January 5, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - As seems to be increasingly the case, journalism's most important statements are made by the issues it avoids.
Thus we are confronted by a near blackout of news relating to Hamas' use of children as human shields and the concurrent employment of their battered little bodies as props in its war of words against the "Zionists."
Under almost any other set of circumstances, even a single instance of such reprehensible behavior would predictably bring about the collapse of the offending regime.
Not so here, because it bears upon that most sacred of protected classes - Muslims.
Call it what you will, this is a selective failure to report driven by self-censorship, and while the press beats its breast, towing the Hamas line of "disproportionate" response by Israel, the perpetrator is given shelter within a kind of politically correct, forced myopia.
It's not that there is any dearth of information on Hamas' policy of placing children in situations which guarantee their death and dismemberment; it's just that the truth is "unpleasant," raising grave issues not only about the Palestinians but in a more universal sense, with the Muslim Ummah, whose silence is beyond deafening.
In what passed for more peaceful times, virtually any of the self-designated "mainstream" Muslim organizations [i.e., those leading the stealth jihad against the West] could be counted on serving up media-friendly sounding, but ultimately hollow rejections of terrorism. Some even went to the extreme length a few years ago of issuing a bizarre fatwa against a definition of terrorism, politically jury-rigged so as to serve as an indictment of Israel.
When brought into the real world, as in the case of Israel's incursion into Gaza, there is no longer any place to hide and things turn ugly, with the media going silent on Hamas.
It's as if the organization never existed. But unfortunately it does, and the degree to which Hamas is supported by rank and file Muslims should be troubling to a wide range of observers including those whose belief in moral relativism is unshakeable.
At this point there can be absolutely no doubt that Hamas is deliberately using the most defenseless Palestinians, their children as human shields and if the MSM was not so obstinate, it could easily find suitable evidence to prove its existence on the website of Israel's Ministry of Defense.
January 2, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On January 1 a Muslim family led by Atif Irfan, on its way to a Muslim conference in Orlando, Florida, had their trip interrupted when they along with the rest of the passengers on an AirTran flight were forced to deplane and undergo rescreening. They were not permitted to rejoin the flight and booked flights on US Air to complete their journey.
The cause of the incident has been variously explained, with the airline saying that passengers overheard members of the family talking about airline security issues, and the family claiming that they were only guilty of what is now colloquially referred to, mainly in Islamist circles, as "flying while Muslim."
According to the NY Times' account of the matter, "Irfan said that at no time did he or his wife utter the word "bomb." [see, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/muslim-family-excluded-from-airtran-flight/?hp]
Asking why utterance of such a word needed to be categorically denied - barring it actually having been mentioned - was apparently not considered by the Times reporter as a reasonable follow-up question.
Leave it to Fox News to probe that aspect of the matter, "An unnamed source told MyFOXDC.com that they overheard one member of the family talking about the safest place to sit on a plane if a bomb was on board, though the family denied the word "bomb" was ever used." [source, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475126,00.html]
January 1, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Cynthia McKinney the ex-Congresswoman from Atlanta's 4th District, has just been paid a fleeting visit by reality and it doesn't seem like it was all that pleasant an experience.
Working with the pro-Hamas "Free Gaza Movement," [see, Free Gaza Protesters Given Medals By Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh ]McKinney was a passenger on the group's ship, the "Dignity," which was attempting to provocatively run the naval blockade of Gaza a few days ago when the vessel was rammed repeatedly by an Israeli warship, which sent it packing and damaged back to a port in Lebanon, where it was met by cheering throngs.
About the incident Ms. McKinney said, "Israeli patrol boats...tracked us for about 30 minutes...and then all of a sudden they rammed us approximately three times, twice in the front and once in the side...the Israelis indicated that [they felt] we were involved in terrorist activities." http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=06ec9655d88714c7ffaf8b1534783da3
Being that a shooting war is going on, that the IDF might have an interest in stopping the Free Gaza vessel from delivering material aid to the terrorist Hamas would constitute a surprise for Ms. McKinney bears a bit of examination.
First, in McKinney's defense her shaky grasp on reality has been on display since her first run for office. Since that time she has taken positions extreme even by leftist Democrat standards, including her belief in Bush derangement syndrome evidenced, 9/11 conspiracy theories, to which few in her party will publicly admit.
That said Ms. McKinney is part of a not inconsequential group of people whom might be termed terrorism deniers. These folks can be likened to those who are color-blind; when confronted by violent acts being perpetrated by organizations and individuals which share certain telltale characteristics, one of which happens to be their religion, those afflicted will see only individual acts of mayhem, stripped of all identifiers or anything that might provide meaning.
December 30, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, the director of the American Muslim Association of North America [AMANA] has been given an award by the Miami Dade Citizen Corps Council for "outstanding service to the Miami- Dade community during 2008."
According to a letter sent by the Emergency Management Coordinator, Lorenzo Sanchez, "The Miami-Dade County, Department of Emergency Management & Homeland Security and the Miami-Dade Citizen Corps are truly thankful for the support you have given to our community by preparing, or responding to the residents of Miami-Dade County for all-hazard events."
Though purged of much of the anti-Christian hate-speech AMANA's website still contains anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual material and a hyperlink to www.islamonline.net, a site which features religious/legal opinions in support of suicide bombings.
December 29, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Decrying what it calls Israel's "disproportionate and counterproductive...attacks," the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR, Hamas' American propagandist] has joined with 11 terror friendly Islamist groups in a major PR push designed to save Hamas from being crushed by Israel.
For the most part the Western press is right on board, advancing the same agendized narrative as the enemy, arguing the absurd proposition that victims should be held to a higher standard of behavior than their assailants.
Nearly a year ago in January of 2008, Israel's U.N. Charge de Affairs Gilad Cohen made the following statement, "Since the year 2000, more than 7,000 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Last year alone, that number was over 2,000. And since Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in June 2007, the frequency of rocket attacks rose 150 percent, to more than 250 rockets and mortars a month. This means, on average, one rocket is fired at Israel every three hours."
Since that statement Hamas has only increased the level of violence, understandable from a power politics perspective, given the Israeli government's failure of will in the face of Hamas' aggression, especially the Olmert administration's show of weakness last September announcing its intention to withdraw from the West Bank. [see, Olmert Says Israel Should Pull Out of West Bank , http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/world/middleeast/30olmert.html ]
Appeasement has figured prominently in Israel's recent history. The withdrawal from Gaza and the total dismantling of the settlements there led to the area being controlled by a terrorist entity, Hamas.
Less than a year ago in August of 2005 then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon employed the IDF in a very different capacity - using 55,000 soldiers and about 8,000 police to remove approximately 9,000 - mostly orthodox or self-described ?ultra orthodox" - settlers from Gaza and the West Bank.
At the time Sharon stated his version of an intention well known to appeasers throughout time:
"Now the Palestinians bear the burden of proof. They must fight terror organizations, dismantle its infrastructure and show sincere intentions of peace in order to sit with us at the negotiating table. The world awaits the Palestinian response..."
The "Palestinians" have failed Sharon's test miserably. Instead of "fighting terror organizations," they have found common cause with them, they have at the very least enabled the terrorists, in many cases they and the terrorists are indistinguishable.
December 28, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a filing by Michael Paulson in the Boston Globe's religious section [see, Articles of Faith, December 28, http://www.boston.com:80/news/local/articles_of_faith/2008/12/us_muslim_group.html] statements by MPAC [Muslim Public Affairs Council] and CAIR [Council on American Islamic Relations] regarding Israel's long-postponed, much needed move to end Hamas' incessant jihad against the Jewish state, were included.
There are a number of serious difficulties appended to such a practice.
One of these is that neither of these groups speak for Islam on a religious basis, hence their inclusion is inappropriate. Both CAIR and MPAC are political organizations, CAIR bills itself as a "civil rights" group and MPAC self-identifies as an "institution which informs and shapes public opinion."
More fundamental however is the nature of both of these groups.
CAIR can no longer escape it closely being linked to Islamic terrorism, having been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the recently concluded, successful prosecution of Hamas terror funder the Holy Land Foundation, a fraudulent Muslim charity which funneled at least $12 million to Hamas. One of those found guilty in this case was Ghassan Elashi, the founder of the Texas Chapter of CAIR.
