Eagle or Ostrich Trailer

Monem Salam — fellow Muslim blogger and the public face of Amana Mutual Funds Trust — is putting together a documentary called Eagle or Ostrich about his experiences while learning how to fly a plane.

Read more:

• Peaceful Communications | Films for Peace
• Monem’s Blog: babibatuta
• Amana Mutual Funds Trust

Police Arrest 13-Year-Old for a Yearbook Joke

Perhaps the police will start raiding Islamic pre-schools next.

From the East Valley Tribune:

Ban Abdulghafoor did not expect to hear the voice of a Gilbert police officer on the line when she answered the phone last Thursday.

It was the final day of school at Mesquite Junior High School, and her 13-year-old son, Mustafa Abdul Razzaq, decided to stay home because it was a halfday. The call woke him from his late-morning slumber.

While Mustafa was asleep, Gilbert police were looking for him at school. This was going on as his fellow students were being evacuated at the school after a parent reported what appeared to be two bomb threats written in her son’s yearbook.

A boy named David signed one of the threats, implying that he might try to bomb the courtyard. The other threat was signed with Mustafa’s name.

Read more:

• East Valley Tribune: Police find Gilbert teen innocent in bomb scare

Where Are They Now? Ex-Sonic Zaid Abdul-Aziz

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

People have encountered the tall, cerebral man on the street, accepting his outstretched hand to pull them out of the gutter.

They’ve chatted easily with him on the bus, riding the No. 41 downtown or the 16 to Green Lake.

They’ve spotted him at Northgate Mall, lost in his thoughts and writing furiously.

Across Seattle, Zaid Abdul-Aziz has been a drug and alcohol counselor, Metro transit fixture and all-around inquisitive sort.

Oh, yeah. He played in the NBA for a decade.

Read more:

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Where Are They Now? Ex-Sonic Zaid Abdul-Aziz

The Side of Compassion Loses a Spokeswoman

It is incredibly sad that getting people like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz or Gonzales to resign for their crimes is like pulling teeth, but a voice of compassion like Cindy Sheehan is forced to find some normalcy in her life because Bush won’t give her the time of day.

It is also interesting to note that Sheehan blames Democrats equally, because she is “disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end”.

From CNN:

Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who became an anti-war leader after her son was killed in Iraq, declared Monday she was walking away from the peace movement.

She said her son died “for nothing.”

Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush’s home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son’s death.

While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.

But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.

She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said “often puts personal egos above peace and human life.”

• CNN: Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up her protest

If You Can’t Beat Them, YouTube Them

An excerpt from CNN:

Radio Caracas Television, the station silenced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has found a way to continue its daily broadcasts -- on YouTube, the popular video Web site.

Although the station is officially off the air, CNN’s Harris Whitbeck said its news department continues to operate on reduced staffing, and the three daily hour-long installments of the newscast “El Observador” are uploaded onto YouTube by RCTV’s Web department.

Read more:

• CNN: Silenced Venezuelan TV station moves to YouTube

New Paradigm Shift in the Way Software Must Be Written

Now that processor speeds have been pushed to their physical limits, a new paradigm shift is taking place in computing, where processors will be built with multiple cores to allow parallel computations to take place. The problem is that most software today doesn’t take advantage of parallelism. A new radical paradigm shift is about to start in the way software is written.

An excerpt from a CNET News article:

After years of delivering faster and faster chips that can easily boost the performance of most desktop software, Intel says the free ride is over.

Already, chipmakers like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are delivering processors that have multiple brains, or cores, rather than single brains that run ever faster. The challenge is that most of today’s software isn’t built to handle that kind of advance.

“The software has to also start following Moore’s law,” Intel fellow Shekhar Borkar said, referring to the notion that chips offer roughly double the performance every 18 months to two years. “Software has to double the amount of parallelism that it can support every two years.”

But it’s a big challenge for the industry. Things are better on the server side, where machines are handling multiple simultaneous workloads. Desktop applications can learn some from the way supercomputers and servers have handled things, but another principle, Amdahl’s Law, holds that there is only so much parallelism that programs can incorporate before they hit some inherently serial task.

Read more:

• CNET News: Intel: Software needs to heed Moore’s Law

Of Mice and Men

وَمَا مِن دَآبَّةٍ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلاَ طَائِرٍ يَطِيرُ بِجَنَاحَيْهِ إِلاَّ أُمَمٌ أَمْثَالُكُم مَّا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الكِتَابِ مِن شَيْءٍ ثُمَّ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ يُحْشَرُونَ

Wa mā min dābbatin fī l-ardi wa lā tā’irin yatīru bijanāhayhi illā umamun amthālukum mā farratnā fī l-kitābi min shay’in thumma ilā rabbihim yuhsharūn.

There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end.

(Qur’ān, Sūrat al-An‘ām, Āyah 38)

How often do we appreciate the amazing order and structure that Allāh has placed in every facet of every system He has created? From the organized structure of the incredibly minute atoms that build up all the molecules within an organism, to the complex social structures that are manifest among a species of those organisms. A video follows showing us just a glimpse into the amazing social dynamic that exists among the animals with which we share this earth. Watch it to the very end for something rather unexpected.



One cannot help but be reminded of one of the lessons that Allāh has taught us through Prophet Sulaymān (Solomon), may Allāh grant him peace. That these communities that we so often blindly pass off as being less “evolved” are actually much more sophisticated than we think. Perhaps these reminders can help us gain a better appreciation for Allāh’s creation and the hidden beauty that lies right underneath our feet...

حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَوْا عَلَى وَادِي النَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ

فَتَبَسَّمَ ضَاحِكًا مِّن قَوْلِهَا وَقَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِي أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيَّ وَعَلَى وَالِدَيَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَالِحًا تَرْضَاهُ وَأَدْخِلْنِي بِرَحْمَتِكَ فِي عِبَادِكَ الصَّالِحِينَ

Hattā idhā ataw ‘alā wādī n-namli qālat namlatun yā ayyuhā n-namlu dkhulū masākinakum lā yahtimannakum Sulaymānu wa junūduhū wa hum lā yash‘urūn.

Fatabassama dāhikan min qawlihā wa qāla Rabbī awzi‘nī an ashkura ni‘mataka llatī an‘amta ‘alayya wa ‘alā wālidayya wa an a‘mala sālihan tardāhu wa adkhilnī birahmatika fī ‘ibādika s-sālihīn.

At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: “O ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it.”

So he smiled, amused at her speech, and he said: “O my Lord, so order me that I may be grateful for Your favors, which you have bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work righteousness that will please You. And admit me, by Your Grace, to the ranks of Your righteous servants."

(Qur’ān, Sūrat an-Naml, Āyāt 18-19)

Bravo to the 2.38%

These “elections” are an utter joke. Can’t they at least choreograph it a little better to make it seem less obvious that it’s staged? You know, throw in a couple of extra “candidates” from other “parties” with other “platforms”. That way the Syrian information minister will seem a little more credible when he says hails “the political maturity of Syria and the brilliance of our democracy and multi-party system”.

And who are these 2.38% that didn’t vote for Al-Assad? They have to be some of the bravest people on the planet.

An excerpt from an Al-Jazeera article:

The Syrian president has won 97.62 per cent of the vote in a referendum that handed him a second term in office, officials say.

But the US denounced the poll, in which Bashar al-Assad was the only candidate, for offering no real choice to the electorate.

Al-Assad, 41, was the only person allowed to put his name forward in the run-up to Sunday’s plebiscite, which was boycotted by the opposition and widely regarded as a formality.

Bassam Abdel Majeed, the information minister, declared the results at a news conference.

‘This great consensus shows the political maturity of Syria and the brilliance of our democracy and multi-party system,’ he said.

Read more:

• US criticises al-Assad election win

Moroccan Government Afraid of Criticism

The Moroccan government has long treated the people of its Western Sahara territory as second-class citizens. Now that criticisms of the government have appeared on YouTube, the site was mysteriously blocked.

Here are two excerpts from a BBC article:

Internet users in Morocco who have been unable to access YouTube have voiced concern that it is being deliberately blocked by the authorities.

Many Moroccans have been unable to see the video-sharing site since 25 May.

Some people have linked the problem to videos critical of Morocco’s actions in Western Sahara, a disputed territory which Morocco took control of in 1975.

Bloggers and some internet users agreed. “They’ve clearly blocked YouTube,” university student Abdelhakim Albarkani told AP.

“I’m worried, because YouTube allowed us to see things the state newspapers and television won’t show,” he said.

Reporters Without Borders linked the apparent blocking to videos showing pro-independence demonstrations in Western Sahara.

One such, posted in December 2006, says it shows police beating female protesters in the Western Saharan city of Laayoune.

Read more:

• BBC: YouTube site ‘blocked’ in Morocco

Tracking Transience: Telling Big Brother Where You Are 24/7

Although this probably isn’t advisable for most American Muslims simply because of the sheer volume of civil liberty abuses by the U.S. government, it’s an interesting experiment. Check out his Web site in the links at the end of the post.

An excerpt from a Wired Magazine article:

Hasan Elahi whips out his Samsung Pocket PC phone and shows me how he’s keeping himself out of Guantanamo. He swivels the camera lens around and snaps a picture of the Manhattan Starbucks where we’re drinking coffee. Then he squints and pecks at the phone’s touchscreen. “OK! It’s uploading now,” says the cheery, 35-year-old artist and Rutgers professor, whose bleached-blond hair complements his fluorescent-green pants. “It’ll go public in a few seconds.” Sure enough, a moment later the shot appears on the front page of his Web site, TrackingTransience.net.

There are already tons of pictures there. Elahi will post about a hundred today — the rooms he sat in, the food he ate, the coffees he ordered. Poke around his site and you’ll find more than 20,000 images stretching back three years. Elahi has documented nearly every waking hour of his life during that time. He posts copies of every debit card transaction, so you can see what he bought, where, and when. A GPS device in his pocket reports his real-time physical location on a map.

Elahi’s site is the perfect alibi. Or an audacious art project. Or both. The Bangladeshi-born American says the US government mistakenly listed him on its terrorist watch list — and once you’re on, it’s hard to get off. To convince the Feds of his innocence, Elahi has made his life an open book. Whenever they want, officials can go to his site and see where he is and what he’s doing. Indeed, his server logs show hits from the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President, among others.

The globe-hopping prof says his overexposed life began in 2002, when he stepped off a flight from the Netherlands and was detained at the Detroit airport. He says FBI agents later told him they’d been tipped off that he was hoarding explosives in a Florida storage unit; subsequent lie detector tests convinced them he wasn’t their man. But with his frequent travel — Elahi logs more than 70,000 air miles a year exhibiting his art work and attending conferences — he figured it was only a matter of time before he got hauled in again. He might even be shipped off to Gitmo before anyone realized their mistake. The FBI agents had given him their phone number, so he decided to call before each trip; that way, they could alert the field offices. He hasn’t been detained since.

