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Archive for January 5th, 2007
The "Demonization" of Muslims and the Battle for Oil
Posted by musliminsuffer on January 5, 2007
by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, January 4, 2007
Throughout history, " wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.
The Crusades extending from the 11th to the 14th Century are often presented by historians as "a continuous series of military-religious expeditions made by European Christians in the hope of wresting the Holy Land from the infidel Turks." The objective of the Crusades, however, had little to do with religion. The Crusades largely consisted, through military action, in challenging the dominion of the Muslim merchant societies, which controlled the Eastern trade routes.
The "Just War" supported the Crusades. War was waged with the support of the Catholic Church, acting as an instrument of religious propaganda and indoctrination, which was used in the enlistment throughout Europe of thousands of peasants, serfs and urban vagabonds.
America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East
In the eyes of public opinion, possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central. A war is said to be Just if it is waged on moral, religious or ethical grounds.
America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East is no exception. The "war on terrorism" purports to defend the American Homeland and protect the "civilized world". It is upheld as a "war of religion", a "clash of civilizations", when in fact the main objective of this war is to secure control and corporate ownership over the region's extensive oil wealth, while also imposing under the helm of the IMF and the World Bank (now under the leadership of Paul Wolfowitz), the privatization of State enterprises and the transfer of the countries' economic assets into the hands of foreign capital. .
The Just War theory upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It serves to camouflage the real objectives of the military operation, while providing a moral and principled image to the invaders. In its contemporary version, it calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "rogue states" and "Islamic terrorists", which are threatening the Homeland.
Possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central to the Bush administration's justification for invading and occupying both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Taught in US military academies, a modern-day version of the "Just War" theory has been embodied into US military doctrine. The "war on terrorism" and the notion of "preemption" are predicated on the right to "self defense." They define "when it is permissible to wage war": jus ad bellum.
Jus ad bellum serves to build a consensus within the Armed Forces command structures. It also serves to convince the troops that the enemy is "evil" and that they are fighting for a "just cause". More generally, the Just War theory in its modern day version is an integral part of war propaganda and media disinformation, applied to gain public support for a war agenda.
The Battle for Oil. Demonization of the Enemy
War builds a humanitarian agenda. Throughout history, vilification of the enemy has been applied time and again. The Crusades consisted in demonizing the Turks as infidels and heretics, with a view to justifying military action.
Demonization serves geopolitical and economic objectives. Likewise, the campaign against "Islamic terrorism" (which is supported covertly by US intelligence) supports the conquest of oil wealth. The term "Islamo-fascism," serves to degrade the policies, institutions, values and social fabric of Muslim countries, while also upholding the tenets of "Western democracy" and the "free market" as the only alternative for these countries.
The US led war in the broader Middle East Central Asian region consists in gaining control over more than sixty percent of the world's supplies of oil and natural gas. The Anglo-American oil giants also seek to gain control over oil and gas pipeline routes out of the region. (See table and maps below).
Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, possess between 66.2 and 75.9 percent of total oil reserves, depending on the source and methodology of the estimate. (See table below).
In contrast, the United States of America has barely 2 percent of total oil reserves. Western countries including its major oil producers ( Canada, the US, Norway, the UK, Denmark and Australia) control approximately 4 percent of total oil reserves. (In the alternative estimate of the Oil and Gas Journal which includes Canada's oil sands, this percentage would be of the the order of 16.5%. See table below).
The largest share of the World's oil reserves lies in a region extending (North) from the tip of Yemen to the Caspian sea basin and (East) from the Eastern Mediterranean coastline to the Persian Gulf. This broader Middle East- Central Asian region, which is the theater of the US-led "war on terrorism" encompasses according to the estimates of World Oil, more than sixty percent of the World's oil reserves. (See table below).
Iraq has five times more oil than the United States.
Muslim countries possess at least 16 times more oil than the Western countries.
The major non-Muslim oil reserve countries are Venezuela, Russia, Mexico, China and Brazil. (See table)
Demonization is applied to an enemy, which possesses three quarters of the world's oil reserves. "Axis of evil", "rogue States", "failed nations", "Islamic terrorists": f demonization and vilification are the ideological pillar of America's "war on terror". They serve as a casus belli for waging the battle for oil.
The Battle for Oil requires the demonization of those who possess the oil. The enemy is characterized as evil, with a view to justifying military action including the mass killing of civilians. The Middle East Central Asian region is heavily militarized. (See map). The oil fields are encircled: NATO war ships stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean (as part of a UN "peace keeping" operation), US Carrier Strike Groups and Destroyer Squadrons in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian deployed as part of the "war on terrorism".
The ultimate objective, combining military action, covert intelligence operations and war propaganda, is to break down the national fabric and transform sovereign countries into open economic territories, where natural resources can be plundered and confiscated under "free market" supervision. This control also extends to strategic oil and gas pipeline corridors (e.g. Afghanistan).
Demonization is a PSYOP, used to sway public opinion and build a consensus in favor of war. Psychological warfare is directly sponsored by the Pentagon and the US intelligence apparatus. It is not limited to assassinating or executing the rulers of Muslim countries, it extends to entire populations. It also targets Muslims in Western Europe and North America. It purports to break national consciousness and the ability to resist the invader. It denigrates Islam. It creates social divisions. It is intended to divide national societies and ultimately trigger "civil war". While it creates an environment which facilitates the outright appropriation of the countries' resources, at the same time, it potentially backlashes, creates a new national consciousness, develops inter-ethnic solidarity, brings people together in confronting the invaders.
It is worth noting that the triggering of sectarian divisions and "civil wars" is contemplated in the process of redrawing of the map of the Middle East, where countries are slated to be broken up and transformed into territories. The map of the New Middle East, although not official, has been used by the US National War Academy. It was recently published in the Armed Forces Journal (June 2006). In this map, nation states are broken up, international borders are redefined along sectarian-ethnic lines, broadly in accordance with the interests of the Anglo-American oil giants (See Map below). The map has also been used in a training program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers.
MAP OF THE NEW MIDDLE EAST
Map: click to enlarge
Note: The following map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006, Peters is a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006).
The Oil Lies in Muslim Lands
The oil lies in Muslim lands. Vilification of the enemy is part and parcel of Eurasia energy geopolitics. It is a direct function of the geographic distribution of the World's oil and gas reserves. If the oil were in countries occupied predominantly by Buddhists or Hindus, one would expect that US foreign policy would be directed against Buddhists and Hindus, who would also be the object of vilification..
In the Middle East war theater, Iran and Syria, which are part of the "axis of evil", are the next targets according to official US statements.
US sponsored "civil wars" have also been conducted in several other strategic oil and gas regions including Nigeria, the Sudan, Colombia, Somalia, Yemen, Angola, not to mention Chechnya and several republics of the former Soviet Union. Ongoing US sponsored "civil wars", which often include the channelling of covert support to paramilitary groups, have been triggered in the Darfur region of Sudan as well as in Somalia, Darfur possesses extensive oil reserves. In Somalia, lucrative concessions have already been granted to four Anglo-American oil giants.
"According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco [now part of BP], Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding the rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the Bush Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments there." (America's Interests in Somalia, Global Research, 2002)
Globalization and the Conquest of the World's Energy Resources
The collective demonization of Muslims, including the vilification of Islam, applied Worldwide, constitutes at the ideological level, an instrument of conquest of the World's energy resources. It is part of the broader economic, political mechanisms underlying the New World Order.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20070104&articleId=4347
Obituary: Saddam Hussein
By Curtis F.J. Doebbler
Al-Jazeerah, January 4, 2007
Rarely has a single killing epitomized more clearly the America's aggression towards Arabs and Muslims around the world. The Iraqi President understood this and in his final days he made it clear to those around him that he was willing to be sacrificed to make clear the United States' ill intentions towards Arabs and Muslims around the world.
The western press has also understood this message and even before the body of the former Iraqi President was buried they had begun to desecrate his memory with barges of unproven allegations to which he could no longer react.
Every one of the dozens of obituaries I have seen from the western press focuses on the President's alleged brutality and the unproven cases of his violation of human rights. Noneabsolutely nonefocused on the man who had held Iraqi together better than the US and its billions of dollars and Iraqis they could buy. Noneabsolutely nonefocused on the man who against all odds had stood for the justice of the Arab and Muslim cause around the world, especially in Palestine, and even against the world's most expensive, most powerful, and most deadly army. And noneabsolutely nonefocused on the fact that the capture, the trial, and the execution of the Iraqi President were illegal and unfair, according to the almost unanimous opinion of the international community and international legal experts.
As one of the President's lawyers and counselors in his final days I came to know a very different Saddam Hussein than that which the western press portrayed. The image I saw is one the west is scared to confront.
This western timidity was made clear in its media. Not only in the defamatory obituaries that were written about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but even in the media's policy for covering the matter.
CNN's Larry King, for example, refused to allow defense lawyers on the show to speak about the illegality and unfairness of the ongoing trial, but instead conditioned an invitation to appear on the Larry King show on the President having been executed.
