[Nettime-bold] terrorism has a new logo?

[Sean Healy <evolver@loud.org.au>]

Was googling around
to find a nike factory /quicktime video 4a project,
and came across this bizarre cross-culture jam...
s

Fake Nike T-shirts celebrate accused terrorist

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (December 11, 2000 5:43 p.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com) - Trademark pirates are not only stealing
Nike's name, but they're also using it to glorify America's No. 1
terrorist suspect.

T-shirts have shown up in Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan that
feature the U.S. sportswear company's logo alongside a drawing of an
AK-47 assault rifle and praise for Osama bin Laden, "The great mujahid
(holy
warrior) of Islam."

"Jehad is our mission," say the T-shirts, using the Islamic term for
holy war.

"We find it highly offensive," said Kirk Stewart, vice president for
corporate communications at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., after
viewing an Associated Press photo of one of the shirts.

The United States accuses bin Laden of masterminding the 1998 bombings
of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people including 12

U.S. diplomats. He is also a suspect in the October suicide bombing of a

U.S. destroyer in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

But in some parts of Pakistan's deeply conservative and tribal
northwest, and in Afghanistan where bin Laden hides out, many admirers
name their sons after him.

The T-shirts sell for 100 rupees - about $2 in Pakistan. Also on sale
for a few cents apiece are posters featuring a calendar and a picture of

a helicopter with the slogan: "Look out United States Osama is coming."

"The Osama shirts were ordered by someone from Afghanistan, whom we
don't know," said Zarshad Khan, co-owner of Sirtaj Hosiery in Peshawar.

"We are not political people," he said.

Khan said the shirts were manufactured in Faisalabad, in Pakistan's
Punjab province, and two dozen of them arrived at his factory carrying
the Nike logo. Others, in different colors, have been spotted in Afghan
markets.

In Pakistan, copyright laws are rarely enforced and the markets and
bazaars throughout the country are filled with products bearing
counterfeit brand names.

Nike's Stewart said Pakistani authorities have been notified. "This is a

difficult situation we hope the local authorities can resolve," he said.

Mark Wentworth, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said the
U.S. government will pursue the culprits if Nike so requests.


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