RACIST HISPANIC SCHOOL?

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007347.htm


Reconquista school sues radio host
By Michelle Malkin · April 19, 2007 08:53 PM


Remember that radical La Raza school in Los Angeles? Well, via Lonewacko, here’s the LATimes reporting that the school is suing the L.A. talk show host who first exposed the school’s reconquista roots:


A year-long feud between a talk radio personality and an L.A. charter school is ending up in an unusual court case.


School administrators filed a lawsuit this week against KABC-AM (790) and Doug McIntyre, alleging the host of “McIntyre in the Morning” targeted the school in a slanderous, racially motivated campaign last summer that resulted in a bomb threat to the school and ongoing security risks.


Academia Semillas del Pueblo and Marcos Aguilar, the El Sereno school’s co-director, claim McIntyre “targeted the school for destruction because the children were Latino, the teachers were Latino, the principal director was Latino,” according to the suit.


About 92% of the school’s 327 students are Latino.


The school was founded in 2002 with the mission of “providing urban children of immigrant families an excellent education founded upon native and maternal languages, cultural values and global realities,” with teaching primarily in Spanish.


It became a focus of controversy last year when McIntyre accused the school of pursuing a racist, separatist and dangerously revolutionary agenda.



The allegations were looked into by Los Angeles Unified School District officials. They found nothing politically worrisome, but they did have serious concerns about the school’s low test scores, which were a secondary focus for McIntyre.


A reminder of the principal’s rhetoric:


We don’t want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts.



We don’t need a White water fountain. So the whole issue of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all within the box of White culture and White supremacy.



We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger.



And ultimately the White way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction.

This lawsuit should be
1) laughed out of the courts and
2) condemned as a thuggish attempt to intimidate and silence critics.
***
Speaking of violence at the school, Chris Kelly notes that the man who allegedly tried to run down KABC reporter Sandy Wells during a report there will have a pretrial hearing next month and could get six years in prison.
***
AntiMullah: SCHOOL ALUMNI?

15 TONS OF $100 BILLS

In June 2004, journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that Israelis operating in northern Iraq under the guise of businessmen were in fact cultivating Kurdish proxies to gather intelligence in preparation for possible future action against Iran.

About the same time, I too was hearing about Israelis operating in Kurdish northern Iraq. First, from a former senior American diplomat who was invited by an Israeli American businessman to advise the Kurds on how to get billions of dollars they believed they were owed from the Saddam Hussein-era United Nations Oil-for-Food program.

The diplomat gave me the Israeli’s name-Shlomi Michaels-and phone numbers for Michaels in Beverly Hills, Turkey, and Israel.

The diplomat had walked away from the project, put off by Michaels’ temper, and also, he said, by doubts about what Michaels was really up to, and who he might really be working for.
So I was intrigued when, last summer, I read in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Shlomi Michaels had become the subject of an Israeli government investigation for allegedly operating in Iraq without the required authorization from the Israeli authorities.

Not only had I known about Michaels for two years, I had spent about as long trying to understand if the Bush administration would embrace the regime-change policy of its Iran hawks, who believe that the solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions is to promote mass uprisings of ethnic minority and dissident groups such as the Kurds.

For much of the past year, I have been digging into the story of Shlomi Michaels’ operations in Kurdistan, and his connections in Israel, the United States, and around the world. My investigation took me to Israel early last fall, shortly after the Israeli war with Hezbollah, to talk with Israeli officials investigating Michaels, as well as one of Michaels’ long-time American associates, and Michaels’ business partner, the former Mossad chief Danny Yatom.

What I found was not the story I had expected. Instead of Michaels being part of a covert operation to set up anti-Iranian proxies in Kurdish Iraq, I discovered that Michaels and his associates were part of an effort by the Kurds and their allies to lobby the West for greater power in Iraq, and greater clout in Washington, and at the same time, by a group of Israeli ex security officials to rekindle good relations with their historical allies the Kurds through joint infrastructure, economic development, and security projects.

It was, in other words, a story about influence-building, buying, and profit, albeit with subplots that were equal parts John le Carre and Keystone Kops, and a cast of characters ranging from ex-Mossad head Yatom to a former German superspy, with Israeli counterterrorism commandos, Kurdish political dynasties, powerful American lobbyists, Turkish business tycoons thrown in-not to mention millions of dollars stashed in Swiss bank accounts.

Yatom met me in the lobby of the Tel Aviv Sheraton at 7:30am on a Sunday, the beginning of Israel’s work week. The ex-Mossad chief turned Labor Party member of parliament was on his way to his office at the Knesset after a stop at the gym, dressed casually in a white button down shirt and black jeans. He spoke openly about his business relationship with Shlomi Michaels and the Kurdish venture they’d developed together, noting that he was no longer involved in its operations; after being elected to the Knesset in 2003, he’d put his business interests in a blind trust, as required by Israeli law.

Yatom said he and Michaels were introduced to key Iraqi Kurdish players by a European intelligence official whom he wouldn’t name; interviews with his associates revealed that it was Bernd Schmidbauer, West Germany’s intelligence chief in the 1990s.

Dubbed “008” for his intelligence adventures during the waning days of the Cold War, Schmidbauer- now a member of the German parliament-did not respond to numerous messages left with his offices in Berlin and in Heidelberg.

Shlomi Michaels was similarly elusive, despite messages left at several of his far-flung residences. Fifty-two years old, six feet tall, and built, according to an acquaintance, “like a brick shithouse,” with the commando’s trademark shaved head and a black belt in karate, Michaels splits his time between Israel and the United States, with detours to Switzerland, Turkey, and Kurdistan.

The elite counterterror officer turned entrepreneur and multimillionaire is well networked in Tel Aviv, Washington, and New York, where he taught a counterterrorism course at Columbia University in 2003. For a time, according to one source, he even ran a security consulting business in Los Angeles.

When the United States was preparing to invade Iraq, Michaels evidently saw an opportunity: According to his business associates, as well as public records and Israeli media reports, he reached out to contacts in Washington, seeking high powered lobbying help to get the Kurds a greater share of United Nations Oil-for-Food Program money, a fund set up by the UN in 1995 to use Iraq’s oil revenues to provide Iraqis humanitarian supplies during international economic sanctions against Iraq.

During Saddam Hussein’s rein, the Oil-for-Food “revenue was spent in Arab parts of Iraq but not in Kurdistan,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “Kurdistan’s share of the fund was set at 13%.

At least $4 billion accrued in Kurdistan’s name, Kurdish officials say, and some contend that the amount could be as much as $5.5 billion.”

The paper reported that in late June 2004, just five days before he turned Iraq back over to domestic rule and flew out of Iraq, then-top US off icial in Iraq Paul Bremer ordered the transfer by three U.S. military helicopters of $1.4 billion in 100 dollar bills to Kurdistan - his calculation of the Kurds’ share of Oil-for-Food funds; but the Kurds and their advocates believe they are owed a few billion more.

It was so much cash - 15 tons’ worth - the paper further reported, that no bank could be found in which to deposit it.

Even as he helped connect the Kurds to those who lobbied for them to receive more money, Michaels positioned himself to be in line for some of the cash. A year before the invasion of Iraq, Yatom and Michaels had formed an investment and security consulting company called the Interop Group (short for international operations group) that has since done millions of dollars of business in Kurdish Iraq.

Michaels’ main business in Iraq is a joint venture called the Kurdish Development Organization, or KUDO. One American source describes Kudo as a joint venture between Michaels’ company and the Barzani part of a Kurdish governmental entity.

According to a second American source (who has at times offered differing accounts), KUDO is a venture between Michaels, Schmidbauer, Yatom, and members of the powerful Barzani Iraqi Kurdish political family.

According to this source, KUDO serves as a general service contractual liaison between the Kurdish Regional Government and the contractors for the massive $300 million project to build a new international airport in the Kurdish city of Irbil.

The main contractor on the airport project is a Turkish company called Mak-yol. A third Michaels’ company, Coloseum Consulting, is registered in Switzerland as an affiliated company of Interop, according to Swiss federal corporate registration papers.

More covertly, the Israeli newspapers Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz have reported, Michaels has also brought in former Israeli military officers to provide counterterrorism training to Kurdish security forces at a secret “camp Z” in Iraq.

Sources say the contract was mere “bupkas”-a few million dollars-and Michaels undertook the work out of friendship with then-Kurdish Minister of Interior and security chief Karim Sinjari, and also because the Kurds faced a threat from al Qaeda.

Whatever the reasoning, the execution of the “Camp Z” project was problematic. In 2004, according to Israeli media reports, Michaels’ team brought in dozens of Israeli combat veterans through the Turkish-Iraqi Kurdish border, traveling on Israeli passports whose details were duly noted by Ankara.

Soon the Turkish government grew alarmed that Israeli military types were moving into northern Iraq, claiming to be agriculture advisers and the like. The story made it to Israel, whose nationals are prohibited from doing business in Iraq without explicit government permission.

“There is a legal state of war between Israel and Iraq,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told me. “It is therefore illegal for Israeli nationals to visit Iraq. Hopefully that will change one day.” But since it has not yet, the news about Michaels’ operation caused a stir; making matters worse were Michaels’ alleged feuds with his business partners over money.

One dis gruntled former Israeli employee went to the Israeli press in the fall of 2005, revealing with documents and photographs the extent of Michaels’ involvement in Kurdistan.

The story kicked up controversy- Israeli operations are a source of paranoid fascination in the region-and led to two separate Israeli government investigations. Exposure has also led to the necessary departure of almost all of the Israelis working for Michaels from northern Iraq.

(Speculation was further fanned by Seymour Hersh’s 2004 New Yorker report that Israel is forging a “plan B” for Iraq that includes training Kurdish commandos and use them to infiltrate Iran and Syria.)

One of those probes-by the Israeli ministry of defense, which wanted to know why it had never been approached for export licenses for the Israeli defense and secure communications equipment sold in northern Iraq-has since been referred to the Israeli police and “will continue as long as necessary,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told me in an email last fall.

Skeptics dismiss the probe as a PR gesture aimed at the Turks, whose goodwill is critical to Israel and who resent any moves to arm the Kurds on their border In fact, notes one former senior U.S. diplomat, “Michaels said to me. he had the explicit approval of the Israeli government” for his private business activities in Kurdish Iraq. “What they were trying to do is develop influence in the Kurdish area.”

None of this activity has geopolitical implications, insists the Kurdish government’s polished young representative in Washington, Qubad Talabani, who happens to be the son of Iraq’s president, and whose family has been the historic rival of Michaels’ partners in the Barzani clan.

In an interview in his offices on I Street, Talabani told me any Israeli business development activities in Kurdistan were “purely private sector activities,” and that “Kurdistan is open for business.”

As Talabani walked me out after my interview, we passed a poster advertising a new bi-weekly direct Austrian Airlines route from Vienna to Irbil, site of Michaels’ airport project-a town of 990,000 people until recently served only by regional air carriers and charter flights. “We will become the gateway to Iraq,” Talabani told me.

Plenty of non-Kurds would like to help-and make a little profit along the way. According to lobbying records, the high powered, White House-connected lobbying firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, LLC has earned $800,000 promoting the Kurdistan Regional Government’s interests since 2004; before hiring the firm, two U.S. sources say, Michaels had approached Jack Abramoff about representing the Kurds, but the discussions never went beyond the initial stages.

Russell Wilson, a former senior professional staffer for the House international relations committee who helped advise the Kurds on Washington representation and who was formerly listed as a non equity officer in Interop, notes that Kurdistan has many of the things the rest of Iraq lacks:

“It’s safe, secure, it’s geographically rich”-features include plenty of unexplored potential oil and natural gas reserves-”and the people are extremely nice.”

Wilson says it was he who recommended in the spring of 2004 that the Kurds hire Ed Rogers, a former political director in the Bush I White House, of Barbour Griffith & Rogers as their Washington lobbyist.

In the end, Yatom and Michaels’ business activities may well be evidence, as much as any covert U.S. interests, of the Kurds’ superb gamesmanship, pragmatism, and sense of opportunity- instincts honed to a fine art by a people that, lacking durable proximate allies, has learned how to cultivate the enemies of its enemies.

The Mossad’s former Irbil station chief, Eliezer Geizi Tsafrir, told me that like the Israelis, the Kurds regard themselves as an historically stateless people surrounded by hostile nations.

Back when Tsafrir served in Irbil, he even helped set up a Kurdish intelligence service, in cooperation with the Barzani patriarch, Mustafa Barzani. “They [the Kurds] approached us, saying they had nobody to help them in the world, and our people had suffered too,” he said. “We supplied them with cannons, guns, anti-air equipment, all sorts of equipment, and even lobbying.

The contacts between us, and the sympathy, will last for generations to come.”

POLICE REDUCE VIOLENCE IN RAMADI

RAMADI, Iraq --A year ago, Ramadi's police force had virtually been wiped out by a potent insurgency that destroyed every police station, leaving only a couple dozen officers on the job and a lawless city with nowhere to turn for help.

Now, guerrilla fighters have begun to disappear, schools and shops have reopened, and civilians have begun walking previously deserted streets.

The reason: thousands of police - some believed to be former insurgents and most loyal to local sheiks - have begun pouring into this once-lawless Euphrates River city.

"I wouldn't tell you that this place is safe, but I will tell you that it's stable," U.S. Col. Miciotto Johnson said of the district of Tameem, where one of Ramadi's nine police stations opened in January.

"We still may have sporadic gunfire here and there, but we're definitely not having the RPG and IED attacks that we had before."

Still, dangers persist. On April 6, a suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with TNT and chlorine gas hit a police checkpoint in Tameem, killing 27 people - two of them police officers.

The mere presence of police in Ramadi is a remarkable turnaround from years past.

By late 2005, the Sunni insurgency had blown up or burned down every police station in the city, virtually eliminating a force whose rank-and-file fled or simply quit.

Sheiks offered up their tribesmen to rebuild it, but in January 2006, a suicide bomber attacked one of the first recruiting drives, killing more than 50 people. Several sheiks were assassinated soon after, and the effort ground to a halt.

The government appointed a police chief anyway, who became one of only a couple dozen police officers on the job.

When an Associated Press reporter visited his office last year, he boasted insurgents posed no serious threat - even as a mortar round blew a hole in the building that was to be his headquarters, wounding one recruit.

In August, according to American commanders, al-Qaida operatives beheaded another sheik who refused support and safe passage through his territory in northwest Ramadi.

Tribal leaders became infuriated when the militants refused to hand over the sheik's corpse for four days. According to Islamic custom, a body must be buried within 24 hours.

Turning toward an alliance with the Americans, the sheiks then banded together under an umbrella movement called "The Awakening," and called on their supporters to join the police.

This time, Americans offered protection, and the sheiks kept their word.

Today, about 4,500 police patrol most parts of Ramadi and nine permanent police stations have been set up, along with many substations, usually manned jointly with American and Iraqi troops.

Police officers stand on wrecked street corners, hunkered behind walls of green sandbags. Some, fearful of insurgents, hide their faces with black ski masks.

Just erecting the stations was a struggle. Two days before the Tameem station opened in January, insurgents wired the building with explosives and blew off two of its outer walls. On their first day at work, police officers faced a mortar barrage, followed by daily small-arms attacks.

Today, new blue and white police trucks - most lacking armor or bulletproof windshields but mounted with machine-gun turrets - cruise in small convoys, sirens blaring, blue lights flashing.

The police have proven tremendously effective in reducing violence. The U.S. military's daily tracking of "significant acts" - previously filled with attacks - has been reduced in recent weeks mostly to sporadic exchanges of fire and weapons cache finds, one discovered by police on the grounds of a U.S. outpost.

Their success is attributable in part to the fact that residents - who once either supported the insurgency or looked the other way - want them around. Unlike the mostly Shiite Iraqi army troops deployed here, police in Ramadi are local Sunnis.

"My men know the neighborhood because they are from the neighborhood," said 31-year-old police Capt. Hussein Abu Amsha, who works at the Tameem station. "They know who is bad, who is good."

Such distinctions are easily lost on American troops, who find it difficult to tell friend from foe in a war where insurgents typically fight in civilian clothes.

Also working in America's favor: an apparent split in the Sunni insurgency.

On Friday, the spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni militant group, accused al-Qaida and its umbrella organization of killing 30 of its members. In an interview on Al-Jazeera, Ibrahim al-Shimmari attacked Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the al-Qaida umbrella group, accusing him of violating Islamic law as well as sanctioning the "assassination" of fighters and forcing others to surrender their weapons. He said his group wants to free Iraq of "American and Iranian occupation."

American commanders say recruits are screened, but acknowledge some might have actively fought them in the past.

"Some of these guys were undoubtedly insurgents not too long ago," said U.S. Maj. Jared Norrell. "But you can't argue the results. They ran out the foreign fighters, they ran off al-Qaida. Now we go out and they wave at us instead of shooting at us."

Young men in some neighborhoods are so eager to sign up, they approach passing U.S. patrols saying they want to join the police force.