Canadian CTV objected when a defense lawyer told their audience how unfair the trial had been, saying that they only wanted details of how the President was being buried as they interviewed the lawyer who had led the fight to expose the illegality and unfairness of the President's trial.
And when the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a group of international experts empowered by the all the states members of the United Nations and including an Iranian expert, after having considered representations by US and Iraqi authorities decided that the trial of the Iraqi President seriously violated international human rights law in September 2006, the western media completely ignored this opinion.
If we are to believe the western media, there was only one side to this story. If we are to believe the propaganda circulated by the US government and its allies the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was not a man, but a myth the proportions of Peer Gynt. While the west's fabulous villainization of the Iraqi President may serve to strengthen the internal resolve of people too ignorant to test fiction against observed reality, it will not fool most people.
What we really know about Saddam Hussein's life
Saddam Hussein was born in a working class family in small village named al-Auja near Takrit in Iraq. His father was lost to his family at an early age and he was reared by his mother and her husband who was a shepherd. As the son of a shepherd the young Saddam Hussein learned to care for his flock and inevitably had to defend his flock against predators.
To find work and education, at 10 years-of-age the young Saddam Hussein was sent with his uncle to Baghdad. His uncle despised the colonialization of Iraq by the British and undoubtedly instilled in the young Saddam Hussein the spirit of opposition to foreign oppression and occupation, a spirit which was to grow throughout his life.
By the time he turned 18 years-of-age Saddam Hussein was involved in politics and challenging the legitimacy of the foreign-backed monarchy. He had become an active member of the Arab nationalist Baath Party.
Shortly after the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup in 1958, Saddam Hussein participated in bold daylight attack on the military dictator that had been installed. The attack failed, but Saddam Hussein's escape to Syria, and then to Egypt, became legendary as he had fled wounded with the military in hot pursuit.
Saddam Hussein continued both his education and political activities in Cairo where he gained attention for his uncompromising defense of Arab independence and nationalism. In 1961 he entered law school at Cairo University, but only two years later in 1963 the military dictatorship was overthrown in Iraq and Saddam Hussein saw a chance to remove the foreign domination of his country forever. He immediately returned to Iraq.
He quickly be came a prominent member of the Baath Party. His unrelenting commitment to the cause of Arab nationalism and independence of the Arab people catapulted him through the Party ranks. He became Deputy Secretary-General of the Baath Party in 1966 and when the Baath Party came to power through another coup directed by his older cousin General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr two years later, Saddam Hussein was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council in charge of internal security. This position gave him the opportunity to consolidate his power. It led to many actions for which he was later criticized. He never, however, compromised his commitment to Arab nationalism and independence.
When he believed President al-Bakr might compromise Iraq's commitment to Arab nationalism and independence, Saddam Hussein urged him to resign. In July 1979 President al-Bakr resigned and the overwhelming majority of the Baath Party agreed he should become the Iraqi's new President.
Like his predecessorsincluding the British occupiers of Iraq and the subsequent monarchy supported by international powersPresident Saddam Hussein consolidated his power using means described by his critics as ruthless. It is likely that these means were motivated by the fear that Iraq would spiral into an endless cycles of coups, or even worse, a civil war. President Saddam Hussein pre-empted these tragedies by identifying persons who he believed would or were inciting such violence.
When he became the President of Iraq he took over a developing country with a growing number of poor and climbing child mortality figures. As President he pledged to change this and within just a few years Iraq was on track to becoming a developed country where child mortality was under control and poverty was on the decrease. This development was driven by a highly-coordinated and committed state apparatus that poured money into public works.
In the mist of Iraq's fast-track development its larger northern neighbour Iran began to express unease. This unease may also have been motivated by the fact that most of the individuals identified by the Iraqi President as threats had been Shiite's with close contacts with Iran and often members of the Dawa Party, which had pledged its allegiance to Iran's Shiite government.
The dispute between Iran and Iraq spiraled into a deadly war in which it is estimated that more than a million Iraqis and Iranians were killed using western weapons supplied to both sides. Although President Saddam Hussein viewed this war a necessary he regretted the death and destruction that had been brought upon Muslims through the support of foreign powers.
Ironically Iraq's main arms supplier of both conventional and chemical weapons was the US. It is during this war that later-to-become US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraqi to assure Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of America's unwavering support for a war against Iran.
The war with Iran changed Iraq and handicapped its development. President Saddam Hussein, however, had further consolidated his rule and he now ruled without challenge over his country. He did so with the same commitment to his people that had characterized his commitment to Arab nationalism and independence. Having realized the importance of his country's resources, particularly its oil, he used these resources to protect the standard of living of his people employing nearly 50% of the Iraqi people in government service by the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
Immediately after the war, President Saddam Hussein heightened his country's vigilance over its resources issuing immediate notices of dispute to any country that exploited the resources of Iraq for anything but the benefit of the Iraqi people. It was one of these notices that led to a mounting dispute with its small oil-rich and western-friendly neighbour Kuwait.
When Kuwait ignored claims that it was expropriating Iraqi oil by drilling into border reserves, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein repeatedly warned them before finally invading and quickly crushing his small neighbor in the summer of 1990. Perhaps, however, he had not calculated the way this action would meet with the dissatisfaction of the American government whose friendship with Kuwait ensured the US of a supply of Kuwaiti oil.
Famously, the visit and representations of the then American envoy to Iraq, April Gillespie, left even the most removed observers of her comments querying whether the US had not given its implicit consent to Iraqi's invasion of Kuwait. Whatever the answer, Iraq's 1990 invasion of Iraq did bring about a freeze in US-Iraqi relations.
In January 1991, this freeze in relations with the US cumulated in a US-led invasion of the country that was supported by the United Nations. However, even in 1991 the US did not, or was not able to, consolidate control over the whole country. Instead the US forces withdrew unilaterally imposing a no-fly zone in the north and the south and cooperating with the UN to impose deadly sanctions on the people of Iraq.
The combinations of these two measures was to subject Iraqi to regular attacks whenever its defense forces challenged American and allied planes in the no-fly zone or even outside it. In fact, the 1991 war, despite the agreement of Iraq to a ceasefire ending the war, never stopped as the American-led allies continued to carry out bombing raids in Iraq throughout the 1990s and continue to do so right up to present day, now with the consent of the present 'Iraqi' authorities.
Even more deadly was the decade of sanctions imposed upon the Iraqi people, which according to the International Study Team's report on the "Human Effects of the Gulf War" in 1991, had almost instantly increased child mortality three times. By the time they ended, the sanctions are reliably estimated to have accounted for more than a half million additional child deaths and the loss of tens of millions productive life-years for Iraqis. Perhaps no other society in modern history had suffered so much at the hands of the international community.
Throughout this time, and despite disinformation campaigns undertaken by the western-led allies, once again Iraqi President Saddam Hussein managed to consolidate and strengthen his grip on power. He did so by sparing no effort to circumvent the internationally imposed sanctions, once again pumping the acquired resources into public works. The US "shock an awe" campaign during the 1991 war, which included the carpet bombing of urban areas and the use of depleted uranium weapons, left much of Iraq in rubble. The Iraqi President responded by ensuring that the public coffers were utilized to put his country back to work. He even created grander than life public works, such as a project to build one of the world's largest mosques in central Baghdad.
He also kept his predatory neighbors at bay despite their close alliance with the US by allowing them to speculate about his military capabilities. It was this speculation that fueled suspicions that Iraq had nuclear weapons. Despite the fact that President Saddam Hussein had once pursued such weapons understanding, correctly in aftermath, that they might be the only deterrent against an American invasion of his county, he was convinced by the UN to stop this pursuit.
Instead Iraqi President Saddam Hussein concentrated his efforts on showing the inhumanity of the sanctions that were being imposed on his country and the injustice of the Palestine question. His envoys relentlessly protested the sanctions against Iraq in every forum to which they were privy. And his commitment to Palestine was illustrated by his doing more than any other Arab leader to support the Palestinian struggle for national liberation and self-determination.
When George W. Bush became president of the US in 2000, the Iraqi President congratulated him and sought to establish a cooperative relationship with the US. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, however, demanded that this relationship be based on respect for the Iraqi people and the American fairness in relations with the Arab people, especially the Palestinians. Such terms where unacceptable to the US.
Some talks were held between Iraqi and American officials, but the events of September 2001 changed the American perspective significantly. Across America there arose an emotional hatred against Arab and Muslim people everywhere in the world. For American President Bush, however, this hatred was particularly fixated on Iraq, and even more particularly on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The reasons for this were largely personal.
After the 1991 war against Iraq and in light of the continuing armed attacks against his county by the US, the Iraqi President had allegedly ordered the elder Bush who was the US President during the first Gulf war in 1991 to be assassinated. Although clear evidence of this order never emerged and despite the fact that killing the commander-in-chief of another country at which your country is at war is allowed by the laws of war and was indeed attempted by the US targeting of the Iraqi President several times, the American President swore to avenge this attempt on his father's life.
