Shawqi Bro. A Great name, Showqi and Mutanabbi are two of my favorite poets of all time. But, the crown of poets is Abul Cataahiya, the poems of wisdom and Zuhd. Malika sis, True sis, Allah is indeed Merciful. Haneefa sis Great to have you back, Jazakillahu Kheiran for your duaa, I hope that you enlighten us this Ramadan, and share with us the wilderness wisdom ( was that Mountain in Pennsylvania?) Nur

The Capitalist Commandments By The Center For Balance September 29, 2010 "ICH" -- 1. Do unto others before they do it unto you. Beggar thy neighbor and trade their employments without offset, tariff, or compensation to secure a bountiful profit from the greater slave. Engage the most authoritarian of regimes and let no morality, nor powers of the vast majority, interfere with the greater profits to be had from preserving disparities and all the powers of predation enjoyed by the rich. 2. In all things, see that your capital-defined Efficiency shall remain the only god, and let no morality, freedom nor ecological concern interfere with your divine right to profit and enclose and privatize for your benefit. 3. Thou shalt make money and power thy only god and pursuit, and not suffer any foolish idleness opening one to other occupations or dangerous revelations. 4. To secure thy power, thou shalt not let the people own or control their central banks - despite constitutional purse powers to the contrary - for debt money is the central power and motive force before which all others pale and remain impotent. 5. Thou shalt own and control all media and news dissemination agencies. Let not any editor be elected lest the people influence what they see, hear and read. Let all books, media, and education grow our values exclusively. Let not any fairness doctrine nor any notion of labor-capital “factor” balance interfere with this, our grand design. 6. In all things, thou shalt make Growth and per-capita ruin thy only gods, and defeat Balance at every turn. Thou shalt see that humanity endlessly multiplies. Let no balance of population arise which might serve to pass on the same quantum of freedom, earthly space, natural right and pleasure even to thine own children - as this would destroy our precious and profitable Growth. 7. In all things, thou shalt resist Balance, and both factor and gender equity for I, your male Sky God, have told you so. 8. Let no free commune or cooperative emerge, nor any non-profit venture succeed - for such competition is to be feared and prohibited. Privatize everything as it is your right . Control the reigns of power so the vast majority own no debt-free estate, nor access any means with which they might secure their domestic freedom, independence, and democracy. 9. Let Nature’s realm be conquered and set to your profit purposes. Patent and own all of nature’s pharmacopeia. Change the nature of animals and humans alike to serve your ends. Render off limits those fertile lands and plants by which the masses might enjoy leisure, acquire natural freedom, secure refuge from our Free Market, or stumble upon any revelations of a non-egoic, cooperative, and spiritual nature. 10. Let enclosure reign, for the landless and dependent are fodder for thy greater objectives. Let our Interdependency forever be mediated by the rich and powerful, and secured in the name of an Efficiency serving our ends alone. Seek to destroy any remnants of natural freedom, commonwealth, and domestic independence. Let our Free Market of neo-slavery prevail and thy will profit beyond one’s wildest dreams. Copyright 2010 - TheCenterForBalance.org

Akhi Bilaal Not so quick bro. Don't drop the ball, I am just warming up for this discussion. You write: You concentrate on the dangers emanating from our enemies while I contend that the greatest danger to the resistance's cause is its failure to consolidate the peace by seeking an alliance with its principal opponent - i.e. the TFG. The greatest danger in the Somali Stalemate is the emergence of free thinking people. This poses danger to the forces who are threatening to destabilize Somalia if it does not obey the orders of the New World Order which is in the making before our eyes. A case in point, is the destabilization of the CIA of the brief six month peace in Mogadishu. You see Akhi Bilal, I am all for peace and negotiation, not confrontation and killings. In negotiation, when the gap between the price being offered by the buyer is much lower than the sellers expected price, the way to narrow it is for the buyer to offer other packaged benefits that will offset the gap as an incentive that can tempt the seller to take the deal. But the paymasters are broke, they would rather deny the Somalis to live in peace on their own, so that they can offer it as a gift if they agree to sellout the nation to these foreign interests. So, peace in itself becomes a bargaining commodity on the table as well as the promise for development. Now, the paymasters of the warlords are offering: 1. Peace and security 2. Development The peace and security they are offering is for themselves, and it will be on their terms, not for Somalis at all, are you kidding me! since the fall of Siad Barre regime, they were funding the warlords for their bidding. In the last 20 years, the warlords have killed, raped and maimed thousands of Somalis. Have you seen any international tribunal to try the Somali warlords for crimes against humanity? No, the "International Community" believes that Somalis are not human, but the Tutsi in Rwanda and the Darfur people in Sudan are humans, who deserve to take their case to the Hague International Court of Injustice! , therefore we have a politicized international justice system, which is owned by the very people who are breaking the international human rights, like the say in Arabic, "Xaamiihaa, Xaraamiihaa", in a nutshell, the new world order says: any criminal warlord who is an asset to the US global interests, has an immunity from any prosecution for crimes against humanity, which guarantees the warlord's total submission and obedience in exchange for the dropping of their criminal cases, while at the same time, any decent Somali leader who aspires for freedom for his people and seeks sovereignty is demonized, and declared a danger to world peace, and hence requires International sanctions. As for the Development of Somalia as an incentive for capitulation for western demands, they are simply offering to feed Somalis a small part of their own cow, they want to drill oil on Somali coasts, to employ Somali kids. The share of the Somalis of the Oil revenue will be 10% for Somalis (Inclusive of the commission to the warlords) , while a hefty 90% of the proceeds goes for the Oil companies . In light of the above, can you help me see how worse can we get if we don't hurry to sign an alliance with the devil warlords, how can the foreign agents deflect an imminent danger? Can You Trust The Ashahaado La Dirir? Nur