Read more:

• Professor Hasan Elahi’s Web Site: Tracking Transience
• Wired Magazine: The Visible Man: An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online

The European Union Does Things a Little Differently than the United States

While the U.S. government salivates over the the data that major tech companies store on Web users -- issuing subpoenas on a frequent basis to get a hold of whatever it can -- the European Union advocates on behalf of its users by warning companies not to store search data for too long.

An excerpt from a New York Times article:

Google has been warned that it may be violating European Union privacy laws by storing search data from its users for up to two years, the latest example of a United States technology giant whose practices face a collision with European standards.

An advisory panel of data-protection chiefs from the 27 countries in the European Union sent a letter last week to Google asking it to justify its policy of retaining data on Internet addresses and individual search habits, Friso Roscam Abbing, a spokesman for the European Union’s justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, said on Friday.

Privacy experts said the letter was the first salvo in what could become a determined effort by the European Commission to force Google to change how it does business in Europe, where the 400 million consumers outnumber those in the United States.

Any effort to impose limits on Google, which operates under United States law, would be the latest in a series of increasingly aggressive actions taken by European policy makers to rein in global technology companies.

Read more:

• The New York Times: E.U. Probes Google Over Data Retention Policy

Salon.com: Wolfowitz’s Tomb

وَمَكَرُواْ وَمَكَرَ اللّهُ وَاللّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

Wa makarū wa makara Allāh. Wa Allāhu khayru l-makirīn.

They plotted and planned. And God plotted and planned.
And God is the Best of Planners.

(Qur’ān, Sūrat Āli ‘Imrān, Āyah 54)

Here is an except from an excellent Salon.com article about Paul Wolfowitz’s decline from the architect of “shock and awe” to the his recent forced resignation from the World Bank.

A lead architect of the Iraq war, he believed shock and awe would transform the Middle East. But his policies failed -- along with his tenure at the World Bank.

Paul Wolfowitz’s doctrines are a summa of numerous failed political dogmas of the 20th century. His notion of politics was essentially Bolshevik, but less democratic in practice than Lenin’s. Wolfowitz had no concept of mass politics. Nor did he have an idea of democratic centralism, the core of Leninism, by which the vanguard led the cells of the party. Wolfowitz believed only in the vanguard...

The squalid ending of Wolfowitz’s glittering career, bickering over lies about payments to his girlfriend, submerged his grandiosity. Wheedling with the World Bank board, he appeared as a shadow of his former self, the intellectual field marshal pulverizing the opposition with the artillery of his arguments, reduced to using a Washington lawyer to make fine points.

Read more:

• Salon.com: Wolfowitz’s tomb

The Independent: Exclusive: Secret U.S. Plot to Kill Al-Sadr

British newspaper The Independent reports how the U.S. army attempted to assassinate Muqtadā al-Sadr in an act of desperate deceit.

The US Army tried to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr, the widely revered Shia cleric, after luring him to peace negotiations at a house in the holy city of Najaf, which it then attacked, according to a senior Iraqi government official.

The revelation of this extraordinary plot, which would probably have provoked an uprising by outraged Shia if it had succeeded, has left a legacy of bitter distrust in the mind of Mr Sadr for which the US and its allies in Iraq may still be paying.

Read more:

• The Independent: Exclusive: Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr

Time Features Muslim Teacher: How to Fix No Child Left Behind

In an article on how to fix No Child Left Behind -- Bush’s failed attempt to fix education -- Time prominently featured a Muslim high-school teacher Rasheed Abdullah in Philadelphia.

At 2:45 in the afternoon, Rasheed Abdullah, the kinetic lead math teacher, stages what could be called a prep rally with 11 third-graders. The kids, who are at neither the top nor the bottom of their class, have been selected for intensive review--as has a contingent from other grades--because their test scores hold the key to putting the school over the top on the pivotal Pennsylvania System of School Assessments (PSSAS). Last year, after a history of failure, the school, under new leadership, managed to meet the federal goal for adequate yearly progress (AYP) on the state tests for the first time. If it does so again, Blaine moves off the dreaded list of failing schools, no longer a target for intensive oversight and sanctions that could include replacing the staff.

Abdullah, who has an easy rapport with students, issues a quick reminder to sign up for “Super Saturday” review classes and then begins his math-athon with a rousing recitation of the school’s declaration of education. “We believe that we can learn at high levels,” the children chant. “We believe we can reach our learning potential ... We believe that Blaine will become a high-performing institution.”

Quite a mouthful for an 8-year-old. And there’s more. Abdullah starts pumping his fists as the kids finish with passionate vows.

“I’ll never give up!” he shouts.

“I’ll never give up!” they echo.

“Even on the PSSA test!”

“Even on the PSSA test!”

“‘Cause winners never lose, and I am the best!”

For the next 15 minutes, the kids, divided into teams, compete to win points by solving math problems, with Abdullah acting as a combination game-show host and math coach. There are giggles and cheers and plenty of correct answers, but everyone in the room knows the fate of the school is at stake.

Read more:

• Time: How to Fix No Child Left Behind

Tongue-Tied: When Bilinguals Switch Languages Involuntarily

This is a fascinating post from the British Psychological Society Research Digest Blog

People who can communicate in more than one language – bilinguals - are intriguing to psychologists. A new study focuses on how bilinguals switch between tongues – how come they don't mix up words from different languages? A prevailing view is that bilinguals have a kind of switch at the front of their brain that inhibits the language(s) not currently in use. Now Kuan Kho and colleagues report the case of two bilingual patients who, during the course of brain surgery for epilepsy, appear to have had their 'switches' involuntarily flipped.

