New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

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Maybe this is one of the torture chambers from where Al-Qaeda emerges.
Sis. Hamdiyah, South Carolina
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US money funding Uzbeki torture chambers
$500 million for a Criminal Regime
BELIEVE IT OR NOT: The Bush administration, in its zeal to put an end to Islamists in the country, is providing aid to the remnants of communist-era Brezhnevism

THE GUARDIAN : May 27, 2003. Page 5.

Tuesday, May 27, 2003, Page 5: Abdulkhalil was arrested in the fields of Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley in August last year. The 28-year-old farmer was sentenced to 16 years in prison for "trying to overthrow the constitutional structures." Last week his father saw him for the first time since that day on a stretcher in a prison hospital. His head was battered and his tongue was so swollen that he could only say that he had "been kept in water for a long time." Abdulkhalil was a victim of Uzbekistan's security service, the SNB. His detention and torture were part of a crackdown on Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an Islamist group. Death by boiling Independent human-rights groups estimate that there are more than 600 politically motivated arrests a year in Uzbekistan, and 6,500 political prisoners, some tortured to death. According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August two prisoners were even boiled to death. The US condemned this repression for many years. But since Sept. 11 rewrote America's strategic interests in central Asia, the government of President Islam Karimov has become Washington's new best friend in the region. The US is funding those it once condemned. Last year Washington gave Uzbekistan US$500 million in aid. The police and intelligence services -- which the US Department of State's Web site says use "torture as a routine investigation technique" has received US$79 million of this sum. [Excerpted.]
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Editorial
IRAN and the U.S.: Disinformation on a Grand Scale
BURNING of HAZRAT ALI's QUR'AN DID NOT ANGER IRAN
Iranian Support for Karzai, Musharraf, Vajpayee
Baqir al-Hakim was permitted to Return to Iraq

New Trend quoted the Syrian representative lamenting the burning of Hazrat Ali's Qur'an in Basrah under British control. This was not a Qur'an said to belong to Hazrat Ali (r.a.) but the ORIGINAL QUR'AN WRITTEN BY HAZRAT ALI HIMSELF, the 4th Caliph of Islam. Thus it was one of the cultural treasures of Islam. All Muslims hold hazrat Ali (r.a.) in great respect and honor, but in Iran he is right at the top, among the holiest of holies, second only to the Prophet (pbuh).

The fact that Iran did not express ANY anger at the official level against the British and U.S. occupation of Iraq indicates that this nation (once the bastion of the revolution led by Imam Khomeini) has been successfully tamed by the western powers. [Imam Khomeini had issued a fatwa of death against Rushdie for writing Satanic Verses, a much lesser offense than the destruction of the Qur'an written by hazrat Ali (r.a.). Any deliberate disrespect shown to the Qur'an would be opposed even by ordinary Muslims.]

Recently President Khatami of Iran admitted that Iran and the U.S. have been holding secret talks in Geneva for the last two years.

Here are the facts of Iran:
1. Defense related agreements with Vajpayee of India. [During the visit with Vajpayee, Mr. Khatami declared that Mahmud Ghaznavi, the great hero of Muslim culture who defeated massive Hindu armies, had NOTHING to do with Islam.]
2. Support for NORTHERN ALLIANCE and support for Karzai's government. Mr. Khatami is one of the very few overseas officials who have disgraced themselves by visiting Karzai in Kabul as if he is a legitimate ruler.
3. Khatami's VISIT WITH MUSHARRAF and expression of support for the corrupt military regime which has sold out Pakistan.
4. IRAN SUPPORTED THE EMBARGO AND SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAQ.
5. Iran's policy has been to act as scavenger for the U.S., waiting for the destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, remaining neutral while the 2 were bombed.
6. Iran has handed over 50 suspected Al-Qaida members to the U.S. [a smaller scale General Musharraf type activity].
7. THROUGHOUT THE INTIFADA, Hizbullah [which Iran ostensibly supports] HAS NOT LAUNCHED EVEN ONE ATTACK AGAINST ISRAEL. Thus the Palestinian people have been left to fight alone, though Ayatollah Khamene'i regularly makes hot speeches in support of Palestine. [This speech making, without risk, is typical of Iranian "support" for Palestine.]
8. The U.S. in turn helped Iran. It bombed the Iranian MKO rebels in Iraq, then decided to use them as a pressure point to embarrass Iran, but forced them to disarm completely.
9. There has been a very obvious U.S. use of Pro-Iran Shias in Iraq by the U.S. to defeat Saddam, to carry out looting, hold big rallies in Najaf as if USA's victory is time for celebration.
10. The main pro-Iran Shia leader, Baqir al-Hakim, resident in Iran, re-entered Iraq with U.S. permission and started organizing support without ANY interference from U.S. forces.

SO NOW WHAT DO WE MAKE OF BUSH's STATEMENTS AGAINST IRAN?

There are two aspects of the new statements being issued against Iran:
1. They are expressions of the Zionist will speaking through the U.S. power structure. Zionist Jews always insist on making their erstwhile "allies" crawl in the dust. Thus if Iran wants the U.S.' support, the Zionists think it should be made to crawl and beg.
1a. The claim is being made that Al-Qaida leader Saif al-Adel is in Iran (supposedly in the border area with Afghanistan). There is no evidence for this claim and it is similar to the claims which were made about Saddam's connection with Al-Qaida mujahideen. The Al-Qaida are reputedly puritanical in their understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunnah and quite at variance with the Iranian version of Islam.

1b. Perhaps the U.S. has been misled into thinking that the Iranian republic is near collapse and will retreat in response to threats. It is possible that Iranian monarchists and MKO supporters think that Iran is very weak. In fact blatant American threat could be counterproductive and lead to resurgence of Imam Khomeini's movement.

1c. The major media immediately swing into action when the U.S. government gives the signal. CNN, MSNBC and FOX started churning out propaganda against Iran when Rumsefeld indicated that pressure needed to be put on Iran. ONE INTERESTING ITEM was that the U.S. does not want Iran to shape Iraqi Shias according to the Iranian pattern. What's wrong with that picture is that the U.S. has not opposed the entry of Baqir al-Hakim and a thousand others from Iran into Iraq.

2. New Trend's view is that the U.S. campaign of vague threats is part of a disinformation campaign whose purpose is to fool the Muslim world about U.S.-Iranian relations. Iran is best suited to divide and weaken the Muslim world and thus help the U.S. IRAN'S SILENCE ON KASHMIR, CHECHNYA, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ and it's constant sermons against Israel without even one military operation against Israel all indicate that Iran is not to be trusted. If the facts on the ground are to be trusted, the U.S. and Iran are working together secretly.
[Notice how quickly Iran's friends ruling Syria went into collapse in front of U.S. threats. Syria too claims to be a "fighting for Palestine" when it has not FIRED A SINGLE SHOT AGAINST ISRAEL in 20 years. One phone call from Washington and Syria closed down the offices of Palestinian organizations in Damascus. Compare with Saddam who defied the U.S. for 13 years.]
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2003-05-28 Wed 18:36ct