31-Mar-10: Statement of International Alliance Against Terrorism: Moscow bomb attacks - We say no to terrorism!

The International Alliance Against Terrorism | Alliance Internationale Contre le Terrorisme

Moscow bomb attacks: We say no to terrorism!
Press Release 31-Mar-10: The International Alliance Against Terrorism strongly condemns the last terror attacks perpetrated in Moscow underground on Monday March 29 during the morning rush hour by "suicide" bombers. At least 39 people have been killed and more than 62 wounded.

We express all our sympathy to  victims and their families in their pain.

No cause can justify resorting to "suicide" bombing , to deliberate attacks of non fighters, to terrorist attacks of innocent people, to kidnapping and murder of hostages, whatever their nationalities.

We want those who perpetrate, advocate, organize terror attacks, give orders and recruit "suicide" terrorists to be judged and condemned.

We call on our fellow citizens in our different countries, on civil society, on all terror victims organizations and all NGOs, on national and international authorities to voice their indignation and defend the human rights of terror victims and their families.

Support the International Alliance Against  Terrorism by signing the international petition "WE SAY NO TO TERRORISM".

2010/03/30

Representatives of IAAT are available for media comments and interviews.
Contact by email at alliance.against.terrorism@gmail.com
France - Huguette Chomski Magnis +33-6-6626-4223

25-Mar-10: A note on the difference between terrorism and anti-terrorism

Douglas Murray, writing in the UK Telegraph, asks a question that is on our minds too.

An Israeli diplomat expelled? But look who the British government won't get rid of…

By Douglas Murray
Last updated: March 23rd, 2010

So the British government has decided to expel an Israeli diplomat over the alleged forging of British passports relating to the assassination of a Hamas terrorist in Dubai on January 20. We are told that the British government believes British passport holders would be at risk as a result of the assassination of the Hamas terrorist.

So it is interesting to record just some of the people whom the British government will not expel and who it must therefore believe pose no threat whatsoever to British passport holders.

Abu Qatada: Known as Osama bin Laden’s ambassador to Europe. He has been in London since 1993. He came here on a forged UAE passport. In 1999 he was convicted in absentia in Jordan for conspiracy to cause explosions, relating to an attempted bomb attack on an American school and a car bomb explosion outside an Amman hotel that was frequented by tourists in 1998. He was also convicted in absentia of conspiracy to cause explosions at Western and Israeli targets in Jordan, to coincide with the millennium New Year celebrations.

Farj Hassan al-Saadi: entered the UK illegally in March 2002. He was added to the United Nations Sanctions Committee’s permanent register of al-Qaeda and Taliban members in November 2003. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that his cell ‘clearly was a group of men with extremist Islamist views supportive of violence against the West which had been acting together for some time in the ways we have set out including recruiting for Al Qaeda, raising money for terrorist activities and obtaining false documents for that purpose. This group can properly be regarded as a serious terrorist group’ and al-Saadi was ‘a highly respected member of the group and that he may well have been its leader for a while’. On 7 February 2008, he was found guilty in absentia in Italy of belonging to a terrorist group and being part of a terrorism plot in 2002. At the trial, he was described as the ‘European envoy’ of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Ismail Kamoka: a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who arrived in the UK in November 1994 from Saudi Arabia, claiming asylum. His claim was based on the fact that he could not return to Libya because he belonged to a group there which aimed to overthrow the government and replace it with an Islamist one. When attempting to claim asylum in the UK he said he had been to Pakistan in 1992 to take part in jihad against communists in Afghanistan. Despite having his asylum claim refused, he was not removed from the UK as it was deemed unsafe for him to return to Libya. He was granted leave to remain in the UK in November 1999. On 21 November 2002 Kamoka was arrested while trying to travel to Iran from London Heathrow. On 23 November he was detained under Section 21 of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 and was recommended for deportation. He successfully appealed this to the SIAC in 8 March 2004, as they were unconvinced that Kamoka was linked to al-Qaeda and had knowingly supported extremists linked to al-Qaeda. He was released on 18 March 2004 following a failed government appeal against the decision. In June 2007, he was convicted in the UK of terrorist offences.

I for one am deeply grateful to the UK government for their sudden concern for the sanctity of UK passports and the security of UK passport holders. Though it may be a little late in the day, has the Government thought about turning this concern towards people who actually are terrorists?

A few additional words now from us.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a notorious agent and weapons dealer for the blood-drenched Hamas terror organization with a good deal of blood on his own two personal hands, led a nasty and brutish life up until its untimely end. Wikipedia has some of the highlights of his brilliant career in the murder of innocents here.

None of this, sadly but predictably, stops the late thuggish murderer being described variously as "a top official in Hamas" by TIME Magazine, as "a senior Palestinian political figure" by this Irish newspaper, as a "Palestinian activist" in this American article that pontificates about "the sanctity of life" (his life), and sickeningly as a"courageous military commander" by "the world's premier pan-Arab daily newspaper" Asharq Al-Awsat, published from Arab Press House, 184 High Holborn, London WC1V 7AP.

Feh.

21-Mar-10: Raining rockets

Tonight (Saturday night), yet another Qassam rocket launched by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip struck an open area in Israel's Sha'ar Hanegev region - the fourth rocket to hit Israel today. The previous Qassam rocket volley happened this past Thursday afternoon, with a Gazan rocket exploding in an open area of Israel's western Negev. Fortunately no one was hurt and no damage was reported in any of these attacks, but this was not the intention of the terrorists. Their plans were in evidence earlier in the day on Thursday when, as we noted at the time, an incoming Qassam rocket killed a Thai greenhouse worker on the grounds of Kibbutz Netiv Ha'asara. Israel's response was to direct an airstrike at three smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border, a weapons production facility in Gaza and two tunnels intended for infiltration into Israel to carry out attacks. Two Palestinians were reportedly wounded in the strikes.

