zanjabil

2007-07-31T23:41:00.001+01:00

Zanjabil is moving home to

Adamite

See you there, insha Allah.

Poppy Wars

2007-07-24T00:34:00.000+01:00

Article by Craig Murray: Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

The key question is this: what are our servicemen dying for? There are glib answers to that: bringing democracy and development to Afghanistan, supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai in its attempt to establish order in the country, fighting the Taliban and preventing the further spread of radical Islam into Pakistan. But do these answers stand up to close analysis?

There has been too easy an acceptance of the lazy notion that the war in Afghanistan is the 'good' war, while the war in Iraq is the 'bad' war, the blunder...

In six years, the occupation has wrought one massive transformation in Afghanistan, a development so huge that it has increased Afghan GDP by 66 per cent and constitutes 40 per cent of the entire economy. That is a startling achievement, by any standards. Yet we are not trumpeting it. Why not?

The answer is this. The achievement is the highest harvests of opium the world has ever seen.
Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and 'value-added' operations.

It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.

How can this have happened, and on this scale? The answer is simple. The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government – the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect.

When we attacked Afghanistan, America bombed from the air while the CIA paid, armed and equipped the dispirited warlord drug barons – especially those grouped in the Northern Alliance – to do the ground occupation. We bombed the Taliban and their allies into submission, while the warlords moved in to claim the spoils. Then we made them ministers.

Our only real achievement to date is falling street prices for heroin in London.

Fear as a Weapon of Mass Hypnosis

2007-07-19T16:00:00.000+01:00

"I do not believe for one moment that it is mere coincidence that the Bush administration just happens to uncover some plot or threat of attack whenever the administration is facing political troubles. Rather, I believe that we are seeing is an administration deliberately using terror management theory to deflect attention from scandals and manipulate public opinion to expand White House power in our increasingly, distressingly authoritarian society.

"What is terror management theory? If you are like the vast majority of people, you have never heard of terror management theory. In all the books I have read recently by various political commentators, I have seen plenty of talk about the White House’s use of fear and 9/11, but no mention of terror management theory. It has received surprisingly little attention from the mainstream media. Nobody talks about it outside of certain academic circles, mostly within the field of social psychology, and presumably certain government officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the White House, whose discussions I am not privy to.

"The DHS and White House officials are among those who know about terror management theory because they’re the ones paying for at least some of the research in this field. DHS and military officials have received briefings from some researchers in the field, and have presumably reported on those briefings to their superiors in the White House. Other research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and similar organizations.

"All this silence on the subject of terror management theory is striking, because the theory so thoroughly explains much of the Bush administration’s interactions with the press and the public that understanding the theory can change the way you interpret the news..."

The politics of terror management

The Health Risks of Vaccines

2007-07-18T17:32:00.000+01:00

"A growing number of adults are investigating vaccines and discovering their contents. Vaccines are grown on monkey kidneys, chicken embryos and contain bovine (cow) serum. Vaccines contain particles of viruses, bits of bacteria and measurable amounts of aluminum, gelatin, polysorbate 80, MSG and other chemicals. A responsible adult who concludes this combination of pathogens and chemicals can be harmful is not a “countercultural type who views life through a prism of conspiracy theory” as Oshinsky reports from Allen’s book. Understanding that autoimmune reactions can be the consequence of injecting animal cells and foreign chemicals into the body does not require a medical degree or PhD."

Questioning Vaccines is not Fueled by Ignorance

Free World Enterprise

2007-07-18T10:23:00.000+01:00

Chechyna’s Theatre of War

2007-07-16T21:34:00.000+01:00

Interview with Akhmed Zakayev

Akhmed Zakayev is the Chechen Foreign Minister in Exile. He lives in London.

Zakayev has been pleading the Chechen cause in the West since being wounded soon after the second war started in 1999. It has been an uphill struggle, as all that most people knew about the Chechens when he arrived were the atrocities committed in the separatists’ name: six Red Cross workers butchered in their beds at a hospital in Chechnya in 1996; four telecoms engineers working for a British company beheaded in 1998, their headless corpses left by the roadside; the capture of a Moscow theatre in 2002 by Chechen separatists, including women wired as suicide bombs; and a massacre of innocents in September 2004 at a school in Beslan, near Chechnya.

Zakayev has responded by arguing that this has always been a conflict in which reality is kept backstage and illusion presented for public view. It is common knowledge that Russia, which doesn’t like to let journalists and aid agencies near Chechnya, has been economical with the truth about what its troops are up to in the region. Moscow is shy of calling its Chechen operations ‘wars’ – the Kremlin’s line is that its troops are simply stopping a crimewave emanating out of Chechnya, and it always refers to separatists as “criminals” and “armed bandits”. Since 9/11, Russia has also tried to present what Zakayev defines as essentially a nationalist conflict in religious terms, trying to win Western approval for what it presents as an attempt to contain Islamist fundamentalism in its own Muslim territory.

Zakayev goes further by saying that Russia’s secret services – the FSB, which Putin himself used to head – has actually financed, planned or manipulated many of the attacks popularly blamed on Chechen terrorists. This belief is shared by the coterie of London friends he has been closest to since moving to the capital in 2002 – among them Berezovsky, Russia’s negotiator between the wars when Zakayev was Chechnya’s, and Anna Politkovskaya, who until her assassination in Moscow last autumn was Russia’s only investigative journalist to visit Chechnya regularly and follow up the stories behind the rumours. It has become harder to brush aside these eye-popping tales since the unsolved murder last November of Litvinenko, the ex-FSB man who became Zakayev’s London neighbour after escaping Russia, and wrote extensively detailing what he said was insider knowledge of the Russian secret services’ hidden role in several attacks blamed on Chechen separatists. Despite suggestions from Moscow that Berezovsky poisoned Litvinenko, British opinion has coalesced behind the police view that two ex-FSB colleagues are the likeliest suspects.

The Essence of Peace

2007-07-16T21:32:00.000+01:00

Peace is not the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.
Martin Luther King

The Islamic concept of peace is a spiritual one, namely that we are only truly at peace when we submit to the Truth, to the Eternal, to a Higher Reality, rather than to our own illusory folly.

Hands off the Holy Quran!

2007-07-15T15:23:00.000+01:00

The repression of Muslims in Russia grows and grows. Many classical Islamic texts have been banned by the authorities. This ban even includes Russian translations of the Noble Quran.

Last year, in Dagestan Russian language editions of the Quran were banned. The expert council of the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of Dagestan (STMD) banned “the sale and distribution of any literal translations of the Quran, beginning with Krachkovsky’s translation and ending with Valeria Porokhovaya’s translations”. In the specially published edict they also announced that the ban extends to the distribution of “audio, video, and photo material on a religious theme without the STMD’s approval”. The STMD explains such steps as a strengthening of measures taken in the war against “Wahhabism”. This proves that the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of Dagestan is working together with the punitive system of Moscow’s Kremlin against the Muslims of the Caucasus.

And say: “Truth has (now)
Arrived and Falsehood perished
For Falsehood is (by its nature)
Bound to perish.”
17:81

We send down (stage by stage)
In the Qur'an that which
Is a healing and mercy
To those who believe:
To the unjust it causes
Nothing but loss after loss.
17:82

Chechen Press

Islam in Russia

2007-07-14T15:24:00.000+01:00

"No less than 20 or 30 young people have disappeared over the last two to three years, no one knows where," Gasanaliyev said. "There are people like that in every mosque. The most worthy, respectable young people are the ones who disappear."

Twenty-five-year-old Abdul-Qodr, an Uzbek immigrant to Moscow, was not disheartened. The whole world is moving closer to Islam, he said, and Russia is moving along with it.

"Just a few years ago we were amazed when Russians or Americans or French people converted to Islam. No one's amazed anymore," he said.

Islam's rapid rise giving Russia growing pains (Middle East Times)

Fear and Loathing

2007-07-13T17:07:00.000+01:00

"There was nothing on him, no photographs, no letters, or identification. That would disappoint the boys at intelligence, but it was fine with me. I wanted this boy to remain anonymous. I wanted to think of him not as a dead human being with a name, age, and family, but as a dead enemy. That made everything easier."

Phillip Caputo
A Rumor of War

"Love adds and multiplies. Hate divides and subtracts."
Sandor McNab

Orwellian Glossary

2007-07-13T07:07:00.000+01:00

Michael Greenwell has some lovely definitions in his guide to political Newspeak.

Multiculturalism - respecting the symbols, values and idiosyncrasies of all colours, creeds and religions - provided that is, that they can be co-opted into a neoliberal economic order and packaged in plastic and sold off. If it is not possible to do this then the adherents of whichever ideology it is must be considered to be “depraved opponents of civilisation itself.”

Hearts And Minds - These days we are often told that the battle for “hearts and minds” is more important than the physical battle with weapons. This seems a little confusing - presumably the western armies are hoping to pick up the pieces of these hearts and minds from the towns and villages where they have blown them up? Any other explanation seems unlikely, as it is difficult to convince people of your good intentions when you are bombing them.