Part of their eagerness is caused by unemployment. But equally crucial is a growing fear among Sunni Muslims of domination by Shiites, who are a majority nationwide.

Many police accused Iran of meddling in their Sunni-dominated Anbar province; even American commanders deny it.

Police officers complain the government has been slow to equip them as well as a 2,250-man auxiliary paramilitary force, whose members are known as "Emergency Response Units."

The ERUs were launched in November to capitalize on the Awakening movement. Also on the streets: several hundred "neighborhood watch" volunteers, also slated to become police.

For now, they patrol neighborhoods armed and wearing tracksuits, sneakers and sometimes bright orange vests.
American officers said there was a reluctance within the Shiite government in Baghdad to arm what some fear could become a Sunni militia.

Local sheiks have stepped in to fill the gaps, offering food and uniforms, though perhaps half the ERUs lack them. Some ERUs show up at work with their own weapons. They dress in a mixture of civilian clothes and army-style uniforms.

"Every month it's a struggle to get these guys paid, get them equipment they need," Norrell said. "If we don't directly get involved with going to pick up the pay and ensure it gets out, it doesn't happen."

The Tameem station is fortified with blast walls, concertina wire and sandbags. Police posts dot the tops of adjacent apartment buildings once used by insurgent snipers.

One officer, shot in the leg by insurgents, limped on crutches. A cast and metal brace was wrapped around the arm of another policeman wounded in a gunfight.

"A few months ago you wouldn't have seen a soul on these streets," Amsha said, gesturing toward an outdoor market where children walked with mothers in black abayas.

U.S. Maj. Adam Rudy put it more bluntly: "If we came here in broad daylight a few weeks ago, it would have been a firefight."

American troops acknowledge al-Qaida and other insurgent groups remain a serious threat, but they are almost giddy at the drop in violence and credit police for the change.

"If they quit, it'll be a bad day in the city," said Sgt. 1st Class Frank Mosher. "It'll go to hell again."

RUSSIA GOING BACK TO BEING SOVIET AGAIN?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070414/ap_on_re_eu/russia_protests
Russian police beat, detain protesters

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer


Riot police beat and detained protesters as thousands defied an official ban and attempted to stage a rally Saturday against President Vladimir Putin’s government, which opponents accuse of rolling back freedoms Russians have enjoyed since the end of Soviet communism.

A similar march planned for Sunday in St. Petersburg has also been banned by authorities.

A coalition of opposition groups organized the “Dissenters March” to protest the economic and social policies of Putin as well as a series of Kremlin actions that critics say has stripped Russians of many political rights. Organizers said only about 2,000 demonstrators turned out.

Thousands of police officers massed to keep the demonstrators off landmark Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow, beating some and detaining many others, including Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who has emerged as the most prominent leader of the opposition alliance.

Police said 170 people had been detained but a Kasparov aide, Marina Litvinovich, said as many as 600 were — although about half were released quickly. Kasparov, whom witnesses said was seized as he tried to lead a small group of demonstrators through lines of police ringing the square, was freed late Saturday after he was fined $38 for participating in the rally.

“It is no longer a country ... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law,” Kasparov said outside the court building, appearing unfazed by his detention.
“We now stand somewhere between Belarus and Zimbabwe,” he said.

It was the fourth time in recent months that anti-Putin demonstrations — all called Dissenters Marches — have been broken up with force or smothered by a huge police presence.
The weekend’s marches were being closely watched as a barometer of how much of a threat, if any, opposition forces pose to the Kremlin as Russia prepares for parliamentary elections in December and a presidential vote next spring.

Putin, whose second and last term ends in 2008, has created an obedient parliament and his government has reasserted control over major television networks, giving little air time to critics.
TV newscasts on Saturday reported the protests, but gave as much or more time to a pro-Kremlin youth rally held near Moscow State University.

Later, police charged into a crowd of about 200 demonstrators outside the police precinct where Kasparov was being held, beating protesters with nightsticks and fists.

Kasparov and his allies mustered, by their own reckoning, about 2,000 people — far fewer than the 30,000 people who patronize the McDonald’s restaurant at Pushkin Square on an average day.
But some protesters said they were not discouraged by the small turnout or intimidated by the overwhelming force marshaled to block the rally.

Andrei Illarionov, a former Putin economic adviser who has become a Kremlin critic, pointed out that in 1968 only six people appeared in Red Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

“This is a crime against the Russian constitution,” he said. “This country is not free anymore and the main criminal in Russia right now is the authorities.”

About 100 of the detained protesters belong to the ultranationalist National Bolshevik Party, party spokesman Alexander Averi said. But he said Eduard Limonov, the novelist who heads the party known for street theater and political pranks aimed at Putin, evaded a detention attempt.

Organizers sought permission to gather on Pushkin Square, a traditional site for protests, but city officials rejected the request. Instead, they approved Turgenev Square, about a mile east and away from the city’s commercial and cultural hub.

Organizers refused to cancel plans for the Pushkin Square rally and protesters started to arrive before 11 a.m. Police began seizing them a few at a time.

A 23-year-old woman, who gave her name only as Maria, said she and her husband, Andrei, were coming out of the subway when officers grabbed him.

“We didn’t do anything,” she said, tears rolling down her face as she watched her husband being hustled into a police truck. “We just wanted to see what would happen.”

Viktor Vinokourov, a 67-year-old pensioner, watched the detentions from a nearby sidewalk, holding a hand-scrawled sign declaring: “I Don’t Agree.” A young man in a leather coat, apparently a plainclothes security officer, snatched it out of his hands.

Around noon, several hundred protesters headed away from Pushkin Square toward the sanctioned demonstration site, marching past startled motorists while chanting “Putin get out!” and “We need a new Russia!”

As they walked arm-in-arm down a main thoroughfare, a police cordon blocked their path. Some in the crowd ran forward and police charged, their truncheons flailing.

A Japanese journalist suffered a gash on the head and was treated by a policeman in a riot helmet. Eventually the crowd of protesters melted into side streets, and joined about 1,000 demonstrators at the authorized site.

Hundreds of police and soldiers surrounded the square, but let demonstrators in after checking them for weapons.

Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin’s first prime minister but now a leading opponent, denounced the arrests and beatings in a speech at Turgenev Square.

“Everyone should ask the question: What is happening with our authorities — are they still sane, or have they gone mad?” he said, as the crowd chanted “Shame on the government.”

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who observed the march, said authorities were only trying to maintain order, not to interfere with the exercising of political rights.

“We live in a democratic country, a free country, and we give the possibility to everybody to express their agreement or disagreement,” he said, in remarks carried on Russia’s Channel 1 television.
___
Associated Press writer Mike Eckel contributed to this report.
[several related stories at link]

IS CHINA TESTING FOOD WEAPON - ON PETS FIRST - THEN ON HUMANS?

REMEMBER WHEN MAINLAND CHINA STARTED FLOODING AMERICA WITH TAR HEROIN AT RIDICULOUSLY PRICES TO WEAKEN AMERICA'S YOUTH? Now doing this with our food supply? Testing their effort on pets prior to future attack on human consumption?

XUZHOU, China: U.S. investigators looking into the tainted pet food that killed at least 16 cats and dogs, sickened thousands of pets and led to a recall in North America have traced the problem to this bustling eastern city.

Xuzhou is the home of Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, a small agricultural products trader that U.S. regulators say was the source of the wheat gluten, distributed to major pet food suppliers in North America, that was at some point adulterated with a toxic chemical that sickened or killed the animals.

Although U.S. and Chinese regulators are still investigating the matter, this city is already yielding clues about how the gluten may have been contaminated, and also exposing some of the challenges faced by China's emergence as a global agricultural products supplier.

If proof is found that melamine was intentionally blended into the wheat gluten, it could be a huge setback for the agricultural trade between the United States and China, which is already battling a reputation for lax food safety standards.

Of particular concern are indications that Xuzhou Anying, whose main office consists of two rooms and an adjoining warehouse here, may have purchased melamine, the chemical linked to the animal deaths. The company has distanced itself from the pet food contamination and recall, saying it neither manufactures nor exports wheat gluten, but only acts as a middleman trading agricultural goods and chemicals.

In an interview last week, the company's manager, Mao Lijun, said he had no idea how wheat gluten with his company's label ended up in the United States or how melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, fertilizer and fire retardant, got mixed into the product.
But somehow, U.S. investigators say, wheat gluten sold by the company ended up in millions of packages of pet food across North America. That gluten was adulterated, leading to one of the biggest pet food recalls in history.

