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Friday 29 April 2011

'35 Terrorists at Guantanamo Radicalised in London'

At least 35 terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay were sent to fight against the West after being indoctrinated by "extremist preachers" in mosques, particularly the one at Finsbury Park in Britain, according to documents leaked by WikiLeaks.

The documents, written by senior US military commanders at Guantanamo Bay, illustrate how, for two decades, Britain effectively became a crucible of terrorism, with dozens of extremists, home-grown and from abroad, radicalised here.

They also described the Finsbury Park Mosque in London as "haven" for extremists.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza, two preachers who lived off state benefits after claiming asylum in the UK, are identified by US authorities as the key recruiters responsible for sending dozens of extremists from throughout the world to Pakistan and Afghanistan via London mosques.

US intelligence officials concluded the mosque served as "an attack planning and propaganda production base".

Extremist preachers radicalised the men at London mosques, showing them videos of atrocities committed against Muslims in Bosnia and Chechnya.

According to one document, Finsbury Park mosque was "a key transit facility for the movement of North African and other extremists in London to and from al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan".

They were flown to Pakistan and Afghanistan at the terrorist group’s expense, put up in special guest houses and sent to the training camps.

They were introduced to senior al-Qaeda figures including Bin Laden and taught to fight and make bombs. Wives were arranged for some terrorists and their families received generous payments.

According to the report, the files will raise questions over why the Government and security services failed to take action sooner to tackle the capital's reputation as a staging post for terrorism, which became so established that the city was termed "Londonistan".

The documents show that at least 35 detainees at Guantanamo had passed through Britain before being sent to fight against Allied forces in Afghanistan.

This is thought to be more than from any other Western nation. The Government has paid millions of pounds in compensation and benefits to people regarded as highly dangerous by the US authorities.

Qatada, who was paid compensation under human rights laws for being "unfairly detained", is described as "the most successful recruiter in Europe" and a "focal point for extremist fundraising (and) recruitment".

Hamza is accused of encouraging "his followers to murder non-Muslims".

Four mosques in London and an Islamic centre are highlighted as places where young Muslim men were radicalised and turned into potential terrorists.

Finsbury Park mosque "served to facilitate and training of recruits," note the files, adding that it was "a haven for Islamic extremists from Morocco and Algeria."

The top-secret documents show how Muslim men travelled to European countries such as France, from where they obtained fake EU passports.

They then crossed the channel to take advantage of Britain's generous asylum system. The US government condemned the release of the WikiLeaks documents.

In a statement, the Pentagon said: "It is unfortunate that news organisations have made the decision to publish numerous documents obtained illegally by WikiLeaks concerning the Guantanamo detention facility."

These documents contain classified information about current and former detainees, and we strongly condemn the leaking of this sensitive information.

"The WikiLeaks releases include Detainee Assessment Briefs (DABs) written by the Department of Defence between 2002 and early 2009. These DABs were written based on a range of information available then. Any given DAB illegally obtained and released by WikiLeaks may or may not represent the current view of a given detainee."

"The previous and current administrations have made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo."
FILED ON: APR 26, 2011 20:00 IST 

Book essay: The Bloody Truth about Cyprus

Bloody truth, Nicosia, March 2009. ISBN 9789963962204
By Henrik R. Clausen
The apparently endless stalemate on Cyprus is getting a thorough treatment in the publication by the organization “Freedom and Justice for Cyprus”.
While the documentation of what went down through the 1960's and 1970's is shocking and brutal, the real coup of the book is that it goes back to the 1950's, once and for all settling the question of who originally created the conflict in Cyprus: It wasn't the 'Turkish' Cypriots. Nor was it Turkey. It was, documentably, Great Britain. Here Bloody truth

