“politically radicalised” Muslims ... motivated by ... fear of occupation by the West and the US

Poll: 93% of Muslims Worldwide Condemn 9/11 Attacks - 0% Approve of Attacks on Religious Grounds | Jon Ponder | Feb. 27, 2008

This poll from Gallup is based on a huge worldwide sample:

One of the largest-ever opinion polls conducted in the Islamic world found that seven percent of Muslims condoned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on the US, but none of them gave religious justification for their beliefs, according to the figures released Tuesday.

The Gallup organisation’s poll of some 50,000 people in over 35 predominantly Muslim countries found that what motivated those considered “politically radicalised” was their fear of occupation by the West and the US, though most even admired and hoped for democratic principles.

“Politics, not piety, differentiate moderates from radicals” in the Islamic world, said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim studies. “Terrorism sympathisers don’t hate our freedom, they want our freedom.”

The overwhelming majority of Muslims - 93 percent - condemned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and most said the biggest obstacle to better relations with the West was the latter’s lack of respect for Islam.

It is advantageous to George Bush and the fear-mongers who run our government to ascribe the terror attacks to the Muslim religion. The reality is, Osama bin Laden and his ilk are conservative political extremists who, like rightwing extremists in the United States, justify their hate-filled political agenda with narrow, self-serving interpretations of mainstream religion beliefs.

Hersh: Israel pressed me to agree Syrian site was nuclear

Hersh: Israel pressed me to agree Syrian site was nuclear | Muriel Kane | Published: Friday February 8, 2008

A new article by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh offers a detailed examination of the claims that Israel bombed a nuclear facility under construction in Syria last September and finds that none of the evidence stands up to scrutiny.

According to Hersh, "A former senior U.S. intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence, said, 'We don't have any proof of a reactor — no signals intelligence, no human intelligence, no satellite intelligence.'" However, Hersh found that the Israelis were continuing to stand adamantly by their claims:

"When I went to Israel in late December, the government was still maintaining secrecy about the raid, but some current and former officials and military officers were willing to speak without attribution. Most were adamant that Israel’s intelligence had been accurate. 'Don’t you write that there was nothing there!' a senior Israeli official, who is in a position to know the details of the raid on Syria, said, shaking a finger at me. 'The thing in Syria was real.'" ...

Do we Americans have any honor, any humanity, any integrity, any awareness of the crimes our government is committing in our name?

What Do We Stand For? | By Paul Craig Roberts | 18/02/08 "ICH"

18/02/08 "ICH" --- - Americans traditionally thought of their country as a "city upon a hill," a "light unto the world." Today only the deluded think that. Polls show that the rest of the world regards the U.S. and Israel as the two greatest threats to peace.

This is not surprising. In the words of Arthur Silber:

"The Bush administration has announced to the world, and to all Americans, that this is what the United States now stands for: a vicious determination to dominate the world, criminal, genocidal wars of aggression, torture, and an increasingly brutal and brutalizing authoritarian state at home. That is what we stand for."

Addressing his fellow Americans, Silber asks the paramount question: "why do you support" these horrors?

His question goes to the heart of the matter. Do we Americans have any honor, any humanity, any integrity, any awareness of the crimes our government is committing in our name? Do we have a moral conscience?

How can a moral conscience be reconciled with our continuing to tolerate our government which has invaded two countries on the basis of lies and deception, destroyed their civilian infrastructures and murdered hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children?

The killing and occupation continue even though we now know that the invasions were based on lies and fabricated "evidence." The entire world knows this. Yet Americans continue to act as if the gratuitous invasions, the gratuitous killing, and the gratuitous destruction are justified. There is no end of it in sight.

...The freedom and independence of the watchdog press was destroyed by the media concentration that was permitted by the Clinton administration and Congress. Americans who rely on traditional print and TV media simply have no idea what is afoot.

... Today Congress is almost as superfluous as the Roman Senate under the caesars. On Feb. 13 the U.S. Senate barely passed a bill banning torture, and the White House promptly announced that President Bush would veto it. Torture is now the American way. The U.S. Senate was only able to muster 51 votes against torture, an indication that almost a majority of U.S. senators support torture.

... The six that the U.S. is bringing to "trial" include two child soldiers for the Taliban and a car-pool driver who allegedly drove bin Laden.

The Taliban did not attack the U.S. The child soldiers were fighting in an Afghan civil war. ... If a terrorist hires a driver or a taxi, does that make the driver a terrorist? What about the pilots of the airliners who brought the alleged 9/11 terrorists to the U.S.? Are they guilty, too?

The Gitmo trials are show trials. Their only purpose is to create the precedent that the executive branch can ignore the U.S. court system and try people in the same manner that innocent people were tried in Stalinist Russia and Gestapo Germany. If the Bush regime had any real evidence against the Gitmo detainees, it would have no need for its kangaroo military tribunal.

If any more proof is needed that Bush has no case against any of the Gitmo detainees, the following AP report, Feb. 14, 2008, should suffice: "The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to limit judges' authority to scrutinize evidence against detainees at Guantanamo Bay." ...

...But Condi Rice, like all the Bush (and Clinton) operatives, is too full of American self-righteousness and ambition to have any remorse about her mistake. Condi can still look herself in the mirror despite one million Iraqis dying from her mistake and several million more being homeless refugees, just as Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, can still look herself in the mirror despite sharing responsibility for 500,000 dead Iraqi children.

There is no one in the Bush administration with enough integrity to resign. It is a government devoid of truth, morality, decency, and honor. The Bush administration is a blight upon America and upon the world.

India condemns Israel for attacks on Gaza civilians

India condemns Israel for attacks on Gaza civilians | Tuesday February 12 2008 00:00 IST | ASHWANI TALWAR | Feb 12, 2008

NEW DELHI: India on Monday condemned Israel’s use of force in civilian areas in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and said it would soon send humanitarian relief to the area.

The clear expression of support for Palestine came on a day when Israel Defence Minister Ehud Barak said his country’s defence forces were “preparing for a large scale operation in Gaza.’’ ...

Gates Cites Europe's Anger Over Iraq War ... some allies are reluctant to heed U.S. calls for more combat troops in Afghanistan

Gates Cites Europe's Anger Over Iraq War | Feb 8, 6:22 PM (ET) | By ROBERT BURNS

MUNICH, Germany (AP) - Lingering anger in Europe over the U.S. invasion of Iraq explains why some allies are reluctant to heed U.S. calls for more combat troops in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. It was his first public acknowledgment of such a link to the Iraq war. ...

Germany angrily dismissed [US] request as "impertinent" and a "fantastic cheek".

Germany rejects US demand to increase Afghan deployment | By Tony Paterson in Berlin | Saturday, 2 February 2008

A bitter diplomatic row between Germany and the United States deepened yesterday after Berlin flatly rejected demands from Washington that it deploy troops in war-torn southern Afghanistan and angrily dismissed the request as "impertinent" and a "fantastic cheek".
...
Details of what was described as an "unusually stern" letter written by Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, to Franz Josef Jung, his German counterpart, were leaked to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper yesterday. ...