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DEATH OF INNOCENCE
By Avi Davis
 I didn’t know Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg. But I feel as if I did. Their lives and mission duplicated that of dozens of other Chabad emissaries throughout the world with whom I have enjoyed many long hours. In Melbourne, London, San Juan, Lima, Cambridge, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Rabat, Providence and Los Angeles I have been received as their guest, sharing in the warmth of their homes, participating in their family life and relishing sumptuous meals. Through all these years and visits, I have never failed to be impressed by one universal trait: a sense of wonder at the beauty of life. Searching back through my memories then, I have been able to form a composite portrait of the slain couple: the twinkle in the eye upon the greeting of a stranger; an intense curiosity about the traveler’s journey; the proud affirmation of a shared Jewish identity and the expression of a quirky, self deprecating humor, which all seems to emanate from a profound lightness of being. I have always left their homes elevated by the couple’s display of deep faith and won over by their enthusiasm to share whatever they have with someone they may have known for as little as an hour.
It was therefore more than heart rending to hear the news that the Holtzbergs had not only lost their lives in the Mumbai terror attack, but had suffered brutal torture and mutilation before their deaths. Reports have filtered back to the United States that the couple may have actually played host to their murderers a few months before as the assassins conducted their reconnaissance for the attack. If this was indeed the case then the irony that the renowned Chabad hospitality had contributed to such a grisly fate, is perhaps one of the more depressing aspects of the many horrific events of last week. An attack of such wanton hatred could barely be conceived by a couple who practiced loving kindness as an article of faith. Their lack of preparedness for the catastrophe that befell them then only adds to its inexplicability. Such absolute depravity seems beyond human understanding.
Yet we must force ourselves to confront the reality that such a menace is alive and growing in our world. It has infected vast swathes of the Arab and Muslim world and shows no sign of abating. There is little doubt that had their two-year-old son not been saved by his caregiver, he would have been put to death just like them, without compassion or remorse. A report in the Los Angeles Times comments that the Indian police are still flummoxed that the terrorists would dispatch a terrorist crew to an obscure house in a Mumbai suburb in order to attack a couple of ultra-Orthodox Jews. What they don’t appreciate is that the Holtzbergs were not only targets because they were Jews, but because they displayed a level of humanity that was anathema to their killers. They were symbols of the kind of world the terrorists had forsaken and notoriously revile. It is a world in which life is revered above death; where openness and tolerance are still key aspects of one’s sense of humanity; where awe at the beauty of life cannot be subsumed by adherence to a supremacist ideology or the worship of violence.
Of course the Holtzbergs were not the only individuals or families who were unprepared for the attacks and whose sudden extirpation seems so unfathomable. We should grieve the many innocent lives lost, including the three others taken with them in Nariman House. But the 400,000 mourners, from all walks of life, who attended the couple’s funeral in Israel last week knew that their tragic deaths could not be explained simply as an attack on Jews. It was an attack on Judaism itself. It was a denial of Judaism’s life giving force and the form of loving kindness that the Holtzbergs exhibited and that the Chabad movement so earnestly promotes.
Lets also not forget how others are now seeking to explain the attack on Chabad House. T. K. Bhat, an Indian neighbor who lives close to Chabad House, was reported by the Times of London as commenting: “It could be that the attitudes of the Chabad, which gives the sense of an elite club for Jews alone, is part of what provoked the terrorists to target them for the attack.” Really? Would that all elite Indian clubs now remember that close association and exclusionary policies will almost certainly render them instant targets of Islamic aggression. Perhaps the Times of London, which allowed such a noxious, anti-Semitic comment to pass without comment or criticism, has suddenly realized that their own Mumbai bureau is now as vulnerable as Nariman House was last week. The palpable nonsense that Jews bring attacks upon themselves merely by expressions of solidarity or mutual commitment should be revealed as trading in the same kind of suspicion, jealousy and hatred that fuels the engine of Islamic terror.
It is said that killing as retribution for an earlier murder does everything to satisfy one’s demand for justice except to bring the dead back to life. That stated, we might remember that while the 170 innocent lives lost in India might be avenged one day by the capture and execution of the terrorist masterminds, that act in itself will do little to restore spiritual equilibrium to a shattered world. The ultimate victory over these purveyors of hate will come when we reaffirm our values and moral commitments in the face of their cruelty. It will come when Mumbai’s Chabad House is restored and the work begun by the Holtzbergs is taken up again by a vibrant young couple equally committed to the Chabad mission; It will come when more of us, deeply inspired by the courage and tenacity of the Holtzbergs, recognize that loving kindness is the most potent antidote for the nihilism and loathing with which the perpetrators of Islamic terror now seek to inject all humanity.
If this occurs, the young couple will certainly not have died in vain.
