-Caveat Lector-
Where was the UN when Madeline Albright destroyed the historical sites
in the Balkans and who was it that blew up the Chinese Embassy?
The Serbs had saved Madeline's worthless life during WWII from "the
Nazis".......note the rich ones all got away many with stolen loot of
those left behind?
Love the way the UN states these people "defied" them - keep up the good
work. They put a small price on the head of Osama bin Laden, only 5
million dollars - and he was not for sale either.
Saba
So this Humanitarian Effort of the UN - to save a pile of rocks was nice
- but all they had in mind was the tourist trade and who would
eventually "cui bono"........for example this effort to dig up body of
Christ - then they would get DNA and maybe clone?
There is a mountain where it is said when the Messiah returns, this
mountain will split in half....work began drilling at bottom of this
mountain some years back.....
So look what these same criminals did to tombs of Pharaohs which
Zionists now claim belong to them......remember the stolen mummy from
the Temple of Ay - a High Priestess aboard the Titanic along with
jewelled copy of Rubaiyat?
UN is looting the world of its treasures.....where is Israel getting the
billions of dollars in diamonds and from where did the diamonds
originate the Russian KGB/MAFIA gave to this FBI traitor.....we have the
enemy within now, but they are one by one, systematically being
exposed.....it would be nice if some of these thieves who hold "dual
citizenships" would be returned to owners but count the silverware -
remember what the Clintons did to our White House.
So UN- what a laugh.......Kofi Annan wearing $1,200 suits and he is
still a bum.
What we do now start a 'Save The Rock Pile" for all American Buck?
Remember the Berlin Wall? Too bad they did not dig a trench.
Saba
A visitor walks past the massive Buddha statue in Bamiyan, central
Afghanistan, which the Taliban proposes destroying.Taliban demolish
ancient statuesAfghani leaders ignore
global pleas to preserve giant Buddha figures
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 3 � Hardline Taliban soldiers
demolished the head and legs of the world-famous ancient statues of
Buddha in central Afghanistan, defying international pleas to protect
the priceless historical treasures, a Taliban official said Saturday.
'We have the intention to spare no statues.'
� QUADRATULLAH JAMAL
The Taliban's information minister "THE HEAD AND LEGS of
Buddha statues in Bamiyan were destroyed yesterday," the Taliban's
Information Minister Quadratullah Jamal said.
"Our soldiers are working hard to demolish their
remaining parts. They will come down soon," he said.
The two Buddha figures, 175 and 120 feet tall, are hewn
from the side of a mountain in Bamiyan � roughly 78 miles northwest of
the Afghan capital Kabul.
The 175-foot statue is thought to be thought to be the
world's tallest of a standing Buddha figure, rather than a sitting one.
"They were easy to break apart and did not take much
time," Jamal said.
"We have the intention to spare no statues. Work is going
on now on the destruction of Bamiyan's statues and don't know how much
of it is done so far," he added.
Taliban sources said on Friday mortars and cannons were
being used to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha statues, and a Pakistan-based
Afghan news service said explosives were being assembled to complete the
job.
"They are using any weapon they have got at the Buddhas,"
a Taliban official in Kabul, who asked not to be identified, said on
Friday.
"Explosives, such as gunpowder, have also been placed
beneath the statues for more effective action."
The Taliban troops used heavy explosives to destroy the
statues carved in the third and fifth centuries, relics of Afghanistan's
pre-Islamic past. Both the statues were already damaged by artillery
fire during Afghanistan's protracted civil war.
Jamal did not have details about which statue was
targeted first and whether the heads of both statues had been removed or
only one.
On Friday, Taliban officials said preparations were under
way, but that demolition had not begun.
Jamal said he had been in contact with troops in Bamiyan,
and the destruction was being carried out in keeping with the wishes of
the Taliban's reclusive supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who ordered
all statues in Afghanistan � including the soaring Buddha statues �
to be destroyed because they offended Islam.
INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE
The Taliban's order generated international outrage. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York offered to take the statues and
preserve them. The Taliban have not responded to that offer.
Acceptance might save the thousands of smaller statues in
the Kabul Museum, but won't preserve the giant ones carved into the
mountainside.
Francesc Vendrell, an assistant U.N. secretary-general
and chief U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, said on Friday he had warned
Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil of world wrath at the
destruction in a three-hour meeting in Kabul on Thursday.
Vendrell said he had suggested the statues the Taliban
find so offensive be moved outside the country, and had relayed the
offer from New York's Metropolitan Museum.
Advertisement
"I was told that this would be transmitted to the
authorities in Kandahar and I very much hope that it is not too late and
that we can find a formula to preserve these artifacts and these
monuments, which are a heritage of humanity of course, but also a
heritage of the Afghans," he said.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he
had also relayed the Met's offer to Pakistan's military ruler, General
Pervez Musharraf, as well.
