Al Qaeda's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri

[DOGS THAT BARK]

CAIRO, Egypt ? Al Qaeda's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a new audio tape Saturday, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the United States.

In the 28-minute audiotape called "Unity of the Ranks," al-Zawahri also announced that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was joining ranks with Al Qaeda.

"The Islamic nation is witnessing a blessed step ... The brothers are escalating the confrontation against the enemies of Islam: Gadhafi and his masters, the Washington crusaders," al-Zawahri said in the audiotape. The recording could not be independently verified, but it appeared on a Web site commonly used by insurgents and carried the logo of Al Qaeda's media production house, as-Sahab.

The recording also carried a message Abu Laith al-Libi, a Libyan Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan who accused Gadhafi of decades of tyranny.

"He is the tyranny of Libya and is dragging the country to the swamp," al-Libi said in the recording that also featured old video footage of him walking with other masked gunmen.

"After long years, he (Gadhafi) discovered suddenly that America is not an enemy ... and is turning Libya into another crusader base," said al-Libi, who has appeared in several recent Internet Al Qaeda videos.

For decades, the U.S. had regarded Libya as a pariah state after Gadhafi came to power in a military coup in 1969 and turned against the West.

Libya was demonized for sponsoring various terrorist groups and for trying to undermine pro-Western governments in Africa. Washington put Libya on a list of state sponsors of terrorism and imposed sanctions that barred American companies from doing business in the oil-rich country. In 1986, U.S. warplanes carried out airstrikes against Libya.

But the tide started to turn in 2003, after Gadhafi's surprise decision to dismantle Libya's clandestine nuclear program. That same year, Libya reached a $2.7 billion settlement with families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the next year it paid $170 million compensation to the families of the 170 victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA passenger jet.

The United States resumed full diplomatic relations with Libya last year and removed Libya from the State Department's list of terrorism sponsors.

The State Department also has praised Libya's cooperation in helping the U.S. in the search for Al Qaeda and other terror suspects in the Middle East and North Africa.

In the audio recording, al-Zawahri also calls on followers to defeat other North African leaders including Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ? as well as Gadhafi.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Seems like just yesterday Lybia was primary concern of U.S. as with North Korea--

Appears now A-Q has fewer and fewer allies and more and more enemies.

---and have you noticed the debates are somehow switching off Iraq and toward Iran--I wonder why--

--and Russert missed his chance on interviewing Hilliary--after her statement about repairing relations with European allies--one might ask--repair what --the people in France Germany Canada ect have all replaced anti U.S. leaders with pro U.S. leaders.

Funny how the real polls (votes) are many times diff than what media trys to portray.

So we have Saudi's- Pakistan-Lybia now on A-Q shit list--
--and pro U.S. leaders at helm of most European countries--

I wonder- does Dems new direction--want to return to way it was before these changes?

 

[THE KOD]

I wonder- does Dems new direction--want to return to way it was before these changes?

.............................................................

No they will not admit any improvement.

That would not be good for America.

Here my impression of Hillary, Uh yes, no, yes , no, uhh yes then, maybe no, I will not answer yes no questions any longer.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Thousands Returning to a Safer Baghdad
Saturday, November 03, 2007


BAGHDAD ? In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.

Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts ? west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between Al Qaeda in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.

About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal Al Qaeda control ? the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.

The uprising originated in Iraq's west and flowed into the capital. Earlier this year, the Sunni tribes and clans in the vast Anbar province began their own revolt and have successfully rid the largely desert region of Al Qaeda control.

At one point the terrorist group virtually controlled Anbar, often with the complicity of the vast Sunni majority who welcomed the outsiders in their fight against American forces.

But, U.S. officials say, Al Qaeda overplayed its hand with Iraq's Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.

And as 30,000 additional U.S. forces arrived for the crackdown in Baghdad and central Iraq, the American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, began stationing many of them in neighborhood outposts. The mission was not only to take back control but to foster neighborhood groups like the one in Khadra to shake off Al Qaeda's grip.

The 40-year-old al-Azawi, who has gone back to work managing a car service, said relatives and friends persuaded him to bring his family home.

"Six months ago, I wouldn't dare be outside, not even to stand near the garden gate by the street. Killings had become routine. I stopped going to work, I was so afraid," he said, chatting with friends on a street in the neighborhood.

When he and his family joined the flood of Iraqi refugees to Syria the streets were empty by early afternoon, when all shops were tightly shuttered. Now the stores stay open until 10 p.m. and the U.S. military working with the neighborhood council is handing out $2,000 grants to shop owners who had closed their business. The money goes to those who agree to reopen or first-time businessmen.

Al-Azawi said he's trying to get one of the grants to open a poultry and egg shop that his brother would run.

"In Khadra, about 15 families have returned from Syria. I've called friends and family still there and told them it's safe to come home," he said.

Sattar Nawrous, a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said the al-Azawi family was among 3,100 that have returned to their homes in Baghdad in the past 90 days.

"In the past three months, the ministry did not register any forced displacement in the whole of Iraq," said Nawrous, who is a Kurd.

The claim could not be independently verified, but, if true, it would represent a dramatic end to the sectarian cleansing that has shredded the fabric of Baghdad's once mixed society.

The head of the ministry is Abdul-Samad Rahman, a Shiite appointed to his job by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is accused of promoting the Shiite cause to the detriment of Sunnis. Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni minority ruled and heavily oppressed many in the Shiite majority.

Part of the inflow can be attributed to stiffening of visa and residency procedures for Iraqis by the Syrian government.

Mahmoud al-Zubaidi, who runs the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus, the Syrian capital, the flow of Iraqis has almost reversed.

What were once full flights arriving from Baghdad now touch down virtually empty, he told Al-Sabah, the government funded Iraqi daily newspaper. Now the flights are leaving Damascus with more passengers but the volume of travel is off considerably.

On average, 56 Iraqis ? civilians and security forces ? have died each day so far in this very bloody year. Last month, however, the toll fell to just under 30 Iraqis killed daily in sectarian violence.

More than four months after U.S. forces completed a 30,000-strong force buildup, the death toll for both Iraqis and Americans has fallen dramatically for two months running.

Across Iraq Saturday, 18 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence, well below the year's daily average.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Iraq is a smashing success and our brilliant leader G.W. Bush has done an outstanding job of building good will for the US around the world and restoring our good name. There is no danger posed by the 9 trillion dollar debt run up by this admin and the looming collapse of the US dollar and massive inflation. Don't worry about the undermining of the constitution and the power grab by the executive branch, its for your own good, to keep you safe from the terrorists. God bless you fine Americans for understanding what is best for this great country of ours. You guys and Sean Hannity are all 'great Americans'.