Prior to surgery, patient A – a Dutch-English bilingual - underwent a Wada test that involves anaesthetising one half of the brain at a time. When his left-hemisphere was anaesthetised he first went mute for a few minutes, then he fully recovered English (his second language), but struggled with Dutch. Asked to recall a story told to him earlier, he was only able to do so in English. Any Dutch he did come up with, he spoke in an English accent!

Patient B, a French-Chinese bilingual, was having his brain prodded with an electrode to identify which neural tissue was involved in language before the surgeons got to work. The patient was asked to count. He began in French, then when he reached seven (...quatre, cinq, six, sept), the stimulation was applied to his left inferior frontal gyrus, at which point he involuntarily switched to Chinese (...ba, jiu, shi). When the stimulation ended, he reverted to French.

These case studies support the notion that, in bilinguals, specific regions at the front of the left hemisphere act as a language switch. The observations are also consistent with another recent study, which documented involuntary language switching in two bilingual patients who received transcranial magnetic stimulation to their left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as a treatment for depression.

Read more:

• British Psychological Society Research Digest: Tongue-tied: When bilinguals switch languages involuntarily

The Beauty of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)

According to Imam al-Bajūrī (Allāh have mercy on him) our scholars have explicitly stated that it is from the perfection of faith to believe that no human’s body had the combination of beautiful features that were combined in the body of the Prophet Muhammad (Allāh bless him and grant him peace). He proceeded to say, “Even with this, his complete beauty did not manifest, otherwise eyes would not have been able bear the sight of him.” Allāh’s blessings and peace be upon him...

Al-Tirmidhī related from the tradition of Anas, “Allāh did not send a Prophet except with a beautiful face and a beautiful voice, and your Prophet is the most beautiful of them in face and voice.”

Read more:

• SunniPath: Is Prophet Muhammad more beautiful than Prophet Yusuf?

Universities Prepare for Data Deluge from CERN Collider

The world’s largest science experiment at CERN will produce 15 petabytes of data!

The world’s largest science experiment, a physics experiment designed to determine the nature of matter, will produce a mountain of data. And because the world's physicists cannot move to the mountain, an army of computer research scientists is preparing to move the mountain to the physicists...

At universities across the United States and at other institutions around the world, teams of computer research scientists and physicists are preparing for the largest physics experiment ever...

The collider will give protons a pop hoping to catch a glimpse of the Big Bang, or at least the subatomic particles that are thought to have last been seen at the big event 10 billion to 15 billion years ago that led to the formation of the universe. The CERN collider will begin producing data in November, and from the trillions of collisions of protons it will generate 15 petabytes of data per year.

By comparison, 15 petabytes would be the equivalent of all of the information in all of the university libraries in the United States seven times over. It would be the equivalent of 22 Internets, or more than 1,000 Libraries of Congress. And there is no search function.

Read more:

• Universities Prepare for Data Deluge from CERN Collider

Google Offers Translated Search

As featured on the Official Google Blog, Google now offers translated search. For example, you can search with an English phrase, have it translated automatically into Arabic, and receive search results in both English and translated into Arabic. You can also do it the other way around.

One example that they provided in their blog post is an Arabic speaker could look for restaurants in New York, by searching for “مطعم نيويورك”.

Another example that they provided on the Google Translate page is that you can search for “Dubai Tours” from English to Arabic.

The search results are clean with both languages side by side and they get the job done.

Try your own Google Translated search at
http://translate.google.com/translate_s?hl=en

Read more:

• Official Google Blog: Search without boundaries

Keith Olbermann: Democrats Betray the Voters’ Mandate

Olbermann hits hard again, this time about the weak leadership that Democrats displayed by agreeing to Bush’s demands for an Iraq war budget without a timetable for withdrawal.

This is the best quote from his Special Comment:

Those who seek the Democratic nomination need to—for their own political futures and, with a thousand times more solemnity and importance, for the individual futures of our troops—denounce this betrayal, vote against it, and, if need be, unseat Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi if they continue down this path of guilty, fatal acquiescence to the tragically misguided will of a monomaniacal president.

The Guardian: Bono warns G8 backsliders

An excerpt from an article in The Guardian:

Only Britain and Japan are living up to the promises of the Gleneagles agreement

Bono last night called for an emergency session on Africa at next month's G8 summit in Germany as it emerged that rich countries are using the sympathy felt in the wake of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London to justify their foot-dragging on meeting aid pledges made at Gleneagles two years ago.

Amid signs that Russia and Italy are using delaying tactics to downplay the commitment by the G8 to raise an extra $50bn (£25bn) in development assistance by 2010, the rock star warned there was a risk of a return to the violent street protests of Genoa and Seattle at the turn of the millennium unless the G8 acted next month.

Read more:

• The Guardian: Bono warns G8 backsliders

Sacramento Bee: Uproar over UCD speech

An excerpt from a Sacramento Bee article:

The intellectual wrestling match over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages on at UC Davis as the Muslim Student Association brings to campus Wednesday a son of Nazi concentration camp survivors who accuses Israel of exploiting the Holocaust.

Norman Finkelstein, a DePaul University professor who got his doctorate from Princeton, will speak at 8 p.m. on "Israel and Palestine -- Roots of Conflict, Prospects for Peace."

Finkelstein, author of "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections On The Exploitation of Jewish Suffering," has been called a self-hating Jew and a Holocaust denier by his critics.

Read more:

• The Sacramento Bee: Uproar over UCD speech

Time: Was Gonzales’ Emergency Visit Illegal?