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Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
 Massive show of solidarity for victims of 26/11-Purva Mehra
As dusk thickened at the Gateway of India, thousands of quivering points of light lit up the evening. Seven days after Mumbai had been bloodied by terror attacks whose ramifications spread beyond the borders of the country, a ravaged city came together at the very spot where the carnage had been unleashed in a show of support unparalleled in its scale in recent Indian history. Lights went on in the attacked Taj Mahal Hotel in rooms that faced the Gateway. More than 10,000 had turned up hours even before the scheduled start of the march.What began as a small candlelit vigil at the harbour front on Monday had gained momentum over the next two days through text messages that urged people to turn up at the Gateway for this peaceful protest march. On Wednesday evening, it revealed itself as a tricolour-waving, overwhelming show of solidarity for the victims of 26/11. Lights went on in the attacked Taj Mahal Hotel in rooms that faced the Gateway. More than 10,000 had turned up hours even before the scheduled start of the march. There were T-shirts that said ‘Mumbai meri jaan’ or ‘I love Mumbai’; there were ones that said ‘Enough is enough’ or ‘No vote, no taxes, no protection, no security.’ All the T-shirts were white, and every other person seemed to be wearing one.Aashay Doshi, an 18-year-old student of Jai Hind College, and his friends were sporting T-shirts with printed slogans. His said: ‘Just because we have spirit don’t exploit it’. “We’ll give the money to JJ Hospital,” he said. Weary of rhetoric, people wanted to be involved in the polity of the country; and they wouldn’t stand for any more ineptitude.
Nuclear or Biological Attack Called Likely-John Warrick
The odds that terrorists will soon strike a major city with weapons of mass destruction are now better than even, a bipartisan congressionally mandated task force concludes in a draft study that warns of growing threats from rogue states, nuclear smuggling networks and the spread of atomic know-how in the developing world. The sobering assessment of such threats, due for release as early as today, singled out Pakistan as a grave concern because of its terrorist networks, history of instability and arsenal of several dozen nuclear warheads. The report urged the incoming Obama administration to take "decisive action" to reduce the likelihood of a devastating attack. "No mission could be timelier," says the draft report of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which spent six months preparing an assessment for Congress and the new president-elect. It adds: "In our judgment, America's margin of safety is shrinking, not growing." The report, ordered by Congress last year, concludes that terrorists are more likely to obtain materials for a biological attack than to buy or steal nuclear weapons. But it says the nuclear threat is growing rapidly, in part because of the increasing global supply of nuclear material and technology. "Without greater urgency and decisive action by the world community, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013," says the draft report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. The Post reported excerpts from an earlier draft in Sunday's editions
 India Names Mumbai Mastermind-Geeta Anand, Matthew Rosenberg, Yaroslav Trofimov, Zahid Hussain
MUMBAI -- India has accused a senior leader of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba of orchestrating last week's terror attacks that killed at least 172 people here, and demanded the Pakistani government turn him over and take action against the group. Just two days before hitting the city, the group of 10 terrorists who ravaged India's financial capital communicated with Yusuf Muzammil and four other Lashkar leaders via a satellite phone that they left behind on a fishing trawler they hijacked to get to Mumbai, a senior Mumbai police official told The Wall Street Journal. The entire group also underwent rigorous training in a Lashkar-e-Taiba camp in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the official said. Mr. Muzammil had earlier been in touch with an Indian Muslim extremist who scoped out Mumbai locations for possible attack before he was arrested early this year, said another senior Indian police official. The Indian man, Faheem Ahmed Ansari, had in his possession layouts drawn up for the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel and Mumbai's main railway station, both prime targets of last week's attack, the police official said. Mr. Ansari, who also made sketches and maps of locations in southern Mumbai that weren't attacked, had met Mr. Muzammil and trained at the same Lashkar camp as the terrorists in last week's attack, an official said. U.S. officials agreed that Mr. Muzammil was a focus of their attention in the attacks, though they stopped short of calling him the mastermind. "That is a name that is definitely on the radar screen," a U.S. counterterrorism official said. (WSJ)
 'No regrets': Captured terrorist's account of Mumbai massacre reveals plan was to kill 5,000-Daily Mail Reporter
This is the only surviving gunman of the massacre in Mumbai. Seconds after this picture was taken, 21-year-old Azam Amir Kasav began to kill. He and the terror cell's leader began their attacks at the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji rail station. They later hijacked two cars, before police caught them. During two days of questioning, Kashmiri-born Kasav, who used the alias Ajmal Kasab, told police: 'I have no regrets'. He is said to have told officers the cell was to seek out 'white targets, preferably British and American'. The terrorists thought they would come out alive and had an escape route, added Kasav. He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages. He then added that their intention was to kill 5,000 people. Mercifully, the group, armed with plastic explosives, underestimated the strength of the 105-year-old building's solid foundations. As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise to nearly 300 once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces. Yesterday, Kasav chillingly went through details of Wednesday night's killing spree across the city, which ended when he was cornered by police. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Tuesday: Missing Twin Cities Somalis, terror ties probed-James Walsh, Lora Pabst and Pam Louwagie
Federal authorities are investigating whether young Somali men who have disappeared in the Twin Cities metro area in recent months have been recruited to fight for terrorist groups in strife-torn Somalia. A source familiar with the case confirmed Tuesday that there is a high-level investigation of whether six to seven young Somali men and teenagers left the Twin Cities and returned to their homeland to participate in terrorist activities. The source confirmed that one of the people in that group under scrutiny had returned to Somalia around the first of the year and blown himself up in a terrorist-led operation there. Additionally, E.K. Wilson, spokesman for the Minneapolis office of the FBI, would not confirm an investigation. But he acknowledged the agency's concern that young Somali men have been returning to Somalia to fight. He said he could not say whether Shirwa Ahmed, a Twin Cities man named in a KSTP-TV report Tuesday, was one of them. The station said that federal authorities are investigating whether Ahmed was a terrorism recruiter in the Twin Cities who blew himself up in northern Somalia last month. "We are aware of the circumstances in Somalia," Wilson said. "We are aware that a number of individuals throughout the U.S., including Minneapolis, have traveled to Somalia to fight for terrorist groups. But I cannot confirm or deny an investigation at this point." (Startribune)
Academic freedom
Haqqani on Muslim Brotherhood's real agenda-Rob Dreher
At a Hudson Institute conference in Washington last year, the Muslim scholar Zeyno Baran spoke about how the radical Muslim Brotherhood has established front groups in the US to mask and mainstream its Islamist ideology. Baran said:
Now, when we engage with Islamist organizations, either in conferences or government outreach programs, that is seen as endorsing that group and gives them legitimacy and empowers this sort of Islamism to become much more legitimate in the eyes of, let's say American Muslim groups.
