World
Bin Laden Family Wants Proof and Probe of Death
When things seemed to have cooled down about the death of Osama bin Laden, it was only a matter of time for family members crying about the ‘assassination.’ It isn’t enough that some in the Taliban are wanting proof, but now some of his relatives are wanting to see proof. And, if that wasn’t enough, they are also wanting to investigate his assumed ‘assassination’ and have it lead by the United Nations.
CNN | Relatives of Osama bin Laden want proof that the terrorist leader is dead and are calling for an investigation into how he was killed, according to Jean Sasson, an author who helped one of bin Laden’s sons write a memoir.
“They just really want some answers, and they would just really like to know what exactly happened, why they weren’t called,” said Sasson, who worked with Omar bin Laden to pen a memoir entitled “Growing Up bin Laden.”
The United States says U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a May 2 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was hiding out.
The forces collected a trove of intelligence from the compound and later buried bin Laden’s body at sea. While the Obama administration has decided not to release photos of the slain bin Laden, some U.S. lawmakers will be allowed to view them.
“They would like to have been able to have witnessed seeing the body, at least identified the body, because, you know how it is in the Middle East so many times: they really need proof or people start believing — this has been discussed by a lot more people than me — that many people will not believe that he’s dead,” she told CNN Wednesday. MORE
Pakistan to Allow US Officials Access to Bin Laden Widows
Bloomberg | Pakistan will allow the U.S. to question the three wives of Osama bin Laden who were with him in the compound where American commandos killed the al-Qaeda leader last week, granting a measure of cooperation amid tensions following the raid.
The Obama administration expects to get access to the women soon, based on a response from the Pakistani government, a U.S. official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The specific timing of the access wasn’t set, the official said.
The decision followed verbal skirmishing between the two countries. Pakistani officials have said that the U.S. should have informed Pakistan of the operation in advance. U.S. officials have questioned how much Pakistani authorities knew about bin Laden’s presence in their country.
The Obama administration said yesterday that it wouldn’t apologize for entering Pakistan to raid bin Laden’s compound, as the South Asian country’s prime minister tried to counter domestic criticism over the military’s failure to detect and stop the U.S. attack.
“We obviously take the statements and concerns of the Pakistani government seriously,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday, speaking after Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, addressed the Parliament in Islamabad. “But we also do not apologize for the actions that we took.”
NATO Leader Says Gadhafi’s Days Numbered
Gadhafi all but disappeared from the headlines with the announcement that Osama bin Laden was dead. But that didn’t mean he went away for good. Pressures continue, as well as bombings on both sides. But a new call from NATO leadership has other plans saying: “The game is over for Gadhafi.”
Other nations question who gave the right to NATO to out Gadhafi.
US Officials Release Video of Osama bin Laden
Power Struggle in Iran Between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad
NYTimes | The unprecedented power struggle between the two most powerful leaders in Iran deepened Friday, spilling out into Tehran’s public prayers where the mullah leading the service indirectly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while the crowd chanted “Death to opponents of the supreme leader!”
The split started about two weeks ago after the president tried to dismiss the head of the intelligence ministry, the powerful government branch that exerts widespread control over domestic life. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, ordered that the minister, Heydar Moslehi, keep the post.
Mr. Ahmadinejad then stayed home for 11 days, according to reports from Iran, engaging in a visible fit of pique that threatened to undermine the staunch alliance the two had forged since Mr. Ahmadinejad was first elected president in 2005.
The spat dragged into the open several factional fights, analysts said, particularly the efforts by Mr. Ahmadinejad’s conservative opponents to prevent his faction from dominating the parliamentary elections next March and even the presidential vote in 2013.
Even before the chants at Friday Prayer, a signature event since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, important conservative factions had pronounced their support for the supreme leader, including the government’s primary enforcers, the Revolutionary Guards. Ayatollah Khamenei’s infallibility was the subject of Friday Prayer in at least half a dozen large cities besides Tehran, according to media reports.
“It is quite astounding in a way where on a daily basis people are coming out and saying that Khamenei has the constitutional right and the religious right to do what he wants to do,” said Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii. “Ahmadinejad has effectively lost the support of the base. If you do not have the support of Khamenei, you are nobody.”
Under Iranian law, the president has the right to hire and fire cabinet ministers, Iran experts said. But the supreme leader, as the title suggests, is the nation’s ultimate authority.
Al-Qaeda: ‘bin Laden is Dead’
BBC | Al-Qaeda has confirmed the death of its leader Osama Bin Laden, according to a statement attributed to the group and posted on jihadist internet forums.
The statement said his blood would not be “wasted” and that al-Qaeda would continue attacking the US and allies.
It said Bin Laden’s death would be a “curse” for the US and urged an uprising in Pakistan.
Bin Laden died on Monday when US commandos stormed his compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.
The statement comes as several rallies are being held across Pakistan in protest at Monday’s raid.
Daughter of Osama bin Laden Confirms His Death
Al Arabiya News | Senior Pakistani security officials said Osama bin Laden’s daughter had confirmed her father was captured alive and shot dead by the US Special Forces during the first few minutes of the operation carried out at the huge compound in Bilal Town, Abbottabad.
Besides recovering four bullet-riddled bodies from the compound, Pakistani security agencies also arrested two women and six children, aged between 2 and 12 years, after American forces flew toward Afghanistan. Some reports suggest 16 people, including women and children, were arrested from the house, most of them Arab nationals.
A Pakistani security source told Al Arabiya that Bin Laden family members had been transported to Rawalpindi, which is near Islamabad. He added, “They are now under treatment in the military hospital of Rawalpindi, where they have been transported in an helicopter.” A source told Al Arabiya that Bin Laden’s had been injured either in her leg or her shoulder.
Sources speculated that US Forces could not arrest these family members because there weren’t enough places for them in the helicopter, after they lost another chopper during the operation.
Muslim Brotherhood Behind Syrian Uprising
H/T – Weasel Zippers
BEIRUT (AP) — The banned Muslim Brotherhood urged Syrians to take to the streets on Friday as activists called for a “Day of Rage” against President Bashar Assad’s regime, which has stepped up its deadly crackdown on protesters by unleashing the army along with snipers and tanks.
The government warned against holding any demonstrations. Syrian state television said the Interior Ministry has not approved any “march, demonstration or sit-in” and that such rallies seek only to harm Syria’s security and stability.
Activists in Syria are planning nationwide protests following Muslim prayers in solidarity with more than 50 people killed in the last week alone in Daraa, a southern city at the heart of the revolt.
Since the uprising in Syria began in mid-March, inspired by revolts across the Arab world, more than 450 people have been killed nationwide, activists say.
Friday’s statement by the Muslim Brotherhood was the first time the outlawed group has openly encouraged the protests in Syria. The Brotherhood was crushed by Assad’s father, Hafez, after staging an uprising against his regime in 1982.
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Iranian Lawmakers Propose Bill to Criminalize Dog Ownership
It looks as if lawmakers in Tehran, capital city of Iran, doesn’t have enough control over it’s people. Thus giving them the idea that they can make ownership of dogs a criminal act. But, it goes deeper than that.
Jihad Watch | Iran: Parliament mulling bill to criminalize dog ownership
The Muslim revulsion for dogs comes from Muhammad: “Ibn Mughaffal reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) ordered killing of the dogs, and then said: What about them, i. e. about other dogs? and then granted concession (to keep) the dog for hunting and the dog for (the security) of the herd, and said: When the dog licks the utensil, wash it seven times, and rub it with earth the eighth time.” — Sahih Muslim 551
And from the Shi’ite side of the divide, which pertains more specifically to this story, here is a contemporary voice — Iraq’s Ayatollah Sistani:
The following ten things are essentially najis [unclean]:1. Urine
2. Faeces
3. Semen
4. Dead body
5. Blood
6. Dog
7. Pig
8. Kafir [unbeliever — i.e., non-Muslims]
9. Alcoholic liquors
10. The sweat of an animal who persistently eats najasat [unclean things].
Sharia Alert from the Islamic Republic of Iran: “The Latest Enemies of Iran: Dogs and Their Owners,” by Azadeh Moaveni in Time Magazine, April 19:
For much of the past decade, the Iranian government has tolerated what it considers a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs.