MUSLIMS MUST STEP UP and stop the Muslim on Muslim hate ... please... Islam is such a beautiful peaceful Faith... and it's just not right. DID U KNOW THAT ISIS IS COMPLETELY FOREIGN MUSLIMS??? -USA/Canada/Europe/UK/Australia/New Zealand/Asias/Africas etc... not one is Iraq or Syrian- and they are all brilliantly educated.... and trained and have $$$$ of money...
PHOTO: Patrick LaMontagne Canada Cartoonist- incredible
Patrick LaMontague Canada Cartoonist- incredible
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SEPT 24 2014
UN Security Council approves foreign fighters resolution ...
thehill.com/.../international/218803-un-security-council-approves-resolut...2 hours ago - The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday unanimously ... "Around the world, foreign terrorist fighters have been arrested, plots have been .... F-22 makes its debut against ISIS The F-22s took part in the second of ...
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MUSLIMS MUST STEP UP... please... Islam is such a beautiful peaceful Faith... and it's just not right. DID U KNOW THAT ISIS IS COMPLETELY FOREIGN MUSLIMS??? -USA/Canada/Europe/UK/Australia/New Zealand/Asias/Africas etc... not one is Iraq or Syrian- and they are all brilliantly educated.... and trained and have $$$$ of money...
Pope Francis tells Muslims to help stop ISIS in speech to religious leaders in Albania
Francis condemned the Islamic State extremists who ‘pervert’ religion to justify violence. ‘To kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege,’ the Pontiff told representatives of Muslim, Orthodox Christian and Catholic communities in the capital of Tirana.
BY Reuven Blau
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, September 21, 2014, 7:59 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-francis-tells-muslims-stop-isis-article-1.1947719
---------------
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE- see that Michael Ignatieff holds a high position with United Nations.... this article is incredible and extraordinary... AND RIGHT ON...
In an interview, Harvard professor and UN advisor Michael Ignatieff discusses his concept of the responsibility to protect civilian populations threatened by genocide, German weapons deliveries to the Kurds in Iraq and the idea of a deal with Assad to bring peace to Syria.
Michael Ignatieff's ancestry alone would seem to bestow him with a kind of global citizen status. One of his grandfathers, Count Pavel, served as the Russian education minister under Czar Nicholas II and on his mother's side, he's related to Canadian philosopher George Grant. Igantieff, 67, was born in Toronto, but grew up in numerous countries as the child of a diplomat. After completing a degree in history, he began writing historical as well as fictional works. He then got involved in the intricacies of international law. Working on behalf of the United Nations he was largely responsible for developing the concept of "Responsibility to Protect," or "R2P," which foresees mandatory international measures if a civilian population is threatened with genocide. As the head of the Liberal Party from 2008 to 2011, he served as the leader of Canada's political opposition in Ottawa. Ignatieff, often cited as one of the most important thinkers of our time, is a professor of politics at Harvard University. He also serves as the chairman of the Richard C. Holbrook Forum for the Study of Diplomacy and Governance at the American Academy in Berlin.
ANZEIGE
SPIEGEL recently sat down with Ignatieff for an interview covering conflagrations around the world -- in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine and beyond.
Michael Ignatieff Interview: 'Those Fighting Islamic State Are the Lesser Evil'
Interview Conducted By Erich Follath
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-michael-ignatieff-on-islamic-state-and-mideast-turmoil-a-990667.html
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Ottawa revoking passports of Canadians who join extremist ...
www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-revoking-passports-of-canadians-who-join-...4 days ago - Canadians who travel overseas to join extremist groups can expect ... theirpassports revoked, dual nationals who commit acts of terrorism ... He said takingaway their passport would make it more difficult for them to operate.
GERMANY
Islamic State: Germany Struggles to Deal with Returning Fighters
By SPIEGEL Staff
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-faces-challenges-in-putting-islamic-state-radicals-on-trial-a-991744.html
Comment:
That's easy! -- Take away their passports when they go off to their "holy war", and that way you won't have to deal with them coming back....nicht wahr???? Yes, it's a bit draconian, but so is the means in which they choose to fight.
---------------
AUSTRALIA
UPDATE: A MELBOURNE teenage terror suspect had an Islamic flag with him when he was shot dead after stabbing two counter-terrorism officers.
Numan Haider, an 18-year-old from Endeavour Hills, whose recent behaviour had caused authorities “significant concern”, had his passport cancelled about a week ago on security grounds.
Man shot dead, two counter-terrorism officers stabbed outside Endeavour Hills police station
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/man-shot-dead-two-counterterrorism-officers-stabbed-outside-endeavour-hills-police-station/story-fnii5smt-1227068293410
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--------------
UPDATED- September 3, 2014- this was original title- CANADA
MILITARY NEWS: OMAR KHADR - Killer -XBox-GameBoy YOUNGBLOODS of 'civilized
nations'???- 2 many Young and youthHereticMuslims butchering innocents in
Muslim on Muslim wars return home 2R 'civilized' nations ??? Seriously- we
posted this last year.... WTF
Canada/US/EU/Asias/Africa/Australia-NewZealand/Europe/Russia/UN??? (1st
published Jan.2014) Sept 3 2014
JULY 9TH 2014- there are 3 lawsuits lining up.... and many Canadians are looking at suing as well..... this Jihadist left Canada and killed our troops in Afghanistan- the theatre of war!
www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/05/22/omar-khadr-sued-soldier... Cached
May 22,
2014 · ... Canada's Omar Khadr for almost US$45 million,
... Omar Khadr Sued For $50 Million By American
... grenade are suing Canada's Omar Khadr ..
aboriginalpress.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/omar-khadr-sued... Cached
May 24,
2014 · via Omar Khadr Sued For $50 Million
By American Soldier, Widow. Share this: Twitter; Tumblr; Pinterest;
Reddit; Related ← Take Action |
----------------
SEPTEMBER 3-4 Just in
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 2014- just in- Canada Troops and Peacekeepers Africa- EBOLA ?? Ukraine?? Muslim Nations???
War, Famine, Disease, women, Muslim children innocents being slaughtered by Muslim butchers… Nato trying 2 start a WHITEMAN’S WAR IN UKRAINE???.. and now u want UN Peacekeepers…. 2 go in2 diseased poor uneducated abused Africa society…. 2 fix ur EBOLA mess which u ignored like the 3.2 Million women and girls and boys raped in the CONGO??? – Remember Dallaire’s RWANDA???- when u did nothing??? Sweet Jesus, Mother Mary and Joseph… OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF OUR FLAGS OF NATO NATIONS WHICH U THROW IN THE TRASHBARREL WHEN THEY COME HOME??? … THOSE TROOPS…?
Ebola outbreak: call to send in military to west Africa to help curb epidemic
Head of Médecins sans Frontières says the world is ‘losing the battle’ as cases and deaths continue to surge
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/02/ebola-outbreak-call-send-military-curb-epidemic?CMP=twt_gu
COMMENT:
Well NATO GET’S THEIR WHITE MANS WAR IN THE UKRAINE…. pray our troops are safe…. not one thing about this should have happened…. and there’s our sons and daughters…. it breaks my heart – a democratic elected president was hijacked out of office… A DEMOCRATIC ELECTED PRESIDENT MIND U… and our Civilized nations are preparing 4 Nato’s WhiteMans War…. with Russia who has helped in so many ways over the years… Uncle Harold said we never would have won WWI or WWII without Russia- against… the Germans!!! Sweet Jesus, Mother Mary and Joseph… we love our UK troops and have supported u then, now and 4ever…. it just breaks my heart…O Canada why? 4 one million voters??? come on…
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Honour Killings Quebec- We Remember
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Afghanistan- our Canadian Flag- OMAR KHADR MURDERED US IN AFGHANISTAN... deliberately... when shot... this evil monster kept unpinning grenades.... IF ROMEO DALLAIRE- MY HERO OF RWANDA- 4GIVES THIS MONSTER- and these poor killing monsters weren't given a chance???? in Canada???? our Canada..... - ... then Dallaire u betray us all...
If Omar Khadr is ever allowed freedom or Canada $$$$- 36 million Canadians will rise up in a fury that only Ukraine could understand in the 'civilized world'.... seriously
SEPTEMBER 2014-
SON OF A B**CH .... this evil piece of sheet murdered our
Nato troops in Afghanistan with his Canadian daddy and uncle.... u evil
creep....
now ISIS is bragging on these evil young
monsters.... who slither under Canadian laws... ewwwwww... if Canada
(Liberals-TalibanJack party) give in2 this... ordinary Canadians will rise...
up... that’s... a ..promise.
We buried 158 sons, our Soldiers of Suicide,
thousands injured- evil Omar Khadr.... Canada and Civilized nations hate ur kind
of evil... u have had a good lunch on the Canada dime.... ewwww
Khadr gets new chance to
press $20M lawsuit
By Colin
Perkel The Canadian Press
TORONTO –
Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr tries again Wednesday to expand his
civil lawsuit against the federal government to include a claim that Canada
conspired with the United States for what he says was the abuse of his rights
and torture.
The
proposed $20-million action foundered last December when Federal Court Judge
Richard Mosley ruled the amended lawsuit, initially filed in 2004, needed to be
rewritten before it could proceed on its merits.
A key
issue is whether Mosley will now allow Khadr to press his conspiracy claim — a
cause of action the federal government says should not be available to him.
In
essence, Khadr wants to argue that Canada conspired with the U.S. in breaching
his charter rights when intelligence agents went down to Guantanamo Bay to
interview him in 2003 and 2004. The conspiracy claim — if successful — would
tie Canada’s conduct to that of the United States.
“A
conspiratorial claim (would make) Canada liable for the torture that was
committed by the States,” Khadr’s lawyer, John Phillips, said in an interview
Tuesday.
“I want
Canada liable for the torture.”
None of
the allegations has been proven in court. The U.S. government has denied Khadr
was seriously abused or tortured.
Documents
show the RCMP was building a terrorism-related case against the Toronto-born
Khadr at a time the Americans were developing war-crimes charges against him.
American
authorities allowed Canadian agents access to him at the Guantanamo prison only
if they shared any intelligence they gained, which they did, the documents
show. Khadr was never told he was the target of a criminal probe in Canada or
about the information-sharing deal.
Following
that agreement, Khadr’s military captors subjected him among other things to
sleep-deprivation — known as the “frequent flyer” program — to soften him up
for interrogation by Canadian authorities, something Mosley acknowledged when
he refused to shut the door to the conspiracy claim.
Mosley
also noted that Federal Court would not have to pass judgment on the legality
of what the U.S. did to Khadr, but on whether Canada’s agreement with the
Americans to share information to be used in prosecuting him was legal.
If Mosley
rules the conspiracy claim can proceed, Khadr’s lawyers say it would likely
pave the way for the production of documents that could help him in his suit
and in his quest for damages.
Khadr,
who turns 28 later this month, was 15 years old when the Americans arrested him
in July 2002 following a brutal firefight in which he was horrifically injured
and an American special forces soldier was killed.
He
ultimately pleaded guilty to five war crimes — including murder in violation of
the law of war — before a widely maligned military commission in October 2010
and was sentenced to a further eight years.
He
transferred to Canadian custody in September 2012 and later said his guilty
plea was a desperate act to get out of American custody. He is currently
incarcerated in the Bowden Institution in Innisfail, Alta. Ottawa insists he’s
an unrepentant, hardened terrorist.
Meanwhile,
Khadr has yet to find an American lawyer willing to defend him against a
US$45-million lawsuit filed in Utah in May by the widow of the U.S. special
forces soldier killed in Afghanistan and another American soldier blinded by a
grenade. That leaves open the possibility of a default judgment against him.
It
remains far from clear, however, whether Canadian courts would enforce any such
judgment.
-
----------------
THX CAROLYN 4 THE SHARE- CAN U IMAGINE IMMIGRATING 2 CANADA.... AND NOT...LIVING...IN CANADA???? WTF
BEST HISTORY ON OMAR KHADR...
1977--
Khadr family emigrates from Egypt, settles in southern Ontario
1985
-- Patriarch Ahmen Said Khadr moves to Pakistan at the height of the Soviet war
in Afghanistan, meets Osama bin Laden.
Sept.
19 1986-- Omar Khadr is born in Ontario.
1986--
The Khadr family moves back to Pakistan, where the Ahmed Said Khadr works for
an organization financed partly by the Canadian International Development
Agency
1992--
Ahmed Said Khadr returns to Toronto after his leg is injured in an explosion
1995--
Ahmed Said Khadr is arrested for his alleged role in the bombing of the
Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. He is later released after Jean Chretien
intervenes on his behalf.
1996--
Family returns to Canada, but Ahmed Said Khadr leaves again for Pakistan,
forming his own humanitarian relief group.
The
family moves to Jalabad in Taliban-controlledeastern Afghanistan, where they
live in Osama bin Laden’s camp.
1996–
Omar and his brothers are taken to meet Al Qaeda leaders for training
The
family makes annual trips to Canada to raise money and collect supplies.
