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

To: Garden Rose who wrote (275936)	7/6/2010 7:34:47 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

A Toronto man has been found guilty of trying to send devices to Iran that could be used to build nuclear weapons. A judge today convicted Mahmoud Yadegari of nine of the 10 charges he was facing — he was acquitted of one count of forgery. He will be sentenced July 29. Mr. Yadegari, 36, was arrested in April 2009 after a joint eight-week investigation by the RCMP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is believed to be the only Canadian ever charged under the United Nations Act. Mr. Yadegari was also charged under the Criminal Code, the Customs Act and the Export and Import Permits Act, as well as provisions in Canada's Nuclear Safety and Control Act. Some of the offences Mr. Yadegari was found guilty of carry maximum sentences of 10 years in prison and $500,000 fines. The case has received international attention and even the notice of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In February, Mr. Ahmadinejad proposed that Mr. Yadegari be included in a swap of Iranians in U.S. prisons for three American hikers being held in Tehran. The Iranian-born businessman used his small company, operated out of his Toronto home, to try to export to Iran via Dubai two of 10 pressure transducers he purchased from a U.S. company. The hand-sized instruments convert pressure measurements into electrical signals for computers and other electronic devices. They have benign applications but can be used in the enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is enriching uranium to produce nuclear energy for civilian purposes. But the United States and some European countries accuse Tehran of secretly seeking to build nuclear weapons. At a news conference following his arrest, police said Mr. Yadegari purchased the transducers from a Boston-area company for about $1,100 each. Police said the company alerted authorities. Mr. Yadegari is a Canadian citizen who emigrated from Iran in 1998. theglobeandmail.com

To: Garden Rose who wrote (275936)	7/6/2010 8:13:06 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

R u ok Rosita? h/t unclewest... Iranian Family Works to Save Mother From Stoning AOL News (July 6) -- The fate of an Iranian mother of two sentenced to be stoned to death at any time hung in the balance today as a last-minute campaign to save her gathered strength and her lawyer said even he did not know what the outcome will be. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, who was convicted of adultery in 2006, is "very frightened and very sad" as she sits in a prison cell in Tabriz and worries about the two children she has not seen in four years, said her lawyer. Her son and daughter started the crusade to save her. "Sakineh is supposed to be stoned to death, and I still think it could happen at any time," her lawyer, Mohammed Mostafaei, told AOL News in a telephone interview from Iran Tuesday. "She feels helpless and hopeless," he said. "She says she is not guilty, but the government says she is guilty. The conviction is a sham. I would like to think that the news of this case will help her, but I can't be sure." Mina Ahadi, head of the International Committee Against Stoning and the Death Penalty, told AOL News today that the Iranian government may meet Saturday to decide Ashtiani's fate. Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist who fled Iran for Germany in the 1980s, began helping Ashtiani's children, Sajad, 22, and Farideh, 17, spearhead a campaign to raise public awareness about their mother. "I spoke to her son today, and he has a little bit of hope," Ahadi said. "Sometimes these death sentences are overturned because of public pressure." Though Iran supposedly enacted a moratorium on stoning in 2002, the practice has continued, according to Iranian human rights activists and Amnesty International. About 40 stonings were reported in Iran between the 1979 Islamic Revolution and 1997. Since 2002, men and women alike have been stoned despite the moratorium, but reliable statistics are difficult to come by, according to Ahadi. Under Sharia law in Iran, a woman's death by stoning involves being buried up to the neck and having stones hurled at her head. The law even specifies the size of the stones: not so big that the victim dies quickly, but not so small that death takes an inordinately long time. Sakineh received a sentence of 99 lashes after her conviction for adultery in 2006. Her lawyer said she was forced to confess to the adultery charge and has since retracted the confession. A further complication is that Sakineh speaks Turkish and does not understand Farsi. Her son, then 17, witnessed her flogging. "They lashed her just in front of my eyes," Sajad told the London Guardian. "This has been carved in my mind since then." The case against Sakineh was reopened when Tabriz officials decided she might have murdered her husband. She was ultimately acquitted of murder, but a judge then reviewed the adultery case against her and sentenced her to death. In doing so, the judge used a legal loophole called "judicial knowledge," which permits judges to make decisions based on their personal feelings, regardless of actual evidence. "Imagine what's she's going through right now," said Maryam Namazie, an Iranian human rights activist based in Britain who works with Iran Solidarity, among other organizations. "Knowing she'll never see her children again. Facing the torture of being stoned. Being flogged 99 times is bad enough." Namazie told AOL News today that the only thing that will help Ashtiani is if people contact their lawmakers and sign online petitions for Ashtiani. "People should make some noise," Namazie said. "Bring stones out to public places and make a pile of them with Sakineh's name on it. Call your government officials, Do something." Namazie told AOL News that many other women are stoned in Iran, but the government carries out the executions in secret. "It's only when families are brave enough like Sakineh's family to come out and fight for their loved ones that the world finds out what is happening in Iran," Namazie said. Movies like the 2008 film "The Stoning of Soraya M." have focused attention on stoning women in Iran and have embarrassed the Iranian government, Namazie said. Amnesty International reports that 126 people have been executed as of June 6 this year in Iran and said another woman, Zeynab Jalalian, is in danger of being executed at any time for the crime of "enmity against God." aolnews.com

