Guest guest Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Choices The late Carl Sagan: 1934-1996, wrote of hoped for " methods of avoiding the self-destruction that seems so real a danger of our present technological adolescence… " in: Knowledge is Our Destiny, " The Dragons of Eden, p. 234 Sagan was hoping that some extra-terrestrial " advanced civilizations " might have found those methods. Here on earth we face the question of whether we can find them ourselves before it is too late. Clearly humanity possesses the means to destroy itself. Clearly humanity lacks the maturity to avoid destroying itself. The question is whether the most dangerous people on earth in possession of the most dangerous weapons on earth can be disarmed before they can use those weapons, or, ideally, can be prevented from possessing those weapons in the first place. Clearly we are in a race against time. Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of lunatics constitutes a threat to the survival of our planet. Can the lunatics be disarmed in time? Can we prevent the lunatics from becoming armed with weapons of mass destruction in the first place? How much time have we got before it is too late and those weapons start going off in cities in America, Israel, Europe, Asia, Australia, etc.? Clearly not much. The time to act is now, before it is too late. " Whether `tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them? " Hamlet, William Shakespeare Shakespeare was well aware of the dilemmas caused by lack of decisiveness. Indecision is in fact a decision. To avoid action is to permit other actions to occur. Sir Edmund Burke put it this way: " All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in this world is for a few good men to do nothing. " We saw the world stand by and do nothing as The Holocaust occurred. We saw the world stand by and do nothing as Saddam Hussein paid a bounty for Jewish scalps by paying the families of GENOCIDE BOMBERS amounts which climbed from $10,000 to $15,000 to $25,000 and would no doubt have continued to climb had George W. Bush not liberated Iraq in March of 2003. We saw Germans and looked, usually in vain, in a mostly futile search to find the few " Good Germans " who opposed Hitler. The book Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen explores the Germans found by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Goldhagen says: " … my book shifts the focus of the investigation of the Holocaust from where it has been—namely, on abstract structures like the S.S., the Nazi Party, and the terror apparatus—to the human beings who actually perpetrated the crimes. A very large number of ordinary Germans were involved—a minimum figure of 100,000--and until this point, you have probably read close to nothing about the actual people who carried out the killings, manned the camps, and guarded the ghettos. I have shifted the investigation to them, the perpetrators, in an effort to explain their actions, uncover their motivations, and explicate how such a thing could have happened in an otherwise civilized country such as Germany. I am very pleased that the publication of my book has produced widespread, international discussion and that so many people seem to feel compelled to come to grips with its contents. Whatever exact conclusions people arrive at after reading my book—and some continuing disagreements are inevitable—that the issues it raises are being discussed so vigorously can be seen as being only a good thing. " Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is Associate Professor of Government and Social Studies at Harvard University and an Associate of Harvard's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. Hitler's Willing Executioners is based upon his doctoral dissertation, which was awarded the American Political Science Association's 1994 Gabriel A. Almond Award for the best dissertation in the field of comparative politics. " Today we see Syria and Iran goose-stepping along with Hamas, et. al. and wonder when someone will act to stop them before it is too late. The traitor to Shia Islam and Persia who has assumed power through a sham " election " , which saw countless candidates ruled off the ballot by fiat of the tyranny, who calls himself the " President of Iran " may well be the most insane and dangerous person on earth. Moreover that mad man is allied with Syria, with the terrorists hosted by Syria who are murdering Americans in Iraq, and with a worldwide gang of terrorists who have been murdering people all over the world for many years. To understand the depth of the man's madness one must recognize fist the importance to Shia Islam of the Golden Mosque in Samarra which was bombed by Sunni Moslems more than likely led by Zarqawi and his cohorts. " Los Angeles Times, Friday, February 24, 2006 THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ; Shrine Holds Great Significance for Shiites BYLINE: Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer The attackers who bombed the Golden Mosque in Samarra ignited fury among Iraq's Shiite majority by targeting one of the sect's most revered shrines. More so than Sunni Arabs, Shiites believe in the sanctity of shrines. Pious Shiites from Lebanon to India make pilgrimages to the shrines of the sect's imams, and Shiite merchants bequeath their fortunes for the restoration and upkeep of shrines. The Samarra complex dates to the 9th century, although the famed gold dome was completed in 1905. The revered status of the shrines comes from their connection to the imams, who are " part of the skeleton of the Shiite faith, " said Yitzhak Nakash, associate professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Brandeis University, who has written about Shiites. Shiites and Sunnis split early in the history of Islam, differing over succession after the death of the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. The first three successors, or caliphs, were Muhammad's associates, but Shiites rejected them, arguing that Ali, the prophet's cousin and son-in-law, was the rightful heir. Ali became the fourth caliph, but the conflict continued after his death. From then on, supporters, or Shia, of Ali, took a separate path, regarding him as their first imam and choosing successors from among his heirs. One of Ali's sons, Hasan, lost the struggle for caliphate and another, Hussein, was killed. According to Shiite belief, the caliphs were trying to wipe out Ali's line of succession by killing off his heirs—the imams—one by one over the next few centuries. The Samarra shrine is believed to house the remains of the ninth and 10th of Ali's heirs, Ali Hadi and Hasan Askari. Shiites believe that both were poisoned in the 9th century by agents of the caliph. But, many Shiites believe that Askari's young son, Mohammed Mahdi, disappeared into a cellar near site of the shrine and was not killed, an event called the occultation. They regard Mahdi as the 12th or " Hidden Imam, " and believe he will reappear, heralding a new age and avenging the wrongs done to Shiites by Sunni governments for centuries. " Mahdi is expected to return one day as a messiah, " Nakash said. The shrine complex is considered a link to the Mahdi. As a result, the attack on it " is a very significant provocation. " Source: brandeis.edu/news/item?news_item_id=104469 " Shrine blast fans fears of civil war Bombing of Golden Mosque in Samarra aggravates deep-rooted hostilities between Sunnis and Shiites Borzou Daragahi, Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times Thursday, February 23, 2006 … suspicion immediately turned toward al Qaeda-affiliated militants in Iraq, who have claimed credit for numerous bombings of Shiite targets. Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda in Iraq's leader, has a well-known hatred of Shiites, whom his brand of extremist Sunnis view as apostates…. Shrine facts • The Askariya shrine, one of Iraq's most sacred sites, was built by Caliph al-Mutasim in 836. • The golden dome was completed under Muzaffar al-Din Shah in 1905. • It contains tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, descendants of the prophet Muhammad. source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? f=/c/a/2006/02/23/MNG7UHDATQ1.DTL & feed=rss.news attackers blew up the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra. The bombing triggered more than 90 reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques. In Washington, a senior US official said the al-Qaida was suspected of being behind the attack on the Shia shrine. " We believe this can be traced back to the Zarqawi al-Qaida movement, " said the State Department's coordinator for Iraq policy, Ambassador James Jeffrey, on Wednesday adding the United States would do all it could to track down the perpetrators. Asked what evidence the US had to link the attack to al-Qaida, Jeffrey said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, had often called for attacks on Shia targets and said they were aimed at sparking civil war. " We are trying to connect the dots, " he told reporters at the State Department. " We certainly think it would be in line with what they have been saying and doing. " source: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6B989359-6D61-4A50- B4C8-ECCFFA49B0E6.htm Fully in line with the man's madness so-called " President Ahmadinejad " of so-called " Iran " , rather than defending Shia Islam against Zarqawi, et. al, insanely sought instead to blame the attack on the Shia shrine on others: " President Ahmadinejad: Samarra bombing sign of failure of enemies of Islam Shahr-e Kord, Charmahal Bakhtiari Prov, Feb 23rd 2006, IRNA Iran-President-Speech The terrorist bombing of the holy shrines of Imam Hadi (AS) and Imam Hassan Asgari (AS) in Iraq is indicative of the abject failure of the enemies of Islam, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in this western city on Wednesday evening. Addressing a large number of local officials and scholars upon his arrival in the city, the president strongly condemned the shameless and heinous terrorist act, saying it has its roots in the weakness and failure of the enemies of Islam. " Those who have seen defeat from the wisdom of Islam express their anger through savage acts such as by insulting Muslim sanctities, " Ahmadinejad pointed out. He said that history has proven that all who have profaned religious sanctities and the divine messengers of God have endured eternal misery. " A number of uncivilized and bloodthirsty people who have no regard for humanity think they can undermine the good intentions of Muslims and revolutionary people through such acts, " the president lashed out. He warned the enemies of Islam to be careful when committing such acts as the Islamic ummah (nations) " will encounter them more seriously and with determination now than ever before with their determination to achieve their longstanding revolutionary aspirations, " the president stressed. Noting that there was a clear sign of the hegemonic system beginning to fade away, Ahmadinejad expressed hope that Muslims of the world would soon witness the complete collapse of hegemony. " Justice will be implemented all over the world in the near future, " Ahmadinejad assured. " source: http://diplomacymonitor.com/stu/dm.nsf/dn/dn4118C58E8B8E8DDE8525711E0 02C89A3 This of course came as no surprise. So-called " Iran " has long been in the hands of lunatics who are traitors to Persia and Shia Islam and have been in bed with the enemies of both. " How Iran got its name March 16, 2006 (c.e.) WorldNetDaily.com If you didn't think Iran could plunge any lower as a nation-state, you were wrong. Iran's semi-official, best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, actually published by the city government of Tehran, is running a contest for the best cartoons poking fun at the Holocaust. While this may be shocking to some, it is actually what we should expect from the mad mullahs of Iran. This is not, as the newspaper editors have suggested, merely a way for Iranians to protest the Danish cartoons about Muhammad. This is not just a way for the Iranians and the radical Islamic