The Real Pirates in Somalia: Washington, Paris and Oslo By Abdulkadir Salad Elmi September 29, 2010 "ICH" -- Many people seem not to understand, or refuse to understand, that more than half of Somalia consists of the seas around the country. This makes the oceans vital to the survival of the Somali people. Somali territorial waters (TW), declared in 1972, consist of an 825,052km2 area. A 1989 exclusive economic zone (EEZ) overlays the same area as the TW. An additional 55,895km2 of continental shelf zone (CSZ) makes up Somali ocean territory. The sum of the total internal area of Somalia of 637,657km2, together with the TW and EEZ, make up a total of 1,462,709km2, which with the additional CSZ expands to 1,518,604km2. These figures hopefully make clear the importance of marine waters for the Somali people and also why vested interests try to get their hands on these waters, thereby trying to push back the interests of the Somali people. The Legal Regime Somalia has territorial waters of 200 nautical miles (nm), based on Law No. 37 on the Territorial Sea and Ports, of 10 September 1972. This law states clearly that fishing in territorial waters and the regular transportation of persons and goods between Somali ports is reserved for vessels flying the Somali flag, and other authorised vessels with a licence and permission from the legitimate Somali government and not by a regional government. States like the USA do not like to recognise and/or respect this law and pressurise states to give up their 200nm of territorial waters established by acts of law. Meanwhile, for reasons of national sovereignty or security the USA has not even ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and pushed for alterations to its provisions, which would otherwise curb their rights. Many peoples and states around the world do not like that the USA does not respect many international laws or conventions like the land-mine ban. A vast majority of people and states want the USA to abolish national laws that impose the death sentence, but nevertheless the country applies their own laws in their territory. Likewise, they have to at least tolerate Somalia applying its own laws in its territory. The Americans would never give up an ounce of national sovereignty unless they thought they could win it back – along with a little chunk of the sovereignty of other states. Just look at the farce of the Organisation of American States. The plan was to cow Latin America and Canada into a neo-imperial arrangement with ‘USAmerica’ as the core and the rest of the two continents of North and South America as the economic periphery dependent on ‘USAmerican’ patronage to maintain export-oriented primary industry-focused economies. This was disgustingly parasitic of the USA, but, crudely efficient at dominating the world for the past 60 years, this regime has persisted. It was the USA who was the first country to expand its territorial waters beyond the common idea of the old-world states, which had claimed since medieval times only three nautical miles (the distance where it could be enforced by a canon shot from land) as their territory on the sea. Using the customary international law principle of a nation’s right to protect its natural resources, US President Truman in 1945 extended US control to all the natural resources of its continental shelf. Other nations were quick to follow. Between 1946 and 1950, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador extended their rights to a distance of 200nm to cover their Humboldt Current fishing grounds. Other nations extended their territorial seas to 12nm. By 1967, only 25 nations still used the old three-mile limit, while 66 nations had set a 12-mile territorial limit and eight had set – like Somalia in 1972 – a 200-mile limit. As of 28 May 2008, only two countries still use the three-mile limit: Jordan and Palau. The limit is also used in certain Australian islands, an area of Belize, some Japanese straits, certain areas of Papua New Guinea, and a few British Overseas Territories, such as Anguilla. The visionary expansion of the territorial seas to 200nm by Somalia and other states therefore has legitimacy and – although perhaps belittled by piracy – it is also an expression of taking responsibility. Notwithstanding the present deplorable state of Somalia’s security, the vision that the Somali people will again have the strength to fulfil their responsibility to govern the Somali seas to a distance of 200nm, must and cannot be neglected. Somali Law No. 37 also governs the so-called ‘innocent passage’ of foreign merchant vessels, which can only be permitted if the state whose flag the vessel is flying is recognised by Somalia and if the Somali authorities have at least been made aware and raised no objection to the passage. Illegal weapon transports like that allegedly done by the MV Faina, French research vessels prospecting for oil or foreign-flagged vessels fishing illegally in Somali waters certainly have violated this basic Somali law. Article 10 of Somali Law No. 37 also stipulates that since 1972: ‘Foreign warships are not allowed to pass through the territorial sea (200nm) unless they are authorised by the Somali Government.’ That was and is the rule and was internationally respected and enforced from 1972 until 1991. However, a non-existent letter, allegedly signed by former Transitional Federal Government (TFG) president Abdullahi Yussuf, or the illegally signed later version – signed by the non-Somali Ould-Abdallah, who anyway held no Somali governmental powers – certainly do not bear any legal significance concerning any such ‘permissions’ or requests, which makes the present occupation of Somali waters by the naval armada likewise illegal. Although everybody clearly agrees that piracy has to end and sees the necessity to curb piracy and other crimes on the high seas as well as inside Somali territorial waters, one has to realise that one injustice cannot be curbed with another injustice. Meanwhile, it has become clear to anybody that piracy originating from the Somali coast and maritime crime committed by Somalis cannot be exterminated by a naval armada violating the rights and sovereignty of Somalia and the Somali people. Laws are made and should be enforced to avert and fight injustices, but not to create new injustices. Somalia has an exclusive economic zone of 200nm based on the United Nations Common Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) derived from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Somalia was one of the first 40 signatories and which was ratified by the Somali parliament on 24 July 1989 – five years before the required number of countries signed on to make it applicable. The convention came into force on 16 November 1994 and is therefore binding for all signatory states – even if they have not recognised subsequent Somali governments after 6 January 1991. Even when certain states argued that there would be no ‘legitimate and recognised Somali Government’, this does not mean that the legal regime of persisting national legislation and the relevant international laws – like UNCLOS – are no longer applicable. It is very simple to understand: If you knock on the door of a house which is not yours and nobody welcomes you inside, you certainly do not have the right to enter just because nobody answers you. Likewise, if for example the captain of a fishing vessel wants to enter Somali waters and believes that it is not necessary to have the permission required by national or international law because the flag-state of the vessel has not recognised the legitimacy of a given Somali government or simply because nobody had responded to a request for entry, he would be wrong, and would have to stay outside Somali waters – no matter what. It doesn’t matter that certain states and groups repeatedly try to create the impression that Somalia does not have an EEZ arguing that the relevant maps are not shown on the UN website. The Somali government has declared its EEZ and the relevant charts were in Mogadishu and also with the UN offices before the war. It is not the fault of Somalis if the UN has misplaced them. However, the key issue here is that Somalia did declare its EEZ based on and together with its signature and ratification of UNCLOS in 1989. The concept of the EEZ cannot and should not be misused to diminish the rights of Somalia concerning its waters. Somalia has a CSZ of 350nm, based on international law and Somalia’s claim documented and handed in by Somalia on 17 April 2009 to the UN and the International Seabed Authority before the deadline of 13 May 2009. The establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200nm is the right of all coastal states under international law. That there might be issues about how the law will be used and interpreted to elaborate binding agreements concerning specific boundaries is notwithstanding to the fact that the boundaries (for example, between Kenya and Somalia or between Djibouti and Somalia) have been and are clear since Somalia signed and ratified UNCLOS in 1989. Attempts to bend or alter such memoranda, which like in the case of Kenya was instigated by Norwegian interests, should be a warning. Somali Sovereignty, Marine and Maritime Rights While the AU (African Union) and states like Indonesia and Germany respect the Somali Law of the Sea and the Somali EEZ, countries like Spain or Italy only respect this legal regime indirectly by having told their state-flagged vessels to stay out of the 200nm area, while Spanish- or Italian-owned vessels fly flags of convenience and like many others, continue poaching fish in Somali waters. But even states like France, who tried at first to maintain the line that since the UNCLOS-EEZ maps were not shown on the UNCLOS website and therefore Somalia should not have an EEZ, have by a declaration of their president Nicolas Sarkozy – given during a meeting in Libya – officially stated that now France will also respect the 200nm zone of Somalia. The fact that the European Union (the conglomerate of old-world countries) shares its economic zones does not affect Somalia, but was interestingly the reason why Norway itself did not enter the EU as a member. But what Norway (and other players like the EU and IMO – International Maritime Organization) try to manifest with the ‘re-establishment’ of the Somali EEZ and their unwarranted ‘help’ is not only to follow the line set by the USA, which would force the Somalis to abolish the Somali Law on the Sea and its 200nm territorial waters, but also that all the cases involving violations of Somali law which have been documented over the last 20 years should be brushed under the carpet and forgotten. All the cases over the last 20 years – during which Somalia could hardly defend its rights – would be thrown out because it would be argued that this newly done ‘formal establishment of an EEZ’ would mean that there had been no EEZ before, which is simply not true. Many were present in Mogadishu in the years before 1991 and are still living as key witnesses to events, when delegation after delegation from other countries tried to coerce or convince the Siad Barre government to do away with the Somali Law on the Sea and its 200nm provisions because they wanted unhindered access to Somali waters and resources. Laws of states like Somalia and Peru led the international community to realise that it would be a good idea to have marine waters governed by the coastal states to which they belonged. This gave rise to the legal provisions found today in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the basic idea of creating a 200nm EEZ for all coastal states, and to make provisions for those who had yet to declare a 200nm zone. To turn this around now and go against one of the founder nations must be seen as an outrageous act of aggression. Today, after 20 years of civil war, and while the Somali government and the Somali population, which never in Somali history has been so weak and vulnerable, outside forces believe they have an ideal moment to press for the twisting of legal history solely for their own interests. Let us not forget that the only interest the Norwegian state machinery has in Somalia are the potential oil reserves and fish resources. This is especially so with offshore oil concessions, where they believe they can gain an advantage over the French, who already have secret contracts concerning offshore drilling in Somali waters. That the Norwegians actually did help to beat the deadline of 13 May 2009, which the International Seabed Authority had set for the declaration of interests in the CSZ, should not lead to a situation where Somalis can be blindfolded into giving up other rights. Though with the new 350nm continental shelf regulations further Somali rights have been manifested, this should not lead to a situation where an expansion of certain limited rights is traded in for a weakening of core-rights in the rear. That especially the USA is not happy with states, which based on international and national law can refute the US Navy from sailing right up to the shores of a sovereign state, is clear and was recently manifested by a near-deadly stand-off between China and the USA in the South China Sea. Likewise, Indonesia’s UN delegate stated at the UN that the south-east Asian nation had joined Security Council efforts to address piracy incidents off the Somali coast by adopting UN resolutions 1816, 1836 and 1846. But the delegate stressed that while the resolutions tackled piracy, they must not affect the rights, obligations or responsibility of states under international law, which first and foremost was to respect the sovereignty of a nation in the first place. Somalia has a 200nm zone of territorial waters, like the recognised nation states of Benin, Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Liberia and Peru. In Peru these provisions are even enshrined in the constitution. Such maritime dominion and the right to exercise sovereignty and jurisdiction should not be given up by Somalia, especially also because the 1952 Santiago Declaration in its preamble affirms that ‘governments are bound to ensure for their peoples the access to necessary food supplies and to furnish them with the means of developing their economy’. The declaration also affirms how the economic zone should extend not less than 200nm from the coast. The 1970 Declaration of the Latin American States on the Law of the Sea further added that the decision to extend the jurisdiction beyond the former territorial sea limits was a consequence of ‘the dangers and damage resulting from indiscriminate and abusive practices in the extraction of marine resources’ as well as the ‘utilisation of the marine environment’ giving rise to ‘grave dangers of contamination of the waters and disturbance of the ecological balance’. The natural resources of Somalia’s seas are the only sound assets left for a prosperous future of the Somali people, which is why even the AU during the 1990s and at the Maputo and Cape Town conferences on the coastal development of Africa clearly urged the world to respect the Somali EEZ. Anybody who says that Somalia has no EEZ is giving a slap in the face to the Somali people, but also to all nations of the AU. Let us beware of Norwegian wolves or their Somali ‘counterpart’ Warabe appearing in the skin of an Ido and pretending to be a friend. Let us stand and stay strong in defending the sovereignty of Somalia as a whole, including its waters and natural resources. That we might have to go through a phase of sorting out internal issues by strengthening regional and local government in order to regain our former unity are issues of our own internal affairs and do not affect the internationally relevant legal provisions. Somalia’s problems must not give reason to disrespect our commons or weaken our common defence against any outside aggressor. Even when we are down on our knees and have to sometimes beg for help, the so-called international community has to first and foremost respect Somalia’s sovereignty and laws before they can be accepted as friends. Gifts in the form of Trojan horses must be rejected and those colluding with such scams must be seen for what they are: traitors and enemies of the Somali people.