If groups like CAIR or ISNA, Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR, or the Islamic Society of North America, the two indicted coconspirators in the Holy Land trial case that I'm sure you all know about, and I believe you mentioned it briefly in your introduction, when those groups are invited to events with U.S. government, then most of the American Muslim groups who don't really understand these issue think that they are the legitimate representative organizations and they need to be supporting them. And instead of then having sort of non-Islamist networks being formed, many of the Muslims feel that this sort of the non-Islamist Muslims feel that there's really nowhere for them to go since the government is not reaching out to them, and since through decades of funding, institutional networking, creating of organizations, the Brotherhood and its affiliates have been taking over, or starting to take over the mainstream, that is the answer when some of you say, where are the real moderate Muslims, why aren't they speaking up, and that is partly the reason why they don't speak up because they don't think that there is really any interest or really opportunity for them. Also on the panel was Islamic scholar Husain Haqqani, who recounted the history of how the Muslim Brotherhood took over mainstream Muslim institutions in the US. I reproduce his remarks below, not only because they are important to keep in mind when many Americans prefer to believe that CAIR, ISNA and the other mainstream Muslim organizations pursue a benign agenda, but also because Dr. Haqqani is now Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. (Dallasmorningviewsblog)
 How Colleges Aid And Abet Terrorism-Herb Deneberg
Our colleges and universities have not only become centers of anti-Americanism but are also becoming centers facilitating the stealth jihad - the gradual transformation of America into a theocracy subject to sharia (Muslim law). As they have already almost succeeded in doing, the Muslims are now in the process of taking over America without a shot being fired or a bomb going off.Yesterday, I wrote about the stealth jihad, which has already turned Europe into Eurabia and destroyed its Judeo-Christian basis. And now it looks like America is starting down that same path to civilizational suicide. This conclusion is fully documented in Robert Spencer's important new book, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs. In this column, I want to take up Mr. Spencer's ideas on our colleges and universities are now in the service of the stealth jihad, as explained in his new book. Our institutions of higher learning have been transformed from educational institutions in the pursuit of disinterested inquiry to seek the truth into partisan machines of ideas and causes often antithetical to American democracy and American values. Mr. Spencer writes, "In control of the faculty and administration, from these positions of power, they have systematically undermined the historical educational ideal of free inquiry in favor of a relentlessly partisan agenda. Instead of teaching the dispassionate pursuit of knowledge, university students nationwide are now indoctrinated into a post-American ideology that denounces as 'racist' the criticism of any culture other than our own." (thebulletin)
Media Bias
Mumbai Massacre: Everyone’s Fault?-Phyllis Chesler
The Islamic terrorists keep telling us that their barbaric massacres and homicide bombings are being done in the name of Islam. Muslim organizations keep insisting that Islam is a religion of peace. Even as civilian blood cries out for justice, or for security, the intelligentsia warn us that Muslims and Islam are not the problem, that American foreign policy and Zionism are the real problem. The Western mainstream media refuse to take the barbarians at their word lest they be accused of “racism” or “Islamophobia.” For example, in a recent issue of the New York Times‘ front page coverage of the Mumbai massacre, the reporters do not describe the terrorists as “Islamic terrorists.” Instead, they refer to them as “Pakistani-based militants,” “militants,” “gunmen, (five or six times)” “attackers,” and “suspects.” They quote President Bush who referred to them as “killers.” They quote the head of India’s National Security Guards who called them “terrorists.” Once or twice they mention India’s “vulnerability to terrorism” but they do not join Islam, Islamism, or fundamentalist Islam to terrorism.This mis-use of language, even for an ostensibly noble purpose, will only further confuse us and slow down a collective response to the Islamic terrorist attacks against civilians. Martha Nussbaum, in the Los Angeles Times, writes that Hindus also massacre Muslims and refers to the awful carnage of Muslims in Gujarat. Dorothy Rabinowitz, in the Wall Street Journal, notes that, in a television interview, Deepak Chopra (!) quickly blamed United States foreign policy, not Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, for the Mumbai massacre; when challenged, he genially conceded that the massacre was really “everyone’s” fault. Everyone’s fault; Muslim fundamentalist terrorists excluded. (Frontpagemagazine)
They're Winning-Steve Emerson
This past Saturday, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece entitled "What They Hate about Mumbai," focusing specifically on the free market sins of that great city. With contrived evenhandedness, the op-ed managed to blame both Hindus and Muslim extremists—without blaming either party in particular for the murderous attacks. Without realizing it, the Grey Lady had hit upon a great travel series. In the best spirit of jihad for dummies, why not a year's worth of op-eds focusing on "Why They Hate____" filled in, mad-libs style, with the U.S., Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Kenya, and the other 74 countries where radical Islam has reared its violent head? With only the moral blindness that the New York Times could capture, each op-ed would portray the attacks in a contrived even-handed way, without blaming, or even naming, the perpetrators of the attacks—Muslim jihadists. Watching and reading the last 5 days of reports of the Mumbai attacks was an Alice in Wonderland experience. Even after an Islamic terrorist group took credit, TV anchors and reporters assiduously avoided the term Islamic terrorist. They must have consulted with the Thesaurus for the Politically Correct to determine that the word "gunmen" would not offend any jihadist. The real truth is that there is war against the West and the Jews by Islamic jihadists. (Investigativeproject)
Hindus, Jews, and Jihad Terror in Mumbai-Andrew Bostom
Sixty hours of jihadist terror depradations throughout India's financial capital, Mumbai -- during which nearly 200 innocent victims were murdered, and 300 wounded -- apparently ceased this Saturday, November 29, when Indian commandos slew the last three gunmen inside a luxury hotel, while it was still ablaze. Mainstream media coverage of these rampaging, cold-blooded murderous acts of jihad terrorism -- perpetrated by a self-professed "mujahideen" organization (i.e., "The Deccan Mujahideen") -- consistently ignored the clear ideological linkage to Islam. Simply put, "mujahideen" are Muslim jihadists, "holy warriors," because there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad, despite present day apologetics.
The root of the word jihad, appears 40 times in the Koran and in subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminaries -- from the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam, to ordinary people -- meant and means "he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like." As described by the seminal mid-19th century Arabic lexicographer E.W Lane, "Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war, against unbelievers." A contemporary definition, relevant to both modern jihadism and its shock troop "mujahideen" was provided at the Fourth International Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research at Al Azhar University, Cairo -- Islam's most important religious educational institution-in 1968, by Muhammad al-Sobki:
...the words Al Jihad, Al Mojahadah, or even "striving against enemies" are equivalents and they do not mean especially fighting with the atheists...they mean fighting in the general sense...
Contemporary validation of the central principle of jihad terrorism -- rooted in the Koran -- (for example, verses 8:12, 8:60, and 33:26)-i.e., to terrorize the enemies of the Muslims as a prelude to their conquest -- has been provided in the mainstream Pakistani text on jihad warfare by Brigadier S.K. Malik, originally published in Lahore, in 1979. Malik's treatise was endorsed in a laudatory Foreword to the book by his patron, then Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq, as well as a more extended Preface by Allah Buksh K. Brohi, a former Advocate-General of Pakistan. This text -- widely studied in Islamic countries, and available in English, Urdu, and Arabic -- has been recovered from the bodies of slain jihadists in Kashmir. Brigadier Malik emphasizes how instilling terror is essential to waging successful jihad campaigns: (AmericanThinker)
Freedom of Speech
The jihadist-multicultural alliance-Caroline Glick
Doctors at the Mumbai hospital who treated the victims of the past week's jihadist attacks were rendered nearly speechless by the carnage. As two doctors explained to the Indian news Web site rediff.com, violent gang wars and previous terror attacks didn't hold a candle to what happened.The bodies of the victims showed clear signs of preexecution torture. The worst tortured, they said, were the Jewish victims. As one doctor put it, "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the [first day of the assault]. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again." India's Intelligence Bureau revealed that a captured jihadist explained that they were instructed to seek out foreign and especially Israeli victims. In the aftermath of the Mumbai massacres, it is hard to imagine that there is anything as pernicious as the jihadists who sought out and murdered non-Muslims with such cruelty. But there is. Their multicultural apologists, who enable them to continue to kill by preventing their victims from fighting back, are just as evil. The jihadists in Mumbai, like their counterparts throughout the world, were motivated to kill by their adherence to totalitarian Islam. Totalitarian Islam calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people and the subjugation of all other non-Muslims. The jihadists in Mumbai, like their counterparts from Gaza to Baghdad to Guantanamo Bay, have been defended, and their acts and motivations have been explained away, by their allies and loyal apologists: Western multiculturalists. Multiculturalism is a quasi-religion predicated on both moral relativism and a basic belief in the inherent avarice of the West - particularly of the US and Israel. Multiculturalists assert that Westerners - or, in the case of India, Hindus - are to blame for all acts of violence carried out against them by non-Westerners. IN THE case of the Mumbai massacres, the jihadists' multicultural defenders began justifying their actions while they were still in the midst of their torture and murder spree. In Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria hinted that Indian Hindus had it coming. "One of the untold stories of India," he explained, "is that the Muslim population has not shared in the boom the country has enjoyed over the last 10 years. There is still a lot of institutional discrimination, and many remain persecuted." Then too, the multicultural media suppressed the fact that the jihadists were targeting Jews. Outside of Israel, it took the media nearly two days to report that the Chabad House had even been taken over by the jihadists. And once they did finally report that Jews were being targeted, they made every effort to downplay the strategic significance of the jihadists' decision to send a team off the beaten path simply to butcher Jews. (Jpost)
ANTISEMITISM
COMMUNITY MEMORIAL FOR RABBI GAVRIEL HOLTZBERG AND RIVKA Delivered by Rabbi Marvin Hier
Chabad House, Westwood - November 30, 2008
Click to watch YouTube Video
 What is there to say or speak? What has become of our world? First, let me express my heartfelt sympathy to all the victims in Mumbai of this horrific attack – Jews and non-Jews, the families of the murdered, the maimed and the traumatized. Every Saturday night when Shabbat concludes, Jews around the world make a special blessing, “Blessed are you Almighty…who has separated the holy from the secular – light from darkness.” Never has there been such a clear distinction between the world of light and the world of darkness. In one community, a wonderful 29-year-old Rav Gavriel Holtzberg and his 28-year-old wife Rivka, of blessed memory, were in their Chabad house and what were they doing my friends? Helping people – meals for strangers, places to stay for travelers, counseling for the downtrodden and forgotten, Kosher food and a place to pray and study for those seeking spiritual sustenance. They could have stayed in Israel or in the United States . They had a child who died of genetic illness and another who is hospitalized with the same ailment. They had no political motivations – all they wanted to do was work hard for a better world.
On the other hand, the young men who came by boat - they too had a task – who should they murder? Should it be the doctor making his hospital rounds, nurses at their stations, a mother shopping for her family, a grandmother walking near the hotel with her grandchild or anyone who just happened to look in their direction? The world has never experienced such a plague of darkness like the plague of Islamic fundamentalism that reveres death over life – that teaches young people that the preferred way to get to heaven is by murdering and maiming. Even the worst murderers in the history of mankind, the Nazis, who gassed millions - for themselves would do anything to live another day. That’s what Eichmann and Mengele did when they were on the run. The world should be very clear – achieving martyrdom by killing innocent civilians is an abomination – it is a concept that desecrates religion, denigrates humankind, and defames G-d himself. But it is not only the terrorists who bear the responsibility – it is the religious leaders who programmed them, inspired them, and sent them, who are equally culpable. Joseph Goebbels and Julius Streicher never killed anyone – but they were named as war criminals at Nuremberg because on a daily basis, they poisoned the minds of tens of millions of Germans. That is exactly what the Imams of the Islamic Fundamentalists do. The world must not remain silent. We have the tools to at least do something. The United Nations must make suicide terror a priority. Why is it that the General Assembly can call special sessions on drug cartels, on AIDs, on disarmament, on apartheid – all crucial issues – but it has not yet called for a special session on the greatest crime of the 21st century – suicide terror? The other day, I saw someone on television making the point that we must understand the grievances of the terrorists – that the world has neglected them. My friends, if there is anyone who has grievances in history – it should be the Jewish people and, particularly, the generation of survivors of the Holocaust – who witnessed 1/3 of world Jewry gassed and murdered. They too had grievances – but did you ever see children of survivors blowing up hospitals, hotels, schools, and restaurants? Yet what was their reaction? They picked themselves up by the bootstraps, taught themselves how to smile and love again, educated their children to dignify the world and not to destroy it – to contribute to it and not to demean it. In keeping with that tradition, I’m sure that 2-year-old Moshe Holtzberg who was miraculously saved, who has no parents to bar mitzvah him or to escort him to his wedding, will learn about his parents and will grow up following in their footsteps – teaching kindness and love and finding good in people. And to you, the supporters of the terrorists, wherever you are – your concept may be new, but we’ve seen your prototype before – you’re not the first to threaten our humanity. For 3,500 years, we’ve seen your likes during the pogroms, the Inquisition and the Holocaust and we’ve never changed our belief. To use a metaphor that is appropriate for the forthcoming Chanukah festival - that one cruise of light that emanated from of the Chabad house in Mumbai has contributed more to humanity than your whole ideology and way of life. The Jewish people whom you seek to destroy will still be here – long after you and your haters have been deposited in the dustbins of history. (SimonWiesenthalCenter)
Pakistani TV: 'Hindu Zionists' and Mossad Behind Mumbai Massacre-Tzi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNN.com) A Pakistani TV station has claimed "Hindu Zionists" and the Mossad carried out the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which it said were a "botched" imitation of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The terrorists looked like Hindus and "no Pakistani speaks the language they chatted in," said security expert Zaid Hamid on the television's "I Differ" news channel show. Hamid said that it was a "badly planned" operation that had gone horribly wrong. "The Americans executed the 9/11 attack perfectly. They managed the media very well. The Indians tried to repeat the formula but goofed up. The idiots made a complete mess of it," he argued. He maintained that that the attackers wore saffron Hindu Zionist bands and that during the first five minutes of the attack, three Indian counterterrorist officers were killed by authorities in order to halt their investigations of a terror network within India's security agencies. Another reason to end the probe, he said, was to divert attention to terrorism originating in Pakistan. Pakistani leaders have rejected criticism for the Mumbai attacks, and President Asif Ali Zardari said his country is not to blame. He also said that the attack may be a tactic to divert attention from the ongoing war between Pakistan and terrorists. Interior Ministry advisor Rehman Malik stated, "The Mumbai attacks were designed to force Pakistan to deploy its troops on the country’s eastern borders, thereby clearing the western borders for infiltration” into Afghanistan. The Pakistan Daily Times editorialized that despite the confession of the single terrorist who was not killed by Indian commandos, "'confessions'" [are] no more credible than 'confessions' in such situations." (INN)
 Fresh Threats to Jewish, Western Targets in India and Worldwide-Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) Less than a week after the deadly terrorist assault in Mumbai, a Chabad House elsewhere in India received a threatening note from Muslim fundamentalists. Terrorism analysts have identified additional threats to Indian targets, as well as to upscale Western hotel chains worldwide. According to a report on Israel TV's Channel 1, the Chabad House in Pune, India, has received a letter threatening to "wipe out the Chabad House and the Jews and Israelis.... The CIA and Mossad will not be able to save you." Although hate mail sent to Jewish institutions is not unusual, the timing has led Israeli security services to recommend heightened alert levels and increased protective measures at the Pune outreach center. A representative of the Prime Minister's Office has met with Chabad leaders to discuss the ongoing threat to Jews in the Indian subcontinent. United Torah Judaism Knesset Member Yaakov Litzman and the Chief Rabbinate have both called upon the Foreign Ministry to provide security for Chabad Houses in the danger zones. In addition to the worldwide network of Chabad Houses providing religious and material assistance to the Jewish communities in their various locales, many of those centers in places like the Far East and South America serve as familiar way-stations for traveling Israeli youths.The ongoing terrorist threat to India, however, is far broader than the Chabad Houses there, of course. Deccan Mujahideen - a terrorist front group that initially claimed responsibility for the Mumbai assault - sent email on Monday saying it is not finished yet and that is next target is Indian air travel. This is in line with jihadist communications, according to analysts from the Israel- and US-based Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR). The jihadists are circulating three main messages among their supporters, say ITRR researchers: 1) the attacks were part of a larger tactic of striking upscale hotels worldwide, what they are calling the "Hotel War"; 2) more such attacks are on the way; and 3) the jihadists are not finished with India, which is in store for even more shocking terror assaults. Meanwhile, a bomb blast in a train in the northeast Assam state on Tuesday morning killed at least two people and wounded 30. The attack was not believed to be connected to the Mumbai attacks or to the global jihad, as Assam has been facing a local insurgency unrelated to Islamist goals. (INN)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
Terror in Mumbai – The Dawood Ibrahim Connection-Douglas Farah
As my colleague on the Counterterrorism Blog, Vic Comras noted, the name of Dawood Ibrahim is now associated with the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.Ibrahim reportedly provided the initial boat for the attackers, and has strong ties to al Qaeda. What is interesting about Ibrahim, who has been designated a terrorist by OFAC and many other governments, is that he is a pioneer in the criminal-terrorist nexus. For many years he has provided the criminal links al Qaeda, the Taliban and Pakistani terrorist groups have needed to move money, personnel and equipment. Despite how well known his activities are, he has never been apprehended. Here is something I wrote about him more than two years ago, which helps shed some light on a person identified as a terrorist and criminal mastermind. Ibrahim, with his immense wealth, underworld connections, and ties to Bollywood, was one of the first big fish to cross over to work with radical Islamists, starting more than a decade ago: A criminal kingpin, ally of al Qaeda, large-scale drug runner and financer of some of Bollywood’s biggest movies, Ibrahim loves to hang out with movie stars and live the good life. Not exactly a natural ally of radical Islamist groups, but he appears to provide the muscle and know-how to attacks, rather than being the intellectual author of the violence he has participated in. His ideology seems more firmly wedded to his financial well-being than to his religious beliefs. Ibrahim has an enormous mansion in Karachi, Pakistan, but spends a great deal of time in Dubai, UAE. He has a long history of violence. His flamboyant life style made it difficult to believe that he was not protected by the Pakistani intelligence services for whom he worked, or officials in the UAE. (Familysecuritymatters)
Religious head incited killers-Bruce Loudon
THE al-Qa'ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists suspected over the Mumbai massacre were trained in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, and were incited by speeches from their leader in Lahore.
As the sole surviving terrorist was interrogated in Mumbai, security sources told The Australian that 10 terrorists were picked by LET for the suicide mission. They were ordered to "kill until your last breath" and murder up to 5000 people. They did so after provocative speeches by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed last month in Lahore, capital of the Punjab. Saeed, described as LET's supreme religious and political head, declared in one speech: "The only language India understands is that of force, and that is the language it must be talked to in." The email claiming responsibility for the Mumbai attack minutes after it started last Wednesday was generated on a computer based in Pakistan. And a satellite telephone captured from the terrorists revealed calls made to numbers in Pakistan during the attacks, reports said. Officials said the terrorists' route to Mumbai had been recorded on GPS co-ordinates contained in the satellite phones. Sources said the 10 terrorists -- most of whom were believed to be Pakistanis -- were ordered to undergo training to attack Mumbai. The captured gunman, Ajmal Amir Kamal, 21, reportedly told intelligence sources the group had trained openly in Muzaffarabad before heading to the nearby Mangala dam for lessons in marine commando techniques. The group then visited Rawalpindi, which adjoins Islamabad, the Pakistan capital and site of the Pakistan army headquarters. From there, the group took a train to the port city of Karachi, where, heavily armed, they boarded a freighter for the trip to Mumbai. Along the way, they became nervous about Indian coastguard activity and almost aborted the mission. They "dragooned" a less conspicuous, passing fishing boat into service, shooting dead four of its crew members. The skipper of the fishing boat and another crew member took them closer to Mumbai before they, too, were killed. One was decapitated and the other had his throat slit. Close to shore, they transferred to small speedboats for the run into the two landing points they had selected in Mumbai - Sassoon Docks and Badhwar Park, on Cuff Parade. (theaustralian)
ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
Investment Funds Push an Environmental Agenda-Elisabeth Rosenthal
Until recently, green investment funds were mostly a niche for individual investors. But now investing with the idea of improving the environmental actions of corporations, not just maximizing profit, is catching on among some big pension funds and foundations, particularly in Europe and even in the United States. These funds are redirecting investment toward companies that do the least environmental damage and those that try to limit their output of the emissions thought to contribute to global warming. Among the leaders are the Norwegian Government Pension Fund-Global; ABP, the huge Dutch government pension fund; and the pension fund of the British Environment Agency. In the United States, the California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund, one of the largest pension funds in the United States, is one of the few American funds that has become a green investor. “We decided that we should do this because our investment strategy was not linked to our mission,” said Howard Pearce, director of the pension fund for the British Environment Agency. But most institutional investors, including a number of foundations already committed to environmental goals as part of their giving, have resisted the movement, or taken only small steps, out of fear that it will hurt earnings. These include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, universities like Harvard and Yale, and even the United Nations pension fund. “From the environmental perspective, the great nonplayer is the investor community,” said Matthew Kiernan, founder of Innovest, a global sustainable investing company. “The attitude is, ‘We don’t cut down any trees.’ But money is the oxygen for all the other sectors.” Proponents of green investing say companies, foundations and governments can fight climate change through their investments even more effectively than through charities and other activities. (NYT)
Asthma inhalers set to go green Dec. 31-Lauran Neergaard AP
Last warning -- Asthma inhalers go environmentally correct Dec. 31, thus forcing patients using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch. The medicine inside these rescue inhalers -- the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack -- isn't changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are. No more chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that damage the Earth's protective ozone layer. By year's end, all albuterol inhalers must be powered by the more ecofriendly chemical HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane. The downside: The new inhalers cost more, $30 to $60 compared with as little as $5 or $10 for the disappearing generic CFC inhalers. And patients face a learning curve. HFA inhalers must be used differently than the old-fashioned kind. The medicine feels and tastes different, sometimes alarming new users despite doctors' assurances that it works just as well. "There's still significant confusion," said Dr. Harvey Leo of the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "Patients will tell you, 'I don't feel the puff anymore.' " Calls from parents unsure how to use the new inhalers, or even what they are, have increased in the past two months as more drugstores run out of CFC-powered inhalers and automatically switch people who had been expecting a mere refill. The change shouldn't be a surprise. The Food and Drug Administration has long warned it was coming, and lung specialists have spent the past year easing many of the nation's 20 million asthma patients, as well as millions of emphysema sufferers who also use albuterol to ease breathing, into it. But industry figures show that in mid-November, 20 percent of all albuterol prescriptions still were being filled with CFC versions. Some patients may purposefully be buying up cheaper CFC inhalers before the sales ban. But many patients don't see a lung specialist, or their prescription may not expire until next year so they haven't been seen recently enough to be told.Reaching the last fraction "is, as you can imagine, a very difficult task," said Dr. Badrul Chowdhury, FDA's pulmonary drugs chief. "How to get to somebody who is not tuned in?" (WashingtonTimes)
 How Hitler perverted the course of science-Richard Evans
The Nazis' gruesome experiments became an accepted part of German medical research, according to the author of a new history We all have an image in our minds of the role of scientists in Nazi Germany: sinister, lab-coated figures who spent half their time conducting gruesome – and largely pointless – experiments on concentration‑camp inmates to gratify their own cruel impulses, and the other half devising futuristic weapons of mass destruction for Hitler to hurl at the advancing Allies in a last attempt to stave off defeat.
Yet once you dig a little deeper, what is so disturbing is how prosaic the reality was, how similar in form, if not content, their work was to the research of today. As I discovered when researching a history of the Nazis at war, much of what scientists did under the Third Reich was regarded as "normal science", subject to standard protocols of peer review in conferences and journals. The infamous Dr Josef Mengele regarded himself as a normal scientist, held seminars to discuss his experiments, got research funds from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, and reported regularly to his teacher, the eminent scientist Otmar von Verschuer, on his progress. Mengele's research at Auschwitz, in particular, shows how the system worked. His experiments there were intended to be a contribution to his second doctorate, the Habilitation, which all German academics needed to qualify for a university professorship. Under Verschuer's guidance, he selected twins from the trainloads of Jews who arrived and injected them with chemicals to see if they reacted differently from one another. He collected prisoners with physical abnormalities, such as heterochromia – having a different colour in each eye – to investigate if their condition was hereditary. He treated gipsy and other children for starvation-related diseases, using vitamins and sulphonamides, to see if there were hereditary differences in their response to the therapy. Mengele's work was pure research, without any obvious practical application. He gained his notoriety from his willingness to kill his subjects under certain circumstances – such as settling an argument about a diagnosis by executing patients and performing an autopsy. However, most survivors remembered him not for his experiments but for his ruthless and brutal behaviour on the selection ramp, or in the camp hospital, where he frequently consigned sick inmates to the gas chamber on the slightest of whims. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Society and CULTURE
Terror in Mumbai: No Time to Hide for Muslims-Aijaz Zaka Sayad
Watching the terror nightmare unfold in Mumbai over the past three days with me on television, my kids have repeatedly asked me: “Who are these terrorists and why are they doing this?” And every time I wished I could offer them a convincing answer. What could I tell them? For one, I was equally clueless why these guys had taken over India’s financial and cultural capital and were targeting people who had nothing to do with them and had done nothing to harm them. For two, I was too ashamed to tell them these guys were ostensibly Muslims and came from a country that was created in the name of Islam. At work, while my colleagues went about covering the madness in Mumbai and laying out special pages with the images of the incredibly beautiful hotel, Taj, with its Islamic arches and domes, go up in smoke, I find it hard to look my colleagues in the eye. And this happens all the time. Every time innocents are targeted in the name of Islam around the world, one can’t face one’s non-Muslim friends and colleagues. I feel like burying myself in the ground. Growing up in a religious family, one never thought one would see the day when being a Muslim could be a source of shame. A distraught friend who has devoted her life to speaking and fighting on behalf of Arabs and Muslims wrote in yesterday saying “I’ve had it with the Arabs and Muslims and Islamic militancy. Forgive me but I am throwing in the towel.” I couldn’t write back to her but understood her pain. She grew up in Mumbai and is understandably upset. My friend went on to say: “The Muslims and Islam have a problem and only they can solve it. If they do not, the whole world will turn against them.” (FamilySecurityMatters)
American teens lie, steal, cheat at 'alarming' rates: study-AFP
American teenagers lie, steal and cheat more at "alarming rates," a study of nearly 30,000 high school students concluded Monday. The attitudes and conduct of some 29,760 high school students across the United States "doesn't bode well for the future when these youngsters become the next generation's politicians and parents, cops and corporate executives, and journalists and generals," the non-profit Josephson Institute said. In its 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, the Los Angeles-based organization said the teenagers' responses to questions about lying, stealing and cheating "reveals entrenched habits of dishonesty for the workforce of the future." Boys were found to lie and steal more than girls. Overall, 30 percent of students admitted to stealing from a store within the past year, a two percent rise from 2006. More than one third of boys (35 percent) said they had stolen goods, compared to 26 percent of girls. An overwhelming majority, 83 percent, of public school and private religious school students admitted to lying to their parents about something significant, compared to 78 percent for those attending independent non-religious schools. "Cheating in school continues to be rampant and it's getting worse," the study found. Amongst those surveyed, 64 percent said they had cheated on a test, compared to 60 percent in 2006. And 38 percent said they had done so two or more times.Despite no significant gender differences on exam cheating, students from non-religious independent schools had the lowest cheating rate, 47 percent, compared to 63 percent of students attending religious schools. "As bad as these numbers are, it appears they understate the level of dishonesty exhibited by America's youth," the study warned, noting than more than a fourth of the students (26 percent) admitted they had lied on at least one or two of the survey questions. "Despite these high levels of dishonesty, these same kids have a high self-image when it comes to ethics." Some 93 percent of students indicated satisfaction with their own character and ethics, with 77 percent saying that "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know." (AFP)
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