IDF arrests would-be suicide bomber

[drdon326]

A young Palestinian man who allegedly planned to launch or assist a suicide bomb attack inside Israel was arrested by IDF forces in the Nablus area Friday afternoon.

The Palestinian approached the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus carrying an explosives belt hidden in a bag under a pile of clothes.

Military police forces and soldiers of the Haruv battalion manning the checkpoint called the Palestinian to halt for inspection. One of the soldiers opened the bag and saw wires protruding from underneath a pile of clothes.

The soldiers isolated the area and sappers were preparing to detonate bomb.

Since the beginning of May, several suspected Palestinian youngsters were arrested at checkpoints in the Nablus area carrying explosives and other types of ammunition.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1117161205767

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No, peace is really at hand.

[bennywhale]

1. What about all worldwide problems being attributable to muslims? You

still haven't answered my post on the thread below. The thread is entitled "Muslim Cleric calls for revenge on Britain on PA TV", and my post begins "Could you explain how croatia, Serbia, Albania are under....." (Although these are just from memory so may be wholly innacurate)

If you can't answer it thats fine. But if you can't would you please refrain from listing countries in your 'fact of the day' moments, if you know what you are saying not to be true.

I await your response and thankyou in advance.

[Colorado Blue]

2. Respectfully, is that really what Dr. Don was saying? I won't

presume to answer for him but I thought he was merely suggesting that we shouldn't forget about terrorism. It really is a problem.

The book Coastie suggested, "House of Bush, House of Saud," goes into some detail about the scope of the transnational networks as well as the sheer (fantastic) amount of money that's been poured into them. Also, thanks to Uncle Sam (duh) they have some very high-end weapons, so many they've actually SOLD some.

I just saw a headline over on the LBN, one of our senators is complaining about Bosnia. I did a quick google and apparently people like Osama have been recruiting there? And there's a tie-in to Madrid? I don't know much about this.

Not unrelated: the shaky situation in Saudi Arabia; I guess Fahd is ill? Extremists could well play a role there should the House of Saud seem insecure; for sure they've already affected Saudi foreign policy, bigtime, since the Gulf War.

[bennywhale]

3. The list contained 64 countries. Global in scope you must admit

The countries included suffering from Islamic terrorism and or oppression included among others. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany. I'm from Europe and i can categorically say these countries are not "Suffering" under Islamic terrorism and/or oppression.

Global Jihad?

Countries in suffering "sustained" Islamic terrorism and or oppression included Bosnia, Albania, Serbia, Croatia. I can categorically state that this is blatantly not true.

Global Jihad?

China was on the list. I assume referring to the problems in the far Western provinces, where the Totalitarian Chinese government forbids use of indigenous languages and freedom of religion and thought. Protests in this area have been violently suppressed in line with China's policy of cultural homogenisation.

Global Jihad?

Turkey for example is on there too. Kurdish PKK i assume. Again a brutally oppressed minority (who are muslim) seeking rights and freedoms from oppressors (who are muslim)

Global Jihad?

Many other countries on the list, in fact most, simply do not suffer any of the claims made on the site from which they were taken. Its blatantly misleading.

Global Jihad?

[bennywhale]

4. Muslims in Bosnia were armed by other Muslim groups

which is quite an obvious thing to do. During the genocide in the Balkans armed Muslim minorities were aided by outside muslims. Groups such as the KLA who were involved in the protection of 'their' minority. However, Slav minority groups were also aided by other outside Slav groups and countries. eastern European countries and even Russia.

the muslim minority were also helped decisively by an outside armed group. NATO

Civil war, and the Balkans is particular is a highly complex mosaic of loyalties and history, to sweep through it with one line comments is foolhardy. (I'm not accusing you of this btw)

[simcha_6]

15. Saudi weapons are useless

To make Israel feel better about arm sales, the U.S. took out key components of the weapons, so the Saudis can only operate them with American help.

Stupid, isn't it? :rofl:

[Igel]

5. I suspect that once a country's on the list, there's

no effort made to update the list in such a way as to remove a country. Coupled with a vague predilection for hyperbole.

Arguably there was a bit of an Afghan Arab spill-over in the early '90s in much of What Was Formerly Yugoslavia, last seen in Kosovo and some rather nasty under-reported activity in parts of Macedonia. I haven't followed the Macedonian press for a year or two. And I'm unaware of continuing problems in Croatia, but I stopped following the media there years ago when I decided to let my Serbian lapse into dormancy.

I'm unaware of any spill-over into Albania proper, however; then again, I've never followed the Albanian press.

