The Teacher Tax Cut Act is a bill initially introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) in 1999 and introduced in every Congressional session since including in 2007 as . It would provide a $1,000 tax credit for all elementary and secondary teachers in the United States. The goal of the bill is to "help raise educators' take home pay by reducing educators' taxes."
Forms of the bill have attracted bipartisan co-sponsors, including Democrats Charles Gonzalez of Texas and William Clay of Missouri. The 2007 version currently has two co-sponsors, Jeff Miller (R-FL] and Ted Poe (R-TX).
Summary of bill
The bill says that it will "amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a tax credit for elementary and secondary school teachers.". The tax credit would be $1,000 per teacher. He said, "The Arizona experience is further proof that putting control of education resources into the hands of the American people through education tax credits is the best way to improve education. Tax credits allow parents and other concerned citizens to devote more of their resources to education, and allow the American people to work with educators to ensure that all children have the opportunity to receive a quality education that suits each child's unique needs."
The bill has been introduced in what Congressman Paul has described as the "Education Freedom Package," along with the Family Education Freedom Act, which would allow a $5,000 credit for school-related expenses at any public, private or home school, and the Education Improvement Tax Cut Act, which would allow a $3,000 credit for donations for academic-related donations to schools or scholarship programs. Paul also introduced a similar bill in 2003 called the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act, which would extend the $1,000 tax credit to librarians, counselors, and other school personnel involved in a K-12 academic program.
*107th Congress: (2001) Introduced January 31, 2001
:This bill had 34 co-sponsors, including Bartlett, Baker, Deal, Hinchey, Isakson, McKinney, Dan Miller, Radanovich, Simmons, Stearns, Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), William Clay (D-MO), Robert Cramer (D-AL), Ander Crenshaw (I-FL), Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), John Duncan (R-TN), Ernest Fletcher (R-KY), Stephen Horn (R-CA), John Hostettler (R-IN), Ric Keller (R-FL), Eleanor Norton (Washington, DC's delegate), Charles Norwood (R-GA), Doug Ose (R-CA), Mike Pence (R-IN), Jim Ryun (R-KA), Bob Schaffer (R-CO),
Forms of the bill have attracted bipartisan co-sponsors, including Democrats Charles Gonzalez of Texas and William Clay of Missouri. The 2007 version currently has two co-sponsors, Jeff Miller (R-FL] and Ted Poe (R-TX).
Summary of bill
The bill says that it will "amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a tax credit for elementary and secondary school teachers.". The tax credit would be $1,000 per teacher. He said, "The Arizona experience is further proof that putting control of education resources into the hands of the American people through education tax credits is the best way to improve education. Tax credits allow parents and other concerned citizens to devote more of their resources to education, and allow the American people to work with educators to ensure that all children have the opportunity to receive a quality education that suits each child's unique needs."
The bill has been introduced in what Congressman Paul has described as the "Education Freedom Package," along with the Family Education Freedom Act, which would allow a $5,000 credit for school-related expenses at any public, private or home school, and the Education Improvement Tax Cut Act, which would allow a $3,000 credit for donations for academic-related donations to schools or scholarship programs. Paul also introduced a similar bill in 2003 called the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act, which would extend the $1,000 tax credit to librarians, counselors, and other school personnel involved in a K-12 academic program.
*107th Congress: (2001) Introduced January 31, 2001
:This bill had 34 co-sponsors, including Bartlett, Baker, Deal, Hinchey, Isakson, McKinney, Dan Miller, Radanovich, Simmons, Stearns, Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), William Clay (D-MO), Robert Cramer (D-AL), Ander Crenshaw (I-FL), Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), John Duncan (R-TN), Ernest Fletcher (R-KY), Stephen Horn (R-CA), John Hostettler (R-IN), Ric Keller (R-FL), Eleanor Norton (Washington, DC's delegate), Charles Norwood (R-GA), Doug Ose (R-CA), Mike Pence (R-IN), Jim Ryun (R-KA), Bob Schaffer (R-CO),
Bosnian Mujahideen (also referred to as El Mujaheed or El Mujahid) is the term often used for the Muslim volunteers to fight on the Bosnian government side during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. The number of volunteers is estimated to have been about 4,000 with the majority coming from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. However, a certain number of local Bosniaks also joined to fight alongside the foreign Mujahideen. In addition to the Mujahideen volunteers, there were also several hundred Iranian Revolutionary Guards supporting the Bosnian government during the war. Many of the Bosnian Mujahideen were supported financially from Saudi Arabia, including persons and organizations later connected with Al-Qaeda
Role during the Bosnian War 1992-1995
Foreign Mujahideen arrived in central Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) coreligionists against the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces. Mostly they came from North Africa, the Near East and the Middle East. Initially, the foreign Mujahideen gave food and other basic necessities to the local Muslim population, deprived many necessities by the Bosnian Serb forces. Once hostilities broke out between the Bosnian government (ABiH) and the Bosnian Croat forces (HVO), the Mujahideen also participated in battles against the HVO alongside ABiH units.