Now, regulators with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are examining the possibility that melamine was intentionally mixed into the wheat gluten in China as a way to bolster the apparent protein content and to meet pet food requirements, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

Stephen Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the agency, said at a news conference last week that the agency had found unusually high concentrations of melamine in some batches of wheat gluten, as much as 6.6 percent. The agency said the concentrations were high enough to have led to kidney failure in some pets.

ChemNutra, a Las Vegas company, said it had purchased the wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying and then shipped it to pet food makers in the United States and Canada. ChemNutra said Xuzhou Anying had provided chemical analysis indicating that there were no impurities or contamination in the product.

ChemNutra also says it was led to believe that Xuzhou Anying operated its own manufacturing facilities.

In recent months, Xuzhou Anying appears to have posted several requests on online trading sites seeking to purchase large quantities of melamine.

In one March 29 posting on a trading site operated by Sohu.net, a Chinese Web site, people who said they were with Xuzhou Anying wrote, "Our company buys large quantities of melamine scrap all year around." There were also postings on several other online trading sites, like ChemAbc.net.

Though some American scientists have questioned whether melamine is toxic enough to kill pets, the chemical is not approved for use in food for humans or pets in the United States.

Despite Xuzhou Anying statements, workers in the area say the company does manufacture gluten. A truck driver who was resting Tuesday across the street from the company's main office said that Xuzhou Anying had manufacturing facilities and that he trucked goods for the company.

"Yes, they have a factory that makes wheat gluten," said the man, who did not give his name and then telephoned the manager of Xuzhou Anying before offering any more information.

On Tuesday, a journalist visited one of the facilities the truck driver identified in the village of Wangdian, south of Xuzhou. The gate to the building was padlocked, but storage sacks that appeared to hold grain or agricultural supplies were stacked up outside the site, which is in a vast wheat and garlic growing region here in Jiangsu Province.

An animal feed company official working next door to the warehouse said he knew that Xuzhou Anying specialized in exporting agricultural goods and was known for its high-quality wheat gluten.

"They used to have their headquarters right over there," said Chen Wei, a technology director at Nanjing Shibide Biologic Technology. "They're pretty well known for their products."

Mao, the Xuzhou Anying manager, turned away visitors to his office Tuesday, saying he was not available and had nothing more to say on the matter.

Chinese regulators say they are carrying out a nationwide inspection of wheat gluten supplies.

But there has been no recall in China of wheat gluten made by Xuzhou Anying even though its wheat gluten could be used to make bread and other food items.

People in the wheat gluten industry in this part of China said they were not even aware of any new inspections or investigations of the product.

"We never heard the news of tainted pet food," said Li Jundang, manager of Shandong Binzhou Tianjian Biotechnology, a wheat gluten producer in the city of Binzhou, which is about an hour's flight north of Xuzhou.

In Xuzhou, even the news outlets have not been alerted to the story of the pet food recall that involved a local company. "I didn't know this news about Xuzhou Anying," said Li Ning, director of the news department at City Morning Post, a daily newspaper in Xuzhou. "And even if we had heard about the news, we wouldn't be able to report on it because it's negative news."

As to why melamine would be found in wheat gluten, most experts in the region said they had never heard of mixing the two.

"If you add chemicals into the wheat gluten, it is no longer called wheat gluten protein," says Jiang Shaotong, a professor of food engineering at Hefei University of Technology in nearby Anhui Province. "I can't think of any reason why melamine is needed in the production process."

On Tuesday, the Chinese government reported that an elderly man died and 202 people were sickened at a hospital in Heilongjiang Province after they consumed a breakfast cereal that turned out to be laced with rat poison.

A U.S. pet food recall has expanded to include products made at a Canadian factory recently found to have used an ingredient tainted by melamine, The Associated Press reported from Washington.

Menu Foods, a Canadian company, had previously recalled only cat and dog food made at its plants in New Jersey and Kansas, saying they were its only facilities to have taken delivery of imported Chinese wheat gluten later found contaminated with melamine. But Menu Foods discovered Monday that some of the tainted wheat gluten had made it to Canada.

This week, Banfield, The Pet Hospital, a U.S. veterinary hospital chain, said it recorded a 30 percent increase in kidney failure among cats during the three months that pet food contaminated with melamine was sold. Those results, reported Monday, were based on an analysis of records collected by its more than 615 veterinary clinics.

ALLAH - THE ORIGINS

Allah is a phase of the sun, translation "The Dawn", interpretation: Morning Star or Rising Sun. Allah is the contracted form from Alilah and the transliteral is this: The/god/ascends. The reason for the confusion is because the word "Allah" is borrowed from the Chaldean language.

It is not a Aramaic word. More than two thousand years ago the Aramaic word for God was El, and "Elah", which means "The God", reading right to left. Another example is the Chaldean word for (sundown),"Me'al", reading right to left, but also written here left to right for the english language. And as for the Arabs that did worship the God of Abraham, they called Him "Elohiym", which means "God of the Living".

As tradition has it, it was Abraham and Ishmael that built the Kaaba as a house for Elohiym, but as time went on other gods were introduced and placed in the Kaaba. Now when Elohiym was in the Kaaba pantheon, there came the King of Moab called Balak; and it was Balak who wanted the prophet Balaam to ask Elohiym to curse the Jews, but Elohiym refused to curse the Jews. (For more info see Numbers 22 through 24:25 in the bible) At some point in time afterward, Elohiym, the God of Abraham was cast out of the Kaaba by the Arabic people, and His name was cursed and not to be ever spoken.

During that time Chemosh was made the head of the Pantheon in the Kaaba. Chemosh means Highest Power, and is also a phase of the sun at midday; it is Allah who becomes Chemosh at midday. And so Mohammed did not know the name of the God of Abraham, and that is why he said, "you already believe that Allah is a god, why not believe that he is the only God". What Arabs have forgotten, is that because the Hebrews and Arabs are decendents of Abraham, they both had spoken the same language at one time.

The New testament scripture of Matthew 22:37 repeats Deu. 6:5. If this verse were represented in Hebrew, it would, show YHWH, not Allah as the one you should love as the God of you. The translations clearly show that LORD is a substitute for the word YHWH and not a replacement. The problem is the fact that "ALLAH" isn't used as a replacement for YHWH in the Arabic bible.
Jesus is reported to have cried out in Aramaic: ELOI, ELOI,LAMA SABACHTHANI? If Allah was valid, how come Jesus called out in Aramaic "Eloi". Although those who have translated the Bible into Arabic used allah as a term for God.

According to The New Strong's Exhausive Concordance of the Bible, the defination of eloi is as follows: Eloi is of Aramaic origin, and is the Aramaic phrase "my God". God has many name titles, but YHWH is the "true" name of God in the Hebrew language.
Note: Babylonia, Babylonian: Babili, a contracted word for "gate of the gods"; From an old Persian word Babirush, ending in "li", forming a double "LL" sound for the word "gods".

Using Ahmed Deedat's booklet, What is His Name? On page 25 of Deedat's book, he gives a list of the names of deities in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. He claims that Elah, a Hebrew Bible name, is the same as ILAH in Arabic. There is just one problem. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is Elah the name of God. It is the name of a man and the name of an oak tree. (Pictorial Ency. of the Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, Vol. 5.) However "elah" means "gods above" in the old Armaic. We are grateful to Ahmed Deedat who has helped us identify Allah by admitting that "ILAH" is the root name for Allah. The complete name of Allah before it is contracted is "AL-ILAH."

(Hitti, Philip, History of The Arabs, London, 1950 , 8 ,) "ILAH" is the masculine root word for Allah, or "god", in Arabic. "AL ILAT" is the feminine resulting in Allat. The "AL" on the front of Al-ILAH is simply the definite article "the." (Tisdall, W StClair, The Sources of Islam, Amarko Book Agency, New Delhi, 1901 , 5-6 , , Islamic Propagation Center Int. Durban, S. Africa) AL-ILAH and AL-ILLAT are the root forms of the two names, Allah and Allat, from ancient Sumer where the names of a god and goddess. Allat is the goddess referred to in the "Satanic Verses" in Al-Koran, Sura 53:19-23. There is no contracted form of God's name, as Deedat claims, in the Old Testament of the Hebrew Bible. Also, this Allah of Islam is not Elah of the Bible, unless Allah was the son of Esau named Elah (Genesis 36:41) nor was Allah one of the kings of Israel? (I King 16:6-8,13-14).

Deedat and the Mullahs' claims that "Alah" is used by Dr. C.I. Scofield to clarify the origin and meaning of Elohiym. The note cited is in the footnote of the Scofield Reference Bible, King James Version, under Genesis 1:1.(Deedat claims Alah and Elah are variations of the same Hebrew word. But "Alah" is the word for an oath or vow, while Elah is the name of a man, a valley, or an oak. Dr. Scofield says that "EL" is combined with "ALAH" to give the name of God, which is in error, because the two words do not contract into Elohiym, as any primary student can see! " "ALAH" is a plain Hebrew word, not a contraction as with "Allah" of Islam which comes from "AL ILah," and thus the double "LL".

