Author: Varsha Bhosle
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: December 10, 2001
Happiness is... President Bush freezing
the assets of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development,
a "charity" that has funneled millions of dollars to the Palestinian terrorist
group Hamas. Said Treasury Secretary Paul H O'Neill: "This organization
exists to raise money in the US to promote terror. Last year, Holy Land
raised $13 million in the US." Heeheehee!
No, no, my unholy glee is not because
of an aversion to "the holy land" or dubious aid organisations, but because
the financial backing for my favourite Islamist society -- CAIR -- came
from the "charity" that now finds place on the State Department's terrorist
list. When founded in 1994 by Mousa Abu Marzook, chief of the political
bureau of Hamas, CAIR received the initial $5,000 from HLF.
So what's CAIR like, some of you
may ask yet again. Well, it's one that has objected, on the basis of "ethnic
and religious stereotyping," to the prosecution of two men in Chicago for
the "honour killing" of their female cousin, and sponsored a rally in Brooklyn
at which an Egyptian mullah led the crowd in a rousing singalong of a number
whose chorus went, "No to the Jews, descendants of the apes" (The Spectator,
issue of December 1).
After the freezing of its assets
last week, HLF's homepage was replaced by statements from CAIR and HLF,
both denying that the "charity" assisted terrorists. However, nowhere did
the groups deny that HLF has funded Hamas, which "openly claimed responsibility
for this past weekend's suicide attacks in Israel that killed 25 innocent
people, many of them teenagers, and wounded almost 200 other people." (President
Bush, quoted by The Washington Times).
However, according to Pakistan's
Dawn, HLF has been "targeted by pro-Israel organisations and individuals
for several years because of what they said was the group's support for
Palestinian militants." Israeli Prime Minister Sharon was said to have
urged President Bush to close down the foundation, and so Bush ran to freeze
HLF's assets. A joint statement by the AMA, American Muslim Council, CAIR,
Islamic Society of North America, etc, etc, said: "We ask that President
Bush reconsider what we believe is an unjust and counter-productive move
that can only damage America's credibility in the Muslim world and create
the impression that there has been a shift from a war on terrorism to an
attack on Islam."
Déjà vu all over again:
Islam khatre mein hai...
The Taliban has lost. Osama is on
the run. Even in our favourite terrorist State, the mullahs now must mind
their f's and j's. As for CAIR, it dare not threaten fact-relaying columnists
anymore. Which all goes to show that jyaan ko raakhe Saiyaan, maar sake
na koi. A good time for me to say - à la all the Semitic religions
-- my god is bigger than your god, heeheehee!
*****
Happiness is... being greeted in
the morning with news like: "Senior [Pakistani] government officials estimate
that as many as 8,000 Pakistani citizens are dead or missing in Afghanistan,
casualties of an unacknowledged army that did battle for the Taliban even
as Pakistan joined the US-led coalition... Even pro-Western liberals fear
that Pakistan has now abandoned such young men to Northern Alliance warlords
who may massacre them" (The Washington Post, December 1). Heeheehee!
No, no, my unholy glee is not because
of any revulsion towards Pakistan, but simply because that's 8,000 raving-mad
jihadis less for the Indian army to deal with. To tell you the truth, the
main reason I've got so emotionally involved with the US' Afghan war is
because of its repercussions on the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir:
Every jihadi slaughtered in Mazar-i-Sharif extended the life of one Indian
security person or civilian -- towards whose safety, the contribution of
our witless and spineless successive governments has been zero. God bless
America!
*****
Happiness is... being able to trash
the dweeb who thinks he knows everything there is to know about the US
media, and hence slammed my reference to the squelching of evidence in
the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case. To refresh your memories: James Patterson
reported that Timothy McVeigh did not act by himself; that a former FBI
agent had evidence that McVeigh had been seen with "Middle Eastern men"
in the months before the bombing and on the day of the attack; that this
evidence was barred by the Department of Justice.
For said dweeb, The Indianapolis
Star simply isn't good enough a source, lah-dee-dah. And, my reading it
was a reflection of my stupidity. Well, too bad, but given the virulently
anti-majority pinko rags, I'll take the Star any day.
As it happens, Accuracy In Media,
a non-profit, influence-wielding, news-media watchdog that attempts to
set "the record straight on important issues that have received slanted
coverage," reported the following on November 29:
"The American media seems to show
little interest in reporting a hair-raising new development in the Oklahoma
City bombing. However, recent developments in the case should not be overlooked:
. An FBI agent filed a complaint
last week saying that the September 11 attacks could have been avoided
if he had been allowed to continue investigating certain prior terrorist
attacks.
. Inside a house in Kabul, chemical
formulas for making explosives were found that referred to Oklahoma.