The foreign Mujahideen actively recruited young local men, offering them military training, uniforms and weapons. As a result, local Bosniaks joined the foreign Mujahideen and in the process became local "Bosnian Mujahideen". They imitated the foreigners in both the way they dressed and behaved, to such an extent that it was sometimes, according to the ICTY documentation in subsequent war crimes trials, "difficult to distinguish between the two groups. For that reason, the ICTY has used the term "Mujahideen" to designate foreigners from Arab countries, but also local Muslims (ie Bosniaks) who joined the Mujahideen units.
The first Mujahideen training camp was located in Poljanice next to the village of Mehurici, in the Bila valley, in Travnik municipality. The Mujahideen group established there included Mujahideen from Arab countries as well as Bosniaks. Amongst the local Bosniaks were former members of the Muslim Forces of Travnik and soldiers who were de jure members of 3rd Corps units, namely of the 7th and 306th Brigades. The Mujahideen from Poljanice camp were also established in the towns of Zenica and Travnik and, from the second half of 1993 onwards, in the village of Orasac, also located in the Bila valley. The El Mujahed unit was officially created on 13 August 1993.
According to the ICTYs indictment of Rasim Delic, Commander of Main Staff of the Bosnian army (ABiH), after the formation of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade of the ABiH 3rd Corps on 19 November 1992 the El Mujahid were subordinated within its structure. The Bosnian Mujahideen were involved in combat activities of units of the ABiH 3rd Corps, including the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, and frequently spearheaded ABiH 3rd Corps combat operations. On 13 August 1993 Rasim Delic then ordered the establishment within the ABiH 3rd Corps area of responsibility of the "EL Mujahed" unit, effective no later than 31 August 1993. The El Mujahed unit remained part of the ABiH 3rd Corps until its disbandment on 12 December 1995.
The military effectiveness of the Bosnian Mujahideen is disputed. However, former US Balkans peace negotiator Richard Holbrook said in an interview that "I think the Muslims wouldn't have survived without this" help. At the time a U.N. arms embargo diminished the Bosnian government's fighting capabilities. Holbrooke called the arrival of the moujahedeen "a pact with the devil" from which Bosnia still is recovering.
Relationship to the Bosnian government army (ABiH)
The extent to which the Bosnian Mujahideen were part of the regular Bosnian government army (ABiH) is contentious. According to a UN communiqué of 1995, the El Mujahid battalion was "directly dependent on BiH staff for supplies" and for "directions" during combat with the Bosnian Serbs. The issue has formed part of two ICTY war crimes trials. In its judgement in the case of ICTY v. Enver Hadzihasanovic (commander of the 3rd Corps of the army of the Sarajevo-based government (ABiH), he was later made part of the joint command of the ABiH and was the Chief of the Supreme Command Staff) and Amir Kubura (commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade of the 3rd Corps of the ABiH) the ICTY found that "there are significant indicia of a subordinate relationship between the Mujahedin and the Accused prior to 13 August 1993. Testimony heard by the Trial Chamber and, in the main, documents tendered into evidence demonstrate that the ABiH maintained a close relationship with the foreign Mujahedin as soon as these arrived in central Bosnia in 1992. Joint combat operations are one illustration of that. In Karaula and Visoko in 1992, at Mount Zmajevac around mid-April 1993 and in the Bila valley in June 1993, the Mujahedin fought alongside AbiH units against Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces."
After the official formation of the El Mujahid battalion on 13 August 1993 it became part of the Bosnian Army, though with its own commanders. According to testimony and evidence presented at the ICTY trial of Bosnian government General Rasim Delic, which began in July 2007, the Bosnian Mujahideen operated under the control of the Bosnian army (ABiH) though with their own commanders.
War crimes
The judgements of Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kabura concerned a number of war crimes involving the Bosnian Mujahideen. Those included in the judgement are recounted below:
::*on 26 January 1993, following an attack on the village of Miletici in Travnik Municipality, four Bosnian Croat men were captured, had their hands tied behind their backs and subsequently had their throats slit and their blood collected in a pan.
