Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Immigrants arrested as part of Homeland Security pilot program. Federal agents have begun arresting illegal immigrants in Connecticut as soon as they are ordered deported, rather than allowing them to remain free while they appeal. The policy shift is a pilot program that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is considering expanding nationwide to reduce the number of illegal aliens who flee after being ordered out of the country. "We're trying to make the judges' final decisions mean something more," said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But immigration attorneys say the policy will have the opposite effect, and will encourage immigrants to skip court hearings and take their chances on the run. "It's going to have a chilling effect," said Hartford attorney Daniel Marcus, who recently had a client taken into custody. Marcus and others complain that immigrants seeking political asylum or protection from torture will be detained alongside criminal aliens. (link) The immigrants do not have to have committed any criminal offense to be arrested under this new program. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs] I believe the point is that "illegally immigrating" is a criminal offense, although the notion of immigration being illegal strikes me as rather un-American. I suppose our government will expect us to be happy that they are protecting the people of Connecticut from having their hotel rooms cleaned and gardens tended cheaply. I suspect they will be disappointed. Well, at least any terrorists trying to sneak into the country will be grateful that the KGB has found yet another way to make their job easier. 7:22:18 PM    comment () Girl Power and Post-War Iraq [Baghdad Burning] Riverbend writes about the situation in Iraq for women before and after the US conquest. 10:38:43 AM    comment () Egyptian jihad?. Hossam El Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist who covers militant Islamic groups for the Cairo Times. On the second anniversary of 9/11, he looks at Gama'a Islamiya (Islamic Group), one of the major terrorist groups in Egypt, in Forgive Me, Government, For I Have Sinned. Gama'a Islamiya is closely affiliated with the group Al Jihad (also known as Islamic Jihad and Egyptian Jihad), which was responsible for the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981. Gama'a Islamiya is linked to the original plot to bomb the WTC in 1993 as well as the horrific massacre of 70 tourists at Luxor in 1997. As Hamalawy reports, Gama'a Islamiya declared a truce with the Egyptian government in 1997 (before the Luxor attacks, in fact) and in the last several years its leadership have publically renounced violence. It was around this same time that Al Jihad seems to have merged with al-Qa'ida. The long-time leader of Al Jihad is Ayman Zawahiri, now better known for being Bin Laden's "right hand man". Some analysts think that Zawahiri is the real brains behind al-Qa'ida while Bin Laden is merely its public face. For instance, Jane's Intelligence Review wrote "Indeed, the genesis of what the USA thinks it is coming to grips with may well lie more in Egypt than in Saudi Arabia.". Similarly, the Middle East Institute believes that the May bombings in Riyadh are similar in nature to the 1997 Luxor attacks and that both show Zawahiri's hand. An organization called DefenseWatch goes even further, arguing that Egyptian Al Jihad has more or less taken over al-Qa'ida. Gama'a Islamiya and Al Jihad have roots in Egypt going back to the late 1960s and early 1970s and are a radical offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is probably Egypt's most senior Islamist group, dating all the way back to 1928. Gama'a Islamiya and Al Jihad take much of their ideology from Syed Qutb (see my previous discussion of Qutb's followers here). The history and development of this movement from the Muslim Brotherhood to Al Jihad is traced in Karen Armstrong's book, The Battle for God. Whether or not al-Qa'ida is actually a Saudi façade on what is now a primarily Egyptian organization, as the sources cited above claim, the Egyptian components of it are clearly quite important and deserve to be studied in their own right. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs] 10:19:30 AM    comment () Recall rulings in California and Venezuela: Very similar yet so different.   I am sure that some people will try to draw parallels between the three judge panel  canceling the California recall and the decisions taken in Venezuela to block the recall referendum. To me it simply shows that the same biased, partial and corrupt judges and politicians exist all over the world. In fact, the California decision is as absurd as the ones here. Among other reasons:   -If the voting machines are not good enough for the vote on the recall, they should not be good enough to vote on anything, whether candidates or issues until the problems are solved. Thus no election should take place until it is fixed. But this does not make sense either.   -Should Democracy be in suspended animation until the problems are solved? For how long? When is form more important than substance? When should the will of the people be more important?   -The three Judge panel is composed of three Democrats and is supposed to be the most liberal (read pro-Democratic party) in the US. And we thought we had it bad here in Venezuela with the Electoral Board being three to two against us.   -I would like to ask: Are these the same voting machines with  which Davies was chosen as a candidate for the Democrats and was later elected as Governor? Did anybody complain then? Should his elections be erased too in the interest of Justice or Democracy?   -I hate to be innovative or futuristic, but couldn't they use something like pencil and paper to vote with? Too complicated? People don't know how to write anymore? People can cheat with paper ballots?   I think in the end the difference is very clear, in every country there are biased, politically corrupt people or individuals with a limited understanding of what democracy truly is. Form can never replace substance and the people's participation is indeed at the conceptual foundation of Democracy. The difference is that while Democracy has been suspended in Venezuela since January 23d. of this year, I will bet that a quick solution is found to the California problem short term by a system that still functions. People are the same all over, the difference is that in California the system still has checks and balances. Here we don't, in Venezuela all we have is the citizens fighting for their freedom versus a system that only responds to the whims of one power hungry person. By this time next year, Californians may not even remember this episode, we Venezuelans may not be able vote for years to come......As simple as that. [Miguel Octavio: Venezuela] I'm not so optimistic about a quick solution being found in California, but he does have a point--it's not as bad when it's only a Governor, and not the President. 10:00:01 AM    comment () French block. The Telegraph reports that the French government has told an airline that it is not to ferry British troops to Basra. The ban is seen as reflecting Paris's opposition to the occupation of Iraq. Corsair, which has been chartered numerous times to transport UK forces around the world, pulled out of a contract to fly reinforcements to Basra at the weekend. Transport ministry officials said yesterday that the move had nothing to do with safety... [Samizdata.net] Good for the French! 9:13:14 AM    comment ()

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