Freedom

I am at last free of the Dungeon Computer, which is unable to access Blogger. I am no longer dependent on the infrequent periods when our other computer is not in use. I now have a laptop.

Springtime in Islamberg

Radical Muslim paramilitary compound flourishes in upper New York state

Situated within a dense forest at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains on the outskirts of Hancock, New York, Islamberg is not an ideal place for a summer vacation unless, of course, you are an exponent of the Jihad or a fan of Osama bin Laden.

The 70 acre complex is surrounded with "No trespassing" signs; the rocky terrain is infested with rattlesnakes; and the woods are home to black bears, coyotes, wolves, and a few bobcats.

The entrance to the community is at the bottom of a very steep hill that is difficult to navigate even on a bright sunny day in May. The road, dubbed Muslim Lane, is unpaved and marred by deep crevices that have been created by torrential downpours. On a wintry day, few, save those with all terrain vehicles, could venture forth from the remote encampment.

A sentry post has been established at the base of the hill.

The sentry, at the time of this visit, is an African American dressed in Islamic garb - - a skull cap, a prayer shawl, and a loose fitting shalwat kameez. He instructs us to turn around and leave. "Our community is not open to visitors," he says.

Behind the sentry and across a small stream stand dozens of inhabitants of the compound - - the men wearing skull caps and loose fitting tunics, the women in full burqa. They appear ready to deal with any unauthorized intruders.

The hillside is blighted by rusty trailers that appear to be without power or running water and a number of outhouses. The scent of raw sewage is in the air.

The place is even off limits to the local undertaker who says that he has delivered bodies to the complex but has never been granted entrance. "They come and take the bodies from my hearse. They won't allow me to get past the sentry post. They say that they want to prepare the bodies for burial. But I never get the bodies back. I don't know what's going on there but I don't think it's legal."

On the other side of the hill where few dare to go is a tiny village replete with a make-shift learning center (dubbed the "International Quranic Open University"); a trailer converted into a Laundromat; a small, green community center; a small and rather squalid grocery store; a newly constructed majid; over forty clapboard homes; and scores of additional trailers.

It is home to hundreds - - all in Islamic attire, and all African-Americans. Most drive late model SUVs with license plates from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The locals say that some work as tollbooth operators for the New York State Thruway, while others are employed at a credit card processing center that maintains confidential financial records.

While buzzing with activity during the week, the place becomes a virtual hive on weekends. The guest includes arrivals from the inner cities of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and, occasionally, white-robed dignitaries in Ray-Bans from the Middle East.

Venturing into the complex last summer, Douglas Hagmann, an intrepid investigator and director of the Northeast Intelligence Service, came upon a military training area at the eastern perimeter of the property. The area was equipped with ropes hanging from tall trees, wooden fences for scaling, a make-shift obstacle course, and a firing range. Hagmann said that the range appeared to have been in regular use.

Islamberg is not as benign as a Buddhist monastery or a Carmelite convent. Nearly every weekend, neighbors hear sounds of gunfire. Some, including a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, have heard the bang of small explosives. None of the neighbors wished to be identified for fear of "retaliation." "We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by," one resident said. "They own the mountain and they know it and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy a property near that?"

[More]

Comment:

Islamberg is part of a larger organization, legally classified as a "charity," that operates compounds around the country. Over the last few decades, they have been linked to a number of terrorist attacks, especially attacks against Hindu ("idolatrous") temples, as well as other illegal activities. Their founder is suspected of having links to al-Qaeda, and was arrested in Pakistan for abducting Daniel Perle. A member of this organization was arrested for taking part in the first attack on the World Trade Center. These guys are not exactly humanitarians.

This may just be me being paranoid, but doesn't this seem like just a wee bit of a threat to our national security? We attacked Iraq because someone with the same ideology as Osama bin Laden received medical care there. Isn't the presence of actual terrorist training camps linked to actual terrorist attacks against actual American citizens in the actual United States at least as good a reason?

Al-Qaeda's Afghan head 'named'

Al Jazeera has obtained a videotape showing Mustafa Abu al-Yazid presenting himself as the leader of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. In the tape, sections of which were aired on Thursday, al-Yazid said that al-Qaeda fighters would soon carry out attacks, and that al-Qaeda's Arab fighters were working "side by side" with its non-Arabs fighters.

He said: "The number of fighters is increasing. The support they receive from Muslims in Afghanistan is almost total." Abu al-Yazid said that al-Qaeda fighters trained during winter to carry out massive attacks in the current season. [More]


Comment:

Interesting. As I had previously understood it, the al-Qaeda group operating in Afghanistan and the main al-Qaeda "High Command" were one and the same. Either I was gravely mistaken, which in this case seems unlikely, or al-Qaeda has reorganized itself to make the High Command a little more global in nature, while emphasizing the local nature of "al-Qaeda in Afghanistan."

It's also interesting, though hardly surprising, that the Apostates in al-Qaeda and the Taliban lie so freely. The Qur'án says, "a painful doom is theirs, because they lie,"¹ yet they have no problem whatsoever claiming near universal support when things like this happen:

...suspected Taliban insurgents clashed with villagers in western Afghanistan, leaving three militants killed and one villager wounded, an official said Sunday. The clash occurred after militants attacked a group of Afghan and Indian engineers surveying a dam in Bala Buluk area of Farah province on Saturday, said Anwar Khan, a spokesman for the province's police chief. Some 150 villagers came out to help the engineers and exchanged fire for some 20 minutes with militants, he said. Three militants were killed and one villager was wounded in the clash, Khan said.²

God alone know how they justify their actions, and I sincerely doubt he accepts their excuses.

UPDATE: It seems that I was, in fact, "gravely mistaken." According to Afghanistanica, that al-Iraqi fellow who briefly popped up in the news not to long ago was the former head of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. I'm not sure why it took them so long to find a replacement. You can read the rest of Afghanistanica's analysis here.


¹ 2:10, Pickthal translation. Incidentally, the Apostates would do well to heed the next two verses as well, which state, " And when it is said unto them: Make not mischief in the earth, they say: We are peacemakers only./ Are not they indeed the mischief-makers? But they perceive not."

² From an article by FOX News.

Via Al Jazeera.

Mullah Dadullah's replacement named

Shahabuddin Atal, the Afghan Taliban's spokesman, has confirmed that the group has appointed Dadullah Mansour, brother of Mullah Dadullah, who was killed on Sunday, as the new field commander. Atal told Ahmad Zaidan, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, that the Taliban's spring attacks would not be affected by Dadullah's death.

He said that operations were continuing as planned, led by Mansour. Mansour was freed in March as part of a prisoner swap for the release of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, an Italian journalist kidnapped while working in Afghanistsan. [More]


Comment:

I wonder what the political repercussions of this will be. The Afghan government took a lot of heat for giving in to the Taliban's demands; now one of the people they released has become commander in chief.

Al-Qaeda group 'threatens France'

An Al-Qaeda front group in Europe has apparently threatened to launch bloody attacks in France in response to the election of "crusader and Zionist" Nicolas Sarkozy as president. A statement posted on the internet on Tuesday purporting to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed the group would soon carry out attacks in Paris.

"As you have chosen the crusader and Zionist Sarkozy as a leader ... we in the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades warn you that the coming days will see a bloody jihadist campaign ... in the heart of Sarkozy's capital," the group's "Europe division" said in a statement addressed to the French people. [More]


Comment:

This represents quite a conundrum for the non-O'Rielly Right. On the one hand, these people belong to al-Qaeda. On the other hand, they want to attack France. What to do, what to do?

Nato attacked after border meeting

A Nato soldier has been killed and four wounded in an attack by "unknown assailants" in Pakistan after meeting counterparts in the country to discuss calming tensions between Afghan and Pakistani forces, a Nato statement has said. The meeting was held on Monday after border clashes on Sunday between Afghan and Pakistan killed at least 12 people.

"One Isaf service member was killed and four Isaf service members wounded when they were ambushed by unknown assailants near Teri Mangel, Pakistan, after leaving a border meeting," the statement said on Monday, referring to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). [More]


Comment:

This is mostly just an update of the previous post, though I'm not sure whether it clears things up or just makes them even more confused.

It's interesting that the Afghan emissary's account of the incident differs, significantly, from the official accounts of the two parties involved. Barring unforeseen events (which are almost certain to occur), it appears to me that the nascent Afghan government may be attempting to foment ill will between Pakistan and America. While this would be a good thing (a milestone of development, sort of like when your teenager crashes your car for the first time), it would be preferable if it were to assert its growing sense of independence in a way that did not involve alleging that one nuclear power had committed an act of war against another.

Pakistan-Afghan fighting 'ends'

Afghan and Pakistani officials say their army forces have stopped fighting a day after border clashes broke out, with at least 12 reported dead. A Pakistani military spokesman and the Afghan interior ministry disputed claims made on Monday by Afghan officials that battles continued for a second day in Afghanistan's southeastern Paktia province.

"There was no clash today. The things are very much under control. There is no cause of concern," Major General Waheed Arshad, a Pakistani army spokesman, said. Sunday's fighting was the worst outbreak of violence between the neighbouring countries in years.

"Eight policemen and four civilians have been killed since yesterday," Sami-Ul Haq Badar, an Afghan army general, said on Monday.

US deaths

Despite the end to the army battles, reports have emerged that two US soldiers were killed on Monday in Pakistan's northwest Kurram region. US and Pakistani army soldiers had met to discuss moves to bring a lasting end to the clashes between the armies of Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to an Afghan government spokesman. "At the meeting, a Pakistani officer rose up and fired at US soldiers, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers and wounding of two others," Zahir Azimi, an Afghan defence ministry spokesman, told Reuters. He said US soldiers had returned fire, killing several Pakistani troops. Major General Waheed Arshad of the Pakistan army said it was unclear what had happened in the incident. "We don't know who fired. We have ordered an inquiry. We have cordoned off the area," he said.

Border posts

According to Afghan officials, Sunday's fighting erupted between after Pakistani forces took some areas in a border region in Paktia. Pakistan said paramilitary forces retaliated after Afghan troops started "unprovoked firing" on border posts in the Kurram tribal region in northwest Pakistan. Afghanistan said thousands of civilians joined government forces in fighting Pakistani troops after two Afghan children were killed.

Tense relationship

Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated badly in recent months. Afghanistan says Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents operating from the Pakistani side of the disputed border. Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban before the September 11 attacks in the US, says the root of the Taliban problem is in Afghanistan. Pakistan is building a fence along parts of the border, disputed since Pakistan's creation in 1947, in an attempt to stop infiltration by Taliban fighters. Afghanistan opposes fencing a border it has never recognised.


Comment:

This is bad. Let's hope that this incident spurs both sides to improve relations and ensure this does not happen again.

Via Al Jazeera.