::*on 8 June 1993, 23 Croatian men and one young woman were executed in Bikoci while they were being held prisoner. The Trial Chamber finds that the perpetrators of the massacre were foreign and local Mujahedin.
::*from 26 January 1993 to 20 August 1993 and on 20 September 1993 civilian prisoner were held at the Music School in the town of Zenica, were victims of cruel treatment and physical and psychological abuse. During that period more than one hundred detainees were imprisoned at the Music School. 10 detainees described the violence they were subjected to. One witness told how during the night, detainees were taken out one by one from their cells upstairs at the Music School and that, with the lights out, they had to go through a line of soldiers who beat them with wooden shovel handles. The same witness stated that one day a military policeman ordered a father to beat his mentally handicapped son. When the father refused to do so, another detainee was forced to carry out the order.
::*on 18 May 1993, 16 Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serbs civilians were taken to the Motel Sretno where they were beaten several times until the next morning, 19 May 1993, when they were set free. In the first phase of the interrogation, they were kicked with boots and beaten with rifle butts and fists. In the second phase, the detainees were forced to hit each other. In the third phase, they were forced to go through a row of soldiers who beat them with rifle butts. A witness told how he did not get up and how he lost consciousness after being beaten a dozen times by a truncheon on the head. In the fourth and last phase, the detainees were made to place their heads between the bars of their cells and were then beaten by pieces of wood. Evidence has indicated that after such brutalities some of the victims suffered several broken ribs, dislocated kidneys, and damaged spinal columns.
::*In late July or early August 1993, several detainees, including Mario Zrno, a prisoner of war, were taken outside the Bugojno Convent and subjected to severe beatings. Mario Zrno did not survive.
::*On the night of 5 August 1993, five or six prisoners, including Mladen Havranek, a prisoner of war, were severely beaten on the upper floor of the Slavonija Furniture Salon. Several witnesses stated that from the cell in the basement they heard Mladen Havranek screaming and begging for the beatings to cease. After repeated beatings, Mladen Havranek was unable to walk and was dragged down the stairs to the cell in the basement. Malden Havranek died as a result of his injuries that same night.
::*On 21 October 1993, Dragan Popovic, a Bosnian Serb civilian, was executed by members of the Bosnian Mujahideen detachment. In its judgement the ICTY notes that this murder was "particularly heinous". Dragan Popovic was taken with three other prisoners to a meadow where a pit had been dug. About 50 to 100 soldiers from the El Mujahed detachment stood around the pit shouting. Dragan Popovic was pushed to the edge of the pit and fell on his side after being tripped. One soldier then tried unsuccessfully to behead him with a hatchet, so another soldier had to finish the execution. The other prisoners were then forced to kiss the head of the deceased while the soldiers shouted in ritual celebration.
::*the Monastery of GuÄ?a Gora and the Church of St. John the Baptist in Travnik were damaged in June 1993 by Bosnian Mujahideen. In the Monastery of GuÄ?a Gora - which was both a sacred and historical site for the Croatian Catholic community - steles and the organ were destroyed, and the frescoes and walls were partially covered with inscriptions in Arabic. Similar destruction and damage was recorded at the church in Travnik: paintings, organs and windows were destroyed or vandalised and the statues of saints were decapitated.
The ICTY indictment of Rasim Delic, the Bosnian Mujahideen were involved in numerous war crimes during the summer of 1995. These are listed below:
::*21 July 1995: the El Mujahed unit decapitated the captured Bosnian Serb soldiers Momir Mitrovic and Predrag Knezevic.
::*24 July 1995: while held at the Kamenica prison camp, the Bosnian Serb soldier Gojko Vujicic was behaded and the other prisoners were forced to kiss the severed head after which the head was placed on a hook on the wall in the room in which the prisoners were held.
::*the Bosnian Serb prisoners held at the Kamenica Camp, run by the El Mujahed, were beaten and tortured, including with electrical shocks.
::*60 Bosnian Serb males captured by the El Mujahed and held at the Kamenica Camp are missing and presumed to have been killed by the El Mujahed.
::*an elderly Bosnian Serb man, held in the Kamenica Camp was beaten and forced to drink water mixed with petrol. He later died in the camp as a result of the mistreatment.
::*three civilian female prisoners held at the Kamenica camp were beaten, kicked, hit with metal sticks and rifle butts, and subject to sexual assaults, including rape.
