Sunday, August 27, 2006 News Update
Undercover video acquired by CBS 2's Miami sister station, WFOR-TV CBS 4, reveals an inside look at a suspected terror group leader accused in a plot to target U.S. landmarks, including the Sears Tower.
The suspected group was based in Miami and was allegedly led by a former Chicagoan. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, that Chicago suspect was apparently trying to recruit help with his mission when he was busted. The Liberty City 7”, as they have been dubbed, face terrorism charges after government agents uncovered an alleged plot to blow up buildings, including the Sears Tower, the Miami Federal Courthouse, and the Miami FBI offices, as well as other structures.
The undercover video shows Narseal Batiste, and others taking, what prosecutors claim, is an oath to the al Qaeda terrorist organization, as well as conversations in which Batiste tells and FBI undercover agent his plans for blowing up buildings. It was a classic FBI sting, with hidden cameras rolling in a hotel room. The key players are the government informant, whose face is obscured, and the alleged ringleader of the terrorist plot.
FBI surveillance photos show Batiste, the former Chicago FedEx delivery driver, allegedly checking out Miami’s federal courthouse as a possible target. The videotape of the front and side doors of that courthouse was to be given to the man they thought represented al Qaeda, a man Batiste first met when he entered a Miami hotel room hoping to make his dream of Islamic jihad a reality.
“My name is Brother Mohammed ali Hussein,” the informant said on tape. “Ali Hussein,” Batiste asked. “Yes,” said the informant. “My job is to determine if its worth it or not. My job is to say if these people are serious or not."
Batiste tries to convince him that he and seven other members of his so-called Moorish Science Temple, their mosque housed in a rundown warehouse in Miami, are very serious. “What's the plan?” asked the informant. “To build this army,” Batiste replied.
“Army? To build an army?” the informant asked. “An Islamic army for Islamic jihad,” Batiste said. “Jihad? To wage jihad?” the informant said. “Yes,” confirmed Batiste.
Eventually, the others are introduced to the informant. On the tape, one by one, each pledges his allegiance. In another taped meeting, Batiste asks for money for boots and uniforms and more.
At another meeting, also taped by the government, Batiste got down to specifics. They talk about waging war with an army of street gang members and two specific targets. “I'm gonna tell you there's two major buildings that you gotta blow up. The Empire State Building and … the uh, and the uh, Sears Tower. With those two buildings down, all radio communication is out," Batiste said.
The video has been the subject of reports by WFOR-TV reporter Brian Andrews, and its broadcast has apparently upset some of the attorneys involved in the case. The material shown on television and on the Internet was provided by prosecutors as part of the discovery process, and is part of the public record of the case. It includes hundreds of hours of CDs and DVDs, which CBS 4 has been examining for the material which was broadcast.
A federal judge denied a request for a temporary injunction that would have prevented CBS 2 sister station WFOR-TV CBS 4 in Miami and their Web site, CBS4.com, from showing undercover surveillance video of seven men implicated in a terrorism scheme that involved a plot to blow up the Sears Tower. Attorney Ana Jhones had filed the request with Federal Court Judge Joan Lenard at the U.S. Courthouse in Miami, asking that CBS, and any other media outlet, be prevented from showing the undercover video showing her client, Narseal Batiste, the alleged ringleader of what prosecutors claim was a terrorist cell based in Liberty City. The request was denied following a teleconference between Jhones, the judge, and attorneys for CBS.
WFOR-TV has reported that the material was legally obtained from a source involved with the case, but has not disclosed the source.
The two Fox News journalists kidnapped in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 14 were released Sunday afternoon. They were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel, dressed in Western-style clothing, and quickly walked through the lobby and rushed upstairs.
Earlier Sunday morning, Palestinian Authority Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal, said the two hostages, cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand and correspondent Steve Centanni of the US, would be released "within hours" unharmed.
A short while later a video was released by the kidnappers showing the two prisoners in good health. During the recording, the journalists claimed that they had converted to Islam, a decision which they said was made without any coercion. Sitting on the floor in a traditional Islamic robe, they also condemned Israel for their military operations in the Gaza Strip. It was the second such video to be released since the ordeal began.
Immediately after entering the hotel, a tearful Centanni briefly embraced a Palestinian journalist. Wiig briefly turned and appeared to yell at Palestinian security guards before heading upstairs.
In an interview with Fox News shortly after being released, Centanni discussed the kidnapping and the two weeks that followed. "We were driving down a narrow side-street in Gaza City, dropping off our security guide, when a car stopped in front of us. Then, before we realized it, the [kidnappers] swarmed our car, yanked us out, stuffed us in a car, and put a black hood on our head," he said. "I remember thinking, oh god, I'm toast. They could shoot me in head and nobody would hear it," he continued. "But in my good nature I thought that I'm no good to them dead."
Under the fear of death, Centanni was forced to comply with the demands of his captors. "There was a lot of writing," he said, telling of being forced to give written statements of his work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir. He was also forced to convert to Islam. "Don't get me wrong, I have the highest respect for Islam. We learned a lot of great things about it," he explained, "but it was something we felt we had to do, because they had the gun." "There were times that I thought 'I'm dead,' and now…I'm not.
On Saturday, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he had personally received assurances from the kidnappers that the two reporters would be released unharmed and unconditionally. PA Interior Minister Said Siam, who is in charge of part of the PA security forces, announced on Saturday that significant progress had been achieved in efforts to secure the release of the men. "There are encouraging indications that the two will be released soon," he said, refusing to elaborate.
Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled PA government, also said on Saturday that he was "very encouraged" that the two would be released soon. "I believe they will be released soon because of a breakthrough in the negotiations with the kidnappers," he said.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility last week for the abduction and issued a three-day ultimatum to the US to release all Muslim prisoners held in America. However, Hamas officials told The Jerusalem Post that the kidnappers belonged to one of the armed wings of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.
The deadline set by the kidnappers passed midday Saturday. Haniyeh was quoted shortly afterward as voicing optimism on the issue. "There is progress regarding the case of the kidnapped journalists," he said. "There are also promises that they won't be harmed."
Hizbullah will keep its weapons despite international pressure to disarm, the organization's deputy leader said in remarks published Saturday.
Sheikh Naim Kassem told Lebanon's leading An-Nahar daily that Hizbullah's "resistance" to Israel would continue, saying "justifications for ending it do not exist."
Kassem said Hizbullah was surprised by the magnitude of Israel's response to the group's capture of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Hizbullah had expected Israel to respond at most with "some limited attacks" and two or three days of bombing, Kassem said. "We were surprised by the size and strength of the Israeli reaction. We expected that the IDF would bomb areas close to the border for several days and only cause minimal damage," he said.
In addition to pounding Hizbullah's strongholds in east and south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs, Israeli warplanes and artillery also targeted Lebanese infrastructure, destroying bridges and roads throughout the country and bombing Beirut's airport and ports.
Hizbullah has said that it would not surrender its weapons as long as Israel holds Lebanese prisoners, occupies the Shaba Farms and IAF planes fly in Lebanese airspace. Kassem said Hizbullah would continue to abide by the fragile UN cease-fire despite Israeli violations, but warned that the group would not tolerate such violations for long.
Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early Sunday at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.
The Israeli army said it did not realize the car's passengers were journalists and only attacked because the vehicle was driving in a suspicious manner near Israeli troops in the middle of a combat zone.
The airstrike on the journalists' car came as Israeli soldiers backed by two dozen tanks, two bulldozers, helicopters and drone planes moved into an area just inside the Gaza Strip near the Karni crossing, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. The army said the troops were searching for explosives planted by Palestinian militants alongside the border fence and for tunnels under the border. After the operation began, groups of militants repeatedly gathered to try to attack the soldiers, the army and witnesses said.
Capt. Noa Meir, an army spokeswoman, said the vehicle was the only one in the combat area, was driving suspiciously and came near Israeli forces during the nighttime raid. "That's why it was targeted. It was seen as a threat," she said. "There were no clear TV marks (on the car). At least we didn't see one." "It's unfortunate when journalists get hurt, but that is not the intention," Meir added. However, the area was an active battlefield and the reporters should not have been there, she said, adding that three Hamas militants attacked soldiers from the same spot 10 minutes after the airstrike.
During the raid early Sunday, aircraft repeatedly fired missiles into fields where Palestinian militants were gathering on the edge of Shajaiyeh, killing a Hamas militant, rescue officials said. During the raid early Sunday, aircraft fired missiles into fields where Palestinian militants were gathering on the edge of Shajaiyeh, seriously wounding one person, according to emergency officials. Helicopters also fired machine guns at gathering militants, witnesses said.
The army also told residents in three nearby buildings to evacuate their houses as bulldozers cleared land near the border, witnesses said. Soldiers also took over some rooftops and searched several houses, they said. Israel has stepped up raids and airstrikes in Gaza over the past two months as part of a wide-scale offensive that began after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. In the West Bank, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a standoff at a fugitives' hideout Saturday, and doctors said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed.
The Nablus standoff began early Saturday when troops surrounded a four-story apartment building where the army said two Palestinian fugitives were hiding. Troops called on the fugitives to surrender, but by mid-afternoon, they were still inside the building. The army brought in bulldozers which started chipping away at the walls of the building and destroyed a water tank. At one point, the building came under heavy automatic fire by the army.
The troops also fired at a neighboring house, where gunmen were seen shooting at the force. Bulldozers and army vehicles driving through the neighborhood were showered with stones. The residents of the building were ordered to leave and some were questioned, the witnesses said. Troops also searched neighboring buildings, witnesses said, and soldiers carrying guns were seen moving between houses.The neighborhood appeared deserted and heavy gunshots were exchanged.
The army said Palestinians fired at the troops and in two cases also hurled explosive devices. The wanted militants belong to the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah. They are believed to be explosive experts.
Late Saturday, the army pulled out of Nablus without arresting anyone.
During the recent month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel, U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon.
UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah "fired rockets in large numbers from various locations" and Hezbollah's rockets "were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations" are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got.
This war was fought on cable television and the Internet, and a lot of official information was available in real time. But the specific military intelligence UNIFIL posted could not be had from any non-U.N. source. The Israeli press--always eager to push the envelope--did not publish the details of troop movements and logistics. Neither the European press nor the rest of the world media, though hardly bastions of concern for the safety of Israeli troops, provided the IDF intelligence details that UNIFIL did. A search of Israeli government websites failed to turn up the details published to the world each day by the U.N.
Inquiries made of various Israeli military and government representatives and analysts yielded near unanimous agreement that at least some of UNIFIL's postings, in the words of one retired senior military analyst, "could have exposed Israeli soldiers to grave danger." These analysts, including a current high ranking military official, noted that the same intelligence would not have been provided by the U.N. about Israel's enemies.
This partiality is inconsistent not only with UNIFIL's mission but also with its own stated policies. In a telling incident just a few years back, UNIFIL vigorously insisted on its "neutral ity"--at Israel's expense.
On October 7, 2000, three IDF soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah just yards from a UNIFIL shelter and dragged across the border into Lebanon, where they disappeared. The U.N. was thought to have videotaped the incident or its immediate aftermath. Rather than help Israel rescue its kidnapped soldiers by providing this evidence, however, the U.N. obstructed the Israeli investigation. For months the Israeli government pleaded with the U.N. to turn over any videotape that might shed light on the location and condition of its missing men. And for nine months the U.N. stonewalled, insisting first that no such tape existed, then that just one tape existed, and eventually conceding that there were two more tapes. During those nine months, clips from the videotapes were shown on Syrian and Lebanese television.
Explaining their eventual about-face, U.N. officials said the decision had been made by the on-site commanders that it was not their responsibility to provide the material to Israel; indeed, that to do so would violate the peacekeeping mandate, which required "full impartiality and objectivity." The U.N. report on the incident was adamant that its force had "to ensure that military and other sensitive information remains in their domain and is not passed to parties to a conflict."
Stymied in its efforts to recover the men while they were still alive, Israel ultimately agreed to an exchange in January 2004: It released 429 Arab prisoners and detainees, among them convicted terrorists, and the bodies of 60 Lebanese decedents and members of Hezbollah, in exchange for the bodies of the three soldiers. Blame for the deaths of those three Israelis can be laid, at least in part, at the feet of the U.N., which went to the wall defending its inviolable pledge never to share military intelligence about one party with another.
Israel has appointed a top general to oversee a war against Iran, prompting speculation that it is preparing for possible military action against Tehran's nuclear program.
Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, Israel's air force chief, will be overall commander for the "Iran front," military sources told the London Sunday Telegraph. News of the appointment comes just days before a United Nations deadline expires for Iran to give up its nuclear program, which Western governments fear will be used to produce atomic weapons. Despite Iran's offer last week to engage in "serious talks" on the matter, Israel fears even more than other Western nations that the offer is simply to buy time for Tehran to secure all the technology it needs to build the bomb.
"Israel is becoming extremely concerned now with what they see as Iran's delaying tactics," said Israeli Iran analyst Meir Javedanfar. "[The planners] think negotiations are going nowhere, and Iran is becoming a major danger for Israel. Now they are getting ready for living with a nuclear Iran or letting the military take care of it." The prospect of Israel "living with" a nuclear Iran appears remote. Last week, Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told reporters that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would "sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel."
Mr. Ahmadinejad "has a religious conviction that Israel's demise is essential to the restoration of Muslim glory, that the Zionist thorn in the heart of the Islamic nations must be removed," Mr. Eiland said.
Gen. Shkedy, who was appointed to the role two months ago, will coordinate intelligence gathered by Israel's foreign spy agency Mossad and military sources, in order to draw up battle plans. Then, during any war with Iran, he will command the campaign from a "hot seat" in the Israeli army's headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Officially, Israel stresses that it does not want to take the lead in tackling Iran and that a massive campaign of air strikes would be best led by the United States, which has forces in Iraq that are much closer to Iranian targets.
Gen. Shkedy's appointment to the Iran command role was made by Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, in the run-up to this summer's Lebanon war but emerged only last week.
A fire raged through a 19th century cathedral Friday, collapsing the main cupola atop the stately church in Russia's former Imperial capital and sending clerics scurrying to save treasured icons.
The fire erupted in the early evening and burned through scaffolding outside the soaring blue central dome of Trinity Cathedral, a duty officer at the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. The cause was not immediately known. The central dome collapsed and one of four smaller cupolas surrounding it - painted a striking light blue and in some cases spangled with gold stars - was also destroyed, St. Petersburg emergency department spokeswoman Lyudmila Rubasova said. There were no reports of injuries, she said.
Firefighters battled to save the other three domes as emergency workers and church employees removed icons and other religious articles. A helicopter brought in to fight the blaze dumped water on the historic structure. Rubasova said one of the three remaining domes had been damaged but that the fire was contained.
Police surrounded a home in Russia's Dagestan region Saturday and exchanged gunfire with suspected militants, killing four and wounding a woman who was with the gunmen, authorities said. One police officer was wounded.
Meanwhile, three Russian riot police were killed and one was seriously wounded when gunmen attacked their vehicle in Ingushetia, another violence-plagued region bordering Chechnya, an Ingush official said.
The early morning house siege in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, was the latest in a string of similar police operations in the mostly Muslim region where attacks targeting law enforcement authorities and government officials are common. Regional Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov said police and security forces attacked the home after its occupants rejected a demand to surrender, and that an unspecified number of children left the building before the assault.
At one point, a suspected militant emerged in an attempt to destroy an armored personnel carrier with a grenade, but was shot dead, Magomedtagirov said.
Magomedtagirov said the suspected militants were planning a terrorist attack, but he offered no evidence for the claim, which is routinely made after such operations throughout Russia's North Caucasus - the volatile swath of southern Russia that includes Chechnya. In Ingushetia, just west of Chechnya, gunmen opened fire Saturday afternoon on a vehicle carrying riot police from a Siberian unit serving in the area, killing three and severely wounding one other, deputy regional prosecutor Zeinep Tomova said.
Iran on Sunday test-fired a sub-to-surface missile in the Persian Gulf during large-scale military exercises, state-run television reported.
"The army successfully test-fired a top speed long-range sub-to-surface missile off the Persian Gulf," the Army's Navy commander, Gen. Sajjad Kouchaki, said on state television.
A brief video clip showed the missile, fired from a submarine, hitting a target on the surface of the water within less than a mile. The test came as part of large-scale military exercises under way throughout the country. Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and to test equipment including missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
An Iraqi archaeologist who won international acclaim for tracking down the country's treasures has fled to Syria, saying he is no longer safe in Baghdad.
Donny George announced his resignation this week as president of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, The Guardian reported. In an interview, George said that increasing interference from supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, who are only interested in Muslim history, and the chaos in Baghdad have made his job impossible.
"The board has come under the increasing influence of al-Sadr," George said. "I can no longer work with these people who have come in with the new ministry. They have no knowledge of archaeology, no knowledge of antiquities."