It appears that Alberto Gonzales may have committed a serious federal crime when he was the White House counsel. Here is an excerpt from a Time article:

When then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales went to John Ashcroft’s hospital room on the evening of March 10, 2004 to ask the ailing Attorney General to override Justice Department officials and reauthorize a secret domestic wiretapping program, he was acting inappropriately, Ashcroft’s deputy at the time, James Comey, testified before Congress earlier this week. But the question some lawyers, national security experts and Congressional investigators are now asking is: Was Gonzales in fact acting illegally?

In dramatic testimony Tuesday, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he raced to the intensive care unit of George Washington University Hospital that evening to intercept Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andrew Card and prevent them from convincing Ashcroft to reauthorize the program after Justice Department lawyers had concluded that it was illegal. Comey, who during Ashcroft’s stay in the hospital was acting Attorney General, has told Congressional investigators that when he arrived at the room and began explaining to Ashcroft why he was there, he was intentionally “very circumspect” so as not to disclose classified information in an unsecure setting and in front of Ashcroft’s wife, Janet, who was at his bedside and was apparently not authorized to know about the program.

Comey described what happened next: “The door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card. They came over and stood by the bed. They greeted the Attorney General very briefly. And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there — to seek his approval for a matter, and explained what the matter was — which I will not do.” Ashcroft bluntly rebuffed Gonzales, but Comey’s unwillingness publicly to say what Gonzales said in the hospital room has raised questions about whether Gonzales may have violated executive branch rules regarding the handling of highly classified information, and possibly the law preventing intentional disclosure of national secrets.

“Executive branch rules require sensitive classified information to be discussed in specialized facilities that are designed to guard against the possibility that officials are being targeted for surveillance outside of the workplace,” says Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal, who was National Security Advisor to the Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton. “The hospital room of a cabinet official is exactly the type of target ripe for surveillance by a foreign power,” Katyal says. This particular information could have been highly sensitive. Says one government official familiar with the Terrorist Surveillance Program: “Since it’s that program, it may involve cryptographic information,” some of the most highly protected information in the intelligence community.

Read more:

• Time: Was Gonzales’ Emergency Visit Illegal?

Minneapolis Muslim Chases Down Robber, Returns Stolen Money to Owner

An excerpt from an article in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul:

A man comes running out of the chow mein restaurant, run by a Chinese woman who is afraid to tell me her name. Her restaurant is two doors from Bosaad’s store.

The man is carrying the drawer from the restaurant’s cash register and is running westerly, past Maxwell’s Corner Deli, which is located between the chow mein restaurant and the corner grocery. The deli is run by an Egyptian immigrant, Adel Hamid.

The robber runs past several young men from the neighborhood, who do nothing to stop his flight.

“But now look at this,” says Bosaad, pointing to the recorded images. “Watch this man.”

It is the Egyptian, Hamid. He steps out of his business and starts chasing the robber, who, obviously frightened, drops the cash drawer at the Emerson-Lowry intersection and runs across Emerson.

Hamid stays in pursuit, finally catching the punk out of camera range.

Why would Hamid chase after a man who could have been armed?

“I am a Muslim,” said Hamid. “That is what I should do. You help your neighbor.”

When he caught the robber, Hamid turned and looked back.

There were more than a dozen young men and maybe a couple of young women picking up bills that were in and around the cash drawer.

Watching this on the digital images, it as if people had slimed out from under rocks. At the beginning, there are only a few. But they are joined by more and more.

“At first I thought they were there to help the Chinese woman get her money back,” said Hamid. “But then I saw they were taking the money.”

Hamid released the robber and raced back to the intersection. He grabbed the cash drawer and took as much money as he could from the hands of the pathetic young people.

He returned what he could recover to the Chinese woman.

Read more:

• Star Tribune: A lonely battle against crime on one corner

Carter: Bush is “Worst President Ever”, Blair is “Abominable, Loyal, Blind, Apparently Subservient”

An excerpt from New York Times article:

Former President Jimmy Carter criticized George W. Bush’s presidency in interviews released Saturday as “the worst in history” in international relations and faulted Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain for his loyal relationship with Mr. Bush.

“I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,” Mr. Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in a telephone interview with The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from the Carter Center in Atlanta.

“The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me,” Mr. Carter told the newspaper.

In an interview on BBC radio, he criticized Mr. Blair for his close relations with the president, particularly concerning the Iraq war.

“Abominable,” he said when asked how he would characterize Mr. Blair’s relationship with Mr. Bush. “Loyal, blind, apparently subservient.”

Mr. Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his charitable work, was an outspoken opponent of the invasion of Iraq before it was begun in 2003.

“I think that the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world,” he said.

In the newspaper interview, Mr. Carter said Mr. Bush has taken a “radical departure from all previous administration policies” with the Iraq war.

“We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered,” he said.

Read more:

• Al Jazeera English: Carter: Bush ‘worst president ever’
• New York Times: Carter Criticizes Bush and Blair on War in Iraq

Northern Colorado Masjid Attacked by Gunfire

An excerpt from an article from The Tribune of northern Colorado:

Abu Faraj of Greeley was concerned Thursday when he discovered that the mosque he oversees had been shot at three times sometime during the day.

Faraj, who said he is the head of the community at the Islamic Center of Greeley Mosque, 1600 8th Ave., said this is not the first time something like this has happened there.

A mosque is a place of worship for people of the Islamic faith.

Faraj said it appears as though the shots came from a BB gun or a .22-caliber automatic weapon that had been fired from a distance. Three holes impacted the window, which cracked in several places but did not shatter.

Read more:

• The Tribune: Greeley mosque damaged by apparent gunfire

Thoughts on the FBI Assault Incident at UC Irvine

In today’s climate, it’s usually the FBI who is running after Muslims, whether to instill fear, step on basic civil liberties, follow a weak or fabricated lead, or – on a very rare occasion – investigate an actual crime.

