Weasel Zippers

Why is Bush Betraying Iraq's Christians?...

I have written numerous times about the insanity of letting Iraqi Christians die while Bush has our soldiers (who are almost all Christian) do nothing.  I have lost a ton of faith in Bush for doing absolutely nothing about this.  With that said, this article spells it all out for us...

Conservative thinker and strategist Paul Weyrich sees a Republican political disaster in 2008 because of Iraq. "I believe that the Democrats, most likely with Senator Hillary R. Clinton (D-NY) as the nominee, will win," he says. "The Republicans, regardless of who they nominate, will lose because of the war in Iraq. Voters want to punish the Republicans for Iraq."

It's easy to see how this might develop. But the backlash could get even worse when members of the conservative Republican base begin to grasp how the Bush policy has led to the virtual destruction of the Christian community in Iraq. It is nothing less than an outrage for this to be occurring under the auspices of a conservative Republican President who claims to be a born-again Christian.

But Iraq isn't the only problem like this. Bush is now working with the U.N. to create a Muslim state in Kosovo.

On July 25, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a major hearing on religious persecution in Iraq that made your stomach turn. It effectively demonstrated that American soldiers, many of them Christians, are giving their lives and limbs to prop up a Muslim government that encourages or tolerates religious persecution against Christians. Michael Cromartie, chairman of the group and an appointee of President Bush, said reports indicate that nearly half of Iraq's Christians have already fled the country.

Pascale Warda, an Assyrian Christian who was the Minister of Migration and Displacement  during the first transitional Iraqi government, testified, "Over 30 churches have been destroyed, priests have been kidnapped, killed, or beheaded, and the Christians have been systematically targeted for persecution by Islamic fundamentalists. A 14-year-old boy was crucified in Basra. A one-year-old baby was roasted and delivered to his mother's doorstep, on a bed of rice."

The dramatic hearing was covered by a few specialized news organizations, such as Catholic News Service, but the major media ignored it.

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Are $20 Billion Worth of US Weapons Going to Al-Qaeda?...

It's a known fact that al-Qaeda has penetrated deep into all aspects of the Saudi military and intelligence agencies.  Along with this, the Saudis spend billions propagating putrid Wahabbi Islam and the jihadi terror that goes with it.  With all this known, why are we going through with a 20 billion dollar US weapons deal?  Greed comes to mind....

An impending 20 billion dollar American arms deal with Saudi Arabia, in which the Saudis would receive state-of-the-art military equipment over the next decade, is fraught with potential dangers for Israel, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold told Ynetnews on Tuesday.

Speaking by phone from his home in Jerusalem, Gold said the new arms deal failed to take into consideration a number of problematic scenarios. "There are a broad set of very possible scenarios that Israel certainly has to take into consideration.

Several years ago, Israel received reports of the interrogation of al-Qaeda captives who admitted that their organization had penetrated the Saudi Arabian air force, and that it was planning to take control of several Saudi F-15s based at Tabuk in north Western Saudi Arabia, near Eilat, and fly the fighter planes into sky scrapers in Tel Aviv," Gold said.

"From the pattern of past al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia, many western observers have concluded that elements of the Saudi national guard colluded with the attackers. Which only further substantiates Western concern that al-Qaeda has penetrated different branches of Saudi Armed forces.

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UK: Wearing of Burkas is Threat to Our Way of Life...

There are plenty of people in Britain that oppose the rapid Islamization of UK society.  It's a shame their government didn't feel the same way...

THE sight of Muslim women dressed head to toe in burkas is unsettling enough at the best of times.

But for a large group of burka-clad women to gather outside the Old Bailey and display placards carrying slogans such as “British police go to hell” is a provocation too far.

The defendants these women were supporting were yesterday convicted of soliciting murder. They were jailed because they were identified by video evidence as ringleaders of a demonstration calling for the killing of a cartoonist who had offended Islamic sensibilities.

What chance is there of any of the women involved in yesterday’s vile display being prosecuted if their slogans are judged to be in contravention of the law? Answer: none at all because their outfits shielded their identities.

Not for the first time, the burka’s potential for aiding and abetting crime has been highlighted. It is becoming the Islamic equivalent of the mugger’s hooded top or the armed robber’s balaclava. Anyone sincerely wishing to integrate into the British way of life would never wear such an alien and threatening outfit.

Muslims frequently complain about alleged “Islamophobia” in British society. But the truth is that extremists within their ranks have caused reasonable people to be suspicious and fearful.

Make no mistake, the proliferation of burka-wearing is a direct threat to the British way of life and in all too many instances is intended to be just that.

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CNN Releasing Documentary Equating Christians With Muslim Terrorists....

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To give you an idea of where this is going, CNN is interviewing Jimmy Carter "about the political impact of the Christian Right in the United States", you know, because Carter's so impartial and all...

CNN will premiere a six-hour documentary next month on the impact of religious fundamentalism as a powerful political force around the world. Filmed over seven months in six countries and reported by chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, CNN Presents: God’s Warriors will debut over three nights from Tuesday, Aug. 21, to Thursday, Aug. 23, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) on CNN Worldwide’s U.S. and international networks.

“As I report around the world, people often ask me about the rise of religious influence on political power within the United States, but in fact this is true worldwide,” Amanpour said. “Wherever I go, what the believers do all have in common is that they want to bring the politics of faith into the very center of public life – we are seeing this now on almost every continent.”

God’s Warriors includes interviews with former President Jimmy Carter about the political impact of the Christian Right in the United States; the Rev. Jerry Falwell – in his last television interview – about the political and cultural legacy of the Moral Majority movement in America; Noa Rothman, granddaughter of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, discusses his assassination by a militant Jewish fundamentalist; and Kamal el-Said Habib, a reformed Islamic jihadist who was part of the violent militant group that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

CNN Release Here>>>>

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Taliban Becoming Afghan Branch of al-Qaeda....

Even thought the two groups are essentially one, the Taliban have always been looked at as a bunch of hicks, not anymore...

Kabul, Afghanistan - By killing two South Korean hostages and refusing to release the remaining 21, including 18 women, the Taliban is taking a new path that suggests it is becoming an Afghan branch of Al Qaeda.

In the past 18 months, the Taliban has adopted more aggressive tactics – such as kidnappings and suicide bombings – imported directly from the Al Qaeda-led global jihad.

It marks a departure from the Taliban of the recent past. Indeed, experts say that the Taliban's original reason for being – an intensely tribal brand of religious fundamentalism – has all but evaporated, as Muslims of all sects participate in a movement based less and less on traditional tribal values and increasingly on anti-Americanism and terrorism.

As a result, Pashtun tribal elders, long the best hope to negotiate the release of foreign hostages, including the Koreans, are increasingly being marginalized as the Taliban moves beyond its Afghan roots.

"This is a new strategy," says Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban." "There has been a progressive Al Qaeda-ization of tactics."

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2000 Rally for Pakistani Jihad....

2000 penguins screaming Allah Akbar!  Must have been a fun afternoon....

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Chanting slogans in favour of jihad, about 2,000 women from Pakistan's hardline Islamic parties rallied in the capital Tuesday in support of the radical former leaders of Islamabad's Red Mosque.

Demonstrators gathered outside the sprawling Faisal Mosque urged the government to enforce Islamic laws in the country.

"The blood for the martyrs of Red Mosque and Jamia Hafsa will not go waste!" the demonstrators chanted.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the chief of Pakistan's main Jamaat-e-Islami party, told the crowd his group would build new seminaries to replace the one at the Red Mosque, which was at the centre of the rebels' resistance and was torn down by authorities last week.

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One can Fear Islam but not Muslims....

During WWII people feared Nazi ideology, not Germans themselves.  Same concept applies today....

From: WND

What do anti-Semitism, racism and Islamophobia have in common?

In fact, nothing.

But according to Islamist groups, Western media and the United Nations, they have everything in common. Anti-Semites hate all Jews, racists hate all members of another race, and Islamophobes hate all Muslims.

Whoever coined the term "Islamophobia" was quite shrewd. Notice the intellectual sleight of hand here. The term is not "Muslim-phobia" or "anti-Muslimist," it is Islam-ophobia – fear of Islam – yet fear of Islam is in no way the same as hatred of all Muslims. One can rightly or wrongly fear Islam, or more usually, aspects of Islam, and have absolutely no bias against all Muslims, let alone be a racist.

The equation of Islamophobia with racism is particularly dishonest. Muslims come in every racial group, and Islam has nothing to do with race. Nevertheless, mainstream Western media, Islamist groups calling themselves Muslim civil liberties groups and various Western organizations repeatedly declare that Islamophobia is racism.

To cite three of innumerable examples: The Guardian published an opinion piece titled, "Islamophobia should be as unacceptable as racism"; the European Union has established the European Monitoring Center for Racism and Xenophobia; and the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission of Australia notes that "Muslims have also been the target of racism in Australia, often referred to as Islamophobia."

Even granting that there are people who fear Islam, how does that in any way correlate with racism? If fear of an ideology rendered one racist, all those who fear conservatism or liberalism should be considered racist.

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h/t: JihadWatch

Newsweek: Obama a Centrist. Wait, What?....

Do these seem like the ratings of a centrist? ....

Via: NewsBusters...

• 100% from Planned Parenthood
• 100% from NARAL
• 0% from the Illinois Association for Right to Life
• 0% from Americans for Tax Reform
• 100% from the NAACP
• 8% from the American Conservative Union
• 100% from the NEA [teachers union]
• 100% from Children's Defense Fund [Hillary's old group]
• 100% from NOW
• 88% from the American Immigration Lawyers Association
• 0% from the Federation for American Immigration Reform
• 100% from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
• 100% from Americans for Democratic Action [gold-standard of old lefty groups]
• 0% from NRA
• 'A' from Illinois Citizens for Handgun Control

Again, what would you call such a candidate? Well, if he's Barack Obama, and you're Richard Wolffe, you'd call him a "centrist."

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US Modifying B2 Bombers for Possible Iran Strike...

Interesting....

The Air Force is busy modifying its B-2 stealth bomber fleet so it can carry deep-penetrating bunker-buster bombs, according to recent reports. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, call your office

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, known as the bunker buster, is a GPS-guided weapon that carries more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives inside a 20.5-foot hardened steel shell. Sounds formidable. It is.

The Boeing-made bombs, which weigh 30,000 pounds each, are built to bore through dirt, rock and reinforced concrete at supersonic speeds to reach their targets: deep bunkers and tunnels.

Once the steel has pierced the outer layers of the targeted underground facility, a delayed-action fuse detonates the explosives.

Each B-2 has the capacity to haul two bunker-busters across long distances. Developer Northrop Grumman says the 21 delta-wing B-2s it built can fly 6,000 nautical miles without being refueled. A single aerial refueling allows it fly more than 10,000 nautical miles. As such, the B-2 can reach any point on the globe within a few hours.

"Any point" includes, of course, Iran, where the Islamist regime continues to develop nuclear weapons technology despite international pressure that it back down. Most likely, much of the work is being done underground in heavily fortified facilities.

The Natanz facility, where Tehran is enriching uranium and could produce weapons-grade material, is thought to be protected by several yards of concrete and as much 75 feet of dirt. Well protected, yes, but not out of the lethal reach of bunker busters.

While the U.S. is readying its B-2 fleet, Iran appears to be making its own preparations. Recent satellite photos show there is new digging activity in the mountains just outside the Natanz facility. Analysts believe it's linked to the nuclear complex and some in the government are concerned that Tehran is trying to harden the site ahead of a possible military strike.

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Inmate Fights to Stay IN Gitmo....

The left wing's idea of a torture chamber can't be all that bad if the prisoners are fighting to stay there...

An inmate of Guantanamo Bay who spends 22 hours each day in an isolation cell is fighting for the right to stay in the notorious internment camp.

Ahmed Belbacha fears that he will be tortured or killed if the United States goes ahead with plans to return him to his native Algeria.

The Times has learnt that Mr Belbacha, who lived in Britain for three years, has filed an emergency motion at the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC asking for his transfer out of Guantanamo to be halted. He was cleared for release from Camp Delta in February and his lawyers believe that his return to Algerian custody is imminent.

Mr Belbacha says that if he returns to Algeria, he faces the threat of torture by security services and murder by Islamist terrorists.

Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel with the human rights lawyers Reprieve and Mr Belbacha’s lawyer, has asked the US courts to block any transfer. “Ahmed is being held in camp six, the harshest part of Guantanamo,” he said. “His cell is all steel, there are no windows, he is not allowed to communicate with other prisoners and he gets just two hours exercise each day in a metal cage.

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New Salman Rushdie in Italy?....

What do you expect when you tell Arabs the truth?...

The Union of Islamic Communities in Italy has urged all Muslims across the country to express their views following a new book which hails Israel and slams Palestinian resistance groups. According to a Saudi newspaper, the leaders of the Islamic community in Italy are furious about the new book which amazingly was edited by an Egyptian-born Italian writer and journalist!

Magdi Allam, 55, deputy chief editor of Italy’s most influential newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, is again at the center of the storm following his seventh book, dubbed “Viva Israele” (Long Live Israel). The subtitle of the book reads “From the ideology of death to the civilization of life: my story.”

“Long Live Israel” is the tale of his life ever since his youth under the republican regime of late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

According to Allam, Nasser is responsible for having turned Egypt - and the rest of the Arab world - into the cradle of the "ideology of death". Allam claims Nasser brought about an aggressive pan-Arabic dream based on the denial of Israel’s right to exist. The need for the destruction of Israel is the dominant theme that, Allam states, made death and destruction the core values of a once liberal Islamic culture.

Thus, the new book defends the existence of Israel and terms armed Palestinian groups as "dangerous terrorist threats." In addition, Allam wrote that during their operations in the Palestinian territories, Israeli forces have been trying to avoid hitting Palestinian civilians and only aim to defend Israeli citizens….p>

Furthermore, Allam added that the main cause for the Israeli – Palestinian dispute stems form the Palestinian terror.

Allam says that "Israel - along with Pope Benedict XVI - represents the residual hope for Western civilization, which, more than other civilizations, embodies the sacredness of life and personal freedom."

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Ron Paul Resurects Bin Laden Bounty Hunter Bill..

Apparently nobody informed Ron that there's already is a 50 million dollar bounty on Osama...

It didn’t go anywhere in the tense days after the 9/11 attacks, but Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who is running a longshot bid for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, has re-introduced his proposal to authorize President Bush to commission private citizens or groups to go after Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Paul has offered legislation (H.R. 3216) to authorize Bush to issue “letters of marquee and reprisal” to those private citizens or entities that want “to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories the person and property of Osama bin Laden, of any al Qaeda co-conspirator, and of any conspirator with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda who are responsible for the air piratical aggressions and depredations perpetrated upon the United States of America on September 11, 2001,” or future attacks.

Paul offered this proposal back in October 2001, arguing that it would allow “Congress to authorize the President to specifically target Bin Laden and his associates using non-government armed forces. Since it is nearly impossible for U.S. intelligence teams to get close to Bin Laden, the marque and reprisal approach creates an incentive for people in Afghanistan or elsewhere to turn him over to the [United States].”

Rest here>>

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Hamas Shows off Their Islamic Paradise...

Come to beautiful Gaza, the suicide bomber capital of the world...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Never mind the international isolation, growing poverty and reports of violent retribution against its defeated Fatah rivals. In Hamas' own eyes, its takeover of Gaza has made the coastal strip "safe, clean and green."

In an attempt to get that message across, Hamas took two busloads of foreign journalists on an air conditioned tour of Gaza on Monday — including a stop in a refugee camp where the deposed prime minister waved from his balcony and a prison visit hosted by one of Hamas' most powerful military men.

Hamas officials said they were worried about the negative publicity they've received since taking over Gaza in June.

Stop One. Haniyeh's house.

"It's not a luxurious house," Hamas tour guide Ahmad Asmar said before the buses pulled up to home of Ismail Haniyeh, whom Hamas still considers prime minister even though he was fired by Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah-affiliated president, after Hamas' takeover. Haniyeh lives among the people in the Shati refugee camp on the Gaza City beach. Dressed in a suit and tie on a hot summer day, Haniyeh suddenly appeared on his balcony and waved to the reporters.

- Stop Two. Yasser Arafat's house.