ECHR Vice President: Turkey cannot interfere in Cyprus’ zone

Vice President of the European Court of Human Rights Christos Rozakis said on Wednesday that Turkey cannot interfere in issues concerning Cyprus` exclusive economic zone in its southern seas, adding that Turkey has never claimed to have rights in the zone which has been delimitated with Egypt and Israel.
Addressing journalists at a meeting in Nicosia, Rozakis said Turkey`s main argument was that the delimitation has taken place without the involvement of the Turkish Cypriots and that it was legally impossible for Turkey to block the exploration of minerals in the southern seas of Cyprus.
He added that Turkey was not able to intervene as it was cut off by the zones of Lebanon and Syria.
“Cyprus has the advantage of having between Turkey zones with Lebanon and Syria, which have their own zones. There is no way Turkey could come and say that the area you have delimitated with Egypt and Israel is an area that belongs to us,“ he pointed out, adding the Cyprus` difference with Greece was that it had zones free from Turkish influence.
(source: cna)

Being too PC led us to shelter terrorists, says ex-minister

A former Labour minister admitted today that political correctness had led Britain to offer shelter to violent extremists.
Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister, said Tony Blair's government and other administrations had been afraid to criticise the conduct of radical preachers and others because they feared being accused of racism.
He said the policy had been pursued even though there was plenty of intelligence about the "evil" intent of such extremists and that it was only reversed after the 7/7 bombings. Mr Howells also said that he had been unable to find a single imam willing to say publicly that suicide bombers would go to hell. He further criticised a reluctance in Muslim communities to condemn the "murderous actions" of terrorists.
His comments came as a leaked diplomatic cable, published today by WikiLeaks, revealed Britain had been warned years before the London bombings to stop giving asylum to "very dangerous" terrorists.
The cable, sent by a former military attaché to the Algerian embassy in Washingtonon July 12 2005, told US diplomats that Britain had allowed extremists to raise money for terrorist causes.
"Did the English consider the risks of allowing Londonistan to develop?" the cable states. "The British thought that sheltering terrorists was a good solution, but they did not realise that one can never align oneself with the devil, and they did precisely that for years and years."
In a BBC interview today, Mr Howells admitted that the criticism was justified

