Taliban

Taliban

Osama bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957, in Riyadh, into a family who owned a construction dynasty estimated worth $5 billion by the mid-1990s. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, they began a war in which 1 million people were killed and 5 million were sent into exile.

During the war, Osama bin Laden, then 22, lobbied his family and friends to support the cause of the Afghan freedom fighters, the mujahideen, and made several trips to Pakistan, where he continued his fundraising work.

During this time the United States also supported the cause of the mujahideen against the Soviets. The Reagan administration authorized the CIA to establish training camps for the mujahideen in Afghanistan and Pakistan and asked King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to match U.S. contributions.


King Fahd instructed the minister of intelligence, Turki al-Faisal, to raise money from private sources and Faisal, knowing of bin Laden’s efforts toward the cause, entrusted bin Laden with the task of raising money. Besides raising money for the effort, bin Laden helped encourage Arab volunteers to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets. He kept a database of his volunteers; the word database translates to Arabic as al-Qaeda.

When the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, the United States withdrew its support for the mujahideen, and the country was plunged into chaos and civil war. When Iraq, built up as a major military power by the United States against Iran, invaded Kuwait, the United States sent thousands of troops into Saudi Arabia. The U.S.-Saudi alliance was criticized by bin Laden, who objected to the presence of U.S. troops on land sacred to Muslims.

Bin Laden began publicly criticizing the Saudi regime. As a result, he was placed under house arrest. He convinced King Fahd that he had business to take care of in Pakistan as a means of escaping the country, and eventually found refuge in Sudan with Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of the country’s Islamic Front.

While in Sudan, bin Laden opposed the presence of U.S. troops in Somalia, and al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen bombed two hotels housing American troops in transit to Somalia. Following an attack by al-Qaeda on the World Trade Center in 1993, the Saudi government froze bin Laden’s assets in the country and stripped him of his citizenship.

Meanwhile, in 1994, the Taliban (translated as "students"), a small group of graduates from madrassas (schools of Islamic learning) led by Mullah Muhammad Umar, took control of the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Taliban were able to seize leaders of warring factions, and called for the city to disarm. Fatigued by two years of anarchy, the city willingly agreed to the restoration of order.

The Taliban announced that it was their duty to set up an Islamic society in Afghanistan, and gained popular support. By 1996 they had taken Kabul and established a government willing to provide sanctuary to Osama bin Laden and to accept his support of their regime.

In 2000, bin Laden was linked to the attack on the American guided missile destroyer USS Cole in Aden Harbor, Yemen, and on September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda was held responsible by the United States for the attack on the twin towers and the Pentagon. While the Taliban regime fell as a result of U.S. attacks on Afghanistan on October 10, 2001, the United States was unable to capture Osama bin Laden or destroy the Taliban.

Hal Lindsey

Hal Lindsey

The principal argue to catch Hal Lindsey inwards the context of conspiracy theory is that Lindsey is perchance the unmarried almost pop author of biblical prophecy inwards the US as well as biblical prophecy is itself a trend of conspiratorial thought.

All events are linked yesteryear an overarching logic as well as are leading toward simply about known end—the Second Coming of Christ. Lindsay is i of the really few writers to always convey 3 books on the New York Times best-seller listing simultaneously.

His best-known book, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), has been translated into fifty dissimilar languages as well as has sold over 35 meg copies. He has since written simply about other 20 books, regularly conducts pro-Israeli Holy Land tours, runs an online newsletter, Hal Lindsey Oracle, as well as appears on the weekly Trinity Broadcasting Network intelligence show, International Intelligence Briefing.

The Late Great Planet Earth is a key document inwards the early on popularization of the trend of religious belief almost mutual amid evangelical Christianity inside the United States—premillennial dispensationalism. To empathize Lindsey’s significance, both inside biblical prophesying as well as inside the so-called Christian Zionist Right, it is necessary to come upward to a basic agreement of the theology espoused yesteryear his writing.


Premillennialism is the agreement that nosotros are approaching the millennium: the thousand-year reign of Christ that follows the Second Coming. Dispensationalism asserts that God progressively reveals himself over a serial of ages or dispensations. During each dispensation, the onus placed upon humankind inwards price of their responsibleness to God changes.

At present, according to Lindsey as well as almost other evangelicals, nosotros are inwards the historic menses of the Grace or the Church historic menses (the 6th of 7 dispensations) during which our exclusively responsibleness to God is faith. The lastly dispensation, next the rapture—during which the faithful volition live called to God’s side—is the millennial kingdom.

The feel that the millennium is at mitt depends upon biblically based interpretations of electrical flow events. More specifically, it depends upon specific interpretations of the Book of Revelation. In this interpretation, the creation of the State of State of Israel inwards 1948 is the effect that begins the countdown to the millennium.

State of Israel plays a crucial business office inwards the premillennial dispensationalist version of the Last Days—hence the rigid back upward of State of Israel yesteryear Lindsey, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, as well as Jimmy Swaggart, who along amongst Tim LaHaye (coauthor amongst Jerry Jenkins of the immensely pop as well as profitable Left Behind series) are marrow members of the so-called Christian Zionist Right. (Incidentally, all of the aforementioned individuals convey rigid affiliations amongst groups funded yesteryear Rev. Dominicus Myung Moon’s Unification Church.) Without the continuing beingness of the State of Israel, the events that Pb upward to the lastly dispensation cannot come upward to pass.

The centrality of premillennial dispensationalism as well as its attendant Zionism to the U.S. Christian Right points to the significance of Lindsey as well as his writing to the contemporary political scene. The centrality of Christian Zionism to both political as well as religious life inwards the US has redoubled next the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Another key historical chemical cistron identified yesteryear Lindsey is the receive toward the unification of Europe. Lindsey reads the EU every bit the revived Roman Empire—the reemergence of which is key to the End Times scenario. One matter that has complicated Lindsey’s vision of the apocalypse is the autumn of the Soviet Union, which has served every bit his candidate for Gog-Magog. Gog-Magog are identified inwards the Bible every bit the nations that Satan volition Pb upon his escape from prison theatre at the cease of the millennium.

The autumn of the Soviet Union has non dissuaded Lindsey from his view: inwards an article from August 2002 Lindsey notes, “Just when yous laid out to wonder where is Gog as well as Magog inwards all this ... Russian Federation has continued to strengthen ties amongst all 3 of the countries branded the ‘axis of evil’ yesteryear President Bush: Iran, Republic of Iraq as well as North Korea. Hmmm” (Lindsey 2002).

Space Exploration

the first satellite, the Russian Sputnik, launched by rocket on October 4, 1957

Humankind’s exploration of space began in the 1950s, with the first satellite, the Russian Sputnik, launched by rocket on October 4, 1957. It was followed on November 3 by another, carrying a dog named Laika.

The United States moved into space exploration on February 1, 1958, with Explorer I. A stream of similar robotic craft followed from both countries, carrying instruments that made various important discoveries.

Early space pioneering efforts built on the works of pre–World War II inventors such as the Russian schoolmaster Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, whose writings set out the basic principles for rocket propulsion, suggested multistage vehicles, and proposed liquid hydrogen as a fuel.


In the United States, Professor Robert Goddard suggested a method for reaching the moon. Goddard built rockets too, and in 1935 successfully launched one that reached a height of two kilometers.

Rocketry in World War II saw the invention of the V2 missile, with a range of around 300 kilometers, a top speed of 6,000 KPH, and a payload of over a ton. Following the war many German rocket engineers, including Wernher von Braun, were brought to the United States, while Soviet forces captured personnel and equipment from the V2 launching site of Peenemunde.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviets again led the way with the launch of Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, into space to become the first human to leave Earth. His mission lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes; he made a single orbit of the planet. The United States countered with a Mercury space capsule carrying Alan B. Shepard on May 5.