For many of the countries in the list that drdon referred to I can vaguely recall incidents in which actors did bad things in the name of Islam. Unlike many of the Xian-committed problems in an alternate list I saw posted, few if any of which were done explicitly in the name of Xianity (however, I think Uganda was left off the list, and is one of the few countries where Xianity was explicitly claimed as the justification for some real atrocities).

[drdon326]

6. Resources on Islamic Terrorism in the Balkans

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/balkanterror.html

Bosnia:IRAN'S EUROPEAN SPRINGBOARD?
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/papers/civil_war/iran_springboard.html

Albanian Terrorists
Islamic Extremism and the European Quest
http://members.tripod.com/Balkania/resources/terrorism/petkovic-albanian_terrorists.html

Macedonia
Fear over Islamic terror groups using Macedonia as base
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=241852002



Mr. Whale.....I wasnt aware of the extent of Islamic Terrorism in the Balkans. Thank you for educating me.

[drdon326]

7. Islamic Fundamentalism in China

http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/archives/byauthor/vikramchobe/ific.html

On July 6, 1999 Chinese Government executed a Pakistani citizen belonging to a Muslim extremist group in the country's northwest Xinjiang Uighur region. Chinese officials told the Press that this Pakistani citizen entered Xinjiang in September 1995 and was one of the key Islamic extremists responsible for the recent terrorist activities in the Uighur region.

It was also reported that the executed Pakistani national also had a role in the February 25, 1997 bloody riots in the town of Yining organized by the Muslim fundamentalists.

The Muslim extremists of the Uighur region of China have been demanding a separate Islamic republic for last seven years. In early 1997, the Uighurs stepped up their militant campaign against Beijing's rule in East Turkestan. The Islamic fundamentalist group known as "Uighurstan Liberation Front" and "the United National Revolutionary Front" of East Turkestan shelved their differences and united for the purpose of Jihad (Islamic holy war) and the separation of Uighur from China. The idea was to forge a coherent militant movement from the base in neighboring Kazakhstan.

The territory of Xinjiang, which is a rich resource for oil encompassing 660,000 square miles and about 1,000 miles from the sea, is a convenient location for the Chinese Muslim militants. The Xinjiang region is closer to Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, countries that are notorious for their involvement in international terrorism.

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I didnt know this either.

[drdon326]

8. Terror in Turkey

The infidel Turk

In the fanatic Islamist mind, there are a thousand reasons to hit Turkey. It begins with history, and the fact that the Ottoman Empire, with its metropolitan centre in Istanbul, was the last thing resembling an universal Muslim caliphate. This fell in the upshot of World War I, the office of the caliph was abolished, and most of the empire was dissolved and distributed among the victorious European powers; but the Ottoman heartland remained independent, becoming transformed into the nation-state of Turkey. Under Ataturk, it was vigorously secularized and Westernized, with most outward signs of its Islamic identity suppressed. The country has ever since wobbled back and forth between military authoritarianism and constitutional democracy. To this day, the Turkish army is recognized as having the right to enforce the constitution against any errant, elected government.

In the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden, and other Islamists, the Ottoman Caliphate is frequently evoked. The theme of Turkish apostasy is also played upon, to Arab audiences with an historical memory of Ottoman imperial rule. In Europe, in the old days, the Ottomans were called the "infidel Turk", and curiously, the same expression is now common in the Arab countries. The fact that Turkey alone, among the Muslim states of the region, gives constitutional protection and legal equality to its Christian and Jewish minorities, is often mentioned as an outrage. A fundamental Islamic principle is the inferior legal status of non-Muslims.

More recent history has confirmed the unhappy relationship between Turks and Arabs. For the first time in its modern history, a consciously Islamic religious party has risen to power in Turkish elections. There was much anxiety about this in the West, but the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proved faithful to modern Turkish traditions. It continues to apply (hopelessly) for membership in the European Union. It continues to ignore demands for the institution of Sharia law. It continues to belong not only to NATO, but to a special tripartite military alliance with the U.S. and Israel. It governs, as the Hindu religious party in India, just as if it were another secular political party, offering mere sops to its more enthusiastic supporters. It has thus tended to confirm that Turkey is permanently a part of the West, not the East.

http://www.aijac.org.au/updates/Nov-03/241103.html

[drdon326]

9. Terrorism in Antarctica.

Article in progress.

Will advise on updates.

[bennywhale]

12. How does that relate to the title of your post "Terror in Turkey"

And i just love the bit "the fact that Turkey gives constitutiona protection to the Jewish and Christian minorities IS OFTEN MENTIONED AS AN OUTRAGE"

By whom exactly?

