Trade Center Site Mosque Project Talk Becomes Hot Political Debate

EW YORK — Weeks into the discussion about whether a mosque and community center can and should be built near the site of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, the city of New York (and the entire country) is still hotly debating the issue.

The foremost figure in American politics, President Obama himself, jumped into the fray to offer his opinion. The first-ever Arab Miss USA, the recently crowned Miss Rima Fakih, spoke of her take on the situation, according to the New York Daily News. And now that celebs as well as locals have involved themselves, the split amongst politicians is only growing.

Tensions are high surrounding the issue, there's no doubt about it. Hateful crimes against innocent Muslim Americans do happen here. And feelings between Muslims and Christians, Muslim Americans and non-Muslim Americans, are never more strained than when conversation trends toward September 11th, terrorism or the World Trade Center site.

There has been a lot of talk about separation of church and state, and other grandiose ideals that we as Americans say we support. And yet, as politicians so often do, most of those that spoke up said basically nothing, or at least nothing of any real substance or value. Those that interjected themselves into the debate, like President Obama, seemed originally to stand by the mosque in principal, but still without wholeheartedly supporting the project. Others straining to make their voices heard were extremists, denouncing the president and all other backers of the mosque project as radical Muslims or terrorists.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5725658/trade_center_site_mosque_project_talk.html

CRASH OF AIRBUS 320 OUTSIDE ISLAMABAD NOW BELIEVED HIJACKED, HEADING FOR NUKE FACILITY

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

August 29, 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan (Veterans Today exclusive) Informed sources in the Government of Pakistan have told Veterans Today that they are developing “hard evidence” indicating the Air Blue Airbus 320 that crashed July 28th outside Islamabad was a terrorist hijacking tied to rogue American security forces operating inside that country.

Sources indicate that the plane crash was an unsuccessful hijacking attempt intended to crash into the nuclear weapons facility at Kahuta, outside Islamabad. Such an attack may have been blamed on India and would likely have led to retaliation which could easily have escalated to a nuclear exchange between these two nations that have spent decades at each other’s throats.

Suspicions were raised inside Pakistan’s military and intelligence organizations when American military contractors employed by Blackwater/Xe showed up on the scene immediately after the crash, seizing the black box and “other materials.” There is no confirmation that parachutes or electronic equipment had been removed when Blackwater/Xe security relinquished control of the crash scene to Pakistani investigators.

Royal Television in Islamabad, owned by the brother of the head of Pakistan’s powerful JI (Jamate Islami), the Islamic political party, has reported that investigations are underway tying American based contractors to the planning of the attack.

Pakistan’s ISRP (Inter-Services Public Relations) has failed to confirm this but private sources indicate that an active investigation of these allegations is, not only underway but has established ties between an American group and the hijackers.

Military and intelligence officials inside Pakistan, in concert with the American embassy, are withholding all official details of the investigation and are likely to continue doing so.

This same facility had been the subject of an armed penetration by American contractors, believed to be employed by the State Department, in 2009. Four Blackwater employees, armed and possessing explosives were arrested outside the Kahuta nuclear facility in 2009. The four, driving a Jeep 4×4 and possessing advanced surveillance and jamming equipment of Israeli manufacture, were intercepted 1.5 miles from the Kahuta nuclear facility.

The four spoke fluent Pushtu and were dressed in a manner as to resemble Taliban fighters. The order for their release, given by Minister of the Interior Rehman Malik, is an issue of considerable controversy between the civilian government in Pakistan and the powerful military.

The passenger jet with 152 on board slammed into a hillside in what was believed to be Pakistan’s most serious air crash. At least 2 Americans were believed to be on board but, a month later, the US Embassy in Islamabad has left this unconfirmed. Reports received today, however, confirm that at least 5 Americans, military contractors said to be employed by Xe, may also have been on the craft but could not be identified as they had been traveling in local garb and had boarded with false identification.

Xe is an American based military and intelligence contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater and has been the subject of considerable controversy for activities inside Pakistan.

Scene of July 28 Air Crash Outside Islamabad, Pakistan

Sources indicate that the attackers stormed the cockpit in a hijacking attempt. The pilot is said to have jammed the flight controls, careening the Airbus 320 and all aboard into a hillside rather than allowing the plane to be used in a “9/11″ type attack inside Pakistan or flown into Indian air space for a repeat of the 2008 Mumbai attack.

Pakistan has, at times in error, referred to American contractors employed by the Departments of Defense, State or the Central Intelligence Agency as Blackwater. However, it is believed the majority of such employees are, in fact, members of that organization or is derivitive, Xe.

The same group, often criticized for irregularities in Iraq, has been contracted by the Central Intelligence Agency to operate Predator drones inside Pakistan, operations that have resulted in a significant number of civilian deaths and said by political leaders of several factions to do little but recruit terrorists.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/08/29/gordon-duff-americans-believed-involved-in-pakistan-air-crash-hijacking/

Pakistan army cancels US trip amid search dispute

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's military says it has canceled a trip by officers to the United States after they were subjected to "unwarranted security checks" at an airport in Washington.

A statement Wednesday said the delegation had been invited to attend a meeting at U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported the incident took place aboard a plane before takeoff at Dulles airport on Aug. 30. It reported a disagreement had occurred between a member of the delegation and either a passenger or a flight attendant.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_us_airport_row_1

China launches war games in Yellow Sea

BEIJING (AFP) – China on Wednesday launched live-fire naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, state media said, after voicing opposition to similar war games to be staged there by the United States and South Korea.

The Beihai fleet of the navy of the People's Liberation Army will conduct a "live ammunition drill" through Saturday in waters off the eastern coast near the city of Qingdao, Xinhua news agency reported.

The report said many of the planes, vessels and battlefield weaponry to be used in the exercises were unveiled at the National Day military parade on October 1 last year, when China celebrated 60 years of Communist rule.

"This is an annual routine training, mainly involving the shooting of shipboard artillery," Xinhua said in a previous report, citing China's defence ministry.

The United States and South Korea are set to carry out a new round of joint drills in the Yellow Sea beginning Sunday, in another show of force against North Korea following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

Any military drills involving the United States in the Yellow Sea are a sensitive issue because of the area's proximity to China and the disputed maritime boundary between North and South Korea.

China has bristled at the idea of a US aircraft carrier group patrolling waters near its coast, although the US military has said the planned anti-submarine exercise would not involve a carrier.

The United States and South Korea in July staged massive joint naval and air exercises in the nearby Sea of Japan (East Sea), which also drew criticism from Beijing -- North Korea's closest ally and trade partner.

Seoul and its allies say the sinking of the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan in March was caused by a North Korean torpedo attack, but Beijing has refused to join in international condemnation of Pyongyang over the incident.

China staged its own naval, air and artillery exercises in late July, though it was not clear if the drills had been pre-planned or were in response to the US-South Korea exercises.

Last month, the South staged its largest-ever anti-submarine drill including live-fire training near the disputed Yellow Sea border, prompting a North Korean artillery barrage fired into the sea.

Also in August, the US and South Korea held annual 10-day joint war games on land that involved more than 80,000 troops.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100901/wl_asia_afp/chinausskoreankoreamilitaryexercise_20100901043945