A follower of Sadr, who did not want his name used, said that George, a Christian, did nothing to oppose Saddam. The valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq have some of the world's most important archaeological sites covering thousands of years of history.
Insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan left one NATO-led coalition soldier dead and seven wounded Sunday, while police killed 10 suspected Taliban militants who struck a government compound, officials said.
The soldier was killed in the southern Helmand province, a NATO statement said. It did not provide the soldier's nationality or details on the clash. Another NATO soldier and six Afghan troops were wounded when mortars hit their base in neighboring Kandahar province early Sunday, the statement said. The soldiers were evacuated to a military medical facility for treatment.
On Saturday, a large number of militants attacked the Musa Qala district government compound in Helmand, provoking a clash with police that left 10 insurgents dead, said Ghulam Nabi Malakheil, provincial police chief.The militants left the dead bodies alongside seven AK-47 assault rifles, five rocket-propelled grenades and two heavy machine guns, he said. There were no police casualties.
Kabul has been spared most of the violence that has engulfed Afghanistan's south and east, but a series of bombings and attacks on NATO-led peacekeepers has rattled the nerves of its citizens.
On Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, said "it is clear" that militants are using Pakistan to infiltrate Afghanistan. But he added he "absolutely does not believe" accusations of collusion between Pakistan's government and the resurgent Taliban rebels or other extremists. "I think that Pakistan has done an awful lot in going after al-Qaida, and it's important that they don't let the Taliban groups be organized in the Pakistani side of the border," Abizaid told reporters in Bagram, site of the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
Armed men ambushed a bus transferring 30 prisoners from Kandahar to Kabul on Sunday, killing a prison official and wounding a policeman, said Noor Mohammad Paktin, police chief of southern Zabul province, where the attack occurred. Some prisoners fled but were quickly recaptured and taken to Kabul, Paktin said. It was not clear who the prisoners were.
In a lively but polite give-and-take, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld fielded questions Saturday from wives and other family members of Alaska-based soldiers whose combat tours in Iraq were abruptly extended just as they prepared to return home this month.
"It is something we don't want to do," Rumsfeld told several hundred family members who gathered in a gymnasium at nearby Ft. Wainwright, home of the 172nd Stryker Brigade. The unit's deployment to Iraq was extended by up to four months to bolster U.S. firepower in the Baghdad area. "But in this case we had to," he added, referring to the decision made in late July to extend the 172nd.
Asked whether the Army was preparing another brigade to take over for the 172nd in case the intended improvements in Baghdad are not achieved by mid-December, Rumsfeld said he could make no promises."I wish I had a magic wand and the power to say yes. I don't," he said. "I will do everything in the world I can do to see that they are not extended beyond the 120 days."
Reporters, including five who traveled with Rumsfeld from Washington, D.C., were not permitted to cover his meeting with the family members, which lasted about an hour. But a wife who made a video tape of the event showed it to reporters afterward.
One wife asked Rumsfeld why the 172nd was doing house-to-house searches in Baghdad instead of the kinds of combat operations they are trained to perform. Rumsfeld disputed her assertion, saying that 95 percent of the house-clearing operations are being done by Iraqi troops.
In an interview during his flight to Fairbanks, Rumsfeld said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him."I don't put it in that context," he said. "These people are all volunteers. They all signed up. They all are there doing what they're doing because they want to do it. They're proud of what they do. They do it very, very well." Asked why reporters would not be permitted to cover his meeting with the family members, Rumsfeld at first replied, "I don't have any idea. I haven't addressed the subject." Later he said he makes it a practice to make all family meetings private.
A newly formed Alaska chapter of the Military Families Speak Out group issued a statement in Fairbanks saying it would make a public call for the Bush administration to bring home the 172nd and all other U.S. troops.
Rumsfeld said in the in-flight interview that the 172nd Brigade was an effective force during its nearly one-year deployment to the Mosul area in northern Iraq. He said the soldiers performed well in the short time since they shifted to Baghdad as part of an effort by U.S. commanders to quell sectarian killings. "They did a terrific job in Mosul and they're already doing an excellent job in Baghdad," said Rumsfeld, indicating that commanders chose to extend the 172nd Brigade in part because of their extensive experience in Iraq. The brigade's tour was extended by up to 120 days, bringing them close to a Christmas return date. Rumsfeld said he would make no promises that the full brigade would be back home by the holidays. "I'd love to be Santa Claus. I'm not," he told reporters.
If it turned out that by December, U.S. commanders in Iraq felt they needed an unscheduled infusion of troops, "our first choice obviously would be to have them be someone other than the people we just extended," Rumsfeld said. "But I'm not going to get into the promises business. That isn't my style."
On Sunday, Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov planned to participate in a ceremony in Fairbanks for a memorial of the Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease program. During World War II, nearly 8,000 U.S. warplanes were flown to Fairbanks by U.S. pilots and turned over to Soviet pilots for use against the Germans.
Rumsfeld also was to tour the missile defense site at Fort Greely, near Fairbanks, where interceptor rockets in underground silos are being developed for potential use in the event of a long-range missile attack on U.S. soil. A test of portions of the system is scheduled to be held in a few days.
A bomb planted in a mini van detonated Sunday outside a hotel in downtown Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring 16, police and witnesses said.
The bomb detonated shortly before noon outside the Palestine Hotel near a pedestrian entry point to the facility. The explosion caused a fire to break out. The bomb was left inside a bag which detonated inside the minivan, which had stopped outside the hotel. The minivan was being used as a bus to ferry people from downtown Baghdad to the Karrada neighborhood.
