Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.
From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.
One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.
MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.
Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.
Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.
Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.
He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.
http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Culture/10203.htm
The sweet stench of terror
By Ynetnews January 1, 2007
A new perfume carrying the "scent of resistance" and celebrating Hizbullah's "divine victory" has been released on the market in Lebanon, according to a report which appeared in the Lebanese Daily Star on Monday.
"If you've ever wondered what resistance smells like, then try a dab of 'Resistance Perfume,' which comes 'exclusively' with a political message and a picture of Hizbullah's secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah," the Daily Star article said.
"Apparently, the scent of resistance is a strong and musky one that comes with a single pledge -- 'a truthful' one," the report added.
A slogan on the perfume box, quoting Nasrallah during a wartime speech made over the summer reads: "You are the truthful promise... and I have great faith in you and I promise you divine victory."
The Daily Star, which placed quotation marks around every mention of Israel in its report, added that the package comes with "a digitally manipulated picture of a sinking ship, meant to represent the 'Israeli' warship damaged by a Hizbullah missile during the conflict, along with reprints of Nasrallah's speeches and messages from the 'Lebanese prisoners in 'Israeli' prisons.'"
'Hizbullah not a commercial venture'
Mohammad Dekmak, CEO of the Bint Huda chain of stores in the south Beirut area, told the Daily Star: "We thought it was a catchy idea, as now the perfume is more than something that smells nice, it is a political statement."
The report said the perfume's designer initially came by the Beirut store "carrying 40 samples of the perfume in a plastic bag -- and sold them all within minutes."
Hizbullah Spokesman Ghassan Darwish was quoted by the Star as saying: "We don't like to encourage people to turn Hizbullah into a commercial venture, but since the perfume is called 'Resistance' and not 'Hizbullah,' we have no right to really prevent it from being sold as resistance is a broad ideology not limited to one party."
Respnding to the perfume, a pro-Hizbullah demonstrator in Beirut told the Lebanese newspaper that he was "content with showering and using plain soap."
Reprinted with permission from Ynet.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3349769,00.html
Khamenei: Iran will never abandon nuke works
In his first public appearance since rumors spread that he had died, Islamic Republic’s supreme leader says Tehran would never yield to international pressure to deprive it of its right to nuclear technology
Reuters
Iran’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday Tehran would never yield to international pressure to deprive it of its right to nuclear technology, state radio said.
Asia Visit
PM travels to China to discuss Iran's nuclear program / Ronny Sofer
Olmert to leave for Beijing Monday afternoon, set to meet Chinese president, prime minister
Full Story
“The Iranian nation surely will not abandon its right and Iranian officials have no right to deprive the nation of its right,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on the occasion of the Shiite Muslim feast of Eid al-Ghadir.
Khamenei, who was shown on television, was making his first public appearance since rumors appeared on Web sites on Thursday that he had died. Iran last week denied the reports.
Khamenei has final say on all state matters in the Islamic Republic, including Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Dec. 23 to impose sanctions on Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material that could be used in bombs.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the resolution a “Piece of torn paper” and has vowed to press ahead with Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The West fears Iran may be pursuing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian program.
The Bangkok blog you posted is a good one that I've been reading for a while. As to the OK City bombing, I personally think that the Clintoons purposefully failed to investigate because they need a right wing nut to be the culprit. If you will recall, the bombing took place just 3 months after the republicans took over the House and Senate and Clintoon was marginalized. He badly needed the bombing to be done by a right wing lunatic to try to regain the upper hand over Gingrich.
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/about-dr-dhafir/
Muslims represented poorly within their community
This angry organization of social malcontents calling for radical Socialist change within America happens to draw support from the likes of Magda Bayoumi of ...
www.renewamerica.us/columns/alvarez/040114 - 36k -
http://www.google.com/search?q=Magda+Bayoumi&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/about-this-site/about-katherine/
http://www.google.com/search?q=Katherine+Hughes&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
http://www.google.com/search?q=Dr.+Rafil+Dhafir&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
How close the communists, peaceniks and muslims have intertwined.
The OKC bombing also put an end to the folks who were talking about defending the country, if needed.
I have read several reports on groups who objected and got shot for $5.oo traffic tickets.
The Freedom Fighters quickly disappeared.
I have always been amazed at how they took down Chuck Harder of the radio talk show.
It is under clinton that all the FEMA POW camps were built, I laugh, each time I hear some liberal giving President Bush credit for them.
Who did they plan on putting into the camps?
It could only have been the "vast right wing" of America.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764308/posts
PACKAGE AT PORT OF MIAMI POSED NO THREAT! (No Explosives - Contained Sprinkler Parts!)
Yahoooooo via ^ | 1/8/07
Posted on 01/08/2007 1:19:20 PM PST by areafiftyone
MIAMI - The Port of Miami was hit by its second terrorism scare in two days Monday when a package that was to be loaded onto a cruise ship tested positive for plastic explosives. Authorities later determined it was harmless.
The package was initially tested six times, and each time it came back positive for the military-grade explosive known as C4, the Coast Guard said.
The package was then destroyed, and a Miami-Dade County police bomb squad determined it contained sprinkler parts, said Zach Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764279/posts
German court gives Moroccan max for 9/11 (Mounir el Motassadeq)
AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/8/07 | Simone Utler - ap
Posted on 01/08/2007 12:23:06 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HAMBURG, Germany - A Moroccan convicted as an accessory to murder in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was sentenced Monday to the maximum 15 years in prison, minutes after telling the son of a woman killed that day "my future is ruined."
A federal appeals court convicted Mounir el Motassadeq, a friend of three of the suicide pilots, in November of knowingly helping the hijackers and sent the case to a state court in Hamburg for sentencing.
Just before Monday's verdict, the 32-year-old defendant spoke with an American whose mother died on board one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.
Dominic Puopolo Jr., a co-plaintiff in the case, earlier joined prosecutors in calling for the maximum penalty, urging the judges to consider the "human and emotional cost" of the 2001 attacks.
"Anyone who helped in this has earned stiff punishment," presiding Judge Carsten Beckmann said after announcing Monday's verdict.
When the court granted El Motassadeq a final chance to speak, the slightly built, bearded man turned to Puopolo to say, "I understand your suffering. ... The same thing is being done to me, my kids, my parents, my family — my future is ruined."
Puopolo said he forgave el Motassadeq, and reminded him that he would one day be freed.
"You have a chance to rebuild your life and be back with your family. Others don't," Puopolo said. "Your life is not over, but my mom's is."
Defense lawyers said they may appeal to a European court.
The federal appeals court had ruled that the Hamburg judges wrongly acquitted el Motassadeq in 2005 of direct involvement in the attacks, even though they sentenced him to seven years in prison for belonging to a terrorist group.
The appeals court convicted el Motassadeq as an accessory to the murder of the 246 passengers and crew members aboard the four jetliners used in the attacks, and ordered the state court to set a new sentence.
Ladislav Anisic, a lawyer for el Motassadeq, said they would seek a retrial and maybe appeal to the European Court of Justice.
"We have a clear mandate, and that is to ensure that our client receives the acquittal," he said.
El Motassadeq was a close friend of pilots Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah when they lived and studied in Hamburg. He has acknowledged training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan and that he was close to the three hijackers, but insists he knew nothing of their plans.
However, the federal appeals court said evidence showed el Motassadeq knew that the hijackers planned to hijack and crash planes. It found that his actions — for example, transferring money, and helping the hijackers keep up the appearance of being regular university students by paying tuition and rent fees — facilitated the attacks.
The federal court also said it was irrelevant to el Motassadeq's guilt whether he knew of the plot's timing, dimension or targets.
Monday's decision was the latest in a legal saga that started with el Motassadeq's arrest in November 2001 and featured two full trials.
He was convicted and sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison in 2003, but that verdict was overturned by a federal court the following year — largely because of lack of evidence from al-Qaida suspects in U.S. custody.
At a retrial that resulted in the 2005 conviction, the U.S. provided limited summaries from the interrogation of, among others, Ramzi Binalshibh, a suspected liaison between the Hamburg hijackers and al-Qaida.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764293/posts
Big Chemical leak in Sugar Land, TX
neighbor called me | 1-8-06 | self
Posted on 01/08/2007 12:50:46 PM PST by Former MSM Viewer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764295/posts
Venezuela - Hugo Chavez orders nationalization of electric and telephone industries
AFP via translation | January 8, 2007
Posted on 01/08/2007 12:53:52 PM PST by HAL9000
Venezuela: nationalization of electricity and telephony
CARACAS - the president vénézuélien Hugo Chavez announced Monday the nationalization of the sectors of electricity and telephony also affirming that the central bank was going to lose its autonomy.
Mr. Chavez specified that it would file in a bill so that the Parliament entrusts the capacity to him to take again the control of these fields. He generally hopes to reform “in-depth” the Constitution in order to go towards the creation of a “socialist Republic of Venezuela” to replace current “the Republic bolivarienne of Venezuela”.
The parties favorable to Mr. Chavez completely dominate the Parliament since the boycotting of legislative by the opposition in 2005.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764272/posts
Polish Ex-Spy: "Was My Son Poisoned in England?"
AIA ^ | 07.01.2007
Posted on 01/08/2007 12:09:30 PM PST by lizol
Polish Ex-Spy: "Was My Son Poisoned in England?"
AIA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764258/posts
Chinese police raid alleged terror camp (ETIM - East Turkestan Islamic Movement)
AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/8/07 | Alexa Olesen - ap
Posted on 01/08/2007 11:39:56 AM PST by NormsRevenge
BEIJING - Chinese police raided an alleged terrorist camp in a western mountain region near the border with Pakistan, killing 18 suspects and arresting 17, a police official said Monday.
Song Hongli, director of the general office of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, said the raid occurred Friday at a training camp run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM.
One police officer was killed and another was injured in the shoot-out, Song said.
Police are searching for suspects who are believed to have escaped during the raid, Song said, but did not say how many.
Police found 22 grenades and material for 1,500 more, he said.
continued
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764237/posts
Man sprayed gasoline inside SUV before explosion
Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 01/08/2007, 10:58:36 AM MST | Jason Bergreen
Posted on 01/08/2007 11:01:34 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Shortly before an SUV exploded into flames Saturday afternoon, a man sprayed gasoline from a pump into the vehicle as his female companion watched.
Salt Lake City police, who have reviewed surveillance video from the dowtown Maverik Country Store, are calling the incident a "suicide pact" and declined to name the victims or provide any other information about them.
The video shows the pair drove the green Ford Explorer to the back of the store at 161 W. 600 South. Witnesses reported a huge explosion and fire, which consumed the man and woman.
The explosion, which occurred about 3 p.m., was so intense it shook windows at the nearby Red Lion. It took fire crews several minutes to extinguish the blaze.
A nearby Salt Lake City police officer arrived on scene first, but was unable to extinguish the inferno with a fire extinguisher.
Witnesses said they heard what sounded like a woman scream as smoke and flames began shooting from the SUV.
The Maverik was closed for two hours while authorities conducted an investigation.
"This was a tragic incident that traumatized the citizens who witnessed it," stated a police press release. "The Salt Lake City Police Department will not be releasing the names of the two individuals who died in the vehicle fire, and will not be releasing any more details of the investigation." The incident was being investigated by the police, the Fire Department, the FBI and the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
jbergreen@sltrib.com
[Makes for a cheap bomb, granny]
January 8, 2007 Anti-Terrorism News
(Iraq) 9 workers killed near Baghdad airport
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070108/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_violence
(Iraq) Two US soldiers killed in Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070108/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestustoll_070108121919
(India) Five killed in fresh Kashmir violence
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070108/wl_sthasia_afp/indiakashmirunrest_070108065410
(India) Nine die in fresh Assam violence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6240227.stm
(India) From heritage site to terror haven of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Bangalore/From_heritage_site_to_terror_haven/articleshow/1086520.cms
(Afghanistan) British troops raid Taliban training camp
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20070107-102323-9328r.htm
(NYC) Would-be NY subway bomber faces sentence - Shahawar Matin Siraj
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070108/ap_on_re_us/subway_plot_2
'Port of Miami is safe' officials say after scare
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/07/miami.port/index.html?section=cnn_latest
(Somalia) Islamic jungle hideout near capture - believed to be an
al-Qaida base
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070108/ap_on_re_af/somalia_militants_3
(Somalia) Gunmen attack Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/ts_nm/somalia_conflict_dc_79
US sees Somalia as key front in war on terror
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070107/pl_afp/somaliaunrestus_070107225653
Chinese police kill 18 suspects in terror raid - far western Xinjiang
region
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467686254&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Chinese version of report
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/08/content_777852.htm
(China) Muslim voices rising in China -- Controls on Islam spur
resentment among a restive minority
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/11/19/muslim_voices_rising_in_china/
(UK) Muslim worshippers are being urged by radical clerics to ignore
British law
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1984530,00.html
USA "To Start Fingerprinting British Tourists" - DHS: This Summer New
Measures Will Switch to 10 Fingerprints Rather Than 2 Fingerprints
Currently Done
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13560569,00.html
(UK) MI5 launches instant terror alerts by email
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23380584-details/MI5+launches+instant+terror+alerts+by+email/article.do
(UK) Brown to end Blair's terror strategy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/08/nbrown08.xml
Men in Jordan charged with attack plots - Two charged with plotting
attacks against Americans
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9htfMCAnKFFxcgAmR3QtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHZkMjZyBHBvcwMxBHNlYwNzcg--/SIG=13r49mkoq/EXP=1168305664/**http%3a//www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/01/07/men_in_jordan_charged_with_attack_plots
Hamas official Fatah kidnapped is freed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070108/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_violence
(Gaza) Fatah holds a big rally as feud with Hamas deepens
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/07/news/mideast.php
Israelis denounce reports of plan to strike Iran
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/08/wisrael08.xml
(Hezbollah) Despite Arab Diplomatic Efforts, Hizbullah Threatens
Violent Escalation – To Begin this Coming Monday (January 8, 2007)
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD141407
Iran will never abandon nuclear work: Khamenei
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/wl_nm/iran_nuclear_khamenei_dc_2
(Iraq) Saddam and cousin discussed killing thousands: tapes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/wl_nm/iraq_saddam_dc_3
(Algeria) Founder of Major Terror Group Surrenders - Hassan Hattab -
GSPC
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/algeria/articles/20070107.aspx
Spanish PM loses support after ETA bomb: polls
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/wl_nm/spain_basque_dc
U.S. imam deported for terror group ties missing, family worried
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/08/america/NA-GEN-US-Imam-Deportation.php
(Israel/Iran) Commentary: Decision time
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467659996&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Former CIA Analyst Says West Misunderstands Al-Qaeda
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/28453ea2-7c65-49eb-b84c-aa008002591f.html
Related News:
Ellison: Quran influenced America's founding fathers
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070105/NEWS01/70105032/1004/NEWS02
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014729.php
January 07, 2007
Fitzgerald: Soviet Camps, Moral Equivalence, and National Security
An excellent exhibit about Soviet labor camps is now touring the country. It includes grainy documentary short films which, though taken by the Soviet government itself for propaganda purposes, nonetheless manage to convey something of what went on. The ill-clad shivering prisoners breaking rocks are presented to us as from another world, and one can only imagine, if these are the films the Soviet authorities took presumably to show the magnificent efforts being made as this or that White-Sea Canal was built, what the real conditions were like. Imagine, or read Varlam Shalamov or many others.
Part of the exhibit, too, consists only of photographs of those in what is now called the Dissident Movement. Andrey Sakharov and Elena Bonner, Yuri Galanskov, Pyotr Yakir, Leonid Plyushch, Andrei Amalrik, the smiling face of that gifted teacher, the tormented Anatoliy Jakobson, handsome Valeriy Chalidze, and a hundred others -- the Best People in the Soviet Union -- are all on view.
A perfect exhibit.
Except for one thing.
It is being exhibited in different places. In Boston. Outside Washington. And in California. And in California, the site chosen to show this exhibit is in the desert -- Manzanar. Why the desert? Why make it so hard to have it viewed by a large public?
Because, you see, someone thought it would be telling, someone thought it would be perfect, someone thought it would be wonderful, if an exhibit about Soviet concentration camps could be shown to the American public right at Manzanar. That was where some Japanese-Americans were moved. As we all know, they were relocated to camps where they could be guarded, and were not permitted to remain in their homes, having been deemed to be security risks after Pearl Harbor if they were Japanese-Americans on the Pacific Coast. If they lived elsewhere they were not moved. Those relocation camps had schools, stores, post-offices, churches, and so on. The largest camp was at Manzanar. The effort was supported by California's then-governor, who would later become the celebrated liberal Supreme Court Justice, Earl Warren.
So the official or officials who, in some Federal bureaucracy, decided to show this exhibit about the vast archipelago of Soviet slave labor camps in which tens of millions of people were worked to death, or killed on the spot at Manzanar, were Making a Statement. And that Statement was: Americans are Guilty, in exactly the same way, or at least we who placed the exhibit in Manzanar wish you to think so, as the Soviet Union.
This Statement is false, and infuriates, but that some in the American government wanted to make it -- who? -- and others did nothing to stop it -- who? -- is telling.
The Sacramento Bee's Ginger Rutland writes, her hand on her forehead in anguish, that if she stopped attending CAIR events, "I would fear for my country, for its cherished traditions of religious tolerance, open debate and fair play."
Can she think of no other reason to "fear for her country"? What about those Nazi agents, especially of the Abwehr, who did such a good job infiltrating American business, or such propagandists as Putzi Hanfstaengl, or such local supporters of the Nazis as Fritz Kuhn? And if the war-generated fears about Japanese-Americans were false, that does not mean that they were irrational: there were some Japanese spies in this country. Nor does it mean that all those liberals such as Earl Warren were wrong in 1942, long before the 442nd Regiment of Japanese-Americans distinguished itself, were cruel madmen. (That Regiment was the first or second most-decorated American regiment in the war in the European Theatre.) There are things to regret, but not to pluck out of historical context, and relocation was limited in time and space and application.
There is no Muslim equivalent of the 442nd Regiment, proving its loyalty to the United States. And there never will be. Instead, at every step, CAIR has been trying to entangle everyone in and out of the government, and to urge Muslims in this country, whenever and wherever they can do so, to complain, to sue, to do whatever they can to bollix up the entirely rational and sensible measures being undertaken to protect us, on airplanes and otherwise.
Posted at January 7, 2007 05:47 PM
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2007/01/014749print.html
January 08, 2007
U.S. Attacks Al Qaeda In Somalia
Targeting the 1998 Embassy bombers. "CBS: U.S. Attacks Al Qaeda In Somalia," from CBS, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
(CBS/AP) A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.
The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.
The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States.
Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command.
If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.
Posted at January 8, 2007 07:29 PM
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/
PROPAGANDA SECRETS OF THE RICH* AND FAMOUS
Poster can be purchased at
http://www.cafepress.com/foehammer
http://www.foehammer.net/
[This post is a work in progress--expect changes, new material, and new interpretations. Check back often to be kept up to date.]
The following Introduction is
from
Wretchard's
The Belmont Club
History and History in the Making
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2006/12/blogosphere-at-war.html
"It is widely recognized that molding public perceptions through narratives is nearly as important in war as the outcomes on the actual battlefield. Palestinian Media Watch convincingly demonstrates that Arab and Muslim organizations have long made influencing international publics through print and broadcast media a strategic goal, especially in any confrontation with Israel. This effort has historically followed two tracks: the establishment of technically sophisticated media outlets like al-Jazeera to sell messages directly to audiences; and mounting information operations aimed at shaping the way in which Western Media outlets cover any issue of interest."
This global jihad can succeed only if we lose the battle for hearts and minds – our
own.
--David Kupelian
How To Defeat Radical Islam
PROPAGANDA AND WAR
Lift Up, Hammer Down,
the secret of successful propaganda
[Keep reading this blog, come back again and again, and you will learn how to implement this technique. ]
Q: Why would I reveal this secret to our enemies? Propaganda is a weapon that can cut both ways. Our enemies as well as our side can read.
A: Because our enemies are unable to implement it.
Q: Why not?
A: I'm not stupid enough to reveal that to them
Whom do we want to lift up?
Those on our side who know the score, but become discouraged by the many who want to make friends with an enemy who wants to conquer us--who wants converts and submissives, not "friends."
Who is under our Hammer?
Guess.
The way that works is that whenever one pops his head above the surface, he gets it. You ever play that gopher game, where gophers pop up from holes in a board, and get slammed back down with a mallet? Guess who's the gopher, and who's holding the mallet?
ISLAM IS THE ENEMY
MORE ABOUT PROPAGANDA
This war, that we are fighting, is a war of ideas--of an ideology that seeks submission and subjugation of all who do not believe in it against those opposed to this ideology of submission (Arabic: Islam). Those opposed to the ideology of submission--Islam--those who do not believe in it--the unbelievers, are called infidels by those who want to make them submit.
We do not accept that name for us, we, who will not submit, do believe in something-- in freedom for each individual, in Jesus Christ as the Savior, in the what Moses brought down from the mountain, in the sanctity of life, in untrammeled thought. We all believe in something, even when it is the doubt of, or absence of, what his or her neighbor believes. Therefore, we are not unbelievers (infidels to our enemies). We just do not believe in the ideology fabricated by a 7th century Arab. We do not believe that robbery, warfare on the weak, rape of their women, slavery fort the children and wives of the defeated is our right, given to us through hearsay by something that was supposedly transmitted second-hand to only one man: the 7th century Arab.
We are the free--free to believe in what we want--or not to believe. We are not the believers in the outpourings of the 7th century Arab. It is a war brought by those who submit to an ideology of "might makes right" to those who are free to think as they will.
Success in war is not only on the battlefield--we, the free, can win there--but in the arena of public opinion. The hearts and minds that must be convinced that our cause is just, are on our side, on the side of freedom. They are the ones who have fallen into the trap of our enemy. The enemy has convinced them that they--the enemy--are the victims and that our side is the villain, the oppressor, the morally compromised, the decadent.
We must also impress those who want to subjugate us that we will not submit, that their cause is a hopeless one, that they will lose, and be worse of by having brought war to us, the free.
The first task we the free face is to rally our forces.
The second task is to convince our enemy that he cannot win, ever, and to discourage him from trying to do so, combined with giving him an overwhelming reason to believe us.
To use logic to convince those on our side that our cause is just, is speaking in a seated position with your hands tied behind your back. People do not rise up to defend themselves after listening to a rational argument.
It is only by appealing to the emotions, only when when passion is engendered in the hearts of the fearful, that have been demoralized by their own power elite, that meaningful action will result.
Emotions are not "bad." We are not Mr Spock from Star Trek. We feel, and suffer, and doubt. We face the raw emotion of the enemy: hate. He tries to instill fear in our hearts. We must arouse ourselves-- rise up, confront that enemy without reservations, and defeat him.
According to http://members.aol.com/MrDonnUnits/Propaganda.html
"The word propaganda refers to any technique that attempts to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of a group in order to benefit the sponsor."
Mr Donn then asks 3 question to determine whether this influence of opinion is beneficial or not:
1. Whom does this benefit?
2. Why did they do that?
3. According to whom?
If it benefits YOU, it is beneficial to you.
Why does the speaker or writer do that? If it is because he believes truly in his heart that it is for YOUR benefit then it is justified.
The answer to the third question is that the message must be founded in facts--on a reliable and preferably indisputable source.
Enemy Propaganda
"Islam is a Religion of Peace"
Use your eyes and ears to see what the followers, the faithful the believers in Islam do.
"There is no compulsion in religion"
As long as you are Moslem and follow Islam.
SEE this! Palestinian Media Watch
Sayyid Abul Ala Maudoodi:
"To change people's views by means of the pen and the tongue, and to bring about a revolution in their minds, is also jihad. And to spend money for this end, and to exert oneself physically, is jihad too."
(Tafhimat --- I, p. 69)
Maulavi Zafar Ali Khan
This well-known Muslim leader, and editor of a famous Muslim daily newspaper, wrote in his paper:
"Just as jihad is not simply that one should pick up a sword and dash into a battle-field, but it also includes struggle by speech and writing, journey and travel, similarly shahadat [martyrdom] is not that one should turn the earth red with blood by having one's throat cut. It is also to sacrifice one's comfort and pleasure, rest and ease, life and property, and honour and reputation, for some good and noble cause in the way of God [allah], as taught by Islam."
(Daily Zamindar, Lahore, 14 June 1936)
From
http://www.aaiil.info/misconceptions/jihad/jleaders.htm
THE DIFFERENCE
We know that the difference between us and the enemy is the diverse Weltanschauung
Weltanschauung, Etymology: German, from Welt world + Anschauung view
: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint
according to Merriam-Webster online.
http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=weltanschauung
Education [of non Moslems, ed.] about the true teachings of jihad is a much more powerful weapon than cruise missiles in the war against jihad.
Posted by: special_guest
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014499.php#c322971
What we are giving you here are recipes for propaganda for turning and molding public opinion. This is not a"fair and balanced" site. We are biased. Biased towards survival--with our heads on our necks and our values intact. We will WILL reach the powers that can turn things around.
If you want to reach the public, forget about elegant intellectual argument. Do not emulate the Moslems' deceptive "sweet persuasion"--lies and deception.
"War is deception," Mohammed said.
Why?
(did he say that?)
"The weaker the forces that are at the disposal of the . . . commander, the more appealing the use of cunning becomes. In a state of weakness and insignificance, when prudence, and judgment and ability no longer suffice, cunning may well appear the only hope. . . . "
(Clausewitz, On War)
Reliance on deception is therefore not, as Mohammed wanted to impress on his followers, a show of strength but of weakness.
To go back to Clausewitz (op. cit) , "The bleaker the situation . . . the more readily cunning is joined to daring. "
This tends to explain the method of warfare preferred by the jihadist.
Now, what have we (the defenders of Western Civilization, especially the US) been doing in line with deception--to keep the enemy off-balance?
And
Why would I reveal this here, on a venue that is readily accessible to the enemy?
Because there is nothing that the enemy can do about it.
We are following one of Sun Tzu's tenets:
Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
(Sun Tzu, The Art of War)
" . . . those convinced of their own superiority are usually oblivious to the need to be on guard against deception. Since most successful deception reinforces the existing beliefs and wishful thinking of the intended victim, the ruse most frequently mentioned by Sun Tzu is that of feigned weakness. Such 'good news' is always welcomed by one's enemy, who is gradually lulled into a false sense of security."
(Handel, Michael I., Masters of War, Classical Strategic Thought, 3rd Ed., Frank Cass, 2001)
Believing in their own superiority and that they will win, the Islamic jihadists have fallen into our trap.
To reach our own people, we use harsh, simple Anglo-Saxon words. No latinized, Norman-Frenchified language. No Greek roots. (That is, as much as we possibly can).
The appeal is suited for our people. It cannot be adopted or adapted for their use by the enemy.
No honey-tongued or vitriolic Islamic propagandist can emulate us.
Is War deception? Perhaps it is. Perhaps we are using deception, perhaps we are not. The Islamics are masters at word-twisting, at contorting thoughts and feelings, at sucking you into the morass of their so-sweet-sounding universe.
Their world-outlook is not ours. Did you ever debate with a Moslem?
They cannot get escape from the world-view into which they are molded (imprisoned?)
THE TWO-EDGED SWORD
When we are told over and over again that Islam is winning, that England is catering to its Moslem population, that in the US any criticism of Islamic inroads such as that Congressman Virgil Goode (Va-R) draws the ire of the MSM, we could become downhearted. We could be willing to concede that Islam is in our future, that our children and grand-children will be Moslem, etc. The opposite effect can also result from such propaganda by our enemy, however. We can become more determined than ever not to let Islam triumph--neither here in the US nor in Europe and be ready to deal with the carriers of the foreign ideology that is Islam.
The appeasers, the seekers after "peace" on our side, who are willing to give the enemy a "chance," instead of being of help to the enemy, are making us, who are in the majority, more determined than ever to prevail.
KISS
K.I.S.S.
Keep It Simple , Stupid!
"It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction"
--Hitler
" . . . propaganda must follow a simple line . . . "
--Hitler
The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out.
--Hitler
The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. The fact that our bright boys do not understand this merely shows how mentally lazy and conceited they are.
--Hitler
Now, for more . . .
Propaganda Secrets of the Infamous
Hitler
[in time of need, we have no compunction about using the devil's own devices]
We use evil's devices against evil.
The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. The fact that our bright boys do not understand this merely shows how mentally lazy and conceited they are.
--Hitler
"The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision."
--Hitler
Using the Hammer:
"[It is] necessary . . . for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass . . . "
--Hitler
This is true when addressing the "Arab street"
The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. And this is the best proof of the soundness or unsoundness of a propaganda campaign, and not success pleasing a few scholars or young aesthetes.
--Hitler
NOTE:
We do not--and will not--use Nazi propaganda methods on our Islamic enemy. That is, the Islamic enemy will never be able to claim that we have made--and that he is--the Jew, and that we are the Nazis.
In fact, it is the Islamic enemy who uses Nazi tactics against Jews and the state of Israel. The Islamic enemies are the Nazis of today.
How Islam uses Hitler's propaganda prescription:
"The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly."
--Hitler
Propaganda and Children
Used by the Nazis and topped by the Islamic jihadists
All Hitler quotes in this post
from
Hitler on Propaganda
"In chapter six of Mein Kampf,Hitler reviewed the use of propaganda during World War I. In the course of his criticism of the German effort, he included comments on the function of propaganda in general. His statements offer insight into the methods used by the Nazi Party.
"Source: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf,translated by Ralph Manheim. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943."
http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/people/DocPropa.htm
REMEMBER, PROPAGANDA ALONE AIN'T GONNA CUT IT. IT DIDN'T FOR HITLER AND HIS NAZIS. OVERWHELMING MILITARY FORCE WON THE DAY IN WWII.
Therefore, the military option must never be abandoned--and used when the time is right (the sooner the better--but not too soon. More on that later.)
Hugh Fitzgerald:
The more accurate formulation would be: the adherents of Islam, following correctly its tenets, as expressed in the Qur'an and Hadith, and in the example of Muhammad set out in the Sira, have been making war, whenever and wherever possible, and employing whatever instruments at the time are available (combat, wealth, "pen, tongue," and now demography) to spread Islam, to prevent non-Muslims from setting up any obstacles to the further spread and ultimate dominance of Islam, and to ensure that any non-Muslims permitted to remain alive without being forcibly converted will, nonetheless, have to live lives of deliberate humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity.
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/2006/09/islamic-danger-september-2006.html
"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of
the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future...But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education*."
--Ibrahim Hooper
CAIR spokesperson
*Read jihad by word [tongue] and pen.
PAMPHLETEERING
Ok, we do NOT have a government that supports us, as the German Nazis had, as today's Islamics have--that, and unlimited financing from Saudis and UAE. The Islamic message has been getting out via our schools, our libraries, universities, and of course our government. They are getting their message out.
We are not getting our message out, not to where it counts: to the public, our public, so that we can affect public opinion.
How to do it, then?
The internet?
yes,
but whom do we reach there?
Well, let's look at Jihad Watch.
It is the motherlode of information against the jihad.
Ideas are formulated and expressed by intellectuals
and read by intellectuals.
I know, I know, intellectuals were and are behind
the major events of the 18th, 19th, and what concerns us most, 20th and now 21st centuries.
But how to get the message out
to where it will affect public opinion?
One method is "Pamphleteering."
This was used in the days of the American Colonies,
spread the ideology of the American Revolution
and it is still good
today.
Pamphleteering
Pamphleteering was a means of propagating new or controversial ideas through the distribution of inexpensive and easily produced tracts or pamphlets. Because the pamphlets were brief and written in a popular style, they enjoyed tremendous circulation. Read aloud in taverns, churches, and town meetings, pamphlets became a significant means of mass communication and an essential vehicle for carrying on political debates in colonial America.
http://www.answers.com/topic/pamphlet
Please read:
http://www.bricklin.com/pamphleteers.htm
Here is some ideas from that site:
"There is a similarity between the pamphlets of the American Revolution and today's personal web sites."
[But today's personal websites--blogs included--do not get out to the public that we want to affect. ed, lw]
Dan Bricklin (Dan Bricklin's Web Site: www.bricklin.com) cites:
Bernard Bailyn's "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution".
Bailyn [has this] to say [about pamphleteering]:
It was in this form -- as pamphlets -- that much of the most important and characteristics writing of the American Revolution appeared. For the Revolutionary generation, as for its predecessors back to the early sixteenth century, the pamphlet had peculiar virtues as a medium of communication. Then, as now, it was seen that the pamphlet allowed one to do things that were not possible in any other form.
He quotes from George Orwell, ("Introduction", in George Orwell and Reginald Reynolds, eds., British Pamphleteers):
The pamphlet [George Orwell, a modern pamphleteer, has written] is a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and "high-brow" than is ever possible in a newspaper or in most kinds of periodicals...
[preferably not "highbow" (intellectual) to get the public support we want and need. ed., lw)
In his book's Foreword, Bailyn writes:
The pamphlets [he looked at to write the book] include all sorts of writings -- treatises on political theory, essays on history, political arguments, sermons, correspondence, poems -- and they display all sorts of literary devices. But for all their variety they have in common one distinctive characteristic: they are, to an unusual degree, explanatory. They reveal not merely positions taken but the reasons why positions were taken...
Back in his Chapter I, he groups the pamphlets into three categories:
The largest number were direct responses to the great events of the time... etc.
Comments about Dan Bricklin's piece:
From Professor Chris Daly:
One other feature of 18th C. pamphleteering deserves mention, one that may have a lot of relevance in other countries today where the Web is used for purposes of political insurrection. That is, the pamphlet was preferred by the rebels because it did not provide any target for retaliation by the crown. It was a guerilla form of publishing in which an individual or small revolutionary group could make a point, then disappear. This was in contrast to the more established printers. Typically, the printer owned his shop, his press, his tools and all his stock. If he antagonized the Crown, they knew just where to find him, and the king's agents could easily shut him down. The hit-and-run, anonymous pamphleteer, on the other hand, was almost impossible to find and, thus, to stop.
