Last day of the working week on these shores,,,

A nightmare without end Shahajan Janjua's story is a glimpse of what the war on terror means for young British Asian men Victoria Brittain Thursday March 1, 2007 The Guardian How does a young man from west London find himself landed in a Kenyan police station, hanging from his wrists, his feet tied to buckets of freezing water? How does he find himself, soon after, being dined by MI5 officers at a Nairobi hotel one moment, then imprisoned underground in the desert the next? The story of Shahajan Janjua, a British Asian, is a little window into the "war on terror". As with the cases of the three young men from Tipton who ended up in Guantánamo Bay, MI5 officials in this case showed themselves apparently incapable of making a judgment of young British Asian men's likely links to terrorism. So, another has come back from an innocent overseas trip traumatised. Would it have happened if he had been white and middle-class? The backstory is to be found across Kenya's eastern border, in Somalia. That country's state weakness, acute poverty, and strategic position on the Red Sea made it a handy client for both sides in the cold war. In 1993, 18 US soldiers were killed there in an ill-advised UN mission. Subsequent years of warlordism and state collapse were ignored abroad. Then, last year, came six months of peace under the Union of Islamic Courts. The US responded recklessly, instigating - and aiding with spy satellites and a special operations unit - an Ethiopian attack that involved airpower and 15,000 troops. The Islamic government was brought down in days. Needless to say, it was all cast as a war against terrorism. On Christmas Day, Janjua was in Mogadishu for the wedding of a childhood friend to a Somali woman. He was the only guest from London. Janjua, a young man who had put a troubled inner-city past behind him, planned to leave the country on December 31, stopping over in Dubai to see friends before returning to London to celebrate his 22nd birthday in January. But he fainted at the wedding on Christmas Day, and was admitted to hospital with malaria. Mogadishu was under bombardment, and his passport was stolen. Within days he was taken from the hospital, still linked to his drip, and put in a van with cans of tuna, a gravely wounded Zimbabwean on a stretcher, another wounded Somali, and foreign fighters. It was a grim two-day trip to the southern port city of Kismayo, where the Islamic Courts were still in control and the streets seethed with men carrying AK-47s. When Janjua was offered the chance to head for the Kenyan border, he leapt at it, desperate as he was to find a British consulate. Still weak from malaria, he was put in one of two crowded vans along with the two wounded men. The border was closed and they split into three groups to walk. As an argument broke out about carrying the stretcher case, the Zimbabwean took a direct hit from Ethiopian troops. Janjua saw a Tunisian and Swede dead, too. Everyone ran. Janjua's group of 13 then began a two-week walk with no food and only muddy water to drink. After two days, during which time he heard them speak nothing but Arabic, he discovered that three were British. They were arrested by the Kenyan military after villagers turned them in. Janjua was smashed in the face with a rifle and his nose fractured. In police cells in Nairobi those in authority assaulted and interrogated him. Next he was taken to expensive hotels and quizzed by six different British MI5 officials. They showed him pictures of British men he mostly did not recognise, and asked him repeatedly: "Who sent you? Who funded you? Who are your friends? Which mosque did you go to?" His lucky break came when he persuaded a Kenyan policewoman to lend him her phone and alerted lawyers in London. Kenyan lawyers then tried to visit the prison, but were not allowed in. MI5 had ample time to confirm his account of his visit to Somalia, but on February 2, police in London were telling his family that he had been caught on the Kenyan/Somali border with guns. Janjua and three other British men were flown back to Somalia and held for three days in an underground desert cell. Then he was flown back to Kenya, and on to London, where he was questioned by police, but not charged. It should all be over, but he has nightmares and headaches, and is haunted by the men he left in Kenyan or Somali jails. He, and they, are yet more casualties in a mindless, misbegotten "war on terror" which the US and Britain cannot win militarily. · Victoria Brittain is the co-author, with Moazzam Begg, of Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantánamo and Back. Victoriacbrittain@hotmail.co.uk source

