Free Republic

It is fitting that any president, especially the first (real) black president, celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as the Obama Justice Department did last month. The selection of an Arab as a prime speaker seems curious for many reasons, not least because Arabs are classified as “white.�  Eric Holder’s choice of James Zogby, a longtime apologist for Palestinian terrorism and dedicated foe of effective homeland security measures, to address the gathering seems to signal a deeper reality at the core of the Obama administration: its ever-shrinking conception of the War on Terror.Jim Zogby, the...

Wednesday morning, August 27, between 11 am and 1:30 pm EST or 9 am and 11:30 am mountain time, I'll be chairing a New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force event in Denver at the Colorado History Museum. The keynotes are Senator JOHN KERRY (D-MA), Obama National Security Adviser GREG CRAIG, Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School Dean ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, former Congressman and Obama Adviser MEL LEVINE, former German Foreign Minister JOSCHKA FISCHER, and Aspen Institute President (and former CNN Chairman and CEO and TIME Managing Editor) Walter Isaacson. Our panel will be former Israeli negotiator and New America Foundation Senior Fellow...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

If in the run-up to last year's elections a poll identified a three percent approval rating for the way Congress - which was controlled by Republicans at the time in case you forgot - was handling the war in Iraq, do you think you would have heard about it? Maybe on every morning and evening news program for days, and on the front pages of every newspaper, correct? Well, on Wednesday, Zogby International released the results of a stunning new poll that got virtually no attention. Why? Because it identified that virtually nobody in America thinks Congress - which is...

Glenn Beck represents a truly troubling trend in television journalism. Since May 2006, the radio talk show host has had his own one hour nightly programme on CNN's Headline News channel. While the network may have hoped that Beck's flamboyant style would increase ratings, the cost to their integrity has been staggering....'Evil 10 per cent' In just the past two months, for example, one half of Beck's shows have focused on matters Muslim. Beck insists that he is not opposed to all Muslims, only what he refers to as the "10 per cent who are evil". He then counters this...

There are a number of important contests that will be decided on November 7th. Like many Americans, I'll be up late into the night awaiting final results.Not the least of my concerns, of course, will be the macro-outcome, as in which party will control the House of Representatives and/or the Senate. Let me be clear from the outset--I am a Democrat, proud of the political philosophy of my party, though not always pleased with the positions taken by and performance of some of its leaders and standard bearers.

During the past week we witnessed a virtual frenzy with Senators, Congressmen, and then Governors jumping over each other to take the lead in bashing the 'Dubai port deal', the UAE, or the Bush administration. It's all being done, critics say, in the name of national security. In reality, however, what is taking place here is nothing more than crass political posturing and an irresponsible and ill-informed attack on an Arab country that has been a strong ally of the United States. At its essence, there are three factors that are driving this ruckus: It's an election year, the public...

Jerrold Nadler's Two Faces on Terror By Jacob LaksinFrontPageMagazine.com | June 13, 2005Last Friday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Patriot Act had already been adjourned, but Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic blimpish congressman from New York and one of the leftmost members of the House Judiciary Committee, was too wound up to care: “We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it,” bellowed the hefty Nadler. By this, Nadler meant to defend his attacks on the alleged abuses of the (in fact) privileged  prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Thanks to the efforts of the...

c By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into turned-off microphones at a raucous hearing Friday on the Patriot Act. The House Judiciary Committee hearing, with the two sides accusing each other of being irresponsible and undemocratic, came as President Bush was urging Congress to renew those sections of the post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism law set to expire in September. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner declared that much of the...

Click HERE to see a flyer with more information on David's new book.  In January 2004, President Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address. He reviewed the victories of the past two years in Afghanistan and Iraq, and assessed the war tasks ahead. Homeland security was prominent on the president’s agenda and its cornerstone was the Patriot Act, which Congress had passed in 2001 just after the World Trade Center attack. When the president came to the point in his address where he intended to ask legislators to renew the Act, there was an unscripted moment in...

WASHINGTON, 22 September 2004 — Arab-Americans are John Kerry’s “canaries in the coal mine.” In days gone by, coal miners brought canaries into the mines in which they were working. Because they feared releasing pockets of odorless but deadly natural gas, the canaries served as an alarm. As long as the canaries were singing, the miners knew that all was well. When the canaries went silent, the miners knew there was danger and would take action. From that time on, the expression, “canaries in the coal mine” has been used as metaphor for any warning sign that portends danger. And...

Remembering Rachel A year ago, Rachel Corrie was killed while defending Palestinian homes from destruction in Gaza. The world was shocked. A resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives commemorating her death, expressing sympathy for Rachel’s loved ones, and calling for an independent investigation, but it is stalled. On the anniversary of her death this week, newspapers around the nation featured editorials commemorating Rachel Corrie. The exception was the Wall Street Journal… Simply Disgraceful An appalling piece in the Wall Street Journal this week written by Israeli translator, editor, and writer Ruhama Shattan. Its sole purpose is to...

WASHINGTON, 24 March 2004 — Last week I became involved in a controversy with the Bush re-election committee. The dispute was over a new television advertisement released by President Bush’s campaign that, I believe, negatively stereotypes Arabs. Supporters of the president said I was wrong. They said I was being overly sensitive, creating an issue where none existed. And when I persisted, they said I was objecting merely because I was a Democrat and, therefore, my criticism was nothing more than partisan politics. The truth is quite the opposite. The ad is wrong, insensitive and harmful to Arab Americans. It...

