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Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow U.S. soldiers in Texas.
Getty
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Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
Hasan's eyes "lit up" when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki's teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday's horrific shooting spree.
As investigators look at Hasan's motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.
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In Seoul, Obama has the opportunity to finally speak out on human rights
Wall Street Journal
The president's visit to Seoul is an opportunity to speak out on human rights.
Now that the Obama administration is talking directly to the rulers of North Korea, it would be fitting if it also had a message for the people these leaders oppress. Instead, as is the case with human-rights abusers in most of the world's benighted spots-think Tibet, Burma, Vietnam, Iran, Sudan-the administration remains largely silent.
President Obama's visit to Seoul this month would be a good moment to speak out. There would be no better advocate to have by his side than South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who, unlike his recent predecessors, has publicly condemned the North for its abusive treatment of its citizens.
The atrocities perpetrated by Kim Jong Il's regime are well known. But three reports, all out in recent days, provide a chilling reminder.
o Starvation: Nearly nine million North Koreans-one-third of the population-are suffering from lack of food, says Vitit Muntarbhorn in a report to the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Muntarbhorn, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea since 2004, has never been permitted to enter the country. . . .
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The President snubs Iran's democrats
Wall Street Journal
[C]ourageous and dignified overtures to the U.S. by Green Movement activists have been snubbed by the Obama administration. The administration has avoided discussion about the prospects for liberalization in a country that exports radical Islamist ideology throughout the Middle East and beyond. In regressive realpolitik fashion, it has grown increasingly reticent about the Iranian people's struggle for human rights, apparently viewing it as irrelevant to U.S security interests. Rather than bolstering the opposition at a time when the Iranian regime is at its weakest, America is pursuing a policy of appeasement.
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Many Iran experts have warned that displays of Western solidarity could taint Iran's democrats. Nonsense. Iranian cyberspace is brimming with anger at what the Green Movement sees as betrayal by the West. From legendary filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's representative in Europe, to Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, Iranian democrats are expressing disappointment at what they see as the trading of their democratic aspirations for dubious progress toward the goal of preventing a nuclear Iran.
"Engagement," it turns out, is about nuclear weapons alone — no matter how many innocent Iranians are being beaten, tortured, raped and killed for expressing their hope for change. The Islamic Republic is none too pleased with America's new insistence on talking. President Ahmadinejad boasts on state media about his breakthrough achievement — getting respect and deference from the U.S. — while he proceeds to reject already watered-down nuclear proposals.
Can the Obama administration achieve anything with Ahmadinejad's cabal on the nuclear front that could possibly justify its betrayal of the Iranian people and American values? We think not. And we believe the administration still has time to change course and not lose the faith of a people longing to join the Free World.
In practical terms, regaining the trust of young Iranian democrats will require: publicly pressing the Iranian regime to respect human rights; integrating discussion of the regime's treatment of its opposition in all formal negotiations; reviving U.S. government funding to support the Internet, free media, people-to-people exchanges, and training on civic engagement; and leveraging the popular Voice of America and Radio Farda broadcasts to directly express American solidarity with the Iranian people.
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Iranian opposition and police in fresh clashes
Financial Times
Iranian security forces clashed with thousands of opposition supporters on Wednesday after they tried to turn a state-organised rally on the anniversary of the US embassy siege into an anti-government protest.
Eyewitnesses said there were tens of arrests as police used batons, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd, but no deaths were reported and gun shots were not heard.
The elite Revolutionary Guards and the police had warned reformists that they would face brutal suppression if they exploited the 30th anniversary of the US embassy siege.
But Iran's opposition - which accuses Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of stealing the June election - ignored the threats, demonstrating its continuing determination to use major political and religious occasions to voice opposition to the government.
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