To do so he enlisted Iraqi Shia who had also lost loved ones in the war with Iran or because of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's effort to preserve order in the country. Among those he turned to were people like Ahmed Chalabi, who had lived for years outside of Iraq, but who had sworn to kill the Iraqi leader. He turned to Kurdish leaders Talabani and Barzani, who had sometimes allied with the Iraqi President, but now saw getting rid of him in their favour. In other words, he turned to people who would lie and cheat to gain power in Iraq. And this strategy worked because these people did just that to convince the international community that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
After Congress gave the American President largely unlimited authority to wage a war against the ambiguous enemy of terrorism, the American President set about defining this term broad. He declare that his war extended to anyone who was not with the US on it violent campaigns of aggression around the world. As these campaigns were exclusively aimed at Muslim or Arab countries, the Iraqi President had not supported them, but neither had Iraq become involved in them.
Nevertheless, by the end of 2002, after having invaded and occupied Afghanistan and still riding the wave of Arab and Muslim hatred, the US turned its attentions towards other Arab and Muslim nations. Using false and often manufactured evidence showing that Iraq supported terrorism or possessed weapons of mass destruction the US acquire a small but sufficient coalition of states that would support their aggression. That these claims were untrue and even proven by US and international investigators to be untrue was irrelevant. America was speaking power over truth, and the later was being completely drowned out.
Nevertheless, as late as early 2003 the Iraqi President had substantially agreed to the conditions imposed by the United Nations and the US. This agreement was conveyed by intermediaries to the US. But the agreement was too late. The US had made up its mind. Before a group investigating the probably consequences for children of renewed fighting in Iraq traveled to Iraq in January 2003, they were told by the office of a US Senator that a war with Iraq as inevitable. Indeed, it later emerged that the US Congress had both given its implicit and explicit consent based on the misinformation provided by the Bush administration.
In March 2003 a US-led coalition attacked the Iraqi people. The bombardment devastated the country, threatening the right of every person living in Iraq. Within days of the first bombs falling, a deadly ground offensive began that destroyed everything in its path. Even as they began ravishing Iraq, the US administration believed that the Iraqi people would sadistically welcome this wave of death and destruction. There own disinformation campaign had apparent come home to roost.
In part this was due to the fact that the 'Iraqis' advising the US were not even in Iraq, but were those who would profit from the war. These expatriate Iraqis were willing to put their profit over the welfare of the Iraqi people. Unsurprisingly they continue to do so as they now run the country allowing the US to buy Iraq's resources cheaply and using the firepower of the US to cower the people who can't be bought.
Moreover, except for the participants in the US-led aggression, the international community, almost unanimously, condemned the attack as illegal. International jurists were even more confirmed in their opinions. Nevertheless, as they had with the facts on the ground the US and its allies ignored the international condemnation of their deeds and put their trust in their destructive power.
The Iraqi President, however, remained a problem. First, he could not be found for months as he commanded the national resistance for liberation of his country from ever changing headquarters. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, however, never left Iraq. He refused to do so. He was Iraqi and repeatedly stated that he would not be forced to run from his own country by a foreign power.
In December 2003, he was finally captured after a nationwide manhunt costing billions of dollars and hundreds of lives. As the American President had stated before the war began he again confirmed that the captured Iraqi President would be put on trial.
The law, however, stood in the way of this plan. A fair trial or a trial before an independent international tribunal would allow the Iraqi President a forum in which to condemn the American invasion. This would be counterproductive to everything that the American propaganda had achieved and more seriously might strengthen the national liberation movement fighting to rid Iraq of the illegal American occupation.
Instead, with the support of a corps of junior American lawyers, the US planned, financed, and orchestrated an Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST). Every independent expert from NGOs to governmental actors who have reviewed the IST declared it to be illegal and/or unfair.
Instead of choosing one of the allegedly most serious cases for which to try the Iraqi President, the US choose an insignificant case where by the US itself could not be implicated in the crimes allegedly committed.
And if that was not enough the US led the Iraqi authorities that they had installed through the unfair trial process. Without embarrassment they replaced judges whose politics or demeanor they did not like, hide exculpating evidence, manufactured witness testimony, threatened defense witnesses and defense lawyers and when that did not work assaulted defense lawyers and killed four of them, stole defendants' money, and even prohibited the defense from preparing a defence by giving them the charges after the Prosecution had rested and forcing them to start their preparations of a defense within hours after having received the charges. The litany of violations of the right to fair trial reads like a course book on how to achieve a mistrial and would have invalidated the trial anywhere else in the world, except in the American controlled Green Zone in Iraq.
>From its inception the IST was flawed, but as the violence increased in Iraq and the US controlled propaganda machine touted the trial as necessary to stop violence while the international community turned a blind eye. Even the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Louise Arbour, arrogantly commented that the unfairness of the trial was not such a big problem. Ms Arbour also famously commented just days before the extrajudicial execution of the Iraqi President that she could not tell if the trial was unfair because she had to study the court's opinion. While Ms Arbour was doing the extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution of the President took place and not even the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions did much to stop it.
American President George W. Bush, British Prime Minster Tony Blair, and Australian Prime Minister Michael Howard, went even further declaring that the trial was fair despite the fact that the body that they had unequivocally mandated to make such determinations, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, had determined the trial was illegal and unfair. Again the UN had failed in its most prominent mission: the protection of human rights.
Throughout the US orchestrated trial the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein maintained his dignity and repeatedly urged his people to resist the US occupiers of his country and to strive for Arab and Muslim unity against America. It was undoubtedly his unbreakable spirit of resistance that finally caused the US to concede that allowing him to live was more dangerous than sacrificing him as a martyr to the cause of Muslim and Arab nationalism and independence.
But even in his death Iraqi President Saddam Hussein maintained his calm and determined demeanor. While the American President had clumsily dozed off on Saturday night, the Iraqi President was challenging his executioners to be brave and to fight the American occupiers.
In some of his last words, the Iraqi President reminded the world that there is something more than preserving one's own life and that this can only be found in the integrity of one's faith. He declared his faith to the cause he had championed so valiantly in life as he declared loudly "God is great and Palestine is an Arab land."
Like this final rallying call the death of the Iraqi President, who had held the steady sword of Arab and Muslim pride against western aggression could be a turning point. It has laid bare the challenge of hatred, of exploitation, of lawlessness, and of total disdain with which the west under US hegemony deals with the Middle East. It is a symbol of how the US would like to treat every Arab and every Muslim who opposes its will. With this truth laid bare the gauntlet has now been thrown down at the foot of every proud and courageous Arab and Muslim and all who support tem in their struggle.
Will Arabs and Muslims around the world cowardly surrender to the blood money offered by America and its allies or will they bravely confront the challenge as the Iraqi President and martyr Saddam Hussein has done and fight for the freedom of their people until the very end? Every Arab and Muslim and all their supporters must ask him or her self this question.
Dr. Curtis Doebbler is an international human rights lawyers and a lawyer to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2007%20Opinion%20Editorials/January/4%20o/Obituary%20Saddam%20Hussein%20By%20Curtis%20F.J.%20Doebbler.htm
SADDAM'S EXECUTION : Hanging will haunt Bush
Haroon Siddiqui
HYDERABAD – I am taken aback by the reaction in India to Saddam Hussein's hanging. The anger cuts across religious and political divides.
This secular nation of 1.2 billion – the world's largest democracy and emerging economic powerhouse – has as many Muslims as Muslim Pakistan, at about 145 million. But its majority is Hindu and it has significant pockets of Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and others. Yet the condemnation has been near universal.
More tellingly, there has been little or no echo here of the Iraqi sectarian divide, with the Shiites there celebrating Sunni Saddam's death.
There is even criticism, from both the right and the left, of the Indian government's muted response to the execution, New Delhi's stance dictated by the increasingly close relations with the U.S., exemplified by the controversial nuclear co-operation agreement.
If India is a key barometer of the non-Western world, and it often is, Saddam's hanging will come to haunt George W. Bush.
Far from being "an important milestone in Iraq becoming a democracy," as he so brazenly put it, the hanging is widely seen as an occupying power's jungle justice against a tyrant whose worst crimes were committed when he was an American ally but who was condemned only after he went against his benefactors.
He was responsible for killing 1 million Iranians in the 1980-'88 war and murdering and gassing tens of thousands of his own Shiite and Kurdish populations – war crimes whose details, and with them the West's complicity, went to the grave with him.
The lesson, said an editorial in the Deccan Chronicle, the regional English daily, is that "the U.S. will not tolerate leaders who do not follow its diktat."
The hanging has been the topic of conversation in both the public and private spheres. You can't escape it in any gathering.
The reaction is all the more remarkable given that, unlike in Europe and Canada, the death penalty is even more acceptable in these parts than in the United States. Muslims, in particular, have historically seen it as the price for maintaining law and order.
Burning Bush in effigy, Muslim crowds in several cities have been blaming him for the timing of the hanging, on the day of Eid al-adha, the festival that coincides with the end of the annual Haj pilgrimage and which symbolizes forgiveness and reconciliation. The media here have carried the quote of a pilgrim in Saudi Arabia: "Would it be okay if the president of the United States were to be hanged on Christmas Day?"
Protestors noted with admiration that, notwithstanding the secularist Saddam's frequent and brutal persecution of religious activities, he held up a copy of the Qur'an on the way to the gallows and had on his lips the kalima – "God is great," the first testament of Muslim faith, which the believers are also enjoined to repeat just before death.
