“JIHADIST’S” Purge “JIHADIST” From Vocabulary

Obama administration has argued for a differentiation between good Jihadi and bad Jihadi and a big difference between terrorists and the tenets of Islam. In an extreme act of capitulation the White House in 2009 publicly urged sheeple on the hill to cease using the term “jihadist” – asserting that terrorists are simply extremists. You have to be stupid to ignore the fact that members of Islam call their terroristic acts “jihad”. Two years later, the White House ordered a cleansing of training materials that Islamic groups in, their jihadist struggle, deemed offensive.

The good “J” word “Justice” has been subdued by the bad “J” word “Jihad”. This is done in order to preempt the bad feelings which would be engendered in a good jihadist because of the use of the word to describe a self described bad jihadist.

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate
Some men you just can’t reach…
So, you get what we had here last week
Which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
Now, I don’t like it any more than you” GNR (Civil War)

(with included rewrite to the tune of GNR Civil War)

Our hands are tied
while our dreams of peace
are sweept aside
by the bloody hands of
Jihadist Islamist genocide.

It’s just a word
when it’s said
that you have died.
Don’t dare use a word that
hurts their pride.

They are not our friend,
not on our side.
If we don’t speak the truth
then it’s we who have lied.

Our dreams of peace
are sweept aside
by the bloody hands of
Jihadist Islamist genocide.

Don’t want war
and terms you will render.
Peace in two words
“We surrender”

Our dreams of peace
are sweept aside
by the bloody hands of
Jihadist Islamist genocide.

“The Third Jihad” Movie

Indictments Emphasize Need for Vigilance

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2006 – The U.S. attorney general called today’s indictment of three Ohio men who conspired to kill U.S. citizens overseas, particularly military forces in Iraq, another indication that the United States must remain vigilant in fighting terrorism.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced indictments against three men he said were part of a terrorist conspiracy that has operated in Toledo, Ohio, over the past year.

Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum were indicted in the U.S. District Court in Ohio.

The three were charged with “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts against persons or individuals overseas and with providing material support to terrorists,” Gonzales said during a news conference here today.

The three defendants actively supported a jihad, or holy war, against the U. S., the attorney general said. They educated themselves on how to make and use explosive and suicide-bomb vests and conducted their own jihad military training exercises, including weapons training. One attempted to get mortar training.

All three defendants conspired to provide money, training, communications equipment, computers and personnel, including themselves, to terrorists in the Middle East, Gonzales said. They planned to use a business to justify travel to Iraq, and conspired to establish a dummy nonprofit tax education organization to raise money for their cause.

Amawi downloaded a video from a Web site that provided step-by-step instructions on how to use a suicide bomb vest, and passed the information on to another person, the attorney general said. He also threatened to kill or hurt President Bush, Gonzales said.

If convicted of the most serious charges against them, the defendants could receive sentences of up to life in prison, he said.

Gonzales said the United States has strong cases against all three defendants, but he emphasized that they have not yet been convicted of any crime.

Today’s indictments underscore the importance of the criminal justice system in fighting terrorism and the need to catch terrorists early, he said. “We cannot wait until an attack happens,” Gonzales said. “We will continue to use our criminal laws as Congress intended, to charge individuals once they conspire to provide support to terrorism or conspire to kill abroad.”

The indictments drive home the point that terrorist supporters are operating within the U. S. and that the nation must remain on high alert to stop them before they act, the attorney general said.

“This case stands as a reminder of the need for continued vigilance in the war on terrorism,” he said. “America remains at risk, so we must remain vigilant. We will stay on the offense. We will hunt down the terrorists and we will never rest until this threat to the American people is removed.”

The United States remains committed to protecting its citizens, “particularly the brave men of women of the U.S. armed forces who are serving our country and striving valiantly to preserve democracy and the rule of law in Iraq,” Gonzales said.

Judge Dismisses Charges Against USS Cole Suspect

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2009 – Charges against an accused terrorist being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were dismissed yesterday by the judge who oversees the military commissions system, Defense Department officials said.

Susan J. Crawford, the convening authority for military commissions at Guantanamo, yesterday dismissed the government’s charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in accordance with President Barack Obama’s order to temporarily halt activities there, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told the Pentagon Channel today.

However, Nashiri isn’t going anywhere, Morrell pointed out. The suspected al-Qaida operative, he said, will remain confined at Guantanamo and could have charges brought against him in the future.

