The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 11/21/2004 - 11/28/2004

Friday, November 26, 2004

Zarqawi network appeals for help in first signals of defeat

Zarqawi network appeals for help in first signals of
defeat



SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, November 26, 2004
BAGHDAD �? Sunni insurgents backing Abu Mussib Al
Zarqawi have expressed alarm at the prospect of a
defeat by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

An audio tape said to be from Al Zarqawi charged
Muslim clerics with letting down the insurgency
"because of your silence."

On Wednesday, Al Zarqawi, with a $25 million bounty on
his head, was the target of a major manhunt in the
Sunni Triangle, Middle East Newsline reported. Iraqi
military sources said Al Zarqawi was said to have been
seen in an area south of Fallujah.

Islamic sources said that for the first time in more
than a year the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Al
Zarqawi appears to have lost control over many of its
insurgents in the Sunni Triangle.

The sources said Iraqi and U.S. assaults on major
insurgency strongholds in such cities as Baghdad,
Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi and Samara have resulted in
heavy insurgency casualties and a break in the command
and control structure.

Over the last few days, Al Zarqawi supporters have
appealed for help from Al Qaida and related groups.
The sources said Al Qaida's allies, including the
Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call, have sought to
increase recruitment of Muslim volunteers to fight the
coalition.

The Internet has also reflected the growing concern
that Islamic insurgents would be routed in Iraq. A
message posted on an Islamic website appealed for help
from Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan, Chechnya,
Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority.

The message, posted by a purported insurgency
supporter who used the name Abu Ahmed Al Baghdadi,
acknowledged that the Sunni insurgency has been harmed
by the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah. Al Baghdadi
said insurgents have lost their haven in Fallujah, but
asserted that Al Zarqawi has acquired a broader base
for operations and recruitment.

For his part, Al Zarqawi has also expressed concern
over the U.S. military operation against Fallujah,
Mosul and other insurgency strongholds.

On Wednesday, an audio tape posted on an Islamic
website and purportedly from Al Zarqawi accused Muslim
clerics of failing to support the insurgency in Iraq.

"You have let us down in the darkest circumstances and
handed us over to the enemy," the message said. "You
have stopped supporting the holy warriors. Hundreds of
thousands of the nation's sons are being slaughtered
at the hands of the infidels because of your silence."

In early November, Al Baghdadi posted a plan for the
Tawhid group to take over Iraq. Islamic sources said
Al Baghdadi was believed to be pseudonym used by a
major Islamic operative.

Al Zarqawi accused unnamed clerics and scholars of
preventing Muslims from joining the Sunni insurgency
in Iraq. He said Muslim clerics abandoned the
insurgents to the United States.

"Are your hearts not shaken by the scenes of your
brothers being surrounded and hurt by your enemy?" Al
Zarqawi asked.

"How long will you continue to abandon the nation to
the tyrants of the east and of the west, who are
inflicting the worst suffering, cutting the throats of
the holy warriors, the best children of the nation,
and taking its riches?"





Copyright © 2004 East West Services, Inc.



Bin Laden's brother-in-law speaks

Bin Laden's brother-in-law speaks
Former confidant details life with terrorist leader
From Nic Robertson and Henry Schuster
CNN




JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Osama bin Laden's
brother-in-law, and former best friend, says he's not
surprised the terrorist leader has been difficult to
capture.

"Who is going to capture him and where?" Jamal Khalifa
said.

Khalifa spoke to CNN in an exclusive interview about
bin Laden and their past, which he said took the two
men from university to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan
before they parted company.

"For 10 years, the Russians did not capture even one
leader of the Afghan mujahedeen with the full forces
everywhere. So I think it is a little bit difficult,"
he said.

These days, Khalifa runs a fish restaurant just
outside the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah.

"Ten years we are together," said Khalifa. "When we
were in the university and after that. Always we are
together. We live in one house."

Bin Laden and Khalifa met at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz
University in the late 1970s and became close friends,
nearly inseparable, Khalifa said.