It's hard to imagine a more clear connection between a domestic organization and Islamic terrorism.
MPAC similarly serves as a mouthpiece for radical Islam.
Man Suspected Of Being Lebanese Operative For Al Qaeda Held In El Paso
Abstract: Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi was involved in a, "federal investigation into a suspected U.S. terrorist network with ties to al-Qaida." He is facing deportation and being held at the immigration detention center in El Paso.
According to the federal complaint, " Elzahabi decided to travel to Afghanistan in 1988 after he attended a religious conference in the U.S. Midwest?" He told agents of "knowing of Khalid Sheik Muhammad," who U.S. authorities later said had masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and Washington
[also see, http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11321659]
9/11 Hijacker Cleric Scheduled To Speak At UK Conference
Abstract: Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual adviser to three of the September 11 terrorists is scheduled to speak at a conference in London entitled"The End of Time". "The publicity material for the all-day event appears to be a clear reference to the attacks on New York, and features meteors raining down on Manhattan, setting fire to the city and shattering the Statue of Liberty. "
[also see, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3966501/Muslim-groups-linked-to-September-11-hijackers-spark-fury-over-conference.html]
Somalia To Be Controlled By Al Qaeda Linked Islamists
Abstract: It is being predicted that the present government will fall after Ethiopian troops withdraw. This would make Somalia an Al Qaeda terror stronghold.
[also see, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/somalia/3964681/Radical-Islamists-linked-to-al-Qaeda-set-to-take-control-of-Somalia.html]
December 24, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The headline from the AP website reads, "5 immigrants face life behind bars for Army plot," hardly the type of lead in that one might expect in describing a significant conviction in the war on terror, involving a domestic conspiracy to murder U.S. servicemen entered into by 5 New Jersey Muslims. [source, http://www.google.com:80/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpU78Fwu6-swpC3MuWomEA9WYcCQD958EI380]
Though the headline might prove confusing to some and maddening to others who concern themselves with such things, the text of the article itself seems to provide additional fodder supporting allegations of bias and editorializing within supposedly "straight" news stories by the Associated Press.
Actually there are several versions of the story, written or rewritten by other AP reporters, all of which display this trait.
At least three aspects of the story are of concern.
The first is that Jim Sues, the executive director of CAIR NJ, was courted by AP for comments regarding the case.
"Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment," said Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who attended five days of trial testimony. "From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant."
CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations is directly linked to terrorism through it having been named in the successful prosecution of Hamas terror funder the Holy Land Foundation. The jury returned convictions on all 5 defendants on 108 charges a month ago today. Additionally, one of the defendants in the case, Ghassan Elashi was the founder of the Texas chapter of CAIR. He was already serving a lengthy sentence on another terror conviction.
At this late date CAIR should be treated like poison, no more a reasonable commentator on issues surrounding Islam or terrorism than would be members of the Nazi party on Jewish matters.
The second troubling aspect of this article is the inclusion of James Yee's take on the trial.
December 22, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a bizarre reversal of normal FBI procedures, imam Maulana Shafayat Mohammed [leader of Florida's terror linked Dar Ul Uloom Institute and Islamic Training Center] was recently allowed to "interview" FBI special agent Stu McArthur, at the FBI Miami Headquarters. Also present was FBI special agent Ms. Judy Orihuela and Darul Uloom Director, Bro. Abzal Hosein. [see, http://www.alhikmat.com:80/magazinearticles/alhikmatinterview.html]
Imam Mohammed's mosque is infamous for having hosted some of the 9/11 hijackers, dirty bomber wannabes Jose Padilla and Adnan Shukrijumah as well as two radical Muslims who were convicted of a plot to bomb several targets in South Florida. On his website Mohammed posted a picture of himself and Ahmed Deedat, the now deceased head of the Islamic Propagation Center in South Africa, which was funded by Osama bin-Laden and housed in a building appropriately named the Bin-Laden Centre.
Mohammed also is noted for having made made a video tape with Raed Awad,the former Imam of the Florida mosque which converted Jose Padilla. Awad also served as a registered agent of the Holy Land Foundation, a recently convicted phony Muslim charity which funneled $12 million to Hamas.
Among the questions posed to the FBI:
What is the FBI doing to prevent racial profiling by other law enforcement organizations?
Muslims feel they are always under scrutiny by the government. What has the FBI done to show this is not true?
Moderate Muslims are usually accused of harboring terrorism - When the Muslim community tips off law enforcement about questionable behaviors, why is this not broadcast by the media?
Why such an individual is even allowed access to FBI headquarters seems to be a reasonable question, as is why, seven years into the war on terror, is America's premiere law enforcement agency playing these ridiculous multicultural games with such compromised personalities?
December 23, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The following items were culled from the government's memorandum in opposition to the Council on American Islamic Relations' attempt to remove itself from the U.S. vs Holy Land Foundation [HLF] prosecution's list of named co-conspirators.
We believe that it is important for this information to be made available to decision makers whose organizations have had or plan to have dealings with CAIR. In far too many cases these groups [government entities, faith-based organizations and journalistic enterprises] have entered into relationships with CAIR having no idea that the group has serious and demonstrable ties to terrorism.
As a consequence CAIR has been granted undeserved legitimacy and allowed to represent itself as a spokesman for American Muslims, when in fact it actually functions to serve the interests of the terrorist organizations Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
December 22, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Into their sixth day of deliberation a New Jersey jury today convicted five Islamic radicals on charges of plotting to kill members of the U.S. military.
The announcement was made by acting United States Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr.
The convicted were Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, brothers Dritan Duka, Shain Duka and Eljvir Duka and Serdar Tatar on Count One of the seven-count Superseding Indictment that charged them with conspiracy to murder members of the U.S. military. The jury acquitted each of defendants of Count Two, which charged attempt to murder members of the U.S. military.
Because of the severity of the charges the defendants face up to life in prison.
The case was tried by Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Hammer, Jr., Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office Terrorism Unit. U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler, who presided over the 12-week trial, scheduled sentencing of the three Duka brothers for April 22. Judge Kugler scheduled sentencing of Shnewer and Tartar on April 23.
The three Duka brothers [Dritan, Shain and Eljvir] are illegal immigrants.
December 22, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The District of Columbia chapter of CAIR, the Saudi funded Hamas mouthpiece, has lost its corporate status and is according to legal experts, now operating illegally.
During preparation for the lawsuit, Yerushalmi discovered that CAIR DC lost its corporate charter in September 2008 and has apparently done nothing to reinstate itself.
As Mr. Yersushalmi explains:
"One of the important discoveries emanating from the lawsuit by former CAIR clients against CAIR for fraud and racketeering is the fact that the law firm prosecuting this lawsuit discovered that CAIR's corporate charter in the District of Columbia had been revoked as of September 8, 2008. That means pursuant to DC law that the only thing CAIR can do is engage in those necessary acts to dissolve the corporation and to distribute its assets...it also means per the IRS code, that CAIR is no longer a valid 501c3 tax exempt organization because it is no longer a valid organization."
December 17, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - There is no doubt anymore that the Pakistani jihadist group "Lashkar-e-Taiba" (also spelled as "Lashkar-e-Toiba," "Lashkar-e-Tayyiba" or "Lashkare Taiba") was behind the terrorist attacks on Mumbai (Bombay), India, in November 2008. According to the most recent figures 163 people died, including 18 members of the security forces. The number of wounded was 293. Nine terrorists were killed, one was captured by the security forces. All of them were Pakistanis. It is possible that some of terrorists, possibly 5, escaped or remain unaccounted for. (In the hijacked MV Kuber trawler not 10 but 15 identical life vests were found.)
The masterminds of these spectacular attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai presumably were Yusuf Muzammil and Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi. The latter is Lashkar-e-Taibi's chief of operations. Muzammil is the No. 3 in the Lashkar-e-Taibi (LeT) hierarchy and the right-hand man to Lakhvi.1 Lakhvi was in Karachi when the terrorists struck.
