Complete Text Bin Laden Letter

by iosaf Tue Nov 26, 2002 20:58

over on beo.ie anois tá 11 daoine.
istigh na clár plé tá siad ag caint faoi an fear dhubh.
the father of lies.
"A lie is not true".
hmmm.

might I refer to an african muslim cleric who face with consistent difficulties in his country for his fellow believers and also those of his people who live in paperless or precarious existence in our "superstate".
He speaks often of the need to seperate "the lie" from what we "truthfully" know.
No-one appears to want to die.
No.one appears to want to starve.
No-one appears to want to contract plague.
No-one appears to want to someone to tell them
that they may no longer bear children who are not at least in legal terms "equal unto others", [an obtuse reference to the Declaration of Human rights and moderate islamic reaction to bio-technological "advances" in human cloning.

:::::::
According to Professor Dumbuya, [Professor Doctor Abdallah Dumbuya, a Gambian scholar with a double Doctorate degree in Islamic Jurisprudence and Sciences, has strongly condemned organisations and groups using Islam as a justification for terrorism and violence].

both the Sharia (Islamic law) and Western law agree on the legalities involved in meting out punishment to perpetrators of terrorism.

Dumbuya intimated that although there is more media attention generated by so-called Muslim terrorists, there has been other development oriented Islamic philanthropists who have contributed to mankind. In a bid to give a contrast to Osama Bin Laden's personality he mentioned Sheikh Adina Basalama a Saudi Arabian Muslim cleric whom, he said, is not into terrorism but the development of poor people around the world. "Sheikh Basalama has helped to build schools and mosques in several countries, he has helped spread positive Islamic education to the world community," the professor explained.

Professor Dumbuya also mentioned Salem Bashanfer whom he said is another Saudi cleric very active in helping needy Muslims and underprivileged communities.

:::::He also mentioned Mohammed {Hassem} Sheikh Asheem Baraka Abdallah and {Omar} Ba Nkhar

all Saudi clerics helping needy Muslims "not with guns, or violence."

On the question of State House Imam Fatty's statement that the US government should be blamed for the attack because of their policies, Professor Dumbuya refused to comment, claiming that only "half educated Muslims will support terrorism."

"I am a doctorate, I do not consider half educated people who support terrorism in Islam because they do not know the Quran or the hadith," he said.

He advised Gambians and non-Gambians to be "careful about terrorism," saying that people "who support terrorism will not get any help from the outside world." He called on The Gambia Government to make Islamic knowledge a subject in all the schools in The Gambia, and that Islamic teachers should be given priority in the Department of Education, pointing out that The Gambia is ninety-nine percent Islam.

He called on privileged Muslims to help Imams and Islamic teachers because "they are leading prayers without salary."

Now this is an example of a "global truth" being perverted by a "double doctor".
and also of a university education being a bit weird.

2002
-1984
18
all you have left is satire.

"If you´re going to tell the truth make people laugh or they´ll kill you".

by Blisset Tue Nov 26, 2002 13:39

Waiting & Watching
by John Liechty

George Orwell said that political language is “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” There’s been enough pure wind flying around of late that more people than ever assume that what we are told as truth has been twisted to suit the teller. The truth, what’s left of it by the time it squeezes free, is easily overlooked if not altogether lost in the crowd of half truths and bald lies trotted out daily to the public. It is hardly surprising so many people end up shrugging their shoulders and concluding: ‘It doesn’t really matter what the truth is – the whole thing’s a bloody conspiracy anyway.

One curious conspiracy-truth blowing around the Gulf these days proposes that all along and even now, Saddam Hussein has been a loyal CIA plant. His mission? To crack the door for America’s foot in the Middle East. This is mild as conspiracy theories go, far less audacious than Gore Vidal’s recent assertion that a “Bush Junta” knowingly allowed September 11 to happen in order to provide an extreme context in which to inflict its extreme vision thing on America and the world. Truth has had the bottom knocked out from under it so many times that we accept very little at face value, or are quick to believe what we want to believe. Even the basic identity of the perpetrators of September 11 is still up for grabs, particularly in the Muslim world, where one routinely hears otherwise discerning individuals say, “It couldn’t have been a Muslim,” or repeat the popular but weak argument that Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were singled out when there was not “a shred of evidence” against them. If Al Qaeda was not behind the September 11 attacks, then who was? The CIA for starters, the Bush Junta as an entree, the Illuminati for dessert. But the staple culprits are still the Israelis, as evidenced by the three or four (or was it fourteen?) thousand Jews who slyly called in sick to the World Trade Center the day it went down.