Young Mizrahi Israelis’ open letter to Arab peers

Translated from Hebrew;  English edited by Chana Morgenstern | Arabic version here
In a letter titled “Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011,” young Jewish descendants of the Arab and Islamic world living in Israel write to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa
We, as the descendents of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region.
Our generation’s protest against repression and oppressive and abusive regimes, and its call for change, freedom, and the establishment of democratic governments that foster citizen participation in the political process, marks a dramatic moment in the history of the Middle East and North Africa, a region which has for generations been torn between various forces, internal and external, and whose leaders have often trampled the political, economic, and cultural rights of its citizens.
We are Israelis, the children and grandchildren of Jews who lived in the Middle East and North Africa for hundreds and thousands of years. Our forefathers and mothers contributed to the development of this region’s culture, and were part and parcel of it. Thus the culture of the Islamic world and the multigenerational connection and identification with this region is an inseparable part of our own identity.
We are a part of the religious, cultural, and linguistic history of the Middle East and North Africa, although it seems that we are the forgotten children of its history: First in Israel, which imagines itself and its culture to be somewhere between continental Europe and North America. Then in the Arab world, which often accepts the dichotomy of Jews and Arabs and the imagined view of all Jews as Europeans, and has preferred to repress the history of the Arab-Jews as a minor or even nonexistent chapter in its history; and finally within the Mizrahi communities themselves, who in the wake of Western colonialism, Jewish nationalism and Arab nationalism, became ashamed of their past in the Arab world.
Consequently we often tried to blend into the mainstream of society while erasing or minimizing our own past. The mutual influences and relationships between Jewish and Arab cultures were subjected to forceful attempts at erasure in recent generations, but evidence of them can still be found in many spheres of our lives, including music, prayer, language, and literature.
We wish to express our identification with and hopes for this stage of generational transition in the history of the Middle East and North Africa, and we hope that it will open the gates to freedom and justice and a fair distribution of the region’s resources.
We turn to you, our generational peers in the Arab and Muslim world, striving for an honest dialog which will include us in the history and culture of the region. We looked enviously at the pictures from Tunisia and from Al-Tahrir square, admiring your ability to bring forth and organize a nonviolent civil resistance that has brought hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets and the squares, and finally forced your rulers to step down.
We, too, live in a regime that in reality—despite its pretensions to being “enlightened” and “democratic”—does not represent large sections of its actual population in the Occupied Territories and inside of the Green Line border(s). This regime tramples the economic and social rights of most of its citizens, is in an ongoing process of minimizing democratic liberties, and constructs racist barriers against Arab-Jews, the Arab people, and Arabic culture. Unlike the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt, we are still a long way from the capacity to build the kind of solidarity between various groups that we see in these countries, a solidarity movement that would allow us to unite and march together–all who reside here–into the public squares, to demand a civil regime that is culturally, socially, and economically just and inclusive.
We believe that, as Mizrahi Jews in Israel, our struggle for economic, social, and cultural rights rests on the understanding that political change cannot depend on the Western powers who have exploited our region and its residents for many generations. True change can only come from an intra-regional and inter-religious dialog that is in connection with the different struggles and movements currently active in the Arab world. Specifically, we must be in dialog and solidarity with struggles of the Palestinians citizens of Israel who are fighting for equal political and economic rights and for the termination of racist laws, and the struggle of the Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza in their demand to end the occupation and to gain Palestinian national independence.
In our previous letter written following Obama’s Cairo speech in 2009, we called for the rise of the democratic Middle Eastern identity and for our inclusion in such an identity. We now express the hope that our generation – throughout the Arab, Muslim, and Jewish world – will be a generation of renewed bridges that will leap over the walls and hostility created by previous generations and will renew the deep human dialog without which we cannot understand ourselves: between Jews, Sunnis, Shias, and Christians, between Kurds, Berbers, Turks, and Persians, between Mizrahis and Ashkenazis, and between Palestinians and Israelis. We draw on our shared past in order to look forward hopefully towards a shared future.
We have faith in intra-regional dialog—whose purpose is to repair and rehabilitate what was destroyed in recent generations—as a catalyst towards renewing the Andalusian model of Muslim-Jewish-Christian partnership, God willing, Insha’Allah, and as a pathway to a cultural and historical golden era for our countries. This golden era cannot come to pass without equal, democratic citizenship, equal distribution of resources, opportunities, and education, equality between women and men, and the acceptance of all people regardless of faith, race, status, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic affiliation. All of these rights play equal parts in constructing the new society to which we aspire. We are committed to achieving these goals within a process of dialog between all of the people of Middle East and North Africa, as well as a dialog we will undertake with different Jewish communities in Israel and around the world.
We, the undersigned:
Shva Salhoov (Libya), Naama Gershy (Serbia, Yemen), Yael Ben-Yefet (Iraq, Aden), Leah Aini (Greece, Turkey), Yael Berda (Tunisia), Aharon Shem-Tov (Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan), Yosi Ohana (born in Morocco), Yali Hashash (Libya, Yemen), Yonit Naaman (Yemen, Turkey), Orly Noy (born in Iran), Gadi Alghazi (Yugoslavia, Egypt), Mati Shemoelof (Iran, Iraq, Syria), Eliana Almog (Yemen, Germany), Yuval Evri ((Iraq), Ophir Tubul (Morocco, Algeria), Moti Gigi (Morocco), Shlomit Lir (Iran), Ezra Nawi (Iraq), Hedva Eyal (Iran), Eyal Ben-Moshe (Yemen), Shlomit Binyamin (Cuba, Syria, Turkey), Yael Israel (Turkey, Iran), Benny Nuriely (Tunisia), Ariel Galili (Iran), Natalie Ohana Evry (Morocco, Britain), Itamar Toby Taharlev (Morocco, Jerusalem, Egypt), Ofer Namimi (Iraq, Morocco), Amir Banbaji (Syria), Naftali Shem-Tov (Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan), Mois Benarroch (born in Morocco), Yosi David (Tunisia Iran), Shalom Zarbib (Algeria), Yardena Hamo (Iraqi Kurdistan), Aviv Deri (Morocco) Menny Aka (Iraq), Tom Fogel (Yemen, Poland), Eran Efrati (Iraq), Dan Weksler Daniel (Syria, Poland, Ukraine), Yael Gidnian (Iran), Elyakim Nitzani (Lebanon, Iran, Italy), Shelly Horesh-Segel (Morocco), Yoni Mizrahi (Kurdistan), Betty Benbenishti (Turkey), Chen Misgav (Iraq, Poland), Moshe Balmas (Morocco), Tom Cohen (Iraq, Poland, England), Ofir Itah (Morocco), Shirley Karavani (Tunisia, Libya, Yemen), Lorena Atrakzy (Argentina, Iraq), Asaf Abutbul (Poland, Russia, Morocco), Avi Yehudai (Iran), Diana Ahdut (Iran, Jerusalem), Maya Peretz (Nicaragua, Morocco), Yariv Moher (Morocco, Germany), Tami Katzbian (Iran), Oshra Lerer (Iraq, Morocco), Nitzan Manjam (Yemen, Germany, Finland), Rivka Gilad (Iran, Iraq, India), Oshrat Rotem (Morocco), Naava Mashiah (Iraq), Zamira Ron David (Iraq) Omer Avital (Morocco, Yemen), Vered Madar (Yemen), Ziva Atar (Morocco), Yossi Alfi (born in Iraq), Amira Hess (born in Iraq), Navit Barel (Libya), Almog Behar (Iraq, Turkey, Germany)

