BIZAR: AL-QAIDA GEBRUIKT BEELDEN NEDERLANDSE TELEVISIE IN PROPAGANDA DVD

Oh, zeer zeker was ik verbaasd.

Want via via kon ik, hier in Pakistan, de laatste Al-Qaida DVD's bekijken op de computer van iemand die ik ken.

DVD's dus die door Al-Qaida-leden hier in Pakistan en het naburige Afghanistan zijn gemonteerd en die, over een paar weken, op de markt komen. Omdat ze nog nieuw en exlusief zijn (zo'n drie weken geleden gemonteerd) kon ik er geen copie van krijgen. Wel mocht ik een paar foto's nemen van het computerscherm (Zoals te zien, heb ik de naam van mijn blog midden door de foto gezet, anders wordt die foto weer gejat zonder referentie...vandaar)

Eerste DVD beelden; een paar taliban strijders in Afghanistan die zingend kamp opzetten en vervolgens op Amerikaanse troepen beginnen te schieten. Verderop: een taliban commandant die een zestien-jarig jochie glimlachend meeneemt naar een auto. Een Arabisch Al-Qaida lid zit met een nijptang te klooien aan de achterbank die bestaat uit iets van 100 explosieven. Het jochie gaat in de auto zitten, rijdt over een bergweg naar een Amerikaanse patrouille en blaast zichzelf, en de Amerikanen, op.

Gezellige DVD dus. Ik blijf doorkijken. Soldaten - Afghaanse en waarschijnlijk een paar buitenlandse troepen - geven een Afghaan wat klappen. Plotseling echter zie ik het logo van Nederland 1 in beeld. En een, truttige, Nederlandse ondertitel: Doe je rothoofd naar beneden. Ik kijk nogeens goed. Is dit Rondom Tien, een uit de hand gelopen EO-Jongerendag wellicht????

Nee, dit is en blijft de Al-Qaida-DVD. Kijk naar de twee logo's linksboven. Daar staat, onder een wereldbolletje, in het Arabisch Manba al Jihad, wat zoveel betekent als Bron van de Heilige Oorlog. Daar weer onder, opnieuw in het Arabisch: Al Houda, wat staat voor het juiste pad al is het Engelse woord guidance beter.

Beide namen vertegenwoordigen Al-Qaida video productiemaatschappijen in Afghanistan en Pakistaans stammengebied. Manba al Jihad en Al Houda zijn tevens strijdgroepen in Afghanistan. Ze bestaan uit een mengelmoes van Arabieren en Centraal Aziaten (veelal Al-Qaida) en lokale Afghanen en Pakistanen (veelal Taliban).

Maar goed. Terug naar de Nederlandse televisiebeelden. Waarom doet Al-Qaida dit? Wel, omdat deze beelden laten zien hoe een Afghaan klappen krijgt van - daar lijkt het tenminste op - een paar Westerse (Nederlandse????) militairen en Afghaanse regeringssoldaten (die pro-president Karazai zijn, door het Westen gesteund).

Op de Al-Qaida-DVD worden deze beelden dan ook vergezeld van een stem, in het Pastho (de taal der Pathanen), die zegt: “Ze zeiden dat ze kwamen om te helpen en om het land op te bouwen, maar dit is wat de ongelovigen doen.” Oftewel: Die buitenlanders slaan onze mensen, dus sluit je aan bij Al-Qaida om hen te verdrijven. Dezelfde stem roept de kijker zo ongeveer de hele video op om te vechten tegen de ongelovigen en de ongelovigen, kaffirs genaamd, met zelfmoordaanvallen te pakken.

Ik ga ervan uit dat Al-Qaida de Nederlandse tv beelden van het internet heeft geplukt. Omdat ik al een tijdje niet meer in Nederland woon, heb ik geen idee welk programma dit was. Wie het weet mag het zeggen.

