Category Archives: Terrorism Issue

Reading Bin Laden

Anthropology/Sociology, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue


Flagg Miller, an assistant professor of at UC Davis, translated and analyzed about 20 tapes of Osama bin Laden. Photography by HECTOR AMEZCUA

UC Davis researcher delves into the mind of bin Laden

By Bobby Caina Calvan, The Sacramento Bee, Thursday, September 11, 2008

For five years, a University of California, Davis, researcher has been replaying hundreds of hours of audiocassettes that, he says, yield deeper – and more complex – insights into the intellectual development of Osama bin Laden.

A collection of 1,500 audiocassettes was carted away from bin Laden’s compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001 and provides a glimpse into bin Laden’s rise leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Certainly, few would dare humanize the man the United States calls its most wanted, who seven years after the country’s deadliest terrorist attacks is still being sought dead or alive.

On the seventh anniversary of the attacks, the most brazen ever carried out anywhere in the world, bin Laden still looms large on the American psyche, its politics and public life. Continue reading Reading Bin Laden →

Bomb Attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen

Sanaa, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Smoke is seen billowing outside the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 17, 2008. A car bomb set off a series of explosions outside the heavily fortified embassy in Yemen on Wednesday and a Yemeni security source said at least 16 people, including six attackers, were killed. Collapse
(Yemen News Agency, via Reuters)

U.S. Embassy in Yemen Attacked

By Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post Foreign Service, Wednesday, September 17, 2008

SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 17 — Attackers exploded a vehicle bomb outside the main gate of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen on Wednesday in what appeared to be a well-coordinated assault that triggered more explosions and heavy gunfire around the compound.

Yemen’s official Saba news agency said 16 people died in the incident, including six Yemeni soldiers, four civilians and six attackers. One of the civilians was an Indian woman at the embassy on business.

There were no immediate reports of American casualties. The embassy is located in the center of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, but the building is set far back from an outer security wall.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Continue reading Bomb Attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen →

Pro-McCain Group Dumping 28 Million Terror Scare DVDs in Swing States

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Film and Video, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Israel, Terrorism Issue


Sally Lopez of Lemoyne, PA displays a copy of the DVD that came in the mail.

by Erik Ose, The Latest Outrage, September 12, 2008

This week, 28 million copies of a right-wing, terror propaganda DVD are being mailed and bundled in newspaper deliveries to voters in swing states. The 60-minute DVDs, titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” are landing on doorsteps in a campaign coinciding with the 7th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Funding is coming from a New York-based group called the Clarion Fund, a shadowy outfit whose financial backers are The program was originally shown on Fox News in the days leading up to the 2006 mid-term elections, and right-wing activist David Horowitz toured the country screening the film on college campuses during 2007. Mainstream religious groups have called Obsession biased and divisive. It cuts between scenes of Nazi rallies and footage of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers. Continue reading Pro-McCain Group Dumping 28 Million Terror Scare DVDs in Swing States →

Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage

Election 2008, Ethics, Iraq War, Terrorism Issue

[Webshaykh’s Note: This is the most cogent and responsible commentary on McCain and Palin that I have read anywhere.]

Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage
By FRANK RICH, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times, September 7, 2008

SARAH PALIN makes John McCain look even older than he is. And he seemed more than willing to play that part on Thursday night. By the time he slogged through his nearly 50-minute acceptance speech — longer even than Barack Obama’s — you half-expected some brazen younger Republican (Mitt Romney, perhaps?) to dash onstage to give him a gold watch and the bum’s rush.

Still, attention must be paid. McCain’s address, though largely a repetitive slew of stump-speech lines and worn G.O.P. orthodoxy, reminded us of what we once liked about the guy: his aspirations to bipartisanship, his heroic service in Vietnam, his twinkle. He took his (often inaccurate) swipes at Obama, but, in winning contrast to Palin and Rudy Giuliani, he wasn’t smug or nasty.

The only problem, of course, is that the entire thing was a sham. Continue reading Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage →

Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran

Anthropology/Sociology, Iran, Terrorism Issue

Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran

By WILLIAM O. BEEMAN, Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul, September 3, 2008

The U.S. Congress may inadvertently lay the foundations for war against Iran when it reconvenes in Washington this month.

