Political Frenzy

In predominantly Shiia Iran, a rebel sect of Sunnis have begun violent attacks. In February, the Iranian Sunni terrorist group known as Jundollah (or “God’s Soldiers”) took credit for a bomb put on a military bus that killed 18 citizens in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, and now has released a video of their most recent kidnapping: four members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s theocratic government is Shiia, but Jundollah is Sunni - the same sect that al-Qaida claims to represent. This has led some to speculate that the two are linked, but so little is known about Jundollah that it is impossible to tell for sure. Sunnis make up the minority population in Iraq and Iran, but the majority of every other Muslim nation.

The part that interests me the most is the American media’s complete refusal to call Jundollah a terrorist group, preferring to call them “rebels”. My friends, the founding fathers were rebels. The Ramones were rebels. These are terrorists. Is it just impossible for these jingoistic reporters to imagine someone terrorizing Muslims? Is their ethnocentrism that deep?

Why don’t US forces help Iran out and fight this front of the War on Terror? Oh, right, because we’re only fighting people who terrorize us.

Iran, Middle East, United States, Islam, al-Qaida, Jundollah

Khaled el-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent, had his claims against the CIA thrown out of American courts. According to Masri, he was on vacation in Macedonia when he was abducted by Macedonian officials and taken to Afghanistan where he was placed under scrutiny of CIA officials who tortured and beat him even after he was discovered to be innocent of any wrongdoing. He says that he was flown to Albania where he was dumped on the side of the road by CIA agents.

German Parliament, having little-to-no diplomatic sway on the United States, vocally supports Masri, but cannot do anything to pursue charges against the CIA. Masri was in illegal custody for several months, something that drew the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, which handled Masri’s case. But even the ACLU has abandoned hope for further prosecution.

The case was not thrown out based on lack of evidence. In fact, the case was thrown out because the only way to link anyone with Masri’s arrest and alleged torture is to reveal major points of the CIA’s structure and name the operatives involved. This would result in catastrophe for the CIA, and the court decided that the safety of CIA protocol was more important than the suffering of a single foreign national.

What a world we have come to where the pain and suffering of a man is swallowed by the covert needs of the masses. This country was founded on the principles of individual liberties, and crimes by government officials against any man or woman of any nationality - foreign or American - should never be dismissed for any reason by anyone. Let us all take a minute to reflect on the emotional future of the abused man, a man who must have thought at some point he would die simply for being a Lebanese German in Macedonia.

Middle East, Europe, United States, Afghanistan, CIA, Lawsuits, Macedonia, Germany, Lebanon

Australian David Hicks, aka Abu Muslim al-Austraili, has just been slated for trial after five years in Guantanamo Bay. Most recently Mister Hicks has been accusing the United States of torturing and abusing him. He is currently seeking British citizenship, citing his mother’s British citizenry to help his case. His hope is that if he becomes a British national the UK will free him.

Hicks became a soldier of fortune in the Kosovo War after a sordid resume of kangaroo skinning, car stealing, shark fishing, and meat-packing. After returning to Australia from his short and unsuccessful stint in Serbia, he converted to Islam. In order to capitalize on his recent foray into combat and his conversion to Islam, he went to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir where he trained with Lashkar-e-Toiba, the eastern ally of al-Qaeda. There he was recruited by al-Qaida and, according to handwritten statements by his peers there, became a favorite student of the terrorist leaders. When his camp was visited by Osama Bin Laden, Hicks reportedly asked Bin Laden about the lack of English in training materials. In response, Hicks was prompted to translate the Arabic to English, which he did.

Later, Hicks would return to Kashmir and fight alongside Pakistani forces against India’s military in the ongoing conflict. However, once Lashkar-e-Toiba was denounced by the Pakistani government as a terrorist organization - in spite of popular opinion, which heavily supported them - Hicks and his compatriots broke down and began infighting.

Once news of the September 11th attacks reached Hicks, he armed himself with an AK-47 automatic rifle and grenades, and headed to Afghanistan. There he joined al-Qaeda forces against the Northern Alliance, the Afghani group supported by the United States. His involvement in the civil war would be short, however, as a warlord captured him and presented him to the Northern Alliance, who then offered him up to the United States.

Hicks’ story is a sordid and bizarre epic tragedy. Not a stupid man, Hicks has no sense of identity and shows little ability to keep himself grounded. Even his attempt at finding a foundation for himself in a religion led him to a life of violence, a sign of a seriously disturbed individual.

But it is not that his story is so outrageous nor that it is unique; this reporter believes that his story is not all too different from most at Guantanamo Bay. It is the color of his skin that has captured media attention. If this man had been another Middle Easterner, a “towel-head” in most bigoted racist eyes, no one would have printed a word of him.

