<http://www.iris.org.il/blog.html> http://www.iris.org.il/blog.html
* Why Are Arabs Upset by Saddam's Execution? * A must-read by Efraim Karsh, summarized by the Daily Alert: While Saddam Hussein's execution was greeted with delight by many of his victims - Iranians, Kuwaitis, and Iraqi Shia - it also generated widespread criticism among many Arabs and Muslims. This evokes one of the more confounding paradoxes relating to Saddam - the wide discrepancy between his actual track record and the adulation in which he was held by non-Iraqi Arabs. Saddam transformed Iraq into the most repressive police state in the world, where a joke or a reported thought could cost a person his life, where tens of thousands of civilians were brutally murdered by their government, and where millions starved while their unelected ruler spent incredible sums of money on monuments and palaces for himself. Saddam embroiled his country in a string of catastrophic foreign adventures that claimed more than one million lives and wrought untold physical and economic wreckage. Upon his ascendance in 1979, Iraq was a regional economic superpower, boasting some $35 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Twenty-three years later, it had been reduced to dire poverty and underdevelopment, with tens of billions in foreign debt. Why has such an abysmal record been widely applauded by Arabs and Muslims? It is the Middle East's violent political culture that has created and perpetuated the monstrosity of Saddam (and his ilk). Only when this culture is fully eradicated will the region's inhabitants be able to look forward to a better future. Saddam's execution, at long last, sets a precedent of holding a local tyrant accountable for his crimes. * Ex-PA Minister to Al-Qaeda: "We Hate the Americans More than You" * Fatah leader and former PA minister Abu Ali Shahin, responding to a statement by al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, criticizing Palestinian Fatah leaders for contacts with the U.S., addressed al-Qaeda on PA TV on Jan. 1, saying: "Do to Bush whatever you want, and we wish you success... We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you!" Remember that Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, has been America's great white hope for for over a decade. * Iran's Secret Plan for Mayhem * Here is an important read from Eli Lake, which shows that the Sunni-Shiite understanding of the Iraq conflict is facile: Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq. Iranians captured by American forces were carrying documents that offer insight into Iranian activities in Iraq. The documents show how the Quds Force - the arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that supports Shiite Hizbullah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads - is working with individuals affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna. An American official said, "We found plans for attacks [and] phone numbers affiliated with Sunni bad guys." While the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, the news that Iran's Quds Force would be in contact, and clandestinely cooperating, with Sunni Jihadists who attacked the Golden Mosque in Samarra (one of the holiest shrines in Shiism) on February 22 could shake the alliance Iraq's ruling Shiites have forged with Tehran. Many Iraq analysts believe the bombing vaulted Iraq into the current stage of its civil war. _____ The IRIS mailing list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network <http://shamash.org> , a service of Hebrew College <http://hebrewcollege.edu> , which offers online courses and an online MA in Jewish Studies <http://hebrewcollege.edu/online/> . To unsubscribe email [EMAIL PROTECTED] For other options go to: http://listserv.SHAMASH.ORG/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/