Rolled-up Trousers

'Hadji girl' marine to face no punishment

The US marine serving in Iraq who sang this will not face any punishment:

“I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. . .I blew those little f**kers to eternity. . .They should have known they were f**king with the Marines.”

In his apology, Cpl Joshua Belile said it was written in good humor and not aimed at any party.

Meanwhile Aki Nawaz is expecting to get done under the anti-terror laws for his latest song.

Important context

Electronic Intifada set out the recent events that have led to the abduction of the Israeli soldier that Israel are placing further oppression and collective punishment on the Palestinian people for:

Following a series of bloody June attacks on Gaza by Israeli forces, including the weekend shelling of a beach that killed 8 Palestinian civilians, including 7 members of the same family and injured a further 32 civilians, including 13 children (9 June); a missile attack on a Gazan highway that killed eleven and injured 30 (13 June); and another missile attack that killed 3 children and wounded 15 others (20 June), Palestinian militants carried out a raid on Israeli military positions near Gaza on June 25th.

The raid resulted in the killing of two soldiers and the capture of one, Cpl Gilad Shalit. More

Would the Tories work with the MCB?

Michael Gove - Conservative leader David Cameron's version of Peter Mandelson - has hit out at leading Muslim organisations the MCB and MAB, lamenting the government's unwillingness to take on the "Islamists".

In his new book coinciding with the anniversary of the London bombings, Celsius 7/7, serialised in the Times, he says:

Last summer [Tony Blair] spelt out that a much broader effort is required to tackle, at root, the ideology of Islamism that has bewitched so many minds. But in the struggle against extremism the British State has failed to tackle the underlying ideological currents that favour Islamism. Organisations such as the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), whose members have shown sympathy for extremist positions, are rarely challenged, and certainly not publicly by the Government or its agencies.

But what is Islamism? According to Gove in the same book:

Does the media make it worse?

I'll be taking part in a debate entitiled "Conflict and terror: Does the media make it worse?" at this year's Festival of Politics in the Scottish Parliament. Also speaking will be:

• Hugh Miles, an authority on al- Jazeera and a Times Young Journalist of the Year,
• Professor David Miller of Strathclyde University , expert on propaganda and terrorism in Ireland and the Middle East ,
• Rev. Ruth Scott, writer, broadcaster and Trustee of The Forgiveness Project

It's on Thursday 24 August at 2pm at the Parliament's Venue 2.

Greatest threat to British Muslims

One of the things I have failed to grasp after two years in prison is the ignorance, naivety and denial of British Muslims in understanding the significance of the 2003 UK-U.S. Extradition treaty. They have simply not realised the threat that this extradition legislation poses to the very future of themselves and their children in this country. It has been sadly amusing watching Muslim leaders and groups run around crying about incitement to religious hatred laws, glorification of terrorism laws and whether to intern Muslims without charge for 28 days or 90 days, yet the reality is that all these laws put together do not even amount to 1% of the tangible oppression upon British Muslims under the current UK-U.S. extradition legislation.

Hat tip

These are the words of Babar Ahmad, who's been in jail for two years while extradition proceedings have been ongoing against him.

Protests were held at Scottish airports yesterday against 'extraordinary rendition'. One of the protesters lamented that many ordinary passerbys didn't seem to care - 'but what if it happened to them?' I made the point that there would be no need for the US to snatch someone off the streets of Glasgow - our government has enshrined into law the ability for the US to take any citizen it pleases, without demonstrating any evidence against them.

And as Babar says, British Muslims have not grasped this salient issue, and instead are protesting about cartoons:

Glasgow Hilton sponsor JNF

The Jewish Telegraph report that the Glasgow Hilton were among the sponsors of a fundraising golf pro-am in aid of the Jewish National Fund which raised £30,000.

The hotel has been the host of many JNF bashes over the years, with guests like Bill Clinton, Ruby Wax and Colin Powell. Most people had thought the Hilton were just tarts in this equation - anyone splashing the cash could use the facilities. But it seems the support of Israel is a bit more ideological than that.

Lexus Glasgow were once again sponsors too of the event at Bonnyton Golf Club, along with the Ross Hall Hospital. Craig Gardner, Peter Stokes and David Tennent, of the three sponsors, were given certificates of trees planted in Israel for them.

Terrorist pastime - whitewater rafting

Scotland's first anti-terrorism tzar was unveiled to the public yesterday.

One of John Corrigan's first actions was to tell everyone to be suspicious, particularly people who run outdoor centres:

CHIEF police officers are contacting outdoor activity groups following concerns they could be used by those organising terrorist training camps.

Assistant Chief Constable John Corrigan, Scotland's first counter-terrorism czar, has called for groups running outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting to report suspicious activity. (...)

The move follows intelligence which revealed two of the 7/7 London bombers went whitewater rafting in Snowdonia a month before they carried out the attacks last year.
Mr Corrigan said Scotland's eight forces had started consultations with outdoor activity companies.

And people renting out flats:

"If someone is renting a flat and they are not confident about a prospective buyer or if they are suspicious, my message is, 'Do not keep it to yourself. Contact the police.'

"Maybe someone becomes suspicious about a group of strange males who are together for a weekend. The message is the same, 'Let us know'."

What exactly would members of the public see these "groups of strange males" doing? The London bombers went rafting (pictured above, planning their outrage with non-burka-clad female companion), but what did other members of the public see them doing that they didn't report?

I've been on many outdoor trips with groups of young Muslims, and this kind of loose police talk is a licence for paranoia.

US rejected Iran offer in 2003

In an important Guardian article, Noam Chomsky cites the claim of Flynt Leverett, then a senior official in Bush's National Security Council, that in 2003 the US knocked by an Iranian offer to discuss:

• weapons of mass destruction
• a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict i.e. recognising Israel
• the future of Hizbullah
• cooperation with the UN nuclear safeguards agency

A year later Iran offered to stop uranium enrichment if the EU could guarantee that the US or Israel would not attack them. Again, the US refused.

Well worth reading the article for a proposal on the way forward, and Henry Kissinger grossly contradicting himself.

Ghana apologise

I was amongst many sharing a sense of bewilderment at why Ghana's John Pantsil produced an Israel flag after his team's goal and victory against the Czech Republic.

The Ghanaian Football Federation have issued an apology:

"It was naive, he was not aware of the consequences of his actions," Randy Abbey said. "We apologise to everyone who felt offended by this."

AlJazeera report that:

During the match itself the live commentator on the Arab satellite channel ART broadcasting all World Cup matches in the region abruptly cut short his trademark "goooaaaaaaal!" when Pantsil brought out the flag.

"What are you doing, man?" the bewildered commentator said.

It's been reported that Pantsil stored the flag in his socks. Looked to me like he actually pulled it out his pants.

Israel's terrorist victim

Imagine the following scenario. A Palestinian gunman boards a bus inside Israel and rides it to the city of Netanya. Close to the end of the line, he walks over to the driver, levels his automatic rifle against the man’s head and pumps him with bullets. He turns and empties the rest of the magazine -- one of 14 in his backpack -- into the passenger behind the driver and two young women sitting across the gangway.

As bystanders in the street outside look on in horror, our gunman then reloads his weapon and sprays the bus with yet more fire, injuring 20 people. He approaches a woman huddled beneath a seat, trying to hide from him, lowers the gun to her head and pulls the trigger. The magazine is empty. As he tries to load a third clip, she grabs the burning barrel of the gun while other passengers rush him.

Seeing their chance, the onlookers storm the bus and fuelled by a mixture of passions -- fury, indignation and fear of further attack -- they beat the gunman to death.

As the news breaks, Israeli TV prefers to continue its coverage of a local football match rather report the killings. Later, when the channels do cover the deaths, they start by showing the picture of the gunman with the caption “God bless his soul” -- in the same manner as they would normally relate to the victim of a terror attack.