"Muzammil," write M.J. Gohel and Sajjid M. Gohel in their paper on "The Mumbai Terror Siege Attacks," "talked by Thuraya satellite phone to the gunmen from Lahore, Pakistan, when the terrorists were at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, Leopold Café and the Taj and Oberoj hotels. Disturbingly, the gunmen also used the mobile phones of the people they killed to call back Muzammil in Lahore, Pakistan. (...) Also being investigated by Western authorities is the possibility that Muzammil was watching the siege unfolding on television in Lahore and giving the terrorists regular real time updates as to what the Indian security agencies were planning."2
"The terrorists had left one satellite phone on board the MV Kuber trawler. That phone contained the telephone numbers of Muzammil, Lakhvi and a number of additional LeT operatives. The number that was used to speak to Muzammil matched the same number on the phones that were recovered at the Taj and Oberoj hotels. In fact, dozens of calls had been made."3
It was in March 2007 that an Indian coast guard vessel discovered a group of young Pakistani men who were on board a fishing trawler. They were on their way to Mumbai. What were they planning to do there? Indian intelligence officers soon realized that the young men belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba. But the Pakistani Islamists never divulged what they were up to. They were probably on a reconnaissance mission to find out how easy or how difficult it was for a group of young Pakistani men to arrive in Mumbai by boat.4 Twenty months later, on Wedneday evening November 26, 2008, a group of committed and extremely well trained LeT terrorists arrived in Mumbai using two inflatable dinghies which they had taken on board the fishing trawler they had hijacked. (The crew of that trawler was killed, the captain's throat was cut.)
December 16, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On December 13, the NY Times published a piece by its "Public Editor," Clark Hoyt, explaining the newspaper's position regarding the use of the lexicon of terrorism. [see, Clark Hoyt, Separating the Terror and the Terrorists, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/opinion/14pubed.html?_r=1]
Given the Times' consistent multicultural coyness on a wide range of issues, why this would occur now is hard to determine, though it does appear that in large part Mr. Hoyt's conscience dump was a reaction to criticism the paper received due to its antiseptic coverage of the Mumbai attacks.
Whatever the reasoning, exploring Mr. Hoyt's thinking on the subject is fascinating though because it allows access to the media elite's thought process as complicated by its moral relativism.
Consider the following paragraph:
"Many readers want the newspaper, even on the news pages, to share their moral outrage - or their political views - by adopting the word terrorist, with all its connotations of opprobrium. What you call someone matters. If he is a terrorist, he is an enemy of all civilized people, and his cause is less worthy of consideration."
This seems to mean that in the Times' version of journalism, precision in language is trumped by pretensions of appearance. In that logic, the use of the word terrorist looms as "political," a hot word denoting "moral outrage."
December 12, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On December 11 a New York based Jewish periodical, the Five Towns Jewish Times, published a thought provoking column on the subject of Muslim terrorism by Lawrence Kulak [see, The Appropriate Response To Islamic Terror, http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:-Jz30rqwkNUJ:www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp%3FId%3D3539+%22Moreover,+the+only+way+to+deal+with+Islamic+terrorists+is+the+same+way+in+which+they+deal%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us].
Since then, the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Saudi funded Hamas mouthpiece has mounted a cyber jihad against the publication. As a result of Kulak's piece being featured in CAIR's December 11 'Net based newsletter, the discussion thread following the article was swamped with intemperate remarks, mostly anonymous and often barely literate, to the point where, we must assume, the publisher decided to pull it because it had become an eyesore.
In that communication, CAIR represented the article as follows, "NY Columnist Says Kill 'Innocent' Muslims (5 Towns Jewish Times)."
In the December 12 edition, the language regarding the now lead article characterized Kulak's words as incitement to "Kill" Muslims.
NY Jewish Leaders Asked to Repudiate Columnist's Call to 'Kill' Muslims CAIR-NY: 'Such inflammatory comments have no place in reasoned public discourse' (NEW YORK, NY, 12/12/08) The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called on leaders of the Jewish community in that state to repudiate a columnist for a Jewish newspaper who called for the killing of "innocent" Muslims.
We believe this is an intentional effort by CAIR to stoke anti-Jewish sentiment among the group's predominately Muslim readership by misrepresenting the thrust of what Mr. Kulak said.
December 10, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On January 26, 2009 Richard Yoder the Mayor of West Chester, will be delivering the welcoming remarks at an event titled "Islam in America: Understanding Intercultural Differences."
[Editor's note: The CAIR press release, reproduced in full below this article, erroneously lists PA State Senator Andrew Dinniman as a participant in this event. Senator Dinniman was never scheduled to attend.]
The event will take place at the Sykes Union Theatre at West Chester University in West Chester Pennsylvania.
Among the speakers are Iftekhar Hussain the chairman of the Philadelphia office of the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR].
CAIR is a Saudi funded front group for Hamas. It was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the just completed Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding prosecution, a trial that saw all five defendants guilty on all of the 108 charges.
One of those defendants was Ghassan Elashi, the founder of the Texas chapter of CAIR. Elashi was already serving time, convicted on other terror charges in the InfoCom case.
This prosecution established that the Holy Land Foundation was indeed a terrorist organization which funneled at least 12 million dollars to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. [see, William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz, Holy Land Foundation Defendants Found Guilty On All Charges, November 24, 2008, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hlfid=11.24.08%2Ehtm]
CAIR's relationship with the convicted terrorists at HLF was intimate; the group's Washington, DC operation was originally funded by a $5,000 grant from the Holy Land Foundation.
Jailed Obama Fixer Tony Rezko Mentioned 146 Times In Indictment
December 9, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On February 10, 2007 Illinois' [now indicted] Milorad [Rod] Blagojevich became the first governor in the nation to endorse the candidacy of Barack Obama.
"On this historic day, I am pleased to join many Illinoisans who are excited and proud to support Senator Obama in his bid for the Presidency. I know that Senator Obama will fight to make sure that working families have access to health care, good paying jobs, and opportunities to provide for their children. Senator Obama supports the very best of these Democratic values; they are values that he and I share, values I know he will fight for.
"Senator Obama has the vision, skills and dedication necessary to bring people together and make real progress in Washington to help solve our country's greatest and most pressing problems. Senator Obama offers real hope for the American people and I am proud to give him my support.
"I want to take this opportunity on this historic day to urge the Legislature to immediately send me a bill to move our state's primary from March 18, 2008 to February 5, 2008. That will give Illinois voters an opportunity to send an early message in support of Senator Obama and send him to victory." [source, http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/cands08/endorse/endrb021007.html]
This morning, Mr. Blagojevich and his chief of staff were hauled off to jail, named in a 78 page two count federal criminal complaint [go here for the entire document Blagojevich Complaint
December 8, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Unfazed by the public immolation of his dream candidate, John McCain, William Kristol [see To The Barricades, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=nooneid=11.4.08%2Ehtm] today wades in to do battle with the limited government crowd, heirs to one of the bedrock principles of genuine conservatism.
Writing in today's NY Times he states, "But conservatives should think twice before charging into battle against Obama under the banner of "small-government conservatism."
Actually, Mr. Kristol has thought twice about it and rejects limited governance on the same basis with which he painted himself into the corner with McCain 8 years ago, rationalizing that, "So talk of small government may be music to conservative ears, but it's not to the public as a whole."
Unfortunately for him, Kristol's analysis fails upon his misreading of the public's political temperature.
A few points...
Despite a marionette-like persona which at times appeared to be guided by some malevolent celestial puppet master, John McCain was not out of the presidential race until mid-September, when the economic roof fell in.
That event sealed his fate, after which it was only a matter of degree how badly he would lose.
But did the defeat of the GOP candidate equate to a rejection of conservatism?
December 8, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The latest defense of Brooklyn's failed Islamist experimental school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy [KGIA], takes the form of a droning 3,000 word essay penned by Seth Wessler in Colorlines a small circulation San Francisco based leftist publication which specializes in race pimping. [see, Seth Wessler, Silenced in the Classroom, Colorlines, http://colorlines.com/article.php?ID=456]
In his haste to build a polemic in support of KGIA, beginning with the lead paragraph it's obvious that the author fails either to understand the controversy in any meaningful way, or possibly worse, approves of a curriculum prominently featuring an Arabic focus despite its inevitable fostering of Islamism.