"It is our job to keep this house secure," said senior Haniyeh aide Ghazi Hamad, refuting Fatah and press claims that the home of the late Palestinian leader had been looted and vandalized. Hamas officials stressed that they respected Arafat and the Fatah movement he founded. Arafat's picture remains posted on the walls of many buildings now controlled by Hamas.

Read the rest of Hamas' tour stops...

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Filipino Jihadis Rack up 1700 Kills in 7 Years...

The Southern Philippines hasn't had much media attention, but it is arguably the main terror front in Southeast Asia...

MANILA (Reuters) - More than 1,700 people have been killed or wounded in Islamic militant attacks in the Philippines during the last seven years, the highest number in Southeast Asia, a human rights group said on Monday.

In a report, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch blamed two small militant groups based in the southern Philippines for the killings -- Abu Sayyaf and the Rajah Solaiman Movement.

The scale of violence in the Philippines, however, has not received widespread attention outside the region, said John Sifton, senior researcher on terrorism and counter-terrorism at Human Rights Watch in New York.

"Extremist armed groups have spread terror among civilians in the Philippines," Sifton said.

"They have bombed buses carrying workers, food markets where people were shopping, airports where relatives were waiting for loved ones and ferry boats carrying families."

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h/t the ROP

Democratic Debate: See No Jihad, Speak No Jihad...

(psst, Hillary, I hate America more than you do. No way, I do)

I'm still not 100% convinced Democrats can say the word jihad (unless directed at a fellow American)...

The unconventional method of asking questions in the so-called Democratic presidential debate a week ago produced the same conventional responses by the presidential hopefuls. We must end “Bush’s” war in Iraq immediately. President Bush and the Republicans in Congress are to blame for all of the nation’s problems. And more government is the answer to everything.

Many of the responses to the YouTube-generated questions were filled with the usual platitudes, pandering and “woulda-coulda-shoulda” insights. Such as, “We should have had better intelligence information, and I could have voted against funding the war in Iraq.” Well, we didn’t have better intelligence information, and neither did the president. And despite the shortcomings of the intelligence information, Iraq is a newborn democracy struggling to survive with our help.

Void of any real highlights, the most noticeable lowlights of the candidates’ YouTube exchange were Hillary Clinton’s reference to her leadership experience as First Lady, and the glaring absence of any reference to jihad or Islamic fascism by any of the presidential candidates

With all due respect to Mrs. Clinton for the demands and responsibilities of the First Lady, experience by osmosis has rarely produced a great leader. Granted, good leaders can be developed with the right kind of training and coaching in the right kinds of situations, but born-great leaders are very rare. I would be very hesitant to fly on a plane with a pilot who had only read the instructions manual and sat in the co-pilot’s seat, while never having been the pilot of a plane. Direct accountability for one’s decisions builds leadership ability and character.

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Cynthia McKinney Sues Paper for Making her Look Crazy...

Batshit crazy ex US Rep Cynthia "if you don't recognize me then you're racist" McKinney (D-eranged) doesn't need any help to look crazy...

APN) ATLANTA – Former US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has sued the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper for libel, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

The lawsuit was filed on July 26, 2007, in State Court of Fulton County, according to a copy of the court filing obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

The lawsuit focuses on what McKinney argues to be false claims in a July 30, 2006, Editorial written by the AJC’s Editorial Page Editor, Cynthia Tucker. Tucker received a Pulitzer Prize for a series of columns that year including that one.

Tucker’s column, "Voters Can See Through McKinney," focused on an incident several months earlier, where the Congresswoman had been stopped by Capitol Hill Police in Washington, DC.

According to a copy of Tucker’s column obtained by APN, Tucker wrote, "When he stopped her, the officer said, she slugged him with her cellphone." While the AJC attributes the claim to the officer–"the officer said"–by the time of the column’s publication, the Grand Jury had already failed to indict McKinney. Thus, it was selective of the AJC to only include the officer’s alleged remarks.

McKinney argues that Tucker tried to spin the event into a felony, based on the claim McKinney assaulted an officer with a weapon.

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LA Times stoops to yet another low...

