Energy independence. Now. Here's one sure instance where poverty didn't cause terrorism. Islamic supremacist ideologues with too much money to throw around did, and often do. "Indonesia: Terror attacks 'funded from Middle East'," from AdnKronos International, August 20:
Jakarta, 20 August (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Funding for a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including last month's twin hotel bombings in Jakarta, has come from the Middle East, local police have claimed.
Police confirmed in Jakarta on Wednesday they had detained a Saudi Arabian national suspected of trafficking cash funds to fugitive terror suspect Noordin Mohamed Top and Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group believed to be the regional arm of Al-Qaeda.
Malaysian-born Noordin Mohamed Top was a key figure behind the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings in Indonesia and remains one of Asia's most wanted fugitives.
Insp. Gen. (ret) Ansyaad Mbai, a senior counter-terrorism official, said the money for key attacks in Indonesia could have originated from personal or charitable sources in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
“The problem is that the money was not transferred via banks. This has happened in Indonesia and other countries [in the past] and it makes it difficult to trace the source,” Ansyaad said.
“They [terrorists] understand the government could freeze any money if it was transferred through the banking system. Therefore they use couriers to channel the funds.”
While information on suspected foreign sources of funding is rare, Ansyaad said Indonesian officials had been aware of the involvement of overseas donors from the Middle East since the bomb attacks in Bali in 2002 and those against the Marriott hotel in 2003.
Indonesian police are intensifying their efforts to trace the money used to fund the 17 July attacks on the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people and wounded more than 50....
A bit off-topic, but it is an update to everyone who is following my case.... but before I get into details...is there an american girl who wants to marry a charming young fellow, who can cook and has a degree in forensic biology?
Anyway, here is the update...(HOPO = Home Office Presenting Officer = the Home Office lawyer)
It went quite badly...again! Our solicitor tried to use discretion with the HOPO, and even showing that I would be prone to suicide if I return to Brazil...the hopo said, nope, thats not an argument, you have no grounds ...
He acted like he didnt care what happened to us, as long as he win the case.
The judge wouldn't stop making questions to our solicitor, whilst he never asked a thing to the HOPO.
Yep, there are only 2 options, I marry someone or go to the US or Canada...
I cant understand why the Home Office loves to allow terrorists in the country, they even allowed Osama Bin Laden son here... whilst hardworking immigrants, with high education and invesment in the country, they kick them out.
I'm sorry, but home office really needs a reform, they are a bunch of a$$/-/0les.
One must love an unfair trial.
Whoa, a man who can cook?! ...gosh, my hubby can barely boil water. Good luck with that, DCM :)
Dr. CancerMan,
Can't you get an H1B? Probably foolish to ask in this economic climate...I am all for qualified professionals being retained, especially FORN because they are usually the top of their fields "back home"
On the subject of cooking for your girl, try Poached Salmon some time...tarragon vinegar, fresh yogurt...sear the Salmon skin side down, chill the steaks in the fridge, use the yogurt and the tarragon to form a base with the drippings...it will turn pinkish...also chill....pour the base over the steaks serve that chilled dish to any girl and see what she says...
There's a few more ingredients and such...look it up on line some time...good fortune.
Here's hoping you can pull it off.
: )
Peace
Abdullah
There seems to have been a massive terrorist cash injection this year. Strategypage.com noted about Afghanistan "Al Qaeda still has wealthy backers in the Arab world, for the terrorists are complaining less about money problems these days, and are able to buy all the explosives and other supplies they need to equip their suicide bombers. Apparently religious schools are now the best source of suicide bombers."
It might be my tinfoil hat getting too tight, but I think there might be a opportunity here to expose the jihadi dollar network, a look behind the curtain all the way to the top.
gordo,
Why is there always this rabid fascination with Arabs? They only compose 15% of the total world Muslim population.
The continuous Arab bashing seems to have a different source, Zionist leaning sympathies?
Consider that we other Muslims outnumber them almost 6 to 1...I think there is a lot more politically going wrong in Afghanistan than an "Arab conspiracy."
That's not a surprise the Saudi's and even the Iranians have been funding Wahabbi/Shiite missionaries since the late 70's/early 80's across SE Asia. So it was only a matter of time until Islamicized Malaysians/Indonesian/Filipino's/etc. started morphing into violent terrorist groups.
The other telling part of these Islamic missionaries is that although Jews are a rarity in SE Asia, that doesn't stop these governments and religious authorities from propagating the same vile hate towards Jews.
AbdullahMikail,
I don't know.. there's been a flair up from the 'holier than thou' fanatics this year. Even battling with the Hamas security goons. (what did you think of that?)
Nigeria, Somalia, Indonesia, Swat and Buner valleys. All these attacks.. I think alot of money has been thrown around lately, and after looking at the primates who spent it, I'll bet there's a big enough money trail to see the jihadi network more clearly..
A vast Zionist Conspiracy of course.
gordo,
I was commenting on the fact that it seems the only finger ever pointed here is at "Arabs"... why do you think that is?
My humble layman's opinion?