But think about the irony of what took place at UC Irvine last week (for reference, read the previous blog post on this issue). Muslims were running after the FBI. And they weren’t doing it to instill fear, step on civil liberties, or follow a weak or fabricated lead. They witnessed an FBI agent commit a crime, and chased him down, while he fled.

And what were the Muslim students at UC Irvine doing in the first place to warrant being under the watchful eye of the FBI? They were merely holding an anti-Zionism week to showcase the racism, apartheid and crimes that are inherent with Zionism. No crimes were committed.

And this was after they held a Holocaust Memorial Week, when they held programs highlighting the genocides committed in Nazi Germany, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the slaughter of Native American during Manifest Destiny.

The Muslim students at UC Irvine should be applauded for their ability to hold programs covering pertinent and controversial issues, as well as their ability to turn the tables on an ever-abusive FBI.

Los Angeles Times: Tensions rise again at UC Irvine

Here is an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article about the incident at UC Irvine last week where an unidentified FBI agent assaulted a Muslim student by pushing him with his car.

Senior Yasser Ahmed said a silver Ford Taurus followed him as he drove a 24-foot moving van from a nearby parking lot to UC Irvine’s Free Speech Zone to pick up an exhibit sponsored by the Muslim Student Union. The group had sponsored a weeklong presentation, “Israel: Apartheid Resurrected,” to protest that country’s policies against the Palestinians.

Ahmed, 21, said he got out of the truck, walked to the car and asked the driver why he was following him. The driver did not respond, Ahmed said, and he tried to snap a photo of the license plate with his cellphone camera. At that point, Ahmed said, the car nudged him with its front bumper and he got out of the way. He was not injured.

The man behind the wheel drove off but was stopped almost immediately by a campus police officer, who had responded to cries for help from Ahmed and other students. The driver identified himself as an FBI agent “who was doing surveillance,” Henisey said.

On Friday, Ahmed, an economics major and lifelong Orange County resident, said he was still reeling.

“He didn’t open his window and didn’t let me know who he was. He never said anything,” Ahmed said. “All he had to say was that he was FBI or law enforcement and this wouldn’t have happened. I was frightened. He pushed me with the car, which had tinted windows and then tried to drive away. What’s one supposed to think?”

Henisey said campus officers were interviewing witnesses.

“There are potential criminal allegations, and we’re still not certain what happened,” he said. “We’re trying to determine if there was an assault and if the vehicle was used.”

Read more:

• Los Angeles Times: Tensions rise again at UC Irvine

FBI Agent Assaults UCI Student by Pushing Him with His Car

The FBI is using unnecessarily hostile tactics to thwart freedom of speech at UC Irvine. An excerpt from an Orange County Register article:

UCI economics student Yasser Ahmed said he was driving a borrowed truck up onto the Ring Road near the library loading dock Monday night, on intending to haul away the wall, when he noticed a silver Ford Taurus with blackened windows following him.

Ahmed said he stopped the truck in view of other campus observers and stood in front of the Taurus, trying to look through the blackened windshield and asking the driver to identify himself. When he would not speak, Ahmed said he tried to take a photo of the car’s license plate with his camera phone.

“He could have just rolled down his window and said, ‘I’m an FBI agent,’ and that would have been the end of it,” Ahmed said. “There was nothing improper going on.”

Instead, according to Ahmed, the driver revved his engine threateningly and began pushing him backward with the car’s front bumper. Ahmed said he then began calling for help, and dozens of other students ran over to assist.

“I was frightened,” Ahmed said. “I felt I could have been killed or seriously injured if I hadn’t jumped out of the way.”

Sociology student Marya Bangee, a member of the Muslim Student Union, said the incident was frightening.

“The car was revving its engine to look as intimidating as possible,” Bangee said. “I thought it was going to come and hit the (mock Palestine) wall.”

Eventually, the car roared off, according to witnesses, chased by students on bicycles and a campus police car. Later, Ahmed said a police officer told him that the car had “cold” license plates, meaning they could not be checked through normal computers.

The next morning, Ahmed said, he went to the campus police station and was told by the police chief that the man in the car was an FBI agent.

Read more:

• The Orange County Register: FBI actions at UCI questioned

Michael Moore: “Sicko” is Completed and We’re Off to Cannes!

An open letter from Michael Moore about his new movie “Sicko” about the abuses of the health-care industry:


“Sicko” is Completed and We’re Off to Cannes!

Friends,

It’s a wrap! My new film, “Sicko,” is all done and will have its world premiere this Saturday night at the Cannes Film Festival. As with “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11,” we are honored to have been chosen by this prestigious festival to screen our work there.

My intention was to keep “Sicko” under wraps and show it to virtually no one before its premiere in Cannes. That is what I have done and, as you may have noticed if you are a recipient of my infrequent Internet letters, I have been very silent about what I’ve been up to. In part, that’s because I was working very hard to complete the film. But my silence was also because I knew that the health care industry -- an industry which makes up more than 15 percent of our GDP -- was not going to like much of what they were going to see in this movie and I thought it best not to upset them any sooner than need be.

Well, going quietly to Cannes, I guess, was not to be. For some strange reason, on May 2nd the Bush administration initiated an action against me over how I obtained some of the content they believe is in my film. As none of them have actually seen the film (or so I hope!), they decided, unlike with “Fahrenheit 9/11,” not to wait until the film was out of the gate and too far down the road to begin their attack.

Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, launched an investigation of a trip I took to Cuba to film scenes for the movie. These scenes involve a group of 9/11 rescue workers who are suffering from illnesses obtained from working down at Ground Zero. They have received little or no help with their health care from the government. I do not want to give away what actually happens in the movie because I don’t want to spoil it for you (although I’m sure you’ll hear much about it after it unspools Saturday). Plus, our lawyers have advised me to say little at this point, as the film goes somewhere far scarier than “Cuba.” Rest assured of one thing: no laws were broken. All I’ve done is violate the modern-day rule of journalism that says, “ask no questions of those in power or your luncheon privileges will be revoked.”

This preemptive action taken by the Bush administration on the eve of the “Sicko” premiere in Cannes led our attorneys to fear for the safety of our film, noting that Secretary Paulson may try to claim that the content of the movie was obtained through a violation of the trade embargo that our country has against Cuba and the travel laws that prohibit average citizens of our free country from traveling to Cuba. (The law does not prohibit anyone from exercising their first amendment right of a free press and documentaries are protected works of journalism.)

I was floored when our lawyers told me this. “Are you saying they might actually confiscate our movie?” “Yes,” was the answer. “These days, anything is possible. Even if there is just a 20 percent chance the government would seize our movie before Cannes, does anyone want to take that risk?”

Certainly not. So there we were last week, spiriting a duplicate master negative out of the country just so no one from the government would take it from us. (Seriously, I can’t believe I just typed those words! Did I mention that I’m an American, and this is America and NO ONE should ever have to say they had to do such a thing?)

I mean, folks, I have just about had it. Investigating ME because I’m trying to help some 9/11 rescue workers our government has abandoned? Once again, up is down and black is white. There are only two people in need of an investigation and a trial, and the desire for this across America is so widespread you don’t even need to see the one’s smirk or hear the other’s sneer to know who I am talking about.

But no, I’m the one who now has to hire lawyers and sneak my documentary out of the country just so people can see a friggin’ movie. I mean, it’s just a movie! What on earth could I have placed on celluloid that would require such a nonsensical action against me?

Ok. Scratch that.

Well, I’m on my way to Cannes right now, a copy of the movie in my bag. Don’t feel too bad for me, I’ll be in the south of France for a week! But then it’s back to the U.S. for a number of premieres and benefits and then, finally, a chance for all of you to see this film that I have made. Circle June 29th on your calendar because that’s when it opens in theaters everywhere across the country and Canada (for the rest of the world, it opens in the fall).

I can’t wait for you to see it.

Yours,

Michael Moore

P.S. I will write more about what happens from Cannes. Stay tuned on my website, MichaelMoore.com.

Mitt Romney Tries to Prove Just How Delusional He Is

In a sickening scene that resembled a game to prove who was the most delusional, Republican candidates for president at their second presidential debate took turns trying to prove who would be the toughest candidate.

Perhaps the most obscene comment of the night came from Mitt Romney:

“Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo.”

As the Washington Post writes:

He added that terrorism suspects should be kept in the military prison camp to keep them without access to legal counsel.

“I want them in Guantanamo where they don’t get the access to lawyers they get when they’re on our soil. I don’t want them in our prisons. I want them there,” said Romney.

As impossible as it may seem, Romney has less of an appreciation for basic civil liberties and less of an understanding of “innocent until proven guilty” than even the Bush Administration does.

Read more:

• Washington Post: Romney, Giuliani terrorism comments draw criticism
• Washington Post: A Question of Torture

Occupation 101 DVD Released in North America

Occupation 101 is a documentary film on the root-causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A message from the producers of Occupation 101:

Dear Friends and Supporters

It is with great pleasure that we announce the Official DVD release of Occupation 101 for sales in the United States and Canada! That is right… Our Canadian brothers and sisters will also be able to purchase our film (we worked hard to make it happen…other markets/regions will soon be announced, please be patient with us :).

To purchase the DVD please visit www.occupation101.com

We chose to release our film on this day the 15th of May – to remember and honor the struggle of the many innocent victims of displacement, oppression, and unfortunate circumstances since before 1948. We have devoted many years of our lives to make sure that we present to you our best work in a most sincere and honest way – and with the best in artistic creativity.

Our goal is to raise awareness on the tragedy of Israel and Palestine through the medium of film so that we can re-educate millions of people in North America and across the world about a conflict that is most widely misunderstood. Give us 90 minutes of your time, and your reality will never be the same again – you will not only be informed, but inspired to take action!

Thank you so much for your continued support and may God Bless you all.

Peace,
Occupation 101

Please support these brothers’ noble efforts and purchase a DVD today:

• Occupation 101 Web Site

BBC: Red Cross Condemns Israeli Occupation of East Jerusalem

An excerpt from a BBC article about a confidential Red Cross report that was leaked to the press:

The international Red Cross has privately accused Israel of reshaping Jerusalem to further its own interests, in violation of international law.

A leaked ICRC report says Israeli policy has far-reaching humanitarian consequences for Palestinians living under occupation in East Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, and the territory is regarded as occupied land under international law.

Read more:

• BBC: Israel Jerusalem policy condemned

Associated Press: Jail hiring Muslim chaplain after uproar

The county jail where a Christian minister handed out anti-Islamic cartoons announced it will hire an imam for its Muslim inmates.

The Rockland County Jail also said it will provide religiously appropriate food.

Rockland Undersheriff Thomas Guthrie said Tuesday that the imam will work one day a week, joining the jail’s priest and rabbi.

The Christian chaplain, the Rev. Teresa Darden Clapp, was suspended with pay last month after inmates complained she was passing out anti-Islam booklets.

In the cartoon panel stories, a tract titled “Men of Peace?” said Islamic fundamentalists who commit terrorist acts are not “bad Muslims” but “very good Muslims” who act in accordance with their religion. Another tract, titled “Allah Has No Son,” said Allah is not God, Muhammad was no prophet, and the Quran is not the word of God. Both stories end with people being convinced Islam is false. In one, a Muslim converts to Christianity.

Local Muslims have called for Clapp’s dismissal, and the county requested an independent investigation.

Clapp has not commented public about the controversy and has not responded to messages seeking comment.

Source:

• Associated Press: Jail hiring Muslim chaplain after uproar

Washington Post: IMF, World Bank Face Irrelevance

An excerpt from a Washington Post article about Latin American countries shying away from relying on the IMF and the World Bank:

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank aren't very popular these days in Latin America. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wants to sever all ties with the top two international financial institutions based in Washington, claiming they are "tools of U.S. imperialism." Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has evicted the World Bank representative from his country and declared him persona non grata, saying the bank's loans are tantamount to blackmail.

Given Chavez's and Correa's reputations for antagonism, their actions might seem expected. But other governments throughout the region, conservative and liberal alike, are also distancing themselves from the institutions for a variety of reasons.

Read more:

• Washington Post: IMF, World Bank Face Irrelevance

New York Times: Israeli Riddle: Love Jerusalem, Hate Living There

An except from a New York Times article:

ISRAEL is facing a challenge it never expected when it captured East Jerusalem and reunited the city in the 1967 war: each year, Jerusalem’s population is becoming more Arab and less Jewish.

For four decades, Israel has pushed to build and expand Jewish neighborhoods, while trying to restrict the growth in Arab parts of the city. Yet two trends are unchanged: Jews moving out of Jerusalem have outnumbered those moving in for 27 of the last 29 years. And the Palestinian growth rate has been high.

Read the rest of the article:

• Israeli Riddle: Love Jerusalem, Hate Living There

Wired News: Scientists Work on Encyclopedia of Life

Wired News on a new ambitious project called the Encyclopedia of Life:

In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone.

The effort, called the Encyclopedia of Life, will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs, and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. Its first pages of information will be shown Wednesday in Washington where the massive effort is being announced by some of the world's leading scientific institutions and universities. The project will take about 10 years to complete.

Read more:

• Encyclopedia of Life Official Web Site
• Wired News: Scientists Work on Encyclopedia of Life

Saudi Aramco World: Healing South Central

Here is an excerpt from an excellent Saudi Aramco World article about the UMMA Community Clinic in South-Central Los Angeles:

“You’re only students.”

That was the reaction from community leaders in 1992 when Rushdi Abdul Cader and six med-school friends proposed offering free medical services in South Central Los Angeles, then recently ravaged by riots.

What made the proposal even less plausible was that the seven, all members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), had no money—and it would be years before they received their degrees.

Nonetheless, four years later, with the encouragement of their professors and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters, the indefatigable idealists opened the first charity health clinic in the United States founded by Muslims. They named it UMMA, an acronym for “University Muslim Medical Association” and the Arabic word for “community.”

Read the rest of the article:

• Saudi Aramco World: Healing South Central

altmuslim: The New Halal (And the Non-Muslims Who Love It)

An excerpt from an altmuslim article:

And since nothing attracts the corporate world like the smell of unharvested profits, businesses from Citibank to IKEA are wondering just how much Muslim marketing they can produce without alienating their other customers, and initial forays are meeting with some success.

For example, when two McDonald’s restaurants in Melbourne, Australia switched to halal sources for their meat, sales doubled despite some protests by non-Muslims (select McDonald’s restaurants in the UK followed suit this week). The Nando’s restaurant chain has profited immensely by offering halal offerings of its Portuguese chicken in 25% of its stores in the UK. One entrepreneur is even seeking to export prepackaged organic halal pizzas from Canada to Muslim populations throughout North America and Europe. "There are a lot of Muslims who would eat this up," says Angelo Alof , founder of Organic Halal International Foods (and master of puns, evidently).

As for mainstream foods, another businessman has helped introduce and distribute in the UK halal sweets (including Gummi Bears) by Haribos, one of Europe’s biggest sweet manufacturers. Nestle has become the biggest multi-national food manufacturer for Muslims, producing halal food in 75 of its 481 factories and earning over $3 billion in annual sales. And for those Muslim entrepreneurs, such as restaurant owners, who are looking for Islamically-compatible business-to-business services, Lloyd’s TSB Bank has begun offering Islamic business accounts in Britain.

Read the rest of the article:

• altmuslim: altmuslim: The New Halal (And The Non-Muslims Who Love It)

New York Times: Afghans Say U.S. Airstrikes Killed 21 Civilians

Afghan officials said Wednesday that airstrikes called in by American Special Forces against Taliban fighters in Helmand Province had killed 21 civilians, the latest in a series of claims of noncombatant casualties that have strained relations with the Afghan government.

Read more:

• New York Times: Afghans Say U.S. Airstrikes Killed 21 Civilians

Palestinian Christian: Why Israel is after me

Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian Christian who was a member of the Knesset until last month wrote this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.

A few excerpts from the op-ed:

More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty — Israel’s “Bill of Rights” — defines the state as “Jewish” rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.

Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.
...

I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking out on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel’s illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.
...

Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country whose very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious discrimination that victimize its own citizens?

Read the full op-ed piece:

• Los Angeles Times Why Israel is after me

Look for the Positive

The Prophet ‘Īsā (Jesus), peace be upon him and his disciples passed by the carcass of a dog. The disciples said, “What a stench this dog makes!” Then he (peace be upon him) said, “How white are its teeth!”