TANGGAPAN TERHADAP MAKALAH “MENGAPA KAMI MEMILIH MAZHAB AHLUL BAIT AS”

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

=== News Update ===

Sabtu, 07 Pebruari 2009

TANGGAPAN TERHADAP MAKALAH

“MENGAPA KAMI MEMILIH MAZHAB AHLUL BAIT AS”

Oleh: Rahmat A. Rahman

Ketua Lembaga Kajian dan Konsultasi Syariah Wahdah Islamiyah

Berkenaan dengan acara diskusi bertema MAZHAB SYIAH DALAM TIMBANGAN ALQURAN DAN SUNNAH, yang digelar oleh Lembaga Studi & Informasi Islam (LSII) Makassar-Indonesia, tanggal 1 Januari 2009 di Hotel Horison Makassar, Prof. Dr. H. Jalaluddin Rakhmat (selanjutnya ditulis JR) selaku Ketua Dewan Syura IJABI menjadi pemateri tunggal dengan makalah berjudul : MENGAPA KAMI MEMILIH MAZHAB AHLULBAIT AS.Undangan yang hadir pada forum diskusi tersebut adalah para dai dan muballigh serta tokoh-tokoh Islam di Kota Makassar.

Ada beberapa catatan kami dalam diskusi tersebut, pertama, sangat disayangkan, pada diskusi ini pembicaranya tunggal hingga perkembangan diskusi tidak imbang. Kedua, makalah dibagikan pada saat acara dimulai hingga tidak memberi kesempatan pada audience membaca dan mempelajari secara cermat dan seksama. Ketiga, waktu yang tersedia untuk diskusi sangat terbatas, hingga audience yang ingin mengemukakan pandangan dan sanggahan tidak mendapat porsi waktu memadai.

Pembaca, kalau dalam makalahnya, JR tidak sanggup menahan tawanya lantaran pendapat seorang kiai yang menurutnya keliru, maka kala membaca makalah “ilmiah” JR dalam diskusi tersebut, kami justru sangat terperanjat dan terhenyak tak dapat menahan rasa heran. Kami mohon maaf. Kami tidak percaya kalau orang seperti JR yang telah menyabet deretan gelar akademik, ternyata mengabaikan hal-hal yang bernilai amanah ilmiah.

Karena itulah, maka melalui tulisan ini, kami menyampaikan sanggahan terhadap makalah “ilmiah” JR.

Kesalahan Jalaluddin Rakhmat Terbongkar dalam Dialog Syiah di Makassar

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

=== News Update ===

8 January 2009 822 views

Ketua Dewan Syura Jamaah Ahli Bait (Ijabi) Indonesia Prof Dr KH Jalaluddin Rakhmat (JR) tampil Sebagai pemateri tunggal dalam Dialog Muballigh dengan tema : “Syiah dalam Timbangan Alquran dan Sunnah”. Kamis Malam, 1 Januari 2009 di hotel horison Makassar.

Dedengkot Syiah Indonesia, yang biasa disapa Kang Jalal ini, memaparkan makalahnya dengan judul “Mengapa Kami Memilih Mazhab Ahlulbait as.?”.

Acara yang dilaksanakan oleh Lembaga Studi dan Informasi Islam (LSII) Makassar , yang diketuai Syamsuddin Baharuddin dan didukung ICC dan Ijabi ini dihadiri tiga asatidzah dari Wahdah, yakni Ust. M. Said Abd.Shamad, Ust. M. Ikhwan AJ, Ust. Rahmat  AR dan beberapa ulama, cendekiawan dan muballigh Kota Makassar, di antaranya Prof. Dr. Rusydi Khalid, Prof.Dr. Ahmad Sewang, Prof.Dr. Qasim Mathar, Fuad Rumi, Das’ad Latif, DR.Mustamin Arsyad, MA .

Dalam sesi kedua, dialog yang dipandu oleh pengamat politik Islam UIN DR.Hamdan Juhannis ini, Ustadz Rahmat mendapat kesempatan pertama, mengutarakan argumen.