Tyranny, like most Somalis who lived under Siyad Barre Regime between the seventies and early nineties can recall, is when you are afraid of the Government if you do or say the right thing, while a just government is known to be afraid of its people if it does the wrong thing. End Of Blank Cheque? Nur

Will They Raid My Home For Writing This? By Mary Shaw September 28, 2010 "ICH" -- - It's like McCarthyism all over again. On September 24, FBI agents raided the homes of some anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis on suspicion that they were providing material support to terrorism. This follows only a few weeks after it was discovered that Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security had been spying on activist groups in the Keystone State. The Chicago Tribune quotes one of the harassed activists in Minnesota as calling the searches "an outrageous fishing expedition." Indeed. But this is apparently how our tax dollars are being used. Apparently the authorities still subscribe to the George W. Bush-style assumption that if you're not in lockstep with the government's policies, then you must be with the terrorists. And the Bush administration's knee-jerk, fear-based policies in response to 9/11 have arguably made it legal for agencies to conduct these witch hunts. The Patriot Act broadened the definition of domestic terrorism to an extent that it "may have a chilling effect on the U.S. and international rights to free expression and association," says Amnesty International USA. Amnesty continues: "The law defines 'domestic terrorism' as acts committed in the United States 'dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws,' if the U.S. government determines that they 'appear to be intended' to 'influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion,' or 'to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.' Such ambiguous language allows for loose interpretation that might violate civil liberties and international human rights." As we're seeing right now. To further complicate things, as I wrote back in June regarding Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is not unconstitutional for the government to block speech and other forms of advocacy supporting a foreign organization that has been officially (and arbitrarily) labeled as terrorist, even if the aim is to support such a group's peaceful or humanitarian actions. Coincidentally, the Justice Department's Inspector General released a timely report last week after a review of FBI crackdowns on peace and social justice activists during the George W. Bush administration. The report is rather critical of the FBI. The ProPublica Blog summarizes: "The FBI activities reviewed by the Justice Department took place from 2001 to 2006, and involved groups including the Thomas Merton Center (a Pittsburgh social justice center), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Greenpeace, The Catholic Worker (communities of religious pacifists) and a Quaker peace activist. "The report by the Justice Department watchdog didn't find that the FBI targeted these groups on the basis of their free speech activities - which would be a serious violation of FBI guidelines - but did fault the agency for other reasons, most notably a 'factually weak' basis for opening investigations. "'FBI agents and supervisors sometimes provided the [Office of the Inspector General] with speculative, after-the-fact rationalizations for their prior decisions to open investigations that we did not find persuasive,' the report said. "The report also found that that the FBI unnecessarily classified its probes as domestic terrorism investigations, even though some of the potential crimes were trespassing or vandalism - acts not normally considered to be terrorism. This classification resulted in several individuals improperly being placed on terrorism watchlists. "The Inspector General also found that the FBI gave 'inaccurate and misleading' explanations to justify its attendance at a 2002 rally against the Iraq war organized by the Merton Center." How much farther will they have to go before this becomes an actual police state? Or is it already? And will they raid my home for writing this? Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated. E-mail: mary@maryshawonline.com

Akhi Bilaal Your conclusion implies that by giving the warlords and the corrupt politicians the benefit of the doubt may lead to peace, and in case the warlords cheat, the resistance can always revert back to their struggle again. The way I see it, its not a good idea to test water with both feet like the ICU have done with no success, once the resistance are in bed with these clowns, there is no exit strategy, they will no longer have their momentum and they will expose themselves to the tentacles of a much more sophisticated remote control apparatus that will have a firm grip on them as they do on the warlords. Freedom, is not free, and its not cheap!. Like used cars, slavery may seem cheaper and convenient, but its maintenance in the long run can be far more expensive than the high onetime upfront price paid for freedom! Brother, when trust is lost, peace only means a break time for planning to cheat, because what is so good to have will warrant the means to get it according to the Machiavellian Principles our Warlords and their backers subscribe to. To establish real peace in Somalia, being honest about enmity, is better than faking a phony compromise. US Interests In Somalia Nur

A Simplified 9/11 Meme-Equation may be : (9/11 - NORAD) + {WTC1 + WTC2} x [WTC Bldg.7 x WTF!] + (Pentagon - Plane + Missile !!) = COUP D'ETAT !!! By Anonymous Orwell's America