After the war
The foreign moujahedeen units were disbanded and required to leave the Balkans under the terms of the 1995 Dayton peace accord. But many stayed - about 400, according to official Bosnian government estimates. Although the US State Department report suggested that the number could be higher, a senior SFOR official said allied military intelligence estimated that no more than 200 foreign-born militants actually live in Bosnia, of which closer to 30 represent a hard-core group with direct links to terrorism.
A sizeable number were granted citizenship by Izetbegovic in exchange for their fighting in the Bosnian civil war. In September, 50 of these individuals had their citizenship status revoked. SInce then 100 more individuals have been prevented from claiming citizenship rights. 250 more were under investigation, while the body which is charged to reconsider the citizenship status of these former Mujahideen states that 1,500 cases will eventually be examined.
Links to Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism
Following the end of the Bosnian War and, especially, after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center, the links between the Bosnian Mujahideen, Al Qaeda and the radicalization of some European Muslims has become more widely discussed. In an interview with US journalist Jim Leherer former US peace envoy to Bosnia Richard Holbroke states:
There were over 1,000 people in the country who belonged to what we then called Mujahideen freedom fighters.
We now know that that was al-Qaida. I'd never heard the word before, but we knew who they were. And if you look at the 9/11 hijackers, several of those hijackers were trained or fought in Bosnia. We cleaned them out, and they had to move much further east into Afghanistan. So if it hadn't been for Dayton, we would have been fighting the terrorists deep in the ravines and caves of Central Bosnia in the heart of Europe.
In 1996, in a book titled "Offensive In the Balkans", Mr. Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives, wrote as follows on the "Bosnian Jehad":
"...The build-up of new Islamist units was completed in Bosnia- Herzegovina in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) and Islamist international terrorismsuicide terrorists), both veteran Arabs and newly trained Bosnians.
London's The Spectator has noted, "If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it." Several current and former top al-Qaeda militants and financiers reportedly participated in the Bosnian civil war with the full support of the United States. It was for the Bosnian jihad that the 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, was reportedly recruited to fight by the CIA and MI6. Al-Qada, in addition to his reported financing of the Bosnian jihad, has been identified as one of Osama bin Laden's "chief money launderers". In his paper on the connection between Bosnian mujahideen and 'home grown' terrorists in Europe, terrorism expert Evan F. Kohlmann writes that:
Indeed, some of the most important factors behind the contemporary radicalization of European Muslim youth can be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the cream of the Arab mujahideen from Afghanistan tested their battle skills in the post-Soviet era and mobilized a new generation of pan-Islamic revolutionaries.
Further reading
*, by, Evan F. Kohlmann. The paper was presented at a conference held by the Swedish National Defence College's Center for Assymetric Threat Studies (CATS) in Stockholm in May 2006 at the request of Dr. Magnus Ranstorp - former director of the St. Andrews University Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence - and now Chief Scientist at CATS). It is also the title of a book by the same author.
Role during the Bosnian War 1992-1995
Foreign Mujahideen arrived in central Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) coreligionists against the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces. Mostly they came from North Africa, the Near East and the Middle East. Initially, the foreign Mujahideen gave food and other basic necessities to the local Muslim population, deprived many necessities by the Bosnian Serb forces. Once hostilities broke out between the Bosnian government (ABiH) and the Bosnian Croat forces (HVO), the Mujahideen also participated in battles against the HVO alongside ABiH units.
The foreign Mujahideen actively recruited young local men, offering them military training, uniforms and weapons. As a result, local Bosniaks joined the foreign Mujahideen and in the process became local "Bosnian Mujahideen". They imitated the foreigners in both the way they dressed and behaved, to such an extent that it was sometimes, according to the ICTY documentation in subsequent war crimes trials, "difficult to distinguish between the two groups. For that reason, the ICTY has used the term "Mujahideen" to designate foreigners from Arab countries, but also local Muslims (ie Bosniaks) who joined the Mujahideen units.
The first Mujahideen training camp was located in Poljanice next to the village of Mehurici, in the Bila valley, in Travnik municipality. The Mujahideen group established there included Mujahideen from Arab countries as well as Bosniaks. Amongst the local Bosniaks were former members of the Muslim Forces of Travnik and soldiers who were de jure members of 3rd Corps units, namely of the 7th and 306th Brigades. The Mujahideen from Poljanice camp were also established in the towns of Zenica and Travnik and, from the second half of 1993 onwards, in the village of Orasac, also located in the Bila valley. The El Mujahed unit was officially created on 13 August 1993.