They also shared a teacher, Abdullah Azzam, a
Palestinian cleric who later joined bin Laden as
founders of al Qaeda. Azzam's teachings helped
influence bin Laden and Khalifa to go to Afghanistan
and join the jihad against the Soviet forces that had
invaded that country in 1979.

It was a sign of bin Laden's respect and affection for
Khalifa that he arranged for Khalifa to marry his
sister. But Khalifa thought a degree of caution might
be in order, since they were headed into a war zone.

"He is the one who suggested ... I marry his sister,"
Khalifa said. "I told him, 'Osama, we are going to die
and you are talking about marriage. So let's go first
and if I come alive, we will do it.' So, I came
alive."

Khalifa said he spent most of his time in Pakistan,
setting up an Islamic relief charity, building schools
and mosques for refugees displaced by the war in
neighboring Afghanistan.

At the same time, bin Laden was becoming a leader of
Arabs who came to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was
able to use some of his family fortune and contacts to
raise money for the jihad, and he led men into combat.

Khalifa said that he was troubled at the time that bin
Laden was creating his own fighting force from the
men, who were known as the Afghan Arabs. "I saw him
starting to group the Arabs in one place and start to
let them go and fight by themselves."

Khalifa said he didn't realize that he was witnessing
the beginnings of al Qaeda. But he said that what he
saw he didn't like. He had a visit from three men,
including Abu Ubaidah and Abu Hafs, who later became
al Qaeda's first two military commanders.

They asked him a series of questions. Only later, he
said, did he understand he was being screened about
becoming a member of al Qaeda. This was in the late
1980s.

'Osama, you are doing something wrong'
"I am the first one who stood up in front of Osama and
told him, 'Osama, you are doing something wrong. You
are going to the wrong direction,'" said Khalifa, who
said he did not approve of the worldwide jihad that
bin Laden and his advisers were planning.

Sheik Azzam, their mentor, was murdered under
still-mysterious circumstances shortly afterward, and
bin Laden became the uncontested leader of al Qaeda.

"He is a wealthy man, he has very good connections,
and many people really love Osama," Khalifa said.

He said he parted company with bin Laden in the late
1980s, but they remained in touch. He last saw him in
early 1992 during a family visit to Sudan.

The bin Laden Khalifa saw on video most recently aired
on Arabic-language news channels looks like a man who
has aged a great deal, he said.

On that tape, bin Laden once again took responsibility
for the attacks of September 11, 2001. Khalifa
believes that to be the case, but he says his
brother-in-law was the leader of the attacks, but not
the organizer.

"He cannot organize anything. I am the one who is
leading. I am the one who is leading him in the
prayer. I am the one who is leading if we go for
outing, for picnic, for riding horses," Khalifa said
with a laugh.

Khalifa has become more outspoken in his criticism of
bin Laden. Last year, after a wave of terrorist
attacks in Saudi Arabia, he published an open letter
to bin Laden in a Saudi paper, asking him to renounce
the terrorism being committed in his name.

"Please come out, tell those people to stop," Khalifa
wrote in the letter. "You are the one who can tell
that, and you are the one who can stop it."

He never got a response from the man who was once his
best friend. But there have been more attacks.

Khalifa has been the target of an extraordinary amount
of scrutiny because of his background.

In the Philippines, where he went from Afghanistan,
officials charged in a 1994 report that he was using
businesses and prominent Islamic charities as fronts
to funnel money to terrorists. Much of the
investigation was done after Khalifa had left the
country.

No charges were filed, Col. Boogie Mendoza of the
Philippine National Police, said, because at the time
the Philippines had no anti-terrorism laws. Currently,
Khalifa does not face any charges in the Philippines.
In fact, Mendoza said, if Khalifa returned to Manila,
he would likely be put under surveillance but not be
arrested.

Khalifa next traveled to San Francisco, California. He
was arrested there by the U.S. government after it
learned he was wanted in Jordan, where he had been
convicted in absentia on a charge of plotting to
overthrow the government. After being deported to
Jordan, he was retried and acquitted.

Although Khalifa is named as a defendant in a
multibillion-dollar lawsuit brought by the families of
9/11 victims, he contends there is no evidence to link
him to the attacks.

