Monday, August 28, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Silent Weapon: Smallpox and Biological Warfare
Colette Flight explains how the weaponisation of smallpox was perfected by the Russians during the Cold War - and how this biological weapon may still threaten the lives of millions.
Bouquet's blankets
In 1992, a Soviet defector revealed to Western intelligence that he had overseen an extensive, illegal programme to develop smallpox into a highly effective biological weapon.
Britain and the United States were shocked by the revelations. Russia's intent to use biological weapons, they claimed, was morally abhorrent. But a closer look at the history of biological weapons shows that Britain and America both played seminal roles in turning lethal diseases into weapons of war. In fact, Britain was probably the first nation to come up with the idea of using smallpox to kill its adversaries.
('Britain was probably the first nation to come up with the idea of using smallpox to kill its adversaries.')
In the 18th century, the British fought France and its Indian allies for possession of what was to become Canada during the French and Indian Wars (1754-63). At the time of the Pontiac rebellion in 1763, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet: 'Could it not be contrived to send smallpox among these disaffected tribes of Indians? We must use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.' The colonel replied: 'I will try to inoculate the [Native American tribe] with some blankets that may fall in their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself.' Smallpox decimated the Native Americans, who had never been exposed to the disease before and had no immunity.
It has been alleged that smallpox was also used as a weapon during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). During the winter of 1775-76, American forces were attempting to free Quebec from British control. After capturing Montreal, it looked as if they might succeed. But in December 1775, the British fort commander reportedly had civilians immunised against the disease and then deliberately sent out to infect the American troops. A few weeks later a major smallpox epidemic broke out in the American ranks, affecting about half of the 10,000 soldiers. They retreated in chaos after burying their dead in mass graves.
During World War Two, British and American scientists investigated using smallpox as a biological weapon. However, because of the availability of a vaccine, they never felt it was a particularly effective weapon. In November 1969, President Nixon officially halted the US offensive biological weapons programme, bowing to pressure from the American public who had been abhorred by the use of chemical weapons during the Vietnam War.
'The US believed initially that, like them, the Soviet Union had done away with its bio-weapons programme. However, it had miscalculated.'
In the wake of Nixon's historic abandonment of biological weapons, an international agreement was tabled outlawing their development and production. In 1972, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union all signed up to the Biological Weapons Convention.
(The US believed initially that, like them, the Soviet Union had done away with its bio-weapons programme. However, it had miscalculated.)
In 1989, a senior Soviet bio-weapons scientist defected to the UK. Vladimir Pasechnik (who died in November 2001, aged 64) asserted that far from abandoning its bio-weapons programme, the Soviet Union had intensified it. He revealed that the civilian pharmaceutical company Biopreparat, which the Soviets had established in 1973, was in fact a front for a massive offensive bio-weapons programme.
There were more bombshells to come. Dr Kanatjan Alibekov, or Ken Alibek as he is now known, was Chief Scientist at Biopreparat from 1987 to 1992. Ken Alibek's bosses told him that the Americans and British had not given up on biological weapons and were still engaged in their own offensive programmes. He felt his work was justified on these grounds Ken Alibek started to find discrepancies in the KGB's information and began to have doubts. In December 1991, in exchange for US/UK inspections of a number of Soviet laboratories, a team of Soviet officials was invited to inspect four US facilities. This trip cemented Alibek's concerns. 'A real turning point was when I came to the US and I saw all the so-called BW [bio-warfare] facilities, completely abandoned, not active. I was shocked.'
Alibek defected to America in October 1992 and spent much of the next year being debriefed by CIA officers. His most startling revelation concerned smallpox. He told them how, during the global campaign to eradicate the disease, samples of smallpox taken by Russian doctors had been turned into weapons by the Soviet military. Donald Ainslie Henderson, who led the eradication campaign, felt particularly betrayed by this.
'The Russians themselves had proposed the global eradication programme back in 1958. They had pledged to provide 25 million doses of vaccine every year to the programme. If we hadn't had that amount of vaccine we could never have succeeded.' Alibek claims the Kremlin had a clear understanding that if smallpox was eradicated, and vaccination ended, the virus had the potential to be 'the most powerful and effective weapon ever created to eliminate human life'.