The author of this piece of trash argues Lindh was just serving in the "army of a country that harbored terrorists."  What planet does this guy live on?  The Taliban were only recognized by the UAE, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (of course) and they are one and the same as al-Qaeda...

The president's power to grant clemency -- in the form of either a pardon or a commutation -- is much maligned and occasionally abused, as was the case when President Bush used it to keep his colleague, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, from facing even a day in prison for lying and obstructing justice. But the power has its appropriate uses as well, and the case of John Walker Lindh calls out for it.

Known unfortunately as "the American Taliban," Lindh became a symbol for fanaticism, even treason, in the early months of the nation's response to Sept. 11. He was apprehended in late 2001 in the mountains of Afghanistan, where, at the age of 20, he was serving in the army of a nation that harbored terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. Weak and wounded, he was blindfolded and duct-taped naked to a stretcher, kept incommunicado in an uninsulated shipping container and interrogated by intelligence and FBI agents. Once home, he was charged with terrorism in a 10-count indictment, deliberately sought by the government in the Eastern District of Virginia, then still reeling from the attack on the Pentagon.

Lindh was pilloried by officials at the highest levels of the government. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft called him an "Al Qaeda-trained terrorist," and the charges against Lindh originally included conspiring to commit terrorism. Those charges were dropped, however, and Lindh today is serving time not for any act committed against the United States, but for violating a Clinton-era presidential order that prohibits providing "services" to the Taliban. Lindh, who converted to Islam as a teenager, joined the Taliban before Sept. 11, not after; he did so to fight the Northern Alliance, not the United States. Lindh never took up arms against this country. He never engaged in terrorism; indeed, his commitment to Islam leads him to oppose the targeting of civilians.

LA Times story here>>>

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Via: Rhymes With Right....

Shoe Bomber: Allah Told me I'll be Home Soon...

Sorry Richard, he lied, you won't be leaving the Federal Supermax Prison in Colorado unless you're in a box...

Failed shoe bomber Richard Reid has told his British relatives he hopes to be free from captivity soon.

Writing from an American jail cell where he is serving a 110-year sentence for trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner carrying 200 passengers, Reid also calls on his father to convert to Islam.

The 33-year-old from Bromley, southeast London, writes: "I had a couple of good dreams about my situation changing for the better in the not too distant future so this is a blessing from Allah.

"I place my trust in Allah that he will bring that into fruition and ask him to give me patience until the time when that occurs."

Reid, who was arrested in December 2001, is held in virtual solitary confinement at the maximum security ADX Florence in Colorado. The petty criminal converted to Islam while in Feltham young offenders institution.

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Britain Wanted US to Rule out Torture Against Bin Laden...

I wonder if the British would have wanted Hitler treated "humanely" if he was taken alive?...

Britain agreed to pass intelligence about the whereabouts of Usama bin Laden to the CIA only if the U.S. agency promised he would not be tortured, the Guardian newspaper reports.

The plan, outlined in a 75-page report by the British parliament's intelligence and security committee, approved the British sharing of bin Laden intelligence only if the U.S. gave assurances he would be treated humanely, the paper reports.

Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, believed it had information that would lead to the Al Qaeda leader's capture in Afghanistan in 1998 and 1999.

"In 1998, SIS [MI6] believed that it might be able to obtain actionable intelligence that might enable the CIA to capture Osama bin Laden," the Guardian quoted the report as saying.

"Given that this might have resulted in him being rendered from Afghanistan to the U.S., SIS sought ministerial approval," the report continued. "This was given provided that the CIA gave assurances regarding humane treatment."

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Pakistan: Red Mosque Part Deux...

Mushy looks weaker with each passing day...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan— Pro-Taliban militants seized control of a shrine in northwestern Pakistan and renamed it after Islamabad's Red Mosque, while 10 people died in the latest violence near the Afghan border, officials said Monday.

About 70 pro-Taliban militants occupied the shrine of renowned Pashtun freedom fighter Sahib Turangzai and its accompanying mosque in the town of Lakarai in Mohmand tribal region on Sunday, a spokesman for the militants and a local government official said.

The militants declared their support for the radical leaders of the Red Mosque that was stormed by Pakistan's army this month after its clerics launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign in the capital.

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