The Hebrew language has no relationship linguistically to the Allah in Arabic and the Koran. Also, there is no record in the history of the Hebrew language that "ALAH" is part of the concept of "EL" or "Elohiym." This is why the revised edition of the Scofield Reference Bible omitted the note on "ALAH." Ahmed Deedat has been very helpful to use Schofield's erroneous note. He has shown that Muhammed was not the only one to blunder by listening to Satan in the Koran, Sura 53. Allah is not in the Bible, and Elohiym is not in the Koran or Mecca.

So what is the origin of Allah? Allah was not an invention or revelation brought to Muhammed during his visits to the caves outside of Mecca because Allah existed long before Muhammed showed up on the scene. According to W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammed's original message was not a criticism of paganism. It was directed at the people who already believed in a god named Allah, or Al-ILAH "the god ascends."

Muhammed encouraged the people of Mecca to retain this generic god in the Kaaba as he directed their attention to Allah, then he threw all of the other gods out. The evolving monotheism of Mecca was vague as to Allah's role, so Muhammed had very little trouble tailoring his new religion to their tastes. (Watt, W Montgomery, Muhammed, Prophet and Statesman, Oxford Press , 25-26 , ) The Satanic Verses allowed the Meccans to keep Allat, Al-Uzza, and Manat. This helped to wean the Meccans off of their pantheon slowly, leaving them their three favorite goddesses until Allah's monotheism could be enforced later by the sword. (Noss, John B, Man's Religions, 6th Edition, Macmillan, NY, 1980, 499, ) At that point Muhammed revised Sura 53 to exclude the three goddesses, and Allah was left standing alone, the monotheistic heir to the estate.

James Hastings, in his Encyclopedia of Religion, says that Muhammed at one point wanted to abandon the rather generic name of Allah for a more colorful one, but he later realized that Allah was holding the peoples attention just fine. (Hastings, James, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Scribners, NY ,248 ,) When Muhammed came to Mecca to clean up the Kaaba, and was throwing all of the gods out, except for Allah, the paintings of Jesus and Mary on the inside walls of the Kaaba persuaded him to include Mary and Jesus in the new cult. So that's why Surah 5:116 mentioned Mary.

How Muhammed decided to keep Allah is simply a matter of which god he thought would be universally least offensive to any particular tribe of Arabs around Mecca. (Muller, Herbert J, The Loom of History, Harper and Brothers, NY, 264-265,) After all, it was the Kaaba, the building, which was most sacred, rather than the contents. Even today the mosque (which originally was the pre-Islamic name in Arabic and Aramaic for a building holding an idol) is now void of images and symbols. It is the building itself which is sacred.

The least offensive name of the gods in Mecca was Allah according to Muhammed's biographer, Ibn Hisham. He admits that the pagan Kinanah and Kouraish tribes called the supervising god of the Kaaba, IHLAL. And they called the Kaaba, "Beit Allah," "house of Allah,". This is henotheism where a chief executive god presides over many junior gods on behalf of the ruling tribe living around the god house.

The Greek historian Herodotus from about 450 BC, tells us that the Northern Arabians had a god and goddess named Orotal and Alilat. (Herodotus, Translated by J Enoch Powell, 1949 , 200 ,) Orotal is simply a corruption of Allah, or Allah Ta'al, God Most High. (Zwemmer, Samuel, The Moslem Doctrine of God, Am. Tract Society, NY , 24 , )

Islamic Sheikh, Ibrahim Al-Qattan, in a lecture given to the International Progress Association in Vienna, said that the religion of Arabia can be traced by the epigraphic and inscription evidence back to 500 BC, or 1000 years before Muhammed. He said that they had gods named Baal Shamin, Dhu-Samawi, Rahman and Allah,which they got from Syria and Persia.

According to Sheikh Ibrahim, Allah was the highest deity, and his name was inscribed in stone by Jewish traders along the Arabian trade routes. These paganized Jews also called him Rahman, while the Arabs called him Allah. (Al-Qattan, Sheikh Ibrahim, Lecture on Monotheism, I P O Journal, Vienna ,26-29 ,) It is very clear that these sacred concepts, such as Allah, the Kaaba with its black stone, running around the Kaaba seven times, climbing mount Arafat, as well as the god-name Rahman, and stoning Satan, (which Muhammed got "by revelation") were salvaged from the ancient paganism in Arabia. (Gabrieli, Francesco, Muhammed and The Conguests of Islam, World Univ. Press, NY, Toronto , 41 ).

The clear dominance of the Meccan thought of Muhammed's day was that Allah was the high god, nothing else. His celestial, or solar, role had even fallen on hard times by 600 AD in the Kaaba, while Allat was much more dominant up the road at Taif. Some have claimed that Allat was Wallat wasn't in Islam, but Surah 53 and historical inscriptions say other wise. The star and crescent of Islam are clearly based upon the moon goddess, Allat, and the astral goddess, Al-Uzza. Allat and Al-Uzza figure in Sura 53 in what is called "the Satanic verses," which Muhammed initially gave, but later deleted. The moon and Venus connection to Allat and Al-Uzza are one of the most embarrassing matters for the Mullahs of Islam.
In the linage of IL, alias, Enlil, ILAH, Be`IL, Bel, Ba`al, and so on, the god always has a goddess consort, who is usually a grammatical gender alternative.

Such is the case with Allat, the goddess of Arabia. She was the consort of Allah, so the ancient rule of deities follows very well. Allah was a sun deity, and Allat was the moon goddess. If we leave Allah who he was from the past, he is then easy to trace back to Babel. The inscriptions of the Arabs, in which they refer to Allah and Allat, in the same passage, would have found that these references lead systematically back from Mecca to North Arabia, Jawf, Petra, Phoenicia, Palmyra, Assyria, and finally to Babylon, IN ARABIC language forms, and as early as about 1500 BC.
By traceing the route of Allah from Sumer to Mecca's Northern route. Allah's route through Assyria is one of the first places he began, away from Sumer, the LIL base root mentioned before was found in Assyria.

A typical record of the passage of LIL, or Allah, through Assyria is found in a royal inscription which may have been a bilingual effort,but only the Assyrian tablets survived. The translator is Sayce in The Hibbert Lectures, p. 511-12, and it is, of course, in cuneiform. The source is the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1932. In line 14 there is praise of the ruler, undoubtedly Assyrian, for his love for "the writings of the age before the flood." This dates the Assyrian text solidly to about 2500 BC or earlier.

In praising the ruler in line 17, the author says he set up worship to Shamash and Rammam. This is the god Rimmon mentioned in the Bible, II King 5:18: Naaman, the Assyrian General, says, "In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand... I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing." Naaman had worshipped this god, until he was converted to the worship of Elohiym through a healing experience in Israel. He was told by God's prophet to go in peace since his heart was right.

Rammam became Rimmon of later days, then he moved in two directions. In Persia and India he became Brahman, and survives in Vedantic theology to this day. In Mecca, Muhammed used Rahman as a name for Allah, and this is also Ramman.

Translation experts have proven that Rahman, Rimmon and other forms of LIL represent Allah, even though the names evolved, they still represent Allah. This historical evidence is verified by experts.
Going back to the clay tablets: On line 17 the whole name on Ramman is "Ramman ilani." Here you see the IL root in the "god" word. On line 18 of an opposite "page" we find the Assyrian ruler praised the name of Enlil ilani. Enlil was the primal earth god of Sumer. Here then we see that "ilani" is a basic god word attached to the more specific god, Rammam.

Rahman was the Assyrian favorite and was the counterpart to Enlil, who, by this point in time, was quite ancient. Here then is clear proof that LIL , IL , Enlil moved to Assyria from Babylon to become contemporary with Ramman.

Ninlil, the goddess and wife of Enlil, came along also, being addressed in prayer as the "wife of sovereignty." She had to share the goddess role with Beltis, wife of Baal, showing how the old is added to the new. (Smith, Sidney, Babylonian Historical Texts, Methuen and Co, London , 86-87,) They were around Shinar, and later around much of the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, mounds where Semiramis was said to have buried her lovers. They accompanied the belief that Tammuz, the later name of Nimrod, was the victim there. In allegory, a poem was written centered on Gilgamesh, another Nimrod re-name. The goddess is addressed and scolded for trying to kill Gilgamesh as follows:

Tammuz, the lover of your youth,
You caused to weep every year.
The bright colored Allallu bird you did love.
You did crush him, and break his pinions. (Frazer, J G, The Golden Bough, Vol. IX, Unabr. Edition, The Scapegoat, Lond , 371,)

Note Allallu in the above poem. This is clearly an Allah god form from 2300 BC! Alasandair Livingstone did exhaustive work on the Babylonian and Assyrians, and their notions and lists of gods. These works seem to be instructions in whom to pray to, and are similar to the long list of Saints in the Roman Catholic Church, each having his own particular interest in nationalities and life problems. All of the Sumerian pantheon is carefully exalted, and new gods are added.