According to the ICTYs indictment of Rasim Delic, Commander of Main Staff of the Bosnian army (ABiH), after the formation of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade of the ABiH 3rd Corps on 19 November 1992 the El Mujahid were subordinated within its structure. The Bosnian Mujahideen were involved in combat activities of units of the ABiH 3rd Corps, including the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, and frequently spearheaded ABiH 3rd Corps combat operations. On 13 August 1993 Rasim Delic then ordered the establishment within the ABiH 3rd Corps area of responsibility of the "EL Mujahed" unit, effective no later than 31 August 1993. The El Mujahed unit remained part of the ABiH 3rd Corps until its disbandment on 12 December 1995.
The military effectiveness of the Bosnian Mujahideen is disputed. However, former US Balkans peace negotiator Richard Holbrook said in an interview that "I think the Muslims wouldn't have survived without this" help. At the time a U.N. arms embargo diminished the Bosnian government's fighting capabilities. Holbrooke called the arrival of the moujahedeen "a pact with the devil" from which Bosnia still is recovering.
Relationship to the Bosnian government army (ABiH)
The extent to which the Bosnian Mujahideen were part of the regular Bosnian government army (ABiH) is contentious. According to a UN communiqué of 1995, the El Mujahid battalion was "directly dependent on BiH staff for supplies" and for "directions" during combat with the Bosnian Serbs. The issue has formed part of two ICTY war crimes trials. In its judgement in the case of ICTY v. Enver Hadzihasanovic (commander of the 3rd Corps of the army of the Sarajevo-based government (ABiH), he was later made part of the joint command of the ABiH and was the Chief of the Supreme Command Staff) and Amir Kubura (commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade of the 3rd Corps of the ABiH) the ICTY found that "there are significant indicia of a subordinate relationship between the Mujahedin and the Accused prior to 13 August 1993. Testimony heard by the Trial Chamber and, in the main, documents tendered into evidence demonstrate that the ABiH maintained a close relationship with the foreign Mujahedin as soon as these arrived in central Bosnia in 1992. Joint combat operations are one illustration of that. In Karaula and Visoko in 1992, at Mount Zmajevac around mid-April 1993 and in the Bila valley in June 1993, the Mujahedin fought alongside AbiH units against Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces."
After the official formation of the El Mujahid battalion on 13 August 1993 it became part of the Bosnian Army, though with its own commanders. According to testimony and evidence presented at the ICTY trial of Bosnian government General Rasim Delic, which began in July 2007, the Bosnian Mujahideen operated under the control of the Bosnian army (ABiH) though with their own commanders.
War crimes
The judgements of Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kabura concerned a number of war crimes involving the Bosnian Mujahideen. Those included in the judgement are recounted below:
::*on 26 January 1993, following an attack on the village of Miletici in Travnik Municipality, four Bosnian Croat men were captured, had their hands tied behind their backs and subsequently had their throats slit and their blood collected in a pan.
::*on 8 June 1993, 23 Croatian men and one young woman were executed in Bikoci while they were being held prisoner. The Trial Chamber finds that the perpetrators of the massacre were foreign and local Mujahedin.
::*from 26 January 1993 to 20 August 1993 and on 20 September 1993 civilian prisoner were held at the Music School in the town of Zenica, were victims of cruel treatment and physical and psychological abuse. During that period more than one hundred detainees were imprisoned at the Music School. 10 detainees described the violence they were subjected to. One witness told how during the night, detainees were taken out one by one from their cells upstairs at the Music School and that, with the lights out, they had to go through a line of soldiers who beat them with wooden shovel handles. The same witness stated that one day a military policeman ordered a father to beat his mentally handicapped son. When the father refused to do so, another detainee was forced to carry out the order.
::*on 18 May 1993, 16 Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serbs civilians were taken to the Motel Sretno where they were beaten several times until the next morning, 19 May 1993, when they were set free. In the first phase of the interrogation, they were kicked with boots and beaten with rifle butts and fists. In the second phase, the detainees were forced to hit each other. In the third phase, they were forced to go through a row of soldiers who beat them with rifle butts. A witness told how he did not get up and how he lost consciousness after being beaten a dozen times by a truncheon on the head. In the fourth and last phase, the detainees were made to place their heads between the bars of their cells and were then beaten by pieces of wood. Evidence has indicated that after such brutalities some of the victims suffered several broken ribs, dislocated kidneys, and damaged spinal columns.
