Iran--Guerillas, Sikh Terrorist Site, UN--Al-Tuwaitha-Nukes-Humanizing Terrorists

* Gang rivalry leaves one dead at weddings

* Guerrillas claim links to Canada -- Iranians captive in Iraq

* Internet site recruiting for Sikh terrorist group -- 'Younger Babbar Khalsa'

* The UN, Al-Tuwaitha, and Nukes

* Ted Turner Humanizes Terrorists

* Habeas Dangerous

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Gang rivalry leaves one dead at weddings

Joel Kom, CanWest News Service, July 20, 2004

EDMONTON - Rivalry between Asian gangsters was blamed for weekend shootings and stabbings that marred two wedding celebrations and left one man dead and another clinging to life, Edmonton police said yesterday. The fight erupted between guests at separate receptions on Saturday night. Police spokesman Andy Weiler said the mayhem began when gang members from one party came into contact with enemy gang members from the other party. Tap Cong Tran, 24, of Edmonton, died at the scene after being stabbed. Meanwhile, a 20-year-old man continues to cling to life after suffering major head trauma.

Guerrillas claim links to Canada -- Iranians captive in Iraq

Guerrillas claim links to Canada -- Iranians captive in Iraq Stewart Bell, National Post, July 19, 2004

Canadian government officials visited a former Iranian guerrilla base north of Baghdad last month and met with dozens of detained members of a militant group who say they come from Canada.

After reports U.S. troops were holding several Canadian members of an outlawed faction called Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Ottawa dispatched two envoys to the group's headquarters.

Thirty-seven of the MEK members told the officials they were Canadian citizens or landed immigrants, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. In all, 81 are claiming links to Canada, a lawyer said.

Authorities are trying to verify their immigration status. They are being held at Camp Ashraf, which was the MEK's military headquarters until U.S. forces captured and disarmed it last year.

The MEK is a militant group that has been fighting for more than two decades to overthrow the Iranian government. Saddam Hussein financed the group and gave it a military base for staging attacks against his neighbour. [. . . . ]

Internet site recruiting for Sikh terrorist group -- 'Younger Babbar Khalsa'

Internet site recruiting for Sikh terrorist group -- 'Younger Babbar Khalsa' Kim Bolan, CanWest, July 19, 2004

VANCOUVER - A group claiming to be a new version of the banned Babbar Khalsa terrorists is recruiting on the Internet.

An e-mail on a chat room hosted by Waheguroo is inviting anyone over 18 to apply with their phone number and home country to join the "Younger Babbar Khalsa (Shaheed Talwinder Singh Parmar branch)."

Mr. Parmar, a former Burnaby. B.C., resident who founded the Babbar Khalsa, was a suspect in the Air-India bombing when he was killed in the custody of Punjab police in 1992.

The e-mail writer, who identifies himself as Harmanjit Singh Khalsa, said it is difficult to fire up the Sikh separatist movement again because the India Congress party government has appointed a Sikh, Manmohan Singh, as President.

Mr. Khalsa suggests waiting for the Hindu-led BJP to take power again for "the movement to start again from the ground."

In the meantime, he suggests, "what we can do is get those responsible for attacks on Sikhs during the militant days."

One of the people named is K.P.S. Gill, the former head of the Punjab police who rid the state of Sikh separatists with an aggressive campaign in 1992 that saw many leaders, including Mr. Parmar, captured and killed.

In other e-mails on the same Web site, several people talk of what they can do to kill Mr. Gill, who is retired and lives in Delhi. [. . . . ]

The UN, Al-Tuwaitha, and Nukes

The UN, Al-Tuwaitha, and Nukes The UN, Al-Tuwaitha, and Nukes, The American Thinker, July 20, 2004

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was very upset last week that the US had shipped about 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium and other radioactive material out of Iraq for disposition in the US. One would think that the IAEA would have appreciated our work in assisting them in the implementation of the provisions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in this particularly volatile region of the world. But one would be wrong.

