| From The Editor October 30, 2006 |
The Road to Progressive IslamThe question of "progressive" Islam is a thorny one. At a time when Muslims the world over feel that their future is under threat, and when conspiracy theories abound about attempts to undermine Islam from within and without, any attempt to work towards a radical rethinking of Muslim norms, values and praxis is bound to solicit controversy and suspicion, if not outright resistance or even violent reaction.But some honest and objective questioning is long overdue. In many Muslim societies today practices that have nothing to do with Islam, or which may even be contrary to the values of Islam, are being reproduced and re-enacted as if they were articles of faith. The systematic marginalisation and disempowerment of Muslim women, for example, is one glaring example of how Islamic orthodoxy has been put to work to serve the interests of patriarchy and the status quo in many societies. For these simple reasons there has to be a shift in the way in which contemporary Islamic thought is developed. The calls for a progressive Islamic praxis are not simply coming from outside the Muslim community, but increasingly from within. Yet despite the demands for change and introspection, the progressive current seems weak. Why? Full Story Gary Jackson |
| QUOTE OF THE WEEK |
| Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him. Ronald Reagan |
| PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES, EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS |
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION to bring clarity to international relations, and the North Korean nuclear test was no exception. Since Pyongyang demonstrated its nuclear capability, the United States and Japan have finally begun to consider the steps that will be necessary to contain North Korean nuclear proliferation and apply pressure to undermine the Kim regime. But these efforts are plagued by a dirty little secret: Tokyo is currently prohibited from coming to the defense of U.S. naval forces or trying and intercept a missile headed toward U.S. territory. |
| BREAKING NEWS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Nuke watch: The game's getting tougherWhile international attention is focused on the nuclear challenge posed by North Korea and Iran, the world's top nuclear watchdog warned this week that the situation could be much worse in the future. "Another 20 to 30 states" could one day "have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in a very short span of time," said Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency . In the fine print is a sobering fact: If any nation were bent on secretly pursuing such weapons, there's no guarantee the IAEA would detect it. "Can they prove it 100 percent? No, because you can't prove a negative - that a country doesn't have weapons," says James Acton, a researcher at the Verification Research, Training and Information Center in London. "All they can do is provide 'credible assurance' that there aren't secret nuclear activities."Full Story Somali Islamists under 'black flag' of Al-Qaeda, Taliban: presidentSomalia's interim president has appealed for international help in dealing with a powerful Islamist movement he accused of operating under the "black flag" of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Speaking here to a US-backed panel of diplomats trying to salvage foundering peace talks, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said Thursday the world had a "moral obligation" to help protect his weak government from "foreign terrorists." He said the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu in June from warlords and now control nearly all of southern and central Somalia, were falsely portraying themselves as moderates and posed a major regional and international threat.Full Story Taliban to launch war in the citiesTALIBAN fighters are preparing for a campaign of urban warfare, say Afghan and Western intelligence, and have established cells in the cities of Afghanistan from which to launch a campaign of explosions and suicide bombings. While military chiefs have been declaring victory in the south of the country and claim to have killed more than 3000 Taliban over the northern summer, diplomats in Kabul warn that security in Afghan cities is deteriorating fast. "This could turn into another Iraq," one said. Suicide bombs were almost unheard of in Afghanistan until last year, with only five since the fall of the Taliban in December 2001. But this year has already seen 81, which killed or wounded more than 700 people.Full Story Sept. 11 Plotter Asks Court for Lawyer, TrialRamzi Binalshibh, an admitted al-Qaeda planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, tried four times to join the terrorist hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 and has acknowledged his goal of killing as many Americans as possible. Now the Yemeni man is seeking the help of the U.S. court system to address his complaint that he has been wrongfully imprisoned and treated unfairly by the U.S. government. He filed a legal challenge in federal court in Washington on Oct. 10, asserting his rights to contest his detention and requesting that a court-appointed lawyer represent him free of charge.Full Story Radical Islam finds US 'sterile ground'The Islamist radicalism that inspired young Muslims to attack their own countries - in London, Madrid, and Bali - has not yielded similar incidents in the United States, at least so far. "Home-grown" terror cells remain a concern of US law officers, who cite several disrupted plots since 9/11. But the suspects' unsophisticated planning and tiny numbers have led some security analysts to conclude that America, for all its imperfections, is not fertile ground for producing jihadist terrorists. To understand why, experts point to people like Omar Jaber, an AmeriCorps volunteer; Tarek Radwan, a human rights advocate; and Hala Kotb, a consultant on Middle East affairs. They are the face of young Muslim-Americans today - educated, motivated, and integrated into society - and their voices help explain how the nation's history of inclusion has helped to defuse sparks of Islamist extremism.Full Story |
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Taliban Commander: We're Planning Attacks in EuropeA Taliban commander has told Sky News that the militants are for the first time plotting to attack Westerners in Britain and the rest of Europe. In a rare exclusive interview, the commander insisted the militants had stockpiles of weapons and would never give-up exacting revenge from what he called "the foreign invaders". He confirmed that Taliban fighters are taking refuge within neighbouring Pakistan and are being helped by locals sympathetic to their cause.Full Story As rebels rearm, Darfur braces for all-out warHaroun Abdullah Kabir stepped from one bloodied corpse to another on the parched, rocky battlefield. He searched the soldiers' decomposing faces for an aquiline nose, fair complexion or fine, straight hair: telltale Arab features. Instead Kabir, a field commander of the Darfur rebels fighting the Sudanese government, found among the Sudanese soldiers his men had felled only the dark-skinned faces of southern Sudanese and Darfurians. He looked away in disgust. "You see, they send black men to kill black men," he said. "We are waiting for them to send Arabs for a real fight."Full Story Mexican Gangs Displaying Severed HeadsThe drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display. In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive." Many in Michoacan's mountains and colonial cities are doing just that: They are tightlipped, their newspapers are censoring themselves and in one town, 18 out of 32 police officers quit saying they had received death threats from drug smugglers.Full Story Horn of Africa May Be Next Terror FrontFrom the Red Sea to Lake Victoria, the Horn of Africa is one of the few places in the world where, if careful, a traveler can move 1,400 miles across four countries without producing a passport or encountering a single government official. These footpaths, back roads and rivers have been used for centuries by merchants and slave traders, explorers, smugglers and bandits. Rebels easily sneak around the central governments in the big cities So could any traveler. Even a terrorist.Full Story S.Korea Displays Military StrengthExplosives blew sand and rocks high into the air and dozens of helicopters provided aerial cover as South Korea's military landed on a southeastern beach Friday in its largest-ever landing exercise. The massive demonstration of military might -- involving 8,000 army, navy and air force troops -- was South Korea's first military exercise since its northern neighbor's Oct. 9 nuclear detonation. While the annual exercise had been planned long before North Korea's test, the issue was still at the forefront.Full Story |
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Service Equipment ReviewPentagon Weapon LightsIn today's operational environments - which can include everything from corn fields to jungles to cities of all sizes - versatility is the name of the game in equipment. In answer to that mandate, manufacturers have been designing tools that encompass more capabilities than ever. Lights that strobe. Lights that have different colors. Lights with snap on / snap off filters for color or infra-red. Lights with lasers and more. This week's review is of the Pentagon Weapon Light, Model MD2 NVG-Light. This light pair provides 70 lumens of white light as well as the night-vision compatible infra-red secondary light. To test the setup I attached it to my Sabre Defence rifle and enjoyed a visit to the range along with participation in a few building entry classes.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/evals/lights/pentagonwpnlight.htm Recreational Equipment ReviewHogue PowerSpeed Universal HolsterWhen I received this holster for test & evaluation my first reaction was, "This is a holster?" "RoboCop" also came to mind... I had never seen anything like it first hand. The Hogue PowerSpeed holster is, at its most basic, a polymer holster that is adjustable to fit every pistol (that I've tried) in a secure fashion that permits a quick draw. The heavy emphasis is on the "quick draw" part - not the secure part. THAT is why this holster is being written in the Recreational Reviews section: I think it's a great holster for competition but in no way would I recommend it for duty use. Let me take you through the design features, what it takes to fit it to your particular pistol, and then the experiences I had with it through numerous presentations on the range.
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The Blackwater Tactical Weekly is a free weekly e-publication. The BTW provides readers valuable information from diverse sources regarding tactical and strategic security issues. Editor-in-Chief – Gary Jackson (btw@blackwaterusa.com) Questions regarding Security Consulting or Training
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