APAKAH BERJILBAB TERMASUK MASALAH IJTIHADI DALAM SYARI’AH ISLAM SEHINGGA KEDUDUKAN HUKUMNYA MENJADI RELATIF?

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

From: On Behalf Of Nabiel Almusawa
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 2:34 AM

APAKAH BERJILBAB TERMASUK MASALAH IJTIHADI DALAM SYARI’AH ISLAM SEHINGGA KEDUDUKAN HUKUMNYA MENJADI RELATIF?

Oleh : Abi AbduLLAAH

Di akhir zaman ini banyak orang yg berani berfatwa dengan menabrak kesepakatan para ulama, keluar dari kaidah belajar ilmu fiqh yang disepakati, mencari pendapat2 yg syadz (nyleneh), yg bagi orang yg benar2 mempelajari fiqh tidak tertutup lobang2 kelemahan mereka, semua ini mereka lakukan hanya demi memuaskan orang2 kafir bahwa Islam itu toleran, mengikuti zaman, padahal kelemahan pendapat mereka itu amat sangat mereka sadari.

Mirisnya lagi hal tsb dilakukan oleh orang2 yg katanya bergelar doktor atau bahkan profesor, lalu diajarkan dengan penuh semangat di universitas2 yg sebagian besar (tidak seluruhnya) para pengajarnya belajar dari negara2 sekular & kuffar, atau ada pula yg belajar dari negara Islam tapi pada orang2 yg sudah nyleneh pula dan dikenal menjadi kolaborator kuffar.

Salah satu dari fatwa yg demikian itu adalah bahwa Jilbab itu tidak wajib, atau merupakan masalah ijtihadiyah, atau masalah khilafiyyah, sehingga dalil hukumnya bersifat relatif & tidak mengikat, demikianlah salah satu igauan mereka di siang-bolong, yg jika kita teliti fatwa2 mereka itu nampaklah pemutar-balikan fakta dimana2, perancuan dalil yg shahih dengan yg dha’if, memaksakan diri menggunakan tafsir bir ra’yil qabih/tafsir dg logika yg sesat (karena ada juga tafsir yg bir ra’yi shahih/logika tapi terbimbing oleh wahyu), dan mereka ini secara sengaja menjauhi tafsir bil ma’tsur (tafsir menggunakan dalil, karena akan menghancurleburkan semua pijakan mereka itu), mereka juga menggunakan kaidah ushul-fiqh secara terbalik-balik sesuai hawa nafsu mereka sendiri, dll.

Yg kesemuanya itu hanya menunjukkan ashabiyyah (fanatisme) terhadap syahwat & taqdis (pengkultusan) kepada akal secara berlebihan, yg kesemuanya ini merupakan ciri sebagian aliran mu’tazilah-jadidah (neo-rasionalis) yg kemudian sayap radikalnya bermuara kepada aliran liberal yg menyempal jauh dari ajaran Islam, merupakan mazhab sempalan dalam ajaran Islam, sebagaimana mazhab Syi’ah maupun Khawarij.

Salah satu ciri kelompok ini adalah pernyataan mereka bhw dlm syariat Islam kebenaran sebuah pandangan adalah relatif karena semuanya adalah ijtihad, maka setiap orang berhak untuk memilih mana yg menurutnya benar.. Inna liLLLAAHi wa inna ilayhi raji’un! Dari mana munculnya igauan seperti ini?! Coba tunjukkan referensi yg mu’tabar (diakui sebagai referensi syari’ah) yg menyebutkannya?! Kecuali referensi para orientalis atau murid2nya, maka tidak ada jumhur-ulama yg mengakuinya kecuali kalangan orientalis dan para pengikut2-nya, semoga mereka diberi hidayah sehingga kembali ke jalan Islam yg lurus, aamiin..

1. MAKNA MENUTUP AURAT & JILBAB :

a. Aurat dlm bahasa Arab bermakna keburukan manusia[1], atau celah/kekurangan[2], adapun menurut syari’ah didefinisikan sbg apa2 yg diwajibkan untuk ditutupi dan diharamkan untuk dipandang[3].

b. Jilbab berbeda dg kerudung (khumur)[4], karena jilbab adalah baju kurung yg panjang/jubah[5] yg digunakan agar menutupi seluruh yg di bawahnya. Ia merupakan kain yg diselubungkan di atas kerudung[6], atau sejenis kain selubung/semacam mantel (milhafah)[7].

2. AURAT WANITA YG WAJIB DITUTUP DALAM AL-QUR’AN :

a. Yg Wajib Berjilbab Bukan Hanya Istri Nabi Saja :

ي٠ا أ٠يُّه٠ا النّ٠بِيُّ قُلْ لِأ٠زْو٠اجِك٠و٠ب٠ن٠اتِك٠و٠نِس٠اءِ الْمُؤْمِنِين٠يُدْنِين٠ع٠ل٠يْهِنّ٠مِنْ ج٠ل٠ابِيبِهِنّ٠ذ٠لِك٠أ٠دْن٠ى أ٠نْ يُعْر٠فْن٠ف٠ل٠ا يُؤْذ٠يْن٠و٠ك٠ان٠اللّ٠هُ غ٠فُورًا ر٠حِيمًا

“Hai Nabi, katakanlah kepada isteri-isterimu, anak-anak perempuanmu dan isteri-isteri orang mukmin: Hendaklah mereka mengulurkan jilbabnya ke seluruh tubuh mereka. Yang demikian itu supaya mereka lebih mudah untuk dikenal, karena itu mereka tidak diganggu dan ALLAAH adalah Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang.”[8]

Berkata Imam At-Thabari bhw maknanya, ALLAAH SWT berfirman pd nabi SAW : Hai Nabi, katakan pd istrimu, anak2 mu dan wanita muslimah : Janganlah kalian menyerupai wanita2 lain dlm cara berpakaiannya (yatasyabbahna bil ima’i fi libasihinna) yaitu dg membiarkan rambut dan wajah terbuka, melainkan tutup semua itu dg jilbab[9]; berkata Imam Ibnu Katsir bhw maknanya : ALLAAH SWT menyampaikan kepada Nabi-NYA agar memerintahkan kepada semua wanita muslimah agar menjaga kehormatan mereka dan agar mereka berbeda dengan cara berpakaiannya wanita jahiliyyah yaitu hendaklah gunakan jilbab[10]; berkata Imam Asy-Syaukaniy bhw ayat ini sabab-nuzulnya adalah berkenaan dg peristiwa keluarnya Saudah RA yg dicela oleh Umar RA, lalu turun ayat ini yg membolehkan wanita keluar rumah untuk suatu kepentingan asal mereka menutup jilbabnya[11].

b. Ayat Ini Tidak Ada Kaitannya Dg Haditsul ‘Ifki

Diantara salah satu kedunguan mereka dan tidak berilmunya mereka dan guru2 mereka, adalah kata2 mereka bhw asbab-nuzul ayat ini berkaitan dg peristiwa haditsul-ifki pada Ummul Mu’minin Aisyah RA.. Laa hawla walaa quwwata illa biLLAAH.. Persis sebagaimana dlm pepatah Arab dikatakan : Saarat Musyarriqah wa sirta Mugharriban, Syattaana baynal Musyarriq wa Mugharrib (Ia berjalan ke Timur tapi engkau malah berjalan ke Barat, Ketahuilah sungguh amat jauh jaraknya antara Timur dan Barat itu). Sebagaimana kita ketahui bhw peristiwa Al-Ifki itu turun berkenaan dg QS An-Nuur[12], tidak ada hubungannya dengan QS Al-Ahzab, karena surah Al-Ahzab turun berkenaan dg itu, melainkan berkenaan dg bantahan kepada orang2 Munafiq Madinah seperti Ibnu Ubay, dll yg didatangi tokoh2 Quraisy Makkah ba’da perang Uhud, lalu mereka takut Nabi SAW akan mengetahui mereka, lalu turun surah ini untuk meneguhkan Nabi SAW dan membantah mereka[13].

c. Ayat ini Tidak Bisa Menggunakan Kaidah Fiqh : Al-Ibratu Bikhushushi Sabab La Bi Umumi Lafzh (Hukum itu Berdasarkan Khususnya Sebab Bukan Umumnya Lafzh)

Salah satu bentuk kerancuan berfikir mereka menyimpangkan kaidah secara tidak benar untuk mengelabui orang2 bodoh (karena memang hanya orang bodoh saja yg tertarik pd pendapat mereka), bahwa sudah jelas2 ayat tsb menyatakan : Qul Li Azwajika wa Banatika wa Nisa’il Mu’mina (Katakan pd istrimu, anakmu & PARA WANITA MUSLIMAH..), lalu tiba2 mereka bicara tentang kaidah berdasarkan khususnya sabab saja, lha kepriben tho mas?! Sudah menjelaskan sabab-nuzulnya aja sudah ngawur di atas, lalu bertambah ngawur lagi dlm menggunakan kaidah ini sementara khithab ayat ini bersifat umum dan tidak bisa di-takhshish.. Mengapa mereka sampai berfikir dg kaidah terbalik2 demikian?! Karena kebohongan dan tidak menjaga amanah ilmiah, sudah mendarah-daging dlm diri mereka dan diajarkan juga oleh guru2 mereka, sehingga memutar-balik hukum, dalil & ayat tidak menjadi masalah buat mereka, yg penting hawa-nafsu mereka terpuaskan, kalau perlu mengambil dalil fiqh & hadits dari kitab sastra juga tak apa, yg penting berargumen dg Kitab Kuning supaya nampak “pinter”, kalau ada yg ngerti lalu mengecek dan menunjukkan letak salahnya, cukup mereka katakan saja : maaf salah tulis, kan beres, lalu cari lagi kitab lainnya, siapa tahu tidak ketahuan belangnya, na’udzu biLLAAHi min dzalik…

d. Saat Turun Ayat Jilbab ini Para Shahabat Wanita Langsung Melaksanakannya Tanpa Banyak Alasan & Keberatan

