From the Who's Side Are You On Department, via London's Al-Sharq al-Awsat, :
LONDON, June 18, 2005 (Al-Sharq al-Awsat) -- Fundamentalists in London say that the unprecedented attack on the Sudanese government by Ayman al-Zawahri, the number one ally of the leader of Al-Qaida Organization Osama bin Ladin, in his new tape that was broadcast by the Qatari satellite channel Al-Jazeera yesterday (June 17) was due to Khartoum's handing over to Washington of files on Al-Qaida's leaderships.Hani al-Subaie the director of Al-Maqrizi Research Centre in London told Al-Sharq al-Awsat "Khartoum has turned over files with photographs for most of the leaderships of Al-Qaida and the Egyptian Jihad" who used to live in the Sudanese capital until they broke off and left Sudan in 1995....
Ayman al-Zawahri, the number two man in Al-Qaida Organization criticized "the American visualization of reforms" and attacked, according to the tape, the Sudanese, Saudi and Egyptian governments according to what the channel cited.
Yup.
And I recall the anger in Pakistani nuke and military establishments at the betrayal by Iran and libya when they admitted that the designs and parts they used for their programs' centrifuges originated in pukeistan.
/Ain't no honor among thieves these days, eh?
Politics and religion are inextricably intertwined in Islam. Loyalty should not be to Sudan, Egypt, Sudan, France, the U.S. or any nationality. Loyalty is to Islam and other Muslims. Thus they consider that Sudan betrayed Islam and all Muslims.
The Caliphate is the only "state" or "nationality" that should hold the loyalty of Muslims. Non-Muslims would be the dhimma is this arrangement. Few, including this reader, would be a willing participant.
Voletti, this is the way they are.
Muslims are the biggest murderers of muslims, historically. Betrayal of their own kind is normal, they do not trust one another.
BTW, have you seen Lawrence of Arabia, which I believe was banned by Saudi Arabia, there is a very telling scene near the end of the movie. There is a tribal leader meeting in Damascus, it gets out of hand, some of these leaders leap onto the tables with daggers drawn. This is how they really are in the muslim world, violence is part of their way of dealing with things they don't like. They are a belligerent people.
Let the hyenas tear at themselves.
Saves us the time and trouble.
It's the Koran, stupid.
"Qualis rex, talis grex."
(As the lord, so the herd.)
Interesting development. If this came as a result of contact between U.S. and Sudanese intelligence services, I certainly hope that these gains are not offset by the ethical consequences of dealing with a rogue state.
I read this a few days ago.
June 17, 2005 latimes.com
Sudanese Visitor Split U.S. Officials
By Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-sudan17jun17,1,4587910,full.story
WASHINGTON — A decision by the CIA to fly Sudan's intelligence chief to Washington for secret meetings aimed at cementing cooperation against terrorism triggered such intense opposition within the Bush administration that some officials suggested arresting him here, sources said.
The internal debate over the April visit by Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, whose government Washington accuses of committing genocide in the Darfur region, goes to the heart of a broader dispute about the CIA's alliances with foreign intelligence services.
Critics say that when the U.S. works with controversial countries such as Sudan, it suggests that it isn't serious about promoting democracy and human rights. Many experts on intelligence matters, however, say that Washington has no choice but to rely on some governments with questionable human rights records to help fight its war against terrorism.
Gosh's agency has allowed the CIA to question Al Qaeda suspects living in Sudan and detained foreign militants moving through the country on their way to joining Iraqi insurgents, U.S. and Sudanese officials have said. The trip was intended to help strengthen the relationship.
With plans for the visit on the verge of collapse, two people familiar with the situation said, a compromise was struck with opponents of the visit in the State and Justice departments. Gosh was allowed to come, but a scheduled meeting with CIA Director Porter J. Goss was canceled.
But Ted Dagne, a Sudan specialist with the Congressional Research Service, said State Department officials believed Gosh's trip would "send a political signal to the [Sudanese] government that Darfur would not prevent Sudan from winning support in Washington."
The disclosure of Gosh's visit, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, also angered some members of Congress.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus criticized the visit during a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday.
Rep. Donald M. Payne (news, bio, voting record) (D-N.J.) told a State Department official who was testifying on Capitol Hill last month that bringing Gosh "to visit Washington at this time is tantamount to inviting the head of the Nazi SS at the height of the Holocaust."
A senior U.S. official, who commented officially but declined to be named, defended the visit. "Mr. Gosh has strategic knowledge and information about a critical region in the war on terror. The information he has is of substantial value to law enforcement, the intelligence community and the U.S. government as a whole, and this relationship will be of both current and future value."
Gosh's visit, the official added, did not mean that Sudan would receive "a free pass on critical policy issues" such as Darfur.
Partnerships with foreign governments, known as liaison relationships, are "an indispensable part of CIA's counterterrorism strategy," former agency Director George J. Tenet told the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks last year.
President Bush reiterated that charge this month. Yet cooperation between the CIA and the Mukhabarat, Sudan's intelligence agency, has steadily grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.
But an internal debate erupted after word of the invitation spread to other government agencies. Their concern stemmed in part from a 2004 letter that 11 members of Congress sent to Bush, which accused Gosh of being a chief architect of the violence in Darfur.
The letter said Sudan had engaged in a "scorched-earth policy against innocent civilians in Darfur." It identified 21 Sudanese government, military and militia leaders as responsible and called on the administration to freeze their assets and ban them from coming to the U.S. Gosh was No. 2 on the list.
Gosh arrived here aboard a CIA jet and met with other senior agency officials April 20 and 21. The CIA canceled the meeting with Goss on the second day, saying that the director was unavailable because he needed to attend John D. Negroponte's swearing-in to the position of director of national intelligence, a source said.
Gosh returned to Sudan on April 22, again traveling in a jet provided by the CIA.