Despite the Prime Minister denouncing the gunman as a terrorist to the world, domestically the media and police concentrate instead on the “lynch mob” who killed the gunman. The police launch a secretive investigation which after 10 months leads to the arrests of seven men on charges of murdering him, and the promise of more arrests to come. A police spokesman describes the men’s act against the gunman as one of “cold-blooded murder”.

Fanciful? Ridiculous? Well, exactly these events have unfolded in Israel over the past year -- except that the location was not the Jewish city of Nentanya but the Arab town of Shafa’amr in the Galilee; the gunman was not a Palestinian but an Israeli soldier using his army-issue M-16; and the victims were not Israeli Jews but Israeli Arabs.

More from Jonathan Cook of the Electronic Intifada

Forest Gate "specific intelligence" had IQ of 69

The Sunday Mirror have an exclusive on the vital question of what exactly was the "specific intelligence" that led to the bungled arrests of Abdul Kahar and Abul Koyair in East London. Was it just a single source? The Mirror reckon it was - specifically low intelligence with an IQ of 69 at that.

They report that Abu Bakr Mansha, who was jailed for 6 years for having the contact details of a British soldier in Iraq (yes he was jailed under terror laws for that) was visited by the two men shortly before the police raid. After their visit Mansha was moved from being a Cat A prisoner to Cat B, while Abdul Kahar and Koyair were very obviously tailed by the police:

Ex-intelligence analyst Crispin Black, who is investigating the case, said: "To think that a prisoner with an IQ of 69 could be at the centre of this operation is sheer lunacy. If this is the 'intelligence' trigger for the raid it shows something has gone seriously wrong. Everyone knew about the surveillance - children were knocking on car windows asking officers who they were watching. If they were terrorists, they had plenty of warning. They also arrested them at home, where they could be near an explosive device, rather than at work.

Portillo: Independence for Scotland a win-win

Michael Portillo writes in his Sunday Times column advocating independence for Scotland. He says that it would be a solution to the vexed issue of Scottish MPs swinging the balance on English matters they have nothing to do with, while giving the Scottish economy the kick up the backside it needs.

People often question whether Scotland will be independent one day. In the past, with London eager to keep hold of Scottish oil, there has been a lot of myths meddled about the issue as a result. Now, as Portillo says, with the peak of oil production being reached (there is still a trillion dollars down there for Scotland to take advantage of though), and the Tories needing a route back into power, cutting off Scottish MPs would be to the pleasure of all. For any deal to happen, both sides must gain, and we are now in a situation of win-win.

There has been a very perceptible shift in the Scottish media's coverage of next year's Holyrood elections (indeed the Sunday Herald do a feature today on the possibility of SNP leader Alex Salmond being the next First Minister). There have been press speculation of who the SNP may go into coalition with and the terms that an agreement may be reached by. This is the first time in my lifetime that I can remember Scottish Labour being talked out of power in this way. As the Herald piece points out, they have won every election in Scotland since the 1950s. This is why this paper talk about new coalitions is so significant.

450,000 Iraqi refugees

The Sunday Herald report that there is a hidden number of 450,000 refugees created by the war on Iraq. They highlight the case of one of the many young women believed to have been sold into sex slavery in Damascus and Amman.

Ann Maymann, a protection officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Damascus, asks: “Who in the international community wants to say there is a refugee crisis in Syria and Jordan? Because saying that is to admit that the US-led war created the conditions for this.”

3,000 Muslim homes raided?

After the press conference held by Abdul Kahar and Abul Koyair, the police through Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman of Specialist Operations offered this as part of a statement:

I am aware of the claims made by some commentators that 3,000 Muslim homes have been raided since September 11 2001. I simply do not recognise this figure...

The natural follow up question then is "how many Muslim homes have been raided?"

Intriguingly I had to glean the above quote from a Spanish website. It isn't on the Met's version of the statement.

But if you Google it, it used to be. They deleted it. Why?