Berkata Ibnu Abi Hatim, telah menceritakan kepada kami Abu AbdiLLAAH Azh-Zhahraniy, dari apa yg ditulisnya untukku, telah menceritakan kepadaku AbduRRAZZAQ, telah menceritakan kepadaku Ma’mar, dari Ibnu Khutsaim, dari Shafiyyah binti Syaibah, dari Ummu Salamah berkata : “Semoga ALLAAH SWT merahmati para wanita Anshar, pada saat turun ayat ini[14] maka keluarlah semua wanita Anshar seolah2 di kepala2 mereka ada burung Gagak (Al-Ghirban), karena jilbab yg mereka kenakan dg bahan yg seadanya yg mereka temui saat itu juga.”[15]

3. AURAT WANITA DALAM AS-SUNNAH :

a. Hadits Pertama :

لا يقبل الله صلاة حائض إلا بخمار

“Tidak diterima shalat wanita yg sudah haidh (baligh –pen) kecuali menggunakan khimar (kerudung).”[16]

b. Hadits Kedua :

أن أسماء بنت أبي بكر دخلت على النبي ( صلى الله عليه وسلم ) في ثياب رقاق فأعرض عنها وقال : يا أسماء إن المرأة إذا بلغت المحيض لم يصلح أن يرى منها إلا هذا وهذا . وأشار إلى وجهه وكفيه

“Sesungguhnya Asma’ binti Abibakr (saat itu ia masih remaja –pen) masuk ke tempat Nabi SAW menggunakan pakaian yg menampak sammar2 bayang2 kulit di bawahnya, maka Nabi SAW berpaling darinya sambil bersabda : Wahai Asma’ sesungguhnya wanita itu jika sudah haidh tidak boleh nampak bagian tubuhnya kecuali ini dan ini, beliau SAW memberi isyarat pd wajah & tapak tangannya.”[17]

c. Hadits Ketiga :

صِنْف٠انِ مِنْ أ٠هْلِ النّ٠ارِ ل٠مْ أ٠ر٠هُم٠ا ق٠وْمٌ م٠ع٠هُمْ سِي٠اطٌ ك٠أ٠ذْن٠ابِ الْب٠ق٠رِ ي٠ضْرِبُون٠بِه٠ا النّ٠اس٠و٠نِس٠اءٌ ك٠اسِي٠اتٌ ع٠ارِي٠اتٌ مُمِيلا٠تٌ م٠ائِلا٠تٌ رُءُوسُهُنّ٠ك٠أ٠سْنِم٠ةِ الْبُخْتِ الْم٠ائِل٠ةِ لا٠ي٠دْخُلْن٠الْج٠نّ٠ة٠و٠لا٠ي٠جِدْن٠رِيح٠ه٠ا و٠إِنّ٠رِيح٠ه٠ا ل٠يُوج٠دُ مِنْ م٠سِير٠ةِ ك٠ذ٠ا و٠ك٠ذ٠ا

“Ada 2 kelompok manusia penghuni neraka yg belum pernah kulihat (saat beliau SAW hidup –pen), yg pertama laki2 yg memegang cambuk sepeerti ekor sapi yg kerjanya memukuli manusia dgnya; yg kedua wanita yg berpakaian tetapi telanjang kalau jalan berlenggang-lenggok menggoda rambutnya seperti punuk unta, 2 kelompok ini tidak masuk Syurga dan tidak bisa mencium bau Syurga, padahal baunya tercium dari jarak sekian dan sekian (jarak yg amat jauh –pen).”[18]

4. AURAT YG WAJIB DITUTUP MENURUT MADZHAB YG EMPAT :

a. Menurut Madzhab Hanafi : Aurat Wanita adalah seluruh tubuhnya kecuali wajah & 2 telapak tangannya[19], oleh karenanya kepala wanita adalah aurat yg harus ditutup[20]. Bahkan berkata Imam Hanafi : Kewajiban menutup aurat di depan manusia sudah menjadi ijma’ (konsensus semua ulama), demikian pula saat ia shalat walaupun shalatnya sendirian, maka seandainya saja ada orang yg melakukan shalat dalam keadaan sendirian tidak menutup aurat sekalipun di tempat yg amat gelap-gulita padahal ia memiliki pakaian yg dapat menutupinya maka shalatnya batal[21].

b. Menurut Madzhab Maliki : Aurat wanita di depan sesama wanita muslimah adalah sama dg aurat laki2 dg sesama laki2 (yg tidak boleh terlihat hanya antara pusar sampai lutut -pen)[22], aurat wanita di depan laki2 muslim adalah seluruh tubuhnya kecuali wajah & 2 tapak tangannya, aurat wanita di depan laki2 kafir adalah seluruh tubuhnya termasuk wajah & 2 tapak tangannya[23]. Berkata Imam Malik : Jika seorang wanita merasa wajahnya atau tapak tangannya demikian indahnya sehingga ia amat kuatir orang yg melihatnya terkena fitnah maka baik ia tutup bagian tsb (dg cadar misalnya -pen)[24].

c. Menurut Madzhab Syafi’i[25] : Aurat wanita adalah seluruh tubuhnya kecuali wajah & 2 tapak tangannya[26], yaitu tapak tangannya yg bagian atas maupun yg bagian bawahnya bukan termasuk aurat, tapi dlm masalah ini madzhab kami ada 2 qaul, namun berkata Al-Muzni bhw yg kuat ia bukan termasuk aurat[27]. Telapak kaki wanita termasuk aurat[28], bagi banci yg menurut kedokteran dominan sifat wanitanya maka auratnya sama dg aurat wanita[29]. Berkata Imam Syafi’i : Bukan hanya batas aurat-nya[30] saja yg harus ditutup, melainkan tidak cukup aurat tsb ditutupi oleh pakaian yg menutupi seluruhnya jika ia masih ketat/membentuk tubuh[31].

d. Menurut Madzhab Hanbali : Ada 2 qaul[32], yg pertama menyatakan bhw aurat wanita adalah seluruh tubuhnya sampai ke kuku2nya[33] berdasarkan hadits riwayat Tirmidzi : Al-Mar’atu ‘aurah (wanita itu aurat), dan qaul kedua dikecualikannya wajah & 2 tapak tangan berdasar hadits larangan bagi wanita menutup keduanya saat Ihram[34], juga sesuai dg makna ayat “maa zhahara minha (kecuali yg biasa nampak)”[35] maka wajah & 2 tapak tanganlah makna ayat tsb krn keduanya tdk mungkin ditutup untuk mengenali orang saat berbisnis, dsb[36] ada juga yg menambahkan kedua tapak kaki[37].

e. Tarjih wal Mulahazhat : Sebab dari adanya perbedaan pendapat ini adalah dlm menafsirkan ayat QS An-Nur di atas. Apakah maknanya ada yg boleh nampak atau maknanya tidak ada yg boleh nampak bagi wanita. Jumhur fuqaha berpendapat wajah & 2 tapak tangan bukan aurat bagi wanita (Imam Hanafi menambahkan tapak kaki wanita bukan aurat), sementara Abubakar bin AbduRRAHMAN & satu qaul dari Imam Ahmad berpendapat bhw seluruh tubuh wanita adalah aurat.

Mereka yg berpendapat bhw tidak ada yg biasa nampak untuk wanita dan menyatakan seluruh tubuhnya adalah aurat, berdalil dg menafsirkan ayat ini dg ayat di surah Al-Ahzab di atas (tafsirul Qur’an bil Qur’an). Adapun kelompok yg menyatakan adanya pengecualian wajah & 2 tapak tangan berdalil dg wajibnya membuka kedua hal ini saat hajji berdasar hadits2 shahih, dan pendapat yg kedua ini lebih kuat waLLAAHu a’lam bish Shawaab.

Demikian wahai para wanita muslimah –rahimakumuLLAAH-, jadi buukan menggunakan menggunakan pendekatan logika atau pendekatan kultural Arab, antropologi, sosiologi dan yg semacamnya yg tentu saja bisa berbeda2, rambut sama hitam pendapat bisa berbeda. Melainkan semuanya itu –jika kita bicara syari’ah– harus berdasarkan dalil dan di-istinbath menggunakan metode ilmu syari’ah yg benar dan bukan metode kirata (dikira2 tapi nyata).

Dan yg demikian ini jika kita masih menganggap Al-Qur’an itu adalah firman ALLAAH SWT yg terjaga dari kesalahan, dan Hadits Shahih adalah sabda Nabi SAW yg ma’shum lepas dari hawa-nafsu. Kecuali jika kita anggap Al-Qur’an seperti koran-harian yg bisa di-reaktualisasi atau hadits Nabi SAW setara dg ucapan Nietsche atau Juergen Habermas, maka sungguh aku berlindung pada ALLAAH SWT dari hal yg demikian bagi diriku sendiri dan seluruh keturunanku, fa ayna tadzhabina ayyuhal muslimah..???

———————————————————-

[1] Lih. Ash-Shihaah Fil Lughah, II/5; Tahdzib Al-Lughah, I/367

[2] Lih. Lisanul Arab, IV/612; Tajul Arus, I/3257

[3] Lih. Al-Fiqh Al-Islamiy, I/738

[4] Tafsir Ibnu Katsir, VI/481

[5] Kamus Al-Munawwir, bab Ja-la-ba, hal 199

[6] Demikianlah pendapat para mufassir seperti Ibnu Mas’ud, Ubaidah, Qatadah, Hasan Al-Bashri, Said bin Jubair, Ibrahim An-Nakha’i, Atha’ Al-Khurasaniy.