Or perhaps it relates to what Chuck Colson, former aide to Richard Nixon said, “When you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow”.

Check out the full piece: Politician-Speak Translated

The Greater the Lie

2007-07-08T16:45:00.000+01:00

An Interview with Abdul-Halim Sadulaev, President of Chechnya, Subsequently Murdered by the Kremlin

Q: The Muslim world today does not show such active interest in the Chechen struggle for independence. What in your opinion is the reason?

A: The situation in the world has changed. If earlier, Jihad was waged mainly on our territory, then many of the world's countries are engaged in this holy struggle today -- Afghanistan, Iraq, in the first instance Palestine. Many Islamic countries have become frontlines. So the support of the Muslims is now divided. But we never felt that ordinary Muslims took no interest or didn't help us. On the contrary, not only the men help us, our Muslim sisters support the mojaheddin too by sending us their personal valuables. We know that a great many Muslims make duas to Allah for us . And that too is support.

Q: The Chechen mujaheddin are criticised for carrying out operations targeting civilians. What do you day to such criticism?

A: "The greater the lie, the more they'll believe it." The Russians spread propaganda, claiming that all we are interested in is killing civilians. They try to plant this propaganda across the world. However, everyone knows full well in reality who is killing civilians and who gives out orders to murder. Everyone knows that Putin gave his troops the order to kill ten innocent civilians for every dead soldier, declaring that it was the only way to acchieve victory.

Last year Russian troops savagely killed the six-month-old child and wife of one of our mujaheddin. And there are hundreds of such cases. The world's press says nothing about this, nothing about the fact that the Russians have killed fifty thousand Chechen children. Or are the children of Chechen Muslims not considered innocent civilians?

Source: Chechen Press (2006/03/27)

The Chimeric Debate

2007-07-07T17:49:00.000+01:00

The comments on Craig Murray's excellent blog are always worth reading. Here's one which chimes with my thoughts:

"I have to say that I find it frustrating that the discussion continues, even on your blog, into the whys and wherefores of terrorism. This is exactly as designed, and the longer it goes on the further we will be from the truth. There is no solution to the problem being discussed because it is a chimera, that was created to justify all the murder, looting and tightening of security."

Source: Craig Murray post

Indeed, the debate continues to be manipulated.

Picnic in Chechnya

2007-07-05T19:11:00.000+01:00

Photographs of Grozny (Dzhokhar), Chechnya

"Minutka Square. Few remained to live in the bombed apartment blocks. These men collect metal to sell."

Junk and Custard Pies

2007-07-04T22:55:00.000+01:00

Al Qaeda puts on big shoes, red nose, takes custard pie

Continued

Lewis Page "was an armed forces bomb-disposal operator tasked in support of the UK mainland police from 2001 to 2004". He offers his professional analysis of the latest "Al Qaeda Terror Threat". Read it, and compare with the junk in your newspaper...

Infinite Thirst

2007-07-04T10:49:00.000+01:00

In one of his verses Rumi says, "What is love?" And he replies to his own question, "Infinite thirst." "So,"he says, "let me explain the water of life." He's trying to explain the water of life in his poetry so that your thirst will increase, so that you'll feel this pull towards water and recognize that you are infinitely thirsty, that it is human nature to be infinitely thirsty. That is what we have to awaken in ourselves. Rumi says, "Don't look for water, look for thirst." It's thirst you have to find; then, if you become thirsty, you'll see water bubbling up everywhere. But it's thirst you have to strive for before you're going to find any water. So don't look for God, endeavor to become thirsty; awaken that thirst in your soul and then you'll find God everywhere.

William Chittick

Putin, Litvinenko and Heroin

2007-07-03T23:47:00.000+01:00

Craig Murray has a fascinating post on murky goings on in Russia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan...and Western complicity.

Insofar as people remember anything Litvinenko said, it is his alliance with Anna Politkovskaya on the issue of the apartment bombings in Russia in 2000 which were almost certainly the work of the FSB. One - in Ryazan - failed to go off because local residents found it and local bomb disposal defused it. That was indubitably planted by the FSB, who admitted it when their agents were caught, and claimed the bomb was a dummy. The bomb disposal team said it was a real bomb, and had the same chemical signature as the other, "Chechen" bombs.

But that wasn't actually what led Litvinenko to quit. I have a great interest in this, as he was working on a problem on which I was working from the other end. Vast amounts of heroin come from Afghanistan, in particular from the fief of (now) Head of the Afghan Armed Forces General Dostum, in North and East Afghanistan. Dostum is an Uzbek, and the heroin passes over the Friendship Bridge from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, where it is taken over by President Karimov's people. It is then shipped up the railway line, in bales of cotton, to St Petersburg and Riga.

Litvinenko uncovered the St Petersburg end, and was stunned by the involvement of the city authorities and local police and security services, at the most senior levels. He reported in detail to Putin. Putin is of course from St Petersburg, and the people Litvinenko named were among Putin's closest political allies. That is why Litvinenko, having miscalculated badly, had to flee Russia.

Read further: Murky Murder

The Intelligent Heart

2007-07-03T16:24:00.000+01:00

The Quran uses the word heart repeatedly, 100 times or so, normally as a noun, except in some stances where other forms of the word are used. The word itself (qalb) is used in the Quran to mean 'heart', and if one reads all the verses in which the heart is mentioned, it becomes very clear that 'heart' is the center of consciousness, the center of human awareness. Qalb is closely associated with intellect or understanding, as it is with all of the functions of the mind. The emotions are also located in the heart, but this is a secondary meaning. A sound heart is the mark of a human being who is in proper relationship with the Divine. And it is illness in the heart that is the cause of human difficulties and human problems.

William Chittick

The Mystery of Truth

2007-07-02T21:53:00.001+01:00

Of what can we be certain except this—that we are fertilized by mysterious circumstances? Where is man's truth to be found? Truth is not what can be demonstrated by the air of logic. If orange trees are hardy and rich in fruit in this bit of soil and not that, then this bit of soil is what is truth for orange trees. If a particular religion, or culture, or scale of values, if one form of creativity rather than another, brings self fulfillment to a man, releases the prince within him unknown to himself, then that scale of values, that culture, that form of activity constitutes his truth.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Australia
Wind, Sand and Stars

Being Logical

2007-07-02T10:55:00.000+01:00

Mr Brown, the new UK Prime Minister, declared in his first interview from 10 Downing Street that "Terrorism is not an act of faith; it is an act of evil."

I agree. The use of terror against civilian populations is evil. Whether in London or Baghdad, Glasgow or Jenin.

As for so-called "Islamist terrorists", I remain yet to be convinced that they really exist. And aren't merely the invention of certain interested organisations. If these Muslim fanatics love their religion so ardently, why would they flout its basic tenets so grossly? It simply doesn't make sense. Why target women and children rather than the government or military?

Make no mistake. The calculated murder of women and children brings no benefit to Islam. But it is too good to be true for Mr Brown and his ilk. Who gains?...

Womanly Beauty

2007-07-02T00:06:00.000+01:00

For attractive lips
Speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,
True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows.
And the beauty of a woman, with passing years, only grows.

Tribute to a Shining Example

2007-06-30T16:23:00.000+01:00

Sheikh Abdul-Halim Sadulaev (right) with Aslan Maskhadov

"The President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Abdul-Halim Sadulaev, with whom I had the happiness to work together for a whole three years after the Russian-Chechen war (1994-1996), has died a hero’s death on the path of Allah. Contact with Abdul-Halim brought me and my comrades enormous pleasure, as through his sermons and the personal example of his life he fortified our iman. He was not in the habit of interrupting others, even when a small child talked with him. He was an astonishingly honest person, who through the divine gift of his speech attracted the Chechen youth. People came from other towns and villages across the Chechen Republic to Dzhokhar for his Friday sermons.

"Tall, slender, beautiful, he reminded many of his heroic predecessor Sheikh Mansur, who also died on Allah’s path. Today it will be hard for us to get used to the thought that Abdul-Halim Sadulaev will no longer be with us. However, we should not feel too distraught, knowing that our brother Abdul-Halim is in Paradise, as a person who sacrificed his life on the path of Allah."

First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ilyas Musaev

Operation Hollywood Brainwashing

2007-06-29T14:14:00.000+01:00

"If you think of propaganda Lassie is not the first thing that springs to mind. Nevertheless, over the years, Lassie and hundreds of other TV shows and movies have been made with assistance and/or script ‘advice’ from the US government.

"Operation Hollywood was from the CBC’s passionate eye programme. It centres on the book of the same name by Dave Robb, who was an investigative reporter for a Hollywood trade paper. He began to look through some of the documents detailing the various involvements of the US government in the movie industry and was astonished by the depth of the collaboration.

"He runs through a list of films. See if you can spot a pattern…
Military Assistance:
Top Gun; Patton; Pearl Harbour

No Assistance:

Full Metal Jacket; Platoon; Three Kings"

Read: Operation Hollywood and the Pentagon

Censored News Story

2007-06-27T23:08:00.000+01:00

Hmm, why is this news story being supressed?