Bilaal Bro. You write: The critical question, one which you’ve briefly touched on in your reply, is how does one measure the shortcomings lumped against each group? Akhi, like the human body, a nation that is bound by a single faith which it draws its only cohesive force, needs all of its members to pool together their efforts to protect the continuity of its existence as per its belief system, aka Islam. To different degrees, all the groups have contributed to the success as well as the failures that we are witnessing, pointing a finger on a single group only shows frustration. Frustration happens when priorities collide and we differ on which priority is in the best interest of our existence without compromising on the principles that bind us all and the eternal commitment to our maker, to establish the faith, and not to cause divisions that weaken us all. You continue: In other words - how does one compare the shortcomings of a scholar who has failed to properly intervene in a local dispute against the shortcomings of a movement whose actions (i.e. lack of foresight, intransigence etc) literally holds a whole nation to ransom and prolongs the suffering of the displaced. Akhi, it can be argued that some of our sincere scholars have inspired many young people who have joined the resistance, and without their inspiration, I doubt that we would have gotten rid of the vampire warlords in the battle of Mogadishu back in summer of 2006. Isn't strange that the entire world was comfortable with the bloody warlords 16 years reign of terror and when we got rid of them, suddenly, we become a dangerous nation shaking the structures of the United Nations and the African Union? You Argue: I would argue that the matter is not so straight-forward if each group’s shortcomings is placed on a scale and measured according to the potential damage it can cause to Somali society and ultimately to the nation. True, due to the different roles scholars and resistance play, its not easy to benchmark who has contributed to either the success or the failures before us. Silence at times can be more devastating that action. You continue: Having finally broken foreign stranglehold over our nation's affairs, the resistance find themselves in a very powerful position. The credit doesn't go neither to the resistance, nor to scholars, nor to the people, it was Allah's alone who won the battle of Mogadishu, against all odds. This point is fundamental Aqeedah issue, it was a victory of biblical proportions, the only missing character was that of Prophet Moses ( Aleyhi salaam) You continue They’re in a position to either reconstitute our country or set it back another 20 years. This assumption is based on premise that: 1. The resistance have brought about the first phase of victory against the invaders. 2. The invaders are right and Allah is wrong. 3. The invaders backers are more powerful than Allah. Based on the above premises comes your solution: 1. They can reconstitute it by engaging in dialogue with the TFG and reaching a viable power sharing agreement with them 2. Or they can continue on their current path and slowly disintegrate from within; thereby ensuring the return of foreign domination and even complete subjugation of the Somali people. Akhi, Is there a third possible outcome that they will prevail? Now, let us be objective and ask what are the priorities at this stage? We have the following main priorities: 1. Setting up of a national government 2. Saving lives 3. Safeguarding Islam and Implementation of Sharia A good question to ask at this point would be which one of the priorities above would guarantee the others? As you have suggested, the first priority requires some compromises and power sharing with the TFG. Your assumption is that because the warlords in the TFG have the backing of superpowers, and without representing the superpowers in the local Somali politics, the superpower would be worried that these kids will threaten the very existence of the superpowers, in other words, the warlords are agents of the Superpowers and the real war is between the superpowers and the resistance groups. So, if we take this route, real peace and negotiations can be realized by cutting off the middlemen (TFG, Corrupt politicians and bloddy Warlords), and a direct face to face talks between the resistance and the superpowers, the real parties in the conflict. You and me know this wouldn't happen anytime soon, the King is shy of going nude! In this Priority option, the major risk is as you have suggested, if the superpowers don't get their agents in the government, there will be no peace in Somalia. According to you, the positive outcome by accommodating the bloody warlords and corrupt politicians of the TFG would be, peace to flourish in Somalia, strangely this is something that never happened in their reign of terror in the twenty years that they had the power and support of the Ethiopians and the superpower to do so. Finally, if we start with saving lives as a priority, it will require some sort of law and order, which leads to the third priority, which is The Protection of the Faith and The Establishment of the Sharia Law and Order. This is the crux of the conflict. The biggest headache the backers of the warlords have is the Sharia Law, not anarchy, because we had twenty years of anarchy under the warlords and that was fine with the west. Initially, the backers of the consecutive failed Somali secular governments have excluded Islam and Sharia as a basis of governance, it was only after the victory of the resistance that drove the Ethiopians out of Somalia after two years of fierce liberation struggle which was preceded by the Islamic Courts Union's sweeping victory in 2006 ( ironically, what they hated the most was reincarnated as the only solution for Somalia, to their utter discomfort) and the failure of the Ethiopian Mercenary army to install a viable stooge secular government that prompted the hasty acceptance of the Superpowers of a watered down "Islamist included" government as a sugar coating for the naive, the truth of the matter is that the real power in the government of these strange bedfellows belongs to the donor backers of the warlords, and at the end, they will dictate how the Sharia should be interpreted via some of their expedient Hire-a-Sheikh scholar services. Akhi, there are a wide spectrum of ideas on how to save Somalia, the closest idea to sanity is the one that is based on Maqassid ul Sharia (Moral of the Sharia Law), which makes the protection and conservation of the faith as the first priority. In conclusion, its hard to believe that a government that includes national traitors, corrupt politicians and warlords to work for the best interest of establishing and protecting our faith in Somalia, which is the most important priority. If you wouldn't even trust these clowns with your own money, would you trust them with your faith and hence life, both the present and the hereafter? Nur

Sheikh Tirmidhi Al Hakeem, who wrote a book on the Maqaasidul Salaat, said in passages in that book that: Dhiker ( remembrance of Allah) is for the heart like water is for a tree, a well watered tree has green leaves and if you pull one of its branches it is flexible, when the tree is not watered, its leaves dry up,becoming stiff and hard and if you try to pull one of its branches it will break up, so the best thing you can do with such a branch is to use it as a piece of wood to place in fire to burn, likewise, when the heart is full with Dhiker, it softens the intellect, making it flexible and lively, setting its energies in motion, if you order that person to do good, she/he is flexible, but when there is no Dhiker in the heart, the persons senses will dry up, if you ask them to do good they will resist and as a result break up, the best thing that can be done with a person who broke away from his Maker is to place them in a bigger fire. Every Prayer is like a new repentance, standing up in front of Allah is like pulling yourself away from disobedience, Takbeer means that you belittle everything that kept you away from Allah. Nur

Sheikh Ali Al Tamimi on Tawheed al Haakimiyyah Tawheed Al Haakimiyah Nur

Condemned By Their Silence By Yvonne Ridley September 21, 2010 "ICH" -- - There are literally millions of people across the world who are now involved in the intriguing case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui and they fall in to several categories. The first is a huge army of ordinary people of faith and no faith who represent many different nationalities and their aim is to see justice and fair play delivered to Aafia. The second is a small, but on the surface of it, more powerful group of individuals who are ruthlessly ambitious; prepared to manipulate the truth and openly lie to elevate their own position to the detriment of others and Aafia in particular. These are numerous in the Pakistan government, past and present, as well as the last two US administrations and includes the dark forces at play which support them as well as the coterie of smooth-talking diplomats and ambassadors who tread the corridors of power. Then there are the others – perhaps the most despicable group of all who are what I call fence sitters and spectators. The great Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said that evil would only triumph if good people sat back and did nothing and he was right. With few exceptions the larger Muslim organizations have remained uncharacteristically quiet about Aafia’s case. Why have they been muzzled? Correction. Why have they allowed themselves to be muzzled? To their eternal shame they have remained silent about the plight of Dr Aafia Siddiqui because they have been duped by an officially-sanctioned unofficial whispering campaign. The rule is simple brothers (and sisters), comrades, friends and campaigners. If something is wrong it is wrong, entirely wrong and in Aafia’s case there is something wrong about the kidnap, torture and rendition of a brilliant academic and her three children. The fence sitters in the US are a disgrace. Men without courage or backbone are more to be pitied, I suppose as cowardice is a dreadful affliction in the battlefield that is life. A yellow streak down the spine makes people look the other way, blinkers their vision and forces them to adopt an Ostrich position. This makes it all the more easy for hate preachers like Pastor Jones in Florida to emerge and threaten to burn the Holy Qur’an. But Edmund Clarke was right when he said evil will triumph if good people sit back and do nothing. The leaders of the organizations I’ve mentioned are good people but they are frightened and I pray that one day they will get the courage they so desperately need to stand up and be counted. And in these troubled times it does take courage to stand up against an arrogant, bullying, intimidating political machine which brought words like kidnap, torture, rendition, water-boarding and extra-judicial killings in to daily use. Just a few hours remain before the resumption of a trial in a New York court which is being presided over by Judge Richard Berman. To his eternal shame he is one who has remained silent about the manner and style with which Dr Aafia Siddiqui was presented in his court. How the hell can a Pakistani citizen who allegedly committed a crime in Afghanistan be tried in his court without an official extradition procedure at the very least? Why did he not demand that the paperwork was at least in order? He has presided over a mis-trial from the outset. While he deemed the defendant mentally fit to stand trial but not mentally capable of determining her own legal team. Whenever Dr Aafia Siddiqui – a brilliant neuro scientist bordering on genius by the way – attempted to sack her lawyers he refused her request saying she wasn’t mentally fit to make the decision. You can’t have it both ways, Your Honour. Judge Berman has alas, so far, remained silent about the private – behind closed door meetings – he has had with the Pakistan Ambassador Hossein Haqqani. Another good reason for a mistrial if only the legal team had the backbone to challenge the judge in his court. The trouble is so-called ‘Dream Team’ lawyers Charlie Swift and Linda Moreno’s very lucrative two million dollar trial was being paid for by the Pakistan Government, making Mr Haqqani the overall client. Hmm, how does that one work when the Pakistan government colluded in the first place with the US intelligence agencies to kidnap Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her three children from the streets of Karachi in March 2003? Another reason to declare a mis-trial. And what of the ubiquitous Mr Haqqani? He’s not a career diplomat. In fact he holds US citizenship or has aspirations to making him a very peculiar choice as Pakistan’s man in Washington. Once his foray into the world of diplomacy comes to an end he’ll resume his career as a lecturer in America, something his US controllers remind him on a regular basis. His Excellency has certainly been a busy little bee with regards Dr Aafia’s case … briefing some of my colleagues in the western media telling them ‘off-the-record’ what a bad woman she is! Just recently his cover was blown when he refused the very excellent female politician Cynthia McKinney a visa to Pakistan. Cynthia was part of an international delegation due to travel to Islamabad to raise concerns about the case with the government there. Mr Haqqani, who thinks nothing of giving visas to Blackwater guns-for-hire and mercenaries heading to the fresh killing fields of Pakistan saw fit to stop the former US Congress woman from travelling there. He squirmed and wriggled after being hoisted by his own petard, but like a worm impaled firmly on a fishhook of his own making, he could not escape the humiliating exposure of his duplicitous behaviour. If he has been briefing against Dr Aafia Siddiqui all this time, one can only imagine what nonsense he filled in Judge Richard Berman’s head during their private meetings. In any other country this sort of revelation would be a career wrecker for both men, but justice is the US is a strange beast. (Yes, this is a serious allegation to make and I would have asked the judge personally, but he has banned me from using his fax and phone! Hilarious really, when you consider he has no legal jurisdiction in London, where I live. Obviously he thinks if he can hold a trial on a crime allegedly committed in Afghanistan, he can have me renditioned and charged with contempt of court.) But let’s get back to Dr Aafia’s case which has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with protecting the names and reputations of a collective of men and women in the US and Pakistan – from presidents past and present to lesser politicians and their craven diplomats. And if it means sacrificing one Dr Aafia Siddiqui on the fire of their burning ambitions then these ruthless people have shown they are more than capable of doing it. What you have to decide now is if you are a fence sitter or a fighter for justice. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy but there is a growing army of ordinary people out there who will continue to campaign for justice for Aafia. We will not be silent – nor will we throw in the towel after Thursday. That is when our campaigning will really begin. In the interests of justice, commonsense and decency let all concerned bring an end to this farce now and reunite this innocent mother with her family. * Yvonne Ridley is President of European branch of the International Muslim Women’s Union and a patron of Cageprisoners