There are many unanswered questions
in the Oklahoma City bombing investigation and the new developments add
to the list of suspicions that the Oklahoma bombing may have been a terrorist
attack.
The New York Times, on November
18, reported that inside a house bearing Taliban and defense ministry insignia,
notes were left behind regarding chemical formulas for making explosives:
'In an apparent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh,
one chemical formula at the defense ministry is annotated in Bosnian: Was
used in Oklahoma.' This reference builds up more suspicions in the Oklahoma
City bombing case. The media should be looking into this issue. As mentioned,
NYT did include the Oklahoma reference in a small article regarding what
was found in the Afghanistan house, but it did not pursue the topic. As
well, we have not found that any other media outlet in the US has reported
this revelation."
So, dweeb, what say you now...?
Heeheehee!
*****
Happiness is... the Daisy Cutter
, a 12,600-lb high-blast bomb packed with an explosive called GSX, and
thrice more powerful than the bunker-buster. It is so large a bomb -- as
big as a Volkswagen Beetle -- that it's ferried only by the lumbering C-130
aircraft. The Daisy Cutter's fiery explosion is bad enough, but more damage
is caused by the resulting shockwave, amounting to 1,000 lbs per square
inch. Because the bomb explodes above ground, the damage is not confined
to a crater; the blast flattens everything within a diameter of 600 yards
-- with the shockwaves felt miles away. Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's
Air Launched Weapons, said of the effect on a person trapped in the shockwave-area,
"He'd simply be flattened. Crushed. There'd be severe damage to one's internal
organs."
I'm ashamed to admit, I was among
those who thought that the US would have a damn hard time against the Beards,
and wasted quite a few evenings arguing over it with my man. He was serene
in his belief in US fire-power: "Say what you want. But let me know a month
later if your opinion still stands." It doesn't. The Taliban's collapse
shattered two myths -- Islamic invincibility and American weakness.
Moi being moi, Frank Dempster Sherman's
poem, Daisies, sprang to my mind thus, as an ode to the bomb:
At evening when I go to bed
I see the Taliban scowl overhead;
They wear the little turbans white
That dot the meadows of the Night.
And often while I hallucinate so;
Across the sky the C-130 will go;
It is a plane, large, slow and
fair
Which comes to harvest turbans
there.
For, when at morning I arise,
There's not a Talib left in the
skies;
It's picked them all and dropped
them down
Into the graveyards of the town.
*****
Happiness is... reading in, of all
the newspapers, The New York Times, that Al Qaeda and Harkat-ul Mujahideen
and Pakistan are undeniably linked to the 1999 Indian Airlines hijacking:
The presence of Harkat's jihadis in Kabul "suggests why a Taliban-run Afghanistan
was of such strategic importance to Pakistan over many years: the country
provided a haven for Islamic militants who could later be deployed to fight
Indian rule of mainly Muslim Kashmir. Successive Pakistani governments
have attached great importance to this campaign."
During the search of a house abandoned
by the Taliban, business cards of Harkat's general secretary, enrollment
forms, letters of introduction from Jaish-e-Mohammad (for enrollment of
young men arriving in Afghanistan "in school"), terrorist training manuals,
artillery instruction booklets with "Al Qaeda" printed on the cover, a
guide on making weapons with a dedication to bin Laden, etc, were found
in the same room as the hijackers' ticket stubs from the IA flight, their
boarding passes and an IA Airbus 300 safety procedure card -- along with
a handwritten list of the hostages' names.
NYT writes: "The documents could
prove embarrassing to the Pakistani military, which American officials
believe has covertly supported Harkat for years." Which begs the question:
Why isn't America doing anything about the terrorist State of Pakistan...?
Which is a totally idiotic way to
think. For, it's not others but India itself that should be doing something
about its enemies. However, not only does the Indian government NOT protect
its civilians from being mowed down by Paki bullets -- which is a *daily*
occurrence -- but it also demands that other countries join the ranks of
the Lashkar-e-Hijada.
On December 5, the entity that escorted
terrorist Masood Azhar to Kabul deplored Israel's air attack on Palestine
and warned Israel against any attempt to undermine the position of arch-terrorist
Yasser Arafat. (You know, it's much easier to understand the likes of Akbar's
underlings, "Raja" Man Singh and Jai Singh now.) True, every other "secular"
party said the same thing -- and we all know why. But, none of them grabbed
or seeks to grab power in the name of hardline nationalism. Whether it's
the CPI-M or the RJD or the Congress, their reactions are predictable and
in line with their ideologies (if that can be called such). But these "saffronites"...
Pshaw! I shouldn't have brought up this subject, for it's turned all my
happiness to dust.