An oft-stated sentiment has been that the wrong man has been hanged, given the tens of thousands killed under Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Muslims and non-Muslims alike have spoken well of what they saw as Saddam's dignified departure amid the mayhem in the hanging chamber, as captured on videos.
His composure and defiance in refusing a hood have been hailed as signs of personal courage. By contrast, his American and Iraqi captors and executors have been characterized as cowards. Noting his 3 a.m. burial, away from public spotlight, Siyasat, a secular Urdu language daily here, headlined: "Now they are afraid of his grave."
Saddam's sloganeering also hit the right note for many Indians. The message in his last letter ("Struggle on against the invaders," and "Long live Iraq … Long live Palestine") and his last words on the gallows ("The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab") have found resonance among a people long supportive of Palestinian rights and vehemently opposed to the occupation of Iraq.
The letters to the editor columns have captured these sentiments well, as the following four by non-Muslims show.
"Saddam was fit to go down in history as a tyrant. Now he has been elevated to the status of a martyr by an impatient America," wrote Rajneesh Tiwari in the Hindu, the much respected English-language secular daily in south India.
"Although there were few sympathizers for Saddam, his execution will only increase hatred for America and other Western nations," wrote Aditya Deshpande in the same newspaper.
"It is because of American policies that terrorism is increasing in the world," wrote Dr. Chandra Sekhar.
"The Bush administration has destroyed an ancient civilization and its ruler. If Saddam deserved the death penalty for ordering the killing of 148 Shiites, what ought to be the penalty for Mr. Bush for the deaths of 600,000 Iraqis?" asked Ram Das.
When you think about it, the overall Indian response is perhaps not that different than the sentiment of Canadians in this regard. By this I do not mean the views of our political class and many in the media establishment, which remain under the spell of the American spin, but rather those of ordinary Canadians.
Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus. hsiddiq@thestar.ca.
http://www.thestar.com/article/167592
Saddam's Shi'a Lynch Mob
The shocking spectacle surrounding his execution has only confirmed Sunnis' worst fears of Iraq becoming a Shi'ite Islamic Republic joined with Iran
ROBERT BAER, TimesOnline
Posted Thursday, Jan. 04, 2007
The cat is out of the bag. Thanks to images from a cell phone, we now know that the Iraqi National Police unit we turned Saddam over to was in fact a Shi'a lynch mob. Saddam's hangmen made no effort to hide their allegiance, taunting the deposed Iraqi leader with the name of radical Shi'ite cleric and power broker Muqtada al-Sadr. Afterwards, they danced around Saddam's corpse.
Saddam didn't hide what he thought about them either. At one point, he called them "Persians"  in other words, traitors  and his choice of insult was very revealing. Like Saddam, most Iraqi Sunnis view Sadr as all but a paid-up Iranian agent, and his militia, the Mahdi Army, as an Iranian creation.The Sunnis are convinced that one day, given the opportunity, Sadr will hand Iraq over to Iran. For all the shock Iraq's Sunnis felt on hearing Sadr's name shouted at Saddam's execution, Iranian diplomats might as well have been in attendance.
Just as consequential, for Sunnis and anyone else who knows Iraqi history, Saddam's executioners shouted the name of Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Muqtada's father-in-law. Ayatollah Sadr, whom Saddam executed in 1980, is perhaps as responsible as Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for modern, resurgent Shi'a Islam. Sadr founded the Da'wa Party, a violent, secretive organization committed to the creation of an Iraqi Shi'a Islamic republic  and today a political party that counts none other than Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a member.
In 1979, Sadr and the Da'wa took the side of the Iranian revolution, sparking demonstrations and unrest across Iraq. After Sadr's Da'wa attempted to assassinate Hussein's longtime foreign minister Tariq Aziz on April 1, 1980, Saddam, in fairly quick succession, executed Sadr and invaded Iran. Saddam was convinced that unless he pre-empted Sadr  in other words, Iran  he would end up on the gallows. Two years later, in Dujail, the Da'wa did try to assassinate Saddam. Saddam's brutal retribution against Dujail is what got him hanged last Saturday.
The West had its own bloody experience with Sadr's Da'wa. In December 1983, Da'wa attacked the American and French embassies in Kuwait. The Da'wa was the core around which Iran created Lebanon's Hizballah, another violent Shi'a group that went on to kidnap scores of foreigners and hijack half a dozen airplanes during the '80s  long before it also became a political player in Lebanon.
Only time will tell us what Sadr intends do with Iraq if he ever does take over. But the Sunnis today will tell you they don't need to wait. On Saturday, they saw all the evidence they needed: the symbolism of executing Saddam on the Muslim High Holiday of Id al-Adha as a gift to the Shi'a, and and the decision of Maliki to get special approval from Iraq's senior Shi'a clerics, the "marja'iya," to carry out the execution on that day.
No one is ever going to take a poll, but it's safe to say that most Sunnis fear that Ayatollah Sadr's dream of an Iraqi Shi'a Islamic republic has already come true.
Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1573978,00.html
Anarchy fears in Somalia
Reuters Report
Jan. 4 – A fuel truck has been attacked by Somali militiamen, sparking concern the country could return to its lawless past.
The incident on the outskirts of Mogadishu is the first since government forces regained control of the capital last week.
The defeated Somalia Islamist Courts Council had imposed Sharia law across much of southern Somalia, bringing a degree of order and stability.
Andrew Potter reports.
http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoStory.aspx?isSummitStory=false&storyId=95ffa201133255e537a6e363f703c228e6e7235a&WTmodLoc=HealthNewsHome_C3_Top+News-9
Israeli Prize laureate: Indeed there is Apartheid in Israel
Shulamit Aloni
Yediot Acharonot, Israel's largest circulating newspaper
This item by Shulamit Aloni, the Israeli Prize laureate who once served as Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin, is from Yediot Acharonot, Israel's largest circulating newspaper, which appeared in the Hebrew Ynet but not in the English-language Ynetnews.
It is tranlated by Sol Salbe, an Australian editor, whose comments are in square brackets. — Miriam
Indeed there is Apartheid in Israel
A new order issued by the GOC Central command bans the conveyance of Palestinians in Israeli vehicles. Such a blatant violation of the right to travel joins the long list of humans rights violations carried out by Israel in the [Occupied] Territories.
Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what's right in front of our eyes. It's simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practises its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population.
The US Jewish Establishment's onslaught on former President Jimmy Carter is based on him daring to tell the truth which is known to all: through its army, the government of Israel practises a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies. Its army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp. All this is done in order to keep an eye on the population's movements and to make its life difficult. Israel even imposes a total curfew whenever the settlers, who have illegally usurped the Palestinians' land, celebrate their holidays or conduct their parades.
If that were not enough, the generals commanding the region frequently issue further orders, regulations, instructions and rules (let us not forget: they are the lords of the land). By now they have requisitioned further lands for the purpose of constructing "Jewish only" roads. Wonderful roads, wide roads, well-paved roads, brightly lit at night  all that on stolen land. When a Palestinian drives on such a road, his vehicle is confiscated and he is sent on his way.
On one occasion I witnessed such an encounter between a driver and a soldier who was taking down the details before confiscating the vehicle and sending its owner away. "Why?" I asked the soldier. "It's an order  this is a Jews-only road", he replied. I inquired as to where was the sign indicating this fact and instructing [other] drivers not to use it. His answer was nothing short of amazing. "It is his responsibility to know it, and besides, what do you want us to do, put up a sign here and let some antisemitic reporter or journalist take a photo so he that can show the world that Apartheid exists here?"
Indeed Apartheid does exist here. And our army is not "the most moral army in the world" as we are told by its commanders. Sufficient to mention that every town and every village has turned into a detention centre and that every entry and every exit has been closed, cutting it off from arterial traffic. If it were not enough that Palestinians are not allowed to travel on the roads paved 'for Jews only', on their land, the current GOC found it necessary to land an additional blow on the natives in their own land with an "ingenious proposal".
Humanitarian activists cannot transport Palestinians either
Major-General Naveh, renowned for his superior patriotism, has issued a new order. Coming into affect on 19 January, it prohibits the conveyance of Palestinians without a permit. The order determines that Israelis are not allowed to transport Palestinians in an Israeli vehicle (one registered in Israel regardless of what kind of numberplate it carries) unless they have received explicit permission to do so. The permit relates to both the driver and the Palestinian passenger. Of course none of this applies to those whose labour serves the settlers. They and their employers will naturally receive the required permits so they can continue to serve the lords of the land, the settlers.
Did man of peace President Carter truly err in concluding that Israel is creating Apartheid? Did he exaggerate? Don't the US Jewish community leaders recognise the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination of 7 March 1966, to which Israel is a signatory? Are the US Jews who launched the loud and abusive campaign against Carter for supposedly maligning Israel's character and its democratic and humanist nature unfamiliar with the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid of 30 November 1973? Apartheid is defined therein as an international crime that among other things includes using different legal instruments to rule over different racial groups, thus depriving people of their human rights. Isn't freedom of travel one of these rights?