--Professor Chris Daly
Comment on the foregoing
from [Dan Bricklin"s] co-worker Ed Blachman:
I know you've made this point elsewhere, but it's acutely important in this context: we have a much better chance of being able to read some of those pamphlets 200 years from now than we have of being able to read any of today's personal websites at that point:
Pamphlets had large printings (compare even 1000 paper copies of a pamphlet to a personal website that exists on only one server)
Paper is a durable, autonomous material (compared to a website that depends on the existence of an organization to support its server, to say nothing of the possibility of datawipe (accidental or intentional))
Paper and ink are and were a stable, autonomous technology (compared to a website that is inaccessible to roughly everyone in the absence of a particular technological base)
--Ed Bachman
Comment on the foregoing
read more at Dan Bricklin's website:
http://www.bricklin.com/pamphleteers.htm
Now, to get to the public,
Pamphlets can be left at Post Offices, Public Libraries, on trains, buses, transportation stations, etc. Use your imagination.
The pamphlet can be printed out from a blog or website (verbatim, make sure the source isn't copyrighted)
Sample of Pamphlets that you can print from
here--this site--and distribute will follow.
Here's one:
WHAT IS ISLAM?
It is an ideology of imperialism!
It is a political program of conquering the world--US!
It disguises itself as a religion by taking bits and pieces of the Old and New Testaments, adding permissions for robbery, rape, and mayhem, and calling itself "The True Religion"--the only religion, the one that must replace all others--the only religion allowed.
Islam is deadly; it is an infection.
When we resist Islam, we are not practicing discrimination or religious bias.
We are telling our would-be conquerors NO!
Just say NO to Islam
_____________________________
*in imagination
first published on
01/03/07
posted by urbanadder22 | 2:57 AM | 0 comments links to this post
Friday, January 05, 2007
"YOU WORRY ME."
By: American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco
[Yes, they worry all of us. lw.]
This item is available on the Middle East Forum website, at http://www.meforum.org/article/916
CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment
by Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2006
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), headquartered in Washington, is perhaps the best-known and most controversial Muslim organization in North America. CAIR presents itself as an advocate for Muslims' civil rights and the spokesman for American Muslims. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says its communications director, Ibrahim Hooper.[1] Its official mission—"to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding"[2]—suggests nothing problematic.
Starting with a single office in 1994, CAIR now claims thirty-one affiliates, including a branch in Canada, with more steadily being added. In addition to its grand national headquarters in Washington, it has impressive offices in other cities; the New York office, for example, is housed in the 19-story Interchurch Center located on Manhattan's Riverside Drive.
But there is another side to CAIR that has alarmed many people in positions to know. The Department of Homeland Security refuses to deal with it. Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York) describes it as an organization "which we know has ties to terrorism."[3] Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) observes that CAIR is "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect."[4] Steven Pomerantz, the FBI's former chief of counterterrorism, notes that "CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups."[5] The family of John P. O'Neill, Sr., the former FBI counterterrorism chief who perished at the World Trade Center, named CAIR in a lawsuit as having "been part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism"[6] responsible for the September 11 atrocities. Counterterrorism expert Steven Emerson calls it "a radical fundamentalist front group for Hamas."[7]
Of particular note are the American Muslims who reject CAIR's claim to speak on their behalf. The late Seifeldin Ashmawy, publisher of the New Jersey-based Voice of Peace, called CAIR the champion of "extremists whose views do not represent Islam."[8] Jamal Hasan of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance explains that CAIR's goal is to spread "Islamic hegemony the world over by hook or by crook."[9] Kamal Nawash, head of Free Muslims Against Terrorism, finds that CAIR and similar groups condemn terrorism on the surface while endorsing an ideology that helps foster extremism, adding that "almost all of their members are theocratic Muslims who reject secularism and want to establish Islamic states."[10] Tashbih Sayyed of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance calls CAIR "the most accomplished fifth column" in the United States.[11] And Stephen Schwartz of the Center on Islamic Pluralism writes that "CAIR should be considered a foreign-based subversive organization, comparable in the Islamist field to the Soviet-controlled Communist Party, USA."[12]
CAIR, for its part, dismisses all criticism, blaming negative comments on "Muslim bashers" who "can never point to something CAIR has done in its 10-year history that is objectionable."[13] Actually, there is much about the organization's history that is objectionable—and it is readily apparent to anyone who bothers to look.
Part of the Establishment
When President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington several days after September 11, 2001, to signal that he would not tolerate a backlash against Muslims, he invited CAIR's executive director, Nihad Awad, to join him at the podium. Two months later, when Secretary of State Colin Powell hosted a Ramadan dinner, he, too, called upon CAIR as representative of Islam in America.[14] More broadly, when the State Department seeks out Muslims to welcome foreign dignitaries, journalists, and academics, it calls upon CAIR.[15] The organization has represented American Muslims before Congress. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency hosted CAIR's "Sensitivity and Diversity Workshop" in an effort to harmonize space research with Muslim sensibilities.[16]
Law-enforcement agencies in Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Arizona, California, Missouri, Texas, and Kentucky have attended CAIR's sensitivity-training sessions.[17] The organization boasts such tight relations with law enforcement that it claims to have even been invited to monitor police raids.[18] In July 2004, as agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, and Homeland Security descended on the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, a Saudi-created school in Merrifield, Virginia, a local paper reported that the FBI had informed CAIR's legal director, Arsalan Iftikhar, that morning that the raid was going to take place.
CAIR is also a media darling. It claims to log five thousand annual mentions on newspapers, television, and radio, including some of the most prestigious media in the United States.[19] The press dutifully quotes CAIR's statistics, publishes its theological views, reports its opinions, rehashes its press releases, invites its staff on television, and generally dignifies its existence as a routine part of the American and Canadian political scenes.
CAIR regularly participates in seminars on Islamic cultural issues for corporations and has been invited to speak at many of America's leading universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia. American high schools have invited CAIR to promote its agenda, as have educationally-minded senior citizens.[20]
Terrorists in Its Midst
Perhaps the most obvious problem with CAIR is the fact that at least five of its employees and board members have been arrested, convicted, deported, or otherwise linked to terrorism-related charges and activities.
Randall ("Ismail") Royer, an American convert to Islam, served as CAIR's communications specialist and civil rights coordinator; today he sits in jail on terrorism-related charges. In June 2003, Royer and ten other young men, ages 23 to 35, known as the "Virginia jihad group," were indicted on forty-one counts of "conspiracy to train for and participate in a violent jihad overseas." The defendants, nine of them U.S. citizens, were accused of association with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a radical Islamic group designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State in 2001. They were also accused of meeting covertly in private homes and at the Islamic Center in Falls Church to prepare themselves for battle by listening to lectures and watching videotapes.[21] As the prosecutor noted, "Ten miles from Capitol Hill in the streets of northern Virginia, American citizens allegedly met, plotted, and recruited for violent jihad."[22] According to Matthew Epstein of the Investigative Project, Royer helped recruit the others to the jihad effort while he was working for CAIR. The group trained at firing ranges in Virginia and Pennsylvania; in addition, it practiced "small-unit military tactics" at a paintball war-games facility in Virginia, earning it the moniker, the "paintball jihadis."[23] Eventually members of the group traveled to Pakistan.
Five of the men indicted, including CAIR's Royer, were found to have had in their possession, according to the indictment, "AK-47-style rifles, telescopic lenses, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and tracer rounds, documents on undertaking jihad and martyrdom, [and] a copy of the terrorist handbook containing instructions on how to manufacture and use explosives and chemicals as weapons."[24]
After four of the eleven defendants pleaded guilty, the remaining seven, including Royer, were accused in a new, 32-count indictment of yet more serious charges: conspiring to help Al-Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan.[25] Royer admitted in his grand jury testimony that he had already waged jihad in Bosnia under a commander acting on orders from Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors also presented evidence that his father, Ramon Royer, had rented a room in his St. Louis-area home in 2000 to Ziyad Khaleel, the student who purchased the satellite phone used by Al-Qaeda in planning the two U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in August 1998.[26] Royer eventually pleaded guilty to lesser firearms-related charges, and the former CAIR staffer was sentenced to twenty years in prison.[27]
A coda to the "Virginia jihad network" came in 2005 when a Federal court convicted another Virginia man, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, of plotting to kill President Bush. Prosecutors alleged that Abu Ali participated in the Virginia jihad network's paintball games and perhaps supplied one of his fellow jihadists with an assault rifle.[28] Royer's possible role in Abu Ali's plans are unclear.
Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, has a long history of funding terrorism. First, he was convicted in July 2004, with his four brothers, of having illegally shipped computers from their Dallas-area business, InfoCom Corporation, to two designated state-sponsors of terrorism, Libya and Syria.[29] Second, he and two brothers were convicted in April 2005 of knowingly doing business with Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader, whom the U.S. State Department had in 1995 declared a "specially designated terrorist." Elashi was convicted of all twenty-one counts with which he was charged, including conspiracy, money laundering, and dealing in the property of a designated terrorist.[30] Third, he was charged in July 2004 with providing more than $12.4 million to Hamas while he was running the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, America's largest Islamic charity.[31] When the U.S. government shuttered Holy Land Foundation in late 2001, CAIR characterized this move as "unjust" and "disturbing."[32]
Bassem Khafagi, an Egyptian native and CAIR's onetime community relations director, pleaded guilty in September 2003 to lying on his visa application and passing bad checks for substantial amounts in early 2001,[33] for which he was deported. CAIR claimed Khafagi was hired only after he had committed his crimes and that the organization was unaware of his wrongdoing.[34] But that is unconvincing, for a cursory background check reveals that Khafagi was a founding member and president of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA),[35] an organization under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for terrorism-related activities. CAIR surely knew that IANA under Khafagi was in the business of, as prosecutors stated in Idaho court papers, disseminating "radical Islamic ideology, the purpose of which was indoctrination, recruitment of members, and the instigation of acts of violence and terrorism."[36]
For example, IANA websites promoted the views of two Saudi preachers, Salman al-Awdah and Safar al-Hawali, well-known in Islamist circles for having been spiritual advisors to Osama bin Laden.[37] Under Khafagi's leadership, Matthew Epstein has testified, IANA hosted a conference at which a senior Al-Qaeda recruiter, Abdelrahman al-Dosari, was a speaker.[38] IANA disseminated publications advocating suicide attacks against the United States, according to federal investigators.[39]
Also, Khafagi was co-owner of a Sir Speedy printing franchise until 1998 with Rafil Dhafir, who was a former vice president of IANA and a Syracuse-area oncologist convicted in February 2005 of illegally sending money to Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime as well as defrauding donors by using contributions to his "Help the Needy" charitable fund to avoid taxes and to purchase personal assets for himself. Dhafir was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison.[40]
Rabih Haddad, a CAIR fundraiser, was arrested in December 2001 on terrorism-related charges and deported from the United States due to his subsequent work as executive director of the Global Relief Foundation, a charity he cofounded[41] which was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in October 2002 for financing Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.[42]
Siraj Wahhaj, a CAIR advisory board member, was named in 1995 by U.S. attorney Mary Jo White as a possible unindicted coconspirator in the plot to blow up New York City landmarks led by the blind sheikh, Omar Abdul Rahman. In defense of having Wahhaj on its advisory board, CAIR described him as "one of the most respected Muslim leaders in America."[43] In October 2004, he spoke at a CAIR dinner.
This roster of employees and board members connected to terrorism makes one wonder how CAIR remains an acceptable guest at U.S. government events—and even more so, how U.S. law enforcement agencies continue to associate with it.
Links to Hamas
CAIR has a number of links to the terror organization Hamas, starting with the founder of its Texas chapter, Ghassan Elashi, as noted above.
Secondly, Elashi and another CAIR founder, Omar Ahmad, attended a key meeting in Philadelphia in 1993. An FBI memo characterizes this meeting as a planning session for Hamas, Holy Land Foundation, and Islamic Association of Palestine to find ways to disrupt Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy and raise money for Hamas in the United States.[44] The Philadelphia meeting was deemed such strong proof of Islamic Association of Palestine's relation to Hamas that a federal judge in Chicago in December 2004 ruled the Islamic Association of Palestine partially liable for US$156 million in damages (along with the Holy Land Foundation and Mohammad Salah, a Hamas operative)[45] for having aided and abetted the Hamas murder of David Boim, an American citizen.[46]
Third, CAIR's founding personnel were closely linked to the Islamic Association of Palestine, which was founded by Ibrahim Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas operative and husband of Elashi's cousin; according to Epstein, the Islamic Association of Palestine functions as Hamas's public relations and recruitment arm in the United States.[47] The two individuals who established CAIR, Ahmad and Nihad Awad, had been, respectively, the president and public relations director of the Islamic Association of Palestine. Hooper, CAIR's director of communications, had been an employee of the Islamic Association of Palestine.[48] Rafeeq Jabar, president of the Islamic Association of Palestine, was a founding director of CAIR.
Fourth, the Holy Land Foundation, which the U.S. government has charged with funneling funds to Hamas, provided CAIR with some of its start-up funding in 1994. (See $5,000 money transfer, figure 1.) In the other direction, according to Joe Kaufman, CAIR sent potential donors to the Holy Land Foundation's website when they clicked on their post-September 11 weblink, "Donate to the NY/DC Disaster Relief Fund."[49]
Fifth, Awad publicly declared his enthusiasm for Hamas at Barry University in Florida in 1994: "I'm in support of Hamas movement more than the PLO." As an attorney pointed out in the course of deposing Awad for the Boim case, Awad both supported Hamas and acknowledged an awareness of its involvement in violence.[50]
Impeding Counterterrorism
A class-action lawsuit brought by the estate of John P. O'Neill, Sr. charges CAIR and its Canadian branch of being, since their inception, "part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism" with a unique role in the terrorist network:
both organizations have actively sought to hamper governmental anti-terrorism efforts by direct propaganda activities aimed at police, first-responders, and intelligence agencies through so-called sensitivity training. Their goal is to create as much self-doubt, hesitation, fear of name-calling, and litigation within police departments and intelligence agencies as possible so as to render such authorities ineffective in pursuing international and domestic terrorist entities.[51]
It would be hard to improve on this characterization; under the guise of participating in counterterrorism, CAIR does its best to impede these efforts. This approach can be seen from its statements.
CAIR encourages law enforcement in its work—so long as it does not involve counterterrorism. Wissam Nasr, the head of CAIR's New York office, explains: "The Muslim community in New York wants to play a positive role in protecting our nation's security, but that role is made more difficult if the FBI is perceived as pursuing suspects much more actively than it is searching for community partners." [52] Nasr would have the FBI get out of the unpleasant business of "pursuing suspects" and instead devote itself to building social good will—through CAIR, naturally.
Likewise, on the eve of the U.S. war with Iraq in March 2003, CAIR distributed a "Muslim community safety kit" that advised Muslims to "Know your rights if contacted by the FBI." It tells them specifically, "You have no obligation to talk to the FBI, even if you are not a citizen. … You do not have to permit them to enter your home. … ALWAYS have an attorney present when answering questions." On the other hand, when it comes to protecting Muslims, CAIR wants an active FBI. The same "Muslim community safety kit" advised: "If you believe you have been the victim of an anti-Muslim hate crime or discrimination, you should: 1. Report the incident to your local police station and FBI office IMMEDIATELY."[53] In January 2006, CAIR joined a lawsuit against the National Security Agency demanding that the U.S. intelligence agency cease monitoring communications with suspected Islamist terrorists. Part of its complaints concerned a belief that the U.S. government monitored its communications with Rabih Haddad, the suspected Al-Qaeda financier who has since moved to Lebanon.[54] Upon learning that CAIR was a fellow plaintiff in the suit, political writer Christopher Hitchens said, "I was revolted to see who I was in company with. CAIR is a lot to swallow."[55]
Finally, CAIR discourages Americans from improving their counterterrorism skills. Deedra Abboud, CAIR's Arizona director, approves of police learning the Arabic language if that lowers the chances of cultural and linguistic misunderstandings. "However, if they're learning it in order to better fight terrorism, that concerns me. Only because that assumes that the only fighting we have to do is among Arabic speakers. That's not a long-term strategy."[56]
Apologizing for Islamist Terrorism
CAIR has consistently shown itself to be on the wrong side of the war on terrorism, protecting, defending, and supporting both accused and even convicted radical Islamic terrorists.
In October 1998—months after Osama bin Laden had issued his first declaration of war against the United States and had been named as the chief suspect in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa—CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as "the sworn enemy," finding this depiction offensive to Muslims. CAIR also leapt to bin Laden's defense, denying his responsibility for the twin East African embassy bombings. CAIR's Hooper saw these explosions resulting from "misunderstandings of both sides."[57] Even after the September 11 atrocity, CAIR continued to protect bin Laden, stating only that "if [note the "if"] Osama bin Laden was behind it, we condemn him by name."[58] Not until December 2001, when bin Laden on videotape boasted of his involvement in the attack, did CAIR finally acknowledge his role.
CAIR has also consistently defended other radical Islamic terrorists. Rather than praise the conviction of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, it deemed this "a travesty of justice."[59] It labeled the extradition order for suspected Hamas terrorist Mousa Abu Marzook "anti-Islamic" and "anti-American."[60] CAIR has co-sponsored Yvonne Ridley, the British convert to Islam who became a Taliban enthusiast and a denier that Al-Qaeda was involved in 9-11.[61] When four U.S. civilian contractors in Falluja were (in CAIR's words) "ambushed in their SUV's, burned, mutilated, dragged through the streets, and then hung from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River," CAIR issued a press release that condemned the mutilation of the corpses but stayed conspicuously silent on the actual killings.[62]
During the 2005 trial of Sami Al-Arian, accused of heading Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the United States, Ahmed Bedier of CAIR's Florida branch emerged as Al-Arian's effective spokesman, providing sound bytes to the media, trying to get his trial moved out of Tampa, commenting on the jury selection, and so on.[63]
More broadly, TheReligionofPeace.com website pointed out that "of the more than 3100 fatal Islamic terror attacks committed in the last four years, we have only seen CAIR specifically condemn 18."[64]
Ties to Extremists, Left and Right
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has affinities to extremists of both the left and right, sharing features with both. Its extensive ties to far-left groups include funding from the Tides Foundation for its "Interfaith Coalition against Hate Crimes";[65] endorsing a statement issued by Refuse & Resist[66] and a "National Day of Protest … to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation."[67] CAIR supported the "Civil Liberties Restoration Act," legislation drafted by Open Society Policy Center, an organization founded by George Soros that would obstruct U.S. law enforcement from prosecuting the "War on Extremism." Far-left members of Congress such as Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) and Jim McDermott (Democrat, Washington) have turned up as featured speakers at CAIR fundraising events.
Its neo-Nazi side came out most clearly in CAIR's early years. In 1996, according to testimony by Steven Emerson, Yusuf Islam—the Muslim convert formerly known as the singer Cat Stevens—gave a keynote speech at a CAIR event. The contents of the speech itself are not known but Islam wrote a pamphlet published by the Islamic Association of Palestine, CAIR's stepparent, which included these sentences:
The Jews seem neither to respect God nor his Creation. Their own holy books contain the curse of God brought upon them by their prophets on account of their disobedience to Him and mischief in the earth. We have seen the disrespect for religion displayed by those who consider themselves to be "God's Chosen People."[68]
In 1998, CAIR co-hosted an event at which an Egyptian Islamist leader, Wagdi Ghunaym, declared Jews to be the "descendants of the apes."[69]
CAIR continues to expose its fascistic side by its repeated activities with William W. Baker, exposed as a neo-Nazi in March 2002.[70] Even after that date, CAIR invited Baker to speak at several events, for example in Florida on August 12, 2003[71] and New Jersey on October 18, 2003.[72] CAIR liked Baker's work so much, it used the title of his book, More in Common Than You Think, in one of its ad campaigns in March 2004 and as the title of an Elderhostel lecture.[73]
Foreign Funding
According to filed copies of its annual Internal Revenue Service Form 990, CAIR's U.S. chapters have more than doubled their combined revenues from the $2.5 million they recorded in 2000 to $5.6 million in 2002, though the number dipped slightly to $5.3 million in 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available. That CAIR has recorded at least $3.1 million on its year-end combined balance sheets since 2001, combined with its minimal grant-making ($27,525 was the total that all CAIR chapters granted in 2003), suggests that CAIR is building an endowment and planning for the long term.
The Internal Revenue Service filings claim that the bulk of its funds come from "direct public support"[74] and its website explicitly denies that CAIR receives support from foreign sources: "We do not support directly or indirectly, or receive support from, any overseas group or government."[75] However, this denial is flatly untrue, for CAIR has accepted foreign funding, and from many sources.[76]
A press release from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington indicates that in August 1999, the Islamic Development Bank—a bank headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia—gave CAIR $250,000 to purchase land for its Washington, D.C. headquarters.[77] CAIR's decision to accept Islamic Development Bank funding is unfortunate, given the bank's role as fund manager of the Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa Funds, established by twelve Arab countries in order to fund the Palestinian intifada and provide financial support to the families of Palestinian "martyrs."[78]
According to records made public by Paul Sperry, CAIR purchased its national headquarters in 1999 through an unusual lease-purchase transaction with the United Bank of Kuwait.[79] The bank was the deed holder and leased the building to CAIR; yet despite not owning the building, CAIR recorded the property on its balance sheet as a property asset valued at $2.6 million.[80] This arrangement changed in September 2002 when CAIR bought out the Kuwaiti bank with funds provided, at least in part, by Al-Maktoum Foundation, based in Dubai and headed by Dubai's crown prince and defense minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. The markings on the deed indicate that the foundation provided "purchase money to the extent of $978,031.34" to CAIR, or roughly one-third the value of the property.[81] One only wonders what a more complete investigation of its real estate transactions would turn up.