In one list, two gods come up, Alla and Alala. These are at least dated from 2300 BC, and it shows that the name Allah had roots in the most literal sense from the Assyrian era. (Livingston, Alasdair, Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, Oxford, 1986 , 198-201,) In another liturgical prayer book of Assyria, the order of prayers was in descending order with most of the pantheon included so that none would be offended. Way down the list there was a request made to the "bird of heaven" to carry the prayers up for the worshipper. ( Sayce, A H, Assyria, Religious Tract Society, London , 86-87 ).

So we see that the heritage of Allah, or LIL, was at work in the Semitic language forms of Assyria. Later Arab forms simply added the classic aspirated "h" on the end (ILAH). The only thing the Arabs added was "H", and Allah wasn't a new concept of God. And Muhammad's personal biographer proved it.

To confirm the bridge between Sumer and Assyria, we go to "The Annals of Sennacherib." Luckenbill deciphered the chapter describing the improvements on the royal palace, from which we take excerpts. This is a very small part of the cuneiform material from the era, and in it we find the following:

Line 66- Assyrians are called "the subjects of Enlil" (note IL-god). Line 77-79- Both Enlil and Ninlil are appealed to, which shows the clear migration, from Sumer to Assyria, of the god and goddess concept in the IL model. Line 24- Enlil is called "Father," which shows the nonsense of Muhammed's claim that Allah is not a father.

List of variant names for Chemosh: Chemosh, Chemesh, Shemesh, Shemosh, Kemosh, Kemesh, Kemowsh, Shamash, SHMH.

ARCHAEOLOGY. MOABITE STONE OF MESHA 930 BC.

Moabite Stone I am Mesha, son of Kemoshmelek, the king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father was king over Moab for thirty years, and I became king after my father.

And I made this high place for Kemosh in Qarhar . . . because of the deliverance of Mesha, and because he has saved me from all the kings and because he caused me to see [my desire] upon all who hated me. Omri, king of Israel -- he oppressed Moab many days, because Kemosh was angry with his land.

And his son succeeded him, and he also said I will oppress Moab. In my day he spoke according to this word, but I saw my desire upon him and upon his house, and Israel utterly perished forever.
Now Omri had possessed all the land of Medeba and dwelt in it his days and half the days of his son, forty years, but Kemosh restored it in my day. And I built Baal-meon and I made in it the reservoir and I built Kiryathaim. And the men of Gad had dwelt in the land of Ataroth from of old and the king of Israel had built for himself Ataroth. And I foutht against the city and took it, and I slew all the people of the city, a sight pleasing to Kemosh and to Moab.
And I brought back from there the altar-hearth of Duda and I dragged it before Kemosh in Kiryoth. And I caused to dwell in it the men of Sharon and the men of Meharoth (?).

And Kemosh said to me: "Go take Nebo against Israel"; and I went by night and fought against it from break of dawn till noon, and I took it and slew all, seven thousand men, boys (?), and women, and girls, for I had devoted it to the Ashtar of Kemosh.

And I took from there the altar-hearths of Y-h-w-h, and I dragged them before Kemosh. And the king of Israel built Jabaz and dwelt in it while he fought with me, and Kemosh drove him out from before me. And I took from Moab two hundred men, all its chiefs, and I led them against Jahaz and took it to add unto Dibon.
And I built Qarhar (?), the wall of the forests and the wall of the hill; and I built its gates and I built its towers, and I built the kings house, and I made the sluices (?) for the reservoir of water in the midst of the city.

And there was no cistern in the midst of the city, in Qarhar (?); and I said to all the people: "Make you each a cistern in his house;" and I cut the cuttings for Qarhar (?) with the help of the prisoners of Israel. I built Aroer and I made the highway by the Arnon. And I built Beth-bamoth, for it had been destroyed. And I built Bezer, for it was in ruins....(Chi) of Dibon were fifty, for all Dibon was obedient. And I ruled. And I ruled a hundred....in the cities which I had added to the land. And I built [Mede] and Beth-diblathan. And [as for] Beth-baal-meon, there I placed sheep-raisers....sheep of the land... And [as for] Horonaim there dwelt in it....and.....Kemosh said unto me: "Go down, fight against Horonaim," and I went down and....Kemosh in my day, and from there.....and I.......

Source: George A Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, Seventh Edition, p. 460-461CHEMOSH

Chemosh was the god of war and the national god of the Moabites. He is the same as the Babylonian god Shamash. Chemosh was the national deity of the Moabites (Numbers 21:29; Jeremiah 47:7,13,46). In Judges 11:24 he also appears as the god of the Ammonites. Solomon introduced, and Josiah abolished, the worship of Chemosh at Jerusalem. Chemosh was an ancient West Semitic deity, revered by the Moabites as their supreme god. Little is known about Chemosh; although King Solomon of Israel built a sanctuary to him east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7), the shrine was later abolished by King Josiah (2 Kings 23:13). The goddess Astarte was probably the cult partner of Chemosh.

On the famous Moabite Stone, written by Mesha, a 9th century bc king of Moab, Chemosh received prominent mention as the deity who brought victory to the Moabites in their battle against the Israelites. When Chemosh was the chief god of the Moabites, Mesha the king of Moab dedicated a "high place" to him at Dibon. Mesha also proscibed for him the Israelite city of Nebo and part of the spoils of war. Others view Chemosh as the god of the neitherworld on the basis of an Akkadian god-list which identified him with the god Nergal. Support for this identification may be found in Ugaritic texts.

THE AUSTRALIANS ARE BEGINNING TO "GET IT" ABOUT ISLAMIC PREACHERS

Hilali charity probe widens

Richard Kerbaj

THE Australian Federal Police has seized documents and will question key Islamic community figures after widening its investigation into allegations Australia’s mufti, Taj Din al-Hilali, gave charity funds to supporters of al-Qa’ida and Hezbollah terrorist outfits in Lebanon last year.

The Weekend Australian understands the AFP this week contacted Sheik Hilali’s confidant Keysar Trad — who is in Lebanon — about the probe.

In recent days, police have seized documents from the Sydney-based Lebanese Muslim Association, which is linked to Sheik Hilali, and also interviewed its president, Tom Zreika.
It is believed the federal police “intelligence probe” will include the LMA’s affiliate organisations that helped raise the charity donations.

The Australian revealed this week the LMA raised $70,000 in conjunction with other Islamic bodies following the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon last year.

The money was earmarked for war victims.

But LMA documents, in Sheik Hilali’s handwriting, reveal he gave $US10,000 to a political party leader and alleged supporter of the Iraqi insurgency and al-Qa’ida, Sheik Bilal Shaaban.

The LMA, which runs the nation’s most powerful mosque in Lakemba, in Sydney’s southwest, will also be asked by the AFP to submit paperwork detailing its financial transactions.

The Weekend Australian understands Sheik Hilali, who is overseas, and LMA employee Sheik Yihya Safi will be asked by the AFP to provide a detailed outline of how they distributed the Australian-raised funds in Lebanon, amid accusations that Sheik Hilali met the leader of Hezbollah’s terrorist wing, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed group with a political arm in Lebanon and a militant arm that is proscribed in Australia.
Supporting both its political and military wings is illegal under UN counter-terrorist financing declarations.

It is understood that the AFP could potentially involve the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), which is the nation’s financial intelligence unit and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulator.

The Australian revealed in November that AUSTRAC was investigating two Australian citizens suspected of providing financial assistance to Hezbollah during its 34-day conflict with Israel.

It was revealed that AUSTRAC’s specialist financial intelligence unit had linked two suspect transaction records to a name and an address and a further three suspect transaction records to another name.

The LMA’s charity donations were electronically transferred by the LMA to Lebanon into the private bank account of its employee Sheik Safi, who then handed out the money with Sheik Hilali in November.

Mr Zreika said yesterday the LMA would no longer send money overseas without notifying government departments, including the Australian Taxation Office and the AFP.

“We are doing everything we possibly can to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

“We won’t be sending money overseas any more unless express consent is obtained from requisite authorities, including the federal police.”

Mr Zreika promised this week to repay Muslim donors the $US10,000 given by Sheik Hilali to Sheik Shaaban.

The LMA paid for Sheik Hilali’s ticket to Lebanon last year after he came under fire internationally when The Australian revealed his Ramadan sermon in which he compared women to uncovered meat and joked about the notorious Sydney gang rapes.

But the LMA banned Sheik Hilali from delivering sermons at Lakemba Mosque after his return from Egypt in January.

And, in an embarrassing blow to the nation’s 300,000 Muslims, the 66-year-old controversial cleric was given a three-month extension in his role as mufti two weeks ago by the newly formed Australian National Imams Council.

The ANIC’s spokesman, Mohamad Abdalla, did not return calls yesterday.

THE GREAT ALQAEDA "PATRIOT"

http://www.aina.org/news/2007049084748.htm

Assyrian International News Agency

The Great Al-Qaeda ‘Patriot’Posted GMT 4-9-2007 13:47:48

A man identified as “Esam Omesh” spoke just before Cindy Sheehan at last month’s antiwar rally that Sheehan headlined in Washington.

Following chants of “Impeach Bush!” from shivering protesters, Omesh took the podium and exhorted “brothers and sisters” to condemn Bush for the deaths of “more than 650,000 Iraqi lives.” He demanded the White House “pull our troops out of Iraq now” and “end the war today.”

The speaker counted himself among the “great American patriots” who braved the cold to march on Washington and protest the war that day.

While there may have been legitimate voices there, this speaker decidedly was not one of them. Not because he’s Muslim, but because he’s an Islamist tied to an al-Qaida fund raiser and the spiritual adviser to the 9/11 hijackers.

Turns out it his real name is Esam S. Omeish, and he runs a nonprofit group in Washington called the Muslim American Society, which the FBI believes is the U.S. branch of the dangerous Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement that operates like the mafia.

The secret Islamist society counts Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman among its members. Its motto: “The Quran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition.”

His office is right next door to the old office of one of Al-Qaida’s top fund raisers in America, Abdurahman Alamoudi, before he was jailed a few years ago. And it’s located in the same Alexandria, Va., business park as the former office of Osama bin Laden’s nephew, before he hightailed it back to Saudi Arabia after 9/11.

“Omesh” is not the legal spelling of his name. He may spell it that way for the media, but that’s not how it’s listed in court documents I’ve examined. The correct spelling is Omeish with an “i.” Perhaps he leaves it out to avoid links to his brother, Mohamed S. Omeish.

As I first reported in my book, “Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington,” Mohamed Omeish headed the U.S. branch of one of bin Laden’s favorite Saudi charities, the International Islamic Relief Organization, which was raided after 9/11.

Tax records I’ve obtained show Omeish shared an office with Alamoudi, the convicted al-Qaida-tied terrorist and godfather of the Muslim mafia in America. This is the same “moderate” Muslim leader who federal prosecutors caught on tape complaining bin Laden hadn’t killed enough Americans.

It gets worse. Esam S. Omeish also sits on the board of the 9/11-tied mosque in Washington that helped the hijackers get licenses and housing, and whose imam prepared them for martyrdom operations in private closed-door sessions. Omeish personally hired the imam, Anwar Aulaqi, who fled the country on a Saudi jet about a year after 9/11 (the FBI now wants another crack at questioning him).

Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, which tax records show has received large donations from the Islamic Relief Organization, is a Muslim Brotherhood bastion. Another former imam and current prayer leader, for example, is an admitted Brotherhood member from the Sudan. The mosque’s deed was signed by an Alamoudi crony who has admitted participating in the Brotherhood’s “Ikhwan” movement in America.

Dar al-Hijrah is a turnstile for terrorists and terror suspects. A prayer leader, Sheikh Mohammed al-Hanooti, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing. Other dubious mosque members have included: Alamoudi, Abdullah bin Laden, Osama’s nephew; Hamas leader and fugitive Mousa Abu Marzook and his partners Ismail Elbarasse and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who was convicted of obstruction of justice in February; convicted Virginia Jihad Network leader Randall “Ismail” Royer, a former CAIR official; and Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an al-Qaida operative recently convicted of plotting to assassinate President Bush.

Leaders of the mosque rallied around Ali, calling the trial a Zionist “witch hunt,” even after it became obvious he was guilty.

What’s more, the phone number to the mosque was found in the German apartment of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, roommate of 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta. Atta’s deputy “emir” in the “raid” on America, Nawaf al-Hazmi, worshipped at Dar al-Hijrah, along with the pilot who crashed the plane into the Pentagon.

Back to mosque leader Esam Omeish, the “American patriot.” Court records I’ve obtained show he put his home up for bond collateral in 2004 to help spring from jail a terrorist suspect who was caught allegedly casing the Chesapeake bridge for attack. His dubious pal Ismail Elbarasse is a founding member of Dar al-Hijrah.

Omeish’s house is just down the road from the mosque in Falls Church, Va., and just a few blocks in the other direction from the Islamist business park in Alexandria. One of Omeish’s neighbors on his cul-de-sac is the former bookkeeper for terror banker Soliman Biheiri. He started an Islamic investment bank that included Hamas leader Marzook and Abdullah bin Laden as major investors. Biheiri, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was recently convicted of lying about his connections to Marzook in an investigation into his terrorist ties.

It’s one big happy Islamist family in Omeish’s neck of the woods.
This is who is rallying opposition to the war. Omeish may claim to be an “American patriot,” but even Cindy Sheehan should know better. The people she’s consorting with would not have shed a tear had her son been beheaded in Iraq.

By Paul SperryFrontPageMagazine.com
Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of

Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.

WHAT DO YO KNOW ABOUT DAGESTAN?

Regions and territories: Dagestan The Russian Republic of Dagestan, which translates as "land of the mountains", is situated in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus with Chechnya and Georgia to the west, Azerbaijan to the south and the Caspian Sea to the east. So high are its peaks in some places that certain areas are accessible only by helicopter.

OVERVIEW

Dagestan is home to several dozen Muslim peoples who settled among the high valleys over the centuries and who between them speak over 30 languages.

The Avars form the largest ethnic group and account for about a fifth of the population. A further substantial proportion is made up of Dargins, Kumyks and Lezgins. About 10 per cent are ethnic Russians. There are also Laks, Tabasarans and Nogai, to name but a few of the other significant groups.

The republic's constitution declares the protection of the interests
of all of Dagestan's peoples to be a fundamental principle. It is a delicate balance to maintain.

The republic has oil and gas reserves and also the fisheries potential offered by a share in the resources of the Caspian sea.

However, it is prey to organized crime and regional instability. The crime barons may prosper but the people are amongst the poorest in Russia. They live in the shadow of lawlessness and the threat of violence.

History

Dagestan was the birth place of Imam Shamil, the legendary fighter who in the 19th century spearheaded fierce resistance by tribesmen of Chechnya and Dagestan to the spread of the Russian empire. The name of Imam Shamil is still revered by many in both republics.

When the Bolsheviks sought to enforce control in the Caucasus in the early 1920s, Dagestan became an autonomous Soviet republic within the Russian Federation.

During the Stalinist period its peoples escaped the mass deportation inflicted on their Chechen neighbours and many others.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the republic's authorities have been regarded as loyal by the Kremlin and as corrupt and incompetent by many elsewhere.

Oil and caviar mafias are reported to flourish. Kidnappings and violence are commonplace. Firearms are ubiquitous and assassinations are a regular event.

Moscow consistently says it sees the hand of Chechen-based separatism as the cause. Others see the roots in lust for profit against a background of lawlessness in a gun culture.

Budennovsk and beyond

Chechen warlords, ever eager to make trouble for Moscow, have openly led armed operations in Dagestan on several occasions.

These attracted international attention for the first time in 1995 and 1996 when Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev crossed the border and seized hundreds of hostages in hospitals in the Dagestani towns of Budennovsk and Kizlyar in the name of the separatist cause.

Scores died and the Kremlin now finds it hard to come to terms with the fact that Basayev and Raduyev got away.

The Muslims of Dagestan, for whom Sufism combined with local tradition is the main faith, have generally been anxious to avoid the conflict that has afflicted Chechnya.

However, in the latter part of the 1990s there were reports that more radical and militant elements, said to be linked with Wahhabism, were acquiring influence. There was tension when two mountain villages near the Chechen border sought to introduce Shari'ah law in 1998.

Violence flared in August 1999 when an Islamic body was reported to have declared an independent state in parts of Dagestan and Chechnya and called on Muslims to take up arms against Russia in a holy war. It also called for the arrest of Magomedali Magomedov, the repulic's leader at the time, accusing him of working with the Russians.

Chechen fighters crossed into Dagestan in support. There were fierce clashes with Russian forces but within a couple of weeks the fighting was over. The militants were silenced. This incident contributed heavily to the return of Russian troops to Chechnya.

The republic has seen numerous bombings targeted at the Russian military which has forces stationed at Kaspiysk, Buynaksk and Budennovsk. Scores were killed in 1996 and 1999 in Kaspiysk and Buynaksk when bombs went off near blocks of flats housing Russian officers. Dozens more died in 2002 when bombers targeted a Russian military parade in Kaspiysk.

Russian forces have since been the target of numerous smaller scale attacks. At least 10 died in a bomb blast in the capital, Makhachkala in July 2005. Violence continues, with several people killed in multiple explosions and shootings through 2006.

The Kremlin is not alone in blaming Islamic militants for orchestrating the violence. Many say organized crime is the crucial factor. Clan and political rivalries are seen as another ingredient.

As concerns grow over the volatility of the North Caucasus, lawless Dagestan offers little short-term hope of stability.

Status: Republic within Russian Federation Population: 2.2 million Capital: Makhachkala Area: 50,300 sq km Main religion: Islam Languages: Language rights of many peoples of Dagestan guaranteed by constitution Currency: Rouble Resources: Oil, gas, agriculture, fisheries

LEADERS

President: Mukhu Aliyev

Mukhu Aliyev was nominated for the leadership by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2006. He was confirmed by Dagestan's parliament of which he had previously been chairman.

He is tasked by the Kremlin with countering the rise of Islamic insurgency and bringing stability to the volatile republic.

Mr Aliyev, an ethnic Avar and Dagestan's Soviet-era Communist Party boss, is 65. He replaces Magomedali Magomedov, an ethnic Dargin who resigned on grounds of age at 75.

A former Communist Party official, Mr Magomedov had led Dagestan since the end of the Soviet era.

IS APRIL 10TH GOING TO BE EXPLOSIVE?

Mass murder in Rawalpind and Islamabad

Remembering Ojhri by Tariq Mehmood

On April 10th 1988, some 19-years ago, Ojhri (ammunition) dump in Rawalpindi was blown up. This was a deliberate act of destruction. Hundreds upon hundreds of missiles rained down on Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Over 5000 people were killed. Many, many thousands more were injured.

I was working as a journalist for the Frontier Post and along with a colleague, Imran Munir, went into the camp, early the day after the explosion. Every now and again, a rocket or missile would take off, and land somewhere, causing yet more deaths and destruction.

All manner of rockets and shells were going off. People were sitting around shell shocked. The houses close to Ojhri were reduced to mere husks. I went into one house. A man in his late 20s was sitting amidst shattered glass and broken wood. He was rubbing his hands in the glass.

Blood from his shredded hands was spreading across the floor. He had a little child’s shoe. He turned to us. I looked into his bloodshot eyes. He said, ‘this is where my son was martyred.’

Imran was about to take a photograph of him, but he lowered the camera. We could not snap him in this position. We stood there for a while, we wanted to lift him up but the man wanted to stay with the memory of his child.

Out side his door I saw a dog. It stood in front of us. It was a healthy black and white mongrel. It must once have been a loved pet. I can still see the dogs eyes, filled with unspeakable terror, asking me why? Why? Why? I did not know what to say to the creature. I did not know what had happened. Had I known, I would have sat down and told the dog, that this is the way those that rule, hide one crime by committing another.

Some people I talked to said they saw a missile cut through a buffalo’s stomach. I have found some of my notes from that time. Many people said that the police just ran off, even from major traffic junctions and students took over the posts, directing traffic.

Era of Darkness

This was another dark period of military rule in Pakistan. A time when the military rulers danced to American tunes. This was not the era of ‘Enlightened Moderation’, but that of militant jihadism acceptable to the Americans. This was the era of General Zia’s Raj.

This was a time when Pakistan was once again a ‘Front Line state’ and the West, particularly America and its allies were supporting the Mujahidin groups, and when of course Osama Bin Laden America’s most favourite freedom fighter was leading the Western inspired Jihad against the Soviets.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were given to the Pakistani military to manage the Jihad in Afghanistan, and hundreds of millions of dollars was also spent on providing weapons and logistical support for the Mujahid groups through Pakistan. Who then were of course freedom fighters.

The weapons were sent mainly by American, but also, by other allies of the US, including Britain. These where shipped to Karachi and from there taken North. They were stored in dumps all over country. One of the biggest central dumps was Ojhri. This dump was directly controlled by the ISI. It was an open secret that the ISI was not even answerable to the GHQ in Rawalpindi, but directly to General Zia himself.

Some people at the time said they thought the day of judgement had arrived.

I have found three eye witness accounts from that time. I only have their names and do not remember much more of them.

‘I was going towards Faizabad when I heard the explosion. There was a huge fire. Many people were running towards it, while the police were running away from it. Missiles started flying in every direction. I saw about 12 young men sheltering under a tree. Then they were all dead. The road going towards the CDA (Capital Development Authority) colony was littered with hands and feet of little children. Such great injustice. The world seemed to have died. Whilst the police ran off, students started directing traffic.’
(Bagh Hussain).

‘It was raining missiles and bombs. Everyone was running for their lives. The area was full of explosions and screaming. What the bombs did not destroy the police took.’ (Mohammad Ishaque).

‘Four thousand have died. It was like Qiamat (End of Times). Even when all hell was let loose, when bombs were spread around liked chopped pieces of wood, these people (pointing to policemen) were robbing – such injustice.’

What the people of Rawalpindi and Islamabad did not know was that the reason their world was because someone was trying to cover up a simple fact. American stinger missiles which had been given for fighting in Afghanistan, had found their way into the hands of the Iranians.

They were stored in Ojhri dump, and it was pretty obvious that those looking after the dump had sold them on to the Iranians, pocketing the money. A team of American navel investigators was in mid-flight, on its way to Ojhri to investigate. They had entered Pakistani airspace, when the dump was blown up.

Two days after the explosions at Ojhri, General Zia compared what happened to the disasters at Russia’s Chrenobyl and India’s Bhopal. He refused to admit that Ojhri was a transit dump where weapons were destined for Afghanistan. The deed was blamed on foreign agents. But General Zia and those close to him knew full well that this was a lie. This was an inside job.

The foreign Hand theory could not hold ground, as many Pakistani papers at the time questioned it. Stinger missiles do not just go off, they have to be primed. Army ammunition dumps, are built in such a manner an explosion should not affect the other. But here were truckloads of the stuff over ground, and much more underground, all going off.

By the time the Americans arrived, 5000 people were dead. What was incredible to believe at the time was that even General Zia would not let people know what sort of weapons were stored underground.

We went into the grounds of Ojhri and a senior Pakistan officer, whose rank and name I forget now, saw us. He was holding a small Quran in his hand. He was shaking with anger at what had happened. He explained that in the underground networks, there were so many unexploded munitions, and they had no idea how to defuse them.

They were learning by trial and error. Each error cost the life of an army Jawan. Over 1000 died in this process alone.

In the shadow of the horror there was much confusion. Some people thought at the time that India had attacked. Some thought, including some in the military, that this was a cloak under which the US was going to knock out the nuclear plant at Kahota. For those who lost loved ones, 10th April 1988 will for ever be a burning horror.

With the death of 17th February 2007 of two workers in Rawalpindi from unexploded munitions from Ojhri dump, the living are reminded about the callousness of the rulers who stored so much weapons inside a major city like Rawalpindi, and then those who colluded to blow it up.

One of the fallouts of Ojhri was that the military dictatorship of General Zia had lost all credibility in the eyes of peoples of Pakistan, in particular the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. General Zia’s regime had become a liability; it could not long be trusted by its foreign masters.

The people of Rawalpindi and Islamabad deserve a full account of who did what in Ojhri. All internal reports should now be published. The citizens of Rawalpindi and especially those who lost their loved ones in the Ojhri disaster deserve a permanent memorial to this crime against humanity.

Let us hope the present General’s “Moderate Enlightenment” to acknowledge Ojhri as a crime against humanity and publish a full and frank account of the how and why it happened and promise a memorial to honour the dead.

I used to live with Feica in Peshawar, and he made a cartoon of General Zia’s wife, sitting on a donkey, laden with diamonds, on the way to London. General Saab was very upset and his office let us know of his displeasure. But perhaps General Zia should have listened to the whispers of his masters and the screaming of the streets, and left.

In true Pakistani style, General Zia Saab was deaf to the demands of the people to go and did not see how much his masters were also irked by him. As we know, he came and went with a bang.