[7] Lih. Ash-Shihaah, I/101; demikian pendapat Al-Jauhary berdasarkan sya’ir seorang tokoh wanita dari suku Hudzail : “Berjalanlah ia seorang diri dg lalai.. Yaitu dengan telanjang (hanya berkerudung saja –pen) tanpa berjilbab.”

[8] QS Al-Ahzab, 33:59

[9] Tafsir At-Thabari, XX/324

[10] Tafsir Ibnu Katsir, VI/481

[11] Tafsir Durrul Mantsur, VIII/208, hadits ini juga diriwayatkan oleh Bukhari, Muslim, Ibnu Jarir, Ibnu Abi Hatim, Al-Baihaqi & Ibnu Sa’d

[12] Shahih Bukhari, no. 2314, 6633 dan Muslim, no. 1697

[13] Lih. Asbab Nuzulil Qur’an, Al-Wahidi, I/126; Lih. Juga Tafsir Munir, Az-Zuhayli, XI/247

[14] QS Al-Ahzab, 33:59

[15] Lih. Tafsir AbduRRAZZAQ, II/101; ada riwayat lain yg menjadi syawahid atas hadits ini yg diriwayatkan Al-Hasan bin Muslim, dari Shafiyyah binti Syaibah, dari A’isyah RA (Lih. Shahih Bukhari, no. 4759)

[16] HR Abu Daud no. 164; Tirmidzi, II/215-216; Ibnu Majah no. 655; Ibnu Abi Syaibah, II/28; Al-Hakim, I/251; Al-Baihaqi, II/233; Ahmad, VI/150; Di-shahih-kan oleh Albani dlm Al-Irwa’, I/214

[17] HR Abu Daud, II/138, hadits ini dha’if tapi ada syahid dari hadits Asma’ binti Umays RA dari Al-Baihaqi, VII/76, sehingga menjadi hasan, lih. Al-Irwa’, VI/203

[18] HR Muslim, XIV/229 hadits no. 5704 (Imam Muslim sampai menamai babnya ini dg nama : “Wanita2 yg Berpakaian Tapi Telanjang”); Al-Baihaqi, II/234; Ahmad, II/355

[19] Al-Ikhtiyar Li Ta’lil Al-Mukhtar, I/4

[20] Al-Mabsuth, II/64

[21] Raddul Mukhtar, I/375

[22] Mawahib Al-Jalil fi Syarh Mukhtashar Syaikh Khalil, IV/16

[23] Asy-Syarhul Kabir Li Syaikh Ad-Dardir, I/214

[24] Mawahib Al-Jalil fi Syarh Mukhtashar Syaikh Khalil, IV/24

[25] Imam Az-Zayadi Asy-Syafi’i dlm Syarhul Muharrar menyebutkan 4 jenis aurat bagi wanita : Pertama, aurat saat shalat yaitu kecuali wajah & 2 tapak tangan; Kedua, aurat pandangan dari orang laki2 yaitu semuanya termasuk lelaki dilarang memandangi secara terus-menerus wajah & tangan wanita; Ketiga, aurat di depan suami atau saat sendirian yaitu sama dg aurat laki2 (kecuali pusar & lutut); Keempat, aurat di depan orang kafir yaitu seluruh tubuhnya (Lih. Hawasyi Asy-Syairaziy, II/112).h

[26] Al-Majmu’, III/167

[27] Raudhatut Thalibin wa ‘Umdatul Muftin, I/104

[28] Al-Umm, I/109

[29] Fathul Wahhab, I/88

[30] Aurat ada yg mughalazhah (aurat besar) yaitu 2 kemaluan & ada yg ghairu-mughalazhah (aurat kecil), keduanya harus ditutup

[31] Al-Qawanin Al-Fiqhiyyah, hal. 54

[32] Menurut Abul Ma’aliy Al-Hanbali, aurat anak sbb : 1) Sblm 6 tahun semuanya bisa dilihat, 2) Setelah 6 th yg boleh dilihat rambut, betis dan lengan (ada juga yg menyatakan seluruh tubuhnya kecuali 2 kemaluan), 3) Setelah 10 tahun sama dg setelah baligh (lih. Al-Furu’ Libni Muflih, I/476).

[33] Ibid.

[34] Asy-Syarhul Kabir, I/458

[35] QS An-Nur, 24/31

[36] Al-Iqna’, I/113

[37] Al-Furu’ Libni Muflih, I/476

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

US Corrupt System

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007

Washington, DC –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again). And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): Conyers reportedly repeatedly violated the law and House ethics rules, forcing his staff to serve as his personal servants, babysitters, valets and campaign workers while on the government payroll. While the House Ethics Committee investigated these allegations in 2006, and substantiated a number of the accusations against Conyers, the committee blamed the staff and required additional administrative record-keeping and employee training. Judicial Watch obtained documentation in 2007 from a former Conyers staffer that sheds new light on the activities and conduct on the part of the Michigan congressman, which appear to be at a minimum inappropriate and likely unlawful. Judicial Watch called on the Attorney General in 2007 to investigate the matter.

3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): In one of the most shocking scandals of 2007, Senator Craig was caught by police attempting to solicit sex in a Minneapolis International Airport men’s bathroom during the summer. Senator Craig reportedly “sent signals” to a police officer in an adjacent stall that he wanted to engage in sexual activity. When the police officer showed Craig his police identification under the bathroom stall divider and pointed toward the exit, the senator reportedly exclaimed ‘No!’” When asked to produce identification, Craig presented police his U.S. Senate business card and said, “What do you think of that?” The power play didn’t work. Craig was arrested, charged and entered a guilty plea. Despite enormous pressure from his Republican colleagues to resign from the Senate, Craig refused.

4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate’s subcommittee on Military Construction’s approval carries weight. Sen. Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over the decision making process. Senator Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in 2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty. Judicial Watch’s investigation into this matter is ongoing.

5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…” ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense. All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.

6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press: “[Huckabee’s] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.” And what was Governor Huckabee’s response to these ethics allegations? Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.

7. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby: Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation. Libby was found guilty of four felonies — two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to the FBI and one count of obstructing justice – all serious crimes. Unfortunately, Libby was largely let off the hook. In an appalling lack of judgment, President Bush issued “Executive Clemency” to Libby and commuted the sentence.

8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

9. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act recently passed by Congress. The pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker Pelosi’s home base of San Francisco. Pelosi just happens to own apartment buildings near the areas targeted for improvement, and will almost certainly experience a significant boost in property value as a result of Pelosi’s earmark. Earlier in the year, Pelosi found herself in hot water for demanding access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop, in unprecedented request which was wisely rejected by the Pentagon. And under Pelosi’s leadership, the House ethics process remains essentially shut down – which protects members in both parties from accountability.

10. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): Over the last few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of scandals that cast serious doubt on his credibility as a self-professed champion of government ethics, and 2007 was no different. According to The Los Angeles Times, over the last four years, Reid has used his influence in Washington to help a developer, Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal. As the project advanced, the Times reported, “Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore.” Whittemore also hired one of Reid’s sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and then promptly handed the junior Reid the responsibility of negotiating the real estate deal with federal officials. Leif Reid even called his father’s office to talk about how to obtain the proper EPA permits, a clear conflict of interest.

Judicial Watch is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Judicial Watch neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office. For more information, visit www.judicialwatch.org

The full story in
http://www.judicialwatch.org/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2007

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

9/11 : Why won’t the American media try to stop Bilal’s kangaroo court

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

As regular readers know, Attytood has been on the warpath urging the authorities in Iraq, under the thumb of the American military, to give Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Bilal Hussein a real day in court…or set him free. Our fear is that — before broader awareness of the Hussein case mounts — he will be found guilty in a kangaroo court, without the kind of due process that Americans would expect and that you’d think would be part of that “freedom” package that we delivered to Iraq:Those worst fears are coming true, of course. Harper’s magazine has the inside scoop. For example:

– The Iraqi judge is also allowing the U.S. military to present evidence by witnesses through remote television hook-ups from undisclosed locations. This is done particularly to be sure that Bilal Hussein would not be able to cross-examine any witnesses. – The Pentagon was particularly concerned about the prospect of Bilal Hussein getting effective defense from his lawyer, former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe. The judge was told to refuse to allow Bilal Hussein’s U.S. lawyer to participate in the case. The judge accepted this advice. Consequently, the U.S. military has a five-man team to press its case, but Bilal Hussein’s lawyer is silenced and not permitted to participate–and all of this has occurred as a result of U.S. Government intervention with the court. The irony of course is that under Iraqi law, the U.S. military has no authority or right to appear and prosecute, but Bilal Hussein’s chosen counsel has an absolute right.

There’s a lot of good (as in “interesting,” not as in “positive”) stuff here, including confirmation that the military is using friendly right-wing bloggers to bypass the tradtional media. Reading this, there is little doubt that this award-winning journalist — who risked his life to bring images from Iraq’s front line to the world and is greatly admired by those who’ve worked with him, like my Daily News colleague Jim MacMillan — will be found guilty by this kangaroo court and sent away for a long time. It’s frustrating. If the American and Iraqi authorities have real evidence that Bilal Hussein is a terrorist, it should be presented in a fair and open courtroom.

Here’s something else that’s even more maddening — America’s journalistic community is not stepping forward to try to stop this disgrace from happening. Tonight, I did a check via Nexis to see if any of America’s A-list newspapers were using their sharpest weapon — the editorial page — as a tool to advocate for justice for an Associated Press photojournalist. The results are sad, but not surprising, either.

The New York Times editorial page — in a piece addressing broader issues — mentioned the case some 15 months ago and called for Hussein to be released if he is not charged. but has not raised the issue in all the time since then. The Chicago Tribune also did an excellent editorial on Hussein using that he be given a fair trial or set free — but here, too, it was back in September of 2006.