As for the true motive behind America’s latest hankering for war, one may choose from: A) Oil; B) Imperialist ambition; C) Outright arrogance; D) Downright ignorance; E) A passion to spread Democracy; F) A passion to spread a smokescreen over domestic troubles; G) To generate revenue; H) To Make the World a Better Place; I) To trigger Armageddon (Oh Rapture!) J) To free the Iraqi people (who we have nothing against); K) To remind everybody that “one man isn’t all that important”, (so long as his name’s not Saddam Hussein); L) To please a cabal of hawks; M) Because Inaction Is Not An Option; N) Because it’s winter, invasion season in the Gulf; O) To take further comfort in the impression that we are Doing Something; P) To Finish the Job; Q) Because we can’t back out now; R) It’s what Jesus would have done; S) Because Saddam allegedly tried to assassinate a US president; T) Because he Used Gas Against His Own People; U) Because he’s been Stiffing The World; V) Because he chairs an Axis of Evil; W) Because if you insist on carrying a hammer, everything looks like a nail; X) Just ‘Cuz; Y) To show Europe who’s boss; Z) Oh… and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Is it one of the above? All of the Above? None of the Above? Six of the Above? Take your pick. On its way down to meet the public, the plain truth is shaved into an array of possibilities that leaves people wondering what, why and who to believe. Little wonder so many opt to jump on whatever slant suits their personal agenda, or simply say to hell with it. What to believe? – Nothing. Who? – Nobody. Why? – Precisely.

Sometimes it seems tempting to leave it at that. But Orwell was being practical and precise, not cynical, when he termed politics “a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.” He believed it was a public duty to notice the dirt and get the hands dirty – not merely hold the nose or turn it up, and walk away. The least we can do is test what we hear and (much harder) what we say for Lies & Evasions (Is it honest? Is it free from the smell of rat?), Folly (Is it wise?), Hate (Is its concern for the common good?), and Schizophrenia (Is it sane?).

It is still unclear what to make of the push for war with Iraq. To many Americans and to much of the world, what is being done feels bewildering and disconcerting – how it is being done even more so. The administration’s style has consistently seemed cocksure and dismissive in its hot pursuit of interests it terms national. It seems to take something like pride in its capacity to snub or ignore anyone not convinced that these interests are honest, wise, constructive, or sane. For all the discussion and debate on Iraq, the war drums have not missed a beat. The message the world frequently receives, whether inadvertent or intended, is: “We do as we please, we don’t care what you think, and we’re pleased to announce that there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”

In his dismay at the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “There are always texts and thoughts and arguments. But it is the genius of the man which decides whether he will stand for might or right.” People around the world are watching as Washington champs at the bit to get troops across the Iraqi border. Pure wind takes on the appearance of solidity – there has been no end of texts and thoughts and arguments. Perhaps the plain truth will squeeze free one day. Meanwhile, the world watches, waiting to see if the genius of America is essentially about might or about right.

John Liechty teaches in Muscat, Oman. E-mail: [email protected]

From Commondreams

by iosaf Tue Nov 26, 2002 12:52

the keen readers will see lots of long postings.
some will be detailed comments on crap articles.
others will be as this "a long article".
Now I have an "instinctual" feeling that in these long posts and lists and links the keen readers will find "anomalies galore". But you will need to use your fine intellects to take out the dross.

In these cases dross is "paranoia".

Author´s of conspiracy theory are often a tad mad.
Sometimes they don´t come forth with their thoughts which in fact many others share.

When the material deos come out, it is clothed in hyperbole, dross, and maybe comes at the end of a drugged up weekend. I think it would be a good idea if the cut and paste got busy this week.
If something makes you think "hmmm...that´s paranoid or very interesting or contains something strange" then copy it. print it out. get yourself a little box and share it with your friends, call it your "anomaly box".

It is most certain that many conspiracy theories do have elements of truth within, and it is most certain that we are being lied to.

Blisset thank u 4 this article.
:-) and 4 keeping standards high!

by King Mob Mon Nov 25, 2002 14:28

Imposters at work

by blisset Mon Nov 25, 2002 01:23

© Independent Media Center. All content is free for reprint and
rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere, for non-commercial use,
unless otherwise noted by author.

Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
***********************************
Translated by irlandesa

La Jornada
Monday, November 18, 2002.

Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.

September of 2002.

For Fernando Yáñez Muñoz, Architect,
From Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.

Big Brother:

Please accept the usual greetings, almost as usual as the cold which will soon be clothing the mountains of the Mexican southeast.

As you will remember, it has now been 18 years since I arrived in the mountains of the Mexican southeast, that is, I have reached the age of
majority. This is an excellent excuse for writing you, for greeting you and, in passing, for congratulating you, since I have found out that you graduated with honors, which is how zapatistas graduate.