New York city council bans use of the N-word · Motion forbidding term is purely symbolic · Black artists urged to rein back in song lyrics Ed Pilkington in New York Thursday March 1, 2007 The Guardian New York banned the word nigger yesterday in a symbolic crackdown on the widespread use of the term in hip-hop songs, in films, and on the city's streets. The city council voted unanimously 49-0 in favour of a motion to encourage New Yorkers to stop using the word and to learn its racist provenance. The resolution carries no sanctions and is designed to lead by example rather than through penalties; it is the latest move in an argument raging across the US over the common use of the word, especially in the black community, where it has morphed into a slang word similar to "mate". The issue rose to the top of public debate in November when the former Seinfeld actor Michael Richards, who is white, hurled the term at black members of the audience at a comedy club in Los Angeles, later apologising profusely. There has also been a chorus from African-American politicians for black artists to rein back on the frequent use of the word in screenplays and rap lyrics. Leroy Comrie, a New York city councillor who proposed the resolution, has called on the academy which runs the Grammy awards to withhold nominations from acts using it. At the awards last month, artists such as Ludacris and Chamillionaire were honoured for songs which contained the term. Though the moratorium is purely symbolic, it has raised the hackles of champions of the first amendment, who oppose any attempt to involve government in regulating speech. Robert Richards, of the Pennsylvania Centre for the First Amendment, said it "seemed a waste of government resources to pass resolutions that have no impact. It's just a feel-good move for the New York city council." Finding something offensive was not enough to overcome the first amendment right to free speech, Mr Richards said, pointing to the supreme court's decision to uphold the right to burn the American flag, and its ruling that a man resisting military conscription had the right to wear a jacket in court saying "**** the draft". Marcia Williams, of the campaigning website Ban the N-word, said that it was a shame New York had to resort to a moratorium, because it showed the city's education system had failed to teach children about historical background. "This is a word that is rooted in hatred," she said. The etymology of the word lies with the Latin "niger", Spanish "negro", and middle French "negre" meaning black. One of the earliest uses of the written word was in 1786 by slave masters to label their Africans. It is through its application in slavery that it has come to be seen by many as the most offensive racial slur in English. Roy Miller, a lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, was invited to speak to a committee of the New York council when it debated the resolution on Monday. The civil rights committee voted by five to none to pass the resolution imposing a moratorium. Mr Miller campaigned successfully in 1994 for the removal of the word from a popular US dictionary published by Funk & Wagnalls. "At its worst, the N-word is the ultimate form of disrespect against black people. It is a dangerous snake which is liable to bite," he told the Guardian. He said black entertainers were drawn to using it for money, "but no amount of money will make up for the damage it causes". source

New Somali anti-terror bill 28/02/2007 14:25 - (SA) Baidoa - The Somali interim parliament was debating an anti-terrorism bill on Wednesday which includes the death penalty as punishment for perpetrators of terror attacks. The bill also proposes life and long-term prison sentences and confiscation of property for suspected terrorists, according to a motion circulated by the government, which sits in the provincial town of Baidoa. "Anybody who assists, trains, or provokes terrorists will receive one or more of the above mentioned punishments," the bill said. It also bans the use of symbols, flags, and teaching used by known terrorist organisations, without specifying which groups. The bill, already endorsed by the council of ministers, was expected to be passed on Thursday. The Somali capital Mogadishu has seen a surge in insurgent attacks and fighting since joint Somali-Ethiopian forces ousted a powerful Islamist movement late last year. In January, US forces deployed heavily armed AC-130 gunship aeroplanes to carry out at least two air strikes in southern Somalia against suspected Al-Qaeda members. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,9294,2-11-1447_2076308,00.html

Who cares?????

Some would rather be confused than blind,,,

^^is that what you also say to the ethios?

^^Thanks for the advice,,,and latest bulletin

Now its ‘concenrate on the ‘merits’ of my argument and not me’ but he fails to see there are no merits in his argument in the first place! I have skimmed through those previous threads you posted and I see nothing to strengthen your argument or clarify anything. lol that’s between them n Allah sxb..... but how did indacade go about his repentance process?.....change takes time no? did he enter a masjid, learn the quran, ect?.......or him and his old milita in split second put on an ciiimaaad and crowned themselves “mujahids”? Mida kale on what islamic authority can a man who months ago him n his militia of druglords were robbing and looting poor ppl, give a fatwah on jihad? And then not take part in the fight? Do u get what i am saying? So why are you the one doing the judging by saying "send his born again a$$ and repentance to the next life? Like you said, thats between him and Allah (swt) and you cant judge the man/men. If I’m wrong do let me know. Whatever the actions of these men you cant judge them. I think you need to practice what you preach Thats past: What is suggesstion now? For divided and weak opposition? Address my points sxb stop focusing on me Your points are weak and your not doing anything to strengthen them. Let me simply it for you. 1)You was opposed to the ICU because of their leaders whom you think are not worthy of the Islamic tag (sorry to repeat but remember your not the judge hear) 2)You now support the TFG but choose to ‘overlook’ the pasts of its members and their wrongdoings in the recent war. If that is not a contradiction what is? You've been talking of the ICU leaders have done this and have done that but they are not on the side of a kaafir in a war with Muslims Thanks for the history lesson but I'm merely pointing out where your argument falls apart Duke, as you were,,,,,

^^Its called 'poodelism' and being on a leash. lets hear it ya featherweights,,,,wuf wuf!

Recently saw Dicaprio in Blood Diamond and i thought he was excellent. The rebel leader in that movie was also excellent - he started his career on the BBCs casualty (does that still come by the way?)

^^A bit of confusion (hijab/veil) i know but the article is from an independent African news agency.

Ban On Hijab Begins In Somalia London, February 19, 2007--Two months after the Islamic Courts Union regime was flushed out in the country, the transitional federal government is now at the brink of transforming Somalia into a secular state. This action begins today as security officers have started removing the hijab or veil from women's heads on the streets of major cities in the country. With a heightened violence and explosions against the federal government in Mogadishu, Somali authorities said the ban on hijab is their efforts to beef up security. The hijab, which does not have much tradition in Somalia, is mostly seen as a political expression of support for radical Islamism. The government posted security officers in key strategic locations of the capital Mogadishu. These officers could be seen stopping veiled women walking on foot or on board cars, asking them to remove their veils. Though the government is economical in defending the move, it is however believed that it has been precipitated by fears of the Islamists remnants using veiled women to hatch their plot against Somalis. Recent violence in Mogadishu has killed 8 civilians and wounded several others. The veiled women, who said they were not fairly treated, would not walk home without protesting against the forceful removal of hijab, which according to them, should be worn by all pious Muslim women. They said security forces forcefully unveiled them after they initially rejected to unveil themselves. Islamic leaders are yet to react to the issue. In a separate development, Somali officials have been accused of censoring the country's three independent radio stations - 'Shabelle', 'Horn Afrik' and 'Banadir' - warning them that they must not report on anything relating to Somali/Ethiopian military operations in Mogadishu, which they consider as "top secret." The stations have received instructions asking them to censor themselves on the fleeing of civilians, a direct consequence of the same operations. The deputy Commander of Somalia security operations, General Nour Mohammed Mohmoud, presented the written instructions to the officials of the three stations that serve as the population's only source of public information. Under the new order, the government is mandated to select editors from the three radio stations who must cooperate with security department agents. The Somali government has held anger against the stations for allowing some people on air to pin down the allied troops of Somalia and Ethiopia for shelling residential areas when unknown gunmen attacked them with mortars. In January, the Somali government shut down three radio stations but they were allowed to resume operations. Source: Afrol News