Nashiri “will remain in custody, charges can be brought against him again if the administration would choose to do so in the future, and we are fully in compliance with the executive order the president signed a couple of days after his inauguration, halting all military commissions activities” at Guantanamo, Morrell said.

The White House has tasked the Pentagon to review detention operations at Guantanamo to ascertain whether or not detainees are humanely treated according to the Geneva Conventions.

Obama is scheduled to meet with victims of the USS Cole bombing and the 9/11 attacks at the White House today.

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates this week directed Navy Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of Naval Operations, to lead the Pentagon’s assessment of Guantanamo’s detainee operations. Walsh is at Guantanamo now and his review is to be completed within 30 days.

Nashiri is the alleged planner of the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole when it was berthed in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen U.S. sailors died and 39 were injured in the attack.

Some family members and friends of servicemembers killed or injured in the USS Cole attack have voiced concerns that Nashiri could escape justice if the detention center is closed within a year, as is stipulated by Obama’s Jan. 22 executive order.

“We all feel for them,” Morrell said of the grieving families and friends. “The last thing anyone wants to do is victimize these people twice.”

The bottom line, Morrell said, is that Nashiri remains in U.S. custody.

“He is confined and will be until some determination is made by a court or some legal authority in the future,” Morrell said. “The only thing that has happened now is that his legal case will not proceed while this review is under way into the whole military commissions process.”

A military judge at Guantanamo on July 29 ordered that legal proceedings against Nashiri continue. The judge scheduled Nashiri to be arraigned Feb. 9. The judge’s order contradicted Obama’s Jan. 20 directive to Gates to cease referring any new cases through the military commissions process at Guantanamo Bay and to request 120-day continuances on all active cases there. Two days later, the president issued three executive orders, one of which directs the closure of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay within the year.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon yesterday said that Crawford’s decision regarding Nashiri “reflects the fact that the president has issued an executive order which mandates that the military commissions be halted, pending the outcome of several comprehensive reviews of our detention operations at Guantanamo.”

Working to Prevent Humanitarian Disaster in Iraq

From the memory Jar
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2003 – While there has been no decision to go to war with Saddam Hussein, the U.S. military has been working to avert a humanitarian crisis in the country should conflict become inevitable.

The Defense Department has been working with international aid organizations, nongovernmental organizations and other federal agencies to ensure that humanitarian aid flows quickly to those who need it, said Joseph J. Collins, deputy assistant defense secretary for stability operations, during a Pentagon press conference today.

DoD’s goals are to minimize the displacement of the Iraqi people, limit damage to infrastructure and avoid the disruption of services wherever possible, he said.

Collins said DoD would support humanitarian relief efforts during a conflict and reconstruction efforts after one. Defense officials have been meeting for more than five months with State Department and Agency for International Development experts in humanitarian relief and reconstruction.

Since the Gulf War, the economy of Iraq has suffered. Hussein’s refusal to disarm, his continued diversion of funds from food to palaces and his attempts at ethnic cleansing have served to keep U.N. sanctions in place. As a result, Iraq’s per capita gross domestic product has dropped from a pre-Gulf War $4,714 per year to $2,475 in 2001. Life expectancy has dropped from 62 years to 56. The infant mortality rate has climbed from 72 deaths per thousand live births to 92 per thousand. Daily caloric intake dropped from 2,932 to 2,232.

Other statistics show Iraq already has a humanitarian crisis of note. U.N. officials estimate 800,000 Iraqis are displaced within the country while another 740,000 have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

There are many uncertainties in fashioning the international community’s response to the need for humanitarian assistance. First, would Hussein employ chemical and biological weapons in the event of war? Collins said combat forces would have to deal with that aftermath and a vastly complicated humanitarian picture.

Iraqi forces set fire to Kuwaiti oil wells as they retreated in the Gulf War. Would they do that to their own wells? What other Iraqi infrastructure might Hussein target?

U.N. personnel who monitor the Oil-for-Food program would be pulled out in the event of war. How do you rebuild a distribution infrastructure?

“In the event of a conflict, the U.S. will devote unprecedented attention to humanitarian relief and the prevention of excessive damage to infrastructure and to unnecessary casualties,” Collins said.

