Al-Masri: innocent? and Straw's remarks part II

There are two issues about which I posted yesterday that I have not seen posted here. So I am going just to sum them up in a minute.

Al-Masri, who is the German citizen of Lebanese ancestry who is at the center of the controversy over the CIA "renditions" program, looks like that he was no innocent man, according to a German police memo, who says that he was "a partisan of Military Jihad". He was a member of Al-Tawhid in his native Lebanon in the 1980s, where he was a leading member. This organization was close to Muslim Brotherhood and was dedicated to fight un-Islamic-viewed sect "Alawi".

He also was a frequent attendant to a "Multi-Cultural House", an Islamic center in New-Ulm. One of the German Converts there was playing jihad in Chechenya were he was killed by Russian Army. Other one is said to be trained in a jihadist camp in Pakistan: his name is Omar Yousig, son of MHK preacher, Yehia Yousif.

And lastly, he is a close friend of Reda Seyam, a self-avowed Islamist, is suspected of being an Al-Qaeda operative and of having participated in the planning of the 2002 Bali bombings. March 20, 2004 article from Spiegel-Online (“Deutscher mitverantwortlich für Bali-Attentat”) identifies Reda Seyam – “according to information available to the Spiegel” – as “one of the principal financers of the Bali terror attack.” (...)  he article hints that the pressure in question may have originated with German authorities: “the Indonesians did not want properly to investigate and charge [Seyam] or… the Germans made clear to them that they preferred to prosecute their citizen themselves.” In conversation with the Chicago Tribune (March 31, 2004), the former BIN spokesperson, Muchyar Yara, has confirmed that “we decided that his [Seyam’s] case would be better handled by Germany.”

Secondly, about the veil remarks, by other-times-dhimmi Straw, Al-Guardian quotes:

This Muslim police officer taken off-duty was a routine thing, but it was blown totally out of proportion," said Dr Reefat Drabu of the Muslim Council of Britain. "The same with the niqab. It is a matter of choice but it seems to have taken over the news. We seem to be all the time defending ourselves and we haven't got the opportunity to evolve within the culture we're in."

The reason why the situation is like it is can be found in the video here. The video has been flagged in YouTube ... errr, Allah-Tube community. You should see it.