Commentary: Targeting the Fox News Journalists
Unable to comment with any authority on the United States or the UN rumor mill, Iraq the Model goes with the Iraqi version.
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. - Dale Carnegie
The suspected group was based in Miami and was allegedly led by a former Chicagoan. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, that Chicago suspect was apparently trying to recruit help with his mission when he was busted. The Liberty City 7”, as they have been dubbed, face terrorism charges after government agents uncovered an alleged plot to blow up buildings, including the Sears Tower, the Miami Federal Courthouse, and the Miami FBI offices, as well as other structures.
The undercover video shows Narseal Batiste, and others taking, what prosecutors claim, is an oath to the al Qaeda terrorist organization, as well as conversations in which Batiste tells and FBI undercover agent his plans for blowing up buildings. It was a classic FBI sting, with hidden cameras rolling in a hotel room. The key players are the government informant, whose face is obscured, and the alleged ringleader of the terrorist plot.
FBI surveillance photos show Batiste, the former Chicago FedEx delivery driver, allegedly checking out Miami’s federal courthouse as a possible target. The videotape of the front and side doors of that courthouse was to be given to the man they thought represented al Qaeda, a man Batiste first met when he entered a Miami hotel room hoping to make his dream of Islamic jihad a reality.
“My name is Brother Mohammed ali Hussein,” the informant said on tape. “Ali Hussein,” Batiste asked. “Yes,” said the informant. “My job is to determine if its worth it or not. My job is to say if these people are serious or not."
Batiste tries to convince him that he and seven other members of his so-called Moorish Science Temple, their mosque housed in a rundown warehouse in Miami, are very serious. “What's the plan?” asked the informant. “To build this army,” Batiste replied.
“Army? To build an army?” the informant asked. “An Islamic army for Islamic jihad,” Batiste said. “Jihad? To wage jihad?” the informant said. “Yes,” confirmed Batiste.
Eventually, the others are introduced to the informant. On the tape, one by one, each pledges his allegiance. In another taped meeting, Batiste asks for money for boots and uniforms and more.
At another meeting, also taped by the government, Batiste got down to specifics. They talk about waging war with an army of street gang members and two specific targets. “I'm gonna tell you there's two major buildings that you gotta blow up. The Empire State Building and … the uh, and the uh, Sears Tower. With those two buildings down, all radio communication is out," Batiste said.
The video has been the subject of reports by WFOR-TV reporter Brian Andrews, and its broadcast has apparently upset some of the attorneys involved in the case. The material shown on television and on the Internet was provided by prosecutors as part of the discovery process, and is part of the public record of the case. It includes hundreds of hours of CDs and DVDs, which CBS 4 has been examining for the material which was broadcast.
A federal judge denied a request for a temporary injunction that would have prevented CBS 2 sister station WFOR-TV CBS 4 in Miami and their Web site, CBS4.com, from showing undercover surveillance video of seven men implicated in a terrorism scheme that involved a plot to blow up the Sears Tower. Attorney Ana Jhones had filed the request with Federal Court Judge Joan Lenard at the U.S. Courthouse in Miami, asking that CBS, and any other media outlet, be prevented from showing the undercover video showing her client, Narseal Batiste, the alleged ringleader of what prosecutors claim was a terrorist cell based in Liberty City. The request was denied following a teleconference between Jhones, the judge, and attorneys for CBS.
WFOR-TV has reported that the material was legally obtained from a source involved with the case, but has not disclosed the source.
The two Fox News journalists kidnapped in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 14 were released Sunday afternoon. They were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel, dressed in Western-style clothing, and quickly walked through the lobby and rushed upstairs.
Earlier Sunday morning, Palestinian Authority Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal, said the two hostages, cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand and correspondent Steve Centanni of the US, would be released "within hours" unharmed.
A short while later a video was released by the kidnappers showing the two prisoners in good health. During the recording, the journalists claimed that they had converted to Islam, a decision which they said was made without any coercion. Sitting on the floor in a traditional Islamic robe, they also condemned Israel for their military operations in the Gaza Strip. It was the second such video to be released since the ordeal began.
Immediately after entering the hotel, a tearful Centanni briefly embraced a Palestinian journalist. Wiig briefly turned and appeared to yell at Palestinian security guards before heading upstairs.
In an interview with Fox News shortly after being released, Centanni discussed the kidnapping and the two weeks that followed. "We were driving down a narrow side-street in Gaza City, dropping off our security guide, when a car stopped in front of us. Then, before we realized it, the [kidnappers] swarmed our car, yanked us out, stuffed us in a car, and put a black hood on our head," he said. "I remember thinking, oh god, I'm toast. They could shoot me in head and nobody would hear it," he continued. "But in my good nature I thought that I'm no good to them dead."
Under the fear of death, Centanni was forced to comply with the demands of his captors. "There was a lot of writing," he said, telling of being forced to give written statements of his work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir. He was also forced to convert to Islam. "Don't get me wrong, I have the highest respect for Islam. We learned a lot of great things about it," he explained, "but it was something we felt we had to do, because they had the gun." "There were times that I thought 'I'm dead,' and now…I'm not.
On Saturday, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he had personally received assurances from the kidnappers that the two reporters would be released unharmed and unconditionally. PA Interior Minister Said Siam, who is in charge of part of the PA security forces, announced on Saturday that significant progress had been achieved in efforts to secure the release of the men. "There are encouraging indications that the two will be released soon," he said, refusing to elaborate.
Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled PA government, also said on Saturday that he was "very encouraged" that the two would be released soon. "I believe they will be released soon because of a breakthrough in the negotiations with the kidnappers," he said.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility last week for the abduction and issued a three-day ultimatum to the US to release all Muslim prisoners held in America. However, Hamas officials told The Jerusalem Post that the kidnappers belonged to one of the armed wings of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.
The deadline set by the kidnappers passed midday Saturday. Haniyeh was quoted shortly afterward as voicing optimism on the issue. "There is progress regarding the case of the kidnapped journalists," he said. "There are also promises that they won't be harmed."
Hizbullah will keep its weapons despite international pressure to disarm, the organization's deputy leader said in remarks published Saturday.
Sheikh Naim Kassem told Lebanon's leading An-Nahar daily that Hizbullah's "resistance" to Israel would continue, saying "justifications for ending it do not exist."
Kassem said Hizbullah was surprised by the magnitude of Israel's response to the group's capture of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Hizbullah had expected Israel to respond at most with "some limited attacks" and two or three days of bombing, Kassem said. "We were surprised by the size and strength of the Israeli reaction. We expected that the IDF would bomb areas close to the border for several days and only cause minimal damage," he said.
In addition to pounding Hizbullah's strongholds in east and south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs, Israeli warplanes and artillery also targeted Lebanese infrastructure, destroying bridges and roads throughout the country and bombing Beirut's airport and ports.
Hizbullah has said that it would not surrender its weapons as long as Israel holds Lebanese prisoners, occupies the Shaba Farms and IAF planes fly in Lebanese airspace. Kassem said Hizbullah would continue to abide by the fragile UN cease-fire despite Israeli violations, but warned that the group would not tolerate such violations for long.
Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early Sunday at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.
The Israeli army said it did not realize the car's passengers were journalists and only attacked because the vehicle was driving in a suspicious manner near Israeli troops in the middle of a combat zone.
The airstrike on the journalists' car came as Israeli soldiers backed by two dozen tanks, two bulldozers, helicopters and drone planes moved into an area just inside the Gaza Strip near the Karni crossing, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. The army said the troops were searching for explosives planted by Palestinian militants alongside the border fence and for tunnels under the border. After the operation began, groups of militants repeatedly gathered to try to attack the soldiers, the army and witnesses said.
Capt. Noa Meir, an army spokeswoman, said the vehicle was the only one in the combat area, was driving suspiciously and came near Israeli forces during the nighttime raid. "That's why it was targeted. It was seen as a threat," she said. "There were no clear TV marks (on the car). At least we didn't see one." "It's unfortunate when journalists get hurt, but that is not the intention," Meir added. However, the area was an active battlefield and the reporters should not have been there, she said, adding that three Hamas militants attacked soldiers from the same spot 10 minutes after the airstrike.
During the raid early Sunday, aircraft repeatedly fired missiles into fields where Palestinian militants were gathering on the edge of Shajaiyeh, killing a Hamas militant, rescue officials said. During the raid early Sunday, aircraft fired missiles into fields where Palestinian militants were gathering on the edge of Shajaiyeh, seriously wounding one person, according to emergency officials. Helicopters also fired machine guns at gathering militants, witnesses said.
The army also told residents in three nearby buildings to evacuate their houses as bulldozers cleared land near the border, witnesses said. Soldiers also took over some rooftops and searched several houses, they said. Israel has stepped up raids and airstrikes in Gaza over the past two months as part of a wide-scale offensive that began after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. In the West Bank, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a standoff at a fugitives' hideout Saturday, and doctors said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed.
The Nablus standoff began early Saturday when troops surrounded a four-story apartment building where the army said two Palestinian fugitives were hiding. Troops called on the fugitives to surrender, but by mid-afternoon, they were still inside the building. The army brought in bulldozers which started chipping away at the walls of the building and destroyed a water tank. At one point, the building came under heavy automatic fire by the army.
The troops also fired at a neighboring house, where gunmen were seen shooting at the force. Bulldozers and army vehicles driving through the neighborhood were showered with stones. The residents of the building were ordered to leave and some were questioned, the witnesses said. Troops also searched neighboring buildings, witnesses said, and soldiers carrying guns were seen moving between houses.The neighborhood appeared deserted and heavy gunshots were exchanged.
The army said Palestinians fired at the troops and in two cases also hurled explosive devices. The wanted militants belong to the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah. They are believed to be explosive experts.
Late Saturday, the army pulled out of Nablus without arresting anyone.
During the recent month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel, U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon.
UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah "fired rockets in large numbers from various locations" and Hezbollah's rockets "were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations" are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got.
This war was fought on cable television and the Internet, and a lot of official information was available in real time. But the specific military intelligence UNIFIL posted could not be had from any non-U.N. source. The Israeli press--always eager to push the envelope--did not publish the details of troop movements and logistics. Neither the European press nor the rest of the world media, though hardly bastions of concern for the safety of Israeli troops, provided the IDF intelligence details that UNIFIL did. A search of Israeli government websites failed to turn up the details published to the world each day by the U.N.
Inquiries made of various Israeli military and government representatives and analysts yielded near unanimous agreement that at least some of UNIFIL's postings, in the words of one retired senior military analyst, "could have exposed Israeli soldiers to grave danger." These analysts, including a current high ranking military official, noted that the same intelligence would not have been provided by the U.N. about Israel's enemies.
This partiality is inconsistent not only with UNIFIL's mission but also with its own stated policies. In a telling incident just a few years back, UNIFIL vigorously insisted on its "neutral ity"--at Israel's expense.
On October 7, 2000, three IDF soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah just yards from a UNIFIL shelter and dragged across the border into Lebanon, where they disappeared. The U.N. was thought to have videotaped the incident or its immediate aftermath. Rather than help Israel rescue its kidnapped soldiers by providing this evidence, however, the U.N. obstructed the Israeli investigation. For months the Israeli government pleaded with the U.N. to turn over any videotape that might shed light on the location and condition of its missing men. And for nine months the U.N. stonewalled, insisting first that no such tape existed, then that just one tape existed, and eventually conceding that there were two more tapes. During those nine months, clips from the videotapes were shown on Syrian and Lebanese television.
Explaining their eventual about-face, U.N. officials said the decision had been made by the on-site commanders that it was not their responsibility to provide the material to Israel; indeed, that to do so would violate the peacekeeping mandate, which required "full impartiality and objectivity." The U.N. report on the incident was adamant that its force had "to ensure that military and other sensitive information remains in their domain and is not passed to parties to a conflict."
Stymied in its efforts to recover the men while they were still alive, Israel ultimately agreed to an exchange in January 2004: It released 429 Arab prisoners and detainees, among them convicted terrorists, and the bodies of 60 Lebanese decedents and members of Hezbollah, in exchange for the bodies of the three soldiers. Blame for the deaths of those three Israelis can be laid, at least in part, at the feet of the U.N., which went to the wall defending its inviolable pledge never to share military intelligence about one party with another.
Israel has appointed a top general to oversee a war against Iran, prompting speculation that it is preparing for possible military action against Tehran's nuclear program.
Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, Israel's air force chief, will be overall commander for the "Iran front," military sources told the London Sunday Telegraph. News of the appointment comes just days before a United Nations deadline expires for Iran to give up its nuclear program, which Western governments fear will be used to produce atomic weapons. Despite Iran's offer last week to engage in "serious talks" on the matter, Israel fears even more than other Western nations that the offer is simply to buy time for Tehran to secure all the technology it needs to build the bomb.
"Israel is becoming extremely concerned now with what they see as Iran's delaying tactics," said Israeli Iran analyst Meir Javedanfar. "[The planners] think negotiations are going nowhere, and Iran is becoming a major danger for Israel. Now they are getting ready for living with a nuclear Iran or letting the military take care of it." The prospect of Israel "living with" a nuclear Iran appears remote. Last week, Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told reporters that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would "sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel."
Mr. Ahmadinejad "has a religious conviction that Israel's demise is essential to the restoration of Muslim glory, that the Zionist thorn in the heart of the Islamic nations must be removed," Mr. Eiland said.
Gen. Shkedy, who was appointed to the role two months ago, will coordinate intelligence gathered by Israel's foreign spy agency Mossad and military sources, in order to draw up battle plans. Then, during any war with Iran, he will command the campaign from a "hot seat" in the Israeli army's headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Officially, Israel stresses that it does not want to take the lead in tackling Iran and that a massive campaign of air strikes would be best led by the United States, which has forces in Iraq that are much closer to Iranian targets.
Gen. Shkedy's appointment to the Iran command role was made by Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, in the run-up to this summer's Lebanon war but emerged only last week.
A fire raged through a 19th century cathedral Friday, collapsing the main cupola atop the stately church in Russia's former Imperial capital and sending clerics scurrying to save treasured icons.
The fire erupted in the early evening and burned through scaffolding outside the soaring blue central dome of Trinity Cathedral, a duty officer at the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. The cause was not immediately known. The central dome collapsed and one of four smaller cupolas surrounding it - painted a striking light blue and in some cases spangled with gold stars - was also destroyed, St. Petersburg emergency department spokeswoman Lyudmila Rubasova said. There were no reports of injuries, she said.
Firefighters battled to save the other three domes as emergency workers and church employees removed icons and other religious articles. A helicopter brought in to fight the blaze dumped water on the historic structure. Rubasova said one of the three remaining domes had been damaged but that the fire was contained.
Police surrounded a home in Russia's Dagestan region Saturday and exchanged gunfire with suspected militants, killing four and wounding a woman who was with the gunmen, authorities said. One police officer was wounded.
Meanwhile, three Russian riot police were killed and one was seriously wounded when gunmen attacked their vehicle in Ingushetia, another violence-plagued region bordering Chechnya, an Ingush official said.
The early morning house siege in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, was the latest in a string of similar police operations in the mostly Muslim region where attacks targeting law enforcement authorities and government officials are common. Regional Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov said police and security forces attacked the home after its occupants rejected a demand to surrender, and that an unspecified number of children left the building before the assault.
At one point, a suspected militant emerged in an attempt to destroy an armored personnel carrier with a grenade, but was shot dead, Magomedtagirov said.
Magomedtagirov said the suspected militants were planning a terrorist attack, but he offered no evidence for the claim, which is routinely made after such operations throughout Russia's North Caucasus - the volatile swath of southern Russia that includes Chechnya. In Ingushetia, just west of Chechnya, gunmen opened fire Saturday afternoon on a vehicle carrying riot police from a Siberian unit serving in the area, killing three and severely wounding one other, deputy regional prosecutor Zeinep Tomova said.
Iran on Sunday test-fired a sub-to-surface missile in the Persian Gulf during large-scale military exercises, state-run television reported.
"The army successfully test-fired a top speed long-range sub-to-surface missile off the Persian Gulf," the Army's Navy commander, Gen. Sajjad Kouchaki, said on state television.
A brief video clip showed the missile, fired from a submarine, hitting a target on the surface of the water within less than a mile. The test came as part of large-scale military exercises under way throughout the country. Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and to test equipment including missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
An Iraqi archaeologist who won international acclaim for tracking down the country's treasures has fled to Syria, saying he is no longer safe in Baghdad.
Donny George announced his resignation this week as president of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, The Guardian reported. In an interview, George said that increasing interference from supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, who are only interested in Muslim history, and the chaos in Baghdad have made his job impossible.
"The board has come under the increasing influence of al-Sadr," George said. "I can no longer work with these people who have come in with the new ministry. They have no knowledge of archaeology, no knowledge of antiquities."
A follower of Sadr, who did not want his name used, said that George, a Christian, did nothing to oppose Saddam. The valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq have some of the world's most important archaeological sites covering thousands of years of history.
Insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan left one NATO-led coalition soldier dead and seven wounded Sunday, while police killed 10 suspected Taliban militants who struck a government compound, officials said.
The soldier was killed in the southern Helmand province, a NATO statement said. It did not provide the soldier's nationality or details on the clash. Another NATO soldier and six Afghan troops were wounded when mortars hit their base in neighboring Kandahar province early Sunday, the statement said. The soldiers were evacuated to a military medical facility for treatment.
On Saturday, a large number of militants attacked the Musa Qala district government compound in Helmand, provoking a clash with police that left 10 insurgents dead, said Ghulam Nabi Malakheil, provincial police chief.The militants left the dead bodies alongside seven AK-47 assault rifles, five rocket-propelled grenades and two heavy machine guns, he said. There were no police casualties.
Kabul has been spared most of the violence that has engulfed Afghanistan's south and east, but a series of bombings and attacks on NATO-led peacekeepers has rattled the nerves of its citizens.
On Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, said "it is clear" that militants are using Pakistan to infiltrate Afghanistan. But he added he "absolutely does not believe" accusations of collusion between Pakistan's government and the resurgent Taliban rebels or other extremists. "I think that Pakistan has done an awful lot in going after al-Qaida, and it's important that they don't let the Taliban groups be organized in the Pakistani side of the border," Abizaid told reporters in Bagram, site of the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
Armed men ambushed a bus transferring 30 prisoners from Kandahar to Kabul on Sunday, killing a prison official and wounding a policeman, said Noor Mohammad Paktin, police chief of southern Zabul province, where the attack occurred. Some prisoners fled but were quickly recaptured and taken to Kabul, Paktin said. It was not clear who the prisoners were.
In a lively but polite give-and-take, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld fielded questions Saturday from wives and other family members of Alaska-based soldiers whose combat tours in Iraq were abruptly extended just as they prepared to return home this month.
"It is something we don't want to do," Rumsfeld told several hundred family members who gathered in a gymnasium at nearby Ft. Wainwright, home of the 172nd Stryker Brigade. The unit's deployment to Iraq was extended by up to four months to bolster U.S. firepower in the Baghdad area. "But in this case we had to," he added, referring to the decision made in late July to extend the 172nd.
Asked whether the Army was preparing another brigade to take over for the 172nd in case the intended improvements in Baghdad are not achieved by mid-December, Rumsfeld said he could make no promises."I wish I had a magic wand and the power to say yes. I don't," he said. "I will do everything in the world I can do to see that they are not extended beyond the 120 days."
Reporters, including five who traveled with Rumsfeld from Washington, D.C., were not permitted to cover his meeting with the family members, which lasted about an hour. But a wife who made a video tape of the event showed it to reporters afterward.
One wife asked Rumsfeld why the 172nd was doing house-to-house searches in Baghdad instead of the kinds of combat operations they are trained to perform. Rumsfeld disputed her assertion, saying that 95 percent of the house-clearing operations are being done by Iraqi troops.
In an interview during his flight to Fairbanks, Rumsfeld said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him."I don't put it in that context," he said. "These people are all volunteers. They all signed up. They all are there doing what they're doing because they want to do it. They're proud of what they do. They do it very, very well." Asked why reporters would not be permitted to cover his meeting with the family members, Rumsfeld at first replied, "I don't have any idea. I haven't addressed the subject." Later he said he makes it a practice to make all family meetings private.
A newly formed Alaska chapter of the Military Families Speak Out group issued a statement in Fairbanks saying it would make a public call for the Bush administration to bring home the 172nd and all other U.S. troops.
Rumsfeld said in the in-flight interview that the 172nd Brigade was an effective force during its nearly one-year deployment to the Mosul area in northern Iraq. He said the soldiers performed well in the short time since they shifted to Baghdad as part of an effort by U.S. commanders to quell sectarian killings. "They did a terrific job in Mosul and they're already doing an excellent job in Baghdad," said Rumsfeld, indicating that commanders chose to extend the 172nd Brigade in part because of their extensive experience in Iraq. The brigade's tour was extended by up to 120 days, bringing them close to a Christmas return date. Rumsfeld said he would make no promises that the full brigade would be back home by the holidays. "I'd love to be Santa Claus. I'm not," he told reporters.
If it turned out that by December, U.S. commanders in Iraq felt they needed an unscheduled infusion of troops, "our first choice obviously would be to have them be someone other than the people we just extended," Rumsfeld said. "But I'm not going to get into the promises business. That isn't my style."
On Sunday, Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov planned to participate in a ceremony in Fairbanks for a memorial of the Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease program. During World War II, nearly 8,000 U.S. warplanes were flown to Fairbanks by U.S. pilots and turned over to Soviet pilots for use against the Germans.
Rumsfeld also was to tour the missile defense site at Fort Greely, near Fairbanks, where interceptor rockets in underground silos are being developed for potential use in the event of a long-range missile attack on U.S. soil. A test of portions of the system is scheduled to be held in a few days.
A bomb planted in a mini van detonated Sunday outside a hotel in downtown Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring 16, police and witnesses said.
The bomb detonated shortly before noon outside the Palestine Hotel near a pedestrian entry point to the facility. The explosion caused a fire to break out. The bomb was left inside a bag which detonated inside the minivan, which had stopped outside the hotel. The minivan was being used as a bus to ferry people from downtown Baghdad to the Karrada neighborhood.
Commentary: Targeting the Fox News Journalists
Unable to comment with any authority on the United States or the UN rumor mill, Iraq the Model goes with the Iraqi version.
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. - Dale Carnegie