The editorial page of the Los Angeles Times? Nada. Ditto for USA Today, which has also provided the least straight news coverage of Hussein’s 19-month detention. Washington Post gets some credit for running two separate op-eds from the head of the AP, Tom Curley, but its editorial page hasn’t said a word on his behalf.

Why not? American newspapers calling for a fair trial and an open process for an award-winning journalist of a U.S.-based news service — this one ought to be the proverbial “slam dunk.” Are they afraid that when this stacked deck falls on Hussein that a bunch of conservative bloggers will go, “Liberal media, nah hah hah nah hah”?

So what? The truth is, this kangaroo court for Bilal Hussein might not be happening at all if the American media called them out in big type. By instead remaining silent and allowing Hussein to be judged in the shadows, this travesty of justice becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The full story in
http://www.attytood.com/2007/12/why_wont_the_american_media_tr.html

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

CIA Torture and other War Crimes

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

CIA Torture and other War Crimes

By Philip Giraldi

12/26/07 “Yahoo” – — Personal accountability has all but disappeared from the American political system. Bill Clinton lied to his entire cabinet about Monica Lewinsky and not a single cabinet member resigned in protest after he was forced to recant. When Alberto Gonzales lied repeatedly during testimony before Congress everyone knew exactly what he was doing but no leading Democrat was willing to impeach him. The hopelessly incompetent Michael Brown was able to resign from FEMA without sanction to “avoid further distraction from the ongoing mission” and later even blamed everyone else for his shortcomings. Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Tommy Franks, George Tenet, and Paul Bremer were all rewarded for their incompetence, some with medals and some with promotions. Recent resignations from the Bush administration stemming from the massive policy failures of the past seven years have frequently been couched in terms of “wanting to spend more time with my family” though sometimes a bit of candor creeps in a la Trent Lott, who believes it is time to step down and follow the money as a lobbyist. Public Diplomacy Tsarina Karen Hughes arguably plans to do both, returning to Texas to rejoin her family while also cashing in through lucrative speaking engagements. During her two and a half years of Texas-style soccer mom diplomacy at State Department and in spite of a large budget, Hughes only succeeded in increasing the number of foreigners who actively dislike the United States. Never is a resignation from government service framed in terms of “Hey, I screwed up.”

The embrace of illegal detentions and torture are among the truly horrific decisions that can be attributed to the Bush White House. It is ironic to read the media accounts surrounding the recent discovery by shocked U.S. Marines of an alleged al-Qaeda torture center in Iraq’s Diyala province because the Marines work for a government that itself publicly embraces torture as an interrogation technique. And it is not just the White House. Torture is bipartisan. The recent House of Representatives intelligence appropriations bill included a clause that requires CIA to abide by the Geneva Conventions in its interrogation and detention policies. One hundred and ninety-nine Congressmen from both parties voted “no.” Even if some of the Congressmen voted against the bill for other reasons, there is a strong sense that many politicians consider torture to be perfectly okay. Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson have all jumped on that bandwagon, endorsing “enhanced interrogation” as a counter-terrorism tool. Mitt Romney, who might bolster his claims to be a Christian by occasionally perusing the compassionate message of the Sermon on the Mount instead of the Book of Mormon, even wants to make Guantanamo prison bigger. Giuliani appears to want to jail and torture lots of people all the time, but he is, admittedly, a pagan.

If senior managers at the Central Intelligence Agency actually worried about committing war crimes more than they cared about getting revenge on ragheads and advancing their careers, they wouldn’t have tortured anyone in the first place back in 2002. Shortly after 9/11, the redoubtable armchair warrior Vice President Dick Cheney, who famously had other priorities and avoided military service by virtue of five deferments during Vietnam, announced that the “gloves are off” in reference to America’s enemies. Those comments set the tone and ushered in the exciting days of “anything goes” when Cofer Black, chief of the Agency’s Counter Terrorism Center, sent out his myrmidons with orders to come back with Usama bin Laden’s head in a box. Somehow, that head turned out to be Saddam Hussein’s.

Ethically, torture degrades the country that permits it, the organization that carries it out and the individuals who perform it. Doctors are not present during torture as it would violate the Hippocratic Oath, so it is up to the torturer to decide how far to go. If a victim dies while being interrogated by torture, as has happened a number of times in both Afghanistan and Iraq, it is both a war crime and murder.

Most intelligence and law enforcement officers reject torture as an interrogation tool, knowing that it more often than not produces false information. The FBI claims that the CIA waterboarding of terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah was unnecessary, that he was already cooperating. Waterboarding, which was used extensively both by the Gestapo and by the Spanish Inquisition, is a particularly heinous form of torture as it simulates death. With U.S. troops deployed all over the world at the present time, sanctioning torture lowers the bar for terrorists who might happen to capture an American soldier or diplomat to do likewise. Even in 2002 someone with a bit of foresight might have anticipated the possible consequences arising from the CIA’s use of torture and its more general bull in the china shop approach. Someone with a bit of backbone and an intact moral compass might even have even resigned in protest, but, alas, there were few of those types around.

What has made CIA’s so-called leaders really nervous in the current political environment is not the ethical or moral issue of torture per se. It is the thought of getting sued by the victims and victim advocacy groups, which means hiring expensive lawyers. Donald Rumsfeld’s flight from Paris in late November to avoid war crimes charges also raises the possibility that an otherwise pleasant trip to Provence or Tuscany might have to be curtailed if some Euro-version of a pasty-face peace creep tries to file a lawsuit. Fortunately for all the torturers at CIA, there is now a government reimbursed private insurance program designed to cover contingencies. When former Chief of Clandestine Operations Jose Rodriguez was subpoenaed to appear before a Congressional committee last week, he was able to afford representation by the redoubtable Robert Bennett.

The latest CIA scandal began in 2002 when at least two terrorist suspects were videotaped while they were being subjected to the waterboarding version of “enhanced interrogation.” The questioning took place somewhere in Asia, possibly in a Pakistani or Thai prison but more likely at either Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan or at Diego Garcia Island, in the Indian Ocean, where the CIA maintains “off-sites.” In May 2003, CIA told Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema that there were no recordings or other records of the interrogations. That was a lie. In 2003 and 2004, the Congressional 9/11 Commission made “repeated and detailed inquiries relating to interrogations.” The CIA said there was no additional material, another lie. In June 2005, Director of Operations Jose Rodriguez ordered the tapes destroyed. The order came, perhaps not coincidentally, just as the Italian authorities were entering into the investigative phase of a major inquiry into CIA renditions in Italy.

CIA now claims that the tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of the agency interrogators involved. That argument is complete nonsense. Unless the cameraman was suffering from delirium tremens and shaking uncontrollably, the camera would have been focused on the victim of the torture, not on those administering it. In any event, terrorists would hardly be able to identify and gain access to an otherwise unremarkable and nameless CIA employee from what they might see on a tape, even if they could get hold of a copy.

The real reason for the cover-up on the tapes is because torture is universally acknowledged to be a war crime and everyone in the CIA and White House hierarchy knows that to be true. The denial that the tapes existed in 2003 and 2004 could not have taken place without the concurrence of Director George Tenet, Deputy Director John McLaughlin, and General Counsel Scott Muller. Probably then-Director of Operations James Pavitt would have also been involved. When Rodriguez destroyed the tapes in 2005, he was not acting alone. Director Porter Goss almost certainly would have been part of the decision making process as well as acting General Counsel John Rizzo and it is tempting to speculate that White House aides like Dick Cheney’s David Addington and President Bush’s Harriet Miers might also have been in the loop.

Looking for war crimes committed by members of the Bush administration is a complicated exercise because there are so many to go around. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo come immediately to mind. The Nuremburg Tribunals at the end of the Second World War defined an aggressive war against another country if that country has not attacked you first or threatened to do so as “essentially an evil thing…to initiate a war of aggression…is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” A number of leading Nazis were executed for their unprovoked attack on Poland. The Bush administration has its own Poland in Iraq, and if there is an American attack on Iran it would also fit the Nuremberg definition. Unlike at Nuremberg, however, no one will be held accountable.

The full story in
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20071226/cm_huffpost/078276

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Our (US) Presidents New Best Friend Boils People Alive

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Our (US) Presidents New Best Friend Boils People Alive

See Also: Just Who Is Our New Best Friend This 29 minute video explores the reality of life in Uzbekistan

06/26/03: Let me introduce you to our presidents new best friend, President Karimov of Uzbekistan.

President Karimov government was awarded $500m in aid from the Bush administration in 2002. The SNB (Uzbekistan’s security service) received $79m of this sum.

The U.S. State Department web site states “Uzbekistan is not a democracy and does not have a free press. Many opponents of the government have fled, and others have been arrested.” and “The police force and the intelligence service use torture as a routine investigation technique.”

Now I would like to introduce you to Muzafar Avazov, a 35-year old father of four. Mr Avazov had a visit from our presidents friends security force (SNB), the photographs below detail the brutality and inhuman treatment our tax dollars subsidize, with the full knowledge of our president and his administration.

 

Muzafar Avazov, body showed signs of burns on the legs, buttocks, lower back and arms. Sixty to seventy percent of the body was burnt, according to official sources. Doctors who saw the body reported that such burns could only have been caused by immersing Avazov in boiling water. Those who saw the body also reported that there was a large, bloody wound on the back of the head, heavy bruising on the forehead and side of the neck, and that his hands had no fingernails.