Condemned By Their Silence By Yvonne Ridley September 21, 2010 "ICH" -- - There are literally millions of people across the world who are now involved in the intriguing case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui and they fall in to several categories. The first is a huge army of ordinary people of faith and no faith who represent many different nationalities and their aim is to see justice and fair play delivered to Aafia. The second is a small, but on the surface of it, more powerful group of individuals who are ruthlessly ambitious; prepared to manipulate the truth and openly lie to elevate their own position to the detriment of others and Aafia in particular. These are numerous in the Pakistan government, past and present, as well as the last two US administrations and includes the dark forces at play which support them as well as the coterie of smooth-talking diplomats and ambassadors who tread the corridors of power. Then there are the others – perhaps the most despicable group of all who are what I call fence sitters and spectators. The great Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said that evil would only triumph if good people sat back and did nothing and he was right. With few exceptions the larger Muslim organizations have remained uncharacteristically quiet about Aafia’s case. Why have they been muzzled? Correction. Why have they allowed themselves to be muzzled? To their eternal shame they have remained silent about the plight of Dr Aafia Siddiqui because they have been duped by an officially-sanctioned unofficial whispering campaign. The rule is simple brothers (and sisters), comrades, friends and campaigners. If something is wrong it is wrong, entirely wrong and in Aafia’s case there is something wrong about the kidnap, torture and rendition of a brilliant academic and her three children. The fence sitters in the US are a disgrace. Men without courage or backbone are more to be pitied, I suppose as cowardice is a dreadful affliction in the battlefield that is life. A yellow streak down the spine makes people look the other way, blinkers their vision and forces them to adopt an Ostrich position. This makes it all the more easy for hate preachers like Pastor Jones in Florida to emerge and threaten to burn the Holy Qur’an. But Edmund Clarke was right when he said evil will triumph if good people sit back and do nothing. The leaders of the organizations I’ve mentioned are good people but they are frightened and I pray that one day they will get the courage they so desperately need to stand up and be counted. And in these troubled times it does take courage to stand up against an arrogant, bullying, intimidating political machine which brought words like kidnap, torture, rendition, water-boarding and extra-judicial killings in to daily use. Just a few hours remain before the resumption of a trial in a New York court which is being presided over by Judge Richard Berman. To his eternal shame he is one who has remained silent about the manner and style with which Dr Aafia Siddiqui was presented in his court. How the hell can a Pakistani citizen who allegedly committed a crime in Afghanistan be tried in his court without an official extradition procedure at the very least? Why did he not demand that the paperwork was at least in order? He has presided over a mis-trial from the outset. While he deemed the defendant mentally fit to stand trial but not mentally capable of determining her own legal team. Whenever Dr Aafia Siddiqui – a brilliant neuro scientist bordering on genius by the way – attempted to sack her lawyers he refused her request saying she wasn’t mentally fit to make the decision. You can’t have it both ways, Your Honour. Judge Berman has alas, so far, remained silent about the private – behind closed door meetings – he has had with the Pakistan Ambassador Hossein Haqqani. Another good reason for a mistrial if only the legal team had the backbone to challenge the judge in his court. The trouble is so-called ‘Dream Team’ lawyers Charlie Swift and Linda Moreno’s very lucrative two million dollar trial was being paid for by the Pakistan Government, making Mr Haqqani the overall client. Hmm, how does that one work when the Pakistan government colluded in the first place with the US intelligence agencies to kidnap Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her three children from the streets of Karachi in March 2003? Another reason to declare a mis-trial. And what of the ubiquitous Mr Haqqani? He’s not a career diplomat. In fact he holds US citizenship or has aspirations to making him a very peculiar choice as Pakistan’s man in Washington. Once his foray into the world of diplomacy comes to an end he’ll resume his career as a lecturer in America, something his US controllers remind him on a regular basis. His Excellency has certainly been a busy little bee with regards Dr Aafia’s case … briefing some of my colleagues in the western media telling them ‘off-the-record’ what a bad woman she is! Just recently his cover was blown when he refused the very excellent female politician Cynthia McKinney a visa to Pakistan. Cynthia was part of an international delegation due to travel to Islamabad to raise concerns about the case with the government there. Mr Haqqani, who thinks nothing of giving visas to Blackwater guns-for-hire and mercenaries heading to the fresh killing fields of Pakistan saw fit to stop the former US Congress woman from travelling there. He squirmed and wriggled after being hoisted by his own petard, but like a worm impaled firmly on a fishhook of his own making, he could not escape the humiliating exposure of his duplicitous behaviour. If he has been briefing against Dr Aafia Siddiqui all this time, one can only imagine what nonsense he filled in Judge Richard Berman’s head during their private meetings. In any other country this sort of revelation would be a career wrecker for both men, but justice is the US is a strange beast. (Yes, this is a serious allegation to make and I would have asked the judge personally, but he has banned me from using his fax and phone! Hilarious really, when you consider he has no legal jurisdiction in London, where I live. Obviously he thinks if he can hold a trial on a crime allegedly committed in Afghanistan, he can have me renditioned and charged with contempt of court.) But let’s get back to Dr Aafia’s case which has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with protecting the names and reputations of a collective of men and women in the US and Pakistan – from presidents past and present to lesser politicians and their craven diplomats. And if it means sacrificing one Dr Aafia Siddiqui on the fire of their burning ambitions then these ruthless people have shown they are more than capable of doing it. What you have to decide now is if you are a fence sitter or a fighter for justice. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy but there is a growing army of ordinary people out there who will continue to campaign for justice for Aafia. We will not be silent – nor will we throw in the towel after Thursday. That is when our campaigning will really begin. In the interests of justice, commonsense and decency let all concerned bring an end to this farce now and reunite this innocent mother with her family. * Yvonne Ridley is President of European branch of the International Muslim Women’s Union and a patron of Cageprisoners

Nomads I posted this thread three years ago, after the US Sponsored Ethiopian mercenary invasion of Somalia. I have yet to get your feedback on the issues I raised, unless of course, like many on these forum, you are keen on preserving your freedom of silence. Nur

SOS brother Administrations and ambassadors come and go in East Africa, but misery stays, due to local politicians. The Shermarke government is down, as many governments before him, he is leaving office as a wealthier politician than when he was appointed by Sheikh Sharif, but the condition of the poor whose name he has enriched himself, is worse off. Let us see the new line up of Prime Ministers, Ambassadors, mercenaries and Informers to sustain misery and poverty in Somalia on behalf of the national interest of the western nations. Nur