In December 1999, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), an organization benefiting from Saudi patronage,[82] announced at a press conference in Saudi Arabia that it "was extending both moral and financial support to CAIR" [83] to help it construct its $3.5 million headquarters in Washington, D.C. WAMY also agreed to "introduce CAIR to Saudi philanthropists and recommend their financial support for the headquarters project."[84] In 2002, CAIR and WAMY announced, again from Saudi Arabia, their cooperation on a $1 million public relations campaign. The Saudi Gazette, which reported the story, said that CAIR's leader, Nihad Awad, "had already met leading Saudi businessmen" in order to "brief them about the projects and raise funds."[85]
Later that week on the same fundraising trip through the Middle East, CAIR reportedly received $500,000 from Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, reputed to be one of the world's richest men.[86] Waleed also, in May 2005, stated that he is "more than prepared" to work with organizations such as CAIR, "and to provide needed support" to them.[87]
CAIR has received at least $12,000 from the International Relief Organization (also called the International Islamic Relief Organization, or IIRO), which itself was the recipient of some $10 million from its parent organization in Saudi Arabia. (See a 1994 check from the IIRO for $5,000, figure 2.) The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) gave CAIR's Washington office $14,000 in 2003. According to a court-filed affidavit, David Kane of the U.S. Customs Service determined that the IIIT receives donations from overseas via its related entities.[88] Law enforcement is looking at the IIIT connection with Operation Green Quest, the major investigation into the activities of individuals and organizations believed to be "ardent supporters" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda.[89] CAIR, not surprisingly, criticized the probe of its donor, telling the Financial Times of London that the investigation is an attack on "respected Islamic institutions."[90]
Despite these many foreign sources, CAIR still claims to receive no funds from outside the United States.
An Integral Part of the Wahhabi Lobby
CAIR has a key role in the "Wahhabi lobby"—the network of organizations, usually supported by donations from Saudi Arabia, whose aim is to propagate the especially extreme version of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. For one, it sends money to other parts of the lobby. According to CAIR's Form 990 filings for 2003, its California offices invested $325,000 with the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).[91] The NAIT was established in 1971 by the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada, which bills itself as the precursor to the Islamic Society of North America,[92] now the largest member of the Wahhabi lobby. According to Newsweek, authorities say that over the years "NAIT money has helped the Saudi Arabian sect of Wahhabism—or Salafism, as the broader, pan-Islamic movement is called—to seize control of hundreds of mosques in U.S. Muslim communities."[93] J. Michael Waller, a terrorism expert, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that NAIT is believed to own 50 to 79 percent of the mosques in North America. According to Waller, NAIT was raided as part of Operation Green Quest in 2002, on suspicions of involvement in terrorist financing.[94]
CAIR affiliates regularly speak at events sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an umbrella organization of the Wahhabi lobby. Nabil Sadoun, a director of CAIR-DC, spoke at the ISNA's regional conference in 2003. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR's Southern California chapter, and Fouad Khatib, the CAIR-California chairman, spoke at an ISNA-sponsored event.[95] Safaa Zarzour, president of CAIR-Chicago, was also an ISNA speaker, as was Azhar Azeez, a board member of CAIR-Dallas, who has spoken at several ISNA conferences.[96]
In January 2003, the Saudi newspaper Ar-Riyadh reported that Nihad Awad appeared on a panel along with ‘Aqil ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-‘Aqil, secretary-general of the Saudi charity Al-Haramain Foundation[97]—despite that organization's well-known ties to terrorism and the fact that already in March 2002, long before Awad's visit with Al-Haramain, the U.S. and Saudi governments had jointly designated eleven of its branches "financial supporter[s] of terrorism."[98] The U.S.-based branch of the organization was also subsequently designated in September 2004.[99]
To fully appreciate what it means that more than half of U.S. mosques are promoting Saudi Islam, we refer to the Freedom House report, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques." It explains that Saudi documents disseminated at U.S. mosques are telling America's Muslims that it is a religious obligation for them to hate Christians and Jews and warning that Muslims should not have Christians and Jews as friends, nor should they help them.[100]
The Freedom House report indicates that Saudi publications disseminated by U.S. mosques: say it is lawful for Muslims to physically harm and steal from adulterers and homosexuals; condemn interpretations of Islam other than the strict "Wahhabi" version preached in Saudi Arabia; advocate the killing of those who convert out of Islam; assert that it is a Muslim's duty to eliminate the State of Israel; and promote the idea that women should be segregated and veiled and, of course, barred from some employment and activities.[101] But not to worry; CAIR's spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, tells us, "The majority of the stuff they picked is in Arabic, a language that most people in mosques don't read."[102]
Muslim Supremacism
CAIR's personnel are normally tight-lipped about the organization's agenda but sometimes let their ambitions slip out. CAIR's long-serving chairman, Omar Ahmad, reportedly told a crowd of California Muslims in July 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran ... should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."[103] Five years later, Ahmad denied having said this and issued a press release saying he was seeking a retraction.[104] But the reporter stood behind her story, and the newspaper that reported Ahmad's remarks told WorldNetDaily it had "not been contacted by CAIR."[105]
In 1993, before CAIR existed, Ibrahim Hooper told a reporter: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."[106] On the Michael Medved radio show in 2003, Hooper made the same point more positively: if Muslims ever become a majority in the United States, it would be safe to assume that they would want to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law, as most Muslims believe that God's law is superior to man-made law.[107]
Other CAIR personnel also express their contempt for the United States. Ihsan Bagby of CAIR's Washington office has said that Muslims "can never be full citizens of this country," referring to the United States, "because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country."[108] Ayloush said that the war on terror has become a "war on Muslims" with the U.S. government the "new Saddam." He concluded: "So let's end this hypocrisy, this hypocrisy that we are better than the other dictator."[109]
In a bizarre coda, Parvez Ahmed, the current CAIR chairman, touted the virtues of Islamic democracy in 2004 by portraying the Afghan constitutional process as superior to the U.S. one:
The new Afghan constitution shows that the constitution of a Muslim nation can be democratic and yet not contradict the essence of Islam. During my meeting with a high-ranking Afghan delegation during their recent visit to the United States, I was told that the Afghan constitutional convention included Hindu delegates despite Hindus accounting for only 1 percent of the population. Contrast this with our own constitutional convention that excluded women and blacks.[110]
Intimidation
CAIR attempts to close down public debate about itself and Islam in several ways, starting with a string of lawsuits against public and private individuals and several publications.[111] CAIR's Rabiah Ahmed has openly acknowledged that lawsuits are increasingly an "instrument" for it to use.[112]
In addition, CAIR has resorted to financial pressure in an effort to silence critics. One such case concerns ABC radio personality Paul Harvey, who on December 4, 2003, described the vicious nature of cock fighting in Iraq, then commented: "Add to the [Iraqi] thirst for blood, a religion which encourages killing, and it is entirely understandable if Americans came to this bloody party unprepared."[113] CAIR responded a day later with a demand for "an on-air apology." CAIR then issued a call to its supporters to contact Harvey's advertising sponsors to press them to pull their ads "until Harvey responds to Muslim concerns."[114] Although Harvey quickly and publicly retracted his remarks, CAIR continued its campaign against him.
Another case of financial intimidation took place in March 2005, when CAIR campaigned to have National Review remove two books—Serge Trifkovic's The Sword of the Prophet[115] and J.L. Menezes' The Life and Religion of Mohammed[116]—as well as the positive reviews of those books, from its on-line bookstore. CAIR claimed the books defame Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. When it did not get immediate satisfaction from National Review, it instructed its partisans to pressure the Boeing Corporation to withdraw its advertisements from the magazine. National Review briefly took down both books but then quickly reposted the one by Trifkovic. Trifkovic himself argued that CAIR's success here "will only whet Islamist appetites and encourage their hope that the end-result will be a crescent on the Capitol a generation or two from now."[117]
CAIR resorted to another form of intimidation versus Florida radio show host and Baptist pastor Mike Frazier. Frazier had criticized local and state officials in September 2004 for attending a CAIR awards dinner because, as he put it, "If these people would have bothered to check CAIR out beforehand they would have seen that it is a radical group." He termed what followed "absolutely unbelievable." Within a month, he says he received six death threats and forty-seven threatening phone calls, was accosted by strangers, was labeled an "extremist" and a "fundamentalist zealot," and accused of "propagating fear, terror and disunity" by the St. Petersburg Times. Several members of his church fled his congregation because, according to Frazier, "they were afraid."[118]
Other CAIR targets of intimidation have included the Simon Wiesenthal Center for juxtaposing a picture of the Ayatollah Khomeini next to Adolf Hitler,[119] and the Reader's Digest for an article, "The Global War on Christians,"[120] which CAIR found "smears Islam" by citing well-documented cases of Christian persecution. CAIR's Nihad Awad faulted the Reader's Digest for leaving the impression that "Islam somehow encourages or permits rape, kidnapping, torture, and forced conversion."[121]
In December 2003, CAIR ruined the career of an army officer and nurse, Captain Edwina McCall, who had treated American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan but ended up resigning under a cloud of suspicion. Her crime? Using her military e-mail address on an Internet discussion board concerning the Islamist agenda. CAIR sent the comments to the secretary of defense, calling attention to her allegedly "bigoted anti-Muslim comments" and demanding that her "extremist and Islamophobic views" be investigated and then followed by "appropriate action." The Army immediately cast the officer under suspicion, leading her to resign from a career she had loved.[122]
At times, CAIR inspires its attack dogs to make threats and sits back when they follow through. After Daniel Pipes published an article in July 1999 explaining the difference between moderate and radical Islam,[123] CAIR launched fifteen separate attacks on him in the space of two months, attacks widely reprinted in Muslim publications. Dozens of letters followed to the newspapers that carried Pipes' articles, some calling him harsh names ("bigot and racist"), others comparing him to the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis, or characterizing his writings as an "atrocity" filled with "pure poison" and "outright lies." More alarmingly, the letter-writers accused the author of perpetrating a hate crime against Muslims or of promoting and abetting such crimes. One threatened: "Is Pipes ready to answer the Creator for his hatred or is he a secular humanist ...? He will soon find out."[124]
CAIR metes out even worse treatment to Muslim opponents, as the case of Khalid Durán shows. Durán taught at leading universities and wrote about Islam for think tanks; he was commissioned by the American Jewish Committee to write Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews. Fourteen scholars of Islam endorsed the manuscript prior to publication; it won glowing reviews from such authoritative figures as Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, the eminent church historian Martin Marty, and Prince Hassan of Jordan. Then, before the book was even released, CAIR issued two press releases insulting Durán personally and demanding that the Children of Abraham be withheld until a group of CAIR-approved academics could review the book to correct what it assumed (without having read the manuscript) would be its "stereotypical or inaccurate content." Islamist publications quickly picked up CAIR's message, with Cairo's Al-Wafd newspaper announcing that Durán's book "spreads anti-Muslim propaganda" through its "distortions of Islamic concepts." A weekly in Jordan reported that ‘Abd al-Mun'im Abu Zant—one of that country's most powerful Islamist leaders—had declared that Durán "should be regarded as an apostate," and on this basis called for an Islamic ruling to condone Durán's death. Days later, Durán's car was broken into, and a dead squirrel and excrement were thrown inside. CAIR, far from apologizing for the evil results of its handiwork, accused the American Jewish Committee of fabricating the death edict as a "cheap publicity stunt to boost book sales."[125]
Deceit
CAIR has a long record of unreliability and deceit even in relatively minor matters. To begin with, it has the audacity to claim to be "America's largest civil rights group,"[126] ignoring much larger groups by far, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Anti-Defamation League.