Nigeria is oil related...the poor and dispossessed are trying to get their fair share in an unfair world...usually takes the promise of force when people don't agree. Those higher up the food chain always use the threat of force to back up diplomacy...but when those stuck on the bottom rung use it, suddenly its "terrorism."
Swat and Brunner Valleys, the Pakistani Govt made peace, entered an agreement and it was good. We, the Americans pushed them to break it, and what resulted was more violence...the tribal regions have always been autonomous there...somehow Pakistan admitting that in writing pissed of the neocons here.
Hamas? But what did we, the Americans do to the Palestinians when they chose their government? Interfered, refused to acknowledge, rejected...but wait, it was the democracy we wanted there, right? No there is no logic in that region of the world from the Israelis, the Lebanes, the Palestinians... none of them.
"primates" ? So should we call George Washington a "terrorist" and a "primate"?
People want freedom, and real democracy is suppossed to deliver that, right?
Yeah, you might be able to trace wires and such, but cash talks...and you can't trace that.
Drop the patronizing tone, if JW wasn't the love child of FPM I wouldn't even make the Zionist remark...but it is, and smearing Arabs is what they do to forward their agenda.
Peace
Abdullah
Dr Cancer Man - don't forget sunny Australia! If you've got medical qualifications gained in the UK, you should stand a chance of getting in here, especially if you were game to do a stint in a country hospital...our remote area mining towns and farming towns can *always* use doctors.
And today the big news in Indo is the police all over Java are raiding all the hotels and many "villages" arresting hundreds of hookers, and they are being helped by the islamists.
No hanky panky for the moslems during ramadan (without the ding dong)
NAKAL -- yeah, we can call it Moolah4Muslims, lol!
Dr. Cancerman, we need Doctors big time in Canada.
BTW. Abdullah, the salmon recipe sounded spectacular.
gordo, it isn't the arabs that re the problem so much as the ideology itself.
Islam mixes with democracy as oil mixes with water. As long as muslims continue to flood into our countries and cannot integrate with our western ways then it's too-bad-so-sad-nice-to-see-you-go back to where you came from and take your stupid, idiotic, religio-fascist ideology with you all.
It's not a hatred against the people. I like the people. I just don't like the belief system.
Sorry. That's just the way it is. I value our Freedoms too much.
The Indonesian government has been playing the west as a fiddle for a long time.
On one hand they appear to have 'improved' human rights and freedom of religion, etc. (as you can see on the Dept. of States annual report) and on the other they let various regions apply sharia. For fighting terror - terrorists who killed or terrorized fellow Indonesians are still free, only the ones whose victims were non Indonesian have been apprehended.
Middle East oil money has been pouring into Indonesia for a long time. I remember an article in the Indonesian papers I read quite a number of years ago. An Arab had several hundred thousands dollars in cash in a briefcase stolen from him in one of the 5 star hotels in Jakarta. The police were able to find the stolen money, but there was no investigation let alone arrest. This Arab man smuggled money into the country a criminal offense. One can just wonder what the money was for.
Also, a few months ago, Gus Dur, or Abdurrachman Wahid, an ex president of Indonesia, published a book of which he was editor, called Illusion of an Islamic State
It is a very interesting read, by an ex President of Indonesia, no less, about the stealth infiltration of Wahabbism into all levels of the government and society, how it was all funded by oil money from the middle east.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/25/wahid-book-islamic-state-under-threat.html?1
Indonesia has 'freedom of the press'. Sure! This biggest bookstore in Indonesia doesn't carry it. In this article they said that they had received no threats, but that they would not sell a book depending on it's content. hmmm ...... Made me wonder if they were afraid that they'd be visited by a certain group if they sold this book in their stores? One would think that a book regarding current affairs by an ex president no less, would be of interest to many people.
Few months ago, this book could only be had by buying it directly from Wahid Institute. When I asked my sister to get it there, there was so much interest in it, that they had to limit it to 4 books per person. Apparently mr. Wahid wanted as many people as possible to read the book, which can be downloaded at (it's in Indonesian):
http://www.bhinnekatunggalika.org/downloads/ilusi-negara-islam.pdf
Nakal, good post, I agree with what you've written. Unfortunately, that was a different era and the changes in Malaysia, Indonesia, et al. haven't been totally positive. Malay and Indonesian muslims by and large were once a pretty relaxed lot -watch some Malay movies from the seventies or sixties- until the late 70's/start of the eighties when the Iranian revolution, the soviet occupation of afghanistan, and the petro-dollar funded Saudi-Sunni Arab missionary activities all combined to create an increasingly rigid, Arabised version of Islam. I'm not arguing that there weren't problems-Islam is problematic all by itself- just far less magnified than now.
Anyway, at one point in the 80's women started covered up enmasse, Malay traditional dress/ headress - graceful and somewhat sexy was abandoned together with other artforms and danceforms and longstanding cultural practices now deemed jahiliya. More and more muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia now routinely refer to their parents' and grandparents' generations as the jahil, the ignorant, the unislamic.
The message is pure and simple:
"slay them wherever you find them"
- Prophet Mohammed