world to attempt to portray themselves as victims. This is not just a tit-for-tat exercise. This is a reflection of the Iranian mullahs' Nazi sympathies. This is a way for them to show the entire Islamic world that they still believe in Hitler's " final solution. " This is just the latest manifestation of 70 years of anti- Jewish history in Iran – and a lot longer in the Islamic world. In fact, do you know how the nation of Iran got its name? For thousands of years, the country we now know as Iran was known as Persia. But in 1935, the shah of Iran, the father of the man deposed in 1979, was a Nazi sympathizer. He hated the Jews. So he decided to show his true stripes by renaming his country Iran, which literally means " land of the Aryans. " Later, that same shah welcomed Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, the exiled grand mufti of Jerusalem, into the country. The mufti was on the run because of his pro-Nazi work and his efforts in attempting to bring the Jewish Holocaust to the Middle East. Al-Husseini would later go on to inspire and tutor Yasser Arafat in the art of Jew-killing. Arafat referred to al-Husseini as " uncle. " The Nazi shah may have received good notices from Berlin, but London was none too thrilled with his pro-Nazi position. And, unfortunately for him and fortunately for the rest of the world, Hitler did not conquer the world. The shah was deposed by the British and replaced with his son. But the name " Iran " stuck. And it illustrates the visceral, underlying anti-Semitism that has shown itself throughout history in the Islamic world. " http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49284 The spectre of the mad man Ahmadinejad in possession of nuclear weapons possibly before the end of this year, if not sooner, is a horrible prospect, and one which must be dealt with sooner, rather than later. " Ahmadinejad: Wipe Israel off map Wednesday 26 October 2005, 19:03 Makka Time, 16:03 GMT Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map. " The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world, " the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism. " The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land, " he said. " As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map, " said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini. His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at government rallies. Call for unity Addressing about 4000 students gathered in an Interior Ministry conference hall, Ahmadinejad also called for Palestinian unity, resistance and a point " where the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come " . " The Islamic umma (community) will not allow its historic enemy to live in its heartland, " he said in the fiery speech that centred on a " historic war between the oppressor and the world of Islam " . The term " oppressor " is used by the clerical government to refer to the United States. " We should not settle for a piece of land, " he said of Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip. " Anyone who signs a treaty which recognises the entity of Israel means he has signed the surrender of the Muslim world, " Ahmadinejad said. " Any leaders in the Islamic umma who recognise Israel face the wrath of their own people. " Ahmadinejad … spoke of a " historic war " . " It dates backs hundreds of years. Sometimes Islam has advanced. Sometimes nobody was winning. Unfortunately over the past 300 years, the world of Islam has been in retreat, " he lamented. " One hundred years ago the last trench of Islam fell, when the oppressors went towards the creation the Zionist regime. It is using it as a fort to spread its aims in the heart of the Islamic world. " Ahmadinejad said, " There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world. " " Ahmadinejad has clearly declared the doctrine of his government. He is returning Iran to the revolutionary goals it was pursuing in the 1980s, " said Mohammad Sadeq Hosseini, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. " By these comments, Ahmadinejad is committing himself to those goals. He is also sending the message that his government won't back down. " Israeli response Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev " (said) " Today, Israelis heard two extremists speak openly about destroying the Jewish state. One was the new president of Iran, and the other was the leader of Hamas, Mahmoud Zahar. " And it appears the problem with these extremists is that they followed through on their violent declarations with violent actions. " The United States said Ahmadinejad's remarks proved the accuracy of Washington's fears about Iran's contentious nuclear programme. " I think it reconfirms what we have been saying about the regime in Iran. It underscores the concerns we have about Iran's nuclear intentions, " White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. " source: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/15E6BF77-6F91-46EE- A4B5-A3CE0E9957EA.htm Monday, January 7th 2002 (C.E.) Captain of Seized Arms Ship Says Was Sent by PA Official The jailed captain of the captured Karine A weapon-loaded ship declared today that a Palestinian Authority official in Greece sent him to bring the ship through the Red Sea to PA-controlled shores. On January 3, the Israeli Navy seized control over the Karine A ship that was sailing in international waters on its way to the Suez Canal. The shipment included both 122 mm. and 107 mm. Katyusha rockets, which have ranges of 20 and 8 kilometers respectively. It also contained 80 mm. and 120 mm. mortar shells, various types of anti-tank missiles, anti-tank mines, sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition. (from Ha'aretz and the Israeli Foreign Ministry) PM Sharon: PA Is Central Part of International Terror Network Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a press conference Sunday in Eilat: " This ship of terror, which was on its way to the Gaza shore, was carrying what was to threaten each and every one of us - in Tel- Aviv as in Emmanuel, in Haifa as in Ariel, in Herzlia and Ashkelon as in Elei-Sinai and Netzarim. The type and character of the weapons and ammunition discovered on the ship prove once again that the Palestinian Authority has been focusing all its efforts on terrorism and preparing the operational infrastructure for the next waves of terror. Let there be no mistake - this is the choice made by the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority... ....At the same time as Arafat was saying " my aim is to achieve peace, " he was sending the one responsible for military acquisitions in the Palestinian Authority to purchase ammunition in Iran. As he was declaring a cease-fire, he sent his Chief of Naval Police to purchase a ship in Lebanon. When he announced that he would be willing to accept the " Hudna " initiative, he was already monitoring the journey of this ship toward the Gaza port in the hope of succeeding in smuggling this Trojan horse by sea. The Palestinian Authority is a major player in the network of international terrorism, spearheaded by Iran and aimed at sowing death and destruction throughout the entire world. " (from the Israeli Foreign Ministry) Editorial: Arafat's Ship of Death Excerpt from the Jerusalem Post: " If ever there was a photo- opportunity demonstrating what is behind the hand that Yasser Arafat sometimes stretches out in peace, the wharf full of captured weaponry displayed last night was it. The captured ship, the Karine- A, was reportedly purchased in October 2000 - just months after the end of the Camp David summit and at the same time Arafat was pledging his first cease-fire to Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton, Hosni Mubarak, and Kofi Annan at the Sharm e-Sheikh summit. Every time one thinks that Arafat's duplicity cannot be more apparent, he manages to reach new heights... " SOURCE: http://www.israelemb.org/sanfran/News & Media/Week_in_Review/Week_Revie w_Jan11.01.htm Seizing of the Palestinian weapons ship Karine A - Jan 4- 2002 4 Jan 2002 A ship carrying weapons intended for the Palestinian Authority was captured in the Red Sea by Israel's Navy and Air Force. The boat's cargo included 50 tons of advanced weaponry including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles. Senior figures in the Palestinian Authority were involved in the smuggling. Communicated by the IDF Spokesman: On January 3rd, the Israeli Navy seized control over the Karine A ship that was sailing in international waters on its way to the Suez Canal. The shipment included both 122 mm. and 107 mm. Katyusha rockets, which have ranges of 20 and 8 kilometers respectively. It also contained 80 mm. and 120 mm. mortar shells, various types of anti- tank missiles, anti-tank mines, sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition. From Gaza, the 122 mm. Katyushas could have threatened Ashkelon and other coastal cities; while from the West Bank, Ben-Gurion International Airport and several major Israeli cities would have been within their range. The shipment also included rubber boats and diving equipment, which would have facilitated seaborne attacks from Gaza against coastal cities. Preliminary investigation of the crew members has revealed so far that the commanding officer of the ship is Colonel Omar Akawi. The ship was purchased by the Palestinian Authority, loaded with weapons by the Iranians and the Hizbullah, manned by Palestinian Authority personnel, with the aim of transfering the weapons it carried to the Palestinian Naval Police near the Gaza beaches. Since October 2000, Adel Mughrabi, a major buyer in the Palestinian weapons purchasing system (with the assistance of the Palestinian Naval Police Commander Juma'a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem), has been in contact with the Iranians and Hizbullah regarding a vast weapons smuggling operation for the use of the Palestinian Authority. This operation included the testing and purchase of ships, forming a sailing crew and appointing a commander for the team, as well as making arrangements as to how the weapons would be stored, loaded onto the vessels, and its journey until delivery to the Palestinian Authority. Preliminary investigation of the team members arrested revealed that the Karine A ship was purchased by Adel Mughrabi in Lebanon, sailed to Sudan where it was loaded with regular cargo. The crew was then switched with the team members and in November 2001 sailed to Hodeida port in Yemen. In December 2001 the ship sailed according to detailed instructions from Adel Mughrabi to the beaches of Iran near Qeshm Island. There a ferry approached it, most likely arriving from Iran, from which the weapons stored in 80 large wooden crates were transferred and loaded onto the ship. These weapons were stored in special waterproof containers produced only in Iran, which are floatable and are set with a special configurable system that determines how deep they are submerged, were prepared by Hizbullah personnel for smuggling to the Palestinian Authority. Included in the ferry team which transferred the weapons crates to the ship was also a Lebanese trainer, a Hizbullah operative who trained a diver from the ship's crew in configuring the floatation devices in Lebanon. The trainer was present for yet another refreshing training session prior to the sailing. After completing the loading process of the weapons onto the ship, the ship had to divert to Hodeida port in Yemen due to technical problems. After crossing the canal, the ship was supposed to meet with three smaller ships that were purchased in advance and to unload the weapons onto them. According to the plan, the smaller ships were to leave the weapons near El Arish in Gaza, where the weapons were to be taken by the commander of the Palestinian Naval Police Juma'a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem. " SOURCE: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2002/Seizing%20of% 20the%20Palestinian%20weapons%20ship%20Karine%20A%20- Friday, January 11 2002 (c.e.) CIA " Concerned " about Syrian Nuclear Plans - US Renews Calls on Lebanon to Disarm