Osama bin Ladin’s role in the events of September 11, 2001 is not mentioned on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” notice.

Five years later Rex Tomb, chief of investigative publicity for the FBI explains, “The reason 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11… He has not been formally indicted and charged in connection with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.”

Among many questions, author Ed Haas starts with, “If the U.S. government does not have enough hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11, how is it possible that it had enough evidence to invade Afghanistan?”

Project Censored: News

I think we need our own Anna Politkovskaya to carry out an independent investigation into this. What do you think?

Letter Waws Embracing

2007-06-27T21:47:00.000+01:00

Soraya Syed, 2005

Art of the Pen

The Masters of Wisdom

2007-06-26T22:11:00.000+01:00

It is an historical fact that a major role in the transformation of Central Asia was played by the society or brotherhood of wise men known as the Khwajagan or Masters. Though they were Muslims and commonly known as Sufis, their doctrines and methods differed radically from those of the Sufi schools of Arabia, Africa and Spain. The Khwajagan are seldom mentioned in books on Sufism, though their successors, the Naq’shbandi, are the most numerous and influential Sufi community in the world. The reason for this is that Sufism has been known in the West mainly from literary sources. Most people have heard of the great Sufi poets, Nizami, Hafiz, Jellalludin Rumi and Attar, and the names of the great philosophical writers, such as Muhyiddin ibn Arabi and Iman Gazali, are almost equally well known. The Khwajagan wrote very little except practical manuals until the fifteenth century.

Who were these men, so little known in the West, and yet so influential over five centuries? The Masters did not spring from nowhere. Long before they appeared, a powerful stream of spirituality was flowing in Central Asia. When Zoroaster lived in Balkh, the ‘Mother of Cities’, in the sixth century before Christ, he inherited a still more ancient tradition. The earliest hymns of the Aryan people contain convincing evidence of having been composed in the far north ten thousand years ago. I believe that a continuous tradition can be traced back for more than thirty thousand years when Central Asia was a fertile region, the meeting ground of different cultures, far more ancient that those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and India which arose six or seven thousand years ago.

Gurdjieff: Making a New World

John G Bennett

Medicine of the Hearts

2007-06-25T21:09:00.000+01:00

There are two types of illnesses stated in the holy Qur’an: 1. Illness of the hearts and, 2. Illness of the body. As for the illness of the heart, it comprises two types, the first is suspicion and doubt, and the second desire, allurement and sin.

As for the medicine of the hearts, it can only be acquired through God’s prophets, upon all of whom be peace and blessings, and to correct one’s heart and wash it from impurities one must recognize his Creator and Cherisher, His divine Names and attributes, observe His actions, contemplate His wisdom and adopt the criteria He instituted for His creation. Such hearts also must beseech His blessings by consenting to what He commands and loves, and by abstaining from what He forbids and abhors, and one’s heart will know no trueness or experience true life otherwise. Such knowledge can only be learned from the teachings of His messengers, upon all of whom be peace, and thinking otherwise will be completely wrong and unfruitful. Therefore, should one think that he can do oppositely, it means that he merely fosters the health and strength of his animal mind, desire, lust, carnality and wantonness. His life will be meaningless and similar to that of animals, while a true heart of piety is free from such base associations. One who cannot discern the difference between these two types of hearts should cry for his losses, for a true heart is alive, and a heart that is blinded with carnality is dead, and a true heart is filled with light while a dead heart is submerged in the abyss of darkness.

Medicine of the Prophet by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya

2007-06-24T22:24:00.000+01:00

The Silence

2007-06-24T15:44:00.000+01:00

UMMAT: "You have been accused of involvement in the attacks in New York and Washington. What do you want to say about this? If you are not involved, who might be?"

USAMA BIN LADEN: "In the name of Allah (God), the most beneficent, the most merciful. Praise be to Allah, Who is the creator of the whole universe and Who made the Earth as an abode for peace, for the whole humankind. Allah is the Sustainer, who sent Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) for our guidance. I am thankful to the Ummat Group of Publications, which gave me the opportunity to convey my viewpoint to the people, particularly the valiant and momin (true Muslim) people of Pakistan who refused to believe the lies of the demon (Pakistani military dictator General Pervez Musharraf).

"I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle.

"Whoever committed the act of 11 September are not the friends of the American people. I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed. ...Is it not that there exists a government within the government in the United Sates? That secret government must be asked as to who carried out the attacks.

"Our silence is our real propaganda."

Source: Ummat, Urdu-language daily newspaper based in Karachi, Pakistan -
Friday, 28 September 2001 - pages 1, 7.
Source: BBC Monitoring Service.
Source: http://www.khilafah.com/

Ummat Interviews Usamah Bin-Laden 28 September 2001

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, "Much silence and a good disposition, there are no two works better than those."

Allah's Swords

2007-06-23T16:18:00.000+01:00

Utter a word of truth
That goes against the king,
And behead yourself with
The sword of your own tongue.

Amir Khusrau

The Carpet Weaver

2007-06-22T14:59:00.000+01:00

One weaver was restoring an antique carpet. He had an assistant who didn't believe in God. This always mystified the weaver. At last, he brought out the carpet and showed it to his assistant. The assistant marvelled at the fine repair work.

"But I didn't do anything to it", objected the weaver.

"How do you mean?" asked the assistant, puzzled.

"The carpet simply repaired itself."

"But that's impossible!"

"So how can you believe that the universe could exist, without the hands of a Creator? It is just as ridiculous to think that the world created itself as that this carpet restored itself."

Then the assistant understood.

Oil Soldier

2007-06-21T21:03:00.000+01:00

Nicolas Lampert

Visual Resistance

The Shocking and Awful Truth

2007-06-21T15:10:00.000+01:00

"This document contains an in-depth analysis of the concept of “Shock and Awe” warfare as set forth by its architects and authors in “Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance,” a book published by the National Defense University (December 1996), an institution funded by the Pentagon. The concept came into the news recently when on January 24, 2003 CBS News reported and confirmed that the Shock and Awe concept was the basis for the U.S. war plan for Iraq.

"Conventional warfare exists based on particular established, “tried and true” doctrines, which are specific concepts that function as guidelines for planning and executing military operations. “Shock and Awe” was proposed in 1996 by its planners as a “revolutionary” new doctrine based on the idea that it might be possible to defeat an adversary’s will itself – essentially to so rapidly overwhelm all aspects of his being with destruction and fear so that he is demoralized, confused, and hopeless; so that he risks no further pain.

"Shock and Awe is notable in another way: the plan explicitly calls for targeting of civilian infrastructure such as “water supplies, food processing and sanitation.” The destruction of Iraq’s water supply during the 1990-91 Gulf War resulted in a health and sanitation crisis, which was well-documented by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency while the crisis progressed. These important declassified documents are reviewed and cited in the context of Shock and Awe’s heavy emphasis on the destruction of an adversary’s water supplies, sanitation facilities, and power grids. It is this priority of Shock and Awe, along with its fundamental prerequisite of “imposing an overwhelming level of Shock and Awe,” which will make it so controversial.

"With that in mind, it is of significant interest that the mainstream American corporate media have chosen to all but ignore the substance of Shock and Awe. Media coverage to date has mostly avoided close scrutiny of Shock and Awe’s original text.

"When there has been reporting on Shock and Awe it has sometimes centered on the fact that the plan’s key architect and author, Harlan K. Ullman, revealed in an interview on CBS News January 24, that 300-400 cruise missiles would strike targets in Baghdad on the first day of a Shock and Awe war. (During the first Gulf War, which lasted 39 days, a total of 325 cruise missiles were launched.) On the second day, another 300-400 missiles would strike Baghdad. And with the 1,500 or more conventional “smart” 1-ton bombs, and high numbers of “e-bombs,” some have said it would be 10 times the amount of ordnance dropped during the entire Gulf War – al in about 48 hours.

"Coupled with the fact that a fundamental tactic of Shock and Awe is to destroy non-military zones and facilities (see discussion below), suddenly the level of destruction takes on a new significance. Consider this excerpt from the text:

'Shock and Awe are actions that create fears, dangers, and destruction that are incomprehensible to the people at large, specific elements/sectors of the threat society, or the leadership. Nature in the form of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, uncontrolled fires, famine, and disease can engender Shock and Awe. The ultimate military application of Shock and Awe was the use of two atomic weapons against Japan in WW II.'"

The "Shock and Awe" Experiment

So, "Shock and Awe" is the military code-name for warfare aimed at killing and terrifying the civilian population. Pure terrorism.

2007-06-19T14:04:00.000+01:00

Lacing the Media with Messages

2007-06-15T19:35:00.000+01:00

'Relying heavily upon established circles of contacts within the nation's media elites, Dulles recruited key members of the media to work directly for the CIA under Operation Mockingbird. Mockingbird was a psychological information campaign against the American people. In a campaign that would lead to acceptance of blanket secrecy for "national security", "the Red Scare" became the excuse for spending vast sums of money on weapons systems and an increase in covert operations both in foreign countries and within the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, movies, news articles, books, radio and television programs were carefully laced with anti-communist messages and images designed to produce an acceptance of the policies being promoted by the defense elite's propaganda machine.

"Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were William Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Time Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the Louisville Courier-Journal and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, The Miami Herald, and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-Tribune. By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with The New York Times, CBS, and Time Inc."'

"The CIA and the Media", Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, Oct 20 1977

From: Project Censored: US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights (pdf file)

Myths and Realities

2007-06-15T17:38:00.000+01:00

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He believes that "Muslim terrorists" did not carry out 9/11. Read his full article. It is enlightening.

Gullible Americans

Here's an excerpt:

"How do you know that 9/11 was a Muslim terrorist plot? How do you know that three World Trade Center buildings collapsed because two were hit by airliners? You only “know” because the government gave you the explanation of what you saw on TV. (Did you even know that three WTC buildings collapsed?)

"I still remember the enlightenment I experienced as a student in Russian Studies when I learned that the Czarist secret police would set off bombs and then blame those whom they wanted to arrest..

"When Hitler seized dictatorial power in 1933, he told the Germans that his new powers were made necessary by a communist terrorist attack on the Reichstag. When Hitler started World War II by invading Poland, he told the Germans that Poland had crossed the frontier and attacked Germany.

"Governments lie all the time--especially governments staffed by neoconservatives whose intellectual godfather, Leo Strauss, taught them that it is permissible to deceive the public in order to achieve their agenda."

"It is certainly a known and non-controversial fact among physicists and engineers that the only way buildings can collapse at free fall speed into their own footprints is by engineered demolition."

"Scientific evidence is a tough thing for the American public to handle, and the government knows it. The government can rely on people dismissing things that they cannot understand as "conspiracy theory.""

Use logic. Be intelligent. Examine the evidence.

The Lessons of Vietnam

2007-06-12T18:59:00.000+01:00

Before the illegal invasion of Iraq, many times I read in the papers the opinion that this war would be another Vietnam. The suggestion was that it would prove so deeply unpopular and unprovoked that popular protest would force the war to end. Well, the papers were wrong.

This war is no repeat of Vietnam. Because the past has been studied and lessons learned. This time round, careful measures have been taken. Hospitals have been bombed, so that the number of civilian deaths cannot be calculated by doctors. Despite this, the doctors of the West have shoved their noses into this war and worked out their own rough estimates. The Lancet puts their conservative estimate at 655,000 million dead Iraqis so far. (Lying about the Dead). But the most important factor in avoiding another Vietnam has been media control. Put another way, censorship. There have been reports of western journalists who carry out independent investigations in Iraq being shot at deliberately by US troops. Murdered. (Read Where Is America's Politkovskaya?).

Right from the start of this war, from before the invasion began, our journalists obediently printed what they were told. Mr Hussein has "weapons of mass destruction"? Fine, we'll print it without investigation. Dodgy intelligence about sales of uranium? Fine, we'll print it straight away. In the USA, journalists even created the impression that 9/11 was the work of Saddam Hussein.

In reality, these are not journalists. They are prostitutes.

And another new strategy to avoid Vietnam Number Two. This time round the leaders of the West have decided to terrorise their own population. Take away their right to protest. Arrest five-year-old children. (Kidnapped to Order).

This is no second Vietnam war. Because the "War on Terror" is a War of Terror.

War of Terror

2007-06-07T13:11:00.000+01:00

What if thousands of innocent men have been arrested to give the appearance of a vast “terrorist” conspiracy against America where none exists?

Bush Running Kidnapping Ring

Naked Emperors

2007-06-06T20:17:00.000+01:00

Do you remember where you were and what you thought on 11 September 2001? I can remember the first rumour to circulate was that a Japanese terrorist group had carried out this attack to get revenge for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nobody knew who had done this. Everybody was shocked. Shock and awe.

Then in a matter of two or three days, the White House announced: We've found out who did it. And the list of the nineteen Arabs was released. And Usama bin Laden's photo flashed around the globe. Repeatedly.

Then I remember reading a little article, three weeks later, in the newspaper, which said that Usama bin Laden announced that this was not his work. When people close to me attacked me for being a Muslim, saying, Look what they did, look what you Muslims did, I answered: I still don't know who did this. Nobody had claimed responsibility.

Then the videos of Usama bin Laden claiming responsibility started emerging. I remember many people laughed at the first one, saying he looked more like Al Pacino than bin Laden. Then people started to forget. To forget that bin Laden had denied responsibility. To forget that evidence was promised, but never appeared. To forget that when a crime is perpetrated, we normally allow a criminal investigation to take place, we normally allow forensic scientists to take analyses at the site of the crime, we normally gather evidence, real evidence, before announcing to the media who has emerged as a suspect.

What were your thoughts? Do you remember the moment they pulled the wool over your eyes, and you started to believe their lies?

The United States government shipped the evidence -- the molten steel of the skyscrapers -- to China. They removed the forensic evidence from the scene of the crime. Before it could be analysed for explosives. Have you ever wondered why? Yes, the emperor's naked, brothers and sisters. Wake up!

The Decline of Faith

2007-06-02T13:32:00.000+01:00

Erasmus said:

"The ancients philosophised very little about divine things... Formerly faith was in life rather than in profession of creeds... When faith came to be in writings rather than in hearts, then there were almost as many faiths as men. Articles increased and sincerity decreased. Contentions grew hot and love grew cold. The doctrine of Christ which at first knew no hair-splitting came to depend on the aid of philosophy. This was the first stage in the decline of the Church."

Jesus A Prophet of Islam, Muhammad 'Ataur-Rahim

May the Muslims avoid such decline, and remember God in our hearts, and unite regardless of our differences in interpretation. May we not lose the way, as those who came before us did...

The Destruction of Palestine

2007-05-25T21:23:00.000+01:00

Before 1958

After 1958

A picture speaks a thousand words...

Palestine Remembered

Fear and Awe

2007-05-22T21:47:00.000+01:00

From among the stations of worshipping Allah and seeking His help is the station of fear.

Fear is one of the most important stations on the path and most beneficial for the heart. Fear is an obligation upon everyone, Allah said, "So fear them not, and fear Me alone, if you are believers."

The Station of Fear

They Live, We Sleep

2007-05-20T23:57:00.000+01:00

This evening I watched John Carpenter's 1988 horror film "They Live". It is even more relevant today than in 1988. When they were making it, they had to put up huge billboard signs saying the messages CONFORM, OBEY, NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT, WATCH TV, SLEEP. And what shocked the film crew was that when they were filming, the people passing by didn't even notice anything odd about those billboard messages.

WAKE UP, HUMAN RACE!

Brainwashing Babies

2007-05-12T21:22:00.000+01:00

In America this week, two advertising executives launched a round-the-clock television channel aimed at babies. At an age when their brains are just forming the ability to understand human beings, infants are now being targeted for hours of screen time. Their parents are being told that "leading experts" say it's good for them.
...
Links continue to grow between TV and attention deficit disorder, childhood obesity, poor acquisition of language and aggression. Yet parents seem increasingly unwilling to limit their children's screen time.

"Ten years ago," says David Burke, White Dot's British Director "the world was shocked to hear of infants tied to their chairs and ignored in a Chinese orphanage. Looking at the launch of BabyFirst TV, I wonder why we got so upset. Did they just need better quality programmes?"

American Academy of Pediatrics says: "During the first two years of life children need good, positive interaction with other children and adults. Too much television can negatively affect early brain development. This is especially true at younger ages, when learning to talk and play with others is so important."

The Academy based their advice on studies such as one at the University of Washington in 2004, showing that early television exposure is associated with attentional problems at age 7. Before that, work in 1996 by Dr Sally Ward of the Speech, Language and Hearing Centre in London showed that background noise from television and the attendant lack of interaction with parents leads to delayed acquisition of speech in young children.

New Baby TV Channel

Japanese Spies

2007-05-10T00:12:00.000+01:00

Everyone knows that under Stalin a huge portion of the population of the USSR was arrested and exiled or shot. But did you know that the victims of the Stalinist Terror were frequently accused of terrorism? Or of being Japanese spies? And all but the most sophisticated of the intelligentsia believed these accusations, and thought that Stalin was doing the country an enormous favour by ridding it of these terrorists and Japanese spies.

Now the countries of the West are indulging in such political-religous cleansing of the population. And are we going to take their accusations at face value? Just like the subservient people under Stalin did? Will we only examine and analyse events many decades later, when it's too late, when our remorse won't help?

Why should we believe the government's accusations when they no longer even bother with criminal investigations? The destruction of the three World Trade Center towers was a criminal act, so why was no criminal investigation undertaken? As more and more people disappear into custody, accused of terrorism, it becomes clearer and clearer, if you take a closer look, who the terrorists are. And they are not Muslims.