::*In late July or early August 1993, several detainees, including Mario Zrno, a prisoner of war, were taken outside the Bugojno Convent and subjected to severe beatings. Mario Zrno did not survive.
::*On the night of 5 August 1993, five or six prisoners, including Mladen Havranek, a prisoner of war, were severely beaten on the upper floor of the Slavonija Furniture Salon. Several witnesses stated that from the cell in the basement they heard Mladen Havranek screaming and begging for the beatings to cease. After repeated beatings, Mladen Havranek was unable to walk and was dragged down the stairs to the cell in the basement. Malden Havranek died as a result of his injuries that same night.
::*On 21 October 1993, Dragan Popovic, a Bosnian Serb civilian, was executed by members of the Bosnian Mujahideen detachment. In its judgement the ICTY notes that this murder was "particularly heinous". Dragan Popovic was taken with three other prisoners to a meadow where a pit had been dug. About 50 to 100 soldiers from the El Mujahed detachment stood around the pit shouting. Dragan Popovic was pushed to the edge of the pit and fell on his side after being tripped. One soldier then tried unsuccessfully to behead him with a hatchet, so another soldier had to finish the execution. The other prisoners were then forced to kiss the head of the deceased while the soldiers shouted in ritual celebration.
::*the Monastery of GuÄ?a Gora and the Church of St. John the Baptist in Travnik were damaged in June 1993 by Bosnian Mujahideen. In the Monastery of GuÄ?a Gora - which was both a sacred and historical site for the Croatian Catholic community - steles and the organ were destroyed, and the frescoes and walls were partially covered with inscriptions in Arabic. Similar destruction and damage was recorded at the church in Travnik: paintings, organs and windows were destroyed or vandalised and the statues of saints were decapitated.
The ICTY indictment of Rasim Delic, the Bosnian Mujahideen were involved in numerous war crimes during the summer of 1995. These are listed below:
::*21 July 1995: the El Mujahed unit decapitated the captured Bosnian Serb soldiers Momir Mitrovic and Predrag Knezevic.
::*24 July 1995: while held at the Kamenica prison camp, the Bosnian Serb soldier Gojko Vujicic was behaded and the other prisoners were forced to kiss the severed head after which the head was placed on a hook on the wall in the room in which the prisoners were held.
::*the Bosnian Serb prisoners held at the Kamenica Camp, run by the El Mujahed, were beaten and tortured, including with electrical shocks.
::*60 Bosnian Serb males captured by the El Mujahed and held at the Kamenica Camp are missing and presumed to have been killed by the El Mujahed.
::*an elderly Bosnian Serb man, held in the Kamenica Camp was beaten and forced to drink water mixed with petrol. He later died in the camp as a result of the mistreatment.
::*three civilian female prisoners held at the Kamenica camp were beaten, kicked, hit with metal sticks and rifle butts, and subject to sexual assaults, including rape.
After the war
The foreign moujahedeen units were disbanded and required to leave the Balkans under the terms of the 1995 Dayton peace accord. But many stayed - about 400, according to official Bosnian government estimates. Although the US State Department report suggested that the number could be higher, a senior SFOR official said allied military intelligence estimated that no more than 200 foreign-born militants actually live in Bosnia, of which closer to 30 represent a hard-core group with direct links to terrorism.
A sizeable number were granted citizenship by Izetbegovic in exchange for their fighting in the Bosnian civil war. In September, 50 of these individuals had their citizenship status revoked. SInce then 100 more individuals have been prevented from claiming citizenship rights. 250 more were under investigation, while the body which is charged to reconsider the citizenship status of these former Mujahideen states that 1,500 cases will eventually be examined.
Links to Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism
Following the end of the Bosnian War and, especially, after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center, the links between the Bosnian Mujahideen, Al Qaeda and the radicalization of some European Muslims has become more widely discussed. In an interview with US journalist Jim Leherer former US peace envoy to Bosnia Richard Holbroke states:
There were over 1,000 people in the country who belonged to what we then called Mujahideen freedom fighters.
We now know that that was al-Qaida. I'd never heard the word before, but we knew who they were. And if you look at the 9/11 hijackers, several of those hijackers were trained or fought in Bosnia. We cleaned them out, and they had to move much further east into Afghanistan. So if it hadn't been for Dayton, we would have been fighting the terrorists deep in the ravines and caves of Central Bosnia in the heart of Europe.
