Bin Laden's Son Wants to Be Peace Envoy
By PAUL SCHEMM,AP
Posted: 2008-01-17 17:15:39
Filed Under: World News
CAIRO, Egypt (Jan. 17) -

Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father — except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket.





Nasser Nasser, AP 'My Father Is Asking
For a Truce'1 of 5 Omar Osama bin Laden, the fourth eldest of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's 19 children, said he wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. Omar, 26, said he was with his father until 2000 and trained at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan before deciding to leave and return to his native Saudi Arabia.

The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than al-Qaida's militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.



Omar raised a tabloid storm in Britain last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took on the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 3,000- mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.

"It's about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs — especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama — are all terrorists. This is not the truth," Omar told AP last Friday at a cafe in one of Cairo's new shopping malls.

Of course, many may have a hard time getting their mind around the idea of "bin Laden: peacenik."

"Omar thinks he can be a negotiator," said Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain. "He's one of the only people who can do this in the world."

Omar, the fourth eldest of Osama bin Laden's 19 children, lived with his father in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan when Khartoum forced out the al-Qaida leader in 1996.

In Afghanistan, Omar says he trained at an al-Qaida camp but in 2000 he decided there must be another way and he left his father, returning to his homeland Saudi Arabia.

"I don't want to be in that situation to just fight. I like to find another way and this other way may be like we do now, talking," he said in English. He suggested his father did not oppose his leaving — and Alsabah interjected that Omar was courageous in breaking away, but neither elaborated.

He said he hasn't seen or been in contact with his father since leaving Afghanistan. "He doesn't have email," Omar said. "He doesn't take a telephone ... if he had something like this, they will find him through satellites."

Omar doesn't criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world.

"My father thinks he will be good for defending the Arab people and stop anyone from hurting the Arab or Muslim people any place in the world," he said, noting that the West didn't have a problem with his father when he was fighting the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Omar is convinced a truce between the West and al-Qaida is possible.

"My father is asking for a truce but I don't think there is any government (that) respects him. At the same time they do not respect him, why everywhere in the world, they want to fight him? There is a contradiction," he said.

Osama bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in the Pakistan-Afghan border region, offered a truce to Europe in a 2004 audiotape and a conditional truce to the United States in a 2006 message. In November, he called on European nations to pull out of Afghanistan in a message seen by some experts as an effort to reach out to Europe.

But in a series of messages since last fall, he has also been calling for Muslims to rally around jihad, or "holy war," encouraging fighters in Iraq in particular to continue their battles with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

At least two of Osama bin Laden's sons, Hamza and Saad, are believed to have an active role in al-Qaida — with Hamza believed to be operating in the Pakistan-Afghan border zone and Saad thought to be in Iran, perhaps in Iranian custody.

But most of his children, like Omar, live as legitimate businessmen. The family as a whole disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities. The family is a large and wealthy one — Osama bin Laden's billionaire father Mohammed, who died in 1967, had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a sprawling construction conglomerate that is given many major building contracts in the kingdom.

Since leaving his father's side, Omar has lived in Saudi Arabia, where he runs a contracting company connected with the Binladen Group, and he spends much of his time in Egypt. It was during a desert horseback ride at the Pyramids of Giza that he met his wife. The couple insist that they have had no problems with Egyptian security services. Egyptian security officials did not immediately respond for comment.

Their marriage in April made them tabloid fodder, particularly in Britain, where headlines touted the "granny who married Osama bin Laden's son" — Alsabah, who has married five times, has five grandchildren. She and Omar had interviews with the British Broadcasting Corp. and other British media.

Now they have applied for a visa to Britain. And they are planning their endurance horse race across North Africa, which they hope to start in March. They admit they are still in the planning stages, seeking approval of governments along the route. They are also looking for sponsors to help pay for the event and raise money for child victims of war.

Omar said they plan to ride 30 miles a day, with periodic weeklong rests in each country.

Teams from around the world will be encouraged to join in what the couple envision as an equine version of the famous Paris-Dakar car rally.

That rally was cancelled this year due to fears over terrorist threats made by al-Qaida-affiliated groups in North Africa.

Omar, however, said he isn't worried.

"I heard the rally was stopped because of al-Qaida," he said. "I don't think they are going to stop me."

Hmmm
Actually, I would be curious to Hudsons thoughts on this idea of Bin Ladens son being a peace envoy.

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 17, 5:38 PM ET



WASHINGTON - As security conditions improve in Iraq, the U.S. should be able to reduce forces at a slow but consistent pace beyond this summer, but air support and ground troops likely will be needed for five to 10 years, a top military commander said Thursday.

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Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, also said he believes Iraqi forces will be able to take over security in their country much quicker than they have suggested.

"What we don't want to do is suddenly pull out a whole bunch of U.S. forces and suddenly turn things over to ... the Iraqi security forces," said Odierno, who will finish his tour in Iraq next month and return to Fort Hood, Texas.

"I would like to see it done very slowly over time. And I think if we do that, we'll find ourselves being more successful and we'll be able to have a consistent reduction of our forces over time."

Odierno, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military leaders have been loath to predict troop reductions beyond this summer, when the number of U.S. brigades in Iraq will drop to 15. There were 20 brigades there for the last six months of 2007, but one has left and the other four will leave by July. That would bring U.S. troop totals down to about 130,000.

On Thursday, Gates said he still hopes that the "pace of the drawdowns in the first half of the year will continue in the second half of the year." But he stressed that it depends on the evaluation of conditions there by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Asked about Gates' expressed hope, Odierno said he first wants to see the effects of the reduction of forces now under way. "We're now at 19 brigades — going to 18, 17, 16, 15. I feel comfortable that we'll be able to maintain the security, but I would like to make sure that that works," he said.

Odierno also cited Mosul as an example of how the U.S. will gradually take on more of an oversight and support role, as Iraqi forces take the lead.

"I see what we're doing in Mosul as a model for the future," he said. "When we reduce our forces over time and the Iraqis take primacy for security, we will be here to assist them when they need it."

Mosul has seen persistent problems with violence, as insurgents driven out of Baghdad and its surrounding neighborhoods have fled north. And while the totals have not been determined, Odierno said the U.S. may add some combat power there, and over time would maintain enough troops to reinforce the Iraqis.

Showing a series of charts, Odierno also mapped out dramatic declines in attacks, casualties and the level of violence across the country, but particularly around Baghdad. And he showed two maps that depicted a significant decline in al-Qaida strongholds between December 2006 and one year later.

Odierno disagreed with Iraqi contentions that they won't be able to take over responsibility for internal security until 2012, or fully defend their borders until at least 2018.

"I would just say at the levels we're supporting them now, I do not see that going that far at all. I mean, I see it happening much quicker," he said. He added that as the Iraqis assume more control, he does not see a need to increase the number of U.S. troops to provide logistical and other support for the Iraqis.

Lt. Gen. James Dubik, head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command, told a House panel Thursday that Iraq's security forces are on track to add another 80,000 personnel by the end of the year, putting them well within reach of their goal of more than 600,000.

But he also cautioned that they are far from becoming self-sufficient.

There are "positive signs, indeed, and steps forward, but the truth is that they simply cannot fix, supply, arm or fuel themselves completely enough at this point," Dubik told the House Armed Services Committee.

Dubik said the Iraqis have used the 2012 and 2018 dates, and repeatedly insist that they need to buy more air and fire support, helicopters and logistics equipment. Those purchases will likely take several years, and training Iraqi soldiers and other personnel on the new equipment will take more time after that, he said.

In advance of an industry summit in Dubai next month, Iraq defense minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi has released a wish list that includes ground vehicles, helicopters, tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers.

Last year, the U.S. spent about $5.5 billion to train and equip Iraqi security forces, while the Iraqis designated $7.5 billion. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said he expects the Iraqis will devote $9 billion this year to the effort and the U.S. will contribute $3 billion.

Rep. Ike Skelton, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said he is worried that while Iraqi forces get up to speed, U.S. troops will become worn out.

"Security in Iraq has improved over the past year, due to the heroic efforts of our troops. ... But the question now is how do we sustain it?" Skelton asked

quote:

Originally posted by 4now:
Hmmm
Actually, I would be curious to Hudsons thoughts on this idea of Bin Ladens son being a peace envoy.

It would not hurt to hear what he has to say. But I think he needs to listen to survivors of the Cole atack, the Kenyan bombings, 9/11 survivors, and a few others before he really knows what kind of truce would be negotiable, if at all.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto Thursday dismissed allegations that millions of electronic messages prior to October 2003 had been deleted, saying the White House had found no evidence that any electronic data had been lost. Fratto told reporters that:
We have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing; there's no evidence of that ... from everything that we can tell, our analysis of our backup systems, we have no reason to believe that any e-mail at all are missing.
This may contradict earlier reports that indicated data had in fact been lost; in 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said he had learned in his investigation of the CIA leak scandal that e-mails from that time period from the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of the President had not been saved through the standard archiving process on the White House computer system. The White House admitted late Tuesday that it had recycled its back-up computer tapes of e-mails prior to October 2003.

In November 2007, US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy ordered the White House to preserve all of its e-mail records by saving back-up disks after private advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) requested a temporary restraining order to stop deletion. The issue of missing e-mails has been an ongoing controversy in the Bush administration, arising first during the CIA leak investigation into the revelation of Valerie Plame's identity, and again this year during controversy over the firings of eight US Attorneys . If e-mails were in fact erased, the White House may have violated the Presidential Records Act , which requires the preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal or presidential records. AP has more.

Canada puts US on 'torture list'

Last Updated: Friday, 18 January 2008, 01:24 GMT

The manual refers to Guantanamo Bay where a Canadian is being held.

The United States has been listed as a country where prisoners are at risk of torture in a training document produced by the Canadian foreign ministry. It also classifies some US interrogation techniques as torture.

The manual - part of a training course on torture awareness for diplomats - also includes Israel, China, Iran and Afghanistan on its watch list.

A government spokesman said the manual did not reflect the views of Canada, which is an ally of the US and Israel.

"The training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government," said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.

The manual lists US interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and the blindfolding of prisoners under "definition of torture".

It also refers to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held. Critics say it ridicules Ottawa's claims that Omar Khadr is not being mistreated.

There was no immediate response from either the US or Israel.

Exonerated

The document was provided to Amnesty International as part of a court case it is bringing against the Canadian government over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.

Canada has come under growing criticism following allegations that detainees were tortured in Afghanistan after its soldiers transferred suspects to Afghan security forces.

Amnesty is calling for stopping all transfers of prisoners to the Afghan authorities.

The torture awareness course was introduced after Ottawa was strongly criticised for its handling of the case of a Canadian who was deported from the US to Syria in 2002.

Syrian-born Maher Arar - who was accused of being an al-Qaeda member - says he was tortured during his 10 months in a Damascus jail - a claim strongly denied by Syria.

A Canadian government inquiry exonerated Mr Arar of any links with terrorist groups. It also showed that Canadian diplomats had not had any formal training on how to detect whether detainees had been abused.

NEW YORK - A Canadian terrorist who briefly became an informant against top al-Qaida leaders was sentenced to life in prison Friday for plotting to blow up American embassies in Singapore and the Philippines.

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A federal judge in Manhattan imposed the sentence after listening to a 20-minute speech from admitted terrorist Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, in which he repudiated violence and asked to be allowed to go home to his family.

"I am not a ruthless, infamous and notorious terrorist," Jabarah said. "I do not believe in terrorism, violence and killing."

U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones said she gave Jabarah credit for his repudiation of violence, but said she couldn't overlook what he had done.

"Actions speak louder than words," she said.

Jabarah was captured in Oman after his bombing plot collapsed. He has been in U.S. custody since 2002, when he was turned over to the FBI by Canada's intelligence service and secretly pleaded guilty to terrorism charges as part of a short-lived plea bargain.

For a time, he was a valuable resource in the hunt for al-Qaida leaders.

During the few months of his cooperation with the FBI, Jabarah gave investigators information about Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, described his personal meetings with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and detailed his interactions with several other high ranking al-Qaida lieutenants.

He also described his own involvement in a terrorist plot. After graduating from high school in Canada, where he had lived since a move from Kuwait at age 12, Jabarah slipped into Afghanistan and trained at al-Qaida camps in 2001. Prosecutors said he became a protege of Mohammad and was preparing for the planned embassy attacks.

"This is far from a half-baked plot," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Rodgers, noting that tons of explosives had already been purchased and a suicide bomber selected when the scheme was foiled by a round of arrests.

"Mr. Jabarah is the real deal," Rodgers said.

After his capture by Oman's intelligence service, Jabarah was brought to Canada where he was interrogated and told he had two choices: Go to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo, or switch sides and inform on his terrorist mentors.

Jabarah chose the later, and by July 2002 he had pleaded guilty in a closed court session and moved into a series of FBI safe houses in the United States.

His work as an informant, however, ended after just a few months, when FBI agents searching his quarters discovered jihadist writings, a knife and rope hidden in his luggage, and instructions on how to make explosives. They also found a list bearing the initials of U.S. agents and prosecutors. Investigators believed it was a list of people Jabarah intended to murder.

Jabarah was immediately transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, where he lived in solitary confinement for four years.

In court on Friday, his lawyer, Kenneth Paul, told the judge that it was all a misunderstanding. The knife, he said, was for personal protection due to death threats received by his family. The extremist writings were notes taken on terrorist videos that he had been asked to watch as part of the investigation.

"It's just ridiculous," Paul said of the allegation that Jabarah was compiling a death list. He didn't comment in detail on the other writings in which his client appeared to express disgust with America and muse on how he might return to terrorism if he were ever freed.

An attempt to re-enlist Jabarah as an informant failed in 2006.

Both sides agreed that, by then, he had soured on American law enforcement and was unwilling to cut a new deal.

"He could have been a great cooperating witness," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin lamented during the court hearing Friday. He said Jabarah knew enough to build indictments against several terrorist leaders, but instead chose to remain loyal to bin Laden. "He was not interested in saving lives."

Sitting before the judge Friday, Jabarah told the judge he was a changed man. He asked that he be released from prison immediately so he could go to college, become an ophthalmologist and spend the rest of his life with his family.

He said he was "brainwashed" by people he thought were liberators of an oppressed people. "They were nothing more than terrorists," he said, and he deplored their killings as "absolutely disgusting, sickening and perverted."

Jones told Jabarah she would have found his statements more compelling if he had agreed to resume his cooperation with the government.

I've seen firsthand the effects of the mindless and heartless acts of these terrorists who go about bombing Manila. They are trying to show power and rebellion against the US (and the Philippine government which is allied with the US in the war against terrorism by killing civilians.

These terrorists must be stopped! (I just wonder though why Bin Laden isn't captured despite the high price tag on his head and with the CIA working on this case?)

oh trust me ,,he will be captured sooner or later.. and he will pay his life of what he did

When they catch him, that will be cause for another celebration, right Mike?!!!!

of course ...this will be the greatest celebration of all times...
him and his followers should be underground .. the world will be a better place without these animals

quote:

Omar doesn't criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world.

This statement really bothers me. It makes me suspicious of the son's motives. If he doesn't criticize his father, it's almost like he's endorsing all of the pain and destruction that has been caused by him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoNjCRrNR1g


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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's armed forces chief said on Saturday Moscow could use nuclear arms pre-emptively if under serious threat, his comments marking no change in defense policy but underlining a renewed military confidence.

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Interfax news agency quoted Chief of Staff Yuri Baluyevski as saying also that Russia, rebuilding defenses under President Vladimir Putin after the decline of the immediate post-Soviet years, must guard against "excessive militarization" of society.

He said Russia was not going to attack anyone.

"But we believe all our partners in the international community should understand clearly and have no doubts that in order to protect its and its allies' sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia will use its armed forces, including nuclear weapons, and it can do it pre-emptively," he told a scientific conference in Moscow.

In Soviet times, military doctrine stated Moscow would not use nuclear arms first in any confrontation with the West. With the decline of its conventional forces in the 1990s, Moscow dropped this element of its policy.

President Vladimir Putin, who signed a new doctrine into force in 2000 as acting president, must step down after an election in March likely to be won by his choice of successor, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Western analysts will be looking for any changes of nuance in defense and other policy, though Putin is expected to maintain strong influence.

Moscow is currently at odds with the West over U.S. plans to develop a missile defense shield it fears could make it vulnerable to U.S. missile attack. It also resists Western moves that could lead soon to the breakaway of the Kosovo region of Russian ally Serbia

The US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in six cases , including Crawford v. Nashville and Davidson Cty., TN (06-1595), in which the Supreme Court will consider whether Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects a government employee against being fired for cooperating with an internal sexual harassment probe against a superior. A payroll employee in the Nashville school system was interviewed as part of an investigation into harassment claims against a high-ranking official in the system; she alleges that the official later fired her in retaliation for her statements against him. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed the lawsuit , ruling that Title VII protections did not extend to the employee because she was not the originator of the sexual harassment claims being investigated.

In Wyeth v. Levine (06-1249) , the Court will consider whether Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a drug's warning label protects its manufacturer from liability when a patient has a bad reaction to the drug that forces her arm to be amputated. The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that FDA approval does not shield the maker from liability, because states can require additional warnings above and beyond those required by federal regulations.
In Altria Group v. Good (07-562) , the Court will consider whether the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act bars state lawsuits based on allegedly deceptive cigarette advertising. A federal judge originally dismissed a suit brought by three Maine smokers who accused Philip Morris of presenting light cigarettes as less harmful than they really are, but the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reinstated the case [. AP has more.

In MetLife v. Glenn , the Court will consider whether an employee benefit plan administrator has an illegal conflict of interest under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act if he has both the authority to pay benefits and to determine employees' eligibility for benefits. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the administrator did have a potential conflict of interest.

In Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Lab. , the Court will consider whether a worker or an employer has the burden of proof in an age discrimination case where a worker says he was fired for no valid reason. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the burden of proof rests on the worker.

Finally, in Summers v. Earth Island Institute (07-463) , the Court will consider whether a group of environmentalists can sue to have a Forest Service regulation struck down or if they are limited only to suing to end programs enacted under that regulation. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the environmentalists could sue against the regulation itself.

By Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 19, 2008
A federal judge in Los Angeles who was reprimanded for official misconduct last year could face a harsher punishment -- or be cleared of the charges altogether -- after a ruling this week by a panel of fellow judges.

The ruling by the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability in Washington, D.C., came in the case of U.S. District Court Judge Manuel L. Real.

Real was given a private reprimand last year, after the judicial council of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco determined that he had "engaged in a pattern and practice of not providing reasons for his decisions when required to do so."

Embattled civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman, who filed the complaint against Real, asked the Judicial Conference Committee to review the case, arguing that the reprimand was an insufficient punishment.

On Monday, the five-judge panel granted Yagman's request and ordered the 9th Circuit judicial council to reco