1.
Rosso
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Rosso is the major city of south-western Mauritania and capital of Trarza region. It is situated on the Senegal River at the head of year-round navigation, the town is 204 km south of the capital Nouakchott. Rosso was once the capital of the Emirate of Trarza, a Precolonial Sahrawi dominated state in Africa, under French colonial rule Senegal and Mauritania were administered as a single entity. When independence came, the new frontier was drawn along the Senegal River and this article refers to Mauritanian Rosso, on the northern bank of the river. Originally a staging-post for the gum arabic trade, Rosso has grown rapidly since independence, from a population of a mere 2300 in 1960 it has now overtaken Kaédi to become the 3rd largest city in the country with 48922 inhabitants. Rosso occupies a position at the international ferry-crossing on the main road between Nouakchott and the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Economically the town has benefited but its fortunes are very dependent on the state of relations between the two countries, from 1990-92 the border crossing was closed, due to the Mauritania–Senegal Border War, and there have been repeated movements of refugees in both directions through the town. Rosso has the highest annual rainfall in the country at 300mm/yr and is one of the towns which serve the narrow strip of agricultural land stretching along the southern frontier of Mauritania. But even here the Sahara is encroaching, major irrigation projects have been carried out on the northern bank of the Senegal River, financed by the United Arab Emirates, allowing an expansion in the production of cash crops such as mint. In 2004 however up to 80% of crops were lost as a result of the infestation of locusts which affected the whole of the western Sahel and this was followed by a severe drought. It was a bitter irony then that in August 2005 some 10,000 people were displaced by flooding, the city is near the Diawling National Park. Rosso is also known for the internationally renowned Satara Zone Housing project, a small library, set up by the local Catholic priest, has been functioning since 2005. A technology institute - ISET - was opened in 2009, offering courses in agriculture, the current Mayor, Professor Yerim Fassa, a doctor, was elected in 2007. Rosso has been twinned with Moissy-Cramayel since 1986, Rosso Town Hall Institut supérieur des études technologiques
2.
Mauritania
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Mauritania /mɔːrɪˈteɪniə/, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in the Maghreb region of western Africa. The country derives its name from the ancient Berber Kingdom of Mauretania, approximately 90% of Mauritanias land is within the Sahara and consequently the population is concentrated in the south, where precipitation is slightly higher. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast, the government was overthrown on 6 August 2008, in a military coup détat led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. On 16 April 2009, Aziz resigned from the military to run for president in the 19 July elections, about 20% of Mauritanians live on less than US$1.25 per day. Mauritania suffers from several human rights issues, including slavery, as at least 4% of the population are enslaved against their will, the Bafours were primarily agriculturalist, and among the first Saharan people to abandon their historically nomadic lifestyle. With the gradual desiccation of the Sahara, they headed south, many of the Berber tribes claimed Yemeni origins. There is little evidence to such claims, but a 2000 DNA study of Yemeni people suggested there might be some ancient connection between the peoples. Other peoples also migrated south past the Sahara to West Africa, in 1076, Moorish Islamic warrior monks attacked and conquered the large area of the ancient Ghana Empire. Over the next 500 years, Arabs overcame fierce resistance from the population to dominate Mauritania. The Char Bouba war was the final effort of the peoples to repel the Yemeni Maqil Arab invaders. The invaders were led by the Beni Hassan tribe, the descendants of the Beni Hassan warriors became the upper stratum of Moorish society. Hassaniya, a Berber-influenced Arabic dialect that derives its name from the Beni Hassan, berbers retained a niche influence by producing the majority of the regions marabouts, those who preserve and teach Islamic tradition. Imperial France gradually absorbed the territories of present-day Mauritania from the Senegal River area and upwards, in 1901, Xavier Coppolani took charge of the imperial mission. Through a combination of strategic alliances with Zawiya tribes, and military pressure on the Hassane warrior nomads, he managed to extend French rule over the Mauritanian emirates. Trarza, Brakna and Tagant quickly submitted to treaties with the colonial power, Adrar was finally defeated militarily in 1912, and incorporated into the territory of Mauritania, which had been drawn up and planned in 1904. Mauritania was part of French West Africa from 1920, French rule brought legal prohibitions against slavery and an end to inter-clan warfare. During the colonial period, 90% of the population remained nomadic, many sedentary peoples, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, began to trickle back into Mauritania. After gaining independence, larger numbers of indigenous Sub-Saharan African peoples entered Mauritania, educated in French language and customs, many of these recent arrivals became clerks, soldiers, and administrators in the new state
3.
Jordan
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Jordan, officially The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west, Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. The capital, Amman, is Jordans most populous city as well as the countrys economic, what is now Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age, Ammon, Moab, later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by the then Emir Abdullah I and became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Jordan captured the West Bank, which it later lost in 1967, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The country is a monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a relatively-small, semi-arid, almost-landlocked country with a population numbering at 9.5 million, Sunni Islam, practiced by around 92% of the population, is the dominant religion in Jordan. It coexists with an indigenous Christian minority, Jordan is considered to be among the safest of Arab countries in the Middle East, and has avoided long-term terrorism and instability. The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State, while Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure. Jordan is classified as a country of high human development with a middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce, the country is a major tourist destination, and also attracts medical tourism due to its well developed health sector. Nonetheless, a lack of resources, large flow of refugees. Jordan is named after the Jordan River, where Jesus is said to have been baptized, the origin of the rivers name is debated, but the most common explanation is that it derives from the word yarad, found in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic languages. Others regard the name as having an Indo-Aryan origin, combining the words yor and don, another theory is that it is from the Arabic root word wrd, as in people coming to a major source of water. The name Jordan appears in an ancient Egyptian papyrus called Papyrus Anastasi I, the lands of modern-day Jordan were historically called Transjordan, meaning beyond the Jordan River. The name was Arabized into Al-Urdunn during the Muslim conquest of the Levant, during crusader rule, it was called Oultrejordain
4.
Parwan Detention Facility
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The Parwan Detention Facility, also called the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, is an Afghanistan-run prison located next to Bagram Airfield in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan. It was formerly known by the United States as the Bagram Collection Point, while initially intended as a temporary facility, it has been used longer and handled more detainees than the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. As of early June 2011 the Obama administration held 1700 prisoners at the military base, none of the prisoners has received POW status. The treatment of inmates at the facility has been under scrutiny since two Afghan detainees died in the 2002 Bagram torture and prisoner abuse case and their deaths were classified as homicides and prisoner abuse charges were made against seven American soldiers. Concerns about lengthy detentions here have prompted comparisons to U. S. detention centers in Guantanamo Bay on Cuba, part of the internment facility is called the Black jail. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Red Army built Bagram Airfield, the airfield included large hangars that fell into disrepair after the Soviets left. When the US military and their allies ousted the Taliban, US forces took possession of the former Soviet base, the US military did not need the volume of hangar space, so it built a detention facility inside the large unused hangars. Like the first facilities later built at Guantanamos Camp X-Ray, the cells were built of wire mesh, only captives held in solitary confinement have individual cells. The other captives share larger open cells with other captives, according to some accounts, captives were provided with shared buckets to use as toilets, and did not have access to running water. Although captives share their cells with dozens of captives, there were reports in 2006 that they were not allowed to speak with one another. During an interview on PBS, Chris Hogan, an interrogator at Bagram. According to an article by Tim Golden, published in the January 7,2008 issue of the New York Times, captives in the Bagram facility were still being housed in large communal pens, permanent replacement facilities for the original temporary facilities of 2001 were completed in September 2009. According to The Nation, transfer of the then 700 captives to the new facilities was to begin in late November 2009, brigadier General Mark Martins, Bagrams commandant, told reporters that the facility had always met international and domestic standards. Although the new facility is near the facility, DoD sources sometimes refer to it as the Parwan facility. On December 11,2014, the US Armed Forces transferred the facility to the Afghan government, at least two deaths have been verified in the last decade, captives are known to have been beaten to death by GIs manning the facility, in December 2002. Captives who have compared the two camps have said that conditions were far worse in Bagram, the U. S. military denies there is a separate facility for detainees. When the GIs implicated in the December 2002 homicides were about to face court martial, at least one of these was a prosecution witness, and was thus unable to testify. The George W. Bush administration avoided using the label prisoner of war when discussing the detainees held at Bagram and this way, it is not necessary under the Geneva Conventions to have a competent tribunal determine their classification
5.
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
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The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo or GTMO, which fronts on Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Since the inmates have been detained indefinitely without trial and several inmates were severely tortured, the camp was established by the President George W. Bushs administration in 2002 during the War on Terror. During his term, his administration succeeded in reducing the number of inmates from about 245 to 41, in practice, the site has long been used for indefinite detention without trial. The facility is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo of the United States government in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Detention areas consisted of Camp Delta including Camp Echo, Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray, which is now closed. The Bush administration asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Following this, on 7 July 2006, the Department of Defense issued a memo stating that detainees would, in the future. Current and former detainees have reported abuse and torture, which the Bush administration denied, in a 2005 Amnesty International report, the facility was called the Gulag of our times. In 2006, the United Nations called unsuccessfully for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be closed, on 22 January 2009, President Obama issued a request to suspend proceedings at Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and to shut down the detention facility that year. President Obama issued a Presidential memorandum dated 15 December 2009, ordering Thomson Correctional Center, Thomson, in February 2011, U. S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that Guantanamo Bay was unlikely to be closed, due to opposition in the Congress. Congress particularly opposed moving prisoners to facilities in the United States for detention or trial, in April 2011, Wikileaks began publishing 779 secret files relating to prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. On 4 November 2015, President Barack Obama stated that he was preparing to unveil a plan to close the facility, the plan would propose one or more prisons from a working list that includes facilities in Kansas, Colorado and South Carolina. Two others that were on the list, in California and Washington state, do not appear to have made the preliminary cut, by January 19,2017, however, the detention center remained open, with 41 detainees remaining. Camp Delta is a 612-unit detention center finished in April 2002 and it includes detention camps 1 through to 6, as well as Camp Echo, where pre-commissions are held. Camp X-Ray was a detention facility, which was closed in April 2002. Its prisoners were transferred to Camp Delta, in 2008, the Associated Press reported Camp 7, a separate facility on the naval base that is considered the highest security jail on the base, and its location is classified. It is used to house high-security detainees formerly held by the CIA, in January 2010, Scott Horton published an article in Harpers Magazine describing Camp No, a black site about a mile outside the main camp perimeter, which included an interrogation center. His description was based on accounts by four guards who had served at Guantanamo and they said prisoners were taken one at a time to the camp, where they were believed to be interrogated. He believes that the three detainees that DoD announced as having committed suicide were questioned under torture the night of their deaths
6.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
7.
Al-Qaeda
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It operates as a network made up of Islamic extremist, Salafist jihadists. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries, including the 1998 U. S. embassy bombings, the September 11 attacks, the U. S. government responded to the September 11 attacks by launching the War on Terror. Characteristic techniques employed by al-Qaeda include suicide attacks and the bombing of different targets. Al-Qaeda ideologues envision a complete break from all foreign influences in Muslim countries, among the beliefs ascribed to al-Qaeda members is the conviction that a Christian–Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam. Al-Qaeda also opposes what it regards as man-made laws, and wants to replace them with a form of sharia law. Al-Qaeda has carried out attacks on targets it considers kafir. Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating violence among Muslims. Al-Qaeda leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and have attacked their mosques, examples of sectarian attacks include the Yazidi community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the Ashoura massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings. Since the death of bin Laden in 2011, the group has been led by the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaedas management philosophy has been described as centralization of decision and decentralization of execution. Many terrorism experts do not believe that the global jihadist movement is driven at every level by al-Qaedas leadership, marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former Central Intelligence Agency officer, said that al-Qaeda is now just a loose label for a movement that seems to target the west. We like to create an entity called in our minds. This view mirrors the account given by Osama bin Laden in his October 2001 interview with Tayseer Allouni and this matter isnt about any specific person and. is not about the al-Qaidah Organization. We are the children of an Islamic Nation, with Prophet Muhammad as its leader, and all the true believers are brothers. So the situation isnt like the West portrays it, that there is an organization with a specific name and that particular name is very old. It was born without any intention from us, created a military base to train the young men to fight against the vicious, arrogant, brutal, terrorizing Soviet empire. So this place was called The Base, as in a base, so this name grew. We arent separated from this nation, and so we discuss the conscience of this nation. Bruce Hoffman, however, sees al-Qaeda as a network that is strongly led from the Pakistani tribal areas
8.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
9.
Mujahideen
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Mujahideen is the plural form of mujahid, the term for one engaged in Jihad. Jihads literal meaning is to struggle, in its roots, Mujahideen refers to any person performing Jihad. Jihad was the used for the project of Islamic conquest in the early history of Islam. In its post-classical meaning, Jihad refers to an act which is comparable in reward to promoting Islam during the early 600s CE. These acts could be as simple as sharing a considerable amount of income with the poor. Some Islamic sects believe that armed-conflicts cannot be branded as Jihad unless it has ordered by Messiah. Although he died in battle, the sect he had created survived, during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the Mujahideen were said to accept any fleeing Sepoys and recruit them into their ranks. As time went by the sect grew ever larger until it was raiding and controlling larger areas in Afghanistan, some volunteers committed themselves to hand-to-hand combat and probable death. In Spanish, these rebels were known as juramentados, or oath-takers. At the DRAs request, the Soviet Union brought forces into the country to aid the government from 1979, as warfare became more sophisticated, outside support and regional coordination grew. Eventually, the seven main mujahideen parties allied as the political bloc called Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen, many Muslims from other countries assisted the various mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. Some groups of these veterans became significant players in later conflicts in and these foreign fighters became known as Afghan Arabs and their efforts were coordinated by Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. Mujahideen forces caused serious casualties to the Soviet forces, and made the war very costly for the Soviet Union, in 1989 the Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan. Many districts and cities fell to the mujahideen, in 1992 the DRAs last president. However, the mujahideen did not establish a government. After several years of devastating fighting, a village mullah named Mohammed Omar organized a new armed movement with the backing of Pakistan, veteran mujahideen confronted this radical splinter group in 1996. The group also took part in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iran–Iraq War, another mujahideen was the Mujahedin-e Islam, an Islamic party led by Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani. It formed part of the National Front during the time of Mohammed Mosaddeqs oil nationalization, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the mujahideen lost most of its momentum and support, resulting in most of them surrendering to government forces
10.
Mohammad Najibullah
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Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai, commonly known as Najibullah or Dr. Najib, was the President of Afghanistan from 1987 until 1992, when the mujahideen took over Kabul. He had previously held different careers under the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan and was a graduate of Kabul University and he returned to Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion which toppled Amins rule and placed Babrak Karmal as head of state, party and government. During Karmals rule, Najibullah became head of the KHAD, the Afghan equivalent to the Soviet KGB and he was a member of the Parcham faction led by Karmal. During Najibullahs tenure as KHAD head, it one of the most brutally efficient governmental organs. Because of this, he gained the attention of several leading Soviet officials, such as Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov, in 1981, Najibullah was appointed to the PDPA Politburo. In 1985 Najibullah stepped down as state security minister to focus on PDPA politics, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was able to get Karmal to step down as PDPA General Secretary in 1986, and replace him with Najibullah. For a number of months Najibullah was locked in a struggle against Karmal. Najibullah accused Karmal of trying to wreck his policy of National Reconciliation, during his tenure as leader of Afghanistan, the Soviets began their withdrawal, and from 1989 until 1992, his government tried to solve the ongoing civil war without Soviet troops on the ground. While direct Soviet assistance ended with the withdrawal, the Soviet Union still supported Najibullah with economic and military aid, throughout his tenure, he tried to build support for his government. Najibullah even tried to portray his government as Islamic, and in the 1990 constitution the country became an Islamic state. This change, coupled with others, did not win Najibullah any significant support, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Najibullah was left without foreign aid. This, coupled with the collapse of his government, led to his ousting from power in April 1992. Najibullah lived in the United Nations headquarters in Kabul until 1996, Najibullah is said to have been castrated by the Taliban, and he was dragged behind a Toyota pick-up truck in the streets of Kabul before being publicly hanged with a piano wire noose from a tree. Najibullah was born in February 1947 in the city of Kabul and his ancestral village is located between the towns of Said Karam and Gardēz in Paktia Province, this place is known as Mehlan. He was educated at Habibia High School in Kabul, St. Josephs School in Baramulla, India and Kabul University and he belongs to the Ahmadzai sub-tribe of the Ghilzai Pashtun tribe in Gardiz. In 1965 Najibullah joined the Parcham faction of the Communist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan, in 1977 he was elected to the Central Committee. In April 1978 the PDPA took power in Afghanistan, with Najibullah a member of the ruling Revolutionary Council. However, the Khalq faction of the PDPA gained supremacy over his own Parcham faction and he returned to Kabul after the Soviet intervention in 1979
11.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
12.
Los Angeles International Airport
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It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually. LAX is in the southwestern Los Angeles area along the Pacific Ocean between the neighborhood of Westchester to its north and the city of El Segundo to its immediate south. It is owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, an agency of the government of Los Angeles, formerly known as the Department of Airports. In 2015, LAX handled 74,936,256 passengers, the airport holds the claim for the worlds busiest origin and destination airport, and has for many years. To wit, relative to airports, many more travelers begin or end their trips in Los Angeles than use it as a connection. The airport also was the third busiest by aircraft movements. It is also the airport to rank among the top five U. S. airports for both passenger and cargo traffic. It is also notable for being one of the few U. S. airports with four parallel runways, LAX serves as a hub for Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Virgin America. The airport serves as a city for Allegiant Air, Air New Zealand, Qantas, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines. LAX serves as either a hub or focus city for more Mainline US Carriers than any airport in the Country and is the only airport that all three legacy carriers have designated a hub. As the largest international airport on the U. S, West Coast, LAX is a major gateway to and from Europe, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. With its deep connections to Asia and Latin America in particular, in 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres in the southern part of Westchester for a new airport. The fields of wheat, barley and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings and it was named Mines Field for William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal. 1, was erected in 1929 and is in the National Register of Historic Places, Mines Field opened as the airport of Los Angeles in 1930 and the city purchased it to be a municipal airfield in 1937. The name became Los Angeles Airport in 1941 and Los Angeles International Airport in 1949, in the 1930s the main airline airports were Burbank Airport in Burbank and the Grand Central Airport in Glendale. Mines Field did not extend west of Sepulveda Boulevard, Sepulveda was rerouted circa 1950 to loop around the west ends of the extended east–west runways, which by November 1950 were 6,000 feet long. A tunnel was completed in 1953 allowing Sepulveda Boulevard to revert to straight, for the next few years the two runways were 8,500 feet long. Before the 1930s, existing airports used a two-letter abbreviation based on the stations at the airports
13.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canadas primary national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canadas national security and it also reports to and advises the government of Canada on national security issues and situations that threaten the security of the nation. Its headquarters is located in Ottawa, Ontario, in a purpose-built facility completed in 1995, CSIS is responsible to Parliament through the Minister of Public Safety, but is also overseen by the Federal Court and the Security Intelligence Review Committee. Prior to 1984 security intelligence in Canada was the purview of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Security Service, however, in the 1970s there were allegations that the RCMP Security Service had been involved in numerous illegal activities. As a result of allegations, in 1977, Justice David Macdonald was appointed to investigate the activities of RCMP Security Service. On June 21,1984, CSIS was created by an Act of Parliament and its de facto existence began on July 16 under the direction of Thomas DArcy Finn. At first, the emphasis of CSIS was combating the activities of various foreign intelligence agencies operating in Canada. For example, it has engaged in investigating economic espionage involving Chinese operations throughout Canada. While the threat posed by foreign intelligence agencies still remain, CSIS over the years has focused more and more on the threat to Canadian security, CSIS is Canadas lead agency on national security matters and for conducting national security investigations and security intelligence collection. CSIS collects, analyzes intelligence, advises the Government of Canada on issues and activities that may threaten the security of Canada and these threats include terrorism, espionage and foreign interference in Canadian affairs, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and information security threats. The agency is responsible for the security screening program. There is no restriction in the CSIS Act on where CSIS may collect security intelligence or information relating to threats to the security of Canada, the agency may collect information on threats to Canada or Canadians from anywhere in the world. While CSIS is often viewed as a security intelligence agency it is not a domestic agency. CSIS officers work domestically and internationally in their efforts to monitor, there is a distinction between security intelligence and foreign intelligence. Security intelligence pertains to national security threats, Foreign intelligence involves information collection relating to the political or economic activities of foreign states. According to Section 16 of the CSIS Act, the agency collects this type of intelligence within Canada. CSIS is neither a police agency nor is it a part of the military, as an intelligence agency, the primary role of CSIS is not law enforcement. Investigation of criminal activity is left to the RCMP and local police agencies, CSIS, like counterparts such as the United Kingdom Security Service and the United States Central Intelligence Agency, is a civilian agency
14.
September 11 attacks
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The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11,2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and it was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively. Suspicion for the attack fell on al-Qaeda. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. Although al-Qaedas leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U. S. support of Israel, the presence of U. S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives. Having evaded capture for almost a decade, bin Laden was located and killed by SEAL Team Six of the U. S. Navy in May 2011. S. many closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed, out of respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, on November 18,2006, construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site. The building was opened on November 3,2014. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen to resist the Soviets. Under the guidance of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden became more radical, in 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā, calling for American soldiers to leave Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden used Islamic texts to exhort Muslims to attack Americans until the stated grievances are reversed, Muslim legal scholars have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries, according to bin Laden. Bin Laden, who orchestrated the attacks, initially denied but later admitted involvement, in November 2001, U. S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. In the video, bin Laden is seen talking to Khaled al-Harbi, on December 27,2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he said, It has become clear that the West in general and it is the hatred of crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, the transcript refers several times to the United States specifically targeting Muslims. He said that the attacks were carried out because, we are free, and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours, Bin Laden said he had personally directed his followers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
15.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
16.
Extraordinary rendition
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Extraordinary rendition, also called irregular rendition, or forced rendition, is the government-sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another. President Bill Clinton authorized extraordinary rendition to nations known to practice torture, the United Nations considers one nation abducting the citizens of another a crime against humanity. By 2004, critics alleged that torture was used against subjects with the knowledge or acquiescence of the United States, in addition, some former detainees claimed to have been transferred to other countries for interrogation under torture, such as the Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib. In December 2005 Condoleezza Rice stated that, the United States has not transported anyone, where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured. From 2001 to 2005 CIA officers captured an estimated 150 people, under the Bush administration, rendered persons were reported to have undergone torture by the receiving countries. The revelations about the US program prompted several official investigations in Europe into alleged secret detentions, while the Obama administration has distanced itself from some of the harshest counter-terrorism techniques, it has also said that at least some forms of renditions will continue. As of 2011, the administration allowed rendition only to a country with jurisdiction over that individual, Rendition, in law, is a transfer of persons from one jurisdiction to another, and the act of handing over, both after legal proceedings and according to law. Extraordinary rendition, however, is a rendition which is extralegal, in practice, the term is widely used to describe such practices, particularly the initial apprehension. This latter usage extends to the transfer of suspected terrorists by the US to countries known to torture prisoners or to employ harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture. The Bush administration freely admitted to practice, stating, among other provisions. Torture can still occur, however, despite these provisions, in these instances, the initial captor allows the possibility of torture by releasing the prisoner into the custody of nations that practice torture. The next distinction of degree is that of intent, where much of the search for evidence continues and it has been alleged that some of those detainees have been tortured with the knowledge, acquiescence or even participation of US agencies. A transfer of anyone to anywhere for the purpose of torture would be a violation of US law, New York attorney Marc D. Falkoff stated that such evidence, i. e. transfer for the purposes of torture, was an operational practice. The US was trying to get them within reach of United States government representatives for transport to. In September 1987, during the Reagan administration, the United States executed an extraordinary rendition, code named Goldenrod, the Reagan administration did not undertake this kidnapping lightly. In 1984 and 1986, during a wave of terrorist attacks, Congress passed laws making air piracy, ronald Reagan added teeth to these laws by signing a secret covert-action directive in 1986 that authorized the CIA to kidnap, anywhere abroad, foreigners wanted for terrorism. A new word entered the dictionary of U. S. foreign relations, the American Civil Liberties Union alleges that extraordinary rendition was developed during the Clinton administration. CIA officials in the mid-1990s were trying to track down and dismantle militant Islamic organizations in the Middle East, particularly Al Qaeda
17.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
18.
Torture
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Torture is the act of deliberately inflicting physical or psychological pain on an organism in order to fulfill some desire of the torturer or compel some action from the victim. Torture, by definition, is a knowing and intentional act, in other cases, the torturer may be indifferent to the condition of the victim. Alternatively, some forms of torture are designed to inflict pain or leave as little physical injury or evidence as possible while achieving the same psychological devastation. The torturer may or may not kill or injure the victim, depending on the aim, even a form of torture that is intentionally fatal may be prolonged to allow the victim to suffer as long as possible. Although torture is sanctioned by some states, it is prohibited under international law, although widely illegal and reviled there is an ongoing debate as to what exactly is and is not legally defined to be torture. It is a violation of human rights, and is declared to be unacceptable by Article 5 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Torture is also prohibited for the signatories of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, despite these findings and international conventions, organizations that monitor abuses of human rights report widespread use condoned by states in many regions of the world. Amnesty International estimates that at least 81 world governments currently practice torture, the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which is currently in force since June 26,1987, provides a broad definition of torture. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to and this definition includes torture as part of domestic violence or ritualistic abuse, as well as in criminal activities. The Rome Statute is the treaty set up the International Criminal Court. The treaty was adopted at a conference in Rome on 17 July 1998. The Rome Statute provides a simplest definition of torture regarding the prosecution of war criminals by the International Criminal Court, since 1973, Amnesty International has adopted the simplest, broadest definition of torture. Title 18 of the United States Code contains the definition of torture in 18 U. S. C, §2340, which is only applicable to persons committing or attempting to commit torture outside of the United States. The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 provides remedies to individuals who are victims of torture by persons acting in a capacity of any foreign nation. The definition is similar to the U. S. Code §2340, Torture grew into an ornate discipline, where calibrated violence served two functions, to investigate and produce confessions and to attack the body as a form of punishment. Entire populaces of towns would show up to witness an execution by torture in the public square and those who had been spared torture were commonly locked barefooted into the stocks, where children took delight in rubbing feces into their hair and mouths. The Age of Enlightenment in the world further developed the idea of universal human rights. The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 marks the recognition at least nominally of a ban of torture by all UN member states
19.
James Robertson (judge)
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James Robertson is a former United States federal judge who served on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia until his retirement in June 2010. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Robertson graduated from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio and he served in the United States Navy from 1959 to 1964, achieving the rank of Lieutenant. He then received an LL. B. from George Washington University Law School in 1965, Robertson then returned to private practice with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where he practiced until his appointment to the federal bench. On September 14,1994, Robertson was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated by George H. Revercomb. Robertson was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 7,1994, after serving for 14 years, he assumed senior status on the District Court on December 31,2008 and retired on June 1,2010. Chief Justice William Rehnquist placed Robertson on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on May 19,2002, on December 20,2005, Judge Robertson resigned from the FISA court, sending a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts announcing his resignation with no explanation. Schroer v. Library of Congress - Is gender transition covered under sex discrimination protection, hamdan v. Rumsfeld - Military trials of Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoners U. S. v. Upheld by the Supreme Court by a vote of 8-1. American Council of the Blind v. John W. Snow, of the more than 180 countries that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations, Robertson wrote. Civil Action 08-2254 - Case to potentially invalidate the candidacy of Barack Obama II due to the Issue of Nationalization, the case was dismissed, deemed frivolous, and all other forward cases were deemed frivolous due to a prior ruling
20.
Habeas corpus
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Habeas corpus is a recourse in law whereby a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court, usually through a prison official. The writ of habeas corpus is known as the great and efficacious writ in all manner of illegal confinement, if the custodian is acting beyond his or her authority, then the prisoner must be released. Any prisoner, or another person acting on his or her behalf, may petition the court, or a judge, One reason for the writ to be sought by a person other than the prisoner is that the detainee might be held incommunicado. Most civil law jurisdictions provide a remedy for those unlawfully detained. For example, in some Spanish-speaking nations, the equivalent remedy for unlawful imprisonment is the amparo de libertad, though a writ of right, it is not a writ of course. So if an imposition such as internment without trial is permitted by the law, in some countries, the writ has been temporarily or permanently suspended under the pretext of war or state of emergency. The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus has nonetheless long been celebrated as the most efficient safeguard of the liberty of the subject, the most common of the other such prerogative writs are quo warranto, prohibito, mandamus, procedendo, and certiorari. The due process for such petitions is not simply civil or criminal, the official who is the respondent must prove his authority to do or not do something. Failing this, the court must decide for the petitioner, who may be any person and this differs from a motion in a civil process in which the movant must have standing, and bears the burden of proof. From Latin habeas, 2nd person singular present subjunctive active of habere, to have, to hold, in reference to more than one person, habeas corpora. Literally, the means you may have the body. The complete phrase habeas corpus ad subjiciendum means you may have the person for the purpose of subjecting him/her to. These are the words of writs in 14th century Anglo-French documents requiring a person to be brought before a court or judge. The full name of the writ is often used to distinguish it from similar ancient writs, Habeas corpus ad prosequendum, a writ ordering return with a prisoner for the purpose of prosecuting him before the court. Habeas corpus ad respondendum, a writ ordering return to allow the prisoner to answer to new proceedings before the court, Habeas corpus ad testificandum, a writ ordering return with the body of a prisoner for the purposes of testifying. Habeas Corpus originally stems from the Assize of Clarendon, a re-issuance of rights during the reign of Henry II of England, in the 17th century the foundations for habeas corpus were wrongly thought to have originated in Magna Carta. William Blackstone cites the first recorded usage of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum in 1305, however, other writs were issued with the same effect as early as the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. The procedure for issuing a writ of habeas corpus was first codified by the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, a previous law had been passed forty years earlier to overturn a ruling that the command of the King was a sufficient answer to a petition of habeas corpus
21.
Carl Duisberg
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Friedrich Carl Duisberg was a German chemist and industrialist. From 1879 to 1882, he studied at the Georg August University of Göttingen and Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, after military service in Munich, which he combined with research in the laboratory of Adolf von Baeyer, he was hired in 1883 at the Farbenwerke of Friedr. Bayer & Co. which later became Bayer AG, in his career, he became confidential clerk and head of research. In 1900, he became the CEO of Bayer, inspired by Standard Oil on a US tour, Bayer became part of IG Farben, a conglomerate of German chemical industries. Duisberg was head of the board for IG Farben. During World War I, the German army faced a threat from an ammunition shortage. Indeed, the nitrates that were crucial for the production of gunpowder could not be imported any more because of the blockade by the British Navy, as a result, the German chemical firms were pushed to successfully synthesise nitrates. However, because of the war, shortage in manpower arose, in November 1916, Druisberg advised the Kaisers troops to begin deporting 60000 people from occupied Belgium, they were put in trains for transport to German mines and factories. Complaints from influential neutral countries, especially the United States, put an end to it, also, in 1916, General Wilhelm Groener was appointed by General Ludendorff to reduce inflation. He proposed that increases in costs could be absorbed by the chemical community, when Duisberg heard the proposition, he successfully influenced the German government for Groeners removal. In the 1920s, the dye industry leaders, led by Carl Duisberg of Bayer and Carl Bosch of BASF, in 1925, the companies merged into the Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG or IG Farben. Duisberg forced the use of weapons during World War I. The Carl Duisberg Society was founded in 1949 and was helping Development aid with education programmes for people, from 1949 until its merger with the German Society for international Development in 2002 to form the InWEnt 300000 people took part in the programs of the society. Leverkusen whos who Duisberg from Bayer AG Biography of Duisberg Hoechst, The toxic brewmasters
22.
University of Duisburg-Essen
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The University of Duisburg-Essen is a public university in Duisburg and Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and a member of the newly founded University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr. It was founded in 1654 and re-established on 1 January 2003 as a merger of the Gerhard Mercator University of Duisburg, until 1994 the name of the Gerhard Mercator University was Comprehensive University of Duisburg. With its 12 departments and more than 39,000 students, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-17 the University of Duisburg-Essen was ranked 197th in the world and stands at 17th place in its 150 Under 50 Rankings. In many disciplines the UDE ranks amongst the top 10 of German research universities, over the past three years, research income has risen by 150 percent. Many international students study at the University of Duisburg-Essen and give the cities of Duisburg, origins, The University of Duisburg Its origins date back to the 1555 decision of Duke Wilhelm V von Jülich-Kleve-Berg to create a university for the unified duchies at the Lower Rhine. To this end, it was necessary to obtain a permission of the emperor and it opened on 14 October 1655 by Johannes Claudberg as their first rector. The university had four faculties, Theology, Medicine, Law, during its period of activity it was one of the central and leading universities of the western provinces of Prussia. Only a few decades later the university was in competition with the better equipped Dutch universities. The university declined rapidly and was on 18 October 1818 due to a Cabinet Order of Friedrich Wilhelm III, at the same time, the University of Bonn was founded. Large parts of the Duisburg University Library were relocated to Bonn, also the sceptre of the University of Duisburg was given to the University of Bonn, and is available until today. After a decision of the state government in 1960 the teacher training college of Kettwig was settled to Duisburg and was named Pedagogical University Ruhr. In 1968, the university was founded again in Duisburg, related to the old one, bearing the name, initially only small, the university was developed rapidly in the 1970s up to about 15,000 students. In 1972 the Pedagogical University Ruhr and the Public School of Engineering, other schools were also relocated to Duisburg. The University of Duisburg was then called Comprehensive University of Duisburg, in 1994 the university was renamed Gerhard Mercator University. By 2016 the university reached a Place under the Top 200 universities of the world, in the same year Duisburg-Essen University is ranked number 17 in the Worlds top 100 universities under 50 years old, ranked by Times Higher Education. In March 2007 the three universities of Bochum, Dortmund and Duisburg and Essen founded the University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr,2000, Jutta Limbach, jurist and politician 2001, Volker Schlöndorff, filmmaker. 2002, Ulrich Wickert, journalist, chief anchor for tagesthemen 2003, Daniel Goeudevert French writer,2005, Richard von Weizsäcker, politician, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany. 2015, Götz Werner, founder of Dm-drogerie markt 2016, Karl Lehmann, Cardinal prelate, former Chairman of the Conference of the German Bishops Professors include Jette Joop, Kai Krause and Bruce Ames
23.
Operation Cyclone
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Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken, funding began with $20–$30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987. Funding continued after 1989 as the mujahideen battled the forces of Mohammad Najibullahs PDPA during the war in Afghanistan. Communists under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power in Afghanistan on April 27,1978, the new regime—which was divided between Tarakis extremist Khalq faction and the more moderate Parcham—signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in December of that year. Following a general uprising in April 1979, Taraki was deposed by Khalq rival Hafizullah Amin in September. Amin was considered a brutal psychopath by foreign observers, the Soviets were particularly alarmed by the brutality of the late Khalq regime, central Intelligence Agency, although that was not the case. By December, Amins government had lost control of much of the country, prompting the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan, execute Amin, in the mid-1970s, Pakistani intelligence officials began privately lobbying the U. S. and its allies to send material assistance to the Islamist insurgents. Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haqs ties with the U. S, in March 1979, CIA sent several covert action options relating to Afghanistan to the SCC of the United States National Security Council. At a March 30 meeting, U. S. Department of Defense representative Walter B, Slocombe asked if there was value in keeping the Afghan insurgency going, sucking the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire. When asked to clarify this remark, Slocombe explained, Well, yet an April 5 memo from National Intelligence Officer Arnold Horelick warned, Covert action would raise the costs to the Soviets and inflame Moslem opinion against them in many countries. The risk was that a substantial U. S. covert aid program could raise the stakes, in May 1979, U. S. officials secretly began meeting with rebel leaders through Pakistani government contacts. A former Pakistani military official claimed that he introduced a CIA official to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar that month. Brzezinski later claimed that We didnt push the Russians to intervene, according to Brzezinski, he became convinced by mid-1979 that the Soviets were going to invade Afghanistan regardless of U. S. The full significance of the U. S. sending aid to the prior to the invasion is debated among scholars. Some assert that it directly, and even deliberately, provoked the Soviets to send in troops. Bruce Riedel, however, believes that the U. S. aid was intended primarily to improve U. S. Carter himself has stated that encouraging a Soviet invasion was not my intention. Gates recounted, No one in the Carter Administration wanted the Soviets to invade Afghanistan and no one, as I can recall at least, only after the Soviet invasion did some advocate making the Soviets bleed in their own Vietnam. Carter expressed surprise at the invasion, according to Riedel, the consensus of the U. S. In the West, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was considered a threat to global security, for example, U. S. dismembering Pakistan and Iran took on new urgency
24.
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
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The United States and the Soviet Union also signed a declaration on international guarantees, stating they would both refrain from any form of interference and intervention. In the first three-month period, it was reported that some 50,183 foreign soldiers had withdrawn, another 50,100 left between 15 August 1988 and 15 February 1989. During the process of withdrawal, Soviet troop convoys came under attack by Afghan fighters, in all 523 Soviet soldiers and 1,200 Mujahedeen fighters were killed during the withdrawal. The total withdrawal of all Soviet soldiers from Afghanistan was completed on 15 February 1989, in a symbolic move, Lt. Gen. Boris Gromov was the last to walk from Afghanistan back into Soviet territory. Breaking contact without leaving chaos, the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, phased Withdrawal, Conflict Resolution and State Reconstruction, Conflict Research Studies Centre, ISBN 1-905058-74-8
25.
Khost
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Khost or Khowst, a city in eastern Afghanistan, lies on 7,139 hectares in a mountainous region near the Pakistani border. The urban population of 106,083, mainly from the Zadran, Mangal, Zazi, Tani, Gurbaz, Muqbal, the town was besieged from July 1983 to November 1987, during the nine-year Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Khost Airfield, with a 9, 000-foot runway, served as a base for Soviet military helicopter operations, American forces have used the Khost Airfield since as early as at least January 2007 during the war which commenced in October 2001. Khost is the home of Khost University, the inhabitants of area are Pashto-speaking ethnic Pashtuns. Khost Mosque serves as the mosque in the city. Khost is located about 150 kilometres south of Kabul and 100 kilometres southeast of Gardez, the city lies on a plateau of minimally 1,000 metres altitude that extends to the East for about 40 kilometres until the Bannu Pakistan border. 30 km to the North the peaks start up to 2,500 to 3,000 metres right next to the frontier, while 20 kilometres to the South, near the border, the average is around 1,800 m. The valley of Khost is closed to the west with a mountain chain with peaks that go over 3,000 metres. Through this runs for about 90 kilometres the road to Gardez, so Taliban invaded Khost in 1995. The capital of Khost province is Matoon, Khost has the following 12 district units. Spera Dwa monda Nadershah koot Ismail khail va Mandozi Musa khail Qalander Tani Gurbaz Bak Zazi maidan Sabari Ali shir Khost has a semi-arid climate and it is located in the Khost Bowl, a valley with lower elevation than the surrounding highlands. Nonetheless, for a proportion of the year Khost remains hot and dry. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Khost was the object of a siege which lasted for more than eight years. Soon after the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops, Afghan guerillas took control of the land route between Khost and Gardez, effectively putting a stop to the Soviet advance. Khost is a Provincial Center in eastern Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan, the eastern districts are characterized by forests and residential land while the western districts have more barren land with residential. There are also several waterways accounting for 5% of total land use, Khost has been in American control since the 2001 US led invasion of Afghanistan. Due to its location in eastern Afghanistan, it was a hotbed for insurgent activity attempting to dislodge the American forces there, like most other provinces, Khost is home to maneuver forces and a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Maneuver forces wage war against insurgents and assist the Afghan National Army, the FPFs brought a broader sense of security and prosperity to surrounding areas
26.
Gardez
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Gardēz is the capital of the Paktia Province of Afghanistan. The population of the city was estimated to be ca.10,000 in the 1979 census and was estimated to be 70,000 in 2008, the city of Gardez is located at the junction between two important roads that cut through a huge alpine valley. Observation posts built by Alexander the Great are still crumbling on the hilltops just outside the city limits, the city of Gardez has a population of 70,641. It has 6 districts and a land area of 6,174 hectares. The total number of dwellings in this city are 7,849, Gardez is an ancient settlement, located in the Highlands of the Hindu Kush. Unfortunately, its history is very poorly documented. Archaeological discoveries, including Greek, Sassanid, Hephthalite, and Turki-Shāhī coins give an insight into the rich history of Gardez. Gardez is located at 2,300 m above sea level, making it the third-highest provincial capital in Afghanistan, the old town, located at the foot of the Bālā Hesār fortress. The city is watered by the course of the Gardez River. Gardez is located at a junction between two important roads, one linking Ghazni with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the other connecting Kabul with Khost, the city is 70 kilometres west of Khost and 100 kilometres south of Kabul. Gardez has a continental climate with dry summers and cold. Precipitation is low, and mostly falls in winter and spring, Gardez is located in eastern Afghanistan close to Ghazni and Khost. Gardez is predominately non-built up area with agriculture as the largest land use at 39%, residential area accounts for almost half of built-up area and Districts 1-4 consist of the densest housing. The Gardez territory fell to the Maurya Empire, which was led by Chandragupta Maurya, the Mauryas restored Hinduism and Buddhism to region, and were planning to capture more territory of South Asia until they faced local Greco-Bactrian forces. As soon as the forces, therefore, of all the confederates were united, a battle was fought, in which Antigonus was slain, having consolidated power in the northwest, Chandragupta pushed east towards the Nanda Empire. Afghanistans significant ancient tangible and intangible Buddhist heritage is recorded through wide-ranging archeological finds, including religious, Buddhist doctrines are reported to have reached as far as Balkh even during the life of the Buddha, as recorded by Husang Tsang. In this context a legend recorded by Husang Tsang refers to the first two lay disciples of Buddha, Trapusa and Bhallika responsible for introducing Buddhism in that country. Originally these two were merchants of the kingdom of Balhika, as the name Bhalluka or Bhallika probably suggests the association of one with that country and they had gone to India for trade and had happened to be at Bodhgaya when the Buddha had just attained enlightenment
27.
Osama bin Laden
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He was a Saudi Arabian, a member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite. Bin Laden was born to the family of billionaire Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden in Saudi Arabia and he studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined Mujahideen forces in Pakistan fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the Mujahideen by funneling arms, money and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan and he was banished from Saudi Arabia in 1992, and shifted his base to Sudan, until U. S. pressure forced him to leave Sudan in 1996. After establishing a new base in Afghanistan, he declared a war against the United States, initiating a series of bombings and related attacks. Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigations lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, from 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the War on Terror, as the FBI placed a $25 million bounty on him in their search for him. S. There is no accepted standard for transliterating Arabic words and Arabic names into English, however. The FBI and Central Intelligence Agency, as well as other U. S. governmental agencies, have used either Usama bin Laden or Usama bin Ladin, less common renderings include Ussamah bin Ladin and, in the French-language media, Oussama ben Laden. Other spellings include Binladen or, as used by his family in the West, the decapitalization of bin is based on the convention of leaving short prepositions, articles, and patronymics uncapitalized in surnames, the nasab bin means son of. The spellings with o and e come from a Persian-influenced pronunciation also used in Afghanistan, Osama bin Ladens full name, Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, means Osama, son of Mohammed, son of Awad, son of Laden. The Arabic linguistic convention would be to refer to him as Osama or Osama bin Laden, not bin Laden alone, as bin Laden is a patronymic, not a surname in the Western manner. According to bin Ladens son Omar bin Laden, the familys surname is al-Qahtani. Osama bin Laden had also assumed the kunyah Abū Abdāllāh and his admirers have referred to him by several nicknames, including the Prince or Emir, the Sheik, the Jihadist Sheik or Sheik al-Mujahid, Hajj, and the Director. The word usāmah means lion, earning him the nicknames Lion and Lion Sheik, in a 1998 interview, bin Laden gave his birth date as March 10,1957. Mohammed bin Laden divorced Hamida soon after Osama bin Laden was born, Mohammed recommended Hamida to Mohammed al-Attas, an associate. Al-Attas married Hamida in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the couple had four children, and bin Laden lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister. The bin Laden family made $5 billion in the construction industry, Bin Laden was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. From 1968 to 1976, he attended the élite secular Al-Thager Model School and he studied economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University. Some reports suggest he earned a degree in engineering in 1979
28.
Sharia
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Sharia, Sharia law, or Islamic law is the religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran. In Arabic, the term refers to Gods divine law and is contrasted with fiqh. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim traditionalists and reformists, traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of sharia, the Quran, sunnah, qiyas, and ijma. Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two branches of law, ʿibādāt and muʿāmalāt, which together comprise a wide range of topics. Its rulings assign actions to one of five categories, mandatory, recommended, permitted, abhorred, thus, some areas of sharia overlap with the Western notion of law while others correspond more broadly to living life in accordance with God’s will. Historically, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists, ottoman rulers achieved additional control over the legal system by promulgating their own legal code and turning muftis into state employees. Non-Muslim communities had legal autonomy, except in cases of interconfessional disputes, in the modern era, sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by statutes inspired by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education in the Muslim world were brought in line with European practice. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, legislative bodies which codified these laws sought to modernize them without abandoning their foundations in traditional jurisprudence. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought along calls by Islamist movements for full implementation of sharia, including reinstatement of hudud corporal punishments, in some cases, this resulted in traditionalist legal reform, while other countries witnessed juridical reinterpretation of sharia advocated by progressive reformers. The role of sharia has become a contested topic around the world, attempts to impose it on non-Muslims have caused intercommunal violence in Nigeria and may have contributed to the breakup of Sudan. Some Muslim-minority countries in Asia, Africa and Europe recognize the use of sharia-based family laws for their Muslim populations, there are ongoing debates as to whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and womens rights. The word sharīʿah is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East to designate a prophetic religion in its totality, for example, sharīʿat Mūsā means law or religion of Moses and sharīʿatu-nā can mean our religion in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, šarīʿah refers to regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word means simply justice, and they will consider any law that promotes justice, Muslims of different perspectives agree in their respect for the abstract notion of sharia, but they differ in how they understand the practical implications of the term. Classical sharia, the body of rules and principles elaborated by Islamic jurists during the first centuries of Islam, historical sharia, the body of rules and interpretations developed throughout Islamic history, ranging from personal beliefs to state legislation and varying across an ideological spectrum. Classical sharia has often served as a point of reference for these variants, Contemporary sharia, the full spectrum of rules and interpretations that are developed and practiced at present
29.
Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
30.
Satellite phone
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A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites. They provide similar functionality to terrestrial mobile telephones, voice, short messaging service, depending on the architecture of a particular system, coverage may include the entire Earth or only specific regions. The mobile equipment, also known as a terminal, varies widely, early satellite phone handsets had a size and weight comparable to that of a late-1980s or early-1990s mobile phone, but usually with a large retractable antenna. More recent satellite phones are similar in size to a mobile phone while some prototype satellite phones have no distinguishable difference from an ordinary smartphone. Satphones are popular on expeditions into remote areas where terrestrial cellular service is unavailable, smaller installations using VoIP over a two-way satellite broadband service such as BGAN or VSAT bring the costs within the reach of leisure vessel owners. The phones have connectors for external antennas that can be installed in vehicles, the systems also allow for the use of repeaters, much like terrestrial mobile phone systems. Some satellite phones use satellites in orbit, which are meant to remain in a fixed position in the sky. These systems can maintain near-continuous global coverage with only three or four satellites, reducing the launch costs, the satellites used for these systems are very heavy and expensive to build and launch. The satellites sit at an altitude of 35,786 kilometres, geostationary satellites have a limitation of use in latitude, generally 70 degrees north of the equator to 70 degrees south of the equator. This is a result of look angles being so low on the increasing the chances of terrestrial. The user will need to find an area with line-of-sight before using the phone, ACeS, This small regional operator provides voice and data services in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia using a single satellite. Inmarsat, The oldest satellite phone operator, founded in 1979 and it originally provided large fixed installations for ships, but has recently entered the market of hand-held phones in a joint venture with ACeS. Coverage is available on most of the Earth, except polar regions, Thuraya, Established in 1997, Thuraya’s satellites provide coverage across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. MSAT / SkyTerra, An American satellite phone company that uses equipment similar to Inmarsat, terrestar, Satellite phone system for North America ICO Global Communications, A satellite phone company which has launched a single geosynchronous satellite which is not yet active. LEO telephones utilize LEO satellite technology, the advantages include providing worldwide wireless coverage with no gaps. LEO satellites orbit the Earth in high speed, low altitude orbits with an time of 70–100 minutes, an altitude of 640 to 1120 kilometers. Since the satellites are not geostationary, they move with respect to the ground, at least one satellite must have line-of-sight to every coverage area at all times to guarantee coverage. Two such systems, both based in the United States, started in the late 1990s, but soon went into bankruptcy after failing to gain enough subscribers to fund launch costs
31.
9/11 Commission Report
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The commission was established on November 27,2002 and their final report was issued on July 22,2004. The report was scheduled for release on May 27,2004. The commission interviewed over 1,200 people in 10 countries, the commission also relied heavily on the FBIs PENTTBOM investigation. Before it was released by the commission, the public report was screened for any potentially classified information. After releasing the report, commission chair Thomas Kean declared that both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were not well served by the FBI, mohamed Atta, the leader of the attacks, was from Egypt. Two hijackers were from the United Arab Emirates, and one was from Lebanon, according to the commission, all 19 hijackers were members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, led by Osama bin Laden. The commissions final report also offered new evidence of increased contact between Iran and al-Qaeda, the report contains information about how several of the 9/11 hijackers passed through Iran, and indicates that officials in Iran did not place entry stamps in their passports. However, according to the report, there is no evidence that Iran was aware of the actual 9/11 plot, Iran has since implemented several widely publicized efforts to shut down al-Qaeda cells operating within its country. The commission report chose to blame for failure to notify the military squarely upon the FAA. Sliney stated that everyone who needed to be notified, including the military, was, in addition to its findings, the report made extensive recommendations for changes that can be made to help prevent a similar attack. These include the creation of a National Intelligence Director over both the CIA and the FBI, and many changes in security and immigration policy. In order to defeat an insurgency one must promote an ideology, value system. The 9/11 Commission emphasizes the use of public diplomacy, defeating insurgents and terrorists is not based on traditional war tactics, it encompasses a national strategic effort that employs all elements of national power. In 2003, the U. S. government realized how important political and cultural support was to the efforts in Afghanistan. S. Withdrew their political support and local outreach to the public, the Afghan population is able to interact with U. S. presence in their country, allowing them to feel more secure and safe, thus countering the insurgent ideology. The ability of the United States to interact with the local Afghan population has been a tool to winning the counterinsurgency operations in the country. According to the 9/11 Commission, conducting public diplomacy with the population of Afghanistan is necessary for long-term success within the country. Long-term public diplomacy efforts in Afghanistan will help show that the new Afghan government will be able to make their lives better, recently American involvement in the Middle East has not been accepted well, support for the United States has plummeted
32.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh
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Ramzi bin al-Shibh is a Yemeni citizen being held by the United States as an enemy combatant detainee at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He is accused of being a key facilitator for the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the United States, in the mid-1990s, bin al-Shibh moved as a student to Hamburg, Germany, where he allegedly became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi. Together, they are suspected of forming the Hamburg cell and becoming central perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, after the attacks, bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the US as the 20th hijacker, of whom there have been several more likely candidates. Bin al-Shibh has been in United States custody since he was captured on 11 September 2002, in Karachi and he was held by the CIA in black sites in Morocco before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. Finally charged in 2008 before a commission, he and several others suspected in the 9/11 attacks went to trial beginning in May 2012. Ramzi bin al-Shibh was born in Hadhramaut province in Yemen, when he was young, his family moved to a working-class neighborhood in the capital, Sanaa. He was cared for by his brother, Ahmed. In 1987, while still in school, bin al-Shibh worked part-time as a clerk for the International Bank of Yemen. He continued working there until 1995, Bin al-Shibh applied for a U. S. visa in 1995, but his request was denied. He went to Germany, where he requested asylum, claiming that he was a political refugee from Sudan. He lived in Hamburg until 1997, when the judge refused his asylum request, Bin al-Shibh returned to the Hadramaut region of Yemen. A short while later he received a German visa under his real name, while he was in Germany, bin al-Shibh used the name Ramzi Omar. In 1997, bin al-Shibh met Mohamed Atta at a mosque, for two years, Atta and bin al-Shibh were roommates in Germany. In late 1999, bin al-Shibh traveled to Kandahar in Afghanistan and he met others involved in planning the September 11 attacks. From Hamburg, bin al-Shibh applied to flight training in the United States. At that time, he applied to Aviation Language Services. Bin al-Shibh applied for a visa to the United States, four times. He made visa applications in Germany on May 17,2000, and again in June, on September 16 and his friend, Zakariyah Essabar, was also denied visas
33.
Hamburg cell
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Claimed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to have been the Capitol. Less important members included Said Bahaji, Zakariya Essabar, Mounir el-Motassadeq, on November 1,1998, future-hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh moved into a three-room apartment together on Marienstraße. Here they formed the secretive Hamburg cell, which included other minor participants in the 9/11 plot. They met together three or four times a week to discuss their anti-American and anti-Israeli views, and to decide how best to fight for their cause. As late as 1999, the four members of the group had intended to wage jihad in Chechnya. The 9/11 Commission Report notes in Chapter 5 that according to bin al-Shibh, an individual named Khalid al Masri approached bin al-Shibh and Shehhi and struck up a conversation about jihad in Chechnya. When they later called Masri and expressed interest in going to Chechnya, he told them to contact Abu Musab in Duisburg, Germany. Slahi instructed them to travel to Karachi, Pakistan, then to the Taliban office in Quetta, Pakistan, Atta and Jarrah left Hamburg during the last week of November,1999. Shehhi left by himself around the time, bin al-Shibh followed two weeks later. Umar al Masri turned out to be a nonexistent person and they met with Osama bin Laden himself and swore their loyalty to him. Mohamed Atta was chosen by Bin Laden as the leader of the group that would attack America, the members of the Hamburg Cell were a boon to the 9/11 plot, which Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had proposed to Bin Laden in 1996. The Hamburg students were fluent in English, educated, accustomed to the Western lifestyle, radically Islamic, Bin Laden and Mohammed Atef wasted no time in assigning the Hamburg group to the most ambitious operation yet planned by al-Qaeda, the 9/11 Commission Report says. Many al-Qaeda members lived in the Hamburg apartment at various times, in all,29 men listed the apartment as their home address while Mohamed Attas name was on the lease. Reportedly, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed visited the apartment repeatedly, German intelligence monitored the apartment, but did not find any evidence against the residents. Both the United States Central Intelligence Agency and German Intelligence have received criticism for failing to share information on these, hijacker and pilot Ziad Jarrah is listed by the 9/11 Commission Report as being a part of the Hamburg cell as well. He did not live with any of the others, however, and can only be confirmed to have met any of them in Hamburg on a single occasion. The closeness of his connections with the others is not known and he left for Afghanistan with the others, can be seen in a video tape with Atta made there. The film Hamburg Cell is a docudrama on the planning and execution of the attacks
34.
Jihad
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Jihad is an Arabic word which literally means striving or struggling, especially with a praiseworthy aim. It can have many shades of meaning in an Islamic context, such as struggle against ones evil inclinations, in classical Islamic law, the term refers to armed struggle against unbelievers, while modernist Islamic scholars generally equate military jihad with defensive warfare. In Sufi and pious circles, spiritual and moral jihad has been traditionally emphasized under the name of greater jihad, the term has gained additional attention in recent decades through its use by terrorist groups. The word jihad appears frequently in the Quran with and without military connotations, Islamic jurists and other ulema of the classical era understood the obligation of jihad predominantly in a military sense. They developed a set of rules pertaining to jihad, including prohibitions on harming those who are not engaged in combat. In the modern era, the notion of jihad has lost its jurisprudential relevance, while modernist Islamic scholars have emphasized defensive and non-military aspects of jihad, some Islamists have advanced aggressive interpretations that go beyond the classical theory. Jihad is classified into inner jihad, which involves a struggle against ones own impulses, and external jihad. Most Western writers consider external jihad to have primacy over inner jihad in the Islamic tradition, gallup analysis of a large survey reveals considerable nuance in the conceptions of jihad held by Muslims around the world. Jihad is sometimes referred to as the pillar of Islam. In Twelver Shia Islam jihad is one of the ten Practices of the Religion, a person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid. The term jihad is often rendered in English as Holy War, in Modern Standard Arabic, the term jihad is used for a struggle for causes, both religious and secular. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines the term as fight, battle, jihad, nonetheless, it is usually used in the religious sense and its beginnings are traced back to the Quran and words and actions of Muhammad. In the Quran and in later Muslim usage, jihad is commonly followed by the expression fi sabil illah, in the path of God. Muhammad Abdel-Haleem states that it indicates the way of truth and justice, including all the teachings it gives on the justifications and it is sometimes used without religious connotation, with a meaning similar to the English word crusade. The context of the Quran is elucidated by Hadith, of the 199 references to jihad in perhaps the most standard collection of hadith—Bukhari—all assume that jihad means warfare. He said, The best jihad is the one in which your horse is slain, Ibn Nuhaas also cited a hadith from Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, where Muhammad states that the highest kind of jihad is The person who is killed whilst spilling the last of his blood. According to another hadith, supporting one’s parents is also an example of jihad and it has also been reported that Muhammad considered well-performing hajj to be the best jihad for Muslim women. The practice of raids by Bedouin against enemy tribes and settlements to collect spoils predates the revelations of the Quran
35.
Chechnya
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The Chechen Republic, commonly referred to as Chechnya, is a federal subject of Russia. It is located in the North Caucasus, situated in the southernmost part of Eastern Europe, the capital of the republic is the city of Grozny. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into two parts, the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic, the latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which sought independence. Following the First Chechen War with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Russian federal control was restored during the Second Chechen War. Since then there has been a reconstruction and rebuilding process, though sporadic fighting continues in the mountains. According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word Caucasian is derived from the Vainakh ancestor Kavkas, dr. Henry Harpending, University of Utah, supports her claims. People living in prehistoric mountain cave settlements used tools, mastered fire, traces of human settlement that date back to 40,000 BC were found near Lake Kezanoi. Cave paintings, artifacts, and other evidence indicates continuous habitation for some 8,000 years. 10, 000–8000 BCE Migration of Nakh peoples to the slopes of the Caucasus from the Fertile Crescent, Invention of agriculture, irrigation, and the domestication of animals. Pottery is known to the region, settlements made out of clay bricks discovered in the plains. In the mountains there were discovered settlements made out of stone and surrounded by walls, 4000–3000 BCE Invention of the wheel, horseback riding, metal works, dishes, armor, daggers, knives, arrow tips. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort, Muzhichi, Ja-E-Bortz, Abbey-Gove 900–1200 AD The kingdom in the center of the Caucasus splits into Alania, german scientist Peter Simon Pallas believed that Ingush people were the direct descendants from Alania. The Alan tribes build fortresses, castles, and defense walls locking the mountains from the invaders, part of the lowland tribes occupied by Mongols. 1500 AD First Russian involvement in the Caucasus,1558 Temryuk of Kabarda sends his emissaries to Moscow requesting help against Vainakh tribes from Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible marries Temryuks daughter Maria Temryukovna, alliance formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against stubborn Vainakh defenders. Chechnya was a nation in the Northern Caucasus that fought against foreign rule continually since the 15th century, the Chechens converted over the next few centuries to Sunni Islam, as Islam was associated with resistance to Russian encroachment. Notable in Chechen history, this particular Russo-Persian War marked the first military encounter between Imperial Russia and the Vainakh, as the Russians took control of the Caspian corridor and moved into Persian-ruled Dagestan, Peters forces ran into mountain tribes. Peter sent a force to subdue them, but the Chechens routed them
36.
Hafiz (Quran)
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Hafiz, literally meaning guardian or memorizer, depending on the context, is a term used by Muslims for someone who has completely memorized the Quran. The Islamic prophet Muhammad lived in the 6th Century CE, in Arabia in a time when few people were literate, the Arabs preserved their histories, genealogies, and poetry by memory alone. The Arabic writing of the time was a script, that did not include vowel markings or other diacritics needed to distinguish between words. Hence if there was any question as to the pronunciation of a verse, the huffaz were also highly appreciated as reciters, whose intoned words were accessible even to the illiterate. Memorization required no expensive materials, at the time there was no paper in the Muslim world, even after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan collected and organized the Quran circa 650-656 CE, recitation of the Quran was still honored and encouraged. There are numerous traditions of recitation, most huffaz know only one version, but some experts can recite in several traditions. However this does not change the meaning of the content, the Quran is divided into 114 Surahs, containing 6,236 verses. This process generally takes between 3 and 6 years part-time together with schooling, most huffaz have studied as children in special Islamic schools or madrasahs, being instructed in tajwid and vocalisation as well as committing the Quran to memory. Huffaz are highly respected within the Islamic community and they are privileged to use the title Hafiz before their names. They are tested on their knowledge, for example, in one test they are asked to continue the recitation of a passage taken randomly from the Quran. As they do not know which passage will be chosen, they must know the text in order to be sure of passing. In another test, a would-be hafiz might be asked to recite verses containing a word or phrase. In the classical Arabic lexicon, the word hafiz was not traditionally used to refer to one who had memorized the Quran, instead, the word used was hamil Hafiz was used for the scholars of hadith, specifically one who had committed 100,000 hadiths to memory. Having memorised the Quran, the hafiz or hafiza must then ensure they do not forget it, to ensure perfect recall of all the learned verses requires constant practice. The memorisation of the Quran was important to Muslims in the past and is also in the present, yearly, thousands of students master the Quran and complete the book with interpretation and also memorisation. The Quran is perhaps the book, religious or secular. For Muslims who are attempting to memorize certain suras but are unfamiliar with the Arabic script, the most important sura to memorize is Al-Fatiha. All praise and thanks be to Allah, there is none worthy of worship except Allah
37.
Ramadan
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Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths. The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root ramiḍa or ar-ramaḍ, fasting is fardh for adult Muslims, except those who are suffering from an illness, travelling, are elderly, pregnant, breastfeeding, diabetic or going through menstrual bleeding. Fasting the month of Ramadan was made obligatory during the month of Shaban, while fasting from dawn until sunset, Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking, and engaging in sexual relations. Muslims are also instructed to refrain from behavior that may negate the reward of fasting, such as false speech. Food and drinks are served daily, before dawn and after sunset, spiritual rewards for fasting are also believed to be multiplied within the month of Ramadan. Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the offering of salat. Chapter 2, Verse 185, of the Quran states, The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the criterion. And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days. Allah desires for you ease, He desires not hardship for you, and that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that perhaps you may be thankful. It is believed that the Quran was first revealed to Muhammad during the month of Ramadan which has been referred to as the best of times, the first revelation was sent down on Laylat al-Qadr which is one of the five odd nights of the last ten days of Ramadan. According to hadith, all holy scriptures were sent down during Ramadan, the tablets of Ibrahim, the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel and the Quran were sent down on 1st, 6th, 12th, 13th and 24th Ramadan respectively. According to the Quran, fasting was also obligatory for prior nations, God proclaimed to Muhammad that fasting for His sake was not a new innovation in monotheism, but rather an obligation practiced by those truly devoted to the oneness of God. The pagans of Mecca also fasted, but only on tenth day of Muharram to expiate sins, the ruling to observe fasting during Ramadan was sent down 18 months after Hijra, during the month of Shaban in the second year of Hijra in 624 CE. According to Philip Jenkins, Ramadan comes from the strict Lenten discipline of the Syrian churches, however, this suggestion is based on the orientalist idea that the Quran itself has Syrian origins, which was refuted by Muslim academics such as M. Al-Azami. The beginning and end of Ramadan are determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, hilāl is typically a day after the astronomical new moon. Since the new moon marks the beginning of the new month, however, to many Muslims, this is not in accordance with authenticated Hadiths stating that visual confirmation per region is recommended. The consistent variations of a day have existed since the time of Muhammad, Laylat al-Qadr, which in Arabic means the night of power or the night of decree, is considered the holiest night of the year
38.
Ahmed Ressam
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Ahmed Ressam is an Algerian al-Qaeda member who lived for a time in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He received extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan and he was convicted in 2001 of planning to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport on New Years Eve 1999, as part of the foiled 2000 millennium attack plots. He was initially sentenced to 22 years in prison, after cooperating with the government in testifying about al-Qaeda, in February 2010 an appellate court held his sentence to be too lenient, and ordered that it be extended. In October 2012, he was re-sentenced to 37 years imprisonment and he is serving time at ADX Florence in Colorado. The eldest of seven children, Ressam was born in 1967 and grew up in a town west of Algiers, in 1984 Ressam traveled to Paris, France, for special medical treatments, it was his first time out of Algeria. Ressam failed the exams to college and applied for jobs with police or security forces but was turned down, over the next four years he worked with his father in a coffee shop. He left Algeria on September 5,1992 due to the war in the country. He was arrested on immigration violations in Corsica, a territorial collectivity of France, in November 1993 and it banned him from returning for three years. Morocco determined that he was not Moroccan and returned him to France, faced with a March 1994 hearing, Ressam flew to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Ressam entered Canada on February 20,1994, using a fake, when immigration officials at the Montréal-Mirabel International Airport arrested him and confronted him about the altered passport, he divulged his real name and applied for refugee status. In his effort to obtain political asylum, he told the Canadian authorities a false story about having been subjected to Algerian abuse and he was released pending a hearing, and approved for up to three years of welfare benefits. His application for status was denied on June 6,1995. On May 4,1998, a warrant was issued for his arrest by Citizenship, at the time the warrant was issued, Ressam was in Afghanistan, attending a terrorist training camp. He supported himself by theft, and through welfare benefits of C$500 per month and he was arrested four times, but never jailed. By 1999, Ressam had a Canadian criminal history for theft under C$5,000, an outstanding Canada-wide immigration arrest warrant, and a British Columbia-wide arrest warrant for theft under C$5,000. According to Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials, he was under surveillance as part of an investigation into a suspected terrorist ring from 1996 until he left the country, Ressam became friends with Raouf Hannachi, an al-Qaeda member who served as the muezzin at Montreals Assuna Mosque. Hannachi returned to Montreal from Afghanistan toward the end of the summer of 1997 and he told Ressam about the experience and jihad, encouraged him to train as well, and ultimately arranged a trip to the camp for him and his roommate Mustapha Labsi. On March 17,1998, interested in joining jihad in Algeria, Ressam traveled using his fraudulent Benni Noris passport from Montreal to Karachi, Pakistan