Wiping good translation off the map

I wrote last week drawing your attention to Jonathan Steele's contention that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not in fact call for Israel to be "wiped off the map". His article has caused a bit of controversy and he's followed it up with more detail.

He uses a variety of sources including the New York Times and the BBC. But the most significant has to the the Mossad inspired MEMRI. This is an institution that was set up to publicise the oft-decontextualised quotes of prominent Arabs and Muslims. They use the worst possible translations to serve their pro-Israeli cause. This is what they made of the Iranian President's statement:

"This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history."

As Steele points out, when he said this, he compared the "elimination" of Israel to the fall of the Shah in 1979. We're talking regime change, not ethnic cleansing. This view is shared by many anti-Zionists.

One obvious question emanating from this is who did spread the "wiped off the map" translation? Why did this story receive the prominence it did at this point in history/point of the map (depending on which translation you use)?

Specific intelligence

Kudos to Abdul Kahar and Abul Koyair for having the guts to speak up following their ordeal at the hands of the Met.

The two men painted a horrific picture of what happened at their home a couple of weeks ago:

I was begging: "Please, please, I cannot move."

He just kicked me in my face, and he kept on saying "shut the fuck up. Stay here".

I thought they were going to shoot me again or shoot my brother.

I heard them shouting "secure the room".

At that moment I still did not know they were the police, they never said a word about the police.

I just thought "they're going to kill us".

Prayers for the people of Ramadi

It seems a Fallujah-style bombardment by US troops is imminent in Ramadi.

More with Lenin.

Does Blair back Olmert?

Two entirely contradictory headlines in today's newspapers:

• Blair refuses to back Olmert's West Bank plan
• Blair risks Arab anger by backing Israeli plan to impose new border

The full text of the Blair-Olmert press conference is available at the Number 10 website.

Olmert, after bemoaning having no one to negotiate with said:

In that case we will have to move forward, even without a Palestinian partner, in order to separate from the Palestinians, to pull out from areas in the West Bank, to realign Israeli settlements partly into the settlement blocks and partly into other parts of the state of Israel, and to leave a very large part of the territories, a contiguous part of the territories, for a Palestinian state to be created by the Palestinians.

"Contiguous" is the new Israeli buzzword. Doesn't matter how much land we steal, as long as the Palestinians have a plot which is all together, everything is fine.

Blair didn't contradict any of this. Asked if Israel should actually withdraw to 1967 lines, Blair replied:

Why England won't win the World Cup

We're a few days into the greatest show on earth, and what a tournament it's shaping up to be. So many of the teams are oozing quality and it's a very tough one to call in terms of who will win.

The shape and tactics of the teams has been interesting to note - and in comparison how stuck in the dark ages the discussion in England seems to be. Everyone sticks rigidly to their position. For years the English media have obsessed over who would fill the left-wing slot. But so many teams don't have identified positions like this. France won it in '98 without a left-winger, and Brazil in 2002 were very difficult to peg down as to who plays where.

This fluidity is marking each of the favourites. Players swap positions and team mates cover them. My tip for the crown would be Holland if I was a betting man (which I'm not). They play with one up front, and two on either wing. Three players are behind them in central midfield bursting forward when necessary.

Israel gagging for Hamas response

Another air strike has hit the supposedly liberated Gaza today, killing nine including two children.

Sam Bahour writes after the recent beach attack, noting that two Palestinians a day have been killed by Israel for the last few years:

Israel kills with purpose. Following the rise to government of the hard line Hamas movement to the Palestinian government, Israel is optimizing on the US led campaign to bring a full collapse of the democratically-elected Palestinian government, by killing on a daily basis of what the world’s media has sadly accepted as “targeted assassinations.” There is a clear political agenda in the latest round of Israeli attacks. Israel is begging for Hamas to react in kind by breaking its one sided truce that Hamas has held for over a year, despite Israel’s continued provocations.

Read on

UPDATE: Any doubts over who perpetrated the beach deaths should be cleared up by this:

...a former Pentagon official sent by the New York-based Human Rights Watch to investigate the death of the family has concluded that there is little doubt they were killed by an Israeli shell. "All the evidence points to the fact that it couldn't have been a mine," said Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon expert on battlefields who led the US military's battle damage assessment team in Kosovo and worked for its intelligence wing, the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"You have the crater size, the shrapnel, the types of injuries, their location on the bodies. That all points to a shell dropping from the sky not explosives under the sand."

Iran and uranium enrichment

Alastair Crooke reminds us in Prospect that as signatories to the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the right to develop the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It is the US that has ripped this up:

When the NPT came into force in 1970, the central bargain was between the five nuclear-weapon powers on one hand, and the non-nuclear states on the other. The have-nots agreed to renounce their right to weapons, but only in return for the right to develop the peaceful use of nuclear energy. At the core of the NPT is Article IV, which gives all signatories the “inalienable right… to develop, research, produce and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes” and to acquire technology to this effect from fellow signatories. Equally important, in return for the have-nots’ renunciation of weapons, the “haves” agreed not to use their stocks of weapons to blackmail the have-nots, and ultimately to get rid of their weapons (Article VI). These are the two pillars of the non-proliferation system.

Spinning the unspinnable

US reaction to the three suicides at Guantanamo Bay:

Rear Adm Harry Harris said: "They are smart. They are creative, they are committed.

"They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

Always the victim.

Colleen Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy described the deaths as: "a good PR move to draw attention".

You read right - Ms Graffy is in the department of public diplomacy.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said "it was important to treat the bodies humanely and with cultural sensitivity".

More than their bodies got during life then.

Police tell teachers to look out for "stronger religious faith" in Muslim pupils

The Sunday Herald have done a report on Tayside Police's efforts to gain information from the Muslim community in Dundee.

Their methods have come under fire, with the disturbing reports of them 'requesting' to sit in on meetings of the Dundee University's Islamic Society.

They've gone into schools, asking teachers to report on the kids:

In schools, Charnley says, SB officers have asked teachers to look for signs of extremism among pupils. One “sign” he mentioned would be “a kid who has gone back to their parents’ country of origin [for example, Pakistan] and returned with anti-Western feeling or stronger religious faith than they had shown before”.

Note - teachers have been asked to look for "stronger religious faith". I'm assuming that the only other telltale sign of an "extremist" would be some political convictions.

There is a warning that this model could be rolled out across the country:

Police forces across Scotland and England are considering mimicking Tayside’s new “kinder, gentler” form of SB operation. They are impressed by the overt “soft intelligence gathering” style of the operation, coupled with its community policing approach to terror threats, and believe it will assist community relations and improve the flow of information between the police and ethnic groups.

My neighbour's car

We're all Trinidadian Tobogganists now.

Apart from Gordon Brown who, in his continued quest to curry favour with anyone except the Scots, says Gazza's goal against Scotland in Euro '96 is his favourite football moment.

Graham Spiers has summed up the coming month quite nicely in the Herald:

Isn't this World Cup going to be something else? I confidently predict that, for the vast majority of us sentient and well-balanced citizens, the next four weeks are going to be among the most engrossing, fascinating and fulfilling days we've ever known on this planet.

Why exactly were these soldiers cleared?

There seems to be jubilation at the not guilty verdict handed down to the three soldiers who were accused of drowning the Iraqi boy Ahmed Jabar Karheem. Sergeant Carle Selman, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, and Guardsman Martin McGing, were all acquitted by a military tribunal.

It has been presented that the key prosecution witnesses were unreliable. However, it was established at the trial that British troops were throwing Iraqis into the river. In this particular case no one has denied that this happened to the boy in question. Comments by lawyers involved with the trial hint that it was not that they didn't throw the boy in the river, it's just the the context apparently justified it:

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the British Army's senior legal officer for the invasion, said: "There was a total failure to plan for the occupation. There was only enough time to prepare for war, never mind the occupation."

