LONDON (Reuters) - An overwhelming majority of Britons would support tough new measures to reduce the threat of attacks after last week's deadly London bomb blasts, a poll by The Times newspaper showed on Tuesday.

Some 86 percent of those questioned said they supported giving the police new powers to arrest people they suspect of planning attacks and 88 percent said they were in favour of tighter controls on who comes into the country.

Only 21 percent said they would change any plans or normal routines for travel into central London after bombs killed at least 52 people on three underground trains and a double-decker bus in the city last Thursday. Police suspect the bombs were planted by Islamist militants.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday he may speed up the implementation of new anti-terror laws in the wake of the London bombings.

In a world that really has been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood.

-Guy Debord

The fetishism of commodities takes on heightened meaning during times of acute crisis. Recall the days immediately after 9/11, when various members of our political and business elite implored us to take on the terrorists the best way we knew how: by shopping our way out of the ashes. And was there a more potent symbol of our national revival than the ringing of the opening bell when Wall Street re-upped for business?

Now, with the recent attacks in London, the refrain is less intense, but still audible. Shortly after I tuned in to CNN the morning of the London bombings, a newscaster asked one of the network's financial analysts, "And how are the markets reacting to all of this?" Initially, the news wasn't good: the markets were down; investors were flocking to the safe haven of US treasury bonds; tourism-related stocks were sure to drop in value. But there was also an upside: high tech surveillance outfits would likely get a boost; and the price of oil had dropped a bit. At the end of the day, the financial damage wasn't too severe. As one CNBC commentator put it, "the markets have learned to shrug off these terrorist attacks."

Now, it's stating the obvious to point out that mainstream commentators tend to ascribe human qualities to financial markets. But it's less obvious--and more revealing--that they simultaneously obscure the human underpinnings and ramifications of 'the market.' It's taboo to question the human toll exacted by the financialization of virtually every aspect of life. While anyone with a TV set, radio, or internet hookup is at least vaguely aware of whether Wall Street had a good or bad day, most of us don't have a clue as to exactly what that means. It's not common knowledge that a militant approach to confining inflation--a precondition to caffeinated markets and a hallmark of post 1980 monetary policy" correlates to increased unemployment; or that a publicly-traded company's layoff of its workers or jettisoning of their pension plans tends to sit very well with investors.

If we do truly live in a society of spectacles--or of the spectacle--as Guy Debord said, then the market is the grandest spectacle of them all. Its images are ubiquitous; we know it, but we don't understand it; it defines our reality; yet most of us are wholly detached from it. It is for these reasons that neoliberal and neoconservative policies aimed at increased levels of privatization and financialization can so easily be identified with progress, despite their deleterious impact on most of humanity.

And it is for these reasons that political elites can continue to use the image of the market to align themselves with the ideals of openness and freedom, despite the fact that their policies often have the opposite effect. Witness President Bush, from his perch at the G8 summit, reacting to the bombings in London: "the contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill, those who have got such evil in their hearts that they will take the lives of innocent folks." In other words, the Masters of the Universe, who have presided over steadily increasing rates of global inequality and poverty over the past several decades and have consistently advocated for massive privatization and financialization, are the ones who will deliver on the prospect of human rights.

As many have noted, we live in a world characterized by twin fundamentalisms--that of radical Islamists who care nothing about the collateral damage they inflict on innocents, as long as their political project is furthered; and that of the neoliberal political and business elite, whose mystical belief in the power of the market allows them, conveniently, to come to the conclusion that their collateral damage isn't man-made.

If we're to get outside of this destructive duality and embark on a serious project aimed at realizing human rights and global justice, we'd have to address, head-on, the destruction wrought by decades of neoliberal policy. And we'd have to ask ourselves, 'How would the market react?'

Home Secretary Charles Clarke says firms across Europe should be ordered to retain phone and e-mail records to help track down terrorists.

A meeting of the EU justice and home affairs council, called by Mr Clarke in the wake of the London bombings, will discuss the plan on Wednesday.

EU security commissioner Franco Frattini told the BBC he believed there should be Europe-wide measures.

But he believed firms should only have to retain details for a limited time.

Mr Frattini told BBC Radio 4's Today: "We should guarantee the full traceability of the movements of terrorists through the stage of phone calls, including unsuccessful phone calls, but of course for the appropriate period of time.

"I think, for example, a period of six months for internet data and about 12 months for phone calls.

"I mean a European standard, because in some member states there are no data retention rules and no data retention possibility at all, and that is a great advantage for terrorists."

'Home-grown'

At the meeting Mr Clarke will present his European counterparts with a 10-point plan including proposing that records of all private telephone calls, text messages and e-mails be retained by telecommunications firms so they can be passed on to the police and security services if necessary.

"Telecommunications records, whether of telephones or of e-mails, which record what calls were made from what number to another number at what time are of very important use for intelligence," he said.

"I am not talking about the content of any call but the fact that a call was made. And we believe it is important to get a retention of data of what calls were made from some considerable time.

"This is an issue of international agreement and that is what I will be discussing with my European colleagues in Brussels on Wednesday."[...]

LONDON — The face of a London bomber may be ready to reveal itself. The authorities believe they may have zeroed in on the remains of a person who carried the bomb on Bus No 30.

The body is being reassembled piece by piece in a mortuary, in what could provide investigators with their most significant lead on who was behind the synchronised blasts that killed at least 52 people last Thursday.

As the search gathered steam, the European Union, normally touchy on issues of privacy, was preparing a series of wide-ranging proposals to store millions of personal mobile phone and email records and to share them with police and intelligence services to crack down on potential terrorists.

British Home Secretary Charles Clarke is to propose at an EU summit in Brussels tomorrow that telecommunications data be held for between one and three years — and be open to scrutiny.

The Home Secretary said: "Telecommunications records, whether phone or email, which record what calls were made from what number to another number at what time, are of very important use for intelligence."

At the moment, there is voluntary agreement in Britain for all data to be held for between six months and a year. In Germany and Denmark, however, there is no obligation for telecommunications firms to retain any information.

Terrorism could change all that.

It would allow the police and intelligence agencies access to "traffic" data — details about who has called and messaged whom, with times and locations — and make it possible for security agencies to track individuals across the EU.

For now, however, the focus is on tracking the perpetrators of the London blasts.

The authorities are growing convinced that the explosions on the trains were not suicide attacks, but that the bombs were placed near doors by terrorists who then got off.

That is why the focus of the investigation has shifted to the 13 bodies found on the bus. The police believe that if they can identify the bomber, who may have died when he or she accidentally exploded the device, it could provide a vital link to others who may have been part of the same terrorist cell. The police are now reassembling the remains of people found near the explosion.

These will be examined for the pattern of burning, explosives residue and bomb fragments. Relatives of those who are missing are to provide DNA samples for comparison with the victims.

In the case of the bomber, the DNA can be compared with that held in the national database to see if the person had even been convicted of crime. The face of the bomber may have survived the blast. It is also possible to reconstruct a face from the skull using a cast or by using a computer.

While the search for the bomber goes on, the police yesterday made the first identification of a victim: Ms Susan Levy, 53, of Newgate Street village in Hertfordshire, north of London.

Meanwhile, as talk of storing telecommunications records grew, the Spanish El Mundo newspaper reported that Al Qaeda had ordered attacks on Europe in a May 29 Internet message that the Spanish intelligence agency forwarded to its British counterparts at the weekend. The Arabic-language message — signed by Abu Hafs Al Masri Brigades, European division — called "on the mujahedeen (Muslim warriors) worldwide to launch the expected attack".

While Londoners are putting on a brave face and have returned to work, Britain knows the threat has not passed. The Times ran a front-page report on how the terror alert was its highest level as the police expected fresh attacks. The Daily Express was more sensational. Its headline read: "Bombers will strike again".

Abdul Munim sat amid the charred walls and smoky stench of his mosque yesterday and reflected on levels of religious and racial intolerance that are even worse than when he made Britain his home, 40 years ago.

"We've had some hard times and thought they were all in the past," he said. "But now, because of what is happening in the world, it is far less safe. We say to anyone who doubts us, 'The London bombings were wrong'."

The Shajala mosque, in Birkenhead, Wirral, was attacked by two white men who threw petrol through the letterbox and ignited it. The assistant imam, Boshir Ullah, was trapped in his upstairs bedroom, as fire raged on the landing outside. Fire crews pulled him to safety from an upstairs window and extinguished the blaze.

Mr Munim's sense of despair is shared by senior members of Muslim communities across Britain which have suffered an increasing number of attacks since the bombings in London last Thursday. The attacks prompted the country's most senior Muslim leader to write to imams across Britain warning them to guard against a wave of Islamophobia. Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said racists had firebombed mosques and attacked other Islamic institutions across Britain. Arson and criminal damage have been reported in Tower Hamlets and Merton, both in London, Telford, Leeds, Bristol and Bradford.

Last night, Brian Paddick, the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: "We will not tolerate a small minority of people who are using these tragic events to stir up hatred. We need people from every community to report incidents to the police of any faith-hate crime."

In Birkenhead, Mr Munim said the town's predominantly Bangladeshi Muslim community deserved better. "We are hardworking British citizens and everyone knows us," he said. "My son, Nazmul, went to Leeds University, has a masters degree in computer science and is applying those skills. Yet things are getting worse for us. When we came to Merseyside 40 years ago people were more friendly."

The grilles on the windows outside the mosque indicated that it had been the target of violence before. They were installed after the 11 September attacks, when firebombs were pushed through the letterbox.

The Shajala mosque started to feel the backlash from the London bombings even as religious leaders were making an ecumenical plea for religious tolerance the day after the bombings. Worshippers approaching the mosque from their homes on a estate encountered individuals shouting "Paki, Paki". Then, at 12.35am on Saturday, Mr Ullah heard what seemed to be someone kicking the front door, though judging from the damage, a pickaxe may have been used. He opened his door and saw the flames.

"I was terrified," he said. "There was nowhere to escape and the fire was approaching." Police are hunting for two men, who may have bought the petrol used at a nearby service station.

In east London, the community of Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslims fears for its safety after vandals damaged the Mazahirul Uloom mosque and school on Mile End Road. The attackers, who struck early on Saturday, used crowbars and a hammer to shatter 19 windows.

Faruk Ahmed, the mosque's general secretary, said: "We did not expect this to happen in our mosque, at the heart of a peace-loving Muslim community.This is a place of worship and all humans should respect that, whether it is a church, a synagogue, a temple or a mosque."

In Nottingham, a 48-year-old man from Pakistan died on Sunday after what police are treating as a racially aggravated attack. Six people were arrested in connection with the attack.

The British National Party was condemned last night for a by-election leaflet, exploiting an aerial photograph of the No 30 bus, after the explosion in Tavistock Square which killed 13 people. "Maybe now it's time to start listening to the BNP" is the headline on the leaflet, intended for the by-election in Barking, east London, on Thursday.

Five days of reprisals

THURSDAY 7 JULY

Hayes, west London: Asian woman reports attempted arson attack.

Merton, south London: Five white men arrested after throwing bottles at Sikh temple windows.

Southall, west London: Asian family attacked at their home.

FRIDAY 8 JULY

Bristol: Bottles thrown at the Jamia mosque.

Leeds: Arson attack on the Jamiat Tablighul Islam Mosque in Armley. Lighted cloth put through the window.

SATURDAY 9 JULY

Mile End, London: 19 windows broken at Mazahirul Uloom mosque.

Tan Bank, Wellington, Shropshire: Firebomb attack on a mosque. West Mercia police step up patrols around places of worship.

SUNDAY 10 JULY

Birkenhead: Shajala Mosque is set ablaze with petrol bombs, trapping a cleric inside.

MONDAY 11 JULY

Bradford: Pakistani Consulate in Laisterdyke area of the city attacked by arsonists.

Actually, I am surprised it took this long: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—the stuff of legend and ambiguous news reports based on third-hand information and wild supposition—is responsible for the London attacks last week. “Investigators in London are probing whether Iraqi explosives—possibly provided by Al-Qaeda’s top agent in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—were used in last week’s terror bombings,” reports Yahoo News. “Al-Zarqawi is a potential source since there’s an unlimited amount of explosives and munitions in Iraq that he controls,” yet another unspecified U.S. official told Time magazine. “It’s just a matter of getting it out of Iraq and to the right people.”

Nobody knows if al-Zarqawi actually did it—same as they don’t know anything else about the mercurial terrorist—but it makes sense to blame him the same way he is blamed for poison attacks in Europe, releasing a chemical cloud in Amman, 700 plus murders in Iraq during the occupation, the Canal Hotel bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad (killing the UN Secretary-general’s special Iraqi envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello), and various sundry murders, including Laurence Foley, a senior U.S. diplomat working for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Jordan, and the beheading of American-Israeli dual citizen Nicholas Berg. It should be noted there is absolutely no evidence al-Zarqawi had anything to do with any of the above incidents and he is associated with them due to the careless use of adjectives such as “purportedly” and “possibly” habitually employed by the corporate media based on nonsense uttered by “anonymous” and “unnamed” administration officials and other such dissimulators and con artists.

Ministry of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff added fuel to the Abu did it fire by stating he is “concerned about” a possible al-Zarqawi link to the London bombings. “I want to withhold judgment. We haven’t seen any definitive indication of that. It’s something we obviously want to look to, we’re concerned about,” he told ABC. In other words, al-Zarqawi will become the prime suspect in the bombings and another addition will be added to al-Zarqawi’s notorious Goldstein-like colophon, none of it able to stand-up in a court of law, not that Bush and crew even want to capture al-Zarqawi (impossible since he is dead) and usher him into a courtroom. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is serving quite well as an official hobgoblin and dutiful paradigm of the now stereotypical Muslim terrorist, the reason we will be engaged in an “endless war” against Muslim baddies, as Bruce Hoffman of the RAND Corp. (an American “think tank” formed to provide research and analysis to the U.S. military) sees it. “We know that Zarqawi is a very dangerous and evil terrorist, and there’s no question he’s done things in Iraq which are about as bad as you can do,” said Chertoff. Actually there is no evidence al-Zarqawi has done anything but no sense upsetting the myth-making apple cart.

“Reflecting back, one cannot help but wonder if al-Zarqawi was used as a lure to trap the Americans into taking this action” in Iraq, explains Scott Ritter. “On the surface, the al-Zarqawi organization seems too good to be true. A single Jordanian male is suddenly running an organization that operates in sophisticated cells throughout Iraq. No one man could logically accomplish this.” But logic does not figure in the al-Zarqawi myth anymore than it does in the Emmanuel Goldstein myth in Orwell’s Oceania. Instead, the purpose of al-Zarqawi is to engender widespread fear of Muslims and rally the masses behind the concept of forever war directed against Islam. Chertoff was careful to note there is not a shred of evidence linking the phantom al-Zarqawi to anything, let alone the London terrorist bombings. Even so, from this point onward, the folkloric al-Zarqawi will be unquestionably linked to the carnage in London.

TEL AVIV – The terror attack in London last week may be tied to a suicide bombing on Tel Aviv’s beachfront in April 2003, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported Monday.

According to the paper, Mossad officials informed British security authorities that the explosive material used in the Tel Aviv attack on Mike’s Place pub was apparently also utilized to stage the series of bombings in London on Thursday.

Moreover, the Mossad office in London received advance notice about the attacks, but only six minutes before the first blast, the paper reports. As a result, it was impossible to take any action to prevent the blasts.

“They reached us too late for us to do something about it,” a Mossad source is quoted as saying.

‘Very powerful explosive’

According to the German report, the Mossad relayed an analysis of the explosives used in the Mike’s Place attack to British security officials. Mossad sources are quoted as saying there is “high likelihood” the explosives used in Tel Aviv were the same ones used in London.

However, the story makes it unclear whether the Mossad is involved in any way in the investigation into the London bombings.

After analyzing the explosive material used in the Mike’s Place attack, the Mossad concluded it was produced in China and later smuggled into Britain, the paper reports. The explosives were apparently stashed by terrorists connected to al-Qaeda who were able to evade raids by British security forces.

According to the newspaper, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said the explosive in question is very powerful, and “much more lethal than plastic explosives and can be smuggled undetected due to its composition.

The Mossad was also able to determine the substance was developed and produced at the Chinese ZDF arms factory, located about 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) from Beijing, the paper reports.

3 people murdered at Mike’s Place

The Mike’s Place attack claimed the lives of three people, Yanai Weiss, 46, Ran Baron, 24, and Caroline Dominique Hess, 29. The bombing was carried out by two terrorists, Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, who were recruited by Hamas in Britain.

The two managed to enter Israel using their British passports.

Hanif blew himself up at the pub, but Sharif failed to detonate his explosive belt and fled the scene. A few weeks later, his body was washed ashore in Tel Aviv.

The terrorists’ relatives were detained in Britain in the wake of the attack on suspicion they knew of the plot and did nothing to prevent the attacks. The relatives’ trial ended in July of last year, with the court ordering a retrial for Sharif’s sister and brother.

Meanwhile, Sharif’s wife was cleared of the charges against her.

The bombs used in Thursday's terrorist attacks were of "military origin" , according to a senior French policeman sent to London to help in what has become the biggest criminal investigation in British history.

Christophe Chaboud, head of the French Anti-Terrorism Co-ordination Unit, told Le Monde newspaper that the explosives used in the bombings were of " military origin", which he described as "very worrying". " We're more used to cells making home-made explosives with chemicals," he said. "How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get out of the military establishment."

He added that the victims' wounds suggested that the explosives, which were " not heavy but powerful", had been placed on the ground, perhaps underneath seats.

Up to 400 extra police are being drafted in to help with the bombing inquiry. Many of the additional officers will be helping with analysis of thousands of hours of video recordings from cameras on and around the Tube lines and bus struck by the terrorists. Police have so far taken 2,500 videotapes and are expected to examine many more during the inquiry.

Senior detectives said that the analysis of images from surveillance cameras was the biggest CCTV trawl ever. Scotland Yard was renting extra video suites to view the tapes. Detectives are hoping that among the tens of thousands of hours of footage will be pictures of the terrorists.

As well as examining cameras on the three Tube trains hit in the blasts, police have been recovering every camera in the stations that the trains travelled through, and cameras outside the entrance of every station. The Tube bombs were on the southbound Piccadilly line and the Circle line, which means that there were 40 Underground stations where the bombers could have got on board.

As well as examining cameras on shops, banks, and other businesses, the police will also look at speed cameras. The camera on board the No 30 bus that was blown up in Tavistock Square is thought to have been faulty.

A police source said of the CCTV task: "It is a massive job that is very time-consuming; it sounds impossible - but it's not." Between 200 and 400 extra officers from the Metropolitan Police are being deployed on the investigation. This comes on top of the 400 officers in the anti-terrorist branch and many of the 800 in the Met's Special Branch.

The important role that CCTV can play in a criminal investigation was highlighted in the case of David Copeland, the "nail bomber" who staged attacks in Soho, Brixton and Brick Lane, east London. A team of police officers had 26,000 hours of surveillance footage from the dozens of cameras in Brixton, south London. They spent 24 hours a day scrutinising busy street scenes in their effort to spot the attacker.

The first sighting of the bomber was made from cameras filming the doorway of an Iceland food store. Copeland was identified by his boss and a cab driver after police released an image taken on the day he planted his first bomb in April 1999.

Forensic science specialists and anti-terrorist officers were continuing yesterday to examine the four crime scenes for traces of the bomb and a possible suicide bomber. This includes X-raying bodies to see if any bomb parts or timing devices, which could be vital clues, are embedded in them. It remains unclear if a terrorist died in the bus bomb, which went off an hour after the Tube explosions.

Detectives are checking all the victims from the bomb scene. An anti-terrorist source said they had recovered useful pieces of evidence, but were keeping an open mind as to whether a suicide bomber had been involved. Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the Met, described the areas of investigation as "the biggest crime scenes in English history".

James Hart, commissioner of the City of London Police, added: "We can't possibly assume that what happened on Thursday was the last of these events ...We have to be vigilant."

A small British-based terrorist cell with the ability to strike again placed the bombs on the London underground and bus, intelligence and anti-terrorism officials suggested yesterday.

A senior police officer warned that another attack could be imminent and anti-terrorism officials pointed to the possibility of future bombings.

"It is more difficult to detect home-grown groups," said one anti-terrorism official. "They are less conspicuous and they don't move around."

The task of the security and intelligence agencies was made more difficult, officials said, because local cells do not need to take instructions from abroad. But they said they had no concrete evidence to back up their suspicions.

"People are radicalised and take it on themselves [to carry out terrorist attacks]," a senior anti-terrorism official said.

Another told the Guardian: "It was not necessarily a closely affiliated [al-Qaida] group waiting for the green light. They do it in their own time."

He said it would not have been difficult for a small group of individuals to plant bombs on the underground. No detailed reconnaissance was needed, and there was no complicated access, he said. "It could have been a very self-contained operation".

"If the bombers had got away and live to fight another day, they would do it again," an official said. "If they did not, [the attacks] could be replicated. They have identified a gap in the defences."

Security and intelligence sources said it was not difficult to make small bombs with timers and detonators. Microchips and a small circuit board could explode a device which previously required large and unwieldy equipment.

Christophe Chaboud, the head of the French Anti-Terrorism Coordination Unit and one of five senior officials sent by the French government to London immediately after Thursday's attacks, told Le Monde that the explosives used appeared to be of military origin.

"The charges were not heavy but powerful," said Mr Chaboud. "Among the victims, many of the wounds [lesions] were in the lower limbs, indicating that the explosives were placed on the ground, perhaps under the seats. The type of explosives appear to be military, something which is very worrying. We're more used to cells making home-made explosives with chemicals. How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get them out of a military establishment."

Asked about his discussions with British anti-terrorism officials, he replied: "I noticed sangfroid but also serious concern. We know the bombings in Madrid would have been the start of a wave of attacks thwarted by the speedy actions of the Spanish police."

The French official said that "for us, the bombings were not a surprise, but the confirmation of something that was inevitable, given the international context, notably the war in Iraq ... The war in Iraq has revived the logic of total conflict against the west."

A senior British anti-terrorism official said it was "entirely possible" the explosives had a military origin, adding that nothing had been ruled out.

The police have said only that the bombs contained less than 10lb (4.5 kg) each of "high explosives" and were small enough to be carried in rucksacks.

A source from a European intelligence agency represented at the meeting in London of 30 countries told Reuters news agency the attacks were most likely carried out by a local cell of Islamist militants with no track record.

"We think the known Islamists who live in Britain are under such close observation that they're limited in their capacity for action. Against that background, the suspicion is that it's a local group," the source said.

Senior police officers continue to warn of the possibility of a further attack. The commissioner of police for the City of London, James Hart, said there was a strong possibility of another attack. Mr Hart said: "We can't possibly assume that what happened on Thursday was the last of these events."

In a bid to get closer to potential home-grown terrorists, newly recruited police officers are being encouraged to plan a terrorist attack. The course is designed by Hertfordshire police.

Pointing to last week's bombings in London, President George Bush vowed to keep on the offensive against international terrorism and to "continue to take this fight to the enemy, and we will fight until this enemy is defeated".

Mr Bush's speech yesterday, at the FBI training centre at Quantico, Virginia, had been scheduled long before the Tube and bus attacks. But he went out of his way to praise the resilience of Londoners. He described the bombings as "an attack on the civilised world" that provided "a clear window into the evil we face". London was currently experiencing great suffering, "but Londoners are resilient. They have faced brutal enemies before. The city that survived the Nazi blitz will not yield in the face of thugs and assassins," he said. The carefully synchronised targeting of the capital of America's closest ally in the war on terror and in Iraq has had an enormous impact here - not least by rekindling fears that a US city might be next in line. It has also produced a flurry of activity in Congress, aimed at providing money for increasing security on the country's vulnerable mass transit system.

While the federal government spends several dollars per passenger per year for air travel security, the equivalent for rail, subway and bus passengers runs at just a few cents. Richard Shelby, the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee, is pushing a Bill that would allocate some $5 billion (£2.84bn) to correct this imbalance.

Mr Bush told the assembled 1,000 marines, FBI officials and emergency service helpers yesterday that "tough fighting" and "difficult moments" lay ahead before victory could be assured. But neither the US nor its allies would be cowed.

It was still not known who carried out the attacks, Mr Bush declared, but the terrorists would never break the will of the democracies. The only way they could win was "if we lose our nerve, and that isn't going to happen on my watch".

Some political analysts believe that the events in London will have an impact on US domestic politics, boosting Mr Bush's flagging popularity and refocusing national attention back on the war on terror - the issue on which he consistently gets his highest approval ratings, and which was decisive in securing his re-election in November 2004.

Once again, he justified the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq by saying it was "the central front" in the fight against terrorism.

The London bombings hit home to me. Only two weeks ago, my wife was in the Kings Cross station while on a visit to that city.

It's easy, and natural, to be upset at the images of carnage in the U.K. What people need to remember now, however, is that what happened in London, and what could just as easily happen in New York or Chicago or San Francisco, is a direct and predictable result of what the U.S. is doing in Iraq.

We recoil at the vicious, random killing of innocent men, women and children when they are our own, or our friends, but where is the outrage at the uncounted mass of innocent men, women and children who have been killed by the American invasion of Iraq, and the invasion of Afghanistan. In both places, thanks to military policies that stress the use of massive firepower, aerial bombardment and gunships in the name of keeping US casualties at a minimum, the toll of civilians is actually significantly higher than the number of actual enemy fighters killed by American forces.

Our leaders call this "collateral damage" but in truth, with this kind of military strategy, one would have to say the killing of an enemy soldier is more appropriately called the collateral damage.

And when a country opts to attack civilian targets as a policy, as our government has done, it must expect the same in return.

I'm not saying this is moral or justified. I'm only stating the reality.

Flying out to Oregon last week, I sat next to a man who travels the country working on repairing railroad track. He said he has a brother who is a Marine tank commander in Iraq, now on his second tour of duty. I asked him how it was over there, and he shook his head sadly. "My brother went over there all gung-ho," he said. "Now, he's just bitter. He says it's not a war; it's a slaughter. He says that the people he and his fellows end up killing are mostly just civilians and he hates the whole thing."

If Americans were to hear this story more often, if our corporate media were to show us daily the civilian victims of American military actions in the same graphic detail that they are showing us the British victims of Al Qaeda terrorist actions, we would likely recoil at the horrors being inflicted in our name and might demand a halt to it.

Instead, we are offered sanitized reports on the war which focus mostly on the American casualties. We turn away from the true horrors of war and let the military do what it does, and try not to think about it too hard about the consequences.

So get ready folks. If the American people are willing to turn a blind eye to the horrors that our government is deliberately inflicting on Iraqis and Afghanis, we need to face the fact that we too will be attacked, not just our soldiers.

Are we rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell...
Is the best of the free life behind us now...
Are the good times really over for good?
~~Merle Haggard

"For thou are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not sojourn with thee. The boastful may not stand before thy eyes; thou hatest all evildoers. Thou destroyest those who speak lies; the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men." ~~ David, Psalms 5:4

"ICH" - - On Memorial Day, George W. Bush, the world's most bloodthirsty and deceitful man strutted to the podium at our National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, to once again regurgitate his woefully shallow and inappropriate stump speech -- "Across the globe (sly smile), our military is standing directly between our people and the worst dangers in the world (pause, smirk)...the war on terror has brought great costs (no-nonsense head bob)...two terror regimes are gone forever (narrowed eyes darting nervously back and forth across the crowd), freedom is on the march (leaning forward earnestly), and America is more secure."

Unfazed by plummeting poll numbers at home or spiraling fatality numbers abroad, Bush remarked with shudderingly bad taste that all headstones look alike -- a Texan's crude way of saying, "You seen one skull orchard, you seen 'em all," and announced with devilish arrogance that his mission remains unchanged -- he has the terrorists on the run and he isn't going to stop until he has spread God's gifts of freedom and democracy and liberty and neat stuff like that throughout the world. His will will never be broken. His mission is God's mission; together, he and God will rid the world of evil. On behalf of God, Bush said he 'preciates folks dyin' for the cause. Heck, he even honors 'em.

They applauded him. It was astonishing. They applauded, when they should have been wailing in anguish while collapsing under an unbearable sense of national loss. But no. Grinning like cartoon caricatures, they applauded an in-your-face war criminal -- a great deceiver who is openly intent on destroying everything that is, or ever was, good in their lives. Bush's mission will be over when the good times are over; when they're over for good -- when all that remains is broken. Broken families. Broken bodies. Broken societies. Broken cultures. Broken hearts. Broken world.

Where are the Christians? Where is the revulsion at Bush roaming freely on hallowed ground while belching out lies and deceit that have caused the slaughter of more than 100,000 Iraqi's, 1,942 coalition troops -- 1,752 of them American -- more than American 18,000 wounded or maimed; 10,000 striken with lifelong disease? (No figures are available for the number of Iraqi wounded or maimed ) Where is the raw horror that Christians should feel for a charlatan who boasts that he is on a mission from God -- a mission to rule over a world of hate and lies and fear and death and disease?

You'd think the souls of true Christians would surely shrivel when a man who claims Jesus Christ as his "philosopher" murders hundreds of thousands of innocents, abuses and tortures hundreds, maybe even thousands, more and then raises blood-stained fists -- shakes them in the face of the Almighty, and shouts, "Thou Fool!" You'd think, as a minimum, Christians would remember who in the Bible is known as the "Great Deceiver." You'd think. But alas...

Actually, people who claim to speak to, as well as for, God are everywhere. Most are Republicans, members of the Christian Reconstructionist Movement whose lust for power and obsession with Biblical control extends beyond the wildest fantasies of the most radical evangelical. With flags in one hand and Bibles in the other, they are militant, intolerant, boastful -- eaten up with messianic hubris. They proudly call themselves "people of faith," and are brazenly committed to religion, but their religion is politics and vice versa. They're the God people -- George Bush's voting base. Ironically, followers of Jesus are awakening to find themselves in the midst of religious plenty, yet are literally dying of thirst, much like the lone sailor in Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" who was surrounded by water but dared not drink. They are discovering it is dangerous for Christian love to be surrounded by religious hate.

I wonder if Americans know just how close to the abyss we really are. I hate to sound yet another terror warning, but if we were in theological Vietnam, we'd be in deep, deep spiritual kimche. Bush is the perfect pawn for the Reconstructionists. He owes them, big time, and he's paying them back at dizzying and destructive speed. Never has a more bloodthirsty and vengeful bully so devoid of reason and sanity been given universal free rein to act out his incorrigible delusions. Bush believes -- has been led to believe -- that he has been commissioned by God to slay all those whom he fantasizes might someday oppose him -- and to justify the slaughter by brandishing the double-edged sword of freedom and liberty.

As early as 1994, Frederick Clarkson, author of "Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Democracy and Theocracy in the United States," warned Americans about the fundie-fascist danger in a critical, indepth article on Christian Reconstructionists. Clarkson said, "...the movement is Very Disturbing in it's ideology. And if it ever came to political power, it would be disasterous for this civilization. Freedom under a Christian Reconstructionist government would be similar to that of Stalan (sic) or Hitler."

If they need proof, Bush's "freedom-loving Americans" would do well to listen to the mad ravings of Gary North, one of the more frightening Reconstructionist shepherds, who is determined to place people of faith in every political office, in every schoolroom, every church, and in every societal nook and cranny in order to "gain exclusive control over the American franchise." North, from Tyler, Texas, says, "Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant -- baptism and holy communion -- must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel."

It is not by chance that Reconstructionists are Republicans or that their crusade against Democrats and all things liberal mirrors that of Bush's jihad against the Muslim world. Clarkson cites Reconstructionist theologian David Chilton, who very succinctly describes the movement's mission -- "The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's law."

Nobody has worked harder nor longer to bring this madness to fruition than Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson. For him, the "rule of God's law" does not extend to Liberals and there's no place for gays to hide in a Robertson world. He believes that homosexuals have nothing better to do than to "come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers."

And, if you're a Democrat, chances are if Robertson and the Reconstructionists have their way, you're going to get your ass kicked. "The strategy against the American Radical Left should be the same as General Douglas MacArthur employed against the Japanese in the Pacific," Robertson said. "...Bypass their strongholds, then surround them, isolate them, bombard them, then blast the individuals out of their power bunkers with hand-to-hand combat..."

Sound like a plan?

Well, listen up, because it gets better. Christian Reconstructionists soar into a divine frenzy at the mere thought of capital punishment. Those of us who do not see things their way will very quickly turn into collateral damage. Clarkson says Reconstructionists "call for the death penalty for a wide range of crimes in addition to such contemporary capital crimes as rape, kidnapping, and murder. Death is also the punishment for apostasy (abandonment of the faith), heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, "sodomy or homosexuality," incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, "unchastity before marriage."

Like Bush, who stolidly refuses to accept blame for his actions, the Reconstructionists believe that both men and nations must obey God's laws or God must invoke the death penalty against them. According to North, women who have abortions should be publicly executed, "along with those who advised them to abort their children." But, not to worry. Theocracies, according to theologian Rev. Ray Sutton, are "happy" places to which people flock because "capital punishment is one of the best evangelistic tools of a society."

Clarkson said the Biblically approved methods of execution include burning at the stake, stoning, hanging, and "the sword." So, if you slap your mama or do the "wild thaing" before the wedding, a "person of faith" will be happy to behead you... But North says not to worry. He prefers stoning because, among other things, stones are cheap, plentiful, and convenient. Punishments for non-capital crimes generally involve whipping, restitution in the form of indentured servitude, or slavery. Prisons would likely be only temporary holding tanks, prior to imposition of the actual sentence.

In April, Rev. Jim Wallis of "Sojourners" magazine addresed this problem at a Lewisville rally. Wallis said, "Those on the Religious Right are declaring a religious war to give their version of faith religious supremacy in America. And some members of the Republican Party seem ready almost to declare a Christian theocracy in America. It is time," Wallis said firmly, "to take back both our faith and our Constitution."

I agree, but how do we do this? Many of us are weary of feeling like we're the the last person standing -- sloshing around in a Stepford world of hate and fear and blood -- where every man, woman and child we meet has "9-11" tattooed on their foreheads, and they don't even know it.

What can we tell them that is more horrible than what Christians have already accepted without question -- lies, treason, deceit, abuse and torture, body parts of innocents littering the landscape, the slaughter of their own children, and freedom ebbing away? If we tell them what the Great Deceiver and his Christian Reconstructionist God have in store for them, will they continue to stare at us vacantly while waving their flags? Or, when they see that our foreheads do not proclaim the patriotic "9-11," will they skitter fearfully into the shadows?

We have a choice. We can either take our places in line at the tattoo parlor or we can grab a taser in each hand and start walking cross-country, kicking doors down and jolting folks awake. It may already be too late, but before this vast herd of comatose sheep goes plodding blindly over the edge of the cliff; before they pull the rest of us into the morass with them, we have earned the right to see one last collective shock of recognition -- a final terrified realization that they know the good times are over -- really over for good.

And they will know, at long last, it didn't have to be this way.

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net. © 2005 Sheila Samples

Copyright: Sheila Samples. All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.

Mohammad Radwan Obeid is a threat to national security because he surfed terrorist Web sites and visited terrorist chat rooms, the FBI claims.

The 33-year-old Jordanian, who came to the United States with his American wife in 2001 and worked at a grocery store in Dayton, Ohio, before his arrest in March on immigration charges, says he was only gathering grist for a book about terrorism and world religions.

He said he volunteered to work for the FBI, but was rejected.

But a federal immigration judge in Detroit last week ordered Obeid jailed pending the outcome of charges that he entered the United States through marriage fraud. He also is being investigated by a federal grand jury.

"When taken altogether, the evidence establishes respondent presents a substantial risk to the national security of the United States," Immigration Judge Robert Newberry said in a June 22 decision denying Obeid's request to be released on bond. He is being held in the Monroe County Jail.

Newberry agreed with the FBI that Obeid's claims of writing a book, his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses and other activities often are used by terrorists to avoid arrest and deportation.

Obeid's fiancee said Tuesday that the FBI is wrong about him.

"There's no way he could be a terrorist," said Misty Iddings, a 30-year-old nurse's aide of Piqua, Ohio. "He wouldn't hurt anybody. He's a very nice person. He's kind and friendly."

Obeid came to the United States in February 2001 as a conditional resident after marrying a Kansas City woman in Jordan, court papers said. Five months after they arrived, their marriage was annulled.

His lawyer, Najad Mehanna of Dearborn Heights, said her family wouldn't accept him because he was Muslim.

Afterward, Mehanna said, Obeid moved to the Dayton area, worked as a cashier at gas stations and convenience stores, and remarried. But the couple split up around May 2003 and he eventually met and moved in with Iddings.

In mid-2004, he became a Jehovah's Witness, decided to write a book about terrorism, and began surfing terrorism sites on the Internet.

Mehanna said Obeid was stunned by what he found on those sites and called the CIA and FBI. He said they didn't take him seriously.

On March 28, agents searched his home and on April 20, arrested him for immigration fraud.

The government has presented secret evidence at his deportation hearings to show that he is a threat to national security.

Obeid's lawyer said he probably would appeal the denial of bond. He also has requested asylum on grounds that Obeid would be persecuted if returned to Jordan because of the FBI's terrorism claims and his new faith.

But the lawyer concedes that Obeid is fighting a difficult battle, which resumes Sept. 19 in Detroit immigration court.

I cannot tell you what is right for your life, but I will tell you about some of the things I have learned lately. And this is free of charge to you. :)

Last week I belatedly "rescued" a lizard from our swimming pool, scooping him up with a net and dumping him outside in the bushes. I say "belatedly" because I first thought he was dead, and so, delayed helping him, thinking that he was just another dead lizard killed by chlorine and drowning in the deep end of the pool. I don't know why some lizards jump into the pool, whether it is because they are seeking water or that they are seeking new territory. Their reasons are irrelevant to me though; they jump, I rescue, and that's how it goes.

Now, I do feel badly for the lizard. I wonder if he survived, and if my delay rescuing him was fatal. But, ultimately, the fact is that I walked away and forgot about him. He might have lain in the bushes for hours in pain, gasping for air, having spasmod