WARNING

The pictures of Mr. Avazov’s body are horrific and should only be viewed by a mature audience

 

 

 

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH:

Deaths Reveal “Horror” of Uzbek Prisons

(New York, August 10, 2002) Two suspicious deaths with apparent signs of torture highlight Uzbekistan’s brutal ongoing crackdown against independent Muslims, Human Rights Watch said today. The bodies of Muzafar Avazov and Husnidin Alimov, both religious prisoners at Jaslyk Prison, were returned to family members for burial in Tashkent Thursday.

Individuals who had seen one of the bodies told Human Rights Watch that it showed clear signs of torture. The authorities reportedly restricted viewing of the second body. Both men had been imprisoned at Jaslyk Prison, well-known for its harsh conditions and ill-treatment and torture of religious prisoners.

Human Rights Watch has learned that the body of Muzafar Avazov, a 35-year old father of four, showed signs of burns on the legs, buttocks, lower back and arms. Sixty to seventy percent of the body was burnt, according to official sources. Doctors who saw the body reported that such burns could only have been caused by immersing Avazov in boiling water. Those who saw the body also reported that there was a large, bloody wound on the back of the head, heavy bruising on the forehead and side of the neck, and that his hands had no fingernails.

“These deaths reveal the horror of Uzbek prisons,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. “It seems the small signs of progress on torture we had seen were mere window-dressing, intended to hide Uzbekistan’s persistent problem and placate international critics.”

These latest incidents of serious human rights violations could complicate Uzbekistan’s relations with the United States. The United States has allied itself closely with Uzbekistan in the war against terrorism, but U.S. government officials have expressed concern that Uzbekistan’s harsh treatment of independent Muslims could be counterproductive to the anti-terror effort. The U.S. government recently adopted a law requiring that before delivering aid to the Uzbek government, the Bush administration must determine that Uzbekistan is making “substantial and continuing progress” in meeting the human rights commitments contained in a U.S.-Uzbekistan March 2002 joint declaration.

Uzbek authorities, including numerous police officers, brought the body of Muzafar Avazov, to the family home at about 3:30 p.m. on August 8. Police cars surrounded the area and checked visitors who approached the house, preventing some from entering. When the burial occurred at 6:00 p.m. that evening, police closed the road to traffic. Authorities from the office of General Prosecutor Rashidjon Kodirov reportedly threatened the family not to talk to the media or give interviews to others about the circumstances surrounding Avazov’s death. In May 2002, Human Rights Watch received reports that prison authorities had beaten Muzafar Avazov and put him in a punishment cell for stating that nothing could stop him from performing his prayers.

The authorities also returned the body of 34-year old Husnidin Alimov to his family in Tashkent on August 8, but they reportedly restricted viewing of the body. Prior to the death, relatives of people imprisoned in Jaslyk told Human Rights Watch that prison officials had placed Alimov in a punishment cell. He was reportedly placed there before the end of June and spent many weeks there before his death. Prisoners are often placed in such cells for praying or refusing to ask for forgiveness from Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Conditions are reportedly severe and beatings common. “Deaths under such circumstances are highly suspicious,” said Andersen. “The Uzbek government must ensure that full and open investigations are conducted into these deaths and into the conditions and treatment of prisoners in Jaslyk. There is an urgent need for regular, independent, international monitoring of conditions there.” A large number of police accompanied Alimov’s body and were present during the funeral.

The father of another man who died in May, apparently after terrible beatings in Jaslyk, was reportedly detained by police directly after the funeral and sentenced Friday to 15 days in custody on an administrative charge, related to his attendance at the funeral. Police reportedly questioned him about how he heard about the funeral and why he attended. Both men were serving prison sentences on charges related to their religious activity. Since 1997, the government of Uzbekistan has waged a campaign against religious Muslims who practice their faith outside of state controls. The peaceful expression of independent religious views has landed thousands in prison on charges of extremism. The government has particularly targeted members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a banned Islamic group that calls for the peaceful reestablishment of the Caliphate in Central Asia. Uzbek authorities routinely prosecute those accused of affiliation with the group on charges of anti-state activities or possession or distribution of “illegal religious materials.” “Torture is an unmistakable feature of this campaign,” said Andersen. In the past fifteen months alone, Human Rights Watch has documented 11 deaths arising from suspicious circumstances in custody. According to information from the human rights group Memorial, Alimov was sentenced in 1999 to 16 years in prison, on a range of charges, including spreading religious “extremist” materials. Avazov was sentenced in mid-2000 to 20 years in prison. He had been accused of membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir. His sentence was reduced on appeal in February 2001 to 19 years.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

The full story in
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3943.htm

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Lies, Injustice and the Capitalist Way: We’re on the Highway to Hell – Don’t Stop Us!

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Lies, Injustice and the Capitalist Way: We’re on the Highway to Hell – Don’t Stop Us!

Jason Miller

“We are riding alongside Angus and Malcolm Young on the ‘Highway to Hell.”

We “Free World” capitalistic Westerners are a loathsome lot—or to put it more crudely, we suck. When one considers how degenerate we are from a collective standpoint, it is difficult to suppress intense feelings of disgust and contempt. There are many layers to our repugnant, depraved, and “beloved” capitalism, a socioeconomic system which ultimately furnishes the members of its upper echelon with de facto licenses to exploit, plunder, and murder with impunity. Problem is that as one peels back each successive layer hoping to find some purity, one finds a more profound rot.

We have fouled our own environment to the point that recovery and renewal may be impossible; we eradicate non-human animals at an estimated rate of 100 species per day; we slaughter millions upon millions of human beings in wars of imperial aggression driven by capitalism’s insatiable demand for resources and market expansion; we torture and slaughter billions of non-human animals to please our palates; and we insist upon imposing a system of infinite demand upon an all too finite planet.

Yet despite our multi-century “bender” and its obvious consequences, and despite the rational, egalitarian, just, and sustainable alternative which sprung from the minds of Marx and Engels (along with countless others who have contributed to the evolution of their brainchild), we cling to an abomination whose chief benefactors (the ruling class and their sycophantic propagandists in the mainstream media) deserve to be publicly flogged and then imprisoned in the gulag they devised to control the lower classes and black population.

Our collective selfishness, self-absorption, narcissism, greed, and mean-spiritedness are psychic malformations wrought by the wretched systemic exploitation we hold so dear to our withered, Grinch-like hearts. Smug and self-satisfied in our deeply rooted belief in the idiocy that despicable character traits like greed and selfishness can be harnessed in such a way that they provide virtuous means to benevolent ends, we revel in the delusion that the tremendous effort necessary to nurture the human spirit is a waste of time. The uglier and coarser we become on the inside, the greater our likelihood of achieving “success” by the standards of our soul-murdering society. Our worship of a man like Donald Trump as a cultural icon demonstrates how spiritually perverse we have become.

Apologists argue that “true capitalism” doesn’t exist because we have a “mixed economy.” It isn’t enough that one of the most affluent societies in history has 3.5 million homeless human beings, 46 million people without a viable means to attain proper healthcare, deteriorating public infrastructures, a wealth gap that would prick the consciences of the Robber Barons, larcenous CEO compensation, economic apartheid, and trillions of dollars of public money devoted to funding a murderous military machine that serves to ensure that our bourgeois parasites have uninterrupted access to the resources and markets they crave. According to wild-eyed libertarians and our blood-sucking plutocracy, we still need to root out the “socialist” elements that are contaminating our “sacred” free market. You know, that “free market” that inflicted abject misery upon the masses in the United States during the Gilded Age, throughout South America under the tutelage of the human pile of feces known as Milton Friedman (may Satan torment his soul), and in present day China. The excesses, irrationalities, and corrupt nature of capitalism are destroying the world. So let’s implement a more extreme form. What a brilliant notion!

As transparently ridiculous as it is, many amongst the poor and working class in the United States (a group which comprises about 80% of the population) continue to pledge their undying allegiance to a system in which they are merely cogs and cannon fodder serving at the pleasure of their opulent masters.

How have the cynical and ruthless ruling elite of the United States and the “Axis of Good” accomplished this seemingly impossible feat?

In breathtakingly simple fashion. Battering their “inferiors” with a dizzying array of cleverly crafted psychological assaults from cradle to grave, the plutocracy maintains the mass delusion that a system that exploits and impoverishes a majority of the population, rapes the Earth, and necessitates endless resource wars represents the pinnacle of our socioeconomic development.

Many of us suffer from such a deeply fractured (or perhaps butchered) consciousness that even when presented with a humane and sane alternative to the malevolent insanity of capitalism, we still rally to the cause of our bourgeois oppressors. What “patriotic American” isn’t on board with vilifying, blockading, crippling, “regime-changing,” and even invading nearly any nation that dares to implement a system that even remotely resembles socialism, Marxism, or worst of all, Communism? Uh-oh! Hugo Chavez’s social uplift programs are threatening the interests of the millionaires and billionaires of Venezuela (wretched people who have been fucking the poor of their nation for many years). Hurry! Everybody in the United States who is poor or working class! Let’s rush to side with the wealthy elite and support US-sponsored efforts to undermine and depose Chavez!

Deftly applying the superb agitprop techniques developed by Bernays, armies of advertisers, public relations “experts,” government-funded researchers, pundits, talk show hosts, “journalists,” and academics whore for the system to ensure that the masses remain in a perpetual state of moral delusion. How else could they hope to sustain a system that contradicts nearly every decent and humane instinct a human being possesses?

Consider that in the upside-down world the “keepers of the capitalist faith” have contrived, many vices and despicable human traits have been elevated to the status of virtue. Selfishness, avarice, ego, self-absorption, narcissism, careerism, winning at all costs, crushing the competition, the ruthless pursuit of profit, and gluttonous consumption are “all in a day’s work” for the good little capitalists of America. Even those who have broken free of their indoctrination and recognize the depravity of enshrining infantile, mean-spirited, and cruel behavior have little choice but to practice it in some instances simply to survive in our reprehensible “dog eat dog” environment.

