This board has been a little to quiet for while.

Is it time that Bush and Blair who is a close friend and confidant of Bush were tried for War Crimes?

Do you think the use by the American Administrations of renditions are War Crimes and committed with full knowledge of American and British leaders ie. Blair and Bush and they are ultimately responsible?

Also in the aftermath of the illegal invasion of Iraq are should their action seen to be as the provocation for the rising toll of British, American and Iraqi deaths.

As a result of the military intervention in Iraq do you think you are safer in Britain to-day?

Do you think one should expect government leaders and ministers who have been responsible for massive foreseeable casualties should visit the hospitals to meet the casualties they have produced directly or indirectly by their actions?

BBC NEWS Thursday, 19 October 2006, 07:46 GMT 08:46 UK



Bush accepts Iraq-Vietnam echoes

President Bush insisted US forces would not cut and run
President George W Bush has accepted that the surge in violence in Iraq may be equivalent to America's traumatic experience in the Vietnam War.
Mr Bush told ABC News that it could be right to compare Iraq's situation to the 1968 Tet offensive, widely seen as a key turning point in the conflict.

But he denied that the rising number of Iraqi and US military deaths meant the Iraq campaign was failing.

October is on course to be one of the bloodiest months for US forces in Iraq.

So far about 70 troops have died, and with an average of three Americans dying every day this is one of the highest casualty rates sustained by the US military since January 2005.

OH my GOD.
He's seen the light. LOL
Time for an exit stratergy....
We ain't leaving till the jobs done....
Well the countries screwed, We did'nt find any WMD's and AL-Q In IRAQ is welcome to it....we've got the oil.......so I guess thats job done..
Next Stop KOREA. eeeerm no, he's barking and He's got NUKES.
Then I guess IRAN......Oh , He's barking as well and he'll probably have nukes by the time we invade.
I guess it'll have to be Latin America... Now where exactly did that CHAVZ fellow come from?

Alan , point taken.
However . Like it or not we are an occupying army.
This is the stuff that fuels the fires and gets suicide bombers motivated.
Whatever happens now will be too little, too late. the damage has been done.
Can you honestly say you feel safer since the war in iraq?

No, but neither would I say I felt more at risk.............
Islamic terrorism was happening on a growing scale before Iraq, and would have continued anyway. The terror in Iraq would have happened whatever caused the demise of Saddam, be it his arrest or his death, which had to happen one day. the invasion has not caused this, it has merely brought it forward by a few years. The only difference has been to reduce the number of years Iraqis were living under the threat of state sponsored violence.
Alan

Yep and the facts speak for themselves, nearly all the baddies are in Iraq/Afgan.

Vaccum drawing all the poison islamics terrorists to a head!

Posting by one of our guys on the ground......

Bad News & Good News
Sorry its been so long since Ive written but things here have been a bit crazy. I was listening to CNN a few nights ago about how President Bush has made such a mess of Iraq and how the poor Islamic people are suffering tenfold since the start of the war. I can tell you that it is all a big huge pile of BS. True, there has been an escalation of sectarian violence in country but, its because of the sacks of *&^% that are trying to gain control of the region. And as far as the religion based actions of the people here, lets take a first hand look at that shall we?

For the most part, your average Iraqi that is of the Islamic faith is just trying to do things like the rest of us. Raise their children, provide for their families (several generations under one roof), and get to Heaven by doing what is commanded to them by the Quran. Things like doing good deeds such as helping the poor, respecting elders, live peacefully and do what will honor Allah.

Then you have the problem children that, for the most part, arent even local to Iraq. They follow the instructions of some cult leader as law because of a major detail that terrorist cells take advantage of; illiteracy. This is what their true Islam is all about, beating women on a whim or bestiality is considered normal because women are only vessels for having children. Ive seen the IR footage on the last one and seen it in person on the first one. If these leaders are so righteous, why dont they strap on a bomb or pick up an AK-47 and come out to attack armed soldiers? Because one, well monkey-stomp them into the ground and two, they are cowards!

I am currently in Iraq for the second time and I have to tell you that the barbaric acts of the slime here is unbelievable! We are currently in the "Holy Month of Ramadan" and you would never know it. They don't follow their own beliefs as written in their Quran. We were in a village not far from our base (somewhere in Iraq) and one of the elders told us that there was a family that had been visited by "Evil People". This is what the locals call insurgents and rightly so. It turned out that they had executed the entire family because the father had not joined them in the Jihad. The father, mother and four children were executed as an example. The children ranged in ages from 4 to 10. This is the norm around here.