Fadi Daoud, McGing's solicitor, said: "The outcome is a complete vindication of a fine young man who has served his country admirably in a difficult environment without any proper training during a transitional period between combat operations and peacekeeping."

Jerry Hayes, one of the defending barristers, told the court: "If ever there was a charge which should have been strangled at birth this is it. Why are we here? This was a tragic accident [the soldiers were 'wetting' this boy]. These soldiers were the thin line between anarchy and law and order. They are decent young British soldiers doing their best to do their duty."

Doesn't seem to be an overwhelming vindication of the soldiers' honour does it? The Ministry of Defence have found it necessary to defend their training methods as a result. There's also the question of why a proper civilian court is not trying these cases rather than the military themselves.

Nukes are haraam

Ayatollah Ali Khameini has declared the use of nuclear weapons as "against Islamic rules" As BSSC observes, "it's probably fair to say that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran takes his religion really rather seriously".

However, this has not been reported anywhere, and what we've got instead is reports of him threatening to cut oil supplies if his country is attacked.

As Jonathan Steele points out in a must-read article in the Guardian, it is really Khameini who is top dog in Iran. It was not long ago, before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected, that the West lamented the lack of power in the position of the elected President vis a vis the Supreme Leader. Now one "wiped off the map" remark later, and it's all forgotten - a comment though that Steele maintains has been misquoted.

Zionist agenda

Fascinating - Mark Elf reports that the World Zionist Congress is meeting in Jerusalem 19-22 June. On the agenda are resolutions:

• preventing "assimilation" of Jews outsdie Israel in a quest for new immigrants
• calling for "action through all means to encourage the return home of Israelis living abroad"
• "to bring about legislation that will outlaw anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and Holocaust denial"
• "call[ing] upon the nations of the world to act aggressively and immediately to remove the Iranian threat".

There's also references to Eretz Yisrael (Greater Israel).

Hirsi Ali, the BBC and lost Dutch liberalism

The BBC publish an article about lost liberalism in Holland. Ah, I think, something highlighting the treatment of immigrant communities in the country... no, just something lamenting the treatment of the liar Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The author of the article, Lisa Jardine, just doesn't seem to have kept up with recent events:

Hirsi Ali arrived in Holland as an asylum-seeker in 1992, fleeing a forced marriage.

No she didn't.

In the face of a growing clamour from both the Muslim and the secular communities to silence her, she has decided to re-settle in Washington.

No she jumped ship because of the storm over her lies.

Jardine does however know about the web Hirsi Ali tied herself up in:

In spite of her imminent departure, she has now been told by the Immigration Minister, Rita Verdonk that she is to be stripped of her Dutch citizenship because - out of fear - she did not use her true name on her original application form.

And the rest of it please - there were a few more lies than that.

Jardine also repeats the tired fiction of Muslim involvement in the killing of Pim Fortuyn.

Absolutely bizarre from the BBC.

Brian Whitaker meanwhile stays calm long enough to write about Hirsi Ali and bedfellow Irshad Manji. He makes the point that the neocons and rightwingers love them because they tell them what they want to hear. Trouble with the bridge that needs to be made between Islam and the West is that as with any rapprochement, you need to hear things that may not all sit well with you. Whitaker links to this essay by Laila Lalami in the Nation.

Marrying your cousin

Austrolabe ask why more Muslim leaders are not tackling the problems associated with marriages between cousins. Genetic disorders amongst children of such marriages are hugely prevalent.

So far the only person to highlight this has been Labour MP Ann Cryer, who called for a ban on the practice.

If there are any guys out there looking for a prospective spouse, why not take Haroon's advice and look for a Latina? I couldn't possibly comment.

Pot, kettle, black

John Ware of Panorama-witchhunt fame accuses Faisal Bodi of having an agenda. Ware has a follow up to his McCarthyite documentary of last year coming up on the BBC, apparently this time focusing on Interpal. MPAC have had a bit to say on this too.