| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| 'I don't know how much longer I have, I'm f***ing ready': Army vet, 22, posted photos of ammunition and warned of an approaching 'storm' on Facebook before he was shot dead by police when he 'opened fire outside Dallas federal courthouse' |
| 2019-06-18 |
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
|
| Link |
| Britain |
| Scottish prisoners request kosher meals: They are ‘nicer' |
| 2016-09-02 |
An official at Glenochil Prison in Clackmannanshire in Scotland said the prison must provide the kosher meals to the prisoners if they claim to have converted to Judaism, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported Wednesday. "Where previously we have always had a very minimal Jewish prison population we have seen a huge rise," prison spokesman Tom Fox said. Prison officials believe the inmates think the kosher meals are "nicer." A wee gifilte fish with your haggis? |
| Link |
| Iraq |
| Iraq: suicide bomber kills 25 west of Baghdad |
| 2008-08-24 |
| A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in the midst of a celebration to welcome home an Iraqi detainee released from U.S. custody, killing at least 25 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the arrest of an al-Qaida in Iraq figure who allegedly planned the 2006 kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll one of the highest-profile attacks against Westerners in Iraq. The suicide attack occurred inside one of several tents set up outside a house in the Abu Ghraib area on Baghdad's western outskirts, according to residents and police. It was unclear if the former detainee was among the casualties. A woman who was wounded but declined to give her name for security reasons said she was preparing food behind the tents when the blast occurred at about 9 p.m., knocking her and her three young children off their feet. Residents and police said Ayyid Salim al-Zubaie, a local sheik in the mainly Sunni area, had invited dozens of guests to a banquet in honor of his son, who was released earlier in the day from Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. Residents said the detainee-son had quarreled with al-Qaida members while in detention and may have been the target of the attack. The guests also included several members of the local awakening council, a U.S.-allied group that has turned against al-Qaida. Yassir al-Jumaili, a doctor at the hospital in nearby Fallujah where most of the wounded were taken, gave the death toll as 25 and said at least 29 other people were wounded. The blast was a grim reminder of the dangers still facing Iraqis despite a sharp decrease in violence after the 2007 U.S. troop buildup, a Sunni decision to join forces with the Americans against al-Qaida and a Shiite militia cease-fire. The announcement of the arrest of Salim Abdullah Ashur al-Shujayri, also known as Abu Othman, was a major breakthrough in a series of kidnappings. He was captured Aug. 11 in Baghdad and accused of being "the planner behind the kidnapping" of Carroll, a Christian Science Monitor reporter who was seized Jan. 7, 2006 and released three months later, according to the military. The statement also said al-Shujayri's associates were involved in the kidnappings of Christian peace activists and British aid worker Margaret Hassan, but did not elaborate. Kidnappings of Westerners forced foreigners to flee Iraq or take refuge in heavily guarded compounds, diminishing the ability of aid groups and journalists to operate. Many of the victims were butchered and their deaths recorded on videotapes distributed to Arab satellite TV stations or posted on the Web. Hassan, 59, the director of CARE international in Iraq, was abducted in Baghdad in October 2004 and shown on a video pleading for her life, calling on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq. She was killed a month later, but her body was never found. The case drew special attention because Hassan, who was married to an Iraqi, had lived in the country for 30 years and spent nearly half her life helping Iraqis. Four men from the Chicago-based group, Christian Peacemaker Teams, disappeared Nov. 26, 2005, in Baghdad and videotapes later showed them in captivity. One of the hostages, American Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., was found shot dead. The other three two Canadians and a Briton were later rescued. Carroll was seized in west Baghdad and her interpreter was killed. The kidnappers, a formerly unknown group calling itself the Revenge Brigade, demanded the release of all women detainees in Iraq. U.S. officials freed some female detainees but said the decision was unrelated to the demands. The statement said U.S. troops also captured another al-Qaida figure Ali Rash Nasir Jiyad al-Shammari on Aug. 17 in Baghdad. He was accused of being a senior adviser for the terror network and funneling money, weapons and explosives to insurgents in the capital "during its most active operational period in early 2007," the military said. Al-Shammari, also known as Abu Tiba, personally approved targets for car and suicide bombings targeting Iraqi civilians, the military said. The military statement said al-Qaida in Iraq conducted almost 300 bombings, killing more than 1,500 civilians and wounding more than twice that many in 2007, compared with 28 attacks that killed 125 Iraqi civilians in the first half of this year. "The capture of Abu Tiba and Abu Othman eliminates two of the few remaining experienced leaders in the AQI network," said military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll. Also Sunday, the U.S. military said a 13-year-old girl wearing a bomb-laden vest surrendered to Iraqi police in Baqouba rather than blow herself up. She led police to a second suicide vest and was detained, the military said. Women have increasingly been recruited by insurgents to carry out attacks because it's easier for them to evade security checks. |
| Link |
| Britain |
| Who paid to free Abu Qatada? |
| 2008-05-09 |
| A former British hostage held in Iraq today revealed that he helped pay the bail for jailed radical preacher Abu Qatada. Norman Kember, a 77-year-old peace campaigner from Pinner, said he gave the money out of kindness in return for Qatada's help while he was being held by his kidnappers. Mr Kember was saved by the SAS after four months in captivity at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds. He was criticised after his release over claims which he later denied that he had failed to thank his SAS rescuers. Extremist cleric Qatada is viewed by the Home Office as a serious danger to the public. Officials are trying to deport him to Jordan but yesterday he won an appeal against his detention and will now be freed on bail under a 22 hour-a-day curfew. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and opposition parties have hit out at the ruling amid concern that the release of Qatada once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe will pose a threat to national security. Today, however, Mr Kember said he felt that Qatada should be freed because the British authorities had failed to prosecute him. He said that if Qatada, who has been in jail awaiting deportation since 2002, had been convicted then he should serve his sentence, but in the absence of a trial it was wrong to continue to detain him. If you want to keep him in jail you have to have good reasons for doing it otherwise al Qaeda have you if you don't follow your process of justice, he said. Mr Kember said he had given hundreds, rather than thousands, of pounds and had sent Qatada a copy of his book, Hostage In Iraq. He added that he expected to be criticised. He said that he hoped Qatada's release would encourage a conversation with Muslims and greater understanding of the religion and urged more people to try to speak to the cleric to understand what his position is and why he takes it. He added: I always think we are in danger of demonising Islam and I think we have to have a more open discussion about these things. The Government obviously doesn't. Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of terrorist offences in the 1990s. Judges last week blocked a government bid to deport him back to Jordan because of the risk that evidence obtained by torture would be used to prosecute him, although the Home Office is mounting an appeal. Mr Kember and three other men were kidnapped in Baghdad in November 2005 by a group calling itself the Swords of Truth Brigade. One of the hostages, American Tom Fox, was murdered by his captors. After his rescue, the head of the British Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, said he was saddened by Mr Kember's apparent lack of gratitude towards his SAS saviours. |
| Link |
| Iraq | |||||||||
| Senior Al Qaeda Muharib Abdul Latif killed by US troops | |||||||||
| 2007-05-03 | |||||||||
Sweet Senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Muharib Abdul Latif, implicated in the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll and the death of peace activist Tom Fox, was killed by U.S. troops on Monday as part of a three-day strike against the insurgent group. that led to the death and capture of dozens of suspected terrorists.The 72-hour Operation Rat Trap led to the death of 15 and the capture of 95 insurgents as coalition forces targeted al-Qaeda sites outside the city of Taji, north of Baghdad, U.S. military spokesperson Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said today. He characterized the operation as a significant blow to the organization. Latif was identified as al-Qaeda in Iraq's senior information minister, responsible for crafting propaganda efforts and coordinating the flow of money and foreign fighters. He was also involved in the kidnapping of Carroll, who was released, and was said to be the last person who saw Fox before he was shot multiple times, Caldwell said. He was also linked to the kidnapping of two Germans in early 2006. "Picking up somebody with that kind of history, that is significant -- to be able to stop that kind of activity," Caldwell said. "Taking him off the street is a good thing." The announcement of Latif's death clears up several days of confusion over the purported death of a top ranking insurgent leader. In recent days Iraqi officials and media reported first the death of al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Ayyub al-Masri, then today reported the death of reported Islamic State in Iraq leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. Caldwell said al-Masri had not been killed and that U.S. officials are not even sure who al-Baghdadi is. I'm not at all sure about that last statement. If we know who he is, I'm sure the military does.
