| To: ChinuSFO who wrote (3285) | 1/14/2004 7:50:30 AM | | From: lorne | | | | Paradise lost - jail gained: confessions of a militant
By Dominic Evans in Riyadh
January 14, 2004
smh.com.au
Saudi state television has aired what it said were confessions by captured militants, in the latest offensive against al-Qaeda supporters blamed for suicide bombings that killed more than 50 people last year.
In a prime-time broadcast, the repentant militants said they were lured by promises of paradise, lectured on the Muslim duty of jihad, and played tapes from Osama bin Laden to persuade them to take up arms.
The confessions came as it was revealed that more than half the members of the United Nations have yet to report on their efforts to crack down on the al-Qaeda network, as required by the Security Council in September 2001.
Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, said the Security Council plans to adopt a resolution on Friday to put more pressure on non-complying countries. The UN resolution requires member nations to freeze the assets of any individual or group suspected of ties to al-Qaeda or the Taliban and orders governments to block movements of suspects and bar them from obtaining arms, funds or other resources.
Saudi Arabia, birthplace of bin Laden and home to Islam's holiest sites, has been fighting a wave of violence.
Last month militants narrowly missed killing two security officials - one of them a counter-terrorism officer liaising with Western intelligence services.
The Government has vowed to strike with an "iron fist" all those behind recent violence. It has also worked hard to eradicate public support for the militants and repeatedly promised leniency for those who surrender.
It was not clear if any of the Islamic militants who appeared on television were directly involved in attacks. They were not named and their faces were digitally obscured.
"We say thank God we were caught before we carried out any crime and harmed Muslims," one of them said.
One said he was shown religious edicts on the internet, including rulings that warned against working for the Saudi Government, which had become a "false God". Another described how recruits went to a house in Riyadh, where they were taught to handle and clean guns, and were taken out to the desert for "training".
Some went to the holy city of Mecca, where they spent three or four days in a camp learning to assemble and fire weapons.
"I was one of them, until recently. Thank God I was jailed and God enlightened me," said one of them.
Monday's broadcast included a government appeal to Saudi parents to "protect their sons from exploitation by terrorist groups who use them to fuel the fire of crime and aggression".
Showing graphic pictures of the destruction and injuries caused by last year's bombings, it said more than 23 tonnes of explosives had been seized by security forces, as well as hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades and explosive belts.
The broadcast followed a series of televised retractions last year by three radical clerics who had praised the militants and urged Saudi citizens not to co-operate with security forces trying to round them up. |
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| To: ChinuSFO who wrote (3265) | 1/14/2004 8:32:22 AM | | From: lorne | | | | O'Neill backtracks on Bush broadside
Regrets using `vivid language'
Jan. 14, 2004. 01:00 AM
Tries to distance himself from book
thestar.com
TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON—Under concerted attack from the White House, former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill retreated yesterday.
O'Neill said his contention that President George W. Bush came to office fixated on ousting Saddam Hussein was really just a government policy of regime change in Iraq that he inherited from the preceding Bill Clinton administration.
O'Neill said he would probably even vote for Bush in November's presidential election.
The author of the book detailing O'Neill's 23 months in the Bush cabinet, Ron Suskind, also came under fire from his former employer, the Wall Street Journal, where he won a Pulitzer.
In an editorial yesterday, the paper called its former reporter a "well-known Bush antagonist."
The controversy created by O'Neill and Suskind has played into the hands of Democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination and two of the leading candidates, former Vermont governor Howard Dean and retired NATO Gen. Wesley Clark, took the revelations and ran.
Still, as Suskind's The Price of Loyalty was released yesterday, it was clear O'Neill had already done some damage to his former boss.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted twice calling O'Neill before the explosive insider account was published — but says he never tried to dissuade him from co-operating with the book's author.
Rumsfeld said at a news conference yesterday that his former colleague appeared to "completely misunderstand" what was being said inside the cabinet room about Bush's determination to oust Saddam.
The book is replete with stories of a president who appeared zoned out at meetings and said he operated on "instinct" and "gut," not briefing books.
In the book, O'Neill laments the fact that as a 65-year-old man he had to be given a nickname, a Bush habit.
The president immediately began calling him "Pablo." Later he started calling his treasury secretary "Big O."
He said Bush called Secretary of State Colin Powell "Balloonfoot."
Yesterday, O'Neill told NBC's Today show he had no classified documents from his time in cabinet and passed unopened to Suskind many documents he had been given.
He said he regretted using some "vivid language" and seemed to distance himself from the book, reminding the audience "this is Ron Suskind's book, this is not my book."
Rumsfeld said if O'Neill thought Bush came into office with a predisposition to invade Iraq, that is a "total misunderstanding" of the situation.