On September 11, Khalifa was on a business trip in
Southeast Asia. After he returned to Saudi Arabia, he
was jailed for several months. He said he still
doesn't know why he was arrested.

"They came and said, 'You are clear and you can go
now.' That's it. So I don't know what is going on," he
said.

Nawaf Obaid, a national security consultant for the
Saudi government, said officials there now believe
Khalifa "does not pose any security threat to any
government and that he has broken all ties that have
linked him to his charitable groups when he was
operating out of the Philippines."











Iraqi official: Troops found chemical lab during sweep of Fallujah

Iraqi official: Troops found chemical lab during sweep
of Fallujah
By Associated Press, 11/25/2004 09:51

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Iraqi troops searching suspected
terrorist hideouts in Fallujah discovered a laboratory
with manuals on how to manufacture explosives and
toxins including anthrax, Iraq's national security
adviser said Thursday.

Qassem Dawoud said the lab was found in the
southwestern district of Fallujah, where pockets of
insurgents are still holding out following the Nov. 8
assault by American and Iraqi forces.

''We also found in the laboratory manuals and
instructions spelling out procedures for making
explosives,'' he said. ''They also spoke about making
anthrax.''

Dawoud showed pictures of a shelf containing what he
said were various chemicals.


=====
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Thursday, November 25, 2004

Is Declaration of Independence unconstitutional?

School district sued for censoring founding documents, state constitutions

Posted: November 23, 2004
11:38 p.m. Eastern




� 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

In a season typified by lawsuits against manger scenes, crosses and even the words "Merry Christmas," a California case is taking the "separation of church and state" one step further � dealing with whether it's unconstitutional to read the Declaration of Independence in public school.

Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit Monday against the Cupertino Union School District for prohibiting a teacher from providing supplemental handouts to students about American history because the historical documents contain some references to God and religion.

"Throwing aside all common sense, the district has chosen to censor men such as George Washington and documents like the Declaration of Independence," said ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb. "The district's actions conflict with American beliefs and are completely unconstitutional."


Patricia Vidmar, principal of the Stevens Creek School, reportedly ordered the teacher, Stephen Williams, to submit his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to her for advance approval. Aside from Williams, a Christian, no other teachers were subject to the advance-screening requirement, says the ADF.

Just what documents did Williams submit that were deemed unfit for the school's students?

"Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, the diaries of George Washington and John Adams, the writings of William Penn, and various state constitutions," said the public-interest law firm representing Willliams.

"Less than 5 percent of all of Mr. Williams' supplemental handouts distributed throughout the school year contain references to God and Christianity," McCaleb said. "The district is simply attempting to cleanse all references to the Christian religion from our nation's history, and they are singling out Mr. Williams for discriminatory treatment. Their actions are unacceptable under both California and federal law."

California's Education Code does allow "references to religion or references to or the use of religious literature � when such references or uses do not constitute instruction in religious principles � and when such references or uses are incidental to or illustrative of matters properly included in the course of study."

The case, Stephen J. Williams v. Cupertino Union School District, et al., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division.



Petition: Get ACLU Off Taxpayers Dole

Legal group awarded 1/2 million tax dollars for ridding courthouse of 10 Commandments

Posted: November 25, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern



By Ron Strom




� 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A new online petition asks Congress to change a specific civil-rights statute in hopes of preventing the American Civil Liberties Union from collecting attorney fees from taxpayers of local governments the organization takes to court.

The effort � spearheaded by Craig McCarthy of CourtZero.org, a site dedicated to stemming judicial activism � seeks to change 42 U.S.C., Section 1988, of the United States Code. The statute now allows judges to award attorney fees to plaintiffs in civil-rights cases brought against local governments, thereby putting the taxpayers on the hook and oftentimes funneling public money to the ACLU. McCarthy wants the law changed so cases involving the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment would not apply.


When the ACLU takes a city to court claiming a Christmas display violates the Establishment Clause, for example, if the municipality loses, the city's taxpayers would not have to pay ACLU attorneys. Ending the financial incentive, McCarthy says, would cause the ACLU to decrease their anti-religion litigation.