In May 2005, CAIR published its annual report on the violations of Muslim civil rights in America which purported to document a significant rise in the number of hate crimes directed at Muslims. According to the report, "anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States" have gone up dramatically: from 42 cases in 2002, to 93 cases in 2003, to 141 in 2004.[127] The mainstream media dutifully recycled CAIR's press release, effectively endorsing this study by reporting it as a serious piece of research.[128] But closer inspection shows that of twenty "anti-Muslim hate crimes" for which CAIR gives information, at least six are invalid.[129]
David Skinner points out a further problem with the 2004 report: its credulity in reporting any incident, no matter how trivial, subjective or unsubstantiated. One anecdote concerns a Muslim college student who encountered "flyers and posters with false and degrading statements about the Qur'an and the prophet Muhammad"; another concerns a student at Roger Williams in Rhode Island who wrote that "a true Muslim is taught to slay infidels." Also, any reluctance to accommodate Muslim women wearing a headscarf or veil was tallied as a bias incident, even in the case of genuine quandaries (such as veiled athletes or drivers applying for their licenses).[130]
Nor is this the first unreliable CAIR study. Referring to the 1996 version, Steven Emerson noted in congressional testimony that "a large proportion of the complaints have been found to be fabricated, manufactured, distorted, or outside standard definitions of hate crimes."[131] Jorge Martinez of the U.S. Department of Justice dismissed CAIR's 2003 report, Guilt by Association, as "unfair criticism based on a lot of misinformation and propaganda."[132]
CAIR's manipulative habits assert themselves even in petty ways. For example, CAIR is not above conducting straw polls in an effort to forward its political agenda and may even be willing to exaggerate its own outreach efforts. This seems to be the case in CAIR's library project, where it claims to have sent thousands of packages of books and tapes to American libraries. An inquiry turned up the curious fact that while CAIR claimed the District of Columbia had received thirty-seven such packages, records showed only one such copy being recorded.[133] Maybe the mailmen lost the remaining thirty-six?
In September 2005, CAIR indulged in some Stalinist revisionism: as Robert Spencer revealed, CAIR doctored a photo on its website to make it more Islamically correct by manually adding a hijab onto a Muslim woman.[134] Despite all this, CAIR's statements continue to gain the respectful attention of uncritical media outlets.
The Establishment's Failure
The few hard-hitting media analyses of CAIR generally turn up in the conservative press.[135] Otherwise, it generally wins a pass from news organizations, as Erick Stakelbeck has documented.[136] The mainstream media treat CAIR respectfully, as a legitimate organization, avoiding the less salutary topics explored here, even the multiple connections to terrorism.
One telling example of the media's negligence in investigating CAIR occurred when Ghassan Elashi—a founding board member of CAIR's Texas chapter—was indicted and convicted of supporting terrorism by sending money to Hamas and Mousa Abu Marzook. Reporting on this, not one single mainstream media source mentioned Elashi's CAIR connection. Worse, the media went to CAIR and quoted it on Elashi's arrest, without noting their close connection.[137]
The Washington Post seems particularly loath to expose CAIR's unsavory aspects. For example, on January 20, 2005, it ran a story about the opening of CAIR's new Virginia office on Grove Street in Herndon. The article not only passed up the opportunity to consider CAIR's presence in a town notorious for Islamist organizational connections to Al-Qaeda and to the Wahhabi network,[138] but it was also remarkably similar in tone and style to CAIR's own press release on the same subject.[139] (A later Washington Post article did mention that the new CAIR offices are located on the very street where federal agents had conducted a major raid in March 2002.[140])
There is much else for the press to look into. One example: CAIR-DC lists the Zahara Investment Corporation as a "related organization" on its IRS Form 990. Curiously, Zahara Investment Corporation was listed as a tax-exempt entity in 2002; in 2003, it became a non-tax-exempt entity.[141] This prompts several questions: how is a tax-exempt like CAIR related to an investment company, much less a corporation? How does an investment corporation become a tax-exempt? And how does it change itself into a non-exempt? And why did CAIR-DC invest $40,000 of the public's money in 1998 in securities that it would have to write off less than three years later? Whose securities were these? The usual databases have nothing on Zahara Investment Corporation; all this took place under the radar screen.
That the U.S. government, the mainstream media, educational institutions, and others have given CAIR a free pass amounts to a dereliction of duty. Yet, there appear to be no signs of change. How long will it be until the establishment finally recognizes CAIR for what it is and denies it mainstream legitimacy?
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum. Sharon Chadha is the co-author of Jihad and International Security.
[1] Columbus Dispatch (Ohio), Jan. 1, 2002.
[2] "What's CAIR's Vision and Mission," CAIR website, accessed Jan. 13, 2006.
[3] FDCH Political Transcripts, Sept. 10, 2003.
[4] "Bad CAIR Day: Ex-staffer pleads guilty to terror charges, Senate asks questions on 9/11 anniversary," Center for Security Policy, accessed Jan. 9, 2006.
[5] Joseph Farah, "Between the Lines: The Real CAIR," WorldNetDaily, Apr. 25, 2003; Steve Pomerantz, "Counterterrorism in a Free Society," The Journal of Counterterrorism & Security International, Spring 1998.
[6] Estate of John P. O'Neill, Sr. et al. vs. Al Baraka Investment and Development Corporation, DanielPipes.org, accessed Jan. 9, 2006.
[7] Steven Emerson, "Re: Terrorism and the Middle East Peace Process," prepared testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Near East and South Asia, Mar. 19, 1996.
[8] The Jerusalem Post, Mar. 5, 1999.
[9] Personal communication from Jamal Hasan to Daniel Pipes, July 25, 2003.
[10] The Washington Times, Oct. 1, 2004.
[11] Melissa Radler, "A Different Face of Islam," Jerusalem Post International Edition, July 18, 2003.
[12] Stephen Schwartz, "An Activist's Guide to Arab and Muslim Campus and Community Organizations in North America," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 26, 2003.
[13] Free Muslims Coalition, July 5, 2004.
[14] Colin Powell, remarks at Iftaar dinner, Benjamin Franklin Room, Washington, D.C., Nov. 18, 2002.
[15] "CAIR-St. Louis Meets with Palestinian Journalists," CAIR, July 27, 2004; Nihad Awad biography, CAIR website, accessed Jan. 12, 2006.
[16] "CAIR Conducts Diversity Training for NASA," CAIR, July 7, 2004.
[17] "Partial List of CAIR's Work with Local State and Federal Law Enforcement Authorities," CAIR website, accessed Jan. 9, 2006.
[18] The Connection Newspapers, July 8, 2004.
[19] "Muslim-American Activism: CAIR Marks Decade of Dedication," The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Oct. 2004, p. 76.
[20] "CAIR-Chicago Extends Lecture Series on Islam, ‘Building Bridges to Islam' Events Co-hosted by Edlerhostel," CAIR, Feb. 1, 2005.
[21] United States of America v. Randall Todd Royer, et al, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, June 2003.
[22] BBC News, June 28, 2003.
[23] CNN, June 27, 2003.
[24] FDCH Political Transcripts, June 27, 2003.
[25] Associated Press, Sept. 25, 2003.
[26] Reasononline, July 2, 2003.
[27] U.S. Department of Justice, news release, Apr. 9, 2004.
[28] All Things Considered, National Public Radio, Nov. 22, 2005.
[29] U.S. Department of Justice, news release, July 8, 2004.
[30] Associated Press, Apr. 13, 2005.
[31] U.S. Department of Justice, news release, July 27, 2004.
[32] "Freeze on Group's Assets Questioned by U.S. Muslims," CAIR, Dec. 4, 2001.
[33] Associated Press, Sept. 10, 2003.
[34] Parvez Ahmed, "Accusations of Terrorist Support Are Wrong, Divisive," St. Petersburg Times, Sept. 27, 2004.
[35] "Articles of Incorporation of a Colorado Nonprofit Corporation, 931135840," Dec. 8, 1993.
[36] The Washington Post, Oct. 2, 2003.
[37] Associated Press, Sept. 10, 2003.
[38] Matthew Epstein, "Saudi Support for Islamic Extremism in the United States," testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, Sept. 10, 2003.
[39] Associated Press, Sept. 10, 2003.
[40] The Post-Standard (Syracuse), Jan. 23, 2004.
[41] CAIR et al v. Ashcroft and Mueller complaint, p. 13.
[42] U.S. Department of the Treasury, news release, Oct. 18, 2002.
[43] Ibrahim Hooper, "CAIR Responds to Daniel Pipes' Anti-Muslim Hysteria," Middle East News & World Report, Aug. 25, 2000.
[44] Epstein, "Saudi Support for Islamic Extremism."
[45] Mohammad Salah also appears to be the uncle of Abdullah Salah, vice president of CAIR's Chicago chapter.
[46] USA Today, Dec. 9, 2004.
[47] Epstein, "Saudi Support for Islamic Extremism."
[48] "Text from Lawsuit Response," Council on American-Islamic Relations, Inc. v. Andrew Whitehead, law no. CL04-926, Virginia: In the Circuit Court for the City of Virginia Beach, Apr. 30, 2004.
[49] Joe Kaufman, "The CAIR-Terror Connection," FrontPageMagazine.com, Apr. 29, 2004.
[50] Steven Emerson, American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us (New York: Free Press, 2003); Deposition of Nihad Awad, Oct. 22, 2003, In the Matter of: Stanley Boim, et al. v. Quranic Literacy Institute, et. al, p. 58.
[51] John P. O'Neill vs. Al Baraka.
[52] "Muslims Meet with FBI in AZ, NY," CAIR, July 14, 2004.
[53] "CAIR Muslim Community Safety Kit," CAIR, Mar. 17, 2003.
[54] ACLU et al. vs. National Security Agency, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, Jan. 17, 2006, pp. 30-1.
[55] The New York Sun, Jan. 18, 2006.
[56] The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), Mar. 25, 2004.
[57] Chip Joyce, "Council on American-Islamic Relations Attacks Daniel Pipes—An In-Depth Analysis of Their Charges," AboutTheWar.com, Jan. 7, 2003.
[58] Steven Emerson, statement to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, July 9, 2003.
[59] Jake Tapper, "Islam's Flawed Spokesmen," Salon, Sept. 26, 2001.
[60] Newsletter of the Marzuk Legal Fund, June 1996.
[61] The Oracle (University of South Florida), Mar. 31, 2004.
[62] "CAIR Condemns Mutilation of Bodies in Iraq," CAIR, Mar. 31, 2004.
[63] Joe Kaufman, "CAIRing for Sami Al-Arian," FrontPageMagazine.com, June 22, 2005.
[64] "This Week in Islam," TheReligionofPeace.com, Oct. 31, 2005.
[65] "The Tides Community Responds to 9/11/01," Groundsprings.org, accessed Jan. 10, 2006.
[66] "February 20, 2002—National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants," Refuse and Resist, New York, N.Y., accessed Jan. 10, 2006.
[67] "The Call for a National Day of Protest on October 22nd, 2002, to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation," October 22 Coalition, accessed Jan. 10, 2006.
[68] Steven Emerson, "Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years after the World Trade Center Bombing," statement before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, Feb. 24, 1998.
[69] Pomerantz, "Counterterrorism in a Free Society"; Schwartz, "An Activist's Guide."
[70] Orange County Weekly (Costa Mesa, Calif.), Mar. 7, 2002.
[71] The Palestine Chronicle (Mountlake Terrace, Wash.), Aug. 4, 2003.
[72] "CAIR Promotes and Hosts William W. Baker, Neo-Nazi," DanielPipes.org, Mar. 9, 2004.
[73] "A Day of Discovery: Building Bridges to Islam in Arizona," program guide, Islamic Community Center, Tempe, Ariz., May 31, 2005 and June 14, 2005.
[74] The IRS offers several choices under the item "Revenues," including direct public support, indirect public support, government contributions (grants), membership dues and assessments, and net income or (loss) from special events or rental properties—the categories in which CAIR has classified its revenues.
[75] "Islamophobic Smear Campaign Goes Public," CAIR, Nov. 8, 2001.
[76] Epstein, "Saudi Support for Islamic Extremism."