1999--
Khadr family moves to Kabul, where Taliban have taken control after a long
civil war.
Sept.
11, 2001-- Terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Nov.
2001-- The U.S.-backed Northern Alliance rebels chase the Taliban out of Kabul.
Omar Khadr flees to his father's orphanage in Logar, Afghanistan.
June
2002 -- After training on AK-47s, Soviet PKs and rocket-propelled grenades,
Khadr, works as a translator for alQaeda and conducts a surveillance mission.
Oct.
2001-- Ahmed Said Khadr is named on a list of suspected terrorists wanted by
the FBI
July
2002-- According to statements of fact later read at his trial, Omar
Khadr,threw a Russian-made F1 grenade from behind the wall of a compound in
Afghanistan.
The
grenade killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
Omar
Khadr is captured by the U.S. military after its forces bombed the compound. A
firefight led to the death of a U.S. soldier and Omar being severely wounded.
He lost sight in one eye. First detained at Bagram Air Base.
Oct.
2002-- Khadr is transferred to Guantanamo Bay
Oct.
2003-- Omar’s father is killed by Pakistani forces.
COMMENT:
Great
post!
-----------------
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Moncton Proud
------------------
JIHADIST- do u all remember what Canada troops were going through at that time in Afghanistan... our allied troops? do any Canada politicians care??? about the troops...?
Who
is the real Omar Khadr?
Murdering
jihadist, victim of circumstance or model-citizen-in-the-making?
Michael
Friscolanti-November 9, 2010
Who is
the real Omar Khadr?
Michelle
Shephard/Toronto Star
In
exchange for another eight years in prison—and the chance to be a free man in
Canada long before that—Omar Khadr consented to a long list of strict
conditions. He cannot sue the U.S. government for damages, regardless of how
many torture sessions he may (or may not) have endured inside the barbed-wire
walls of Guantánamo Bay. He will never step foot on American soil for as long
as he lives. And he is not allowed to profit one penny from public speaking
tours or movie deals or anything else that would involve selling his saga to
the highest bidder. Any such proceeds, the agreement says, will go straight “to
the Government of Canada.”
Khadr
has read a lot of books during his stint behind bars (from steamy Danielle
Steele novels to Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom), and his pen pals
include an English professor at an Edmonton university. But when he signed his
name to that seven-page plea deal on Oct. 13, he received a first-hand lesson
in the meaning of irony: the same government that spent many years and millions
of dollars fighting to keep him out of Canada now owns the exclusive rights to
his life story.
Perhaps
it’s only fitting. At 24, Omar Khadr has never truly been in control of his own
life. Brainwashed by a fundamentalist father, raised in the shadow of Osama bin
Laden, and sent into battle as a Kalashnikov-waving teenager, he is—in the
famous words of one Foreign Affairs bureaucrat—“a thoroughly screwed up young
man.” Since his capture in 2002, Khadr has been manipulated by fellow inmates,
abused by interrogators, ignored by his home country, abandoned by a long list
of court-appointed lawyers, and exploited in ways that even he doesn’t realize
yet. Human rights activists, anti-war protesters, opposition politicians and
terrorist sympathizers all claim him as their own.
But
today—after spending more than one-third of his life locked inside the world’s
most notorious cage—Khadr finally has the chance to be his own man. By pleading
guilty to five war crimes, including the murder of a U.S. special forces
soldier, the Toronto native will serve just one more year in Cuba, followed by
a transfer to a Canadian penitentiary. Twenty months after that, in June 2013,
he will be eligible to apply for early release.
When
that day comes, the National Parole Board will have to answer the one question
that remains a mystery: who is the real Omar Khadr? The hardened terrorist who
basked in the glory of killing a Delta Force medic? Or the innocent child
soldier who desperately deserves a second chance?
The
competing narratives could not be more different. The only common thread is
that neither is completely believable. If anything, the truth lies somewhere in
between.
According
to the U.S. government, Khadr remains a real and dangerous threat—a “rock star
at Gitmo” who has spent the formative years of his life “marinating in a
community of hardened and belligerent radical Islamists.” In his own statement
of facts, the cornerstone of his guilty plea, Khadr admits that he was a loyal member
of al-Qaeda, was obsessed with killing Americans “anywhere they can be found,”
and that the “proudest moment of his life” was when he built and planted
improvised explosive devices aimed at coalition troops in Afghanistan.
When
prison guards gave him a hard time, Khadr would recall how his grenade killed
their comrade, Sgt. Christopher Speer, “and it would make him feel good.”
But
according to his supporters—and his own spoken words in court—Khadr is a
“gentle giant” who has denounced violence, apologized to Speer’s widow,
immersed himself in books, and dreams of one day becoming a doctor. “You’re not
going to gain anything with hate,” he told the jury at his recent sentencing
hearing. “I came to a conclusion that love and forgiveness are more constructive
and will bring people together and will give them understanding and will solve
a lot of problems.”
Khadr
has pored through Pride and Prejudice, Barack Obama’s memoir, and each
instalment of the Twilight series. He has crayons in his cell, and draws
pictures of lakes and flowers and other scenes he longs to see with the one eye
that wasn’t blinded by shrapnel. “No matter how abandoned he’s been, he doesn’t
have any anger,” says Dennis Edney, Khadr’s long-time lawyer. “He is a kid who
is going to go back to Canada and start his life, and Canadians will see that
this young man is harmless, and that he is a victim.”
When
asked how the same boy (now man) can be a proud murderer and a harmless victim
all at the same time, Edney is blunt. The agreed statement of facts “is
fiction,” he says, and Khadr only signed it because he knew that admitting
guilt was his only hope of ever leaving Guantánamo Bay. “Anyone who believes
this was a full voluntary confession is crazy,” Edney says. “If they had asked
him to plead to the shooting of John F. Kennedy, we would have agreed to that,
too.”
The
story of Omar Khadr (a narrative that now belongs to the feds) began in a
Toronto hospital on Sept. 19, 1986. But it would be another 10 years before the
country was first introduced to the curly-haired boy destined to become an
“enemy combatant.”
At the
time, Omar’s father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was in the custody of Pakistani
authorities, accused of financing the November 1995 bombing of the Egyptian
embassy in Islamabad that killed 16 people. A Canadian citizen, the Khadr
patriarch proclaimed his innocence, embarked on a hunger strike and ended up in
the headlines—just as Jean Chrétien, then the prime minister, was flying to the
region for a trade mission. Under pressure from the press, Chrétien agreed to
broach the case with Pakistani officials, and took time out of his busy
schedule to meet Khadr’s wife and young children. Including Omar.
A few
months later, Ahmed Khadr was a free man, kissing the ground after his plane
touched down in Canada.
It
turned out to be a short visit. Before long, he and his family were back
shuttling between Pakistan and Afghanistan, mingling with al-Qaeda elites and
using his “charity” work as a front to finance bin Laden’s training camps. In
2001, Ahmed Khadr’s name was added to a United Nations’ terrorism blacklist,
and when the World Trade Center was toppled later that year, the U.S. branded
him a “primary suspect” and froze his assets.
A week
after 9/11, Omar turned 15. It would be his last birthday with his family.
In
June 2002, as coalition forces hunted for bin Laden and his associates, Ahmed
Khadr sent his teenaged son to serve as a translator for members of the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group, a terrorist organization linked to al-Qaeda. (Omar is
fluent in English, Arabic, Pashto and Dari, and can also speak some French.)
But he did much more than talk. Khadr was trained to fire rocket-propelled
grenades, assault rifles and pistols, and was soon assigned to a cell that
built and planted powerful IEDs. A home video released by prosecutors shows a
grinning Omar Khadr constructing his homemade bombs and holding the Quran.
His
duties also included undercover reconnaissance. “On at least one occasion,”
says the agreed statement of facts, he “clandestinely spied upon U.S. troop
movements near the airport in Khowst, Afghanistan. Omar Khadr did not wear a
uniform and attempted to blend in with the civilian population in order to gain
as much actionable intelligence as possible.”
On
July 27, 2002, less than two months after his father dispatched him to the
front lines, Khadr found himself holed up in a mud compound in the village of
Ayub Kheil, surrounded by dozens of U.S. troops. Women and children were
allowed to leave, and everyone else inside was offered multiple chances to
surrender. Khadr stayed put.
Four
hours later, after U.S. warplanes annihilated the compound, a group of elite
Delta Force commandos made their way inside. “The unit began taking direct fire
from an AK-47,” reads the statement of fact. “One soldier saw the individual
firing the AK-47, engaged and killed him.” Khadr, hiding behind a wall, pulled
the pin from a Russian-made grenade and tossed it in the soldiers’ direction
(“like in the movies,” he later told an interrogator).
An
American returned fire, hitting the 15-year-old with two bullets to the back.
“Omar
Khadr and the others made a pact that they would rather die fighting than be
captured by U.S. forces,” the agreed statement says. “He believed he would
likely die in the firefight and wanted to kill as many Americans as possible
before being killed.”
Khadr,
of course, did not die. But Sgt. Speer did, leaving behind a wife, a
three-year-old daughter and a newborn son. He was not killed instantly, though.
Khadr’s grenade ripped open his skull and peppered his brain with shrapnel, but
Speer hung on for 10 more agonizing days before finally succumbing to his
injuries.
As
Speer’s body was being flown back to North Carolina, Khadr was recovering from
multiple surgeries at a U.S. military hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan. For one
procedure, the only ophthalmologist in theatre was rushed in to perform a
vision-saving operation on his right eye. It would be another six weeks before
the Canadian Embassy in Washington learned that one of its citizens was in U.S.
custody, and even then, the details were sketchy (except for a Washington Post
article that claimed Khadr was “singing like a bird” to interrogators).
In the
eight years since, nothing we have learned about Omar Khadr proves, with any
certainty, what he is thinking or who he has become. It’s hard to imagine that
even he fully understands what’s swirling in his head, but even that would be
an assumption. All we know for sure is that Khadr has spent more than 3,000
days and nights in a place that would damage even the strongest of minds.
And a
place where torture was standard operating procedure.
Khadr
confessed, on numerous occasions, that he threw the grenade that fatally
wounded Sgt. Speer. At times, he described that day with obvious pride, well
aware that his battlefield kill had won him the respect of fellow detainees.
One FBI agent described his demeanour as “cold and callous.”
But
Khadr would later claim that he was horrifically abused—and even threatened
with gang rape—during his interrogations. In Bagram, where he spent three
months before his transfer to Guantánamo, the 15-year-old was questioned more
than 40 times, sometimes in a room with barking dogs, sometimes while hung by
the wrists. During one session, he says someone placed a hood over his head and
soaked him with water until he began to suffocate.
The
tactics continued in Cuba. Khadr claims he was left in isolation for up to a month,
spat at by an interrogator, and shackled to the ground for hours on end. Once,
when he was tied up for so long that he urinated on the floor, guards used him
as a “human mop” to clean up the mess.
Agents
from CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, visited him in February 2003, and as video
cameras rolled, Khadr told the agents he had been “tortured” into confessing
and that he didn’t throw the grenade. When the spies left, Khadr sobbed
uncontrollably, crying out for his mother. He was 16. (A new documentary, You
Don’t Like the Truth, includes long snippets of the videotaped interrogation,
as well as a rare photo of Khadr as he looks today.)
Did
those first few months in custody reinforce Khadr’s commitment to jihad? Did he
wish that he killed 10 Americans, and not just one? Or was he angry at his
father, a man who could have raised his kids in Canada but chose holy war
instead? Only Khadr knows the answers to those questions—and his actions (or at
least those that have been documented) don’t offer any obvious clues.
Consider
this scene in March 2004, when a Foreign Affairs official flew to Guantánamo to
visit him. At one point, Khadr was handed a photograph of his family and left
alone in the interrogation room. He urinated on the picture—twice. And then he
laid his head close to the photo in what one observer described as “an
affectionate manner.”
“[Omar]
does really not understand the gravity of his situation,” wrote R. Scott
Heatherington, a senior official in the Foreign Affairs intelligence division.
“Before he is returned to Canada (if this were to be a possibility) some
thought should be given to ‘managing this process’ and the social services
agencies should play a major role.”
A year
after that consular visit, Khadr was charged with murder and ordered to stand
trial in front of a military commission. He continued to insist that he was not
to blame for Sgt. Speer’s death, and that his confession was coerced. By then,
home was a solitary cell inside Camp 5, Guantánamo’s maximum security complex.
That’s where Dennis Edney met him for the first time. “He was lost,” Edney
recalls. They didn’t even speak about his looming court case during that first
meeting. “No one had touched him in years,” Edney says, “so I hugged him.”