"Sixth-grade students at the newly opened Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn were probably surprised last year when they opened their Arabic books to find photographs cut from the pages. "We cut pictures of mosques out of the Arabic books," said Hassan Omar, an Egyptian man who until last spring taught Arabic and humanities at the academy, the country's first Arabic-English, dual-language public school. "We are afraid that anything could be taken out of context."
As many noted at the time including these writers, the fact that KGIA's curriculum was designed from the outset to be Arab-centric was problematic in that such an emphasis would necessarily intrude far beyond what has been interpreted as permissible in secularized education - especially the sterilized brand of religion free indoctrination that leftists insist upon.
December 4, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a December 1 piece published in the Los Angeles Times, Asra Nomani questions India's commitment to its 140 million Muslims, calling them, "India's new untouchables. [see, Asra Nomani, Muslims, India's New Untouchables, December 1, 2008, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-nomani1-2008dec01,0,4752.story]
The central contention of Nomani's article is that the Mumbai attack was the direct result of India's supposedly shoddy treatment of its Muslim minority, "The headlines recounted how the socioeconomic condition of the people of my ancestry, Muslims in India, had fallen below that of the Hindu caste traditionally called "untouchables," according to a government report. "Muslims are India's new untouchables," I said sadly to my mother, in the room with me. "India is going to explode if it doesn't take care of them." Now, indeed, alas it has. And shattered in the process is the myth of India's thriving secular democracy."
Though she allows for the possibility, which now is certain, that the attack originated, most likely with official help, from Pakistan, she offers up the classic Muslim apologia when confronted by indefensible wrongs committed by her co-religionists, "the violence will most certainly turn a spotlight of suspicion on Muslims in India. Already, my relatives are hunkered down for a sectarian backlash they expect from anti-terrorism agencies, police and angry Hindu fundamentalists."
Those pesky Hindu fundamentalists...
Nomani bemoans the sad state of India's Muslims, "I heard about how the condition of Muslims had deteriorated " - yet the fact that they materially differ only marginally from hundreds of millions of Muslims outside the "constraining" confines and racism of India escapes comment. Why India's Muslims bear no responsibility of their own for their backward condition likewise is left unanswered.
She does offer a reason, again the classic excuse which the self-absorbed always offer for Islamic terrorism, "I have feared that Islamic militancy would be born out of such despair...to me, the condition of Muslims needs frank and open discussion if there is to be any hope of stemming Islamic radicalism and realizing true secular democracy in the country...When the location scouts needed to replicate the treacherous streets of Karachi's militant Islamist culture, they didn't have to go far. They found the perfect spot in a poor Muslim neighborhood of Mumbai."
In developing her thesis Ms. Nomani fails to make the reader aware of several key events in her past which provide critical context whereby to evaluate the worth of her viewpoint.
December 1, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Pakistan's efforts to defuse the mounting tensions between itself and India after the Mumbai massacre are reaching the point of absurdity.
On Sunday Pakistan's president Asif Zardari nearly pleaded with India's prime minister Singh not to take action against Pakistan if, as seems increasingly to be the case, the Mumbai investigation reveals that it was the source of the terrorist attack. However Zardari's plaintive stance also contained an unconcealed threat.
"Speaking exclusively to the Financial Times, Pakistan's president warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-i-tayyaba, [a prominent militant group linked to previous attacks against India] who do you think we are fighting?" asked Mr Zardari, whose country is battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants on its shared border with Afghanistan. "We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated [the] 9/11 [attacks on the US] or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Mr Zardari."
[source, Farhan Bokhari I, James Lamont and Joe Leahy,Zardari Urges A United Stand, Financial Times, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e1fe5274-bf14-11dd-ae63-0000779fd18c.html]
The links between Islamic terror and Pakistan are abundant, so clear cut that they shouldn't require enumeration. Consider the summation on the issue on November 13 during a speech at the Atlantic Council by CIA director Michael Hayden:
"Let me be very clear. Today virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas. Whether it's command and control, training, direction, money, capabilities, there is a connection to the FATA [Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas]. It is no overstatement to say that al Qaeda's base in Pakistan is the single most important factor today in the group's resilience and its ability to threaten the West."
December 1, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - An Islamic terror group known as the Indian Mujahideen, which took
responsibility for bombings in Delhi in September, warned two months ago
that its next target would be Mumbai.
The almost 60-hour siege in Mumbai left nearly 200 people dead.
The Delhi bombings were a series of five synchronized bomb blasts that
killed at least 30 and injured over 100.
A terrifying e-mail now posted on a password protected al-Qaeda related web
site and sent to Indian media two months ago read in part, "Let the Indian
Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks
Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the
Mumbai ATS (the Anti-Terrorist Squad) and their guardians."
The diatribe continued, "The entire Mumbai ... ATS has failed to take heed
from our previous warnings, and is deliberately committed to mess with us.
You should know that your acts are not at all left unnoticed; rather we are
closely keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the proper time to
execute your bloodshed."
November 28, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Though responsibility for this week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India has been claimed by a previously unknown group, the Deccan/Indian Mujahideen, many experts detect the hand of Pakistan's terror riddled state security group, the ISI [Inter Services Intelligence] as the power behind the carnage.
There are long standing allegations that Pakistan has promulgated a campaign of terror against India for years, with the religious unrest in Kashmir serving as a key source of tension between the two countries.
"In the space of less than a week Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has taken a huge public relations hit, facing allegations that he is soft on terror and either unwilling or unable to stop Pakistanis who are involved in supporting, planning and carrying out terrorist activities...On Thursday a British Defense Ministry report was leaked which claimed that Pakistan's intelligence agency [ISI] is aiding both the Taliban and al-Qaeda and suggested that it be disbanded?On Saturday Indian security officials revealed the most ominous aspect of this story, stating that Pakistan's ISI was responsible for the planning of the July 11 Mumbai commuter train terror bombing which killed over 200 and injured upwards of 700 people.
As the Times UK is reporting in its Sunday edition:
"We have solved the July 11 bombings case. The whole attack was planned by Pakistan's ISI and carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and their operatives in India," AN Roy, Mumbai's police chief, told a packed news conference."
November 28, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A Brooklyn family, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29 and his wife Rivka, 26, who ran the Jewish travelers center - the Nariman House - in Mumbai have been announced as being among the dead in this week's horrific terrorist attacks which began on November 26.
Fortunately the couple's two year old son Moshe, was spirited out of the center during the attacks by an employee and was thus spared his parent's fate. He is currently being taken care of by his grandparents.
The Holtzberg's were among 7 Jewish victims of the terrorists, 5 of which were Israelis. During the attacks terrorists are believed to have specifically targeted Jews and Westerners.
In a hastily scheduled press conference, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stated, "It's a shame that this kind of event must remind part of the Western of the world about this reality. The target is not just Israel, but the West."
November 28, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - So far, merely days after the historic Holy Land Foundation guilty verdict the response by the Muslim world has publicly been muted.
For example the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] has had nothing to say on the matter at all. This is especially curious since they are typically Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to commenting on matters Islamic, especially if they can be spun to support their contention of rampant Islamophobia.
Of course CAIR in particular has a lot to lose because of this decision.
The organization, a thuggish, lawsuit driven, Saudi funded Hamas mouthpiece, was named [along with the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], the North American Islamic Trust [NAIT] and dozens of other American Islamist groups] as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. This means that the Feds believe that there is great synergy between CAIR and the HLF as well as with the Muslim Brotherhood, the entity which created Hamas and spawned people like Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh," spiritual father of the first WTC [1993] bombing and currently serving a life sentence, convicted in a similar role, plotting to bomb numerous New York landmarks and sites including military targets.
Those conversant with CAIR's history are aware of that. Perhaps the single, most unambiguous piece of information underlying such a conclusion is the fact the CAIR was launched in 1994 with a $5,000.00 contribution by the now proven Hamas funders at HLF.
Maybe from CAIR's perspective the less said the better, why call attention to the obvious?