[77] "IDB Approves New Projects Worldwide," Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, news release, Aug. 15, 1999.
[78] Arab News (Jeddah), Aug. 26, 2001.
[79] Paul Sperry, "Chapter 13: The 9/11 Imam," SperryFiles, accessed Jan. 10, 2006.
[80] SperryFiles, accessed Jan. 10, 2006.
[81] Deed of Trust, Doc. # 2002105143, Commercial Settlements, Inc., Washington, D.C., Aug. 7, 2002, SperryFiles, accessed Jan. 10, 2006.
[82] WAMY's relationship to Saudi Arabia was described this way by its secretary general: "The Kingdom provides us with a supportive environment that allows us to work openly within the society to collect funds and spread activities. It also provides us with protection abroad through Saudi embassies and consulates, in addition to financial support." "WAMY Team in Afghanistan Risks Life to Deliver Aid," Middle East Newsfile, Nov. 20, 2001.
[83] "WAMY Spends SR12m on New Mosques," Middle East Newsfile, Dec. 23, 1999.
[84] Arab News, Dec. 23, 1999.
[85] Epstein, "Saudi Support for Islamic Extremism."
[86] ArabicNews.com, Nov. 19, 2002.
[87] Kingdom Holding Company, news release, May 20, 2005.
[88] David Kane, "(Proposed Redacted) Affidavit in Support of Application for Search Warrant (October 2003)," United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia.
[89] "Operation Green Quest," brochure, U.S. Customs Service, Office of Investigations, Washington, D.C.
[90] Financial Times (London), Mar. 28, 2002.
[91] Form 990 filings for CAIR, 2003.
[92] "A Little Taste of History," Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada website, accessed Jan. 11, 2006.
[93] Newsweek, Sept. 25, 2002.
[94] J. Michael Waller, statement before the U.S. Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Oct. 14, 2003.
[95] "Muslims and the Information Superhighway (MSIC 2000)," Hilton Long Beach, Long Beach, Calif., July 14 -16, 2000.
[96] "Upcoming conferences," ISNA website, accessed Jan. 17, 2006.
[97] Ar-Riyadh, Jan. 15, 2003.
[98] "U.S.-Saudi Arabia Terrorist Financing Designations," U.S. Department of the Treasury, news release, Mar. 11, 2002.
[99] Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, news release, Sept. 9, 2004.
[100] "New Report on Saudi Government Publications," Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House, accessed Jan. 11, 2006.
[101] Ibid.
[102] Dallas Morning News, Feb. 5, 2005.
[103] San Ramon Valley (Calif.) Herald, July 4, 1998.
[104] National Review, Apr. 8, 2003.
[105] WorldNetDaily, May 1, 2003.
[106] Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Apr. 4, 1993.
[107] Personal communication from Michael Medved, Oct. 21, 2004.
[108] Quoted in Steve A. Johnson, "Political Activities of Muslims in America," in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, ed., The Muslims of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 115.
[109] Associated Press, May 8, 2004.
[110] Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 23, 2004.
[111] "CAIR's Growing Litigiousness," DanielPipes.org, Sept. 13, 2004.
[112] The New York Sun, Dec. 9, 2005.
[113] WorldNetDaily, Dec. 6, 2003.
[114] CAIR Action Alert #408, Dec. 8, 2003.
[115] Regina Orthodox Press, 2002.
[116] Sands Publishers, 1912.
[117] Srdja Trifkovic, "Caving in to Jihad: National Review, CAIR, and My Book," Chronicles Magazine, Apr. 6, 2005.
[118] Erick Stakelbeck, "Jihad at the St. Petersburg Times," FrontPageMagazine.com, Nov. 3, 2004.
[119] "Muslims Exchange Letters with Wiesenthal Center about Possible Changes to Museum of Tolerance," CAIR, Jan. 6, 1998.
[120] Ralph Kinney Bennett, "The Global War on Christians," Reader's Digest, Aug. 1997.
[121] "‘Global War on Christians' Smears Islam," CAIR, July 24, 1997.
[122] Andrew Whitehead and Lee Kaplan, "CAIR's War from Within," FrontPageMagazine.com, Mar. 9, 2004.
[123] Daniel Pipes, "It Matters What Kind of Islam Prevails," Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1999.
[124] Daniel Pipes, "How Dare You Defame Islam," Commentary, Nov. 1999.
[125] Daniel Pipes, "An American Rushdie?" The Jerusalem Post, July 4, 2001.
[126] Interview with Ahmed Bedier, Fox Hannity & Co., Fox News Network, Feb. 15, 2005.
[127] The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States, 2005: Unequal Protection, CAIR, 2005.
[128] See, for example, The New York Times, May 12, 2005; The Washington Post, May 12, 2005; and Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2005.
[129] Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, "CAIR's Hate Crime Nonsense," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 18, 2005.
[130] David Skinner, "Behind CAIR's Hate Crimes Report," The Daily Standard (Washington, D.C,), May 6, 2004.
[131] Emerson, "Foreign Terrorists in America."
[132] CBS News, July 16, 2003.
[133] The Washington Times, Oct. 20, 2003.
[134] Robert Spencer, "Stalinism at CAIR: Photo Doctored for Islamic Correctness," Jihad Watch, Sept. 15, 2005.
[135] Zev Chafets, "Beware the Wolves Among Us," The New York Daily News, Sept. 28, 2001; editorial, "CAIR and Terrorism," The Washington Times, July 24, 2004; David Frum, "The Question of CAIR," The National Post, Nov. 23, 2004; Eli Lake, "Me Rethinks a CAIR Event," The New York Sun, Nov. 12, 2003; Daniel Pipes, "CAIR: ‘Moderate' Friends of Terror," The New York Post, Apr. 22, 2002; Michael Putney, "Pressure May Smother Dialogue," The Miami Herald, Sept. 10, 2003; Stephen Schwartz, "Not So Holy after All; The Bush Administration Takes on a Hamas Front Group," The Weekly Standard, Dec. 17, 2001; and Glenn Sheller, "Muslim Group's Conflict with Discrimination Is Uphill Fight," The Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 31, 2004.
[136] Erick Stakelbeck, "NY Times' Wahhabi Apologists," FrontPageMagazine.com, Mar. 7, 2005.
[137] "4 Indicted in Texas Terror Probe," The Boston Globe, Dec. 19, 2002; "5 Brothers Charged with Aiding Hamas," The New York Times, Dec. 19, 2002; "Hamas Arrests Called Unfair," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dec. 20, 2002; "Aid Sought for 5 Suspected of Terror Ties," Associated Press, Feb. 15, 2003; "Muslim Leader Criticizes Prosecution," United Press International, July 9, 2004; "Muslim Leaders Blast Brothers' Convictions," The Dallas Morning News, July 10, 2004.
[138] The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2005.
[139] "CAIR Opens New Office in Virginia," CAIR, Dec. 14, 2004.
[140] The Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2005.
[141] CAIR's DC office is required to make its Form 990 available to the public upon request.
This item is available on the Middle East Forum website, at http://www.meforum.org/article/916
from:
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/
It appears that tonight will be another night of posts to All.
Already the googles and reports are too long to put names on.
Thanks for reading my efforts.
Take a look at the flag.....................
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1764403/posts
Caption this: The Islamic States of America
Jihadwatch.org ^ | 1/8/07 | Dan
Posted on 01/08/2007 4:58:44 PM PST by voletti
Other versions in comments...............
http://islamic-danger.blogspot.com/
SHIPS OF WAR
Two ships are heading towards each other, one's captain is eager to join in battle, the other hesitant but knows that the battle is inevitable.
We can call the first ship, the one eager for battle, the Sickle Moon, the other ship, das Narrenschiff, that is, Ship of Fools. On the latter there is much confusion, its captain has made an announcement to the crew--"This is the captain speaking: the Sickle Moon is not the enemy, only a few of its crew, out of control, are eager to harm us. The Sickle Moon's captain and the crew as a whole are fine men. The captain and the ship's officers are on our side and have promised to root out the few troublemakers."
On the Sickle Moon, however, there is dissension amongst the ship's company: no, not the few supposed "troublemakers" that the captain of the Sickle Moon has assured the captain of the Ship of Fools will be subdued, but between two factions of the crew. The one faction likens the other to dogs, and there are bloody fights and quite a few deaths that are masked by the cadavers being dumped overboard.
The captain of the Ship of Fools knows of the dissension amongst the crew of the Sickle Moon from intelligence he has received from his covert agents on that ship. He is greatly concerned about that dissension and he has given instruction to his covert agents to bring this to an end, unify the crew so that the few "troublemakers" that want to harm the personnel of the Ship of Fools can be dealt with by the unified crew of the Sickle Moon.
The Ship of Fools itself is not a happy ship, however. there are two--no, three--factions. One faction stands with the captain and his officers. They believe, along with the captain, that he is on the the right, the only possible, course. The second faction is mutinous. They call the captain an idiot, who should never be steering towards a confrontation with the Sickle Moon.
This, despite a previous incident when some of the Sickle Moon's crew had commandeered a dinghy of the Ship of Fools, killing its crew and crashing it into the side of its mother-ship with more KIAs amongst the Fools. The "anti-captain-of the Ship-of-Fools" faction says--and believes--that the mythical "few troublemakers" are at fault and that by palavering with the captains and crew of the Sickle Moon and other ships that are friendlies to the Sickle Moon, the whole "misunderstanding" can be resolved.
There is, however, a third faction on the Ship of Fools. The members of that faction wish that the ship had another captain and officers, a command that knew what they were doing. They know that there will be a battle with the Sickle Moon, a battle that they could surely lose. Amongst the crew of the Ship of Fools are many loyal to the Sickle Moon that have been allowed to join up. Now, the third faction--let's call them "Forethinkers"--know that unless the captain's loyal men and his "disloyal" opposition stop their squabbling, overpower and toss those among the officers and crew loyal to the Sickle Moon overboard, and present a united front to the Sickle Moon, they will be boarded by the corsairs of the Sickle Moon and the survivors of the battle will be forced to swear a brief oath of fealty or spend the rest of their lives working hard to pay the heavy taxes imposed on "tolerated ones."
Unbeknownst to the Ship of Fools is that the entire complement--captain and crew--of the Sickle Moon either are themselves, or back the agenda of, the "troublemakers," that the captain and crew are well aware of, and that the entire ship's complement pretend to be hunting down above and below deck. Every once so often, they sacrifice one of the "troublemakers" and make a big show of that (although the sacrificed one is never killed, only briefly placed in the ship's brig).
And so the two ships sail on a steady course towards an inevitable clash. The men aboard the Sickle Moon, despite their bloody internecine fights are all eager to to battle with the Ship of Fools, and they will join together in that endeavor. While aboard the Ship of Fools, the captain and his loyalists and the disloyal opposition are at loggerheads. The hapless, impotent Forethinkers are crying out that the ship will be lost and all will either be dead or prisoners, and only a few of the other two factions, turn, look at the Forethinkers and go right back to their infighting while the captain keeps the Ship of Fools on course to meet its destiny.
They pass a smaller vessel of a friendly nature, that is fighting off pirate dhows, and sends a sarcastic signal to the Ship of Fools: Mazel tov*. Aboard that smaller ship, the Star Shield there are also two factions that cannot agree. The preponderance of the crew and the captain want to turn over all provisions to the pirate dhows and give them their life rafts and boats in the hope that the dhows will leave them alone, and another faction wants to sink all the dhows. Oddly enough, this latter faction, also calls itself "Forethinkers."
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