I received the letter where you told me about the project of Professor Sergio Rodríguez Lascano, the teacher Adriana López Monjardín and Javier
Elorriaga, that of making a magazine whose name, as I understand it, will be Rebeldía.

Regarding that, I would like to let you know that we can do nothing less hthan applaud that intellectual effort and say how good that it is
zapatistas who are undertaking that task.

If that magazine, Rebeldía, does not follow the path of the publications of the left, it is likely that they will even publish more than one copy and, one fine day, they will launch it publicly, so that the entire world (that is, those who make it and their friends and family) will know of it.

I have never been to a magazine launch, but I imagine that there is a table where those who are presenting the magazine will sit, and they look
at each other, asking themselves, not unblushingly, why there are more people at the table than in the audience.

But that is, in fact, assuming that the project doesn’t stay shelved.

And, speaking of assumptions, the outlandish idea has occurred to me that you might be present at the improbable launch of Rebeldía, and, if so, our voice would be represented in your voice.

After all, it will be a magazine made by zapatistas, and we should be present in some form.

As we are in silence - and the silence is not being broken, but tended - we shall not be able to attend (indeed, I’m taking it as a given here that those who are making the magazine would have the tact to invite us, although I doubt that they’ll do so, not out of a lack of courtesy, but
because of terror that we would speak of their publication).

If they do not invite us, make yourself the victim and, singing that song of Aute’s that says, “passing by here,” slam the door and, when they are yawning, ask to speak and come out with one of those lectures that leave wounds. They’ll definitely be asleep, but at least they’ll have nightmares instead of dreams.

Since I already know that you are asking yourself what you can talk about since we are in silence, I’m sending you some thoughts here that can be
used for your presentation.

The problem is that they are written in that sparkling and playful style which is the joy of young and old, and not in the stilted and serious
style of the anthropologists, but you can compose them into something very very formal.

Here, then, are the thoughts (bear in mind they I have been very careful to not refer to anything current or to the indigenous law; concerning
these topics, the word will come that comes; you also take care not to break the silence).

ONE. The intellectual work of the left should, above all else, be a critical and self-critical exercise.

Since self-criticism is always postponed for the next number, critique, then, becomes the sole motor of thought.

In the case of the left in Mexico, that intellectual work now has, among others, one central objective, the critique of politics and culture, and of history.

TWO. In present-day Mexico, the practice of politics and culture are full of myths.

Ergo, the critique by the left should combat those myths. And there are not a few myths which inhabit the culture.

But there are myths and myths.

There is, for example, the cultural myth which chants: “Enrique Krauze is an intellectual,” when we all know that he’s nothing but a mediocre
businessman.

Or that other one which says: “María Felix was a diva,” when the truth is she was just a professional of herself.

There is the myth that “Viana sells cheaper,” when you can get a better price and better quality from any street vendor.

There are also myths in politics:

There is the myth that “The National Action Party is a party of the right.”

Actually, it is not a party of the center or the left either.

The PAN is, in reality, nothing more than a placement agency for management positions.

There is also that other myth that “The Democratic Revolutionary Party is a left alternative.”

Nor on the other hand, is it an alternative of the center or of the right. The PRD is, simply, not an alternative of anything.

Or you have the myth: “The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a political party.” The PRI is, in reality, a cave with 40 thieves who are fruitlessly waiting for their Ali Baba. Or that other myth, so beloved by the stagnant left, that chants: “Going against globalization is like going against the law of gravity.”

Opposed to that, throughout the world, are the marginalized of all colors who are defying both of them, and neither physics nor the International Monetary Fund can prevent them.

And there is the myth for which the federal and the Chiapas state governments are paying, and paying dearly, that says: “The zapatistas are
finished,” when the only thing that the zapatistas are finished with is patience.

I am sure there are other myths I have missed, but I am only mentioning a few.

And I am certain that Rebeldía magazine will unclothe them more radically.

And I am not doing it like that, because it is already known that the zapatistas are famous for being “moderate” and “reformist.”

That is what the alleged “ultras” of the CGH called us, who are today undoubtedly lining up at the doors of the PRD closest to their hearts, and
their wallets, waiting for the chance to run in the next election.

THREE. The rebel is, if you will permit the image, a human being beating himself against the walls of the labyrinth of history. And, so that there is no misinterpretation, it is not that he is pummeling himself in order to look for the path which will lead him to the way out.

No, the rebel beats at the walls because he knows that the labyrinth is a trap, because he knows that there is no way out other than by breaking
down the walls.