According to Alibek, one particularly virulent strain, India 67 or India 1, was chosen by the Russians to be weaponised. They perfected techniques for mass producing smallpox and maintained a rolling annual stockpile of hundreds of tonnes. They also developed ways to disseminate the virus in aerial bombs and ballistic missile warheads. Additional work was done to enhance the virulence of the virus and to combine it with other viruses.
There were more bombshells to come. Dr Kanatjan Alibekov, or Ken Alibek as he is now known, was Chief Scientist at Biopreparat from 1987 to 1992. Ken Alibek's bosses told him that the Americans and British had not given up on biological weapons and were still engaged in their own offensive programmes. He felt his work was justified on these grounds Ken Alibek started to find discrepancies in the KGB's information and began to have doubts. In December 1991, in exchange for US/UK inspections of a number of Soviet laboratories, a team of Soviet officials was invited to inspect four US facilities. This trip cemented Alibek's concerns. 'A real turning point was when I came to the US and I saw all the so-called BW [bio-warfare] facilities, completely abandoned, not active. I was shocked.'
Alibek defected to America in October 1992 and spent much of the next year being debriefed by CIA officers. His most startling revelation concerned smallpox. He told them how, during the global campaign to eradicate the disease, samples of smallpox taken by Russian doctors had been turned into weapons by the Soviet military. Donald Ainslie Henderson, who led the eradication campaign, felt particularly betrayed by this.
'The Russians themselves had proposed the global eradication programme back in 1958. They had pledged to provide 25 million doses of vaccine every year to the programme. If we hadn't had that amount of vaccine we could never have succeeded.' Alibek claims the Kremlin had a clear understanding that if smallpox was eradicated, and vaccination ended, the virus had the potential to be 'the most powerful and effective weapon ever created to eliminate human life'.
According to Alibek, one particularly virulent strain, India 67 or India 1, was chosen by the Russians to be weaponised. They perfected techniques for mass producing smallpox and maintained a rolling annual stockpile of hundreds of tonnes. They also developed ways to disseminate the virus in aerial bombs and ballistic missile warheads. Additional work was done to enhance the virulence of the virus and to combine it with other viruses.
silent deaht come to u
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Photo released on Monday April 3, 2006 shows a test firing of a Fajr-3 missile fired by Iran in the Persian Gulf on April 1, 2006. Iran conducted its second major test of a new missile within days, firing a high-speed torpedo that it said no submarine or warship can escape and boasting of its strength at a time of increased tensions with the United States over its nuclear program.The tests Sunday came during war games that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been holding in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea since Friday.(AP Photo/IRNA)
Special forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and a helicopter take part in maneuvers in the Persian Gulf Monday April, 3, 2006. Iran successfully tested a new torpedo Monday, the latest new weapon it has unveiled during war games in the Gulf. The new ship-launched torpedo can target submarines at any depth and is powerful enough to "break a heavy warship" in two, spokesman Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani told state television. He did not give details on the speed or range of the torpedo. A day earlier, Iran announced it had tested a new high-speed torpedo, the "Hoot," or "whale," which moves at up to 360 kilometers per hour (223 miles per hour), saying it was too fast for any enemy ship to elude. On Friday, it tested the Fjr-3, a missile than can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. (AP Photo)
TEHRAN, IRAN — A top Iranian military official said Tuesday the country can now defend itself against any invasion originating from outside the region — a clear reference to the United States — as it tested a second new radar-avoiding missile.
The new surface-to-sea missile is equipped with remote-control and searching systems, state-run television reported. It said the new missile, called Kowsar after the name of a river in paradise, was a medium-range weapon that Iran had the capability to mass-produce.
It also asserted that the Kowsar's guidance system could not be scrambled, and it had been designed to sink ships.
Shortly after the test, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned that Iran was now able to "confront any extra-regional invasion," referring to the United States without mentioning it by name.
"The missile command of the Guards' naval force ... via positioning various types of surface-to-sea missiles, is able, while defending the coastlines and islands, to confront any extra-territorial invasion," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Safavi as saying.
Safavi also called for foreign forces to leave the region. The U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, from where it patrols the Gulf.
"Iran wants durable peace in the Persian Gulf and it can't be achieved without foreign forces and those which invaded Iraq leaving (the region)," IRNA quoted Safavi as saying.
On Friday, the country tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. Iran also has tested what it calls two new torpedoes.