In 1996, in a book titled "Offensive In the Balkans", Mr. Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives, wrote as follows on the "Bosnian Jehad":
"...The build-up of new Islamist units was completed in Bosnia- Herzegovina in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) and Islamist international terrorismsuicide terrorists), both veteran Arabs and newly trained Bosnians.
London's The Spectator has noted, "If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it." Several current and former top al-Qaeda militants and financiers reportedly participated in the Bosnian civil war with the full support of the United States. It was for the Bosnian jihad that the 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, was reportedly recruited to fight by the CIA and MI6. Al-Qada, in addition to his reported financing of the Bosnian jihad, has been identified as one of Osama bin Laden's "chief money launderers". In his paper on the connection between Bosnian mujahideen and 'home grown' terrorists in Europe, terrorism expert Evan F. Kohlmann writes that:
Indeed, some of the most important factors behind the contemporary radicalization of European Muslim youth can be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the cream of the Arab mujahideen from Afghanistan tested their battle skills in the post-Soviet era and mobilized a new generation of pan-Islamic revolutionaries.
Further reading
*, by, Evan F. Kohlmann. The paper was presented at a conference held by the Swedish National Defence College's Center for Assymetric Threat Studies (CATS) in Stockholm in May 2006 at the request of Dr. Magnus Ranstorp - former director of the St. Andrews University Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence - and now Chief Scientist at CATS). It is also the title of a book by the same author.
SecuTech Solution is based in Canada and has brach offices in China. Severial distributors are sell it product all over the world. All the products from SecuTech are based on UniKey driverless dongle. The main products are for software copy protection, web authenticaion and video protection.
History
2006 - SecuTech Solution was founded, and UniKey was released
2006.10 - UniKey Pro was released
2007.4 - Web Authentication Solution sas released
2007.12 - Video Protection Solution was released
Solutions
Software Protection - UniKey Software Copy Protection System provides a complete and strong safety solution for software copy protection , license control and anti-privacy.
Video Protection - a comprehensive applications that provides video software vendors a straightforward way to safeguard their video content from piracy and illegal distribution.
Web Authentication - UniKey can be integrated in Two-Factor authentication. You can easily develop your own authentication application based on UniKey.
Driverless Technology
Driverless means need not a driver installed. It does not mean "no driver is needed". In fact, a default or built-in driver in the OS is mount when load the device. UniKey uses the HID (human interface device) driver in the OS. Because such built-in driver is very stable, and shipped with the OS, so end-user need not install a spcial driver any longer. The driverless technology brings a revalution to the software protection dongle. It helps the software vendors and end-users get rid of problems brought by dongle driver, and people will not face "dongle not found" problem any more.
History
2006 - SecuTech Solution was founded, and UniKey was released
2006.10 - UniKey Pro was released
2007.4 - Web Authentication Solution sas released
2007.12 - Video Protection Solution was released
Solutions
Software Protection - UniKey Software Copy Protection System provides a complete and strong safety solution for software copy protection , license control and anti-privacy.
Video Protection - a comprehensive applications that provides video software vendors a straightforward way to safeguard their video content from piracy and illegal distribution.
Web Authentication - UniKey can be integrated in Two-Factor authentication. You can easily develop your own authentication application based on UniKey.
Driverless Technology
Driverless means need not a driver installed. It does not mean "no driver is needed". In fact, a default or built-in driver in the OS is mount when load the device. UniKey uses the HID (human interface device) driver in the OS. Because such built-in driver is very stable, and shipped with the OS, so end-user need not install a spcial driver any longer. The driverless technology brings a revalution to the software protection dongle. It helps the software vendors and end-users get rid of problems brought by dongle driver, and people will not face "dongle not found" problem any more.
Approximately 4,997 BBY, the scholarly Jedi Knight Odan-Urr founded a center of Jedi Learning on the planet Ossus where he was trained. From its beginning, the Library of Ossus contained much knowledge and wisdom. Scrolls and books filled shelves, and many Jedi Holocrons were stored there. Among the artifacts was a Sith Holocron that Odan-Urr himself had recovered from a Sith warship in the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace War.
For over a millennium the Library of Ossus continued to grow, and soon many great Masters worked there, tending the shelves and teaching Jedi who wished to learn. One of these was the Neti Jedi Master Ood Bnar.
Approximately 4,000 BBY, the Library was visited by the Sith Lord Exar Kun, who seduced many young Jedi to the dark side. When he had gathered enough followers, he went to Master Odan-Urr and demanded that he turn over the Sith Holocron. When the ancient Jedi refused, Kun brutally slew him and took the artifact. Thus Odan-Urr died surrounded by the books he loved so much, even as his own teacher, Master Ooroo, had predicted.