Hizbullah The CIA yesterday presented an annual report to the U.S. Senate in which the American intelligence agency said it " remains concerned about Syria's intentions regarding nuclear weapons. " The report, published as a declassified summary, says that " Syria maintains a ballistic missile and rocket force of hundreds of FROG rockets, Scuds, and SS-21 SRBMs. With considerable foreign assistance, Syria progressed to Scud production using primarily locally manufactured parts. Syrian regional concerns may lead Damascus to seek a longer range ballistic missile capability such as North Korea's No Dong medium range ballistic missile. " (from Ha'aretz) In an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation last night, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice renewed its call for Lebanon to crack down on Hizbullah. " We believe that the Lebanese government should do with Hizbullah what the United States and other governments are doing with other terrorist organizations: freezing assets, not allowing them to operate freely, not allowing them to run arms freely, not allowing their territory to be used as sanctuary, " Rice said. The Lebanese government has refused to freeze Hizbullah's assets, despite its announced support for the US campaign against terrorism. (from the JPost) " source: http://www.israelemb.org/sanfran/News & Media/Week_in_Review/Week_Revie w_Jan11.01.htm " Iran Population: 69,018,924 (July 2004 est.) Religions: Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 9%, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i 2% Ethnic groups: Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1% Languages: Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2% source: http://www.geographyiq.com/countries/ir/Iran_people.htm The liberation of so-called " Iran " should be accomplished simultaneously with the liberation Syria, a state which is a partner in crime with those who run so-called " Iran " . On to Damascus Most of those who are murdering Americans, and others from the civilized world, in Iraq, are Syrians,or agents of Syria, sent by the Assad regime to try to drive the U.S. out of Iraq just as Syria drove the U.S. out of Lebanon by bombing the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon decades ago. George W. Bush has liberated Iraq and Afghanistan. We hope that President Bush will learn the bitter lessons of the Vietnam War. Victory in Vietnam was never possible as long as North Vietnam remained a sanctuary for those who opposed the U.S. effort in South Vietnam, from which to launch their assaults and supply their agents in South Vietnam. The U.S. never took the decisive step of liberating North Vietnam. As a result so-called " Vietnamization " , of the Vietnam War by shifting the burden for the defense of South Vietnam to the South Vietnamese was doomed to failure, as, without the liberation of North Vietnam, it was impossible for South Vietnam to withstand its enemies in Hanoi, who were able to strike again and again from their sanctuary in North Vietnam. Until the U.S. has liberated Syria from the Baathist regime and the Assad family in power in Damascus it will not be possible to defeat the remants of Saddam's Baathist regime and their allies in Iraq. While we were happy to see President Bush sanction Syria, the path to peace in the middle east runs through Damascus. Not until Syria has been liberated from the Assad family and the Baath Party can there ever be a real chance for peace in the Middle East. We urge you to contact President Bush http://www.whitehouse.gov and to urge him to liberate Syria. We also think that the U.S. government ought to seize ALL hostile assets in the U.S. Should there be a Presidential finding that Saudi assets in the U.S. fit that description their seizure by the U.S. government should be a top priority of the Bush Administration. Please urge President Bush to make such a finding and to seize those assets. Please also tell President Bush to permanently abandon his call for a so-called " palestinian state " . Terrorism must never be rewarded. " Bush Sanctions Syria Wednesday, May 12, 2004 WASHINGTON — President Bush is tightening the U.S. economic squeeze on Syria with a ban on all American exports to the Arab country except food and medicine. For years, Syria has been branded an exporter of terror by the State Department, which automatically prohibits U.S. arms sales and American economic aid. The executive order Bush signed Tuesday goes further in exacting punishment. Bush accused Syria of pursuing weapons of mass destruction and said that, coupled with its influence over Lebanon represents an " extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States. " State Department officials emphasized what they said was Syria's approval for Palestinian extremist groups such as Hamas to plot attacks on Israel from havens in Damascus. Meantime, Prime Minister Tony Blair shares U.S. concerns about Syria, but will continue to pursue a policy of " critical and constructive engagement, " his office said Wednesday. Blair's official spokesman said the government shared concerns about " WMD, terrorism, human rights and cooperation over Iraq. " Both the Syrian and Lebanese governments criticized the decision as wrong and unfair, but Syria said it still seeks dialogue with the Bush administration. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said the sanctions were " wrong in content and timing " and Syria will be able to withstand the " new injustice. " In Friday's State Department briefing, the officials said under rules that barred identifying them that U.S. fuel oil imports from Syria, which amounted to about $200 million last year, could be decreased. While Syrian exports are not banned, American oil firms will be unable to import equipment from their factories in the United States, and this could complicate their operations, the officials said. Overall, the United States exported $214 million in goods to Syria last year and imported $259 million worth. In Damascus, Syrian officials minimized the significance of Bush's action. Still, Ahmed Haj Ali, media adviser to Syria's information ministry, said the political effects of the sanctions were much bigger than the economic ones. Diplomatic relations were not severed. The new sanctions include a ban on flights to and from the United States, although there is no current commercial air traffic between the two countries. Also, the Treasury Department was authorized to freeze assets of Syrian nationals and entities involved in terrorism, production of weapons of mass destruction, occupation of Lebanon or terror in Iraq. Restrictions were imposed on banking relations between American banks and the Syrian national bank. The sanctions go beyond minimum requirements of the Syria Accountability Act. That law, which Bush signed into law in December, provides the basis for his actions Tuesday. At the same time, the president chose not to take other, more drastic action under the law, such as barring American companies from doing business in Syria. " President Bush did everything within his power to send a message through diplomatic channels that Syria should not support groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, but it has continued to do so, " said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House International Relations Middle East subcommittee. The United States is sending " a loud and clear message to the leaders of Syria that we will no longer turn a blind eye to their transgressions, " said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y, who co-authored the legislation with Ros-Lehtinen. " The ball is now in Damascus' court. " " President Bush and other senior administration officials have complained in recent days about Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons as well as reports that Damascus may be giving refuge to members of Saddam Hussein's government. " " October 1983 (according to a report in The Jerusalem Post), Syrian television showed 16-year-old girls-trainees in the Syrian Ba'ath Party militia-fondling live snakes as President Hafez Assad and other Syrian leaders looked on approvingly. Martial music reached a crescendo as the girls suddenly bit the snakes with their teeth, repeatedly tore off flesh and spat it out as blood ran down their chins. As the leaders applauded, the girls then attached the snakes to sticks and grilled them over the fire, eating them triumphantly. After this, militiamen " strangled puppies and drank their blood. " Such demonstrations are clearly intended to send a message to the regime's domestic opponents. " http://www.danielpipes.org/articles/198607.shtml " French Jewish groups say they will file a lawsuit against Mr Assad for inciting racial hatred when he accused Jews last month of having betrayed Jesus. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1405000/140 5 980.stm " ADL URGES AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO BRING NAZI WAR CRIMINAL TO JUSTICE New York, NY, June 30, 1995...When Austria's newly-appointed Foreign Minister H.E. Wolfgang Schuessel received a congratulatory letter from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) this June, he also got a renewed request for Austria to bring Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner to justice. Responsible for the deaths of 60,000 Austrian Jews during the Holocaust, Brunner is presently in Syria. Elliot Welles, ADL Associate Director of European Affairs and Director of the Task Force on Nazi War Criminals, sent Minister Schuessel copies of correspondence spanning 16 years in which ADL has been urging the Austrian Government to press Syria for Brunner's return so he can be brought before an Austrian Court of Justice. Commenting on reports that Austria and Syria are expecting to improve mutual business endeavors, Welles wrote, " We should not forget that Syria has given Brunner asylum and protection for almost forty years, denying Austria, Germany and France the right to try Brunner. Austria has not tried any Nazi war criminal since 1972, which is unconscionable.... " Welles continued, " It is shameful that the Austrian government has apparently allowed its desire for a good relationship with Syria to take priority over this matter, " and has failed " to set a reward for the capture of Alois Brunner. " Welles, who is a survivor of the infamous Riga Ghetto, stated that he encountered Brunner before he was deported to Riga in 1942. " There are now only a handful of survivors of the Riga Ghetto. We are still waiting for justice to be done, " Welles said. The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. " http://www.adl.org/presrele/HolNa_52/2582_52.asp Monstrous Nazi Uncles Mentored Monstrous Nazi Nephews ARAFAT'S UNCLE, HITLER'S ALLY, THE GRAND MUFTI OF JERUSALEM) http://notendur.centrum.is/~snorrigb/muftism.htm http://www.flamemag.dircon.co.uk/yugoslavia_collaboration.htm http://www.flamemag.dircon.co.uk/nazis_postwar_egypt.htm http://www.srpska-mreza.com http://www.srpska-mreza.com/handzar/handzar.htm http://www.tabloid.net/1998/07/17/lastnazi_980717.html " The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini was later the notorious Nazi who mixed Nazi propaganda and Islam. He was wanted for war crimes in Bosnia by Yugoslavia. His mix of militant propagandizing Islam was an inspriation for both Yasser Arafat and Saddam Husein: He was also a close relative of Yasser Arafat and grandfather of the current Temple Mount Mufti. " Arafat's actual name was Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. He shortened it to obscure his kinship with the notorious Nazi and ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini. " His battle cry was simple and comprehensive: " Down with the Infidels! " Howard M. Sachar, A HISTORY OF ISRAEL (New York: Knopf, 1976). The Bet Agron International Center in Jerusalem interviewed Arafat's brother and sister, who described the Mufti as a cousin (family member) with tremendous influence on young Yassir after the Mufti returned from Berlin to Cairo. Yasser Arafat himself keeps his exact lineage and birthplace secret. Saddam Hussein was raised in the house of his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, who was a leader in the Mufti's pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in May 1941 [1] THE PILLAR OF FIRE, Shikmona Publishing Company ltd, p 1.61 Right after the 1942 Allied victory in El Alamein, Jerusalem's grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, took to the airwaves and broadcast in Arabic from Berlin. At that time he already was " prime minister " of a pan-Arab government formed in the German capital. His foreign minister was exiled Iraqi leader Rashid Ali al-Kilani and his war minister, Fawsi al-Kaukji. Husseini called on his numerous disciples throughout the Middle East not to lose heart though their greatest hope - Rommel's conquest of Eretz Yisrael - was foiled. The mufti planned a triumphant return with the conquering Axis forces, and the construction of a death camp outside Nablus to implement the final solution of the Jewish problem in this region. Despair after the Desert Rat's rout was immense, but Husseini wouldn' t give up. " Arise, o sons of Arabia, " he exhorted his avid pro-Nazi followers. " Fight for your sacred rights. Slaughter Jews wherever you find them. Their spilled blood pleases Allah, our history and religion. That will save our honor. " In late 1944, Husseini still sponsored a last-ditch effort to trigger another Arab rebellion.His agents, a mixed German-Arab commando crew, parachuted here. Their first mission was poisoning Tel Aviv's wells. Husseini arrived in Berlin three years earlier, after escaping the British. There he became Hitler's personal guest. The fuehrer granted him a prolonged personal audience, and the two reached a perfect meeting of the minds on how to solve the Jewish problem. Husseini was put up in a large house on Berlin's Klopstock Street, to which the SS referred as " the Jewish Institute. " With good reason. Until 1939 it was a Zionist-oriented Hebrew school. There must have been particular perverse pleasure in lodging the mufti precisely there. He thereafter referred to his new residence as " The Research Institute on the Jewish Problem in the Moslem World. " The Germans regarded Husseini as worth investing in. Various Nazi establishments competed for his affections. The Foreign Ministry paid him the then monthly equivalent of over $10,000, when the dollar was almighty. This sum was more than matched by the SS from its sonderfund resources, which consisted of assets robbed from Jews, often before their execution. Again, the perverse pleasure must have been considerable. Husseini's first Third Reich port of call was SS chief Heinrich Himmler's headquarters. Himmler took Husseini under his personal wing. He not only organized tours for him to Auschwitz, but sponsored and financed his Moslem clerical academy in Dresden. The graduates were to spearhead Nazi rule in Moslem lands. Husseini was in charge of pro-German and anti-Semitic propaganda for Arabs and Moslems everywhere. He recruited Bosnians and other Moslem volunteers, who were to cleanse newly-occupied areas of " hostile elements, " concentrate Jews for transport, and operate the projected death machine in Palestine - in the manner Ukrainians did the dirty work in Eastern Europe. The SS interest in the mufti preceded the war. It financed his uprising here between 1936-39. In 1937, Adolf Eichmann visited this country to reconnoiter the Zionist endeavor and meet the mufti, but the British allowed him only a 48-hour stay. Eventually Himmler introduced Husseini to Eichmann. Thereafter the mufti became a frequent caller at Eichmann's office. The two got along famously. They shared the goal of exterminating all Middle Eastern Jews. This is backed by ample documentation from the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials. At the end of 1942, Eichmann ordered 10,000 Jewish children sent from Poland to Theresienstadt. The Red Cross offered to trade German civilians for them.Husseini got wind of the scheme and protested vehemently to Himmler, warning him that the little Jews would soon become big Jews. The exchange was cancelled. Husseini is moreover " credited " with having personally foiled any compromise on the fate of Hungarian Jewry at the very end of the war. In his memoirs he wrote: " Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours.' " After the war, Husseini was declared a wanted war criminal. He fled to France, and from there reached safety in Egypt, joining a host of nefarious Nazis who continued maintaining a network of espionage, sabotage, and virulent antisemitism from Arab havens. The mufti, who was deeply mourned by the masses when he died in 1974, still remains revered. Arafat and Faissal Husseini are both his blood kin. Neither repudiated him nor renounced his teachings. A few weeks ago, an official PA communique, reprinted in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, accused Israelis of " murdering tots and elderly Arabs mercilessly. Jews tear open the bellies of pregnant women and rip out the fetuses, claiming this is the commandment of the God of Israel, which he ordered the People of Israel to fulfill. " The logical remedy must be the mufti's recipe for saving Arab honor and pleasing Allah. The spirit of the man from Klopstock Street still hovers over Gaza. That's why baby Shalhevet was murdered. [2] [2] The Jerusalem Post See also Muftism and Nazism: World War II Collaboration Documents Bosnian Moslems recruited the Nazi SS by Yasser Arafat's 'Uncle' Turning (Judea and Samaria) into another " Bosnia " The Farhud, the Mufti inspired Krystallnacht in Iraq, 1941 A " Fatwa " Issued by Haj Amin al-Husseini in Iraq, pro-Nazi coup May, 1941 Saddam Hussein, nephew of Khayrallah Tulfah, of the 1941 Pro-Nazi coup in Iraq Hitler and the Arabs, How could they have missed it? http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/husseini.html Saddam Hussein, nephew of Khayrallah Tulfah, of the 1941 Pro-Nazi coup in Iraq " We're dealing with Hitler revisited. " George Bush on Saddam Hussein, Oct. 15, 1990.***. The current leader of Iraq was born on April 28, 1937, in a small village of al-Auja near the town of Takrit. His early child hood was spent in a mud hut in a mostly Sunni Muslim part of Iraq, which is approximately (100) one-hundred miles north of Baghdad. Hussein's father, Hussein al-Majid, died or abandoned the family (according to who is reporting the story), within a short time of his birth. Accurate records are difficult to obtain in a country where Hussein's birthday is celebrated as a national holiday. He was reared alone by his mother Subha, until she took a second husband, Ibrahim Hassan. Hassan, often said to have been brutal and a thief, was a sheepherder by profession and enlisted Saddam in his ventures. According to a former personal secretary of Hussein, his step father abused Saddam and sent him to steal chicken and sheep to be sold. This pattern continued until 1947 when, at the age of ten, he was allowed to move in with his mother's brother, in Baghdad. " Saddam's Uncle: " Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Iranians, Jews and Flies. " In Baghdad, Hussein began to learn more than reading and writing. His tutor, Khayrallah had been " cashiered " from the Iraqi army for supporting a " Pro-Nazi " coup attempt that failed. Khayrallah's bitterness towards the British and imperialism, soon was transferred to Saddam. In fact, some confidants of Hussein point to his relationship with Tulfah as a turning point in his political awareness. To demonstrate Tulfah's importance to Hussein, he was later made Mayor of Baghdad under the Hussein regime. Saddam finished intermediate school (roughly the equivalent of 9th Grade) at the age of sixteen, and attempted to be admitted to the prestigious Baghdad Military Academy. Unfortunately, his poor grades prevented him from doing so, and he became more deeply involved in political matters. In 1956, he participated in a non-successful coup attempt against the monarchy of King Faisal II. In 1957, he joined the Baath party, a radical nationalist movement. In 1958, a non-Baathist group of army officers succeeded in overthrowing the King. The group was led by General Abdul Qassim. In 1959, Saddam and a group of Baathist supporters attempted to assassinate Gen. Qassim by a day-light machine-gun attack. The attack was unsuccessful, but it helped to place Hussein in a leadership position in the Baathist movement and furthered the process of nationalist political indoctrination. After the attack, in which Hussein is slightly wounded, he fled to Syria. From Syria, he went to Cairo, Egypt where he would spend the next four (4) years. 2 [ Also in Cairo, In 1951, a close relative of the Mufti named Rahman Abdul Rauf el-Qudwa el-Husseini matriculated to the University of Cairo. The student decided to conceal his true identity and enlisted as " Yasser Arafat. " 3 ] Persecution was at its worst at the end of 1968. Scores were jailed upon the discovery of a local " spy ring " composed of Jewish businessmen. Fourteen men-eleven of them Jews-were sentenced to death in staged trials and hanged in the public squares of Baghdad; others died of torture. On January 27, 1969, Baghdad Radio called upon Iraqis to " come and enjoy the feast. " Some 500,000 men, women and children paraded and danced past the scaffolds where the bodies of the hanged Jews swung; the mob rhythmically chanted " Death to Israel " and " Death to all traitors. " This display brought a world-wide public outcry that Radio Baghdad dismissed by declaring: " We hanged spies, but the Jews crucified Christ. " 4 In 1978, Saddam had been working with other Arab nations to ostracize Egypt for it's diplomatic initiative in resolving Israel/Arab questions. An ally, President Hafez al-Assad of Syria, almost became the undoing of Hussein's ascension. If a Syrian/Iraqi federation were formed against Egypt, Assad, not Hussein, would rise to a position of greater power in the relationship. President Bakr would lead the federation with Assad as second in command. Hussein could not allow that to happen and began to urge the President to step down. Again with the help of his family and security apparatus, Hussein was able to accomplish his task. On July 16, 1979, President Bakr resigned, officially due to health problems, but in reality a victim of Hussein's political in-fighting. Moving quickly to consolidate his power, he called a major Baathist meeting on July 22, 1979. During the meeting, various family members and other Hussein devotees urged that the party be " cleansed " . Hussein then read a list of names and asked that they step outside. Once there, they are taken into custody. A high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Command, the head of the labor unions, the leading Shiite member of the Command, and twenty (20) others are then systematically and personally killed by Hussein and his top party officials. During the next few days, reports indicate that as many as 450 other military officers, deputy prime ministers, and " non-party faithful " were rounded up and killed. This purge insured Hussein's consolidation of power in Iraq. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran and conducted an eight year war against one of his nearest neighbors and the home of Shiite fundamentalist Muslims. The war continued for eight years of brutality and even repression of Hussein's own countrymen " -especially the (Sunni) Kurds (and the Shiite Arabs)-. " 2 1941 - In April, in accordance to a 1930 treaty Iraq permits the British to move their troops into Iraq. Iraq appeals for Nazi support and attacks the British air base at Habbaniya. The Iraqi army is beaten and Prime Minister Rashid Ali flees the country. Britian resumes military control. The monarchy is restored. Saddam Hussein's uncle Khairallah is jailed and Saddam moves to live with his mother and step-father 1981 - On June 7th Iraq's nuclear research reactor was destroyed by an Israeli airforce attack. President Saddam arranges to have the philosophical writings of his uncle Khairallah published in a treatise titled 'Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Iranians, Jews and Flies. " In September the Iraqi armed forces pull back East of the Karun river. http://smokylake.com/Christy/history/iraq.htm (most) of the Arab population of Iraq are Shiites who are subject to rule by a minority government of Sunni Arabs in Baghdad. The Shiite sect has been the subject of repeated harassment and persecution by the Iraq government which views the sect as a pestilential emanation of the civilization of Iran, itself viewed as the quintessential enemy of all things Arab. The Ministry of Education of Iraq once issued a textbook for boys' high schools entitled Those Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Iranians, Jews, and Flies. Since the rise of the Baþthist Party the Iraqi government has systematically expelled around 10% of its population for the crime of having Iranian ancestry. Most Iraqi Jews have long since fled to Israel. http://www.isu.edu/~andesean/midest.htm Kairallah was to become not only Saddam's father figure but his political mentor as well. Kairallah had fought against Great Britain in the Iraqi uprising of 1941 and had spent five years in prison for his nationalist agitation. He filled the impressionable young boy's head with tales of his heroic relatives-his great grandfather and two great uncles-who gave their lives for the cause of Iraqi nationalism while fighting foreign invaders. Kairallah, who was later to become governor of Baghdad, shaped young Hussein's world view, imbuing him with a hatred of foreigners. In 1981, Saddam republished a pamphlet written by his uncle entitled " Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Iranians, Jews, and Flies. " http://www.newshour.com/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/unscom/readings/po s t.html 1 ABC News.Com, http://www.abcnews.go.com/reference/bios/shussein.html 2 Computers/Technical Operations, http://www.emergency.com/hussein1.htm, much more information there. 3 Canadian Friends, International Christian Embassy, http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/medigest/may00/arabnazi.html http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/saddam.html4 Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf, (NY: Random House, 1990), p. 34 Muftism and Nazism: World War II Collaboration. Documents (examples of original correspondence) 1) U.S. Confirms Role of Mufti as Nazi Middle East Leader OFFICE OF U.S. CHIEF OF COUNSEL FOR PROSECUTION OF AXIS CRIMINALITY No. 792-PS 17 September 1945 Sharon: Israel Knows Syria Is Hiding Iraqis, Weapons By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief April 15, 2003 Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel knows that Syria is hiding Iraqi officials and equipment, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a Hebrew newspaper. " [syrian President] Bashar Assad is dangerous. His judgment is impaired, " Sharon was quoted as saying in excerpts published Tuesday in the daily Yediot Aharonot . " In the Iraq war he proved he was incapable of drawing conclusions from very obvious facts. Anyone with eyes in his head would have known that Iraq was going to be on the losing side. But Assad thought the United States was going to fail, " Sharon said. The interview broke Israel's official silence on Syria, following a weekend threat to involve Israel in the event the United States attacks Syria in its war on terror. Sharon called on the United States to put " very heavy diplomatic and economic pressure " on Syria. He listed five demands: dismantling " palestinian terrorist organizations " based in Damascus; ousting Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Lebanon; ending Syrian-Iranian cooperation, including the transfer of weapons to the so-called " palestinian " authority and inciting Israeli Arabs; deploying the Lebanese Army along the Lebanese-Israeli border and ridding the area of Hizballah; and dismantling the surface-to-surface missile system that Israel says Hizballah has installed in southern Lebanon. Tensions have been building between Washington and Damascus during the war in Iraq, over U.S. allegations that Syria allowed both fighters and weapons to cross its border into Iraq to fight against coalition troops. But President Bush upped the ante over the weekend when he charged that Syria had chemical weapons and warned that Damascus had better cooperate. " The Syrian government needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners and not harbor any Baathists, any military officials, any people who need to be held to account for their tenure, " Bush said. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, there were " important questions " which Damascus needed to answer, such as if it was harboring Iraqi fugitives or developing " illegal or illegitimate chemical or biological programs. " Dealing with Syria Yuval Shteinitz, head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the global war on terrorism could not be completed without dealing with Syria. The way Syria is behaving " looks strange, " Shteinitz said in a telephone interview. On the other hand they must understand ... that they are on the list of terror-sponsoring states and in any case it is better to play the hero if they are the next stop in the war on terrorism, he said. Shteinitz charged that Syria is the number one terrorist sponsoring nation in the world, ahead of Iraq and Afghanistan.... Syria, which according to U.N. resolutions illegally occupies Lebanon, also backs the Hizballah terrorist organization based in south Lebanon and hosts the headquarters of at least a dozen terrorist organizations in Damascus. " Without dismantling Hizballah, without dismantling the terror [organizations] in Damascus [like] Hamas and Islamic Jihad the global war on terrorism cannot be completed, " Shteinitz said. According to some U.S. experts, he said, Hizballah may be even more dangerous than al Qaeda. ...... if a full-scale war were launched, Shteinitz said, Israel would likely be attacked and would strike back. Israel warned Syria and Hizballah prior to the war in Iraq not to try to take advantage of the situation to attack Israel and pledged a severe retaliation for any attacks. " " Historical Fact: Syria terrorism and war crimes At the beginning of January 1976 In Damour and Jieh, two Christian towns south of Beirut, the Palestinians and Syrians went so far as to cut the fingers of Christian children to ensure that they never would be able to pull a gun's trigger. In Damour, at least 300 inhabitants were killed and their churches profaned. May 31, 1976 The Syrians invaded Lebanon and established their rule. The invaders pillaged the towns and villages they went through and humiliated the Lebanese population. The Syrians shelled all the regions under Muslim domination. There must have been over 500 victims, mostly civilians. March 16, 1977 the Syrians murdered Mr. Kamal Joumblatt, they sent Druze to attack Christian villages. The result: At least 1000 people were massacred. The village of Deir Dourit was erased, with 273 dead. February 7, 1978 hostilities started between the Lebanese Army and the Arab Force of Dissuasion, the FAD, with its Syrian majority and under the command of the Lebanese lieutenant Sami Khatib, as a result of the installation of a Syrian barrage near the Fayadieh Barracks, the seat of the Lebanese military commander of Mount Lebanon. The Syrian soldiers insisted on controlling all Lebanese military vehicles entering the Fayadieh Barracks. They shelled the residential quarters with Stalin Organs and opened fire on the barracks with MBT guns. Mention must be made that as of that period, Sami Khatib is one of the best Syrian agents in Lebanon. He is responsible for the incarceration of thousands of Lebanese and the disappearance of hundreds of others following their torture. June 27, 1978 Elements from the " special Syrian forces " dragged out of their beds 30 young men from the villages of Kaa and Ras_Baalbeck and executed them without any form of trial. The man who headed and completed this job was none other than the Syrian officer Ali Dib. July 1, 1978 The civilian population of East Beirut and its suburbs were shelled by Syrian artillery and started with the residential quarters of East Beirut. The private militia of Rifaat Assad, brother of the Syrian President, circled the free regions around Beirut. The shelling lasted five days and five nights. Heavy caliber shells were used, from heavy cannon to Kaytusha rockets and including all kinds of mortars (up to 240 mm), rockets and missiles. According to some obbservers, all sorts of weapon were used, except for aerial bombing. Sixty civilians were killed and over 300 injured. Beginning 1979 The Syrians bombed East Beirut and the adjoining Christian regions. 82, 120 and 160 mm shells fell on the targeted sectors. August 1979 The Syrians shell the villages of Niha, Deir Bella and Douma in North Lebanon. February 24, 1980 Mr. Selim Laouzi, owner and director of the al Hawadess revue, was kidnapped by the Syrians on the road to the Beirut airport. The mutilated and decomposed body of the journalist was found in the Aramoun forest ten days after his abduction. He was shot twice in the head after having been tortured horribly: the ribs on his right side had been crushed by repeated blows with a bar and his right arm was lacerated to the bone, from his armpit to his elbow. July 23, 1980 Riad Taha, president of the press, was killed at Chourane (Raouchþ) by the Syrians. His car had been sprayed with bullets. Taha was hit by seven bullets in his face, the back of his head and his breast. September 4, 1981, Louis Delamarre, the French Ambassador to Lebanon was murdered by the Syrians in West Beirut. France remained indifferent to this murder. March 1981 The towns of Zahlþ in the Bekaa and East Beirut were shelled. In Lebanon, even the Red Cross was a target for the Syrians. Sister [Nun] Marie Sophie Zoghbi was one of the Red Cross ambulance drivers since the beginning of the war. She had forced her way through the front to the south of the town of Zahlþ on the Saadnayel road. Alone at the wheel of her ambulance, she'd gone to fetch the dying in Zahlþ. The Syrians shot the vehicle, killing her on the spot. The town's hospital was eradicated by thousands of shells which fell on it during one night. Water, food, and medicines grew rarer and the corpses of some of the wounded who'd died under the shelters couldn't be evacuated. In all, the fighting had left some two hundred dead and five hundred wounded in Beirut alone. The Palestinians, too, had participated actively in the Zahlþ shelling. The Palestinian military commander was Ahmad Ismail. February 1982 In the Syrian city of Hama, an insurrection by the Moslem Brothers was suppressed with rare brutality in modern history. The Alawite army isolated the city, cutting off any contact with the outside, and opened a ground and aerial bombing. According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military had placed rubber pipes at the entrance of buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding and pumped in poison gas. It is claimed that there were some 30,000 dead in Hama. The Alawite army attacked the entire population, both Christians and Moslems. April 3, 1982 The murder of Yacov Barsimentov, third secretary at the Israeli Embassy in Paris. The murder was claimed by the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions (FARL), a small terrorist group created and manipulated by the Syrians. April 22, 1982 A booby trapped car exploded Rue Marbeuf in Paris. Two Syrian diplomats were expelled, and the French Ambassador recalled for consultation. May 24, 1982 A Syrian attack against the French Embassy in Lebanon. At eight AM on a Monday morning, Anna Comidis, secretary at the commercial service of the French Embassy in Beirut entered the gate of the compound at the wheel of her Renault R12. The car exploded at that very moment. Anna Comidis' body was shredded to pieces. Ten additional people were killed and over twenty were injured. The explosion, estimated as some fifty kilograms of inflammable fuel, was operated from a distance at the moment the car was entering the grounds of the embassy. September 14, 1982 Syria murders the Lebanese elected president, Bechir Gemayel. The Syrians used Habib Chartouni as an assassin. The murder was perpetrated at the military HQ of the Phalangists in Achrafieh. Habib Chartouni had belonged to the pro-Syrian party the PSNS, since 1977, and was recruited by Assaad Hardane, head of the pro-Syrian party in Lebanon. Elie Hobeika, head of the Phalangist security had recruited Habib Chartouni. Hobeika acted in accordance with the Syrians. Ali Douba, chief of the Syrian intelligence services supplied Chartouni with the explosives. Chartouni received half a million Lebanese pounds (700,000 FF at the time). Twenty six people were killed in addition to Bechir Gemayel in that explosion. The Syrian consider Chartouni a hero, and they liberated him in October 1990 when they invaded the two Metn. Elias Hraoui, second post Taif president, announced ironically, following the liberation of Chartouni, that inquiry would be opened to find Gemayel's murderers. December 1982 The Syrians destroy the town of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. The fighting between the Sunnites of Tripoli and the Syrians started at the beginning of December. The Baal Mohsen quarter was held by the Syrians and their allies while the Bab Tebbanne quarter was controlled by the anti-Syrian Lebanese militia. The Syrians formed a militia loyal to them, the Arab Democratic Party, whose general secretary was Nassib Khatib, though directed by the Alawite Ali Eid. The fighting lasted three years. Tripoli had become a second Beirut. September 1983 Over 110 villages or Christian quarters in the Chouf were ethnically cleansed of their Christian inhabitants: Throats were slit, bodies hacked apart with axes, many were burned alive over fire red, iron bars. Syrian soldiers and members of the Druze community of Lebanon took part in these massacres. Likewise, on November 8, 1982, Israeli Druze officers allowed the Lebanese Druze to massacre the Christian population in certain villages such as Kfarnabrakh, at the foot of the cedars of Mount Barouk. Walid Joumblatt, the leader of the Lebanese Druze, gave the order to massacre the Chouf Christians. September 1983 a commando of Khomeinist Iranians emerged from its Baalbeck hideout, arrived at Rayak in the Bekaa, and after praying at the mosque exploded a residential building inhabited by Christians, leaving behind dead and wounded. The Syrians present on the premises prevented the Lebanese Civil Defense from removing debris burying two screaming survivors. Assayed Ahmad Al Fihri, appointed by Khomeiny to head the Hezbollah in the Middle East, is responsible for this massacre at Rayak. The Iranian ambassador in Syria, Ali Akbar Montachami, and the military attachþ, Colonel Haromi Zadem, had been placed at Al Fihri's service. October 23, 1983 250 American soldiers and 70 French soldiers were killed at their HQs in West Beirut. Lebanese and Iranian Islamists supported by Syrian logistics headed the operation. According to certain military sources, both buildings had been packed full of dynamite, which explains the high number of casualties. France and the USA remained indifferent to these massacres. In the wake of this, the soldiers of both countries were repatriated because Beirut had turned into a dangerous city, even for the mightiest fighters of all times. 1983-1984 the Syrians shelled and lay siege to the city of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. The overt objective was to evict the PLO Palestinians. The Syrian army had mobilized militants from Tripoli to take part in that job. According to the evidence of former Lebanese militiamen who participated in the battle on Tripoli on the side of the Syrians, the latter shelled residential zones inhabited by Lebanese civilians and where no Palestinians ever dwelled. The Lebanese militiamen who refused to take part in the destruction of their city were systematically arrested, tortured, and then executed. February 1984 Occupation of West Beirut by Amal, the pro-Syrian Shi'ite militia. On February 6, 1984, Amal supported by Syrian troupes, attacked the Lebanese army stationed in West Beirut. The fighting left at least one hundred dead and over 400 injured. Nabih Berri, Head of Amal, and Ghazi Kanaan, commander of the Syrian forces in Lebanon, are responsible for this slaughter. March 1985 Exodus of tens of thousands of Christians from Iklim El_Kharroub and the eastern part of Saida. The Palestinians and Lebanese Druze laid siege to, pillaged and burned over twenty Christian villages. Walid Joumblatt, Yasser Arafat and Syrian officers, planned these massacres. January 1986 Cancellation of the tri-partite agreement by a war between Amine Gemayel's phalangists and Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces which opposed the agreement on the one hand, and Elie Hobeika's partisans on the other hand. Hobeika found refuge among his Syrian friends. Following the failure of the tri-partite agreement, car bombs started to appear in Beirut and its eastern suburb: - On Tuesday, March 21, 1986, 11 hours 35, a car bomb exploded in Furn_El_Chebback (East Beirut), leaving 30 dead and at least 132 injured. - On May 20, 1986, the French Prime Minister Chirac announced that he was in favor of strengthening ties between France and Syria. He added that a solution for Lebanon could only be found together with Syria. - On May 21, 1986, a car bomb exploded in the Christian sector, leaving 7 dead and over 100 injured. - On July 29, 1986, a Mercedes exploded on the Wadih Nahim Street in Ein el Remmaneh, a Beirut suburb, with 31 dead and 128 injured. - On July 30, 1986, a booby trapped Mercedes exploded in Barbir, West Beirut. The result: 22 dead and 163 - injured. Syria and Elie Hobeika instigated these terrorist cases. September 17, 1986 an explosion took place in the Rue de Rennes in Paris, in front of the doors of the Tati store. Three women and two men were killed, and over 52 were injured. The French Secret Services accused Colonel Ghazi Kanaan of acting as the terrorist chief. Colonel Kanaan manipulated the killers within a framework of operations determined jointly by Iran and Lybbia under the aegis of Damascus. The operation having concluded successfully, Colonel Kanaan was promoted to the rank of General. September 1986 Colonel Christian Gouttiþre, French military attachþ in Lebanon was killed near the French embassy in Mar Takla, in the region of East Beirut. In Damascus, far more rapidly than was their custom, the Syrians hastened to condemn the murder of the French military attachþ. 1987 The provocation of the Druze-Shi'ite inter-faith war and the occupation of West Beirut. Since the beginning of 1987, the tension between Joumblatt and Berri was reaching its apex. For over a year, the two rival militias shared everything in West Beirut, thefts, racketeering and crimes. This tension culminated in the most violent fighting ever seen in West Beirut. These fights, well orchestrated by the Syrians, lasted for a long time, with neither of the two militias managing to gain the upper hand. The Syrians entered West Beirut in February 1987. The Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss and other political and Moslem religious leaders approved the Syrian decision, preferring an Arab army to the Lebanese Army. Hafez el Assad later got rid of the Sunnite Mufti Hassan Khaled on the day the Mufti requested the Syrians to leave Lebanon. The Syrian secret services placed 200 kgs of explosives under his car. On May 8, 1988 An inter-Shi'ite war is provoked between Amal and Hezbollah. The fighting lasted three weeks, in the course of which the Amal militia, financed and manipulated by Damascus, collapsed before the rival militia. This war enabled the Syrians to deploy their forces in the southern Shi'ite suburb of Beirut, having done so a year before in the western suburb. March 1989 The Syrians shell the eastern regions of Beirut. At the end of February 1989, the Lebanese Prime Minister, General Michel Aoun, decides to close all the illegal ports in Lebanon that allow for drug traffic. The Syrian response was rapid: A shelling of the regions controlled by the Lebanese army, with an average of 6000 shells per day. The Syrian forces used for this fight totaled about 20,000 men who were under the command of Generals Gazi Kanaan and Ali Hammoud. The Syrians killed the Spanish ambassador to Lebanon. In their wild shelling of the Lebanese population, the Syrian hit the residence of Mr. Pedro Manuel de Aristegui, Spanish Ambassador to Lebanon. A shell exploded and destroyed the building where the diplomat's residence was located, killing the ambassador, his father- in-law, his sister-in-law, and the Lebanese writer Toufic Youssef Aouad. Despite the confirmation that the 240 mm shell had come from the Syrian lines, the official circles in Madrid refused to accuse the Syrians. November 22, 1989 It was 13 hours 50 in Beirut, when the armored Mercedes of Renþ Moawad, accompanied by Syrian soldiers was blown into pieces. Two hundred kilos of TNT had exploded under his car. In addition to Moawad, 17 Syrian soldiers perished as well. It is to be noted that Renþ Moawad's wife never submitted any complaint against the Syrians. Worse still, she continues to this day to collaborate with the Syrians, her husband's murderers. October 13, 1990 in Beirut, the Syrian Air Force begins to bomb the free regions. The bombing lasted until 14.00 hours, five hours after the surrender of the Lebanese Prime Minister. October 13, 1990 The Syrians liquidated the Sayah family in the village of Bsous. Coletter Sayah, aged 18, awoke one morning to the noise of Syrian airplanes. The Sayah family hastened to take shelter in a ground floor room. Shortly before 8 AM, Colette heard the first bursts of an automatic and the rumble of tanks in the village streets. Outside, men were shouting: " Out! Out! You dogs, you! " One by one, the members of the Sayah family left their shelter. In the street, in the house, there were many tens of Syrian soldiers. They took away Colette, her mother and her aunts into an adjoining building under construction. They'd barely arrived there when they heard a series of shots. The Syrians had just killed all the men of the family. The father and a cousin with a bullet in their heads, one of the brothers was shot through his heart. Another brother was still breathing. Colette asked them to call an ambulance, but the Syrians preferred that the boy die. He will die in his sister's arms. Emile and Joseph, the two uncles, were executed in a staircase. The corpses will lie in the middle of the road until evening, surrounded by a humming cloud of flies and bees. The Hraoui government announced that there had been no massacres. The massacre of Dahr al Wahch. The people of the village of Dahr al_Wahch saw Syrian soldiers push a column of Lebanese prisoners who were walking in their shorts towards some unknown destination. A nun, a nurse at the governmental hospital of Baabda, saw the arrival of corpses and of the Red Cross ambulances. " I counted between 75 and 80, she explained. Most of them had a bullet in the back of their heads or in their mouth. The corpses still carried the mark of cords around their wrists. " The rigidity of the corpses fixed their crossed arms behind their backs. They were naked, wearing only shorts. Some ten of them had their eyes gouged out, another ten had an arm or leg cut off. All had been shot in their heads. There can be no doubt about their execution. The Hraoui government announced that there had been no massacres. Torture " made in Syria " All the world organizations that struggle to defend the Rights of Man have published documents about torture in Syria. The following is a document published in Geneva in May 1984 by the " Swiss Association for the Defense of the Liberties of Political Prisoners in Syria. " This document, entitled " The Rights of Man in Syria " refers to the treatments reserved for political prisoners held by the Damascus secret services. The prisoner is stripped naked. His whole body is shaved. Cigarette butts are extinguished