The effects of space travel on humans were of course largely unknown. The early manned missions resulted in considerable study of the physical damage of g-force, radiation, and weightlessness.

Rapid developments in hundreds of areas followed, as spacesuits, living quarters, and methodologies for delivering food were all pioneered, along with rapid improvements in the speed, range, and payload of rockets.

The first ever man made thing to be sent to the Moon was the USSR’s Luna 2 in 1959

Meanwhile, robot explorers were recovering more data to inform manned missions. The first probe to journey to the Moon was launched on September 12, 1959, by the Soviet Union. Luna 2 reached its destination in 34 hours. The U.S. probes in the main were spurred by President John F. Kennedy’s address to the U.S. Congress on May 25, 1961.

The Ranger probes explored the Moon’s surface, photographing it before crashing into it; the probe therefore provided transmitted data that resolved images of around half a meter across, in contrast to the best telescopes of the time, which could only resolve to around 500 meters.

There was much debate on what the surface of the Moon actually looked like and whether it could support the landing of a heavy manned craft. Was the surface so rough no spacecraft could touch down without damage? Was the Moon dust so thick that any spacecraft would sink into huge drifts?

The Lunar Orbiter series of probes were designed to map the surface of the Moon so the best sites for exploration could be chosen. By the end of the five missions, 99 percent of the moon had been photographed to a resolution of 66 meters or better, and smaller areas had been photographed to within one meter.

The space race saw the Americans and the Russians competing as to who could reach the moon first; the dual projects were underscored by the cold war and the military implications of mastering space flight. In the end, the Russians never put a man onto the surface of the Moon but instead landed several robot explorers.

Lift-off of the Saturn V rocket.

Both sides were, by the mid-1960s, progressing further down the road of manned spacecraft that could carry more than one astronaut. The rockets to launch the progressively heavier spacecraft began to increase in size, with the eventual development of the Saturn series, which still remain some of the most powerful lifting devices ever built.

In the United States, the Mercury one-person spacecraft was followed by the two-person Gemini craft. The three-person Apollo vehicles were developed, a two-part craft that included a lunar lander as well as a command section that would stay in orbit while the lander descended to the Moon’s surface.

The Russian jadwal saw many achievements. The first female in space was Valentina Tereshkova, who completed 48 orbits in the Soviet Union’s Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. The first space walk—a weightless venture outside a capsule—was achieved by Aleksei Leonov on March 18, 1965. The walk lasted for 10 minutes.

However, the Soviet Union’s space jadwal was not without human cost: On April 23, 1967, the landing parachutes of the Soyuz 1 space capsule failed and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed. On January 27, 1967, the new U.S. Apollo jadwal experienced tragedy when a fire broke out in the command module during a launch of the first piloted flight, designated AS-204.

Three astronauts died: Mercury and Gemini mission veteran Virgil Grissom; Edward White; and Roger Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first spaceflight. The subsequent investigation and report saw substantial improvements to mission safety. The AS-204 mission craft was renamed Apollo 1 in honor of the crew.

Powered by the enormous Saturn V three-stage rockets, the Apollo missions grew in their ability to take the astronauts further from the surface of Earth. On October 11, 1968, the first manned Apollo mission flew successfully; around the same time Russian spacecraft carrying live animals were successfully orbiting the Moon before returning to Earth.

Apollo 8 made the first human-manned circumnavigation of the Moon in December 1968. Apollo 10 was a "full dress rehearsal" of the proposed landing and carried out all of the proposed operations short of an actual descent to the lunar surface, although it descended to within nine miles of the Moon in the detached lunar module.

On July 20, 1969, after a four-day trip, Apollo 11’s lander separated from the main spacecraft with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on board, while Michael Collins remained in orbit. The lunar module, named Eagle, successfully touched down, and, shortly afterward, filmed by the remotely controlled camera attached to the outside of the spacecraft, Armstrong emerged to back down the short ladder to the surface.

His steps were watched by millions of people via a television signal beamed back to Earth, with many millions more listening via radio. As Armstrong’s foot touched the surface of the Moon, he spoke the words, "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". Mankind had reached another world.

Neil Armstrong becomes the first astronaut to step onto
the lunar surface, July 20, 1969.

A total of seven lunar landings were made, with significant achievements made on each mission. Some 381.6 kilograms of lunar rocks were brought back to Earth, and each successive landing after Apollo 11 left behind an automated surface laboratory. The last three missions carried extremely sophisticated mapping cameras, and other instruments measured magnetic fields, chemical composition, and radioactivity.

Craft Failure

Apollo 13’s mission was aborted due to craft failure. An oxygen tank on the spacecraft had blown up and the normal supply of electricity, light, and water to the craft was lost around 200,000 miles from Earth.

A unique and innovative jadwal of rigged repairs and procedure invention followed, resulting in the eventual safe return of the three astronauts to Earth. Apollo missions continued until December 1972, with different sites visited and a wheeled lunar rover successfully deployed to carry astronauts further from the spacecraft.

The missions increased the duration of time spent on the surface from hours to days. Twelve astronauts walked on the lunar surface. The last astronaut to leave the Moon was scientist Jack Schmitt.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Further space exploration programs commenced with Skylab, a section of a Saturn V rocket that was successfully placed in orbit and visited on several occasions by teams of astronaut/scientists who stayed in residence for ever-lengthening periods to conduct experiments. The jadwal terminated in 1979.

A Soviet-American rendezvous in space, the Apollo-Soyuz mission, took place in 1975. The development of the space shuttle, a reusable craft capable of returning in a glide to Earth’s surface, began in 1970, centering around the idea of a cheaper alternative to previous craft.

The jadwal used these spacecraft from their first flight in 1981 until the present. The shuttle fleet can each carry a payload of 30,000 kilograms to orbit. Mission loads have consisted of satellites, experiments, and materials for the International Space Station.

The Russian Space Station MIR

The Soviets also pursued a permanent presence in space. A series of space stations called Salyut were launched, using Soyuz spacecraft on ferry missions. In 1986 Salyut was followed by the modular space station Mir.

Following improved relations between Russia and other nations at the end of the cold war, Russian cosmonauts joined with the other countries contributing to, and working within, the International Space Station.

Stark Reminder

Space flight is not without its hazards, as was discovered in the early days of space exploration with the loss of the Soyuz 1 and Apollo 1 crews. Improvements in safety through redesign and development of spacecraft and propulsion systems have greatly reduced risk of catastrophic failure.

Nevertheless, the severe stresses placed on spacecraft and their systems, together with the risk associated with the application of cutting-edge technology, continue to make manned spaceflight inherently dangerous. Stark reminders of this were the loss of the spacecraft and crew of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope is the largest astronomical telescope ever sent into space. Launched in 1990 by a space shuttle, the telescope’s placement outside Earth’s atmosphere gives it a unique view of the universe.

Hubble Space Telescope

Built by the Lockheed Missiles and space company, the space telescope has a length of 13.3 meters, or 43 feet 6 inches; a diameter of 3.1–4.3 meters, or 10–14 feet; and a weight of 11,600 kilograms, or 25,500 pounds.

NASA named the world's first space-based optical telescope after the U.S. astronomer Edwin P. Hubble. Dr. Hubble confirmed an "expanding" universe, which provided the foundation for the big bang theory.

With a mission duration of up to 20 years, Hubble is visited regularly by space shuttle crews for regular servicing. At an altitude of 380 miles (612 kilometers) in a low-Earth orbit, the telescope completes an orbit of Earth every 97 minutes. Sensitive to ultraviolet through near infrared light, the telescope relays to Earth three to four gigabytes of information per day.

Powered by two 25-foot solar panels, the telescope has revealed new information on the age of the universe, made findings on black holes, and provided visual proof that dust disks around young stars are common, reinforcing the assumption that planetary systems are plentiful in the universe.

Hubble's Replacement

Scheduled for launch in 2011, the James Webb Space Telescope is intended to replace Hubble. This telescope will see objects 400 times fainter than those visible with Earth-based telescopes. By contrast, the Hubble can see objects 60 times fainter than those visible with Earth-based telescopes.

The first components for the International Space Station were taken into orbit in 1998, and the station received its first crew on November 2, 2000, marking the first day a permanent human presence in space was achieved.

The space station has grown and evolved into an unprecedented laboratory complex. Offering a microgravity environment that cannot be duplicated on Earth, the station furthers knowledge of science and of how the human body functions for extended periods of time in space.

By the time the station had been operating for five years, 89 scientific investigations had been conducted. A complete characterization study of the radiation environment in the station was done, with evaluation of models of radiation shielding by the station’s structure.

With 15,000 cubic feet of habitable volume assembled by late 2005, the space station at that point had more room than a conventional three-bedroom house. Astronauts and scientists from a variety of nations have visited and worked in the space station.

Civilian and private missions into space have been achieved. The California millionaire and former NASA rocket scientist Dennis Tito was the first private space tourist to visit the ISS for a 10-day excursion in April 2001.

Test pilot Mike Melvill took the privately built rocket plane SpaceShip One to an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, the acknowledged point at which space begins, on July, 12, 2004.

Robot explorers have also achieved an enormous amount in the conquest of space. The first interplanetary explorer, the United States’ Mariner II, was launched on August, 26, 1962, to explore Venus and successfully reported a high surface temperature and the absence of a magnetic field.
 

In January 2004 two NASA robot explorers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. The six- wheeled craft crawled over the surface, measuring, photographing, and analyzing, and surprised their controllers by continuing to function for over a year, during which time they traveled for several miles.

On December 25, 2004, the NASA Cassini spacecraft, nearing Saturn, released the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe toward the surface of the ringed planet’s largest moon, Titan. Parachuting to the Moon’s surface, the probe’s cameras and spectrometers analyzed the chemical composition of Titan and transmitted data back to scientists on Earth.

Other probes have been sent to all of the planets in the solar system, including distant Pluto with the launch of the New Horizons probe in January 2006. Some probes have had lengthy careers and considerable success.

The Pioneer space probe, launched on March 2, 1972, was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. It made its closest encounter with Jupiter on December 3, 1973, passing within 81,000 miles.

Pioneer’s last, very weak signal was received on January 23, 2003. Pioneer 10 continues into interstellar space, heading for the red star Aldebaran, about 68 light years away. It will take Pioneer over 2 million years to reach its destination.

Another development of the post-Moon jadwal has been the space community’s understandings of asteroid dangers. A "dinosaur-killer" strike is now thought to be avoidable, due to a jadwal of surveying and tracking all heavenly bodies.

Such ambitious ideas have been supported by the success of missions such as the Stardust spacecraft, launched in 1999. This mission managed to capture particles from a comet beyond the Earth-Moon orbit and return them to Earth.

Other aspects of space exploration are numerous. The discovery of other planets orbiting distant stars has been made possible; the Earth is ringed by satellites enabling advanced communications and a Global Positioning System (GPS); and superior meteorology and detailed imaging have been developed. Various spin-offs from the space jadwal for the everyday world include such variables as the development of freeze-dried foods and materials such as Teflon.

Progress has been not as fast as science fiction written from the 1930s to the 1980s depicted—space flight has proved expensive and difficult, and the manned Moon bases and Martian cities have not happened.

However, other nations besides the United States and the Soviet Union—a collective European approach and manned missions from China—have begun space exploration and plans are under way to see a human presence on both the Moon and Mars.

Two basic difficulties have to be overcome if human exploration of other stars and their solar systems is to succeed. The first is the speed of the spacecraft. The fastest vessel ever built (by 2006) was the New Horizons probe, which achieved a speed shortly after launch of 10.07 miles per second, or 36,256 MPH. The nuclear-powered craft crossed the Moon’s orbit around nine hours after liftoff. Even at this speed, the estimated mission duration to Pluto is around nine years.

If the mission were manned, this would mean an overall duration of 18 years traveling plus the exploration time. If this craft’s speed were applied to reach the nearest star system to Earth, the mission time would be hundreds of years. Therein lies the second major problem—the duration humans can withstand space conditions.

The long-term effects of weightless space flight are still being studied, but it is doubtful that such missions could be withstood by a human crew. Scientists believe the craft would have to have some sort of gravitational compensation. A manned, one-way, long-term mission is also an unknown, although science fiction has done a great deal to explore both of these issues.

Indeed, space flight may have provided some answers by extrapolating various scenarios from the work of physicists that may get around interstellar exploration problems.

If space is not an empty vacuum and contains distortions, as has been proved, then the "warps" in space may provide points where great distances can be surpassed, rather in the way a fly can travel from one end of a curved scarf to the other end by simply flying between the two points rather than walking the entire length of the scarf.

There may also be ways to build spacecraft that fly at much faster speeds; light sails, antimatter rockets, and drives utilizing alternative theories of gravity and electromagnetism might allow much greater speeds. But then other problems arise: that of the relativity time-space equation, for example, and how to get humans to cope with the acceleration and deceleration speeds such a spacecraft would demand.

Although the difficulties of exploring beyond the solar system are great, they may not be insurmountable. One fact remains: If humans want to survive beyond the certain degradation of our own star and its planetary system, then space exploration must be continued.

Somalia (1950–2006)

Somalia civil war

Following the end of World War II, the British administered Somalia until 1950, when it was divided, with southern Somalia put under Italian trusteeship and the Ogaden returned to Ethiopia, with the remainder of Somalia, held by the British, prepared for independence.

The decision to allow the Italians to supervise any part of Somalia was controversial given their colonial record in the region, and it sparked riots in 1950. Elections were held in southern Somalia in 1956, and these were won by the Somali Youth League.

In February the Somali National League won a majority in elections in northern Somalia. The platforms of both groups were to reunify Somalia and achieve independence which was granted on July 1, 1960.


The first president of Somalia was Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, who had served in the Italian colonial administration until 1941. He had been president of the National Assembly until 1960 when he became president of the Constituent Assembly, a position he held until independence.

The first prime minister, Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, was from British Somaliland; he joined the Somali National League Party in 1956 and became its secretary-general two years later.

He held the position for just over two weeks before stepping down on July 12, 1960, to become minister of defense. Replacing him was Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, from the Somali Youth League, who had studied political science at the University of Rome.

Unfortunately, not long after independence, Somalia became embroiled in a dispute with the British who granted the Somali-dominated Northern Frontier District of Kenya to the Republic of Kenya. Somalia broke off diplomatic relations with Britain in 1963.

The main masalah facing Somalia was the integration of the two halves of the country, plagued by ethnic rivalries, and worries that infrastructure development in one part of the country was disadvantaging the other.

Tensions with Kenya and Ethiopia proved intractable. War with the latter broke out over the Ogaden in 1964. Although it did not last long, it served to destabilize the country, which was becoming beset with factional troubles and the proliferation of political parties and corruption.

In 1964 Shermarke was replaced as prime minister by Abdirizak Haji Husain, also from the Somali Youth League, and on July 10, 1967, Shermarke was elected as president of Somalia, a post he held until his assassination on October 15, 1969, by Somali police officers.

The assassination led to a military coup six days later, which brought Major-General Mohammed Siad Barre to power. He then became president of the Supreme Revolutionary Council and head of state, also serving as prime minister until January 30, 1987.

Siad Barre was involved in introducing a jadwal he called "scientific socialism", by which he sought to integrate Somalia. One of these policies was the creation and dissemination of a written Somali language.