To: Garden Rose who wrote (275936)	7/8/2010 1:39:42 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

British Muslims behind liquid bomb plot convicted of conspiracy to murder Trio face life in prison over 2006 conspiracy that triggered airport security restrictions still in place today London — The Associated Press Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 08, 2010 1:24PM EDT A jury on Thursday convicted three British Muslims of conspiring to murder hundreds of people as part of a plot to blow up passenger planes bound for Canada and the United States. Ibrahim Savant, 29, Arafat Waheed Khan, 29, and Waheed Zaman, 26 were found guilty at London's Woolwich Crown Court after a three-month trial. They will be sentenced Monday and face life imprisonment. Prosecutors say the men were part of a group that planned to detonate liquid explosive bombs hidden in soft drink bottles on aircraft as they flew over the Atlantic Ocean, bound for the United States and Canada in 2006. Such an attack could have killed people on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks. The plot was broken up when suspects were scooped up in raids in London and the surrounding area in August 2006. The foiled attack grounded hundreds of flights and changed air travel for good, as airline authorities to put strict restrictions on the quantity of liquids passengers can carry in their luggage — limits that remain in place. It has taken four years to bring all the accused to justice. This was the third trial of the three defendants. Two earlier juries failed to reach verdicts on charges of conspiracy to murder. They were acquitted at an earlier trial of knowing that airplanes were the plot's target, but prosecutors said they had prepared to become suicide bombers and recorded ‘martyrdom’ videos. The men had argued that the videos were part of an elaborate publicity stunt. Prosecutor Sue Hemming said the trio “were involved in a calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist event of major proportions, working alongside others who were determined to bring down aircraft using homemade explosives, causing the maximum possible loss of life.” “They were cleared in the previous trial of being aware of the ultimate targets of the plot, but we say that they were committed to the principle and practice of violent jihad to the point of targeting innocent people in an attempt to further their cause,” she said. Three other men, described as the group's ringleaders, are serving long sentences for the plot. Home Secretary Theresa May said the men had been convicted of “one of the most significant terrorist plots the UK has ever seen.” theglobeandmail.com