Ustadz yang merupakan Ketua Lembaga Kajian dan Konsultasi Syariah (LKKS) Wahdah Islamiyah ini, sebelum mengomentari makalah JR, mengatakan bahwa Ahlus Sunnah tidak pernah membenci Ahlul Bait, Ahlussunnah sangat paham terhadap Sunnah dan menjunjung tinggi wasiat Rasulullah untuk mencintai Ahlul Bait.

Dari makalah tersebut, Ustadz memberikan komentar tentang buku acuan yang dituliskan JR, “ini adalah suatu bentuk pengelabuan terhadap data, dalam pembicaraan tentang buku-buku yang diambil acuan ternyata tidak seperti apa yang dituliskan atau kurang menyimpulkan secara sempurna”.

“Mitos Kartini dan Rekayasa Sejarah”

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

=== News Update ===

Mengapa setiap 21 April kita memperingati Hari Kartini? Apakah tidak ada wanita Indonesia lain yang lebih layak ditokohkan? Baca Catatan Akhir Pekan [CAP] Adian Husaini ke-269

Oleh: Adian Husaini

Tuesday, 21 April 2009 02:12

Ada yang menarik pada Jurnal Islamia (INSISTS-Republika) edisi 9 April 2009 lalu. Dari empat halaman jurnal berbentuk koran yang membahas tema utama tentang Kesetaraan Gender, ada tulisan sejarawan Persis Tiar Anwar Bahtiar tentang Kartini. Judulnya: “Mengapa Harus Kartini?”

Sejarawan yang menamatkan magister bidang sejarah di Universitas Indonesia ini mempertanyakan: Mengapa Harus Kartini? Mengapa setiap 21 April bangsa Indonesia memperingati Hari Kartini? Apakah tidak ada wanita Indonesia lain yang lebih layak ditokohkan dan diteladani dibandingkan Kartini?

Menyongsong tanggal 21 April 2009 kali ini, sangatlah relevan untuk membaca dan merenungkan artikel yang ditulis oleh Tiar Anwar Bahtiar tersebut. Tentu saja, pertanyaan bernada gugatan seperti itu bukan pertama kali dilontarkan sejarawan. Pada tahun 1970-an, di saat kuat-kuatnya pemerintahan Orde Baru, guru besar Universitas Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Harsja W. Bachtiar pernah menggugat masalah ini. Ia mengkritik ‘pengkultusan’ R.A. Kartini sebagai pahlawan nasional Indonesia.

Dalam buku Satu Abad Kartini (1879-1979), (Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1990, cetakan ke-4), Harsja W. Bahtiar menulis sebuah artikel berjudul “Kartini dan Peranan Wanita dalam Masyarakat Kita”.  Tulisan ini bernada gugatan terhadap penokohan Kartini. “Kita mengambil alih Kartini sebagai lambang emansipasi wanita di Indonesia dari orang-orang Belanda. Kita tidak mencipta sendiri lambang budaya ini, meskipun kemudian kitalah yang mengembangkannya lebih lanjut,” tulis Harsja W. Bachtiar, yang menamatkan doktor sosiologinya di Harvard University.

Toleransi atau Relativisme Pluralisme

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

=== News Update ===

Kamis, 14 Mei 2009 pukul 23:17:00

Dr. Hamid Fahmy Zarkasyi
Direktur INSISTS

Meskipun tahun 2005 Ma jelis Ulama Indone sia telah mengharamkan paham Pluralisme Agama, promosi paham ini ke te ngah umat Islam masih terus dilakukan. Berbagai media di gunakan untuk menyebarkan paham ini. Bahkan, sebagian kalangan kemudian memasukkan Pluralisme Agama ke da lam kurikulum dan materi pendidikan. Apa sebenarnya paham ini, dan bagaimana umat Islam harus menyikapinya?

Sebenarnya, paham Pluralisme Agama la hir dari doktrin pluralisme. Di Barat plura lisme memiliki akar yang dapat dilacak jauh kebelakang, tapi yang paling dominan adalah akar nihilisme dan relativisme Barat postmodern. Dari berbagai kamus, pluralis me dapat bermakna dua hal: pertama, pengakuan terhadap kualitas majemuk atau toleransi terhadap kemajemukan, kedua doktrin yang berisi a) pengakuan terha dap kemajemukan prinsip tertinggi, b) per nyataan tidak ada jalan untuk menyatakan kebenaran yang tunggal atau kebenar an satu-satunya tentang suatu masalah c) ancaman bahwa tidak ada pendapat yang benar, atau semua pendapat itu sama benarnya. d) teori yang seirama dengan relativisme dan sikap curiga terhadap kebenaran (truth). e) pandangan bahwa disana ti dak ada pendapat yang benar atau semua pendapat adalah sama benarnya. (no view is true, or that all view are equally true). (Li hat, The Golier Webster Int. Dictionary Of The English Language; Oxford Dictiona ry of Philosophy; Oxford Advanced Lear ners’ Dictionary of Current English).

Jadi, dari makna pluralisme saja sudah ter dapat ide yang mencurigai kebenaran atau paham relativitas kebenaran. Pluralisme dalam pengertian pertama adalah toleransi, dimana masing-masing agama, ras, suku dan kepercayaan berpegang pada prinsip masing-masing dan menghormati prinsip dan kepercayaan orang lain. Pluralis me dalam arti kedua sudah tidak berpegang pada suatu dasar apa pun. Masyarakat harus menerima kenyataan bahwa di sana tidak ada kebenaran tunggal. Artinya semua benar; atau masyarakat tidak boleh memiliki keyakinan bahwa agama dan kepercayaan mereka itu benar atau paling benar. Bahkan dalam satu pengerti an pluralisme mengajarkan bahwa sebenarnya kebenaran itu tidak ada.

Islam inklusif Kang Jalal (2)

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

=== News Update ===

Islam inklusif Kang Jalal (2)Written by Daud Rasyid

Tuesday, 06 November 2007

ANTARA PERANG DAN KEMULIAAN AKHLAK Nabi ` bersabda bersabda dalam haditsnya yang shahih: أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أُقَاتِلَ النَّاسَ حَتَّى يَشْهَدُوا أَنْ لاَ إِلٰهَ إِلاَّ الله. وَيُؤْمِنُوا بِي وَبِمَا جِئْتُ بِهِ. فَإِذَا فَعَلُوا ذٰلِكَ عَصَمُوا مِنِّي دِمَاءَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ إِلاَّ بِحَقِّهَا. وَحِسَابُهُمْ عَلَى الله “Aku diperintahkan untuk memerangi manusia hingga mereka bersaksi bahwa tidak ada Ilah yang berhak disembah melainkan hanya Allah semata, serta beriman kepadaku dan dengan apa yang aku bawa. Jika mereka melakukan hal itu, maka mereka telah menjaga darah dan harta mereka kecuali dengan haknya. Sementara hisab mereka diserahkan kepada Allah.”11 Ketika ditanya tentang hadits ini, dari jawaban Kang Jalal dapat disimpulkan bahwa ia tidak menjadikannya sebagai pedoman –padahal haditsnya sangat shahih-, karena ia lebih berpegang dengan sabda Nabi ` yang masyhur: إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ لِأُتَمِّمَ مَكَارِمَ الْأَخْلَاقِ “Sesungguhnya aku diutus untuk menyempurnakan akhlak.” Sebenarnya tidak ada kontroversi sedikit pun antara dua hadits di atas. Semua muslim wajib memiliki akhlak yang mulia. Dan akhlak yang mulia bukan hanya sebatas pada senyuman, keramahan, kedermawanan, atau hal-hal yang sejenis dengannya. Peperangan, kemarahan, pukulan, pemboikotan, pengusiran, dan yang semisalnya juga merupakan akhlak yang mulia apabila diletakkan pada tempatnya yang sesuai. Masing-masing kita meyakini bahwa Rasulullah ` merupakan orang yang paling mulia akhlaknya sekaligus merupakan suri tauladan manusia. Beliau adalah seorang yang baik hati dan lemah-lembut. Namun beliau sendiri juga berperang melawan orang kafir12 dan menggelorakan semangat kaum mukminin dalam peperangan.13 Ketika beliau khuthbah maka suara beliau lantang dan mata beliau merah, seolah-olah beliau tengah memperingatkan musuh.14 Beliau pernah memboikot sahabat al-Ka’b bin Malik karena tidak ikut serta dalam perang Tabuk tanpa uzur syar’i. Beliau mengusir kaum Yahudi Bani Qainuqa’ dari Madinah bermula dari pelecehan mereka terhadap seorang muslimah. Beliau memerintahkan untuk memukul anak, apabila sampai usia sepuluh tahun masih tidak mau mengerjakan shalat. Dan lain sebagainya dari ucapan dan perbuatan beliau. Apakah hal-hal ini tidak dianggap sebagai akhlak yang mulia? Tentu saja tidak ada kaum muslimin yang berpendapat demikian –semoga saja-.