Outside
the wire, there was little public sympathy for Omar Khadr—thanks again to his
notorious family. His father had been killed in a 2003 shootout with Pakistani
authorities, and Omar’s younger brother, Kareem, had been caught in the
crossfire and paralyzed from the waist down. His oldest brother, Abdullah, was
facing gun-smuggling charges in the U.S., and his sister, Zaynab, was under
investigation by the RCMP. And every time his sister or his mother or his
brother opened their mouths—to praise suicide bombers or criticize the country
that signed their welfare cheques—Khadr’s case became that much easier to
ignore.
“Omar
has been branded by the family,” Edney says. “When you talk about the Khadr
brand, there is no distinction. But there isn’t an ideological thought in
Omar’s brain. I’ve never met a more peaceful guy in my life.”
Stephen
Xenakis agrees. A psychiatrist and retired U.S. army brigadier-general, he has
spent more than 100 hours speaking with Khadr. “He is a very decent, kind young
man—and he has faith,” he told Maclean’s. “We certainly adulate our American
POWs who sustain their faith when they are in detention. I don’t think it has
radicalized him. There is not a hard edge to him at all, and there is no sense
of vengeance.”
Two
years ago, Khadr was transferred to Camp 4, a communal section of the prison
where detainees sleep in the same room and mingle outside during the day. He
spends a lot of time drawing pictures with crayons, but even more time reading.
His library list includes the Harry Potter collection, John Grisham novels,
Great Expectations and Huckleberry Finn.
Khadr
has also been exchanging letters with Arlette Zinck, an English professor at
King’s University College in Edmonton. Edney delivers the notes during his
visits, sneaking them past the guards in his shoe. “Your letters are like
candles very bright in my hardship and darkness,” Khadr wrote in one of his
letters. Said another: “About myself, what can I say? We hold on to hope in our
hearts and the love from others to us and that keeps us going until we reach
our happiness.”
One of
the books Zinck recommended was Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a
Boy Soldier, which tells the story of a 13-year-old who was forced into the
Sierra Leone army, ordered to kill, but later rehabilitated. Khadr said he was
“struck by the simplicity truthfulness and the straight-from-the-heart” tone of
the book. “Children’s hearts are like a sponge that will absorb what is around
it, like wet cement, soft until it is sculptured in a certain way,” he wrote.
“A child’s soul is a sacred dough that must be shaped in a holy way.”
As far
as the U.S. government is concerned—and Sgt. Speer’s widow—Khadr’s soul has
been shaped in a way that is anything but holy. Michael Welner, a psychiatrist
who testified for the prosecution, said Khadr remains a “highly dangerous” man
who is devoted to jihad and will pose an immediate threat as soon as he is
released. (It was Welner who said that Khadr has been “marinating” in a
community of diehard Islamists.) Tabitha Speer agreed. “He’s a murderer in my
eyes and always will be,” she told reporters. “My children are the victims.”
His
agreed statement certainly supports that belief. In it, Khadr admits that “if
non-believers enter a Muslim country then every Muslim in the world should
fight the non-believers.” He admits that he “voluntarily of his own free will
chose to conspire and agree with various members of al-Qaeda to train and
ultimately conduct operations to kill United States and coalition forces.” And
he admits—again—that he tossed that grenade. “Khadr could have left the
compound if he wanted,” the document reads. “He chose to stay behind and fight
the Americans.”
No
matter how many novels he reads or how many pictures he draws, those chilling
facts will stay on the public record forever, reminding the world—and the
National Parole Board—exactly why he ended up in Guantánamo Bay in the first
place.
So,
too, will the verdict of a military jury. Although his plea agreement
guaranteed a punishment of no higher than eight years, a sentencing hearing was
still convened, just in case the panel decided on something less (the jury was
not told that about the plea bargain in advance, and their sentence would have
only applied if it turned out to be shorter than the agreed eight years).
Symbolic
or not, military prosecutors asked for another 25 years behind bars. The jury
decided on 40—a full 15 more than even the government wanted. Clearly, the
members weren’t convinced that Omar Khadr is safe to walk the streets.
More
than 5,000 American service members have been killed in the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars. Khadr is the only person to be convicted of murder in connection
with any of those deaths.
Tonight,
the 24-year-old is back in Camp 5, in a solitary cell where he will count down
the days until his flight home to Canada. (Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence
Cannon confirmed that the feds will approve his transfer request next year.) In
the meantime, Dennis Edney is preparing for his client’s eventual return to
society—which will include welcoming Omar into his own home.
“He
will go and visit his family and stay with them, as all kids should do, for a
week or two,” he says. “And then he will join me in Edmonton, and we will work
on his education and learn to get on with his life. He will be a positive role
model.”
But
even Edney, a man who has come to love Omar Khadr like a son, understands that
the transition will not be smooth. For a person who has spent eight years in
shackles, the attention and the publicity will be overwhelming. “I’ve told him
that there will be groups wanting to identify with him, to use him for their
own needs. And I’ve told him that as much as he thinks he’s strong, they will
manipulate him. He needs time to get the strength to stand on his own two
feet.”
And to
decide—on his own—which direction he is going to walk.
Just when u think u JUST...MIGHT..,.CHANGE...POLITICAL...PARTIES...IN THE YEAR 2015- THIS SHIT APPEARS... tories won't liberals will and ndp will set him free with $20million taxpayer dollars.... Sweet Jesus Mother Mary and Joseph.... AND U KNOW THEY WILL PUT $$$MILLIONS ON HOOKERS.... AND NOT ANY $$$$ ON VICTIMS....
IF THE LAW OF CANADA- DANCES 4 VICIOUS KILLERS OF OUR TROOPS... LIKE THIS... THANK WE'RE DONE CANADA... WE'RE DONE.... there will never be a law or protection 4 victims... in our Canada....
QUOTE:
Khadr's lawyers argued that the eight-year term for crimes that included murder only made sense as a youth sentence and, although he's now too old to be in a youth facility, Khadr should at least be moved to a provincial jail.
OH COME ON- Ottawa wants to delay Omar Khadr’s transfer to provincial jail while it appeals!!!!! SERIOUSLY????
What the hell did our men and women go 2 f**king Afghanistan 4????? What.... is there no right or wrong in Canada... innocents and troops died from this monster- UNLESS... WILL U SEND HIM BACK 2 ARAB STATE HE CAME FROM??? BECAUSE U KNOW HE'S JUST GOING 2 KILL OUR TROOPS AGAIN... it won't change... ask our troops.....
QUOTE: The Toronto-born Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war-crimes charges, including murder, for killing the American soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15. Khadr was accused of throwing a grenade that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer during a vicious battle at an Afghan compound in July 2002.
Ottawa wants to delay Omar Khadr’s transfer to provincial jail while it appeals
Jul 8 2014 — CP
The federal government says it plans to appeal a court ruling that orders Omar Khadr be transferred to a provincial jail. The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled the former Guantanamo Bay detainee should be serving a youth sentence in Canada and not be in a federal prison.
http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2014/07/08/newsalert-khadr-wins-at-alberta-appeal-court/#.U7xSBkD1uMd
AND..
She will get it 2..... same 4 the XBox Killing Youngbloods- who run and kill and then slither home and hide under our free nations laws.... no more...
Widow, U.S. soldier sue Omar Khadr for $50-million
Colin PerkelTORONTO — The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, May. 22 2014, 5:21 PM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/widow-us-soldier-sue-omar-khadr-for-50-million/article18814245/
and...
September 11, 2001
.jpg)
------------------
CANADA: YOUNG KILLERS OF DEMOCRACY IN OUR CANADA- NewAgeX-Box youngblood monsters.... so much 4 civilized nations...
THE VICTIMS.... our Nato troops ... our Mounties... innocents- NATO TROOPS GLOBALLY ARE WATCHING..... CANADIANS GLOBALLY ARE WATCHING... We Want Justice
We are not Europe.... We are not the Arab Nations... We are Not the Africas... We are not the Asias... We are Canadians... and we will NOT tolerate butchers of innocent people in our Canada... anymore... IDLE NO MORE CANADIANS... IDLE NO MORE...
---------------
New Games 4 global kids folks....
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: June 2014-XBOX-GAMEBOY YOUTH KILLERS- GLOBAL NATIONS HOMEGROWN- Heretic Muslim VIDEO XBOX- GAMEBOY KILLERS- butchering innocents in Muslim on Muslim wars return home 2UR 'civilized' nations from Muslim on Muslim on let's just kill wars??? FRANCE JAILS GAMEBOY SYRIA BUTCHERS RETURNING HOME FROM KILLING- over 2 Million innocent Muslim women and children butchered by Heretic Muslim monsters - we don't need Muslim killing Muslim Gameboy sheet - and u all just notice this now?
GAMES
MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE CANADA
Iraq: Mission not
accomplished
With a group more evil and
dangerous than al-Qaeda running wild and a sectarian war exploding in Iraq,
America may have no option but to go back
Michael Petrou
June 20, 2014
The images are shocking, and yet, almost familiar to anyone who has seen
photographic evidence of the worst atrocities of the Second World War. Indeed,
what distinguishes photographs showing the work of Nazi killing units 70 years
ago from the recently released images of Islamist extremists slaughtering captured
Iraqi soldiers are peripheral details: gloomy skies and the temperate
landscapes of eastern Europe, rather than desert sand and glaring sunlight; the
sense of otherworldliness that black-and-white photography allows, rather than
the undeniable immediacy of colour. The heart of what is captured in the photos
is identical. Ditches are filled with terrified and unarmed captives, and then
they are shot dead with casual brutality, their bodies packed too tightly
together to thrash or sprawl as they expire.The dead, according to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the Islamist insurgent group that claims responsibility for the massacre, had donned civilian clothes and tried to flee an ISIS advance through northern and western Iraq, where major towns and cities have fallen in recent days. As of early this week, the jihadists had swept into Baquba, clashing with security forces only 60 km from the capital, Baghdad.
Most of those captured were air force cadets, according to a New York Times employee in the city of Tikrit, where the shootings reportedly took place. Members of the Sunni branch of Islam were set free. Shia Muslims, a majority in Iraq, were murdered. “The filthy Shias are killed in the hundreds,” reads a caption on one of the photographs uploaded to an ISIS Twitter stream last weekend.
In total, ISIS claims it murdered 1,700. This figure has not been confirmed, but, if true, the massacre is the largest in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was deposed in an American- and British-led invasion in 2003. The United Nations’ human rights chief, Navi Pillay, says the mass killings have “almost certainly amounted to war crimes.”
The massacre is the bloody and lurid reflection of a movement that has swept through Iraq and Syria over the past year, threatening to fragment both countries. “The state is collapsing as we’re speaking,” says Feisal al-Istrabadi, Iraq’s former ambassador to the UN. “There is an expression in Arabic that a cracked glass cannot be repaired. Iraq is beginning to look a hell of a lot more like a cracked glass than anything else.”
Related:
Canada and Iraq: Plus ça change
Why Iraq is slipping toward civil war
ISIS’s offensive seems sure to revive and intensify a regional sectarian war that tore through Iraq in 2006 and 2007. (Some 44 suspected Sunni militants died in police custody on Tuesday in what appears to have been a reprisal killing.) And it marks the emergence of a new global jihadist group that is eclipsing even al-Qaeda. The crisis may pull America’s military into another Iraqi intervention, and perhaps even into a temporary alliance with its arch-enemy, Iran.
ISIS grew out of an Islamist insurgent group in Iraq that fought American and Iraqi soldiers and committed numerous acts of terror against Iraqi and international civilians. Known by a variety of different names, including the Islamic State of Iraq, it was led for a time by Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In 2004, Zarqawi swore a loyalty oath to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, subsuming his group into the larger and more infamous global terrorist network.
Zarqawi was a particularly bloodthirsty jihadist. His penchant for beheadings, often filmed, drew criticism from al-Qaeda second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who warned him in a 2005 letter that he risked losing the support of the Muslim public and suggested captives could simply be shot instead. Zarqawi died in a 2006 American air strike, and the Islamic State of Iraq was all but defeated over the subsequent two years as U.S. and Iraqi forces killed many of its leaders and the Sunni tribes of Iraq turned against it.
Its fortunes were revived by the uprising against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, which grew into a civil war of an increasingly sectarian nature. Jihadists from Iraq crossed into Syria, where a variety of Islamist groups operated. Zawahiri, who inherited al-Qaeda’s leadership following bin Laden’s death in 2011, eventually renounced ISIS—meaning that the group, now led by an enigmatic man named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is no longer an al-Qaeda franchise, but a rival.
In Syria, ISIS has surpassed other less ruthless opposition militias. Operating out of the northern city of Raqqa, it has established a proto-Islamic state where women must be veiled, Christians are taxed, cigarettes are forbidden and members of rival rebel groups are murdered. Public executions are common. Earlier this year, at least two bodies were strung up on crosses as if crucified.
ISIS is also a magnet for international jihadists. Aymenn Al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, estimates that, of the 10,000 or so fighters ISIS can field, about 30 per cent of them are foreigners, including hundreds of Westerners. Canadians are among them.