In ieder geval dit: In een globale wereld staan we - of we het nou leuk vinden of niet - allemaal met elkaar in verbinding. Een goed bedoelde reportage op Nederland 1 wordt van het internet geplukt door Al-Qaida in zuid-Afghanistan. Vervolgens verknipt tot propaganda met behulp van edit-programma op een lap-top ergens nabij Kandahar. Daarna op een DVD gezet en verspreid om er nieuwe leden mee te ronselen.

En het leuke (of tragische) is dat Al-Qaida er de komende weken weer een paar duizend aanhangers bij krijgt vanwege het filmpje van heer Wilders. Kan die man zijn kruistocht niet kwijt bij de lokale omroep van Venlo in plaats van op het WWW? Echt, ik woon in het Midden Oosten en Pakistan: Als je wilt dat Al-Qaida sterker wordt, het Anne Frank huis binnenkort wordt opgeblazen en Iran out of control raakt, moet je vooral Wilders steunen.

Moslimsamenlevingen buiten Europa (Midden Oosten, zuid-Azie, noord-Afrika) zijn over het algemeen zeer conservatieve en gecompliceerde delen van de wereld die veel meer raakvlakken hebben met Europa in de Middeleeuwen dan me de post-Verlichting en seculiere 21ste eeuw. Hier de botte bijl willen hanteren is natuurlijk 'lachuuu', maar werkelijk extreem simpel en gevaarlijk. Het is net zoiets als eisen dat de film Fucked up Anal Schoolgirls wordt uitgezonden tijdens de koffiepauze in ieder bejaardentehuis in Nederland. Cake en koekjes erbij. Opnieuw lachuuuu. Maar, geheid dat de meeste bejaarden het niet waarderen.

Absoluut, er is van alles mis de in de islamitische wereld. En in een democratie als Nederland moet alles kunnen. Maar botte bijl Wilders helpt uiteindelijk Al-Qaida en aanhang. Logisch trouwens, want de enige reden waarom Wilders succes kent en in de Tweede Kamer zit, is omdat Osama en geflipte aanhang deden wat ze deden en doen wat ze doen.

In ieder geval spreekt Nederland weer een woordje mee: Al-Qaida gebruikt Nederlandse tv beelden, Pakistan gooit wereldwijd youtube plat vanwege geruchten dat het Wilders-filmpje erop staat. En Iran roept op om Denemarken en Nederland te boycotten. Als journalist in het Midden Oosten zeg ik: Mooi zo - werk aan de winkel! Als mens denk ik: Kan die Wilders niet eens (Vrij naar Jules Deelder) door 10 matrozen....?

Harald Doornbos

TROUBLE IN KOSOVO/SERBIA? RIDE A HORSE IN PAKISTAN!

A Dutch website wrote today: With all the trouble in Serbia/Kosovo - What will Harryzzz do??? (probably because I lived in the Balkans for about 8 years...)

Well, here is my answer: As I'm at the moment in Pakistan....TODAY I DID SOME HORSE RIDING IN ISLAMABAD!

Watch this video, shot today by my Pakistani friend Zia (Huh - impressive camera work....!) of your horse riding correspondent:



Harald Doornbos

FINAL RESULTS ELECTIONS PAKISTAN

I'm still in Islamabad, Pakistan. Talking to a lot of people here and trying to grasp what is going to change in Pakistan due to these most amazing election results...

The islamists have been crushed (from 63 to 3 seats). Musharraf and allies seriously defeated (from 118 to around 50 seats - 38 PML-Q backed by around 10 or 15 independent, pro-PML-Q candidates).

Here the final results:


Harald Doornbos

MUSHARRAF'S TIME SEEMS UP, PPP AND PML-N WIN BIG TIME, RELIGIOUS PARTIES DISAPPEAR

Here in Pakistan people call yesterdays elections: A day to remember...

Why? Well, look at the following figures.

The PML-Q (Musharraf's party) received during the 2002 elections around 118 seats, now they stand at 25 (projection is that with all votes counted, PML-Q will receive around 45 seats). MMA, the pro-taliban, pro-Al Qaeda religious alliance, received 63 seats in 2002 elections, now they stand at 3. Did all of its supporters blow themselves up?