Seven U.S. Presidents — Masters of Deception — Jewish Pawns

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

=== News Update ===

by Benjamin Freedman, Jewish Conspirator Emeritus

Seven U.S. Presidents — Masters of Deception — Jewish Pawns

November 6, 2008

The names of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F.Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon will certainly be found one day inscribed in big red letters in the official annals of the rise and fall of the United states.

These seven masters of deception incurred their guilt by debasing their solemn oaths of office on behalf of undisclosed domestic and foreign principals without any apparent qualms or misgivings, to enhance their political fortunes totally oblivious of the threat to United States security and survival.

These seven masters of deception knowingly and willingly in effect and in fact “poisoned the wells” of security and survival for the United States. Without any evident scruples, they individually betrayed the sacred traditions enshrined in the letter and spirit of their oaths of office, that precious heritage bequeathed to each of these seven masters of deception as successors to that high office exalted by the immortalized first president of the United States, the venerated George Washington.

90% of Gitmo prisoners innocent:-Lawrence B. Wilkerson deputy to Colin Powell

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

=== News Update ===

Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости рупии | 卢比新闻 | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی |

A senior member of the Bush administration, as well as what the Obama White House press secretary calls the “Republican cabal,” has just defected.

Lifelong Republican, and chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence B. Wilkerson, stepped forward in ablog post on Tuesday to say not only that there are still innocent people being held at the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, not only that we’ve been holding innocent people there for more than six years, but that the U.S. government has known all along that they pose no risk to national security.

Wilkerson told the Associated Press that he was informed by briefings, and military commanders, that big brass knew those captured had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, or the so-called war on terror, but held them anyway as information-gathering tools for a so-called “mosaic ” of intelligence.

Moreover, Powell’s former chief of staff insists that the process by which these “enemy combatants” were so designated itself was shabby and incompetent, and that those sent to Gitmo weren’t properly “vetted” before they were hauled off to Cuba. Pakistanis, Wilkerson added, often acted as bounty hunters, securing as much as $5,000 a head.

Congressional leaders inadvertently expose Israeli lobbyists (AIPAC) behind letter to Obama

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

=== News Update ===

Sunday, May 17, 2009

AIPAC caught red-handed meddling in U.S. Foreign Policy – yet again

“You can’t have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here.”

Former U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings

See this article at The Raw Story:

Congressional leaders inadvertently expose Israeli lobbyists behind letter to Obama

GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) circulated a letter to colleagues this week urging President Obama to support Israel when moving forward with any Israeli peace process.

Trouble is, they forgot to delete the name of the lobbying group involved in the letter from the document.

Attached to the email message they circulated when seeking signatures from other members of Congress was the document, titled, “AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf.”

The excuse from an aide of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was, “The letter was discussed with AIPAC, [so] a staffer named it that.”

Bullshit, AIPAC would’ve written it, and Stoyer, Cantor et al would’ve just obediently signed it. It wouldn’t be the first time AIPAC has written letters and even legislation for Congress. Remember H.R. 362, which called for a naval blockade of Iran? Written by AIPAC, in line with Ehud Olmert’s proposal to blockade Iran at a meeting with 12 members of Congress just three days before the resolution was introduced in the House. One of those 12 members of Congress just happened to be the same Steny Hoyer who circulated the aforementioned AIPAC letter to his colleagues.