ISIS fights other anti-Assad militias in Syria at least as much as Syrian government soldiers do. Assad appears to have focused his military efforts on more moderate rebels, knowing that his regime and ISIS share a common enemy in them—and reasoning that, if ISIS comes to dominate the rebellion against him, Western support for the rebellion will dry up.
Earlier this year, ISIS moved back into Iraq in force. In January, it took the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah—highly symbolic locales, given the amount of U.S. blood spilled to win them from jihadists. But those advances pale compared to ISIS’s rampages over the past two weeks, including the capture of much of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, as well as Tikrit and Tal Afar. Iraq’s army has melted away before the ISIS columns, either out of well-placed fear or because they feel so little loyalty to the state they are charged with defending.
ISIS has promised to march on Baghdad and the southern cities of Karbala and Najaf, home to two of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines. In response, hundreds of Shia Muslims have enlisted in militias vowing to confront ISIS and protect their holy places. Iraqi Kurds, who have enjoyed relative peace and prosperity in their semi-autonomous northern enclave since Saddam’s fall, have occupied the city of Kirkuk. Ostensibly, this was done to protect the city from ISIS, but it is far from certain they will ever relinquish the city.
Istrabadi, now an international law professor at Indiana University, says ISIS could not have achieved such stunning military success unaided. “There is a relatively broad coming together of disaffected Sunni groups,” he says, including ISIS jihadists, but also Saddamists and fierce partisans of his disbanded Ba’ath party, as well as former army officers who were sacked following Saddam’s overthrow.
It is in some ways an unlikely alliance. Ba’athists in the newly formed insurgent group called the General Military Council of Iraqi Revolutionaries entered Mosul alongside ISIS. In an interview with the BBC, its spokesman, former general Muzhir al-Qaisi, claimed his group is stronger than ISIS, and described his jihadist partners as “barbarians.”
That hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians fled ISIS’s advance on Mosul, a majority Sunni city, suggests that ISIS’s support among Sunni Arabs is limited. However, the group’s Sunni chauvinism does have some resonance among the local population, and much of the responsibility for this must be borne by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki. “Nuri al-Malaki has been seen as engaging in discriminatory policies toward Sunni Iraqis, essentially reversing the power dynamic that existed under Saddam, rather than working to achieve social cohesion between Iraq’s different communities,” says Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Tamimi, of the Middle East Forum, cautions that what’s dividing Iraqis goes beyond Maliki. The army is mostly Shia. The security forces are thuggish. And there’s no longer an American military to cajole Iraq’s various groups toward greater co-operation. Maliki wanted U.S. troops to remain in Iraq, but was unwilling to allow them to do so if they were to remain immune from Iraqi prosecution. Granting them that would have cost him politically, so he balked.
The result is that Iraq didn’t have American help when ISIS began rolling through its territory. Maliki reportedly asked U.S. President Barack Obama to consider bombing ISIS targets last month, but was rebuffed.
With ISIS converging on Baghdad, Obama now says he is considering “all options.” Secretary of State John Kerry says this may include drone strikes. Washington is sending additional troops to its embassy in Baghdad to provide security for American personnel. There are also reports that the U.S. is considering dispatching special forces to help train Iraqi soldiers—something it already tried to do during its long intervention in Iraq, which didn’t stop Iraqi troops in Mosul from fleeing the ISIS fighters they outnumbered.
Any of these moves would effectively mean America is once again militarily engaged in Iraq—an ironic development, given that in 2008, Obama campaigned on ending America’s war there and has often bragged about doing so in the years since.
U.S. military support for Iraq would put it on the same side as Iran—a country America considers a state sponsor of terrorism, but which is also a strong backer of Maliki’s government. Tamimi says members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps are “undoubtedly” in Iraq, and Iranian websites are reporting that at least one Revolutionary Guard has died fighting there already. Kerry says America is open to the possibility of co-operating with Iran. Iranian and U.S. diplomats in Vienna met and discussed Iraq on Monday.
But, according to former Iraqi UN ambassador Istrabadi, neither Iranian nor American military assistance will do much good. Enlisting Iran will only stoke sectarian resentment among Sunni Iraqis, and America is unlikely to offer more than air strikes, which are of limited use against insurgents operating among civilians.
Instead, says Istrabadi, Iraq’s government should be appealing to the same Sunni tribal leaders that American forces convinced to turn against al-Qaeda jihadists in 2007 and 2008. “We’ve got to find a credible leader who can reach out to these groups,” he says. “There isn’t a military solution to this.” It won’t be possible to deal with ISIS members and hard-core Ba’athists, adds Istrabadi. The former want a religious dictatorship and the latter want a Ba’athist totalitarian one. “Their agendas are non-negotiable.”
America may have a window in which it can force the Maliki government to move toward greater political and sectarian pluralism in exchange for American help against ISIS. But ISIS also threatens U.S. and Western interests: Ignoring its growth is not really an option.
“ISIS is the number 1 terrorist group out there today,” says Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It’s already overtaking al-Qaeda in some ways,” he adds. Tamimi, who is in touch with several ISIS members on social media, says ISIS’s transnational ambitions are a draw for Western jihadists, as is the fact that ISIS is building the foundations of an Islamic emirate in Iraq and Syria—something that was lost in Afghanistan with the Taliban’s defeat there. “If you are a guy who wants to go abroad to fight for a global struggle, the place you go is Syria to join ISIS, not Pakistan to join al-Qaeda central,” he says.
The great fear among Western intelligence agencies is that their citizens who have travelled to fight with ISIS will return to commit acts of terror at home. Mehdi Nemmouche, a French national who is accused of murdering four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels earlier this year, spent more than a year in Syria and was arrested with a machine gun wrapped in an ISIS flag.
Whatever Obama does to help the Iraqi government deal with ISIS in Iraq, it’s unlikely to permanently undermine the group, unless America’s strategy includes Syria, as well. Otherwise, ISIS militants will simply retreat to their Syrian haven and regroup. “The only reason ISIS is what it is today, either in Iraq or Syria, is because of Syria,” says Levitt.
“What we really need from the United States is a decisive change toward the Syrian conflict,” says Khatib, arguing for more substantial American support for moderate rebel groups fighting both Syrian regime forces and ISIS militants.
Obama has so far resisted this. American foreign policy during his presidency has been guided by restraint. Obama says America will use force when its core interests demand it: when Americans are threatened or when the security of America’s allies are in danger. With swaths of Syria and Iraq falling to a jihadist group every bit as radical and nihilistic as al-Qaeda, and with Iraq itself on the brink of dissolution, he may conclude that such a point is approaching.
BEST COMMENT: The man
has very high credibility and his opinion is worth listening to even if it
hurts.
ON TARGET: Iraq’s
complexities befuddle media
SCOTT TAYLOR ON
TARGET
Published June 22, 2014 - 3:56pm
Published June 22, 2014 - 3:56pm
Iraqi
women, right, sit outside their home watching Shiite militiamen, followers of
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, parade in the northern oil-rich province of
Kirkuk, Iraq, on Saturday. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The
current crisis in Iraq resonates on a deep personal level for me. Between
August 2000 and September 2004, I made a total of 20 trips to Iraq as an
unembedded reporter. I covered the effects of the ongoing sanctions, then the
post-9-11 buildup for war, the 2003 U.S. invasion, and the subsequent violent
insurgency.
While I
did cover the entire country, most of my time was spent in the complex and
volatile northern region, which was largely ignored by the majority of the
western media, who were embedded in the Baghdad-based Green Zone.
In most
of the dumbed-down analysis which continues to this day, the published maps
delineate Iraq into a Kurdish zone, a Sunni Arab zone, and a Shiite Arab zone.
There is virtually no mention of the sizable Christian minority — both Chaldean
and Assyrian — who reside in the north. Also completely ignored in the equation
are the nearly two million ethnic Turkmen and the Yazidi.
Throw
into that mix the fact that the Kurdish region is divided into the two camps of
rival tribal warlords, and the fact that the Turkmen and Kurds, like the Arabs,
are divided between Shiite and Sunni Islamic factions, which are in turn
subdivided into secular and fundamentalist elements, suddenly, those neat
little diagrams turn into a blurry labyrinth.
The crown
jewel of northern Iraq’s resources are the oil fields of Baba Gurgur, located
just outside the city of Kirkuk. For centuries, Kirkuk has been the heartland
of the Iraqi Turkmen, but since oil was discovered at Baba Gurgur, control of
Kirkuk has been coveted by the Kurds and the Arabs. In total, about 35 per cent
of Iraq’s three million barrels of oil per day are produced here, meaning that
whoever possesses that resource will be able to generate self-sufficiency and
independence.
Thus,
while the world watched in shock and awe as al-Qaida-linked extremists from the
Islamist State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) captured the cities of Mosul,
Tikrit, Samarra and Tal Afar, little attention was paid to the fact that the
Kurdish militia used the crisis to seize and hold Kirkuk.
The fact
that Iraqi government troops and police simply melted away in the face of both
the ISIL fighters and the Kurdish militia should have come as no surprise. The
government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki does not have any deep-rooted
support, even within his own Shiite Arab constituency. The fundamentalist
Shiites support an Iranian-style theocracy, and the real leader among them has
always been the Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani.
As the
Iraqi federal troops deserted and fled the ISIL onslaught, al-Sistani called on
Iraqi Shiites to resist in what he describes as a holy war against Sunnis. The
mobilized Shiite militia, of course, are intent on denying the ISIL fighters
access to Iraq’s primary oil-producing region around the southern city of
Basra, located near the Kuwait border.
While
ISIL have scored a series of tactical victories in rapid succession, their only
strategic asset was the oil refinery taken in Baiji last week. This facility
produces gasoline and diesel for domestic consumption and its loss will no
doubt create a critical fuel shortage within Iraq. However, it will in no way
affect the export of crude oil which would impact the world market.
The
multi-factional civil war that has simmered and sizzled throughout the
decade-long U.S. occupation has now fully erupted. Once again, innocent
civilians from minority factions are being targeted and persecuted. The ISIL
are actually using social media to broadcast their violent atrocities and
executions in an effort to terrorize their opponents.
In
September 2004, I had occasion to experience first-hand the brutality of
al-Qaida-linked Sunni extremists. For five days, I was held hostage, along with
a Turkish colleague, Zeynep Tugrul, by the forerunners of ISIL, who were then
known as Ansar-al-Islam. They beat me and tortured me as an accused American
spy.
While the
experience was horrifying, it also afforded me an extremely rare insight into
the extent of al-Qaida’s network and their friendly collusion with Iraqi
security forces. That was at the height of the American troop surge and
al-Qaida covertly operated like a viper’s nest that was invisible to the U.S.
forces. Now they are out in the open, the civil war has begun, and still our
media are failing to grasp the full complexity of the Iraq equation.
-----------------
CSIS tracking 80 Canadians who came home after going abroad for ‘terrorist purposes’
Mar 23 2014 — Douglas Quan — Postmedia
Intelligence officials are aware of about 80 Canadians who have returned home after going overseas for “terrorist purposes,” according to speaking notes prepared for the director of the nation’s spy agency. The document obtained by Postmedia News does not offer explicit information about their activities, though it makes it clear that not all were involved […]
CSIS tracking 80 Canadians who came home after going abroad for ‘terrorist purposes’
By Douglas Quan, Postmedia News March 23, 2014
Story
Michel Coulombe, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, is shown at his appearance before the Senate National Security and Defence Committee in Ottawa, on Feb. 3.
Photograph by: Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press , Postmedia News
Intelligence officials are aware of about 80 Canadians who have returned home after going overseas for “terrorist purposes,” according to speaking notes prepared for the director of the nation’s spy agency.
The document obtained by Postmedia News does not offer explicit information about their activities, though it makes it clear that not all were involved in combat. While some individuals may have engaged in paramilitary activities, others are believed to have studied in extremist Islamic schools or provided logistical or fundraising support. Others never achieved their goals and simply returned home.
The so-called “foreign fighter” phenomenon has become a growing concern for the intelligence community, stoking fears that individuals could return to Canada more radicalized than when they left.
“Most troubling, if they participate in a foreign conflict or train with a terrorist group, they might return with certain operational skills that can be deployed themselves or taught to fellow Canadian extremists,” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in its annual report released earlier this year.
The 80 Canadians on CSIS’s radar were referenced in speaking notes prepared for the agency’s director, Michel Coulombe, ahead of his Feb. 3 appearance before the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. Postmedia News obtained a copy of the notes through access-to-information legislation.
During the hearing, Coulombe testified that the agency was aware of more than 130 Canadians abroad who were believed to be supporting extremist activities. And he expressed concerns about the threat such individuals posed if they return home.
However, a review of Coulombe’s testimony shows no mention of the 80 individuals, who, according to his speaking notes, had returned to Canadian soil.
The director’s speaking notes do not indicate where they travelled or when. Coulombe did tell the committee that of the 130 Canadians who were still abroad, about 30 were in Syria. Other destinations included Somalia, Yemen and North and East Africa, according to the speaking notes.
It is not clear what specific action authorities have taken against those individuals who have returned to Canada. But Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior intelligence officer with CSIS, said Sunday that the 80 individuals have to be considered “very high risk” and are likely being closely watched.
“We don’t know their state of mind. … No one goes to a war zone without being affected, especially if they were exposed to a long period of indoctrination,” he said.
CSIS spokeswoman Tahera Mufti confirmed Sunday in a statement that “CSIS is aware of Canadians who have returned to Canada after having been abroad for terrorist purposes.” She added that the agency “actively investigates such individuals and is coordinating with the RCMP in order to keep Canadians safe.”
RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Julie Gagnon said she could not “confirm or deny the existence of a national security criminal investigation for privacy concerns. Also, to do so could potentially negatively impact ongoing investigations.”
Last year, the federal government passed a set of anti-terrorism laws that included new penalties for those who leave or attempt to leave Canada to participate in terrorist activities.
But the speaking notes provided to the CSIS director acknowledge that the intelligence community faces challenges identifying and tracking the movements of such individuals, and bringing charges against them.
The number of individuals overseas is constantly in flux and their motivations are not always easy to discern, according to the notes. Their destinations are often in active conflict zones or failed states, meaning cooperation with foreign partners — and getting sound intelligence — can be difficult.
Further, those engaged in terrorist activities often travel on falsified documents and “Canada has not, to date, systematically collected exit information that could be used to reliably confirm an individual’s departure,” the notes state.
“Despite our best efforts it is highly likely there are Canadians we do not know of who are travelling overseas to engage in terrorist activities.”
These challenges are not unique to Canada, Juneau-Katsuya said. “All Western countries are facing similar challenges.”
At least three Canadians have reportedly died over the last several months while fighting in Syria’s civil war.
Two young men from London, Ont., died last year after taking part in an al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack at an Algerian gas plant that killed 40 workers.
The government has previously acknowledged the involvement of Somali-Canadians with the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab. One Canadian reportedly was killed while taking part in a deadly attack on Mogadishu’s Supreme Court complex last April.
Here at home, two immigrants were charged last year with a plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train that officials said had the support of al-Qaida elements in Iran. One of the suspects reportedly travelled to Iran prior to his arrest.
By the Numbers:
130: Number of Canadians abroad suspected of engaging in extremist activities.
30: Number of Canadians in Syria suspected of engaging in extremist activities.
80: Number of Canadians who have returned to Canada after having been abroad for terrorist purposes.
Source: Speaking notes for CSIS director, Feb. 3, 2014
Dquan(at)Postmedia.com
Twitter.com/dougquan
http://www.canada.com/news/CSIS+tracking+Canadians+came+home+after+going+abroad/9651814/story.html
YOUTUBE....
Up to 600 radical muslims from Europe fighting in Syria
The ones from Britain won't be allowed back, read this: ...-
UK fears homecoming of 'London boys' fighting in Syria
British security services said that scores of UK citizens are fighting in Syria, and may use their military know-how to wreak havoc ...
AND....more utube
The "Canadian" jihadis in Syria
The mother of a young Canadian man currently in Syria has been asking for months how and why her son ended up there among ...- HD
-
Canadian jihadi Mustafa al-Gharib killed in Syria
Was his death typical of the deaths in the Syrian conflict? Was his head hacked off? Was it carried around in triumph by the hacker ...
AND..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOEED0JDa8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoD9cBcEOWo
-------------------------
MARCH 11, 2014- TRYING 2 SNEAK OFF 2 KILL INNOCENTS...
THESE YOUNG MUSLIM GAMEBOY KILLERS GOING 2 KILL INNOCENT MUSLIMS... SHEET... GET THEM ALL.... EVIL...
France arrests 8 in raid on Syrian-bound radicals
The Associated PressMarch 11, 2014 Updated 10 minutes ago
PARIS — Prosecutors say seven men and a woman have been arrested in France on suspicion of planning to join radical Islamic groups fighting in Syria.
The prosecutor's office says French intelligence agents are questioning the eight Tuesday, one day after their arrests in and around Paris. In France, terror suspects can be held for up to four days before being charged or freed.
More than 20 French citizens have been killed in Syria's 3-year-old civil war. In November, France opened an investigation into more than 600 French people who either are preparing to join the fighting or are already there.
The probe secured its first convictions Friday, when three men were found guilty of planning to join jihadist groups in Syria and received prison sentences of two to five years.
http://www.thestate.com/2014/03/11/3319078/france-arrests-8-in-raid-on-syrian.html#storylink=cpy
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MARCH 10, 2014 COMING HOME...
Four jailed in France for attempting to wage jihad abroad
March 10, 2014 07:27 PMA French court sentenced four men to up to seven years in jail Monday for having tried to wage jihad abroad, at a time of concern over the mounting number of nationals going to fight in Syria.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International.ashx#ixzz2vXtEfAIY
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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HEADS UP: February 7-8 2014- THANK GOD... THE LITTLE GAMEBOY/GRL MONSTERS CAN'T COME BACK ... LIKE THE VICIOUS NATO TROOP KILLER IN AFGHANSITAN- OMAR KHADR....HAS.... EWWW..
Govt to create longer wait to become Canadian, strip citizenship from terrorists
By Diana Mehta, The Canadian Press February 7, 2014
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/SOMNIA/9475697/story.html
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UPDATE FEBRUARY 2014- more proof- Hey Canada will u seriously allow these butchers 2 come back 2 Canada like Nato troop butcher Omar Khadr?
- ... Canada's public ... A Canadian citizen who converted to Islam has been killed while fighting in Syria, ... adding fresh fuel to the political fight over ...
- World War: Jihadists from over 30 countries fight in Syria (PHOTOS) World War: Jihadists from over 30 countries fight in Syria (PHOTOS)
- Canadians join fight in Syria as civil war ... Canadians and Canadian interests,” said the 30 ... so do doubts over its hype; Canada’s former top soldier in ...
- Dozens of Canadians are fighting ... Canadian fighters in Syria. Dozens of Canadians are fighting alongside ... World Environmentalists angry over annual ...
- ... Kareen said he has encountered 20 to 30 Canadians. ... but as the fighting in Syria worsened, ... Amanda Knox's judge says he suffered over guilty verdict;
- ... Jihadists from over 30 countries fight in Syria ... that there are Western jihadists fighting in the Middle-Eastern ... fighters in Syria, ...
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This is how Muslim on Muslim wars take care of each other as enemies... no games-no pretense- let's just let them... it's their country... and their hatred...right?
A top al-Qaeda militant who was arrested in Lebanon last month has died in custody, according to the Lebanese army. Majid al-Majid, a Saudi, was wanted both by his own country and the United States.
Senior al Qaeda militant dies in Lebanese prison
http://www.dw.de/senior-al-qaeda-militant-dies-in-lebanese-prison/a-17341210
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SYRIA- MIDDLE EAST-AFRICAS- MUSLIM ON MUSLIM PROBLEM
There are thousands of foreign fighters in Syria and some 200 are believed to be British residents
Tyler Anderson/National Post filesSyrian-born Canadian, Thwaiba Kanafani joined the Free Syrian Army last year: “I came from Canada to answer the call of my homeland.”
Hey world... what happens when their video killing gameboys return home 2 their 'civilized' nations from Muslim on Muslim on let's just kill wars???
There are thousands of foreign fighters in Syria and
some 200 are believed to be British residents
UNITED STATES: Ex-U.S. soldier Eric Harroun, of Phoenix, Arizona, who was arrested upon returning to the U.S. from Syria and who now faces charges of fighting alongside a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Fears over the future of Europe’s foreign fighters
“We make war so we are war.’‘ That, some would say chilling quotation, came from a young man in the Netherlands who has converted to Islam. He has seen many of his friends leave to take up arms in the bloody conflict in Syria.
In Amsterdam leaders in the Muslim community are deeply concerned by the exodus of more than 100 young men to the war-torn country which has become the number one destination for jihadists.
Does the civil conflict pose a major terrorist threat to Europe? ‘On The Frontline’ confronts the issues behind the exodus of fighters to Syria and what it means for Europe. We speak with a former Islamist extremist and counter-terrorism expert.
http://www.euronews.com/2013/09/11/fears-over-the-future-of-europe-s-foreign-fighters/
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Government to crack down on Syrian fighters
Figthers going to Syria could face being charged with terrorism when they return home to Denmark
The government and secret police agency PET have launched a new strategy aimed at preventing Danes from travelling to Syria to participate in the country's on-going civil war.
PET teamed up with the Justice Ministry, who fear that the combat training and radicalisation experienced by foreign fighters in Syria make them a national security risk when they return home.
“There is no doubt that the issue is one of the most serious security risks to the Danish society at the moment,” Jakob Scharf, the head of PET, told Politiken newspaper.
PET’s latest threat assessment revealed that at least 65 people are currently, or have in the past, participated in the conflict in Syria. Five of them are known to have been killed.
The strategy will abide by existing laws, but the fighters face dire consequences when they return home.
“We keep an eye on the fighters who leave and when they return. They need to understand that it is immensely dangerous to go over there and they also risk legal prosecution when they return home,” the justice minister, Morten Bødskov, told Politiken.
PET said that once it becomes aware a Dane is fighting in Syria, it will inform the tax authorities, Skat, and find out where the money for their journey stems from. Council governments will also see if the fighters are receiving public assistance.
PET is also looking into whether it will be able to deport foreigners with permanent residence in Denmark if they are deemed to be a threat to society, while they will also work towards charging Danes who have fought in Syria with violating terrorism laws.
“That’s a very strong and powerful statement. The risk of radicalisation is so great that such a reaction is necessary,” Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish terrorism expert, told Politiken, pointing to the many fighters joining up with Al-Nusra, which is considered by the UN to be a terrorist organisation. “That means these people can no longer be treated as freedom fighters and Denmark should prosecute them.”
And PET believes that the Danish terrorism laws offer enough grounds to prosecute the fighters who join Al-Nusra.
“Of course, it is a difficult situation now that there is an armed conflict which is also dedicated to overthrowing an illegitimate regime, but I believe our legal framework is sufficient,” Scharf said.
But the right-wing Dansk Folkeparti (DF) argued that Bødskov and PET’s efforts are inadequate and delayed.
“I don’t see why they have not already begun taking away the residencies from these terrorists,” Martin Henriksen, the integration spokesperson for DF, told Berlingske newspaper. “If there are 65 people who have gone to fight a holy war, then there should be 65 residence permits that have been cancelled, or alternatively their Danish citizenships.”
http://cphpost.dk/news/government-to-crack-down-on-syrian-fighters.5672.html
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Australians fighting overseas: how the foreign incursion laws work
Act has broad implications for Australians fighting in international conflicts
Police arrest a man suspected of foreign incursion offences in relation to the Syrian conflict. Photograph: Australian federal police/AAP
Two Australian men have been charged with a number of foreign incursion offences relating to the Syrian conflict. It's the first time anyone has been charged under Australia's foreign incursion laws specifically in relation to Syria.
The act the men have been charged under is the Crimes (Incursions and Recruitment) Act, which has broad provisions relating to the support and financing of armed foreign groups.
Australia's diversity means many citizens have strong views on international conflicts. Australians have fought on the side of non-government forces in East Timor, Sudan, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, among others. Could they have committed offences? Here's a short guide to how the act works.
What kind of activities are offences under the act?
If an Australian citizen enters a foreign country intending to engage in hostile activity on behalf of armed forces that are not part of the foreign government, they could be charged. They can also be charged for intentionally supporting these hostile activities. The type of support can include preparations by training or drilling, accumulating arms or giving money for goods that could be used to support incursions. It can also include giving money to people or associations that may be intending to engage in hostilities.
Is it possible more Australians fighting in Syria could be charged under the act?
Curiously, Australians who go to fight for the Syrian government forces may not be committing an offence. This is because the act provides a defence for people who go to fight on behalf of a nation's armed forces. The attorney general has the power to declare the forces of certain nations to be outside the scope of the defence, but it does not appear there have been any regulations proscribing the forces of the Syrian government (or any other government) since the act was created.
It would be more likely for individuals fighting for non-government forces to be charged under the act, because no automatic defence applies to fighting for non-government forces.
The attorney general can also declare some non-government armed groups as acceptable. Australia opposes the Syrian government, but obviously there are some rebel forces that are seen as acceptable and some, affiliated with extremists, that are not. The act allows the attorney general to declare which are acceptable.
Eighteen organisations listed under the 2002 Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Act would clearly not be deemed acceptable.
What about dual Australian citizens that join the government army of their other country of citizenship?
Australians can engage in armed service with other government forces without needing to worry about being charged. So Australians could fight with the Israeli Defence Force or in the Italian armed forces, for example, without needing to worry about legal action.
The act talks about giving money or goods to an organisation that may be involved in foreign hostilities. What if you have donated money to a group that turns out to be supporting a separatist group in an armed conflict?