"Asking the ACLU directly to cease their destructive behavior is unlikely to have much impact," McCarthy told WND, "but cutting off public funding of their activities would be both doable and effective."

McCarthy gave some examples of the effect of the current law, citing the case of Los Angeles County, which was threatened by the ACLU over its seal, which contained a small cross. Many law firms offered to defend the county against the ACLU for free in that instance, but the county didn't accept the offer. McCarthy says it's because the real expense for the county would be in paying the ACLU's attorney fees if it were to ultimately lose the case.

"Even if they get free attorneys, if they lose, the county's on the hook," he explained.

McCarthy also mentioned the Ten Commandments case in Alabama involving Judge Roy Moore, saying taxpayers there were ordered to pay the ACLU "at least half a million dollars."

Though he says he understands the reasons for the fees, he thinks the Establishment Clause cases have gotten out of hand.

"I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater," McCarthy said, "but I think it would resonate with most people. The Establishment Clause cases have gotten silly. We've been doing this for 30 years about everything � it's like the ACLU is going from town to town" looking for things to sue over.

"If you want to litigate Establishment Clause cases, have at it," he said, "but it shouldn't be taxpayer-supported anymore."

The online petition states, in part: "The ACLU has declared war on the Boy Scouts of America, the military of the United States, Christmas displays, public buildings that display the Ten Commandments, and many other American traditions. �

"The vast majority of taxpayers do not want to be forced to pay the ACLU to sue their neighbors and friends in the ACLU's efforts to strip America of all signs of faith. �

"We, The People, call upon our elected representatives to amend U.S.C., Section 1988, so that fees are not awarded to the ACLU or any other plaintiff in Establishment Clause cases. We wish for the Free Expression Clause to implicate at least the same financial incentives as attacks upon faith currently have."

The Establishment Clause of the Constitution says, " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. �"

Stop ACLU before going to court

Attorney Mathew Staver says he understands McCarthy's point but believes there's a better way to go about it. Staver is president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit religious-liberties law firm.

"What Congress ought to do is pass a statute that cuts back the standing of the ability to bring Establishment Clause claims," Staver said, which would limit who could file such a suit.

He says currently anyone who is "offended" by what they see, a Ten Commandments display, for example, can bring suit.

"You can't do that in any other area of litigation," Staver said. "You've got to have a personal, direct injury. �

"They need to get to the root of it, and the root of it is not whether the ACLU can get attorneys' fees," he told WND. "The root of it is who can bring these lawsuits."

Staver noted that the Supreme Court ruled against atheist Michael Newdow in the Pledge of Allegiance case because he didn't have "standing" or authority to actually bring the suit.

He said he's opposed to eliminating the provision for attorney fees for Establishment Clause cases.

Instead, he said, "you ought to stop them before they can get to the courtroom."

The attorney said there are some discussions on the federal level about limiting the standing on Establishment Clause cases.

Destroying the cross

The American Legion Department of California earlier this year passed a resolution also calling on Congress to eliminate the financial incentives for the ACLU in Establishment Clause cases.

It asks Congress to "amend 42 U.S.C., Section 1988, to expressly preclude the courts from awarding attorney fees under that statute, in lawsuits brought to remove or destroy religious symbols."

According to a report in the Record Gazette or Banning, Calif., the resolution was sparked by the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the ACLU's claim that the solitary cross at what is now officially the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial violates the First Amendment and must be taken down.

Robert Castillo is a member of the veterans group and was part of the D-Day Normandy operation of World War II.

"I can't believe that Congress is allowing judges to give the ACLU thousands of dollars to sue to get rid of a cross at a veterans memorial when we are sending kids to war again to defend our freedom against terrorists," Castillo told the paper.

"The ACLU has gone too far. There are 9,000 crosses and Stars of David at Normandy. My buddies are buried there. If the ACLU can destroy the cross at the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, then they can destroy the crosses at Normandy, or Riverside Veterans Memorial Cemetery, or Arlington National."

McCarthy says he hopes to get some signatures on the petition and then begin "shopping it around" Capitol Hill for sponsorship.