Unpopular Australian Prime Minister John Howard has tried to jump ship from his former chumminess with the Bush White House, and demand the speedy trial of David Hicks. He reportedly pestered Vice President Dick Cheney during his Sydney visit, and has constantly brought up the issue in the media.

The surging popularity of the Labor Party in Australia has led the nation on an anti-war tangent, and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has been railing the Australian government to pull out of the middle east. The apprehension of David Hicks, and Australian national, by US Forces, has become a hot-button issue in both countries.

How should this go forward? How should this be handled?

No differently than if he were from any other nation. David Hicks is not special. He is just another Muslim. And the fact that he happens to be white is no reason to exempt him from any punishment, nor give him more than any other prisoner. Because no matter what faith you are, God should never care what color you are. And isn’t justice blind?

News, Middle East, Australia, Kevin Rudd, John Howard, Australian Labor Party, David Hicks, Dick Cheney, Islam, Serbia, Kosovo, al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Toiba, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Osama Bin Laden, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is refusing to give up Iran’s growing nuclear capabilities, in spite of the UN’s resolution and the US’s diplomatic assault. Iran has been developing a uranium enrichment center just outside of Shiraz in Natanz with uranium mined in Iran’s Yazd province. The Natanz center houses 300 centrifuges, with plans to install 3,000 more.

Iranian officials maintain that the uranium enrichment is for nuclear power, not nuclear weapons. This would be much less worrisome if it wasn’t for the recently announced Shahab-3D, a missile with an enormous range and accuracy, which experts say could soon be capable of reaching European cities as far away as Paris. Attach a nuclear warhead to the Shahab’s rocket, and Iran suddenly becomes a major military power.

Shahab means “Falling Star” in Farsi, and Hoot means “Whale” - but the Hoot is only cetacean in its enormity. The Hoot torpedo, which is installed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval attack vessels, is the fastest torpedo in the world. Again, if installed with a nuclear warhead, this would make them extremely dangerous.

In order to protect the European nations who are within the Shahab’s range, the US has begun offering missile defense systems to Eastern European nations like Poland and the Czech Republic. England and France have also expressed interest in purchasing the defense systems, which would be based on the now outdated “Star Wars” system made popular by the Reagan White House.

Russia has been adamantly opposed to European countries purchasing such a defense system from Americans. Russian Generals have managed to bring up the fact that the Czech Republic and Poland could be targeted by Russia’s own rockets if they so chose. These comments have been taken as a threat, but most political observers agree that Russia is unlikely to take action, only blow hot air.

But why on Earth would Russia be so opposed to the purchase of a defense system? Some analysts say that Russia is upset at no longer being a superpower, and feels that they should be the ones supplying defense systems to European nations. One commenter brought up the fact that NATO has begun spreading to Russia’s borders and they feel boxed in by the member nations, which this reporter thinks has nothing to do with Russia’s opposition seeing as this is not a NATO plan; the NATO missile defense plan has been in development for decades without a single prototype.

The trail of breadcrumbs starts in Moscow, and trails back to that source of American distress: the Natanz facility in Iran, where the Iranians are enriching uranium. The facility has been under construction for years, originating from a building agreement between Iran and Russia.

That’s right, Russia is building the enrichment facility that has the United States crawling up its own poopshoot. Not only that but before Iran began mining for uranium in Yazd Province, Russia was their number one supplier of uranium. Iran has been enriching uranium for years, it’s just the volume at which they’re producing now that has American officials asking questions. Before the Natanz facility, Iran was using a series of centrifuges supplied by the United States and installed underneath Tehran University.

Russian diplomats to the UN have stated that if the US installs missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, it will be the beginning of another Cold War. They still have access to the technology to make atomic bombs measured by the tens of megatons, and since Agent Hanssen was arrested for selling American military secrets to the Russians, we can be sure that they’re still conducting spy operations.

Now the Kremlin seems to be prepping and grooming Iran as the next nuclear power, selecting a nation who has an axe to grind against the US. Everyone except the average American knows how the CIA, according to files released thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, sent in Agent Kermit Roosevelt to Operation Ajax during the 1950s. Roosevelt snuck in Tehran to topple Mohammed Mossadegh, the first elected leader of Iran, and replace him with the brutal dictator Shah Pahlavi. Roosevelt succeeded, and escaped. Mossadegh had to be removed because of his nationalization of Iranian oil, which many took to be a sign of Communism, but was really the only way to escape from the imperialist rape of his nation by English and American interests.

Iran has never forgiven the US, and is now seeking to pick a fight with its newly acquired weapons and powers, like the nerd who just took karate lessons saying “no” to the bully who took his lunch money. And Russia is the karate teacher.

News, Iran, Middle East, Poland, Czech Republic, Europe, United States, Russia, Iranian Nuclear Conflict, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nuclear Power