Soon after, Kun's forces used an ancient Sith weapon to unleash a cataclysm that would wreck the surface of Ossus. As the Jedi scrambled to evacuate the scrolls and artifacts, the Sith came one last time. Ood Bnar, utilizing an ability unique to his species, buried a collection of ancient lightsabers and literally "planted" himself over them, becoming a tree-like being and binding his life force to the planet's, thus insuring that the Sith would not desecrate the ancient Jedi weapons. Soon, all the Jedi had evacuated. As the shock wave hit Ossus, Master Bnar weathered the storm alone.
Millennia later, roughly a decade after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar traveled to Ossus to find the remains of the Great Library. There they discovered that the planet had become the home of a humanoid race called the Ysanna.
Soon after, Imperial Executor Sedriss arrived with a small force, and after a battle (in which the Jedi were aided by the Ysanna) all but Sedriss had been defeated. Luke pushed Sedriss against a tree, only to find that it wasn't a tree at all. It was Ood Bnar. Sensing the battle, the ancient Jedi intervened, grabbing Sedriss with his limbs. As Sedriss tried to fight Bnar through the Force, Ood reached deep into the planet's life force and destroyed himself, taking Sedriss with him. Thus, Skywalker and Solusar were free to recover the lightsabers hidden under Ood, still working after all those millennia. Afterwords, Skywalker received permission from the tribal chief to take two Ysanna youths to train as Jedi.
Skywalker and Solusar later found the ruins of the Great Library, and found many secrets that helped them to rebuild the Jedi Order.
In the game Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II, the Jedi Exile has the option to create an 'Ossus dueling lense' for his/her lightsaber, this greatly enhances his blaster deflection skills and evasive skills. On Onderon, the exile may also acquire the 'Ossus Keeper Robe' in the palace museum. This is a rare and powerful artifact greatly increasing intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.
For over a millennium the Library of Ossus continued to grow, and soon many great Masters worked there, tending the shelves and teaching Jedi who wished to learn. One of these was the Neti Jedi Master Ood Bnar.
Approximately 4,000 BBY, the Library was visited by the Sith Lord Exar Kun, who seduced many young Jedi to the dark side. When he had gathered enough followers, he went to Master Odan-Urr and demanded that he turn over the Sith Holocron. When the ancient Jedi refused, Kun brutally slew him and took the artifact. Thus Odan-Urr died surrounded by the books he loved so much, even as his own teacher, Master Ooroo, had predicted.
Soon after, Kun's forces used an ancient Sith weapon to unleash a cataclysm that would wreck the surface of Ossus. As the Jedi scrambled to evacuate the scrolls and artifacts, the Sith came one last time. Ood Bnar, utilizing an ability unique to his species, buried a collection of ancient lightsabers and literally "planted" himself over them, becoming a tree-like being and binding his life force to the planet's, thus insuring that the Sith would not desecrate the ancient Jedi weapons. Soon, all the Jedi had evacuated. As the shock wave hit Ossus, Master Bnar weathered the storm alone.
Millennia later, roughly a decade after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar traveled to Ossus to find the remains of the Great Library. There they discovered that the planet had become the home of a humanoid race called the Ysanna.
Soon after, Imperial Executor Sedriss arrived with a small force, and after a battle (in which the Jedi were aided by the Ysanna) all but Sedriss had been defeated. Luke pushed Sedriss against a tree, only to find that it wasn't a tree at all. It was Ood Bnar. Sensing the battle, the ancient Jedi intervened, grabbing Sedriss with his limbs. As Sedriss tried to fight Bnar through the Force, Ood reached deep into the planet's life force and destroyed himself, taking Sedriss with him. Thus, Skywalker and Solusar were free to recover the lightsabers hidden under Ood, still working after all those millennia. Afterwords, Skywalker received permission from the tribal chief to take two Ysanna youths to train as Jedi.
Skywalker and Solusar later found the ruins of the Great Library, and found many secrets that helped them to rebuild the Jedi Order.
In the game Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II, the Jedi Exile has the option to create an 'Ossus dueling lense' for his/her lightsaber, this greatly enhances his blaster deflection skills and evasive skills. On Onderon, the exile may also acquire the 'Ossus Keeper Robe' in the palace museum. This is a rare and powerful artifact greatly increasing intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.