Americans protest Algerian support for Gaddafi


Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:25PM

Marjan Asi, Press TV, Washington
Supporters of the Libyan revolution gathered outside the Algerian embassy in Washington to protest what they say is Algeria's provision of mercenaries and weapons to the Gaddafi regime. to view the video go here: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177227.html


Protesters discussed the close relationship between the Libyan and Algerian peoples in their historic struggles against oppressive regimes.

Though the Algerian embassy declined an interview, one official told Press TV that the Algerian government is not on close terms with Gaddafi regarding the fight against the revolutionary forces. But protesters disagreed.

Interestingly, the Algerian press claims the charges are actually inspired by Morocco, rival of Algeria in North Africa.

The two countries maintain persistent differences over Western Sahara which blocked the construction of the Arab Maghreb Union, launched in 1989 and counts Tunisia and Mauritania as well as Algeria, Libya and Morocco.

Protesters stated they will continue coming here to the Algerian embassy and sending letters and other forms of communication to get the message across that they support the people of Libya and they want the Algerian government to do the same.


“I was wrong to oppose military intervention in Libya – wrong, wrong, wrong”

By  Yvonne Ridley in Benghazi
30 April 2011

Yvonne Ridley explains from Benghazi in eastern Libya why she was wrong to oppose Western intervention in Libya, which she now accepts was necessary to avoid the bloodbath Libyan mafia chief Muammar Gaddafi had planned for Libyans for daring to rise up against him.


Just a few weeks ago I stood on a public platform and vigorously slammed proposals for Western military intervention in Libya.

The hasty scramble by the Americans, French and Britons lacked strategy and a clear goal.

To me it appeared to be yet another oil-fuelled, reckless act by gung-ho leaders who would end up being sucked in to a long military campaign as futile as the Bush-Blair adventures into Iraq and Afghanistan that we are still paying for in terms of wasted lives.

“Here we go again,” I said. “Another imperialistic adventure with the long-term aim of getting our grubby hands on other peoples’ oil.”