Given that the Ministry of Truth can convert vice into virtue, it doesn’t take a tremendous mental leap to conclude they can also do the opposite. In adhering to the insidious indoctrination they provide, we are robbed of experiencing the full spectrum of our humanity because we have been trained to trivialize the aspects of ourselves that would pose a significant threat to the filthy status quo. Imagine the problems a large contingent of people of conscience would present to the sociopaths who routinely wield their immense economic power to engage in wholesale terrorism (i.e. the Iraqi genocide that began with the Gulf War, perpetuated with Clinton’s merciless economic sanctions, and continues to this very moment via the Bush Regime’s Nuremberg class war crimes). Thankfully for these soulless shells posing as human beings, most of the us in the United States have been bribed and brain-washed into complacency and complicity to the extent that with respect to the illegal occupation, we are flag wavers, indifferent by-standers, or protesters essentially rendered impotent by the overwhelming resources and might of the ruling class. Tragically, Bush and his ilk will probably never receive the trials and hangings they so richly deserve.

As we busy ourselves compulsively pursuing the acquisition of material possessions, looking out for number one, vying for promotions, building and preserving our egos, and gorging on the latest brain candy the mainstream media is peddling, who wants to “endure the agony” of engaging in introspection, thinking critically, educating oneself, acting on one’s conscience, empathizing, or pursuing a principled existence? Giving a damn isn’t worth the trouble when we can simply swallow the lies, take the bribes, and let the rest of the human and non-human animals of the world pay our outrageous bills (using their pain and blood as currency).

But we do need to realize that our path to hell isn’t paved with good intentions; we are racing along a road to perdition comprised of suffering, subjugation, oppression, theft, destruction, and wholesale murder.

We are riding alongside Angus and Malcolm Young on the “Highway to Hell.”

-###-

December 26, 2007 Jason Miller is a recovering US American middle class suburbanite who strives to remain intellectually free. He is Cyrano’s Journal Online’s associate editor http://www.bestcyrano.org and publishes Thomas Paine’s Corner within Cyrano’s at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE. You can reach him at JMiller@bestcyrano.com Lies, Injustice and the Capitalist Way: We’re on the Highway to Hell—Don’t Stop Us!

The full story in
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/12/26/lies_injustice_and_the_capitalist_way_we

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Christians, too, suffer the evilness of the occupation : A MUST READ, FOR ZIONIST LOVER

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Christians, too, suffer the evilness of the occupation

A MUST READ, FOR ZIONIST LOVER

Khalid Amayreh

The Palestinian Information Center

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah arrives at the
IOF checkpoint outside Bethlehem

From Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem

Christmas is a season of good will. However, for Israel and its notoriously mendacious propaganda machine, Christmas is also a hasbara opportunity for spreading lies and disseminating disinformation and half truths about Christians in the Holy Land.

The usual seasonal dosage of lies includes such claims that Christians in the Holy Land suffer more from Muslim persecution than from the Israeli and apartheid, and that Christian emigration is not really attributed to Israel’s Nazi-like repression of the Palestinian people but rather to Palestinian “Muslim” intolerance and violence.

Well, such lies are not new. Israel itself is a state based on lies and lying has always been and continues to be Israel’s policy and modus operandi. In fact, it is very hard for one to be Zionist and not to be a liar. In truth, Zionism and mendacity are two sides of the same coin.

Didn’t Zionism claim that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land?

Didn’t Zionism claim that Palestinian refugees fled their homes and towns willingly and that Israel was in no way responsible for their flight?

Didn’t Israel tell the world that the Israeli occupation army was the most moral army in the world, and that Israeli soldiers didn’t knowingly and deliberately kill Palestinian children and civilians, and that the numerous acts of murder and maiming by the Israeli army were merely regrettable accidents?

And even now, and despite Israel’s nakedness before the peoples of the world, this shameless state and its professional liars and spin doctors continue to claim ad nauseam that Israel is a democratic state where the rule of law is supreme.

Well, do democratic states act and behave the way Israel is acting and behaving? Do democratic states classify citizens and subjects into Ubermensch and untermensch?

I know for sure that our Christian-Palestinian brothers and sisters shall never allow Israel to use them as hasbara pawns in the service of oppression, racism and ethnic cleansing.

The Christians of Palestine, who have received their share of suffering and oppression at the hands of Zionism know more than anybody else that the wickedness of the occupation doesn’t distinguish between them and their Muslim compatriots.

In November, 1948, the Hagana terrorists overran the two Christian villages of Ikrit and Birim in the upper Galilee, expelling inhabitants at gunpoint. The pogrom-like expulsion was carried out without the Israeli government approval. However, the democratic Israeli state never allowed the Christian inhabitants to return, despite several rulings to the contrary by the Israeli High Court.

Since 1967, Israel, has been trying to play all kinds of dirty tactics to tamper with Palestinian national unity, especially by playing Muslim against Christian and vice versa.

A few years ago, the Israeli Intelligence instructed its agents to throw stones and Molotov cocktails on several churches in the northern and central parts of the West Bank, apparently in order to use the incidents as hasbara ammunition in North America where public opinion was already overcharged against anything Arab or Islamic.

Meanwhile, the Israeli media, especially right-wing newspapers such as the Jerusalem Post, was concocting and inventing stories about Christian girls being raped and murdered by Palestinians in Bethlehem.

Such fabrications would be readily inflated, spun out of proportions and then widely disseminated especially among evangelical fundamentalists. Eventually, this would be translated into political support for Israeli colonialism and ethnic cleansing against both Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land.

Of course, many innocent and often naïve Americans and Canadians have no idea what kind of treatment is being meted out to Christians in the West Bank at the hands of Israeli occupiers.

They don’t know that Israel is systematically stealing, at gunpoint, Church property and real estate in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahur and Jerusalem.

They don’t know that Israel routinely bars Christians, laymen and clergy, from accessing their holy places in Jerusalem, e.g. the Church of the Sepulcher.

They don’t know that Israeli Jewish youths routinely harass, even spit on clergymen in the streets of Jerusalem, often in full view of policemen who in most cases remain passive.

They don’t know that Christian commuters are routinely humiliated at roadblocks manned by trigger-happy soldiers, which make their daily lives an unending nightmare?

They don’t know that Israel has already morphed Bethlehem into a ghetto thanks to this Wall of Shame which Israel calls “separation wall” when in reality it is designed to grab and steal as much Palestinian land as possible.

Well, just come to Bethlehem and see for yourself. It is a nightmare, it is hell on earth, and it is done by a people who claim to be a light upon the nations.

If Christians in North America knew how Israel is acting and behaving toward their fellow Christian coreligionists and, of course, toward other Palestinians, they probably would start to change their views.

That is why it is imperative that Christians, especially in North America, make some serious efforts to know the truth about Israel and its crimes.

This can be done through third-party sources such as human rights organizations and western groups operating in the West Bank such as the Christian Peace Making Team and the International Solidarity Movement.

In short, Israeli and pro-Israeli media wouldn’t tell the truth about Israeli crimes against Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike. So try to find alternative sources of news to know the truth about what is really happening in the Holy Land.

Don’t allow yourself to be duped and enslaved by Zionist lies.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

© 2007 Khalid Amayreh

SOURCE:
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/12/26/christians_too_suffer_the_evilness_of_th
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7aIw95B7Qx%2bSr14
GuimmzdEJGZ0TXEBm7FnncNN4OBPivZ4rwReLB%2f7xp0PqqrRf7laHGbxTf5CA0TVsLwv
N8XAk6hIfaUgXBZH%2b16OEHsIY%3d

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

War Criminal : Israel has megaton nuclear bombs’

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By Press TV News on December 25,2007

A Washington-based military think tank has revealed that the Zionist regime has produced nuclear weapons with ‘a yield of one megaton’.A new report complied by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) claims Israeli nuclear warheads have both air and sea capabilities.

The study, authored by former US Defense Department strategist Anthony Cordesman, disclosed that Israel is currently ‘in possession of 200 nuclear warheads’.

Megaton nuclear bombs are about twice the size of MK 18, the most powerful US-made fission bomb, which used 60kg of enriched uranium.

Israel is widely believed to possess the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East; however, it neither denies nor confirms having a nuclear arsenal.

The CSIS report comes at a time when the Zionists officials have launched psywar against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear energy program.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and senior adviser to three US presidents, including George W. Bush, has recently claimed Israel will ultimately attack Iran in a bid to defend its ‘nuclear monopoly’ in the region.

The full story in
http://daily1world.com/english/news/Middle-East/Israel-has-megaton-nuclear-bombs.html

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 25 December 2007

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 25 December 2007

Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org

• Bomb wounds three US troops near al-Fallujah Tuesday.
• Triple bombing in Bayji kills 23, Shi’i sectarian puppet regime uses opportunity to turn on US-recruited Sunni collaborators.
• US troops raid home in al-Mawsil early Sunday, kill father, son without explanation.

Al-Anbar Province.

Al-Fallujah.

Bomb wounds three US troops near al-Fallujah Tuesday.

In a dispatch posted at 2:10pm Baghdad time Tuesday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by a patrol of seven Humvees in the as-Saqlawiyah area, 17km north of al-Fallujah (which is 60km west of Baghdad) on Tuesday.

Yaqen reported an officer in the al-Fallujah puppet police who asked not to be identified as saying that three US troops were wounded when the bomb went off by their Humvee. The blast severely damaged the Humvee. After the attack, the three wounded Americans were evacuated to a US position in as-Saqlawiyah for medical treatment.

The source said that following the attack, US forces launched a campaign of raids and arrests in the area, rounding up three youths. As of the time of reporting, the Americans had made no statement regarding the bombing.

Salah ad-Din Province.
Bayji.

