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October 4, 2001 - 5:13pm -- Uncle Fluffy
Rants

Louis Lingg writes: "The following message was posted on the website of the group Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). It is directed to the Afghani emigre dissidents, intellectuals and professionals associated with the Afghan Solidarity project.

Dear compatriots,
Sisters and brothers, honoured patriots,

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan in its turn praises your worthy initiative of uniting and raising the voice of protest against the Jehadi and
Taliban criminals, and salutes those responsible and participating in this movement.

While our Afghanistan is crushed and reduced to a pulp in the filthy claws of a handful of executioners felonious and mercenary and ignorant to the marrow of their
bones, and our bereaved people suffer under the most calamitous and sanguinary conditions, it is especially up to our compatriots living in the West to use the
favorable circumstances to rise up against the criminal fundamentalists, and to struggle until the people of those lands realize that, with the exception of a handful of
individuals clearly dependent on this or that criminal camp of traitors, a decisive majority of our people are fiery patriots, who will not rest anywhere in the world until the
dawn of the sun of freedom and democracy in our country, and who will never tolerate the domination of aliens and their domestic Taliban and Jehadi slaves in this age
of the atom and the computer and emancipation.

September 29, 2001 - 1:10pm -- autonomedia
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Writing in Cairo's Al Ahram http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/553/op2.htm noted Palestinian-American writer Edward Said says:


For the seven million Americans
who are Muslims (only two million
of them Arab) and have lived
through the catastrophe and
backlash of 11 September, it's been
a harrowing, especially unpleasant
time. In addition to the fact that
there have been several Arab and
Muslim innocent casualties of the atrocities, there
is an almost palpable air of hatred directed at the
group as a whole that has taken many forms.
George W Bush immediately seemed to align
America and God with each other, declaring war
on the "folks" -- who are now, as he says, wanted
dead or alive -- who perpetrated the horrible
deeds. And this means, as no one needs any
further reminding, that Osama Bin Laden, the
elusive Muslim fanatic who represents Islam to
the vast majority of Americans, has taken centre
stage. TV and radio have run file pictures and
potted accounts of the shadowy (former playboy,
they say) extremist almost incessantly, as they
have of the Palestinian women and children
caught "celebrating" America's tragedy.


September 27, 2001 - 6:16pm -- autonomedia
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

TACTile1 writes: "Temporary Anti-Capitalist Teams


A Discussion Document


 how things are


Before we go
anywhere we need to look at what the "anti-Capitalist movement" means
(if it means anything at all) as a diverse political movement, how it works,
what it does and who it is. Whilst referencing the international links that
have been made and the global nature of the ideas that drive the movement, this
document is, in practical terms, talking mainly about the UK's contribution.


In terms of
activists, the real number of active people is vastly outweighed by spectators
and sympathisers, by the amount of activity carried out, and in turn by the
effect made on the wider political scene. Adding all the groups together, we
are really only talking about a couple of hundred activists as a maximum. Many
of these activists are firmly wedded not just to their particular political
specialism, but to their particular political group. This group chauvinism has
been a perpetual block on change and unity on the anti-Capitalist Left. Many
groups are quite convinced that their direction is the only direction - like
a Party line without the Party - and don't even have a desire to work within
a wider context.
September 26, 2001 - 6:27pm -- autonomedia
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

PATRIOTISM AS A CAUSE OF WAR



What then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of
scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-
patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify
the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better
equipment for the excercise of man-kiling than the making of such
necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that
guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the
average workingman.


September 26, 2001 - 5:32pm -- autonomedia
Rants

Tom Crumpacker writes: "Modern Mythology and Osama bin Laden



Myth-men do not die when their bodies are destroyed...



they often grow more powerful as time goes by.... Their story has
many versions, and although the characters are different, the plot
is the same. They usually stand up for the weak and poor, like St.
Joan and Jesus, and they often outwit established power, like Robin
Hood and T.E. Lawrence.



MODERN MYTHOLOGY by Tom Crumpacker



If our government has any evidence of a link between last week's
attackers and Osama bin Laden, it should make it public now, so as
to justify its upcoming attack of Afganistan. It says it has such
evidence, but so far the only thing made public is that one of the
attackers, Muhamed Atta, was seen in Germany last year talking to
an Osama follower. Last year Osama already had thousands if not
millions of "followers."



The real Osama was virtually unknown, except to some CIA operatives
and Mideast people, until July, 1998. The myth-man Osama was born
then, when the CEO of the world's only superpower, fresh from
answering questions about having sex in his office with an intern,
rained down 75 Cruise missiles on a phamaceutical warehouse in
Khartoum and some camps in the Afgan mountains. He said that Osama
was responsible for bombing US embassies in Africa. Like a fox,
Osama had left the camps before the missiles arrived. US intelligence,
military and political leaders said that he owned or controlled
the Khartoum warehouse and that his weapons and bombs had been
stored there. They had the evidence to prove this, they said, but
they chose not to disclose it. A year later they quietly admitted
there was no such evidence and compensated the families for the
people they had killed.

September 25, 2001 - 7:33pm -- autonomedia
Rants

Yassine Santissi writes: "Time to mourn the individuals affected by the recent human tragedy is over.
Time to assess what has occured since the recent human tragedy has come. To
overcome this human tragedy, this is a necessary task.


September 24, 2001 - 6:45pm -- autonomedia
Rants

The United States risks a severe miscalculation in dealing with the
destruction of the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon
on Tuesday. This event is not an isolated instance of violence. This
is not an "act of war." It is one symptom of a cancer that threatens
to metastasize. The root cause is not terrorist activity, as has
been widely stated. It is the relationship between the United States
and the Islamic world. Until this central cancerous problem is
treated, Americans will never be free from fear.

September 21, 2001 - 8:41pm -- Stenglander
Rants

Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans

Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998

Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri,
leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu- Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader
of the Islamic Group; Sheikh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan;
and Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh

Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats
factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past,
then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer
them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace
be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent
with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped,
God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts
humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula
has never--since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it
with seas--been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading
in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All
this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like
people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation
and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events,
and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.

September 18, 2001 - 3:12pm -- autonomedia
Rants

We'll need a year

To count the dead.


The missing

Will be missing

Forever.


Crime is down by half.

So is the market.


Everything else

Is down

To ashes.


We are all

Very brave.

And we are all

Very proud of that.


We are all

Working very hard.

And we all

Must be

Very proud of that.


God bless us all.

I think,

September 15, 2001 - 9:22pm -- nomadlab
Rants

Anonymous Comrade writes: "A frightening prospect is outlined in the memorandum circulated below -- "Jihad vs. McWorld", with the USA playing into extremists' hands... A biologist, Toivo Kallas forwards this letter from a college roommate, Tamim Ansary, who grew up in Afghanistan. Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 10:14:27 -0700


Dear Friends,


Yesterday I heard a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage," and he asked, "What else can we do? What is your suggestion?" Minutes later I heard a TV pundit discussing whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."


And I thought about these issues especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's been going on over there. So I want to share a few thoughts with anyone who will listen.


I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I fervently wish to see those monsters punished.


But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who captured Afghanistan in 1997 and have been holding the country in bondage ever since. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a master plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would love for someone to eliminate the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. I guarantee it.

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