A person needs to have intended to support another person engaging in hostile activities in a foreign state. Without that intention it seems unlikely there would be a prosecution.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/australia-news-blog/2013/dec/05/australians-fighting-overseas-new-foreign-incursion-laws
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Canadians drawn into Syrian conflict a threat to return radicalized: authorities
Afghanistan was once a magnet for eager young men who arrived from around the world to fight Soviet forces. Most later returned home to their every day lives, but some became infatuated with militancy and were drawn into al-Qaeda.
CSIS intelligence documents on radicals
Now Syria is attracting significant numbers of foreign fighters, hundreds from Western countries. And while most have joined mainstream rebel groups, some have turned up in extremist factions such as the Al Nusrah Front.
The National Post has learned that dozens of Canadian citizens are believed to be fighting in the Syrian conflict. They have allegedly joined armed groups battling President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as well as those defending it, but most are thought to be with the rebel forces.
Although officials say it is difficult to know precise numbers, the worst-case estimates run into the multiple dozens and have authorities fearing a repeat of the blowback that occurred when radicalized fighters came home from Afghanistan and Bosnia.
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The potential that Syria veterans could return to plot and radicalize comes as Canada is already coming to grips with terrorism following this week’s arrest of two men accused in an alleged al-Qaeda-linked plot to derail a VIA Rail passenger train, and the recent deaths of three Ontario youths who had joined al-Qaeda affiliates in Mali and Somalia.
Like Canada, European countries are growing alarmed by the flow of their citizens to Syria. The Netherlands was so concerned it raised its terrorism threat level to “substantial” last month out of fears some of the roughly 100 Dutch citizens fighting in Syria might return home to commit terrorism.
William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, sent a letter to MPs this week warning that some of those trained in Syria may attempt to carry out terrorist attacks against Western interests in the region or within Western nations.
“Syria emerged as the destination of choice for foreign fighters in 2012,” the police organization EUROPOL said this week in a report that noted a “distinct rise” in the number of European Union citizens taking up arms, some with “groups associated with religiously inspired terrorism.”
The report cautioned that returning fighters could incite others to join the Syrian conflict. “In addition, these individuals have the potential to utilize their training, combat experience, knowledge and contacts for terrorist activities inside the EU.”
Tyler Anderson/National Post filesSyrian-born Canadian, Thwaiba Kanafani joined the Free Syrian Army last year: “I came from Canada to answer the call of my homeland.”
The Syrian Canadian Council, however, said the number of Canadian fighters was no more than 10. It said there was no organized recruitment campaign in Canada. “But people doing it on their own, I think the number is very minimal and I think there is an over dramatization of the amount of foreign fighters that are in Syria,” spokesman Faisal Alazem said.
A Syrian-born Canadian engineer and mother of two, Thwaiba Kanafani joined the Free Syrian Army last year. “I came from Canada to answer the call of my homeland,” she said in a YouTube video. She has since returned home to her family in Toronto.
In a recent interview, she said she did not know how many Canadians were fighting in Syria but she doubted it was so many. “I don’t believe that, to be frank with you,” she said. “Maybe with the jihadi troops. Those jihadi troops are totally separated from the FSA.”
She said the jihadists fighting in Syria could pose problems because of their extremist ideology and anger at the West, which they feel is not doing enough to oust al-Assad. “You can’t really control those people,” she said. “They don’t really understand their religion. They think their religion is to kill people for the sake of God, which is so wrong.”
As Arab regimes began falling to popular protest in 2011, al-Qaeda was reduced to irrelevancy as the mostly peaceful expression of discontent accomplished what terrorism could not. But in a declassified report obtained by the National Post, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said al-Qaeda had since exploited the wave of Arab unrest to get “back into the game.”
“The changes in the Middle East subsequent to the Arab Spring have not delivered a death blow to al-Qaeda or the larger Islamist Extremist movement. Extremists have gained ground over the last few months in North Africa and the Middle East,” it said, adding, “extremists see the Arab Spring countries as legitimate theatres for jihad.”
AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENNMembers of the Free Syrian Army firing rockets at President Bashar Assad’s hometown of Qardaha, near the city of Latakia, Syria, Friday, April. 26, 2013.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Syria, where extremists have converged under the guidance of Al Qaeda in Iraq. In addition to attempting to hijack the Syrian armed opposition, armed Islamists groups have introduced terrorist tactics such as suicide bombings to the conflict.
CSIS declined to answer questions about the number of Canadians fighting in Syria. But the agency’s assistant director of intelligence, Michael Peirce, told the Parliamentary immigration committee last month it was “extremely difficult” to discern the motives of Canadians who had left for Syria.
He said foreign fighters were joining the Free Syrian Army, “Al Qaeda-related groups” such as the Al Nusra Front, and the forces of the al-Assad regime. “I should also point out that we see movement at times. An individual may go over and begin activities with the Free Syrian Army and move over and end up fighting for or with the Al Nusra Front, for example.
“It’s very difficult to track,” he said.
He said Canadians returning home after fighting with terrorist groups might bring with them “skills and knowledge” they could use to conduct attacks in Canada. Veterans of foreign conflicts also play a role in radicalizing others, he said.
Between 2,000 to 5,500 foreign fighters have joined the Syrian opposition forces since 2011, according to a recent study by the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalization. Anywhere from 135 to 590, or 7% to 11%, are Europeans, the study said.
Up to 134 British citizens have joined the anti-Assad forces, the study said. Other European countries with significant volunteer forces include the Netherlands (with between 5 and 107 citizens fighting, depending on the source), France (30-92), Belgium (14-85), Denmark (3-78) and Germany (3-40).
“The most commonly cited reasons for joining rebel forces are the horrific images of the conflict, stories about atrocities committed by government forces, and the perceived lack of support from Western and Arab countries,” it said.
‘The whole world is seeing what is happening in Syria and there is this huge sense of desperation’
The study downplayed the threat of blowback against the West, saying not all Syrian rebels adopted jihadist doctrine, but it acknowledged there was a potential threat, noting that those with foreign training and fighting experience “feature prominently” in past European terror plots.
“The extent to which the Syrian conflict has mobilized Muslims across the world is significant and may be compared to the conflicts in Iraq in the 2000s, Bosnia in the 1990s and Afghanistan in the 1980s. Based on the sheer scale of recruitment that is currently taking place, European security services are well advised to monitor the situation closely.”
For its part, the Syrian regime has also imported significant numbers of fighters from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, partly by playing on Sunni-Shia animosity. The Iranian-back Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has sent hundreds of fighters to prop up al-Assad.
Mr. Alazem, the Syrian Canadian Council spokesman, said he did not advise anyone to go to Syria except for humanitarian purposes. But he said he knew of two Canadians who had gone to fight, one of whom may be dead.
“The whole world is seeing what is happening in Syria and there is this huge sense of desperation. We are being let down, the world is seeing what’s happening and they are letting it happen. Red line after red line is being crossed.”
“This is what is drawing people.”
Asked to estimate how many Canadians were fighting, he said, “I don’t think it would surpass 10 with the rebels. On the other side, it’s more doubtful but I know for a fact that Hezbollah has a lot of people in Canada. I know this. I live in Montreal and I see them here and they’re very well organized.”
National Post
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/26/canadians-among-foreign-fighters-drawn-to-syrian-conflict/
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At least 500 Europeans fighting with Syria rebels, study finds, stoking radicalization fears
Ex-U.S. soldier Eric Harroun, of Phoenix, Arizona, who was arrested upon returning to the U.S. from Syria and who now faces charges of fighting alongside a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. YouTube
LONDON Hundreds of Europeans have joined rebel forces in Syria to fight against Bashar Assad, according to the most comprehensive study on the issue to date, and while their motivations vary from thrill-seeking to religious conviction, the European Union's counter-terrorism chief warns some of them could return home as dangerous Islamic radicals.
The EU's Gilles de Kerchove told the BBC there were at least 500 Europeans taking part in Syria's civil war, and it was "likely many of them will be radicalized" fighting alongside some of the known Muslim extremist militias in the country, and that the returning EU nationals would pose, "a serious threat" to security in European nations.
Peter Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at London's King's College, was led the report. He believes the number of fighters from countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium to be "at least in the mid-hundreds to high-hundreds."
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Neumann admits it is difficult to record the exact number of European nationals leaving for Syria but, if anything, he says the estimates in the report are at the conservative end of the range.
While the ICSR study focused on European nationals, the United States is also susceptible to the threat, and Americans have joined the bloody Syrian civil war.
One prominent case is that of ex-U.S. soldier Eric Harroun from Phoenix, Arizona, who was arrested upon his return to the U.S. after posting videos from the front-lines on YouTube. He was charged with using a weapon outside the U.S. and fighting alongside a designated terrorist group: Jabhat al-Nusra. Harroun is now facing a potential 30-year prison sentence, or even the death penalty if convicted of the most serious offenses.
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, fear of U.S. nationals becoming radicalized is particularly high. Professor Neumann notes that if the Boston bombers had received hands-on, front-line military training, their attacks could have been far more deadly.
More than 70,000 people have died in the two-year Syrian war.
The ICSR report says the Europeans who've entered the war are almost all Muslim, but few have any clear connections to Syria such as relatives or acquaintances. Some are fighting for the first time, while others are known to have previously joined the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are driven by a combination of motivations, says Neumann. Some are "seeking thrill, adventure; they want to go out there and fight. They are often young men."
Others, he says, are driven by "a strong moral imperative because they do believe that their people, the Muslim people, Sunni Arab Muslims, are being killed and slaughtered and tortured by the Assad regime, and they want to do something to help them and to support them."
European intelligence services are concerned these fighters may join jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda, at least one of which -- Jabhat al-Nusra -- has become one of the most lethal enemies facing Assad's forces. There are concerns that young European nationals could learn bomb-making and other lethal skills from the militants and later return to Europe as potential terrorists-in-waiting.
"It has happened certainly in the case of Afghanistan, it's certainly happened in the case of Iraq," explains Neumann. "People have gone abroad, come back and then taken their skills and used it in order to turn to targets of the West... so the fear is, of course, that even if these people go to Syria not necessarily interested in connecting to al Qaeda, that they will meet al Qaeda people on the ground in Syria, potentially may connect to them and may return to Western countries and use those connections to become more deeply involved in terrorism."
Intelligence agencies across Europe have been advised to investigate their respective nationals thoroughly upon their return from Syria.
Neumann, citing conversations with intelligence officials in Europe, warns that Syria has become "the number 1 mobilizer for Islamists and jihadists in the last 10 or 20 years... more people from Europe are being mobilized than in all the other foreign conflicts that have happened for the past 20 years taken together."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-least-500-europeans-fighting-with-syria-rebels-study-finds-stoking-radicalization-fears/
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There are thousands of foreign fighters in Syria and some 200 are believed to be British residents
Who are the British jihadists in Syria?
By Jenny Cuffe Reporter, File on 4
The home secretary and MI5 have warned about the terrorist threat from British residents fighting in Syria. But who are these young men who have gone to fight in another country's war - how did they get there, what are their long term goals and do they pose a threat to UK security?
MI5 says there could be as many as 200 British fighters in Syria. With other Europeans, they make up around 10% of the foreign opposition forces, with most coming from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Libya.
The BBC has learned there are a group of 20 young men from the UK who are fighting against forces allied to President Bashar al-Assad near Atma, on the Turkish border.
One of the men, who calls himself Abu Muhadjar, says he had a good upbringing: "I grew up in fairly nice area. I come from a decent family, close-knit family, well educated. Everyone in my family is a university graduate. I'd consider it a middle class family.
"My family do know where I am and what I'm doing. Just like any mother and father, of course they're going to be worried about their son. I'd be lying to say it's not dangerous here and no-one wants to bury their own children."
The BBC has questioned a number of jihadists on the front line through a Muslim journalist in Syria. They would not talk to us directly by phone or Skype because of concerns about their security and we have no independent means of verifying their identity.
Abu Muhadjar would not give much away about his background, but explained why he was there: "There's many reasons made me leave my life and come here. The first is religious reasons - due to the fact that it's upon every single Muslim to protect Muslim lands and blood of Muslims if it's been transgressed upon.
"Second is humanitarian reasons - alongside of my fighting I tend to do aid work as well."
Shiraz Maher of the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, says Syria has become a magnet for young Muslims across the world eager to take part in jihad - a holy war, or struggle to defend Islam.
He says: "At the moment Syria seems to dominate the global jihadist mind, it is the premier location in the world to go and fight jihad today."
Mr Maher says: "One of the interesting things we've seen is that other jihadist groups, such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and (al-Shabab) in Somalia have issued a communique saying, 'Listen, don't forget about us, we also need foreign fighters, don't all go to Syria.'"
He says intelligence sources have told him most British jihadists are in their 20s, university-educated and Muslims of British Pakistani origin.
The BBC has been told that up to 20 people from the Sudanese community and several Syrians from the UK have gone to fight in Syria.
What concerns British officials most is how many are fighting with jihadist groups linked to terrorism.