But he said when the administration came into power in January, 2001, the only place in the world where an enemy fired at Americans "with impunity" was in Iraq, where pilots were enforcing "no-fly zones."
"It was something the president had to address, did address," Rumsfeld said.
Still, Democrats picked up the ball.
Clark compared the length of time it took Bush to investigate a White House leak that identified a CIA agent last summer and the alacrity with which the treasury department decided it had to investigate whether O'Neill had secret documents.
"They're not concerned about national security, but they're real concerned about political security," Clark said.
Dean unleashed new TV ads in Iowa — where the first Democratic caucuses measuring voters' candidate preferences take place next Monday — picking up on the O'Neill allegations.
He reminded voters that others seeking the nomination, Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and North Carolina Senator John Edwards, backed the war while Dean did not.
And in an interview to be published in Rolling Stone magazine, Dean — without specifically mentioning the war in Iraq — said Bush had some type of obsessive need to please his father, who allowed Saddam to remain in power after the 1991Gulf war and lost his bid for re-election.
"This president is not interested in being a good president," the former Vermont governor said. "He's interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father.
"He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country." |
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| To: lorne who wrote (3301) | 1/14/2004 8:54:19 AM | | From: ChinuSFO | | | | Under concerted attack from the White House,......
That says it all isn't it? Anyone who speaks against the Govt. is toast. For such folks they will hear a deafening bang in Nov. 2004 |
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| To: ChinuSFO who wrote (3302) | 1/14/2004 9:28:38 AM | | From: lorne | | | | Chinu. You said...." Lorne, what you posted goes to establish the fact that the threat of terrorism is still very alive and Bush has not succeeded in making any dent in that area. "....
chinu. Just how can you not see evidence of change brought about by USA pressure? Especially where it concerns anything muslim or islam terrorism? Is your hatred of President Bush so strong that you have become blinded to Reality? |
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| To: ChinuSFO who wrote (3303) | 1/14/2004 9:44:14 AM | | From: lorne | | | | chinu. You said...." That says it all isn't it? Anyone who speaks against the Govt. is toast. For such folks they will hear a deafening bang in Nov. 2004 "....
Look around chinu. Have you noticed that lots and lots of people speak out against the Government but not all have access to classified documents which they pass on to the media or report in a new book.
Did you support all those who spoke out against the clinton regime. ?
You said...." For such folks they will hear a deafening bang in Nov. 2004 "....
And just what in your opinion will cause this deafening bang. I can tell you what I hope it won't be and that is more attacks by muslim/islam terrorists who are unhappy because President Bush will be able to continue attacking these radicals.... Democrat President more likely to invite bin lodin to sleep in White House. |
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| To: lorne who wrote (3304) | 1/14/2004 9:48:40 AM | | From: ChinuSFO | | | | Lorne, sometimes politics can be explained with simple examples which we can see easily.
In 1984, when the Mayor of Boston came into office, he unleashed the police force to clear the streets of prostitutes. These prostitutes would openly solicit for customers even at traffic lights, sometimes with women in the cars which stopped at the traffic intersection. This caused a great deal of uproar amongst the general public.
With a new Mayor moving in we had a vigourous police crackdown. We had regular police patrols at night (vigilance), and yes the open soliciting stopped. But did prostitution stop? Heck no. It only moved into back alleys, with the Johns now out in the open, walking around quietly and soliciting in public at night.
Now if they had arrested those prostitutes (Osama) and put them behind bars then the Johns would not have anything to fall back on. War against prostitution would be something they would have been in a position to declare as won.
Are you saying the similar id true with the war on terrorism. Your post did not indicate that. |
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| To: Hawkmoon who wrote (3283) | 1/14/2004 4:43:21 PM | | From: Chas. | | | | How do you debate a guy that rationalizes and equates the USAs support of Israel as a parallel to Frances support of Iraq specifically Saddam Hussein and cannot see the difference.........
regards |
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| To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (3298) | 1/14/2004 5:00:30 PM | | From: Hawkmoon | | | | ....and Stalin's troops across the border?
In 1943? The Germans and Russians were locked in a death grip at Kursk during the summer of 1943.. And then Manstein, the Germany tactical genius, succeeded in surrounding and killing or capturing tens of thousands of Russians who foolishly rushed forward to exploit their success at Kursk..
The Red Army didn't cross over into Germany proper until 1945 (not counting E. Prussia)... Hell, they didn't even "liberate" Warsaw, Poland until January 1st, 1945..
Bolshevik uprising in Germany in 1943?? LOL!!!
There was more chance of a Ukranian uprising against the Soviets..
Hawk |
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