Find above the preliminary results of the Pakistani elections. Click on pic to be able to read it mlore clearly. NA stands for National Assembly, so that is the main parliament (most important of course). PP means provincial assembly Punjab, PS is provincial Sindh, PF is provincial Frontier (NWFP), PB is Balochistan.

Check out the disaster for the MMA, good results in NA for PPP, great results for PML-N in Punjab, PML-Q (Musharraf's party) did pretty well in Balochistan, especially due to boycot there by many anti-Musharraf parties. Left wing Pastuns of the ANP - well done.

Later today the final results.

Harald Doornbos

PAKISTAN: CRICKET AND ELECTIONS

Polling stations are closed, first results expected later tonight. Just enough time to watch this little Video... HARRYZZZ and Friend Zia visit a Cricket Field in Islambad. Will they get hit on the head? Check out other videos posted today as well.


Harald Dornboos

HARRYZZZ HANGS OUT IN POLLING STATION IN ISLAMABAD (part I and II)

Elections in Pakistan. This morning, me and my good friend Zia, visited a polling station in a school in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. This is the first part: How we enter, the funny walk of a boy scout and the male polling station (females vote somewhere else). PS: I don't have time to edit this material, so its rather rough stuff...


Part II:


Harald Doornbos

IN ISLAMABAD, RAWALPINDI: PAKISTANIS VOTE IN RELAXED ATMOSPHERE

Ok, I've been driving around Islamabad, Rawalpindi and part of the countryside here. The atmosphere is great. Supporters of all various parties are, very peacefully, casting their votes. All available space in Pakistan (except for the sky) has been plastered by posters and baners. Wow, the Pakistanis are seriously passionate about politics! And again - wow. Because in how many other Islamic countries would all these different parties be allowed to participate in elections?

Ok, from what I've seen - no violence what so ever. On the streets you mostly see supporters of the the PPP (Bhutto) and PML-N (Nawaz Sharif). Hardly any supporters of PML-Q (Musharraf's party).

But inside the polling stations, I've spoken to quite a lot of people who still voted for Musharraf's party. Especially women. Reason? "Musharraf is fighting against the taliban," a women told me. Another said: "Musharraf promoted education for girl, we can not forget that."

But one, male, supporter of Musharraf was pretty gloomy. "It is a tradition here in Pakistan that whenever a new leader comes they celebrate," he said, "And when he goes, they celebrate too."

In the meantime, cars with PPP supporters drive left, right and center on the roads. Flags, banners, slogans. This is their day. "Not just our day," one PPP supporter says, "For us this is D-Day."

Latest news: Through the whole country (160 million people) 80 million Pakistani's are allowed to vote. A total of ten people have died in various incidents. My friend Zia, who is joining me today, says: "My god, only ten dead? That is really nothing!".

Later here on harryzzz more pictures and a couple of videos. Unfortunately I'm having some difficulties getting my computer to accept video data. Whatever. Keep on checking this blog today and tomorrow.

Harald Doornbos

PAKISTAN VOTES, HARRYZZZ REPORTS - LIVE FROM ISLAMABAD

I've left, on Saturday, Lebanon and arrived in Pakistan. This because there are extremely important elections taking place, today, Monday February 18th.

Will the PPP, the party of former PM Benazir Bhutto, secure a landslide victory today after Benazir was killed on December 27th last year?

Will the same PPP accept the results in case they do NOT win that same majority?

Will president Pervez Musharraf (and his PML-Q party) survive these elections?

Will taliban/Al Qaeda-elements be able to launch any spectacular attacks?

And, last but not least, how will the religious parties react to their CERTAIN LOSS during these elections? Because everybody might be talking about the, so called, Talibanization of Pakistan. This is, of course, not true. Yes, taliban/Qaeda militants are getting more and more bold and are stepping up their attacks, but the taliban/qaeda political parties are - big time - loosing support here. Pakistan's main problem seems to be terrorism, not talibanization.