In the past, the US Jewish community leaders were quite familiar with the meaning of those conventions. For some reason, however, they are convinced that Israel is allowed to contravene them. It's OK to kill civilians, women and children, old people and parents with their children, deliberately or otherwise without accepting any responsibility. It's permissible to rob people of their lands, destroy their crops, and cage them up like animals in the zoo. From now on, Israelis and International humanitarian organisations' volunteers are prohibited from assisting a woman in labour by taking her to the hospital. [Israeli human rights group] Yesh Din volunteers cannot take a robbed and beaten-up Palestinian to the police station to lodge a complaint. (Police stations are located at the heart of the settlements.) Is there anyone who believes that this is not Apartheid?
Jimmy Carter does not need me to defend his reputation that has been sullied by Israelophile community officials. The trouble is that their love of Israel distorts their judgment and blinds them from seeing what's in front of them. Israel is an occupying power that for 40 years has been oppressing an indigenous people, which is entitled to a sovereign and independent existence while living in peace with us. We should remember that we too used very violent terror against foreign rule because we wanted our own state. And the list of victims of terror is quite long and extensive.
We do limit ourselves to denying the [Palestinian] people human rights. We not only rob of them of their freedom, land and water. We apply collective punishment to millions of people and even, in revenge-driven frenzy, destroy the electricity supply for one and half million civilians. Let them "sit in the darkness" and "starve".
Employees cannot be paid their wages because Israel is holding 500 million shekels that belong to the Palestinians. And after all that we remain "pure as the driven snow". There are no moral blemishes on our actions. There is no racial separation. There is no Apartheid. It's an invention of the enemies of Israel. Hooray for our brothers and sisters in the US! Your devotion is very much appreciated. You have truly removed a nasty stain from us. Now there can be an extra spring in our step as we confidently abuse the Palestinian population, using the "most moral army in the world".
[Translated by Sol Salbe]
Montreal Muslim News Network – http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net
Hebrew original: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3346283,00.html
US Terrorize The World – 15 Dhul-Hijjah 1427 H (5.1.07)
INCITEMENT WATCH: 'THE NEW NAZI PARTY, ALSO KNOWN AS ISLAM'
IL: WAKE-UP CALL ON TERROR – Belleville News-Democrat, 1/4/07
People seem blind to the threat of the new Nazi Party, also known as Islam.
Maybe we need a good kicking from another country or religion to figure out who we are again and what we need to value, such as our mainly Christian beliefs. Those beliefs tend to be more gentile than the Koran.
Don Voegele – Mascoutah
SEND POLITE COMMENTS TO: letters@bnd.com
COPY TO: info@cair.com
Mail: Letters: Belleville News-Democrat, 120 S. Illinois St., P.O. Box 427, Belleville, IL 62222-0427.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/editorial/16380628.htm
http://tinyurl.com/sb6dq
9/11 : In Padilla Wiretaps, Murky View of 'Jihad' Case
Tens of thousands of conversations were recorded. Some 230 phone calls form the core of the government's case, including 21 that make reference to Mr. Padilla, prosecutors said. But Mr. Padilla's voice is heard on only seven calls. And on those seven, which The Times obtained from a participant in the case, Mr. Padilla does not discuss violent plots.
http://tinyurl.com/y3chjw
9/11 : Oklahoma City Bombing: An al-Qaeda Connection?
Hard on the heels of the FBI being blasted for pointedly ignoring evidence that others besides McVeigh and Nichols took part in the OK City bombing comes this pathetic spin attempting to lay the blame for the OK City bombing on … AL QAEDA (nudge nudge wink wink). http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fakealqaeda.html
This latest bit of desperation falls apart very quickly under examination. For one thing, why would the FBI work so hard to nail McVeigh and Nichols while protecting Al Qaeda? How would AL QAEDA (nudge nudge wink wink) manage to pursuad the American media NOT to report on all the additional bombs placed inside the Murrah Building? (http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/bombs/bombs.html) Why would AL QAEDA (nudge nudge wink wink) bother with a truck full of fertilizer when they had those additional bombs inside the Murrah Building? and finally, how would AL QAEDA (nudge nudge wink wink) get the use of a US Army Base to load the truck with explosives? (http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/TRUCK/truck.html)
http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/a/217479.htm
Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's Rape Of Iraq – At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's Rape Of Iraq 3,006
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The Rape of Iraq Costs $355,636,654,366 – See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
Saddam's Execution and the coming Campaign in Baghdad
It is evident that United States will in the near future attack Al-Sadr forces in Baghdad and will try to crush and disband his militia the Mahdi Army. This attack will result in resignation of Al-Sadr's supporters in the parliament, creating a vacuum which can then be filled with the Sunnis.
http://tinyurl.com/y3yjhb
Saddam: From monster to martyr?
How Bush and Blair's choices have led to disaster in Iraq, culminating in a chaotic execution that is fuelling civil war
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2124262.ece
Tyrant or martyr?
NOTHING became the Saddam Hussein era like his leaving of the stage. If he had died the day he was dug up from a hole, the collective memory of the Arabs – the only audience that ever mattered to him – would have been different. Instead, they will recall his astonishing sangfroid before a kangaroo court. The first judge resigned in protest at American interference. The second one was sacked by the US-installed puppet regime for refusing to obey orders.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2007/January/opinion_January7.xml&section=opinion&col
Reports Saddam executed by militia
An Iraqi official says the hanging was supposed to be carried out by hangmen employed by the Interior Ministry, but that militias infiltrated the executioners' team.
http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.aspx?id=69125
Moqtada al-Sadr may have been present at the execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
"I saw al-Sadr wearing the black hoods inside the room – the eyewitness said – and there was also Abdulaziz al-Hakim [leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq – SCIRI]. They were among the six men wearing hoods that one can see in the images aired by the TV".
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m29511&s1=h1
Hanging will haunt Bush
I am taken aback by the reaction in India to Saddam Hussein's hanging. The anger cuts across religious and political divides.
Better Under Saddam, Says 90 Percent of Iraqis
A poll, conducted by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies and the Gulf Research Center, reports that nine out of ten Iraqis feel that the situation in their country was better under Saddam Hussein than it is now. (The poll was conducted before Saddam was hanged.) Here are the results:
Do you feel the situation in the country is better today or better before the U.S.-led invasion?
Better today 5%
Better before 90%
Not sure 5%
http://robertdreyfuss.com/blog/2007/01/better_under_saddam_says_90_pe.html
Saddam's Death Squad Hanging
In Iraq today , there are the death squads that slink by night, barging into homes in the dark with lists in their hands and shooting whole families of (usually) Sunni leaders and innocents, and there are the brazen death squads who roam in broad daylight, who terrorize whole neighborhoods in an ethnic cleansing frenzy. Some of them wear police uniforms, some of them wear army fatigues, and some of them are black-clad Mahdi Army thugs. The killing goes on: by official Iraqi count, 2,000 in December and more than 16,000 for all of 2006, according to latest reports-though the actual total for last year is more likely 100,000 or more.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/03/saddams_death_squad_hanging.php
Another Thousand Lives
If there were politicians here at home with some of the courage of the troops in the field, we could begin saving lives rather than watching helplessly as the Bush White House continues to sacrifice them. Three thousand and counting is enough.
http://tinyurl.com/y2bb7k
Soldiers and Imperial Presidents
Military service is one of America's sacred cows; it is something that is rarely questioned and is surrounded by an invisible aura of nobility. No one, especially those who serve, wants to think of their time in the military as anything less than honorable and worthy of glorification.
http://tinyurl.com/yx5p5g
Iraqi court sentences dozens of insurgents to jail, death
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court has sentenced a Saudi, a Syrian and a Sudanese to death after finding them guilty of Al-Qaeda related terrorist offenses, the US-led coalition in Iraq said Wednesday. The alleged foreign fighters were among 48 detainees convicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq between December 8 and 28 last year.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=78153
A promising Iraqi province is now a tinderbox
U.S. and Iraqi officials interviewed in recent days blamed the sharp downturn on a combination of U.S. neglect and abuses by the Iraqi army. U.S. troops largely disengaged from security here for weeks at a time, they say, handing the reins to Iraqi forces who proved to be abusive and ineffective.
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes703.html
Bush could send more 40,000 US troops to occupied Iraq
News reports: increase of US forces in Iraq estimated to be between 9,000 and 40,000 extra troops.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=19036
Key Democrat might consider troop boost in Iraq
Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) also predicted the Republican president would soon find a way to end the "open-ended commitment" of U.S. troops to Iraq, even if Bush does propose a short-term boost in forces.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070104/pl_nm/iraq_usa_troops_dc_3
Iraq Vets Left in Physical and Mental Agony
The number of injured has far outstripped the dead, with the Veterans Administration reporting that more than 150,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability benefits.
http://tinyurl.com/y4gx6p
Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered
On New Year's Eve, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq passed 3,000. By Tuesday, the death toll had reached 3,004 – 31 more than died in the Sep. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But the number of injured has far outstripped the dead, with the Veterans Administration reporting that more than 150,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability benefits.