| |||||||||
| Link |
| Fifth Column |
| Peace Nazis equate U.S. troops with terrorists |
| 2006-04-06 |
| "We kill the young, along with their mothers and fathers, in acts of terrorism every week. We use 'deadly force' in an ideological battle, just as insurgents and terrorists organizations do. Does it matter to the dead and injured that we claim to do so as 'liberators'?" Texans for Peace, describing the U.S. military in Iraq There are, it seems, some things that self-described advocates of peace are willing to fight about. Expose an uncomfortable truth about their beliefs, and the peace brigades are more than happy to go on the warpath. That's what happened after I wrote a recent column criticizing the organization Christian Peacemaker Teams for its lack of gratitude to coalition forces who rescued three of its members from a terrorist safe house near Baghdad. As I noted, the original CPT statement was filled with denunciations of British and American forces in Iraq, but contained not a single word of thanks to the individuals who risked their lives to save those of the Christian Peacemakers. Christian Peacemakers Teams issued an addendum acknowledging, "We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed ... that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them." Give the group credit for at least admitting its error. Texans for Peace, on the other hand, is still clinging to the fantasy that the CPT hostages were "released" presumably by the same kind folks who murdered American hostage Tom Fox rather than freed by American, British and Iraqi troops. "3 Peacemakers friends released" is the headline Texans for Peace maintains on its Web site. Rather than correct a single word, the peace group went on the attack against me for drawing attention to its misleading headline, labeling me an anti-Muslim bigot and suggesting I should not write about events in Iraq or Sudan. Why would Texans for Peace be so belligerent about using language that reflects favorably on the hostage-takers while discrediting the role of military rescuers? It might be because Texans for Peace doesn't want anyone to believe the military is capable of doing anything positive. On the contrary, the American military, indeed all Americans, are guilty of being baby killers. "American soldiers, directed by Commander-in-Chief Bush are killing babies," the group says, "and as citizens of the U.S. we share the blame." About the "release" of the three CPT hostages, Texans for Peace explains elsewhere: "Details of how they were found, who their captors actually were (none was found at the site), and why they were taken in the first place, and who actually murdered Tom Fox still need to be investigated." Texans for Peace founder Charles Jackson elaborated the point on the All Things Conservative blog in a discussion about the subsequent release this time the word is accurate of reporter Jill Carroll: "There are many undercover operations going on in Iraq, by groups from a variety of foreign nations, including the U.S. Since she, and the CPT hostages, were taken by a 'previously unknown group' and no hostage takers were found in either instance, a great deal is still unknown as to the identity and motives of the kidnappers and who, if what, was behind it." Follow the line of reasoning here. There's no moral difference between terrorists who behead captives and set off bombs to deliberately and ruthlessly murder civilians and American soldiers, Marines and airmen fighting those terrorists who inadvertently and tragically kill civilians. And don't be so certain those previously unknown "terrorists" are who they say they are. The United States wink, wink has undercover operations going on Iraq. As I have written for more than three years, there are principled reasons to oppose the use of military force in Iraq. And I admire the dedication of people who are willing to risk their own lives and spend their own money to advance those principles in a war zone. What's not admirable is an ideological agenda that turns hostage takers into hostage releasers, murderers into martyrs and men and women fighting to save lives into baby killers. |
| Link |
| International-UN-NGOs |
| Wretchard on the "Christian Peacemaker Teams" |
| 2006-03-24 |
| EFL'd from a very long piece which you should go and read in its entirety 'cause, like everything this man writes, it's incisive as all get out. We judge figures by their actions under stress; note their choices; form some estimate of their capacity for truth; their ability to recognize quality even in their enemies. In the statement following their release Christian Peacemaker Teams have shown their quality by completely airbrushing out of the account of their rescue the fact it was performed by multinational forces. In terms of truthfulness, the statement of the CPT is in a class with that of Maurice Thorez, head of the French Communist Party, who described the Liberation of Paris without once naming LeClerc, Patton, Eisenhower or even de Gaulle. . . . . . . Now I can see that the Christian Peacemaker Teams were right to admire such as those who even one of their own described as criminal gangs. For I would much rather throw in with ruffians who still had a perverse sense of criminal honor and were willing to come to the aid of their fellows than entrust myself to people paralyzed with their own sense of sanctity, full of their own sense of righteousness. They have forbidden any attempts to visit retribution and justice upon their captors. And if they know anything more about this criminal gang they are unlikely to share it with the Coalition. The Washington Post reported shortly after CPT hostage Tom Fox was killed: Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia. If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of. Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods; nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals. There is nothing more suspicious than false modesty performed conspicuously upon a stage. As for myself, the Christian Peacemaker Teams remind me of nothing so much as Fred Phelps. I think that if ever there were an instance of latter-day blasphemy it must be in the CPT's hideous claim that their "only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers". Nothing seems further than the truth. They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater. Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship. |
| Link |
| Iraq | |
| 56 Iraqis die in bombings, sectarian violence | |
| 2006-03-24 | |
At least 56 Iraqis died in violence on Thursday, including a car bombing that killed 25 people in the third major attack on a police lockup in three days. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in Baghdads central Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there, authorities said.
 A second car bomb hit a market area outside a Shia Muslim mosque in the mostly mixed Shia-Sunni neighbourhood of Shurta in southwest Baghdad. At least six people were killed and more than 20 wounded, many of them children, police said. Roadside bombs targeting police patrols killed four others two policemen and two bystanders in Baghdad and at least one policeman in Iskandariyah. Police said dozens were wounded. Another two policemen were killed and two were wounded when gunmen ambushed their convoy in north Baghdad, an attack that police said was an aborted attempt to free detainees who were being transferred to the northern city of Mosul.Elsewhere throughout the capital, two police were killed in gun battles with insurgents and two civilians a private contractor and power plant employee were gunned down in drive-by shootings. Fourteen more bodies were found in the continuing string of shadowy sectarian killings: six in the capital and eight brought in by US forces to a hospital in Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of Baghdad, police said. Back in the capital, a mortar round fell on a house wounding three civilians, police Lt Ziad Hassan said. Another civilian was seriously wounded by an Iraqi army patrol that was shooting in the air to clear traffic in the western neighbourhood of Yarmouk, police said. In a lightning operation, US and British forces on Thursday rescued three Western hostages held captive in Iraq for almost four months. The three aid workers from the Christian Peacemaker Teams Canadians Harmeet Sooden, 32, and Jim Loney, 41, and Briton Norman Kember, 74 were found together in a house in western Baghdad. They were bound, but the house was otherwise empty and not a shot was fired. The raid was put together in just three hours after US forces obtained information from a detainee about the location of the hostages, US-led coalition spokesman Major General Rick Lynch told reporters. Their US colleague Tom Fox, seized with them in Baghdad on November 26, was slain two weeks ago and his body found dumped in the city. | |
| Link |
| Iraq |
| Troops in Iraq Free 3 Western Hostages |
| 2006-03-23 |
| Britain says multinational troops in Iraq have freed three Western peace activists held hostage since November. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced in London that the hostages - Briton Norman Kember and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden - were freed during a military operation Thursday. A fourth man seized at the same time, an American, was found shot to death in Baghdad earlier this month. Straw said today's rescue operation followed "weeks and weeks" of planning, but he released few details. He said the British hostage is now in Baghdad in "reasonable condition," but that the two Canadians are hospitalized. The three men, members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, were abducted in Baghdad on November fourth, along with their American colleague, Tom Fox. A little known group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigades, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. Separately, a suicide bombing at a security checkpoint in central Baghdad today killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 others. Most of the victims were policemen. Officials say the bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a checkpoint outside headquarters of the main criminal unit of the Iraqi police. |
| Link |
| Iraq |
| Iraqi Insurgents Who's Who |
| 2006-03-19 |
| Long considered a fragmentary and disorganized collection of groups with varying tactics and aims, Iraq's insurgency is showing signs of increasing coordination, consolidation and confidence, those who study it now say. There is no consensus on the precise number of insurgent fighters, but estimates range from a few thousand to more than 50,000. The vast majority of insurgents, probably more than 90 percent, are believed to be Iraqis from the Sunni minority group that largely ruled the country before the fall of Saddam Hussein. But U.S. commanders say that most of the deadliest attacks, and particularly suicide attacks, are committed by foreigners from a range of neighboring countries, including Jordan, Syrian, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan. The formation of the Mujahidin Shura Council , announced on Jan. 21, was a sign of the once-diffuse insurgency's consolidation around the leadership of a few large, powerful groups. It brought together the foreign-backed network of al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and several smaller, Iraqi-led groups. The council's head was said to be an Iraqi, a move made to counter the image of al-Qaeda as dominated by Arabs from elsewhere in the region. This appointment may be little more than a public relations move. The group's tactics include attacks carried out with bombs, small arms and mortar against Iraqi and American soldiers, as well as, increasingly, Iraqi civilians, most of them Shiites. Two of its "brigades," or affiliates, (the bin Malik and the Al-Ansar) are devoted solely to suicide attacks. Another, the Omar Brigade, is said to target only members of the Badr organization, a feared Shiite militia. Ansar al-Sunnah , which means "partisans of the law," is an offshoot of a group called Ansar al-Islam, which was formed in Kurdistan but has not been heard from in many months. The vast majority of its leaders and foot soldiers are Iraqi Sunnis who adhere to a strict, fundamentalist form of Islam called Salafism, which calls for a return to the practices of early Muslims and has gained radical expression throughout the Arab world. Their tactics -- including lethal suicide attacks -- and religious underpinnings are similar to those of al-Qaeda, but the two groups are considered bitter rivals for influence within the insurgent community. Among their best-known attacks was a roadside bomb blast that killed 14 Marines and an interpreter in August, the deadliest such attack of the war. The stated goal of the Islamic Army in Iraq is to drive the U.S. military out of Iraq. Comprised almost entirely of Iraqi Sunnis, including many still loyal to Saddam Hussein's regime and Baath Party, it is considered more nationalistic than religious in motivation. As many as three-quarters of its attacks, which include improvised bombs and kidnappings but not suicide attacks, are conducted against U.S. forces and non-Iraqi contractors. It often releases video footage of its operations. The group publishes a monthly magazine called al-Fursan and has denied rumors circulating last summer that it was in discussions with Iraqi officials about laying down its weapons. Its members reportedly include a sniper named "Juba," who gained a cult following when he was said to have killed several American soldiers in Baghdad last summer and fall. There is some discussion as to whether the Islamic Front of the Iraqi Resistance , one of the most highly publicized insurgent organizations, is actually an armed group or something of a public relations organ for other groups. It maintains a frequently updated Web site and publishes a magazine called Jami, an acronym composed of its Arabic initials, which also mean "mosque" or "gathering." It has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in and around the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. Mujahidin Army : A group that has released dozens of videos of bomb, rocket and sniper attacks, most of them directed against U.S. forces. Along with the Islamic Army in Iraq, it denied reports of rapprochement talks with the Iraqi government last year. It is one of a few smaller insurgent groups that called for attacks against Danish troops in the wake of the publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad last fall. Muhammad Army : A group made up mostly of Iraqi former Baathists and a few foreign fighters, it claimed credit for the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters that killed 23 people, including the organization's chief of mission. 1920 Revolution Brigades : This group, which has claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile kidnappings of Westerners and Iraqis working with U.S. forces, is named for the Iraqi uprising against the British after World War I. The group calls itself the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, another insurgent organization. Conquering Army : A new group that has emerged in the past two months through a series of videos released on the Internet and to regional television networks showing kidnapping victims confessing to various "crimes" such as working with American forces. Swords of the Righteous : A previously unknown group that gained prominence by claiming responsibility, in videos, for the kidnapping of four Christian Peacemaker workers, one of whom, Tom Fox of Virginia, was found dead March 10. Iraqi Vengeance Brigades : A little-known group that has released videos showing American journalist Jill Carroll, who was abducted in Baghdad in early January. |
| Link |
| Terror Networks |
| Is Torture Sanctioned By The Koran? |
| 2006-03-14 |
| According to one website, Arab readers of the Koran believe that Muslim torturers are doing surrogate torture (YU'ADHDHIBHUMU)for the Muslim God. I corrected some poorly translated text grammar, and did some editing to make clarify the text. Muslims are correct when they say that the Koran has to be read in Arabic. If not, it gets "lost in translation." American hostage Tom Fox was found dead in Iraq on the March 11, 2006. According to CNN, he was "tortured" and murdered with "a shot to the head." If you look for the word "torture" in a translated Koran, you wont find anything. But we know that the Koran incites torture. For anyone who doesn't know, unlike the Scribe' transmitters of Judaism and Christianity, Muslims take the Koran (Recitation) as the direct narration of the word of God, through Angel Gabriel. But if you look for the word "torture" in the Koran in Arabic, you find it immediately in Koran 9:14. Translations in French or English are completely distorted! See some key words necessary to understanding this very important line (from the Koran), that can be heard in many hostage execution videos. This line is highly inspirational to terrorists. This interested me because I had no idea that the be-headers had a particular murder mantra. - Qatiluhum: Fight to kill. Arabic has many words meaning war or fighting, but this one has the harshest impact. It means fight to kill or to exterminate (massacre). Wouldn't the English term "slaughter" best describe, "fight to kill"? - "Qatiluhum Yu'Adhdibhumu Allahu Bi'aydikum Wa Yukhzihim Wa Yansurkum Alayhim Wa Yashfi Sudura Qawmin Mu'uminina" (Sura 9, chapter 14). But here is where typical translations are completely distorted! The translation of this line means: "Fight to kill them (or "Massacre them"), Allah is torturing them through your hands and will cover them with ignominy" (9:14). If this is authentic, Muslim terrorists would take their desire to torture as divinely inspired, and claim that their God possessed them during the torture session. However, the following reveals typical French and English translations, from Arabic. French translation: "14. Combattez-les. Dieu, par vos mains, les châtiera, les couvrira d'ignominie, vous donnera la victoire sur eux et guérira les poitrines d'un peuple croyant." Which translates to English: "Fight them; through your hands, God will inflict very severe and cruel punishment ("chatiera"), degrade them, grant you victory over them, and heal the breasts of a believing people." Notice the absence of the notion of "massacre" and "torture". The order of words has also changed. In Arabic, the words "torture" immediately follows the word "massacre." Here, the translator has placed it further in the line, and have softened it. Why would translators distort harsh Arabic concepts? The best known English translator, Marmaduke Pickthall, was a Muslim convert. As far as I know, no critic of Islam has translated the Koran. English translation. "Fight them; through your hands, God will inflict very severe and cruel punishment ("chatiera"), degrade them, grant you victory over them, and heal the breasts of a believing people."(At-Tawbah 9:14). This is even softer than the French version. Here they only mention a "punishment" (instead of 'chatier' which is a very severe and cruel punishment). So here, we have something like when you were punished at school because you did not do your homework. So English translations are even weaker than the French. The Koran most definitely must be read in Arabic. I am not going to study a near dead language, but Westerners need complete knowledge of Arab understanding of a book that is their life-script. If they think torture is normal, then we have to adapt to that. |
| Link |
| Iraq |
| Hands off Iraq, Bush warns Iran, Syria |
| 2006-03-11 |
| Slightly EFL. Playing down The president's hopeful words came a day after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called the new parliament into session March 19 for the first time since it was elected nearly three months ago. Talabani said he feared "catastrophe" and "civil war" if politicians could not put aside their differences. He'd make a good Democrat. Also on Friday, the State Department announced the discovery of the body of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., one of four "Christian" Peacemakers activists kidnapped last year in Iraq. "I fully recognize that the nature of the enemy is such that they want to convince the world that we cannot succeed in Iraq," Bush said Saturday about the continuing violence in Iraq. "I know we're going to succeed if we don't lose our will." The president also said that while Iraq's security forces need more training, they performed well after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque, which led to the deaths of hundreds and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. "There are some people trying to, obviously, foment sectarian violence some have called it civil war but it didn't work," Bush said. "Secondly, I'm optimistic that the Iraqi security forces performed in most cases really well to provide security. All but two provinces after the blowing up of the mosque were settled." Bush spoke in the Roosevelt Room at the White House after receiving a briefing about the remote-controlled, homemade bombs that Iraqi Joining the president were Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Montgomery Meigs, a retired Army general who is leading the effort to find ways to counter the devices. The United States alleges that the Syrians are aiding the |
| Link |