If the rebel uses his head as a club, it is not because it is a hard head (which it is, have no doubt), but because breaking down the traps of
history, along with their myths, is a job that is done with the head, that is, it is an intellectual work.

And so, as a consequence, the rebel suffers from a headache that is so severe and continuous that it makes him forget about the most severe
migraine.

FOUR. Among the traps of history is the one which says “all previous times were better.”

When the right says that, it is confessing to its reactionary nature. When it is the parliamentary left which puts it forward, it is demonstrating
the capitulations of its present.

When it is the center which is speaking, then someone is delirious, because the center does not exist. When the institutional left looks at
itself in the mirror of Power and says: “I am a responsible and mature left,” it is in reality saying “I am a left which the right finds
agreeable.”

When the right looks at itself in the mirror of Power and says “what beautiful clothes I am wearing!”, it forgets that it is naked.

When the center looks for itself in the mirror of Power, it does not find anything.

FIVE. Neither the forms of struggle nor the times are for the exclusive use of one social sector. Neither autonomy nor resistance are forms of
organization and struggle which concern only the Indian peoples.

And let me tell you something here: It is said that the EZLN is an example of the construction of autonomy and resistance.

And yes. For example, every zapatista insurgent is a kind of autonomous municipality, or he does what he wants to do.

And what better resistance than the one which opposes carrying out orders. And all of that is a defect, but it is also a virtue.

There you have the enemy intercepting our communications and finding out that the command is calling for a meeting at the G-spot (note that my double entendres are now in the sublime).

The enemy does his work and sets up an ambush…but no one arrives.

What happened? Was it sexual incompetence? Did the zapatista counterintelligence services function perfectly?

No, if one thoroughly investigates, it would be found that Pánfilo did not arrive because he thought it would be better to meet on the other side. Clotilde thought yes, but another day. And Eufrosino did not think, because he was studying a sex education manual in order to see where the
G-spot was (by the way, your compañera is still waiting for you to find it).

Are these not magnificent examples of zapatista autonomy and resistance used as weapons against the enemy?

And, speaking of the G-spot, allow me another digression, since this letter will not be made public.

The new disc by Joaquin Sabina will have, in addition to the song that is not a song that the Sup wrote, another cut which is called 69 G-spot.

I am told that the record will sell like hotcakes (the 69 and the G-spot being the hot), and not because it’s a song by the Sup but, rather – between us here – in spite of that.

Now I’m remembering another myth, the one that says “Sabina and the Sup are in love,” when the one they both love is Panchito Varona.

But fine, what I want to tell you, about Sabina, is that the other day I was in a village, cutting a blue carnation for the princess, and a support
base compañera arrived in order to show me her son.

“He is called Sabino,” she told me.

I made a face like “Sabino?”, but I didn’t say anything.

The compañera understood my gesture and clarified: “Yes, Sabino, like the Sabina you’re making the songs for. But since this one is male, he came out Sabino and not Sabina.”

What?

About my making the songs for Sabina.

If they find out, they won’t give us even one percent of the royalties.

Where was I?

Ah yes! In myths, in politics and in culture, in the continuous headaches of the rebels in their zeal for breaking the traps of history.

SIX. The fundamental myth for why the Power is what it is, is in history.

Not in history as such, but in the one it invents for its convenience.

In that history, in the history of Power, the struggle of those of below, for example, is made up of nothing but defeats, betrayals and
capitulations.

You know very well that we are full of scars that do not close. Some of them, the minority, are those bestowed by heartlessness.

The majority are those of our history, that of below, and, in our case, that of the most below, the underground, the clandestine.

It is not that there have been no defeats and betrayals there, but not only those.

The river which carries it has more heroism and generosity than meanness and egoism.

And, speaking of history, I’m now remembering when I met you, 22 years ago, you and Lucha, in the house we called La Mina.

And it was La Mina not because it contained a treasure, but because it was dark and damp as a cave.

At that time Lucha was determined to make me eat, and you were determined to teach me so many things which, you said, would be useful someday.

I believe that I was not a good guest nor a good student, but I well remember the little figure of Che which you gave me on my birthday, and in
which you wrote, in your own hand, those words of Jose Martí that go, more or less: “The true man does not look at which side lives better, but on
which side duty lies.”

Duty, brother, that kind tyrant which governs us.

During our history, I have had the good fortune of knowing men and women for whom duty is their entire life and, in not a few cases, their entire
death.

And that leads me to reflection number…

SEVEN. Given the need to choose between anything at all and duty, the rebel always chooses duty. And so it goes.

