"Right" route to stop terrorism

[rinselberg]

Bomb'a-holics Anonymous. Would-be suicide truck bomber Ahmad al Shayea is working with the Saudi government to deter young Saudis from joining or abetting al Qaeda.


Nic Robertson; CNN. September 14, 2007.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Ahmad al Shayea is the rarest of truck bombers -- he survived his suicide mission in Iraq even though the blast from his bomb was strong enough to kill 12 bystanders ...

Al Shayea, who was disfigured during the attack, claims al Qaeda tricked him into becoming a bomber by asking him to deliver a tanker truck, which they had rigged with a bomb.

"They told me to take it to an address in Baghdad. As soon as I got there the truck exploded," said the native of Saudi Arabia. He survived by jumping out of the truck.

Al Shayea renounced terrorism and returned to Saudi Arabia, where he works [with the Saudi government] to convince would-be insurgents and terrorists to give up their deadly ways.

"I think God took me out of death to show others what can happen," he told CNN. "If you join al Qaeda, they will use you, and maybe you will die."

For the complete CNN report:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...ef=mpstoryview

For a more fictionalized account of how the Saudi government deals with terrorists, see "The Kingdom" ... opening in theaters September 28:
http://www.thekingdommovie.com/

[rinselberg]

Using the Koran as a tool, a new strategy is aimed at turning suspected [Iraqi] insurgents into model citizens ...

The "enlightenment" class that took place one recent morning at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad's international airport, is part of a radical overhaul of a detention system still tainted by the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 ...

[Stone] said that none of the more than 1,000 detainees who had been through his programs had been arrested again. But he acknowledged that it was too soon to tell whether that would remain the case. He estimated that 30% of the detainees may be impervious to the efforts of the $254-million rehabilitation program ...

In addition to attending the religious discussions, more than 7,000 detainees are also enrolled in Arabic, math, science, geography, English and civics lessons through the eighth-grade level. Stone hopes a basic education will give them the tools to read and understand the Muslim holy book for themselves ...

The Los Angeles Times has a complete report ...




Coming to Southern California: Honda's FCX Clarity. It's the first fuel cell powered automobile to venture into the open U.S. marketplace. OptiBoard has a full report ...

[braheem24]

The Saudi governement is the biggest bunch of hippocrits.

This so called govt treats any non-saudi as third class citizan and treats saudi women as a second class citizan. They have no respect for anyone but Saudis.

I cannot believe how oil has blinded the U.S. into thinking they're an allie.

I truly believe Iran woiuld be a better "allie".

[chip anderson]

Upholster all airline seats and other possible targets of terrorism, municipal building furniture and the like in pigskin. You will have no terrorists.
Use the "Black Jack Pershing cure". It works for 50 years per application.
That's how you stop terrorists.


Chip

[braheem24]

...and then you'll get a McVeigh or the KKK who eat bacon every morning and claim to be Christians to kill a few hundred instead.

Terrorism is not based from religion but rather uses and twists religion to back up it's own beliefs to recruit the uneducated.

This holds true for the Irgun "Jewish" Terrorists

This holds true for the KKK "Christian" Terrorists.

This holds true for Alqaeda "Muslim" Terrorists.

[chip anderson]

Gen. John J. Pershing was not a terrorist. He just knew how to deal with them.

Chip

[rinselberg]

First, in response to Chip ...

Your post made me think: Are official NFL footballs (game balls) made with leather from pigs? My search took me to the Wilson Sporting Goods website, where I reviewed a brief video presentation about the factory in Ohio where they make the NFL game balls. They didn't linger over what kind of leather is used, but I heard a reference to cowhide. I didn't hear "pig" or "hog". I was thinking about the NFL players that profess Islam (don't know any by name but I'm sure there are a number). I guess it's a moot point if the balls aren't really "pigskin".