over the more sensitive places of his body They burn his scalp. They pull out his nails. They tie his genitals with a nylon thread that they secure to a nail on the wall after transfixing the prisoner to a ring fixed on the opposite wall. Then, one of the tormentors strikes the taut nylon thread repeatedly with a stick. They flog the soles of a prisoner's feet with lashes of a whip, a cane, or a plastic pipe, a minimum of two hundred lashes a time. Then, stretch out the prisoner inside a container of cold water. They invert the prisoner into a car's tireês rim and then strike him all over (the process: they insert a leg into the middle of the tire, followed by the head and the arms in such a manner that the prisoner is bent over and immobilized in the form of a U inside the tire's circle). They hang the prisoner by his feet with his head down. They force the prisoner to remain standing during several days while preventing him from sitting down or falling asleep by ordering him to raise his arms fully stretched and very straight. They force the prisoner to stand for long periods of time on one foot, administering blows each time he lowers his raised foot. They force the prisoners to run while carrying heavy loads and sustaining blows until utterly exhausted or in a faint. Pour all of a sudden boiling water over the prisoners. They force the prisoner to sit on a stake. They force the prisoner to sit on the neck of a bottle. They subject the prisoner to electric shock by using an alternative electric current and tying the wires to the more sensitive parts of the body, especially to the genitals. They force pump water or air into the prisoner. They force sexual intercourse with the prisoner. They tear out chunks of the prisoner's flesh from various parts of his body with the help of pliers. They rope the prisoner to a car and drive it full speed until death occurs or till the victims' bodies are torn apart and then the victimês bodies are desecrated by gouging an eye or cutting an ear, the tongue, the fingers and in some cases the genitals, and by sticking them into the victim's mouth. They force the prisoner to run around a large room surrounded by torturers who strike him with diverse instruments of torture . Force the prisoner to drink his own urine. They throw the prisoner into a basin of electrified water. They tie the prisoner's genitals to prevent him from urinating after forcing him to drink diuretic liquids. Taken from lebaneseforces.org Source: http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast005.asp We are reminded now too of the Rabin Assassination. Amir, the allged assassin of Rabin, we recall was stationed in the Baltics. He had been a paratrooper, in an elite unit, as such he would normally have been in line to be recruited by Israeli intelligence. But, the then Soviet Union was notorious for entrapping Israelis and others on its soil, (which then included the Baltics), in so-called " honey traps " , filled with prostitutes, in which the unwitting Israelis and others were filmed with the prostitutes, and blackmailed into becoming agents of the Soviet K.G.B. Did this happen to Amir? If so, was he later " sold " to the former Soviet client state of Syria by some former K.G.B. agent who was running him? Did Amir turn from being an Israeli paratrooper into being a K.G.B. agent? Was a so-called " false-flag " operation run on Amir by the K.G.B. and later by Syrian intelligence, to fool Amir into believing that he had sold out to, and was working for, someone else, such as France, the U.S. the U.K. etc.? Who really benefited from the Rabin Assassination? After the assassination of Rabin Syria falsely claimed that Rabin had agreed to give up the Golan Heights. Something Rabin would never have agreed to. In fact Sharon himself has recently stated that he has not intention of giving up the Golan Heights. Nor can he. Israeli's security depends on its retention of the Golan Heights. A live Rabin could have and would have refuted the Syrian claim. Moreover, the fact that Syria never made the claim while Rabin was alive reinforces the belief that Rabin was killed so that Syria could make the claim. We believe that Syria was behind the Rabin Assassination. We believe that Syria was behind the assassination of Gemayel, and his government to be in Lebanon, in which Gemayel and about 400 otheers in his government to be were assassinated in a bombing. We believe that Syria was behind the assassination of Hariri. Syria may well have played a role in the attack on Amman. It is certainly providing a conduit at the very least for attacks in Iraq. It appears that Syria is also providing agents and materiel for attacks in Iraq. The Clinton Administration, fearful of revealing the truth about TWA Flight 800 re-wrote the evidence story with a flimsy cover that bomb-sniffingdogexercises had been conducted on the plane. Nonsense, as bomb-sniffingdogs are used to detect explosive material, before it has gone off,inconcealed devices and luggage, not on airplane seats after theexplosion has gone off. In the Pan Am 103 bombing former JFK PressSecretary, Pierre Salinger had speculated on Syrian involvement intheblast. In the TWA Flight 800 bombing French intelligence fed Salinger a false story about a US Missile attack on Flight 800, to divert him from repeating the Syrian track on Flight 800. A Saudi pilot even claimed to have seen odd green flares over the sight on a laterflightweeks later. The Saudi regent, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah , authorofthe infamous so-called " Saudi Peace Plan " , is married to a woman froma prominent Sunni family in Damascus and has close ties with the Syrian regime. Syria may also have been responsible for support or more in the bombings of US Facilities in Saudi Arabia. It certainly is widely viewed to have bombed the US Embassy in Beirut, the US Marine Barracks in Beirut, and of course to have murdered 400 people along with the Gemayel government to be in Lebanon, to have shelled thousands of Christians In East Beirut, to have occupied Lebanon, to have heavy drug involvement In the Bekaa Valley, to print fake US currency, to back and permit to operate countless terrorist gangs,does anyone wish to add more charges as the list seems to go on endlessly. The Assad family and the Baath Party are the true obstacles to a Syrian/Israeli peace. The Assads come from the tiny Alawite minority within Syria. If arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced appropriately they would not be missed by the vast majority of the Syrian people. The Baath Party was founded in Syria when Syriawas a French colony and France was under nazi occupation. The Syrian and Iraqi Baath Parties split some years ago into a so- called " political " wing in Iraq and a so-called " military " wing in Syria. Most of those who are murdering Americans and others in Iraq have come from or through Syria or are Syrians themselves. Just as the Vietnam War remained unwinnable because the U.S. refused to liberate North Vietnam by sending in ground troops to create regime change in North Vietnam, so Iraq cannot truly ever be brought to democracy while Syrian based and Syrian sponsored terrorists continue to murder Americans and others from the civilized world seeking to bring democracy to Iraq. Only regime change in Syria can make the success of democracy possible in Iraq I would first suggest that you go to http://www.forward.com/ which is the website of The Forward, a historic Jewish newspaper published both in print and excerpted on the Web. Contact them for back copies of their issues from the period in which TWA Flight 800 was BOMBED which contain a story on the Turkish/Syrian conflict of that period. There were 40,000 troops on the Turkish/Syrian border at the time. There had been 2 bomb attempts on the life of then Syrian dictator Hafez Al Assad, later replaced by his son Bashir al Assad after he died. TWA Flight 800: The plane was about an hour late in taking off, the likely bomb was probably set to go off via a timer, over the ocean and far away from any possibility of recovering evidence of the crime. Evidence of explosive material was found on seats on the plane in locations similar to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. The NEW YORK TIMES even ran a front page headline piece about that But of course America recanted and covered all of that up by coming up with the ridiculous story about bomb-sniffing dog exercises having been conducted on the plane. NO WAY In real bomb sniffing dog exercises the dogs are used to detect hidden bombs in transistor radios and such, we assume also in shoes these days, but NOT ON AIRPLANE SEATS Bomb materials residue would only be found on seats AFTER the explosion Not before it There had also been attacks on US installations in Saudi Arabia not long before TWA Flight 800 was bombed. The Saudis had been particularly uncooperative with US investigators, they did not permit free FBI access to the suspects, etc. The usual Saudi procedure is to execute whoever might be able to tell a tale. Dead men tell no tales as the saying goes. The Saudi regent Crown Prince Abdullah is married to a prominent member of a Sunni Moslem family from Damascus Syria. Now if you were a Syrian dissident and a possible candidate to replace Assad at the time you presumably speak French as a second language, Syria having been a colony of France at the time. You know you are not safe in the arab world, Syria hosts countless terrorist gangs both in Syria and in its puppet state of Lebanon. So you probably want to live the good life in exile In Paris. That's where Khomeini stayed out his exile. Syria was supporting the Kurdish PKK guerillas In Turkey at the time, which led to the Syrian-Turkish near war and probably to the 2 bomb attempts by Turkey, we think it was by Turkey, on Assad's life not long before TWA Flight 800 went down. excerpted from: THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: By Frank Greve, Knight-Ridder News Service …QUESTIONABLE GRANTS John Murtha, who is not a rich man, gave his alma mater nearly $100 million last year. His secret: The money was yours. Murtha, an 11-term western Pennsylvania Democratic congressman, quietly slipped his gifts into the huge defense appropriations bill passed by the powerful House subcommittee he chairs. " Academic pork " is the name of his game…. Congress also is backing diabetes research by a scientist who never has heard of the National Institutes of Health unit that leads the field, and is sponsoring Chesapeake Bay studies by a new Pennsylvania environmental center 180 miles from its shores. Sometimes it's hard to know just what America's political philanthropists are up to. Leon Haley, top spokesman for the University of Pittsburgh, Murtha's alma mater, says he knows " almost nothing " about how the $99,600,000 in grants to the school included in the 1994 appropriation are being spent. " Nobody knew what the h—l to do with it, " recalls Lawrence Korb, a former top Pentagon official whose advice was sought by a friend, the university's president, when Murtha first offered the money. Most of the money actually is going to Concurrent Technologies Corp., a subsidiary of the University of Pittsburgh Trust. Both are nonprofit corporations used to fund academic research by faculty members and others. According to a CTC brochure, its research is focused on metalworking, manufacturing software and anti-pollution systems. CTC is based in Johnstown, Pa., Murtha's hometown, 80 miles east of the university's main campus. Generous senior House and Senate Appropriations Committee members like Murtha are behind the successes of the universities and states that have won the most academic pork since 1980. Pennsylvania is far out in front with an estimated $377,238,000, followed by Massachusetts with $206,191,000. Others in the top 10 are Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Michigan, California, Iowa and West Virginia, in that order. The congressional handouts - called earmarks - are specific spending orders by Congress's most powerful figures. They involve outlays not called for in the