Now for the good news, the four year-old daughter survived a gunshot wound to the head. She has been brought to our medical facility where she is a participant in an all volunteer program by the soldiers here. The program is affectionately referred to by the nurses as "Daddy time or Mommy time". Soldiers, whether they have children or not, spend countless hours playing, talking to, or just holding children that have been injured or have lost families to insurgents. I am not sure who it helps out more, us or the kids. The outlook for the little girl that survived is very good. The local tribal leader was outraged when he was informed by us that this happened in his land and has vowed to do something about it. Let me put it to you this way, tribal justice is far swifter and fitting than the courts here. As of this time, the village has come under the protection of "friendlies" that can be trusted. Believe it or not, there are good people here. The problem is that they won't get ratings on the news so you never hear about it.

If you have any doubts to whether President Bush made the right decision, relax! Take it from one soldier who has to put his life and the lives of his soldiers on the line everyday here, he made the right choice! I am the last person that wants to be away from his family or have his soldiers or me hurt or killed in this place and we still believe in what we do. If securing a fruit market in the middle of Nowhere, Iraq will insure freedom for the people here, I will gladly do so.
posted by coconut commando at 5:07 PM

coconut commando
LOL
GO Team AMERICA.
FU@K YEH!!!!
:-)

Keeping little creeps like you safe teeniedick, bring back hanging for traitors like you I say!

Muslims make up 2% of Britains population, but are responsible for 25% of the anti-gay hate crimes.

Sorry Barwoni,have I touched a nerve.

1. Unlike yourself I am a citizen of this country , born and bred.
2. not a muslim,Christian,jew,Buddisht or born again god botherer.
3. Since when was disagreeing with a political viewpoint an act of treason?
4. what the hell has the war in Iraq got to do with Homophobia?
Unless of course you are referring to the Christian RIGHT'S (and Bush's) stance that all gays are an affront to GOD. Gotta love those double standards.

Love and peace to all colours,sexes,race,religion and gender persuasion.
:-)

only 2% and they are targeted in the press and tv daily! How can such a minority have an effect

'We burnt their homes and killed all the men, women and children'
By Martin Fletcher

For three years, this Arab shepherd says, he was forced to raze the villages of black Africans in Darfur






::nobreak::OUTSIDE the back window Bakerloo Line trains rattle past. Downstairs someone makes tea. But in the upstairs living room of a nondescript house off Lambeth Road in South London a slight, softly spoken young man tells a story of atrocities in a far-off land that is anything but mundane.

Dily, a Sudanese Arab, recounts how for three years he and his fellow Janjawid charged the farming villages of Darfur on their camels and horses, raking the huts with gunfire and shouting: Kill the slaves. Kill the slaves.

He reckons he attacked about 30 villages in all, and cannot count the people he shot. The villages were invariably destroyed, he says. The homes were burnt to the ground and the men, women and children killed sometimes with the help of government airstrikes. If there were survivors they would be left there . . . They couldnt get help. Sometimes they made it to camps but mostly they died of thirst or starvation.

Dily is a rarity in that wretched conflict. Filled with disgust, he finally escaped the Janjawids clutches and last month, with the help of people smugglers, reached Britain, where he is now seeking political asylum. He expresses remorse. He is willing to talk, and the story he tells flatly contradicts the Sudanese Governments claims that it has no control over the Janjawid the predominantly Arab devils on horseback who have driven two million of Darfurs black Africans into camps and killed at least 200,000.

He says the Government deceived innocent Arab shepherds like himself into joining the Janjawid, saying they had to defend their communities against attack by Darfurs black African rebel groups. He says they were trained and armed by Sudanese soldiers, ordered by the Government to attack Darfurs villages and given military support when necessary. The Janjawid was formed for ethnic cleansing, he insists. Why (else) would you attack villages, kill people, displace them and kill them in their thousands?

Dily is not his real name, and he would be photographed only with a scarf around his face and a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. His wife and young child remain in Sudan and he fears for their safety if he is identified.

Nor can Dilys story be independently verified, but he specifies names, places and events, speaks with the accent and idiom of the area he says he comes from, and has persuaded Darfuris living in Britain that he is genuine.