"But at least we got those weapons of mass … dest… ummmmm. Never mind." — Official White Horse Souse
http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=10262
U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 3,005
As of Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, at least 3,005 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,407 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070104/ap_on_re_us/iraq_us_deaths
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 3 January 2007.
Fierce fighting rages between Resistance men and US Marines in Sa'dah near al-Qa'im around midnight Wednesday-Thursday.
Resistance bomb destroys American Humvee in 'Anah early Wednesday.
Resistance men ambush US patrol in ar-Ramadi early Wednesday.
Resistance fighters kill two puppet "Iraqi National Guards" east of ar-Ramadi.
Resistance assaults puppet "Iraqi National Guard" camp in al-Fallujah Tuesday afternoon.
Resistance car bomber blasts Iraqi puppet army checkpoint in al-Fallujah Tuesday.
Resistance blasts "Green Zone" with mortar shell Wednesday evening.
Resistance assaults puppet "Shock Troop" headquarters in southwestern Baghdad.
US soldier reported killed in Resistance bomb attack in al-A'zamiyah Tuesday afternoon.
Iraqi Resistance sharpshooter kills two US troops in quick succession in at-Tarimiyah Tuesday.
Mourners continue to stream into Tikrit – from the Shi'i south, as well as the Sunni west and north – to pay last respects to martyred Iraqi President Saddam Husayn.
Deputations from ad-Dujayl offer condolences at grave of fallen Iraqi leader, denounce false testimony from fake "witnesses" at "trial" that ordered Saddam Husayn's death.
Resistance pounds joint US-Iraqi puppet army camp with mortars in al-Mada'in.
Demonstrators in Ba'qbuah area denounce assassination of Iraqi President Saddam Husayn.
Resistance fighters ambush puppet police patrol in al-Miqdadiyah.
Resistance bomb kills puppet solider near Shumayt, southwest of Kirkuk, Wednesday.
http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?mod=art&lapage=../en_articles_2007/0107/iraqiresistancereport_030107.htm
Indeed there is Apartheid in Israel : Shulamit Aloni, the Israeli Prize laureate
http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net
Year end statistics: Israeli forces killed 742 Palestinians, injured 3,735 and arrested 5,671
Official Palestinian health statistics, compared against human rights organizations data and press reports were submitted for the final report for the year 2006. The report was issued from Gaza this afternoon and indicates that Israeli forces killed 742 Palestinians, injured 3,735 and arrested 5,671 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the year 2006. Two hundred and ten were killed in targeted assassinations, and 588 of the total number of Palestinians killed were in the Gaza Strip.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1362
Four dead, 20 wounded as Israeli occupation forces invade Ramallah
At least four Palestinians have been killed in a major Israel army operation in the West Bank city of Ramallah that wounded around 20 other people, medics said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070104/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflict
Abbas harshly condemns Israeli raid in Ramallah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas harshly condemned Israel's deadly raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, saying it "proved that the Israeli calls for peace and security are fake."
http://tinyurl.com/y49kzw
Blast Claimed by "Taliban" Kills 5
A roadside bomb killed five Afghan security forces and wounded four as they patrolled with NATO troops in occupied Afghanistan, an army chief said Thursday.
http://tinyurl.com/w36lm
NATO: Too many Afghan civilians killed
NATO said Wednesday that it killed too many Afghan civilians during fighting last year against resurgent Taliban militants, but that the occupation forces was working to change that in 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/y32gka
US helped Ethiopian choppers target Somalia Islamists
Ethiopian helicopters, helped by US intelligence, nearly hit Somali Islamist leaders after they fled their last stronghold, officials have said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=157874
A fuel truck has been attacked by Somali militiamen, sparking concern the country could return to its lawless past
http://tinyurl.com/y6myac
But It's Thomas Jefferson's Koran!
Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, found himself under attack last month when he announced he'd take his oath of office on the Koran — especially from Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, who called it a threat to American values.
Bush pushes envelope on U.S. spying
The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/485561p-408789c.html
Bush says feds can open mail without warrant
President Bush quietly has claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003508676_mail04.html
Negroponte Stepping Aside As Top Spy
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, who has been closely involved with U.S. policy on Iraq, will trade in his job as top spy to become No. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6322502,00.html


text:
Taxon details
Family: Salticidae / Genus: Itata
Itata vadia G. W. Peckham & E. G. Peckham, 1894
Rank: Species (Genus type)
Described:
Last updated: - -
LSID: [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:034129]
Distribution: Colombia
External Resources *:
GBIF
Jumping spiders of the world
Salticidae Database Prószyński (2016)
Type deposit: provide information
Taxonomic references
Itata vadia Peckham & Peckham, 1894a: 115, pl. 11, f. 5 (Dmf).
Itata valida Roewer, 1955c: 1145 (lapsus).
Peckham, G. W. & Peckham, E. G. (1894a). Spiders of the Marptusa group. Occasional Papers of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin 2: 85-156. -- Show included taxa
Roewer, C. F. (1955c). Katalog der Araneae von 1758 bis 1940, bzw. 1954. 2. Band, Abt. a (Lycosaeformia, Dionycha [excl. Salticiformia]). 2. Band, Abt. b (Salticiformia, Cribellata) (Synonyma-Verzeichnis, Gesamtindex). Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Bruxelles, 1751 pp. -- Show included taxa
External Resource References
As External Resources, the World Spider Catalog links here to species pages of other databases. They may contain further information for the given species. The databases, listed as External Resources, however, are not managed by World Spider Catalog and the information given there is not necessarily in agreement with the World Spider Catalog. All responsibility for such data is with the external database.
GBIF.org (2019). GBIF Home Page (via GBIF API). Available from: https://www.gbif.org [1 September 2019]
Metzner, H. (2019). Jumping spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae) of the world. Online at https://www.jumping-spiders.com.
Prószyński, J. (2016). Monograph of Salticidae (Araneae) of the World 1995-2015. Part II. Global Species Database of Salticidae (Araneae). Version October 30th, 2016, online at http://www.salticidae.pl.
No logging data available so far.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
What Is The Name Of The Space Stage That Is Any Given Space For Actors To Perform?
What is stage layout?
What is a black box play?
What are the 4 types of Theatre spaces?
What is an end on stage?
What are the 7 types of drama?
What are modern theaters called?
How many sides do the audience sit in thrust staging?
What are the different parts of a theater stage?
What is the most common type of stage?
What is another name for Arena Stage?
What is the standard size of a stage?
What are the different types of staging?
What is a normal stage called?
What are the 9 stage directions?
What is the place where the audience sits called?
A layout stage, as already explained in the section called "The Layout Stages Concept", serves as a standardized container that encapsulates arbitrary layout functionality and provides a general means to string together multiple layout stages into a compound layout process..
A black box theater is a simple performance space, that varies in size, and is usually a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space is used to create a flexible stage and audience interaction. The black box is a relatively recent innovation in theatre.
Theatre performance spaces fall into four categories: proscenium theatres, thrust theatres, arena theatres, and found spaces. This section will introduce you to the common parts of each theatre and the relative benefits of each type.
End-on staging is very similar to proscenium arch, but without the arch frame around the stage space. Many black box studios are set up with end-on staging, meaning that the stage space is on one side of the room and the audience sit on the opposite side.
They are comedy, tragedy, tragicomedy, and melodrama. These contain different characteristics of drama, which include, plot, characters, music, dialogue, etc. Also, most plays contain elements of some or all of these different genres.
Modern theater: Also known as 20th century theater, describes the period of extraordinary change in theater, impacting Asian, European and American theater forms. … Realism, musical theater, opera are forms on new theaters.
THEATRE SPACESProscenium stage: A proscenium theatre is what we usually think of as a "theatre". … Thrust theatre: A Stage surrounded by audience on three sides. … End Stage: … Arena Theatre: … Flexible theatre: … Profile Theatres: … Ancillary areas: … Thrust theatres:More items…
three sidesThrust. Rather than be surrounded by audience members on four sides, a thrust theatre will have audiences sitting on three sides, with the fourth wall serving as a backdrop.
The end-on stage can be split into 9 areas: upstage right, upstage centre, upstage left, centre stage right, centre stage, centre stage left, downstage right, downstage centre, downstage left.
The most common form found in the West is the proscenium stage. In this type, the audience is located on one side of the stage with the remaining sides hidden and used by the performers and technicians.
Theatre-in-the-roundTheatre-in-the-round, also spelled theater-in-the-round, also called arena stage, central stage, or island stage, form of theatrical staging in which the acting area, which may be raised or at floor level, is completely surrounded by the audience.
Therefore, the correct stage size should be 20 ft wide x 16 ft deep, which would leave an ample 160 sq. ft (i.e. 20 ft wide x 8 ft deep, after subtracting the upstage 8 ft occupied by the drummer) for the rest of the band.
There are many different types of staging, each presenting unique challenges and opportunities when creating a performance:proscenium arch.end-on.in the round.traverse.thrust.promenade.
A stage where the audience sits on one side only is called a proscenium stage (you might know this as end-on staging). The audience faces one side of the stage directly, and may sit at a lower height or in tiered seating. The frame around the stage is called the proscenium arch.