November 24, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - After a blown 2007 prosecution and eight days into deliberation in the new trial, the Holy Land Foundation [HLF] jury today found the five defendants guilty on all 108 charges, thus sending a shockwave through the American Islamist community which has grown accustomed to operating beyond the reach of the law.
The case revolved upon the allegations, now proven, that the Richardson Texas based Holy Land Foundation fraudulently operated as a Muslim charity, funneling at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Among those convicted today are Ghassan Elashi, already serving a six year sentence, having been convicted on 21 charges in another terrorism case U.S. Vs. Infocom. Elashi is notable for being the founder of the Texas chapter of CAIR. CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations.
CAIR is a Saudi funded faux civil rights group serving as a mouthpiece for Hamas and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case. CAIR was so designated on the basis of its close relationship to the Egyptian terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Flush with millions of dollars of Saudi funding and emboldened by the election of their candidate, Minneapolis Wahhabist Muslim convert Keith Ellison to Congress, the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] has been moving ever more aggressively to wage cultural jihad against American society.
CAIR's goal?
Nothing less than the replacement of the U.S. Constitution with Shari'a - Islamic law.
CAIR's MO?
Manipulation of events [often creating them out of whole cloth, expressly for that purpose] employing a generally accommodative media to establish the impression that Islamophobia is pervasive in America, thus justifying the organization's existence as a group uniquely qualified to deal with such "discrimination."
CAIR then brings to bear its not inconsiderable legal assault team to brow-beat and intimidate private citizens, civic institutions as well as governmental entities into adopting a "speak, see or hear no evil," attitude to the organization's radical Muslim agenda at the risk of being labeled anti-Muslim bigots.
This is a clever and effective policy in present day America [itself a battlefield in its own distinct but related internal culture war pitting progressive secularism against traditional values] where critical thinking skills have been over-run by an intellectually deficient, kumbaya form of multiculturalism, where submission to the supporters of terror [dhimmitude] is deemed preferable to being labeled Muslim haters.
Under this template CAIR has become the defacto spokesman for North American Islam.
This has happened despite the tremendous discontinuity between CAIR's make-nice public pronouncements and the malevolence that lurks at its heart.
With today's conviction, CAIR's public claim's of moderation have been forever shattered, revealed to be what many have always claimed - lies spread by an enemy of the West bent on Islamizing America.
CAIR can no longer hide from the truth, fade to black.
November 24, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court DC, against the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] alleging, "violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO")1; the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act ("DCCPPA"); the Virginia Consumer Protection Act ("VCPA"); breach of fiduciary duty; conversion; unjust enrichment; and intentional infliction of emotional distress on behalf of plaintiffs who sought legal representation from defendant?"
The case hinges on CAIR's use of Morris Days as its "Resident Attorney" and "Manager for Civil Rights" at the now defunct CAIR MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Virginia, despite the fact that Days was in fact not an attorney and hence could not provide the legal assistance which CAIR promised and for which the organization took money.
Representing the four plaintiffs in this case is David Yerushalmi.
He states, "According to the facts as carefully laid out in this complaint. CAIR has engaged in a massive cover-up of a criminal fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized and because of the CAIR cover-up they still don't realize it. The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims and non-Muslims alike demonstrates that CAIR is only looking out for CAIR and its ongoing effort to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization."
The defendants include, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network Inc. (dba CAIR); Nihad Awad aka Nihad Hammad who serves as executive director of CAIR National; Parvez Ahmed who was the chairman of the board of CAIR National during the relevant time period; Tahra Goraya who was the national director of CAIR but who has since resigned; Khadijah Athman who is the manager of the "civil rights" division of CAIR; and Nadhira al-Khalili, Esq., who is in-house legal counsel for CAIR. Ibrahim Hooper and Amina Rubin, CAIR's director of communications and coordinator of communications, respectively were also named in this case.
Mr. Yerushalmi has been practicing law for almost 25 years. He is a litigator specializing in securities law, public policy relating to national security, and public interest law. Mr. Yerushalmi is licensed and practices in Washington D.C., New York, California, and Arizona.
Below - CAIR Being Served With RICO Lawsuit At Its 14th Annual Banquet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2004
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
This is the original 2004 Justice Dept. announcement of the indictment against the Holy Land Foundation [source http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/July/04_crm_514.htm]
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Executive Assistant
Director John Pistole, Homeland Assistant Secretary for Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Michael J. Garcia, and IRS Commissioner Mark Everson
announced today that the Holy Land Foundation and seven of its leaders were
indicted on Monday by a federal grand jury in Dallas, Texas on charges of
providing material support to HAMAS, a designated foreign terrorist
organization.
The indictment, which was unsealed earlier today, alleges the Holy Land
Foundation for Relief and Development ("HLF"), of Dallas, Texas, was an
organization created by, among others, defendants Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammed
El-Mezain, and Ghassan Elashi to provide financial and material support to the
HAMAS movement. It is also alleged that, since 1995, HLF and its members have
illegally sent $12.4 million to support HAMAS and its goal of creating an
Islamic Palestinian state by eliminating the State of Israel through violent
jihad. In addition to the charges of providing material support to a foreign
terrorist organization, the 42-count indictment also charges the defendants
with engaging in prohibited financial transactions with a Specially Designated
Global Terrorist, money laundering, conspiracy and filing false tax returns.
The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of $12.4 million in HAMAS assets.
November 22, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews. org - The following is a rare republish from another source. It is a translation of an extraordinarily touching letter from a French combat soldier serving in Afghanistan and his take on his American counterparts there. It was originally translated from the French, made available here Serendipitous Altruism - a must read.
We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as series showing "ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events." Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.
They have a terribly strong American accent - from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.
Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.
CAIR Rep. Jawhar Badran Stated Hamas In Not A Terrorist Organization
November 21, 2008 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - PipeLineNews.org - On Tuesday, November 18 members of the Broward County School Board decided not to reappoint or reassign Jawhar Sadallah Badran, a.k.a. Joe Badran, to the School Board's Diversity Committee or any other committee presided over by the School Board.
Badran, on March 1st, was videotaped making statements in favor of Hamas. The statements included him saying that Hamas was "not a terrorist organization." As well, in July of 2006, Badran likened himself to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel as a suicide bomber. He stated, "Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis. The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can."
November 20, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The modern era of Democrat "progressivism" was launched in 1948 when the Independent Progressive Party was formed. In the presidential election of 1948 it ran Henry A. Wallace, FDR's Vice President [1941-45] against Harry Truman.
The Progressive party was riddled with Communists and though Wallace was not one, he opposed the Churchill/Truman doctrine of resisting the expansionism of the Soviet Union and the domination of his party by radical leftists, Soviet sympathizers and outright Communists.
Reading back through some of Mr. Wallace's speeches, it's interesting to note just how similar his ideas on the eve of the Cold War, mimic today's Democratic philosophy with regards to dealing with the Islamist threat.
"Russia may be poor and unprepared for war, but she knows very well how to reply to Truman's declaration of economic and financial pressure. All over the world Russia and her ally, poverty, will increase the pressure against us. Who among us is ready to predict that in this struggle American dollars will outlast the grievances that lead to communism?
When President Truman proclaims the world-wide conflict between East and West, he is telling the Soviet leaders that we are preparing for eventual war. They will reply by measures to strengthen their position in the event of war. Then the task of keeping the world at peace will pass beyond the power of the common people everywhere who want peace. Certainly it will not be freedom that will be victorious in this struggle. Psychological and spiritual preparation for war will follow financial preparation; civil liberties will be restricted; standards of living will be forced downward; families will be divided against each other; none of the values that we hold worth fighting for will be secure?." [source speech by Henry A. Wallace March 27, 1948 http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=852]
Wallace's statement that the Cold War was already lost is indistinguishable in spirit from that of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and the rest of the Democrat leadership's similar statements regarding the Iraq war.
November 19, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Though Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz calls himself a patriot he has been focal point of an internal spy investigation at Camp Pendleton California.
That investigation has so far resulted - along with many red faces in local intelligence circles - in Maziarz' court martial, his having admitting guilt [2006] for, "mishandling intelligence and stealing government property," which netted him a sentence of 26 months, along with an order not to speak to the media.
