| 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. |
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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Women march in Gaza to protest beheading threat |
| 2007-06-03 |
| A group of female TV anchors marched through Gaza City on Sunday to protest a fundamentalist group's threat to behead them if they did not don modest Islamic dress. Around 50 anchors and employees from government-run Palestine TV, mostly women wearing Muslim headscarves, marched from the station's offices in Gaza City toward the office of President Mahmoud Abbas to protest the threat from a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, known for firebombing Internet cafes and record stores. "We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and morals of this nation," the shadowy group said in a statement e-mailed to news agencies on Friday. The statement accused the female anchors of being "without any ... shame or morals." Most of the 15 female anchors on Palestine TV wear headscarves, in accordance with Islamic tradition. But they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which extremists consider immodest. "Shame on you," said Sally Abed, a Palestinian news anchor, addressing the Islamist group. "The people working in this institution are your people if it's not your sister, it's your mother." In many parts of the Muslim world, conservative policies keep women out of the news anchor's seat or require them to wear headscarves on air. But headscarves are uncommon on television in the more secular states of Lebanon and Jordan, and Egypt's nonreligious regime keeps newscasters who wear them off its TV stations. Hard-line Islam has been on the rise in the Gaza Strip in recent years, especially with the increase in poverty since the outbreak of fighting with Israel in 2000. Today it is more common to see women with their entire face covered with a veil once an extremely rare practice in the Palestinian territories than it is to see women with their hair uncovered. The Swords of Truth faction has claimed responsibility for bombing some three dozen Internet cafes, music shops and pool halls, which it considers dens of vice. Assailants detonated small bombs outside the businesses at night, causing damage but no injuries. Few details are known about the group. According to a Palestinian security official, the organization has less than 100 members and was formed last year to impose a hardline version of Islam in Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge information to the media. |
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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Fundamentalists in Gaza threaten to behead 'immodest' women broadcasters |
| 2007-06-02 |
| A Muslim extremist group threatened to behead female TV broadcasters if they don't don strict Islamic dress, leaving the women terrified and marking a further downward spiral in Gaza's anarchy. The threat to "cut throats from vein to vein" was delivered by the Swords of Truth, a fanatical group that has previously claimed responsibility for bombing Internet cafes and music shops. The new threat was the first time the organization targeted a specific group of people, and adds to a growing climate of extremism, fear and suspicion in Gaza. In many parts of the Muslim world, religious conservative policies keep women out of TV anchoring positions or only let them take the jobs if they wear headscarves. But in some countries scarves are uncommon, like Lebanon and Jordan, and Egypt even keeps newscasters who wear them off its TV stations. Most of the 15 women broadcasters on government-run Palestine TV wear headscarves. But they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which is not considered strictly observant by the The Swords of Truth issued the statement Friday in an e-mail sent to news organizations. "We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation." The group accused the broadcasters of being "without any...shame or morals" and said it knew where to find the women. Prior to the statement, some women broadcasters said they had received personal threats through their mobile phones. It was not clear if those threats were from the same group. One anchorwoman who does not wear a headscarf said she was too frightened by the threat to go to work on Saturday. "It's a dangerous precedent in our society. It will target all working women," said the broadcaster, who declined to give her name out of fear. "The statement frightened us." Another presenter who wears a headscarf, on Palestine TV, said she couldn't understand why they were targeted. "I hope they take it back. I hope not a bullet will be fired at us," she said. Basem Abu Sumaya, head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, which runs Palestine TV, said that the PBC already had security measures in place, but could not protect people on the way to work. The PBC is bankrolled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and is accused of openly exhibiting support for the Fatah movement. A senior security official, who requested anonymity owing to the issue's sensitivity, said The Swords of Truth had less than 100 members, and was formed last year. The group claimed responsibility for the bombings since October of about three dozen Internet cafes, music shops and pool halls, which are considered places of vice by some in deeply conservative Gaza. Assailants detonated small bombs outside businesses at night, causing damage but no injuries. The security official said his forces were taking the threat seriously. He said Hamas members funded the group, wanting to impose a hardline version of Islam in Gaza. Hamas spokesman Ismail Ridwan said his faction had "no relation" to the group. This is not the first display of recent Islamic extremism in Gaza. Only last month, Muslim hardliners lobbed a bomb at a UN-run school, accusing the world body of "turning schools into nightclubs" for holding a display of traditional Palestinian dancing. |
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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Hamas' misrule in Gaza |
| 2007-04-25 |
| Hamas, the terrorist group that Palestinians last year elected to govern their territories, is failing to govern at all. March alone saw at least 46 kidnappings of civilians in the Gaza Strip, as well as over 25 killings of Palestinians by fellow Palestinians. Internecine violence has gotten so bad that one human-rights activist says Gaza "has become worse than Somalia." Yasser Abed Rabbo, an executive-committee member of the rival Palestine Liberation Organization, calls it "anarchy." The violence is just the tip of the iceberg in "Hamasistan." Other troubling signs include: International Exodus: Foreigners who came to help are starting to flee for their lives - even armed foreigners. One group of Egyptian military officers has reportedly been recalled to Cairo on account of the dangers, with the two generals who remain spending most of their time in Israel, for fear of violence. The United Nations may even declare Gaza a "dangerous zone." That would precipitate the evacuation of nearly all foreign nationals. This would be disastrous for the general population: Nearly two-thirds of Gaza's 1.4 million residents claim refugee status, and rely on the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) and other aid organizations. Unsafe Streets: The Palestinian media reports that crimes, including car theft and abductions, are skyrocketing. Iranian-trained Hamas forces are battling Egyptian-trained Fatah forces, rather than policing the streets. National Security Adviser Muhammad Dahlan admits that "many young men prefer to work for clans and not the security forces." Last Sunday, a group calling itself the Islamic Swords of Truth, a self-appointed vice squad, claimed responsibility for bombing the Gaza Bible Society's bookstore and two Internet cafes. In response, Palestinians are taking the law into their own hands. In March, one of Gaza's large clans gathered to blockade a main road in Northern Gaza to protest against the targeting of one of their shops by a vice squad. The family demanded that the government bring law and order back to the streets. Dwindling Media Freedom: Last week, security guards broke up a peaceful media protest of the government's inability to secure the release of Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist kidnapped more than a month ago - and injured three journalists. A group calling itself the Tawhid and Jihad Brigades just issued a statement claiming to have executed Johnston. Foreign journalists now fear for their lives. Health Risks: The collapse of a sewage-treatment pool in Umm al-Naser, a North Gaza village, killed three women and two toddlers and injured 25 others in March. The "sewage tsunami" submerged at least 25 homes and caused untold damages to the 3,000-person village. Fadel Kawash, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, told the Associated Press that a number of sewage projects, including the one in Umm al-Naser, were halted when Hamas pulled funding after their electoral victory in January 2006. Said one U.N. official, "this has been a tragedy that was predicted and documented." Officials believe that another cesspool collapse is possible, unless prophylactic steps are soon taken. Provocations: Hamas continues to permit provocations against Israel from Gaza - notably, the homemade Kassam missiles shot into Israel nearly every day. Yuval Diskin, the chief of Shin Bet, Israel's counterintelligence and internal-security service, recently warned that Israel must begin to think about thwarting a more dangerous situation in Gaza, should Hamas develop more dangerous capabilities. Hamas is tempting Israel into a confrontation, with reckless disregard for the Palestinian population. Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth; any military incursion - like Israel's response last year to similar Hamas provocations from Lebanon - would inflict utter devastation. In short, Hamas has not made the transition from terrorist group to government. It is exposing Gazans to danger without providing key freedoms and services - and seems on track to produce wider internecine violence, deepening poverty and perhaps new rounds of violence with Israel. In other words, Gaza's suffering proves, once again, that terrorist groups, thanks to their utter indifference to human suffering, are unfit to govern. |
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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Bombs hit Christian bookstore, two Internet cafes in Gaza City |
| 2007-04-16 |
| Three explosions rocked Gaza City early Sunday, damaging two Internet cafes and a Christian bookstore. No one was hurt and no group claimed responsibility for the blasts, which took place around 3 a.m. local time, Palestinian security officials said. But heavy external damage was visible at the three stores. At the bookstore, which is funded by American Protestants and known as the Bible Society, a number of books were also burned in the explosion. Several similar attacks on Internet cafes and music stores in recent months have been claimed by a little-known extremist Islamic organization calling itself the Swords of Truth. The officials would not speculate on the identity of the attackers behind the Sunday attacks, saying only that the incidents were under investigation. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. In recent months, about three dozen Internet cafes and shops selling pop music have been attacked in the Gaza Strip, with assailants detonating small bombs outside businesses at night, causing damage but no injuries. Palestinian security officials have said they suspect a secret vice squad of Muslim militants. |
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| Iraq |
| Peace activist was tortured before being killed |
| 2006-03-11 |
 Police said the body of Tom Fox, kidnapped in November with three colleagues by a group calling itself the Swords of Truth, was discovered on Thursday with the hands tied and a single gunshot wound to the head at a rubbish dump in western Baghdad. The American, who had campaigned against what he called the dehumanization of the U.S. occupation, appeared to have been beaten with electric cables before his death, said a policeman who found the body beside a railway line. |
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| Iraq |
| Video Of Peace Activist Hostages Aired |
| 2006-03-07 |
| Doha, 7 March. (AKI) - A videotape purporting to show three peace activists who were taken hostage in Iraq in November has been broadcast by Arab television station Al Jazeera. Briton Norman Kember, 74, who was seized in Baghdad with two Canadians and an American in November, appears on the tape which was broadcast without audio. The four captives - who belong to the group Christian Peacemaker - were last seen in a video clip dated 21 January, also aired by Al Jazeera. The tape broadcast on Monday showed the three men sitting in chairs and speaking, although there was no sound. It was not immediately clear which of the four hostages - James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both from Canada, Tom Fox, 54, an American national, and Norman Kember from London - was not in the video. News reports say that one of those on the tape - believed to be Norman Kember - had white hair and a slight beard, while the two others had dark hair and full beards and all appeared in good health. The four were kidnapped in Baghdad more than three months ago, on 26 November. A previously unknown group - the Swords of Truth Brigade - claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and has on several occasions threatened to kill them unless all detainees in US and Iraqi prisons are released. |
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| Iraq |
| 'Last chance' for Iraq hostages |
| 2006-01-29 |
 Kidnappers holding four Western peace activists hostage in Iraq have said they are giving US-led forces one final chance to free Iraqi prisoners or they would kill their hostages. In a new video shown by Aljazeera on Saturday and dated 21 January, the four hostages were shown standing against a wall in an unknown location. The four - two Canadians, one Briton and one American - appeared to be speaking to the camera but their voices could not be heard. A statement received along with the tape and read on air said the kidnappers were giving a "last chance" for US and Iraqi authorities to "release all Iraqi prisoners in return of freeing the hostages otherwise their fate will be death". Briton Norman Kember, American Tom Fox and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden were kidnapped on 26 November in Baghdad, where they were working with a Christian peace organization. They are being held by the previously unknown Swords of Truth. |
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| Iraq | |
| Kember's wife in new hostage plea | |
| 2006-01-07 | |
 The three-year-old grandson of Norman Kember keeps asking when he will return from Iraq, the wife of the kidnapped peace activist has told al-Jazeera. In a new appeal on the Arab TV channel, Pat Kember said she was "very worried" about the 74-year-old Briton's health. Mr Kember, from Pinner, north London, was seized in Baghdad on 26 November, with two Canadians and an American.
Mrs Kember's appearance on al-Jazeera was the latest appeal from the hostages' families. She previously appeared on the channel on 4 December, saying that her husband and his friends were allies of Iraq and had gone there to make it "a safer place". A series of radio and newspaper adverts were issued in Iraq over the Christmas period and the Muslim Association of Britain has also been working to secure their release. The Foreign Office said it had no new information about Mr Kember. | |
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| Britain |
| Jailed Terror Suspect makes TV appeal for British hostage's life |
| 2005-12-08 |
 A high-profile terror suspect has made a television appeal from prison in England for the release of a British hostage being held in Iraq. Abu Qatada was allowed to film his plea as part of an unprecedented effort to secure the lives of Norman Kember and three other Western peace activists. Officials admitted that it was a unique broadcast but, with the kidnappers threatening to kill their captives within the next few days, they were prepared to take the desperate measures. Their hope is that the intervention of such a prominent Islamic militant may succeed in persuading the kidnappers from the Swords of Truth group after efforts by more than 20 Muslim groups have so far failed. Last night the kidnappers extended the deadline for killing their hostages by 48 hours to Saturday night and released new footage of Mr Kember pleading for Britain to pull out troops from Iraq and for help to free him."Not enough desperation that time, Mr. Kember. Let's try it again!" British diplomats are reported to have used more intermediaries than they did during the failed attempt to save Kenneth Bigley and Margaret Hassan. But few could have expected that ministers would turn to a man described by judges as âa truly dangerous individualâ. Officials insist that they have offered no leniency to Abu Qatada in return for his role. They claim that it was he who approached prison staff with an offer to intervene. Both the Home and Foreign secretaries gave permission after first checking with diplomats in Baghdad that Abu Qatadaâs plea would not jeopardise undercover efforts to save Mr Kember from Pinner, northwest London, two Canadians and an American. The Prime Minister was also informed. |
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| Iraq |
| Kidnapping "peace team" members is "bad terrorism" |
| 2005-12-05 |
| by James S. Robbins, National Review EFL'd to get to the good part. . . . CPT friends and fellow travelers have rallied around the effort to get the hostages released. . . . Maybe the abductors will see reason; but there is no reason to believe they would recognize reason if they saw it. Ouch! I do not even think they are good at what they do. Double ouch! These kidnappings are simply bad terrorism. The targets are all wrong. The point of taking hostages is to gain publicity, to bring issues and demands to the public eye whether they are realistic or not. If you can also raise money, so much the better. And if you execute people who are working on rebuilding projects or aiding Coalition forces, you might scare others away. However, you do not abduct the âuseful idiotsâ on the other side who support you. This serves no purpose whatsoever. A sensible terrorist political warfare strategy tries to drive wedges into the enemy society by isolating the groups you will never be able to win over and appealing to as wide a base as possible. The Swords of Truth Brigades should not be threatening the CPT team; they should be holding a joint press conference to denounce the Coalition. The way they are behaving is comparable to the North Vietnamese shooting Jane Fonda with a firing squad instead of a camera in 1972. "Of all sad words of tongue or pen/The saddest are these: "It might have been!" The terrorists really do not know who their friends are. They kidnap humanitarian workers. They target journalists. They bomb the U.N. Lenin must be spinning in his tomb. |
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