In 1975 a drought struck Somalia, and this led to a famine which saw thousands of people in Somalia, and also in neighboring Ethiopia, dying. Two years later Somalia attacked Ethiopia, with Siad Barre keen to create his Greater Somalia which was to include the Ogaden (from Ethiopia), Djibouti, and also northern Kenya.

In 1977 Somalia was in news headlines all over the world when a German Lufthansa Flight 181 from Majorca, Spain, was hijacked to the Somali capital, Mogadishu. There the GSG-9, a crack German antiterrorist commando force formed after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, stormed the plane and released the hostages unharmed.

Forced to Flee

Surviving an attempted military coup in April 1978, Siad Barre came to lead an increasingly autocratic regime that started to face trouble from internal Somali resistance groups. In particular, the Somalia Salvation Democratic Front used bases in Ethiopia to attack Somali soldiers, eventually overrunning parts of northern Somalia.

In August 1990 the Somali Salvation Democratic Front allied with two other groups, the Somali Patriotic Front and the Somali National Movement (SNM), to form a loose coalition. Siad Barre himself had been seriously injured in a car accident in May 1986, but remained in control of Mogadishu. He was forced to flee the country on January 26, 1991, going first to Kenya and eventually settling in Nigeria in 1992.

With the victorious rebels seizing control of Mogadishu, Ali Mahdi Muhammad became the president of the country, with the task of bringing together the various factions. Northern Somali separatists appointed the leader of the SNM, Abdurahman Ahmed Ali, as president of the breakaway Somaliland Republic.

Fighting continued, and Ali Mahdi hastily left the Somali capital in November 1991 after the supporters of General Mohammad Farrah Aydid attacked Mogadishu, capturing the city after bloody street fighting. Aydid then proclaimed himself head of the new government, managing to fight off an attack in April 1992 by supporters of Siad Barre.

Aid agencies estimated that as many as 2,000 people were dying each day from hunger in and around Mogadishu alone. With Aydid holding food supplies only for his supporters, the United Nations felt the duty to act, and on August 12, 1992, they had permission from Aydid to deploy troops to protect the aid workers.

The result was 500 armed United Nations soldiers being deployed and a massive relief operation taking place. This part of the aid operation went well, although there were some problems in the towns of Baidoa and Bardera in the west of the country.

By mid-1993 the aid mission had been changed with the U.S. marines being deployed to achieve political objectives. This seemed to include the overthrow of the Aydid government, which led to a U.S. helicopter attack on an alleged Aydid munitions base on July 12, 1993, killing a large number of Somali clan leaders who had gathered for a conference.

The political climate moved against the Americans as the clan alliances reformed. On October 3, 1993, some 140 U.S. marines abseiled from Black Hawk helicopters into Mogadishu, with their mission being to abduct two senior lieutenants of Aydid.

The operation was planned to last no longer than an hour, but some U.S. Marines were pinned down by thousands of armed Somalis; by the time they were evacuated the following morning, there were 18 U.S. Marines killed and more than 70 badly injured.

Factional Shifts

With the United States clearly against General Aydid, he moved to form alliances with some of his erstwhile enemies, the Americans unable to keep up with the factional shifts. In November 1994 Aydid called a General Conference on Somali Reconciliation, but Ali Mahdi boycotted it, as did the Somali Salvation Alliance.

In June 1995 Aydid himself was ousted by Osman Ali Ato. Following the death of Aydid in 1996, his son, Hussein Aydid, a former U.S. Marine who had been involved in the Somali operation, became the leader of the United Somali Congress and took his father’s title as interim president of Somalia.

Hussein Aydid refused to take part in the National Salvation Council when it was formed by leaders of 26 of Somalia’s factions in January 1997. They agreed on a peace formula that saw the introduction of a federal system for the country, allowing the warlords to retain their local power bases.

This meant that by 1998 the country was effectively divided into three parts: Somalia, consisting of the southern provinces around Mogadishu; the former British areas in the north becoming Somaliland; and Puntland in the northeast. Frequent peace conferences were to be held to try to work out common policies on certain issues.

Although the infighting had died down, the problems over the famine continued with 650,000 people facing food shortages in April 2000. This led to food riots and instability in Mogadishu, forcing the warring factions to declare Baidoa the "provisional capital". By this time, large numbers of educated Somalis had fled.

An interim Somali National Assembly was formed in October 2001 with Salad Hassan Abdikassim (Abdiqasim Salad Hassan) as the interim president. Problems with Ethiopia continued, and the interim prime minister, Ali Khalif Galaydh, accused Ethiopia of trying to destabilize the country, supporting some of the clans that wanted separatism. Abdikassim appointed himself interim president of the Transitional National Government, and in November 2001 Abshir Farah Hassan was elected as the interim prime minister.

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the subsequent War on Terror saw the U.S. military take a keen interest in Somalia and the level of Islamic fundamentalist influence in the country. Since then the Somali "government" has gradually come to support, however reluctantly, the United States in its War on Terror. The United States has consequently rewarded pro-U.S. groups in the country.

On October 14, 2004, Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed became president, taking over from Salad Hassan Abdikassim, and in November 2004, Ali Mohammed Ghadi became prime minister of the transitional federal government. However, after a failed assassination attempt, Prime Minister Ghadi fled Mogadishu, returning in 2006 when Ethiopian troops, aided by the United States, backed him and on December 21, 2006, started a new war in Somalia.

Militias

citizens militias

Although beingness armed inwards the U.S.A. is yesteryear no way a novelty, during the early on 1990s the collection of marginalized groups that comprised the right-wing “Patriot” community found their ranks swelling equally meaning numbers of newly disaffected Americans joined “citizens militias” across the United States.

Strongest inwards the rural heartland of the West, Midwest, together with South, at its zenith inwards 1996 the motility had militias active inwards all l states together with numbered maybe equally many equally 50,000 members, with several millions of supporters together with sympathizers.

Some militia leaders have got claimed full membership figures equally high equally 10 million, which is frankly far fetched; federal agents have got suggested that supporters could number inwards the millions. Perhaps to a greater extent than realistically, others propose a full militia membership of betwixt 20,000 together with 60,000.


Ostensibly defensive inwards posture, mobilizing inwards item against gun laws together with equally a defiant response to the federal outrages at Ruby Ridge (1992) together with at Waco (1993), the militia motility was remarkable together with unusual non entirely for claiming to endure socially inclusive, champaign able to recruit African Americans, Hispanics, Jews, together with middle-class professionals, but also for utilizing what some have got termed “fusion paranoia”—that is, conspiracy theories non just to the correct of the political spectrum, but also those incorporating the arguments to the left (Kelly). However, the view that the militia motility was progressive was sharply contradicted yesteryear many analysts.

One commentator saw the militias equally acting equally “recruiting pools” for the racist underground, pointing out that the same metro spawned Tim McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. And equally early on equally 1994, the various “watchdog” organizations that monitor the activities of the far correct were raising the alert that racists together with antisemites were lurking inwards the background, disguising their truthful ideology behind constitutionalist arguments.

The “constitutionalist militias” that have got since acquire a permanent characteristic of the antigovernment motility are united entirely inwards price of their opposition to the “New World Order”—an elitist conspiracy to do a global socialist tyranny. The grade to which racism together with antisemitism dominate this coalition is highly questionable, together with it is the nature of conspiracy theories that holds the key to understanding the purpose together with significance of the militias.

What the Militias Believe

Can nosotros genuinely push clit the militias equally a movement? Arguably, the exercising of gun rights represents entirely a mutual strategy amid various groups (such equally survivalists; the advocates of mutual police who declare themselves “sovereign citizens”; militant antiabortionists; together with pro-gun activists), but this does non necessarily correspond a mutual ideology or set of principles.