“We will do this by three methods,” he continued. “The Department of Defense is engaged in careful targeting to ensure the minimum amount of damage. Second, we are engaged in what we call ‘humanitarian mapping’ to ensure that our combat forces know where the enemy is and where (nongovernmental) and international facilities that have a humanitarian impact are. Thirdly, we are engaged in detailed cooperation with international organizations and NGOs.”

DoD will not lead a humanitarian effort in Iraq, but rather work with civilian relief agencies that do run them. “They have the expertise,” Collins said. “We will help them where we can, but they are the organizations that do the ‘heavy lifting.'”

DoD’s main push, therefore, is to get the United Nations, international relief agencies and other nongovernmental agencies back in place as soon as possible, he said.

The Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Teams will work closely with Civil- Military Operations Centers to ensure that basic human needs are met once combat troops leave an area.

DoD has stockpiled 3 million Humanitarian Daily Rations in undisclosed nearby areas. It also has given grants to the U.N. World Food Program so it can begin to ready other supplies.

Collins said the department will continue to meet with other governmental, international and humanitarian organizations, but the department will follow the lead of the State Department in this important aspect.

Coalition Kills Two Taliban Leaders in Afghanistan

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2009 – Coalition forces killed 22 armed militants, including two Taliban leaders, and captured 11 in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Jan. 19, military officials reported.

In Kapisa province, coalition forces killed Taliban commander Mullah Patang and 18 other militants during an operation to disrupt the Taliban’s terrorist network in the Tagab Valley, north of the city of Kabul. Patang carried out orders from senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and abroad, including numerous roadside bombings and direct attacks against civilians, Afghan officials and coalition forces throughout the region, officials said.

As coalition forces approached Patang’s compound, multiple armed militants came out of several buildings and engaged the force with small-arms fire. Coalition forces returned fire and used close-air precision munitions to stop them.

A search yielded more than 20 AK-47 assault rifles, multiple hand grenades and bandoliers of full magazines. The items were destroyed, and eight suspects were detained.

Coalition leaders are investigating Afghan news reports that civilians were killed in the operation.

In Kandahar, coalition forces killed a second Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Rahim Akund, and another armed militant while targeting the Taliban’s roadside-bombing network, officials said. Akund was known for planning, coordinating and carrying out bombings throughout the province.

Despite coalition forces’ efforts to peacefully empty the compound, the militants resisted and were killed. A search revealed a 105 mm artillery round that had the explosives removed, presumably to construct roadside bombs.

In Khowst province, Afghan and coalition forces netted a targeted Haqqani militant during a successful combined operation. The detained militant was believed to be in direct contact with senior Haqqani leaders outside of Afghanistan, coordinating activities aimed at destabilizing Afghanistan and harming civilians.

In Zabol province, coalition forces continued to apply pressure to the Taliban’s roadside-bombing network, killing an armed militant and detaining two others. The operation in Jaldak district, northeast of Kandahar, targeted a Taliban militant believed to carry out bombings and attacks against coalition forces along Highway 1. The targeted militant also is believed to be in contact with multiple Taliban commanders in the region.

During the operation, an armed militant was shot and killed after he attempted to engage the force.

Leaders Develop Vision for Iraqi Women’s Rights

By Army Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret
Special to American Forces Press Service

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, Jan. 21, 2009 – Coalition and Iraqi leaders discussed programs to improve Iraqi women’s rights and a vision for a more united future during a Women’s Initiative Seminar here.

An interpreter translates a speech for Sameera al-Mosawi, right, board president for the Council of Representative of Women, Family and Children Committee, on programs to benefit women’s rights during the Women’s Initiative Seminar on Camp Victory, Iraq, Jan. 17, 2009.

“I want to bring forward studies on women and human rights to be able to live in peace in the country and bring change to some aspects of our society’s perspective,” Sameera al-Mosawi, board president for the Council of Representative of Women, Family and Children Committee, said at the Jan. 17 seminar. “We want people to believe in this change like America did.”

The seminar provided a forum in which Iraqi government and coalition representatives from all levels could openly discuss the challenges facing Iraqi women and possible solutions to overcome those challenges.

“Increased and honest exchanges of information are vital to the development of any plan of action that addresses this seminal Iraqi societal issue,” Army Lt. Col. Robert Jones, deputy civil affairs officer for Multinational Corps Iraq, said.

Representatives brought forth ideas for future projects. Mosawi suggested establishing research centers to study women’s issues and roles in society. Scientific studies through universities and public agencies would be a powerful tool in uniting people toward a focused vision, she said.