The actions, or more appropriately, the inactions of the IAEA regarding Iraq since the end of Gulf War I, betray the agency’s true agenda. Rather than inspect, report, and implement restrictions in accordance with the provisions in the treaty, the agency has in effect become an enabler of rogue nations who are attempting, or who have already succeeded in developing or acquiring special nuclear material and equipment. In other words, the IAEA is simply a reflection of its parent organization, which routinely delays and obfuscates the efforts of the US and the UK in controlling banned substances and delivery systems.

Time after time, the agency has either intentionally or naively bought into the lies and deceptions contrived by nations of the Axis of Evil during IAEA visits and inspections. In most cases, the IAEA avoids confrontation like the plague in order to maintain access to the facilities. If they are booted out, as was the case with North Korea, their impotence is on display for all to see. In other cases, the agency joins in the deception, thereby allowing these rogue states to level the nuclear playing field with the West and Russia. Their reaction to the shipment of nuclear material out of Saddam’s nuclear research center at Al-Tuwaitha is a perfect example of this tactic. [. . . . ]

Ted Turner Humanizes Terrorists

William R. Hawkins, FrontPageMagazine.com | July 20, 2004

The great argument of American civilization at this time is between those who covet our heritage and those who disdain our collective achievements. An example of this liberal Anglo-American antipathy to the accomplishments of Anglo-American civilization is on display in the new TNT mini-series "The Grid." On first impression, the show has the trappings of an "imperial adventure." The story involves a team of American and British counter-terrorist agents working to break a new global Muslim jihadist network that has launched a deadly Sarin gas attack in London. The series, which is to run on Monday nights from its two-hour premiere July 19 to its conclusion August 9, is a collaborative effort of Turner Network Television and the BBC.

In the name of what liberals call "realism," writers for "The Grid" sought to avoid black and white, us-versus-them stereotypes. As one promotional item on "The Grid" website stated, "Perhaps not every viewer will be ready to accept non-stereotypical terrorists, characters who aren't extremists in every way, characters who are depicted in such a way that we can actually begin to relate to them. But executive producers Tracey Alexander and Brian Eastman believe portraying these characters is an essential step in creating a better, more peaceful world." Or as Alexander puts it: "I think not only is it really important to look around the world and see what's going on, but also to look at the way people see us and are judging us. It's really the only way we can hope to kind of cook up some understanding." [. . . . ]

Habeas Dangerous

Henry Mark Holzer, FrontPageMagazine.com | July 20, 2004

Late last month, the Supreme Court of the United States decided its first three War-on-Terrorism cases. It’s bad enough that two of the three decisions considerably weaken the President’s power as constitutional Commander-in-Chief to fight that war, exemplify judicial activism at its worst, and again expose the Court as an Orwellian “more equal than others” branch of government. Worse, is that the decision in the third case – Rasul v. Bush – augurs ill not only for the War-on-Terrorism, but for all future United States military actions. To understand the importance of Rasul and the danger it poses to America’s national security, it is necessary to examine first the other two cases.

Rumsfeld v. Padilla. An American citizen, Jose Padilla (the so-called “dirty bomber”) was arrested in Chicago, brought to New York, later designated an “enemy combatant,” and given into military custody in South Carolina. Assigned counsel sought habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in Manhattan), challenging Padilla’s detention.

In a narrow technical decision, the Supreme Court held that Padilla’s lawyer had sued in the wrong jurisdiction. Since the “immediate custodian” who had control of enemy combatant Padilla was the warden of the naval brig in South Carolina, that jurisdiction, not New York, was where the alleged dirty bomber’s case belonged. Accordingly, the Supreme Court told Padilla that if he wanted to challenge the detention, he would have to re-file his case in the South Carolina federal court. Thus, Padilla decided nothing substantive—the case only further defined the statutory meaning of “immediate custodian.” (Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer were prepared, knowingly, to misinterpret the habeas corpus statute and reach the merits because Padilla’s claims, apparently unlike the plain meaning of a venerable federal statute, were “important”). [. . . . ]