Triple bombing in Bayji kills 23, Shi’i sectarian puppet regime uses opportunity to turn on US-recruited Sunni collaborators.

A truck bomb and two individuals wearing explosive belts reported blew themselves up near a check point in the city of Bayji Tuesday, killing 23 and wounding more than 70 others.

In an intitial dispatch posted at 11am Baghdad time Tuesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a truck bomber drove his explosives-laden vehicle into the an-Naft neighborhood of the refinery town of Bayji, 200km north of Baghdad, and blew it up.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as initially saying that the attack occurred near the Bayji refinery and that in addition to the casualties, it damaged a number of buildings and cars that happened to be in the area at the time.

Then, in a dispatch posted at 4:12pm Tuesday afternoon, Yaqen reported that the number of casualties in the Tuesday bombing in Bayji had risen to 23 dead following the death of three of those who had been among the injured.

Yaqen reported that latest accounts were saying that the attack had been carried out by three persons simultaneously. One person drove an explosives-packed truck into a check point manned by puppet police, troops, and collaborationist “Awakening” police and blew up. Meanwhile, two other individuals blew themselves up at the same time that the truck bomber detonated his payload.

Meanwhile at 2pm Baghdad time Tuesday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that in the aftermath of the truck bombing, the puppet “Iraqi Minister of the Interior” Jawad al-Bulani, had issued an order at noon Tuesday, dismissing Colonel Sa’d an-Nufus, the chief of the Bayji puppet police. ‘Abd al-Karim Khalaf, the director of the puppet “Interior Ministry” National Command Center said that an investigation into the activities of an-Nufus was also part of the “Minister’s” order.

Additionally, the puppet “Minister of the Interior” ordered the arrest of all the collaborationist “Bayji Awakening” tribal police guards at their headquarters.

In recent weeks the US has been working to entice Sunni tribal elements to collaborate with the American occupation authorities, a move violently opposed by the US-installed puppet regime in Baghdad, particularly by officials in the puppet “Ministry of the Interior” and “Ministry of Defence,” which are bastions of the Shi’i sectarian clerical party supporters – elements that have ruled unopposed and with US support since the American invasion in 2003.

Yaqen reported Khalaf as saying that the puppet “Iraqi Ministry of the Interior” had appointed an investigatory panel headed by the Chief of Operations in Samarra’, Major General Rashid Falih, to find out who was behind the truck bomb attack.

Diyala Province.
Ba’qubah.

Bomber targets funeral procession Tuesday morning.

In a dispatch posted at 10:55am Baghdad time Tuesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a man wearing an explosive belt blew himself up by a funeral procession in Ba’qubah, 65km northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday morning.

Later, in a dispatch posted at 12:55pm, Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police who refused to identify himself as saying that the attack in the al-Mu’allimin neighborhood of the city killed four people and wounded 20 more. The source provided no further details.

Babil Province.
Al-Haswah.

Mysterious mortar barrage wounds civilian in al-Haswah Monday night.

In a dispatch posted at 10:25am Baghdad time Tuesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that four mortar shells landed in the area of al-Haswah, 33km south of Baghdad on Monday night.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the barrage, which was of unknown origins, targeted the ‘Aday area of al-Haswah and injured one civilian and damaged several houses.

Ninwa Province.
Al-Mawsil.

Puppet “Governor” of Ninwa Province survives bomb attack on motorcade in al-Mawsil Tuesday afternoon.

In a dispatch posted at 4:03pm Baghdad time Tuesday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a bomb exploded by the motorcade of the puppet “Governor” of Ninwa Province, Durayd Muhammad Kashmulah, on Tuesday afternoon.

Yaqen reported a source in the press office of the puppet “Governor” as saying that a bomb went off by the armored vehicle in which Kashmulah was riding to the ash-Shurtah neighborhood in the al-Ghabat area to the north of al-Mawsil where he was to deliver Christmas greetings to the local Christian community. The blast wounded one of the “Governor’s” companions and the driver of his armored car. Kashmulah himself was apparently uninjured in the attack.

US troops raid home in al-Mawsil early Sunday, kill father, son without explanation.

In a dispatch posted at 11:55am Baghdad time Tuesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that US forces killed an officer in the former Iraqi Air Force along with his son and arrested another in a house raid they carried out in southeastern al-Mawsil, 420km northwest of Baghdad, at dawn Tuesday.

Yaqen reported Brigadier General ‘Abd al-Karim al-Jabburi as saying that US occupation troops raided a home in the al-Mithaq neighborhood of southeastern al-Mawsil. There the US troops killed a father and one of his sons and then arrested another son, aged 15. The precise reasons for the Americans’ latest killing were unknown, the puppet army general claimed.

General al-Jabburi did say, however, that the head of the household, whom the Americans gunned down in their raid, had been an officer in the Iraqi Air Force prior to the American invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. Most recently he had been working at a medical storehouse in al-Mawsil. As of the time of reporting, the Americans had provided no explanation for their latest killing of Iraqi civilians in their homes.

Unexplained gunbattle in al-Mawsil leaves three civilians reported dead.

In a dispatch posted at 11:25am Baghdad time Tuesday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that fighting took place in the as-Siddiq area of northeastern al-Mawsil on Tuesday morning.

Yaqen reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the gun battle killed three civilians and wounded a fourth.

http://uruknet.info/?p=m39549&hd=&size=1&l=e

Sources:
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21590&64edde9839e006402e26010be1589ff5
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21589&650a4daf79fd90470ccd49bf1e69e3bb
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21588&7b07f762b042687ace3f6f8d4a7b06e9
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21586&5765379c3fb5b29745f209905f0dfa29
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21576&ac2b39cd412d4a98cbb873a51f8c7c36
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21575&d86cf512ad52d6052bb5fb5fe857e21a
http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=21574&51fddcd4a6ef3fe49a52882adb0a753c
http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=57179
http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=57165
http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=57161
http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=57157
http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=57146
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3791
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3790
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3788
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3787
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3783
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3782
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3781
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3780
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3779
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3777
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3776
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3775
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3774
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3773
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3772
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3769
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3768
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3767
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3766
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3765
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3764
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3762
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3761
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3760
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3759
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3756
http://www.yaqen.net/?p=3755

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Al-Dhari Sends A Letter To Iraqi Tribes

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Al-Dhari Sends A Letter To Iraqi Tribes