Zionist Terror

2007-05-09T23:59:00.000+01:00

Zionists use poisonous gas

More evil weapons directed against civilians... More of the same.

Poison Dust

2007-05-08T15:09:00.000+01:00

During the current Iraq War, the U.S. use of radioactive DU weapons increased from 375 tons used in 1991 to 2200 tons. Geiger counter readings at sites in downtown Baghdad record radiation levels 1,000 and 2,000 times higher than background radiation. The Pentagon has bombed, occupied, tortured, and contaminated Iraq. Millions of Iraqis are affected. Over one million U.S. soldiers have rotated into Iraq. Today, half of the 697,000 U.S. Persian Gulf War troops from the 1991 war have reported serious medical problems and a significant increase in birth defects among their newborn children.

Depleted Uranium in Iraq

GLORY

2007-04-10T16:39:00.000+01:00

To Jenin

After the victory
back home
the brave soldiers
broke all the mirrors
to avoid the gaze of the last witness.

Reza Hiwa, translated by Isabelle Romaine

The Truth about Israel

2007-04-04T23:12:00.000+01:00

Eye Candy

2007-04-03T17:18:00.000+01:00

Television has been called bubblegum for the eyes. But is it halal? I have not watched television for so long that I am truly shocked when I see it for a brief moment. Islam tells us to avert our gaze from what is haram.

Has anyone else noticed how the news programmes are designed to brainwash? They bombard you with multiple pictures, speech, subtitles, all at once. This is a classic technique for subliminal programming. Designed to enter your mind through the backdoor, bypassing the filters of the intellect. You don't have time to register the messages being thrown at you, so it all gets absorbed.

How can anyone find television aesthetically pleasing? It is brimming with violence and vulgarity. What a mystery that people give up their valuable time to watch it...

Chechen War Photos

2007-04-03T00:31:00.000+01:00

These beautifully shot photos show the harrowing reality of the Chechen War.

The Chronicles of Hell

Photos of Chechnya

2007-04-02T21:52:00.000+01:00

Take a look at these excellent photographs of Chechnya's capital.

Photos of Grozny

Democracy in Russia

2007-03-26T23:00:00.000+01:00

2007-03-21T11:57:00.000Z

The US Gestapo

2007-03-19T17:48:00.000Z

Guantanamo Memoir

On the evening of the second day, the person who had told me that I was going to Guantánamo, Jay, turned up. My heart sank when two others arrived, Marti and Niel, the two FBI agents from Bagram. They were both huge, obese, in the style of New York street cops. "We want you to read and sign these documents," they said, placing six typed pages in front of me on the table. They had written my confession.

I read through the pages in utter disbelief. My first reaction was, "This is terrible. The English used here is terrible. Nobody could ever believe that I would write such a document." Then I thought, "This could actually be good - anybody who knows my style of writing would know that I am not the author."

It sounded more like the ramblings of a hysterical 16-year-old college dropout than what one would expect from the FBI.

It was full of exaggerations, lies and presumptions. There were names I hadn't even heard of. The document claimed that I was a long-standing member of al-Qaida; I had trained and taught in their camps; I had financed them, giving funds that had gone to the 9/11 attackers. When I asked how they'd reached this conclusion, they told me that I had already admitted attending and sending financial support to "the camps".
It was maddening to hear them refer to "the camps", as if every training camp in the recent history of the Muslim world had been under al-Qaida's umbrella. I actually laughed as I read through it.

They were obsessed with the word "al-Qaida". Their document suggested that almost everybody I'd ever met in my life was a member of al-Qaida.

"There is no way I'm going to agree to sign this rubbish," I protested. They allowed me to make some selected alterations, but kept in the most blatant untruths, like being a front-line fighter with al-Qaida, and money I had sent to Kashmiris in 1994 being used in the September 11 attacks. "Stop playing games with us..." They were getting agitated. I couldn't forget for a moment that these were the same men who ordered my punishment in Bagram.

"You could be shot by firing squad, Moazzam, do you understand?" Marti said, seeming as if he was controlling himself. "They've built an execution chamber here, I've seen it," Niel followed. "Have you forgotten about your kids, your..."

Finally I resigned myself to whatever would come. Despite the insinuation, there still wasn't a crime in the statement, certainly not one I could see. "You know what, it doesn't make any difference, I'll sign whatever you want, but I have to do something first." I told them I wanted to go into the cell. I prayed that this would be my way out. I asked Allah for this document to be a means to expose their lies.

War-Torn Tourism

2007-03-18T01:49:00.000Z

Fancy a no-frills break? Then try Chechnya

On your right, ladies and gentlemen, please note the ruins of Grozny, and coming up on the left the renowned ORB-2 torture complex. At the end of the tour, please hand in your bulletproof vests. Although this scenario does not yet exist, the Chechen prime minister yesterday revealed plans to develop tourism in the war-torn republic, where pro-Russian forces clash each week with militants and swaths of the capital lie under rubble... Sights may also be sparse as federal forces levelled most large towns.

There are a few potential spots under construction - an enormous mosque in Grozny and a £3m aqua park in Gudermes - but minefields, firefights and piles of rubble are unlikely tourist attractions...

The Licit and the Illicit

2007-03-18T01:36:00.000Z

By Allah, I do not fear poverty and starvation overtaking you, but I fear that you will have abundant wealth at your disposal like the communities before you who too had enormous wealth. You will then become excessively greedy in accumulating wealth (without any concern for licit and illicit means) just as the religious communities before you had done. This (greed) will be the cause of your ruin and devastation just as it destroyed people before you.

Bukhari & Muslim

"Television is the only reality"

2007-02-25T20:56:00.000Z

Propaganda has become more sophisticated and possibly more effective than it was during the Soviet years, when television was a tool used to sustain an ideology. The goal today is simpler: to support the Kremlin and its corporate interests. 'It's a magic process now,' Anna Kachkaeva, who broadcasts a weekly interview show on Radio Liberty, told me. Kachkaeva, who is also the head of the television department at Moscow State University, went on: 'There is no censorship - it's much more advanced. I would call it a system of contacts and agreements between the Kremlin and the heads of television networks. There is no need to start every day with instructions. It is all done with winks and nods. They meet at the end of the week, and the problem, for TV and even in the printed press, is that self-censorship is worse than any other kind. Journalists know - they can feel - what is allowed and what is not.'...

Who's killing Putin's enemies? Part 1

Who's killing Putin's enemies? Part 2

Truth and Falsehood

2007-02-25T15:26:00.000Z

Jama Tirmidhi quotes the Messenger of Allah (saws) on the authority of Hadrat Abu Harairah:

"When your rulers are pious and upright and when the rich (of your community) are generous and when matters pertaining to you are conducted with consultation (that is through the practice of Shura then it is better for you to be on the earth rather than under the earth.

But when your rulers are wicked (unjust and corrupt) and when the rich amongst you are greedy and misers, and when your affairs are controlled by women (that is, the final decision rests with them), then it will be better for you to be under the earth rather than on the earth."

Hadrat Abu Hurairah quotes the Messenger of Allah (saws) as saying:

"When my Umma begins to attach importance and greatness to this world, then their hearts will be empty of the love and significance of Islam. And when they cease to fulfill their duty of 'enjoining the good and forbidding the evil' then they will be deprived of the blessings of Wahi and when they get accustomed to hurling abuses at each other, they will be disgraced before Allah."

Fake Terrorism

2007-02-13T20:30:00.001Z

Ruthless use of terrorism for political and tactical purposes has always been a traditional tool of Israeli secret service operatives. Provocation is not below their dignity: in 1950s, in the infamous Lavon Affair, some local Jews enlisted by Israel were apprehended in Cairo while placing bombs in the American and British consulates. They tried to present their bombing as ‘acts of Islamic terror’ and cause hostility between Arabs and Americans. Israeli agents did not hesitate to kill Jews ‘for the cause’.

Thus, on November 25, 1940, the Jewish Agency men sunk SS Patria and killed 250 Jewish immigrants. They did it in order to ensure sympathy to the plight of Jews who were refused entry to British-run Palestine. The perpetrators of the outrage admitted their crime in Israeli media a few years ago. The explosive charge was too powerful, they explained.

Joachim Martillo recently wrote of possible Zionist connection with the bloody anti-Jewish riots in the Polish town of Kielce after the WWII. The riots sent a wave of Jewish immigrants to the shores of Palestine. Israeli bombings of Baghdad synagogues are by now a well known and declassified fact. They caused mass immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel.

In a more recent development, just over a year ago, Moscow was shaken by dreadful explosions that caused multiple casualties. Unknown terrorists exploded whole residential apartment buildings in the Russian capital. The explosions were blamed on Chechens, and brought about the Second Chechnya war, the destruction of Grozny, thousands of dead and wounded, but more importantly, they served as a turning point in Russia’s relations with Israel and the Muslim world. Russia’s media enforced the image of Islamic terrorism and of Israel as a guardian and ally of Russia.

‘We have a common enemy, Islamic terrorism’, was the line reiterated by Israeli politicians visiting Moscow, be it Sharansky, Lieberman or Peres. The comparisons of Chechnya with Palestine became commonplace in the Jewish-owned Russian press. The old Zionist dream of creating confrontation between Russia and Dar al Islam almost became true. Until now, the bombers have not been found. Russia’s influential Nezavisimaya Gazette openly expresses doubts of a Chechen connection to the explosions.

Read the full article: Doubt and Certainty – Israel Shamir

Returning to One God

2007-02-13T19:14:00.000Z

This Russian Orthodox priest embraced Islam after studying and teaching the old and new testaments for many years. Al hamdu lillah!

"Today in this world, where vice, lawlessness, and the dollar reign, we need to preserve our nation. And I believe that the salvation of Russia and the entire world lies in Islam."

Justice

2007-02-08T18:29:00.000Z

"If someone disobeys God in matters that concern you, the best thing to do in return is to obey God in matters that concern him."

So said Umar ibn Khattab

umar-farooq.blogspot.com

Freedom

2007-02-02T17:20:00.000Z

You must understand that you cannot begin with freedom—freedom is the goal, the aim. People say that God created man free. That is a great misunderstanding. Freedom cannot be given to anyone—even by our all-loving Creator Himself. God has given to man the biggest thing he can—that is the possibility to become free. The desire for freedom exists in every man worthy of the name—but people are stupid and think they can have outward freedom without inner freedom. All our evil comes from this stupidity. Unless we desire, first of all, to be free from our own inner enemies, we shall only go from bad to worse.

—Gheorgiy Gurdjieff

Slavery

2007-02-01T19:10:00.000Z

As long as man is a slave to his senses and not the master of himself, so long can the elemental forces of the world distress and overcome him.

Hari Prasad Shastri

The Sea

2007-01-23T13:09:00.000Z

"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Brethren of the Devil

2007-01-19T00:05:00.000Z

Jesus, son of Mary, peace be upon him, said, "In the last days there will be learned men who teach abstinence in the world but will not be abstinent themselves, who will teach men to take delight in the next world but will not take delight in it themselves, and who will warn men against coming before rulers but will not refrain themselves. They will draw near to the rich and keep far from the poor; they will be pleasant to great men but will shrink from humble men. Those are the brethren of the devils and the enemies of the Merciful."

Muslim tradition of Jesus' sayings

Remembrance

2007-01-15T21:05:00.000Z

"Worship God. Leave all else.

Worship demands singleness of purpose and concentration of the whole mind onGod. As long as the heart is divided in its loyalty, and the full attention is not given to God—until the remembrance of His holy name is constant—the blessedness and bliss of true God-realisation does not come.

Our sojourn on earth is as uncertain as a dewdrop on a rose petal.

Therefore, worship God. Leave all else."

Shri Dadaji Maharaj

How Islamic this Hindu advice sounds to me.

Surrendering

2007-01-10T10:56:00.000Z

Why is Islam terrifying? Because to embrace Islam you have to give up so much. You have to surrender your pride.

You have to bend down on your knees before God.

Many people say that when they attempt to pray, it is the physical prostration they find difficult. They can't do it.

The heart is the seat of the intellect. Only recently has mankind begun to think otherwise. Was my heart not sealed, only sleeping, before I embraced Islam? I certainly experienced the fear of Islam common to people of the West. What caused God's grace to fall upon me?

This is the question that mystifies me and humbles me.

War, Lies and Videotape

2007-01-08T13:00:00.000Z

Here's an interesting article from The Guardian's archives. It's about the "Osama bin Laden confession tape", allegedly found in an empty house in Agfhanistan in 2001.

US urged to detail origin of tape

Steven Morris
Saturday December 15, 2001
The Guardian

There was growing doubt in the Muslim world about the authenticity of the film while special effects experts said computer technology made it possible to fake such a video...

Sean Broughton, director of the London-based production company Smoke and Mirrors and one of Britain's leading experts on visual effects, said it would be relatively easy for a skilled professional to fake a video of Bin Laden.

The first step would be to transfer images shot on videotape on to film tape. Distortion or "noise" and graininess would be removed. A "morphing package" would then be used to manipulate the image on a computer screen.

Using such a package it is possible to alter the subject's mouth and expressions to fit in with whatever soundtrack is desired. The final step is to put the "noise" and graininess back on and transfer the doctored images on to videotape.

In a recent advert that Smoke and Mirrors made for a US insurance company, the technique was used to place Bill Clinton's head on an actor's body for comic effect.

Mr Broughton said that while it would be relatively easy to fake a Bin Laden video, to fool the top experts was much more difficult. "There are perhaps 20 people in America who would be good enough to fool everybody. To find someone that good and make sure they kept quiet would probably be pretty difficult."

Bob Crabtree, editor of the magazine Computer Video, said it was impossible to judge whether the video was a fake without more details of its source. "The US seems simply to have asked the world to trust them that it is genuine."

Mr Bush said it was "preposterous for anybody to think this tape was doctored".

The Osama Tape

Investigate.

Think.

Master Race

2007-01-04T22:38:00.000Z

Found this gem at http://destabilize.blogspot.com/

Divide and Rule

2007-01-02T19:30:00.000Z

Read this article on the insidious attempts of the White House and Downing Street to split the Muslims and subvert our religion:

God Save the Deen

"A 2003 report by RAND entitled Civil Democratic Islam categorises Muslims into four categories: fundamentalists, traditionalists, modernists and secularists. Its recommendations include

financially supporting and promoting the modernists and their viewpoints
supporting the traditionalists against the fundamentalists
promoting Sufism
challenging the fundamentalists’ interpretation of Islam, revealing their links to jihad groups, demonstrating their inability to rule, portraying them as terrorists and encouraging journalists to dig up dirt on them
encouraging division among the fundamentalists
selectively supporting the secularists and discouraging the secularist alliance with anti-US forces on such grounds as nationalism and leftist ideology

A joint Home Office and Foreign Office document from 2004, Young Muslims and Extremism, indicated that a similar strategy was at play in Britain. Codenamed ‘Operation Contest’, the document speaks of measures through which government endorsements could be used to promote certain elements within the Muslim community such as supporting 'moderate' Islamic media outlets, promoting Muslim organisations, individuals and forums that are seen as government friendly, and encouraging 'moderate' Muslims to challenge the 'extremists'..."

What a concept – secular Islam! As if there'd be anything left if you took the religion out of Islam.

May this article serve as a warning to us all. Divide and conquer is one of the oldest tricks in history.

2007-01-02T00:45:00.000Z

Brothers and sisters,

EID MUBARAK!

Military Parade, 1935

2006-12-29T19:20:00.000Z

The Eye of God in the Heart of Man

2006-12-28T16:14:00.000Z

Q What is conscience?

A The eye of God in the heart of man, which sees everything that is perceptible, in its right form, place, time, cause, and purpose.

Q What is reason?

A The revolving of the conscience, whilst it contemplates by means of sight, hearing, and experience, whatever comes before it.

Q What is understanding?

A The working of the conscience, whilst it exercises its energies and might for the purpose of acquiring and improving good sciences.

Q What is wisdom?

A Sciences acquired by the revolving of the reason, and the powerful working of the intellect, which obtain sciences from God and goodness – and by success in the improvement of them.

Q What is sense?

A The exercise and rectification of wisdom, by studying the manner in which it has been obtained, and tasting the counsels of other wise men.

Thus thou knowest the correct saying of wisdom, 'Take as an answer, I know, and I do not know, and try to understand it. He who possesses wisdom, will correct himself, and will not stand in need of another.' Didst thou not say that wisdom may be rectified by the counsel of wise men? Yes; for trying the advice of wise men, and tasting that which is wise, causes one to improve in wisdom, that is, not by the acquisition of counsel and instruction, but by applying them to the taste, as if bodily food were given to the wretch that asked it. It is not the giver that feeds the body but he that takes what is proper for him, omitting what is otherwise.

Q What is God?

A The life of all lives.

Q What is the spirit of God?

A The power of all powers.

Q What is the providence of God?

A The order of orders, and the system of systems.

Q What is the power of God?

A The knowledge of all knowledge, the art of all arts, and the agent of all agents.

Q What is truth?

A The sciences of wisdom preserved in memory by conscience.

Q What is justice?

A The art and office of conscience, regulated by reason, understanding and wisdom, considering and acting accordingly.

Q What is judgement?

A God co-reasoning with man in his conscience, in respect of the knowledge which he possesses, after he has revolved in his mind what has been demonstrated.

Q What is the soul?

A The breath of God in a carnal body.

Q What is life?

A The might of God.

This is a dialogue between a druid bard and his disciple. What a remarkable resemblance this ancient wisdom of the Druids of Britain bears to Islamic knowedge.

Honesty in the Hearts of Men

2006-12-26T20:26:00.000Z

Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 76, Hadith Number 504:

Narrated Hudhaifa:

Allah's Apostle narrated to us two narrations, one of which I have seen (happening) and I am waiting for the other. He narrated that honesty was preserved in the roots of the hearts of men (in the beginning) and then they learnt it (honesty) from the Qur'an, and then they learnt it from the (Prophet's) Sunna (tradition). He also told us about its disappearance, saying, "A man will go to sleep whereupon honesty will be taken away from his heart, and only its trace will remain, resembling the traces of fire. He then will sleep whereupon the remainder of the honesty will also be taken away (from his heart) and its trace will resemble a blister which is raised over the surface of skin, when an ember touches one's foot; and in fact, this blister does not contain anything. So there will come a day when people will deal in business with each other but there will hardly be any trustworthy persons among them. Then it will be said that in such-and-such a tribe there is such-and-such person who is honest, and a man will be admired for his intelligence, good manners and strength, though indeed he will not have belief equal to a mustard seed in his heart." The narrator added: There came upon me a time when I did not mind dealing with anyone of you, for if he was a Muslim, his religion would prevent him from cheating; and if he was a Christian, his Muslim ruler would prevent him from cheating; but today I cannot deal except with so-and-so and so-and-so.

American Oligarchs: Revolving Door Relationships

2006-12-24T15:55:00.000Z

The Project Censored team researched the board members of 10 major media organizations from newspaper to television to radio. Of these ten organizations, we found there are 118 people who sit on 288 different American and international corporate boards proving a close on-going interlock between big media and corporate America. We found media directors who also were former Senators or Representatives in the House such as Sam Nunn (Disney) and William Cohen (Viacom). Board members served at the FCC such as William Kennard (New York Times) and Dennis FitzSimmons (Tribune Company) showing revolving door relationships with big media and U.S. government officials.

These ten big media organizations are the main source of news for most Americans. Their corporate ties require us to continually scrutinize the quality of their news for bias. Disney owns ABC so we wonder how the board of Disney reacts to negative news about their board of directors friends such as Halliburton or Boeing...

Project Censored 2006 Chapter 6 (pdf)

The "Shock and Awe" Fallout

2006-12-24T15:26:00.000Z

RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report. Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.

Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from local sources.

The results from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston and four other stations within a 10-mile radius were obtained by Chris Busby, of Liverpool University’s department of human anatomy and cell biology.

Each detector recorded a significant rise in uranium levels during the Gulf war bombing campaign in March 2003. The reading from a park in Reading was high enough for the Environment Agency to be alerted.

Busby, who has advised the government on radiation and is a founder of Green Audit, the environmental consultancy, believes “uranium aerosols” from Iraq were widely dispersed in the atmosphere and blown across Europe.

UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells (The Times)

The Sacred Breath

2006-12-23T16:06:00.000Z

Allah (swt) blew His breath into Adam (pbuh), bringing the clay figure to life. Breath is what animates our flesh. With breathing comes consciousness. Imbalances of the breath affect our mental, emotional and physical state. Prayer and meditation restore our breath and our connection with the Divine Origin of breath.

“The changing of the states of mind produces swings in mood, and these are known by the signs of the breath. If the breath is kept completely controlled and measured equally between in and out breaths, there will be stability of mind and balanced emotions. Unbalanced emotions are the result of disturbances of the balance of the breath.”

Effect of Emotions on Health (www.unani.com)

Archeological Crime in the Occupied Territories

2006-12-21T00:33:00.000Z

'An "archaeological heart of darkness" is how Greenberg has described Israel's behavior in the territories since 1967.

International law prohibits archaeological digs in occupied territories, other than rescue digs, and the findings may not be removed from those territories - to do so is considered antiquities theft.

"We were taught in university that archaeology is the planned destruction of an antiquities site," Greenberg notes. "A dig that does not conclude with an orderly publication is pretty much tantamount to antiquities theft." And that is exactly what has gone on in the West Bank, he maintains, especially in recent years.

Greenberg believes that excavating in occupied territory is problematic. "An occupying force arrives from outside and makes unilateral decisions, without consulting the local residents," he says. "Archaeology has social significance, because you are taking part of the landscape and giving the archaeologists a kind of veto power over it. That's why archaeologists must be transparent; we must report to the public on what we are doing. We, as historians, must be sensitive to such matters. We have to know that what is being done in the territories is a crime."

Buried treasure that's kept in the dark (haaretz.com)

Autistic Rupture with the Divine

2006-12-19T00:35:00.000Z

This reader's evaluation of Rene Guenon's The Crisis of the Modern World sums things up nicely.

"The chaotic forces Guenon so resolutely opposed in his prophetic writings are currently at work in the misguided efforts of the Zionistic Western elites that are attempting to domesticate and castrate traditionalist Islam, because in Islam an unrelenting anti-utopian opposition to the projected Tower of Babel globalist monoculture finds expression. Islam would be an intolerable singularity in the neat-and-tidy humanist New World Order born of our autistic rupture with the Divine... While we self-righteously cleanse the earth of the last legitimate representative of the world of Tradition, we shall have unknowingly committed self-slaughter as the way for Antichrist is paved. As Guenon has so perfectly stated, 'What Westeners call civilization, the others would call barbarity, because it is precisely lacking in the essential, that is to say a principle of a higher order.'"

Amazon review

The Hidden History of Zionism

2006-12-14T21:29:00.000Z

Please read this online book.

The Hidden History of Zionism

"The fourth myth is that of Zionism as the moral legatee of the victims of the Holocaust. This is at once the most pervasive and insidious of the myths about Zionism. Ideologues for the Zionist movement have wrapped themselves in the collective shroud of the six million Jews who fell victim to Nazi mass murder. The bitter and cruel irony of this false claim is that the Zionist movement itself actively colluded with Nazism from its inception..."

General Ivashov: “International terrorism does not exist”

2006-12-12T16:50:00.000Z

The use of the term “international terrorism” has the following goals:

Hiding the real objectives of the forces deployed all over the world in the struggle for dominance and control;

Turning the people’s demands to a struggle of undefined goals against an invisible enemy;

Destroying basic international norms and changing concepts such as: aggression, state terror, dictatorship or movement of national liberation;

Depriving peoples of their legitimate right to fight against aggressions and to reject the work of foreign intelligence services...

General Ivashov's article

Is TV Bad for the Brain?

2006-12-11T00:04:00.000Z

Michael Shayer, Professor of Applied Psychology at King’s College London, claims that 11 and 12-year-olds are now two to three years behind where they were 15 years go in terms of cognitive and conceptual development. In his volume and heaviness test, children are asked to hold a brass block and a Plasticine block of identical size, one in each hand. In 1976, 57 per cent of boys and 27 per cent of girls realised that the Plasticine block would displace the same amount of water, if immersed, as the brass block. Thirty years later only 17 per cent of either sex get it right. That is a staggering change. But Professor Shayer is reluctant to speculate on the causes. He thinks a decline in hands-on play, more TV and less outside play space may be factors. But he is not sure.

If the screen is a problem, why can’t adults just switch it off? You don’t need a “conceptual framework” to find the off button. What comes through every discussion on this subject is the extraordinary weakness of parents, who simply can’t face the hassle of saying no. And when they try, they face increasingly strong resistance. For the real, hidden danger of many TV channels and video games is that they are designed to feed an anti-authority culture.

Sue Palmer’s book Toxic Childhood quotes the psychologist Mark Crispin-Miller: “It’s part of the official advertising world view that your parents are creeps, teachers are weirdos and idiots, authority figures laughable and nobody can really understand children except the corporate sponsor.” This may sound overblown, unless you’ve watched Nickelodeon. The Rugrats are pulling the rug from under parents who weren’t too sure of their footing anyway. Guess which TV character a recent BBC poll of 5,000 parents found was the “role model” who most influenced their children? Gulp. Bart Simpson.

Are Parents the Poisoners? (Times Online)

The Religion Card

2006-12-10T00:31:00.000Z

PM backs attempts to limit wearing of veil in public (The Guardian)

'Mr Blair also offered an upbeat assessment of the progress made in race relations in the UK in the last 40 years. He praised David Cameron for delivering a turning point in political debate.

"I think it is great that in British politics today no mainstream party plays the race card. It is not conceivable, in my view, that this leader of the Conservative party would ... misuse the debate on immigration and that is both a tribute to him and to the common culture of tolerance we have established in this country today," Mr Blair said.'

Yet Mr Blair would (and does) play the religion card.

Hypocrisy.

Man, Mind and The Moon

2006-12-08T00:56:00.000Z

In the Indo-European tradition, the common root of “Moon” and “measurement” – me, ma, men – extends, fascinatingly, into more complex notions of mental activity. most importantly, Sanskrit ma to measure, seeds the Sanskrit manas, which meant mind, in its widest sense of intellect, intelligence, understanding, perception, sense, conscience, will and spirit. Mata of mati-h was thought, intention, measure, knowledge, and mantra was an instrument of thought, a prayer, hymn or text. However, ma also means to measure out, to plan (after the manner of a carpenter or house-builder), giving the idea of maya, that which is measured out, the phenomenal world of time. Manu was the name given to the great teacher who originated Hindu culture, from whom the word “man” derives, defining “man” as a thinking being.

In Greek, the Sanskrit root of me, ma, men structures a similar range of thought. As well as terms for measurement, the root me yields metis, wisdom, foresight, shrewdness; metiesthai, to meditate, to have in mind, to dream; menos, mind, intention, courage, spirit; mnasthai, to be mindful, remember; mneme, memory…

In Latin, finally, mens, meaning mind, becomes mental in English.

Jules Cashford, The Moon: Myth and Imagination

Godlessness

2006-12-08T00:40:00.000Z

“When men cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing, they believe in anything.”

G. K. Chesterton

Unexplained Spontaneous Combustion

2006-12-06T20:41:00.000Z

How many of you believe this is a photo of a building exploding? How many believe it is a photo of a building set on fire with a huge amount of kerosene?

The photo is of a World Trade Center Tower one sunny morning in September…

Gullible Americans

What We Know and Don’t Know about 9/11

Dying Hearts (Literally)

2006-12-06T18:25:00.000Z

It is my belief that modern society itself is riddled with diseases of egotism. Adultery, mindless violence, pornography, illegal invasions, gluttony, dishonour, corruption—these ailments have become normal. Is it because our hearts have atrophied from lack of use?

Is it any wonder that people are falling dead from diseased hearts?

Diseases of the Ego

2006-12-05T21:11:00.000Z

Every person is born into the station of egotism. This is the inevitable first stop in life. The infant is entirely preoccupied with its need for physical satisfaction. It wants food, or to be picked up, and will scream, cry, and spit to make its demands known. It is completely unconcerned about the effects of its own actions…

Many people grow into adulthood and even old age without ever departing from this initial stage of egotism, the maqam an-nafs. Such people never stop demanding their own way, the endless satisfactions of the body. Taken to the extreme, the whole range of emotional and physical diseases we call chronic and degenerative is a result of remaining in this station too long. Fearfulness, anxiety, self-doubt, selfishness, insanity, weeping for no reason, depression, paranoia, sexual perversions, and suicide—all are emotional diseases connected with the station of egotism, when a person lingers in it into adulthood.

The physical diseases associated with the station of egotism can sometimes occur concurrently with the emotional or psychological ones. But for the body, the end result of remaining in the station of egotism includes drug abuse, alcoholism, criminal behaviour, obesity, hypoglycaemia, blindness and other eye problems, jaundice, heart attack, venereal disease, and cancer. These conditions result from the failure to exercise proper control over one or more of the nafs functions, or appetites of the body.

The method of escape—or progress—from the station of egotism is to train and discipline the ego and its drives…

The Book of Sufi Healing, Shaykh Hakim Moinuddin Chishti

Litvinenko Converted to Islam

2006-12-04T21:50:00.000Z

The Daily Telegraph has been told that Mr Litvinenko had converted to Islam.
Akhmed Zakayev, the leading Chechen dissident who lived next door to Mr Litvinenko, said: "He was read to from the Koran the day before he died and had told his wife and family that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition."

The Daily Telegraph

Emotional Engineering

2006-12-04T20:55:00.000Z

The various Bureaux of Propaganda and the College of Emotional Engineering were housed in a sixty-story building in Fleet Street. In the basement and on the lower floors were the presses and offices of the three great London newspapers—The Hourly Radio, an upper-caste sheet, the pale green Gamma Gazette, and, on khaki paper and in words of exclusively one syllable, The Delta Mirror. Then came the Bureaux of Propaganda by Television, by Feeling Picture, and by Synthetic Voice and Music respectively—twenty-two floors of them. Above were the research laboratories and the padded rooms in which the Sound-Track Writers and Synthetic Composers did their delicate work. The top eighteen floors were occupied by the College of Emotional Engineering.

US Ministry of Propaganda

2006-12-01T23:07:00.000Z

The U.S. has previously admitted that it is running a campaign to plant fake news stories and articles in Iraqi papers in an effort to improve its tarnished image in the country...

"Economic and media globalization, however, have shrunk the planet in ways that blur the distinction between foreign and domestic propaganda. This has been acknowledged in the U.S. Defense Department's Information Operations Roadmap, a 74-page document approved in 2003 by Donald Rumsfeld. It noted that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP [psychological operations], increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa. PSYOP messages disseminated to any audience... will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public."

"...You can't be creating a model for democracy while subverting one of its core principles, a free independent press." When the program was exposed, government officials responded with contradictory statements. The White House denied any knowledge of the program, and Donald Rumsfeld said at first that it was "troubling..."

Rumsfeld's Fake News Flop in Iraq

The End of the World

2006-12-01T17:56:00.000Z

The Hindu doctrine teaches that a human cycle, to which it gives the name Manvantara, is divided into four periods marking so many stages during which the primordial spirituality becomes gradually more and more obsured; these are the same periods that the ancient traditions of the West called the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. We are now in the fourth age, the Kali-Yuga or 'dark age', and have been so already, it is said, for more than six thousand years, that is to say since a time far earlier than any known to 'classical' history. Since that time, the truths which were formerly within reach of all hae become more and more hidden and inaccessible; those who possess them grow fewer and fewer, and although the treasure of 'nonhuman' (that is, supra-human) wisdom that was prior to all the ages can never be lost, it nevertheless becomes enveloped in more and more impenetrable veils, which hide it from men's sight and make it extremely difficult to discover. This is why we find everywhere, under various symbols, the same theme of something that has been lost—at least to all appearances and as far as the outer world is concerned—and that those who aspire to true knowledge must rediscover; but it is also said that what is thus hidden will become visible again at the end of the cycle, which, because of the continuity binding all things together, will coincide with the beginning of a new cycle.

René Guénon, The Crisis of the Modern World

Feeding Arrogance

2006-11-29T17:09:00.000Z

'One evening a sheikh was talking about humility and service. He spoke eloquently about service and putting others' needs before our own. Then, someone asked, "What do you do with the arrogant? How can you serve the arrogant?"

The sheikh drew himself up and raised his powerful voice, "With the arrogant, you must behave arrogantly!" Everyone was shocked.

Then, the sheikh went on, "To treat the arrogant with humility would be like giving them poison. It would only feed their arrogance."'

Hmm, I can't decide if this is good advice or not. Any comments?

The Face of a Shahid (insha'allah)

2006-11-28T13:52:00.000Z

Four munafiqs stumbled across the body of Sheikh Abdul-Halim Sadulaev, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria after he had been killed by the Russians in a chance encounter. One of them recognised him and was struck by the nur (light) shining from his face.

"Look at his face," he cried involuntarily. A second one, who it seems could read Arabic, cried out, "And look at his arm too. The name ALLAH is traced out in his blood."

At that moment one of them photographed Sadulaev and hid his telephone. The awe-struck munafiqs left Sadulaev's body untouched, left his money, which had been destined for the mujahideen, untouched by his side.

Sadulaev's corpse was later found and mutilated, and the money looted.

The munafiq who took the photograph has circulated the story of what he witnessed and says he is now ready to join the mujahideen resistance.

Знамение Аллаха на Шейхе Абдул-Халиме

70,000 US Mercenaries in Iraq

2006-11-27T17:05:00.000Z

The kidnapping of four American security contractors earlier this month in Iraq revived allegations that U.S. private security companies are involved in the current bloodshed in Iraq. Iraq war is not just fought by occupation armies and resistance fighters- private firms, consisting of gun-wielding ex-soldiers, are also involved.
Could some of the Pentagon’s hired Mercenaries be the real perpetrators of the daily bombings and assassinations of Sunnis and Shias in Iraq?

Are the 70,000 Pentagon Mercs in Iraq killing Shias, Sunnis?

US Dirty Bombs

2006-11-27T13:06:00.000Z

'Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on and on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it normal?"'

Depleted Uranium Dust in Iraq and Afghanistan

A little-known fact. Four million pounds of radioactive uranium was dropped on Iraq in 2003 alone. US missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets, tank shells, cruise missiles all contain high amounts of radioactive uranium. Its half-life is 4.5 billion years.

The UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) found hundreds of Afghan civilians suffering acute symptoms of radiation poisoning and chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination. And deformed newborn babies. News they won't show on the TV.

Fake News Stories on TV

2006-11-27T12:45:00.000Z

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news…

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

Two Wolves

2006-11-24T23:59:00.000Z

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.”

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Wisdom Stories

Rewritten Geography

2006-11-24T21:58:00.000Z

"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."

David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978.

"[They] killed between 80 to 100 Arabs, women and children. To kill the children, they fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one house without corpses. The men and women of the villages were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite the houses. One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a house he was about to blow up...Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman with her newborn baby was made to clean the place for a couple of days, and then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered "good guys"...became base murderers, and this not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remained, the better."

Testimony of an Israeli soldier who participated in the massacre at al Duwayma Village on October 29, 1948. Published in Davar, June 9, 1979. Quoted in Censored 2005, Peter Phillips & Project Censored.