CAIR Against Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Exercise

“Pennsylvania’s police prepare for radical Islam” and “Radical Islam: A law-enforcement primer” are two programs offered to law enforcement officers in light of recent events. However, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) objected. CAIR was listed among organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood's American network. Its founders emerged an Islamic organization that two courts have found played a supporting role for the terrorist group Hamas. A lengthy investigation reveals that CAIR's aims are anything but benign and it holds a place front and center in American terrorism.

Barrier Maps Compared Wherein the Washington Post Deceives

Graphic source: The Washington Post

I noted earlier that the Washington Post seemed to miss the story and the dimensions of the wall being built by Multinational Forces.

Map of the disposition of Iraqi and US forces in and around Sadr City, and the progress on the barrier. The red portion has yet to be completed. Graphic Source: Multinational Forces

The disparate illustrations are worth noting for the differences. The actual (red portion) of Quds Street where the barrier is being built is about 3.2 miles according to the US mapping agency. However, in The Washington Post misleading map the scale is completely wrong on a basic bit mapping: 7.5 miles. In addition, the 4 on the miles scale should be a 1. Since the misleading illustration makes the barrier appear 2.5 times longer than it really is, the project seems doomed. As the barrier has unfolded, and is much clearer now, the JAM (the Mahdi) is beatable, and now beaten down and cowed.

Sadrists Buckle Under, Agree to 14 Point Ceasefire

562 مهدي قتل جيب مقاتل يتلقّى يكون أكّدت في وحول [سدر] مدينة منذ مارس - آذار 25; [سدريست] يحدّب كتلة, يوافق أن ترك جيب [إيرقي] في [سدر] مدينة.

[ز'ير] [أل-سّد] [في] [سولت] أوصل [أل-هق] بقوّات [إيرقي] عمليات عسكريّ ضدّ 92 هدف في موصل. الأمن أنجزت عملية أن يرسّخ خارجا [أل-قدا] كان مع التعاون من المدينة مقدمات.

ساعد شرطة [أفغن] بالإئتلاف قوّات قتل سبعة [تليبن] متمردات في [بكتيا] محافظة.

562 Mahdi Army fighters have been confirmed killed in and around Sadr City since March 25; Sadrist bloc buckles, agrees to let Iraqi Army in Sadr City.

Za'eer al-Assad Fi Saulat al-Haq by Iraqi forces conducted military operations against 92 targets in Mosul. The security operation to root out al-Qaeda was performed with the cooperation of the city's residents.

Afghan police backed by the Coalition forces killed seven Taliban insurgents in Paktia province.

Militia Capitulates: Iraqi Army Enters Sadr City

Soldiers from Company A, 64th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division set concrete barriers in place in the surroundings of the southern portion of the Sadr City district of Baghdad May 3. (US Army photo/Specialist Joseph Rivera Rebolled)

ثلاثة وعشرون مهدي جيب قتلت مقاتل يتلقّى يكون ب [أوس] وقوّات [إيرقي] منذ الالعصر شهر ماي
8. [أوس] خاصّ عمليات قتل أفرقة يشغل داخليّة [سدر] مدينة تسعة مهدي جيب مقاتل بما أنّ هم هاجموا عراقيّ و [أوس] قوّات يبني العالقة مادّيّ على [قودس] شارع. وجّه الفريق أيضا غارة جويّة أنّ قتل اثنان كثير مهدي جيب مقاتل. بالأمس, [أوس] قتل قوّات خاصّة اثنان مهدي جيب مقاتل في [سدر] مدينة.

[أوس] قتل جنديّ 12 كثير مهدي جيب مقاتل في [سدر] مدينة من شهر ماي 8-9. [أوس] استعمل قوّات [أونمنّد] جوّيّة عربة, هليكوبتر, [أبرمس] دباب, و [سملّ-رمس] نار [إين رسبونس تو] مهدي جيب هجوم داخليّة [سدر] مدينة.

Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

Twenty-three Mahdi Army fighters have been killed by US and Iraqi troops since the afternoon of May 8. US Special Operations teams operating inside Sadr City killed nine Mahdi Army fighters as they attacked Iraqi and US forces building the concrete barrier on Qods Street. The team also directed an air strike that killed two more Mahdi Army fighters. Yesterday, US Special Forces killed two Mahdi Army fighters inside Sadr City.

US soldiers killed 12 more Mahdi Army fighters inside Sadr City from May 8-9. US troops used unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, Abrams tanks, and small-arms fire in response to Mahdi Army attacks inside Sadr City.

Note on Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present

The history of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East by Michael Oren portrays American involvement in the region but without the usual canard that the American interest in the region is simply about oil. An historian and senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Dr. Oren authored the recent bestseller Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present to this end. With its fledging navy, the United States began as a nation dependent on trading. Two centuries before the oil boom, 20% of this trade was with the Middle East.

The pirates of the Muslim Barbary corsairs attacked the U.S. and Europe. Thomas Jefferson did not wish to employ bribery, as had been the case, and he violated his own anti-state tendencies to argue that the United States should build a naval force to protect its maritime interest. The John Adams argument advocated the continued policy of payoffs to building a navy. Finally, Jefferson's view prevailed and in fact one of the primary arguments for the U.S. Constitution was that a stronger federal government was needed to raise funds for just such a naval force.

In contrast to an emphasis on oil acquisition, Oren demonstrates that the earliest American presence in the Middle East has revolved around three themes: faith, fantasy, and power. He makes no bones about the American pursuit of power in the region, military, diplomatic, or economic as the case may be, in the pursuit of tangible American interests in the Middle East.

In addition, faith informed American thought on the Middle East as evangelists sought to impart their own faith to an unbelieving world. America was to be the "city on a hill" or that divine example of freedom, morality, and human rights all on display for the world.

Finally, the theme of fantasy informed the illusory and mystical images of the Middle East suggested to the minds of many Americans, who saw the Arabic tradition as a land of unrivaled romance and exoticism.

The overwhelming predominance of Americans who visited the Middle East in the 19th century traveled either to enjoy the exotic lands to be discovered there, or, they were there to convert Muslims, or at least educate them, to the American gospel.

In the twentieth century, U.S. policy toward the Middle East was dictated by the intersection of faith and power as exemplified by Theodore Roosevelt who insisted that the United States should declare war on the Ottoman Empire. He argued that the U.S. was obligated to spread its faith and its democracy to the backward and recalcitrant Turks. We should realize the failure of this policy once President Woodrow Wilson's refused to commit the U.S. During WW I then, more than a million troops from Britain and France were stationed in the Middle East but not one American soldier. The Frence and the British dictated post-War policy without the Americans.

Throughout the subsequent administrations, to that of Harry Truman in 1948, the U.S. faithfully endorsed Jewish restoration to the Holy Land while supporting the spread of democracy in the region.

In the final concluding section, Oren switches gears and describes the complex and nuanced policy of the U.S. in the Middle East.

The major takeway to consider is how the U.S. has had a nearly parallel history to that of the U.S. itself. This nation and the Middle East have been intertwined for nearly the same amount of time that the nation has existed. Partly based on a desire to promote faith in America's institutions, and exert power in the region, American presidents have sought to export America's faith in itself and its institutions, while being captivated and seduced by the exotic Middle East.
Today, many Middle Easterners are unaware of this history, not realizing that the United States has long enjoyed multifaceted and mutually beneficial relations in the region. Although its policies, perceptions, and motives have sometimes been a bit muddled, the United States has done vastly more good than harm in the Middle East over the course of more than two centuries, in unexpected ways that often foreshadowed some of this century's most complex challenges.

Daily Round-Up

The picture of AQ's failed hope of a collapsed Iraqi state: Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Ninawa, and other parts of the governorate of Babel.

Graphic source: AQ

ال [إيرقي] عسكريّة يدّعى أبو [أوب] [أل] [مسري], [أق] زعيمة على قبض في [نينوا] محافظة. كان 14 من العلويّة 30 [أق] عميلات يقتل أو على قبض في الساحقة 3 شهور [أق] زعيمات في موصل, بما في ذلك 3 من [سودي ربيا]. 19 مهدي قتل مقاتلات. أكّد 539 مهدي يقتل في [سدر] مدينة منذ مارس - آذار 25. أمرّ الحكومة [إيرقي] أنّ ال [أل] [أهد] محلة لاسلكيّة, [سدر], يعطّل.

The Iraqi military claimed Abu Ayyub al Masri, AQ leader captured in Ninewa province.

14 of the top 30 AQ operatives killed or captured in the past 3 months were AQ leaders in Mosul, including 3 from Saudi Arabia. 19 Mahdi fighters killed. 539 Mahdi confirmed killed in Sadr City since March 25. The Iraqi government ordered that the Al Ahad radio station, Sadr's, be shut down.

AQ Disintegrating in Iraq

ئتلاف يجبر يقتل أو على قبض 50 أعضاء كبريات [أل] - [قدا] هذا شهر. من العشرة [أل] كبريات - [قدا] [نبّد] زعيمات, خمسة أمير, أو زعيمات, واحدة خليّة زعيمة, وخمسة [فسليتتور] وقنبلة صانعات يتلقّى يكون. [أل] [بغددي] يصحّ اكتشفت هويّة كان عقب إستجوابات مع [ا نومبر وف] [أل] - [قدا] زعيمات الذي كان أوقفت في [هديثا]. [أل-ربيا] عيّن الزعيمة والشبكة إذاعة صورته. قال ال [دوبي-بسد] شبكة الاسم حقيقيّ [أل-بغددي] حميد [دووود] [أل-زوي].


Coalition forces killed or captured 50 senior members of al Qaeda this month. Of the ten senior al Qaeda leaders, five emirs, or leaders, one cell leader, and five facilitators and bomb makers have been nabbed. Al Baghdadi’s true identity was discovered after interrogations with a number of al Qaeda leaders who were arrested in Haditha. Al-Arabiya identified the leader and the network broadcast his photograph. The Dubai-based network said the real name of al-Baghdadi is Hamid Dawoud al-Zawi.

Al Qaeda Network Nabbed, April-May 2008

Graphic source: Multinational Forces Iraq

While most of the good news from the front arises from Sadr City lately, the pressure has been kept on al-Qaeda as well. A list of the 10 most senior al Qaeda leaders killed or captured in April and May is now available. In April and May, US and Iraqi security forces have killed or captured 50 senior members of al Qaeda over the past month. Of the ten senior al Qaeda leaders, five emirs, or leaders, one cell leader, and five facilitators and bomb makers have been nabbed. Mosul remains hot. Three of the leaders captured were in Mosul, and one was responsible for operations in Bayji, close to Mosul. AQ's last major ratline into Syria spans to the west from Mosul into Tal Afar and the crossing point at Sinjar.

The Long War Journal lists several AQ bagged:

Senior AQ operatives killed or captured in Mosul, Baghdad, Salahadin Province:

Mosul:

• Ibrahim Ahmad Umar Nasir al Sabawi: Al Qaeda's emir of eastern Mosul. Sabawi facilitated the movement of foreign al Qaeda operatives into Mosul and worked closely with Abu Yasir al Saudi, also know as Jar Allah, one of two Saudi al Qaeda leaders killed in a US airstrike in Mosul in February.
• Ayyad Jasim Muhammad 'Ali: Al Qaeda's emir for northeastern Mosul.
• Adnan Muhammad: An Al Qaeda cell leader in Mosul.
• Nawaf 'Ali Muhammad Sultan: An Al Qaeda suicide car bomb cell leader in Mosul.
• Husam Asim Sayid Mahmud: An al Qaeda suicide car bomb facilitator for Mosul.

Baghdad:

• Abbas’ ‘Abd Ahmad Hamad: An al Qaeda car bomb maker for the South Karkh network.
• Riyad 'Abbas Husayn: Al Qaeda's sharia emir, or religious leader in charge of enforcing al Qaeda's Taliban-like religious rule, in South Karkh.
• Sa'ad Abdullah Salih: An al Qaeda bomb maker who facilitated the movement of foreign al Qaeda operatives into Baghdad.

Salahadin Province:

• Yusif Dhalaf 'Abd Fayyad: Al Qaeda's security emir in Bayji.
• Najah Husayn 'Ali Ismail: An Al Qaeda weapons facilitator in Tikrit.

Turning the Corner

US, Iraqi forces kill 18 Mahdi fighters during clashes, raids in Baghdad. The Iraqi government arrested 42 policemen for colluding with outlaws and arrested 35 hospital workers for assisting the Mahdi. Iraqi police discovered a weapons cache in the Imam Ali Mosque in the Al Ghadeer neighborhood in New Baghdad. 520 Mahdi have been killed in Sadr City since 25 March.

يقتل [أوس], قوّات [إيرقي] 18 مهدي مقاتل أثناء صدامات, غارة في بغداد. أوقف الحكومة [إيرقي] 42 شرطيات ل يتآمر مع يحظّر وأوقف 35 مستشفى عامل ل يساعد مهدي. اكتشف شرطة [إيرقي] أسلحة مخبأ في [إيمم] علي مسجد في ال [أل] [غدير] جوار في بغداد جديد. قتلت 520 مهدي يتلقّى يكون في [سدر] مدينة منذ 25 مارس - آذار.

Daily News

تباعد الجيش ال [أل-موستفا] ([أ.ك.] "[جيش] [أل-موستفا]") - [سونّي] مجموعة متمرّد أيّ قد ادّعى اعتمادات ل على الأقلّ ثلاثة عمليات مشتركة مع [أل-قيدا] "دولة إسلاميّة من العراق" ([إيس]) منذ يناير - كانون الثّاني 2008 يتلقّى فجأة علاقة مع ال [إيس], يتّهم قادته محلّية من يشبك في "تهديدات" و" عمليّة ابتزاز."
إئتلاف قتل 18 مهدي منذ شهر ماي 3. ما من [أوس] أفدت جنديّ كان يقتل في حادثات [أني وف ث].

The Army of al-Mustafa (a.k.a. “Jaish al-Mustafa”)—a Sunni insurgent group which has claimed credit for at least three joint operations with Al-Qaida’s “Islamic State of Iraq” (ISI) since January 2008—has suddenly broken off relations with the ISI, accusing its local commanders of engaging in “threats” and “blackmail.”
Coalition killed 18 Mahdi since May 3. No US soldiers were reported killed in any of the incidents.

Cole Killers Get a Free Ride

Graphic source: U.S. Navy / AFP file.

This photo from Oct. 12, 2000, shows the damaged port side of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole after an attack blamed on the al-Qaeda terror network during a refueling operation in the Yemeni port of Aden. Quote courtesy of MSNBC.

U.S. Sailors Dead; killers freed.

As frustating as that statement may be, that is about the size of it. The probe of the USS Cole bombing unravels as the plotters are freed by the state terrorists running Yemen. Al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.

Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. U.S. officials have demanded the right to ensure he is actually jailed.

Two suspects, described as the key organizers, are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. They may never be tried by the military.

The United States government failed to bring al-Qaeda operatives to justice.

Other Cole conspirators have been freed after short prison terms and at least two went on to commit suicide attacks in Iraq.

Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and a lead investigator into the bombing, was one of the most valuable assets the country had in the investigation and his frustration with the case is palpable. A riveting account of Soufan's clever investigation informs Lawrence Wright's, The Looming Tower about al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda celebrates the Cole attack as one of its signature victories. They are correct. The U.S. response has been tepid at best.

Very few of the individuals and countries who played a role in the Cole assault have been questioned.

The Cole investigation paled after 9/11.

Once dispatched to Yemen, the investigation was bogged down by internal bickering and the clash of culture between sophisticated FBI techniques and the backwardness of Yemeni culture.

The U.S. investigation, headed up by the FBI however, identified the ringleader as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent who served as al-Qaeda's operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Yemeni authorities protected him and U.S. officials could not arrest him.

Nashiri eventually left Yemen to prepare other attacks on U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf, U.S. officials said. He was captured in the United Arab Emirates in November 2002 and handed over to the CIA. He was detained in the CIA's secret network of overseas prisons until he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006.

Another al-Qaeda leader, Tawfiq bin Attash, who also played an organizing role in the Sept. 11 hijackings, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in May 2003 and confessed last year to overseeing the Cole plot.

Bin Attash and Nashiri were both named unindicted co-conspirators in the Justice Department's investigation into the Cole attack. A decision was made not to indict them because pending criminal charges could have forced the CIA or the Pentagon to give up custody of the men.

Quotes courtesy of © 2008 The Washington Post Company, URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24449741/.

Afghanistan Ambassador Calls Korea

Afghanistan expects bigger Korean role, at least this is what Afghanistan Ambassador Mohammad Karim Rahimi said. In an interview with The Korea Times the Ambassador hoped that Korea would take an active role in assisting Afghanistan. Korean troops were deployed during 2002 in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force under the command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and stayed until last December. Korea decided not to renew the deployment. However, last month, the Korean government announced it would dispatch a dozen policemen to Afghanistan for training purposes.

The Ambassador went on to point out that security is still the biggest challenge in Afghanistan. He stressed terrorist threats in Afghanistan were a threat to the region and, at large, to the world, implying full-fledged action against it on the international level is needed to tackle the problem. The Ambassador stated: "Terrorism is an enemy of humankind. No matter where you live, in Korea, the U.S. or France. As human beings we need to join our hands to get rid of the common enemy." No secret there and it would be assisted solved effectively by the increasing presence of the international community. Most importantly for the U.S., it would lessen this country's stance of largely going it alone and Korea should increase its involvement to be more of a regional power.

To date, nearly 40 (NATO and some non-NATO) countries have a military presence in Afghanistan under the UN resolution working for reconstruction and stability of the war-torn country. In June 2008, member states of G8, neighboring countries and other countries that have contributed to Afghan reconstruction will meet at the Paris Conference.

مصر تدرس امكان اعادة فتح سفارة لها في بغداد

الإثنين 05 أيار 2008 05:58 GMT

أعلن وزير الخارجية المصرية احمد ابو الغيط أن القاهرة على اتصال مع حكومة المالكي لتأمين زيارة وفد أمني مصري بهدف درس امكان اعادة فتح السفارة المصرية في بغداد.
وأكد ابو الغيط عقب محادثات اجراها مع نظيره البحريني الشيخ خالد بن احمد آل خليفة أن الوفد جاهز للسفر فور تحديد موعد له. وقد اشترط وزير الخارجية المصرية توفير الأمن للبعثة اذا ما استأنفت عملها في بغداد****، فيما اعتبر وزير خارجية البحرين أن التواجد في العراق مهم للغاية، مذكّرا باستشهاد سفير مصر في بغداد ونجاة السفير البحريني من محاولة اغتيال.

Questions for The New York Times

Graphic source: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images, for The New York Times

In one of those annoying major news media stories that is misleading, factually incorrect, and unduly biased, a productive counter-insurgency move is missed by The New York Times.

The question is, why does The New York Times insist on missing the story and providing incomplete coverage? For example, in the misleading article written by Alissa J. Rubin, she does not explain how, even in her published news article, that you can see a road on the right hand side of the damaged vehicles. What she does not explain but you can see in the picture is that the hospital is on the left hand side of the road.

From the blast pattern, it is obvious that the GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) hit across the road to the right and avoided the hospital.

Graphic source: Global Security.org

U.S. Army commanders and troops have come to view the missiles as their 70-kilometer sniper rifle, but the insurgents understand the weapon in a far more ominous light. The insurgents are calling it the 'Hand of Allah.' For the insurgents, the rockets seemingly come from nowhere. With their vertical trajectory, ability to cover 70 kilometers (43 miles) in 82 seconds and close-combat precision, the rockets are decisive.

Finally, how come Ms. Rubin does not publish a picture of the target and show the Mahdi compound and the criminal activities taking place? The U.S. military targeted and destroyed a Special Groups command and control center. The Special Groups are a unit of the Mahdi Army that receives backing from Iran's Qods Force, the foreign clandestine operations wing that has supported Shia terror groups in Iraq. The Mahdi Army used hospitals as staging areas for sectarian attacks and weapons storage depots. The target was selected for elimination precisely because it was an insurgent headquarters and located in a difficult to hit area because of its sensitive location.

And last but not least, who is Tareq Mahir, listed at the bottom of the article, who is he affiliated with, and if Rubin gets major credit in writing the article, what does Mahir have to do with the article? I think that The New York Times is performing a major disservice in not being upfront with its readers.

Who Said This and When?

And today we salute our unseen allies in occupied countries, the underground resistance groups and the Armies of Liberation. They will provide potent forces against our enemies......

There have always been cheerful idiots in this country who believed that there would be no more war for us if everybody in America would only return into their homes and lock their front doors behind them.

Who said this and when?

24 December 1943, Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Saif Al Adel, Al Qaeda Document, Zarqawi In Iraq Before Americans

On February 17 2008, Al-Ekhlaas which is the largest terrorist forum on the internet published an Al Qaeda document that talks about the life of Abou Musaab Al Zarqawi and indicates that Zarqawi came to Iraq before the war to prepare the terrorist insurgency against the US troops. According to the document Zarqawi arrived to the Sunni areas in central Iraq. This document was written by one of Al Qaeda top leaders called “Saif Al Adel”. There were many accounts about Zarqawi's presence in Iraq before the war in particular in Northern Iraq with “Ansar Al Islam” an active Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group that was present in the Kurdish areas of Iraq long before the war started. The document also proves that Ansar Al Islam helped Al Qaeda members establish themselves in Iraq before the war started. The author of the document wrote that there were no relation between Saddam regime and Al Qaeda but this does not negate at all the most important fact that Al Qaeda was in Iraq before the war for the sole purpose of preparing for its most important front to fight the U.S and it is now in Iraq where Al Qaeda is suffering its most crushing defeat since its existence. It is very important to note that despite the author's denial of a relationship between Saddam regime and Al Qaeda, it does not mean that Saddam regime was not aware of Al Qaeda presence in Iraq. In fact the document clearly points out that Zarqawi went to the Sunni areas in Central Iraq before the war and these areas were totally controlled and loyal to the Saddam regime and it was very hard to imagine that Zarqawi stayed and prepared his terrorist sleepers cells in these Sunni areas without the approval of the Saddam regime.

30 April 2008 Order of Battle-Iraq

Iraqi troops are being improved as the Mahdi have collapsed in and around Sadr City.

Pulverizing Mahdi: GMLRS Deployed

14 Mahdi Army fighters have been killed during clashes over the past 24 hours.

The US Army targeted and destroyed a Special Groups command and control center in a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System.

465 Mahdi Army fighters have been confirmed killed in and around Sadr City since March 25.

14 مهدي جيب قتلت مقاتل يتلقّى يكون أثناء صدامات على السابق 24 ساعات.

ال [أوس] استهدف جيب ودمّر مجموعة خاصّة يمرّ و [كنترول سنتر] في يرشد يتعدّد إطلاق صاروخ نظامة.

465 مهدي قتل جيب مقاتل يتلقّى يكون أكّدت في وحول [سدر] مدينة منذ مارس - آذار 25.

Rear Window

Rear Window is a 1954 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story It Had to Be Murder. The movie stars James Stewart as photojournalist L. B. Jefferies, Grace Kelly as his fashion-model girlfriend, Lisa Carol Fremont, and Raymond Burr as the suspected killer, Lars Thorwald. The film combines its main theme, a murder mystery, with a critical examination of the ethics of marriage and voyeurism.

Hitchcock's fans and film scholars have taken particular interest in the way the relationship between Jeff and Lisa can be compared to the lives of the neighbors they are spying upon. Many of these points are considered in Tania Modleski's feminist theory book, The Women Who Knew Too Much. (ISBN 0-415-97362-7)[2]

* Thorwald and his wife are a reversal of Jeff and Lisa (Thorwald looks after his invalid wife just as Lisa looks after the invalid Jeff). However, Thorwald's hatred of his nagging wife mirrors Jeff's arguments with Lisa.
* The newlywed couple initially seem perfect for each other (they spend nearly the entire movie in their bedroom with the blinds drawn), but at the end we see that their marriage is in trouble and the wife begins to nag the husband. Similarly, Jeff is afraid of being 'tied down' by marriage to Lisa.
* The middle-aged couple with the dog seem content living at home. They have the kind of uneventful lifestyle that horrifies Jeff.
* The music composer and Miss Lonely Heart, the depressed spinster, lead frustrating lives, and at the end of the movie find comfort in each other (the composer's new tune draws Miss Lonely Heart away from suicide, and the composer thus finds value in his work). There is a subtle hint in this tale that Lisa and Jeff are meant for each other, despite his stubbornness. The piece the composer creates is called "Lisa's Theme" in the credits.

The film received four Academy Award nominations: Best Director for Alfred Hitchcock, Best Screenplay for John Michael Hayes, Best Cinematography, Color for Robert Burks, Best Sound Recording for Loren L. Ryder, Paramount Pictures. In 1997, Rear Window was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". This film was ranked #14 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills. It was ranked #48 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition). To this day, the film gets a 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear_Window

Post, Wall, Barriers to Erect for Security/Understanding

Graphic source: Washington Post

Please note the bias on the part of the respected source. The red part of Quds Street is about 3.2 miles according to NIMA, the US mapping agency. The Washington Post, with a cohort of local stringers and the efforts of Columbia University types, still make a mistake. The scale is wrong on such a basic aspect of mapping at 7.5 miles. On the other hand, perhaps its a typographical mistake. In this case, the 4 on the miles scale should be a 1. In any event, the Washington Post's typo seems to have permit a bias. By making Quds Street appear 2.5 times longer than it really is, they want to send a message that this project is doomed, and that JAM (the Mahdi) is unbeatable. They are not. The incorrect scale should be about 1.5 miles, which is not a standard. Thus the scale was arbitrary and pulled out of a hat to serve a bias.

The recent attacks in Sadr City have centered around the barrier that U.S. Army engineers are building. The Mahdi Army attacks are hampering progress here on Qods Street, dividing the Ishbilyah and the Habbibiyah neighborhoods, which are controlled by the US and Iraqi military, from the northern neighborhoods. The four goals are: to restrict the movement of weapons and supplies into the southern neighborhoods, prevent the Mahdi Army from using these areas as launch sites for mortar and rocket attacks against the International Zone, establish the writ of the government, and provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqis living in these areas in order to wrest control from the Mahdi Army, according to the Long War Journal. A total of 465 Mahdi Army fighters have been confirmed killed in and around Sadr City since March 25. The Iraqi government has stated that the Sadrist political movement would not be able to participate in upcoming provincial elections if it failed to disband the Mahdi Army.