Tsar's Roundup

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Time for another installment of Tsar Lazar's Koranimal Karnevil!!

Pomoze Bog.

Welcome back, my friends,
To the show that never ends,
We’re so glad you could attend,
Come inside, come inside!

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Our Knesset insider Yoni shows us once again why the Paleswinians are incapable of self-government.

Palestinian chaos: Fatah's Popular Army on the loose

GAZA CITY - Despite opposition by the Palestinian Authority, Fatah has
deployed its so-called Popular Army.

Over the last month, Fatah's Popular Army has clashed with Palestinians
throughout the Gaza Strip. In most cases, the army was used to attack rivals
and disrupt protests by unions and opposition groups.

Palestinian sources said the Popular Army has been employed by Fatah
officials who also serve in the PA. They said the PA has used the Popular
Army to help impose control over Palestinian society.

"We are on the verge of civil war if the situation remains out of control,"
Palestinian legislator Khaddoura Fares said.

[On late Wednesday, suspected Fatah gunmen shot and seriously injured a
senior officer of PA military intelligence. Palestinian sources said the
gunmen were trying to abduct the officer from downtown Gaza City.]

On Oct. 2, a Popular Army member fired at taxi drivers near the southern
Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis. The taxi drivers had closed the Bani Suheila
junction in protest of an increase in fuel prices. The shooting resulted in
the death of a 30-year-old taxi driver, identified as Yasser Atiya Baraka.
Another driver was shot and injured. PA police did not respond.

Later that day, another Fatah group attacked a PA police station in the
Jabalya refugee camp north of Gaza City. Palestinian sources said the attack
was meant to protest the appointment of Maj. Eyad Kilab as a director of the
Criminal Intelligence Bureau.

Palestinian sources said Fatah has trained a force of about 3,000 members of
the Popular Army. They said members - some of whom were used to protect
evacuated Israeli communities in September - have received a salary from
Fatah drawn from PA funds.

The Popular Army was also said to have been involved in the latest armed
clashes in the Gaza Strip in which at least three people were killed and 43
injured. During an Oct. 2 battle, Popular Army members were seen protecting
a PA police station from Hamas attack in the Shati refugee camp.

The following day, PA police stormed the Palestinian Legislative Council in
Gaza City and demanded retaliation against Hamas. The police fired into the
air during a legislative session which later called for the dismissal of all
PA security chiefs.

"People are saying this is a test for a Palestinian state," PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas said. "If we continue on this path these people will say we
don't deserve one."

And also asks a very good question:

How long can the game go on, the PA is not Israels friend. The PA is our enemy that wants to destroy Israel as much as Hamas does, so why are we giving them ammunition?

23:40 Oct 08, '05 / 5 Tishrei 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Israel is planning additional confidence-building concessions to the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of this week’s scheduled meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

While Finance Minister Ehud Olmert announced last week that terrorists “with blood on their hands” would not be released, the IDF is expected to approve giving ammunition to PA security forces. In addition, at the meeting between the two leaders, there will be discussion regarding safe-passage routes between Gaza and PA autonomous areas throughout Judea and Samaria.

The PA is especially anxious to show progress on the political front with Israel as Abu Mazen is scheduled to meet in Washington on 20 October with US President George W. Bush.

http://www.yoni4knesset.com/mt/archives/001043.html
http://www.yoni4knesset.com/mt/archives/001045.html

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For those of you bloggers out there who are looking for a good, full-time job with excellent benefits---including 72 virgins, as many wives as you can handle, instant divorce, and no age-of-consent problems---here is your chance. A ex-Marine sniper friend of mine told me that the health benefits are lousy, though…

Looking for work? Consider Al Qaeda...

Fri Oct 7,10:49 AM ET

Al Qaeda has put job advertisements on the Internet asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages, an Arabic newspaperreported.

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat said on its Web site this week that al Qaeda had "vacant positions" for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and other conflict zones where militants are active.

The paper said the Global Islamic Media Front, an al Qaeda-linked Web-based organization, would "follow up with members interested in joining and contact them via email."

The paper did not say how applicants should contact the Global Islamic Media Front.

Al Qaeda supporters widely use the Internet to spread the group's statements through dozens of Islamist sites where anyone can post messages. Al Qaeda-linked groups also set up their own sites, which frequently have to move after being shut by Internet service providers.

The advertisements, however, could not be found on mainstream Islamist Web sites where al Qaeda and other affiliate groups post their statements.

Asharq al-Awsat said the advert did not specify salary amounts, but added: "Every Muslim knows his life is not his, since it belongs to this violated Islamic nation whose blood is being spilled. Nothing should take precedence over this."

The Front this week issued the second broadcast of a weekly Web news program called Voice of the Caliphate, which it says aims to combat anti-Qaeda "lies and propaganda" on major global and Arab television channels such as CNN and Al Jazeera.

Last month it issued an English-language video on the Internet called Jihad Hidden Camera which showed sniping and bombing attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq, and carried comical sound effects as well as laugh tracks.

Al Qaeda and other groups have increasingly turned to the Internet to win young Muslims over to their war against Western-backed governments in Arab and Muslim countries.

Islamist insurgents fighting U.S. forces and the U.S.-backed government in Iraq have often posted slick montages of their military activities, including beheadings of hostages, on the Internet.

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In the aftermath of the Warrior from God (no, not Katrina---we’re talking about earthquake in Pakistan) comes an article that seems to suggest a sigh of relief from our friends at the Saudi Arab News:

No Evidence Bin Laden Hurt or Killed

WASHINGTON, 10 October 2005 — No evidence suggests that the deadly earthquake that rocked Pakistan on Saturday injured or killed the world’s top terror leader, Osama Bin Laden. …
Meanwhile, scores of activists from an Islamist charity linked to a banned Pakistani militant organization died in the devastating earthquake.
The militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was outlawed by Pakistan in January 2002, a month after its fighters were accused of taking part in an attack on India’s Parliament in New Delhi.
A spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa, a group drawn from the ranks of Lashkar, said the charity’s mosques, hospitals, schools and seminaries were obliterated in Saturday’s earthquake. “Many of our members have been killed. They are in scores while several others are still trapped under the rubble,” the spokesman said yesterday.

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Some apologetic hand-wringing from a barbarian from Arab View:

Those Who Like to Offend

A colleague visited Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park; he returned with a smile and a surprised look on his face. He told me what he had seen and said that he was happy to see people speaking and interacting with such freedom — even if much of what they were saying was total nonsense. In fact, he was so amused that he decided to make a trip to Speakers’ Corner a weekly diversion. A little later, he came back and said, “I have seen that most Arabs don’t know how to engage in a reasonable discussion.” I wondered how he had arrived at this conclusion and when I asked him, he explained. He said that on one of his expeditions he had seen an Arab man standing on a chair and so naturally, he was interested in what the man had to say. He was speaking about Iraq, its integrity and its many problems. From among those listening to him there came loud voices, some approving and others disapproving. What began as one man expressing an opinion soon became an exchange of insults and in the end, an actual fight.
[Surely not; Arabs unreasonable? Koranimals intolerant? This must be a Bushitler propaganda agent at work…]
I was not surprised and asked my friend why he had been; I recommended he watch some Arabic TV talk shows. When any topic is brought up, you soon realize that no rules are being followed and that each speaker is simply announcing that his ideas are right and all others are wrong — in other words, things end up as a verbal boxing match. Why, I wonder, is this so often the case? What makes many of us so intolerant and defensive? Why does each one of us think that he or she is always right? With these thoughts swirling in my head, I soon found another example of how Arabs handle debates.
An Arabic website featured an interview with a young Saudi woman writer who wrote a novel titled “Girls of Riyadh.” According to the writer, Rajaa Al-Sanae who is a dentist, the novel deals with real issues in every Saudi girl’s life — love, marriage and family matters. She maintains that her novel is a reflection of the social life of Saudi girls and that every Saudi girl will find something to relate to in it. Initial reactions were that she had betrayed the Saudi social code and “exposed our girls.” Now in a society where privacy comes first, such comments and complaints are hardly surprising.
Then, however, there were a number of comments that reflect the less attractive elements in our culture. One reader wrote that the author should have the decency to stop writing; another said that the book reflected a desire to break free of all traditions and moral values and he even said that girls who complain of “social pressures” were simply drifting away from Islamic values.
Yet another said that if the book were not controversial, it would have been published in the Kingdom and naturally, there was one who said that as a woman, the writer should have stayed at home. Many of the comments were well off the subject and strayed into the familiar areas of our traditions, how to protect the social fabric from dangerous influences and even a direct attack on the origins of some Saudis whose ancestors came from outside the Kingdom! And in the middle, to be fair, there were those who supported the writer and thought she had done a good thing. Most of the comments, I am sorry to say, dealt with irrelevant issues — which goes back to what my friend said about Arabs not being able to participate sensibly and unemotionally in a real discussion. Keeping all of this in mind, I must say that the whole idea of discussion and debate is new to us; in the past, neither was a part of our education and so in time, with experience, I hope we will learn how to do these things in a way that will help us and also inform us. It is of vital importance that we learn to listen to others — this doesn’t mean agreeing with them — and take in what they have to say without declaring them totally mistaken or misguided.

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From the Jakarta Post comes this evidence that even Muslims know that chocolate is one of the secrets to human happiness:

CHOCOLATE KORAN: Two children look at three giant chocolate cakes in the form of the Koran now on display during Ramadhan at Gran Melia Hotel. Hotel chefs took three weeks to make the cakes that show passages from the Koran. (JP/Mulkan Salmona)















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A Koranimal reaches a midlife crisis and decides on a change of profession and lifestyle, as reported in the Jakarta Post. Said specimen is obviously a Daily Kos/DU reader, since his conspiracy theory is about as credible as theirs are.

Ex-militant says Bali blasts aimed to discredit Islam

A former accomplice of Imam Samudra, who received the death sentence for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, has confessed to taking part in acts of violence nationwide, but denied a role in the Oct. 1 blasts on the island.

Hadidi aka Abu Zahro, 40, told the Cilegon Police he was a victim of a grand scenario to label Muslim hard-liners as perpetrators of bomb attacks in the country.

Cilegon Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Riansyah led the questioning of Hadidi on Saturday. The native of Banten was also shown pictures of three suspected suicide bombers of last weekend's attacks on two cafes and a restaurant on the tourist island, which left 23 people dead, including one victim who died in hospital on Saturday.

Police have now questioned 170 people who may lead the investigators to the masterminds of the terror attack and the motives behind it.

"I don't know the men in the pictures (the suspected bombers) because I have never met them. But they could be new recruits," Hadidi told Antara at his residence on Sunday.

"Frankly, I was shocked upon answering the questions. I have quit now and tried to start a new life as a good citizen here."

Hadidi said he underwent one month paramilitary training along with Moro Islamic militant fighters on Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines in 2000.

Before the Philippines stint, Hadidi had joined the military-backed militia group Pam Swakarsa formed to help security officers guard the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly in 1999. Hadidi was appointed group coordinator for Banten area.

"My involvement in Pam Swakarsa followed my acquaintance with Jaja, a local businessman. Jaja was also known as the right hand of Imam Samudra," he said.

"I thought Pam Swakarsa was legal because I was entrusted to help the government restore order following the fall of the New Order regime in 1998."

Economic hardship was the motive behind his decision to accept the offer to join the militia group.

After the special session was over, Hadidi said Jaja ordered him to undertake "a mission" in Ambon, which at that time was rocked by bloody sectarian conflicts.

"But as I was ready to leave from Tanjung Priok seaport, I and eight other Pam Swakarsa members were smuggled to the Philippines to join the training with the Muslim rebels," he said.

Upon arrival from Mindanao, Hadidi was assigned to several places nationwide.

"All of the assignments were given upon Imam Samudra's directives. I followed the order because Jaja promised me a job in one of his companies," Hadidi said.

Imam, along with Amrozi and Mukhlas, were sentenced to death after the Denpasar District Court declared them guilty of plotting and executing the Bali bombing on Oct. 12, 2002. The terror attack killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

During the interrogation, police also asked Hadidi about his recent activities and his current relationship with Jaja and other recruits. He said he had received threats from Jaja and his men.

"Economic hardship drove me to accept the offer. My leaders always taught me jihad against any kind of repression. Indeed, I was too afraid to resist my leaders and I believe I may be not the only person trapped in this political scenario," he said.

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And finally, from the Islamic Republic News Agency (aka, the Tehran branch office of the Washington Post) comes this clarification of US foreign policy:

US follows interventionist goals in int'l campaign against terrorism

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday that US is following up interventionist goals under guise of international campaign against terrorism.

"It has become clear now that US war against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has been nothing more than a lie and the US has been discredited by the world public opinion," Mottaki said.

He said that US has embarked on an old and repetitive game to sow discord among the Islamic nations to press ahead with ominous goals.

Washington is following unilateral goals in the international community, has occupied Iraq and supports Zionist regime which poses threat to the world peace, he said.

"The US had better stop interference in national affairs of other states instead of sympathizing with Islamic nations," Mottaki said in reference to US President George W. Bush's statement at Foundation for Democracy in Washington.

"US is accusing Iran and other Islamic States of ill-intention, whereas, it has black record in terms of using nuclear weapons (against Japan), possessing nuclear arsenals, discriminatory approach to different nations and violation of their rights, forging scientific apartheid and attempts to dominate energy resources of developing states. So, the US has no jurisdiction for judgement in the international community."
He said that the Islamic Republic of Iran honors its commitments to the international community and has made constructive cooperation to reinforce regional and international peace and stability.

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Be sure to make Tsar's site a regular stop!

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