The main hurdle, Mosawi said, is increasing awareness about women’s rights. “Society cannot grow unless women participate in culture, and society must realize this through education courses in all levels, both in rural and urban areas,” she said.

Representatives discussed using the help of nongovernment agencies, such as small businesses and private companies, to improve education.

In Iraq, only 42 kindergartens are open, 20 of them in Baghdad. Mosawi said these schools are not enough to provide care and education to more than 13 million Iraqi children. Additional schools would result in teaching opportunities for women, and enable mothers to work who otherwise would have to remain at home with their children.

A need exists for women to learn craftsmanship and other skills important in their present economic markets, seminar participants said. Ideally, grants and financial aid would be available to the trainers and the women being trained.

“In my personal opinion, an educated woman is distinguished and stands in a better position among her community of women,” Nawal Majid al-Samarrai, minister of state women’s affairs, said. “We only need to assist her [to give her] an opportunity.”

Many of the projects brought to the table went beyond women’s rights. Discussions included opportunities for children, orphans, displaced families and the disabled.

A lack of resources, both human and financial, is a challenge facing future initiatives, participants said.

The biggest hurdle, Samarrai said, is that offices for women’s initiatives don’t exist in provinces and cities throughout Iraq. They have been limited to inside Baghdad, isolated from the women who need it most in the communities.

Despite the obstacles, Mosawi said, she remains hopeful about the future.

“I’m very optimistic about the vision of Iraq,” she said. “I’m optimistic as well that Iraq will develop for the future, and it will be part of the international community and do good for the Iraqi society as a whole.”

President Directs Suspension of Guantanamo Bay Commissions

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2009 – Responding to a presidential directive, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday ordered a suspension of active military commission proceedings at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a senior Pentagon official said here today.

President Barack Obama, who had called for the Guantanamo facility’s closure during his campaign, directed Gates to pause legal proceedings involving alleged terrorists being held and tried there, pending further guidance from the White House, spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters.

The president directed the secretary, who then directed the Office of Military Commissions, to cease referring any new cases through the military-commissions process at Guantanamo and to request 120-day continuances on all ongoing active cases there, Whitman said.

Whitman said he anticipates that further White House guidance regarding Guantanamo Bay will follow.

“The president has clearly made his intentions well known” regarding activities at the detention center, Whitman said.

Gates has recommended shutting down the Guantanamo detention center since he was appointed defense secretary more than two years ago. In December, Gates requested a proposal for closing the facility.

Gates has stated that requirements for closing Guantanamo include constructing legislation that provides statutory framework for housing detainees outside the confines of Guantanamo Bay, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters during a Dec. 18 news conference.

The defense secretary “has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down [and] what would be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, while at the same time ensuring that we protect the American people from some very dangerous characters,” Morrell said.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 established procedures governing the use of military commissions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the United States for violations of the law of war and other offenses that can be tried by military commission, according to a military-commissions fact sheet.

The detention center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay has housed nearly 800 suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places since the start of the global war on terrorism that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

About 250 people are being held at Guantanamo today, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Obama Focuses on Iraq During First Full Day in Office

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2009 – President Barack Obama will spend part of his first full day in office today meeting with his National Security Council, including Pentagon and military leaders with direct responsibility for operations in Iraq.

Obama is slated to meet at the White House late this afternoon with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

“The president running up to his inauguration yesterday … made it clear this was one of the important items on his agenda, and he would be meeting with the commanders soon,” Whitman said. “This is a logical first step, meeting with the secretary and the chairman and field commanders and the combatant commander.”

The president is expected to meet in the near future with the Joint Chiefs, but no date has yet been set for that session, Whitman said. Whitman emphasized Gates’ longstanding policy of providing opportunities for his senior military staff and commanders to provide input to the president directly.

Obama, who campaigned on bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, told service members and their families during last night’s Commander in Chief’s Inaugural Ball that he’ll have no greater honor or responsibility than serving as their commander in chief.

“Right now, as we gather here in Washington, we are sobered by the knowledge that we have troops in all corners of the world, many of them in harm’s way,” the president said. “We are fighting two wars. We face dangerous threats to our security. We depend on the men and women of our armed forces to keep us safe.”

A Year?

Obama Calls For Gitmo To Close Within Year
President Barack Obama circulates an executive order draft calling for the
detention center at Guantanamo Bay to close within a year.

If it is so bad, why not today?