I believe, big brother, that you should also regale them, those who are listening to you on the day of the magazine launch, with that very phrase, but made current. And I would say something like…

“Man, woman, homosexual, lesbian, child, youth, old one, that is, the true human being, does not look at which side lives better, but on which side duty lies.”

Those words sum up better than anything else what the rebel’s vocation is, and they surpass anything I could say to you or to anyone on the subject.

Good, then, brother, now I’ll say goodbye. All the compañeros and compañeras send you greetings. They hope, as do I, that you are well physically, because we already know that morally you are, as ever, strong and firm.

Vale. Salud and, if they press you, tell them that rebellion is just a headache which is not worth being cured of…ever.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico.

It is September of 2002 and the rain has not been able to hurt the skin of the sun.

PS: It can be expected that there will be one or another member of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation in the audience.

Give them our greetings.

We already know that they are working hard to give themselves a new face, a new profile.

And how good that the Frente’s profile will no longer be that of the pupils, but that it is given face and path by persons such as Don Manuel, tanned former railway worker; such as Mirios, of modest heroism; such as Colonel-Gisella, which is one and the other and not the same, but equal; such as the young students who were in the CGH; such as the ones from UAM;
such as the ones from Poli; such as the ones from UPN; such as the ones from ENAH; like the ones from other higher education centers; like those
from Veracruz who achieved the miracle that was Orizaba in last year’s march; like the ones from Oaxaca; like the ones from Tlaxcala; like the
ones from Nuevo León; like the ones from Morelos; like the ones from the state of Mexico; like the ones from Jalisco; like the ones from Querétaro;
like the ones from Michoacán; like the ones from Yucatan; like the ones from Quintana Roo; like the ones from Guanajuato; like the ones from
Zacatecas; like the ones from Durango; like the ones from Chihuahua; like the ones from Coahuila; like the ones from the two Baja Californias; like
the ones from Colima; like the ones from Sonora; like the ones from Sinaloa; like the ones from Tamaulipas; like the ones from Guerrero; like
the ones from San Luis Potosí, and like the ones from DF.

And, like all the base Frente members who, if we go by their numbers and their work, turn out to be a kind of octopus, and, in addition, all of
whom know nothing of surrender.

ANOTHER PS. And now I’m remembering another myth which says that “the EZLN doesn’t love the frentistas,” when it’s clear that it’s the frentistas we don’t love. No, that’s not true.

We do indeed love all of them, what happens is that they also, in their own way, are practicing autonomy and resistance…in front of us.

Because there are organized rebellions, as it is assumed should grow in the FZLN, and disorganized rebellions, like the ones we experience in the
EZLN, and so we go.

PS. The last one and we’re going. A favor: when you read something of mine during the presentation of the magazine, cough from time to time. That is in order to promote another myth, the one that says that I am very very
sick.

I hope they send me nuts.

PS. Yes indeed the last one. (note: this postscript heading voids the previous postscript heading).

It can now be seen that, for being in silence, we are talking quite a bit.

It is probably owing to the fact that we are zapatistas. Because in Mexico, “REBELDIA” is written with a “Z” for “nuez” and for “zapatista.”

Vale de nuez de la India.

The very very sick (Ha!) Sup dreaming that Shadow-Light will finally walk and that the horizon can already be seen.

by Blisset Mon Nov 25, 2002 00:32

Found it on the Observer website. It is being discussed like nobody's business in the mass media so I thought it would be of interest to people to read the whole thing. There is nothing whatsoever in my post that takes any kind of stance on it.

by x Sun Nov 24, 2002 23:29

Where did blisset try to justify the mass murder of 3,000+ people in the World Trade Centre and Bali?

by xino Sun Nov 24, 2002 22:30

King Mob you are truly a person of your times.
Peace = WAR
Truth = Lies
1984, you are 18 years of age.
congratulations. keep on watching your TV, eating your food additives and paying your taxes, but if you visit London you may avoid the underground, if you feel sick you may forego the usual anti-biotics, perhaps you should find yourself an anthrax vaccine, one of the weirdest things of the current global situation is seeing folk like you hasten their own ends by their stupidity.
if osama mad ira cad.
are you counting your days yet King Mob?
do you qualify for anthhrax vaccines?
or have you considered rabies?

by King Mob Sun Nov 24, 2002 21:54

Trying to justify the mass murder of over 3,000 people in the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and over 200 people in Bali. blisset I bet you wouldnt be so quick to justify wholesale murder if one of your relations or friends had been murdered in the Pentagon or Bali.

by ali la pointe - fun lovin anti imperialistas Sun Nov 24, 2002 17:57

down with fundamentalism; neo-loberal, thatcherite, monetarist, trotsky-sectish, christian, moslem, jewish, hindu, buddhist, hippy