Stage directions include center stage, stage right, stage left, upstage, and downstage. These guide the actors to one of the nine sections of the stage named after the center and four directions. Corners are referred to as up right, down right, up left, and down left.
The auditorium (also known as the house) is where the audience sits to watch the performance. The seating may be at one or more levels depending on the size and type of theatre.
Question: At What Age Do We Stop Learning?
Is it too late to learn a skill? People are ripe for
Question: What Is The Concept Of Socialization?
What are the 5 stages of socialization? To summarize
Quick Answer: How Old Was Annie Sullivan When Died?
What killed Helen Keller? June 1, 1968Helen Keller/Date of death.
How Do You Judge Someone'S Character?
What is a good judge of character? You want to meet
Question: What Are The 4 Main Working Relationships?
What are the 4 main working relationships in care?


three days which end in late January.
may not be on that day, but over this next (upcoming) week.
likely (soon enough) in their local environment.
while living through them, as being [epic] rather than [monumental].
differing perspectives in the ever present now.
work, that is the appearance of modifiers or articles in the descriptive labels.
tone that we all (global populace of humans) will be soon also [facing].
cross)' in the upcoming 'revelation by testing' of the 'face' of "the Irish".
ironic twist) what the rest of us need to see.
attributes of those she 'faces (down)'. Hint. Hint.


Not All Who Wander Are Lost: New digits, YO!
The reason my phone line went down?
As a bunch of you know, my old work number died. The new numbers are 720-568-1314 and 800-688-8606 x41314. That is my work phone and I'm currently 8 hours behind EST, but a day ahead. Their evening equals my work day.


text:
package repetition.exercises.solutions.string;

public class Exercise13 {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String columnList1 = "Stephen Edwin King";
		String columnList2 = "Walter Winchell";
		String columnList3 = "Mike Royko";

		// Are any of the above Strings equal to one another?
		boolean equals1 = columnList1.equals(columnList2);
		boolean equals2 = columnList1.equals(columnList3);

		// Display the results of the equality checks.
		System.out.println("\"" + columnList1 + "\" equals \"" + columnList2 + "\"? " + equals1);
		System.out.println("\"" + columnList1 + "\" equals \"" + columnList3 + "\"? " + equals2);
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Russian security firm Dr. Web has reported over 100 Android utility, photo editing and animated wallpaper apps that were available on Google Play to Google after finding that the apps don't deliver advertised capabilities but do, via malicious ads, steal personal information.
The firm says that Google removed some of the apps after it reported the issue, which abuses in-app advertising to infect targets with spyware. Dr. Web said the apps had been installed on 3.2 million Android devices.
The malicious apps are bogus versions of legitimate apps, according to Dr. Web, which identified the collection of apps as "Android.Spy.277.origin". The apps present a variety of misleading warnings such as that a device poses a safety hazard due to an overheated battery or that a battery is badly damaged. Following in the footsteps of desktop scareware, the attacker offers further app installations that are claimed to resolve issues flagged in fake system notifications.
According to Dr. Web, the malware will persist even if the original malicious app is deleted.
"It is noteworthy that a plug-in hidden in the Trojan's program package possesses the same features as the Android.Spy.277.origin itself. Once the Trojan receives instructions from the server, it tries to install this plug-in, masquerading it as an important update. Therefore, the device, in fact, contains two copies of Android.Spy.277.origin—thus, even if the original version of the Trojan is deleted, there is still its counterpart, which continues to deliver advertisements," the security firm said.
The malware extracts email addresses, unique details about the device, its location, network, and installed apps.
Google Play is generally considered the safest place to install Android apps from and Android users are encouraged avoid other sources. However, despite Google's security checks on apps distributed through Google Play, the sheer volume of new apps published on the store means the company sometimes misses malicious apps.
Google in January removed 13 apps from its official app store after third-party researchers flagged them as malware. Security firm Lookout noted at the time the apps, some of them games, behaved as advertised, however were also equipped to automatically generate positive reviews on the Play Store to encourage others to willingly install malware. The malicious apps also could only be uninstalled by re-flashing the device.


Really nice that we are taking a page from Nazgrim, may he rest in peace. I will remember thee when I cast this spell to spill Alliance blood... <3.
While obviously no one can say for certain what endgame raiding will look like in WoD so early into Alpha; I have to say as a Protection warrior this ability seems the most enticing (from a tanking perspective) of the 3 level 100 talents. While Readiness is an extremely powerful stat, it seems as of Jun 4th 2014 that they are not planning to put it on items in WoD, which also leads me to believe it is possible (but not certain, of course!) that the currently-boring but probably very powerful Anger Management will be changed.
Without Anger Management, it seems the extra threat of Ravager combined with its utility as a defensive cooldown (30% parry is pretty huge! It's basically Savage Defense!) during heavy melee damage on a short cooldown (1 minute personal defensive CD? Yes please!) makes it the default choice for endgame raiding as a tank.
For some reason, I am hoping for a Minor Glyph that will change the image of Ravager into a Shield.
The swirling weapon will be the one you currently use/mog with.
This macro will automatically cast Ravager centred at your character's location. If the shift key its held down, you'll be able to target it normally.
This makes the talent much more pleasant to use in my experience. Once I started using it I found I very, very, rarely wanted to target it manually. There are situations where it's handy -- perhaps you want to stay on the boss but throw Ravager on a group of adds being off-tanked, perhaps. But generally the macro will save you 1-2 seconds on each use and the occasional 'miss'.
Devastador está activo en este momento.


text:
Ford Classic may refer to:
Ford Consul Classic, a mid-sized car built by Ford of Britain between 1961 and 1963.
Ford Fiesta Classic, a supermini built by Ford from 1995 until 1997.
Ford Classic, a supermini built by Ford India since 2012 (also known as the Fiesta Classic from 2011 to 2012.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
Concerts /
Recordings /
E M I L Y M I T C H E L L Soprano
Born into a musical family, Scottish soprano Emily Mitchell, was submersed in music from an early age. She began her formal classically training at the RSAMD (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), where she gained a Bachelor in Music and a Masters in Music under the tutelage of Margaret Aronson. She continues her vocal study with soprano Jane Irwin. She is a Live Music Now! artist with her accompanist Geoffrey Tanti and is a regular performer with Scottish Opera.
Emily has made frequent appearances across Europe at the Transeuropeanes Festival in Rouen, in Heilbronn, and in Hamburg. As a regular performer with the Dunedin Consort, she has performed in the Toroella de Montegri Festival, Versailles Handel Festival, in Antwerp in Weimar as part of the Thüringia Bachwoche Festival, and most recently in their performance of Mozart Requiem in the Oslo Internasjonale Kirkemusikkfestival.
Emily's operatic experience includes Mélisande/Pelleas et Mélisande; Elsa/Lohengrin; Marzelline/Fidelio; Lauretta/Gianni Schicchi Opera Bohemia; Chorus/Flying Dutchman for Opera North; Chorus (Liu cover) Turandot for Scottish Opera; Echo/Ariadne Auf Naxos (cover) and Ninette/L'amour Pour Trois Oranges (cover) for RSAMD production; Sandman/Hänsel und Gretel for Aberdeen International Youth Festival; Fiordiligi/Cosi Fan Tutte BYO workshops; Helena/A Midsummer Nights Dream and Countess Almaviva/Le Nozze di Figaro for Ian Fleming Opera Scenes RSAMD.
She has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Mendelssohn Hymn of Praise at the Usher Hall 100th birthday Celebration, a concert performance of Poulenc's Les Carmélites, and in Kurt Weil's The Rise and Fall of Mahagony conducted by H.K.Gruber in the Edinburgh International Festival.She has also appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the semi chorus for Les Martyrs Des Saint Sebastien. Other concert performances include Berlioz Les Nuit D'étés Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra and Mahler Symphony No.4 with the Mahler Players.
Emily has been broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in Mendelssohn Rediscovered, and BBC Radio 3 several times. She also appeared with the BBC SSO and the London Symphony Chorus singing in the Scottish premiere of MacMillan's St John Passion. She made her BBC Proms début in August 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC SSO, conducted by Donald Runnicles in Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music.
Emily has an extensive concert career ranging from solo recital work to Oratorio. Her Oratorio engagements include Brahms Requiem at the Usherhall, Mozart's Coronation Mass (Canterbury Cathedral) and Exultate Jubilate, Haydn's Creation, Mendelssohn's Elijah at Canterbury Cathedral, Howells Hymnus Paradisi, Bach Magnificat and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Handel Gloria, Vivaldi's In Furore Iustissimae Irae, Handel Messiah at the AMUZ in Antwerp.
Emily's commercial recordings include Bach Magnificat, Handel's Esther and Mozart Requiem with Dunedin Consort, recorded by Linn Records and Handel's Triumph of Time and Truth with Ludus Baroque and Delphian Records. The Mozart Requiem won a Gramaphone award and was nominated for a Grammy award.
© Malin Widstrand Photography
© James Glossop Photography
© 2013 by Emily Mitchell


From its inception and establishment in 1959, Mussett, Nicholas & Associates, Inc. (MNA) has set a standard of excellence in consulting services. During the past 57 years, MNA has continued to serve the community, the state, and the international market with the same dedication and integrity that was envisioned by our company's founders.