Our Brother Ali Al Tamimi, A great Muslim is in prison for no crime of is his own, but as a sacrificial lamb for the mob rule in Washington (Neocons purported hysteria and Islamophobia) Muslims in the west are the least vocal for its cause of all interest groups, failing to use their numbers and political weight to exert a proportional pressure to seek Justice for innocent Muslims behind bars. In contrast, a national traitor is to be released in exchange for peace. Release For Peace! Nur

Jazakellahu Kheiran WOL. No matter how many times we hear these duaa, its always relieving to know when we are let down that a true friend is nearby to respond to our prayers. Nur

Israeli Company Hired by State Government to Spy on Pennsylvanians and Other Americans By Dave Lindorff September 19, 2010 "ICH" -- The surprise disclosure that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through its state Homeland Security Agency, along with a number of local police departments in the state, have been employing a private Israeli security company with strong links to Mossad and the Israeli Defense Force grows increasingly disturbing when the website of the company, called the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, is examined. ITRR’s slick site at www.terrorresponse.org features a homepage image of an armor-clad soldier or riot policeman preparing to fire an automatic pistol, while the company boasts of being “the preeminent Isreal/American security firm, providing training, intelligence and education for clients across the globe.” The firm, which offers courses locally at the University of Philadelphia, notes that all its course offerings, some of which are taught in Israel, are “approved by the Israeli Ministry of Defense.” The course titles include such compelling topics as: “Tactical Advantage in Combat,” “Civilian Battlefield,” “Undercover/Plainclothes Tactical Operations,” “Israeli Shooting Techniques,” “Arena Combat,” “Hard Entry (Arrest)” and “Principles of Night Operations.” While a number of the titles link to course descriptions, the links to the undercover class and the civilian battlefield class were disabled when this reporter visited the site, which was two days after the company’s role as a state security contractor was exposed. The description for the Tactical Advantage course, which the website says was designed for military, law enforcement and security personnel, describes the program as “intense, dirty, aggressive and based on Israeli Counter-Terror Schools policy.” It says “This course pushes trainees to the physical and mental edge.” American organizations which engage in protests and rallies, hearing that reference to the Israeli Counter-Terror Schools policy, might recall the IDF’s handling of the aid flotilla that was boarded on the high seas by IDF troops as they read these lines. That assault, in which the Israelis used 9mm semi-automatic weapons against defenders armed at most with sticks and light chains, left nine flotilla participants, including a young Turkish American, dead. The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, which only lists a post-box address in Philadelphia (though in its report on the scandal the Philadelphia Inquirer referred to ITRR as a “Philadelphia-based company with offices in Philadelphia and Jerusalem”), also advertises a subsidiary operation it calls a Targeted Action Monitoring Center (TAM-C), which it claims is “world renowned” and which it says supplies “factual, actionable intelligence to subscribers.” All information gathered by the firm’s staff of “former law enforcement, military and intelligence professionals” is sent to the Israeli headquarters of the TAM-C for processing--a move which effectively insulates it from discovery by any surveillance victims who might seek disclosure under federal or state Freedom of Information laws, or who might sue in court for violation of their civil liberties. While ITRR, founded in 2004, doesn’t name any of its clients, it says they range from Fortune 100 companies, including the power industry, maritime companies, US infrastructure companies, “the company charged with protecting oil production facilities,” missionary organizations and pharmaceutical firms, to law enforcement agencies and joint terrorism task forces. A search on Google for references to ITRR doesn’t turn up much, but there is a report in July 2008 by a Washington-based right-wing site called National Terror Alert, which attributes a warning of a “possible large-scale terror attack” to ITRR. Claiming that it had “intercepted communications from an organization closely associated with international terrorists, to include al Qaeda,” the National Terror Alert organization says TIRR reports that, “Available intelligence and recent events indicate that terrorists have an established capability and current intent to mount an attack on the target and there is some additional information on the nature of the threat. It is assessed that an attack on the target is a priority for the terrorists and is likely to be mounted.” Nothing came of this "alert," but it should be noted that a year later, the first head of the new federal Department of Homeland Security, former Republican governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge, admitted that the color-coded terror alerts issued by his office had been manipulated to serve Republican political interests. It should also be recalled that the 2008 TIRR “warning” came during the height of the election season, just before the two national party conventions. As the Philadelphia Daily News commented at the time in a headline, “GOP kicks off fall campaign with heightened terror alert.” But ITRR does much more than just monitor terrorists. Indeed, it seems to be far too busy monitoring legitimate, non-violent and completely legal protest organizations and other political groups to do much real anti-terror work. According to news reports on ITRR’s work for the Pennsylvania Homeland Security Agency and also the Pittsburgh Police Department, it would appear that ITRR was spying on and providing Pennsylvania State Police and Homeland Security with reports on everything from anti-war groups and anti-oil-shale-fracking groups to gay rights groups, animal rights groups, environmental organizations and even Good Schools Pennsylvania, a citizens association formed to back Gov. Ed Rendell’s school reform initiatives. Even a Harrisburg, PA man who likes to bring a 25-foot inflatable pig to demonstrations to symbolize government waste was targeted. While local news media reports in Philadelphia have suggested that ITRR is just composed of two people, Aaron Richman, an Israeli police captain and security consultant and Michael Perelman, a retired New York City police commander, the website makes it clear that the company actually employs a large number of people in Israel, and may have as many as 15 people working “in the field” in the US. Its activities are not limited to Pennsylvania either. The firm boasts on its website that “Information provided to clients ranges from issues of global jihad to Mexican Cartel threats along America’s southern border (maybe that’s where Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer got her weird tale, eventually debunked and retracted, of beheadings in the border desert?) to providing guidance of the threat of disorders as a result of international monetary meetings.” This latter is a reference to the yeoman work ITRR reportedly did for the Pittsburg Police Department in advance of the disastrous G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, which turned into a police riot after the local government and police brought in hundreds of reinforcements from other cities, with cops suited up as though for war, to lock down the city and prevent students from demonstrating against the predations of international capital and international “free trade” agreements. It appears that ITRR had ingratiated its way into the confidence of demonstration planners by having its agents join chat rooms and websites “posing as G-20 opponents.” One wonders whether these same agents may have also acted as agents provocateur. As the head of Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security Agency, James Powers, who hired ITRR, put it, “We got the information to the Pittsburgh Police, and they were able to cut them off at the pass.” So much for the Constitutional right to protest! Several calls for comment made to the Homeland Security Agency and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency which oversees it went unanswered, but Perelman has released a statement saying "The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response tracks events, givinglaw enforcement a heads-up for the potential of disorder as our bulletins provided to the [state] clearly show...[and] does not follow people, conduct surveillance, photograph, or record individuals." Gov. Rendell, after the story about ITRR’s activities for the state under a no-bid, $125,000/year contract, broke, claimed he was “embarrassed” by the spying on non-violent civic action organizations, and vowed to cancel the contract effective this October. It is not clear, however, that there will be any information provided about who was spied on over the time the company has been active. Members of both political parties in the state legislature are calling for a General Assembly hearing into ITRR’s activities, but such calls in this closely divided body generally come to little or nothing. Meanwhile, Rendell, a lame duck governor headed for the exit, is unlikely to do anything about the issue beyond saying he’s embarrassed by it. He has said he has no intention of firing Powers. I know how damaging this kind of spying by state and local governments can be. Back in the mid-1970s, when I and some journalist colleagues owned and ran a small weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, the LA Vanguard, we were among the targets of a massive illegal spying campaign by the paranoid Los Angeles Police Department’s “red squad,” the Public Disorder Intelligence Division. Our staff was actually penetrated by a young red squad officer, who pretended to be a student wannabe journalist in order to try to learn our sources for reports on the LAPD. But we were only one of about 200 groups, ranging from a local anti-nuclear group to the Peace & Freedom Party, a well-known third party in California electoral politics, to the National Organization for Woman and even the office of then City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. The reason we all learned about what the LAPD red squad was doing was that one spy was outed, a class-action suit was filed by the ACLU of Southern California, there was discovery ordered by the court, and eventually the city of Los Angeles settled with the victims of the campaign, to the tune of $1.8 million. The Pennsylvania ACLU may sue Pennsylvania over this latest domestic spying outrage, but the times have changed, and it is hard to be confident that the courts, no great friend of civil liberties at the state level, and packed with Reagan and Bush 1 and 2 appointees at the federal level, will mandate disclosure of the names of groups spied on, much less of the records that were compiled. Furthermore, because the state did this spying through an outside contractor, which is headquartered in Israel, government and police agencies could claim that the records are for the most part out of their hands and beyond the courts’ jurisdiction. At least one man, Gene Stilp, owner of the giant inflatable pig, already has plans to sue the government in federal court. "When people's civil rights are trampled it's a federal issue," says Stilp, himself a licensed attorney. Stilp says he isn’t satisfied with Rendell’s statement that he is “embarrassed” by the disclosure of ITRR’s contract. “Being embarrassed doesn’t cut it,” says Stilp, who is calling for an investigation into ITRR’s spying activities by the attorney general or the federal government, and full disclosure of which groups and individuals were spied upon. Another person who has good reason to believe he was probably targeted by ITRR is ThisCantBeHappening!’s own John Grant. Says Grant, “The more I read about this affair, the more disturbing it seems. I'm a Vietnam veteran and part of an organization -- Veterans For Peace -- that very publicly opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We meet monthly and we organize events with other anti-war groups. All First-Amendment-protected, red-blooded American stuff. To think that some self-ordained watchdog group of security freaks is monitoring me and my friends and reporting our activities to God-knows who in the context of 'terrorism' -- and probably making tons of money doing it -- really pisses me off. Governor Rendell SHOULD be embarrassed. He should come clean and make public all the groups and people this gang was spying and reporting on. The fact they are somehow connected to Israel -- a nation many of us have been critical of -- is further reason to clear up what's going on." Dave Lindorff is a founding member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent, collectively-owned, journalist-run online newspaper. His work, and that of colleagues John Grant, Linn Washington and Charles Young, can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net