Many of the jihadists say they are involved in aid work as well as fighting
Richard Barrett, a former intelligence officer who has recently been working for the UN on counter terrorism, says it is likely to be the majority: "Many rebel groups are wary of foreign fighters because they think they're going to be out of control.
"Many foreign fighters are being attracted to the extremist wing and al-Qaeda people are encouraging them to come and join them."
With Turkey only a budget flight away, it is cheaper for jihadists to get there and cross to Syria to fight than it is to get to Afghanistan or Somalia.
While some have gone under their own steam, the BBC has also been told of organised networks to get young men there.
Salah al Bander, who runs the Sudanese Diaspora and Islamism Project, says extremists recruit these young men through prayer rooms attached to mosques and then arrange their travel.
He says: "These kids don't have the means to buy a plane ticket. There is a kind of railroad between British and Western cities and linking points in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to bring these individuals inside Syria to go and join specific organisations."
But Abu Muhadjar says the decision to go to Syria was his alone: "There's no recruitment process to come here. It's an individual decision that I took.
"Upon my arrival I found some like-minded brothers, I came across in the same manner. Their goals are the same so they're the ones that I was attracted towards the most and I joined them so we can fight together."
Home Secretary Theresa May has described Syria as a training ground for a new generation of British terrorists and the head of MI5 says thousands of Islamist extremists see the British public as a legitimate target for attacks.
There is little sign of the Assad regime weakening
But another British jihadist, who calls himself Abu Islam, says Britain has nothing to worry from him: "For me personally I was born and raised there, that's my home.
"If I wanted to do something in UK I wouldn't have come here. If I did want to do something in UK I would have already done it by now, but I'm here. "
Abu Muhadjar also denies they will be a threat: "That's slightly surreal to go back to UK and start a jihad there. I do understand their concern but you cannot paint everyone with the same brush.
"As to the global jihad - I couldn't tell you if I'm going to be alive tomorrow let alone future plans."
In its annual report to Parliament, the Intelligence and Security Committee described the involvement of UK residents in Syria as posing a significant threat for years to come but chairman Sir Malcolm Rifkind says not everyone who returns will be radicalised.
He says: "There will be some who have gone purely because of strong feelings about Syria and may not feel the same extreme views in regard to other countries including the United Kingdom.
"But we must assume that from amongst the total, there will be some who seek to use the experience they have obtained in Syria for further acts of terrorism in this country. That must be a possibility."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24520762
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US: American Fighters in Syria a Security Risk
RALEIGH, N.C. - Federal officials say Americans are joining the bloody civil war in Syria, raising the chances they could become radicalized by al-Qaida-linked militant groups and return to the U.S. as battle-hardened security risks.
The State Department says it has no estimates of how many Americans have taken up weapons to fight military units loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad in the conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people over 2 1/2 years. Other estimates - from an arm of the British defense consultant IHS Jane's and from experts at a nonprofit think tank in London - put the number of Americans at a couple dozen. The IHS group says al-Qaida-linked fighters number about 15,000, with total anti-Assad force at 100,000 or more.
This year, at least three Americans have been charged with planning to fight beside Jabhat al-Nusrah - a radical Islamic organization that the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist group - against Assad. The most recent case involves a Pakistan-born North Carolina man arrested on his way to Lebanon.
At a Senate homeland security committee hearing this month, Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., said: "We know that American citizens as well as Canadian and European nationals have taken up arms in Syria, in Yemen and in Somalia. The threat that these individuals could return home to carry out attacks is real and troubling."
The hearing came about two weeks after the FBI and other officers arrested Basit Sheikh, 29, at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport on charges he was on his way to join Jabhat al-Nusrah. Sheikh, a legal resident of the United States, had lived quietly, without a criminal record, in a Raleigh suburb for five years before his Nov. 2 arrest. A similar arrest came in April in Chicago. And in September, authorities in Virginia released an Army veteran accused of fighting alongside the group after a secret plea deal.
In August, outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller told ABC News that he was concerned about Americans fighting in Syria, specifically "the associations they will make and, secondly, the expertise they will develop, and whether or not they will utilize those associations, utilize that expertise, to undertake an attack on the homeland."
Current FBI Director James Comey said this month that he worried about Syria becoming a repeat of Afghanistan in the 1980s, after the Soviet invasion, with foreign fighters attracted there to train. The FBI refused to say whether it's directed agents to increase efforts to stop Americans bound for Syria.
In the case of Sheikh, his North Carolina home isn't considered a breeding ground for terrorist activity. But Aaron Zelin, who works for both the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, notes that Sheikh lived about three hours from the hometown of Samir Khan, the editor of an English-language al-Qaida magazine who was killed in a drone attack in Yemen.
Sheikh is charged with planning to assist a group the State Department has declared a terrorist organization. It's not illegal for Americans who also hold citizenship in another country to fight in that country's military. But American citizenship can be lost for voluntarily serving in foreign armed forces hostile to the U.S.
For five months this year, Sheikh didn't know he was being monitored as he posted messages and videos on Facebook expressing support for jihadi militants fighting Assad's forces, according to a Nov. 2 sworn affidavit by FBI Special Agent Jason Maslow in support of the warrant to arrest Sheikh.
In August, Sheikh commented to an undercover FBI employee's posts on a Facebook page promoting Islamic extremism. The two struck up an online relationship, the affidavit said. Sheikh told the informant he planned to trek to Syria to join "a brigade in logistics, managing medical supplies." Days later, Sheikh said he'd bought a one-way ticket to travel to Turkey in hopes of making contact with people who would get him to Syria.
Sheikh said he backed out because "he could not muster the strength to leave his parents," the affidavit said. Sheikh said he had traveled to Turkey last year hoping to join the fight in Syria, but became dispirited by his experience with people who claimed to be part of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army. After Sheikh expressed online support for Jabhat al-Nusrah and interest in traveling to the war zone, the FBI employee suggested Sheikh contact a person with the group - another FBI informant.
Sheikh made contract, describing Jabhat al-Nusrah as the most disciplined group of anti-Assad fighters, the affidavit said. "I'm not scared," Sheikh wrote, according to the affidavit. "I'm ready."
Two federal public defenders appointed to represent Sheikh are barred by local court practice from discussing their cases, spokeswoman Elizabeth Luck said. Sheikh's father, Javed Sheikh, said his son was falsely accused but that he trusts U.S. courts to find the truth.
A federal magistrate ruled that Sheikh should be detained until his trial because there was clear evidence that he wouldn't appear if released on bond and that there was a "serious risk" to the community if he were freed.
Basit Sheikh's arraignment is scheduled for January. He could face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/12/02/us-american-fighters-in-syria-a-security-risk.html
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FBI warns about Americans joining Islamic fighters in Syria
By one estimate, two dozen Americans may be fighting with Al Qaeda-linked groups against the Syrian government. FBI officials worry they may become radicalized and carry out attacks in the US.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1130/FBI-warns-about-Americans-joining-Islamic-fighters-in-Syria
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Syria’s Saudi Jihadist Problem
Saudi Arabia is playing a dangerous double game—turning a blind eye to the jihadists flocking from Riyadh to Syria while assuring the West of its commitment to fighting terror.
Saudi jihadists are flocking in growing numbers to join al-Qaeda affiliates in northern Syria and despite public expressions of disquiet, Saudi Arabian officials are doing little to try to stop them flying out from the Riyadh airport—a further sign, say Western diplomats, of the Kingdom throwing caution to the wind when it comes to the Syrian civil war.
While the Obama administration is fearful of the rise of Sunni extremism in the Syrian rebel ranks, an increase in Saudi Arabia’s gloves-off support of militant Sunni factions is further undercutting the Western-backed and more moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA)—which is near to collapse—benefiting not only radical Islamists but also al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria who have close ties with the Saudi-backed Islamic Front.
In early December, the head of the FSA, the high-level defector General Salim Idriss, fled to Turkey when units of the Islamic Front occupied FSA warehouses on the border with Turkey that contained American-supplied equipment such as trucks, food, medicine and communications equipment including laptops and radios.
The suspension of non-lethal aid to rebels in northern Syria last week by the Obama administration and Britain in response to the raid underscored Western fears of their supplies ending up in the hands of extremist rebel groups.
U.S. intelligence sources say dozens of Saudi jihadists have been allowed to fly out of Riyadh without challenge, several after being released from detention and many of whom were under official travel bans.
But while the Obama administration is trying to steer clear of inadvertently assisting jihadists, the Saudis appear to be far less discriminating and have in practical terms broken with the West and adopted an approach to Syria that veers away from Western policy. This is complicating Western efforts to get the warring parties to negotiate a political settlement to the two-and-half year civil war that has left more than 120,000 dead, say U.S. and European diplomats.
The Saudi point man on the Syrian conflict, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, has been angry over the Obama administration’s Middle East policies—from the decision to refrain from striking President Bashar al-Assad’s forces for their use of sarin nerve gas in August to pushing a provisional nuclear deal with arch-rival Iran—and he appears prepared to court the risks of backing the Islamic Front, while reassuring Americans officials he is concerned about the growing clout of the al-Qaeda affiliates Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams, or ISIS.
The Saudis are in jeopardy of repeating history, says an American intelligence official who declined to be named for the article. “There was blowback for the Saudis from jihadists fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980s and that could happen again.”
“The Saudis are playing a double game,” says the official. “They are focused on out-maneuvering Iran in Syria and while they express worry about the challenge of boosting the opposition to the Iran-backed [President Bashar al] Assad without at the same time strengthening the jihadists, I don’t see them making much effort to avoid this happening. They seem to be operating under the principle of my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
Certainly, Saudis leaving to fight in Syria are having few problems on their departure from the Kingdom. Western officials estimate that nearly a thousand Saudi jihadists have joined al-Qaeda affiliates in northern Syria in recent months and they suspect that number will exponentially grow in the coming months. The Saudis have told American officials they are tracking the flow.
But U.S. intelligence sources say dozens of Saudi jihadists have been allowed to fly out of Riyadh without challenge, several after being released from detention and many of whom were under official travel bans. Those going to fight are not obscure figures: a major in the Saudi border guards was killed in early December in Deir Atieh in Syria; another Saudi jihadist killed fighting in Aleppo was the son of Maj. Gen. Abdullah Motlaq al-Sudairi.
Hardline Salfist Saudi clerics have also been heading to Syria without incurring problems from Saudi Arabian authorities.
In September, the British defense consultancy IHS Jane’s estimated that the al-Qaeda affiliates have about 10,000 fighters in northern and eastern Syria—many from overseas, including Libyans, Tunisians and Europeans. Other estimates are as high as 15,000. The IHS Jane’s analysis also estimated that hardline Islamist and jihadist forces accounted for nearly half of the rebel forces battling to oust Assad.
Despite claims to the contrary by the Saudis that the arms and supplies they are sending to the Islamic Front are not falling into jihadist hands, evidence is mounting to the contrary. A top Kurdish military commander in northeast Syria, who has been battling jihadists, claims that weapons are shared between the Saudi-backed Islamists and Al Nusra and ISIS as a matter of course. “When supplies arrive they divide them up in accordance with the power and size of the units,” says Giwan Ibrahim, who adds that he has seen an increase in the number of Saudi jihadists in the country.
In November, seven major Islamist rebel groups announced they would merge to form the Islamic Front, pledging to build an Islamic state in any post-Assad Syria. That merger followed a September regrouping that saw more than a dozen leading rebel units announce a coalition, rejecting the authority of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition. The September grouping included al-Nusra.
The Islamic Front doesn’t officially include either of the al-Qaeda affiliates but is made up of some of the biggest Islamist fighting units, including Aleppo’s Liwa al-Tawhid, the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham, the Idlib-based Soqour al-Sham, the Homs-based al-Haq Brigades, Ansar al-Sham, and the Damascus-based Army of Islam.
Despite The Islamic Front not having formal ties with al-Nusra or ISIS, there is overlap between the groups. A key figure in overseeing the relationship between the al-Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic Front is Aleppo-born Abu Khalid al-Suri, a trusted confidant of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. He is designated also the referee for disputes between the al-Qaeda affiliates ian Syria.
Al-Suri was captured in 2005 by Pakistani authorities and was rendered to Syria by the Americans. He is wanted in Europe for suspected involvement in the 1985 bombing of a restaurant outside Madrid and for the 2004 bombing in Spain’s capital. He is considered a highly articulate al-Qaeda ideologue.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/16/syria-s-saudi-jihadist-problem.html
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F**KING PAEDOPHILES
Dutch Court Says Pedophilia Advocacy Group Martijn Can Continue
Judges in the Netherlands have ruled that an organization that wants to legalize pedophilia can continue to exist. Cintia Taylor speaks with the group’s most recent leader.