To those few Libyans present, I warned they would live to regret this pact with the West that I likened to jumping into bed with the devil.
“I was wrong about opposing military intervention. No if, buts or maybe – I was wrong, wrong, wrong. The people of Libya would have been brutally crushed without mercy if the West had not responded to their cries for help.”
Being very conscious of the fact I’m not a Libyan and desperate at not wanting to be seen as another opinionated Westerner sticking my nose into matters I didn’t understand, I sought the views of many Libyan friends and contacts.


Their reaction was mixed, but more often than not I was told that without outside help the Libyan people would be slaughtered by Gaddafi who himself described those who opposed him as cockroaches that needed to be crushed.

To justify my stand I reasoned that all revolutions are bloody and that the heroic people of Tunisia and Egypt had paid the blood price in their hundreds to win freedom.

I even recounted Malcolm X telling people that if they were not prepared to die for it they should remove the word freedom from their vocabulary.

Of course, making grand statements from platforms in central London is one thing but going to see for myself what was happening on the ground was something else.

My few days in Libya proved to be extremely humbling, illuminating and provided me with a reality check.

I was wrong about opposing military intervention. No if, buts or maybe – I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

The people of Libya would have been brutally crushed without mercy if the West had not responded to their cries for help.
“Perhaps the greatest shame is that Arab leaders stood by emotionless as the Libyan people begged everyone and anyone for help to bring down Gaddafi.”
Perhaps the greatest shame is that Arab leaders stood by emotionless as the Libyan people begged everyone and anyone for help to bring down Gaddafi.
Some of those Arab leaders had no such hesitation in answering cries for help from the oppressive royal regime in Bahrain – obviously the Saudis and rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council cabal felt uncomfortable helping to bring down an evil, brutal, dictator who routinely abused and oppressed his people while happily propping up another.


It could have been an opportunity for the rising regional power Turkey to step in to the breach but to the massive disappointment of the Libyan people Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to become embroiled.

So in the end the West did intervene and although the blood of innocents is still flowing in the streets at least it is not a torrent.

And maybe this is a war led by no one, with no particular aim, but the enforcement of the no fly zone has prevented a massacre.

That is the view held by one of Libya's spiritual leaders, Sheikh Mohammed Bosidra, who told me: "We had no choice. It was either make a pact with NATO or be crushed. It was a matter of survival, as simple as that."
“We are still not clear what is the endgame of the NATO-led force, but the Libyan people are crystal clear in one thing: Gaddafi must go.”
However many have already paid the ultimate blood price. Each town and city has a special place for its martyrs, and there are many. Faces of young men stared back at me from family portraits proudly hung in the central square in Benghazi and what struck me was how young they were.
In Derna, more portraits of the sons of  Omar al-Mukhtarhung in the town centre and some of the bodies have been buried in a cemetery next to the tombs of three Sahaba and 70 other martyrs who fought against Roman and Byzantine forces in 692AD.

“We have a very fine tradition of producing martyrs in Derna and that is why Gaddafi hates the people of Derna more than anywhere else in Libya,” one woman told me.


And then she pointed to a French Tricolor and a Union Jack whispering: “Thank you, we will never forget what you have done for us.”

I admit I felt uncomfortable, even a fraud, on several different levels by accepting her thanks. Usually I end up apologizing for the deeds of various British governments and empire so this was something new for me.

We are still not clear what is the endgame of the NATO-led force, but the Libyan people are crystal clear in one thing: Gaddafi must go.

Only then can they begin to work out the next move, and it won’t be easy.

The Interim Transitional National Council says it is committed to liberate every part of Libya from Aamsaad in the east to Ras Jdir in the west, and from Sirte in the north to Gatrun in the south.

