote in 1952, "The death of those who are killed for the cause of God gives more impetus to the cause, which continues to thrive on their blood." The cause of which he speaks is to "establish a [Muslim] state" that "sets moral values," "abolish[es] man-made laws" and that would impose, by force if necessary, the Islamic system on "all human beings, whether they be rulers or ruled, black or white, poor or rich, ignorant or learned." This is a radicalized, violent vision of Islam, as yet embraced by only a minority of Muslims. Pluralism of any kind - a diversity of views or faiths - affronts this radical minority's absolutist vision. Their theological totalitarianism leaves no room for individual freedom. Restoring the caliphate - the seat of secular and ecclesiastical power that existed for centuries across a wide territory - is their goal. You can read it in their writings: They would create a new evil empire, stretching from Istanbul to Islamabad, from Khartoum to Kabul, from Kuala Lampur to Bangkok, and beyond. Osama Bin Laden is the leading advocate of this jihadist view in the world today, the current mastermind of this malevolent movement. Every American should carefully read his clearly stated words of intention to know why we must defeat him. In his "Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad," issued in February 1998, Bin Laden says that "to kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim... every Muslim who believes in God and hopes for reward [must] obey God's command to kill the Americans and plunder their possessions wherever he finds them and whenever he can." In his November 1998 "Letter to America," Bin Laden condemned the United States because, he said, like all democracies, it is a "nation who, rather than ruling by the Sharia of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, chooses to invent your own laws as you will and desire." After September 11th attacks, he gloated triumphantly that "the values of Western civilization... of liberty, human rights, and humanity, have been destroyed." In this war of ideas and values, Bin Laden is the quintessential anti-American. . . . The prison abuse scandal has caused many to question our moral standing in Iraq and to use it as an excuse to pull our troops out. That is thoroughly unjustified and profoundly dangerous. As I said earlier, the terrorists will never defeat us militarily. We cannot let them defeat us politically. I'd like to see Lieberman as Kerry's running mate, but I guess that's not going to happen. defenddemocracy.org.

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (584184)	6/20/2004 3:53:34 AM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders World Islamic Front Statement 23 February 1998 Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders. The Arabian Peninsula has never -- since Allah made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas -- been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter. No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone: First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples. If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation. So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors. Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula. All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al-Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: "As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life." On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah." This is in addition to the words of Almighty Allah: "And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? -- women and children, whose cry is: 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'" We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson. Almighty Allah said: "O ye who believe, give your response to Allah and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that Allah cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered." Almighty Allah also says: "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For Allah hath power over all things."