Dr. Harith Al-Dhari , AMSI

Sunday, 23 December 2007 The esteemed Secretary General of AMSI Sheikh Harith Al-Dhari has sent an open letter to the Iraqis tribes; the letter was broadcasted directly from Aljazeera TV on the Friday, 30 Nov. Here, the details: Praise be to Allah, peace and prayer to the prophet of Allah, His family and His companions, We direct this letter to good Iraqi tribes, the supporters of its texture, the guarantee of its unity and peace. They are the ladder of rescue from the occupation wells, to glamour Iraqi tribes in North, in South and in the mid of our beloved country in their various sects and ethnics. Generous Iraqi Brothers… The good willing Iraqi sons You were at the vision of the enemy since a long time in the history. You were the shelter for good deed in the motherland because you are representing the real power in the country. So the enemy wants to reach the aim they have planned through yourselves. The friends of the occupiers also want to reach the same aim via your assistances. On the contrary of that the pure, good deed and country lovers want the assistances from you in any occasion that harm the land such as occupation and liberation struggle of the said occupation. However, thanks Allah, you were always a thorn in the eyes of the enemy that kept them away of their evil projects. You were a naked sword in the hands of good deed powers would not replace in its sheath until the land is liberated. So we promised to continue on as the far and the near past. The best nearest condemnation was the blessed twentieth revolution (1921 Brigades); you were its heroes of the combat as Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and others. Esteemed Brothers Today Iraq is passing through a great combat which has not been seen in the history before. The event of occupying a country by a super power that wants to control the whole world was not happened before. Your sons have let the enemy to taste the bitter life. It is under a great crises and it is almost suffocated. The American Congress has conditioned the subject of confirming of assisting the army with financial aids to withdraw. Because dozens of soldiers were killed and death on them has not been stopped even one moment. The war on Iraq is rather unacceptable matter so we are just about gaining the victory and getting rid of the occupation if Allah is willing to. Dearest But the enemy is still not hopeless yet. It is searching for a trick in order to rescue itself and to protect a little bit of shame. The enemy considered you as a nation without any mass and heaviness so it has aimed you by invasion of your country attempting to wipe up all values of Iraqi nation. That is why the houses, homes and shelters were attacked. That is why your honest people were pulled to prisons and to wipe your tradition and the customary way of living. This time the enemy seems to you as a good friend; it seems that his only aim is to assist you. However all are false. The enemy wants to pull you into projects and gatherings against each other of the nation’s sons. But you are the tribes’ sons who are experienced and many people are learning the life lessons from you. You never move with such disgusting and false things. Dear Brothers Our enemy has spent too many efforts since the occupation to divide the country as to sects and ethnicities. Because such attempts will led the country to be weak, smashed and to remain in chaos which will be in an inability condition to develop itself. They want to keep Iraq a second Lebanon. You can see the friend country that some times explained as the gem of the region. Today’s condition is not pleasing the friend; since the sectarian and ethnical events were subjected the country that could not take decisions or has any settlements. Lebanon became uncovered field that everybody (the near and the far) interfere in its affairs on the account of the people’s security and goodness. When prime minister is assassinated the dissension between them will be ignited and various accusations are started. When the elections were close up the crisis started as if they are just about to get into a combat. Today in order to elect a president, you will see their country is shaken from one side to another. The countries in east and west interfere in order to impose their agents, politics and benefits. If Lebanon was a strong country these would have never happened. The Lebanese people are good people, their bad system harmed them so they tried too hard in several stages to cure the wounds and exceed the pains in case to live in peace. But its enemies were attempting to scatter the security when it has somehow a quite life, the symbols of the country as the leaders and commanders were one of the followed methods to realize their aim. A civil war was ignited lasted for more than fifteen years that wiped the green and the dry and sanked the country into debits. Today they want the same fire be ignited again. We, in the meantime, pray Allah to save this Arab country from all crises and keep them with peace, security, strength and settlement. We also call all Iraqis to consider the Lebanese events as a lesson. Because the enemy is trying to move the peace of our nation into the same manner; they want to pass the same as Lebanon. You have to remember that Command Council that has divided the country on the bases of sects and ethnics. Then they came to the preparation of the constitution which was the support of the program. It has prepared the base in order to turn the theory into a practice. The politics of sectarian murdering is on the shoulders of the occupation and the internal and external evil powers that have assisted them in order to realize the division. We are still paying its value too expensive as we had paid before. The mischief-making of occupation and similar politics are the reasons for that. All these politics are aiming to keep Iraq and its people weak. Baydin Project was too bad which divided Iraq into divisions in order to feel the pulse and then to see that the idea is sat down. I witness that you have increased our pride and disappointed your enemy when you announced your ejection to the project. Thanks Allah for the attitude you chose. Yes, some politicians are innocent of the confirmation of the political operation. The politicians that confirmed the operation are now turned, as it is known to all, over to their own benefit. The most important thing for them in the federalism is to keep them on top and continue to have the wealth of the country not only for themselves but for their progenies after them. They have turned the lives of the innocent people into hell. They never served them a single beneficial thing, do you think what will happen if the command of the country turned to them. Today the occupation is attempting to another way of realizing the project. The new attempt is to scatter the unity of the sects, the unity of the tribes and the unity of the region. Then they will constitute new cantons and armed regions killing each other and making war commanders in order to rivalry among themselves. Then they will ignite the dissension fire in our beloved country keeping it weak and sick at last to reach the country into internal war. No doubt for the tribes’ sons that the most important thing is a successful land. The enemy will spend energy and property to build centers of polarity inside a tribe and they will feed the polarity with properties and weapons and of course from the Iraqi wealth too, then the internal conflict will start. The enemy has really started to take such action in the med and South of Iraq, so, o sons of tribes be careful. Dearest sons of Iraq Before a couple of days the occupation country USA President has permitted himself to study an agreement about the sovereignty of Iraq and the high benefit behind a closed door with the today’s Prime Minister who has assign him before and gained to him a big support in spite of being the worst person assigned as the head of the government. Now they want from him to the price as selling Iraq to a master, as this person never cares about Iraq just only for his position. So he prepared to sell Iraq. This document is contained the support of the occupation country to the current government and his developed security system for a long time scheme. The so-called security system has killed the people of Iraq in South, in North and the midst of the country. It has also imposed many kinds of tortures. This was documented by International Human Rights Organization. The way of practicing of the said system is as if the Iraqi people are the enemies. Yes, it performs so and applies such course. In the same time an assistance to wipe its enemies was given to this government in the agreement. The enemies as they consider are anybody who stands against their path, the tribes’ symbols and the legal Iraqi resistance as well as any voice rejects this injustice procedure of the government will be at the lion’s mouth. It has consisted also, the reputation of the current constitution and protects it and refuses any attempts that could delay or postponed it. You know that this constitution is the reasons of all these problems after the occupation. It has the articles of partition; the self control of the nation was illegally gone. It was written by these parties whom are friendly with occupation and its projects. This document that is intending to be signed next year has also contained signing long terms military, security and economical agreements and other many evil things. -The Prime Minister has agreed on in order to realize his masters’ wishes. The document is as a mortgage Iraq together with its wealth and future. This is the real scandal, scandal to US Administration that did not stop by occupying and destroying Iraq but want to occupy it forever. It is scandal for the politicians whom were assigned and accept to serve them. For the US President and his cabinet they have to stop ignoring the self controlling of the Iraqi nation, the International treaties and the violation of the Iraqi person. They should thing about their mistakes which were done against the nation and have to submit their excuses and compensate them for what they have lost with justice. Their dream of conquering Iraq and sucking its wealth will never be realized with assistance of Almighty Allah. Dear Brothers We have no other chance unless tied ourselves to Allah’s strength, then looking to our unity and consider the aggression of it as red lined error, continuing on with big efforts to get rid of the enemy and its remainders and expel them out of the country’s territory whatever could be the difficulties. We have also wounds of our injuries and to be gathered in order to plot for our bright future away from the enemy’s aim and goals. We are with all Iraqi sons; we are with you to prepare for our country’s future. We will not permit and agree for anybody to interfere in our affairs and to divide us. We have the right to live in security and freedom and sovereignty in the framework of unified Iraq. The occupation has to leave the country first, in order to manage ourselves. The occupation puts the hindrances, the occupation from time to time is igniting different dissensions among us and constitutes the sects, ethnics, social, economical and security and other problems. Unfortunately the enemy has somebody of us who is assisting and helping to apply the plans came in sake it. All these aims are for remaining the chaos over Iraq and in case to feel that as if we are in need to the occupation and the conditions will go more badly. As we will thing if the occupation with its forces of hundreds of thousands of armed forces could not control the Iraqi condition how come we could after the occupation leave? This is the occupation and who is dependent claims and wants us to think so. Some has fallen in the fishing net and started to accept the occupation whereas they were against it yesterday. They think that if the occupation remains in Iraq an internal war will never happen. On the contrary the occupation is the base of the problems, the crises and the crimes were increased in their existence which the Iraqis never have seen before even the Iraq’s history. Do you think why? Because the occupation itself is behind it. Can you see when we could reach to solve problem and pull out its roots another problem is appeared in front of us in case to hinder of solving the first and so on. The problems and the dissension will never be solved in this case. But when the occupation is left then we will be able to get all problems be solved. We the Iraqis don’t have great problems; our land is vast and can contain much more population then todays. Thanks Allah our land is a fertile from the North down to the South. It has a big quantity of water and our resources are enough for us. Even though it is enough for the coming generations. These are the reasons which let our enemies to perform their evil aim. Let’s agree on to be one hand in order to expel them out of the country. Dear the Country’s Beloved Sons Countries all over the world have got troops and armies that defend and protects in abnormal conditions. When the enemy has invaded our country and attempting to humiliate us, the first step was dissolving the Iraqi army. This action was intentional in order to keep us without protection. The Iraqi Army was one of the strongest army in the world and had a high experience; billions of our wealth was spend to organize it. How can we leave it!? Why shall we keep silent without doing something? This is the enemy’s wish. This army only consists of our sons. They were an honorable vision of Iraq. Because they were from every sects and ethnicities at last they are were Iraqis. They have learned the faith to the motherland away of any sectarian and ethnical ideas. So we are calling to re-collect them again in spite of false rumors because the rancors could see how they were serving the country. If there were any personalities in the previous army whom had harmed the country and the nation, this is something could be resolved and be punished anyway but not resolving the whole army for some bad persons. We are really in need for such efficient army especially these days. Think about today’s army and the security system. They were fundamentally established to serve the occupants and perform its projects. What did we benefit of their existence? The murdering in side one sect, killings in the different ethnics, stealing the peoples and the state properties as the petroleum, killing the innocents, invading the cities together with the occupants, torturing the prisoners, destroying the Mosques and religious places, all these and other were performed by those groups… How we could expect that they will rescue us from the torture? No doubt brothers, there are some people between them who don’t like performing injustice doings, but unfortunately they cannot do anything, the good personalities may be chosen among them. If this military establishment relieves again after the occupation leaves, the security and the natural condition of Iraq will be retained again. Afterwards, all armed elements will be diminished. There will be a certain precaution that prohibits holding any kind of weapons whatsoever be the reason. Let’s do our best to re-collect the national army again, and let us to close our ears to those who wish to announce false ideas. Dear Brothers The future of Iraq will not be affected by anybody. We are able to plot our future – with assistance of God – , the duty will be done with the efficient personalities. They can exceed the difficulties and put all their abilities to re-construct the country again without looking at their sect or ethnics. The legal dialogue will be its formation; the political performance with a particular sect or ethnic will be restricted. We could also agree on editing a new constitution that could protect the rights of all away of occupation destruction, a constitution that everybody can participate, not as the occupation’s constitution which the self control of the Iraqi nation were dismissed and it was build upon the wish of the occupation and some assistant of it. If we agreed on these important aspects, then we could find the relevant mechanism to get start. We could then force the enemy and others to accept our will, if the self controlling of the nations are gathered then it couldn’t be defeated. At last, we call all good willing, honored tribes and ourselves also to resist and struggle for the bright aim. The patience and resistance are the best ways of solving all difficulties because the nations could not do anything without patience. Blessed Iraqi tribe sons You have to affect the project of the occupation to be failed. The day is so near to success, be prepared to the step of liberation. Your preparation is necessary to re-construct the country on the hands of your sons. Do not expect that the enemy will build you a country; the enemies are came only to destroy. These wealth are spending for a big nothing under the name of reconstruction, reconstruction this city or that city… ok where is it? There is no construction, because it doesn’t go to the real construction, but the money of so-called construction is gone into the pockets of the occupation puppets. It goes to the accounts of the persons that the occupation has chosen who are serving the occupation; they will never construct or build anything. The reconstruction and building of the country is depending on you… Let’s be ready for this day which we will start building our country by the hands of our innocent and faithful sons in a way that returns Iraq to its own people, and return its recognized place among the countries either Arabic or Islamic. The Almighty Allah’s Peace be with you Best Regards Secretary General of AMSI Dr. Harith Al-Dhari The full story in http://uruknet.info/?p=m39539&hd=&size=1&l=e

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW