Ahli Fikih: Musdah Bukan Ulama

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

=== News Update ===

Ahli Fikih: Musdah Bukan Ulama

Rabu, 02 April 2008

Ahmad Zein An Najah, doktor bidang Fikih lulusan Al Azhar Mesir mengatakan, Siti Musdah Mulia bukan ulama, jadi pernyataanya tak perlu diikuti

Hidayatullah.com–Dr. Ahmad Zein An Najah, doktor dalam bidang Fikih lulusan Universitas Al Azhar Mesir, mengatakan, bahwa Musdah Mulia bukanlah seorang ulama, sehingga perkataannya tidak perlu dijadikan panutan.

Pernyataan pengurus DDII pusat disampaikan setelah membaca pernyataan aktivis liberal itu dalam sebuah Koran berbahasa Inggris terbitan Jakarta yang mengatakan, Islam mengakui adanya homoseksualitas.

Sebagaimana diketahui, Harian The Jakarta Post, edisi Jumat (28/3) pada halaman mukanya menerbitkan sebuah berita berjudul Islam ‘recognizes homosexuality’ (Islam mengakui homoseksualitas). Dengan mengutip pendapat dari Prof. Dr. Siti Musdah Mulia, guru besar di UIN Jakarta, koran berbahasa Inggris itu menulis bahwa homoseksual dan homoseksualitas adalah alami dan diciptakan oleh Tuhan, karena itu dihalalkan dalam Islam. (Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam).

Menurut Zein, Siti Musdah Mulia bukanlah seorang ulama. Karenanya, pernyataanya tak perlu diikuti. Sebab menurut Zein, seorang ulama adalah orang yang berilmu, dan takut kepada Allah Ta’ala, serta berbicara menurut kaidah ilmiah. “Sedang Siti Musdah Mulia tidak seperti itu, “ ujarnya kepada hidayatullah.com.

Meski demikian, dampak pernyataanya yang mengatakan homoseksual diakui dalam Islam itu sangat berbahaya. Karena masyarakat tahunya ia adalah seorang guru besar di universitas Islam terkenal. Sehingga pernyataanya seolah-olah memberi legitimasi pada perilaku menyimpang dan sangat dilarang oleh Al-Quran itu, katanya.

“Orang-orang awam mungkin menganggap Musdah Mulia itu ulama. Apalagi dengan titel professor dan doktor yang terkesan di mata orang-orang awam adalah orang yang pinter. Dia pakai jilbab dan ia juga menyitir ayat Al-Quran,” tambahnya.

Pria asal Klaten ini menambahkan, dalam urusan hukum, Islam dikenal tak pernah main-main. Apalagi untuk melakukan istimbat (kesimpulan) hukum. Menurut Zein An Najah, syaratnya seseorang melakukan pengambilam hukum sangat ketat dan amat banyak. Diantaranya, ia harus menguasai bahasa Arab, menguasai ushul fikh, juga mengetahui ijma’ ulama. Dan masih ada syarat-syarat lainnya. Tapi menurutnya, hal itu tak dimiliki oleh seorang Musdah Mulia.

“Indikasinya, dia terlalu gegabah di dalam menetapkan hukum. Tidak menggunakan metodologi yang telah ditetapkan para ulama. Dia menetapkan hukum berdasarkan apa yang ada di akalnya,” tambahnya.

Karenanya, Zein An Najah menganjurkan, idealnya kelompok-kelompok Islam tak menghadiri undangan-undangan semacam itu alias menolak. Sebab selain acara seperti itu mengandung subhat juga banyak mudharatnya. Bahkan kalau perlu, katanya, membubarkan acaranya.

“Karena sudah jelas homoseks dan lesbian haram, semua ulama sudah sepakat, tidak ada khilaf dalam hal ini. Ini sama halnya dengan mendiskusikan zina, haram atau tidak,” katanya.

Musdah Mulia sebelumnya menyampaikan pernyataan tentang homoseksual itu dalam sebuah diskusi di Jakarta hari Kamis, 27 Maret 2008 lalu yang dihadiri para pelaku lesbian, gay (homoseksual) dan waria (LGBT) di bawah naungan NGO pembela kelompok lesbian dan gay, Arus Pelangi. [thoriq/www.hidayatullah.com]

===

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

*Professor UIN berpendapat, katanya Islam mengakui homoseksualitas*

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

=== News Update ===

*Professor UIN berpendapat, katanya Islam mengakui homoseksualitas*

Dulu ia pernah mendapat “puja-puji” Amerika.

**Baca Catatan Akhir Pekan [CAP] Adian Husaini ke-230**

Oleh: *Adian Husaini*

Harian *The Jakarta Post*, edisi Jumat (28/3/2008) pada halaman mukanya
menerbitkan sebuah berita berjudul Islam *’recognizes homosexuality’ *(Islam
mengakui homoseksualitas). Mengutip pendapat dari Prof. Dr. Siti Musdah
Mulia, guru besar di UIN Jakarta, koran berbahasa Inggris itu menulis bahwa
homoseksual dan homoseksualitas adalah alami dan diciptakan oleh Tuhan,
karena itu dihalalkan dalam Islam. (*Homosexuals and homosexuality are
natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam*).

Menurut Musdah, para sarjana Muslim moderat berpendapat, bahwa tidak ada
alasan untuk menolak homoseksual. Dan bahwasanya pengecaman terhadap
homoseksual atau homoseksualitas oleh kalangan ulama aurus utama dan
kalangan Muslim lainnya hanyalah didasarkan pada penafsiran sempit terhadap
ajaran Islam. Tepatnya, ditulis oleh Koran ini: *”Moderate Muslim scholars
said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the
condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many
other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic
teachings.”*

Mengutip QS 49 ayat 3, Musdah menyatakan, salah satu berkah Tuhan adalah
bahwasanya semua manusia, baik laki-laki atau wanita, adalah sederajat,
tanpa memandang etnis, kekayaan, posisi social atau pun orientasi seksual.
Karena itu, aktivis liberal dan kebebasan beragama dari ICRP (*Indonesia
Conference of Religions and Peace*) ini, “Tidak ada perbedaan antara lesbian
dengan non-lesbian. Dalam pandangan Tuhan, manusia dihargai hanya
berdasarkan ketaatannya.” (*There is no difference between lesbians and
nonlesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety*).

Demikian pendapat guru besar UIN Jakarta ini dalam diskusi yang
diselenggarakan suatu organisasi bernama “*Arus Pelangi*”, di Jakarta, Kamis
(27/3/2008).

Menurut Musdah Mulia, intisari ajaran Islam adalah memanusiakan manusia dan
menghormati kedaulatannya. Lebih jauh ia katakan, bahwa homoseksualitas
adalah berasal dari Tuhan, dan karena itu harus diakui sebagai hal yang
alamiah.

*The Jakarta Post *juga mengutip pendapat seorang pembicara bernama
Nurofiah, yang menyatakan, bahwa pandangan dominan dalam masyarakat Islam
tentang heterogenitas adalah sebuah “konstruksi sosial”, sehingga berakibat
pada pelarangan homoseksualitas oleh kaum mayoritas. Ini sama dengan kasus
“bias gender” akibat dominasi budaya patriarki. Karena itu, katanya, akan
berbeda jika yang berkuasa adalah kaum homoseks. Lebih tepatnya, dikutip
ucapan aktivis gender ini: *”Like gender bias or patriarchy, heterogeneity
bias is socially constructed. It would be totally different if the ruling
group was homosexuals.”*

Diskusi tentang homoseksual itu pun menghadirkan pembicara dari Majelis
Ulama Indonesia dan Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia. Kedua organisasi ini, oleh *The
Jakarta Post*, sudah dicap sebagai “kelompok Muslim konservatif”. Ditulis
oleh Koran ini: *Condemnation of homosexuality was voiced by two
conservative Muslim groups, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Hizbut
Thahir **Indonesia** (HTI).”*

Amir Syarifuddin, pengurus MUI, menyatakan bahwa praktik homoseksual adalah
dosa. “Kami tidak akan menganggap homoseksualitas sebagai musuh, tetapi kami
akan membuat mereka sadar bahwa apa yang mereka lakukan adalah salah,” kata
Amir Syarifudin.

Demikianlah berita tentang penghalalan homoseksual oleh sejumlah aktivis
liberal, sebagaimana dikutip oleh *The Jakarta Post*.

Jika kita rajin menyimak perkembangan pemikiran liberal, baik di kalangan
Yahudi, Kristen, maupun Islam, maka kita tidak akan heran dengan berita yang
dimuat di Harian *The Jakarta Post *ini. Kaum Yahudi Liberal, juga Kristen
Liberal, sudah lama menghalalkan perkawinan sesama jenis. Bahkan, banyak
cendekiawan dan tokoh agama mereka yang sudah secara terbuka mendeklarasikan
sebagai orang-orang homoseks dan lesbian. Banyak diantara mereka yang bahkan
sudah menyelenggarakan perkawinan sesama jenis di dalam tempat ibadah mereka
masing-masing.

Bagi kaum Yahudi dan Kristen liberal, hal seperti itu sudah dianggap biasa.
Mereka juga menyatakan, bahwa apa yang mereka lakukan adalah sejalan dengan
ajaran Bibel. Mereka pun menuduh kaum Yahudi dan Kristen lain sebagai
“ortodoks”, “konservatif” dan sejenisnya, karena tidak mau mengakui dan
mengesahkan praktik homoseksual. Gereja Katolik, misalnya, tetap
mempertahankan doktrinnya yang menolak praktik homoseksual. Tahun 1975,
Vatikan mengeluarkan keputusan bertajuk “*The Vatican Declaration on Sexual
Ethics*.” Isinya, antara lain menegaskan: “*It (Scripture) does attest to
the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no
case be approved of*.” Dalam Pidatonya pada malam Tahun Baru 2006, Paus
Benediktus XVI juga menegaskan kembali tentang terkutuknya perilaku
homoseksual.

Dalam Islam, soal homoseksual ini sudah jelas hukumnya. Meskipun sudah sejak
dulu ada orang-orang yang orientasi seksualnya homoseks, ajaran Islam tetap
tidak berubah, dan tidak mengikuti hawa nafsu kaum homo atau pendukungnya.
Tidak ada ulama atau dosen agama yang berani menghalalkan tindakan
homoseksual, seperti yang dilakukan oleh Prof. Siti Musdah Mulia dari UIN
Jakarta tersebut.

Nabi Muhammad saw bersabda, “*Siapa saja yang menemukan pria pelaku
homoseks, maka bunuhlah pelakunya tersebut*.” (HR Abu Dawud, at-Tirmizi,
an-Nasai, Ibnu Majah, al-Hakim, dan al-Baihaki). Imam Syafii berpendapat,
bahwa pelaku homoseksual harus dirajam (dilempari batu sampai mati) tanpa
membedakan apakah pelakunya masih bujangan atau sudah menikah.

Sejak terbitnya *Jurnal Justisia *dari Fakultas Syariah IAIN Semarang (edisi
25, Th XI, 2004), yang menghalalkan homoseksual, kita sudah mengingatkan
para pimpinan kampus Islam agar lebih serius dalam menangani penyebaran
paham liberal di kampus mereka. Sebab, virus liberal ini semakin menampakkan
daya rusaknya terhadap aqidah dan pemikiran Islam. Ironisnya, fenomena ini
justru digerakkan dari sejumlah akademisi di kampus-kampus berlabel Islam.

Kita ingat kembali, bahwa dalam *Jurnal Justisia *tersebut, dilakukan
kampanye besar-besaran untuk mengesahkan perkawinan homoseksual. Jurnal itu
kemudian diterbitkan menjadi sebuah buku berjudul *Indahnya Kawin Sesama
Jenis: Demokratisasi dan Perlindungan Hak-hak Kaum Homoseksual*,
(Semarang:Lembaga Studi Sosial dan Agama/eLSA, 2005).

Dalam buku tersebut dijelaskan strategi gerakan yang harus dilakukan untuk
melegalkan perkawinan homoseksual di Indonesia, yaitu (1) mengorganisir kaum
homoseksual untuk bersatu dan berjuang merebut hak-haknya yang telah
dirampas oleh negara, (2) memberi pemahaman kepada masyarakat bahwa apa yang
terjadi pada diri kaum homoseksual adalah sesuatu yang normal dan fithrah,
sehingga masyarakat tidak mengucilkannya bahkan sebaliknya, masyarakat ikut
terlibat mendukung setiap gerakan kaum homoseksual dalam menuntut
hak-haknya, (3) melakukan kritik dan reaktualisasi tafsir keagamaan (tafsir
kisah Luth dan konsep pernikahan) yang tidak memihak kaum homoseksual, (4)
menyuarakan perubahan UU Perkawinan No 1/1974 yang mendefinisikan perkawinan
harus antara laki-laki dan wanita.” (hal. 15)

Sebagaimana Prof. Musdah Mulia, para penulis dalam buku itu pun mengecam
keras pihak-pihak yang masih mengharamkan homoseksual. Seorang penulis dalam
buku ini, misalnya, menyatakan, bahwa pengharaman nikah sejenis adalah
bentuk kebodohan umat Islam generasi sekarang karena ia hanya memahami
doktrin agamanya secara given, taken for granted, tanpa ada pembacaan ulang
secara kritis atas doktrin tersebut. Si penulis kemudian mengaku bersikap
kritis dan curiga terhadap motif Nabi Luth dalam mengharamkan homoseksual,
sebagaimana diceritakan dalam Al-Quran surat al-A’raf :80-84 dan Hud
:77-82). Semua itu, katanya, tidak lepas dari faktor kepentingan Luth itu
sendiri, yang gagal menikahkan anaknya dengan dua laki-laki, yang kebetulan
homoseks.

Ditulis dalam buku ini sebagai berikut:

”Karena keinginan untuk menikahkan putrinya tidak kesampaian, tentu Luth
amat kecewa. Luth kemudian menganggap kedua laki-laki tadi tidak normal.
Istri Luth bisa memahami keadaan laki-laki tersebut dan berusaha menyadarkan
Luth. Tapi, oleh Luth, malah dianggap istri yang melawan suami dan dianggap
mendukung kedua laki-laki yang dinilai Luth tidak normal. Kenapa Luth
menilai buruk terhadap kedua laki-laki yang kebetulan homo tersebut? Sejauh
yang saya tahu, Al-Quran tidak memberi jawaban yang jelas. Tetapi kebencian
Luth terhadap kaum homo disamping karena faktor kecewa karena tidak berhasil
menikahkan kedua putrinya juga karena anggapan Luth yang salah terhadap kaum
homo.” (hal. 39)

Padahal, tentang Kisah Nabi Luth a.s. Al-Quran sudah memberikan gambaran
jelas bagaimana terkutuknya kaum Nabi Luth yang merupakan pelaku homoseksual
ini:

“Dan (Kami juga telah mengutus) Luth (kepada kaumnya). (Ingatlah) tatkala
dia berkata kepada kaumnya: “Mengapa kalian mengerjakan perbuatan fahisyah
itu, yang belum pernah dikerjakan oleh seorang pun sebelum kalian.
Sesungguhnya kalian mendatangi laki-laki untuk melepaskan syahwat, bukan
kepada wanita; malah kalian ini kaum yang melampaui batas. Jawab kaumnya
tidak lain hanya mengatakan: “*Usirlah mereka dari kotamu ini, sesungguhnya
mereka adalah orang-orang yang berpura-pura mensucikan diri. Kemudian Kami
selamatkan dia dan pengikut-pengikutnya kecuali istrinya; dia termasuk
orang-orang yang tertinggal (dibinasakan). Dan Kami turunkan kepada mereka
hujan (batu); maka perhatikanlah bagaimana kesudahan orang-orang yang
berdosa itu*.” (QS Al-A’raf:80-84).

Karena itu, para mufassir Al-Quran selama ratusan tahun tidak ada yang
berpendapat seperti anak-anak syariah dari IAIN Semarang itu atau seperti
Prof. Musdah Mulia yang berani menghalalkan homoseksual. Gerakan legalisasi
homoseksual yang dilakukan oleh kaum liberal di Indonesia sebenarnya sudah
melampaui batas. Bagi umat Islam, hal seperti ini merupakan sesuatu yang
tidak terpikirkan (“*unthought”).* Bagaimana mungkin, dari kampus berlabel
Islam justru muncul dosen dan mahasiswa yang berani menghalalkan
homoseksual, suatu tindakan bejat yang selama ribuan tahun dikutuk oleh
agama. Gerakan legalisasi homoseksual dari lingkungan kampus Islam tidak
bisa dipandang sebelah mata. Tindakan ini merupakan kemungkaran yang jauh
lebih bahaya dari gerakan legalisasi homoseks yang selama ini sudah gencar
dilakukan kaum homoseksual sendiri.

Dalam catatan penutup buku karya anak-anak Fakultas Syariah IAIN Semarang
tersebut, dimuat tulisan berjudul “*Homoseksualitas dan Pernikahan Gay:
Suara dari IAIN*”. Penulisnya, mengaku bernama Mumu, mencatat, “Ya, kita
tentu menyambut gembira upaya yang dilakukan oleh Fakultas Syariah IAIN
Walisongo tersebut.”

Juga dikatakan dalam buku tersebut: “Hanya orang primitif saja yang melihat
perkawinan sejenis sebagai sesuatu yang abnormal dan berbahaya. Bagi kami,
tiada alasan kuat bagi siapapun dengan dalih apapun, untuk melarang
perkawinan sejenis. Sebab, Tuhan pun sudah maklum, bahwa proyeknya
menciptakan manusia sudah berhasil bahkan kebablasan.”

Logika ini sejalan dengan jalan pemikiran Musdah Mulia yang menyatakan bahwa
pelarangan homoseksual hanyalah didasarkan pada penafsiran sempit terhadap
ajaran Islam. Barangkali, seperti dikatakan Nurofiah, jika suatu ketika
nanti kaum homoseksual sudah menjadi dominan, maka mereka akan memandang
bahwa kaum heteroseksual adalah suatu kelainan. Inilah pandangan yang
‘keblinger’, yang lahir dari kekeliruan berpikir.

Sebagaimana kasus perkawinan antara muslimah dan laki-laki non-Muslim yang
didukung dan dipenghului oleh sejumlah dosen UIN Jakarta, kita patut
khawatir, bahwa para akademisi liberal itu semakin menjadi-jadi tindakannya,
dengan menjadi penghulu bagi perkawinan sesama jenis. Kita berharap hal itu
tidak terjadi, meskipun Prof. Dr. Musdah Mulia sudah melontarkan pendapatnya
tentang homoseksual secara terbuka di media massa. Memang, jika orang sudah
hilang rasa malunya, maka dia akan berbuat semaunya sendiri. Mungkin dia
merasa sudah hebat, sudah jadi guru besar pemikiran Islam di suatu kampus
Islam terkenal. Selama ini pun, orang-orang terdekatnya pun tidak mampu
menghentikan kegiatannya.

Namun, jika kita ikuti kisah perjalanan intelektual Prof. Musdah Mulia, kita
sebenarnya tidak terlalu heran. Sejak awal, cara berpikirnya sudah kacau.
Dia seenaknya sendiri mengubah-ubah hukum Islam, untuk disesuaikan dengan
cara pandang dan cara hidup Barat. Tidak aneh, jika karena sepak terjangnya
yang seperti itu, tahun lalu, pada Hari Perempuan Dunia tanggal 8 Maret
2007, Musdah Mulia menerima penghargaan *International Women of Courage *dari
Menteri Luar Negeri Condoleezza Rice di kantor kementerian luar negeri
Amerika Serikat (AS), Washington. Ia dianggap sukses menyuarakan, membela
dan mengembalikan hak perempuan di mata agama dengan cara melakukan
‘pembaruan hukum Islam’ ­ termasuk– undang-undang perkawinan.

Mungkin, setelah mendukung praktik homoseksual ini, dia akan mendapatkan
pujian dan penghargaan jauh lebih tinggi lagi dari “kalangan tertentu.” Kita
tunggu saja!

[Depok, 30 Maret 2008/www.hidayatullah.com<http://hidayatullah.com/>]

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

Seruan Yusuf Qaradhawi untuk Umat Islam, Menyusul Film “Fitna”

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

=== News Update ===

From: “Muhammad Raflin” <2221428@gmail.com>
Subject: Seruan Yusuf Qaradhawi untuk Umat Islam, Menyusul Film “Fitna”

Seruan Yusuf Qaradhawi untuk Umat Islam, Menyusul Film “Fitna”

Ketua Asosiasi Ulama Islam Internasional DR. Yusuf
Qaradhawi, menyatakan film “Fitna” yang dibuat
politisi Belanda Geert Wilders, sama dengan
menyalakan api terhadap al-Quran.

Film yang menuding al-Quran sebagai kitab suci fasis
adalah kedustaan, dan merupakan perkataan yang tidak
dikeluarkan kecuali oleh orang yang bodoh, sombong
dan keras kepala,” kata Qaradhawi, ulama yang
dikenal moderat dan sangat dihormati dunia
internasional ini pada situs Islamonline.

Menurut Qaradhawi, film “Fitna” merupakan bagian
dari rangkaian permusuhan yang dibangun oleh
kelompok-kelompok anti-Islam di Barat. Ia menyerukan
umat Islam untuk tidak menganggap enteng penghinaan
terhadap Islam dan kitab sucinya.

Qaradhawi mengajak umat Islam untuk melakukan
perlawanan terhadap bentuk-bentuk penghinaan
tersebut dan ada lima hal yang bisa dilakukan;

Pertama, tolak penyataan dusta yang menyebutkan
bahwa Rasulullah Muhammad Saw haus darah dan orang
yang haus seks, dengan cara-cara yang ilmiah.
Penolakan harus dilakukan secara mendunia.

Kedua, negara-negara Islam besar harus bersikap
jantan dan berdiri paling depan untuk membela Islam
dan Rasul-Nya.

Ketiga, menekan pemerintahan negara-negara Muslim
agar bersikap tegas berdasarkan keimanan, untuk
menunjukkan bahwa umat Islam eksis dan masih
memiliki kecintaan besar terhadap keyakinannya.

Keempat, memperbanyak karya-karya seni dan budaya
seperti drama atau film untuk lebih mengenalkan
Islam.

Kelima, melakukan boikot ekonomi terhadap
negara-negara yang memberi peluang bagi warga
negaranya yang ingin mencederai kesucian Islam.

Karena pemboikotan merupakan senjata yang bisa
menyakitkan suatu negara.

Menyusul ditayangkannya film “Fitna” mantan PM
Malaysia Mahathir Muhammad sudah menyerukan umat
Islam sedunia yang berjumlah 1,3 milyar orang untuk
bersatu memboikot produk Belanda.

Umat Islam nampaknya harus melakukan perjuangan
berat untuk melakukan perlawanan terhadap
kelompok-kelompok yang anti-Islam dan Islamofobia.

Karena setelah “Fitna”, akan segera menyusul film
lainnya yang kali ini berisi penghinaan terhadap
Rasulullah.

Film itu dibuat dalam bentuk film kartun, dengan
judul “The Life of Muhammad”, dibuat tokoh Partai
Buruh Belanda kelahiran Iran bernama Ehsan Jami.

Film ini kabarnya akan diluncurkan pada tanggal 20
April 2008. Menurut informasi film itu akan
menampilkan sosok Nabi Muhammad SAW merupakan
sebagai manusia yang aneh secara seksual.

“Film baru ini walau berbentuk kartun namun sangat
melecehkan Nabi Muhammad SAW”, ujar Ayhan Tunja,
anggota dari The Muslim Coordinating Council of the
Netherlands, saat diwawancara Islamonline.

Kelompok-kelompok Islam di Negeri Kincir Angin, kini
sedang melakukan upaya hukum agar film-film yang
menghina dan melecehkan Islam dihentikan
peredarannya.

===

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

Diancam Bunuh Setelah Bersyahadat

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

=== News Update ===

Diancam Bunuh Setelah Bersyahadat

Senin, 31 Maret 2008

Perjuangannya “memeluk” Islam dilakukan dengan penuh resiko, ia
bahkan diancam bunuh. Dulu ia ingin ‘mengkristen-kan’ orang. Kini malah
mengislamkan orang

[Image] PENGANTAR. Semenjak memeluk Islam, ibunya sudah tak mengakui
lagi ia sebagai anak. Ayahnya bahkan hendak menembaknya pula. Sang kakak
menganggap ia sudah gila. Lalu suami menceraikannya. Oleh pengadilan dia
divonis tak punya hak mengasuh kedua anaknya, kecuali meninggalkan
Islam. Belum selesai sampai disitu, setelah mengenakan jilbab ia malah
dikeluarkan dari tempat kerjanya. Begitulah ujian demi ujian datang
menerpa Aminah Assilmi setelah memeluk Islam. Namun perempuan Amerika
ini tetap tegar. Alhasil, dengan kuasa Allah, beberapa tahun kemudian
neneknya yang telah berusia 100 tahun masuk Islam. Lalu bapaknya,
diikuti ibu, kakak, anak lelakinya yang telah berusia 21 pun kemudian
memeluk Islam. Bahkan, enam belas tahun setelah bercerai, mantan
suaminya juga masuk Islam. Kini ia banyak diundang memberikan ceramah di
berbagai tempat di Amerika. Satu kalimatnya yang terkenal: “Bagi
saya, profesi terbaik adalah menjadi seorang ibu.” Berikut kisah
lengkapnya seperti dituangkan dalam www.islamfortoday.com.
<http://www.islamfortoday.com/>

Aminah Assilmi dulunya seorang juru baptis, penganut feminis yang
radikal dan juga seorang jurnalis radio. Tapi kini, selepas memeluk
Islam, dia bagaikan seorang duta besar bagi agama Islam. Sebagai
Direktur International Union of Muslim Women atau Persatuan Wanita
Muslim Internasional dia benar-benar menyuarakan kebenaran Islam. Aminah
kerap mengadakan perjalanan, berceramah di kampus-kampus, menyeru
pentingnya kepedulian terhadap masyarakat banyak serta berbagi pemahaman
atas keyakinan yang dianutnya kini.

Aminah sendiri, jauh sebelum mengenal Islam, awalnya berada di garda
terdepan kelompok pembenci Islam. Dalam buku yang dikarangnya
“Choosing Islam”, Aminah menceritakan perjumpaannya dengan
Islam.

Berawal dari kesalahan komputer

Aminah dikenal sebagai gadis yang cerdas hingga memperoleh beasiswa
selama kuliah. Disamping itu ia juga mengembangkan bisnis sendiri,
berkompetisi secara professional hingga akhirnya memperoleh penghargaan
(awards). Semua itu berlangsung semasa masih kuliah di perguruan tinggi.
Ada kejadian menarik tatkala ia memasukkan data registrasi mata kuliah
ke komputer di kampusnya. Berawal dari sinilah ia mengenal Islam hingga
di kemudian hari kehidupannya berubah secara total.

“Kejadian itu pada tahun 1975 ketika pertama kali pendaftaran mata
kuliah menggunakan sistem komputer. Waktu itu saya melakukan registrasi
sebuah mata kuliah. Setelah mendaftar saya pun berangkat ke Oklahoma
untuk urusan bisnis,” kisahnya mengenang. Urusan bisnisnya sedikit
lama, membuatnya tertunda kembali ke kampus. Dan baru muncul di kampus
dua minggu setelah kuliah dimulai. Bagi dia ketinggalan pelajaran dan
tugas-tugas mata kuliah tidak masalah. Namun yang membuatnya sangat
terkejut adalah ketika diketahui komputer salah dalam melakukan
registrasi. Di komputer namanya tertera sebagai peserta kelas Theatre,
sebuah kelas dimana para mahasiswa musti unjuk kebolehan di depan
peserta lainnya.

“Saya ini gadis pendiam. Bagi saya berdiri di depan kelas adalah hal
yang sangat menakutkan. Tentu saja membatalkan mata kuliah tidak mungkin
lagi. Sudah sangat terlambat. Tidak hadir sama sekali selama kuliah,
juga bukan pilihan yang tepat. Sebabnya saya menerima beasiswa. Bila
nilai saya jatuh, beasiswa bisa dicabut,” tambahnya.

Suami Aminah menyarankan agar ia menemui dosennya guna mencari solusi
alternatif lain. Oleh sang dosen ia dianjurkan untuk masuk ke kelas
lain. Namun alangkah terkejutnya Aminah tatkala masuk ke kelas
alternatif itu.

“Saya tak menduga di kelas itu banyak sekali wanita Arab berjilbab.
Waktu itu saya menyebut mereka dengan “para penunggang unta”.
Kontan gairah saya hilang,” kenangnya.

Aminah tidak jadi ikut kelas tersebut dan pulang ke rumah.”Saya
tidak mau berada di tengah-tengah orang-orang Arab. Saya tidak mau duduk
bareng dengan orang-orang kafir kotor itu!,” tulis Aminah dalam
bukunya. Suaminya, seperti biasa, tetap tenang menghadapinya.

Dengan kalem sang suami menyebut bahwa Tuhan punya maksud tertentu atas
segala apa yang terjadi. Ia lalu meminta Aminah untuk berpikir
masak-masak sebelum memutuskan berhenti kuliah. Konon lagi pemberi
beasiswa telah mengeluarkan dana untuk studinya itu. Selama dua hari
Aminah mendekam di kamarnya guna mengambil keputusan. Akhirnya dia
memutuskan kembali ke kampus. Kala itu, menurut Aminah, dia seperti
merasakan seolah-olah Tuhan memberinya tugas untuk mengkristenkan
mahasiswi Arab itu. Ia rasakan seperti ada sebuah misi yang musti
dituntaskan segera.

Misi Kristenisasi

Kala kembali ke kampus, Aminah pun mulai menjalankan misi Kristenisasi
kepada mahasiswi Arab itu.

“Saya terangkan tentang neraka. Bagaimana mereka akan dibakar dan
disiksa jika tak ikut ajaran Kristen. Lalu saya terangkan Yesus cinta
mereka dan Yesus mati disalib untuk menebus dosa-dosa pengikutnya. Jadi
kita musti ikuti dia.” terang Aminah yang mengaku heran dengan
kesopanan mahasiswi Arab tersebut. Mereka tidak membantah sedikitpun
dengan apa yang diterangkannya.

“Anak-anak Arab itu kok belum tertarik juga dengan Kristen. Saya
putuskan untuk mencoba cara lain. Yakni saya coba pelajari kitab mereka
untuk membuktikan bahwa Islam agama salah dan Muhammad bukan Nabi,”
tukasnya lagi.

Atas permintaan Aminah, seorang mahasiswi Arab memberinya sebuah mushaf
Al-Quran dan beberapa buku tentang Islam. Aminah mulai mempelajari
Al-Quran berikut dengan bantuan 15 buah buku tentang Islam secara
intensif. Al-Quran dibaca berulang-ulang, dikajinya berdasarkan
referensi-referensi yang ada, lalu dibacanya lagi. Begitu seterusnya.
Selama observasi dia selalu mencatat hal-hal yang tak disetujuinya guna
membuktikan pendapatnya Islam agama salah. Kajian berjalan selama hampir
satu setengah tahun.

Cari kelemahan Islam

Begitulah, setelah berjalan hampir dua tahun, alih-alih berupaya
mengganti paham mahasiswi Islam tersebut dengan ajaran Kristen, malah
Aminah yang akhirnya belajar Al-Quran. Awalnya dia mempelajari Quran
untuk mencari kesalahan-kesalahan Islam, untuk membuktikan Nabi Muhammad
bukan Nabi. Akan tetapi semakin dibaca, semakin tertarik ia dengan
Islam.

Tanpa disadari, perilakunya mulai sedikit berubah. Rupanya perubahan itu
menarik perhatian suaminya. “Sungguh, tanpa saya sadari ada
perubahan kecil dalam keseharian saya. Tapi itu sudah cukup mengganggu
pikiran suami. Biasanya saban Jumat dan Sabtu kami sering pergi ke bar
atau menghadiri pesta. Tapi saya tidak begitu suka lagi. Bahkan berhenti
makan babi dan minum-minuman keras,” kisahnya.

Lama- kelamaan suaminya mulai menaruh curiga dengan perubahan itu.
Suaminya menduga Aminah ada hubungan gelap dengan lelaki lain.
Puncaknya, mereka pisah ranjang, dan bahkan kemudian pisah apartemen.
Namun Aminah masih terus mengkaji Al-Quran.

Secara khusus dia mengaku sangat tertarik dengan apa yang dikatakan
Al-Quran tentang laki-laki dan perempuan. Wanita Islam, sebelum dia
mempelajari Al-Quran, dia pikir berada dalam penindasan suaminya.
“Waktu itu dalam sangkaan saya suamilah yang memaksa istri, misal
untuk memakai jilbab,” ujar Aminah.

Melalui kajian intensif, dia dapati bahwa wanita Islam punya kesamaan
hak dalam pekerjaan, pendidikan tanpa memperhatikan gender mereka. Yang
menarik baginya, pada saat seorang wanita Islam menikah, maka dia tidak
harus mengganti nama belakang (nama keluarga-red) menjadi nama keluarga
suami, tapi tetap menjaga nama ayahnya. Dan banyak lagi perkara-perkara
lainnya. Dari situ Aminah mengambil kesimpulan bahwa Islam atau dengan
kata lain Nabi Muhammad telah mengangkat harkat dan martabat kaum
wanita.

Didatangi lelaki berjubah

Akhirnya, satu malam seseorang mengetuk pintu rumahnya. Ternyata seorang
lelaki berjubah dan mengaku bernama Abdul Aziz Al-Shekh. Ia ditemani
tiga orang temannya dengan pakaian yang sama. Aminah sangat terkejut
dengan kedatangan pria tak diundang itu. Apalagi tatkala pria berjubah
tersebut mengatakan bahwa hanya masalah waktu saja bagi Aminah untuk
menjadi seorang muslim.

“Dia berujar saya sudah siap jadi seorang Islam. Saya kontan
menangkal pernyataannya itu dengan menyebut saya orang Kristen. Selama
ini saya hanya coba mengkaji, bukan mau masuk Islam. Begitu kata saya
malam itu,” tukas Aminah mengenang. Begitupun Aminah mempersilahkan
mereka masuk karena ia ingin mengajukan beberapa pertanyaan tentang
Islam yang masih menyelubungi pikirannya.

Aminah menumpahkan semua pertanyaannya, hasil observasi selama hampir
dua tahun. Abdul Azis mendengarkan dengan seksama. Tiap pertanyaan
dijawabnya dengan sangat tenang dan teratur. Aminah mengaku sangat puas
dengan jawaban-jawaban yang diberikan. “Akhirnya, keesokan harinya,
dengan disaksikan Abdul-Aziz dan tiga temannya sayapun bersyahadah. Saat
itu 21 Mei 1977,” kenangnya.

Dikucilkan Keluarga

Segera setelah Islamnya Aminah, perlahan ujian demi ujian pun datang.
Dia dikucilkan oleh keluarga dan teman-temannya. Ibunya tak mengakui
lagi ia sebagai anak. Yang lebih parah, sang ayah bahkan hendak
menembaknya pula. Kakak Aminah menganggap ia sudah gila dan perlu
dirawat di rumah sakit jiwa. Belum berhenti disitu, suami pun
menceraikannya. Yang membuat hati Aminah sangat pedih adalah kala
pengadilan memutuskan dia tak punya hak mengasuh kedua anakNYA, kecuali
meninggalkan Islam. “Saya meninggalkan pengadilan dengan hati yang
hancur. Anda bisa bayangkan bagaimana hati seorang ibu dipisahkan dari
anak-anaknya,” ujar Aminah sedih.

Belum selesai sampai disitu, setelah mengenakan jilbab ia malah
dikeluarkan dari tempat kerjanya. Namun karena kecintaannya pada Islam,
penderitaan-penderitaan itu tidak membuat imannya runtuh. Aminah
menyitir sebuah ayat suci Al-Quran (Ayat Kursi-red) yang bikin hatinya
tenang:

Tidak ada Tuhan yang patut disembah melainkan Dia Yang Hidup kekal lagi
terus menerus mengurus (makhluk-Nya); tidak mengantuk dan tidak tidur.
Kepunyaan-Nya apa yang ada di langit dan di bumi. Tiada yang dapat
memberi syafa’at di sisi Allah tanpa izin-Nya. Allah mengetahui
apa-apa yang di hadapan mereka dan di belakang mereka, dan mereka tidak
mengetahui apa-apa dari ilmu Allah melainkan apa yang dikehendaki-Nya.
Kursi Allah meliputi langit dan bumi dan Allah tidak merasa berat
memelihara kedua-duanya, dan Allah Maha Tinggi Lagi Maha Besar. (Q.S.
2;255).

Anggota keluarga masuk Islam

Meskipun keluarga mengucilkannya, Aminah tetap menjaga hubungan dengan
mereka. Misalnya, ia sering berkirim surat dan selalu menulis beberapa
terjemahan ayat Quran dan hadis yang berhubungan dengan masalah sosial
kemanusiaan. Namun Aminah tak menyebut petuah-petuah itu dari Al-Quran.
Rupanya strategi itu lumayan manjur. Lama-kelamaan ada respon positif
dari anggota keluarga. Aminah pun terus berkirim surat plus
kutipan-kutipan berisi ayat Quran dan hadis Nabi.

Begitulah, dengan sabar dan doa, satu demi satu anggota keluarganya
masuk Islam. Pertama, sang nenek yang sudah uzur. “Nenek berusia 100
tahun ketika menerima Islam. Persis setelah itu dia meninggal dunia.
Masya Allah nenek meninggal dengan membawa buku amalan yang penuh
kebajikan ke akhirat,” kisah Aminah.

Tak lama, ayah yang dulu hendak membunuhnya juga memeluk Islam. Dua
tahun kemudian, sang ibu diikuti oleh kakak Aminah juga bersyahadah. Dan
yang membuat Aminah sangat gembira, anaknya yang telah beranjak dewasa
(umur 21 tahun) juga mengikuti jejaknya. Yang paling mengharukan, enam
belas tahun selepas Islamnya Aminah, mantan suaminya juga mengucap dua
kalimah syahadah. Mantan pasangan hidupnya itu bahkan meminta maaf atas
segala kekhilafannya.

Aminah sendiri kala itu telah menikah dengan pria lain. Dia sempat
didiagnosa oleh dokter mengidap penyakit kanker dan divonis tidak bisa
memiliki anak lagi. Namun Allah punya kuasa. Ia tetap bisa mengandung
dan diamanahi seorang anak laki-laki yang diberi nama “Barakah”.

“Saya sangat gembira menjadi seorang Muslim. Islam adalah hidupku.
Islam adalah irama hatiku. Islam adalah darah yang mengalir di sekujur
tubuhku. Islam adalah kekuatanku. Islam telah membuat hidupku sangat
menyenangkan. Tanpa Islam aku tak berarti apa-apanya. Andai Allah
memalingkan wajah-Nya dariku, sungguh aku tak bisa bertahan hidup,”
senandung Aminah Assilmi yang telah dua kali berhaji ke Mekkah.

Tak malu tunjukkan identitas Islam

Aminah dalam beraktifitas tak malu-malu menunjukkan keislamannya. Misal,
dia mengenakan busana muslimah secara sempurna. Jilbab menutupi sekujur
kepala dan rambutnya, serta busana panjang menutupi seluruh anggota
tubuhnya. Sesuatu yang tidak lazim sebenarnya bagi warga di Amerika,
dimana wanita umumnya gemar mempertontonkan aurat mereka.

Satu ketika Aminah memberikan kuliah di hadapan mahasiswa yang memenuhi
ruang kuliah di Universitas Tennesse tentang status wanita dalam Islam
berjudul “Wanita Muslim berbicara dari balik hijabnya.”

“Wanita muslim tidak dibatasi dalam berkarir oleh agamanya.
Begitupun, bagi saya, profesi terbaik adalah menjadi seorang ibu. Karena
para ibulah yang membentuk generasi masa depan,” ujar Aminah
diplomatis. Wanita Islam, lanjutnya, saat ini banyak mendapat
diskriminasi di lapangan hanya karena mereka berjilbab. Ia menekankan,
terutama di negerinya Amerika, muslimah sangat sulit mengaktualisasikan
dirinya. Pernah satu saat ketika Aminah hendak mencairkan cek di sebuah
bank. Satuan pengaman bank serta merta menghardiknya seraya mengarahkan
moncong senapan ke wajahnya. “Itu hanya karena saya berjilbab,”
katanya.

Aminah mengingatkan para pengeritik Islam yang kerap menyebut bahwa
wanita-wanita di negeri-negeri Islam tertindas di bawah kekuasaan
lelaki. Ia menjelaskan bahwa yang menindas mereka bukanlah Islam, tapi
budaya setempat. Dalam Islam wanita begitu dihormati dan tinggi
derajatnya. “Jangan anggap (ajaran Islam) seperti itu. Sangat
bodoh,” ujarnya. Ia sangat tidak setuju Islam dijadikan kambing
hitam.

Itulah Aminah Assilmi. Dulunya memojokkan Islam dan bahkan bermaksud
meng-Kristen-kan kawan sekelasnya. Berbagai ujian dan penderitaan yang
datang selepas ia memeluk Islam tak membuatnya bergeming. Allah berikan
ganjaran atas kesabarannya itu dengan mengirimkan hidayah kepada seluruh
anggota keluarganya. Kini ia bersama organisasinya memperjuangkan agar
umat Islam di Amerika mendapatkan libur di kala merayakan lebaran. Salah
satu sukses yang telah mereka rengkuh adalah beredarnya perangko Idul
Fitri, hasil kerjasama dengan kantor pos Amerika. Wallahu `alam
bisshawab. [Zulkarnain Jalil/www.hidayatullah.com
<http://hidayatullah.com/> ]

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===

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

Ted Olson’s Report of Phone Calls from Barbara Olson on 9/11: Three Official Denials

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

=== News Update ===

Ted Olson’s Report of Phone Calls from Barbara Olson on 9/11: Three Official Denials by David Ray Griffin

Global Research, April 1, 2008

David Ray Griffin Late in the day on 9/11, CNN put out a story that began: “Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN.” According to this story, Olson reported that his wife had “called him twice on a cell phone from American Airlines Flight 77,” saying that “all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers. The only weapons she mentioned were knives and cardboard cutters.”2 Ted Olson’s report was very important. It provided the only evidence that American 77, which was said to have struck the Pentagon, had still been aloft after it had disappeared from FAA radar around 9:00 AM (there had been reports, after this disappearance, that an airliner had crashed on the Ohio-Kentucky border). Also, Barbara Olson had been a very well-known commentator on CNN. The report that she died in a plane that had been hijacked by Arab Muslims was an important factor in getting the nation’s support for the Bush administration’s “war on terror.” Ted Olson’s report was important in still another way, being the sole source of the widely accepted idea that the hijackers had box cutters.3 However, although Ted Olson’s report of phone calls from his wife has been a central pillar of the official account of 9/11, this report has been completely undermined. Olson’s Self-Contradictions Olson began this process of undermining by means of self-contradictions. He first told CNN, as we have seen, that his wife had “called him twice on a cell phone.” But he contradicted this claim on September 14, telling Hannity and Colmes that she had reached him by calling the Department of Justice collect. Therefore, she must have been using the “airplane phone,” he surmised, because “she somehow didn’t have access to her credit cards.”4 However, this version of Olson’s story, besides contradicting his first version, was even self-contradictory, because a credit card is needed to activate a passenger-seat phone. Later that same day, moreover, Olson told Larry King Live that the second call from his wife suddenly went dead because “the signals from cell phones coming from airplanes don’t work that well.”5 After that return to his first version, he finally settled on the second version, saying that his wife had called collect and hence must have used “the phone in the passengers’ seats” because she did not have her purse.6 By finally settling on this story, Olson avoided a technological pitfall. Given the cell phone system employed in 2001, high-altitude cell phone calls from airliners were impossible, or at least virtually so (Olson’s statement that “the signals from cell phones coming from airplanes don’t work that well” was a considerable understatement). The technology to enable cell phone calls from high-altitude airline flights was not created until 2004.7 However, Olson’s second story, besides being self-contradictory, was contradicted by American Airlines. American Airlines Contradicts Olson’s Second Version A 9/11 researcher, knowing that AA Flight 77 was a Boeing 757, noticed that AA’s website indicated that its 757s do not have passenger-seat phones. After he wrote to ask if that had been the case on September 11, 2001, an AA customer service representative replied: “That is correct; we do not have phones on our Boeing 757. The passengers on flight 77 used their own personal cellular phones to make out calls during the terrorist attack.”8 In response to this revelation, defenders of the official story might reply that Ted Olson was evidently right the first time: she had used her cell phone. However, besides the fact that this scenario is rendered unlikely by the cell phone technology employed in 2001, it has also been contradicted by the FBI. Olson’s Story Contradicted by the FBI The most serious official contradiction of Ted Olson’s story came in 2006 at the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker. The evidence presented to this trial by the FBI included a report on phone calls from all four 9/11 flights. In its report on American Flight 77, the FBI report attributed only one call to Barbara Olson and it was an “unconnected call,” which (of course) lasted “0 seconds.”9 According to the FBI, therefore, Ted Olson did not receive a single call from his wife using either a cell phone or an onboard phone. Back on 9/11, the FBI itself had interviewed Olson. A report of that interview indicates that Olson told the FBI agents that his wife had called him twice from Flight 77.10 And yet the FBI’s report on calls from Flight 77, presented in 2006, indicated that no such calls occurred. This was an amazing development: The FBI is part of the Department of Justice, and yet its report undermined the well-publicized claim of the DOJ’s former solicitor general that he had received two calls from his wife on 9/11. Olson’s Story Also Rejected by Pentagon Historians Ted Olson’s story has also been quietly rejected by the historians who wrote Pentagon 9/11, a treatment of the Pentagon attack put out by the Department of Defense.11 According to Olson, his wife had said that “all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers.”12 This is an inherently implausible scenario. We are supposed to believe that 60-some people, including the two pilots, were held at bay by three or four men (one or two of the hijackers would have been in the cockpit) with knives and boxcutters. This scenario becomes even more absurd when we realize that the alleged hijackers were all small, unathletic men (the 9/11 Commission pointed out that even “[t]he so-called muscle hijackers actually were not physically imposing, as the majority of them were between 5’5” and 5’7” in height and slender in build”13), and that the pilot, Charles “Chic” Burlingame, was a weightlifter and a boxer, who was described as “really tough” by one of his erstwhile opponents.14 Also, the idea that Burlingame would have turned over the plane to hijackers was rejected by his brother, who said: “I don’t know what happened in that cockpit, but I’m sure that they would have had to incapacitate him or kill him because he would have done anything to prevent the kind of tragedy that befell that airplane.”15 The Pentagon historians, in any case, did not accept the Olson story, according to which Burlingame and his co-pilot did give up their plane and were in the back with the passengers and other crew members. They instead wrote that “the attackers either incapacitated or murdered the two pilots.”16 Conclusion This rejection of Ted Olson’s story by American Airlines, the Pentagon, and especially the FBI is a development of utmost importance. Without the alleged calls from Barbara Olson, there is no evidence that Flight 77 returned to Washington. Also, if Ted Olson’s claim was false, then there are only two possibilities: Either he lied or he was duped by someone using voice-morphing technology to pretend to be his wife.17 In either case, the official story about the calls from Barbara Olson was based on deception. And if that part of the official account of 9/11 was based on deception, should we not suspect that other parts were as well? The fact that Ted Olson’s report has been contradicted by other defenders of the official story about 9/11 provides grounds for demanding a new investigation of 9/11. This internal contradiction is, moreover, only one of 25 such contradictions discussed in my most recent book, 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press. NOTES 1 This essay is based on Chapter 8 (“Did Ted Olson Receive Calls from Barbara Olson?”) of David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press (Northampton: Olive Branch, 2008). 2 Tim O’Brien, “Wife of Solicitor General Alerted Him of Hijacking from Plane,” CNN, September 11, 2001 (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/pentagon.olson). 3 This was pointed out in The 9/11 Commission Report, 8. 4 Hannity & Colmes, Fox News, September 14, 2001 (http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/2001/foxnews091401.html). 5 “America’s New War: Recovering from Tragedy,” Larry King Live, CNN, September 14, 2001 (http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/14/lkl.00.html). 6 In his “Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture,” delivered November 16, 2001 (http://www.fed-soc.org/resources/id.63/default.asp), Olson said that she “somehow managed . . . to use a telephone in the airplane to call.” He laid out this version of his story more fully in an interview reported in Toby Harnden, “She Asked Me How to Stop the Plane,” Daily Telegraph, March 5, 2002 (http://s3.amazonaws.com/911timeline/2002/telegraph030502.html). 7 I discussed the technical difficulties of making cell phone calls from airliners in 2001 in Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory (Northampton: Olive Branch, 2007), 87-88, 292-97. 8 See the submission of 17 February 2006 by “the Paradroid” on the Politik Forum (http://forum.politik.de/forum/archive/index.php/t-133356-p-24.html). It is quoted in David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press (Northampton: Olive Branch, 2008), 75. 9 United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui, Exhibit Number P200054 (http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/exhibits/prosecution/flights/P200054.html). These documents can be more easily viewed in “Detailed Account of Phone Calls from September 11th Flights” (http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/evidence/calldetail.html). 10 FBI, “Interview with Theodore Olsen [sic],” “9/11 Commission, FBI Source Documents, Chronological, September 11,” 2001Intelfiles.com, March 14, 2008, (http://intelfiles.egoplex.com:80/2008/03/911-commission-fbi-source-documents.html). 11 Alfred Goldberg et al., Pentagon 9/11 (Washington DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2007). 12 O’Brien, “Wife of Solicitor General Alerted Him of Hijacking from Plane.” 13 9/11 Commission Staff Statement 16 (http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_16.pdf). 14 Shoestring, “The Flight 77 Murder Mystery: Who Really Killed Charles Burlingame?” Shoestring911, February 2, 2008 (http://shoestring911.blogspot.com/2008/02/flight-77-murder-mystery-who-really.html). 15 “In Memoriam: Charles ‘Chic’ Burlingame, 1949-2001,” USS Saratoga Museum foundation (available at http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/planes/analysis/chic_remembered.html). 16 Alfred Goldberg et al., Pentagon 9/11 (Washington DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2007), 12. 17 Of these two possibilities, the idea that Ted Olson was duped should be seriously entertained only if there are records proving that the Department of Justice received two collect calls, ostensibly from Barbara Olson, that morning. Evidently no such records have been produced. This article is based on Chapter 8 of Dr. Griffin’s new book, “9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press,” (Northampton: Olive Branch, 2008). This book reframes the central events of 9/11 as a series of 25 internal contradictions. The only way that its readers will be able to continue to accept the official story is to accept mutually contradictory accounts. “9/11 Contradictions” may have the best chance of any of DRG’s books (or indeed any book) of opening up a new investigation into 9/11.

source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8514

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Former Governor Jesse Ventura: WTC Collapse A Controlled Demolition

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

=== News Update ===

Former Governor Jesse Ventura: WTC Collapse A Controlled Demolition

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet

Navy veteran and movie star savages official story, says media covering up truth about attacks

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura vehemently savaged the official 9/11 story on a syndicated national radio show today, saying the WTC collapsed like a controlled demolition and was pulverized to dust as he also highlighted the impossible 10 second free fall speed of the towers.

Appearing on The Alex Jones Show, Ventura said that his initial reaction to 9/11 was much like most people at the time, and he accepted the official story outright, a response he now regrets because he was in a position of power and could have used it to raise a lot of pointed questions.

“I kicked myself when it initially happened that the light didn’t go off but I was so shocked that this thing had even taken place that I apologize for not being more aware,” said Ventura, adding that watching Loose Change at the insistence of his son was part of the catalyst for his wake up call.

Host Alex Jones is executive producer of Loose Change (get it here), the most watched Internet movie of all time. Ventura said he ran through a rollercoaster of emotions when he saw the film.

“When I finally did watch it I went through every emotion you could imagine, from laughing, crying, getting sick to my stomach, to the whole emotional thing,” said the former Governor.

“To me questions haven’t been answered and are not being answered about 9/11,” said Ventura, before highlighting the collapse of Building 7, a 47-story tall skyscraper that was not hit by a plane but collapsed in its own footprint in the late afternoon of September 11.

“Two planes struck two buildings….but how is it that a third building fell 5 hours later?” asked Ventura, “How could this building just implode into its own footprint 5 hours later – that’s my first question – the 9/11 Commission didn’t even devote one page to that in their big volume of investigation,” added the former Governor.

Ventura then explored how it was possible that all three buildings could rapidly collapse at almost free fall speed.

“How could those buildings fall at the speed of gravity – if you put a stopwatch on them both of those World Trade Center buildings were on the ground in ten seconds – how can that be?” asked Ventura.

“If you took a billiard ball and dropped it from the height of the World Trade Center in a vacuum it would hit the ground in 9.3 seconds and if you took that same billiard ball and dropped it 10 stories at a time and merely stopped it and started it it would take 30 seconds – if you dropped it every floor of the World Trade Center to the ground, simply stopping and starting it on gravity it would take over 100 seconds to reach the ground,” he surmised.

The former wrestling star then questioned how low-temperature burning jet fuel could melt steel.

“Jet fuel is four fifths kerosene – which is not a hot burning fuel – and they wanted us to believe it melted these steel structured girders and caused these buildings to pancake collapse to the ground?” he stated.

“I was on the site within two weeks after it happened and I saw none of these pancakes – wouldn’t they all be piled up in a huge mass on the ground and yet everything was blown into dust – when you look at it from that aspect none of it makes any sense,” said Ventura.

“Never before in the annuls of history has a fire caused a steel structure building to fall to the ground like these two did,” he concluded.

Having undergone Basic Underwater Demolition Seal training, Ventura is speaking from an experienced standpoint and he unequivocally stated that he thought the buildings were deliberately imploded.

“Upon looking at the film in super-slow motion and the way the buildings fell and comparing that to the way that they do like a controlled demolition of a hotel in Las Vegas, they both fell identical.”

“I did watch the film of Building 7 going down and in my opinion there’s no doubt that that building was brought down with demolition,” said the former Governor.

Ventura also questioned the lack of wreckage outside of the Pentagon after Flight 77 allegedly struck the building.

“When I was watching Loose Change with a friend of mine – he happens to work for a company that helps build the Boeing airplanes and they said that when the engines completely disappeared and were destroyed, his response was, excuse my French – bullshit!,” said Ventura.

“I turned to him and said why and he said because they’re made of titanium steel – they can’t disintegrate.”

Ventura said that the corporate media were going to continue to cover-up the truth about 9/11, but that the number of credible people speaking out and increasing education and knowledge about the subject would eventually reap dividends.

“We don’t want to lose our country, after all it’s still our country and until they put us down we have the power,” Ventura concluded.

The Governor’s bold comments about 9/11 come on the heels of similar views expressed by American icon Willie Nelson during an interview on the same radio show in February.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2008/040208_jesse_ventura.htm

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Adam Gadahn II : Fake Al-Qaeda

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

=== News Update ===

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The very strange saga of Adam Gadahn has been so successful that it has inspired at least one imitator (found via here), a Jewish American claiming to be a convert to Islam with a ‘terrorism’-supporting website (this does not appear to be the original site, and the internal link appears to have been changed due to the Fox article) The funny part:

“Under the law FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said it is difficult to bring criminal charges against the operators of Web sites like RevolutionMuslim.com unless specific threats are made against an individual or individuals.

Kolko while not speaking directly about RevolutionMuslim said radical sites like these are not often prosecuted.”

How quick do you think a real American Muslim would be in indefinite detention, without access to legal representation, for even thinking about such a website? You want more funny? From the ‘conversion’ biography of Yousef al Khattab you’ll note that he is a ‘settler’ (odd punctuation in original; ellipsis is mine; emphasis in red; this appears to be the same guy as he uses the same “racist cult” phrase as in the Fox article, although he claims in the conversion biography to be living in Morocco in 2006):
“In the year 1988 I entered a Yeshiva and started my journey into the Orthodox Rabbinical racist cult. In 1991 I wed my 1st wife (then) Luna Mellul now Qamar al Khattab. She was from the Moroccan town named Tetouan and was attending the racist Orthodox Jewish girl’s seminary known as Breuers or Sampson Raphael Hirsh Bet Yaakov aka Bais Yakov.1992 bought us the birth of my 1st child Abdel Rahman (formally Rachamim Cohen). Alhumdulilah he was then as he is now my pride and joy. Upon the birth of Abdel Rahman we were living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the Satmar Hasidic community. I used to see all the lying and cheating, government scams and money laundering using the Synagogue and Yeshiva bank accounts and the poor hygiene of these folk, and was nervous for my new born son not to grow up like these folk. We tried broadening our horizons and moved to the Ocean Parkway area of Brooklyn, later that year.

1994 till 1998 bought us the birth of 3 more wonderful children alhumdulilah. Hesibeh, Abdel Aziz (formally Ezra),and Abdullah (formally Ovadia) during these years I tried to convince myself that Judaism was a true path and I just didn’t understand it because I never read the entire set of Talmud and it 3 different ways of understanding it including the “hidden level”. You see this is the trick in the rabbinical cult, you will not EVER finish learning all the rabbinic text thus u are subservient to the Rabbis (aka Elders of Zion) who will interpret Judaism for you. During this time frame the Rabbis saw that we doubted there beliefs thus constantly followed our family contacting all new friends and employers etc. The Rabbis MUST ALWAYS know where you move to and who are your friends. The Rabbis were starting to be a big nuisance as were the Rabbinical Jews so seeking a better future elsewhere we loaded up the family and moved to Palestine. (then like most westerners we were brainwashed to refer to the Jew entity as Israel . . .

September,1998 we now arrived in Ghaza or what the Jewish squatters refer to as Gush Qatif. Quickly my wife was turned off by the lies of the folk there and my son Abdel Rahman came running home from school one day saying “Daddy, my teacher doesn’t cover her hair properly, her dress is to short, they don’t learn Torah here and all they do is play”!! Maashaallah, my son was very correct so with no possessions or money we set off to find a home in the nearby Jew settlement of Netivot in occupied 1948 Palestine. Shas, a “religious political party” immediately helped us by providing a home and their private school system and my kids went from knowing NO Hebrew to being tops in there class alhumdulilah. During our stay in Netivot I met a Muslim from UAE and we had conversations for about 2 years where he would ask me questions about Jewish Aqeedah or Jewish creed, and then compare it to Tawheed al Elohiya a part of Islamic Monotheism. I would then go and ask major Rabbis questions about the Jewish creed and always got 60000 different answers. The Jews can’t even tell you where there God is based on text; rather they say God is everywhere! (authubilah) One day I decided to go to the Arab souk and buy a translation of the meaning of the Holy Quran in the English language. Subahanallah!!!!! I could not put it down!! Every problem I had with Jews and Judaism was being addressed by Allah the Most High, in the 1st 3 chapters of the Quran Allah swt answered most of my doubts about Judaism. The Quran is firm with the Jews and invites them to a just truth (Islam) to save them from the hellfire their ancestors are currently in.

When I finished reading the entire Quran,I could no longer associate with Jews any longer, thus I was obliged to tell my wife I am a Muslim. Alhumdulilah within 2 weeks my wife decided to read the Quran and became a Muslimah!!! Then the kids after her alhumdulilah”

source: http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2008/03/adam-gadahn-ii.html

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The Media Calls him Al Qaeda, but his Jewish Father calls him Adam Pearlman

Filed under:

• Fake Terror
• Jewry, “Israel”, Zionism…

by Curt Maynard

Monday, 04 September 2006

Source: Ziopedia

[Editor's note: How much longer will it take Western citizens to wake up to the fact that all those scary terror organisations such as Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are actually creations of their own governments, or to be more precise, Mossad, CIA, MI5 and alike. Their sole purpose is to scare ordinary citizens into blind support of their criminal governments, enabling them to dismantle civil rights and social services in the name of combatting terror and create excuses for brutal oppression of whoever is in the way of profit maximisation for their neo-fascist corporations. Sure, there might be many naive, true believers amongst ordinary members of those phony terror organisations, but the people in power, the likes of Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden, are actually part of the Orwellian elite.]

The CNN article[1] is entitled “American al Qaeda: U.S. should convert to Islam,” and if that wasn’t scary enough the article then quotes one of the speakers on the alleged “Al Qaeda” tape, a [socalled] Jew named Adam Pearlman, “We invite all Americans and believers to Islam, whatever their role and status in Bush and Blair’s world order…Decide today, because today could be your last day.” The article then quotes an alleged “expert,” on Al Qaeda and terrorism, a woman named Laura Mansfield, who says, “the time reference could indicate an attack is near. Muslims believe that non-believers should be given a chance to convert before they are attacked.” Booga booga!

What the CNN article never mentions is that Adam Gadhn, or “Azzam the American,” as the media likes to refer to him, is in reality a Jew from California named Adam Pearlman. I’m not kidding reader, I’m as serious as a heart attack, Azzam the American is a Jew. CNN isn’t the only negligent news agency, not a single one of the television networks have mentioned Gadahn’s/Pearlman’s pedigree, not one. The only news source I am aware of that has mentioned the fact that “Azzam the American” is Jewish, was the LA Times and the Washington Post, and then only in the most cryptic manner.

According to Xymphora, a very credible Internet blog that cited/sourced the Times and Post articles, the Times noted in a “characteristically coy” manner:
“In 1995, at 17, Adam Gadahn moved out of the family’s Winchester home, his father said, because ‘he wanted out of the country and wanted to be in the city,’ where he lived with relatives in Garden Grove.[2]”

Xymphora then presents what is referred to as the details of the case, provided by the Washington Post, which the LA Times conveniently neglected to mention and that was exactly who these relatives were.

“While living with his grandparents in suburban Santa Ana, he made his first trip to the nearby mosque in 1995. He introduced himself as Yahya – the Arabic name for John the Baptist, revered as a great prophet in Islam.”

That’s right reader, Gadahn/Pearlman’s “relatives,” were actually his grandparents. Now here’s the interesting part, Pearlman’s grandfather was a sitting board member on the Anti-Defamation League, a notoriously anti-Gentile organization that has historically attacked anything and everything that could in any way be considered Christian, wholesome, virtuous, honorable, etc… The ADL is the primary force behind the assault on Mel Gibson,[3] anytime anyone utters what could in any way be perceived as anything less than pro-Jewish, Abraham Foxman, the Director of the ADL, immediately begins a well orchestrated smear campaign, designed to do one thing, force an apology, which can then be spun by the ADL into an admission that whatever errant individual they have targeted was wrong and probably anti-Semitic for saying whatever it was that “offended,” the ADL.

In a past essay I noted:

“In reality, the ADL is nothing more than a political arm of organized world Zionism. It is essentially an organization that is designed to smear the reputation of those that dare question the motives of Zionism and often, individual Zionists acting out of sheer selfishness or on behalf of their co-ethnics. The ADL has the ear of government, the judiciary and law enforcement, it has managed to insert itself in these venues by claiming to represent the underdog, which is generally understood to mean minorities in our present day and age… The ADL engages in defamation, in fact it has mastered the art of defamation – it can and does defame anyone that attempts to bring attention to issues that organized Zionism wants kept under wraps. Interestingly, Foxman and the ADL aren’t in the least bit hesitant to engage in this type of disingenuous behavior, in fact they do so in the open, relying on the media, which is disproportionately owned, operated and managed by Jewish Zionists to convey to the world the ADL’s goal while at the same time suppressing the League’s defamatory techniques.”[4]

Nothing has changed of course, the media continues its subterfuge, that is why Adam Gadahn’s true background remains unknown to the vast majority of Americans, the media refuses to tell viewers that Adam Gadahn, “Azzam the American,” is in reality a Californian Jew with a penchant for “death metal,” music[5] that just happened to “convert,” to Islam, and become an important player in Al Qaeda, so important in fact, that Al Qaeda’s number Two, Ayman al-Zawahiri himself, introduces “Azzam the American,” in the latest Al Qaeda taped threat.[6]

Wake up America, you’re being lied to.

source: http://100777.com/node/1704

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/02/zawahiri.tape/index.html
[2] http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2006/07/very-strange-saga-of-adam-gadahn.html
[3] http://www.ziopedia.org/content/view/1220/1/
[4] http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=539388
[5] Peace, Love, Death Metal http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1212&IssueNum=66
[6] http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/02/zawahiri.tape/index.html

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______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Memo Contends That President Can Authorize Torture

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

=== News Update ===

Secret Bush Administration Torture Memo Released Today In Response To ACLU Lawsuit (4/1/2008)

Memo Contends That President Can Authorize Torture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK — A secret memo authored by the Department of Justice (DOJ) asserting that President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations to extract information from detainees was declassified today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The memo, written by John Yoo, then a deputy at the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), was sent to the Defense Department in March 2003.

“Senior officials at the Justice Department gave the Pentagon the green light to torture prisoners,” said Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney. “It is outrageous that none of these high-level officials have been brought to task yet for their role in authorizing prisoner abuse.”

A similar OLC memo asserting the same kind of unchecked executive authority was sent to the CIA in August 2002. In that now-notorious document, torture was defined so narrowly that it encompassed only those methods that result in pain akin to that associated with “death, organ failure or the permanent impairment of a significant body function.”

In many respects, the March 2003 memo released today parrots the advice previously given to the CIA. In other ways, however, the 2003 memo goes even further. For example, it argues — without any qualification — that, during wartime, the president’s Commander-in-Chief power overrides the due process guarantee of the Fifth Amendment.

“The memo shows that the same disgraceful legal analysis that was at the root of the CIA’s illegal interrogation program was also at the root of the Defense Department’s program,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The memo takes an extremely broad view of the president’s power as Commander-in-Chief. If you believe this memo, there is no limit at all to the kinds of interrogation methods the President can authorize.”

In the memo released today, Yoo writes: “If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network.” The memo goes on to say, “In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch’s constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions.”

The memo was declassified in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and other organizations in June 2004 to enforce Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad. The ACLU has been fighting for the release of the March 2003 Yoo memo since filing the lawsuit. A few weeks ago, after the court ordered additional briefing on whether the Defense Department could continue to withhold the memo, the government reluctantly agreed to conduct a declassification review by March 31. The Defense Department released this memo after conducting the review.

The March 2003 Yoo memo also sheds considerable light on the development of interrogation methods for use at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere. In a recently published book, Administration of Torture, ACLU attorneys Jaffer and Singh explain that, in early 2003, a Defense Department working group convened by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was supplied with the March 2003 Yoo memo and told that it should regard the memo as “definitive guidance.” Relying on the Yoo memo, the working group ultimately endorsed a slew of harsh interrogation methods, some of which violated U.S. and international law. Secretary Rumsfeld relied on the working group memo to authorize a new interrogation directive for use at Guantánamo Bay. General Geoffrey Miller, who was in charge of Guantánamo, was later sent to Iraq to encourage the adoption of abusive methods there.

The Yoo memo can be found online at:
www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/34745res20030314.html

In Administration of Torture, Jaffer and Singh write that interrogation practices sanctioned at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to the system abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. custody. More information about the book is available online at:
www.aclu.org/administrationoftorture

To date, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU’s FOIA lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at:
www.aclu.org/torturefoia

Attorneys in the FOIA case are Lawrence S. Lustberg and Melanca D. Clark of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, P.C.; Jaffer, Singh and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union; and Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

source: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/34747prs20080401.html

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Pentagon Papers leaker calls Iraq invasion ‘supreme war crime’

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

=== News Update ===

Pentagon Papers leaker calls Iraq invasion ‘supreme war crime’

John Byrne

Published: Wednesday April 2, 2008

The man who leaked secret documents about the US war in Vietnam has a name for the invasion of Iraq.

“Supreme war crime.”

He also has appellations for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney: “domestic enemies of the Constitution” and “war criminals.”

Speaking at a church in San Francisco Saturday, Daniel Ellsberg bemoaned the Administration’s war and Iraq and cautioned about the dangers of a future war in Iran, according to a report in the local Golden Gate Express.

Ellsberg leaked a sheaf of documents that would become known as the “Pentagon Papers” in 1971, a secret history of the war in Vietnam in which the Pentagon conceded the war was unlikely to be won. At the time, Ellsberg worked as a Pentagon consultant.

Ellsberg used his talk this weekend to focus on how he feels the Administration has drifted from the constitution, the Express said. He attacked Congress, too, saying its 2002 authorization of force for the war was unconstitutional.

“We have gone far from the Constitution,” he said. Staying true to constitutional values are “not synonymous with obeying the president.”

Later, he assailed those who’ve ruled out impeaching Bush and Cheney. Both Democratic leaders in Congress — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have said they won’t consider impeaching Bush.

“To rule impeachment off the table is very much like ruling the constitution off the table,” Ellsberg said.

He also asserted that the Administration’s use of torture was illegal under international law — “not just waterboarding, but the whole slew of inhumane procedures that has gone on for seven years now.”

Ellsberg compared the Administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program to tactics used by the Nixon Administration after he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press.

Nixon went so far as to break into his psychiatrist’s office, using a dark unit known as the “plumbers.”

Ellsberg also praised Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused return to Iraq in 2006 citing moral opposition to the war, and criticized any preemptive attack on Iran.

“Iran has not attacked us, and does not have a nuclear weapon,” he said, adding that a pre-emptive attack on Iran would be “nothing but a crime against humanity and a crime against the people.”

source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pentagon_papers_leaker_calls_Iraq_invasion_0402.html

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Above the law: the Bush crime syndicate

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

=== News Update ===

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Bush crime syndicate genuinely believed that the president was above the law. It’s not hyperbole — it was an actual legal opinion:

The Justice Department sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon in 2003 asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president’s ultimate authority as commander in chief overrode such statutes.

[...]

Sent to the Pentagon’s general counsel on March 14, 2003, by John C. Yoo, then a deputy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the memo provides an expansive argument for nearly unfettered presidential power in a time of war. It contends that numerous laws and treaties forbidding torture or cruel treatment should not apply to U.S. interrogations in foreign lands because of the president’s inherent wartime powers.

“If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network,” Yoo wrote. “In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch’s constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions.”

Interrogators who harmed a prisoner would be protected by a “national and international version of the right to self-defense,” Yoo wrote. He also articulated a definition of illegal conduct in interrogations — that it must “shock the conscience” — that the Bush administration advocated for years.

“Whether conduct is conscience-shocking turns in part on whether it is without any justification,” Yoo wrote, explaining, for example, that it would have to be inspired by malice or sadism before it could be prosecuted.

We always knew that the Bush crime syndicate was populated by ideologues and sycophants, but this takes it to a new level. How abusing those already in custody protects the U.S. from attack is beyond me … that requires a leap of logical thought that is well outside my experience as a sentient being. That’s textbook through-the-looking-glass thinking right there.

The Bush crime syndicate works on only one principle: find someone dumb enough or craven enough — or both — to give you the answer you want to hear, no matter what the consequences. John Yoo certainly fits that bill.

Pity I spent all that time and money on law school to learn laws that don’t mean anything.

Source: http://flprogressive.blogspot.com/2008/04/above-law-bush-crime-syndicate.html

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

US declassifies ‘torture’ memo

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

=== News Update ===

US declassifies ‘torture’ memo

The US was widely condemned for prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq [AP]

External link

Read the full memo here

The US justice department has released a declassified 2003 memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation methods on al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects held abroad.

The memo, which was subsequently overruled, said George Bush’s authority as president superseded international bans on torture.

“Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion,” the memo, written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the US Office of Legal Counsel, said.

The document was released in response to a legal action launched by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) concerning the treatment of prisoners in US custody abroad.

Waterboarding

The memo also offered a defence in case any interrogator was charged with breaking US or international laws.

“Finally, even if the criminal prohibitions outlined above applied, and an interrogation method might violate those prohibitions, necessity or self-defence could provide justifications for any criminal liability,” the memo concluded.

The Pentagon, unlike US intelligence bodies, specifically prohibited its interrogators from using certain harsh methods, including a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The memo was rescinded in December 2003, nine months after Yoo sent it to the Pentagon’s top lawyer, William J Haynes.

Democratic criticism

There have been widespread protests over US prisoner abuse scandals [Reuters]

The US has faced widespread criticism over a series of prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

“Senior officials at the justice department gave the Pentagon the green light to torture prisoners,”Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer, said.

Singh said the memo, and a similar 2002 opinion for the CIA, undermine the Bush administration’s argument that abuses such as Abu Ghraib in 2003 were aberrations.

“These memos just go to show that it was the policies of the Bush administration that was driving this abuse,” she said.

Democratic party politicians also condemned the memo and called for those who approved it to be held accountable.

“This memo created the lawless atmosphere that led directly to the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib. Those who wrote it and those who approved it should be held accountable,” Joseph Biden, a Democratic senator, said.

The memo by Yoo also included past legal defences of other interrogation methods that were not considered torture, such as sleep deprivation, hooding detainees and “frog crouching,” which forces prisoners to crouch while standing on the tips of their toes.

The “definition of torture must be read as a sum of these component parts,” the memo said.

“Our policy is to treat detainees humanely and that has always been the case,” Commander JD Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

source: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D62C6D6E-D58A-4787-9810-4BB8273119D6.htm

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Thousands of U.S. Women Soldiers Routinely Raped and Sodomized in Iraq.. by.. guess who…

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

=== News Update ===

Thousands of U.S. Women Soldiers Routinely Raped and Sodomized in Iraq.. by.. guess who…

By: Bulov on: 03.04.2008

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

Rapists in the ranks – Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.
By Jane Harman
March 31, 2008

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported — 73% more than in 2004. The DOD’s newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.

The Defense Department has made some efforts to manage this epidemic — most notably in 2005, after the media received anonymous e-mail messages about sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy. The media scrutiny and congressional attention that followed led the DOD to create the Sexual Assault and Response Office. Since its inception, the office has initiated education and training programs, which have improved the reporting of cases of rapes and other sexual assaults. But more must be done to prevent attacks and to increase accountability.

At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks. According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military. Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through “nonjudicial punishment,” which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of “insufficient evidence.”

This is in stark contrast to the civilian trend of prosecuting sexual assault. In California, for example, 44% of reported rapes result in arrests, and 64% of those who are arrested are prosecuted, according to the California Department of Justice.

The DOD must close this gap and remove the obstacles to effective investigation and prosecution. Failure to do so produces two harmful consequences: It deters victims from reporting, and it fails to deter offenders. The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault — an attitude that says “boys will be boys.”

I have raised the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Although I believe that he is concerned, thus far, the military’s response has been underwhelming — and the apparent lack of urgency is inexcusable.

Congress is not doing much better. Although these sexual assault statistics are readily available, our oversight has failed to come to grips with the magnitude of the crisis. The abhorrent and graphic nature of the reports may make people uncomfortable, but that is no excuse for inaction. Congressional hearings are urgently needed to highlight the failure of existing policies. Most of our servicewomen and men are patriotic, courageous and hardworking people who embody the best of what it means to be an American. The failure to address military sexual assault runs counter to those ideals and shames us all.

Jane Harman (D-Venice) chairs the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-harman31mar31%2C0%2C5399612.story

source: http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/160821

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

The fraud named Hillary Rodham Clinton

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

=== News Update ===

The fraud named Hillary Rodham Clinton

By DOUG THOMPSON

April 2, 2008 – 7:02am

Hillary Clinton is a fraud, a liar, a cheat and a disgrace to the Senate, her party and the United States of America.

There’s no other way to put it. The woman who would be President inflated her resume, lied outright about being “under fire” in an attempt to bolster her national security credentials, plotted to overturn the will of pledged delegates at the Democratic National Convention in August and lobbied to change the rules after she signed a pledge to honor her party’s decision on voting in Michigan and Florida.

She does not deserve to be President of the United States. She does not deserve to be a United States Senator. She deserves a unmarked grave in the dustbin of political history.

If any other candidate had pulled the disgraceful stunts that Clinton and her campaign have engineered in her faltering, debt-ridden run for President, they would be driven from their party of disgrace. But this is Hillary, wife of Bill — the President of a thousand affairs and countless other political skeletons. Some claim she and her philandering, shoot-from-the-lip husband are Democratic royalty. If she is the best the Democrats have to offer the party of the jackass deserves to get its butt kicked in November.

On Tuesday, Howard Wolfson, one of Clinton’s chief gutter politics political operatives, revealed the campaign plans to do everything it can to destroy frontrunner Barack Obama in the eyes of superdelegates to the Democratic National Covention. They plan to use the words of Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s fiery former minister, to discredit the Illinois Senator and try and convince the superdelegates to overturn the will of those who voted in the party’s primaries.

Hillary admits she will push for a credentials fight to try and seat the delegations from Florida and Michigan even though she signed a pledge along with other candidates to follow the decision of the Democratic National Committee to not recognize voting results from either state because they pushed their primary dates up against the will of the party.

Pledges mean nothing to Hillary Clinton. Neither does honesty. Her bald-faced lie about being “under fire” in Bosnia shows that she has little regard for the truth or honesty and her ludicrous attempt to explain she “misspoke” not once but three times or that she was “sleep-deprived” show just how pathetic her claims to greatness have become.

Also ironic is her campaign’s coining of the “Tanya Harding Strategy” to describe their plans to “kneecap” Barack Obama and destroy his credibility before the convention. Harding, a third-tier Olympic skating hopeful, hatched a plan to injure rival Nancy Kerrigan by busting her knee with a baseball bat so she couldn’t compete on the ice.

Harding was, and probably still is, a cold, calculating, scheming blond bitch. Is that really the comparison the Clinton campaign wants?

For the past seven years I have taken George W. Bush to task for being a liar, a cheat and a fraud. If Barack Obama had pulled the same stunts I would be calling him the same. I have reservations about Obama’s qualifications and his ties to shady political dealmakers and the angry words of Rev. Wright. He has also played fast and loose with his resume.

But Clinton’s crimes go far beyond the normal hyperbole of politics. Her methods demand denunciation and her schemes cry out for exposure and ridicule.

She is a liar and a fraud and we’ve already had too many of them in the White House.

source: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/5775

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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW