B*N*S*N4

Iraqi Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 30th Brigade Iraqi Army, deliver boxes of humanitarian aid to 232 families at the displaced person Camp just south of Najaf, Sept. 23, 2008. Photo by Capt. Geoffrey Varell, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs.

Humanitarian Aid Delivered to Hundreds of Displaced Families
Thursday, 25 September 2008 By Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret
3rd Infantry Division


FOB KALSU — Members of the Iraqi security forces delivered humanitarian aid supplies to an Iraqi displaced persons camp south of Najaf, with the help of Coalition forces and the Najaf mayor, Sept. 23.

Iraqi Soldiers belonging to the 3rd Battalion, 30th Brigade delivered the supplies from the newly-opened Najaf InternationalAirport with the help of the Najaf Provincial Reconstruction Team and the 30th Military Transition Team.

“Lt. Col. Salah [commander of the 3/30th Iraqi Army Bde.] did an outstanding job not only at distributing the items, but moving them from the airport to the camp and providing security along the route and at the camp,” said Maj. Anthony Campbell, 30th Iraqi Army Military Transition Team chief. “It illustrated the ability of the Iraqi Air Force, Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police to work together to assist these 232 displaced families.”

Approximately 4,000 people make up the families at the camp; they received shoes, sports suits, buckets, walkers, crutches and wheelchairs. Even after the distribution, there were still enough supplies remaining to help other displaced families elsewhere.

“The last two days’ operation to bring humanitarian aid to the nearby Iraqi displaced persons camp was a huge success,” said Campbell, of Colorado Springs, Colo.

The supplies were donated by a religious nonprofit organization in the U.S.

“The department PRT leader [Fred Fronteneau] did an incredible amount of work to get these supplies here,” added Campbell...(source)

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Myth vs Fact

Myth	Fact
Islam: Religion of peace.	Sahih Muslim Book 037, Number 6670: Ibn Shihab reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) made an expedition to Tabuk and he (the Holy Prophet) had in his mind (the idea of threatening the) Christians of Arabia in Syria and those of Rome. Ibn Shihab (further) reported that 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abdullah b. Ka'b informed him that Abdullah b. Ka'b who served as the guide of Ka'b b. 'Malik as he became blind that he heard Ka'b b. Malik narrate the story of his remaining behind Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) from the Battle of Tabuk. ...[Click link in title to read the rest; its a long one. ]
Tafsir

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Sharia

With the authorization of Sharia Courts in Britain and their use as mediators in some American States, Sharia has become a hot topic, but few people know very much about that arcane subject.

The best source for this topic is described thusly by Wikipedia:
'Umdat as-Salik wa 'Uddat an-Nasik (Reliance of the Traveller and Tools of the Worshipper, also commonly known by its shorter title Reliance of the Traveller) is a classical manual of fiqh for the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence.

If you are ready and willing to shell out between $24, -- $80 for a 1270 page book, you can find it on the web, through various book stores.

One academic site hosts a huge text file which may or may not be complete and accurate. It takes a long time to load, and you need to use the Windows Search [Ctrl F] to find anything.

Scribid displays a scanned image of the book. Somehow they arranged a means of searching it, which works much faster than I expected. Of course you can't cut and paste from it, but it should be useful for verifying content found in other sources.

Allah.com displays a text file, so you can copy & paste. That will facilitate using quotes in blog posts. Unfortunately, they renamed and rearranged the books, and added a half dozen. Two columns are displayed, on the left, a list of the books and a code for deciphering the original names. Book O is transmuted to Book 9. Links to the entry points are in the right hand column.

O9.8: The Objectives of Jihad
The caliph (o-25) makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians

turns up as:

9.9.8 Objectives of Jihad
The caliph (9.25) makes war upon Jews, Christians (Nazarenes), and Zoroastrians

Why should you give a damn? Because the Muslims want to impose it on you. Here is a bit you might not appreciate.

20.4.3 Circumcision is Obligatory
Circumcision is obligatory for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (bazr) of the clitoris but not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert.

That is in E4.3 in the original translation. Get Sharia, get cut. How does that comport with your concept of personal privacy?

Then there is the matter of divorce. Book N covers that topic in 12 chapters.

N1.1

Divorce is valid from any:

(a) husband;

(b) who is sane;

(c) has reached puberty;

(d) and who voluntarily effects it.

N1.2

A statement of divorce is legally effective when pronounced by a person whose mental faculties are lacking because of something inexcusable such as having become intoxicated or having needlessly taken some mind-altering drug...

@N2.1

A free man has three pronouncements of divorce (O: because of the word of Allah Most High,

N3.2 Using plain words to effect a divorce means expressly pronouncing the word divorce (O: or words

derived from it). When the husband says' "I divorce you,'' or "You are divorced,'' the wife is divorced

whether he has made the intention or not.

Chapter N9.0: A Woman's Postmarital Waiting Period (`Idda)

(O: Meaning the period in which a woman waits (N: before she may remarry) to verify that she is not pregnant, or out of mourning for her deceased husband.)

(N: If the waiting period finishes after a once-or twice-pronounced divorce, the wife is free to marry another man or to remarry the husband with a new contract-returning to the latter with the number of times left (one or two) needed to enact a threefold, finalized divorce (dis: n7.7); while if the waiting period of a less-than-thrice-pronounced divorce has not yet expired, the husband may take her back (def: n7) without a new contract.)

(n: The husband's obligation to support her during the waiting period is discussed at m11.10 above.)

M11.10: Support for a Woman in Her Postmarital Waiting Period

As for a woman in her postmarital waiting period (def: n9), she is entitled to housing during it no matter if it is because of her husband's death, a divorce in which the husband may take her back, or a threefold, finalized divorce. As for her support (A: in terms of food) and clothing:

-1- it is not obligatory to provide her with it during the waiting period after (N: a threefold divorce, a release for payment (def: n5), or) her husband's death;;

-2- it must be provided in the waiting period of a (A: not yet threefold) divorce in which her husband may take her back;

-3- and if a woman in the waiting period of a threefold divorce is pregnant, she is given support each day (A: until the child is born, after which she is entitled to support and wages for taking care of it), but of not pregnant, she is not entitled to support

Ladies, are you ready to accept that? Get cut by force, get divorced on a whim, cut loose with nothing? Do you like to wear a skimpy bikini on the beach?

Reliance of the Traveller is a target rich environment. Now is the time to begin browsing and collecting excerpts for your first blog post or debate on the subject.


Ben 09/26/08

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Time's Joe Klein on McCain's Return to Washington: A Despicable New Low for Political Commentary

"...the old fighter jock may be frightened that he's about to ditch another plane" - Joe Klein, Time-blog.

On Oct. 26, 1967, John McCain was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down and he was forced to bail out. Badly injured, he was subsequently captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese. He was held in horrific conditions from 1967 to 1973, experiencing episodes of torture and refusing an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer; his war wounds would leave him with lifelong physical limitations.

Or, perhaps you'd prefer this alternative version, as characterized by TTS earlier this year:

McCain was bombing women in a lightbulb factory (according to Newsweek) when shot down in North Vietnam. He has never failed to defend any illegal or violent war in which the US leaders involved the citizens.

Of course, despicable political commentary has been around for a long time, but, with this latest piece of hateful garbage, Mr. Klein has managed to bring it down to an historical new low. Here are some excerpts from his new post in his approriately named Swampland:

From Time-blog.com
September 25, 2008 10:32
What Actually Happened Yesterday
Posted by Joe Klein

John McCain faced another crisis yesterday--a political one, not the financial emergency he used as an excuse for his rash actions--and once again he overreacted. This is becoming a pattern (as is his "greatest crisis since..." formulation: yesterday, since World War II; previously--on Georgia--since the end of the cold war), and it is not very reassuring behavior in a potential President...

The political crisis was real. And it wasn't merely that he was slipping a bit in the polls...

Happily, in the end, McCain did the responsible thing...but he did it foolishly, in a panicky fashion. What McCain didn't understand was that the legislative crisis was already receding when he made his melodramatic--and somewhat wild-eyed--suspension of campaign activities statement...

In any case, the crisis was receding because the Bush Administration was caving to the Democrats' modifications In any case, Obama's cool steadfastness has put him in the driver's seat on this one...

And that raises an interesting question: Why was McCain so quick to pull out of the debate? After all, with the momentum slightly in Obama's direction, he needed a game-changer--and foreign policy is, allegedly, his area of expertise. His peremptory actions yesterday was not the behavior of a confident man. It was the behavior of a man uncertain, despite all the macho bluster, about his chances in the most important theater of battle in any presidential campaign, one where gimmicks, diversions and untruths can be directly countered by his opponent. McCain may clean Obama's clock in the coming debates--but it seems entirely possible that the old fighter jock may be frightened that he's about to ditch another plane.

Through the eyes of our lovely Mr. Klein and friends, John McCain's bail out over Vietnam was most likely some kind of a slick political maneuver, and his later courageous refusal to accept early release based on his father's propaganda importance was just another political ploy. What, I wonder, must it be like to be a Mr. Klein? What must it be like to look at this world of ours through those cynical jaded eyes?
By choosing the interests of his country over the interests of his political campaign, John McCain has once again demonstrated that bravery and loyalty for which he has justly become famous.
And once again, our infamously biased leftist media has demonstrated its unconscionable amorality.
I know, I should be used to it by now. We all should. It was, after all, to be expected and should come as no great surprise. And yet it does surprise me. This utter contempt for truth and fairness from one of our most prestigious publications can still shock me, still make me recoil in disbelief and disgust, can still make me almost physically sick.
I know, we're not supposed to hate; it's a negative drain on our psyche. But I'm sorry, I just can help it. I truly despise all of the liars and cheats of this world, and all of those ideologues who put their personal political interests over the welfare of their country and the honor of truth. I despise our Mr. Klein and all the Mr. Kleins of this world. And I firmly believe that sooner or later truth will prevail, it always does, and these despicable cheats and liars will go down in flames just like our honorable candidate's doomed A-4E Skyhawk. - rg

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Senator Joseph Biden is the Mouse That Roared

Joe Biden, a long term Senator from Delaware cum Vice Presidential candidate, has taken upon himself the mantle of the attack dog for his running mate, Barack Obama. But is it working, or is Biden finding himself trying too hard to make himself heard?

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In Leonard Wibberley's novel and the subsequent Peter Sellers movie of the same name released in 1959 The Mouse that Roared, a small and insignificant country does the unthinkable, with hilarious results; they attack the United States. While the truth is indeed often stranger than fiction, in the novel, and the movie, the theme works, and the upstart little nation wins, by losing.

Joseph Biden, while not necessarily an insignificant political candidate, has, however, taken on a task that it could be argued that he isn't up for. Biden has undertaken to attack Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain over issues of foreign policy. Biden, of course, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seems to think he has the upper hand on understanding how to handle foreign relations over John McCain, and possibly, in his own way of thinking, he does, as he in a recent speech criticized McCain over several points, including McCain's attitude toward Russia:

“John McCain has gotten it wrong on so many fundamental issues. Imagine; imagine if we had listened to John McCain when he tried to remove Russia from the G8. That’s the industrial nations, last year. Such a move would not have done anything to stop Russia from the inextricable and unfair and overwhelming invasion of an independent country of Georgia. But I tell you what it would have done: it would have triggered a crisis in our alliance since no one else in Europe thought that action should be taken. An alliance we now need, we now need to help us in dealing with Russian aggression.”

Is Biden saying here that Russia was stopped from invading Georgia? I don't know what news outlet he was watching or where he was getting his information, but Georgia was in fact invaded by the Russians this summer and there are still, today, Russian troops occupying territory inside what is sovereign Georgian territory. Of course, Senator Biden has a record of changing things a bit to suit his own purposes, himself, having supported, initially, the war in Iraq and then changing his position on that, as well as supporting military action in Bosnia.

Perhaps there is another issue that needs to be addressed in the case of Senator Biden in examining his attacks on John McCain over issues of foreign relations. Biden, who has been a lawyer and a politician for his entire working life (Biden is one of the six longest term senators to hold office in the nation), Biden doesn't have the up close and personal experience in dealing with representatives of foreign nations in the worst of times that McCain has:

John McCain's capture and subsequent imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[30][31] McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and then nearly drowned, when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.[30] After he regained consciousness, some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him.[30] McCain was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[31]

Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, instead beating and interrogating him to get information, and he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.[33] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers.[34][35]

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care.[30] Now having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,[30] McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi[36] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.[37] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.[38]

A far cry, it would seem, from state dinners and conferences. McCain is often criticized by opponents and naysayers about having no experience outside of politics and military service. That same scrutiny can be applied to Senator Biden, who is one of the six longest term senators to serve in Washington, and to Barack Obama, as well, whose work as a "community organizer" is a dressed up name for "lobbyist." Adding to that Biden's failure twice to win in a bid of his own for his party's nomination for party candidate for the Presidency, Biden, in what could be considered a conciliatory position as Vice Presidential candidate, could be, himself, that roaring mouse trying to make a bluster and noise bigger than he is capable of achieving.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

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