--------------------------------------------
Maybe this is one of the torture chambers from
where Al-Qaeda emerges.
Sis. Hamdiyah, South Carolina
********************
US
money funding Uzbeki torture chambers
$500 million for a Criminal Regime
BELIEVE IT OR NOT: The
Bush
administration, in
its zeal to put an end to
Islamists in the country, is providing aid to the
remnants of communist-era
Brezhnevism
THE GUARDIAN
:
May 27, 2003. Page 5.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003, Page 5: Abdulkhalil was
arrested in the fields of
Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley in August last year.
The 28-year-old farmer was
sentenced to 16 years in prison for "trying to
overthrow the constitutional
structures."
Last week his father saw him for the first time
since that day on a stretcher
in a prison hospital. His head was battered and
his tongue was so swollen
that he could only say that he had "been kept in
water for a long time."
Abdulkhalil was a victim of Uzbekistan's security
service, the SNB. His
detention and torture were part of a crackdown on
Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of
Liberation), an Islamist group.
Death by boiling
Independent human-rights groups estimate that
there are more than 600
politically motivated arrests a year in
Uzbekistan, and 6,500 political prisoners,
some tortured to death. According to a forensic
report commissioned by the
British embassy, in August two prisoners were
even boiled to death.
The US condemned this repression for many years.
But since
Sept. 11
rewrote
America's strategic interests in central Asia,
the government of President
Islam Karimov has become Washington's new best
friend in the region.
The US is funding those it once condemned. Last
year Washington gave
Uzbekistan US$500 million in aid. The police and
intelligence services -- which the US
Department of State's Web site says use "torture
as a routine investigation
technique" has received US$79 million of this
sum. [Excerpted.]
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Editorial
IRAN and the U.S.: Disinformation on a Grand
Scale
BURNING of HAZRAT ALI's
QUR'AN
DID NOT ANGER IRAN
Iranian Support for Karzai, Musharraf, Vajpayee
Baqir al-Hakim was permitted to Return to
Iraq
New Trend quoted the
Syrian
representative lamenting the burning of
Hazrat Ali's Qur'an in Basrah under British
control. This was not a Qur'an said
to belong to Hazrat Ali (r.a.) but the ORIGINAL
QUR'AN WRITTEN BY HAZRAT ALI
HIMSELF, the 4th Caliph of Islam. Thus it was one
of the cultural treasures of
Islam. All Muslims hold hazrat Ali (r.a.) in
great respect and honor, but in
Iran he is right at the top, among the holiest of
holies, second only to the
Prophet (pbuh).
The fact that Iran did not express ANY
anger at the official level
against the British and U.S. occupation of Iraq
indicates that this nation (once
the bastion of the revolution led by Imam
Khomeini) has been successfully
tamed by the western powers. [Imam Khomeini had
issued a fatwa of death against
Rushdie for writing Satanic Verses, a much lesser
offense than the destruction
of the Qur'an written by hazrat Ali (r.a.). Any
deliberate disrespect shown to
the Qur'an would be opposed even by ordinary
Muslims.]
Recently President Khatami of Iran admitted
that Iran and the U.S. have
been holding secret talks in Geneva for the last
two years.
Here are the facts of Iran:
1. Defense related agreements with Vajpayee of
India. [During the visit with
Vajpayee, Mr. Khatami declared that Mahmud
Ghaznavi, the great hero of Muslim
culture who defeated massive Hindu armies, had
NOTHING to do with Islam.]
2. Support for NORTHERN ALLIANCE and support for
Karzai's government. Mr.
Khatami is one of the very few overseas officials
who have disgraced themselves
by visiting Karzai in Kabul as if he is a
legitimate ruler.
3. Khatami's VISIT WITH MUSHARRAF and expression
of support for the corrupt
military regime which has sold out
Pakistan.
4. IRAN SUPPORTED THE EMBARGO AND SANCTIONS
AGAINST IRAQ.
