title: Special reconnaissance

text: They may have mechanical help on the ground, such as tactical four-wheel-drive vehicles (e.g., dune buggies or long-wheelbase Land Rovers) or motorcycles. The British Special Air Service were pioneers in vehicle SR, going back to their operations in North Africa during World War II. In Desert Storm, US SR forces used medium and heavy helicopters to transport ground vehicles for the Scud Hunt.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: SR units may use animals as pack animals or for riding. US Army Special Forces rode on horseback when working alongside the Afghan Northern Alliance.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: SR units may also be transported by air. They can travel by helicopter and disembark by fast roping, ladder, or other techniques. Helicopters may make a series of touchdowns; the SR team will disembark on one of the touchdowns while the others are meant to mislead the enemy. Alternatively, they can parachute; HALO or HAHO can be used to reduce the risk of discovery.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Appropriately trained and equipped SR personnel can infiltrate by water as well. Boats may be delivered by surface ship or even helicopter. Another option is underwater movement, by swimming or delivery vehicle, from a submarine or an offshore surface ship. Some highly trained troops, such as United States Navy SEALs or British Special Boat Service may parachute into open water and swim to the target.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Units on short missions may carry their own supplies but longer missions may require resupply. Typically, SR units are familiar with the area of operations and are comfortable with local food if necessary. Radio transmission, when necessary, are kept as short and precise as possible as even the most secure radios can be detected and located. One way of shortening messages is to define a set of codes, typically two-letter, for various prearranged packages of equipment. Those starting with "A" might be for ammunition, "F" for food, and "M" for medical. Burst transmission may also be used to prevent detection.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: When long-range or long-duration patrols need resupply, a variety of techniques are used, though each have tradeoffs in security, resupply platform range and stealth, and the type and amount of resupply needed. As with infiltration, helicopters may make a number of quick touchdowns, all but one meant to mislead the enemy. If it is reasonably certain that the enemy knows some patrols are present, the helicopters may even make some touchdowns more easily observed, but leave boobytrapped supplies.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: SR teams may need to have wounded personnel replaced or evacuated. In some extreme situations, wounded personnel who cannot travel may be killed by their own side, to avoid capture and interrogation which could compromise the special reconnaissance mission. Killing wounded personnel is described as a feature of Soviet and Russian Spetsnaz doctrine. A variant described for US personnel was explained to a US forward air controller, by a MACV SOG officer, "If I decide that there's no way we can effect your rescue [in Cambodia], I’ll order the gunships to fire at you to prevent the enemy from getting their hands on you. I can’t risk having any of the [recon] teams compromised if they take you alive."


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Most of the same methods used to infiltrate may be used to exfiltrate. Stay-behind forces may wait until friendly forces arrive in their area.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: One of the more common means of exfiltration is by special operations helicopters. There are a number of techniques that do not require the helicopter to land, including ladders, the McGuire rig, STABO rig, and SPIE rig. Small helicopters, such as the MH-6, have benches outside the cabin, which trained soldiers can quickly jump onto.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Modern electronics have redefined communication for SR teams. Human-to-human electronics, however, are not the only critical advance. Navigational systems such as GPS have immense value. Laser rangefinders and designators can pinpoint the exact location of a target for fire support. Strong encryption, electronic counter-countermeasures, and techniques, like burst transmission, aid in reducing the chance of being located.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Current trends in secure communications for SR patrols to carry are based on the evolving concept of software-defined radio. The immensely flexible Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is deployed with NATO special operations units, and can provide low-probability-of-intercept encrypted communications between ground units, from ground to aircraft, or from ground to satellite. It allows an SR team to use the same radio to operate on several networks and reduces the number of spare radios needed. By comparison, some of the raiders on the Vietnam War era Son Tay raid carried as many as five radios.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: JTRS also closely integrates with target designators so that a separate radio is not required to communicate with precision-guided munition launchers. The availability of man-portable UAVs which can be launched by an SR team and communicated with may result in fundamentally new tactical doctrines.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Software-defined radio, along with standard information exchange protocols such as JTIDS Link 16, are enabling appropriate communications and situation awareness, reducing the chance of fratricide, across multiple military services. For example, an Air Force Situation Awareness Data Link (SADL) device that communicates between close air support aircraft can also exchange mission data with Army Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) equipment. The same basic equipment also interconnects EPLRS ground units.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: Debriefing may be done by a unit's HUMINT officers, who are most familiar with their information-gathering techniques. Information from SR patrols is likely to contribute to HUMINT collection, but, depending on the mission, may also contribute to IMINT, TECHINT, SIGINT, and MASINT. Some of those techniques may be extremely sensitive and held on a need-to-know basis within the special reconnaissance organization and the all-source intelligence cell.


title: Special reconnaissance

text: They will provide map overlays, photography, and, if available, sensor data. SR troops are also trained in more advanced reporting, such as preparing multiple map overlays of targets, lines of communications, civilian and friendly concentrations, etc. They can perform target analysis and also graph various activities on a polar chart centered either on an arbitrary reference or on the principal target.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: Bodil Bjarta Joensen (; 25 September 1944 – 3 January 1985) was a Danish pornographic actress born in the village of Hundige, near Copenhagen. She ran a small entrepreneurial farm and animal husbandry business, and enjoyed celebrity status from her many pornographic films in which she engaged in sex acts with animals.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: An individual with a public profile for a time, with her own successful business, she failed to make the transition to more mainstream movies when market sentiment changed and she became impoverished and could no longer care for her animals. She became an alcoholic and died several years later.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: The daughter of a devout Christian mother and an absentee military father, Joensen grew up in the Copenhagen suburb of Hundige. Her mother was often physically abusive, sometimes violently so, and would whip her. At the age of 12, her mother suspected her of having been raped by a stranger in a railway station — her Danish biography and 1980s interview say that they "just talked" or that she was "nearly raped", but her mother believed that she had actually been raped. On returning home to tell her mother, she was beaten and blamed for the incident. Seeking a means to retaliate, she vowed to her mother that when she grew up she would have sex with boars, commenting in an interview that her mother was "so shocked, she thought I was allied to the Devil". Turning to animals for affection, her dog became her best friend, companion and lover, and she wore a locket containing his picture for the rest of her life.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: Initially, after leaving home at 15, Joensen found work on a farm in a conservative area of Denmark. Her landlord, the farmer Gunnar Nielsen, commented: "She was passionate about animals." He added that she was entranced by the sight of animals breeding, an activity she stated she found "wonderful" to help with. She later left to set up her own breeding farm, "Insemination Central," while Joensen became known for her ability to handle aggressive animals such as boars, and was then ruined by country gossip, spread principally by farmers' wives who were unhappy at the prospect of their husbands working with a young single girl on farm business. Friends, such as Johan Kirk, commented that she "was never given much of a chance" by such people. She commented later, "Nine out of ten men wanted to fuck me, and their wives hated me."


title: Bodil Joensen

text: Launched in the context of a failing business and attempts to remain solvent in order to keep her livestock and home, her career in pornography began in 1962 at age 17, when she appeared in "light fetish" pornography, before establishing herself in the bestiality subgenre in 1969 at around age 25. She starred in a number of feature films and shorts for companies such as Color Climax Corporation, as well as for the pornographer Ole Ege, in which she and other actors had sex with various animal species. Between 1969 and 1972, she starred with animals in over 40 movies.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: The movie "A Summer's Day" (1971) was released in the U.S. as "Animal Lover" (1970). She wrote a column answering readers' letters in "SCREW" magazine.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: In this genre, Joensen drew special attention worldwide as the "Boar Girl", a reputation earned from her live performances with swine, as well as her participation in films shot with pigs on her own breeding centre. The movies she appeared in combined a peculiar blend of the "tolerant contemporary Danish society" image and Scandinavian rustic nostalgia. Her Danish biography comments of her domestic life: "The scene is classic Rabelaisian more than anything else, harkening back to the Middle Ages when people and their animals often did live in the same house."


title: Bodil Joensen

text: The award-winning documentary "Bodil Joensen - en sommerdag juli 1970" (1970), by Shinkichi Tajiri, shows her living with her animals on her farm during this era, including their care, her affection for them, and her sexual life, entirely to the tune of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony (Pastoral)—an involuntary artistic choice that became necessary when the original soundtrack recordings became unavailable through a gaffe. At the time, she lived with "two rabbits, seven dogs, a dozen pigs, some cats, a guinea pig, a mare and a beautiful black stallion named Dreamlight". Her Danish biographer commented later that she seemed to be a very open, warm-hearted person, "very at home with nature": "When she plays her erotic game with the dog or horse, it is not only a sexual curiosity, it is an erotic play with animals she loves and who are devoted to her." The documentary was the surprising winner of the "Grand Prize" of the "Wet Dream Film Festival", held in Amsterdam from 26–29 November 1970, where it premiered. Joensen immediately became an underground celebrity, and drew attention from other documentary makers as well as tourists towards her expanding farm.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: By the early 1970s, Joensen had managed to achieve her goal of living on her own farm with her daughter (born c. 1972), as well with her companion/partner. Reference material suggests relationship roles, varying from companionship to partner. Some refer to Knud P. Andersen as a companion, some as a partner; one suggests platonic friendship. The source material is ambiguous. In "The Dark Side of Porn: The Real Animal Farm", Joensen is quoted as saying "...I'm bored when I'm alone, and so is he, so we're good company for each other." Joensen helped finance the farm by allowing sex tourists to visit it and make private films with her animals.


title: Bodil Joensen

text: Friends comment about that time that she was "easily exploited by almost anyone with a camera" and that the visitors "just wanted pornography; they didn't care about knowing her". Neighbours, once friendly, turned dark and hostile, forcing her to move repeatedly. As the Danish adult industry began looking to other content, Joensen failed to make the transition from porn to other movies, and her financial stability and life began to fall apart. After 1972, she experienced a sharp deterioration, undergoing very obvious physical and psychological changes, including depression, first working as a "live show" and "sexual roleplay" girl. By 1980, with little remaining means of income and spiralling debt, the only work she was able to retain was a hectic routine of small scale live shows most evenings. Tajiri commented, sadly: "Accepting the 'Grand Prix' at the first Wet Dream Film Festival was the worst mistake we made with our film, but we were too flattered by the response at the time to realize it".


title: Bodil Joensen

text: Her life falling apart, Joensen became an alcoholic, and progressively less able to care for her animals. In 1981, following a change in Denmark's laws, she was raided for "sickening" animal neglect, and was imprisoned for 30 days. None of her animals ultimately survived, and Bodil herself did not recover after they were euthanised. With little left, she turned to street prostitution to support herself, her partner (an alcoholic himself) and daughter, although friends comment that even then, she did not want to be with people this way – all she wanted was her animals, as it once had been. Resorting to exchanging any sexual favour for alcohol and tranquilizers, she stated in her final interview that "in my position it is hard to turn down anything, no matter how disgusting... for me, staying alive in the hooking business is hell".


title: Bodil Joensen

text: Joensen gave her last interview in 1980 and died in 1985. Many believed her to have committed suicide. However, the April 2006 British documentary titled "The Dark Side of Porn: The Real Animal Farm" traced the production of the underground film known as "Animal Farm" from excerpts of her many bestiality films. In this documentary, it was stated, by a close friend of Joensen's, that she died on 3 January 1985 from cirrhosis of the liver. She was 40 years of age at the time of her death.


title: Parakala Prabhakar

text: Parakala Prabhakar (born 2 January 1959) is an Indian political economist and social commentator. He served as Communications Advisor, held a cabinet rank position in Andhra Pradesh Government between July 2014 and June 2018. For several years he presented a current affairs discussion programme on television channels of Andhra Pradesh. His programmes, Pratidhwani on ETV2 and Namaste Andhra Pradesh on NTV. He was also a former spokesman and one of the founding general secretaries of Praja Rajyam Party. In the early 2000s, Parakala was the spokesperson of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP. He is the spouse of the incumbent union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India, Nirmala Sitharaman.


title: Parakala Prabhakar

text: Parakala was born in a prominent Telugu Brahmin family in Narsapuram, Andhra Pradesh. His mother, Parakala Kalikamba was a Member of Legislative Assembly in Andhra Pradesh, while his father, Parakala Seshavatharam, was a long time Legislator and served in three successive Cabinets in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the 1970s and early 1980s.


title: Parakala Prabhakar

text: Parakala completed his doctorate from the London School of Economics. He did his Master of Arts (M.A.) and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.


title: Parakala Prabhakar

text: Prabhakar married Nirmala Sitharaman in 1986, who is the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India in Narendra Modi's cabinet, in 2019. They have a daughter.


title: Comparison of orbital launch systems

text: This comparison of orbital launch systems lists the attributes of all individual rocket configurations designed to reach orbit. A first list contains rockets that are operational or in development as of 2022; a second list includes all retired rockets. For the simple list of all conventional launcher families, see: Comparison of orbital launchers families. For the list of predominantly solid-fueled orbital launch systems, see: Comparison of solid-fueled orbital launch systems.


title: Comparison of orbital launch systems

text: Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. A conventional solid rocket or a conventional solid-fuel rocket is a rocket with a motor that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). Orbital launch systems are rockets and other systems capable of placing payloads into or beyond Earth orbit. All current spacecraft use conventional chemical rockets (bipropellant or solid-fuel) for launch, though some have used air-breathing engines on their first stage.


title: Comparison of orbital launch systems

text: The following chart shows the number of launch systems developed in each country, and broken down by operational status. Rocket variants are not distinguished; i.e., the Atlas V series is only counted once for all its configurations 401–431, 501–551, 552, and N22.


title: Op art

text: Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns, or swelling or warping.


title: Op art

text: The antecedents of op art, in terms of graphic and color effects, can be traced back to Neo-impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism and Dada. László Moholy-Nagy produced photographic op art and taught the subject in the Bauhaus. One of his lessons consisted of making his students produce holes in cards and then photographing them.


title: Op art

text: "Time" magazine coined the term "op art" in 1964, in response to Julian Stanczak's show "Optical Paintings at the Martha Jackson Gallery", to mean a form of abstract art (specifically non-objective art) that uses optical illusions. Works now described as "op art" had been produced for several years before "Time's" 1964 article. For instance, Victor Vasarely's painting "Zebras" (1938) is made up entirely of curvilinear black and white stripes not contained by contour lines. Consequently, the stripes appear to both meld into and burst forth from the surrounding background. Also, the early black and white "dazzle" panels that John McHale installed at the "This Is Tomorrow" exhibit in 1956 and his "Pandora" series at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1962 demonstrate proto-op art tendencies. Martin Gardner featured op Art and its relation to mathematics in his July 1965 Mathematical Games column in "Scientific American". In Italy, Franco Grignani, who originally trained as an architect, became a leading force of graphic design where op art or kinetic art was central. His Woolmark logo (launched in Britain in 1964) is probably the most famous of all his designs.


title: Op art

text: Op art perhaps more closely derives from the constructivist practices of the Bauhaus. This German school, founded by Walter Gropius, stressed the relationship of form and function within a framework of analysis and rationality. Students learned to focus on the overall design or entire composition to present unified works. Op art also stems from "trompe-l'œil" and anamorphosis. Links with psychological research have also been made, particularly with Gestalt theory and psychophysiology. When the Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933, many of its instructors fled to the United States. There, the movement took root in Chicago and eventually at the Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, where Anni and Josef Albers eventually taught.


title: Op art

text: Op artists thus managed to exploit various phenomena," writes Popper, "the after-image and consecutive movement; line interference; the effect of dazzle; ambiguous figures and reversible perspective; successive colour contrasts and chromatic vibration; and in three-dimensional works different viewpoints and the superimposition of elements in space.


title: Op art

text: In 1955, for the exhibition "Mouvements" at the Denise René gallery in Paris, Victor Vasarely and Pontus Hulten promoted in their "Yellow manifesto" some new kinetic expressions based on optical and luminous phenomenon as well as painting illusionism. The expression "kinetic art" in this modern form first appeared at the Museum für Gestaltung of Zürich in 1960, and found its major developments in the 1960s. In most European countries, it generally includes the form of optical art that mainly makes use of optical illusions, like op art, as well as art based on movement represented by Yacov Agam, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jesús Rafael Soto, Gregorio Vardanega or Nicolas Schöffer. From 1961 to 1968, the "Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel" (GRAV) founded by François Morellet, Julio Le Parc, Francisco Sobrino, Horacio Garcia Rossi, Yvaral, Joël Stein and Vera Molnár was a collective group of opto-kinetic artists that—according to its 1963 manifesto—appealed to the direct participation of the public with an influence on its behavior, notably through the use of interactive labyrinths.


title: Op art

text: Some members of the group Nouvelle tendance (1961–1965) in Europe also were engaged in op art as Almir Mavignier and Gerhard von Graevenitz, mainly with their serigraphics. They studied optical illusions. The term "op" irritated many of the artists labeled under it, specifically including Albers and Stanczak. They had discussed upon the birth of the term a better label, namely "perceptual art". From 1964, Arnold Schmidt (Arnold Alfred Schmidt) had several solo exhibitions of his large, black and white shaped optical paintings exhibited at the Terrain Gallery in New York.


title: Op art

text: In 1965, between February 23 and April 25, an exhibition called "The Responsive Eye", created by William C. Seitz, was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and toured to St. Louis, Seattle, Pasadena, and Baltimore. The works shown were wide-ranging, encompassing the minimalism of Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly, the smooth plasticity of Alexander Liberman, the collaborative efforts of the Anonima group, alongside the well-known Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Wen-Ying Tsai, Bridget Riley and Getulio Alviani. The exhibition focused on the perceptual aspects of art, which result both from the illusion of movement and the interaction of color relationships.


title: Op art

text: The exhibition was a success with the public (visitor attendance was over 180,000), but less so with the critics. Critics dismissed op art as portraying nothing more than "trompe-l'œil", or tricks that fool the eye. Regardless, the public's acceptance increased, and op art images were used in a number of commercial contexts. One of Brian de Palma's early works was a documentary film on the exhibition.


title: Op art

text: Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art that stems from a discordant figure-ground relationship that puts the two planes—foreground and background—in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition. Artists create op art in two primary ways. The first, best known method, is to create effects through pattern and line. Often these paintings are black and white, or shades of gray ("grisaille")—as in Bridget Riley's early paintings such as "Current" (1964), on the cover of "The Responsive Eye" catalog. Here, black and white wavy lines are close to one another on the canvas surface, creating a volatile figure-ground relationship. Getulio Alviani used aluminum surfaces, which he treated to create light patterns that change as the watcher moves (vibrating texture surfaces). Another reaction that occurs is that the lines create after-images of certain colors due to how the retina receives and processes light. As Goethe demonstrates in his treatise "Theory of Colours", at the edge where light and dark meet, color arises because lightness and darkness are the two central properties in the creation of color.


title: Op art

text: Beginning in 1965 Bridget Riley began to produce color-based op art; however, other artists, such as Julian Stanczak and Richard Anuszkiewicz, were always interested in making color the primary focus of their work. Josef Albers taught these two primary practitioners of the "Color Function" school at Yale in the 1950s. Often, colorist work is dominated by the same concerns of figure-ground movement, but they have the added element of contrasting colors that produce different effects on the eye. For instance, in Anuszkiewicz's "temple" paintings, the juxtaposition of two highly contrasting colors provokes a sense of depth in illusionistic three-dimensional space so that it appears as if the architectural shape is invading the viewer's space.


title: United States Penitentiary, Coleman

text: The United States Penitentiary, Coleman I and II (USP Coleman I and II) are high-security United States federal prisons for male inmates in Florida. It is part of the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex (FCC Coleman) and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. USP Coleman I was opened in 2001, and in 2004 Clark Construction completed a additional component for USP Coleman II.


title: United States Penitentiary, Coleman

text: FCC Coleman is located in central Florida, approximately northwest of Orlando, northeast of Tampa, and south of Ocala.


title: United States Penitentiary, Coleman

text: Former prisoner Nate A. Lindell wrote that USP Coleman II is "a so-called special-needs prison—a 'safe' facility where informants, former cops, ex-gang members, check-ins (prisoners who intentionally put themselves in solitary confinement to be safe), homosexuals, and sex offenders can all, supposedly, walk the Yard freely. At regular BOP lockups, these types of men are in danger of being beaten, stabbed, or killed." The Marshall Project stated that "Coleman II did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation".


title: United States Penitentiary, Coleman

text: In late 2008, Michael Rudkin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a female inmate and plotting with her to kill his wife while he was a correctional officer at the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, a federal prison for women in Connecticut. Rudkin was sent to FCC Coleman to serve his sentence. While at Coleman, Rudkin solicited the help of fellow inmates in June 2009 to find a hitman to kill his ex-wife, her new boyfriend, his former inmate paramour and a federal investigator. He provided a handwritten note giving physical descriptions and locations of the intended victims to fellow inmates. The inmates alerted authorities, who instructed the inmates to provide Rudkin with a false name and address of a "hitman." Rudkin subsequently mailed money from his inmate account to the alleged "hitman" as an advance. Rudkin was subsequently convicted of orchestrating the plot and sentenced to 90 years in prison, which he served at the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, the federal facility in Indiana. On August 24, 2021 he was beaten to death by another inmate.


title: United States Penitentiary, Coleman

text: †The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 eliminated parole for most federal inmates. However, inmates sentenced for offenses committed prior to 1987 are eligible for parole consideration.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Deborah Cox (born July 13, 1974) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Toronto, she began performing on television commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows in her teenage years before becoming a professional backing vocalist for Celine Dion. In 1994, Cox relocated to the United States and was signed to Arista Records by Clive Davis, releasing her self-titled debut album the following year. Her second studio album, "One Wish" (1998), was certified platinum in the United States. It was marked by the commercial success of the pop crossover single "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here", which would become her most successful entry on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, peaking at number two and remaining there for eight consecutive weeks. Cox signed with J Records for her third studio album "The Morning After" (2002), which saw moderate commercial success.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Cox ventured into acting in the 2000s, making her film debut in the Canadian drama film "Love Come Down" (2000) and her stage debut in 2004, in the title role in the Broadway musical "Aida". She has since appeared in smaller films and several musical productions, including the horror-drama "Jekyll & Hyde", the biographical musical "Josephine" and the musical adaptation of "The Bodyguard". Cox's most recent studio albums, "Destination Moon" (2007) and "The Promise" (2008), have been released through her own independent record label, Deco Recording Group. In 2017, her single "Let the World Be Ours Tonight" became her 13th number-one hit on "Billboard"s Dance Club Songs over the span of three consecutive decades. In 2016, "Billboard" listed Cox at 23rd on its list of the Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. An eight-time Juno Award nominee, she has won four awards and is often cited as Canada's top R&B artist.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Deborah Cox was born in Toronto to parents of Guyanese descent, grew up in Scarborough, Toronto, was raised Catholic, and attended John XXIII Catholic Elementary School and Earl Haig Secondary School. She began singing on TV commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows including an appearance on "Tiny Talent Time". She performed in nightclubs as a teenager, and began to write music around the same time. Cox entered the music industry in the early 1990s, performing as a backup vocalist for Celine Dion for six months. In 1992, she also appeared on Devon's LP titled "It's My Nature" on the track "That's A Friend." After receiving many rejection letters from Canadian record labels that claimed their "quota" had been reached, Cox moved to Los Angeles in 1994 with producer and songwriting partner, Lascelles Stephens.


title: Deborah Cox

text: In 1995, label executive Clive Davis signed Cox to Arista Records. Featuring production from Dallas Austin, Keith Crouch, Tim & Bob, and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, she released her self-titled debut album the same year. A middling commercial and critical success, the album peaked at number 102 on US "Billboard" 200 but emerged as a steady seller, eventually receiving a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while going platinum in Canada. Lead single "Sentimental" entered the top five on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, while follow-up "Who Do U Love" attained worldwide success, becoming a top twenty success in Australia, New Zealand and the US, also reaching the top of "Billboard"s Dance Club Songs. In 1996, "Deborah Cox" won Cox a Juno Award for Best R&B/Soul Recording at the annual award ceremony and earned her a Best Soul/R&B New Artist nomination at the 1996 American Music Awards.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Cox contributed the non-album song "Things Just Ain't The Same" to the soundtrack to the 1997 film "Money Talks". A dance remix of the song, produced by Hex Hector, became her second number-one hit on "Billboard"s Dance Club Songs chart and was included on her second album, 1998's "One Wish". As with her self-titled debut album, her sophomore effort was once again executive-produced by Davis, but featured more uptempo, contemporary R&B, and a slew of new producers and personnel to incorporate dance and club music, including Montell Jordan, Anthony "Shep" Crawford, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, and DJ Quik. "One Wish" peaked at number 72 on the "Billboard" 200 and earned a platinum certification from the RIAA, while reaching gold status in Canada. The album capitalized on the crossover success of lead single "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" which became Cox's most successful entry on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number two, and remaining there for eight consecutive weeks, making it one of the longest stays at number two in chart history. The song also reached number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, spending a then record-breaking 14 weeks at number one, while the third single "We Can't Be Friends," a duet with R. L. Huggar, reached the top ten, with "It's Over Now" and "I Never Knew" become chart-toppers on the Dance Club Songs chart.


title: Deborah Cox

text: After "One Wish", Cox collaborated with singer Whitney Houston on her single "Same Script, Different Cast" from the compilation album "". Incorporating a backing track of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Für Elise" during the intro, it was released as a radio-only promo single and became a minor hit on "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number 70 while reaching number 14 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In 2000, Cox made her acting debut when she starred in Clement Virgo's Canadian drama film "Love Come Down", playing a nightclub singer. The film garnered eight nominations at the 21st Genie Awards, including two Best Original Song nominations for Cox's songs "29" and "Our Love". In 2001, Cox then recorded "Absolutely Not", for the soundtrack to "Dr. Dolittle 2" which became her sixth number one hit on "Billboard"s Dance Club Songs.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Cox's third album "The Morning After" was released in November 2002 on J Records following a frustratingly long departure from Arista. It marked the Cox's first record under Clive Davis's label, with Davis, once more serving as executive producer. Keen to build on the success of her previous album "One Wish", he enlisted the help of producers such as Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Jermaine Dupri, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, and Shep Crawford as well as up-and-coming producers Warryn Campbell, Johntá Austin and Alex Richbourg to work with Cox. A blend of urban R&B and adult contemporary songs with additional dance/house tracks, it became her highest-charting album on the US "Billboard" 200 and "Billboard"s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums yet, debuting and peaking at number 38 and number seven, respectively. Commercially, the album was less successful than her previous album, however, though it produced two singles on the US Dance Club Songs chart, including "Mr. Lonely" and "Play Your Part".


title: Deborah Cox

text: In February 2004, Cox made her Broadway debut in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical "Aida" when she replaced singer Michelle Williams in her role of the Nubian princess. Her four-month engagement earned largely positive reviews. The same year, she recorded and released a dance remix of the musical's theme song "Easy As Life" as a promotional single. In 2005, Cox starred in the films "Blood of a Champion" and "Love on Layaway". Also that year, her voice was featured in the movie "Hotel Rwanda" in the song "Nobody Cares". To sustain demand for Cox's club appearances, while focused on her family and new album projects, she released a dance single titled "House Is Not a Home" on Nervous Records in January 2006. Later in the year, her song "Definition of Love" was used in the movie "Akeelah and the Bee", but was not released as a single.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Between 2005 and 2006 Deborah recorded her fourth album, called "Destination Moon", arranged and produced by Rob Mounsey. A tribute album to jazz singer Dinah Washington, Cox noted it a concept album that she had in mind for years. Most of the album was recorded live with a forty-piece orchestra with Rob Mounsey arranging. Eventually released by Decca Records in June 2017, "Destination Moon" peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Top Jazz Albums. The same year, Cox co-starred alongside Golden Brooks and Darius McCrary in Leslie Small's film "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Based on the musical stage play of the same name, the comedy depicts the story of three women who each undergo romantic crises that challenge their personal and spiritual relationships. In 2008, Cox performed the Canadian national anthem at the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, receiving rave reviews. She also contributed the song "This Gift" to the soundtrack of the 2008 romantic drama film "Meet the Browns", directed by Tyler Perry, and served as a supporting act on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour 2008.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Also that year, Cox finished work on her sixth studio album "The Promise", released on November 11, 2008, through Deco Recording Group, Cox's own independent label, with distribution handled by Image Entertainment. A breakaway from her previous album, it marked her return to R&B music and saw her working with a wider number of songwriters and producers on the album, including The Avila Brothers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Devo Springsteen, Big Jim, and Shep Crawford.


title: Deborah Cox

text: "The Promise" debuted at number 106 on the US "Billboard" 200, number 14 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and number 95 on the Canadian Albums Chart. Earning generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics, it was nominated for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year at the 2009 Juno Awards. It second single "Beautiful U R" marked her biggest hit since "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here," becoming a top ten hit in Canada, where it was certified platinum by Music Canada, as well as her tenth chart-topper on the "Billboard" Dance Club Songs. In support of the album, Cox joined forces with American R&B singer Kenny Lattimore for the joint Timeless Promise Tour in July 2009. Also in 2009, she was featured on the single "Leave the World Behind", a house track produced by four DJs Axwell, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and Laidback Luke.


title: Deborah Cox

text: In 2010, it was announced that Cox would be joining fellow R&B singers Kelly Price and Tamia to form a supergroup. While the trio recorded several tracks together, their joint album "The Queen Project" eventually failed to materialize due timing issues and label politics. In 2011, Cox released the dance-heavy single "If It Wasn't for Love" through Deco Entertainment. It became her eleventh chart topper on "Billboard"s Dance Club Songs and was to precede a new studio album which remained unreleased. In September 2012, Cox gave her inaugural performance as the female lead Lucy in a revival of the musical "Jekyll & Hyde" which toured North America for twenty-five weeks. While the show enjoyed a limited Broadway run only, Cox received positive reviews for her performance. Also in 2012, she collaborated with rapper Akon on the song "No Labels", the official anthem of the same-titled American bipartisan political organization. The following year, Cox collaborated with DJ Paige on the non-album single "Higher". Released through Electronic Kingdom Records, it became her twelfth number-one hit on the US Dance Club Songs chart. In 2014, Cox was one of the performers at the opening ceremonies of WorldPride in Toronto, alongside Melissa Etheridge, Tom Robinson and Steve Grand.


title: Deborah Cox

text: In 2015, she provided vocals for the made for television biographical film "Whitney", directed by Angela Bassett based on American recording artist Whitney Houston. Cox performed all of Houston's vocals in the film, including "I Will Always Love You", "I'm Your Baby Tonight", and "The Greatest Love of All." The same year, she released the deep house-influenced "Kinda Miss You", as well as the ballad "More Than I Knew" as singles. Both were set to appear on her sixth album "Work of Art", initially announced for an August 2015 release through Deco and Primary Wave Music. However, after several delays, the album remained unreleased. In 2016, Cox played the lead role of Josephine Baker in the Broadway-bound musical "Josephine", which chronicled the singer's life between the years of 1939 and 1945, and starred as Rachel Marron in the North American Tour of the musical "The Bodyguard" based on the 1992 film of the same name. In support of the musical, Cox released the EP "I Will Always Love You" on Deco and Broadway Records, containing cover versions of seven Whitney Houston originals as well as Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You." In June 2017, she released an uptempo dance single "Let the World Be Ours Tonight" during LGBTQ pride season on Radikal Records and Galactic Media. It marked her 13th single to top "Billboard"s Dance Club Songs.


title: Deborah Cox

text: In June 2019, Cox performed at Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. In November 2019, she released the Rico Love-produced single "Easy Way" through Deco Entertainment. The song was expected to lead her yet-unreleased seventh studio album, initially expected to be released in late 2020. It was followed by the Christmas single "Gimme Gimme Gimme Some Christmas" a month later. In February 2020, Cox starred opposite Roger Guenveur Smith in the BET+ television thriller "Influence", an adaption of Carl Weber's same-tited 2018 novel, portraying a big-name celebrity singer accused of killing her husband. Also in 2020, she appeared as a guest host in an episode of "Canada's Drag Race" and started a webseries titled "COXtales with Deborah Cox" during the global COVID-19 pandemic. In fall 2020, Cox released further two Christmas singles, the original song "I Really Don't Want Much for Christmas" and a rendition of the Eartha Kitt song "Santa Baby."


title: Deborah Cox

text: In 2021, Cox was added to the BET series "First Wives Club" during its second season, playing the role of musician Regina alongside Michelle Buteau and Jill Scott. The same year, she co-starred as Wendy in the HBO Max post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction miniseries "Station Eleven", and appeared on "Summe of Love," another collaboration with Israeli producer Offer Nissim. In 2022, Cox was announced as an inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, becoming the first Black woman to be inducted.


title: Deborah Cox

text: Cox currently lives in Miami, Florida. She is married to her high school sweetheart and manager, Lascelles Stephens. They have three children: a son, Isaiah (born July 1, 2003) and two daughters, Sumayah (born June 29, 2006), and Kaila Michelle (born February 23, 2009).


title: Bofors scandal

text: The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and several other members of the Indian and Swedish governments who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB, an arms manufacturer principally financed by the Wallenberg family's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, for winning a bid to supply to India their 155 mm field howitzer. The scandal relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US$1.4-billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with the government of India for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns, and a supply contract almost twice that amount. It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. The investigations revealed flouting of rules and bypassing of institutions.


title: Bofors scandal

text: On 16 April 1987, a Swedish radio station broke out a story based on a whistleblower in the Swedish police, alleging that the reputed Swedish artillery manufacturer Bofors had paid kickbacks to people in several countries, including Sweden and India, to secure a contract. This had been done the previous year for a deal to supply 410 155 mm calibre howitzer guns for the Indian army. However, none of the newspapers in India were aware of this. In May 1987, a broadcast by a Swedish radio station revealed that bribes of had been paid by Bofors to Indian politicians, members of the Congress party and bureaucrats. This was picked up by a young journalist from "The Hindu", Chitra Subramaniam, who happened to be in Sweden at that time, covering another story. The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that Sweden and India had seen before and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections. The Swedish company paid in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and key defence officials.


title: Bofors scandal

text: The case came into light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defence minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism tipped off by a Reuters news revelation on Swedish radio, followed up by a team led by N. Ram of the newspaper "The Hindu". The journalist who secured the over 350 documents that detailed the payoffs was Chitra Subramaniam reporting for "The Hindu". Later the articles were published in "The Indian Express" and "The Statesman" when "The Hindu" stopped publishing stories about the Bofors scandal under immense government pressure and Chitra Subramaniam moved to the two newspapers. In an interview with her, published in "The Hoot" in April 2012 on the 25th anniversary of the revelations, Sten Lindstrom, former chief of Swedish police, discussed why he leaked the documents to her and the role of whistle-blowers in a democracy.


title: Bofors scandal

text: March 24, 1986 - A $285 million contract between the Government of India and Swedish arms company Bofors was signed for supply of 410 155 mm Howitzer field guns.


title: Bofors scandal

text: April 16, 1987 - Swedish Radio alleged that Bofors paid kickbacks to people from a number of countries including top Swedish and Indian politicians and key defence officials to seal the deal.


title: Bofors scandal

text: 1987 - As a result of the revelations, the Indian government blacklisted Bofors, preventing the company from doing business in India. The middleman associated with the scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who represented the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. Quattrocchi was reportedly close to the family of Rajiv Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker in the 1980s between big businesses and the Indian government.


title: Bofors scandal

text: May 21, 1991 - While the case was being investigated, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated for unrelated reasons by the LTTE.


title: Bofors scandal

text: 1999 - The Indian government lifted its ban on Bofors. The lifting of the ban came during the Kargil War, when the Bofors guns proved to be efficient but were crippled by a shortage of spare parts.


title: Bofors scandal

text: October 22, 1999 - When National Democratic Alliance government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the first chargesheet against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a number of others.


title: Bofors scandal

text: June 10, 2002 - Delhi High Court quashed all proceedings in the case so far. However, this was reversed by Supreme Court of India on 7 July 2003.


title: Bofors scandal

text: 2004 - The central government changed and Indian National Congress came to power after 2004 Lok Sabha elections. On 5 February 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery against Rajiv Gandhi and others.


title: Bofors scandal

text: May 31, 2005 - The Delhi High Court dismissed the allegations against the British business brothers, Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, but charges against others remained.


title: Bofors scandal

text: December 2005 - B. Daat, the Additional Solicitor General of India, acting on behalf of the Indian Government and the CBI, requested the British Government that two British bank accounts of Quattrocchi be unfrozen on the grounds of insufficient evidence to link these accounts to the Bofors payoff. The two accounts, containing €3 million and $1 million, had been frozen. On 16 January, the Indian Supreme Court directed the Indian government to ensure that Ottavio Quattrocchi did not withdraw money from the two bank accounts in London. The CBI, the Indian federal law enforcement agency, on 23 January 2006 admitted that roughly ₹210 million, about US$4.6 million, in the two accounts have already been withdrawn by the accused. The British government released the funds later.


title: Bofors scandal

text: January 16, 2006 - CBI claimed in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that they were still pursuing extradition orders for Quattrocchi. The Interpol, at the request of the CBI, has a long-standing red corner notice to arrest Quattrocchi.


title: Bofors scandal

text: 6 February 2007 - Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on 6 February 2007, but the news of his detention was released by the CBI only on 23 February. Quattrocchi was released by Argentinian police. However, his passport was impounded and he was not allowed to leave the country. As there was no extradition treaty between India and Argentina, the case was presented in the Argentine Supreme Court. The government of India lost the extradition case as the government of India did not provide a key court order which was the basis of Quattrocchi's arrest. In the aftermath, the government did not appeal this decision because of delays in securing an official English translation of the court's decision.


title: Bofors scandal

text: March 4, 2011 - A Delhi court provided temporary relief to Quattrocchi from the case, for lack of sufficient evidence against him.


title: Bofors scandal

text: Despite the controversy, the Bofors gun was used extensively as the primary field artillery during the Kargil War with Pakistan and gave India 'an edge' against Pakistan according to battlefield commanders.


title: Bofors scandal

text: In his book, "Unknown Facets of Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu and Indrajit Gupta", released in November 2013, former CBI director Dr A P Mukherjee wrote that Rajiv Gandhi wanted commission paid by defence suppliers to be used exclusively for the purpose of meeting expenses of running the Congress party. Mukherjee said Gandhi explained his position in a meeting on 19 June 1989, during a meeting between the two at the Prime Minister's residence. However, as per Sten Lindstrom, the former head of Swedish police, who led the investigations, they did not find anything to suggest that payments had been received by Rajiv Gandhi. He was, however, guilty of knowing about the kickbacks and not taking action on them.


title: Bofors scandal

text: The Bofors scandal was a major issue that was highlighted in subsequent elections, which led to the Congress losing power. Though it was widely believed that V. P. Singh resigned from Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet due to the Bofors scandal, Singh clarified that he had resigned due to differences in the cabinet in commissions taken by Indian agents in the HDW submarine deal (Shishumar class).


title: Bofors scandal

text: Middlemen were employed in arms deals in India, both during the British Raj as well as in independent India, and commissions were paid to them under various headings and guises. Some of these were paid as personal bribes while others were paid as contributions to political parties. This led to high levels of corruption, and payments being made to politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnel to influence decisions. The political controversies caused by the Bofors Scandal, led to the banning of middlemen in arms deals.


title: Bofors scandal

text: In 2015, the Government of India under the Narendra Modi government made the use of middlemen in arms deals legal, if they called themselves "company representatives". The then defence minister Manohar Parrikar announced that in such cases, middlemen would be paid by the government for fixing arms deals under the name of "legal fees".


title: Bofors scandal

text: CBI has been criticised by experts, social workers, political parties and people at large for the manner in which it has handled this case. Some points to be noted:


title: Bofors scandal

text: The closure of Bofors case was full of twists and turns. In 2004, Delhi High Court posthumously gave clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi and said that there was no case of corruption against him or any public servant. This judgement stunned CBI as it had pursued the case for 14 years and was a setback to NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as well. However, CBI said that it would contest the judgement in Supreme Court.


title: Bofors scandal

text: In 2011, a Delhi court allowed CBI to close the case. Thereafter in 2012, Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom who led the investigations and identified himself as the whistleblower, said that Rajiv Gandhi had done nothing wrong and also cleared Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and his family from any involvement in the scandal. Instead, he accused Swedish government of diverting funds marked for development projects to secure the deal by flouting the rules and bypassing the institutions.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Pan-Islamism () is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Pan-Islamism was launched in Turkey at the end of the 19th century by Sultan Abdul-Hamid II for the purpose of combating the process of westernization and fostering the unification of Islam.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Pan-Islamism differentiates itself from pan-nationalistic ideologies, for example Pan-Arabism, by seeing the ummah (Muslim community) as the focus of allegiance and mobilization, excluding ethnicity and race as primary unifying factors.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: The major leaders of the Pan-Islamist movement were the triad of Jamal al-Din Afghani (1839 - 1897), Muhammad Abduh (1849 - 1905) and Sayyid Rashid Rida (1865 - 1935); who were active in anti-colonial efforts to confront European penetration of Muslim lands. They also sought to strengthen Islamic unity, which they believed to be the strongest force to mobilize Muslims against imperial domination. Following Ibn Saud's conquest of Arabian Peninsula; pan-Islamism would be bolstered across the Islamic World. During the second half of the twentieth century; pan-Islamists would compete against secular nationalist ideologies in the Arab World such as Nasserism and Ba'athism.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: The Arabic term Ummah, which is found in the Quran and Islamic tradition, has historically been used to denote the Muslims as a whole, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. This term has been used in a political sense by classical Islamic scholars e.g. such as al-Mawardi in Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah, where he discusses the contract of Imamate of the Ummah, "prescribed to succeed Prophethood" in protection of the religion and of managing the affairs of the world. Al-Ghazali also talks about Ummah in a political sense e.g. in his work, "Fadiah al-Batinyah wa Fadail al-Mustazhariyah".


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Fakhruddin al-Razi, who also talks about Ummah in a political sense, is quoted as saying the following:


title: Pan-Islamism

text: According to some scholars, the ideology's aims takes early years of Islam – the reign of Muhammad and the early caliphate – especially during Islamic golden age as its model, as it is commonly held that during these years the Muslim world was strong, unified, and free from corruption.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Many scholars assert that the doctrines of pan-Islamism could be observed as early as during the era of Islamic Iberia, Emirate of Sicily, the Gunpowder Empires (Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires) and several Muslim sultanates and kingdoms, despite the presence and employment of non-Muslim subjects by Muslim powers. During the 18th century, multiple movements for puritanical Islamic renewal would emerge. Amongst these, the revivalist movements of three leading religious reformers— Shah Wali Allah of Delhi (1702–1763), the Arabian Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), and the Nigerian Uthman dan Fodio (1755–1816)— are widely regarded as the precursors of the modern-era Pan-Islamist thought. Despite their calls for puritanical reform; these movements were not politically concerned with the international situation of the Muslim world, and had not elaborated comprehensive pan-Islamist programmes to combat the Western threat. Since they did not call for the revival of an international Islamic entity; their ideas and impact were limited to the local regional contexts of West Africa, Arabia, and South Asia.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: In spite of their diversity, these eighteenth-century Muslim reformers were united in their condemnation of declining morality and calls for the revival of scripture-based piety. Inspired by these movements, Islamic reformers at the turn of the 19th century adopted novel strategies for overcoming the crisis faced by the Muslim World by adapting to the fast-paced transformation of its era. Their proposed approaches now oscillated between an open admiration for the technology-mediated Western ideology of societal progress and a clear rejection of it on the grounds of the axiomatic superiority of an idealized Islamic culture, rooted in Scripturalist injunctions. Two major scholars of early colonial Egypt ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (d. 1825) and Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi (d. 1872) represented these intellectual trends. While Rifa'a al Tahtawi exemplified the former, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti represented the latter, Scriptural-oriented approach.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: In the modern era, Pan-Islamism was championed by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani who sought unity among Muslims to resist colonial occupation of Muslim lands. Afghani feared that nationalism would divide the Muslim world and believed that Muslim unity was more important than ethnic identity. Although sometimes described as "liberal", al-Afghani did not advocate constitutional government but simply envisioned “the overthrow of individual rulers who were lax or subservient to foreigners, and their replacement by strong and patriotic men.” In a review of the theoretical articles of his Paris-based newspaper there was nothing "favoring political democracy or parliamentarianism,” according to his biographer.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: While Afghani was an advocate of revolution from above, his student 'Abduh (who was also a Freemason) believed in revolution from below, through religious and educational reforms. Despite al-Afghani’s tremendous influence on ‘Abduh, the latter eventually would distance himself from Afghani's political path. He instead focused on gradual efforts in the field of education, which he viewed as more effective instruments for reform. He criticised Afghani and pan-Islamist intellectuals for their political activities. Afghani had bitter arguments with Abduh and regularly accused him of timidity and dispiritedness.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Islamic jurist Muhammad Rashid Rida -a student of Abduh and Afghani- on the other hand, was an avowed anti-imperialist and an exponent of a puritanical revolution, inspired by his nostalgia for the early eras of Islam. According to Rida, the state-sponsored scholars neglected the revival of early Islamic traditions in the Muslim "Ummah". He believed that the unification of the Islamic community would only be possible through the restoration of an Islamic caliphate which implements the "Sharia" (Islamic law). His influential Islamic journal "Al-Manar" promoted anti-British revolt, as well as Islamic revivalism based on the tenets of "Salafiyya". Positioning himself as the successor to the pan-Islamist activism of Afghani and 'Abduh; Rida called for a pan-Islamic project based on revival of the Islamic caliphate led by Arabs and the reformation of Muslims. During the 1920s, Rida formulated the comprehensive Islamic state doctrine in his famous treatise "al-Khilafa aw al-Imama al-‘Uzma" ("The Caliphate or the Exalted Imamate") in which he called upon Muslims to strive to build a political system based on faith; rather than nationalism. He opposed the rising embracal of Western ideas amongst Muslims, arguing that only a return to Islam would restore the rightful position of Muslims in the modern age. Pan-Islamic networks, led by Rashid Rida and his associates, played a central role in later development of Islamist movements.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Rida's Salafiyya movement advocated for pan-Islamist solidarity which involved socio-political campaigning to establish "Sharia" (Islamic laws). Following World War I, Rida and his disciples became the biggest adverseries of secularists and nationalists; and vehemently attacked all forms of democratic ideas. Articulating his Pan-Islamist vision, Rashid Rida wrote in "Al-Manar" in 1902:"In sum, what I mean by Islamic unity is that the leaders ("ahl al-Hal wal-'aqd") among the scholars and notables should meet and compile a book of ordinances which is based on the deeply-rooted fundamentals of the Divine Law, agrees with the needs of the time, is easy to use, and is free of disagreement ("khilaf"). The Supreme Imam then orders the rulers of Muslims to apply it ("al-'amal bihi")"


title: Pan-Islamism

text: After the Abolition of Caliphate in 1924, Pan-Islamism mobilized Muslim masses of both traditionalist and reform movements in Islam, inspired by the ideas of Rashid Rida. The Reformist movements led by Rida, would become more fundamentalist and literalist; emphasizing adherence to the idealised era of the "Salaf" and attempt to revive lost traditions. Rashid Rida's socio-political views symbolised the convergence of the doctrines of the reformist, Salafist and pan-Islamist movements. During the 1920s, Rida and his Salafi disciples established the Young Men's Muslim Association (YMMA); an influential Islamist youth organisation that spearheaded attacks against liberal trends and Western culture. This provided favourable conditions for the growth of various Islamist revolutionary movements.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: The evolution of the early Pan-Islamist movement in the post-colonial world was strongly associated with Islamism. Leading Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb, Abul Ala Maududi, and Ayatollah Khomeini all stressed their belief that a return to traditional Sharia law would make Islam united and strong again. Extremism within Islam goes back to the 7th century to the Kharijites. From their essentially political position, they developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shiʿa Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to Takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed them worthy of death.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: In the period of de-colonialism following World War II, Arab nationalism overshadowed Islamism which denounced nationalism as un-Islamic. In the Arab world secular pan-Arab parties – Baath and Nasserist parties – had offshoots in almost every Arab country, and took power in Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Syria. Islamists suffered severe repression; its major thinker Sayyid Qutb, was imprisoned, underwent torture and was later executed. Egyptian president Nasser considered the idea of Muslim unity as a threat to Arab nationalism.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: In the 1950s, Pakistan's government championed Muslim cooperation like many other Muslim countries however Pakistan’s efforts were complicated with its involvement in Baghdad pact and pro-western foreign diplomacy in light of the Palestine-Israel conflict, however later relations would be much better. Many Muslim countries suspected that Pakistan was aspiring to leadership of the Muslim world to in foreword help western powers in relations with other Muslim states.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: Following the defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War, Islamism and Pan-Islam began to reverse their relative position of popularity with nationalism and pan-Arabism. Political events in the Muslim world in the late 1960s convinced many Muslim states to shift their earlier ideas and respond favourably to Pakistan's goal of Muslim unity. Nasser abandoned his opposition to a pan-Islamic platform and such developments facilitated the first summit conference of Muslim heads of state in Rabat in 1969. This conference was eventually transformed into a permanent body called Organisation of Islamic Conference.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: In 1979 the Iranian Revolution ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from power. Ten years later in 1989; the Afghan mujahideen, with major support from the United States, would successfully force the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. Pan-Islamic Sunni Muslims such as Maududi and the Muslim Brotherhood, embraced the creation of a new caliphate, at least as a long-term project. Shia leader Ruhollah Khomeini also embraced a united Islamic supra-state but saw it led by a (Shia) religious scholar of fiqh (a faqih).


title: Pan-Islamism

text: These events galvanised Islamists the world over and heightened their popularity with the Muslim public. Throughout the Middle-East, and in particular Egypt, the various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood have significantly challenged the secular nationalist or monarchical Muslim governments. In Pakistan the Jamaat-e-Islami enjoyed popular support especially since the formation of the MMA, and in Algeria the FIS was expected to win the cancelled elections in 1992. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hizb-ut-Tahrir has emerged as a Pan-Islamist force in Central Asia and in the last five years has developed some support from the Arab world.


title: Pan-Islamism

text: A recent advocate for Pan-Islamism was late Turkish prime minister and founder of Millî Görüş movement Necmettin Erbakan, who championed the Pan-Islamic Union (İslam Birliği) idea and took steps in his government toward that goal by establishing the Developing 8 Countries (or D8, as opposed to G8) in 1996 with Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Bangladesh. His vision was gradual unity of Muslim nations through economic and technologic collaboration similar to the EU with a single monetary unit (İslam Dinarı), joint aerospace and defense projects, petrochemical technology development, regional civil aviation network and a gradual agreement to democratic values. Although the organization met at presidential and cabinet levels and moderate collaboration projects continue to date, the momentum was instantly lost when the so-called Post-Modern Coup of February 28, 1997, eventually took down Erbakan's government.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: In American politics, a conservative Democrat is a member of the Democratic Party with conservative political views, or with views that are conservative compared to the positions taken by other members of the Democratic Party. Traditionally, conservative Democrats have been elected to office from the Southern states, rural areas, the Rust Belt, and the Midwest. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 14% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identify as conservative or very conservative, 38% identify as moderate, and 47% identify as liberal or very liberal.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: 21st century conservative Democrats are similar to liberal Republican counterparts, in that both became political minorities after their respective political parties underwent a major political realignment, which began to gain speed in 1964. Prior to 1964, both parties had their liberal, moderate, and conservative wings, each of them influential in both parties. During this period, conservative Democrats formed the Democratic half of the conservative coalition. After 1964, the conservative wing assumed a greater presence in the Republican Party, although it did not become the mainstay of the party until the nomination of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The Democratic Party retained its conservative wing through the 1970s with the help of urban machine politics while blue-collar workers still aligned with the Democrats. This political realignment was mostly complete by 1980.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: After 1980, the Republicans became a mostly conservative party, with conservative leaders such as Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott, and Tom DeLay. The Democrats, while keeping their liberal base intact, grew their centrist wing, the New Democrats, in the 1990s, with leaders such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Evan Bayh. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the New Democrat Coalition represents the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, and the Blue Dog Coalition represents centrist and conservative Democrats.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The Solid South describes the reliable electoral support of the U.S. Southern states for Democratic Party candidates for almost a century after the Reconstruction era. Except for 1928, when Catholic candidate Al Smith ran on the Democratic ticket, Democrats won heavily in the South in every presidential election from 1876 until 1964 (and even in 1928, the divided South provided most of Smith's electoral votes). The Democratic dominance originated in many Southerners' animosity towards the Republican Party's role in the Civil War and Reconstruction.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: In 1896, William Jennings Bryan won the Democratic Party nomination by promoting silver over gold, and denouncing the banking system. He had a strong base in the South and Plains states, as well as silver mining centers in the Rocky Mountain states. He was weak in urban areas and immigrant communities which opposed prohibition. He also won the Populist nomination. Conservative Democrats opposed him, especially in the Northeast where "Gold Democrats" were most active. "Gold Democrats" were supporters of Grover Cleveland, the hero of conservative Democrats. They formed the National Democratic Party (United States) and nominated John M. Palmer (politician), former governor of Illinois, for president and Simon Bolivar Buckner, former governor of Kentucky, for vice-president. They also nominated a few other candidates, including William Campbell Preston Breckinridge for Congress in Kentucky, but they won no elections. Bryan and people he supported (especially Woodrow Wilson) usually dominated the party. However the conservatives did nominate their candidate in 1904, Alton B. Parker.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The 1932 election brought about a major realignment in political party affiliation. Franklin D. Roosevelt forged a coalition of labor unions, liberals, Catholics, African Americans, and southern whites. Roosevelt's program for alleviating the Great Depression, collectively known as the New Deal, emphasized only economic issues, and thus was compatible with the views of those who supported the New Deal programs but were otherwise conservative. This included the Southern Democrats, who were an important part of FDR's New Deal coalition.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: Conservative Democrats came to oppose the New Deal, especially after 1936. They included Senator Harry F. Byrd and his powerful state organization in Virginia, Senator Rush Holt Sr., Senator Josiah Bailey, and Representative Samuel B. Pettengill. The American Liberty League was formed in 1934, to oppose the New Deal. It was made up of wealthy businessmen and conservative Democrats including former Congressman Jouett Shouse of Kansas, former Congressman from West Virginia and 1924 Democratic presidential candidate, John W. Davis, and former governor of New York and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith. In 1936, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of War, Henry Skillman Breckinridge ran against Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination for president. John Nance Garner, of Texas, 32nd Vice President of the United States under Roosevelt, a conservative Southerner, broke with Roosevelt in 1937 and ran against him for the Democratic nomination for president in 1940, but lost. By 1938 conservative Democrats in Congress—chiefly from the South—formed a coalition with Republicans that largely blocked liberal domestic policy until the 1960s.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: However, most of the conservative Southern Democrats supported the foreign policy of Roosevelt and Truman.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: Roosevelt tried to purge the more conservative Democrats in numerous states in 1938. He especially tried to unseat those up for reelection who defeated his plan to pack the Supreme Court in 1937. He failed in nearly all cases, with a major success in defeating John J. O'Connor in Manhattan, a spokesman for big business.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: A different source of conservative Democratic dissent against the New Deal came from a group of journalists who considered themselves classical liberals and Democrats of the old school, and were opposed to big government programs on principle; these included Albert Jay Nock and John T. Flynn, whose views later became influential in the libertarian movement.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The proclamation by President Harry S. Truman and Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey of support for a civil rights plank in the Democratic Party platform of 1948 led to a walkout of 35 delegates from Mississippi and Alabama. These southern delegations nominated their own States Rights Democratic Party, better known as the Dixiecrats, nominees with South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond leading the ticket (Thurmond would later represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate, and join the Republicans in 1964). The Dixiecrats held their convention in Birmingham, Alabama, where they nominated Thurmond for president and Fielding L. Wright, governor of Mississippi, for vice president. Dixiecrat leaders worked to have Thurmond-Wright declared the "official" Democratic Party ticket in Southern states. They succeeded in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina; in other states, they were forced to run as a third-party ticket. Preston Parks, elected as a presidential elector for Truman in Tennessee, instead voted for the Thurmond-Wright ticket. Leander Perez attempted to keep the States Rights Party alive in Louisiana after 1948.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: Similar breakaway Southern Democratic candidates running on states' rights and segregationist platforms would continue in 1956 (T. Coleman Andrews), and 1960 (Harry F. Byrd). None would be as successful as the American Independent Party campaign of George Wallace, the Democratic governor of Alabama, in 1968. Wallace had briefly run in the Democratic primaries of 1964 against Lyndon Johnson, but dropped out of the race early. In 1968, he formed the new American Independent Party and received 13.5% of the popular vote, and 46 electoral votes, carrying several Southern states. The AIP would run presidential candidates in several other elections, including Southern Democrats (Lester Maddox in 1976 and John Rarick in 1980), but none of them did nearly as well as Wallace.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: After 1968, with desegregation a settled issue, conservative Democrats, mostly Southerners, managed to remain in the United States Congress throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These included Democratic House members as conservative as Larry McDonald, who was also a leader in the John Birch Society. During the administration of Ronald Reagan, the term "boll weevils" was applied to this bloc of conservative Democrats, who consistently voted in favor of tax cuts, increases in military spending, and deregulation favored by the Reagan administration but were opposed to cuts in social welfare spending.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: "Boll weevils" was sometimes used as a political epithet by Democratic Party leaders, implying that the boll weevils were unreliable on key votes or not team players. Most of the boll weevils either retired from office or (like Senators Phil Gramm and Richard Shelby) switched parties and joined the Republicans. Since 1988, the term "boll weevils" has fallen out of favor.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: Some Democratic leaders during the 1980s did turn toward conservative views, albeit very different from the previous incarnations of southern Democrats. In 1988, Joe Lieberman defeated Republican U.S. Senate incumbent Lowell Weicker of Connecticut by running to the right of Weicker and receiving the endorsements of the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association. Colorado governor Richard Lamm, and former Minnesota Senator and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy both took up immigration reduction as an issue. Lamm wrote a novel, "1988," about a third-party presidential candidate and former Democrat running as a "progressive conservative," and Lamm himself would go on to unsuccessfully seek the nomination of the Reform Party in 1996. McCarthy began to give speeches in the late 1980s naming the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Election Commission as the three biggest threats to liberty in the United States.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., known during the 1950s and 1960s as a champion of "Vital Center" ideology and the policies of Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, wrote a 1992 book, "The Disuniting of America" critical of multiculturalism.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: During the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party ran moderates and even a few conservative Democrats for at-risk Republican seats. The Blue Dog Democrats gained nine seats during the elections. The New Democrats had support from 27 of the 40 Democratic candidates running for at-risk Republican seats.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: In South Carolina in 2008, the Democratic candidate for United States Senator was Bob Conley, a traditional Catholic and a former activist for the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. Conley failed in his bid to defeat Republican Lindsey Graham, receiving 42.4 percent of the vote.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: In his 2010 campaign for reelection, Walter Minnick, U.S. Representative for Idaho's 1st congressional district, was endorsed by Tea Party Express, an extremely rare occurrence for a Democrat. Minnick was the only Democrat to receive a 100% rating from the Club for Growth, an organization that typically supports conservative Republicans. Minnick lost to Raúl Labrador, a conservative Republican, in the general election.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The Washington Post noted the most influential U.S. House of Representatives voting bloc was the conservative Democrat Blue Dog Coalition, having over 50 members.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: In the 2018 House of Representatives elections, the Democratic Party nominated moderate to conservative candidates in many contested districts and won a majority in the chamber. In the aftermath of the elections, the Blue Dog Coalition expanded to 27 members.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The Blue Dog Coalition was formed in 1995 during the 104th Congress to give members from the Democratic Party representing conservative-leaning districts a unified voice after Democrats' loss of Congress in the 1994 Republican Revolution. The coalition consists of centrist and conservative Democrats.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The term "Blue Dog Democrat" is credited to Texas Democratic U.S. Representative Pete Geren (who later joined the Bush administration). Geren opined that the members had been "choked blue" by Democrats on the left. It is related to the political term "Yellow Dog Democrat", a reference to Southern Democrats said to be so loyal they would even vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for any Republican. The term is also a reference to the "Blue Dog" paintings of Cajun artist George Rodrigue of Lafayette, Louisiana.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: The Blue Dog Coalition "advocates for fiscal responsibility, a strong national defense and bipartisan consensus rather than conflict with Republicans". It acts as a check on legislation that its members perceive to be too far to the right or the left on the political spectrum. The Blue Dog Coalition is often involved in searching for a compromise between liberal and conservative positions. As of 2014, there was no mention of social issues in the official Blue Dog materials.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 14% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identify as conservative or very conservative, 38% identify as moderate, and 47% identify as liberal or very liberal.


title: Conservative Democrat

text: According to a 2015 poll from the Pew Research Center, 54% of conservative and moderate Democrats supported same-sex marriage in 2015. This figure represented an increase of 22% from a decade earlier.


title: Ratel IFV

text: The Ratel is a South African infantry fighting vehicle. It was the first wheeled infantry fighting vehicle to enter service worldwide and was built on a modified MAN truck chassis. The Ratel was designed in response to a South African Army specification for a light armoured vehicle suited to the demands of rapid offensives, providing maximum firepower and strategic mobility to mechanised infantry units intended to operate across the vast distances of Southern Africa. Primarily envisaged in SADF doctrine as a vehicle for that could deliver mechanised infantry and supporting fire to tanks in conventional warfare, it was also anticipated that the Ratel could form the centrepiece for semi-independent battlegroups where logistics or politics precluded the use of tanks. The Ratel was a simple, economical design which helped reduce the significant logistical commitment necessary to keep heavier combat vehicles operational in undeveloped regions. It was generally regarded as an influential concept which incorporated a number of novel features, such as a mine-protected hull, an extended operating range of 1,000 kilometres, and a 20mm autocannon fitted with what was then a unique twin-linked ammunition feed, allowing turret gunners to rapidly swap between ammunition types during combat.


title: Ratel IFV

text: The first Ratel prototype appeared in March 1972, and serial production commenced in 1976. Rights to the original prototype were also sold to Belgium, which produced an amphibious derivative known as the SIBMAS. The Ratel was produced in three distinct marks between 1976 and 1987, when production ceased. All three marks were modified for a number of diverse battlefield roles. Specialised variants of the Ratel carried mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, or a turret-mounted 90mm rifled gun.


title: Ratel IFV

text: During the 1950s, the South African Defence Force (SADF) had been primarily organised to operate alongside the British Armed Forces in the event of a military crisis affecting the British Empire's African or Middle Eastern dependencies. This reflected South Africa's longstanding defence ties to the United Kingdom and the other member states in the Commonwealth of Nations. As a result of its strategic priorities, the SADF adopted equipment which was either British in origin or otherwise compatible with Commonwealth doctrine. South African infantry units were equipped primarily with Alvis Saracen armoured personnel carriers. This reflected traditional British infantry doctrine, which placed a disproportionate emphasis on dismounted infantry; the role of armoured vehicles like the Saracen was to function as general transporters conveying infantrymen to a battlefield. Afterwards, the infantry was expected to debark and fight on foot rather than remaining mounted.


title: Ratel IFV

text: The deterioration of relations between South Africa and the United Kingdom in the wake of the Sharpeville Massacre marked a shift in the SADF's doctrine and strategic priorities. The SADF became more focused on the threat of domestic insurgency or limited bush conflicts rather than a major conventional war overseas. Additionally, the British government's refusal to supply the SADF with new armoured vehicles forced it to turn to alternative suppliers, namely France and West Germany. Both nations cooperated closely with South African firms like Sandock-Austral to set up the country's first armoured vehicle factory at Boksburg. West Germany was especially instrumental in the transfer of defence technology; in exchange it received a higher import quota for its automotive products to South Africa. One result was that German companies came to dominate several sectors of the South African civilian and military vehicle market, including achieving a virtual monopoly on the sale of trucks to the SADF. Much of this business was conducted through local subsidiaries such as Springfield-Büssing SA, an East Rand company which was the franchise holder for all Büssing products in South Africa. Springfield-Büssing assembled its vehicles with locally manufactured bodies and engine and chassis components imported from its German parent firm.


title: Ratel IFV

text: In 1968, the SADF began formulating a new mobile warfare doctrine which centered around the independent deployment of mechanised infantry to defend the vast borders of South West Africa (Namibia), which were deemed vulnerable to the threat of insurgency and external infiltration. Mechanised infantry mounted in their own infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)s could arrive sooner at contact points, with greater firepower to engage and destroy the enemy where contact was made, as well as greater protection and convenience for troops. During wargaming exercises designed to simulate a foreign invasion of South West Africa, the SADF found none of its preexisting armoured vehicles suitable to fill this role, so development of a new dedicated IFV was undertaken. Any South African IFV had to be a simple, economical design which helped ease the significant logistical commitment to maintain armoured vehicles in border regions otherwise lacking in advanced support or transport infrastructure. Excessive track wear inflicted by the abrasive, sandy terrain of the South West African border prompted South African officials to specify a wheeled vehicle. Wheeled IFVs were also favoured because they possessed a much greater operating range than tracked vehicles, and did not require the use of transporters on South West Africa's limited road and rail network. This marked a significant departure from Soviet and Western IFV doctrine, which had rejected wheeled IFVs for their inferior cross-country capability and weight-carrying capacity, as well as the vulnerable nature of their tyres to small arms fire and artillery fragments. However, improvements in power train, suspension, and run-flat tyre technology during the late 1960s helped make the concept of wheeled IFVs more viable. The SADF initially had no other requirements other than a chassis and hull combination capable of supporting a two-man turret.


title: Ratel IFV

text: Springfield-Büssing proposed a six-wheeled IFV built on a modified MAN truck chassis; the first prototype appeared as the "Springfield-Büssing Buffel" in March 1972. After the SADF had evaluated and rejected a number of other designs, including the Thyssen Henschel UR-416, Berliet VXB-170, Panhard M3, and the EE-11 Urutu, the Springfield-Büssing prototype was accepted for service as the "Ratel". Production was undertaken by Sandock-Austral, which produced the vehicle hulls at its shipyard in Durban before having them transported by rail to its Boksburg facility for integration with the chassis and drive train. Each Ratel was powered by a Büssing D 3256 six-cylinder diesel engine fitted in a compartment at the left rear of its hull with access panels in the roof for ease of maintenance; it could be changed by two technicians with a crane in thirty minutes. It was armed with a 20mm autocannon, which was standard armament for most Western IFVs at the time and suitable for engaging low-flying aircraft, light armour, and dismounted personnel. The SADF had selected the Hispano-Suiza HS.820 for the Ratel's primary armament due to its prior success during trials with Eland armoured cars; however, at the time of production this was superseded by a variant of the Modèle F2 produced under licence as the Denel GI-2.


title: Ratel IFV

text: The Ratel was first tested in combat during Operation Reindeer, a major South African raid on People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) insurgents based out of neighbouring Angola. For the purposes of Operation Reindeer, the SADF experimented with an integrated combat team consisting of mechanised infantry mounted in the new Ratels, backed by attached Eland armoured cars. This caused a number of delays and complications, since the four-wheeled Elands lacked sufficient mobility to keep pace with the Ratels and had to be frequently towed out of thick sand or mud. Operation Reindeer was also complicated by the fact that the Elands utilised petrol engines, which necessitated a separate logistics tail from that of the diesel-powered Ratels.


title: Ratel IFV

text: Although PLAN possessed little conventional warfare capabilities, it was frequently backed by its allies in the Cuban and Angolan armed forces, which were skilled at constructing well-fortified defensive positions and had access to heavy armour. The addition of attached Eland squadrons to mechanised infantry units was considered necessary because they carried 60mm breech-loading mortars or large 90mm guns, which were more useful than the Ratel's 20mm autocannon for engaging fixed fortifications, dug-in troops, and enemy armour as needed. However, the Eland's shortcomings in terms of mobility and logistics prompted the SADF to replace it with new variants of the Ratel carrying the same armament. The "Ratel-90" fire support vehicle utilised an Eland turret with a 90mm rifled cannon firing conventional high explosive and high explosive anti-tank shells, while the "Ratel-60" mortar carrier was fitted with an Eland turret mounting a 60mm mortar. A third variant, the "Ratel Command", was introduced shortly thereafter and functioned as a mobile command post. The Ratel Command was fitted with additional radio equipment, a public address system, and map tables; it carried a 12.7mm machine gun as its main armament. The "Ratel-81" was a turretless variant with an 81mm mortar installed in the passenger compartment. The "Ratel ZT3" was the final variant to be produced and was armed with a bank of ZT3 Ingwe anti-tank guided missiles.


title: Ratel IFV

text: In 1979, Sandock-Austral introduced the Ratel Mk II, which included a number of functional modifications designed to optimise the vehicle for southern African conditions and improve mechanical reliability. In 1985, the Ratel Mk II was superseded by the Ratel Mk III, which incorporated a new cooling system and an automatic cocking mechanism for the 20mm autocannon. Production ceased in 1987, at which point 1,381 Ratels had been manufactured.


title: Ratel IFV

text: At the time of the Ratel's introduction, South African military officials were attempting to bring combined arms integration to the lowest tactical level, using brigade or even battalion-sized units as the standard all-arms unit rather than divisions. In these theoretical combat battle groups, armoured squadrons and mechanised infantry, transported in Ratels, would be integrated at the company level, giving them sufficient flexibility to operate in concert. The SADF's first integrated battle group was Combat Group Juliet, which was envisaged as a conventional strike unit to be activated for raids on guerrilla sanctuaries and infiltration routes along the borders of South West Africa and neighbouring Angola. Combat Group Juliet consisted of two companies of mechanised infantry and a squadron of Eland armoured cars. Later combat groups replaced the Eland squadron with Ratel-90s, which essentially functioned in the same role.


title: Ratel IFV

text: Ratels formed the mainstay of the SADF's "ad hoc" battle groups for most of the South African Border War. As the Ratel and most of the SADF's other combat vehicles were lightly armoured, South African mechanised doctrine came to revolve around such tactics as rapid movement, striking from the flank, and confusing the enemy with continuous manoeuvring. In this regard the SADF differed greatly from Western IFV doctrine–which confined the IFV's role to assisting the forward momentum of tanks–as well as Soviet IFV doctrine, which dictated that IFVs must occupy and hold terrain as needed. Although capable of operating independently, Ratel-based battle groups were not expected to occupy and hold static positions; their primary task was to outmanoeuvre an enemy unit before destroying it with a concentrated fire and movement tactic known as a "firebelt action". This doctrine was suited for the wide, densely wooded expanses of southern Angola which enabled the South African forces to carry out evasive manoeuvres and strike quickly from unexpected directions without being prematurely detected. Manoeuvre-oriented warfare depended on the Ratel's speed and mobility, which were used to maximum effect to compensate for its relatively light armour.


title: Ratel IFV

text: A notable feature of the South African Border War was a cyclical pattern of increasing cross-border infiltration and raids by PLAN guerrillas, primarily from Angola, during the annual rainy season. The SADF's Ratels and other wheeled combat vehicles were hampered by thick mud, and the increased foliage cover provided PLAN with concealment from patrols. The rainy season in South West Africa and southern Angola lasted from February to April. At the end of April or early May, when the heaviest rains ceased, South African mechanised battle groups launched retaliatory raids to capture or kill the insurgents in their external sanctuaries. While carrying out an attack, Ratels interspersed into arrowhead-shaped formations, with a platoon of Ratel-20s and a troop of Ratel-90s on each flank, the command Ratels located in the centre, and the remaining Ratels following in reserve. If the mechanised battle group was integrated with tanks—as during Operation Hooper and Operation Packer—the tanks spearheaded the formation to engage hostile armour, while the Ratel-20s and Ratel-90s followed closely on the flanks to suppress any accompanying infantry. Ratel-81s, if present, occupied a place in the centre of the formation, directly behind the command Ratels.


title: Ratel IFV

text: One of the primary threats to the Ratels were hidden bunkers and the maze of trench complexes constructed around PLAN and Angolan military camps. It was not uncommon for a Ratel crew to unwittingly drive atop an insurgent bunker, which collapsed under the weight of their vehicle and rendered it immobile. More frequently, Ratels were surrounded and cut off by PLAN defenders after bogging down in trenches. This necessitated their being towed out with recovery vehicles or other Ratels, often under heavy fire. PLAN training camps were defended by a number of ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, and these were used in the ground support role with deadly results for immobilised Ratel crews.


title: Ratel IFV

text: During the early 1980s, PLAN carefully re-sited its training camps near Angolan military installations so it could take advantage of the security provided by the attached Angolan armoured and mechanised brigades. This gave PLAN ready access to the logistical and communications infrastructure of its local allies and increased the risk to SADF raids targeting those camps exponentially. The SADF remained conscious of this fact and established a number of improvised anti-tank platoons composed of Ratel-90s to engage Angolan armour if necessary. During Operation Protea and Operation Askari, Ratel-90s were to face Angolan T-34-85, PT-76, and T-54/55 tanks, with mixed results. While the Ratel-90s were for the most part adequate in countering Angola's largely obsolete and second-line Soviet tanks, they remained hindered by mediocre standoff ranges, inferior fire control, and a lack of stabilised main armament. Ratel crews often had to manoeuvre behind the tanks and fire on them from the rear to destroy them. This required intense coordination between the vehicle commanders, who directed each other by radio until they were in a position to concentrate volleys on a tank's exposed side or rear. As the Angolan tank crews were in no position to out-manoeuvre the Ratels, they prioritised mobility kills. A common tactic was to fire a round beneath the Ratel, destroying the differentials on its axles and rendering it immobile. This stripped the Ratel of its most crucial advantage and made it an easy target for the other tanks.


title: Ratel IFV

text: In the wake of Operation Askari, South African field commanders began complaining that Ratel-90s were being expected to fulfill the role of light tanks rather than serving in their intended role of infantry support. This was a violation of SADF mechanised and armoured doctrine. Consequently, the SADF introduced the Ratel ZT-3, a Ratel variant designed as a dedicated tank destroyer, in 1987. It was first deployed with marked success against Angolan T-54s during Operation Moduler. The Ratel ZT-3 also saw limited action against Cuban T-55s during Operation Excite/Hilti.


title: Ratel IFV

text: The cessation of hostilities with Angola in 1989 and the amalgamation of the SADF into the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in 1995 ushered in consistent budget cuts to defence spending, resulting in a reduction of personnel and equipment. At least 354 Ratels were declared surplus to requirements and sold beginning in 2005. Much of the remaining Ratels have been handicapped by the SANDF's limited maintenance budget and inadequate numbers of trained maintenance personnel. The Ratel is scheduled to be at least partly superseded in SANDF service by a new eight-wheeled infantry fighting vehicle, the Patria AMV, also designated as the "Badger".