Two essentially identical nonbinding resolutions call upon President Bush to “immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities.”

The House resolution has more than 200 cosponsors, including Minnesota Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Jim Ramstad. The Senate resolution has more than 30 cosponsors, including both Minnesota senators, Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar.

The methods for increased pressure differ slightly in the two resolutions. The House resolution calls for “stringent inspection requirements” of all goods entering or leaving Iran. The Senate resolution does not call for the inspection of all goods but joins the House resolution in calling for an embargo of refined petroleum products to Iran, which lacks the refining capacity to meet its need for gasoline. Achieving either goal would require a naval blockade — a de facto act of war on the part of the United States, though paradoxically both resolutions explicitly exclude authorization for military action. Continue reading Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran →

Praise God and Pass the Nomination

Apocalypse Watch, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Terrorism Issue

[Much was made of Obama’s former church and his controversial Pastor, Rev. Wright. In the case of Governor Palin, it’s not the chickens that are coming home to roost but the dinosaurs that she no doubt believes Noah carried on his ark. Here is some sobering commentary on Palin’s apocalyptic dimensions. Webshaykh.]

From the Daily Kos, September 2, 2008

New information re Palin’s church…and what it could mean for you

In my original post, I noted Sarah Palin’s membership in a “stealth Assemblies” congregation, Juneau Christian Center–that is, an Assemblies of God church that tries very hard to hide the fact from outsiders that it is, in fact, an Assemblies of God church. This is pretty much a danger sign in and of itself, especially to those of us familiar with the Assemblies and its increasingly strident calls from district leaders for literal holy war with the rest of America.

However, a recent Harper’s Magazine article reveals just WHY she shouldn’t be near a borough dogcatcher position, much less a literal heartbeat away from the office of President.

For starters, JCC maintains very close relations with John Hagee’s “Christians United For Israel”. Continue reading Praise God and Pass the Nomination →

Chickens Come Home to Roost in Georgia

Anthropology/Sociology, Central Asia, Terrorism Issue

William O. Beeman, New America Media, Aug 12, 2008

Editor’s Note: The Bush Administration’s push for access to oil from the Caspian Sea and it’s desire to isolate Iran precipitated the Russian invasion of Georgia. William O. Beeman is professor and chair of the department of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He has lived and worked in the Middle East region for more than 30 years.

No one should be surprised that U.S. interference in the Caucasus has led to the Russian invasion of South Ossetia. By mixing into the volatile politics of the Caucasus, and trying to recruit the governments there to become American “plumbers” for a variety of purposes, the United States has only drawn Russian fire.

The Caucasus was one of the last territories added to the Russian Empire in the 19th century. It was captured from the Qajar Empire of Iran. The Caucasians never were fully incorporated into Greater Russia, and maintained a fierce cultural separatism. Georgia in particular was proudly nationalistic, with a distinctive language, cuisine, literary tradition and writing system. Continue reading Chickens Come Home to Roost in Georgia →

Al-Qaeda’s war in Yemen

Terrorism Issue, Yemen

By: Aqeel Al-Halali, The Yemen Times, August 7, 2008

SANA’A, Aug. 6 – A leading Al-Qaeda figure in Yemen has threatened to execute armed attacks “at larger scales” if the Yemeni government doesn’t release his detained colleagues from prison.

This comes a day after a government announcement that it is interrogating suspects in the July 25th suicide bombing that targeted a camp in Hadramout governorate’s Sayoun city, 794 kilometers east of Sana’a.

In a taped recording, Yemeni Al-Qaeda leader Hamza Al-Quaity stated, “Your worries are our worries, your sorrows are ours and your grief is our grief. We’ll never forget you, Allah willing. As for you, oh [Ariel] Sharon of Yemen, [Political Security director] Ghalib Ba Gumesh, you’ll see how our colleagues will be freed from your prisons, Allah willing.” Continue reading Al-Qaeda’s war in Yemen →