Despite that gag-order Maziarz recently presented his version of the story in an interview given to San Diego Union Tribune reporter, Rick Rogers and published Monday. [see, Rick Rogers, Former Marine outlines secret dossiers, Muslims, Arabs not targeted, FBI says, http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081117/news_1m17maziarz.html, November 17, 2008]
The case is complex, as one might imagine in matters bearing on national security and intelligence. It centers on the unauthorized flow of information from Camp Pendleton to the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning [TEW] Group, part of a nation-wide multi-disciplinary intelligence infrastructure designed to foster the interagency exchange and sharing of terror related data in a post 9/11 world.
November 17, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills will be hosting an interfaith event with the Wahhabi funded King Fahd mosque, best known for having been the place of worship of two of the 9/11 hijackers.
According to the Washington Post, "In May 2003, the State Department refused reentry to the chief imam of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, Fahad al Thumairy, who also was a Saudi diplomat at the consulate in Los Angeles. The Sept. 11 commission report later said the State Department had determined "he might be connected with terrorist activity." The report [the 9/11 Commission] also said that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, "spent time at the King Fahd mosque and made some acquaintances there." [source, David B. Ottaway, U.S. Eyes Money Trails of Saudi-Backed Charities, Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13266-2004Aug18_4.html, August 19, 2004]
This event's Jewish presenter is New York rabbi Marc Schneier, who heads the liberal Foundation For Ethnic Understanding. The group's website states, "The Foundation is a national non-profit dedicated to strengthening relations between ethnic communities. We are committed to the belief that direct, face-to-face dialogue between ethnic communities is the most effective path towards the reduction of bigotry and the promotion of reconciliation and understanding." [source, https://www.ffeu.org/index.htm]
"Given the track record of both ISNA and MPAC [the Muslim Public Affairs Council], the idea of Jewish groups partnering with these organizations indicates a serious lack of judgment. Moreover, the alliance grants undeserved legitimacy to these key agents of Islamism as well a serving to endorse their specious allegation of rampant Islamophobia."
November 17, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A motley delegation of former Carter administration hacks [Edward Peck], ivory tower Jew-hating Muslim apologists [John Mearsheimer, co-author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy], Hamas/Hezbollah supporters [ex-Senator (Dearbornistan) James Abourezk], pro-PLO Jewish Quislings [Uri Avnery] and others, is currently working - kneepads fully in place - through the Middle East, meeting with every jihadist group that can be crammed into their schedule.
This effort has been underwritten by a group called the Council for the National Interest [see, http://cnionline.org/] co-founded by anti-Semitic former Congressman Paul Findley and the above noted Hamasophile, Abourezk.
As the CNI website states:
"Only one week following the election of President-elect Barack Obama, a delegation of US citizens led by former Chief of Mission in Baghdad, Edward Peck, set out from Washington, DC to Beirut, Lebanon, with one question: "What do the people of the Middle East want from the new administration in Washington."
The delegation has already met - absent preconditions, one must assume - with Hamas, Hezbollah and Hezbollah's "spiritual leader," Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.
The lunatic high point of the trip so far was Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal's "advice" to Barack Obama.
November 14, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - With both the defense and prosecution having rested in U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation, et, al., [HLF, the United State's largest Hamas terror funding case] and its outcome now in the hands of the jury, the Dallas Morning News has revealed a slight but possibly significant change in the testimony of the defense's star witness, Edward G. Abington Jr. that may prove key in undercutting its case.
In the first HLF prosecution [which resulted in a mistrial] Abington testified that as a former American diplomat stationed in the Middle East, "he got daily CIA briefings on Hamas and other security threats in the region, and was never informed that the terrorist group controlled the Palestinian charity groups, or zakat committees, to which Holy Land donated money." [source, Jason Trahan, Behind the scenes: The CIA's problem with a Holy Land Foundation witness, Dallas Morning News, http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/behind-the-scenes-the-cias-pro.html, November 13, 2008]
Since the prosecution's case centered upon the allegation that those controlling the HLF knew that the organization's funds were funneled through the zakats and then into the coffers of Hamas [designated as a terrorist organization in 1995], Abington's testimony was seen as providing more than an element of doubt that the defendants undertood the flow of money and therefore intended to aid the terrorist group.
November 13, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On November 12, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the Union of Good, a Muslim "charity" located in Saudi Arabia as a terrorist organizanization pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists, terrorist organizations, and those providing financial, technological, or material support to terrorists, terrorist organizations, or acts of terrorism. Any assets the Union of Good holds under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the Union of Good.
The group created in 2000 to fund Hamas and is closely tied to the Egyptian terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood. The Union of Good is directed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian who is one of the Muslim Brotherhood's leaders.
On the action Stuart Levy, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence stated, "Terrorist groups such as Hamas continue to exploit charities to radicalize vulnerable communities and cultivate support for their violent activities...The U.S. Government will continue to expose and undermine the activities of charities working on behalf of Hamas and other terrorist groups. At the same time, we are working with the charitable sector to expand the range of legitimate alternatives for providing charitable assistance to the Palestinian people."
November 12, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On November 3, 2008 George Mason University [GMU] announced an agreement to accept an offer of $1.5 million made by a Saudi tied, Islamist organization called the International Institute for Islamic Thought [IIIT], to endow a chair in Islamic Studies. [source, http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/722]
The decision by GMU to accept IIIT's funding places it well within a now established tradition of American universities bending to the will of Islamists in order to grab whatever cash is being dangled in front of them.
Whether the decision makers at GMU were aware of IIIT's long association with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and self-confessed terrorist Sami Al Arian, is really ancillary to the question, because whatever the decision making process, entering into a relationship with this group is not justifiable. If the university's officials were ignorant of IIIT's reputation as a radical Muslim organization, GMU's failure to adequately vet their prospective partner demonstrates a rejection of the most basic business practices at best. If however they were aware of IIIT's reputation and still went ahead in accepting the grant the entire matter becomes even more difficult to defend.
The IIIT is part of an Islamist mini-empire based in Herndon Virginia. According to FBI documents IIIT has taken a lead role in establishing a plan to Islamize the United States. That plan was drawn up by the Egyptian terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, also known as the Ikhwan. The group has been the subject of surveillance for over 20 years.
In the declassified FBI document [originally marked SECRET] excerpted below, first made available by Steven Emerson's Investigative Project, the IIIT is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood's blueprint to destroy America from within, "to institute an Islamic Revolution in the United States."
"...This is an example of the ongoing intrigue and evaluation that the IIIT leadership of the various subsidiary Muslim organizations they control [redacted] advised that they constantly direct and fund the individuals who compile reports utilized by the IIIT leadership to determine the amount of financial support or their political support for the leadership of various Muslim organizations or mosques located in the United States...advised that in addition to the internal political structure and organization of NAIT..." [North American Islamic Trust, an Islamic waqf, which is being used to place many U.S. mosques in a holding company type arrangement] "...as controlled by the IIIT leadership that as members of the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] they are involved in organizing external political support which involves influencing both public opinion in the United States as well as the United States Government. [redacted] has, based on comments and statements by the current leadership of the IIIT, determined that they are implementing Phase I of the overall six phase Ikhwan plan to institute the Islamic Revolution in the United States [redacted] has advised that the Ikhwan is a secret Muslim organization that has unlimited funds and is extremely well organized in the United States to the point where it has set up political action front groups with no traceable ties to the IIIT or its various Muslim groups. They also have claimed success in infiltrating the United States Government with sympathetic or compromised individuals...In phase I of the Islamic Revolution as followed by the Ikhwan, the IIIT leadership has indicated that in this phase their organization needs to peacefully get inside the United States Government and also American Universities...the ultimate goal of the Islamic Revolution is the overthrow of all non-Islamic Government and that violence is a tool...Muslims in the United States have to be prepared for Martyrdom..."
November 10, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Seventy years ago, on November 9, 1938, the Nazis burnt down synagogues and smashed windows of Jewish shops. It was the notorious "Night of Broken Glass" ("Kristallnacht"). Nearly one hundred Jews were murdered, about 25,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps. There was a commemoration service in Berlin's grand synagogue on November 9, 2008. In her speech German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a strong warning against resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe: "We cannot be silent, we cannot be indifferent when Jewish cemetries are desecrated and rabbis are insulted on the street. This year alone there were some 800 anti-Semitic incidents."
In most cases, those who were responsible for these incidents were Neo Nazis and radicalized Muslim immigrants. What must also worry us today are the many alliances between Neo Nazis and Muslim extremists or "Islamists."
One of these Muslim extremists is Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In May 2006, Ahmadinejad wrote a personal letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel denouncing "the wicked victors of World War II." (Merkel ignored Ahmadinejad's ignominious letter, of course.) At a press conference in April 2006, Ahmadinejad even claimed that Iranians and Germans were both part of a common "Aryan race." In December 2006, Iran's president invited Neo Nazis to Tehran to attend a conference on how "to review the global vision of the Holocaust." Neo Nazi Holocaust deniers from all over the world participated in the conference.
PROPOSAL DESIGNED TO CREATE A NATION OF CYBERSERFS
November 9, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - One thing Obama's critics can't say about him is that he lacks ambition and audacity.
And it is that audacity which was on full display in his first official news conference where he seemed to intentionally avoid taking question from Fox, shunning the favorite media target of the far left.
Obama's performance at the press gaggle, to this reporter at least was given an added dimension - call it the creep factor - produced by the president elect's other worldly, detached and vaguely android-like demeanor, as if the stage upon which he stood wasn't big enough to contain his celestial regality.
Filtering into that creep factor, a more pressing concern. This one regarding the news of His Celestialness' strategy on media legislation and technology initiatives, specifically his intention to create a Federal Office Of Technology, an idea which gained much more traction when IAC executive Julius Genachowski was named to the transition team.
Let's place Mr G politically, is he an activist or something else? According to FEC filings he has traditionally been a big Dem funder, giving nearly 35k to various Dem candidates over the last 4 years. [see, Genachowski FEC].
By trade, Genachowski is a communication's attorney, most notably having served as chief counsel to Barry Diller's InteraActiveCorp [IAC] which spawned a host of 'Net based companys including but not limited to: Ticketmaster, Expedia, Hotels.com and LendingTree.
Philosophically, judging from his associations he appears to be a very bright leftist with an already established power base throughout DC, see below:
November 6, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Borne on the unlikely lips of Fox's Carl Cameron, the McCain dead-enders have launched an unprecedented attack on former VP nominee Sarah Palin, in violation of Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, "speak not ill of thy fellow Republican."
The substance of the charges were expressly designed to play into the MSM's narrative, that Palin is a knuckle dragging bumpkin, a right-wing Christian zealot who is totally unqualified to hold any political office.
As is usually the case with such third party smear jobs, Cameron's "sources," were unnamed, though he gave the indication that the information came from McCain campaign insiders.
Similar charges surfaced a few weeks ago, handed off probably in a similar manner to the usual suspects. Of special concern at that time was the price of Palin's wardrobe, quickly poo-pooed by McCain, his campaign still being in full swing.
Now that debacle is over and there has been no similar tamping down of the allegations against her. This is especially instructive, given the rapid and sanctimonious manner in which he castigated the North Carolina GOP for having the temerity to even mention the reverend of hate, Jeremiah Wright in a campaign commercial.
The best defense that Palin has against these charges, of course is reality, the manner in which she campaigned. Her laudable performance in debate against Joe Biden, where she demonstrated an obviously knowledgeable articulateness delivered with an attractively feminine but still combative style serves as a major counterpoint to Fox's allegations.
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Apparently ebullient over the election of "former" Muslim Barack Obama as president of the United States, the Taliban announced today in Afghanistan that it will join with America in pursuing peace in the region if only he will reject president Bush's war on terror.
Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yusuf Ahmadi, told the Afghan Islamic press located in Pakistan that, "We want him to change the policies of President Bush. He could end the years-long war by withdrawing U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan."
Ahmadi further stated that an Iraqi-like sure would not work in Afghanistan, "Even if a soldier is tied to every stone in Afghanistan, the West would not be able to produce a government of its choice in Afghanistan."
On October 30, an al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, demanded that the Republican party must be "humiliated," in the presidential election, offering the prayer, "O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him." Yahya's sermon was delivered at a celebration of the Muslim feast, Eid al-Fitr.
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In what appears to be a show of unity, American Islamic radicals are lauding the election of Barack Hussein Obama.
Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing congratulated president elect Obama writing that, "We pray that Allah, Most High, will purify Obama's heart, [and]guide his actions and policies...Furthermore, we encourage American Muslims to engage in forging an agenda and shaping the future of our society."
Al Hajj Talib Abdur Rashid ["resident Imam" of the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood whose slogan is borrowed from the Egyptian terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood] stated, " All Muslims must come to understand the unique, prophetic role that black people , and the Muslims from amongst them, are yet destined to play in the destiny of the land, and its people to forge a DOMESTIC agenda based upon common interests , which will serve both the present and future generations."
The Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] a Saudi-funded front group for Hamas, designated by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Hamas funding trial, stated that "We look forward to having the opportunity to work with the Obama administration."
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Following almost immediately on the heels of the election of Barack Obama as America's 44th president, and as predicted by vice president elect Joe Biden, Russia today dropped the gauntlet in a dangerous gambit to prevent U.S. missile defense systems from being installed in NATO's newest member states, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Speaking for the Russian government, president Dmitry Medvedev issued the challenge shortly into his first state of the union speech declaring that
short-range nuclear capable Iskander missiles will be deployed because, "Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egoistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community..."
U.S. Russian tensions have remained high since Russia's invasion of Georgia last August, a move which brought international condemnation, but a curiously muted response from then candidate Obama.
Though the American missile defense systems intended for deployment in Eastern Europe are designed deal only with a possible Iranian missile launch, Medvedev is claiming that America plans to use them against Russia, "From what we have seen in recent years, the creation of a missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of NATO, we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength."
The United States is particularly apprehensive over the prospect of an Iranian based electromagnetic pulse [EMP] missile attack, which has the potential of knocking out domestic satellite communication systems, frying defense electronics components and bringing the already ailing economy to a halt.
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Let's get this out of the way first, we will not be congratulating Barack Obama. His campaign was based on deceptions and lies abetted by a media which has become indistinguishable from that of the Stalin era.
Obama is contemptible and we predict his presidency will be a disastrous amateur hour spent in league with his party, each trying to outdo the other in seeing who can more efficiently hobble the greatest force for good the modern world has seen.
America's enemies can be heard sharpening their knives.
Senator McCain's just completed concession speech and promise to help Obama, "in every way I can," was contemptible in its own way, a travesty and precisely the reason why his brand of Republicanism had either better die or we should save ourselves the bother of running every four years and give up the idea of ever again winning a national contest.
About John McCain, there is much fear and loathing among the rank and file this evening as this is being written, who overcame their disgust or at least held their noses campaigning for him, who only a few years previous had entered into discussions about jumping to the Democrat party, who relished the opportunity to embarrass the party of Lincoln at every opportunity, working behind the scenes to engage in goodness only knows what kind of treachery, so that his beloved media would shine him on.
You had your chance John, we supported you and you let us down...again. Shut up and go away, while you are at it take Lindsay Graham and the rest of your pathetic gang of losers with you.
Because of your selfishness and incompetency a neo-Socialist thug with close ties to terrorists and an oversize appetite for power, will now occupy the presidency.
A special dose of shame should be meted out to the self-appointed beltway GOP spokesmen in this affair, people of the ilk of William Kristol.
In a New York Times piece written on January 31, 2008 Kristol waxed approvingly in, "Thoroughly Unmodern McCain."
"...But his allusion to its coda [referring to his quoting a line from the poem Invictus, by William Ernest Henley] reminds us of what's so distinctive about McCain as a contemporary political figure: He's not thoroughly modern. But John McCain is a not-so-modern type. One might call him a neo-Victorian - rigid, self-righteous and moralizing, but (or rather and) manly, courageous and principled. Maybe a dose of this type of neo-Victorianism is what the 21st century needs. A fair number of Republican and independent voters seem to think so, if one can infer as much from their support of McCain at the polls. But, amazingly, a neo-Victorian straightforwardness might also turn out to be strategically smart."[source, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21kristol.html ]
Well Kristol doesn't look particularly clever tonight, his toothy little fox like smile notwithstanding.