5. Iran's policy has been to act as scavenger for
the U.S., waiting for the
destruction of
Afghanistan
and Iraq, remaining
neutral while the 2 were bombed.
6. Iran has handed over 50 suspected Al-Qaida
members to the U.S. [a smaller
scale General Musharraf type activity].
7. THROUGHOUT THE INTIFADA, Hizbullah [which Iran
ostensibly supports] HAS
NOT LAUNCHED EVEN ONE ATTACK AGAINST ISRAEL. Thus
the Palestinian people have
been left to fight alone, though Ayatollah
Khamene'i regularly makes hot
speeches in support of Palestine. [This speech
making, without risk, is typical of
Iranian "support" for
Palestine.]
8. The U.S. in turn helped Iran. It bombed the
Iranian MKO rebels in Iraq,
then decided to use them as a pressure point to
embarrass Iran, but forced them
to disarm completely.
9. There has been a very obvious U.S. use of
Pro-Iran Shias in Iraq by the
U.S. to defeat Saddam, to carry out looting, hold
big rallies in Najaf as if
USA's victory is time for celebration.
10. The main pro-Iran Shia leader, Baqir
al-Hakim, resident in Iran,
re-entered Iraq with U.S. permission and started
organizing support without ANY
interference from U.S. forces.
SO NOW WHAT DO WE MAKE OF BUSH's STATEMENTS
AGAINST IRAN?
There are two aspects of the new statements
being issued against Iran:
1. They are expressions of the
Zionist
will
speaking through the U.S. power
structure. Zionist
Jews
always insist on making
their erstwhile "allies" crawl
in the dust. Thus if Iran wants the U.S.'
support, the Zionists think it
should be made to crawl and beg.
1a. The claim is being made that Al-Qaida leader
Saif al-Adel is in Iran
(supposedly in the border area with Afghanistan).
There is no evidence for this
claim and it is similar to the claims which were
made about Saddam's connection
with Al-Qaida
mujahideen.
The Al-Qaida are
reputedly puritanical in their
understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunnah and
quite at variance with the Iranian
version of Islam.
1b. Perhaps the U.S. has been misled into
thinking that the Iranian republic
is near collapse and will retreat in response to
threats. It is possible that
Iranian monarchists and MKO supporters think that
Iran is very weak. In fact
blatant American threat could be
counterproductive and lead to resurgence of
Imam Khomeini's movement.
1c. The major
media
immediately swing into action
when the U.S. government
gives the signal.
CNN,
MSNBC
and
FOX
started
churning out propaganda against
Iran when Rumsefeld indicated that pressure
needed to be put on Iran. ONE
INTERESTING ITEM was that the U.S. does not want
Iran to shape Iraqi Shias according
to the Iranian pattern. What's wrong with that
picture is that the U.S. has
not opposed the entry of Baqir al-Hakim and a
thousand others from Iran into
Iraq.
2. New Trend's view is that the U.S. campaign of
vague threats is part of a
disinformation campaign whose purpose is to fool
the Muslim world about
U.S.-Iranian relations. Iran is best suited to
divide and weaken the Muslim world and
thus help the U.S.
IRAN'S SILENCE ON
KASHMIR,
CHECHNYA,
AFGHANISTAN,
IRAQ and it's constant
sermons against Israel without even one military
operation against Israel all
indicate that Iran is not to be trusted. If the
facts on the ground are to be
trusted, the U.S. and Iran are working together
secretly.
[Notice how quickly Iran's friends ruling Syria
went into collapse in front
of U.S. threats. Syria too claims to be a
"fighting for Palestine" when it has
not FIRED A SINGLE SHOT AGAINST ISRAEL in 20
years. One phone call from
Washington and Syria closed down the offices of
Palestinian organizations in
Damascus. Compare with Saddam who defied the U.S.
for 13 years.]
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2003-05-28 Wed 18:36ct