The second torpedo, unveiled Monday, was tested in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital corridor for oil supplies. That seemed to be a clear warning to the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf.
The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran's military, have been holding their maneuvers — code-named the "Great Prophet" — since Friday, touting what they call domestically built technological advances in their armed forces.
But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are. Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example — meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran's radar but not more advanced types.
The United States said Monday — after the second torpedo test — that while Iran may have made "some strides" in its military, it likely is exaggerating its capabilities.
"We know that the Iranians are always trying to improve their weapons system by both foreign and indigenous measures," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington. "It's possible that they are increasing their capability and making strides in radar-absorbing materials and technology."
But "the Iranians have also been known to boast and exaggerate their statements about greater technical and tactical capabilities," he said.
It has not been possible to verify Iran's claims for the new armaments. But the country has made clear it aims to send a message of strength to the United States amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.
The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran give up uranium enrichment, a crucial part of the nuclear process. Washington is pressing for sanctions if Tehran continues its refusal to do so, though U.S. officials have not ruled out military action as an eventual option, insisting they will not allow Iran to gain a nuclear arsenal.
In Russia, a Kremlin-allied lawmaker on Tuesday criticized the recent torpedo and missile tests as a counterproductive show of might at a time when it should be trying to allay fears that it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
"It is clear that Iran is demonstrating its muscle in order to forestall any discussions of a possible operation using force against Iran," Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
On Tuesday, state-run television also said the elite Revolutionary Guards had tested what it called a "super-modern flying boat" capable of evading radar. TV showed a brief clip of the boat's launch.
"Due to its advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can detect it. It can lift out of the water," the television said. It said the boat was "all Iranian-made and can launch missiles with precise targeting while moving."
The television showed the boat, looking like an aircraft, taking off from the sea and flying low over the surface of the water. It said the craft can fly with a speed of 100 nautical miles per hour.
Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted Sunday and Monday. The torpedo — called a "Hoot," or "whale" — is able to move at 223 mph, too fast for any enemy ship to elude.
Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
dare to try
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
WE CANNOT CONQUER IRAQ
The missing word in Bush's inaugural speech was IRAQ.
And why was that word missing ?
Because our illegal occupation of Iraq is a failure with over 1400 Americans killed, over 10,000 wounded, over 20,000 hospitalized and an American public becoming more sceptical of it's increasing human and financial costs.
Bush cannot emotionally deal with the F word and, indeed, asked Sec of State Powell to leave because he told Bush
that " We are losing the war in Iraq ".
Bush cannot answer the question why our soldiers are dying
in increasing numbers because the reason has nothing to do with Democracy.
We are dealing with massive denial here and Bush has now
replaced the fictitious menace of Iraq with the equally fictitious menace of an impending bankrupt Social Security system.
But let's get something straight about Iraq .
This election in Iraq is not about Democracy in action ~ this election is all about reproducing the US appointed Iraq Interim Government inorder to prolong the occupation and further incite sectarian and ethnic conflicts.
As long as there is strife there is a reason for U.S. troops
and the 14 to 17 military bases that are currently under
construction in Iraq.
We are in Iraq to stay ~ so stop wishful thinking. Only
impeachment or a change in Congressional leadership can stop the Cheney led neocons now.
It's really very Orwellian ~ remember Eternal War for
Never Accomplished Peace.
That's why we want the elections on the 30th ~ the reproduced Interim Government will claim legitimacy and cement into place Exec Order # 13303 ( giving full oil rights to major U.S. Oil companies ) as well as legitimizing Paul Bremer's blanket privitization decrees ~ which he enacted before he left Iraq .
It's a big sting folks and Bush wants to avert our attention
with his Social Security histronics or perhaps Iran ~ so we
won't watch this election too closely.
That's why our soldiers are dying .
The Iraqi's know full well the impossibility of holding free
and fair elections while under this brutal and illegal occupation by the U.S.
These Resistance fighters are freedom fighters to their
fellow Iraqi's and their numbers are growing every day.
WE CANNOT CONQUER IRAQ
You want an analogy to what we are doing in Iraq ?
How about this letter from William Pitt to the House of
Lords on November 18th, 1777.
It's entitled An English Plea For Peace With The American
Colonies ;
" My Lords, this ruinous and ignominious situation, where
we cannot act with success, nor suffer with honour, calls upon us to remonstrate in the strongest and loudest language of truth, to rescue the ear of Majesty from the delusions
which surround it. You cannot, I venture to say, you
CANNOT conquer America.
What is your present situation there? We do not know the
worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done
nothing and suffered much. You may swell every expense,
and strain every effort, still more extravagantly; accumulate
every assistance you can beg or borrow; traffic and barter
with every pitiful German Prince, that sells and sends his
subjects to the shambles of a foreign country: your efforts
are forever vain and impotent-doubly so from this mercenary
aid on which you rely; for it irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the sordid sons of rapine and of plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms! -
Never! Never! Never! "
And the Iraqi's will not lay down their arms for that very
same reason.
Iraq will be George Bush's waterloo and he will drag all of us with him into this black hole of deceit, hubris, humiliation and heartache.
Allen L Roland
Catch me every Monday morning 7AM ~ TRUTHTALK
on Conscious Talk Radio
are you pround to be american?
Know them by their fruit:
....the first shows a USA soldier acknowledging the crimes of killing and raping Iraqis! The second shows an Iraqi girl that has just lost her father who was shot dead in Tal-Afar town after USA troop opened fire at his car in which he was carrying his family.
The shooting was deliberate as witnessed by the number of bullets fired on the car and its driver. The third shows the case of an 8-month pregnant woman who was shot by USA troops on 12 Aug. 2005 in Mosul town. www.iraqirabita.org The bullet got to the chest of the embryo leaving him dead and the mother was severely wounded. A cesarean operation has saved her life, while that baby was the youngest martyr recorded. I call upon you and every kind American to think and imagine the extent of terror Mr. Bush policies has brought to the people of USA and Iraq. I hereby ask you to continue your efforts to stop the war on Iraq in which Mr. Bush has killed from the Iraqis much more than Saddam did! Moreover, Saddam did not kill any American but Mr Bush did and is still doing unless we act to stop him.
22 Sept. 2005 Mohammed Younis Mosul / IRAQ
are we still dream
Monday, August 21, 2006
Nuclear weapons
The Israeli government refuses to officially confirm or deny that it has a nuclear weapon program, and has an unofficial but rigidly enforced policy of deliberate ambiguity, saying only that it would not be the first to "introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East" [1]. Israel is one of three nuclear-armed, sovereign nation-states not to sign or ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the other two being India and Pakistan.[2]
Nuclear weapons
Countries
Nuclear weapons states
US · Russia · UK · FranceChina · India · PakistanIsrael · North Korea
Israel's nuclear weapons program was aided by other countries. After the Suez crisis in 1956 France agreed to help Israel build a nuclear reactor and reprocessing plant near Dimona which used natural uranium moderated by heavy water. Plutonium production started in about 1964. Top secret British documents obtained by BBC Newsnight show that Britain made hundreds of secret shipments of restricted materials to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. These included specialist chemicals for reprocessing and samples of fissile material - uranium 235 in 1959 and plutonium in 1966 - as well as highly enriched Lithium 6 which is used to boost atom bombs and fuel hydrogen bombs. The investigation also showed that Britain shipped 20 tons of heavy water directly to Israel in 1959 and 1960 to start up the Dimona reactor. The transaction was made through a Norwegian front company called Noratom which took a 2% commission on the transaction. Britain was challenged about the heavy water deal at the IAEA after it was exposed on Newsnight in 2005. British Foreign Minister Kim Howells hid behind the Noratom contract and claimed this was a sale to Norway. But a former British intelligence officer who investigated the deal at the time confirmed that this was really a sale to Israel and the Noratom contract was just a charade. [3] The Foreign Office finally admitted in March 2006 that Britain knew the destination was Israel all along. [4]
In 1961 the Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion informed the Canadian Prime Minister, at that time John Diefenbaker, that a pilot plutonium separation plant would be built at Dimona. British intelligence concluded from this and other information and that this "can only mean that Israel intends to produce nuclear weapons". [5]. By 1969 U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin Laird believed that Israel might have a nuclear weapon that year [6] [7]. Later that year U.S. President Nixon in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir pressed Israel to "make no visible introduction of nuclear weapons or undertake a nuclear test program", so maintaining a policy of nuclear ambiguity. [8]
On October 5, 1986, the British newspaper The Sunday Times ran Mordechai Vanunu's story on its front page under the headline: "Revealed — the secrets of Israel's nuclear arsenal."