Hes for real, said Ishag Mekki, the deputy chairman of the Darfur Union, which represents Darfuris in Britain. James Smith, the chief executive of the Aegis Trust, a pressure group which campaigns against genocide, concurs: Weve checked his credibility as much as we can and were convinced he is who he says he is.

Dily, who is in his early twenties, rarely smiled and fidgeted nervously with his hands as he spoke through an interpreter. He said he was tending his familys camel herd in northern Darfur when rebel groups began attacking government targets in 2003: severe droughts had set black African farmers against nomadic Arabs and the rebels accused the Government of siding with the Arabs.

Dily said he was pressed to join the Janjawid by tribal elders, who were under pressure from government officials. We were told we were Arab nomads and we had to protect our lands and our cattle, he said.

Dily and about 20 other youths from his area rode off on their camels to a training camp near the town of Kebkabiya where they joined hundreds of other Janjawid recruits. He says uniformed Sudanese soldiers spent about 20 days teaching them how to use guns a Kalashnikov in his case and attack villages.

Those with camels were separated from those with horses. They were organised into battalions of more than 500 men each. They were paid two million Sudanese pounds roughly 500 for the use of their camels and promised a monthly salary of 500,000 Sudanese pounds.

Then they were unleashed. Apart from occasional visits home, Dily and his battalion led by a former bandit spent the next three years on the move, destroying one village after another. The Government said attack all villages. The local commanders decided which, he said.

The battalion would send scouts to check whether there were armed fighters in the targeted village. If there were no fighters we just attacked straight away. If there were we had to be more cautious. Sometimes they used satellite telephones to request airstrikes by the Sudanese military helicopters before attacking. We would see smoke and fire and then we would go in.

The attacks usually started early and lasted most of the day. The commanders said the villages had to be destroyed, and they did not spare women or children. Mostly they said Kill the blacks. Kill the blacks, Dily said. The majority of (the victims) were civilians, most of them women.

Dily said he never raped a woman but other Janjawid did. They took girls and women away, just out of sight, and started to rape them. Sometimes you heard gunshots if they refused. They took away the cattle. Some were drunk.

Dily said he felt no elation during or after the attacks. He and his colleagues did not even know what they were fighting for, but faced execution if they disobeyed orders. I hated the war and I hated the killings and decided to leave and to leave Sudan altogether, he said.

One night he slipped away from the camp, risking death and knowing that he might never see his wife and child again. He hid in the mountains for three days, then made his way to the town of Kutum. A fellow Arab drove him to Mellit, and from there he was smuggled by car to the Libyan border for 500,000 Sudanese pounds. He was determined to reach Britain because, he was told, its different from other European countries. They look after refugees.

He borrowed money from friends of his father in Tripolis Sudanese community and paid $1,200 (640) to reach Italy on a small boat packed with 25 other illegal immigrants. He paid another $200 to reach Paris by train and $300 to be smuggled into Britain in a lorry carrying boxes of bottled water.

He arrived somewhere he thinks Oxford on September 20. He was arrested and sent to Croydon to apply for asylum. He is now living in a hostel, haunted by memories of burning villages. Anybody who participates in war has to feel sorry for what happened, he says.

The Aegis Trust plans to present Dilys testimony to the International Criminal Court as evidence of genocide by Sudans leaders, who are still refusing to let United Nations troops into Darfur. Everything this man says confirms that the Government of Sudan, contrary to its protestations, has been organising and supporting the Janjawids ethnic-cleansing operations from the beginning, said Dr Smith, of the Trust.

Told of Dilys testimony on a BBC Newsnight programme, Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary who has just returned from a visit to Sudan, said: Its clearly very serious evidence and I would urge that that information is passed to the International Criminal Court investigators

ssanebs - 19 Oct 2006 13:02 - 1168 of 1169
only 2% and they are targeted in the press and tv daily! How can such a minority have an effect


Would say the majority have had enough, and the message is you and your ilk came to the west for a better life and you are welcome to that if you fit in, please come up to our level not drag us down to yours............

barwoni - 19 Oct 2006 13:27 - 1170 of 1170
please come up to our level not drag us down to yours............

Pot,kettle,black
springs to mind.

You have a nice day.
;-)

Looks like those of pakistani/bangla origins are going to come in for a lot more scrutiny, quite rightly!