Somalia for Somalis - "Leave Us Alone" Topi lyambila Feb 24, 2007 'Leave Somalia to the Somalis' - That appeared to be the general consensus and message on thelips of the over hundred Somalis gathered outside Number 10 Downing Street -London on Friday afternoon. The demonstration that included men, women and children was called by the Somali activist in the UK to protest at what they called the wrong-full invasion last month of US-backed Ethiopian troops who reinstated interim president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. The demonstration was also timed to coincide with the ‘medical’ visit by the Somali Head of State who arrived in the UK last Sunday. The President has refused to meet with Somalis in the UK. During an interview with BBC World Service President Abdullahi Yusuf refused to be interviewed by the Somali Service reporters – who he claimed are biased against his Government. Until the Ethiopian invasion, the interim Government had been operating away from the capital Mogadishu in the remote town of Baidoa. A debate scheduled last night in North London and expected to be attended by an interim Government representative went on without the guest. The debate hosted area Member of Parliament Dawn Butler MP for Brent South was attended by over 60 Somali Nationals from in and around London. Brent has a remarkable population of Somali immigrants. On the same token, those at the meeting and those at the demonstration today, hold the same views, that the Ethiopian troops must immediately vacate Somalia and totally condemned the US involvement in the process saying many people have been killed and the fighting still continues to today with women and children the biggest culprits. Speaking at the demonstration, Abdisalam Issa-Salwe, a lecturer at the Thames Valley College echoed the sentiments of those gathered by reiterating that there is need for collective talks by Somalis. “We do not want to be dictated upon, it is our responsibility as Somalis to come together and debate the future of the country, and we want our country back to where it belonged 20 years ago.” According to Mr. Abdisalam, there is no need for foreign intervention in Somalia as the Somalis are capable of handling their own problems amicably. Asked about the need for peace-keepers, many of those present said they are opposed to the peace-keeping troops as they are already biased and are silent supporters of Abdullahi who they claimed is one of the worst Warlords ever who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children. “He has the blood of Somali children on his hands, so how can he come back and pretend he is the ‘Mister Right’ for Somalia? That is why he had to employ foreign troops backed by his foreign masters the US.” The UK Somalis and indeed Somalis world-wide, say the Islamic Courts had brought civility back to the streets of Mogadishu and for the first time in 16 years normality was creeping back to Somalia. Undisclosed sources have claimed President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed is in the UK apparently to seek treatment for a Liver infection. Source: Kenya London News