WASHINGTON, 17 March 2004 — A recent poll of Arab-American voters in four key states has some bad news for both President Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry. The poll shows that the percentage of Arab-Americans who believe that President Bush deserves to be re-elected is a low 28 percent. When matched up against John Kerry, Bush loses 54 percent to 30 percent. The bad news for Sen. Kerry is that when Ralph Nader’s name is entered into the mix, the numbers change to 43 percent for Kerry, 27 percent for Bush, and 20 percent for Nader. The poll...

Removal of unidentified photo urged WASHINGTON -- An Arab-American group is calling on President Bush to remove a picture of an unidentified "Middle Eastern-looking" man from a campaign ad that focuses on terrorism. "It runs counter to everything the president said after [Sept. 11] about not targeting, about not indicting, all Arab Americans," James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said Friday. The complaint is the second in as many weeks from groups who object to the president's use of images from the war on terrorism in his re-election ads. Zogby, who described himself as a Democrat but added...

WASHINGTON: Sixty-eight percent of Arab voters from four important states have said in a poll it is time to elect a president other than George Bush. This is a major and dramatic shift from the 2000 presidential campaign, when Arab-Americans in Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania strongly favoured Bush over his Democratic rival Al Gore. Most Pakistanis also voted for Bush under the popular and prevalent impression that Republican administrations have been traditionally more sympathetic to Pakistan than India. While this was true during the Cold War when India not only denounced the US-led defence pacts of which Pakistan was...

<p>WASHINGTON D.C. -- Many Arab Americans who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 prefer Sen. John Kerry this year, a new poll suggests.</p> <p>But even if large numbers of Arab Americans switch party allegiance, could they be the difference in battleground states, including Michigan?</p>

Poll shows Arab Americans less keen on Bush Saturday, March 13, 2004 By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau WASHINGTON -- President Bush appears to have lost significant support among Arab Americans, according to a new poll by Zogby International, an independent polling firm. If the election were held now, John Kerry would get 54 percent of the vote among Arab Americans in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, four key battleground states in the Nov. 2 election. Bush lags far behind at 30 percent. Other candidates would get 5 percent of the vote. Eleven percent are undecided. In 2000, Bush led...

Election ad 'plays on fear of Arabs' Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday March 13, 2004 The Guardian The re-election campaign of President George Bush provoked a new controversy yesterday, with a television ad campaign using a picture of an olive-skinned man to illustrate terrorism. As a voiceover warns that Mr Bush's presumptive opponent, John Kerry, is soft on terrorists, a split-screen shows people at an airport, and a young man with flickering eyes who turns menacingly towards the camera. The ads are the most aggressive so far - targeting John Kerry by name. Arab Americans said the campaign played on...

WASHINGTON, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life Democrats always seem to be fighting an uphill battle. That all of the Democratic presidential candidates are pro-abortion -- including one, Dennis Kucinich, who flip-flopped on abortion shortly before declaring his candidacy -- only makes matters worse. But that hasn't stopped Democrats for Life of America from being a pro-life voice in the wilderness and rallying pro-life party faithful to keep up the good fight. Representatives of the pro-life group took to the streets last week to participate in the March for Life and then they held their own rally to encourage each other. "Our...

WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- The FBI on Friday announced the creation of an Arab-American advisory committee to improve relations with the Arab community. The bureau said prominent Arab activist Dr. James Zogby has been appointed a member of this committee. The committee will serve as an integral link between the Arab-American community and the FBI's Washington Field Office and will work to improve relations between Arab-Americans and the agency. It will meet once a month. The Arab-American Advisory Committee is the first of its kind in the United States. Committee members will be responsible for bringing the community's concerns...

<p>Washington -- Immigration to the United States from the Middle East has been so heavy in recent years -- and is expected to continue at such high levels -- that it is likely to have significant political and social implications here, some demographers and other experts say.</p>

I am writing on my return from an eight-day visit to the Arab world. It was a difficult time to be in the region. President George W. Bush’s strange and disturbing speech of June 24 had been received like a blow to the system. As a result, every political conversation was punctuated with frustration and, in many cases, fury.Arab moderates, in particular, feel betrayed, and with good reason. For more than a decade now, especially since the end of the Gulf War, they have ceded to the United States the role of exclusive Middle East peacemaker. Wanting desperately to put...

By James Zogby   June 26, 2002, 07:34 AM  - Within a matter of a few weeks two of the United States top congressional leaders appeared separately on the same television program to let the country know how little they knew or cared about the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was on May 1 that Texas Republican Congressman Richard Armey, appeared on "Hardball", a nationally televised political program hosted by Chris Mathews. Here is part of their exchange: Mathews: “OK. Let’s talk about the realities over there. There’s a fight between the Arabs and the Israelis over who...

April 24, 2002, 06:36 AM  - After President George W. Bush proclaimed Ariel Sharon a “man of peace” and praised his withdrawal from the West Bank, I was inundated by questions from US reporters. Many were indignant, others were just confused. “What”, they asked, “was he doing?” On April 4, Bush, despite his extra criticism of Palestinian President Yasir Arafat, appeared to be fair in calling for an “immediate” Israeli withdrawal. He was, he said, dispatching Secretary of State Colin Powell with messages for both Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat. And, the President concluded, “I expect results.” In fact, Powell’s...