Thursday October 19, 02:20 PM

Britain has become the prime target for al Qaeda, according to counter-terrorism specialists. Experts are reported to believe that the July 7 London bombings were just the beginning of a concerted series of attacks. The Guardian says that intelligence chiefs believe al Qaeda has regrouped and grown more organised, despite a four-year campaign in Pakistan to track down its leaders.

"They viewed 7/7 as just the beginning," one unnamed senior source was quoted as telling the newspaper, referring

Advertisement
to the suicide bombings in which 52 people were murdered in London.

"Al Qaeda sees the UK as a massive opportunity to cause loss of life and embarrassment to the authorities."

It is felt that Britain's traditional links with Pakistan make it a particularly easy target, with thousands of people travelling between the two countries each year.

Officials also told the newspaper that groups in Britain were developing new structures, with a leader, a quartermaster in charge of acquiring weapons and those conducting training and recruiting volunteers.

Britain's intelligence services and the police say they have successfully foiled a number of alleged plots since July 7.

But sources told the paper there were always other willing recruits to replace those arrested.

"It's like the old game of Space Invaders," a senior counter-terrorism source said. "When you clear one screen of potential attackers, another simply appears to take its place."

BNPawoni ...the voice of reason.
:-)

Bush insists US forces will not cut and run and makes comparisons to Vietnam. Jeez.

The hand of Kissinger still looms large. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Interesting and considered views from penalists and audience in the lastest Question Time.

BBC Question Time

I used to be very good at Space Invaders Barwoni, the way to stop more screens appearing is to stop playing the game and focus on something else....

"Al Qaeda sees the UK as a massive opportunity to cause loss of life and embarrassment to the authorities." Now you could very easily change UK for USA of any other country, spin doctor media designed for one purpose, to try and keep support so the government can continue to fight a war which will never be won.

How much has been spent in the past 5 years. I think that total would have been better spent on education and the NHS. The government are losing the war in Iraq and Afganistan, not buy deaths either but because its turned it back on the people that put the government in power. Really whos wants a free Iraq at the cost of our own citizens not receiving the treatment which they have paid into??

Tweenie you say BNPawoni... the voice of reason!! Funny thing is that for every day we have been at war support for the BNP has grown! Is that a racist country or desperation for change?

kissinger should be put up against a wall and shot imho...the man is pure evil

Is 'Al Qaeda' the Modern
Incarnation of 'Emmanuel Goldstein'?

Is "Al Qaeda" the modern incarnation of "Emmanuel Goldstein", the arch-villain manufactured by the state to rule the population with fear? Is it really far-fetched?
If one can accept a real terrorist organization willing to kill people for their political aims, is a fake terror organization willing to kill people for their political aims any less possible?

You have heard before that "Al-Qaeda" roughly translates into "the base," but were you aware that "Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is arabic colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet"? Would hardened terrorists hell bent on the destruction of the west name their organization after a euphemism for taking a shit? [Prison Planet]

Once you accept that there can be one group of people willing to commit acts of terror you must accept that there can be a second group equally willing to commit acts of terror to blame on the first group.


"...we know they're out there looking for ways to develop deadlier weapons to use against us, that they'd like to get their hands on a nuclear weapon if they could, or anthrax, or some kind of deadly biological agent."
WMV video download (423kB)



Stop and think for a minute. Do the acts of terror accomplish anything for the group that is blamed for the terror? Does terror achieve their ends or obtain the results they want? Or isn't it obvious that the acts of terror are actually achieving the objectives of those who claim to be the victims of the terror, to gain them sympathy and political alliances?


History is full of rulers who used fake terror on their own populations to create consent for their policies. The US is known to have actually planned fake terror to create support for an invasion of Cuba. And, it is now well established that FDR not only allowed the attack on Pearl Harbor to happen, but goaded the Japanese into it to get a reluctant US into WWII.

Then there is the infamous "Lavon Affair" in which Israelis bombed British and American targets and left evidence to frame Arabs. According to ex-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky, Israel suckered the US into attacking Libya with fake radio messages.

The US told other nations as early as March 2001 of a plan to invade Afghanistan in October 2001. Isn't it interesting that the "terrorists" struck on 9-11, perfectly in time to create the public anger Bush needed to carry out the already-planned already-announced war?




"We need a common enemy to unite us" - Condoleezza Rice, March 2000




"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." [Herman Goering]

Who is running Al Qaeda? Who benefits from their activities? Bush got his oil war, and Sharon got a green light to kill Palestinians and steal their land.