But from what I could see the mission is unstable and unpredictable, chaotic, disorganized and confused.
“It is clear to me that once Gaddafi is gone – and he will go – the Libyan people will not replace him with another tyrant or a Western puppet. Whatever government and constitution they choose will be one of their own making.”
However, what is undeniable is the bravery and courage of the Libyan people who we in the media routinely refer to as rebels. These people are not rebels. They are shopkeepers, students, doctors, businessmen and mechanics who have never owned a gun or wanted to pick one up in anger, until now.
And yet there they are tens of thousands prepared to die for freedoms and liberties they’ve never known in Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

I was moved to tears by a regiment of young men who marched, rallied and chanted demanding to be sent to the front lines in Misrata to help their brothers in arms.

Their personally-delivered message in Benghazi was to the members of the interim government and they were extremely critical of some elements of the ITNC who they said were more interested in parading around with bodyguards intoxicated with the little power they had than making real decisions.

The criticism of the leadership was stinging but reassuring that these young men were not blind to the shortcomings of their own. Too often in the Middle East people are blind and unquestioning in their loyalty to their leaders.

It is clear to me that once Gaddafi is gone – and he will go – the Libyan people will not replace him with another tyrant or a Western puppet. Whatever government and constitution they choose will be one of their own making.

But first we in the West must give them all the help and support they need to accomplish the removal of Gaddafi until it is time for NATO to go in a dignified exit.

And who knows, for once, Western intervention might just be regarded as a force for good.

Dalila Touat à DNA : « Ce verdict confirme mon droit à réclamer nos droits sans être harcelée »


Poursuivie pour distribution de tracts, Dalila Touat, 35 ans, diplômée au chômage, a été jugée aujourd’hui au tribunal de Mostaganem. Quelques heures après son acquittement, elle s’est confiée à DNA sur son procès ainsi que sur militantisme. Entretien express réalisé par téléphone.

DNA : Le tribunal de Mostaganem a prononcé votre acquittement. Vous vous attendiez à une telle décision de la justice ?
Dalila Touat : Franchement, non !  Je pensais qu’on allait  me condamner avec sursis ce qui aurait gêné ma quête pour un poste d’emploi ou ma carrière professionnelle.
Quel est votre sentiment  après ce verdict ?
Je suis contente que les Algériens s’unissent et ne fléchissent pas devant l’injustice. Je très contente d’avoir été acquitté. Je ne croyais pas mes oreilles à l’énoncé du verdit. Auparavant, j’avais eu une peur incroyable que j’ai tenté de maîtriser. La juge m’a dit « vous devez êtres fière d’être algérienne. Vous êtes acquittée ». Ces propos m’ont beaucoup touché. Le verdict confirme que je suis dans le bon chemin celui de continuer à réclamer nos droits sans être harcelée. Le droit aussi absolu de pouvoir interpeller le gouvernement et les responsables pour trouver des solutions à nos problèmes.
Votre affaire a suscité un élan de solidarité et une forte indignation...
Effectivement ! Je tiens à remercier vivement tous ceux et celles qui m’ont soutenu dans mon épreuve. En ce moment, je pense à d’autres militants qui n’ont pas eu la même chance que moi, notamment des militants de Ouargla qui sont incarcérés depuis 2 ou 3 mois. Je pense également à d’autres amis harcelés par lapolice à Skikda parce qu'ils réclament du travail. C’est grave que des chômeurs soient considérés dans notre pays comme un danger public. Ce que nous voulons, c’est que les choses changent.
Et que comptez vous faire maintenant ?
Etant chômeuse, je continuerai à chercher du travail et surtout militer inlassablement au sein du comité pour la défense des droits des chômeurs. Je ne le fais pas uniquement pour moi-même, mais aussi pour les autres. Je n’ai pas d’autre chose à faire. Après tout, c’est mon choix de militante.
Photo DNA : Dalila Touat devant le tribunal de Mostaganem jeudi 28 avril


Lire l'article original : Dalila Touat à DNA : « Ce verdict confirme mon droit à réclamer nos droits sans être harcelée » | DNA - Dernières nouvelles d'Algérie