[bennywhale]

13. Your ability for taking a given situation and turning it into a global

Islamic conspiracy is impressive. "Sword of Truth?" Ha. Do you usually side with mass murdering regimes such as China against powerless populus striving for the right to self determination or is it just with Muslims.

[bennywhale]

11. Hey Don, your sources get funnier. For a start Mr Bofansky is a fanatic

with a quite unique agenda. Beyond this much of your sources stretch back to 1992, thats 13 years, and if you remember the situation in the Balkans then it was quite different. (Although I'm not sure as to what depth the American media went into it, so I'm not sure how much you actually know).

RE: The rest from the late 90s. If you didn't know the KLA and the NLA were Islamic groups then i despair. Fighters from the Middle East came in their one's to fight in that war and were called (translation) Sacks. Meaning (this is racist so beware its not my word but the people of Albania and Kosovo) Empty brown bags. Interpret that as you will, but my friends took it to mean, outsiders with no place here. Full of windy rhetoric.

Your excitement at a link in the Balkans is, I'm afraid, unfounded. In fact more suspected Islamic Terrorists have been arrested in England than the whole of the Balkans. (look it up. I doubt you will)

Did you know that minorities of Muslims in the Balkans stretch back to before anyone even knew America existed? What do you expect armed groups resisting genocide to be called other than Islamic, if thats what they are. In fact i remember at the time they weren't mentioned in that context. They were ethnic Kosovans etc, its only post 9/11 that the conspiracy has arisen.

You should really check your facts, history, and opinions before declaring the truth.

[bennywhale]

10. Your sentiments are appreciated but again "I'm unaware of continuing

problems in Croatia" THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS IN CROATIA.

The war there ended !) YEARS AGO and was never ever related to Islamic Jihad, it was between initially Serbs and Croats (Slavs) and then briefly Croats and Slovenians (Slavs0. I don't mean to shout but even well meaning posts seem often to sound misinformed.

Croatia is a country just like yours. with real people and schools and restaurants and shops and beaches. And people go for walks at night and play sports and drive cars. Its much the same as (i don't know many places in America) Nashville, Boston, Atlanta, Charleston, Minneapolis.

My point is these are ordinary people and this is not some War torn country. These people are human, they laugh they go to work. This isn't DIFFERENT LAND. When they show their teeth they are also smiling.

Please please don't look upon these 'foreigners' as somehow alien and prone to war.

[Igel]

14. I didn't say there are problems in Croatia.

There was no assertion in my posting that Croatia is currently war-torn, with people being massacred in the streets by bands of raving Kajkavski-speaking jihadi zealots with scimitars growing out their ears. "I am unaware of X" means just that: it does not mean "I know that X is certainly the case." I may be out of the country for 3 weeks, but the occasional DUer still has reading comprehension problems.

All the Croats I've met have been normal people (apart from one woman who kept falling asleep in class, frequently resulting in her falling out of her chair, but she was cute and wore really tight-fitting jeans, so most of the guys in the class were willing to overlook this eccentricity and help her up). The Serbs, Slovenians, Macedonians, and even Bosnians I've met have also been relatively normal. OK, not one of the Slovenians, he was a dork. I know I've heard Slovenians and Macedonians laugh. I'm not sure I've met any Montenegrins. My planned summer in Zagreb to pick up ijekavski SC, after two years of ekavski-dominated SC, was pre-empted by a bit of minor unrest. Lest you think that this was next summer, let me say that it wasn't: it was '93. The problems in that particular (apparently "same") land caused me to shift my attention from S. Slavic to W. Slavic; I can report that both Czechs, Poles and even Slovaks are also normal people, in case there was any doubt.

There were reports in the late '90s that jihadis had been part of the problem earlier that decade in the W. Balkans; this does not entail they were the entire problem, or even a significant part of the problem, nor do I have iron-clad evidence that the reports were necessarily true. The various combatants didn't fill out suitable surveys prior to engaging in violence, so it's rather hard to be sure, but the reports seem likely enough. I can even attest that Czechs like vacationing in Split and Hvar.

Moreover, although Macedonian was hardly war torn in 2001/02, they still had a problem that could be interpreted as attesting to the presence of jihadi elements--although again, no questionnaires have been completed to confirm this. And, lest you think "I haven't followed the Macedonian press in the last couple of years" is secret code for "I'm asserting that there is currently wholesale bloodshed with Yemeni maniacs screaming 'Allahu akbar' as they gut Macedonian priests alive and eat their adrenal glands", I would like to say that its meaning is strictly compositional, i.e., it asserts that I have gleaned no information concerning the current state of affairs in Macedonia from Macedonian-language sources for approximately the last two years.