Our consistency in providing customized, professional services has earned us a high reputation with our clients such that 90% of our annual business derives from those we have served in the past.
As times and the needs of our clients evolve, MNA continues its tradition of broadening the range of services we can provide.
MNA is staffed with over 50 employees. This is a highly professional staff with 53% of our Engineering and Architectural workforce having a Professional Status. It is a large number to produce multiple projects of large scope yet small enough to offer personal attention to the project's details.
MNA is licensed in over 10 states and has an in-house staff of over 30 Mechanical/Electrical Engineers, and 5 architects. Our staff also includes 5 LEED accredited professionals.
The principal owners of the company actively work on each project. Therefore, you get their involved experience and knowledge throughout the duration of your work.
What is right is defined by you, the Owner. Individuals at MNA do not impose their personal design goals at the expense of the Owner's needs or expressed interests. Our ability to listen while providing technical information and the interjection of our suggestions, we believe, has garnered the respect of our clients with whom we have collaborated on previous projects.
As you look to the future, be assured that MNA will fulfill your consulting needs with the same dedication and expertise that all our clients have come to expect and trust.


text:
Jose Mourinho on Tottenham unveiling: 'I am humble'
By Joe Prince-WrightNov 21, 2019, 9:31 AM EST
Okay, this is still weird, but Jose Mourinho has given his first press conference as Tottenham Hotspur's head coach.
As expected, it was box office.
[ MORE: Latest Mourinho news ]
Mourinho, 56, answered questions from reporters at Spurs' training ground on Thursday ahead of their clash at bitter London rivals West Ham United on Saturday (Watch live, 7:30 a.m. ET on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com).
The former Chelsea and Manchester United boss began by praising his friend Mauricio Pochettino who was fired less than 12 hours before he was hired as Spurs' new manager.
"Mauricio, for the work he did, this club will be always his home," Mourinho said. "He can come when he wants. When he misses the players, when he misses the people he work with. The door is always open for him. He will find happiness again. He will find a great club again. He will have a great future."
Mourinho then interestingly said he will not make the same mistakes he made previously in his career, as he's spent his recent time off tweaking his methods and thinking about how he can evolve as a coach.
"I always thought that these 11 months were not a waste of time. They were months to think, to analyse, to prepare. You never lose your DNA, you never lose your identity, you are what you are," Mourinho added. "I am humble. I am humble enough to analyze my career, and the problems. There was no one else to blame… I went really deep in that analysis… I am stronger. I am not fitter, I was always fit! But I am stronger from an emotional point of view. I am relaxed, I am motivated, I am ready and I think the players felt that in two days. I am ready to support them, this is not about me. It is about the club. I am here to try and help everyone."
The press conference room at Spurs' training ground was packed, with a limit of one journalist per organization such was the demand, and Mourinho smiled and lapped up the attention as he is back in the Premier League after a 11-month hiatus after his firing by Man United. Mourinho revealed he thought he would get a job midseason.
"I'm nobody to advise people but to have a break was very positive for me," Mourinho revealed. "Having the first summer where I didn't work was not good for me. I was a bit lost. But it was good for me. I even learned how to be a pundit."
So, what is Mourinho looking forward to as Tottenham's new manager?
"I couldn't be happier. In relation to the difficulty of the job ahead – every time a club changes mid-season it is because the situation is not good, that is obvious – unless something strange happened that we don't know about. Basically the results sometimes force these decisions," Mourinho said. "The potential of the club is huge, the potential of the players is great I am so happy that was one of the reasons I came because of the vision that Mr Levy put in front of me about the club and the quality of the players and the squad. I know potentially I have a great job in my hands."
Mourinho was asked about his connection to Spurs' London rivals Chelsea, as he won three Premier League titles in two spells at Stamford Bridge.
Can Tottenham's fans overlook Mourinho's links to rivals Chelsea?
"I think they have to see me as Mr Inter, Mr Real Madrid, Mr Porto. I wear the pyjamas of my clubs! I am a club man, but a many clubs man," Mourinho said. "I decided in my career to have these different adventures in different countries until I did what I call the Grand Slam, England, Spain and Italy. I did not stop. I wanted to do it and I did it with passion. I have always said the Premier League is my natural habitat is where I am most loved is where I felt if I had the option is the league and the country that I considered the best and found most enjoyable and where I am really happy."
"Now I only have one shirt and only one passion and only one thing in my mind which is my club and that is Spurs," Mourinho said. "I won the Champions League with Porto and three months later I was playing against Porto – that is life. I'm not Chelsea, I'm not United, I'm not Real Madrid, I'm not Inter – I am all of them, I gave everything to all of them and that is what I am going to do here, to give absolutely everything I have."
Asked about signing new players in January and beyond, Mourinho was keen to put his faith in the players he currently has at his disposal.
"The best gift are the players who are here. I don't need new players," Mourinho said. "I just need to get to know these ones better. I know them well but you never know them well enough until you meet them."
That will be music to the ears of Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, initially, as he's made a huge call to bring in Mourinho to replace Pochettino and many believed that would spark a period of heavy spending for the north London club.
With Spurs 11 points off the top four in the Premier League as things stand, Mourinho has a heck of a job on his hands.
But he is now in role he relishes.
The Special One is the underdog once again.
Mourinho has won trophies at every single club he's been at in his managerial career and Spurs haven't secured any silverware since 2008. He wants to turn Harry Kane and Co. into one thing: Winners.
"When I don't win I cannot be happy and I cannot change that in my DNA. I hope I can influence the players of not being happy without winning football matches," Mourinho said. "If you are happy after losing football matches, it is difficult to be a winner in any moment of your career."
Tags: Jose Mourinho, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, Ba, Harry Kane, Mauricio Pochettino, Pote, Stam
Cavani linked with Man United, Spurs, Chelsea
Edinson Cavani has handed in a transfer request at Paris Saint-Germain as he's been linked with a move to Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea in the January window.
PSG sporting director Leonardo confirmed that PSG met with Atletico Madrid but that they couldn't agree a deal with the Spanish club as Cavani's contract runs out in the summer.
"We've always said the same thing. We were hoping he would stay with the club, but today (Sunday) he asked to leave. We're studying the situation. We've had a proposal from Atletico Madrid, but that proposal was not commensurate with the player's value," Leonardo said.
Cavani, 32, has also been linked with a move to the LA Galaxy and Inter Miami in recent months as his hip injury in August and subsequent fitness problems has allowed Neymar, Mauro Icardi and Kylian Mbappe to develop a devastating partnership up front for the French champions.
Tottenham's need for a short-term solution up front is greater than any other club in the Premier League after Jose Mourinho lost Harry Kane until at least April with a serious hamstring injury. Spurs have been working hard to find a solution and Cavani, who turns 33 in February, would surely fit the bill as his characteristics as a player are very similar to Kane.
With Chelsea having Tammy Abraham as their main striker with Olivier Giroud and Michy Batshuayi as back ups, providing competition for Abraham is clearly necessary as Chelsea continue to fire blanks despite dominating games. If they're going to finish in the top four this season they need to be more clinical in the final third as they've now lost to West Ham, Bournemouth, Southampton and Newcastle without scoring.
Frank Lampard admitted that he admires Cavani and refused to rule out a move for the striker this month.
"He's (Cavani) a great player – I played against him and I always loved his mentality and his attitude. His goal-scoring record speaks for itself. I'm not absolutely aware of what the situation is, so we'll see," Lampard said. "He's an experienced player but so are many other players out there! We are young as a squad so the idea of bringing in experience is not something I'm looking away from. Sometimes the younger players need a bit of help."
As for Man United, the news that star striker Marcus Rashford is set to be out for at least the next two months was a hammer blow to their top four hopes as they sit five points behind fourth-place Chelsea in the table. Mason Greenwood is their main back-up option but with Rashford out, Anthony Martial needs to step up to the plate and kick on to replicate his fine start to the season. He didn't do that against Liverpool in the 2-0 defeat at Anfield and this is what Solskjaer had to say about signing a new striker.
"It might be because the window is open that we look at some short-term deals as well and that could take us through until the summer."
Who needs Cavani more? There's no doubt the Uruguayan striker would be a stop-gap signing for all three clubs but his quality is undoubted and his physically style of play would suit the Premier League well.
He is perhaps better suited to Tottenham and Chelsea's style of play as both rely on a true target man to build off of, while at United their attacking unit is all about pace on the counter, something Cavani doesn't possess much of any more, bless him. However, given how well Zlatan Ibrahimovic performed at United in 2016-17, maybe the Red Devils will be eager to put their Champions League hopes on the shoulders of another veteran striker from PSG?
Cavani's record for Napoli and PSG proves he is a world-class striker and if one of Spurs, United or Chelsea sign him this month, their chances of finishing in the top four will sky rocket. That's how pivotal he could be, if fully fit and ready to empty his tank in Europe for the next few years before heading to Major League Soccer.
Tags: Chelsea, Edinson Cavani, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Premier League, transfer news, Uruguay
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