To: Garden Rose who wrote (275936)	7/8/2010 2:00:56 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Trans-Atlantic airlines plot: the frontline troops Three men who made suicide videos. By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent Published: 6:04PM BST 08 Jul 2010 IBRAHIM SAVANT, 29 Savant had failed at education, failed at finding a job and failed at finding a wife, until he turned to hard line Islam. He claimed he was asked to participate in the “protest” videos because he was white - although he said his face would be pixilated. Born Oliver, his father was an architect from India and his mother was a Church of England book keeper. He dropped out of a degree in product design, working briefly at Ralph Lauren and Burberry’s in Selfridges department store on Oxford Street, before going on to work for his mother. Despite converting to Islam when he was 16, Savant was given a police caution for possessing a small amount of cannabis in 1999. During the searches of a number of premises by police they found a copy of a book called the “Improvised Explosives Manual” with Savant’s fingerprints on a number of pages and £3,660 stashed in envelopes and paper bags. At the home of Savant’s pregnant wife, Ateka Sidyot, in Stoke Newington, North London, they found a card addressed to her that read: “To my love, sorry for everything...Life here is temporary, that’s why it’s so fragile. I wish for you to be a part of my permanent life in the hereafter inshallah [god willing]...Love ya loads!! IBO xxx.” In his suicide video, Savant said: “As for the lovers of life and haters of death, you will class my case as a case of suicide. I say argue your case with the most high...all Muslims take heed, remove yourself from the grasp of the kuffar [non-believers] before you are counted as one of them. Do not be content with your council houses and businesses and western lifestyle." ARAFAT WAHEED KHAN, 29 Khan was a street-wise, hard smoking and drinking young man, and a series of mobile phone clips taken by his friends showed him in various states of intoxication. On one occasion he could be heard saying: “Get drunk, smoke weed every day,” Born in Pakistan, he moved to Britain when he was one. His father worked as a book keeper but died from a heart attack during a visit to Pakistan in 1998. After his father’s death, Khan went off the rails and was arrested while traveling in a stolen car and for possession of heroin. He studied business at Middlesex University and held various part time jobs at shops in London’s West End including BHS, Next, House of Fraser, Ralph Lauren and Harvey Nichols. After leaving university he worked in various branches of the Link mobile phone shop including Covent Garden, Kensington High Street, Islington, and Knightsbridge. He said after resigning he was thinking of becoming an estate agent. Two weeks before his arrest, Khan visited John Bell and Croyden, a pharmacy in Wigmore Street in London’s West End where he bought chemistry equipment to help with the bomb-making. It took him two attempts to get his suicide video right. In the clips he said: "We will rain upon you such a terror and destruction that you will never feel peace and security. There will be floods of martyrdom operations and bombs falling through your lands. There will be daily torment in this world and a greater torment awaiting in the hereafter." He went on to state: "I would like to thank Allah for giving me this opportunity to bless me with this shahada [martyrdom]. I ask Allah to forgive me for all my sins, to accept me as a martyr. I ask Allah to help the mujahideen [holy fighters] everywhere in every way." WAHEED ZAMAN, 26 Although younger than most of the rest of the gang, Zaman was respected in Walthamstow, East London for his Islamic learning and was head of his student Islamic society. He had lived in the same house opposite Queen’s Road Mosque in Walthamstow for his whole life. After gaining a string of D grades in his GCSEs his family sent him to the private Bales College in Kensal Rise, North West London from where he went on to London Metropolitan University to do a degree course in bio-medical science. At the same time he was working on Saturdays at Hamleys toy shop in London’s Regent Street. A series of friends said they remembered Zaman as a keen Liverpool supporter and went to a weekly martial arts class with co-accused Ibrahim Savant and Umar Islam in the year before his arrest. Zaman drafted an article for a student magazine in which he wrote: “Islam truly is a religion of peace and tolerance” but in his suicide video he said: "I have been educated to a high standard and had it not been Allah had blessed me with this mission, I could have lived a life of ease but instead chose to fight for the sake of Allah's Deen [religion] ... all of you so-called moderate Muslims, there's only one way in which to solve this crisis, the problems will not be solved by means of campaigning, big conferences, peaceful negotiations with the disbelievers. He went on: "I'm warning these two nations and any other country who seeks a bad end, death and destruction will pass upon you like a tornado and you will not feel it. You will not feel any security or peace in your lands until you [stop] interfering in the affairs of the Muslim completely. “I'm warning you today so tomorrow you have no cause for complaints. Remember, as you kill us, you will be killed and as you bomb us, you will be bombed." telegraph.co.uk

To: Garden Rose who wrote (275936)	7/8/2010 2:02:43 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 281500

Norway no longer safe from harm Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:31 UK BBC News The deaths of Norwegian soldiers brought the Afghan war home Most Norwegians reacted with disbelief when al-Qaeda - seemingly out-of-the-blue -threatened to attack the Scandinavian country back in 2003. There was even speculation al-Qaeda had mistaken Norway for neighbouring Denmark, which at the time had sent troops to support the US invasion of Iraq. The sparsely populated and largely peaceful country was not used to being at the receiving end of either international or domestic terror threats. But there has been much water under the bridge in the seven years since that threat, and Thursday's announcement of the arrest of three people on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack - one of them a Norwegian citizen - has so far been met with less incredulity. In 2006 Norwegian embassies in the Middle East were attacked following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish and Norwegian newspapers. International news media broadcast pictures of the Norwegian flag being burned in protest. The small Scandinavian country was on the receiving end of hateful threats as never before. Many Islamists will also be aware of Norway's continued presence in Afghanistan. Just last week four Norwegian soldiers killed by a roadside bomb returned to be buried, bringing that conflict much closer to home for most Norwegians, too. Norway's capital, Oslo, has also seen rising tensions between radical Muslims and other citizens - including both moderate Muslims and non-Muslims. Largely secular and liberal Norwegians have increasingly voiced their concern in public over the level of anti-Western rhetoric being used by some Muslim radicals in mosques and in the Norwegian media. Immunity expired Norway has played an important diplomatic role in the Middle East since the 1993 Oslo Agreement, which brought Israeli and Palestinian leaders face-to-face for the first time. But this involvement has also meant Norway has raised its head above the parapet. Norway is reportedly perceived as a puppet for the USA and Israel in radical circles. All this has meant that many Norwegians are coming to terms with the fact that their country - home to the Nobel Peace Prize - can no longer be considered a neutral peace facilitator, immune to international terror threats. These arrests are unlikely to be met with a shrug of the shoulders - but fewer people than before will say: "I never thought it could happen here." news.bbc.co.uk