Same with Senate Resolution 534 of 2006, a “resolution condemning Hezbollah and Hamas and their state sponsors and supporting Israel’s exercise of its right to self-defense” during the Lebanon war — written by AIPAC:

On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution “condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel’s exercise of its right to self-defense.” After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging “all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure,” the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.

AIPAC not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it. “They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC,” said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. “They didn’t prepare one.”

Heroic Resistance of 75 Years old Iraqi

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

=== News Update ===

Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI/HEYET)

Friday, 15 May 2009 10:11 The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI/HEYET) called the occupation authorities to maintain the safety of Al Hajj Ahmad Davud al Jawari along with others with him and their immediate release. HEYET in its statement said: “The duty to fight against the invaders is national, legal and humane responsibility. This Sheikh in our usurped Iraq was more eager and most enthusiastic and advising young people to perform this duty. The statement gave further information about the attack :”the American occupation army forces at 02.00 AM midnight on Wednesday 5-13-2009 attempted to break into the house of Sheikh at the center of Dhuluiyah district in Salahaddin province named Ahmed Dawood al Jawari. They wanted to use the roof of his house while he used old weapon injuring four occupation soldiers. Then he went to his family after taking machine-gun ammunition waiting them to kill or capture. The attacking forces set back in moment of panic among the ranks and great confusion. Occupation forces retreated a few hundred meters and returned back about quarter of an hour with reinforcement backed by helicopters. They surrounded the house and his neighbors, and then wreaked havoc destroying and causing widespread devastation during the raid which lasted about seven hours. During the attack they bombed the doors, smashed the windows, used sound bombs, burnt cars, and smashed the furniture and everything. Occupation forces attacked each person beating them, arresting old man, ten members of his family and neighbours taking them to unknown place.

US drone attack kills 29 in North Waziristan By Dawn Correspondent

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

=== News Update ===

Dawn

May 16, 2009 MIRAMSHAH: Twenty-nine people were killed when a US drone fired two missiles at a residential compound in the Mirali tehsil of North Waziristan tribal region here on Saturday. Residents said that a remotely-piloted US aircraft which was hovering over the area fired two missiles at the house of Hikmat Roshan in the Khaisore village of Mirali at around 8am, killing 29 tribesmen present there. The house was reduced to rubble, while a religious seminary near it was also damaged. They said that it was the third drone attack on the Khaisore village, about five kilometers to south of Mirali town, since the US forces fighting Taliban in Afghanistan started drone attacks in the Pakistan tribal belt. The village is populated by the Khushali Torikhel clan of Wazir tribe. In another incident, helicopters gunship shelled houses of suspected militants in the Pir Kalli area, 10 kilometers east of Miramshah on Saturday. Sources said that the security forces blocked the Bannu-Miramshah road from both sides during the air strikes. A number of houses were damaged in the attack. Residents said that the shelling was conducted in the area where an army convoy was attacked with an improvised explosive device on Thursday (May 14). Three security personnel were killed and four others were injured in the IED attack.

:: Article nr. 54341 sent on 18-may-2009 03:43 ECT

Link: www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/1
6-us-drone-attack-in-north-waziristan-3-killed-hs-08

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

Video: 12 yo girl shot by Israeli Occupation Forces – Ni’lin May 15 2009

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

=== News Update ===

ISMPalestine

May 18, 2009 12 year old girl shot in her arm by the Israeli forces while being in her home. The film also shows how the red crescent team are attacked by the border police during the demonstration. Ni’lin May 15 2009, Demonstration in Ni’lin : Video

:: Article nr. 54380 sent on 19-may-2009 03:36 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=54380

===

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

9/11 – The Basic Questions

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

=== News Update ===

9/11 – The Basic Questions

1. Why didn’t jets intercept the airliners since they had numerous warnings of terrorist attacks?

2. Why did Ashcroft stop flying commercial airlines, citing an unidentified “threat” in July 2001?

3. Why did FEMA lie about their presence in New York on 9/11?

4. Why didn’t the Secret Service hustle Dubya out of the classroom?

5. Why did George H.W. Bush meet bin Laden’s brother on 9/11?

6. Why did passengers or crewmembers on three of the flights all use the term boxcutters?

7. Where are the flight recorders?

8. Why were the FISA warrants discontinued?

9. How did Bush see the first plane crash on live camera?

10 Why was security meeting scheduled for 9/11 cancelled by WTC management on 9/10?

One of the Main Sources for the 9/11 Commission Report was Tortured Until He Agreed to Sign a Confession that He Was NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO READ

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

=== News Update ===

Washington’s Blog
Friday, May 15, 2009

A special report from NBC news states:

The NBC News analysis shows that more than one quarter of all footnotes in the 9/11 Report refer to CIA interrogations of al-Qaida operatives who were subjected to the now-controversial interrogation techniques. In fact, information derived from the interrogations is central to the Report’s most critical chapters, those on the planning and execution of the attacks. The analysis also shows – and agency and commission staffers concur – there was a separate, second round of interrogations in early 2004, done specifically to answer new questions from the Commission.

9/11 Commission staffers say they “guessed” but did not know for certain that harsh techniques had been used, and they were concerned that the techniques had affected the operatives’ credibility. At least four of the operatives whose interrogation figured in the 9/11 Commission Report have claimed that they told interrogators critical information as a way to stop being “tortured.” The claims came during their hearings last spring at the U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba…

Fourteen of the highest-value detainees had their initial hearings this spring before the Pentagon’s Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The tribunal acts as sort of a grand jury, charged with determining if a detainee should be held over for trial.

Four of them said they gave information only to stop the torture. Although details were redacted in all the detainees’ testimony, the tribunal permitted the inclusion of a letter from a detainee’s father in one case, citing what he claimed was American torture of his son.

This torture only stopped when Majid agreed to sign a statement that he wasn’t even allowed to read.

We (US) Tortured To Justify War

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

=== News Update ===

We (US) Tortured To Justify War

Dick Cheney keeps saying “enhanced interrogation” was used to stop imminent attacks, but evidence is mounting that the real reason was to invent evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida.

By Joe Conason

May 15, 2009 “Salon.com” — The single most pertinent question that Dick Cheney is never asked — at least not by the admiring interviewers he has encountered so far — is whether he, Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush used torture to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq. As he tours television studios, radio stations and conservative think tanks, the former vice-president hopes to persuade America that only waterboarding kept us safe for seven years.

Yet evidence is mounting that under Cheney’s direction, “enhanced interrogation” was not used exclusively to prevent imminent acts of terror or collect actionable intelligence — the aims that he constantly emphasizes — but to invent evidence that would link al-Qaida with Saddam Hussein and connect the late Iraqi dictator to the 9/11 attacks.In one report after another, from journalists, former administration officials and Senate investigators, the same theme continues to emerge: Whenever a prisoner believed to possess any knowledge of al-Qaida’s operations or Iraqi intelligence came into American custody, CIA interrogators felt intense pressure from the Bush White House to produce evidence of an Iraq-Qaida relationship (which contradicted everything that U.S. intelligence and other experts knew about the enmity between Saddam’s Baath Party and Osama bin Laden’s jihadists). Indeed, the futile quest for proof of that connection is the common thread running through the gruesome stories of torture from the Guantánamo detainee camp to Egyptian prisons to the CIA’s black sites in Thailand and elsewhere.

The US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq

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

=== News Update ===

The US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

“The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking,” the reporter told an ACLU convention last week. Hersh says there was “a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher.”

(I transcribed some of his speech from this streaming site. Hersh starts at about 1:07:50.)

He called the prison scene “a series of massive crimes, criminal activity by the president and the vice president, by this administration anyway�war crimes.”

The outrages have cost us the support of moderate Arabs, says Hersh. “They see us as a sexually perverse society.”