These are, most probably, Pakistan's most important elections since the country was created, in 1947.

Voting has just started, around 11 minutes ago. As it is now 04.00 in the morning in Europe and 22.00 in the US (still Sunday), it looks like a beautiful, sunny Monday morning here in the capital Islamabad.

I'll try to post some updates today here on Harryzzz as I'll be driving around Islamabad and Rawalpindi...

Harald Doornbos

ROSES ARE RED, SO IS BLOOD

Ok, Harryzzz is back. Very sorry for not posting anything lately, but hey, the moment people start paying me for this stuff I'll take in complaints...

Here in Beirut; preperations for two important events on Thursday, Valentine's Day:

Pro-government Sunni's, some Druze and some christians are preparing for the commemoration of the death of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, on Thursday 14th of February, exactly three years ago. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected in down town Beirut. That is, if it doesn't rain, because it is currently very, very crappy weather here...

In the meantime, Shia's of the Hezbollah opposition are preparing, also on Thursday, for a funeral, in Beirut's southern neighbourhoods, of Imad Moghniyeh, one of the military commanders of Hezbollah, who was killed on Tuesday in the Syrian captial Damascus.

There is an enormous rivalry between both sides (pro and anti-government), so if both groups meet on Thursday....don't expect a Valentine's atmosphere but instead very serious problems. Something like poor Cupido on the picture, above.

I just drove through Beirut (around 22.00 hours on Wednesday).

At the moment, the situation is as follows:

- Enormous army presence in and around downtown Beirut.

- Because of fears for car bombs, all vehicles are banned in and around down town Beirut. Luckily I live just outside the no-car zone so your reporter will be able to use his beloved Audi A8 to drive from Hariri-meeting to Hezbollah-funeral.

- Every where in Beirut supporters of Hariri are pretty excited. Loud bangs because of fire crackers. I also heard a lot of real shooting (in the air I guess). In Sunni area's of West-Beirut small convoys with Hariri-supporters are driving around waving flags...

- In the Shia area's, in South Beirut, no shootings nor fire crackers. People here are mourning the death of the Hezbollah-commander. Others are sincerely shocked: How was Israel able to kill such a senior Hezbollah commander and, worse, not in Beirut, but in Damascus?

Just to get the idea of how big this is for Hezbollah, below the Hezbollah statement:

"In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. (Of the believers are men who are true to the covenant which they made with Allah: so of them is he who accomplished his vow, and of them is he who yet waits, and they have not changed in the least). Almighty Allah has spoken the truth.

With pride and honor, we announce the martyrdom of a great resistance leader who joined the procession of Islamic Resistance martyrs. After a life full of Jihad, sacrifices and accomplishments lived with a longing to martyrdom, Islamic Resistance leader Hajj Imad Moghniyeh (Hajj Radwan) was assassinated by Israeli criminal hands. The martyr, may his soul rest in peace, had been a target for the Zionists for more than 20 years. Almighty Allah has chosen him to be a martyr on the hands of His Prophet's killers who know that we have a long battle with them and the blood of martyrs especially our leaders has always taken our resistance to a higher and stronger level, just like when our two great leaders, Sheikh Ragheb Harb and Sayyed Abbas Moussawi were martyred.

We pledge to continue the martyr's path until achieving complete victory, God willing. We offer our sincere condolences to the martyr's family and his brothers in arms and we congratulate all resistance fighters for the Divine legion of honor."

Hariri-meeting will start around 10.00 o'clock (in down town), Hezbollah funeral around 14.30 (in the Sayyed el Shuhada' hall, the same place where Ashura is being organised). There are strong rumours about Hariri supporters aiming to destroy the Hezbollah tent-camp in down town Beirut on Thursday.

I've got no idea of what to expect. Valentine's Day might stay very calm or might plunge this country into a civil war - again.

Pretty weird that in a country where Valentine's Day is very much celebrated by young couples, the choice on Thursday will be between either roses or blood. Because roses are red, and so is blood...

Harald Doornbos