When Marthijn Uittenbogaard’s lawyer contacted him with the news that his pro-pedophilia group could continue to exist, he took to Twitter: “Fortunately, there are still wise judges,” he wrote. Uittenbogaard was the last leader of Martijn, a foundation established in 1982 to promote the legalization of consensual sex between adults and children in The Netherlands. (The similarity of the names Marthijn and Martijn is a coincidence.)
130404-Dutch-Pro-Pedophilia-embedMarthijn Uitenboogaard, right, of "Vereniging Martijn," a Dutch association that advocates the legalization of sexual relationships between adults and children, and Dutch writer Anton Dautzenberg, a club member, hold a press conference March 2, 2012. (Phil Nijhuis/AFP/Getty)
The group has been fighting a legal battle with the country’s Public Prosecution Service which has been seeking its dismantling since 2010. Last year a court ruled that Martijn be banned on charges that it glorified sexual relations between adults and children. But the appeals court in the northern town of Leeuwarden has now overturned that decision, claiming that although the work of the organization is contradictory to public order, there is no evidence leading to “a threat of disrupting society.”
Uittenbogaard, 40, sees this as a victory for freedom of expression. He thinks society can be very overprotective. “A child can see a lot of violence on television, on every cartoon there’s violence, on movies people get killed,” he explains, “But when Janet Jackson’s breast is shown at the Super Bowl people say: ‘Oh children are watching this.’ Nakedness and everything concerning sexuality is a taboo and violence is the norm. And I think that should be the other way around.” He further believes “almost everyone has pedophile feelings in them. Only the percentage is different, some have more than others.”
According to Uittenborgaard, pedophilia is not only about sex. He is, in fact, against penetration when it comes to small children, but he thinks that those above 12 years old are wise enough to decide whether they want to have intercourse with an adult. But child psychologist Sanderijn van der Doef disagrees. She admits children are aware of their sexuality at an early age, but “they can’t understand the consequences of their decisions, including those related to their sexuality.”
At the height of its activities, Martijn had 650 members, published a quarterly magazine and hosted a website featuring chat rooms, forums, and news archives on pedophilia-related stories.
In 2007 the organization came under fire after a member published on its website photos of children of the royal family, including of the crown prince’s daughter, princess Amalia. Then in 2011, former leader Ad van der Berg was sentenced to four years in prison for possession of child pornography, some 157,500 photos and videos, including 12,000 in which he could be seen posing.
Uittenbogaard stresses that Martijn doesn’t promote or incite acts of pedophilia. In fact, he claims, they discourage sex with children. Not only because it’s illegal, but also because the current moral context surrounding the practice would be too hard for the child to cope with. Instead, Martijn strives for a change in the law and in society.
To jurisprudence professor Roel Schutgens from the Radboud University, it’s this aspect of the organization that makes this case so difficult: “They say sexual contact between adults and children is OK and at the same time they say the law should be obeyed. They definitely don’t ask for illegality.”
Schutgens explains the judges’ decision is a clear message regarding freedom of expression in The Netherlands: “The court is saying we’re a democratic society which can protect itself against whatever the foundation Martijn says in the sphere of free debate.”
The judges reviewed the content of the organization’s website and concluded there were no illegal acts performed by the organization. Had they committed a crime, then it would have been easy to dismantle the organization, says Schutgens. He also clarifies that the group cannot be held responsible for individual criminal acts of its members.
In recent years large-scale pedophilia cases have caused much debate in the Netherlands regarding the way the justice system should deal with pedophiles. In 2010, a man in Amsterdam was arrested for abusing at least 87 children while working as a nanny. He is thought to have been a member of Martijn, and admitted to abusing the children. And an investigation by the newspaper NRC and Radio Netherlands Worldwide also reported widespread abuse in Roman Catholic institutions between 1945 and 1985. The report led to an investigation by the church which has found that up to 20,000 Dutch children may have been abused during that period.
Suspects and convicted criminals enjoy the right to privacy in The Netherlands; their last names are never revealed and their faces are partially covered in photos published by the media. But many are now wondering whether the right to privacy should prevail over child protection.
The Dutch parties ChristenUnie (Christian Union) and CDA (Christian Democratic People’s Party) have already started working on a bill to ban pro-pedophilia groups. To Arie Slob, leader of the parliamentary group of ChristenUnie, this is a no brainer: “The protection of children transcends the right to freedom of expression. Freedom cannot be used as a way to corrode basic rights, in this case those of children.”
Marthijn Uittenbogaard doesn’t want to continue leading the organization Martijn, which has now been reduced to some 60 members. He spends his days playing videogames at home: “No one will hire me,” he says. He survives on his father’s inheritance and his partner’s paycheck. But he’ll continue fighting for the rights of pedophiles.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/05/dutch-court-says-pedophilia-advocacy-group-martijn-can-continue.html
COMMENT:
that is so wrong and makes my blood boil. so it is okay to sleep with a 12 year old or older?? I work with kids that age and I still bribe them to be good with candy, and let them color in church, no way are they old enough to make a choice like that. most boys haven't even hit puberty hit and most girls are just getting their periods. they cant even cross a street by them selves and still have recess. and looking at child porn, they are babies, that is somebodies baby. think about that when u say it is ok for a child to have sex with a adult. are that all this is ok, these people need help, they shouldn't be congratulated. do u know why it is usaly rape, most people who like little kids touch them and tell them it is ok and they it isnt wrong and make them keep it a secret and it kills them inside, and sometimes when they tell they get blamed or called a liar and it destroys. 3 of my brothers where sexaly abused when they where younger and it killed them. still does, I was raped by one of my brothers 3 years latter when I was 16 and he was 18 partly because of what happen to him the state of ny said it was fall out cuz of what happen to him and was going to count him as a mionor so we just did local which gave him the same punishment for 1st degree rape and endangering that welfair of a minor he got tharpy and comnty service, when that happens to boys they tend to repeat it while girls become protective. they slept with alots girls proly to prove they where straight with one of them becoming a dad at 16 two of they finaly settled down the other is 17, but the one who raped me i heard is on and off drugs and never got his ged, still does, im 21 now and im over it even tho alot of that side of the family still dont talk to me because I told but I have panic, anxity, ptsd and depression, which i would have any way because of a inbalence (well not the ptsd) and i so scared it will happen again and cant even get a job because im such a nerves wreak (which may have happen anyway idk) and also trying to get atlest 5 people on my dad's side to forgive me for being raped 5 years ago (sence it happen worst to him i should have stayed quiet they think) and it makes you feel so dirty and wrong and no matter what people say you always feel a little guilty even thought you know you tried to stop it or for younger kids have no idea what is happening and they have to live with the fact they where so young and someone took that from them, ever when they shot team things are gone it is always there no what and atter age, so dont ever say it is ok, it wont stop at them being a club and it wont stop in their contry..these this are not ok and they never end they start cycles people have to live with forever and they never end, one person does it to a kid so that kid grows up and does it or rapes someone a lil older (like i said i was 16) or they become so protective because they dont want it happening to any one elce, if they dont end up killing themselves or ending up in a mental hospital. it never leaves., in the last month I read about two 4 month olds who where raped, one to death. and even with the older like 14 or 16 if the person is like 18 or maybe for 16 even 22 or 20 then maybe they really have true feelings but guys in their 30's 40's going after 14 year old's, they know nothing of the world and it is taking advantage. in most states it is 16 with prental consent, 17 without for sex with an adult and i think there is an age for a reason. but 12, 14, no leave them alone. it will ake them feel dirty and wrong and just no. and how is looking at child porn ok, ever think about what those babies most go throw when someone is taking a pic of them naked at age 4, 6, even if these people aren't the ones hurting them someone is for there entertainment. these are babies, idc how old they are they are just babies, not sexual objects. sorry for my rant and if i got off subject and rambled I let my self get worked up thinking about this and something happening to the kids i work with and what happen to my family so I had an axity attack while writting most of this, so some might not make sence and alot may repeat, and their is bad grammer and spelling(anxity makes it hard to focas) and I dont care if you disagree with me, promoting this is wrong and it is going to make people think it is ok to act on and ruin many lives
COMMENT:
KUDOS TO THE NETHERLANDS AND BEST WISHES TO Marthijn Uittenbogaard. THIS TYPE OF ACCEPTANCE NEEDS TO EXIST IN THE UNITED STATES. IF UNITED STATES WANTS A WORLDWIDE REPUTATION AS BEING THE MOST IMPORTANT NATION ON THE PLANET, IT NEEDS TO ABOLISH ANTIQUATED RULES/VALUES ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR.
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON
COMMENT: have you bothered asking any sexually abused children if they appreciate this type of acceptance? When your freedom of expression acceptable although it violates the safety and dignity of a child, yet it is not acceptable to violate your freedoms to protect an innocent child. Double standards are obviously deeply rooted in your own twisted, selfish, perverted values.
COMMENT:
First of all, let me tell you that the idea of “almost everyone has pedophile feelings in them. Only the percentage is different, some have more than others.” is NOT TRUE! It was disgusting and shocking to me to even read that statement. I certainly have never had those feelings. Ugh... But let me give you another example of right vs. wrong. It is probably true that some people have had a time when maybe they coveted something and thought about stealing. Perhaps one saw a purse someone left behind and was tempted to go through the purse, take the money and continue on as usual. This is the time, when when our moral compass is engaged. Just because someone may be tempted to do something, doesn't mean it is right and laws should be changed to allow the behavior. Pedophilia is wrong and stealing is wrong and our laws should ALWAYS reflect that.
COMMENT:
@MajorDude Martijin was founded many decades ago. In USA , there is the biggest pro-pedo organization in the world, NAMBLA, which exists since the 60's. Your comment makes no sense at all. Gay marriage has absolutely nothing to do with this thing.
COMMENT:
Great idea, allowing the pedo club. A list of people to keep an eye on.
COMMENT:
You spit in the face of every child that has been sexually abused. The message of adults having sex with children is contradictory to your suggestion that Martijn is not advocating crime. Pedophilia is one of the worst crimes imaginable. It is a morally corrupt notion to have adults sexually objectify children and to, in any way, glorify this is awful in a way that english cannot describe. I believe in freedom, but personal and social responsibility is hardwired into that word.
COMMENT:
First, pedophilia is not a crime, it is the simple attraction to children. Second, the organization does not defend the sexual abuse of anyone, this argument makes no sense. You should have some critical sense and realize that the media has made the words "pedophilia" and "sexual abuse" synonyms.
COMMENT: @AlexMcAllister @badgerpit @Marlowe1593 How is pedophilia not a crime when it is a punishiable with jail or even death? You're harming a child. If you disagree try talking to all those victims that grew up hating themselves and feeling damaged and dirty. You truly are an evil scum bag.
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SWEET JESUS, MOTHER MARY AND JOSEPH- INDIA.... THIS SHEET ON YOUR PRECIOUS DAUGHTERS OF INDIA????
India: teenage gang-rape victim burned to death by her attackers, say police
By Mark Davis
Police in India have brought murder charges against two men suspected of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl in West Bengal. It had previously been reported that the girl had died of her injuries after setting herself on fire on December 23, two months after she was allegedly raped on two separate occasions by a group of men. However it has emerged that in her dying statement to police, she told them that two of the rape suspects had set her alight.
According to doctors, the girl was pregnant at the time of her death on New Year’s Eve.
“We have filed a murder case against the two main accused on the basis of the final statement of the girl in which she had said that she was set on fire,” said local police official Anant Nag.
It’s alleged that the girl was first gang-raped on October 25 in Madhyamgram near Kolkata in West Bengal state. She was then said to have been subjected to an identical assault by the same men after reporting the first attack to police. Six men were arrested in connection with the two attacks.
Then, on December 23, the girl’s family alleges that an associate of the arrested gang visited her house on December 23 and threatened her with “dire consequences” if she did not withdraw her complaint to police. She was set on fire later the same day, sustaining 65 percent burns, before succumbing to her injuries a week later.
It is understood that the family of the victim has demanded the death penalty for the offenders.
The case has sparked large protests in Kolkata, with much anger directed towards the police. The victim’s father has alleged that police officers seized her body and tried to cremate her without the family’s permission. He also claims police told him to relocate his family from the area.
Members of political parties joined thousands of local residents in protest marches on New Year’s Day. The leader of the Communist opposition party in the Bengal assembly, Suryakanta Mishra, told reporters:
“Soon after Tuesday night’s incident where police held up the body and tormented the victim’s family, I had a word with the home secretary. I told him, instead of standing beside the victim’s family, police are practically playing the role of goons.
“We believe without orders from the top, police could not have acted the way they did. Police are even trying to downplay the incident as evident from the fact that they registered the second rape complaint as molestation. What is striking is the silence of the chief minister on the issue. She only gave her wishes for the New Year but conveniently sidestepped the brutal incident.”
The case is the latest in a series of high-profile instances of sexual violence in India. There were widespread demonstrations following the fatal gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi in December 2012. Four men were sentenced to death by hanging for that crime last year.
http://www.euronews.com/2014/01/02/india-teenage-gang-rape-victim-burned-to-death-by-her-attackers-say-police/
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