Attack in Somalia condemned by Minister Frattini

(APO) -- Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has firmly condemned today's cowardly terrorist attack at the Muna Hotel in Mogadishu, in which 9 members of parliament and 26 other people were killed. Minister Frattini has appealed to the international community to tackle the challenge which the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist movement Al-Shabaab poses to the Somali institutions and to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

“If we deliver Somalia into the hands of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, the entire Horn of Africa will topple into chaos”, declared Minister Frattini. He has instructed the Italian Ambassador, Dejak, to convey his condolences for the victims of the attack to the Speaker of the Somali Parliament.

Italy is a firm supporter of the African Union's action, which sees 6000 AMISON troops deployed to fight the fundamentalist Islamic militias. The aim of the action is to prevent the collapse of the Somali institutions and promote stability in the region. The Italian Government will go on helping to consolidate Somalia's government and ministry structures and train its public security and border police forces. Italy is also helping to meet the needs of the Somali people with humanitarian aid and by re-opening hospital and medical structures in the capital.

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Islamic Terminology Banned From Times Square Bomber Investigation?

/PRNewswire/ -- PJTV's CEO Roger L. Simon today called for federal agents investigating the Times Square bomber to be unshackled from the ties of censorship in an exclusive PJTV video. During recent months, PJTV has conducted in-depth investigations into document sanitization, finding evidence of censorship in the Fort Hood report and the FBI's Counter Terrorism Analytical Lexicon, among others.

"The public needs to know if our national security professionals are constrained in their use of Islamic terminology in their written and verbal communications," commented Simon. "This is a matter of national security for all Americans, but given the history of 9/11 and this recent incident, New Yorkers, in particular, deserve uncensored documents and unrestricted analysis in this investigation."

Although the bipartisan 9/11 Commission report contained 600 occurrences of Islam, Muslim, Sharia, Jihad, Hamas, and Hezbollah, subsequent documents (such as the FBI's Counter Terrorism Analytical Lexicon) eliminated the terms from the documents completely, as further explained in an April 2010 PJTV investigative report.

In response to these recent events, Simon formally requested a congressional hearing on the censorship of Islamic terminology in the U.S. government. More specifically, he requested the investigative hearing focus on four key topics:

1. To what degree are government documents and reports (perhaps both
public and classified documents) being sanitized regarding Islamic
terminology?
2. To what degree is there a program or practice of verbal censorship?
What are government employees allowed to say in their internal
meetings? And are there internal policies or what the media might call
"style guides" that prevent department secretaries, their staff and
even the White House press spokesperson from using specific Islamic
terminology?
3. Who are the people or organizations inside the government that are
pushing for this censorship?
4. What people or groups outside the U.S. government may have been
advocating this censorship?


"America has never been the land of censorship," added Simon. "Certainly, Vice President Biden and Rahm Emanuel have refused to censor their language in the public sphere. Yet, it is quite possible that public liaisons such as Robert Gibbs, Eric Holder, Robert Mueller, and Janet Napolitano have established policies that constrain the use of certain descriptive terms in national security documents and speeches. If this is so, we need to know. As such, I sincerely request a congressional hearing investigating this important subject."

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Over 10,000 Have Viewed The Third Jihad as Part of 9/11 Free Online Streaming Campaign

/PRNewswire/ -- The producers of The Third Jihad announced that more than 10,000 concerned Americans have watched the film as part of an initiative to stream the film to the public free of charge on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The film (regularly priced at $19.95) is available for free streaming in its entirety through Tuesday, September 15 on the film's official website: www.TheThirdJihad.com.

"Tens of thousands of concerned citizens have already seen this important film," said Raphael Shore, Executive Producer of The Third Jihad. "Together we need to educate thousands more if we are to stand up and mobilize against the threat of radical Islam in the U.S."

The film is being made available as part of a grassroots initiative to educate the public about the threat that radical Islam continues to pose to national security and the American way of life.

"It is important to remember the motivations behind the worst attacks on American soil since the civil war--and to recognize that these same motivations remain eight years later," added Shore.

Individuals are encouraged to watch The Third Jihad and share the film with others. The free stream can also be embedded on any website, blog, Facebook page or social media platform.

Instructions for embedding the stream can be found here: http://www.clearspring.com/widgets/4aa51fdf90e8bc0a

"Almost a decade after the 9/11 attacks, radicals continue their fight with persistent attacks on our freedoms and democracy. These attacks take place daily in our courtrooms, our press, our banks, our prisons and even in our children's schools."

Viewers are encouraged to purchase the DVD to support this educational project. In addition, special screening kits are available for those who wish to screen the film to family, friends and communities.

The Third Jihad, the newest offering from the producers of the award-winning documentary film, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, explores the growth of radical Islam in America.

The film, narrated by devout Muslim American Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, opens with the following statement: "This is not a film about Islam. It is about the threat of radical Islam. Only a small percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are radical. This film is about them."

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Fair Witness Issues Statement on Moral Proportion and the Role of Churches in the Israel-Gaza War

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East issues the following statement by Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College in Annandale, New York:

Why would the State of Israel attack Gaza by air, and threaten invasion on the ground? After all, the target of operations has been the territory that Israel withdrew its forces from under Ariel Sharon, dismantling and destroying Israeli settlements as it did so.

Even as Prime Minister Sharon pursued his policy of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, his country faced regular missile attacks. Qassam rockets are primitive although highly mobile weapons; they can be fired from portable tripods, but lack guidance systems. Since 2001 civilian centers have been their usual targets, and they have produced casualties and terror without achieving strategic or tactical advantage.

Sharon calculated in 2005 that the crudity of the Qassams, and the promise of Palestinian autonomy in Gaza, would spell the end of the attacks. His calculation proved wrong. The electoral success of Hamas in 2006, followed by its seizure of power in Gaza in 2007, saw an increase in the number of Qassam strikes, as well as in the range of some missiles. For six precious months, Hamas suspended attacks, but announced the end of its truce in December. Qassam assaults have escalated.

In response Israel has targeted Qassam installations, as well as command and control centers and development sites, for sustained bombardment and destruction. International reaction against Israel -- especially from Christians -- has been more negative than the censure of Hamas for its attacks. Israelis have been accused of "disproportionate" military tactics, especially because civilian causalities have been involved. Much public criticism of Israel ignores Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, overlooks the Qassam attacks, and promotes a false moral equation.

How much force is warranted in response to an egregious wrong? Unless a realistic answer to that question can be found, violence spirals through the self-righteous atmosphere of revenge. During their often violent histories, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have demonstrated a tragic capacity to unleash reprisals against one another, using martyrdom as a means to motivate their adherents to persist in war whatever the cost. Nation-states that have inherited the cultures and the languages of the Abrahamic faiths have shown themselves no less addicted than their religiously motivated predecessors to putting their people in harm's way in the alleged national interest.

Proportion in war might seem an oxymoron; warfare represents the failure of proportionate means. But when violence overwhelms the give and take of healthy relations, how can a way back to health be found?

One measure of a policy is its purpose. In the cases of Hamas and the State of Israel, what is the aim of Qassam attacks on the one hand, and of Israel's attacks on Gaza on the other hand?

Qassam rockets are deployed by their namesake, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Fired over the border between Gaza and Israel at civilian centers, they put into action the stated aim of the Hamas Charter of 1988: "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." By intent and impact, Qassam rockets terrorize Israeli civilian populations in an attempt to galvanize action across the Muslim world in order to eliminate the State of Israel.

Israel's attacks in Gaza involve civilian casualties, although that is not their purpose. At every stage -- deployment, preparation, and design -- Qassam are in such proximity to residential populations that even well targeted strikes bring calamitous results. But the aim of Israel is not the elimination of Gaza, but the end of Qassam attacks. The willingness of the Israeli authorities to halt their attacks in the hope that Qassam sites will be dismantled is a positive development.

War is an obvious evil, an unmistakable sign of human sin. Yet even in the case of war, humanity can be served by the aims that are set and the means employed to achieve those aims. As a war aim, the elimination of the State of Israel is morally abhorrent. Likewise, the means of Qassam rockets can hardly be justified; their only virtue is their lack of accuracy. Israel's aim, the cessation of Qassam attacks, has been accompanied by a continuation of humanitarian aid. Moral equations in times of war are parlous, but the best outcome now seems to depend upon the resolve of the State of Israel to maintain a limited war aim, and the willingness of the governing authorities in Gaza and their allies to find a way to affirm Palestinian autonomy without insisting upon the elimination of Israel. That proportion of restraint and flexibility, rather than the disproportionate assignment of blame to the supposedly stronger party, is the last best chance of avoiding an escalation of violence in the Middle East that no nation on earth can afford.

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Staten Island Satellite TV Operator Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to Hizballah TV Station

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JAVED IQBAL, a/k/a "John Iqbal," 45, of Staten Island, New York, pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to providing material support to Hizballah, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

According to the criminal Complaint, the count (Count Two) of the Superseding Indictment to which IQBAL pleaded guilty, and statements during the guilty plea proceeding before United States District Judge RICHARD M. BERMAN:

Hizballah ("Party of God") is a Lebanon-based organization whose stated mission is the establishment of a fundamentalist Islamic state and the destruction of the State of Israel. Hizballah regards the United States as its enemy in this struggle and has pursued its mission through, among other things, attacks on civilian targets. Hizballah operates a television station in Lebanon known as Al Manar ("the beacon") to cultivate support, including raising funds and recruiting volunteers for attacks. Hizballah was designated on October 8, 1997, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. On October 31, 2001, Hizballah was further designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist,and Al Manar itself was so designated on March 23, 2006.

IQBAL operated a satellite television service known as HDTV Limited, d/b/a HDTV Corporation, that maintained certain of its satellite equipment at IQBAL's residence on Staten Island.

IQBAL admitted that between approximately September 2005 and August 2006 he provided satellite transmission services to Al Manar, in exchange for thousands of dollars in payments from Al Manar.

IQBAL pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 24, 2009, at 12:45 p.m. before Judge BERMAN in Manhattan federal court.

Mr. DASSIN praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force in conducting the investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys ERIC SNYDER and DAVID S. LEIBOWITZ are in charge of the prosecution.

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