Who really benefits? That's who is running Al Qaeda.


"...there are intelligence agencies in the U.S., which require billions of dollars worth of funds from the Congress and the government every year. This [funding issue] was not a big problem till the existence of the former Soviet Union but after that the budget of these agencies has been in danger. They needed an enemy. So, they first started propaganda against Usama and Taleban and then this incident [9/11] happened." [Osama bin Laden 09/28/01]





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See also:

Captured al-Qa'eda man was FBI spy
Disinformation: CIA Posing as Al-Qaeda?
The Phony (Mossad) Al Qaeda Cell in Palestine
Al Qaeda's Weapons of Mass Hysteria

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Me in the new Islamic State!
Nothing changed in my life as a Baghdadi since my city was announced a part of the Islamic State of al-Qaeda.

Of course I did not expect an improvement in electricity, security or other services but I was at least expecting a change in life style under the leadership of the new caliph Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Abu who??).
I didn't see the women being forced to wear the chador nor did I see men switching to wear the official outfit of terror (the short dishdasha and the bushy dirty beard)!
And I did not see Mutawwa-like men carrying heavy sticks to beat people who break the laws of Sharia like we see in Saudi Arabia.
There's no ban on TV, sculptures, arts or wearing jeans!

I can notice even an increased presence of the government's security forces and I wonder how they could stay in Baghdad despite the declaration of the Islamic state!
Not only that, we did not see the policemen and soldiers executed in public as traitors and they were not even dismissed from service. On the contrary, their chief in the interior ministry is talking about reforms in the structure and force of the ministry and said he dismissed over 3,000 employees who were found not professional enough or not loyal enough to the county.

And the parliament still meets to agree or disagree and the PM still gives his statement through national TV and asks Bush whether he would be allowed to remain in office for another two months and Bush reassures him that he's an elected leader and will remain in office as long as the Iraqi people approve of his performance.

The Islamic State did not abolish the controversial federalism law that was instated after long debates and arguments, in fact it seems like it endorsed the law by announcing its own autonomous region in provinces that are supposed to be sympathetic r loyal to al-Qaeda despite the "lies" in the polls that say only 2% of Iraqis approve of al-Qaeda.
Offices and institutions did not change their regulations or functions and school curriculums are still the same and children go to schools by the millions against the will of the terrorists and n contrary to the press that claim no one can live here or practice any activity outside walls of their homes.

Yes of course living here is so tough beyond the imagination of many of outside spectators but this did not deter civil servants or students in their bulk from going on with their lives.

So what has changed then since the declaration?
Really, what was the cost or the effect on the ground other than the ink they used to print their announcement or the pennies they paid al-Jazeera to spread the news?!

To me it looks like the position of al-Qaeda has gotten so bad after the heavy blows it received at the hands of our liberators in the MNF and our brave brothers in our army and the patriots who rejected al-Qaeda and its agenda.

I think this was what forced those losers to make this meaningless announcement of a fake state. It reflects the undeniable desperation and the abandoning of their original ambitions, from a victory that drives away the Americans and the Iraqis who believed in the change to a pathetic maneuver such as this one.

But we are still here, at least the majority of us are,
Our liberators and allies are still here,
The voters are still here and the elected are still here.

The al-Qaeda is left with nothing but to fantasize about creating a caliph state as long as they still have a foothold in the country and hope that some locals would change their mind and side with them.

Ok fine, let them make their announcement but the indisputable fact remains that their state does not anywhere except for in their own sick minds.

Only two incidents can be counted among the amplifications of this move, the first was their failed assault against the offices of the local government in Mosul which left dozens of the assailants dead or arrested and the second was the attack in Salah Addin province that resulted in nothing but calls from the locals for further support from the government to assist them in abolishing the terror groups and in more reconciliation meetings between tribal leaders to forge unity against the takfiris.

There's no going back thirty years to the days of Saddam an there's no going back a thousand yeas to the days of the Caliphs.
It's over

We have accepted the rough road and the outcome will not be in the benefit of the criminals. The war is tough, painful and hard but I have no doubt of the outcome that will mean the end for the supporters of tyranny and extremism.

Surrendering is much closer to them than it is to us and history will remember with pride those who sacrificed for the freedom of Iraq
Maybe I will not live long to see that day but my children will certainly see it.

