The Political Conundrum!

Due to pressure from radical Islamic groups, the South Sumatra provincial government officially banned the Ahmadiyah sect on 1 September. They are the second province after West Sumatra to impose such a ban.

Earlier, several hard-line Muslim organizations under the Islamic People's Forum, such as Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, the Islamic Defender's Front, and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, demanded the dissolution of Ahmadiyah due to its heretical teachings that its founder, Ghulam Ahmad, was a prophet after Mohammad.

The South Sumatra ban is set to affect an estimated 600 Ahmadiyah followers. There are nine Ahmadiyah mosques in the province.

Monday's ban is yet the latest in a series of government decisions seen as appeasing Muslim radicals ahead of next year's national elections. One of the most glaring waffles has been the continued delays in carrying out the death sentence against three of the masterminds behind the 2002 Bali bombings. The bombers have lost all of their legal appeals, and the government had earlier stated that the three would face a firing squad before the onset of this year's Ramadhan. But as the fasting month started yesterday, this window has obviously been missed, leaving many to wonder whether the current Indonesian administration does not want to risk being perceived as bowing to Western pressure ahead of their 2009 polls.

Following is a short commentary I wrote about the Iranian regime strategic opportunity to dodge the international sanctions and the rise of its own opposition, seized through the ongoing tensions between the Russian Federation and NATO. The main point in this article is the Khomeinist Strategic thinking as it pushes hard to widen these international tentions and take advantage of the possibilities of a return of a kind of a Cold war. Evidently Counter Terrorism experts in the US and across the Atlantic have different views on the crisis with Russia and how to address it. But in view of the opportunity given to Iran and other Jihadists, the new East-West tensions may have to be addressed with this reality in mind. Following is my commentary, initially posted in the Cutting Edge News today

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting feature on the late Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyah and his rather mysterious death on Feb. 12 in Damascus.

Mughniyah, of course, was one of the true pioneers in the use of terrorist tactics by radical Islamists against the West. Among the interesting details the report has is that, on the night his car blew up, incinerating him inside, Mughniyah was on his way to meet Syrian president Bashar Assad.

But there was one Mughniyah quote buried deep in the story that I thought was perhaps the most important in looking at what Hezbollah, Iran and Syria are up to. This should particularly resonate for those looking at Hezbollah in Latin America.

In an interview that he gave just before his death, and which was published afterward, Mughniyah was quoted as saying the following:

"The Americans are making up stories about me and hold me responsible for a lot of attacks against them that happened around the world," he told Ibrahim al-Amine of Lebanon's Al-Akhbar. "Sometimes they think of me as if I have the key to the universe. It is difficult for them to understand that I am part of an institution that patiently plans and designs its moves." My full blog is here.

Drug traffickers could be more prone to confront U.S. law enforcement as they come under pressure as the cartel war continues to rage in the Juarez region, stated an analysis issued by the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The Navy has ordered the big-deck amphibious ship Bataan to deploy and prepare for disaster relief as Hurricane Gustav grows in intensity and bears down on the Gulf Coast.

More Fort Bragg Soldiers are home this Labor Day, enjoying the holiday with their families, than on almost any holiday in the past few years. Coincidentally, the break falls in the middle of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, where the men who will decide where these Soldiers might be next year are nominated.

An Afghan army commander said U.S. and Afghan troops were fired on first from a village in western Afghanistan where a government investigative commission says scores of civilians were killed.

Russia is warning the West against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against the former Soviet republic nation until a different government is in place.

Iraqi forces today took over control of Anbar, once the most explosive battlefields in Iraq, from the U.S. military, symbolising the growing security gains in the war-torn country.