In January McCain is the cure for the ails of a new and dangerous century, however nine months later, on October 12, 2008 again in the New York Times - is there a pattern here? - Kristol jumped ship, declaring, "It's time for John McCain to fire his campaign...He has nothing to lose...If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed." [source, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/opinion/13kristol.html?ref=opinion]
Treachery, undisguised. Thanks William, push this cretinous bumbler on the party - your dream since 2000 - and then publicly disembowel him from your perch at the traitorous New York Times.
Swell, Kristol surveys the carnage, absolves himself of any responsibility and then ambles back to his office at the Weekly Standard where he settles in, content to write his meanderingly elegant but meaningless prose.
Where is the outrage? It's nonexistent.
Beltwaythink - It's they that lose, we remain in the know, in the loop, still connected, still sucking the teat of power.
Across the GOP political class there are almost no consequences for failure. McCain loses an abysmal campaign, no problem, he goes back to the Senate, ready to once again stab his party in the back, eager to help Obama.
How might he demonstrate his bipartisanship in the 111th Congress, his fealty to the new order?
He has probably already given thought to ways in which he can work with his fellow Democrat Senators on legislation granting amnesty for illegal Mexicans, providing cover for the Democrats so that South-of-the-border Albatross can't be hung around their necks.
Mighty sporty of you John, oh and thanks for supporting our new Supreme Court nominee, that was grand, he was getting so bored serving as lead counsel for Soros' Open Society Institute.
If this is what you want in a party count us out, its over.
We are going to war, get out of the way or you are going to get hurt.
November 2, 2008 - San Francisco, CA- PipeLineNews.org - A small group of people gathered today at the Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam, the location where film maker Theo van Gogh was murdered four years ago by the Islamic terrorist Mohammed Bouyeri [see, http://binnenland.nieuws.nl/533267/theo_van_gogh_herdacht_in_amsterdam]. The commemoration was organized by the Friends of Pim Fortuyn Foundation. Fortuyn was gunned down in a similar incident in 2002, assassinated by an animal rights extremist, who was also angered by Fortuyn's perceived anti-Muslim statements.
Bouyeri, a Dutch born Muslim Moroccan, shot, stabbed and nearly decapitated van Gogh in the ritualized killing.
After the observance, the group moved to "The Scream," a sculpture which was meant to memorialize van Gogh. It is located in the park across from where van Gogh was slaughtered. The organizers of the memorial urged that people take measures to safeguard their freedom of speech.
November 1, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The Middle East Media Research Institute [MEMRI] is reporting [see, http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD209808#_edn2] that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei recently made a speech to students telling them that their hate of America was, "profound." The speech is being viewed as part of a government wide attempt to raise the stakes against a possible preemptive attack led by the United States against the rogue state's nuclear program.
Khamenei's speech was carried on state television and placed blame for the student's alleged hatred on actions taken by the U.S. over the, "past 50 years," decrying alleged plots that, "the U.S. government has concocted against Iran and the Iranian people," adding that, "The Americans have not only refused to apologize for their actions, but have continued with their arrogant actions."
In an apparent effort to make DC policy makers think twice about attacking the belligerent nation, Khamenei threatened, "anyone who wished to trample the identity and independence of the Iranian nation would have his hand cut off by it."
October 29, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Anyone reading this piece is now aware that the Los Angeles Times is playing fast and loose with the truth regarding Barack Obama's presence at a controversial "farewell" party for former PLO terrorist Rashid Khalidi, a good friend of his.
A few thoughts.
1. The Times' explanation, that it had an agreement with someone - a leaker - who made available to the Times a tape of the event, doesn't pass the smell test. Why would someone pass a tape to the newspaper upon the assumption that its contents wouldn't be made public? What would be the purpose of that? It makes no logical sense and seems like a concocted dodge on the part of the organization.
2. The standard agreement, as everyone in the and out of the news business is awar
January 5, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - As seems to be increasingly the case, journalism's most important statements are made by the issues it avoids.
It's not that there is any dearth of information on Hamas' policy of placing children in situations which guarantee their death and dismemberment; it's just that the truth is "unpleasant," raising grave issues not only about the Palestinians but in a more universal sense, with the Muslim Ummah, whose silence is beyond deafening.
January 2, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On January 1 a Muslim family led by Atif Irfan, on its way to a Muslim conference in Orlando, Florida, had their trip interrupted when they along with the rest of the passengers on an AirTran flight were forced to deplane and undergo rescreening. They were not permitted to rejoin the flight and booked flights on US Air to complete their journey.
January 1, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Cynthia McKinney the ex-Congresswoman from Atlanta's 4th District, has just been paid a fleeting visit by reality and it doesn't seem like it was all that pleasant an experience.
December 29, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Decrying what it calls Israel's "disproportionate and counterproductive...attacks," the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR, Hamas' American propagandist] has joined with 11 terror friendly Islamist groups in a major PR push designed to save Hamas from being crushed by Israel.
December 24, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The headline from the AP website reads, "5 immigrants face life behind bars for Army plot," hardly the type of lead in that one might expect in describing a significant conviction in the war on terror, involving a domestic conspiracy to murder U.S. servicemen entered into by 5 New Jersey Muslims. [source, http://www.google.com:80/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpU78Fwu6-swpC3MuWomEA9WYcCQD958EI380]
December 22, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a bizarre reversal of normal FBI procedures, imam Maulana Shafayat Mohammed [leader of Florida's terror linked Dar Ul Uloom Institute and Islamic Training Center] was recently allowed to "interview" FBI special agent Stu McArthur, at the FBI Miami Headquarters. Also present was FBI special agent Ms. Judy Orihuela and Darul Uloom Director, Bro. Abzal Hosein. [see, http://www.alhikmat.com:80/magazinearticles/alhikmatinterview.html]
December 8, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Unfazed by the public immolation of his dream candidate, John McCain, William Kristol [see To The Barricades, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=nooneid=11.4.08%2Ehtm] today wades in to do battle with the limited government crowd, heirs to one of the bedrock principles of genuine conservatism.
December 4, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a December 1 piece published in the Los Angeles Times, Asra Nomani questions India's commitment to its 140 million Muslims, calling them, "India's new untouchables. [see, Asra Nomani, Muslims, India's New Untouchables, December 1, 2008, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-nomani1-2008dec01,0,4752.story]
December 1, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Pakistan's efforts to defuse the mounting tensions between itself and India after the Mumbai massacre are reaching the point of absurdity.
December 1, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - An Islamic terror group known as the Indian Mujahideen, which took
responsibility for bombings in Delhi in September, warned two months ago
that its next target would be Mumbai.
November 12, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On November 3, 2008 George Mason University [GMU] announced an agreement to accept an offer of $1.5 million made by a Saudi tied, Islamist organization called the International Institute for Islamic Thought [IIIT], to endow a chair in Islamic Studies. [source, http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/722]
November 9, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - One thing Obama's critics can't say about him is that he lacks ambition and audacity.
November 6, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Borne on the unlikely lips of Fox's Carl Cameron, the McCain dead-enders have launched an unprecedented attack on former VP nominee Sarah Palin, in violation of Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, "speak not ill of thy fellow Republican."
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Apparently ebullient over the election of "former" Muslim Barack Obama as president of the United States, the Taliban announced today in Afghanistan that it will join with America in pursuing peace in the region if only he will reject president Bush's war on terror.
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In what appears to be a show of unity, American Islamic radicals are lauding the election of Barack Hussein Obama.
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Following almost immediately on the heels of the election of Barack Obama as America's 44th president, and as predicted by vice president elect Joe Biden, Russia today dropped the gauntlet in a dangerous gambit to prevent U.S. missile defense systems from being installed in NATO's newest member states, Poland and the Czech Republic.
November 5, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Let's get this out of the way first, we will not be congratulating Barack Obama. His campaign was based on deceptions and lies abetted by a media which has become indistinguishable from that of the Stalin era.