The first public revelation of Israel's nuclear capability (as opposed to development program) came in the London-based Sunday Times on October 5, 1986, which printed information provided by Mordechai Vanunu, formerly employed at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, a facility located in the Negev desert south of Dimona. For publication of state secrets, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason and espionage. Although there had been much speculation prior to Vanunu's revelations that the Dimona site was creating nuclear weapons, Vanunu's information indicated that Israel had also built thermonuclear weapons.[9]
In 1998, former Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that Israel "built a nuclear option, not in order to have a Hiroshima but an Oslo." [10]. ("Hiroshima" refers to the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while "Oslo" refers to the Oslo Accords). The "nuclear option" may refer to a nuclear weapon or to the nuclear reactor near Dimona, which Israel claims is used for scientific research. Peres, in his capacity as the Director General of the Ministry of Defense in the early 1950s, was responsible for building Israel's nuclear capability. [11]
According to The Nuclear Threat Initiative, based on Vanunu's information, Israel has approximately 100-200 nuclear explosive devices and a Jericho missile delivery system. A United States Defense Intelligence Agency report (leaked and published in the book "Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander" by journalist Rowan Scarborough in 2004) puts the number of weapons at 82. U.S. intelligence sources in the late 1990s estimated 75-130 [12]. The difference might lie in the amount of material Israel has on store versus assembled weapons.
Israel has operated three modern German-built Dolphin class submarines [13] since 1999. Various reports indicate that these submarines are equipped with American-made Harpoon missiles modified to carry small nuclear warheads [14] and/or the larger Israeli-made 'Popeye Turbo' cruise missiles, originally developed for air-to-ground strike capability [15].
No known nuclear weapons test has been conducted within Israel, although the boosted weapons shown in Vanunu's photographs may well have required testing. It is also possible that the Israelis received results from French nuclear testing in the 1960s. In June 1976, the West Germany Army Magazine, Wehrtechnik, claimed that a 1963 underground test took place in the Negev, and other reports indicate that some type of non-nuclear test, perhaps a zero yield or implosion test, may have occurred on 2 November 1966. [16] In September 1979, a Vela satellite may have detected a 3 kiloton oceanic nuclear explosion near to South Africa, accompanied by underwater acoustic and ionospheric effects which may have been a joint nuclear test between Israel and South Africa (see Vela Incident).
[edit]
Chemical weapons
Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). There are speculations that a chemical weapons program might be located at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) in Ness Ziona. Professor Marcus Klingberg, deputy director of the institute, was sentenced in 1983 to 18 years in prison for being a Soviet spy, a matter so sensitive that it was kept secret for a decade.[17]
190 liters of dimethyl methylphosphonate, a CWC schedule 2 chemical used in the synthesis of Sarin nerve gas, was discovered in the cargo of El Al Flight 1862 after it crashed in 1992 en-route to Tel Aviv. Israel insisted the material was non-toxic, was to have been used to test filters that protect against chemical weapons, and that it had been clearly listed on the cargo manifest in accordance with international regulations. The shipment was from a U.S. chemical plant to the IIBR under a U.S. Department of Commerce licence. [18]
In 1993, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment WMD proliferation assessment recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared offensive chemical warfare capabilities.
[edit]
Biological weapons
Israel is not a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). Israel is alleged to have a possible biological weapons facility at the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona. Professor Ernst David Bergmann started the Israeli chemical/biological weapons program in April 1948. [19]
laHIRnYa kuAsa PeRoSak DunIA
MerEkALaH PeNGanAs SebeNar
Friday, August 18, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
BiodataOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden yang secara popular dikenal dengan Osama bin Laden, dilahirkan pada tanggal 28 Jun 1957 di kota Jeddah, Arab Saudi, kawasan pantai Laut Merah. Osama adalah anak ke 17 dari 52 orang anak bersaudara.
Ayahnya yang bernama Mohammed bin Laden, adalah seorang petani miskin dari Yaman yang kemudian berpindah ke Arab Saudi selepas Perang Dunia II. Di tempat yang baru ini Mohammed bin Laden memulai dengan usahanya yang baru bergerak dalam bidang perniagaan pembangunan. Pada akhirnya ia memenangkan banyak kontrak bagi pembangunan masjid-masjid dan istana-istana yang sangat bernilai dari pemerintah Arab Saudi. Oleh kerana itu ia telah mengembangkan tali persahabatan yang sangat akrab dengan keluarga Kerajaan Saudi. Mohammed bin Laden kemudian telah menjadi salah seorang yang paling kaya di Saudi Arabia, yang dianggarkan memiliki keuntungan jutaan dollar Amerika Syarikat. Dari keuntungannya ini dianggarkan Mohammed bin Laden memiliki saham sejumlah hampir 300 juta dollar Amerika.
Pendidikan dan Masa Mudanya
Ketika berusia remaja, Osama bin Laden telah bergabung dengan gerakan Wahhabi Konservatif-Baru (Ultrakonservatif), sebuah sekte dalam agama Islam; dan ia pernah masuk kedalam dinas kepolisian yang menegakkan hukum-hukum syariah. Osama menjadi mahasiswa pada Universitas Raja Abdul Aziz di Jeddah, dimana ia berguru pada salah satu dari antara gurunya, yakni Sheikh Abdullah Azzam. Guru Abdullah Azzam inilah yang kemudian diketahui sebagai tokoh utama yang memainkan peran memobilisasi dukungan bangsa Arab bagi kaum Mujahidin yang berperang melawan pendudukan Russia di Afganistan. Osama bin Laden lulus menyelesaikan pengajuannya dan dimendapat sarjana tahun 1979 dalam bidang Ekonomi dan Manajemen.
Perjalanan Hidupnya
Osama bin Laden mulai membangun jaringan komunikasinya pada tahun 1979 ketika ia berangkat ke Afganistan bergabung dalam perang kaum pejuang Afgan yang dikenal sebagai kaum mujahidin yang tetap bertahan dan bertempur melawan Soviet. Osama menderma dana melalui jalur-jalur kekayaan dan kaitan hubungan keluarganya bagi gerakan pertahanan Afgan, dan membantu kaum Mujahidin dengan bantuan logistik dan bantuan kemanusiaan. Osama juga terlibat mengambil bagian dalam beberapa pertempuran selama perang Afganistan.
Ketika peperangan melawan Soviet hampir berakhir, Osama mendirikan gerakan Al Qaeda, sebuah organisasi para mantan/eks pejuang Mujahedin dan para pendukung lainnya yang membantu menyalurkan baik dana maupun para pejuang bagi gerakan pertahanan Afgan.
Ketika tentera Soviet berunder keluar dari Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden pulang kembali ke Arab Saudi dan bergabung bekerja pada perusahaan pembinaan dan pembangunan milik keluarga, Kumpulan Perusahaan Bin Laden. Di sini ia kemudian terlibat bersama kelompok orang-orang Saudi yang haluan kir dan menentang pemerintahan kerajaan / monarkhi Saudi, yakni terhadap [[Keluarga Raja Fahd. Pada tahun 1995 Osama bin Laden membangun infrasruktur di Sudan ketika hubungannya dengan Presiden Umar Al Basyir dan Dr Hasan Turabi yang memerintah Sudan.
Pada tahun 1994, Pemerintah Saudi mencabut hak kewarganegaraan Osama dan membekukan seluruh asset dan kekayaannya di seluruh negeri. Osama bin Laden diyakini berbagai pihak sebagai tokoh pusat dan kunci dari suatu koalisi internasional dari kaum radikal Islam. Menurut Pemerintah Amerika Serikat, Al Qaedah telah meniru gerakan-gerakan aliansi dengan pola pikir kelompok-kelompok fundamentalis, seperti misalnya kelompok Al-Jihad di Mesir, Gerakan Hizbullah di Iran, Front Islam Nasional di Sudan, dan kelompok-kelompok jihad lainnya di Yaman, Saudi Arabia, dan Somalia. Organisasi Osama bin Laden juga memiliki ikatan-ikatan dengan "Kelompok Islam" yang pada suatu ketika dibawah pimpinan Syaikh Omar Abdel Rahman, seorang ulama Mesir yang menjalani hukuman seumur hidup sejak pengakuannya pada tahun 1995 menggagalkan persekongkolan peledakan beberapa tempat di kawasan kota New York. Pada akhir tahun 1990-an dua orang anak Sheik Rahman bergabung bersama kekuatan tentara dan perjuangan Osama bin Laden.
Sejak tahun 1992, Pemerintah Amerika Syarikat memberi kesan bahawa Osama bin Laden dan anggota-anggota lainnya dari gerakan Al Qaedah menjadi sasaran tentera Amerika yang bertugas di Saudi Arabia, dan di Yaman, dan satuan militer yang ditugaskan di Tanduk Afrika, termasuk di Somalia. Pada bulan Oktober 1993, diberitakan ada 18 orang anggota tentera kebangsaan Amerika Syarikat yang bekerja untuk bantuan kemanusiaan di Somalia, mati dibunuh di sana ketika menjalankan kerja sosial mereka. Mayat tentera pekerja sosial itu diseret dan dianiaya di sepanjang jalan-jalan raya. Pada tahun 1996 Osama bin Laden dikenai hukuman atas tuduhan melatih orang-orang yang terlibat dalam penyerangan pembunuhan tentara pekerja sosial di atas dan ia mengatakan bahwa para pengikutnya bersama kaum Muslim setempat telah membunuh tentera-tentera itu. Penghakiman Amerika Syarikat turut menuduh bahwa Osama bin Laden memiliki jaringan dengan serangan-serangan yang gagal ke atas dua hotel di Yaman di mana para tentera Amerika Serikat bermalam dalam perjalanan mereka ke Somalia.
Pada tanggal 7 Ogos 1998, delapan tahun setelah penugasan operasional militer Amerika Serikat di Saudi Arabia, dua trak bermuatan bom meledak di luar Kedutaan Besar Amerika Syarikat di Nairobi, Kenya; dan di Dares Salaam, Tanzania. Osama bin Laden menolak bertanggungjawab, tetapi para Hakim menegaskan keterlibatan dan kesalahannya itu terbukti dengan adanya surat-surat faksimili yang dikirimkan oleh kelompok Sel Osama di London setidaknya kepada tiga agen penjualan media internasional. Para Hakim juga menunjukkan pengakuan para pelaku tindak kriminal tertuduh pelaku pengeboman Kedutaan-Kedutaan Besar , yang mengaku mereka adalah anggota gerakan Al Qaedah.
Empat belas hari kemudian, pada tanggal 20 Ogos 1998, Presiden Bill Clinton memerintahkan armada Kapal Perang Amerika Syarikat menggempur kamp-kamp di Afganistan yang dicurigai sebagai sarang pelatihan teroris, dan penggempuran keatas pabrik reaktor kimia di kota Khartoum, Sudan. Osama bin Laden bisa selamat dari serangan itu dan dijatuhi hukuman oleh Amerika Serikat dengan tuduhan sebagai perancang atau otak dibalik serangan-serangan bulan Nopember 1998.
Presiden George W. Bush telah menyatakan bahwa Osama adalah tertuduh utama dalam serangan teroris di kota New York dan Washington pada tanggal 11 September 2001; sama persis bahwa Osama adalah tertuduh terjadi akibat hegemoni barat khususnya Amerika Serikat terhadap bangsa bangsa di dunia khususnya yang pelaku utama dalam pengeboman gedung World Trade Center pada tahun 1993; dan terhadap lusinan serangan teroris yang lain keatas Keduataan-Kedutaan Besar Amerika Syarikat, kapal-kapal perang, dan asset-aset Amerika Serikat lainnya.
Para perwira Taliban telah mengutuk serangan hari Selasa ke atas Amerika Syarikat dan menegaskan bahwa Taliban pasti tidak terlibat. Osama bin Laden secara tegas dan meyakinkan telah menyangkal keterlibatan dirinya dalam pembantaian dan pertumpahan darah 11 September 2001 itu bahkan tatkala Taliban bersumpah melindungi Osama bin Laden sambil memperbaharui peringatan Taliban bahwa negara-negara tetangga yang membantu Washington tidak akan bisa luput dari peristiwa serupa. "Amerika Serikat menudingkan jari telunjuknya kepadaku tetapi saya menyatakan dengan pasti dan yakin bahwa saya tidak melakukan semua ini."
Osama bin Laden dapat disejajarkan dengan Che Guevara dalam perlawanannya terhadap ketidakadilan yang terjadi di negara negara dunia Islam. Banyak pengamat Islam Internasional mengatakan bahwa perlawanan Osama bin Laden dan Al Qaeda-nya akan tetap berlanjut selama dunia barat khususnya Amerika Serikat tidak mengubah kebijakan yang tidak adil terhadap negara negara dunia Islam. Kasus Palestina dan keberpihakannya terhadap Israel diantaranya, serta serangan dan pendudukan terhadap Iraq membuat masalah yang dikatakan dunia barat sebagai terorisme tidak akan selesai.
"fight for your right"
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
PUnksTer inFo
On October 9, 1967, Bolivian forces executed Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, and amputated his hands for identification. Guevara had been agitating in Bolivia, a definite no-no. The location of the body remained a mystery for 30 years, until a search by the Bolivian government uncovered it on a mountainside near Vallegrande. Now, Vallegrande is an epicenter for Che merchandising.
Image published on the back of Alarma news magazine, 1968.
On October 9, 1967, Bolivian forces executed Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, and amputated his hands for identification. Guevara had been agitating in Bolivia, a definite no-no. The location of the body remained a mystery for 30 years, until a search by the Bolivian government uncovered it on a mountainside near Vallegrande. Now, Vallegrande is an epicenter for Che merchandising.
Image published on the back of Alarma news magazine, 1968. 
suicide
Pennywise Bassist Dead www.CelebrityMorgue.com
Jason Thirsk, former bassist for the hardcore punk band Pennywise, was found dead at his Hermosa Beach home on July 29 1996, aged 27. He had been battling depression and alcoholism (the reason he was removed from the band.) Somewhat later, All Star Magazine reported that "some sick fans got hold of the suicide photos" and the band was attempting to have them somehow removed from the Internet.
Mad monk's member features big in museumA visitor looks at Rasputin's penis displayed at the first Russian museum of erotica in Saint Petersburg.Picture:AFP
In a more innocent age, it was said that Gregory Efimovich Rasputin's legendary power over women was due to his piercing eyes.
But a new museum of erotica here suggests that the mad monk's charm may instead have been, ahem, concealed beneath his cassock.
Measuring 28.5cm (about 11 inches) - allowing for shrinkage caused by pickling - Rasputin's penis displayed in a tall glass bottle is, to put it delicately, a big attraction at the museum.
Director Igor Knyazkin said he bought the object from a French antiquitarian for $US8,000 ($A11,500), along with several of Rasputin's hand-written letters.
It was not known if he had a certificate of authenticity for such a remarkable piece.
Reputed both for his mysticism and his debauchery, Rasputin was a powerful influence at the court of the Romanov Tsars.
Concerned about his unusual hold over the Empress Alexandra, a group of aristocrats decided to kill him to save Russia.
They lured him to an assignation in 1916, fed him drugged cakes, shot him and finally killed him by wrapping him in a carpet and throwing him into the frozen Neva river.
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The aura of sexual power and mysticism lives on. Some Russians think just by staring at the object, they can cure sexual impotence.
One visitor asked Knyazkin if this is true.
"Without a shadow of doubt," he replied with a smile.
Knyazkin, 37, a urologist and sexologist, set up the museum in the clinic he runs, partly with the aim of helping his patients overcome impotence. The atmosphere of the museum makes patients "more optimistic and relaxed," he said.
"The aim of the doctor is to free his patient from anxiety and fears. Men who come here are ill at ease because of their problems, and our light and happy atmosphere reassures them."
Only part of Knyazkin's collection of 12,000 erotic objects is displayed in the clinic, which is staffed by buxom nurses wearing short white blouses and high heels.
"I keep the valuable stuff at home," he said.
Nevertheless, the museum still contains an impressive collection of ceramic phalluses and bawdy drawings.
Many of the exhibits come from his patients, said the doctor, rattling off the names of several members of Russian high society.
- AFP
Rasputin, the Mad Monk www.CelebrityMorgue.comThe body of the Russian monk and favorite to the czarina, Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (1872-1916). On December 30, 1916, a plot to assassinate Rasputin transpired. The monk drank several glasses of poisoned wine, and consumed several pastries with potassium cyanide as an active ingredient. When this failed to stop Rasputin, he was shot by Prince Felix Yusupov, shot again, stabbed repeatedly, and finally met his end drowned in the icy Neva river. There are stories that Rasputin's penis was severed from his body prior to his demise, but we believe those to be false.
Monday, August 14, 2006
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