Calif Bill wrote:

I notice that you are still stealing copyright material. And no local
Atlanta papers that support you agenda?

Here yoo go, **** for brains...an editorial from today's AJC:

Rooting out terrorists tough in dictatorships

By MANSOUR O. EL-KIKHIA
Published on: 07/21/04

It is fascinating how politically interdependent the world has become.

I am not a fan of conspiracy theory, but I do think the Bush
administration is fighting and defending the wrong war.
Mansour El-Kikhia, a native of Libya, is an associate professor of
political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where his
specialty is Middle Eastern politics and international relations.

Billions of dollars are pumped into a brand new security industry that
has sprouted since Sept. 11. Now that its roots are down, it will not go
away without a fight. Indeed, nothing pleases this new industry more
than the perpetuation of an atmosphere of fear to provide its existence
with a reason to be.

Fiddling with the alert color codes, setting up commissions to postpone
America's presidential elections, keeping Americans constantly on edge
with unsubstantiated warnings of potential terrorist attacks all serve
that purpose.

It is easy to blame Islam and Muslims for all the ills in the world
because injured people need quick answers on the causes of their injury.
But Islam is not the reason for terrorism, even though those who
committed that awful act declared themselves to be Muslims.

I would venture that political interdependence among non-compatible
countries is the source of the new global instability. The world is
rapidly converging economically and politically, and, while it did
develop a common economic dictionary, it has no such political lexicon.

Islamic fundamentalism, like Christian fundamentalism, has been with us
for hundreds of years and will be for hundreds more. All one has to do
to find religion is to look at the Republican Party's platform or at the
platforms of Christian parties in Europe, or for that matter at the
Likud Party in Israel.

There is no such party in any of the Arab countries. That role has been
usurped by dictatorial regimes.

The first Muslim political movement to emerge in the modern age was the
Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928. However, Gamal Abdel-Nasser's
dictatorship quickly eradicated it, like all other political movements
in Egypt, and sent it underground, where its splinters became
radicalized and re-emerged with a vengeance during the '70s.

In spite of the constant repression the mainstream Islamic movements
face in Egypt today, they continue to be the most trusted by the average
Egyptian. They are the providers of social services, charities, medical
facilities and all the other social and economic concerns the Egyptian
government should be handling.

The Egyptian government is not unique in its disrespect for its people.
I am constantly amazed by the lack of respect all Arab regimes display
toward their citizens. They do little to alleviate their political,
economic and social pain.

Unemployment in North Africa is more than 20 percent, resulting in huge
numbers crossing the Mediterranean to reside and work in Europe.

Saudi Arabia has close to a million Egyptian workers and millions more
from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, yet unemployment there
exceeds 15 percent.

These dictatorships instill policies of the status quo; in other words,
policies that keep them in power indefinitely. In my lifetime, only two
Arab rulers have left the seat of power walking. The rest vacated their
seats being carried.

What makes matters worse is that these dictators are trying to ensure
their seats for their children after they leave. Hafez Assad of Syria
did it and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya are
following suit.

Saddam Hussein would have done it. I certainly can't imagine an Iraq
under the psychopath Odai. There are no institutions to hold the
dictators accountable and no opposition willing to confront them, except
Islamic organizations.

America continues supporting these regimes with aid and arms, as well as
turning a blind eye to the atrocities they commit against their people.
If this administration is serious about confronting terrorism, it needs
to change the focus of its war and, when it does, it may find
enlightened Muslims are its best allies.


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A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush;
A vote for Bush is a vote for Apocalypse.