Sorry whiners, losers and pessimists. I only know to accept a challenge when I face one and I recognize only victory as an end.

aroline Wyatt
BBC News, Paris



The French government is worried that Muslim prayer leaders, or imams, are preaching radical Islam in the poorer suburbs of the big cities, and that increasing numbers of young immigrants are responding to the message. But there are some who have tried it and decided it is not for them.


I sat in a cafe opposite the Gare du Nord station, feeling slightly apprehensive as I waited for Abdel Malik to arrive.


Many people struggle to reconcile their Muslim and French identities
Since 11 September, like many others, I've often wondered what drives some young Muslims in the West to become radicalised, sometimes to the point of violently rejecting the countries they've made their home.

All I knew about Abdel Malik was that he'd been an Islamist, written about in the French press a few years ago under the unlikely headline "Rapping for Allah". The 29-year-old singer came from the deprived banlieux or suburbs of northern Paris and, as a teenager, had followed and preached a radical form of Islam.

The only photo I'd seen of him showed a stern, shaven-headed youth staring out intensely at the world with a challenging, almost hostile gaze.

So when a tall, strikingly handsome man walked in with a broad smile, apologising profusely for being late, I felt a rush of relief. He wasn't at all what I'd expected.

He was still shaven-headed, and wearing the baggy trousers and hooded parka top that are de rigueur for any self-respecting rapper, French or otherwise. But he turned out to be funny, gentle and thoughtful.

I had a spiritual need. And Christianity wasn't answering my questions. Islam fulfilled that need and it gave me the answers

Abdel Malik, rapper
His parents were Congolese, he told me, in softly French-accented English, and he was born Catholic, brought up in a Paris suburb plagued by drugs and gun-crime.

By the time he was 13, several of his friends were dead - killed in gang warfare. Abdel was searching for answers, trying to make sense of it all, and his older brother provided them by giving him a book on Islam.

"I had a spiritual need," he tells me, without embarrassment. "And Christianity wasn't answering my questions. Islam fulfilled that need and it gave me the answers."

It also gave him an identity, made him someone that other, younger boys looked up to. Abdel smiles as he remembers growing a beard, walking the streets of the suburbs preaching, and the way that people would look at him - either with respect or for some, respect tinged with fear.

Choice

But at the same time, he was also discovering music, writing rap songs with a band he and his friends had formed. The songs he wrote were another way of trying to make sense of the world he was growing up in.

It was as if they had asked me to give up my family, to cut all my ties to something I loved, and I couldn't

Abdel Malik, rapper
Why were so many people he knew poor, angry, and in a dead-end life of violence and crime, while just a few miles away, others lived comfortable, complacent lives, simply crossing the road if they saw the boys from the banlieu coming their way?

"I wasn't violent, but my way of thinking was violent," he admits now. "I saw the world in black and white. If you weren't with us - the good people - you must be evil."

A few years later, though, his more hardline Islamist friends told him he had to make a choice. To be a proper Muslim, they said, Abdel must give up music. For him, it was an epiphany. "It was as if they had asked me to give up my family, to cut all my ties to something I loved, and I couldn't."

Instead, he cut his ties with radical Islam and continued to write music, at the same time reading more about his religion till he discovered Sufi-ism - a more mystic form of Islam that, he said, nonetheless made him feel whole.

'We're all human'

Now he looks back and wonders why he spent so long consumed with hatred, dividing up the world into good and evil.

"It sounds naive," he says, "but now I know that if you want to be a real Muslim - or a Jew or a Christian - you have to love people, not hate them. I came from the bottom of the bottom - I'm black, I'm poor, I grew up in a difficult neighbourhood - but then I realised it was up to me what I did about that, and I didn't want to be a victim.

"In the end whatever your religion, we're all human, we all share the same human heart."


The French Muslim community is often accused of self-isolation
I asked him about one of the songs on his last album - a song about his country. Abdel nods, and explains. He'd been travelling in Morocco, he says, and looked at the poverty around him. And for the first time, he felt a surge of gratitude to France. All around him were children too poor to go to school, already working by the time they were 13.

And he realised that whatever the problems of the place he'd grown up in, it had still offered him one crucial chance - the chance of an education. "You might take that for granted," he tells me, "but I suddenly realised that others couldn't." And so Abdel Malik wrote what sounds like a love song to his country, a song called May Allah bless France.