Nonetheless, the term “militia movement” is widely used to refer to those who frame their activity inwards price of defending the U.S. Constitution, together with who fighting that the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights (“A good regulated militia, beingness necessary to the security of a complimentary state, the correct of the people to maintain together with deport arms, shall non endure infringed”) is the 1 that guarantees all the other constitutional rights.

The entirely existent number some which the motility coheres is opposition to gun control, which is seen equally a precursor to “tyranny”. “The private correct to deport armed forces arms is a fundamental together with undergirding regulation of our Republic,” argues a prominent pro-militia journalist, together with therefore, he concludes, “upon its removal the entire national regime would acquire an illegitimate tyranny”.

The spirit of rebellion against gun laws is summed upward inwards the phrase, “You tin have got my gun when you lot pry it from my cold, dead hands,” together with it is the symbolic importance of the Second Amendment that guides the militia movement, tied into the ideology of nationalism: “This refusal to submit to tyranny is non simply close firearms. It is close human rights, it is close the dominion of law, together with it is close the continuance of this keen nation”.

How tin it endure that the militias, who nowadays themselves equally “Patriots” inwards defence forcefulness of U.S. values, are also “antigovernment”? This tin entirely endure answered yesteryear understanding the politics of nationalism. The FBI’s special study of 1999, Project Megiddo, which discussed the possibility of civil disorder at the start of the novel millennium, listed the next criteria equally a guideline for what constitutes a militia: “(1) a domestic organisation with ii or to a greater extent than members; (2) the organisation must possess together with usage firearms; together with (3) the organisation must deportment or encourage paramilitary training.”

Jon Roland, of the pro-militia Constitution Society, argues that this Definition is non the 1 implied inwards the U.S. Constitution, especially the Second Amendment, together with that “the discussion militia way defence forcefulness service, together with is applicable to whatsoever 1 or to a greater extent than persons engaged inwards the defence forcefulness of the community.” Roland cites George Mason, who defined the militia equally “the whole people, except for a few public officials,” together with he describes the FBI’s mentality inwards dealing with the militias equally “essentially fascist” (Roland).

This accusation—that federal employees together with “socialist” politicians such equally the Clintons are “fascists”—is a really mutual 1 inwards militia propaganda. By leveling this accuse at their enemies, militia leaders tin claim, sometimes with genuine conviction, to endure “antifascist,” thereby effectively preempting those on the left who themselves accuse that genuine fascists together with antisemites are influential inside the militias.

The website www.US-militia.org, for instance, describes those states with stringent gun laws equally “despicable together with fascist,” spell also stating, “If you lot are a racist, NAZI, KKK, aryan national, psycho or whatsoever other type of genetic freak; nosotros do non want you. We propose you lot locomote regard a psychiatrist or other mental wellness professional.” Nevertheless, despite this disclamation, the site contains a link to the seventh Missouri Militia—the most openly racist militia site, run yesteryear Martin Lindstedt.

In a similar vein, a pro-militia group, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, puts forrard an declaration that gun command has “racist roots” (because blacks inwards the South have got historically been denied the correct to gun ownership) together with that it is a precursor to “genocide.”

Therefore, yesteryear opposing gun laws the militias fighting that they are preventing the likelihood of genocide beingness carried out inwards the U.S.A. against whatsoever minority. Within this framework gun owners are depicted equally a victimized grouping denied their civil rights inwards much the same way equally nonwhites historically have got been denied theirs (www.JPFO.org is 1 of the most widely linked pro-gun sites from militia sites).

This mirrors the strategy of the Christian Right, who have got since the 1980s utilized the linguistic communication of “civil rights” inwards defence forcefulness of Christian values, together with have got employed conspiracy theories concerning “secular humanism”—portrayed equally a competition organized religious belief to Christianity.

Apart from “nationalism,” expressed equally the want to “save America,” at that spot is no guiding ideology behind a motility that to a greater extent than often than non denies beingness “antigovernment” at all—militias are simply opposed to “unconstitutional” government, their exponents claim. Widespread understanding exists amid militia members entirely that at that spot exists a conception to impose global tyranny, unremarkably referred to equally the New World Order. This is specifically a socialist conception for global domination.

Within this conception a cardinal purpose is played yesteryear the United Nations, which, it is claimed, volition usage unusual troops to disarm the U.S. public next the enactment of stringent gun-control measures, hence the importance non entirely of gun ownership, but also of preparation together with drilling inwards armed forces techniques together with marksmanship.

The “precipitating factors” that spurred the motility included the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill, which regulated the sale of handguns together with restricted ownership to nonfelons; the outlawing of “assault weapons” equally component of the Omnibus Crime Bill (1995), passed inwards the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing; the passage of international merchandise agreements such equally the Global Agreement on Trade together with Tariffs (GATT) together with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which politicians such equally Patrick Buchanan said were causing U.S. jobs to endure exported to the Third World; together with ii events that indicated, from the Christian Patriot perspective, that the federal regime had declared state of war on its people: the botched sieges yesteryear federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, inwards 1992 together with and so again, to a greater extent than cataclysmically, at Waco, Texas, inwards 1993.

These events were interpreted equally proof that the New World Order was nearing completion. H5N1 Texan militia commander said of Waco, “We were sleep-walking through life. It was the massacre that woke us all up. When the history of this historic catamenia is written, that’ll endure the shot that rang out some the basis together with changed everything”.

Militia activists are widely characterized equally sharing a conspiracist outlook. Core beliefs include: that the New World Order volition require the usage of concentration camps for Christian resisters; that unmarked dark helicopters are beingness used yesteryear the armed forces inwards preparation for their plans; that unusual troops working for the UN volition endure used to disarm civilians together with imprison them; that international route signs are used inwards the U.S.A. inwards monastic say to help these unusual troops; that urban street gangs (such equally the Bloods together with Crips inwards Los Angeles) volition endure used equally “shock troops” for the New World Order; together with that implanted chips are beingness used to monitor U.S. citizens (a belief shared yesteryear Tim McVeigh).

The next elite groups are identified equally the instigators of the conspiracy: the Skull together with Bones cloak-and-dagger society, based at Yale University (of which the Bush theater unit of measurement are said to endure members); the Council on Foreign Relations; the Trilateral Commission (comprising economic, political, together with media elites from Western Europe, North America, together with Japan); the Bilderbergers; the Rockefeller together with Rothschild banking families; together with the British regal family. Many of these conspiracy theories are the same equally those of the John Birch Society, who label these elites “the Insiders.”

Although these elites include Americans, the conspiracy itself is specifically un-American, equally pointed out yesteryear Bo Gritz, speaking inwards 1992: “what nosotros regard are the tentacles of this elite club.... I holler upward the head, the brain, the guts of this affair likely lies offshore from the United States”.

This is a brief summary of some of the to a greater extent than mutual theories, which non all militia members volition believe. Another pop view is the proposition that UFOs have got made contact with human governments together with they are colluding with corrupt elites, equally advanced yesteryear William Cooper inwards Behold a Pale Horse, a volume that is both pop together with influential inwards militia circles (and which takes its championship from a line inwards the Book of Revelation 6: 8).

Some conspiracy theories are to a greater extent than mundane, relating to wellness issues such equally fluoride inwards H2O supplies, or the belief that high schoolhouse shootings are caused yesteryear giving the drug Ritalin to children. It is belief inwards conspiracies that informs all resistance from the far right, framed inwards opposition to the left. Unanimity is non required, simply the identification of mutual enemies—the enemies of the nation.

Militia together with Patriot publications together with websites also nowadays an economical analysis, inwards which the Federal Reserve is depicted equally a corrupt body, backed yesteryear private banking interests, overseeing a monetary scheme based upon usury together with fictitious capital.

There is a considerable crossover into the revenue enhancement protest/resistance constituency of Patriots who believe that the payment of income tax—which was introduced illegally inwards 1912, it is argued—is genuinely voluntary together with non a compulsory obligation.

By refusing to cooperate with the Inland Revenue Service (IRS), Patriots believe that they are striking a blow against the New World Order. By declaring themselves “sovereign citizens” many believe that they tin legally evade income tax, so long equally they larn “common law” good plenty to refute the erroneous arguments of IRS officials inwards court.

Predictably, run-ins with the IRS have got resulted inwards many would-be Patriots becoming incarcerated or fined, equally their mutual police argu- ments have got failed to win out inwards court. Thus “tax resisters” often acquire available for recruitment to the far right, equally was the instance with Robert Mathews of The Order, for instance.

In militia publications together with websites, comparisons are commonly made with the province of affairs when America was a British colony, ruled yesteryear King George III, which resulted inwards the American Revolution together with the overthrow of colonial rule.

This comparing legitimizes resistance against corrupt federal authority, summed upward inwards the oft-repeated quote from Ben Franklin, “They that would surrender essential freedom for a picayune temporary security deserve neither freedom nor safety.”

The vast bulk of militia websites together with publications, it should endure emphasized, limited entirely the utmost loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, which they experience is nether threat from traitorous enemies, together with they disavow both racism together with violence.

It is apparent that the militias’ typical stance, beingness 1 of rebellion together with distrust of mainstream politics together with culture, leads many to come upward into conflict with police enforcement agencies, together with the Militia Watchdog website provides a lengthy litany of militia members together with leaders who have got been arrested together with charged with crimes ranging from firearms offenses, revenue enhancement evasion, together with civil disobedience (such equally driving without a valid driver’s license), to to a greater extent than serious ones such equally conspiracy to blow upward federal buildings.

In some cases, such equally that of the Arizona Viper Militia, the leading protagonists inwards a conspiracy to brand bombs turned out to endure undercover federal agents (eleven out of the twelve who were arrested inwards 1996 eventually received prison theater sentences).

Impact of September 11

Prior to the terrorist attacks of 11 September Mark Pitcavage believed that the militia motility “has sure enough declined, but it is non inwards danger of disappearing, together with inwards fact inwards many parts of the province it is silent really strong. In some parts of the country, where militia arrests set it depression (such equally West Virginia together with Georgia), it is reforming.”

He also mentioned the “reflowering” of the revenue enhancement protestation motility together with the increment inwards popularity of the “redemption” tactic of mutual police adherents (a type of fiscal scam), “active inwards virtually every unmarried state”. Militias were also able to mobilize supporters for lengthy standoffs with police enforcement agencies inwards both Indiana together with Texas during 2000–2001, at the Indianapolis Baptist Church together with the Joel Grey farm, respectively.

Taking the “antigovernment movement” equally a whole, of which the militias are but a part, Pitcavage concluded that it “has existed inwards to a greater extent than or less its nowadays shape since the early on 1970s together with nobody’s managed to postage stamp it out yet. I doubtfulness it is dead correct now.”

However, since 11 September the militias have got been somewhat eclipsed yesteryear the moving ridge of patriotism that has swept the United States, coupled with the potent back upward for President Bush together with the federal government’s “war on terrorism.” Militia websites have got adapted their rhetoric, arguing that terrorism stands with socialism, liberalism, together with communism equally threats to U.S. values together with prosperity.

The lesson for the gun lobby—the middle of gravity for the militias—was that the airplane hijackings could have got been avoided if air passengers were allowed to send guns on board flights: “only self defence forcefulness yesteryear the ‘unorganized militia’ volition endure available when domestic or unusual terrorists withdraw their side yesteryear side minute of murder. And hither is the public-policy implication of this fact: It would endure improve if the militia were to a greater extent than prepared to human activity when it is needed”.

The passengers who fought against the hijackers on Flight 93, which came downwards inwards rural Pennsylvania, it is argued, were effectively acting equally a citizens’ militia. Individualized security—the correct of the citizen to deport arms together with shape militias—is held equally the ideal, contrasted with whatsoever notion of collectivized security arrangements carried out yesteryear the province inwards conjunction with the disarming of civilians, which remains anathema to the Right inwards the United States.

It is clear, however, that militia appeals have got lost a grade of salience equally a resultant of 11 September, equally at that spot is 1 time again an external enemy taking on a similar purpose to that of international communism during the mutual frigidness war. As Norm Olson set it, “I don’t want anyone to have got the thought that we’re going to bow downwards to the federal government, but I holler upward this could endure a novel beginning.... As long equally at that spot is a unusual enemy, nosotros volition run together with our federal government. George Bush’s enemy is my enemy”.

Nevertheless, given the nature of conspiracist thinking, it is clear that many volition endure resistant to appeals to back upward the federal government, together with volition regard 11 September equally a planned event, component of the conspiracy—as does the Freedom Fighter Net, linked from the Michigan Militia site: “As Franklin Delano Roosevelt is quoted equally saying: ‘Nothing always happens inwards international politics that isn’t planned.’ Our leaders may non have got a clue what is genuinely going on here, but these attacks have got New World Order together with One World Government written all over them.”

Hidden Agendas?

The pro-militia publication the Patriot Report (run yesteryear Christian Identity adherent George Eaton, out of Arkansas) argued that the militias formed inwards the 1990s equally a defensive response to “when the socialist alter agents began making offensive moves against the U.S. Constitution together with American sovereignty.... the entirely affair standing inwards the conspirators’ way of full basis conquest,” he continued, “was the few American patriots who silent believe inwards the constitutional American Republic.... It was aggressive together with offensive moves yesteryear the conspirators for a One World Government that caused the patriot community to recognize tyranny together with and so to shape militias.... The militias are defensive, non offensive or revolutionary”.

Nevertheless, “watchdog” organizations, such equally the ADL together with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), together with some activists fighting that the militias harbor hidden agendas together with that racists together with antisemites have got played influential roles inwards the formation of the militia movement. They farther fighting that the “Patriots” who brand upward the mass of the membership constituted “the seedbed, if non the realization, of a uniquely American variety of fascism”.

Morris Dees (of Klanwatch—part of the SPLC that Dees heads) describes John Trochmann, founder of the Militia of Montana, equally “a frequent visitor to the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations,” champaign indicating guilt yesteryear association. In Dees’s volume Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat, he links the militias direct with Tim McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber), suggesting that the motility “led to the most destructive human activity of domestic terrorism” inwards U.S. history upward until that point.

Dees stated inwards a missive of the alphabet to the together with so U.S. attorney general, Janet Reno: “Our business office has confirmed the active involvement of a number of well-known white supremacists, Posse Comitatus, Christian Identity, together with other extremist leaders together with groups inwards the growing militia movement”. These included established far-right leaders such equally Louis Beam (ex–Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon), Bo Gritz (“a notorious antisemite”), together with James Wickstrom (a Posse Comitatus leader).

In making the instance for the involvement of far-right activists, Dees is non lonely inwards ascribing a coming together that took house inwards Oct 1992 at Estes Park, Colorado, equally a sort of planning coming together for the formation of the militias. Known equally the “Rocky Mountain Rendezvous,” it brought together over 150 far-right leaders, including Richard Butler of Aryan Nations, Red Beckman of the Fully Informed Jury Association, together with Larry Pratt, founder of Gun Owners of America, who represented the militant fly of the pro-gun lobby.

The event, which was organized yesteryear Pete Peters largely inwards response to the Ruby Ridge siege that had taken house before inwards the year, featured a keynote spoken language yesteryear Louis Beam inwards which he outlined the “leaderless resistance” strategy, based upon cellular, decentralized structures champaign similar to those employed yesteryear the “Committees of Correspondence” during the American Revolution.

In the article of the same holler that explains “Leaderless Resistance,” originally written inwards 1983, Beam advocates various ways inwards which “those who honey our race, culture, together with heritage” tin resist “federal tyranny,” which he regards equally having replaced the threat of communism inwards the United States.

Strategies include utilizing “camouflage,” yesteryear which Beam way “the powerfulness to blend inwards the public’s oculus the to a greater extent than committed groups of resistance with mainstream ‘kosher’ associations that are to a greater extent than often than non seen equally harmless.”

In other words, racists should involve themselves inwards groups through beingness disingenuous close their truthful ideology. With this inwards mind, it is clear that it would endure impossible to evidence that racists together with antisemites are dominant inside the militias, but at the same fourth dimension it is a fair supposition that at that spot are at to the lowest degree some present.

Nevertheless, the purpose of racists should non endure overstated. Mark Pitcavage believes that Estes Park was non peculiarly relevant to the evolution of the militia motility together with that “most militia leaders never fifty-fifty heard of it.” Representatives of both the SPLC together with ADL are agreed that the militia motility is non mainly characterized yesteryear racism.

Martin Durham argues, “Rather than regard Estes Park equally the origin of the modern militias it would seem to a greater extent than useful to regard it equally 1 of many Patriot initiatives that anticipated, but entirely inwards some cases influenced, the emergence of a novel moving ridge of paramilitary groups inwards 1994”. He concludes that far to a greater extent than emphasis should endure given to the purpose of the militant pro-gun lobby, including the National Rifle Association, but to a greater extent than significantly a competition group, the Gun Owners of America (headed yesteryear Larry Pratt).

For some, it is the belief inwards conspiracy theories that is regarded equally proof plenty that the militias harbor racist sentiments: “This electrical flow crop of conspiracy theories is written on a template forged long agone together with reshaped yesteryear successive tales of cloak-and-dagger worldwide conspiracies”. The declaration is that the inwards a higher house theories tin endure traced dorsum to antisemitic conspiracy theories, based on the model of Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged occupation concern human relationship of Jewish plans for global domination.

But this is to overlook the overwhelming religiosity of the movement. Other commentators have got drawn attending to what they regard equally the leading purpose of Christian “reconstructionists” together with antiabortion radicals (often with links to white-supremacist theologies).

But at that spot is far to a greater extent than consensus that it was Pat Robertson’s 1991 bestseller, The New World Order, that did most to pave the way for the militias. It both popularized together with brought together secular together with religious conspiracy theories inwards a unmarried overarching analysis that labeled the conspirators equally motivated yesteryear absolute evil (McLemee).

Robertson specifically rules out blaming “monopoly capitalism” for the problems of the world—there is “some other powerfulness at work.” He identifies the “policy elites” who are attempting to dominate the basis together with concludes that such impulses bound “from the depth of something that is evil, neither good intentioned nor benevolent”.

There is no overt racism or antisemitism inwards the book, however, although Robertson took considerable flak for his determination to utilize antisemitic sources—he included references to both Eustace Mullins together with Nesta Webster, for example.

Rather than demonizing the militias equally racist conspiracies guided yesteryear antisemitism, Mark Fenster argues that they are improve understood if the of import modern purpose of “popular eschatology” is emphasized: that is, the do of reading together with interpreting both history together with contemporary events equally the signs foretold inwards the Bible, mediated to a mass marketplace of Christians (hence pop eschatology).

The Book of Revelation is peculiarly significant, speaking of “fire together with smoke together with brimstone”; the number of the Beast (666); the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse; the vehement devastation of Babylon together with the slaying of a 3rd of the human population; the lx minutes of judgment; Armageddon; together with so on. Rather than preparing for a race war, Fenster feels that militia members are to a greater extent than probable to endure preparing to fighting it out with the Antichrist, assisting the forces of Christ inwards the concluding showdown at Armageddon.

Popular eschatology is based upon a “mechanistic theory of powerfulness ... [which] echoes, together with at times explicitly borrows, the theories of to a greater extent than secular right-wing conspiracy theories,” but they are non the same thing. Although the lines betwixt religious together with secular conspiracy theories are blurred, “they each emerge from distinct, if at times overlapping, social together with cultural contexts” (Fenster, 147).

It is, therefore, the deviation betwixt conservative Protestantism on the 1 hand, together with modernist/liberal Protestantism on the other, that holds the key to understanding pop eschatology, which is deeply traditionalist together with pious. The militias correspond the backlash politics of conservative Protestantism, reacting against the domination of “secular humanism” together with the (immoral) liberal consensus that prevails inwards contemporary America.

There are concerns that militias purpose equally “bridges,” facilitating the motility of Christian conservatives toward the far right, equally they encounter the secular conspiracy theories of the Christian Right together with the John Birch Society, whose tracts are widely available on militia sites, together with and so acquire susceptible to the to a greater extent than unsafe extremism of antisemites, whose sites are far less often linked (Barkun).

Similarly, Ken Stern (107) uses the notion of “funnels” to push clit the way that the motility takes people inwards over concerns over a broad gain of issues, such equally gun command together with environmental restrictions, together with and so when they acquire to the extremist heart of the funnel they emerge equally antisemites, equally did Tim McVeigh.

Militias also correspond really existent economical interests, such equally gun manufacturers who usage patriotism to boost sales together with who promote gun ownership equally the antidote to private insecurity; anti-environmentalists who back upward the rights of loggers together with mining interests over the efforts yesteryear Greens to limit the usage of natural resources together with to protect wildernesses; together with complimentary marketplace libertarians whose master copy concern is with maintaining a vibrant civilisation of antitax militancy together with antigovernmentalism.

These various interests limited no back upward for racism or antisemitism, but because they employ the myths of nationalism together with have got a dialectical human relationship with the same caricatured versions of their ideological enemies—liberalism together with socialism—then they also have got to fighting with the racists inwards their midst who regard the patch equally an ethnically based entity (belonging to white Europeans) rather than a values-based 1 (of which all immigrants tin acquire a part). As far equally militias are concerned, it is the political Left that has the hidden agenda (the eventual creation of communism), which volition resultant inwards the enslavement of all nations.

The militias are ideologically “slippery,” together with thence able to recruit beyond the traditional “Christian Patriot” base of operations of support, exactly because they have got no demand to endure opened upward together with unambiguous close what they genuinely believe in. They correspond symbolic resistance to globalization, multiculturalism, together with province power, often reflecting cultural chauvinism, but for every racist militia at that spot is at to the lowest degree 1 libertarian one.

They are a crusade for concern for police enforcement agencies because, equally Mark Pitcavage puts it, “they have got the tools for violence coupled with an ideology inwards which violence is non entirely permissible but if used for the correct ends, admirable.” By refusing to specify what the ultimate ends mightiness endure they are hoping to displace beyond the fringes together with into the mainstream.

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country on the Arabian Peninsula. Bordering Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen, Saudi Arabia has played an important strategic role in the Middle East. Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, are located in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is divided into 13 provinces, and, until the 1960s, most of the population was nomadic. Most Saudis are ethnically Arab, although some are of mixed ethnic origins. Many Arabs from neighboring countries work and live in Saudi Arabia but are not citizens. Of a population numbering approximately 26 million, 7 million are foreign citizens, mostly from South Asia. There are also a significant number of Westerners living in Saudi Arabia. All citizens are required to be Muslims.

Saudi Arabia is a monarchy ruled by King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud, who assumed the throne upon the death of his half brother Fahd bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud in 2005. The 1992 Basic Law established the system of government and the rights of citizens and provided for rule according to sharia, which is Islamic law. The Qu’ran is the constitution of the land, and there is no separation of church and state.


The country held its first municipal elections in 2005. The king is an absolute monarch whose powers are tempered only by the sharia and other Saudi traditions. The king consults with the Majlis al-Shura, or Consultative Council; the Council of Ministers; the ulema (religious leaders); and other senior members of the Saudi royal family. The Council of Ministers approves legislation, which must be compatible with sharia.

While the Basic Law provides for an independent judiciary, the king serves as the highest court. The Saudi judicial system imposes amputations of hands and feet for serious robbery, floggings for lesser crimes such as sexual deviance and drunkenness, and beheadings for more serious crimes. Religious police enforce strict social rules.

The Saudi economy is based on petroleum and gas resources, and the government controls most of the revenues. Approximately 40 percent of the economy is privatized. Saudi Arabia contains nearly 25 percent of the world’s oil reserves and is the largest exporter of petroleum in the world. Saudi Arabia has also played a central role in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Oil production increased during the reign of King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz; Faisal became king following the abdication of his inept half brother King Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz. He introduced various reforms and attempted to modernize the kingdom. With the support of his wife, Queen Iffat, Faisal introduced education for females.

A devout Muslim, Faisal also worked to increase the Islamic political identity in the Arab world. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Saudi Arabia’s strategic importance increased, and Faisal built up the nation’s military capabilities. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Faisal moved to mix oil and politics by withdrawing Saudi oil from nations that supported Israel.

He also advocated the return of Jerusalem to Muslim rule. In 1975 Faisal was assassinated by a nephew, and his half brother, King Khaled ibn Abd al-Aziz, known for his pro–United States stance, assumed the throne. Following his death in 1982, Fahd ibn Abd al-Aziz became king.

The Saudi government supported the growth of the private sector to decrease economic dependence on oil and to increase employment opportunities. In the 1990s, water shortages hampered efforts toward agricultural self-sufficiency and the per capita income decreased from almost $25,000 in the 1980s to about $8,000 by 2000. In order to increase employment for its citizens, the government attempted to Saudize the economy by replacing foreign labor with Saudi workers.

Counterterrorism efforts dominated Saudi politics in the early 21st century. After 15 Saudi hijackers perpetrated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the Saudi government intensified its antiterrorism campaign.

However, the future of the authoritarian monarchy remained uncertain as the Saudi government attempted to combine sweeping programs of modernization with the continuation of traditional and puritanical ways of life.

Chechnya and Russia

In the early years, the leaders of the new Russian Federation were worried that Russia could unravel along ethnic lines as the Soviet Union had done. They responded strongly to the one ethnic republic that did attempt to secede, Chechnya, even though that response was delayed by the general chaos prevailing in Russia in the early 1990s.

The Chechens were a Muslim people of the Causcasus Mountains who, in the 19th century, had fought a prolonged war against the Russian occupation of their region. Like several other Soviet minorities they had been accused by Stalin of collaborating with the Nazis, and they were all deported to Soviet Central Asia afterward.

Nikita Khrushchev allowed their return, but when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Chechens sought secession. Under Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former Soviet air force general, Chechnya declared independence in 1991.


Yeltsin declared a state of emergency in Chechnya, issued a warrant for the arrest of Dudayev, and sent a detachment of Interior Ministry troops. The Chechens easily repulsed the half-hearted intervention, by ruse more than by force, and seized strategic facilities within their republic.

Yeltsin ordered an economic blockade and then, given the chaotic state of Russia at the time, basically ignored the situation for the next three years. The lack of any police force facilitated smuggling and other criminal operations.

In a search for outside resources and allies, the Chechens made contacts with mafias from Russia and Islamist extremists from the Middle East. Corruption spread, the economic situation grew dire, and Dudayev became more dictatorial.

After supporting a failed attempt by a rival Chechen faction to seize power, Russia sent three armored columns into Chechnya on December 11, 1994. The Russian legislature, which had not been informed, protested vociferously.

The invasion did not go smoothly. The Russians made a hasty and ill-prepared assault on Grozny, the republic’s capital, which they seized only after a month-long bombardment that killed an estimated 25,000 people and left the city a ruin.

Dudayev and his fighters receded into the mountains, from where they conducted an extended guerrilla campaign. Civilian casualties continued to run high. The struggle attracted Islamist volunteers from North Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.

In March 1996, with presidential elections looming in Russia, Yeltsin offered to negotiate with Dudayev through an intermediary. A Russian missile killed Dudayev in April. Fighting flared again in June, and the Chechens reoccupied parts of three cities, including Grozny.

A cease-fire was finally signed in August. Russian troops began to withdraw. Although the agreement left Chechnya’s permanent status to be decided, the republic proceeded to act as if it were independent.

Aslan Maskhadov, the chief of staff of the Chechen armed forces and a former Soviet army colonel, was elected president of the republic in January 1997. Little rebuilding was accomplished, however, and Maskhadov was unable to establish order. In the prevailing lawlessness, kidnapping for profit became a widespread practice. In an effort to outflank the Islamists in factional infighting, he imposed Islamic law and courts.

Chechnya became the focus of attention again in 1999. Shamyl Basayev, formerly a field commander and briefly a prime minister under Maskhadov, had broken with the Chechen regime. In April 1998 he and a Jordanian-born Islamist founded the Congress of the Peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan, which proposed to unite these two adjacent ethnic republics.

In August 1999 they launched a raid into Dagestan and then declared that the republic had seceded from Russia. The following month, a series of bombs exploded in apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities. The act was widely attributed to the Chechens.

On August 9, 1999, Yeltsin dismissed Sergei Stepashin, who had been prime minister for three months, and appointed Vladimir Putin to replace him. Putin had catapulted through a number of Kremlin staff positions to become head of internal security in July 1998.

He was still generally unknown to the public when he was named prime minister, but he quickly became associated with the new Chechen war, which was known as Putin’s "antiterrorist operation". Opinion polls gave Putin an approval rating of 33 percent in August, 52 percent in September, and 65 percent in October, in a land where few politicians rose above single digits.

In October Russian armor was once again moving into Chechnya, without any distinction being made between the Chechen government and renegade commanders. The army performed more effectively this time. The cities were taken quickly, and a pro-Russian Chechen administration was put in place.

Resistance, however, would drag on year after year in the countryside, and there would be terrorist attacks in other parts of Russia. Russian forces would respond at times with extreme brutality. With the bomb blasts fresh in people’s minds, however, this Chechen war was far more popular with the Russian public than the previous one.

Four months before the legislative elections of December 1999, Yeltsin once again created a new party from scratch, Unity, a party completely dependent on the Kremlin for funding, expertise, and personnel. Putin gave it his public endorsement, and the party, too, became identified with the Chechen war effort.

Unity won 23 percent of the party-list vote and 64 single-member districts, leaving it second only to the Communist Party. In third place was Fatherland–All Russia, a coalition of personalistic parties built around prominent governors. For the first time, the State Duma had a dominant bloc of parties that were not ideological adversaries of the Kremlin.

Yeltsin, within seven months of the end of his second term in office, surveyed a political landscape that suddenly appeared quite favorable. He then shocked the world by promptly resigning on December 31, 1999, and naming Putin as acting president.

An early presidential election was called for March 26, 2000, which Yeltsin’s chosen successor would now approach with all the advantages of incumbency while other candidates were caught off guard.

Indeed, Putin won in the first round with 52.9 percent of the vote against 10 other candidates, despite having been a virtual unknown the previous August. He promptly obliged his predecessor by issuing a blanket pardon for anything Yeltsin might have done during his years in office.

As president, Putin no longer devoted himself solely to the prosecution of the war. Economic reform continued but Putin’s primary focus appeared to be order, stability, security, and consolidation of the Russian state.

Russia was very much in need of order by that time, but Putin’s notion of consolidating the state reflected his upbringing within the Soviet Union. Rather than make state institutions more effective, he set out to make all institutions dependent on the president.