By Rageh Omaar 19 February 2007 So unusual is it for a western documentary crew to be given permission to film in Tehran for any length of time that I rang my colleagues in London to tell them we had got through the airport without trouble. The production executive, who as you'd expect was well-informed and open-minded, asked what we were going to do first. I replied that we were going straight with all our luggage and equipment to a flat not far from Ayatollah Khomeini's house in the north of the city, to interview an Iranian businesswoman. There was a moment's pause on the crackly line. "Businesswoman? You mean there are businesswomen in Iran who employ men? That's not what I imagined at all, and not what many westerners would think of when you mention Iran." In 2003, the US and British governments invaded Iraq, a country whose people and society Britons and Americans knew very little about. What we did know related to Saddam Hussein, his appalling regime, and bogus or misunderstood intelligence about its military capabilities. Rarely have we invaded and occupied a country about which we were so ignorant. We are probably on the verge of rerunning the nightmare, this time in Iran. Whereas last time most news organisations gave a collective shrug about the inevitability of war, the western media now have an inescapable duty to show greater rigour and independence in scrutinising the way London and Washington present, or misrepresent, Iranian society. We've heard a lot about President Ahmadinejad and his comments about Israel and the Holocaust; we've heard a lot about Iran's alleged role in fomenting violence in Iraq. We have seen many images of Iran's mullahs leading anti-western demos. But what about the millions of ordinary Iranians? Some facts: two-thirds of this population of 70 million are under 30 years old. Iran is one of the youngest countries on earth. It is also one of the oldest civilisations on earth. The Islamic revolution led by Khomeini is only 28 years old. This means that the overwhelming majority of Iranians have no recollection of what life was like under the shah. They cannot remember the rejection of that period by their parents' generation, and they have grown up knowing only the edicts of the Islamic Republic. Like young people anywhere, they are restless, ambitious, unpredictable and often courageous in the face of authority. The ideas and grievances on which the revolution was built mean little to them. In the face of this, Iran's theocracy, more than any other regime in the Middle East - more even than pro-western states such as Jordan and Egypt - has been held up to scrutiny and challenge and has undergone incremental but profound change. Some of the changes may have been unintentional, but they are irreversible. Most of Iran's university entrants are women and the country has a literacy rate comparable with Britain's. In the 1980s, the Islamic authorities wanted to bring the kind of university education enjoyed by urban elites to provincial communities. The effect was that the more conservative and traditional families suddenly felt more at ease with sending their daughters to all-female colleges. The effect has been dramatic, raising the visibility of women in the workplace. Most foreign news coverage of Iran has focused on political and military developments. But delve deeper into society, and it is not hard to find myriad vivid snapshots of life. These give the lie to the stereotype of the dark, forbidding and hostile society. Consider: more plastic surgery operations are carried out in Tehran than in Los Angeles, and drug addiction is openly recognised (a taboo in other Middle Eastern Muslim countries). There are two million heroin addicts in Iran and a large number of independent drug rehab charities helping them. There is a similar story with HIV. Iran has one of the largest non-governmental networks of charities and aid agencies in the Middle East, working beyond state control on anything from child labour to girls' education. What has to be remembered is that much of this change, and the position of people forcing it through, would be severely damaged by a military attack. The night before the 2003 invasion of Iraq started, an American colleague was pulled aside by an Iraqi who wanted the US and UK to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime. Even though the war to overthrow Saddam was only hours away, the man was still frightened to speak openly, so he communicated in code. He pointed excitedly at his watch and asked my American colleague, "What time America?" What the man meant was: when was America going to begin its attack, and couldn't it hurry up. There are many British and American government officials who believe that a number of Iranians are asking similar questions, and that, like that man in Baghdad, they are looking to Britain and America to save them by attacking their country. Of all the misconceptions about Iran, this is the most dangerous and misguided. It is we in the west who are asking the wrong question. If we want to know when we will see the Iranian people build real and lasting change in their country, and enjoy a society that truly reflects the hopes, diversity, energy and skills of its people, we should be asking: "What time Iran?" Source: New Statesman

These orchestrated attacks on Chávez are a travesty A social revolution is taking place in Venezuela. No wonder the neocons and their friends are determined to discredit it George Galloway Wednesday February 28, 2007 The Guardian The chilling Oliver Stone film Salvador got a rare airing on television this week. It was a reminder of a time when, for those on the left, little victories were increasingly dwarfed by big defeats - not least in a Latin America which became synonymous with death squads and juntas. How different things seem now. Yesterday US Vice-President Dick Cheney came uncomfortably close to the reality of Afghan resistance to foreign occupation. On the same day Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez delivered a mightier blow to the neocon dream of US domination, announcing an extension of public ownership of his country's oil fields - the richest outside the Middle East. Much more is at stake than London mayor Ken Livingstone's welcome oil deal with Chávez, which will see London bus fares halved while Venezuela gets expertise from city hall and a bridgehead in the capital of the US's viceroy in Europe. Washington's biggest oil supplier is now firmly in the grip of a social revolution. This month I watched with Chávez as thousands of soldiers, French and British tanks, Russian helicopters and brand new Mirage and Sukhoi fighter bombers passed by: the soldiers chanting "patria, socialismo o muerte" - enough to make any US president blanch. Chávez answered the salute with the words: "the Bolivarian revolution is a peaceful revolution but it is not unarmed". The music played throughout the event was the hymn of Salvador Allende's 1970s Chilean government, declaring that the people united will never be defeated. But Chávez's socialism is a good deal more red than Allende's - and its enemies seem no less determined than those who bathed Chile in blood in 1973. Despite complete control of Venezuela's national assembly - the opposition boycotted the last elections after being defeated in seven electoral tests in a row - Chávez has been given enabling powers for 18 months to ensure he can pilot his reforms through entrenched opposition from the civil service, big business, the previously all-powerful oligarchy, their vast media interests and their friends in Washington. Among those friends we must include our own prime minister, who only last year declared Venezuela to be in breach of international democratic norms - though when I pressed him in parliament he was unable to list them. The atmosphere in Caracas is fervid. The vast shanty towns draping the hillside around the cosmopolitan centre bustle with workers' cooperatives, trade union meetings, marches and debates. The $18bn fund for social welfare set up by Chávez is already bearing fruit. Education, food distribution and primary healthcare programmes now cover the majority for the first time. Queues form outside medical centres filled with thousands of Cuban doctors dispensing care to a population whose health was of no value to those who sat atop Venezuela's immense wealth in the past. Chávez, who regularly pops over to Havana to check on the health of Fidel Castro, is at the centre of a new Latin America which is determined to be nobody's backyard. Reliable US allies are now limited to death squad ridden Colombia, Peru and Mexico - and latterly then only by recourse to rigged elections. But Chávez's international ambitions are not confined to the Americas. He became a hero in the Arab world after withdrawing his ambassador from Tel Aviv in protest at the bombardment of Lebanon by US-armed Israeli forces last summer, and has pledged privately to halt oil exports to the US in the event of aggression against Iran. This all represents a challenge to US power which, if Bush was not sunk in the morass of Iraq, would be at the top of his action list. Not that his supporters are marking time. The mendacious propaganda that Chávez is a dictator and human rights abuser is being spread with increasing urgency by the Atlanticist right and their fellow travellers, such as leftie-turned-neocon Nick Cohen who told his London newspaper audience last week that Livingstone's relationship with Chávez was making him think of voting Tory. Chávez's decision not to renew an expired licence for an opposition television station involved in a coup attempt - there are plenty of others - is being portrayed as the beginning of the death of democracy. It's as if Country Life's diatribes against the fox hunting ban were taken as irrefutable proof of totalitarianism in Britain. The so-called "dictator" Chávez is nothing of the kind. He has won election after election, validating his radical course. Still the fear of a coup - such as in 2002 when Chávez was removed and imprisoned for three days before millions descended to the presidential palace to reinstate him - is everywhere. One Englishman abroad who welcomed the 2002 coup as the "overthrow of a demagogue" was the foreign office minister Denis MacShane - a humiliating correction had to be issued following Chávez's restoration. That tale underscores the importance of the links being forged between revolutionary Caracas and anti-war London. Chávez is well aware that the people were defeated in Chile, the fascists allowed to pass in Republican Spain. Just as in Venezuela, the defence against counter-revolution lies with the poor and the working people who are shaping the world they want; so too must all those internationally who want to see this ferment reach its potential rally to Venezuela's side. · George Galloway is the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow and presents a radio show three times a week on TalkSport Georgegalloway.com link

Where is MKA? I was expecting a full page of how dots and commas should be used,,,,,,

Khalaf, its quite obvious now that your beef is just with individuals within the ICU. You have not stated anything new. Your objection to them (ICU) is based purely on the individuals you mentioned and not their intentions as an entity. You are yet (after all these months) to clearly give us any idea why you object to them apart from the 'shady' individuals you mentioned. Having said that, why are you in one sentence talking of the aqeeda and in the next saying the following: send his born again a$$ and repentance to the next life Can a man not repent? Can a former killer/warlord not repent? Who are you to judge their intentions? You can support who you like but the shortcomings of your argument(s) are there for all to see! ps since we are in the mood, why dont we look at the shady pasts of the TFG ministers/govnt. Lets start with Yeey who has a 'patchy' past to say the least. Why are you prepared to support him after your drivel on the ICU members?

@donkey whisperer

what kind of name is bob for a somali anyway. why you hiding your real name? it is not lars, erik or bjorn is it..... As Bob is a die hard gunner i think a French name would suit him fine. How about Francwa or Piere

^^I think he has another dose to enlighten the nomad community

^^today i had a Chicken Lasagne with salad

dee caano kucab! Seriously speaking alot of oil/subag (especially back home) is not good for the body. The endless tea breaks with a tonne of sugar is also a no no!

^^you mean loxoox? You need to change your diet mate. Somali diet leads to all kinds of ailments.