] Radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced
] Wednesday his militia would leave the Imam Ali Shrine in
] Najaf, following a threat by the Iraqi government to
] "liberate" the holy site.
]
] In a letter issued by al-Sadr's office in Baghdad and
] read to the Iraqi National Conference, the cleric said he
] agreed to demands made Tuesday night by a delegation from
] the conference that he and his forces leave the mosque,
] disband his Mehdi Army and "enter into the mainstream
] political process."

!!! Thats great news! Why is it when I go to CNN the top story is some bull shit about Scott Peterson and this is on the sidebar?!

CNN.com - Al-Sadr says militia will leave Najaf mosque - Aug 18, 2004

] The UN imposes all sorts of penalties on all those who
] contradict its religion. It issues documents and
] statements that openly contradict Islamic belief, such as
] the International Declaration for Human Rights,
] considering all religions are equal, and considering that
] the destruction of the statues constitutes a crime...

This is long but its interesting. Someone extracted emails from a computer stolen from Al'Q and posted them in The Atlantic. Details about some of Al'Q's codes are discussed, as well as an interesting inside look at their operation. (The statues were the buddhist monuments destroyed by the Taliban in the late nineties.)

Emails from Bin Lauden

] Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi: The problems started after the
] Americans entered the city at the end of April, 2003:
] Provocations, humiliations and arrests. All of us
] remember the incident at the school, which led to several
] civilian deaths [after U.S. troops opened fire on Iraqi
] civilians, killing 15 people and wounding dozens of
] demonstrators protesting the occupation]. Now, thanks to
] Allah, Fallujah is back to normal. We solve our problems
] through scholars, tribal sheikhs and police. The problem
] was the Americans inside the city because they started
] the violence.

MSNBC - Interview with insurgent leader in Fallujah

] The U.S. Congress declared that the killings of tens of
] thousands of black civilians by Arab militias in Sudan's
] Darfur region amount to "genocide," while U.S. Secretary
] of State Colin Powell warned that Khartoum must act
] quickly to disarm Arab militias or face U.N. sanctions.

The Sudan is more likely then Iran to be your next front in the War on Terror.

CNN.com - U.S. Congress declares 'genocide' in Sudan - Jul 23, 2004

] On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest
] Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my
] husband and our young son. Also on our flight were 14
] Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20
] and 50 years old. What I experienced during that flight
] has caused me to question whether the United States of
] America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of
] every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its
] citizens from terrorist threats.

I'm always extra observant these days when I get on a plane. I size people up. I assess them. I've never seen anything that ended up bothering me. This person did. This is your worst nightmare airplane story.

By Jeremy's Gold Star system I'm giving this story a 1/2 gold star. This is simply the scariest thing I've read in 3 years. Don't read this if you're not prepared. Its fucked up.

Its also important. You're reading about this because of the blogosphere. I imagine that this will get wide coverage online and the mainstream press will pick it up, like the Trent Lott thing. If this is what it claims to be its as important as a successful attack. People need and want to know that things like this are going down. DHS and the airline industry would rather they didn't, for various reasons, not all of which are bad ones.

Is it what it claims to be? Thats primarily the reason why it will be important. Its impossible to know how accurate this account is until someone from the Government actually makes a statement on it. That won't happen until a large number of people are talking about it.

This story is also seriously flawed, hence the 1/2 star. Once the facts are presented, the not so facts are presented. Ann Coultier is quoted. The lack of racial profiling is questioned. Unfortunately the fact that those ideas are tagged onto this information will cloud the value of it. People on the left will think twice about blogging it or considering it. People on the right will be drawn into its conclusions by its information.

The fact is that its properly called Islamic Extremeism, not Arab Extremeism, and there is a very good reason for that, only part of which is the fact that not all Arabs are Muslim. The critical issue from a security standpoint is that if you focus all your investigative efforts on Arabs you will find an airplane full of guys from the Sudan rammed right up your ass, and you cannot tell the difference between guys from the Sudan and guys from Atlanta based on what they look like.

Those that argue for a crackdown on Arabs are not just racist, they're stupid. And not only because they're missing part of the puzzle, but also because whats good for the goose is good for the gander, and they never seem to consider that, even in the context of bombings by radical fundamentalist Christians.

This does not imply that 15 Arabs on a plane acting sketchy as all hell is not a something you ought to investigate. Clearly, in this case, if the story is true, it was investigated. To what end, who knows. I seriously doubt that if there was something substantive going on here that the agents would have just let these guys go and forgotten about it. I also seriously doubt that they would have let this woman know what they did when she called. But its irrelevant.

Assuming this information is accurate, I'll say I no longer find jokes about DHS's alert system so funny.

(Of course, its worth reading this from the other direction. Maybe it was just a group of guys from Detroit rolling down to do a show. Lots of Middle Eastern people in Detroit. Maybe they had a lot to drink and all needed to hit the bathroom. Maybe they wanted to chat in the hallways because they weren't sitting near eachother. But there was enough going on here to spook the security forces. Her fears were not totally unreasonable.)

Terror in the Skies, Again? - WomensWallStreet ***1/2 Gold Star***

] The law gives Allawi "extraordinary authorities" to
] declare curfews, restrict communications, seize assets,
] restrict civic associations and assume direct command of
] security forces in areas deemed to be emergency zones. In
] those places, police and military units would have the
] freedom to search and detain people without judicial
] orders.
]
] The country's human rights minister, Baktiar Amin,
] compared the new Iraqi law to the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the
] U.S. law enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that
] gives broader powers to law enforcement authorities in
] pursuit of suspected terrorists. "Similar laws have been
] enacted in a number of countries," Amin said.

Brilliant. No, the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act had nothing to do with these kinds of powers. Nor do I think that martial law is entirely out of place in some of these cities. But this comment is interesting on many levels. Isn't it the Human Rights Minister's job to question laws like this? Is he just a rubber stamp? Was our loosening of the rules a carte blache to other nations to loosen them even more. What kind of messages are we sending?

Iraq Approves Security Law Allowing Martial Rule (washingtonpost.com)

"Nooooo!" the audience roared.

Bush in West Virginia

] The CIA has suspended the use of extraordinary
] interrogation techniques approved by the White House
] pending a review by Justice Department and other
] administration lawyers, intelligence officials said.

The NYT version of this story was very spinny.

CIA Puts Harsh Tactics On Hold (washingtonpost.com)

] Jihad today has become an individual duty that applies to
] each and every Muslim. It is forbidden for a person to
] remain silent. When the Muslims fought in
] Afghanistan they destroyed the Soviet Union, which was a
] superpower. It collapsed and Allah willing, so will this
] [the U.S.] collapse.

A sampling of the state run television in Saudi Arabia

] RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Paul Johnson's beheading
] sent a shiver of disgust throughout the world. Except the
] Arab world, that is.

Elonka says:

This is an essay by a columnist for two arab-language dailies. I have to admit that I haven't seen much about Johnson in the Arab news either. Not even on Memri.

Strange Silence in Arab Media over Paul Johnson's Death