I also found a timely fatwa from Dr. Abdul-Fattah Ashoor, an Islamic authority at Al-Azhar University (wherever that is):

Dear respected Sheikh, as-Salamu 'alaykum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuh! I would like to know if it is permissible for a Muslim to wear clothes made from pigskin. (Jazakum Allah Khayran.)

Dr. Ashoor responds:

Focusing on the question in point, we can say that wearing gloves (or clothes) made of pigskin is not prohibited as it is clear that the forbidden thing is to eat pork. However, it is better for a Muslim to steer clear of wearing such clothes (i.e. clothes made of pig skin and the like), because the impurity of pig is not removed even by tanning their skins, as pigs are impure in themselves. So the issue here is not confined to eating or drinking as the above verses mentioned, but it is related to wearing something which is completely or partially impure. Hence it is better to avoid wearing jackets that are made of pigskin.

Personally, I don't think that appointing public facilities (like airline seats) with leather from pigs (and then publicizing it as a deterrent) would stand a snowball's chance in hell of stopping even the most literal-minded Islamic terrorist.

Moving on to the posts from braheem24 ...

There have been so many zigs and zags of late (both promising reports and negative reports) concerning the U.S. relationship with Iran that I am not sure that the latest such report carries all that much weight; nevertheless, this is at the top of a new report from MSNBC:

Iran, U.S. to talk further about Iraqi security; both sides receptive; flow of [Iranian] weapons across [Iran-Iraq] border has stopped.

The report goes on to say:

Iran has long been accused by Washington of training, arming and funding Shiite extremists inside Iraq to kill American troops. But in recent weeks, U.S. officials have said Tehran appears to have halted the flow of arms across its border into Iraq.

Is this the start of something better in terms of the generally negative relationship between the U.S. and Iran? Is it just the latest "zig" (or "zag") ..? It's something to keep an eye on.

But here's a post that I do not understand:

In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini came into power in Tehran and took Americans hostage because intelligence told him that the 1953 coup d'etat [that brought the Shah to power] was coordinated with the help of the American embassy in Tehran ...

So ... taking American embassy employees hostage was the "right" thing to do(?) Why didn't Khomeini et al call in the reporters, stand up in front of a microphone, explain about the 1953 CIA-backed coup d'etat, and then explain that they were closing the U.S. Embassy in Tehran to eliminate the possibility of a "repeat performance". And then send all of the U.S. Embassy staff packing on their merry way back to the U.S. ... instead of taking hostages?

I don't "get it".

Whatever braheem24 has to say about terrorism or the U.S.-Iran relationship or the Middle East (etc.) should be taken with a grain of salt until he revisits that post.

Nevertheless, anyone who responds in so substantial a way to an rinselberg post is already on the path to true enlightenment, so I do commend braheem24 for a very good start ...

[braheem24]

Unfortunatly we live in a time where the news takes quotes, paraphrases speeches, cuts information and feeds it to us out of context and without any regard for the true story as long as the sound-byte is sensationalistic enough to catch your attention.

Having said that, I hope we dont go down that route when we try to understand each other in our small optical community.

Lets please not interpret my post as me saying it was the 'right' or wrong 'thing to do' and please provide everyone with a link to the whole thread for everyone to read and truly be enlightened.

My 2 posts in no way conflict with each other. Since I'm not a Democrat or a Die-Hard republican you dont have to worry about me 'Flip-Flopping' either. :p

[AngryFish]

Braheem24,

More completely stated would be to say based on the twisted beliefs of the intellectually bankrupt, and then include a few you “left” out. It is worth noting that The Baltimore Sun reported that 22 of the 25 terrorist attacks in America since 2003 are the work of environmental terrorists and the Southern Poverty Law Center has many enviro-terrorist groups on its watch list. Here are a few groups who, according to the SPLC, are active terrorist or fund terrorist activities in the U.S. and they might surprise you. Below is a link to some more in depth information.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Earth First
Animal Liberation Front
Environmental Liberation Front


http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-smith100202.asp