18-Mar-10: How to celebrate an official EU delegation visit to Hamastan

Gaza rocket kills man in southern Israel

Last update - 12:19 18/03/2010  A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a migrant worker at a kibbutz in the northern Negev. Paramedics brought the man to the infirmary at Kibbutz Nativ Ha'asara, but declared him dead shortly after. This was the third rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in less than 24 hours, according to the Israel Defense Forces. One rocket hit an open area in the south Wednesday night. There were no casualties in the incident, but two women were treated for shock after hearing the Color Red rocket alert. Two more rockets were fired on Tuesday at the western Negev, causing no casualties or damages. Residents of nearby communities said they did not hear the rocket alert before the explosion. More than 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel since Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Meanwhile the EU's newly appointed head of foreign policy Catherine Baroness Ashton (today's New York Times calls her "Europe's top diplomat"), arrived in the Gaza Strip this morning. As the BBC points out, she is one of the most senior Western political figures to visit Gaza since Hamas took power. But somehow the BBC fails to mention that the EU formally (i.e. for show purposes, but not really) considers Hamas, which rules Gaza with a jihadist viciousness, a terrorist organization.

If you click the BBC link, you can see for yourself that the BBC manages to convey its report without once mentioning rockets, terrorism or Israeli victims. Do you think they, or she, have even the smallest sense of embarrassment?

Postscript: We now know that the victim of the Gazan terrorists is Manee Singmueangphon, a 34-year-old Thai laborer working under contract in a greenhouse on Kibbutz Netiv Ha'asara.

15-Mar-10: The heroes of Gaza used mosques, hospitals and children as shields... yawn

From Robin Shepherd Online today:

The Jerusalem Post carries an exclusive today detailing a new report from Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Malam) showing that Hamas used more than 100 mosques and hospitals as well as areas they knew to be populated with children as shields from which to fire rockets at Israel during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.


According to the paper: “The IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) cooperated with the report’s authors and declassified hundreds of photographs, videos, prisoner interrogations and Hamas-drawn sketches as part of an effort to counter the criticism leveled at Israel in the UN-sponsored Goldstone Report.”

The research group was led by Col. Reuven Erlich, a former Intelligence officer. Erlich was quoted as saying: “By placing all of their weaponry next to homes, by operating out of homes, mosques and hospitals, by firing rockets next to schools and by using human shields, Hamas is the one responsible for the civilian deaths during the operation”.

As an example of how Hamas deliberately used civilian homes as shields, the report quoted a note from Hamas found by the IDF in one home saying: “We are your brothers, fighters in this holy war, and we used your home and some of your possessions. We are sorry.”

Well, it will be interesting to see how extensively this report is covered in the western media. At the time of writing this article, the BBC website did have a report up on the use of human shields in Gaza…about Israeli soldiers allegedly using Palestinians as human shields.

Robin Shepherd is director, International Affairs, at the Henry Jackson Society in London, and has held senior fellowships at some of the world’s most prestigious public policy institutes since leaving international journalism in 2003 when his last position was Moscow Bureau Chief for The Times of London.

12-Mar-10: Incoming rockets and vice-presidents

Another largely-invisible rocket attack on Israel, again originating in the northern part of Gaza, yesterday (Thursday). A Qassam rocket, one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, stockpiled by the terrorist regime in that area, landed on Israeli soil, striking a kibbutz warehouse in the area of the Eshkol Regional Council. There were no injuries among the residents and workers in the kibbutz but the building was damaged by fire. The attack came while the visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to Israel was taking place.

We said 'invisible'. The news reportage, such as it is, focuses on Israel striking back at the source of the rocket, as in this syndicated AFP item: "Israeli airstrikes resume in Gaza as Joe Biden leaves, urging talks". Most people, if they know anything about what's happening here, know about as much as the headlines tell them.

1-Mar-10: The Iranians, speaking pretty clearly, remind us of what is really keeping them busy

"Revolutionary Guard Commander Underlines Iran's Strategic Supremacy over Europe" [Fars-Iran]

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Lieutenant Commander Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami on Sunday reiterated Iran's control over the world's energy supplies, warning that Iran has the power to cut energy supplies to Europe whenever needed, especially in winter."Iran sits on 50% of the world's energy and if it wants, Europe will spend the winter in the chill," he said.

"Iranian Interior Minister Stresses Iran's Growing Clout"
[Fars-Iran]

"We say the first word in the region today and Iran is the main player in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon, and in influencing regional developments," said Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar.

Iran 'not co-operating' says new IAEA chief
[BBC News]

Iran is not co-operating with the UN nuclear watchdog's investigation into the country's nuclear programme, the new head of the agency has said. Iran's insistence its nuclear programme was peaceful could not be confirmed, Yukiya Amano told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Mr Amano is taking a more critical line than his predecessor, analysts say. The news is likely to strengthen calls for sanctions on Iran. Iran's foreign minister has rejected Mr Amano's claim.

"The agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, but we cannot confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities because Iran has not provided the agency with the necessary co-operation," Mr Amano said.

He was speaking at a 35-nation board meeting of the IAEA in Vienna, the first since he took over as the head of the organisation in December.

...

Join the dots, anyone?