Today, he's found his own language - music - to express himself, and Abdel's message to his young compatriots in the suburbs is a rather different one to the vision he preached in his angry teenage years. Abdel Malik wants them to stop seeing themselves as victims, and instead as people who can achieve whatever they want.

The choice, he says, is up to them. But France must also play its part - ordinary French people must open their minds, especially when they look in the suburbs. Not every Muslim they meet, he says, is a potential terrorist.

THE BOMB FACTORY YOU WON'T HAVE HEARD ABOUT FROM THE TABLOIDS. (Unless you live in Lancs)

BNP election candidate arrested in biggest explosives haul ever
Submitted by catch on Wed, 11/10/2006 - 16:45. UK
Two men were arrested in Lancashire last week in the biggest explosives haul ever found at a house in the UK.
Robert Cottage (49), of Talbot Street, Colne, and David Bolus Jackson (62), of Trent Road, Nelson, appeared at a Pennine magistrate's court charged under the Explosive Substances Act 1883. Mrs Christiana Buchanan, acting for the prosecution in court, suggested that the pair had "some kind of masterplan".

Chemicals, a rocket launcher, BNP literature and a nuclear biological suit were found in a search of Jackson's house. It is not yet clear what the intended target of the explosives might have been, and police were keen to make it clear that anti-terrorist powers had not been used in the case.

Cottage, a sub-contracted driver for Lancashire County Council, was a BNP candidate in the May elections in the Vivary Bridge ward of Colne. Jackson is employed as a dentist. Both men were remanded in custody to appear at Burnley Crown Court on October 23rd.

Local press have reported Cottage as an "ex-BNP" member, however, libcom.org spoke to Paul Marsh from the anarchist and anti-fascist group Class War, who stated:

"BNP membership runs for the calendar year January to December - as he had to be a member when he stood in the elections in May, he must be a member now.


How the story was reported by the local rag:
British National Party member has been arrested after police found bomb-making equipment at his house.

Police sealed off the home of Robert Cottage in Talbot Street, Colne, after storming the address and discovering chemical components that could be used to make explosives.

The 49-year-old has been arrested under the Explosives Act on suspicion of possessing chemicals that may be capable of making an explosion.

However Superintendent Neil Smith moved to reassure residents and stressed: "It is not a bomb making factory" and added that it was not related to terrorism.

continued...
Officers have been at the address since last Thursday and have been conducting door to door inquiries. Forensic officers have seized his car for examination.

Supt Smith added: "We are making inquiries in relation to what we have found at his address and to establish what offences he may have committed.

"He's not a terrorist and it's not a bomb factory but we are interested in what we have seized from his house. It will take expert advice to establish exactly what he has got.

"He was arrested under the Explosives Act on suspicion of possessing chemical substances that aren't in themselves an offence to possess but if combined may be capable of making an explosion."

Cottage stood for the BNP in the May elections in the Vivary Bride ward of Colne.

However it is understood his membership had lapsed.

Nelson BNP councillor Brian Parkinson said: "I am very shocked and surprised to hear this. I am glad to hear that he is no longer a member of our party because the BNP wouldn't want to be associated with this incident. It certainly wouldn't condone the sort of thing he is allegedly being connected with."

Neighbours said they were shocked by the police swoop. Corinne West, 22, of Talbot Street, said: "The police came to my door at 7pm on Friday night asking if I had seen anything suspicious. They wouldn't tell me anything which was quite worrying."

Aaron Haworth, 23, who lives next door but one with his partner Marie and two children, added: "The police have been here since Thursday and we are still none the wiser as to what's happened.

"It's ridiculous really. I have two young children and if there is bomb making equipment at the house I want to know about it because I have my children's safety to think about. There's been all sorts of rumours flying around, I don't know why the police are being so cagey, that's what's making everyone so worried."

Another neighbour, who lives across the road, but who asked not to be named, said: "I know Robert to talk to. He's always very polite and stops to talk his mum who lives on the same road and she's very nice too.

"He is good with the children on the street. He's been married to Karina for about three years and they seem good together. He drives a yellow bus taking disabled children to school and stood in the local elections for the BNP party.

"I think it is an outrage that the police have been so secretive. The forensics have been here and taken his Peugeot car away for examination.

"On Thursday we were told to stay inside and stay away from the windows which left us all wondering what on earth was going on. They arrested him from the back door and it was strange because the officers had a key to get in the front but from the way they went in it looked as though they thought it might have been booby-trapped. It took them about 10 minutes just to get through the door."