president's budget and generally made without debate on the merits of the spending. Pennsylvania dominates the earmark game because Joseph McDade of Scranton, another Pennsylvanian enthusiastic about academic pork, is the ranking Republican on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee that Murtha chairs. Together, they can steer just about anything through the House. " ACADEMIC PORK Sources: Library of Congress, Chronicle of Higher Education For copy of graphic, see microfilm KEYWORDS: U.S. CONGRESS EDUCATION FUNDING source: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA- Pilot/issues/1994/vp940804/08040543.htm an update from 1996 on McDade, who is no longer in Congress, follows: Rep. McDade Acquitted Of Bribery, RacketeeringPHILADEPHIA (AllPolitics, Aug. 1) -- An eight-year ordeal came to an end for Rep. Joseph M. McDade (R-Pa.) after a jury acquitted him of bribery and racketeering charges. Jurors said the government couldn't prove its case that the popular 17-term congressman had taken $100,000 worth of gifts and in return steered $53.8 million in Navy contracts to defense contractors. Prosecutors also accused him of taking fake campaign contributions, travel and free vacations. But jurors apparently believed staff aides for McDade who testified that if gift disclosure laws had been violated, it was their fault. McDade, they said, didn't handle such details. Defense attorney Sal Cognetti plans to ask Congress to investigate what he called the Justice Department's " improper motives " in launching the case, which was initiated under President George Bush. McDade described the investigation as " Chinese water torture. " " I don't know what (the case) was motivated by, " he told The Associated Press. " It wasn't motivated by the evidence nor was it motivated by any criminal acts by Joseph McDade. " The trial lasted six weeks, and after deliberating for about 11 hours, the jury informed U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop III they were deadlocked, unable to reach a verdict. Gawthrop asked them to work some more and within an hour they returned with an acquittal of all five counts. McDade, 64, has paid a heavy price. Hospitalized twice during the trial, he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Had he not been indicted, he likely would have been appointed chairman of the Appropriations Committee, a post he may yet secure if he wins re-election. source: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/news/9608/01/mcdade/index.shtml Now for an excerpt from a piece dated January February 1998 source: http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0198/9801024.htm from the same anti-Israel website praising Murtha among others for voting against a bill which had sought to stop Iran from getting missiles capable hitting Israel, and other targets of Iran, with weapons of mass destruction. Murtha was actually able to overcome his normal intense hostility to China, lots of Muirtha's top contributors are either lobbyists for Taiwan, or arms manufacturers who supply Taiwan with weapons, since in this instance China, (and Russia), have been supplying arms to Iran, and since Israel is a likely target of those weapons, Murtha and his pals in Congress were happy to jump in on Iran's side against Israel. Here's the excerpt: " Congress Keeps Pressure on Iran By Shirl McArthur In early October, three separate anti-Iran resolutions that had been languishing in committee since their introduction in early July were resurrected. The first two, Senate Resolution 48 and House Resolution 121, were identical and aimed at stopping alleged missile technology exports from Russia to Iran. The resolutions urge Clinton to " demand " that Russia take action to stop governmental and non- governmental entities in Russia from providing missile technology and technological advice to Iran, and, if Russia's response is inadequate, to impose sanctions on the offending entities and to " reassess cooperative activities with Russia. " Sen. Jesse Helms's Foreign Relations Committee considered S.R. 48 on Oct. 8, referred it to the full Senate on Nov. 4, and the Senate passed it by voice vote on Nov. 7. Meanwhile, in the House, Gilman's International Relations Committee brought up H.R. 121 on Oct. 9, and issued several press releases denouncing both Russia and Iran. At about that same time, Gilman resurrected his earlier resolution, H.R. 188, denouncing China for providing Iran with C-802 cruise missiles, calling this a " destabilizing " violation of the Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act of 1992, and urging the Clinton administration to impose sanctions under the act. Suddenly, however, Gilman got the idea of combining the two resolutions. The operative portions of H.R. 121 were folded into H.R. 188 on Nov. 6, and it was passed the same day by roll-call vote, 414-8, with 11 not voting. The eight congressmen who voted against H.R. 188 were Reps. Lee Hamilton (D-IN), Amo Houghton (R-NY), E.B. Johnson (D-TX), John LaFalce (D-NY), Jim Moran (D-VA), John Murtha (D-PA), David Skaggs (D-CO), and Sidney Yates (D- IL). " Here's another example of Murtha, Moran and their pals, hard at work against Israel. From the October 1996 item titled: " Special Report A Look at the 104th Congress by Shirl McArthur " Here's the excerpt from the McArthur piece: " In the interest of space the accompanying table lists only those congressmen who, in our opinion, were on the side of justice and the U.S. national interest by voting against moving the Embassy to Jerusalem (A) or by supporting lifting the travel ban on Lebanon (B) or by urging humanitarian aid for Lebanon. Only 8 representatives (4 from Michigan) and 2 senators show up in all three columns. About the same number of representatives (9) but several more senators (11) appear in two columns. " Murtha and Moran are among those praised for their anti-Israel votes in the McArthur piece at: http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1096/9610035.htm Murtha and Moran both voted against the ARMING PILOTS AGAINST TERRORISM ACT H. Res. 472 source: http://frwebgate6.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi? WAISdocID=936986112385+25+0+0 & WAISaction=retrieve " [Congressional Record: October 15, 2001 (Senate)] [Page S10676-S10679] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:cr15oc01-21] PROHIBITING UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATIONS Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I rise to say the national antiterrorism legislation passed by this body is in grave danger of being rendered useless. The bill passed by this body corrected an immediate and severe impediment to the undercover investigations that must be employed to shut down terrorism in our Nation. The antiterrorism bill passed by this body included legislation introduced by Senator Leahy, Senator Hatch, and myself that would untie the hands of Federal prosecutors in my home State of Oregon and remove the roadblocks that currently all but prohibit undercover investigations there. Unfortunately, the antiterrorism legislation passed by the House strips that provision and rips back open the enormous loophole that potentially makes Oregon a safe haven for dangerous criminals and terrorists everywhere. For more than a year now, State and Federal prosecuting attorneys in Oregon have been legally prohibited from advising or participating in law enforcement undercover investigations. Without advice of counsel, law enforcement operatives cannot conduct wiretaps, sting operations, or infiltrate dangerous criminal operations. Covert investigations in my State have been shut down for more than a year. If the Senate does not insist on antiterrorism language to restart these investigations in Oregon, the national antiterrorism legislation will not be national at all; it will cover 49 States and it will give dangerous criminals, including terrorists, not just a license but practically an engraved invitation to set up shop in Oregon with little fear of detection or apprehension through undercover or covert methods. It would endanger, not just the people of my State but all Americans. I wish to explain briefly how this situation came about. It started here in Washington in 1998. An amendment to the omnibus appropriations bill started the ball rolling in Washington, DC. A McDade-Murtha amendment required Federal prosecutors to abide by the State ethics laws and rules in the State in which they work. In Oregon, the State bar association enacted a disciplinary rule making it unethical for attorneys to take part in any practice involving " deceit or misrepresentation of any kind. " When an Oregon attorney misrepresented his identity to investigate a claim, the State supreme court found him guilty of an ethics violation. The McDade-Murtha amendment backed that up. It became very clear no matter how vital the investigation, no matter how great the need, no matter how dangerous the criminals, attorneys—including Federal, State, and [[Page S10677]] local prosecutors—are simply absolutely not allowed to take a single step, not even to give advice, to help in an undercover investigation. If an undercover investigator cannot get advice from a Federal, State, or local prosecutor, that undercover investigator cannot go forward. It is that simple: no wiretaps, no sting operations, no infiltrating or gathering information on any criminal group no matter how dangerous their bent or how dastardly their plans… The terrorists made their homes in Florida and New Jersey before striking Americans in New York and Virginia. I don't want to find 6 months from now that the terrorists made their homes in Oregon because this body failed in its resolve to shut them down in every State in our country. Leaving one State vulnerable makes each State in this country vulnerable. I implore the conferees, and indeed the Congress, to act swiftly and judicially to guarantee that our Federal prosecutors and investigators have these essential tools that they have asked us to support on a bipartisan basis so they can conduct covert operations that are that are necessary to prevent and prosecute criminals in terrorist acts. " source: http://frwebgate6.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi? WAISdocID=937180114579+23+0+0 & WAISaction=retrieve " Congressional Record: November 12, 1998 (House)] [Page H11711-H11719] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:cr12no98-82] Murtha, who clearly wants U.S. resources to be shifted away from the Middle East and into position to fight a war against China may well be the most dangerous American politician. There would be no winners in a total war between America and China, which would result in the end of all life on earth. " The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran and al-Qaeda, " Murtha said on CBS's " Face the Nation " political talk show. " And I talked to a top- level commander the other day and he said China wants us there also. Why? Because we're depleting our resources ... our troop resources and our fiscal resources. " Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx? type=domesticNews & storyid=2006-03\ -06T004635Z_01_N05146615_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-MURTHA.xml For more on Murtha please do searches for the following posts: What Does The Murtha Money Trail Teach Us Murthas Money Trail World The Murtha Moran McKinney Axis of Evil The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same Can We Stop The Coming War Against China Hear No Evil See No Evil Speak No Evil The Modern Ministry of Truth If your research leads you to believe that Murtha, Moran, or others may have broken any American laws we urge you to contact the U.S. Department of Justice, including the Attorney General.BY MAIL:Correspondence to the Department, including the Attorney General, may be sent to: U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 BY E-MAIL:E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to AskDOJ will be forwarded to the responsible Department of Justice component for appropriate handling. 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