The Association of Art Museum Directors, which represents
the directors of 175 major art museums in the United States, Canada and
Mexico, said it would "stand by any effort" to retrieve the art.
The Taliban Islamic militia, which rules 95 percent of
Afghanistan, including Kabul, adheres to a strict interpretation of
Islamic law that has been questioned by Islamic scholars in other Muslim
countries and Islamic institutions.
The Taliban have been unmoved by international appeals to
save the statues as historical artifacts. Some Islamic countries have
called the Taliban order to destroy the historical relics embarrassing
to Islam.
Even the Taliban's closest ally, Pakistan, joined the
international appeal to save the statues.
The Taliban, however, did not budge.
"Our Ulema (clerics) have given an edict. It cannot be
taken back. There is no place for statues in an Islamic country," Jamal
said.
It was not immediately known whether the Taliban have
destroyed the estimated 6,000 statues in the Kabul Museum. But Jamal
said statues were being destroyed all over the country. Despite
international the anger, he said several dozen wooden and clay "idols"
had also been demolished at historic sites in Herat, Ghazni, Kabul and
Nangarhar province since Thursday.
In Europe, Paris-based UNESCO � the U.N. Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization � sent a special envoy to
negotiate with Taliban leaders. The UNESCO office in Pakistan said
attempts were being made to set up meetings with Taliban leaders.
"Words fail me to describe adequately my feelings of
consternation and powerlessness as I see the reports of the irreversible
damage that is being done to Afghanistan's exceptional cultural
heritage," UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said Friday.
"The Japanese government is deeply concerned," said
Kazuhiko Koshikawa, spokesman for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in Japan,
where most people consider themselves followers of both Buddhism and the
native Shinto religion. "Those statues are assets to all human beings."
Through some unexplained error, the statues however were
never listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites deserving special
protection.
UNESCO sent an envoy to Afghanistan on Friday to plead
directly with the Taliban leadership to halt their destruction of the
country's priceless statues.
Matsuura said he had sent Pierre Lafrance, a former
French ambassador to Pakistan, to Kabul for urgent talks.
India termed the envisaged destruction "a regression into
medieval barbarism" and offered to look after the artifacts.
Egypt's chief Muslim cleric, Grand Mufti Nasr Farid
Wasel, told the London-based Arabic daily Al Hayat that keeping the
statues is not forbidden by Islam. In comments published Friday, he said
such statues, like Egypt's Pharaonic monuments, bolster the economies of
Islamic countries through tourism.
Ancient statues are "just a recording of history and
don't have any negative impact on Muslims' beliefs," he was quoted as
saying.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Assefi condemned the decision. 'The world's Muslims pin the blame on
the rigid-minded Taliban.'
� HAMID REZA ASSEFI
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman "Unfortunately, the
Taliban's destruction of the statues has cast doubt on the comprehensive
views offered by Islamic ideology in the world," he said, according to
the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "Clearly, the world's Muslims
pin the blame on the rigid-minded Taliban."
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
In Afghanistan's civil war, Iran supports the northern
alliance of ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani against the ruling
Taliban. Rabbani rules in about five percent of the country and some of
the groups in his alliance espouse a brand of Islam akin to the Taliban.
The Taliban, which controls more than 90 percent of
war-torn Afghanistan, has raised overseas wrath when the country is
facing an increasing humanitarian crisis and is in dire need of aid.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are fleeing homes
because of the prolonged conflict and the worst drought in more than
three decades. The U.N. has reported in recent weeks that hundreds have
died owing to cold and hunger.
A statement by a U.N. Coordinator's office in Islamabad
said the Afghan humanitarian situation was "in a sharp downwards spiral
that will continue until at least next summer."
NBC's United Nations correspondent Linda Fasulo, Emad
Mekay in Cairo and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this
report.
Complete coverage
{SABA NOTE; So much for Humanitarian Effort of Hoboken Zulu, Kofi Annan
in his $1,200 suits like a Jesse Jackson - big bucks with no class}
U.N. plans satellite checks on Iraq Mideast photo starts Internet
battle Bin Laden praises attack on Cole Israel chooses new defense
chief Suspected Iran terror fund-raisers arrested
Wonder about Israelie Terrorists - REMEMBER THE
USS
LIBERTY>>>>>>>>
MSNBC VIEWER'S TOP 10 Would you recommend this story to other
viewers?
not at all
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 highly
MSNBC is optimized for
� Microsoft Internet Explorer
� Windows Media Player
� MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy © 2001
Cover | Headlines | News | Business | Sports | Local |
Technology | Living & Travel | Health
TV News | Opinions | Weather | Shop@MSNBC | MSN | Comics | Find | About
MSNBC | Help | Index
News Tools | Jobs | Write Us | Advertising on MSNBC | Terms, Conditions,
and Privacy (Updated)
Advertisement
Idealab: Rebel in the makingNapster sliding toward obscurity The
benefits of not patenting an idea.WSJ: Take advantage of these tax
wrinkles
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