Bilal Bro. There is no doubt that our Scholars have contributed immensely to the Islamic enlightenment of our people, The transformation of Somalia from a secular leaning country to an Islamic Sharia governed country took their tremendous efforts both at home and overseas, Allaha ka aqbalo dadaalkooga, Jannoyinkana haka waraabiyo, amin. As much as the scholars have contributed, our Somali mothers and sisters have also taken upon themselves a huge solitary responsibility in raising their kids, wearing many hats, from Quraan coach, cook, counselor and soccer moms, often alone and without a male figure in the house to give direction to a generation that have not known peace, to this segment, my duaa for an everlasting Paradise. Back home, Brother Sheikh Godane and the youth he commands, have single handedly carved a Sovereign army to replace the bloody warlords in order to establish a peaceful law and order state, and to their credit, the departure of the Ethiopian Mercenaries, the appointment of an Islamist president ( As the lesser evil from the neocon's perspective), and the establishment of Islam as the inheritor of tribalism and the defacto law of the land, from Zeilac, Somaliland, Puntland, Mudug and the south of Somalia. The Scholars, Somali mothers and the Somali resistance ( AS and Hizb) have all good intentions, have scored remarkable successes in their respective spheres of influence, at the same time, to different degrees, all of them have shortcomings and gross errors are logged against them, (by the way, that includes me and you and everyone else, no one is blameless). Its in that spirit that I have offered my advice, not as holier-than-thou kind of of advice, but as a fellow Nomad who feels the pain of the people, and is hopeful for peace to flourish in Somalia. Nur

Lychee >>>>>>Not associating anything with me There lies the secret of Allah's eternal offer to mankind. Can you elaborate a bit more on the keywords "associating anything"? Nur

Collapsing America By Linh Dinh September 13, 2010 "ICH" -- All governments lie, kill and misuse public funds, but these calculated habits are amplified manifold during wars. We’re in two now, aiming for a third. Japan, whose land we’re still occupying 65 years after Hiroshima, has just announced sanctions against Iran beyond what the U.N. mandated. South Korea swiftly followed suit. It’s surprising to see these two countries so in sync, until one remembers that they have become American cheerleaders for decades. Rah, rah, bomb Tehran! A murderous chorus is rising, yet again. Countries that aren’t our client states can be counted with two hands, even those missing fingers from an exploding grenade. Universal outrage has been drummed up over the case of an Iranian woman about to be stoned to death for adultery. She’s also implicated in the murder of her husband, for which she may be hanged. This second, more serious crime has been left out of many news stories. America also executes, but it doesn’t stone, especially for a bit of ticklish fun on the side. We inject, electrocute, gas, hang and shoot our condemned. We’re more humane that way. Forever bureaucratic, we pay attention to procedural niceties. Our objection, then, is not to capital punishment, but to certain methods. Stoning is barbaric. We don’t stone, period, except during one of our serial wars, where we will stone entire communities back to the Stone Age. But that’s war, buddy. We also use phosphorous and cluster bombs, plant landmines that will last generations. To rectify and avenge the stoning of one woman, someone we don’t really care about, whose name we can’t even pronounce, we’ll flatten Iran, maybe by Thanksgiving. The United States is concerned about women worldwide. It is touched and outraged by one Afghan woman, Aisha, whose nose was sliced off by her Taliban husband. To defend her honor, it has killed hundreds of thousands of her brothers and sisters. To protect her, it has destroyed her country. It’s the principle that matters. We care about the individual, at least those who are useful to our agendas. It’s the masses we don’t give a flying whoopee about. How can we not raise our voices, for example, when an imprisoned prostitute — hardly a criminal, really, even less so than adulterer — is left in a cage, to be baked to death for at least four hours in 107-degree heat? Her captors ignored her pleas for water. They wouldn’t even allow her to use the bathroom, so she soiled herself before passing out. She was still alive, however, when finally taken to the hospital, where doctors allowed her to die. Incredibly, no charges have been filed. Such barbarity and judicial callousness deserve our fullest condemnations, except that hardly anyone has heard of Marcia Powell, 48, who died in an Arizona prison in May of 2009. The mainstream media ignore her, because her abject death cannot be exploited for political purposes. We’re not trying to bomb Arizona. Needing to kill, a government will lie before, during and after splattering blood. Eschewing subtlety, it prefers to speak in slogans and clipped, cartoonish sentences. They hate us for who we are. We must fight them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here. We’re trying to root out the bad guys. Adopting this lingo, many Americans are dubbing the community center and mosque near Ground Zero a “jihad mosque” or a “victory mosque.” In Lower Manhattan last week, I saw a man carrying a sign, “EVERYTHING I EVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM I LEARNED ON 9/11.” Another displayed a caricature of “IMAM OBAMA.” There was an effigy of a tied up Palestinian, complete with keffiyeh, with this placard, “OBAMA: With a name like HUSSAIN we understand. Bloomberg: what the f@&k is your excuse?” Totalitarianism always breeds idiocy. Lies that go unchallenged lead to more preposterous lies. Idiocy is also the manure from which totalitarianism rises. On September 11, 2001, the entire world saw America symbolically imploded, but our actual collapse is ongoing. It is relatively gradual, unlike the three, yes, three, World Trade Center buildings that tumbled onto their own foot prints. For the last nine years, we have endured an unending stream of lies and idiocy, none more grotesque than the official explanation to what happened that tragic day. Despite being lied to repeatedly, almost daily, Americans are strangely gullible to incoherent, even ridiculous narratives dished up by their government. Brainwashed by the bromide that their nation is always a force for good, anywhere, worldwide, Americans can’t imagine that Washington could be complicit in the murder of its own citizens. Ignored is the fact that it has done so many times before, and since, 9/11. Using false pretexts to invade Iraq, our government has caused the death of over four thousand Americans, more than the number who perished on 9/11. I don’t know what happened that day, but it makes no sense to me that World Trade Center #7 fell down without being hit by anything. It makes no sense to me that it collapsed exactly the same way as the twin towers, as if imploding. It makes no sense that the passport of Satam al Suqami, one of the alleged hijackers, could be found on the ground, when entire skyscrapers were being pulverized. I also don’t understand how no military jets could intercept any of the three planes that hit their targets that day. The first tower was struck at 8:46AM, the Pentagon at 9:40AM, nearly an hour later, with no effective response from our vaunted military. I used to take buses to and from the Pentagon Transit Center. I knew the building wasn’t very tall, so it struck me as weird how an airliner could hit it from the side. Why fly parallel to the ground, nearly shaving it, to strike such a low target? Why not just dive into it? There are red flags all over this incident, yet many sane, reasonable people will become completely unhinged at the slightest suggestion that the official version doesn’t add up. Our government lies all the time, but when it comes to this one incident, we shouldn’t question anything? Even National Review, of all places, pointed out visa irregularities among the alleged hijackers, how they could enter the U.S. without the proper paperwork. After Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, his family refused to believe the official explanation. They fought and fought until an assassination conspiracy trial was scheduled in 1999. Presented with extensive evidences, a jury concluded that, yes, the federal, state and local governments all had a hand in Dr. King’s murder, and that James Earl Ray was not the shooter. The King family did what any sane, loving family would do. Coretta Scott King explained, “We had to get involved because the system did not work. Those who are responsible for the assassination were not held to account for their involvement […] It has been a difficult and painful experience to revisit this tragedy, but we felt we had an obligation to do everything in our power to seek the truth.” On September 11, 2001, someone stabbed America. She’s being murdered right now. As Americans, we need to get to the heart of this, because this madness and deceit are perpetuating themselves. If we don’t have the courage and clarity to confront this evil, we won’t regain our sanity or move forward. We might as well be dead. We’re dying. As with the King murder and so much else, you cannot expect the system to convict itself. It will lie and lie until the truth hardly matters. http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/

