Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Qadi Denies Arrest, to Sue Turkish Media

by Maha Akeel from Arab News

Saudi businessman and philanthropist Yassin Qadi issued a statement through his lawyer yesterday denying that he was arrested by Saudi authorities as some Turkish media outlets reported recently. The statement added that Qadi has appointed a lawyer in Turkey to file a libel case against newspapers and satellite channels that had reported the false news. According to the statement, Sheikh Yassin Abdullah Qadi “is enjoying his complete freedom on Saudi land and is not under any kind of suspicion, arrest or criminalization by Saudi authorities or any other country of the countries or agencies related to combating terrorism or financing it.” ... six years ago the United Nations, at the behest of the United States, designated Qadi as a suspected Al-Qaeda financier.

WHITEHOUSE: Saudi Arabia? No Comment

by Tony Snow from The Whitehouse

Q: Tony, two questions, two questions. One, I just came back from the United Nations, where I was attending the World Hindi Association conference at the U.N., second most spoken language on the Earth after English. And Secretary General was also there. I understand that he is coming here tomorrow to meet with President Bush. What are the major agendas on their discussions? It's back in news that foreign fighters are in Iraq; 40% of them are from Saudi --

MR. SNOW: There will be wide-ranging discussions. And, Goyal, as tempting as it is to pick out nations for calumny from this podium I will not engage in any such activities.

But I think -- look, you've got the U.N. Secretary General, they talk about a whole broad series of things, including Iraq, including the Middle East, including what we're talking about in Afghanistan. I mean, the challenges of creating democracy and peace are the things that the United States and the institution of the United Nations share. So you can expect a pretty broad conversation.

[ That's Tony Snow's entire answer -- not only did he fail to address the Saudi presence in Iraq, he cut off the reporter before he could finish asking the question. ]

16 Saudis back home from Guantanamo

from Associated Press

Sixteen Saudis transferred from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay arrived home yesterday and were immediately detained by authorities investigating possible terrorist connections, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. A total of 77 Saudis have now been returned from Guantanamo, Major General Mansour Al Turki told SPA. He said 53 remain incarcerated at the US military facility in Cuba, a source of tension in US relations with Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Washington. Al Turki's figures correspond to those maintained independently by The Associated Press.

Our Enemy's Work

a New York Sun Editorial

It is true that not all terrorists in Iraq have pledged allegiance to Mr. bin Laden. But the hallmark of Al Qaeda is the massive car bomb, the destruction of mosques, and the kinds of cruelties aimed at plunging Iraq into perpetual war ... Tribes all around Iraq are forming "salvation fronts." They offer a rough justice to the Wahabi interlopers that spend their fortunes persuading medical students to kill themselves in the act of killing more infidels. And it is these Iraqis whom Democrats seek to abandon by pretending the enemy of Al Qaeda is insignificant. Which brings us back to Mr. bin Laden, who presides on the Pakistani side of that country's mountainous border with Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and the spread of Sunni theofascism - Part 2

by Curtin Winsor, Jr., from ON LINE Opinion

Although Saudi-funded religious institutions have been careful not to incite or explicitly endorse violence since 9-11, they unapologetically promote distrust toward non-Muslims and self-segregation. In effect, they are trying to reproduce in America the kind of social conditions that have fuelled radicalisation and terrorist recruitment in Europe. Saudi-funded religious institutions, such as the American Muslim Council (AMC), have long been treated as representatives of the American Muslim community by the US Government. Abdurahman Almoudi, the founder of the AMC, was a frequent visitor to White House under the Clinton and Bush Administrations despite having publicly proclaimed support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas (he is now in jail for having illegally accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Libyan Government). High level political access has enabled such groups to penetrate the American prison system. The US Bureau of Prisons has relied on chaplain endorsements from the so-called Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS), a Saudi-funded organisation.

First Blacklist of Literature Is Released

from The Moscow Times

The Federal Registration Service has released its first blacklist of literature, film and music, which could result in a five-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of distributing them ... President Vladimir Putin charged the agency in May 2006 with drawing up the blacklist, which will be revised and reprinted each January and July. It includes the "Book of Monotheism" by Muhammad ibn Sulaiman al-Tamimi, described as doctrine for the Wahhabi form of Islam, which authorities blame for inciting separatist insurrection in Chechnya; the album "Music for Whites" by Omsk rock group Order; and 1940 Nazi film "The Eternal Jew."