20 Signs That The Economic Collapse Has Already Begun For One Out Of Every Seven Americans By Economic Collapse Blog September 19, 2010 "Economic Collapse Blog" - -For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else. Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don't feel it. But even though most of us enjoy a much closer relationship with our television sets than we do with our neighbors at this point, it is quickly becoming undeniable that a fundamental shift is taking place in society. Perhaps you noticed it when two or three foreclosure signs went up on your street. Or perhaps it got your attention when that nice fellow down the street lost his job, and he and his family seemingly just disappeared from the neighborhood one day. The Census Bureau made front page headlines all over the nation this week when they announced that one out of every seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009. Every single day more Americans are getting sucked out of the middle class and into soul-crushing poverty. Unfortunately, most Americans don't really care because it has not affected them yet. But this year, millions more Americans will discover that the music has stopped playing and they are left without a seat at the table. Meanwhile, neither political party has a workable solution. They just like to point fingers and blame each other. The Democrats blame Bush for all the poverty and advocate expanding programs for the poor. Not that there is anything wrong with a safety net. But the "safety net" was never meant to hold 50 million people on Medicaid and 40 million people on food stamps. The number of Americans on food stamps has more than doubled since 2007. So do we just double it again as things get even worse? The truth is that welfare programs are only short-term solutions. Unfortunately, the Democrats do not understand this. What Americans really need are good jobs. The Republicans are so boneheaded that they don't even like to talk about poverty because they think it is a "liberal issue". Some conservative commentators have even been so brutally cold as to mock the "99ers" (those who have been unemployed so long that even their extended federal benefits have run out). Instead of showing some compassion and being the party of the American worker (as they should be), the Republicans are often very uncompassionate and they allow the Democrats to be "the party of the poor" by default. Both political parties need a big wakeup call. There is a tsunami of poverty sweeping the United States, and somebody better wake up and do something about it. More handouts will help people get by in the short-term, but there is no way that the federal government can financially support tens of millions more poor Americans. How long is it going to be before the "safety net" simply collapses under the weight of all this poverty? The path we are on is not sustainable. The economy is falling apart, and somebody better wake up and do something before even more Americans find themselves drowning in poverty. The following are 20 signs that the economic collapse has already begun for one out of every seven Americans..... #1 The Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in 51 years of record-keeping. #2 In the year 2000, 11.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty. In 2008, 13.2 percent of Americans were living in poverty. In 2009, 14.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty. Needless to say the trend is moving in the wrong direction. #3 In 2009 alone, approximately 4 million more Americans joined the ranks of the poor. #4 According to the Associated Press, experts believe that 2009 saw the largest single year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959. #5 The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. #6 Today the United States has approximately 4 million fewer wage earners than it did in 2007. #7 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it in 2007. #8 U.S. banks repossessed 25 percent more homes in August 2010 than they did in August 2009. #9 One out of every seven mortgages in the United States was either delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010. #10 There are now 50.7 million Americans who do not have health insurance. One trip to the emergency room would be all it would take to bankrupt a significant percentage of them. #11 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid, the U.S. government health care program designed principally to help the poor. #12 There are now over 41 million Americans on food stamps. #13 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program increased a whopping 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010. #14 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program. #15 California's poverty rate soared to 15.3 percent in 2009, which was the highest in 11 years. #16 According to an analysis by Isabel Sawhill and Emily Monea of the Brookings Institution, 10 million more Americans (including 6 million more children) will slip into poverty over the next decade. #17 According to a recently released Federal Reserve report, Americans experienced a $1.5 trillion loss in combined household net worth in the second quarter of 2010. #18 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975. #19 Median U.S. household income is down 5 percent from its peak of more than $52,000 in 1999. #20 A study recently released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College University found that Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need for retirement. How anyone can look at those numbers and think that things are about to "get better" absolutely boggles the mind. It is time to wake up. Things are not going to get better. Things are only going to get worse. The United States is rapidly becoming a nation where poverty is absolutely rampant. As poverty continues to spread, crime will not be far behind. Meanwhile, the international community wants to impose a global tax on us so that they can "redistribute" even more of our wealth around the world. The following was just reported by CNSNews.com.... A group of 60 nations will meet next week at the United Nations to push for a tax on foreign currency transactions as a way to generate revenue to meet global poverty-reduction goals, including “climate change” mitigation. Well isn't that great? As American descends into poverty, the rest of the world is pushing for a global tax that will drain us of wealth even more. It is just a tax on foreign currency transactions, but history has taught us that once taxers get their foot in the door they always go for more eventually. Sadly, it is not just the United Nations that is discussing a global tax. In fact, the IMF and the World Health Organization have both been very open about the fact that they want to impose global taxes of their own. Not that we aren't taxed enough already. We already pay dozens of different kinds of taxes each year, and 2011 is already being dubbed as "the year of the tax increase". But most Americans don't have any more to give. Most Americans can barely make it from month to month. More Americans than ever are slipping into poverty. What a mess we have on our hands. Do any of you have any suggestions for how we should go about fixing all of this?

>>>>>>>>>>>I’m sickened when I hear such gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists, and when I hear the faith they hold sacred excoriated and mocked. To them and to others smeared, I apologize. Apology Accepted with gratitude, Honorable Conrad and Kristof on behalf of eNuri readers on SOL Islam pages, All Sincere Muslims, Christians and Jews worldwide. Note: There is no Terrorist Organization called Al Qaeda. If it truly existed, e-Nuri would not have hesitated condemning it. But its an artificial enemy decoy solely created and maintained for the daylight robbery and domination of the natural resources rich, politically corrupt and helpless "Muslim" world. Nur

Nomads I hope that you have spent Ramadan in the best of spirits and celebrated the Eid Holidays with family and friends. As usual, while away from the SOL Islam boards, my mind doesn't take vacation, and my strategy has always been to capture the flow of thoughts on my jotter before they vanish in the blue, unfortunately, everyday that I delay the write up of these ideas, they get dimmer and dimmer, so, I made a habit at least to post it on these boards to remind myself to cook the plots before the main characters disappear. Here is a partial list of the Idea asteroids that struck me offline while away from civilization. 1. Somalia: A deep pit Surrounded by political and religious dreamers . Beware being swallowed! 2. Cutting Costs, Part 2 . How Thieves in Power Cut Costs. 3. Somali Ostriches, Doves, Hawks and KFC. 4.The Crooked Stick and the Poisoned Carrot. 5. My thoughts on what Victory means. 6. How To Attain An Ibaadah Centric Life 7. Time to grow, time to reap Agricultural Analogies for Anxious Somali Expats! 8. Exposed body, Exposed Nation! When we worry about covering up our women and fail to worry about The House in which They Dwell 9. My Journey From Thought To Reality 10. Media Anesthesia Of Somali Trauma As usual, lets pick topics that can engage our minds and souls for a useful and practical solutions of our stalemate. Nur

Nomads I have seen this video back in 2004, but it amazes me how to this day it makes sense. Shadows Nur