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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Ryan Mauro</title>
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		<title>Fox Haters Carrying Water for CAIR</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/fox-haters-carrying-water-for-cair/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=fox-haters-carrying-water-for-cair</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/fox-haters-carrying-water-for-cair/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Mar 2014 04:17:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CAIR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamophobia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=220890</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Running interference for jihad instead of asking the real questions. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/National-Executive-Director-of-Council-on-American_Islamic-RelationsCAIR-Nihad-Awad-holds-a-translated-copy-of-the-Quran-as-he-speaks-news-conference-at-the-headquarters-of-CAIR.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-220893" alt="The Council on American-Islamic Relations Announces Educational Initiative" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/National-Executive-Director-of-Council-on-American_Islamic-RelationsCAIR-Nihad-Awad-holds-a-translated-copy-of-the-Quran-as-he-speaks-news-conference-at-the-headquarters-of-CAIR-439x350.jpg" width="307" height="245" /></a>For some progressive writers, it’s more important to bash Fox News than to expose American Islamist groups&#8217; rejection of liberal values. In recent weeks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has aggressively promoted articles by Fox haters who are more concerned with smearing CAIR opponents as anti-Muslim bigots than addressing facts and evidence.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The U.S. Justice Department </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/List+of+Unindicted+HLF+Co-conspirators.pdf">says</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> CAIR is a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and labeled it an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-financing trial. Federal prosecutors </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/542.pdf">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in a 2007 court filing that CAIR uses deception to “conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.” CAIR’s </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">documented record</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> should alienate every progressive.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Part of those efforts is taking advantage of writers with influence in the media. Don’t take my word for it. Look at what CAIR Vice Chair Sarwat Husain </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://youtu.be/HHPWyMTGcN4">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> at another terror-tied conference:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Media in the United States is very gullible, ok? And they will see that if you have something, especially as a Muslim, if you have something to say, they will come running to you—and take advantage of that.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In a presentation by CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, he told supporters how to manipulate reporters. One of the slides was titled “Characteristics of a Journalist” and said, “They will expect you to do their work. Let them.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">CAIR also said to exploit the fact that journalists do “little primary research,” are “under extreme deadline pressure” and “fea[r] charges of inaccuracy.” This is especially true of CAIR’s media allies that choose political ideology over all else.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">On February 20, CAIR distributed a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/20/meet-foxs-new-anti-muslim-national-security-ana/198148"><i>Media Matters</i> hit piece</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by Michelle Leung describing me as “Fox’s Newest Anti-Muslim ‘National Security Analyst,’” even though I am neither anti-Muslim nor “new” on Fox. If she had checked her own website’s archives, she would have seen a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/02/26/for-criticism-of-obamas-libya-policy-fox-turns/176950">hit piece from 2011</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> about an appearance. The premise of that article is that I am not a credible speaker on Libya because I opposed the Ground Zero Mosque.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">My </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/3230301823001/jihadist-enclave-in-heart-of-texas/">appearance</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> was about the </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion Project’s</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> disclosure of a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/exclusive-clarion-project-discovers-texas-terror-enclave">jihadist enclave in Texas</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> run by Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas. Her article didn’t even mention the topic I was discussing because that might wake readers up as to why this was a story worth covering.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/texas-congressman-terror-enclave-discovery-appalling">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the discovery is “appalling.” Despite Leung’s description of </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and me as “anti-Muslim,” around a dozen Muslim organizations in the U.S. and Canada </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/news/muslims-join-clarion-call-ul-fuqra-be-foreign-terrorist-org">endorsed</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> a statement calling on the U.S. government to label Jamaat ul-Fuqra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.</span></p>
<p>As evidence of my “Islamophobic” agenda, Leung cites my <a href="http://youtu.be/zvYRw8KWKPI">segment</a> about ul-Fuqra and Islamist patrols in London, a <a href="http://youtu.be/1ibaQZnIK04">segment</a> about Al-Qaeda recruiting among Somali refugees in the U.S. and one where I <a href="http://youtu.be/bl2_w-EucHo">mentioned</a> that Syrian jihadists belong to an anti-American alliance in the region. Every single one was about events that indisputably happened. If that’s anti-Muslim, then reporters and analysts who cover shootings must hate gun owners.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Then on March 6, CAIR promoted another </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.newshounds.us/20140305_fox_friends_foments_more_fear_of_islam_with_security_expert_from_anti_islamic_group">ridiculous article</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">NewsHounds</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, where the author seemed determined to prove her wit by including as many fact-free insults as possible. This time, CAIR and its ally said I was “fomenting fear of Islam” by talking about the U.S. military’s </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/us-military-hires-chaplains-endorsed-brotherhood-entity">decision</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to again hire chaplains endorsed by the Islamic Society of North America. You can watch the segment </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/3295829202001/us-military-chaplains-linked-to-terror-group/">here.</a></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">We emphasized that I was not criticizing the use of Muslim chaplains, but rather the use of ISNA as the endorser. Like CAIR, the Justice Department labeled ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land trial and a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity. ISNA’s Fiqh Council is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/largest-us-muslim-org-courted-govt-dominated-isalmists">dominated by Islamists</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> with radical histories. The charitable status of ISNA’s Canadian affiliate was </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/isna-canada-loses-charity-status-over-terror-funding">revoked</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> because of its links to Pakistani terrorists and accounting discrepancies.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion Project</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> also discovered that the U.S. Air Force paid ISNA almost $5,000 of taxpayer money for two advertisements in its magazine with the purpose of recruiting chaplains. </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">NewsHounds</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> described that as “whining.”</span></p>
<p><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">NewsHounds </i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">also criticized my previous segment about ul-Fuqra and its communes in America, which was largely based on a declassified FBI document from 2007 that we obtained. The author disingenuously selected a single quote from the file stating that ul-Fuqra’s Texas site “may” be involved in terrorism and criticized my “unfounded fear.” She made a conscious decision to mislead her readers by leaving out the other incriminating quotes.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The FBI document reports that ul-Fuqra members in the U.S. have taken part in at least 10 murders, one disappearance and seven bomb plots. It states:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“The documented propensity for violence by this organization supports the belief the leadership of the MOA extols membership to pursue a policy of jihad or holy war against individuals or groups it considers enemies of Islam, which includes the U.S. Government. Members of the MOA are encouraged to travel to Pakistan to receive religious and military/terrorist training from Sheikh Gilani.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The criterion for being an “Islamophobe” is not to actually be an anti-Muslim bigot. It’s to be a critic of CAIR and Islamism. It wasn’t being used years before 9/11. They even claim that practicing Muslims like Zuhdi Jasser and the American Islamic Congress are part of the “Islamophobia” conspiracy. Despite that logical fallacy, Michelle Leung’s article at </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Media Matters</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> even called Jasser “anti-Muslim.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood member Abdur-Rahman Muhammad </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/2217/moderate-muslim-speak-out-on-capitol-hill">says</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> he was at an Islamist meeting in the 1990s where they conceived of a strategy of using the term “Islamophobia” to neutralize opponents. In September, multiple Muslim activists </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/moderate-muslims-oppose-islamophobia-tactic">decried</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the “Islamophobia” strategy.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Any time you condemn them, any time you point out their machinations or their deceit, they are going to label you an Islamophobe and who wants to be that? It is just a technique to stigmatize their critics,” Muhammad says.</span></p>
<p><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Media Matters</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">NewsHounds</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> parrot the “Islamophobia” line because their primary goal is to attack FOX News Channel, even if it means declining to defend their own liberal-progressive values from Islamists.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This article was sponsored by the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy.</a></em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Texas Terror Enclave Exposed</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/texas-terror-enclave-exposed/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=texas-terror-enclave-exposed</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/texas-terror-enclave-exposed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2014 05:40:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jamaat ul-Fuqra]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslims of the americas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=219646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And why it is allowed to exist…]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/eeuu.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-219647" alt="eeuu" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/eeuu.jpg" width="282" height="211" /></a>The </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion Project</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> just </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/exclusive-clarion-project-discovers-texas-terror-enclave">disclosed</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the existence of a terrorist enclave in Texas last week, bringing new attention to a network of at least 22 Jamaat ul-Fuqra “Islamic villages” across the country. Newly-declassified documents reveal that the FBI privately considers ul-Fuqra to be a terrorist group, but remains operational in the U.S. because of the State Department.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The “Islamic villages” belong to </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslims-americas-moa">Muslims of the Americas</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, an extension of Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani’s Jamaat ul-Fuqra terrorist group. Its headquarters is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamberg%23%20">&#8220;Islamberg&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in Hancock, N.Y and two of the group’s seized videotapes prove that these sites are used for guerilla warfare training. One </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://youtu.be/bxoykqCSruY">recording</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> shows women at Islamberg in military fatigue receiving such instructions.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The FBI files released by </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> confirm that the most loyal MOA members go to Pakistan for advanced religious and terrorist training under Sheikh Gilani. This travel is apparently done through an MOA entity named the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://iqou-moa.org/organizations/ammrt">American Muslim Medical Relief Team.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> The website has photos of members in Kashmir. The MOA has also posted </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://youtu.be/mBneL-BSMyo">videos</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> of members working at “Gillaniville” under Gilani’s watch.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Last week, The Blaze aired a blockbuster half-hour episode of “For the Record” titled </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3AkCB_1zeU&amp;feature=share&amp;list=UUUkB2Tjrkp_iF3rFLLMYD6w&amp;index=1">&#8220;Sleeper Cell&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> about Jamaat ul-Fuqra featuring the documents obtained by </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. The discovery of the camp near the town of Sweeny in Brazoria County, Texas was </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://youtu.be/F-2cfSgR1yQ">covered on &#8220;Fox and Friends&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and the Fox News website. </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Media Matters</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> immediately responded with a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/20/meet-foxs-new-anti-muslim-national-security-ana/198148">hit piece</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> describing me as “anti-Muslim” that was then distributed by the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Texas enclave has existed since the late 1980s, according to locals interviewed by </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://actforamericahouston.wordpress.com/%20">ACT For America Houston</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. The FBI documents show that the Bureau discovered it following a tip from an informant in New York and detected the movement of trailers to the site in December 2001.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The site is referred to as </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/mahmoudberg">&#8220;Mahmoudberg&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by MOA members. In 2010, an MOA entity named the American Muslim Ladies Club established a Texas chapter at the enclave.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A 2007 FBI document says that the enclave hosts a former leader of the 440-acre </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020202175752/http:/abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/110701_iteam_camp_baladullah_part1.html">&#8220;Baladullah&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> commune in California that was shut down and had armed guards, U-Haul dealership and even an airstrip. Its founder was </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.au.org/church-state/october-2006-church-state/au-bulletin/calif-charter-school-founder-faces-prison-for">convicted</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in 2006 of overseeing a charter school scam at the commune. Other members of Baladullah were </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://lang.sbsun.com/socal/terrorist/1201/25/terror15.asp">arrested</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> for illegal weapons trafficking and murdering a police officer.</span></p>
<p>One of the most interesting revelations from the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/exclusive-clarion-project-discovers-texas-terror-enclave"><i>Clarion Project</i> report</a> is that a shooting incident at Mahmoudberg took the life of one resident. It was ruled an accident by the police. However, the police were denied access to the trailers and were not allowed to directly interview the women, who covered their faces in the presence of the cops.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The report is a fatal blow to the MOA’s campaign to revamp its image. For example, it established the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/united-muslim-christian-forum">United Muslim Christian Forum</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. I attended one of their events and was told by one of the commune leaders that the group was trying “not to get into the bashing business anymore” because “we’re finding that certain things are a little bit too offensive.” He said the group stands by its past statements.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Texas enclave is also linked to the MOA’s interfaith front. I was given videotape of a United Muslim Christian Forum event in 2009 that featured then-Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan as a speaker. The Master of Ceremonies was Idris Johnson, the registered agent for a MOA front on Mahmoudberg’s premises called the Muslim Model Community.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Johnson was also </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://records.brazoria-county.com/Scripts/UVlink.isa/brazoria_tsg/WEBSERV/CriminalSearch?action%253Dview%26track%253D301060145">arrested</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> for interfering with public duties on February 28, 2013. So was </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://records.brazoria-county.com/Scripts/UVlink.isa/brazoria_tsg/WEBSERV/CriminalSearch?action%253Dview%26track%253D299897457">Nuh Abdullah</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://records.brazoria-county.com/Scripts/UVlink.isa/brazoria_tsg/WEBSERV/CriminalSearch?action%253Dview%26track%253D297967345">Muhammed Nurriddine</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> was charged with reckless driving.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Almost every communication I received in response to the </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Clarion</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> report and coverage on </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Blaze</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">FOX News Channel</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> asked how Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas is able to operate in the U.S. if the FBI’s own documents identify it as a terrorist threat.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The answer is the State Department has not designated Jamaat ul-Fuqra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, though it was included in reports about domestic groups in the 1990s. On January 31, 2002, the State Department </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040211081938/http:/www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm">said:</a></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Jamaat ul-Fuqra has never been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It was included in several recent annual terrorism reports under &#8220;other terrorist groups,&#8221; i.e., groups that had carried out acts of terrorism but that were not formally designated by the Secretary of State. However, because of the group&#8217;s inactivity during 2000, it was not included in the most recent terrorism report covering that calendar year.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The State Department’s own standards require it to label ul-Fuqra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm">three criteria</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> are that the group must be foreign; engaging in terrorist activity or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorism and it must threaten U.S. nationals or national security.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The newly-released FBI documents blow away any argument the State Department could use to defend its negligence. Two smoking gun quotes from a 2007 file are as clear as can be:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“The documented propensity for violence by this organization supports the belief the leadership of the MOA extols membership to pursue a policy of jihad or holy war against individuals or groups it considers enemies of Islam, which includes the U.S. Government.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Responsible reporters must relentlessly demand answers from the State Department in the wake of these new revelations.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> contributed to this article.</span></em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Iran &amp; David Duke Salute Presbyterian Church USA</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/iran-david-duke-salute-presbyterian-church-usa/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iran-david-duke-salute-presbyterian-church-usa</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Feb 2014 05:45:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Duke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Racism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zionism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=219512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Christian anti-Semites launch attack on Zionism. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PCUSAlogo.gif"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-219514" alt="PCUSAlogo" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PCUSAlogo.gif" width="243" height="244" /></a>If the Iranian state media and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/02/13/former-kkk-grand-wizard-david-duke-and-irans-press-tv-praise-presbytarian-church-usas-anti-israel-report/%20">salute</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> your church’s work, your church is doing something wrong. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has published a new pamphlet that makes the case against Zionism and therefore, the premise behind Israel’s existence.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Presbyterian Church (USA) has formidable influence. Its </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.pcusa.org/%20">website</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> says it has over 2 million members and 10,000 congregations in the United States. The church’s Israel-Palestine Mission network published the pamphlet, titled </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwiXD-AERPCvTTFrVmNEVElmWDQ/edit"><i>Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide</i></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. It says: </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“It examines the role of Jewish and Christian forms of Zionism in providing theological and ideological ‘cover’ for the takeover of Palestinian land, and the domination and dispossession of the Palestinian people during the past one and a quarter centuries.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It also criticizes its own church for having a hymn book with a section titled, “God’s Covenant with Israel.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Yes, the Bible tells us of God’s activity in covenanting with Israel, but it was ancient Israel, not the modern political state,” page 66 of the study guide says.</span></p>
<p>David Duke <a href="http://davidduke.com/new-publication-main-presbyterian-church-us-calls-zionism-jewish-supremacism/%20">wrote</a> on his blog that the literature is a “major breakthrough” and took credit for coining the term “Jewish Supremacism” to define Zionism.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Iranian state Press TV </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/12/350410/zionism-destroying-palestinians-jews/%20">gloats</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that it “describes Zionism as the single reason behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and “argues that most Jews reject Zionism and choose to live outside the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands, depicting Jewish life inside the Islamic Republic of Iran as ‘alive and well.’”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Indeed, that is a direct quote from page 41 of the pamphlet. It also states that Jews in the Middle East have a “history of largely harmonious integration in their host countries” but Israel is to blame for their current persecution.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Sadly, this model of coexistence was destabilized by the regional penetration of Zionism beginning in the late 19</span><sup style="line-height: 1.5em;">th</sup><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> century,” the pamphlet teaches.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The study guide is also a call to action. Page 58 endorses another publication, </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Kairos Palestine</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and its preaching that Christians are obligated to stand up to Israel. It reads:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“It is a call to use all nonviolent means available to stop the injustice and oppression perpetrated under the mantle of Zionism by the government of Israel against the Palestinian people. It is a call to do everything we can to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine and implement the requirement of international law so that the God-given human dignity can be restored to the Palestinian people, and justice will be done.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">An example of the activism the Church encourages is divestment from Israel. On February 9, its Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.pcusa.org/news/2014/2/7/presbyterian-mission-agency-board-sends-mrti-recom/%20">recommended</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> divestment from Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar and Motorola Solutions for their business with the Israeli military. Last year, its General Assembly </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Thankfully, Presbyterian Church (USA) does not represent all Presbyterians. Some are </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Presbyterians-push-back-against-church-groups-anti-Zionist-study-guide-341910">offended</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by the biased document. For example, the president of Auburn Theological Seminary, Rev. Katharine Rhodes Henderson, said the pamphlet “purports to be about love but it actually expresses demonization, distortion and imbalance.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Church is reacting to the controversy with carefully-worded deception.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.pcusa.org/news/2014/2/13/presbyterian-church-us-remains-committed-peace-isr/%20">February 13 statement</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> describes the Israel-Palestine Mission Network as an “independent group,” even though the Church admits it created it in 2004. It also clarifies, “The IPMN booklet was neither paid for nor published by the Presbyterian Church (USA).”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Israel-Palestine Mission Network technically funded and printed the document, but it is still a branch of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Church is hoping that we confuse its division of labor for independence. If you go to the Israel-Palestine Mission Network </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/%20">website</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, the header explicitly states that it is “of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Ethan Felson, Vice President of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.jta.org/2014/02/18/news-opinion/united-states/presbyterians-push-back-against-church-groups-anti-zionist-study-guide">debunks</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the Church’s excuse by noting that the Israel-Palestine Mission Network isn’t even registered separately and its donations go through the Church.</span></p>
<p>“They charter IPMN, they speak to IPMN, they speak at the IPMN annual conference, they recommend people get involved in IPMN, they take contributions to IPMN and when they’re challenged, then they say it does not speak for the church,” Felson said.</p>
<p>The Presbyterian Church (USA) apparently believes slandering Israel is necessary for productive Christian-Muslim relations. A look at its interfaith allies shows where this perspective is emanating from.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/american-christians-shocking-support-islamists">came to the defense</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> of the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-public-affairs-council-mpac">Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/huma-abedin-associate-editor-islamist-journal">Huma Abedin</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> when five members of Congress brought attention to their records and Islamist links. The Church is also a member of the ISNA-allied </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamists-mobilize-non-muslims-against-anti-foreign-law-ban">Shoulder-to-Shoulder</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> interfaith coalition.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Last year, when the Presbyterian Church (USA) began updating its study on Christian-Muslim relations, it had </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/presbyterian-church-partners-islamists">Islamist advisors</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. The Presbyterian Mission Agency, an agency of the Church, has </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/interfaith/interfaith-links/%20">&#8220;interfaith links of interest&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> on its website that includes ISNA, MPAC, the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and  </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-circle-north-america-icna">Islamic Circle of North America</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Church also </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/new-york-times-whitewashes-islamist-zaytuna-college">published</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> a book warning Christians about the “rise of Islamophobia,” reinforcing the narrative of the Islamists who use the term to slander their opponents. The book also gave favorable coverage to the radical Imam Zaid Shakir and the school he founded, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/zaytuna-college">Zaytuna College.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">2 Thessalonians 3:6 tells Christians to “keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” The Presbyterian Church (USA) needs to think of that scripture as it reads about its Islamist allies and the glee of Iran and David Duke.</span></p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Christians Fight for Middle East Religious Freedom Watchdog</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/christians-fight-for-middle-east-religious-freedom-watchdog/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=christians-fight-for-middle-east-religious-freedom-watchdog</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Feb 2014 05:35:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[envoy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mike lee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state department]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tom Coburn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[watchdog]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[A campaign to add a new State Department envoy hits a bump.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/copticchristians.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-219112" alt="COPTIC CHRISTIANS PRAY INSIDE CHURCH IN CAIRO" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/copticchristians-450x305.jpg" width="270" height="183" /></a>Global persecution of Christians, especially in the Muslim world, is one of the most overlooked human rights disasters of the 21</span><sup style="line-height: 1.5em;">st</sup><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> century. Christian activists are demanding that the State Department add a new envoy for religious minorities in the Middle East, but their campaign is stymied by those concerned about government redundancy.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Christians United for Israel, Coptic Solidarity, the North American Religious Liberty Association and other groups are fighting for the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act of 2013. They believe that the crisis warrants a specially-focused diplomatic post. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Ironically, one of the supporters is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.shouldertoshouldercampaign.org/members/">member</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder interfaith coalition that is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/islamist-interfaith-alliance-battles-foreign-law-bans/">allied</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> with the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">Islamic Society of North America</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://freebeacon.com/republicans-blocking-bill-to-combat-christian-violence/%20">opposing side</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> is Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT). Their position is that this is already the duty of the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who also heads the State Department’s </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/%20">Office of International Religious Freedom.</a></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Their argument is that adding to the bureaucracy isn’t the proper solution. If the U.S. is failing to address Christian persecution, it’s a failure of policy and leadership and not the configuration of the government.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.religionnews.com/2014/02/06/obama-highlights-religious-freedom-national-prayer-breakfast-speech/%20">spoke out</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> against persecution of Christians, calling for the release of a Christian missionary held in North Korea for 15 months and a Christian pastor in Iran that’s been imprisoned for over 18 months. He also criticized blasphemy and defamation laws that are used to suppress religious freedom.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">However, words have not been met with action. The perpetrators of the persecution do not face serious consequences for their actions. It is not a significant part of American global diplomacy and international relations and the American public is not educated about the scale of the problem.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">About </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.dw.de/the-persecution-of-christians-is-increasing/a-17215767">100 million</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Christians around the world live in a state of persecution because of their faith, according to the Open Doors organization. It is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/152651">estimated</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that a Christian is killed every five minutes. The Pew Research Center </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-boland/pew-study-christians-are-world-s-most-oppressed-religious-group">finds</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that Christians are the most persecuted religious group, facing oppression in 110 countries.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And the problem is getting worse. A whopping 76% of the world’s population lives in countries where religious freedom is highly suppressed. That’s 5.3 billion people. About 20% of humanity lives in countries experiencing religious violence, more than double the percentage in 2007.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A diplomatic post that condemns oppression of Christians would be an improvement, but we must be realistic about what such a figure can accomplish. Condemnations have been made, albeit at a quieter volume than deserved.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The new envoy would only have an impact if he focuses on the core source of that oppression and if he is backed by an administration that is willing to strain diplomatic relations to stand against it. That source is the governmental aspects of Sharia, a politically-sensitive fact that our leadership is loath to admit.</span></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.opendoorsusa.org/press/2014/January/Persecution-of-Christians-Increases">top 10</a> countries most hostile to Christianity are (in order): North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen. Nine out of the top 10 are Muslim-majority countries. Of the top 50 countries, <a href="http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/152651">42 are Muslim-majority</a> or have large Muslim populations.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The most common denominator is Islam and, specifically, the commandments of Sharia. These aren’t ethnic conflicts where Christian and Muslim armies are battling. The motivation is the institution of Sharia-based governance.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">For example, Pakistani minister Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of the cabinet, was murdered in 2011 for opposing blasphemy laws inspired by Sharia. His brother recently </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.ucanews.com/news/brother-of-slain-catholic-minister-flees-pakistan/70258">fled</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the country due to death threats.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There are two main premises behind Islamist preaching that is stoking persecution of Christians. The first is that Islam is under attack and Christians, even civilians, should be seen as agents of the West. This is the thinking behind Al-Qaeda-type terrorist attacks on churches.</span></p>
<p>Other Islamists oppose violent targeting of Christian civilians, but still support Sharia governance. They may not want to bomb a church, but they do want restrictions in accordance with Sharia that make Christians second-class citizens.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The blasphemy laws that oppress Christians and other non-Muslims stem from an interpretation of sacred Islamic texts. For example, Quran 5:72 </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.muslimaccess.com/quraan/arabic/005.asp">says</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, “They do blaspheme who say: &#8220;(Allah) is Christ the son of Mary.&#8221; And again in 5:73: “They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah.” Blasphemy is prohibited under Sharia.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Apostasy, or the decision of a Muslim to leave his Islamic faith, is punishable by death under Sharia. Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi amazingly </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://youtu.be/huMu8ihDlVA">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in a television interview, “If they left apostasy alone, there wouldn’t have been any Islam. Islam would have been finished right after the death of the Prophet.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the interview, he used Islamic scripture to endorse laws against blasphemy and apostasy. He cited the Sahih Bukhari hadith collection that recorded Mohammed as saying, “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” Qaradawi also cited the hadith of Ibn Abbas that said the same thing and the hadith of Ibn Masud, who said that Muslims can only be killed if they are guilty of murder, adultery or apostasy.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Having an additional official monitoring persecution of Christians would be positive, but it will only bear fruit if the ideological source driving that persecution is identified and confronted.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> contributed to this article.</span></em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Islamist-Interfaith Alliance Battles Foreign Law Bans</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/islamist-interfaith-alliance-battles-foreign-law-bans/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islamist-interfaith-alliance-battles-foreign-law-bans</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Feb 2014 05:40:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=218518</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Muslim Brotherhood front groups and their allies launch an assault on U.S. law integrity. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/IslamWillDominateWhiteHouse.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-218533" alt="IslamWillDominateWhiteHouse" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/IslamWillDominateWhiteHouse.jpg" width="237" height="176" /></a>Shoulder-to-Shoulder, an interfaith coalition allied with the Islamic Society of North America, is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=ddffe9393c1a8365d199f0da6&amp;id=3215eb899f&amp;e=76395485ca">mobilizing</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> its supporters against state legislation that stops foreign law from superseding the Constitution. The Islamists’ non-Muslim allies are helping frame it as an unnecessary, bigoted initiative that threatens all people of faith.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The coalition is holding a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://shouldertoshouldercampaign.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ddffe9393c1a8365d199f0da6&amp;id=af926d3952">webinar</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> on February 27. The announcement correctly notes that current legislation does not mention Shariah, though it is covered under the terminology of “foreign law.” Seven states have passed such bills since 2010.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Shoulder-to-Shoulder’s description makes it sound like the legislation is a ban on foreign law influencing judges’ decision altogether. It states:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“Most religious laws that influence these contracts (like Jewish Halakha, Catholic Canon law, or Islamic Shariah law) were not developed within the United States and would be considered foreign law under such legislation. While anti-Muslim sentiment is still the motivating factor behind these laws, Americans of every faith should be concerned about their impact on religious freedom.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is an easily refutable misrepresentation of the bills, based on the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://publicpolicyalliance.org/legislation/american-laws-for-american-courts/%20">American Laws for American Courts</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> draft legislation. It does not ban religious contracts like those mentioned by Shoulder-to-Shoulder, nor is it a blanket ban on foreign law. It only applies when there is a conflict between the U.S. Constitution and foreign law in court and it victimizes no one, especially not Muslims because Muslim-Americans are benefactors of it.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://shariahinamericancourts.com/%20">2011 study</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> found 50 cases where Shariah or foreign law based on Shariah influenced the court case. The American Public Policy Alliance has a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://publicpolicyalliance.org/faq/ten-american-families-and-shariah-law/%20">list of 10 cases</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> where a Muslim-American party objected to the role of Shariah. The summary is as follows:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“In cases 1-3, the Appellate Courts upheld Shariah law; in cases 4-7, the Trial Courts upheld Shariah, but the Appellate Courts reversed (protecting the litigant’s constitutional rights); in cases 8-10, both Trial and Appellate Courts rejected the attempts to enforce Shariah law.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ALAC is sometimes criticized as unnecessary and driven by unsubstantiated paranoia. It is hard to imagine that an American judge would ever rule give foreign law precedence over American law. The American Public Policy Alliance </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://publicpolicyalliance.org/legislation/alac-faq/%20">explains</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that the bill fixes a troublesome loophole:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Most states merely state that foreign laws and judgments that violate the state’s &#8220;public policy&#8221; shall not be recognized. But the courts consistently rule that the state legislature has the responsibility to articulate clearly what the state’s public policy actually is.</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The ALAC website points out the hypocrisy of the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. In </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20110708/NEWS/707089736&amp;template=fairfaxTimes">response</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to business dress codes enforced on Muslim-American women in France, CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper unwittingly supported the rationale behind ALAC.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“A discriminatory dress code implemented in France does not supersede American laws protecting the religious rights of American citizens,” he said. He said CAIR is “defending American law from foreign intrusion.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.aifdemocracy.org/">American-Islamic Forum for Democracy</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://aifdemocracy.org/aifd-press-release-american-muslim-organization-applauds-oklahoma-anti-shariah-law/">supports</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> ALAC-type bills because it has seen how Shariah has affected Muslims in Europe. The bills’ purpose is not to pre-empt a hypothetical situation. It’s a reaction to what is actually happening right now.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/New-Report-Sharia-Law-in-Britain_fixed.pdf">2010 study</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> found that Shariah courts in the United Kingdom </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/jul/05/sharia-law-religious-courts">lack accountability</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, to say the least. There are not clear standards for appointing judges and monitoring proceedings and rulings often conflict with British law. For example, British courts’ first priority is the interest of the child. Shariah courts rule that children automatically go into the custody of the father after a certain age.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The British Justice Ministry </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020391/Probe-secretive-Sharia-law-courts-scrapped-Muslim-leaders-close-ranks.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">investigated</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Shariah courts and had to end give up because of a lack of cooperation from the court staffs. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The misrepresentations by Shoulder-to-Shoulder stem from its relationship with the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation. The Foundation was another Brotherhood entity that was shut down for financing Hamas. This isn’t six degrees of separation: The Holy Land Foundation operated </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">within</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> ISNA, according to a </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/43380629-2009-order-on-Holy-Land-Foundation-unindicted-coconspirator-list.pdf">2009 ruling by a federal judge.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ISNA </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.isna.net/shoulder-to-shoulder-gathers-national-religious-organizations-to-discuss-continued-efforts-to-challenge-anti-muslim-sentiment.html">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> on its website last month that it “founded” Shoulder-to-Shoulder to counter increasing bigotry against Muslims. Elsewhere on its website, ISNA </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.isna.net/civic-engagement.html">says</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it “helped convene” the coalition of 28 religious organizations. Whichever way it is worded, the point is that Shoulder-to-Shoulder is largely a product of ISNA.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And who is the ISNA official leading its interfaith campaign and, therefore, its work with Shoulder-to-Shoulder? Former Secretary-General Sayyid Syeed, who is seen in </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.granddeception.com/%20"><i>The Grand Deception</i></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> documentary saying in 2006, “Our job is to change the constitution of America.” His current </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.isna.net/sayyid-m-syeed.html">job title</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> at ISNA is National Director of ISNA’s Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances.</span></p>
<p><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">That</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> is the organization and individual that Shoulder-to-Shoulder works with. This has been written about many times, but the coalition continues to carry ISNA’s water.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Shoulder-to-Shoulder is just one example of how non-Muslims are being rallied to the cause. The </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Gospel Coalition</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> published an article in August titled, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/08/19/the-dangers-of-anti-sharia-laws/%20">&#8220;The Dangers of Anti-Sharia Laws.&#8221;</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> The author, Joe Carter, is also a senior editor for the Action Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Another example is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/a-florida-megachurch-pastors-islamist-associations/">Pastor Joel C. Hunter of Florida&#8217;s Northland Church.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> He collaborated with a former CAIR official to stand against the bill and said it is an “unnecessary law that increases bias and heightens animosity between Christians and Muslims.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The ALAC-inspired bills will not roll back religious freedom. Non-Muslims should read about the bill from the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://publicpolicyalliance.org/legislation/american-laws-for-american-courts/">original source</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> before following the lead of ISNA and its interfaith coalition.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> contributed to this article.</span></em></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Jamie Glazov&#8217;s</strong> video interview with <strong>Walid Shoebat</strong>, who sheds disturbing light on <strong><em></em></strong>the Obama administration&#8217;s Islamist odyssey, the terror links of Obama&#8217;s brother, Malik Obama, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-FOR-Islamophobia-Americas/dp/0982567960"><em>The Case for Islamophobia,</em></a> and much, much more:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ihfr-yx5aB4" height="315" width="420" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><strong>To sign up for </strong><em><b>The Glazov Gang</b></em><strong>: </strong><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><b>Click here</b></a><strong>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Farm Subsidies for the Muslim Brotherhood</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/farm-subsidies-fund-u-s-muslim-brotherhood-entity/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=farm-subsidies-fund-u-s-muslim-brotherhood-entity</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/farm-subsidies-fund-u-s-muslim-brotherhood-entity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Feb 2014 05:35:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[farm subsidies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Muslim Brotherhood]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=217813</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How American taxpayers' money is used to fund Islamist groups.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/nait.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-217856" alt="nait" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/nait.gif" width="400" height="180" /></a>The <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/north-american-islamic-trust-nait">North American Islamic Trust</a> (NAIT), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity, has been given over $10,000 in farm subsidies since 1998. The payments are just another example of taxpayer money being spent to benefit Islamist groups.</p>
<p><i>Fox News </i><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/01/islamic-group-tied-to-terror-trial-receiving-thousands-in-farm-subsidies/">reports</a> that NAIT is being funded by 34 different government programs and receives subsidies for its two “agricultural” lands that are not being used for agricultural purposes. The report quotes an expert as assessing that NAIT’s activity in this regard is “probably legal,” as shocking as it seems.</p>
<p>NAIT was first identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front by the FBI in the 1980s. A <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/708.pdf">declassified FBI memo</a> documents that a source inside the American Muslim Brotherhood said that NAIT is “under the direction and control of the IKHWAN [Muslim Brotherhood] in the United States has as its ultimate goal political control of all non-Islamic governments in the world.”</p>
<p>Another declassified FBI <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/148.pdf">memo</a> from 1987 states that NAIT is receiving money from Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries and “many” of its leaders supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The FBI’s source reported on NAIT’s “support of JIHAD (a holy war) in the U.S.” and “support of terrorism in the U.S. to further the revolution.”</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/Muslim_Brotherhood_Explanatory_Memorandum">1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood document</a> says its U.S. operations are “kind of a grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.” It lists NAIT as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”</p>
<p>In 2007, the U.S. government described NAIT as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and labeled it an <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/List+of+Unindicted+HLF+Co-conspirators.pdf">unindicted co-conspirator</a> in a major terrorism-financing trial. The designation was <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/43380629-2009-order-on-Holy-Land-Foundation-unindicted-coconspirator-list.pdf">upheld</a> in 2009 by a federal judge, but he ruled against the previous public disclosure of the designation. This has been repeatedly misreported, including in the <i>Fox News</i> report, as a lifting of the designation.</p>
<p>NAIT <a href="http://www.nait.net/waqfservice.htm">says</a> it holds the titles to over 325 properties in 42 states. The <i>Fox</i> report states that NAIT uses Allied Asset Advisors, a company it owns and shares an address with, to buy mosques.</p>
<p>The subsidies to NAIT were sent to the Islamic Center of Central Missouri Mosque. The mosque’s <a href="http://www.theiccm.org/uploads/1/0/2/4/10242520/iccmconstitution_oct20071.pdf">constitution</a> says it is “entrusted” with NAIT and officially affiliated with the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">Islamic Society of North America</a> (ISNA) and the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-students-association">Muslim Students Association</a>, two other groups with Muslim Brotherhood origins. Like NAIT, ISNA was also designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial.</p>
<p>According to <i>Fox</i>, the farm subsidies were temporarily halted between 2008 and 2011.</p>
<p>It cannot be argued that NAIT has shed its past extremism. One of its <a href="http://nait.net/NAIT_about_%20us.htm">current trustees</a> is Muzammil Siddiqi, a former president of ISNA. In 1996, while president of ISNA, he <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/171">said</a> Muslims “should participate in the [democratic] system to safeguard our interest and try to bring gradual change…We must not forget that Allah’s rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead to that direction.”</p>
<p>In 2001, he even called for the brutal judicial system of Sharia to eventually be established in America. He said that Muslims are not required to follow Sharia’s criminal law when they live in a non-Muslim country, but “Once more people accept Islam, insha’llah, this will lead to the implementation of Sharia in all areas.”</p>
<p>NAIT isn’t the only radical group getting farm subsidies courtesy of American taxpayers. Last year, it was <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/365951/nation-islam-receives-farm-subsidies-andrew-johnson">discovered</a> that the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/nation-islam">Nation of Islam</a> was awarded $103,539 between 2008 and 2011. It also got a $26,357 “community loan” when the Bush Administration was in office.</p>
<p>The funding went to a Nation of Islam charity named Three Years Economic Savings, even though its status with the Illinois Secretary of State is “not in good standing.” The charity also operates under the name of “Muhammad Farms” in Georgia and is listed at Louis Farrakhan’s address.</p>
<p>The <i>Clarion Project</i> also discovered that the U.S. Air Force is <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/air-force-recruits-chaplains-mb-front-group">paying ISNA for advertisements in its magazine.</a> A spokesperson for the Air Force confirmed to <i>Clarion</i> that $4,800 was spent on two ads to recruit Air Froce chaplains. When <i>Clarion</i> provided the spokesperson with documentation about ISNA’s past and asked whether such payments would continue, the spokesperson said:</p>
<p>“The Islamic Society of North America is one of many religious organizations recognized by the Department of Defense that satisfy the ecclesiastical requirements to endorse qualified religious ministry professionals to serve as chaplains within the Military Departments.”</p>
<p>Another example is the radical mosque, <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/dar-al-hijrah-islamic-center">Dar al-Hijrah</a>, that has significant links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Its current imam is an <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/4195/dar-al-hijrah-imam-affirms-mb-sympathies-on">open supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood</a> and he <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/imam-preaches-armed-jihad-dc-high-school">preached</a> in favor of violent jihad last year inside a Virginia high school.</p>
<p>In 2010, it was found that the Census Bureau was <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/government-funded-jihad/%20">paying $23,000 <i>per month</i></a> since 2008 to rent space owned by the mosque. The total contract for the lease was $582,000 through 2010. The discovery prompted members of Congress to <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2010/05/ipt-report-on-census-lease-prompts-inquiries">demand accountability.</a></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.usdebtclock.org/%20">U.S. Debt Clock</a> has the deficit at over $648 billion and the total debt at over $17 trillion. The Islamist cause is the last thing the U.S. government should be spending money on.</p>
<p><em> The <a href="http://www.theird.org">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
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		<title>Obama Blames U.S. for &#8216;Extremism&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/obama-blames-u-s-for-extremism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-blames-u-s-for-extremism</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Jan 2014 05:50:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extremism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[foreign policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SOTU]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state of the union]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=217512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Key lines from the president's SOTU address that expose his delusional foreign policy. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/140128_sotu_obama_ap_328.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-217513" alt="Barack Obama" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/140128_sotu_obama_ap_328.jpg" width="240" height="197" /></a></b><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">President Obama’s State of the Union gave us a look at the premises driving his foreign policy. It showed that he believes Islamic terrorists to be driven by frustration over perceived injustices at the hands of the West, rather than an ideology. It is because of this frame of mind that he can defend the faulty nuclear deal with Iran and depict the regime as a less threatening version of the Soviet Union.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Three key lines in the speech illustrated the fundamentals underlying the Obama Administration’s foreign policy.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">First, Obama indicated that he sees terrorism-sponsoring Islamist regimes as comparable to the communists of the Cold War. Both are primarily motivated by power and wealth and are open to mutually-beneficial deals. He said:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This comparison overlooks the ideological differences between the two. If the Iranian regime had purely selfish interests, it would not engage in its self-injuring radical behavior. The preamble to its constitution would not state that its founding objective is “the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The second noteworthy line implies that anti-Americanism and Islamic radicalism is a reaction to Western domination and military actions. He said:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“I’ve imposed prudent limits on the use of drones—for we will not be safer if people abroad believe we strike within their countries without regard for consequence.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Drone strikes are not carried out recklessly or without concern for civilian casualties. Anti-American fervors, whether they are aimed at drone strikes or another element of U.S. policy, are not based on a careful analysis. They are stoked by governments like our “allies” in Pakistan and Islamist provocateurs. Increased regulations on drone strikes, or even the complete abandonment of drone strikes, will do nothing to stem their incendiary rhetoric.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Thirdly, President Obama criticized “large-scale deployments that drain our strength and may ultimately feed extremism.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is one small step away from saying, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Again, President Obama argues that Islamic extremists are reacting to Western heavy-handedness.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Each individual’s radicalization can be prompted by many factors, and disagreement with Western policy may be one of them, but it is not the decisive factor. Yet, it is the factor that President Obama most references.</span></p>
<p>A recent example would be that of Terry Lee Loewen, a 58-year-old convert to Islam who was <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/witcheta-suicide-bomber-radicalized-online">arrested</a> after he was caught planning to bomb an airport in Wichita, Kansas. When he explained his thoughts to undercover FBI agents, he said:</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“I have been studying subjects like </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">jihad</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, martyrdom operations and </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/glossary/sharia/"><i>Sharia</i></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> law. I don’t understand how you can read the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/glossary/quran/">Quran</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and the </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">sunnah</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> of the Prophet and not understand that </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">jihad</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and implementation of </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">sharia</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/glossary/ummah/"><i>ummah</i></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The same terrorists who target the U.S. support all sorts of despicable things that have nothing to do with Western foreign policy. Their grievances against the U.S. stem from an overall Islamist worldview that the Obama Administration does not recognize as the core problem.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This brings us to the statement, “From Tunisia to Burma, we’re supporting those who are willing to do the hard work of building democracy.” Because Islamism is not defined as the threat, Islamists that are not Al-Qaeda and vote are viewed as components of democracy. The result is that the U.S. has failed to capitalize on the </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/anti-brotherhood-wave-weeping-middle-east">anti-Islamist backlash</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in the region.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is why Egypt went unmentioned in the speech. President Obama defended the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, but understands that mentioning its overthrow now will only offend the current Egyptian government.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The section of the State of the Union speech with the largest holes was about Iran.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Obama first misleadingly claimed the deal “has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear program and rolled parts of that program back” and that “Iran has begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He didn’t mention that the “rolled back” portions of the program are easily reversible. The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579332964034504576">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, “We can return again to 20% enrichment in less than one day, and we can convert the material again.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That’s not just bluster. Two credible nuclear experts </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-nuclear-plans">write</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that the re-conversion of this material is technically feasible. It can be done quickly and possibly without Western intelligence knowing it has begun.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The progress of Iran’s program is not necessarily “halted” either. The deal does not cover Iran’s ballistic missile program, the training of scientists and other personnel or any nuclear work done in North Korea.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Notice President Obama’s careful word usage when he said, “[Iran] is not installing advanced centrifuges.” The Iranian regime is openly </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-226166-Iran-defends-development-of-advanced-centrifuges">building them</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, though. Once completed, they will quicken the pace of uranium enrichment and shorten the time needed to make a nuclear bomb.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The term “rolled back” gives the public the impression that parts of the nuclear program are being dismantled. That is false. </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">None</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> of the infrastructure is being taken down. The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister said, “the structure of our nuclear program is preserved” and the Foreign Minister </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/iran-nuclear-agreement-dismantling-102507.html">boasted</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that Iran “did not agree to dismantle anything.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One bright spot of the speech was in regard to Afghanistan. President Obama said that leaving entirely is an option if an agreement is not negotiated. It is important for the treacherous President Karzai to understand this.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">His praise of the sacrifice of the troops is commendable and Americans need to be reminded of what they go through for us. What was missing was a narrative of success.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">President Obama quickly mentioned that Afghan forces are taking the lead, but the world needs to know about the victories our troops have fought for. The capabilities of the Afghan forces have </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/kagan-afghanistan-Karzai-foothold/2014/01/28/id/549439">greatly increased</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and there are </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/17/the-afghan-war-is-not-a-lost-cause/%20">plenty of facts and stories</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that can be told as U.S. troops leave. The enemy’s propaganda needs to be confronted, but the word “Taliban” was not even mentioned.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The common thread tying all of these errors together is that the Islamist ideology is not pinpointed as the problem. Until the threat is accurately crystallized, American foreign policy will be flawed.</span></p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Iran vs. Israel at Davos</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/iran-vs-israel-at-davos/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iran-vs-israel-at-davos</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2014 05:46:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[centrifuge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[davos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear Weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[world economic forum]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The Islamic Republic announces its terror economy is open for business -- will the West succumb? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/net-i1.jpgw6201.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-217192" alt="net-i.jpg?w=620" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/net-i1.jpgw6201-450x337.jpg" width="315" height="236" /></a>It was all about Iran at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Iranian regime sought to entice the West into accepting its nuclear program with promises of profit, while Israel showcased itself as the “innovation nation” that can lead the region to peace.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There are </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/seismic-strategic-shifts-due-easing-sanctions-against-iran-0">seismic strategic shifts</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> already happening in the Middle East, in large part due to the nuclear deal with Iran and the business opportunities it presents to Europe, Turkey and Russia. The Europeans are undoubtedly tempted by the prospect of Iranian natural gas deliveries via Turkey, and Russia </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/10/us-iran-russia-oil-idUSBREA090DK20140110">hopes</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to import more Iranian oil, increasing the regime’s exports by a whopping 50%.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A microcosm of this shift was on display at Davos when President Rouhani addressed major energy executives, dangling the prospect of lucrative business in Iran if sanctions are lifted. He also </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/23/us-davos-iran-rouhani-idUSBREA0M0KC20140123">lobbied</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> U.S., European and Arab companies for investments in energy, infrastructure, mining, automobile industries and other sectors.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“I view Iran’s economy as the most congruent, capable and closest to that of successful emerging economies,” Rouhani </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/23/davos-iran-ready-engage-world-rouhani">said.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He also deployed the usual </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">taqiyya</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, the Shiite doctrine of deception, in regards to nuclear weapons.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“We never sought and will never seek nuclear weapons,” he </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/23/us-davos-iran-rouhani-idUSBREA0M0KC20140123">said.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">However, the Iranian regime still will not give international inspectors access to the Parchin military base where it is believed nuclear-related explosives experiments were carried out. The regime started cleansing the site after these tests were exposed.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/ryan-mauro/case-closed-iran-trying-to-make-nuclear-missile/%20">released an incriminating report</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> showing that Iran developed technologies only suitable for a nuclear missile. This included work on a nuclear warhead for its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, nuclear triggers and even preparations for an underground nuclear test.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“I strongly and clearly declare that nuclear weapons have no place in our security strategy and that Iran has no motivation to move in that direction,” he </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rouhani-says-iran-has-serious-will-to-make-a-deal-on-nuclear-program/2014/01/23/eb4ae534-843c-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html">said.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is the important caveat. Rouhani is speaking in the present tense. If Iran adjusts its “security strategy” in the future, then this pledge is no longer valid. The Iranians will simply claim that they “never sought” nukes and had “no motivation” to build them, but were forced to do so.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The prospects of a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran dimmed with comments made by top Iranian officials at the event.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In an </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://youtu.be/nUGDdprEgRk">interview</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> with CNN, Rouhani said Iran will “not under any circumstances” destroy any of its centrifuges that are used to enrich uranium. Even more broadly, he vowed, “We will not accept any limitations” on nuclear technology.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Iranian Foreign Minister likewise </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/iran-nuclear-agreement-dismantling-102507.html">said</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in Davos that his country “did not agree to dismantle anything.” He accused the Obama Administration of falsely characterizing the deal.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579332964034504576">illustrated</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the weakness of the current deal by boasting, “We can return again to 20% enrichment in less than one day, and we can convert the material again.” Therefore, “the structure of our nuclear program is preserved.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">All of these statements show how difficult it will be to reach a final nuclear deal with Iran in six months. The Iranian regime wants to make powerful companies salivate at the thought of investing in Iran in order to pressure the West into accepting an otherwise unacceptable nuclear deal.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A new </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579332964034504576">study</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by the Institute for Science and International Security concluded that a viable deal must cause Iran to stay six months to one year away from creating a nuclear weapon.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This means dismantling 15,000 centrifuges, leaving only 4,000 left. That’s 15,000 more than Rouhani is willing to accept. It also requires that Iran close its underground enrichment facility at Qom, accept invasive inspections and convert its Arak heavy water reactor into a light water reactor.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/01/23/mixed-emotions-as-iran-looks-to-promote-investment/%20">told</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the World Economic Forum that Rouhani’s speeches are a “change of words with unchanging deeds.” He pointed out that this is why Arab governments that fear Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood have come to see Israel as a “partner.”</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Netanyahu described his country as the “Innovation Nation” and promoted it as a base for technology companies. He boasted that few Western countries weathered the economic storm better than Israel has. The country’s economy </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=14909">grew</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> 3.3% last year and 3.4% the previous year. Foreign direct investment exceeded 2012’s total when 2013 still had a full quarter left.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He also argued that Israel’s economic success should be a model for the region and that investors in his country actually contribute to the well-being of Arabs, including Palestinians.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Israeli investment and business with Palestinians is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704107104574571491401847518?mg=reno64-wsj&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748704107104574571491401847518.html">helping</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the West Bank grow economically. For example, Israeli training of Palestinian farmers has assisted its agricultural sector. Israeli security measures, condemned by Palestinians and Arabs, have created the safe environment for Palestinian businesses to be birthed. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">SodaStream, an Israeli company located in a settlement 15 minutes from Jerusalem, is actually a microcosm of the economic integration that can serve the cause of peace. The Interfaith Boycott Coalition, a wing of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, is </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/interfaith-financial-war-on-israel/%20">targeting</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> the company and those who support it, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.570292">like actress Scarlett Johansson.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Even </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Al-Arabiya</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2014/01/21/Boycott-of-Israel-s-SodaStream-may-affect-Palestinian-workers.html">recognizes</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that the boycott hurts Palestinians. SodaStream employs 900 Palestinians, 500 from the West Bank and 400 from East Jerusalem. The female workers are allowed to wear the hijab and the workers are given the same treatment as the Israeli ones. There’s even a mosque on site and Israelis and Palestinians eat lunch together.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The businessmen at Davos that invest in Israel are investing in peace. Those that invest in Iran are trying to profit off of terrorism, tyranny and nuclear weapons.</span></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>New York Times Discredited on Benghazi</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/new-york-times-discredited-on-benghazi/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=new-york-times-discredited-on-benghazi</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jan 2014 05:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benghazi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Discredited]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[senate intelligence committee]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Senate Intelligence Committee confirms no protests, Al-Qaeda involvement.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ben4.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-216569" alt="ben4" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ben4.jpg" width="315" height="210" /></a>The <i>New York Times’</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0">conclusion</a> that Al-Qaeda was not involved in the Benghazi attacks has been put through the shredder by the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee. President Obama will appreciate parts of the report, but it is an overall indictment of the State Department and the administration’s public statements following the attacks.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2014/01/15/senate-intelligence-committee-review-terror-attacks-on-us-facilities-in/%20">report</a> concludes that the perpetrators included “individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM [Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb], Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP [Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] and the Mohammad Jamal Network.” The determination follows the State Department’s <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/01/10/us-lists-ansar-al-sharia-groups-as-foreign-terror-organizations/%20">designating</a> of both Libyan Ansar al-Sharia groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations for their involvement in the attacks.</p>
<p>The <i>Times</i> had portrayed the Benghazi attacks as the handiwork of only one of the Ansar al-Sharia groups and claimed it had no Al-Qaeda linkages. The <i>Times</i> even went so far as to <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/yes-al-qaeda-infiltrated-libya/%20">falsely state</a> that Al-Qaeda didn’t even successfully infiltrate Libya to begin with.</p>
<p>The first finding of the Committee is that there was “ample strategic warning” that U.S. facilities and personnel were threatened in Benghazi. It states:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The IC [intelligence community] produced hundreds of analytic reports in the months preceding the September 11-12, 2012 attacks, providing strategic warning that militias and terrorists and affiliated groups had the capability and intent to strike the U.S. and Western facilities and personnel in Libya.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The consensus of the intelligence community was that Al-Qaeda was in Libya preparing attacks.</p>
<p>A CIA report dated July 6, 2012 is titled, “Libya: Al-Qa’ida Establishing Sanctuary.” It warned that AQIM, AQAP and the Al-Qaeda-linked Mohammad Jamal network had an infrastructure in eastern Libya that was used for communications, training and logistics for terrorist operations across North Africa.</p>
<p>DIA report dated June 12, 2012 is titled, “Libya: Terrorists Now Targeting U.S. and Western Interests.” It cited attacks on the facility in Benghazi that was later the scene of the September 11-12 assault. It mentioned a growing Al-Qaeda presence in the area and frankly stated, “we expect more” attacks.</p>
<p>The Pentagon Joint Staff similarly commented on the Al-Qaeda threat in eastern Libya. And there are multiple other examples in the report.</p>
<p>The second finding is that the State Department did not increase security in response to this information. The Temporary Mission Facility in Benghazi was left “severely under-resourced.” And finding 5 is that U.S. personnel were not reduced in response to the breaching of security “tripwires.” Overall, the report concludes that the attack was preventable.</p>
<p>These findings substantiate <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/exposed-extreme-negligence-in-benghazi/%20">shocking congressional testimony</a> that personnel on the ground repeatedly asked for enhanced protection. Eric Nordstrom oversaw security for diplomats in Libya and testified that the security was “overwhelmed and could not guarantee our protection.” The response he got from a senior State Department official as that “there would be too much political cost” involved with granting his requests.</p>
<p>Finding 13 is that the facility’s primary source of security was the February 17 brigade, a local Libyan militia <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/09/22/Security-Forces-At-Consulate-In-Benghazi-Had-Ties-to-Muslim-Brotherhood">linked</a> to the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition to being Islamist, it was undermanned and underequipped. Unsurprisingly, it failed to do anything significant to protect the site.</p>
<p>Finding 14 is that the U.S. government could bring some of the perpetrators to justice but have not.</p>
<p>According to the <i>Times</i>, the Libyan government refused U.S. requests to arrest an involved militia leader (Abu Khattala) and about a dozen others. The Obama Administration rejected the U.S. military’s plan to capture him because of fears it would cause instability that would undermine the Libyan government.</p>
<p>There are other conclusions that the administration will celebrate. It undermines two allegations: That the administration stopped the military from stepping in during the attack and that the CIA talking points were manipulated by the White House.</p>
<p>The Committee says that no military resources were available to quickly intervene (finding 7), there was no intelligence about a pending attack in Benghazi (finding 3) and unarmed surveillance assets were not delayed (finding 8). It states:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The Committee has reviewed the allegations that U.S. personnel, including in the IC [intelligence community] or DoD [Dept. of Defense], prevented the mounting of any military relief effort during the attacks, but the Committee has not found any of these allegations to be substantiated.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The report also attributes the administration’s false statements about the Benghazi attacks to an intelligence failure.</p>
<p>It says that analysts incorrectly concluded that protests preceded the attacks and took too long to correct the record (finding 9) and that the DIA’s Office of Analytic Integrity and Standards did not provide complete and accurate information to Congress (finding 11).</p>
<p>It also says that the White House did not sanitize the CIA’s talking points on the attacks. The revisions happened during an internal CIA review before it was presented to the senior leadership or other agencies.</p>
<p>The administration will happily cite these conclusions, but it isn’t off the hook.</p>
<p>It is now known that top defense officials described the Benghazi violence as a “terrorist attack” when they <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/14/benghazi-transcripts-top-defense-officials-briefed-obama-on-attack-not-video-or/%20">briefed</a> President Obama minutes after it commenced. Yet, administration officials conveyed to the public that it was a protest that morphed into violence; protests that we now know for a fact did not exist.</p>
<p>“These protests were in reaction to a video…We have no information to suggest it was a pre-planned attack,” Press Secretary Jay Carney said on September 14.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned,” said U.N. ambassador Susan Rice on September 16.</p>
<p>Even if it is true that the intelligence community incorrectly told the administration that protests preceded the violence, that doesn’t disqualify the violence from being a terrorist attack.  The administration made the decision not to publicly describe it as a terrorist attack, even when its own defense officials were doing so privately.</p>
<p>More specifically, it was a jihadist terrorist attack. Only Islamist ideology mandates violent retribution against all who criticize their faith. The reason the attack happened wasn’t the publication of a YouTube video. The reason was the commandments of Sharia.</p>
<p><b>The <a href="http://www.theird.org">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a></b><b> contributed to this article.</b></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Date Set for Iran Deal</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/date-set-for-iran-deal/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=date-set-for-iran-deal</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jan 2014 05:31:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sanctions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weapons]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[While White House smears critics as warmongers.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/340282_Iran-Rouhani-WMD.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-215216" alt="340282_Iran-Rouhani-WMD" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/340282_Iran-Rouhani-WMD-429x350.jpg" width="300" height="245" /></a>The six-month nuclear deal with Iran will go into effect on January 20 and the White House is nervous that its critics will lead to its undoing. As a bi-partisan majority comes together in Congress to approve further sanctions if a final deal is not reached at the end of the six months, the White House is accusing them of secretly desiring a war.</p>
<p>“As of that day, for the first time in almost a decade, Iran’s nuclear program will not be able to advance, and parts of it will be rolled back, while we start negotiating a comprehensive agreement to address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s program,” Secretary of State Kerry <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/12/world/meast/iran-nuclear/">said.</a></p>
<p>This boast is based on two flimsy premises.</p>
<p>Firstly, Iran’s nuclear program <i>can</i> and <i>will</i> advance. The regime is still <a href="http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-226166-Iran-defends-development-of-advanced-centrifuges">developing</a> advanced centrifuges, enriching uranium, building ballistic missiles, and training nuclear scientists.</p>
<p>At the same time, the work that Iran supposedly halts will continue in North Korea. It is an error to look at the nuclear programs of the two countries as independent. They are interlocked. When North Korea advances; so does Iran.</p>
<p>Secondly, while it is technically true that parts of the program are “rolled back,” they are not necessarily permanent. It is true that the Iranians are required to convert its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium into an oxide that cannot be used for building a bomb, but that’s not the same thing as disarmament.</p>
<p>Two experts from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-nuclear-plans">explain:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>“The notion that this puts the material ‘beyond use for bombs’ is simply wrong. The conversion of oxide back to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas is not ‘time-consuming,’ is not necessarily ‘detectable,’ and it is not particularly ‘technically demanding.”</p></blockquote>
<p>This conversion does not eliminate Iran’s 20% enriched uranium; it just makes it a little harder to use for nuclear weapons. The Iranian regime is calculating that this temporary setback will yield long-term nuclear gains. This “concession” in no way reflects a commitment by Iran not to build nuclear weapons capabilities.</p>
<p>A powerful bi-partisan coalition has come together in Congress that the White House worries will jeopardize its deal. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) have written a new bill that will hit Iran with even stronger sanctions at the end of the six-month period if a comprehensive deal is not reached. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is also a critical supporter.</p>
<p>Their logic is solid: If sanctions are what brought Iran to the negotiating table, then the threat of harsher sanctions will compel Iran to agree to a long-term deal. If Iran does not give up its uranium enrichment, then it will face sanctions that threaten its oil industry like never before.</p>
<p>The Obama administration is <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/01/11/White-House-Suggests-New-Sanctions-A-Veiled-Attempt-At-War-With-Iran">offensively questioning</a>  these congressmen’s sincerity. A spokesperson for the National Security Council accused them of secretly trying to trigger a war. She said if they “want the United States to take military action, they should be up front with the American people and say so.”</p>
<p>The administration is worried because its foreign policy legacy is at stake. The Iranian regime is threatening to walk away from the deal if new sanctions are passed. Hypocritically, it was the Obama Treasury Department that <a href="http://freebeacon.com/treasury-department-tightens-iran-sanctions/%20">placed further sanctions</a> on entities linked to Iran’s nuclear program after the agreement was announced.</p>
<p>There are also political risks for the administration. The strong showing of bi-partisan opposition threatens the deal and the administration’s credibility on Iran. President Obama says he will veto any new sanctions legislation, but he now faces a <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/senate-reaches-veto-proof-majority-on-iran-sanctions">majority</a> that can override his veto. The back-and-forth would cause numerous unfavorable news cycles and the episode would be brought up again every time in the future that Iran is talked about.</p>
<p>The Iranian regime is already seeing enormous benefits even before the six-month period begins on January 20. International investors are <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/geneva-deal-sparks-new-international-investor-interest-in-iran-a-940629.html">ready to pounce</a> at the opportunity to exploit the easing of sanctions. Italy is particularly <a href="http://freebeacon.com/sources-italy-leading-charge-to-collapse-iran-sanctions/">eager</a> to end the sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>Russia is on the cusp of a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/10/us-iran-russia-oil-idUSBREA090DK20140110">major deal</a> to buy 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil per day, increasing the regime’s exports by a whopping 50%. Turkey is <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/28/turkey-and-iran-accused-of-oil-for-cash-sanctions-scheme.html">believed</a> to have helped Iran work past the sanctions and such cooperation will only increase as the Turkish and Iranian governments become closer and closer.</p>
<p>This is all on top of the $7-10 billion in sanctions relief that the Obama administration publicly agree to provide Iran over the course of the six-month period. Israeli <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.562824">estimates</a> put the figure at around $20 billion.</p>
<p>That’s the reward Iran gets for agreeing to stay <a href="http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/content/fpi-analysis-minimum-interim-deal-should-fully-freeze-iran%E2%80%99s-growing-nuclear-threat">7/10ths</a> of the way towards having bomb-grade uranium. In addition, the deal has helped <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/middle-east-now-has-three-alliances-none-are-us">push</a> Iran’s Arab enemies into the arms of Russia and away from the U.S.</p>
<p>To summarize, here’s what Iran has gotten for agreeing to slow down its nuclear pursuits:</p>
<p>• The delaying of further sanctions</p>
<p>• $20 billion in sanctions relief</p>
<p>• Lucrative deals with international partners and investors</p>
<p>• A decreased likelihood of effective sanctions in the future as more countries and companies invest in Iran</p>
<p>• Favorable geopolitical shifts</p>
<p>• The preservation of its nuclear infrastructure and 20% enriched uranium</p>
<p>• An acknowledgement from the U.S. that Iran should be allowed to enrich to at least 5%</p>
<p>The Iranian regime’s participation in the deal doesn’t mean it’s had a change in heart. All it did was negotiate a deal that any nuke-seeking mullah would see as a good bargain.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Al-Qaeda vs. Al-Qaeda Lite in Syria</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ryan-mauro/al-qaeda-vs-al-qaeda-lite-in-syria/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=al-qaeda-vs-al-qaeda-lite-in-syria</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jan 2014 05:23:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamic jihad]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[A jihadist-on-jihadist quagmire erupts. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/syria-al-qaida.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-214758" alt="syria-al-qaida" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/syria-al-qaida.jpg" width="321" height="243" /></a>Don’t get too excited by the headlines of a new <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rebel-alliance-declares-war-al-qaeda-093008523.html">&#8220;revolution&#8221;</a> in Syria against Al-Qaeda. The offensive is led by the Islamic Front, a Salafist coalition backed by Saudi Arabia with the explicit goal of instituting Sharia. These are not the saviors of Syria’s Christian minority and other opponents of Islamism.</p>
<p>Al-Qaeda will soon be facing a two-front offensive. The Islamic Front is mounting the fiercest challenge to Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliates yet. The Iraqi military and local tribes are <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/04/iraq-s-sunni-sheiks-take-the-fight-to-al-qaeda.html">preparing</a> an offensive to retake Fallujah.</p>
<p>This is bad news for Al-Qaeda, but good news for Syrian Islamists as a whole. The non-Al-Qaeda Islamists are waging this fight for two reasons: Power and branding. A representative of the Islamic Front <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Syrian-opposition-fractures-337150">explained</a> what triggered the battle:</p>
<blockquote><p>ISIS denies reality, refusing to recognize that it is simply another group. It refuses to go to independent courts; it attacked many other groups, stole their weapons, occupied their headquarters, and arbitrarily apprehended numerous activists, journalists and rebels. It has been torturing its prisoners. These transgressions accumulated, and people got fed up with ISIS. Some of those people have attacked ISIS’s positions, but ISIS was first to attack in other places, bringing this on itself.</p></blockquote>
<p>The difference has nothing to do with ideology; in fact, the Islamic Front spokesperson never even mentioned Sharia or democracy. The bottom line is that Al-Qaeda is thuggish and doesn’t play well with others.</p>
<p>The second reason for the “revolution” against Al-Qaeda is PR. The Syrian opposition <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/01/02/Opposition-group-Jihadists-serve-Syrian-regime-s-interests-.html">says</a> Al-Qaeda’s presence is good for the Assad regime. It prevents the West from arming the rebels and alienates Syrians that might otherwise oppose Assad. By confronting Al-Qaeda, the Islamic Front and other Islamists can present themselves as moderate; like the Syrian equivalent of Iraq’s Awakening movement.</p>
<p>The Islamic Front is a <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/11/06/saudi_arabias_shadow_war">proxy</a> of Saudi Arabia. It was organized by the Saudi government, is stridently Salafist, and is led by a man whose father is a Saudi cleric. The Saudis hired Pakistanis to train 5-10,000 of them.</p>
<p>Basically, the Islamic Front is Saudi Arabia’s way of consolidating control over the Syrian rebellion and turning into a more cohesive force. The Saudi objective is to have a Salafist force that, unlike Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, is not its enemy.</p>
<p>Joshua Landis <a href="http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/zahran-alloush/">points out</a> that there is very little separating Al-Qaeda from the Islamic Front’s leader, Zahran Alloush. He even has tried to work with Jabhat al-Nusra, one of Al-Qaeda’s affiliates. He is no friend to Syria’s minorities, directly calling for the murdering of Shiites and Allawites. Christians are widely seen as pro-Assad, so we should expect a similar attitude towards them.</p>
<p>The Saudis made this force out of the shattered remains of the Supreme Military Council, the “moderate” group that the U.S. hoped would become the main rebel force. The SMC was often called the “Free Syria Army,” though it has rivals also working under that banner. The chances of that happening went from slim to none after dozens of brigades affiliated with the SMC split to join the Islamic Front.</p>
<p>Now, the Islamic Front is the dominant rebel force. It numbers around 45,000 and that tally will grow as it wins victories on the ground. In contrast, Al-Qaeda’s affiliates total around 15,000 and many of them are foreign fighters. There are at least <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Syria/Up-to-7000-foreign-jihadis-fighting-in-Syria-new-study-finds-336933">7,000</a> foreigners in Syria backing the rebels, up to <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2013/12/05/thousands-of-young-european-jihadists-are-fighting-in-syria/">2,000</a> of which are from Europe.</p>
<p>The Islamic Front also seems to have a stronger network than Al-Qaeda and the other rebel groups in the U.S. Sheikh Osama al-Rifai of the Syrian Sunrise Foundation is a supporter of the Islamic Front and has <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/4236/ipt-exclusive-jihad-supporting-imam-raised">raised</a> at least $3.6 million in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, California, Michigan and New Jersey.</p>
<p>The answer isn’t to build up the SMC in the hopes that it can be revitalized. The SMC isn’t completely Salafist and it may include secularists, but it is still beholden to the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar and Turkey.</p>
<p>Col. Nagi Najjar, the U.S. liaison officer for the Free Syria Army, <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/us-paved-way-jihadist-hijacking-syrian-conflict">explained</a> to the <i>Clarion Project</i> that the SMC was actually created by Islamists backed by Qatar to sideline the secular rebels. When the media refers to the Free Syria Army, it is often actually referring to the SMC.</p>
<p>“Qatar established what the FSA called a ‘coup’ in Antalya, Turkey, on December 15, 2012, declaring the ‘Supreme Military Command’ and electing General Selim Idriss as Chief of Staff,” he says.</p>
<p>The U.S. government already <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/brotherhood-linked-syrian-group-gets-12-million-us-aid">provided</a> $12 million in aid to the SMC’s U.S.-based liaison, the Syrian Support Group. It also has <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/brotherhood-linked-syrian-group-gets-12-million-us-aid">Brotherhood affiliations.</a> The SSG originally granted the <i>Clarion Project</i> an interview, but then <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/us-liaison-syrian-rebels-refuses-answer-our-questions">declined</a> after it saw the questions.</p>
<p>Col. Najjar says that the Free Syria Army led by Col. Riad al-Assad is still a viable alternative rebel force. He claims that the “real” Free Syria Army has 80-100,000 troops, but there is no independent confirmation.</p>
<p>He said in September that the U.S. needs to help consolidate the non-Islamist forces into one body.</p>
<p>“The U.S. needs to initiate another ‘Antalya’ meeting that makes a reconciliation between the two groups and merges and integrates Idriss into the larger FSA command under Col. Riad Al-Assad. Idriss will have his place in the command, but he cannot lead and even if he did, he cannot succeed,” he said.</p>
<p>There are moderates within the Syrian opposition, but the West does them no favors by investing hope in the Islamic Front. Its “revolution” against Al-Qaeda does not signal the ascent of moderates. All it shows is that Islamists are competing for control and the non-Islamists are not in the picture.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Yes, Al-Qaeda &#8216;Infiltrated&#8217; Libya</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/yes-al-qaeda-infiltrated-libya/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=yes-al-qaeda-infiltrated-libya</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Dec 2013 05:35:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benghazi]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The game of semantics meant to mislead us.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ben4.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-214266" alt="ben4" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ben4.jpg" width="315" height="210" /></a>The <i>New York Times</i>’ conclusion that Al-Qaeda was not involved in last year’s attack on Ambassador Stevens in Libya—or even “infiltrated” Libya to begin with—is an example of a misleading game of semantics. The definition of “enemy” and even “Al-Qaeda” is becoming narrower and narrower, moving us closer to a more comforting (but incomplete) picture of the danger the West faces from Islamism.</p>
<p>The <i>Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=0">writes</a> that an Islamist militia leader named Ahmed Abu Khattala is the almost certain culprit behind the Benghazi attacks, even if he denies it. This fact is used to deny Al-Qaeda’s role, along with the premise that there are two distinctly separate groups named Ansar al-Sharia and the one linked to Al-Qaeda cannot be implicated.</p>
<p>Khattala denies that he and his Obeida Ibn Al-Jarra militia are tied to Al-Qaeda. To the <i>Times</i>, the lack of an operational link is equivalent to no link at all, but the two are connected ideologically. Khattala is openly anti-American and approved of the Benghazi attacks. Both agree in violent retribution for mockery of their faith because of their common Sharia doctrine.</p>
<p>According to the <i>Times&#8217;</i> own previous reporting, an Islamist group named Ansar al-Sharia is suspected of involvement. The <i>Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/#/?chapt=4">confirms</a>, “Witnesses at the scene of the attack identified many participants associated with Ansar al-Shariah.</p>
<p>Its leader, Mohammed Ali al-Zahawi, said he disagrees that Western diplomats in Libya are legitimate targets and, “If it had been our attack on the U.S. Consulate, we would have flattened it.”</p>
<p>There are two groups named Ansar al-Sharia in Libya, one in Benghazi that may share responsibility, and one in Derna, led by Sufian bin Qumu.</p>
<p>Qumu was once a driver for a company owned by Osama Bin Laden. He was captured in Pakistan and spent six years in Guantanamo Bay before returning to Derna. His Al-Qaeda links are solid, but the <i>Times</i> reports that his Ansar al-Sharia was uninvolved in the Benghazi attacks.</p>
<p>Thomas Joscelyn persuasively <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/politico-jumps-benghazi-debate_772398.html">argues</a> that this is not the case. The two have a common name, branding and propaganda publisher. The <i>Times</i> also fails to answer an important question: If the two groups are truly separate, why wouldn’t one avoid the confusion by changing its name?</p>
<p>Even the use of the name “Ansar al-Sharia” is rooted in Al-Qaeda. The name first appeared in Yemen as a front for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. We know from Osama Bin Laden’s records that were captured in Pakistan that he planned to change Al-Qaeda’s name and wanted affiliates to portray themselves as wholly independent.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/aq-libya-loc.pdf">study</a> by the American Federation of Scientists in August 2012, one month before the Benghazi attacks, confirmed that Al-Qaeda had a “core network” in Libya “but it remains clandestine and refrains from using the Al-Qaeda name.” It predicts that Al-Qaeda will continue to “mask its presence under the umbrella of the Libyan Salafist movement.”</p>
<p>One strange <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/new-york-times-whitewashes-benghazi_772382.html">omission</a> from the <i>Times&#8217;</i> reporting is Muhammad Jamal al-Kashef and his Egyptian network. It is considered a terrorist entity by the U.S. government because of its very close links to Al-Qaeda. Al-Kashef is close to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of Al-Qaeda. The newspaper <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/world/middleeast/no-specific-warnings-in-benghazi-attack.html?_r=2&amp;">reported</a> in October 2012 that members of Al-Kashef’s network were believed to have taken part in the Benghazi attacks.</p>
<p>Another centerpiece of the <i>New York Times</i> series is that Al-Qaeda was not involved in the Benghazi attacks because it simply wasn’t there. Yet, NATO’s commander <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/29/libya.opposition.analysis/">said</a> in March 2011 that there were “flickers” of Al-Qaeda among the Libyan rebels, more than a year before the Benghazi attacks. A Libyan militia chief even <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html">said</a> he had Al-Qaeda-linked fighters among his men.</p>
<p>By November 2011, the Al-Qaeda flag was being <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055630/Flying-proudly-birthplace-Libyas-revolution-flag-Al-Qaeda.html">raised</a> in Benghazi. At around the same time, Zawahiri was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/29/world/meast/libya-jihadists/">dispatching</a> experienced operatives to Libya. One was previously arrested in the United Kingdom and entered Libya in May of 2011. He reportedly oversaw about 200 fighters.</p>
<p>The <i>Times</i> points to a letter sent by a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb shortly after the Benghazi attacks as proof that the group did not establish a significant presence in Libya.</p>
<p>The letter explained that it had sent four teams to the country, but only two arrived and only began to “lay the first practical bricks.” It also listed attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and no attacks in Libya were mentioned.</p>
<p>Again, Al-Qaeda is misunderstood. Multiple affiliates, some more closely connected to the central leadership than others, simultaneously exploit opportunities. Where one fails, another may succeed.</p>
<p>At the very least, Al-Qaeda had supporters in Libya who would be willing to engage in terrorism. They may not have Al-Qaeda membership cards or communicate with the central leadership, but they are still Al-Qaeda ideologically.</p>
<p>This same kind of thinking was seen in President Obama’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/obama-drone-speech-transcript_n_3327332.html">May 2013 speech</a> at the National Defense University where he said, “Groups like AQAP must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al-Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States.”</p>
<p>The argument about what constitutes “Al-Qaeda” is, to a degree, a distraction. The bottom line is that Khattala, Al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia and every other Islamist is devoted to implementing Sharia. They are all jihadists. They are all motivated by the same doctrine and they all have the same goals.</p>
<p>The <i>New York Times</i> series gives the impression that some in the West have an exaggerated view of Al-Qaeda and conflate it with other groups that do not pose serious threats. The real misconception is that one jihadist can be considered separate from another jihadist.</p>
<p><em> The <a href="http://www.theird.org">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Egypt Declares Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/egypt-declares-muslim-brotherhood-a-terrorist-group/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=egypt-declares-muslim-brotherhood-a-terrorist-group</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Dec 2013 05:51:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[But the organization continues to find safe haven in America.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Muslim-Brotherhood-Egypt-450x344.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213908" alt="Muslim-Brotherhood-Egypt-450x344" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Muslim-Brotherhood-Egypt-450x344.jpg" width="270" height="206" /></a>The Egyptian government formally labeled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Christmas, banning all of its activities including protests. The Obama Administration, advised by Brotherhood-friendly groups in the U.S., is unlikely to follow in Egypt’s footsteps in calling a spade a spade.</p>
<p>The announcement came after the government blamed the Brotherhood for the suicide bombing of a police station in Mansoura. No proof was offered of Brotherhood involvement. A pro-Al-Qaeda group named Ansar Jerusalem, based in the Sinai Peninsula, <a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/12/ansar_jerusalem_clai_4.php">took credit</a>.</p>
<p>That didn’t stop local protestors from immediately rallying against the Brotherhood, <a href="https://twitter.com/egyptianstreets/status/415504523986100224">s effigies</a> of the group’s leaders and <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/89974.aspx">attacking</a> property owned by a Brotherhood member. The Egyptian public as a whole remains <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/using-and-abusing-polls_b_4363918.html">hostile</a> to the Brotherhood and loyal to the military, with about half the population wanting the group outlawed. Another <a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/poll-69-egyptians-reject-brotherhood-s-engagement-politics">poll</a> taken in August showed that almost 70% want it banned from politics.</p>
<p>The Brotherhood may or may not be involved in that specific bombing in Mansoura, but that doesn’t mean it is peaceful. It has <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/report-muslim-brotherhood-form-rebel-egyptian-army">threatened</a> to form a rebel armed force. After the Egyptian military’s crackdown on the Brotherhood began, Egyptians outraged by the response of the U.S. government and media <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/ten-videos-media-isn%E2%80%99t-showing-you-about-egypt">posted eye-opening videos</a> showing Brotherhood members threatening violence, attacking Egyptian security forces and churches, and putting children at risk for the sake of propaganda.</p>
<p>In addition, Brotherhood preachers continue to instigate violence in Egypt and abroad. The organization knows what it’s doing. Why officially engage in violence when individual members and Salafist allies will do so on their own accord, leaving room for deniability?</p>
<p>The labeling of the group as terrorists comes as the government prosecutes former President Morsi and many other Brotherhood operatives. Morsi is <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/12/egypt-morsi-charged-with-terrorist-acts-20131218131959978322.html">accused</a> of involvement in a “terrorist plan” begun in 2005 to send Brotherhood fighters to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for training by Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.</p>
<p>The Obama Administration has decided to swim against the regional <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/anti-brotherhood-wave-weeping-middle-east">anti-Brotherhood wave</a>, cutting aid to Egypt’s government and siding with the Brotherhood. The result is a <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/egypt-russia-cold-war-alliances-revived/">realignment</a> in alliances that pushes the Arab world into the arms of Russia.</p>
<p>It is extremely unlikely that the U.S. State Department will similarly designate the Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, even though it meets the qualifications. It is more likely that the administration will condemn Egypt’s latest action.</p>
<p>The State Department <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm">says</a> there are three criteria a group must meet to be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.</p>
<p>First, the group must be foreign. The Brotherhood’s home base is in Egypt. Its International Organization <a href="http://www.globalmbwatch.com/2013/11/21/uae-think-tank-reports-mb-international-organization-moving-hq-from-egypt-to-tunisia/">reportedly</a> moved to Tunisia. Turkey has become its <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/alarabiya-studies/2013/10/14/Turkey-s-relationship-with-the-Muslim-Brotherhood.html">&#8220;regional hub&#8221;</a> and senior leaders are hosted in Qatar. Check.</p>
<p>Second, it must threaten U.S. nationals or national security, including the American economy. Its regional ambitions for a Caliphate undoubtedly threaten U.S. security. As for nationals, the Brotherhood has justified attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also steadfastly supports the terrorism of Hamas and other groups against U.S. allies.</p>
<p>In August 2012, I had an intriguing <a href="http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/muslim-brotherhood-to-ryan-mauro-we-support-violence-against-aggressors-and-invaders">exchange</a> with the Brotherhood’s English-language Twitter account. It started off with <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/hitting-too-close-home">insulting</a> me as “delusional” and a “scaremonger.” It later posted an article arguing that it opposes violence. I asked whether there were exceptions, such as for U.S. soldiers.</p>
<p>“Unless if they were aggressors and invaders of our lands no matter what nationality? Of course,” was the response.</p>
<p>I followed up by asking if the staging country of the “aggressors and invaders” would be an acceptable target in that scenario. The answer was, “yes, according to International Law, it’s an act of war.”</p>
<p>Of course, the Brotherhood regularly slams the U.S. and its allies as “aggressors and invaders.” Therefore, as the Brotherhood indirectly admitted, the U.S. can be considered a legitimate target.</p>
<p>Thirdly, to qualify as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the group must “engage in terrorist activity or retain the capability and intention to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism.”</p>
<p>That’s easy. Hamas is labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Hamas’s charter states that it is the Palestinian “wing” of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4159501,00.html">changed its name</a> in December 2011 to clarify that it is a “branch” of the Brotherhood. There is even <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/video-hamas-pledges-allegiance-muslim-brotherhood">video</a> of Hamas leaders publicly pledging allegiance to the Brotherhood and, specifically, to its jihad.</p>
<p>Brotherhood apologists will argue that the group is not operationally supportive of Hamas terrorism, only ideologically. This is false. For example, the Treasury Department <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/pages/hp1267.aspx">designated</a> the Union of Good as a terrorist entity for financing Hamas. It is led by Yousef al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Israeli aircraft have conducted numerous airstrikes on Iranian rocket shipments to the Gaza Strip through Sudan and Egypt. Hamas does not have an independent structure in Egypt. It is obvious that the Brotherhood networks in Egypt helped manage this route.</p>
<p>It was also proven in court that the Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure in America is guilty of terrorist activity by financing Hamas. The Holy Land Foundation was a key U.S. Muslim Brotherhood component, managed under the Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, until it was shut down in 2001 for financing Hamas.</p>
<p>When the Holy Land Foundation was found guilty in court in 2008, the Muslim Brotherhood was essentially found guilty. The two are one and the same.</p>
<p>Other U.S. Brotherhood components like the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a>, the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">Islamic Society of North America</a> and the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/north-american-islamic-trust-nait">North American Islamic Trust</a> were labeled <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/List+of+Unindicted+HLF+Co-conspirators.pdf">unindicted co-conspirators</a> in the trial. In 2009, Judge Solis <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/43380629-2009-order-on-Holy-Land-Foundation-unindicted-coconspirator-list.pdf">upheld</a> the labels because of “ample” evidence linking the unindicted co-conspirators to Hamas and the overall terrorism-supporting Brotherhood infrastructure.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors separately confirmed the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement in terrorism in a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/542.pdf">2007 court filing</a>. It stated:</p>
<blockquote><p>From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists…the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Muslim Brotherhood fulfills all three requirements to be labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department.</p>
<p>There are three reasons why this has not happened: The Brotherhood’s lobby, ignorance and fear.</p>
<p>The political influence of the Brotherhood lobby is enormous. President Obama even <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/obama-addresses-american-islamist-convention">addressed</a> the annual convention of a U.S. Brotherhood entity in September. It continues to advise the administration, just as it did the two before it. The impact can even be seen <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/senior-homeland-security-adviser-formerly-cair-official">on the Department of Homeland Security.</a></p>
<p>The lobby’s influence triggers the second factor: Ignorance. Politicians, media figures, even counter-terrorism personnel are left in the dark.</p>
<p>Then, there’s the third factor: Fear. Designating the Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would be messy.</p>
<p>Dozens of mosques and Islamic centers would be raided and the most powerful Muslim-American organizations would be shut down or, at least, publicly investigated. The outcry of “Islamophobia” would be louder than ever as news cameras repeatedly aired footage of federal agents entering mosques.</p>
<p>The global Brotherhood apparatus would go into anti-American overdrive and some of those refraining from violence would reconsider. It would spark outrage from Muslim governments and organizations around the world, especially from “ally” Qatar and NATO member Turkey.</p>
<p>None of these excuses are acceptable. If a group qualifies as a terrorist organization, it needs to be treated as such, regardless of convenience. The facts speak for themselves: The Muslim Brotherhood is a Foreign Terrorist Organization.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Egypt &amp; Russia: Cold War Alliances Revived</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Dec 2013 05:56:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[A fitting arms deal for Obama's post-American world. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/636122-01-08.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213355" alt="636122-01-08" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/636122-01-08-414x350.jpg" width="290" height="245" /></a>U.S. support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the nuclear deal with Iran is propelling the Arab world into the arms of Russia. The Egyptian government, formerly a U.S. ally, will <a href="http://freebeacon.com/russia-egypt-ink-2-billion-weapons-deal/">buy $2 billion in arms</a> from Russia, signaling a strategic realignment in the Middle East that leaves Putin in control.</p>
<p>Egypt’s open embrace of Russia started immediately after the Obama Administration suspended some military aid to the Egyptian government in response to the overthrow of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. While American aid continued unabated after the Islamists took over, it was cut after they were overthrown.</p>
<p>Support for America and President Obama in particular <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/anti-brotherhood-wave-weeping-middle-east">collapsed</a> in Egypt in response. Only a single percent of Egyptians have confidence in the U.S. and three percent have confidence in Obama. The U.S. support for the Brotherhood has made it a casualty of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/anti-brotherhood-wave-weeping-middle-east">regional backlash</a> against the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia is embarking on a similar course. Saudi officials now openly talk to reporters about how their country will be more independent in reaction to U.S. policy. Reports about the acquisition of Pakistani nuclear weapons are met with non-denials. The Saudis <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10266957/Saudis-offer-Russia-secret-oil-deal-if-it-drops-Syria.html">offered</a> Russia a strategic alliance and major oil partnership if Putin abandons the Assad regime.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen several red lines put forward by the president [Obama], which went along and became pinkish as time grew, and eventually ended up completely white,” <a href="http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/16/saudi-prince-obama-youve-made-mess-mideast/">said</a> Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former director of Saudi intelligence.</p>
<p>The Royal Family of Bahrain, a foe of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/bahrain-crown-prince-us-policy-will-lead-arab-russia-alliance">feels the same way</a>. Crown Prince al-Khalifa recently said, “America seems to suffer from schizophrenia when it deals with the Arab world.”</p>
<p>He compared the U.S. unfavorably to Russia; a shocking assessment considering Bahrain’s hostility to Putin.</p>
<p>“The Russians have proved that they are reliable friends,” he explained.</p>
<p>This trend didn’t start after the Arab Spring brought the Muslim Brotherhood to the forefront. It started shortly after President Obama took the oath of office. By June 2010, Egyptian and Jordanian officials were privately fretting about American diplomacy, specifically how the administration was reaching out to Syria.</p>
<p>“Only if you’re tough with America and adopt an anti-U.S. stance will the U.S. have a more flexible attitude and pay you,” an Egyptian official <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2010/06/167741/">anonymously stated.</a></p>
<p>Similarly, a Jordanian official said the U.S. “sold out the Christians and Druze in Lebanon, sold out the Kurds in Iraq and abandoned the Hariri probe,” referring to the investigation into the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are widely thought to be the perpetrators.</p>
<p>It is mostly forgotten that the Iraqi government was confronting the Syrian regime (and therefore, Iran) <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/iraq-confronts-syria-over-terrorism-as-u-s-dithers/">back in 2009.</a> The Iraqis were threatening retaliation for Syrian support of terrorism, releasing incriminating intelligence proving Syria’s complicity and trying to rally international support for a U.N. tribunal to prosecute terrorism-supporting Syrian officials.</p>
<p>When the Iraqi government asked for U.S. backing, the administration <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/405893/missing-in-action/john-p-hannah">declared</a> it would not get involved and that Iraq and Syria should solve their differences diplomatically. An Iraqi official <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Iraqi_Politicians_Claim_Foreign_Pressure_To_Prevent_Syria_Probe/1841972.html">claimed</a> that the U.S. privately fought Iraq’s plans for a tribunal. Iraq is now in Iran’s orbit and is an ally of Bashar Assad.</p>
<p>This is great news for Vladimir Putin, who <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1058688.html">said</a> in 2005 that “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”</p>
<p>“Today, Russia is returning to a number of regions lost during the 1990s,” Mikhail Margelov, chairman of Russia’s Foreign Affairs Committee, proudly <a href="http://freebeacon.com/russia-egypt-ink-2-billion-weapons-deal/">stated</a> when talking about the arms deal with Egypt.</p>
<p>Similar statements are coming from the Egyptian side.</p>
<p>“We want to give a new impetus to our relations and return them to the same high level that used to exist with the Soviet Union,” Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy <a href="http://rt.com/news/russia-egypt-ties-military-706/">said.</a></p>
<p>The Middle East is now divided into <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/middle-east-now-has-three-alliances-none-are-us">three alliances.</a></p>
<p>The first alliance is Turkey, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Qatar and Tunisia. The Obama Administration is most favorable to this one, going so far as to <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/us-taxpayers-pay-spread-turkish-qatar-islamism">use taxpayer money</a> to spread Turkish and Qatari Islamism.</p>
<p>The second alliance is Iran, Hezbollah and Iraq. The administration is <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/irans-game-plan-whats-behind-new-deal">trying to build a better relationship</a> with this bloc.</p>
<p>The third alliance is Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. The Gulf country of Oman is trying to stay out of the confrontation with Iran. This bloc is the one most favorable to Israel and the one most vocally disappointed with U.S. policy.</p>
<p>The first two alliances are coming together against the third. Turkey and Iran want to achieve a ceasefire in Syria and their senior officials <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-iran-to-become-backbone-of-regional-stability-davutoglu.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=58596&amp;NewsCatID=352">say</a> they want to “join hands” to become the “backbone of regional stability.” Earlier this month, Hamas <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174977">announced</a> it resumed relations with Iran.</p>
<p>Russia is now in an ideal position where its friendship is craved by <i>both</i> sides in the Middle Eastern power struggle. Putin is the one with the options.  He can pick the Iranian/Turkish side, pick the Saudi/Egyptian side, or play them against each other to his benefit.</p>
<p>It’s an embarrassing moment in history when the Middle East would rather bring back the Soviet Union than rely on today’s United States.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>A New Reign of Terror in North Korea</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Dec 2013 05:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Why the regime may be on the verge of collapse -- and how global terrorists may benefit. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/south_korea_koreas_kim_s_uncle1.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213129" alt="south_korea_koreas_kim_s_uncle1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/south_korea_koreas_kim_s_uncle1-450x337.jpg" width="315" height="236" /></a>The North Korean regime <a title="" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un-uncle-executed-101104.html?hp=r6" target="_blank">announced</a> the execution of its second-in-command yesterday; the latest casualty in a far-reaching purge by Kim Jong-Un. The rift may increase the chances that the world’s largest exporter of WMDs and persecutor of Christians will collapse, but that scenario opens up dangers of its own.</p>
<p>The excellent <a title="" href="http://freekorea.us/" target="_blank">One Free Korea blog</a> says that the execution of Jang Song-Thaek is “immensely important” as he was widely seen as the man pulling the strings from behind the curtain. He was Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission and had long personal relationships throughout the regime’s pillars of power. He was also Kim Jong-Un’s uncle and husband of the late Kim Jong-Il’s sister.</p>
<p>The regime’s announcement accused Jang of “attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state.” The intelligence analysis firm <a title="" href="http://www.stratfor.com/sample/analysis/policy-impact-north-koreas-latest-purge-and-execution" target="_blank">Stratfor</a> assessed that “there was a slow coup forming in North Korea.”</p>
<p>His death comes shortly after his public arrest and dismissal from all positions. He was charged with various offenses, including betraying the country and selling resources at unapproved low prices. This was a reference to trade with China. Shortly after Kim Jong-Un took over, he upped the cost of iron ore and minerals being sold to China.</p>
<p>The One Free Korea blog <a title="" href="http://freekorea.us/2013/12/09/china-not-sounding-so-happy-about-n-korean-purge/" target="_blank">observed</a> that China was enraged by the dismissal of Jang. It demanded that Kim Jong-Un immediately travel to Beijing and the Chinese military even conducted a simulation of a night landing on the Yellow Sea Coast with 5,000 troops.</p>
<p>Kim Jong-Un apparently felt there was a threat from a pro-Jang faction, though the killing of him can either be seen as a sign of confidence or of fear. Jong-Un’s older brother <a title="" href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/kim-jong-uns-aunt-helped-purge-husband-north/story?id=21189463" target="_blank">oversaw</a> the arrest of Jang’s two closest aides last month.</p>
<p>Jang’s money manager defected shortly before or after Jang’s dismissal. It is the highest level defection in 15 years. It is unclear if the defection caused Jang’s arrest or vice versa. He is <a title="" href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=21189463" target="_blank">believed</a> to have taken Jang’s assets and confidential information about the nuclear program to China, another indication that China favored Jang’s wing of the regime.</p>
<p>“Jang worked with the Chinese even before Kim Jong Il&#8217;s death to solidify his own power and effectively be China&#8217;s regent for running North Korea,” <a title="" href="http://www.stratfor.com/sample/analysis/policy-impact-north-koreas-latest-purge-and-execution" target="_blank">says</a> Stratfor.</p>
<p>The crackdown goes beyond Jang and his associates. The South Korean President <a title="" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25312983" target="_blank">says</a> a “reign of terror” is underway and experts <a title="" href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303932504579253721867878680" target="_blank">see it</a> as the biggest political purge in North Korea in 40 years.</p>
<p>Jong-Un sacked his father’s top financial advisor who had a close relationship with Jang. Even the elites that secured his own ascent weren’t spared, leaving behind only one senior official, the chief of the Politburo. About 44% of military commanders have been <a title="" href="http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/12/04/2013120401535.html" target="_blank">dismissed</a>, as have 97 of 218 of the party heads, government ministers and senior military officers.</p>
<p>In one case, the regime made a dramatic public display with one official. The Assistant Chief of Staff for the Ministry of the Peoples’ Armed Forces was <a title="" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/leave-no-trace-of-him-behind-down-to-the-hair-north-korean-official-executed-with-mortar-round-after-drinking-during-mourning-period-for-dear-leader-kim-jongil-8226398.html" target="_blank">blown apart</a> with a mortar round so, in the regime’s words, it’d “leave no trace of him behind, down to his hair.”</p>
<p>There is also a crackdown on outside culture to slow down the <a title="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/8165274/North-Koreas-undercover-journalists-reveal-misery-of-life-in-dictatorship.html" target="_blank">crumbling</a> of the information blockade that has sustained the regime so long. He executed 80 people for allegedly possessing Bibles, having pornography and watching South Korean videos. In August, the regime <a title="" href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-north-korea-executes-80-20131111,0,2954869.story" target="_blank">killed</a> a dozen entertainers by firing squad, <a title="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10272953/Kim-Jong-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html" target="_blank">including</a> his ex-girlfriend. They were accused of being involved with pornography distribution.</p>
<p>Some experts interpret North Korea’s selling of its gold reserves as an indication of increasing economic troubles. It sold two tons to China last year to make $100 million. Other experts feel this is routinely done and is not an indication of anything abnormal.</p>
<p>These developments come shortly after the RAND Corporation concluded in a <a title="" href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR300/RR331/RAND_RR331.pdf" target="_blank">study</a> that there is a “reasonable probability” that the regime will collapse in the foreseeable future. It predicts a massive humanitarian crisis requiring a major international intervention. The top national security advisor to the President of South Korea <a title="" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/249870" target="_blank">predicted</a> the regime will collapse within 2 to 3 years after Kim Jong-Un’s takeover.</p>
<p>There are three ways that this regime change can happen and they are not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>The most stable transition would be a coup, perhaps with covert Chinese assistance. However, even under this scenario, it is hard to believe that the bloodthirsty regime will non-violently step down. It could easily become a civil war or an insurgency.</p>
<p>The second scenario is a civil war. There is no viable armed opposition group, but that could change as Kim Jong-Un alienates large parts of the military. In 2010, about 200 former North Korean soldiers <a title="" href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20100909/DEFSECT02/9090302/Ex-N-Korea-Soldiers-Start-Group-To-Topple-Regime" target="_blank">announced</a> an armed campaign to overthrow the regime but it fizzled.</p>
<p>The third scenario is a popular uprising. In November 2009, plans to reform the currency sparked an unprecedented public <a title="" href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/25/world/la-fg-korea-famine25-2010mar25" target="_blank">expression</a> of opposition. The frightened regime apologized and Kim Jong-Il executed the advisor responsible for the policy.</p>
<p>In February 2011, protests were again <a title="" href="http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/24/2011022400582.html" target="_blank">sparked</a> in a market when promised goods didn’t arrive. Security forces intervened, beating one man unconscious and escalating the situation.</p>
<p>It is easy to hope for the commencement of regime change when you look at North Korea’s record on human rights abuses and WMD trafficking.</p>
<p>There are around <a title="" href="http://www.persecution.org/2013/12/11/north-korea-satellite-images-expose-vast-prison-camps/" target="_blank">200,000</a> political prisoners. <a title="" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/feb/01/northkorea" target="_blank">Testimony</a> from escapees will one day be the basis of movies that will shock the world. There are <a title="" href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/October/Witness-to-Evil-Mothers-Kill-Children-to-Survive/" target="_blank">countless</a> <a title="" href="http://www.theatlanticright.com/2009/07/24/north-korea-tests-chemical-and-biological-weapons-on-children-prisoners/" target="_blank">stories</a> of concentration camp-like persecution, <a title="" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/1432366/Famine-struck-N-Koreans-eating-children.html" target="_blank">cannibalism</a>, torture, starvation and widespread <a title="" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/20097165415127287.html" target="_blank">human experimentation</a>, including on children.</p>
<p>North Korea is the <a title="" href="http://www.opendoorsuk.org/resources/worldwatch/north_korea.php" target="_blank">number one</a> oppressor of Christians. If you are caught practicing the faith, you and three generations of your family are sent to a lifetime of labor. An estimated 400,000 of the 20-million population is Christian. One prison alone is thought to house 6,000 Christians.</p>
<p>If and when the regime starts falling, North Korea will be seen as a gold mine for criminals, terrorists and rogue states around the world. Huge stockpiles of unconventional and conventional weapons will be up for grabs. Between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons and 5,000 tons of biological weapons are there. Cyber warfare experts, special forces operatives, weapons scientists, and average soldiers will be looking for jobs.</p>
<p>In addition, there is a consistent pattern where North Korea engages in provocations during times of internal transition. Every major step in the succession process that brought Kim Jong-Un into power coincided with an outburst to draw international attention.</p>
<p>British intelligence <a title="" href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/178005/North-Korean-leader-s-son-ordered-ship-attack" target="_blank">believes</a> Jong-Un has an “explosive temper” and suffers from severe hypertension. North Korea has carried out three nuclear tests. Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, one of the nation’s top experts, recently gave a <a title="" href="http://www.clarionproject.org/news/have-concessions-iran-made-emp-attack-more-likely" target="_blank">bone-chilling webinar</a> on the Electromagnetic-Pulse (EMP) threat, and included a frightening examination of North Korea’s capabilities in this area.</p>
<p>For things to get better in North Korea, things will have to first become far worse.</p>
<p><em>The <a title="" href="http://www.theird.org/" target="_blank">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>An Islamist Thanksgiving</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/an-islamist-thanksgiving/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=an-islamist-thanksgiving</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Dec 2013 05:06:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American Muslims for Palestine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thanksgiving]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=212282</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While America celebrated, Muslim extremists and their supporters gathered in Illinois. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/american-muslims-for-palestine-ad-metro-north.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-212440" alt="american-muslims-for-palestine-ad-metro-north" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/american-muslims-for-palestine-ad-metro-north.jpg" width="294" height="221" /></a>Islamists even see Thanksgiving as a time to advance their cause. In the morning, Islamists exploited the parade and in the evening, Islamists assembled in Illinois for the “Conference for Palestine in the U.S.” And one of their favorite evangelicals was there to join them.</p>
<p>The organizer of the event was <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/american-muslims-palestine-amp">American Muslims for Palestine</a> (AMP) and it took place at Crowne Plaza O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois from November 28 to December 1. The Islamist group often works with interfaith coalitions and one of its very partners is Presbyterian Reverend Donald Wagner, former director and <a href="http://www.emeu.net/media/EMEU_Brochure.pdf">current board member</a> of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding.</p>
<p>Last year’s AMP conference <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/illinois-islamist-conference-indoctrination-children-key-focus">had at least 13 Islamist speakers</a> with pro-Hamas and pro-Muslim Brotherhood agendas and had <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/illinois-islamist-conference-indoctrination-children-key-focus">education for children</a> about their cause. Reverend Wagner was also on the speaker’s roster and is back again this year.</p>
<p>The AMP explicitly says that he “works internationally to educate Christians about the problems of Christian Zionism.” He falsely states that evangelicals support Israel only to trigger an Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. To put it another way, Wagner and his group see them as the Christian equivalent of Ahmadinejad.</p>
<p>And his group isn’t just talking among themselves and to Islamists that don’t need convincing. In November 2012, Wagner’s group held a <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/israel-haters-invade-wheaton-college/">Middle East briefing at the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College.</a> The speakers were hostile to Israel and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.</p>
<p>Wagner’s fellow speakers at the Thanksgiving Weekend conference are prominent Islamists whose backgrounds are simple to find. He and the other non-Muslim speakers like Max Blumenthal and Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, have no excuse. They are either don’t care about the conference’s extremism or don’t care to know.</p>
<p><b>AMP Chairman Hatem Bazian</b> is one of the Islamist co-founders of <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/zaytuna-college">Zaytuna College</a> in California. In 2004, he was videotaped calling for an “intifada” in America to “change fundamentally the political dynamics here.” He told Muslims to follow in the footsteps of Palestinians fighting Israel and Iraqis fighting U.S. forces.</p>
<p><b>Osama Abu Irshaid</b> is a board member of the AMP. He used to be the editor for a Muslim Brotherhood front in the U.S. and legitimized Hamas’s attacks on Israel in 2010 as legally justifiable. He also has called Hamas “the resistance.”</p>
<p><b>Rashid Khalidi</b> of Columbia University is well-known for his incendiary comments. He <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1347">says</a> he is a “severe critic” of Hamas but described the killing of Israeli soldiers as “resistance” in 2002. His wife also worked for the PLO when it was officially designated as a terrorist group by the U.S.</p>
<p><b>Abdelfattah Mourou</b> is a co-founder of the Ennahda Party that currently leads Tunisia. The population that once elected it to power has since turned against it. It is essentially the Brotherhood’s branch there and he co-founded it with Rachid Ghannouchi, a prominent Islamist with a long record of extremism.</p>
<p><b>Sheikh Kifah Mustapha</b> is an imam and Associate Director at the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/mosque-foundation">Mosque Foundation</a> in Bridgeview, Illinois. He is an <a href="http://media.radicalislam.org/misc/pdf/List+of+Unindicted+HLF+Co-conspirators.pdf">unindicted co-conspirator</a> in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation.</p>
<p>The U.S. government specifically listed him as an elite operative of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as a member of its secret Palestine Committee. These operatives covertly advance the interests of Hamas through a web of fronts. He was even in a pro-Hamas band.</p>
<p>According to AMP, Mustapha is the chairman of the Quran Institute of the Chicago chapter of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-american-society-mas">Muslim American Society.</a> He is also the President of the Shura of Islamic Family Counselors of America and chairman of the Illinois Council of Imams and Scholars. Several other positions are listed in his bio, reflecting the success the Brotherhood has had in building and infiltrating Islamic institutions in America.</p>
<p><b>Rafeeq Jaber</b> is a co-founder of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a>, another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator. He is on the Board of Directors of the Mosque Foundation, making him a colleague of Mustapha’s. He is also the regional director of the Greater Chicago Area for the Muslim Legal Fund of America, a group that defended the Holy Land Foundation officials that were convicted.</p>
<p><b>Mohammed Kaiseruddin</b> is the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the IMAN Fund. The organization shares an address with the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/north-american-islamic-trust-nait">North American Islamic Trust</a>, another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator.</p>
<p>He is also the chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago and vice chairman of the Downtown Islamic Center.</p>
<p><b>Safaa Zarzour</b> is the former secretary-general of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">Islamic Society of North America</a>, which is—you guessed it—<i>another</i> U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator. He leads the Zakat Foundation and is a board member of the Council of Islamic Schools of North America.</p>
<p>He’s also part of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/mb-front-succeeds-partnering-us-universities">Islamist involvement in colleges</a> and interfaith programs. He is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, where he teaches Education and Islamic Law. He is also an official with the St. Xavier School of Education, Governor State University Foundation and Bernadine Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.</p>
<p><b>Lamis Deek</b> is a board member of the New York chapter of CAIR. She <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/cair-officials-celebrate-muslim-brotherhood-victory">supports the Muslim Brotherhood</a>, defends Hamas and wants <i>jihadists</i> to fight in Israel instead of Syria.</p>
<p><b>Othman Atta</b> is the executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. . He <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3346/american-muslims-for-palestine-web-of-hamas">opposes</a> the labeling of Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups. He legitimizes violence against Israelis, saying “it’s within the right of an occupied people to resist their occupiers” but condemns attacks on “innocent civilians.”</p>
<p>A 2001 FBI memo <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3346/american-muslims-for-palestine-web-of-hamas">documented</a> that some members of the mosque were fundraising for the Holy Land Foundation.</p>
<p><b>Sheikh Amin Al-Ali</b> is the imam of the Islamic Community Center of Illinois. His mosque’s website has had a page of recommended reading about the “Islamic movement and training” that features the work of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, the Brotherhood’s current terrorism-supporting spiritual leader and the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, essentially the Brotherhood branch of Pakistan.</p>
<p>Warner is joining at least seven speakers with documented ties to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network and three more with known Muslim Brotherhood allegiances. And this evangelical activist and other interfaith allies of this network are dedicated to their mission of winning Christians to their side.</p>
<p>Islamists never take holidays off from their ideology. And some of their interfaith allies don’t either.</p>
<p><strong>The <a href="http://www.theird.org">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</strong></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Georgetown’s Interfaith Sham</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/georgetowns-interfaith-sham/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=georgetowns-interfaith-sham</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Dec 2013 05:33:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dalia Mogahed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. John Esposito]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Georgetown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interfaith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi-funded interfaith center]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=212031</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nazis, 9/11 Truthers and Muslim Brotherhood supporters.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Natana-J.-DeLong-Bas.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-212033" alt="Natana J. DeLong-Bas" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Natana-J.-DeLong-Bas.jpg" width="220" height="217" /></a>Georgetown University’s Saudi-funded interfaith center is in hot water. A speaking engagement with an Egyptian Nazi was cancelled but Islamists need not worry: Muslim Brotherhood supporters and 9/11 Truthers are still welcome, as is a senior Obama Administration official allied with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>The Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding is led by Dr. John Esposito, arguably the strongest non-Muslim <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1443/john-esposito-reputation-vs-reality">defender</a> of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. It receives significant Saudi funding, such as a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/607/wolf-to-georgetown-detail-use-of-saudi">$20 million donation</a> in 2005.</p>
<p>On November 21, it held its <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/acmcu-20th-anniversary-conference-muslim-christian-relations-in-the-21st-century-challenges-registration-8854631441">20th annual conference</a> themed, “Muslim-Christian Relations in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century: Challenges and Opportunities.” The chairman of the first panel was Natana DeLong-Bas, a <a href="http://freebeacon.com/georgetown-university-hosts-911-truther/">known 9/11 Truther.</a></p>
<p>She said in 2006, “I do not find any evidence that would make me agree that Osama Bin Laden was behind the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.” She is also a defender of Wahhabism, one of the most tyrannical practices of Islam, and disagrees that it bears responsibility for inspiring the 9/11 attacks.</p>
<p>DeLong-Bas also says that the Hamas terrorist group is a better promoter of democracy and human rights in the Middle East than the U.S. government. She says American efforts do “not rise to the level of what Hamas has achieved,” complimenting their work in health care and education.</p>
<p>One of the speakers on her panel was Dalia Mogahed, a former senior advisor to President Obama. She is the Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.</p>
<p>She has been <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/30018/respectfully-yours">described</a> as possibly “the most influential figure guiding the Obama Administration’s Middle East oureach.” One of the reasons she <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/03/18/White-House-Muslim-Advisor-In-Hot-Water-Over-Israel-Remarks">supports</a> the Syrian rebels is because Bashar Assad “cannot deliver…resistance to Israel.”</p>
<p>She and Esposito authored the 2007 paper that <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1904/dalia-mogahed-a-muslim-george-gallup-or-islamist">downplayed</a> the extent of extremist beliefs in the Muslim world. She spoke at the 34<sup>th</sup> annual convention of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-circle-north-america-icna">Islamic Circle of North America</a> and was booked as a speaker for 15<sup>th</sup> annual fundraiser for the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/council-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a>.</p>
<p>She <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3571/american-islamists-push-negative-american-image">said</a> in 2008 that the criticism of groups like CAIR is part of a “concerted effort to silence, you know, institution-building among Muslims. And the way to do it is [to] malign these groups. And it’s kind of a witch hunt.” She also believes that “[Islamophobia] presents a grave danger to America as a whole.”</p>
<p>Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim congressman, was invited to speak on the panel but did not attend. He is a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1533/rep-keith-ellison-the-islamists-man-on-capitol">close friend</a> of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. His pilgrimage to Mecca was <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1298/disclosure-proves-mas-paid-for-ellisons-hajj">sponsored</a> by the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-american-society-mas">Muslim American Society.</a></p>
<p>The Center also scheduled an event on December 5 named “Egypt and the Struggle for Democracy.” It is <a href="http://www.thehoya.com/news/acmcu-event-postponed-after-egyptian-nazi-accidentally-invited-1.3123895#.UpgCvMS1zAk">delayed</a> to January 30 because of delays in getting visas for some Egyptian speakers.</p>
<p>Balance isn’t the event’s objective. None of the <a href="http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/2013guegyptdemocracyeflyer4.jpg">speakers</a> are opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mogahed and Rep. Ellison are both scheduled to speak.</p>
<p>The <i>Washington Free Beacon</i> <a href="http://freebeacon.com/georgetown-university-to-host-member-of-egypts-nazi-party/">pointed out</a> that most of the other speakers are known supporters of the Brotherhood. For example, Dr. AbdulMawgoud Dardery is a former member of Egypt’s parliament for the Brotherhood. Wael Haddara used to be a top aide to Mohammed Morsi and Mohamed Abbas is a Brotherhood backer.</p>
<p>The speaker representing Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority was Ramy Jan, a member of the country’s Nazi Party. He is a Brotherhood supporter that leads Christians Against the Coup. No segment of Egyptian society is more anti-Islamist than the Christians, but that’s not the impression you’d get from the event.</p>
<p>He was <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/egyptian-nazi-will-no-longer-participate-at-georgetown-conference/?_r=0">disinvited</a> after attention was brought to his background. Esposito pleads ignorance.</p>
<p>Georgetown University has a history of affiliations with Islamists.</p>
<p>It was <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/pjm-exclusive-georgetown-u-received-325000-funneled-through-terror-front-group/?singlepage=true">discovered</a> two years ago that in 2006-2007, the Organization of the Islamic Conference plotted to fund the Center with $325,000 to put on an event about “Islamophobia.” The international organization is pushing hard for laws that restrict freedom of speech to stop alleged anti-Muslim sentiment. The money was to be routed through CAIR, specifically its executive director, Nihad Awad.</p>
<p>The Muslim chaplain of Georgetown University is Imam Yahya Hendi. In 2003, he <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/2140/the-state-departments-poor-choices-of-muslim">testified</a> on behalf of Sami al-Arian, who was convicted for being a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. He stated that suicide bombings are permissible under Islam during his questioning.</p>
<p>The Center’s conferences often <a href="http://globalmbreport.org/?p=1659">bring together Islamists</a> from around the world. It has also <a href="http://globalmbreport.org/?p=2646">jointly sponsored</a> events with the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/international-institute-islamic-thought">International Institute for Islamic Thought</a>, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity.</p>
<p>One of the Center’s <a href="http://acmcu.georgetown.edu/119500.html">Common Word Fellows</a> is Louay Safi, the Executive Director of IIIT from 1995 to 1997 and the IIIT Director of Research from 1999 to 2003. He was also the President of the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/association-muslim-social-scientists-north-america">Associaiton of Muslim Social Scientists</a> from 1999 to 2003, another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood front that shares an address with IIIT.</p>
<p>Safi was also the Director of Leadership Development for <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-society-north-america-isna">the Islamic Society of North America.</a> He was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of Sami Al-Arian. He is also <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/07/25/Pentagon-Islamic-Adviser-Reappears-as-Political-Leader-for-Syrian-Muslim-Brotherhood-Dominated-Group">intimately involved with Syrian Islamists.</a></p>
<p>In 1988, the FBI had a spy inside the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network that explicitly warned about the IIIT’s plans to infiltrate the U.S. government and universities to “institute the Islamic Revolution in America.” A <i>Clarion Project</i> <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/mb-front-succeeds-partnering-us-universities">research report</a> shows that IIIT has had success in this endeavor.</p>
<p>The recent reporting on Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding shows that the Muslim Brotherhood never quit its plan to influence American academia.</p>
<p><strong>Don&#8217;t miss Ryan Mauro’s latest appearance on FOX News discussing the nuclear deal with Iran:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zxtqY3m9ahw?list=PLdKVa00EJoBNb-lwgf4LYfqoploqck0lM" height="315" width="460" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><b>The <a href="http://www.theird.org">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a></b><b> contributed to this article.</b></p>
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		<title>Sharia on Tour</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/sharia-on-tour/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=sharia-on-tour</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[icna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim american society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siraj Wahhaj]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=211324</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Muslim Brotherhood front groups with terrorism ties are coming to a city near you. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Siraj-Wahhaj.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-211332" alt="Siraj-Wahhaj" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Siraj-Wahhaj.jpg" width="234" height="175" /></a>If you live near Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta or Rochester and want to see a Sharia-promoting show, you’re in luck. The <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-circle-north-america-icna">Islamic Circle of North America</a> and <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-american-society-mas">Muslim American Society</a>, two groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, have announced four conferences featuring rock stars of the Islamist movement.</p>
<p>ICNA is identified as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends” in a once-secret <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/Muslim_Brotherhood_Explanatory_Memorandum">1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo.</a> It explicitly states the network’s “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within…”</p>
<p>The organization is a derivative of the Jamaat-e-Islami group in Pakistan. One of ICNA’s former leaders, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, was recently <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/usmuslim-leader-sentenced-death-bangladesh-war-crimes">sentenced to death</a> in Bangladesh for his involvement in Jamaat-e-Islami’s war crimes. Unsurprisingly, ICNA is <a href="http://www.icna.org/icna-expresses-concern-over-bangladesh-tribunals/">upset</a> at the ruling.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/475.pdf">2010 ICNA handbook</a> advocates a gradualist strategy that culminates in a “united Islamic state, governed by an elected khalifah in accordance with the laws of shari’ah (Islamic law).” The Islamist leaders that the handbook looks to for guidance include the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Brotherhood’s current spiritual leader and the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.</p>
<p>MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America,” according to federal prosecutors in a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/542.pdf">2008 case.</a> Last year, a former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leader <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3486/under-oath-alamoudi-ties-mas-to-brotherhood">testified</a> that “everyone knows that the MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”</p>
<p>Both groups have <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/america-islamist-groups-hold-rallies-morsi">held rallies</a> to protest the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi in Egypt.</p>
<p>Houston is the first stop on the ICNA-MAS Sharia tour. From November 29 to December 1, they will be holding their joint <a href="http://icnatexas.org/">South Central Convention</a> at a JW Marriott Hotel. The overall theme is, “Blueprint for a Lasting Legacy.”</p>
<p>One of the speakers is Imam Khalid Griggs, the chairman of the ICNA Council for Social Justice. Former CIA case officer Clare Lopez <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/wake-forest-universitys-radical-imam">found out</a> that he used to be involved with the Islamic Party of North America, a group that explicitly preaches “a revolutionary Islam.” Its inspirers include Khomeini, Qutb, Qaddafi and Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.</p>
<p>Another speaker is Sheikh Omar Suleiman. According to his <a href="http://gamuslimevents.org/icnaseconvention/speaker/siraj-we/">bio</a>, he studied under Sheikh Salah As-Sawy and Dr. Hatem al-Haj. These are two Salafist clerics that lead the very radical <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/assembly-muslim-jurists-america">Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America</a>. The closest the organization can bring itself to foreswearing violent jihad is to <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/american-muslim-jurists-group-aspiring-towards-jihad">oppose it</a> because “the Islamic community does not possess the strength to engage in offensive jihad <b>at this time</b> [emphasis added].”</p>
<p>On November 30, ICNA is holding its first conference in upstate New York at Rochester Riverside Convention Center, themed as “Islam: The Pursuit of Happiness.”</p>
<p>Speakers include the notorious Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whose version of “pursuing happiness” includes violent jihad and replacing Western democracy with Sharia Law.</p>
<p>Wahhaj has an <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/masjid-taqwa">undeniable, documented record of extremism</a> that would make any genuinely “moderate” Muslim group sprint away from him. He’s had to tame down his anti-Americanism and support for violent jihad and theocracy in the post-9/11 atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean his beliefs have changed.</p>
<p>At the 2011 ICNA-MAS national convention, he <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/popular-muslim-iman-working-towards-sharia-america">advised</a> Muslims to avoid talking to non-Muslims about Sharia because “we are not there yet.” More recently, the NYPD <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/evidence-supports-nypd-counter-terrorism-ops">revealed</a> that it had evidence that the security team at Wahhaj’s mosque was involved in illegal weapons trafficking, anti-police martial arts training and paintball trips described as preparation for jihad. Of course, Wahhaj and his allies accuse the NYPD of “racial profiling.”</p>
<p>Another speaker in Rochester is Jamal Barzinji, one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. His home was <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/891.pdf">raided</a> in 2003 because he “is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.” The Justice Department <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/pjm-exclusive-holders-doj-scuttled-more-terror-related-prosecutions/?singlepage=true">reportedly</a> cancelled a planned indictment of him in 2011.</p>
<p>If you live in the Atlanta area, you can get your dose of Islamist indoctrination at the joint ICNA-MAS <a href="http://www.icnaga.org/">Southeast Annual Convention</a> on December 27-29 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel. Its <a href="http://www.icna.org/are-you-ready-for-upcoming-icna-conventions/">preachers</a> include the aforementioned Wahhaj, Suleiman, Griggs and many others.</p>
<p>ICNA and MAS also announced that their <a href="http://www.icnaconvention.org/">39th annual convention</a> will be held on May 24-26 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland. Its speakers have not been decided yet but if the convention’s past content is any indication, then be ready for some subtle and not-so-subtle Islamist preaching.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, the 2011 convention included Wahhaj’s message to avoid conversations about Sharia for the time being. His recommendation was similar to another speaker at the 2002 convention who <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/chi-0409190261sep19,0,3008717.story">said</a>, “We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state…[but] we mustn’t cross hurdles we can’t jump yet.”</p>
<p>At last year’s convention, radical cleric Zaid Shakir <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/popular-us-imam-replace-constitution-sharia">preached</a> that the U.S. Constitution had failed and Islam (meaning Sharia) provides a superior model of governance because it denies equality. He said:</p>
<p>“Secularism says we keep religion out. Why? Because if we have religion and religion is the basis of membership in the community, we can’t have perfect equality. We can’t have perfect equality. If Islam is the basis, the <i>kafir</i> won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a <i>dhimmi.</i> They won’t be equal with the Muslim.”</p>
<p>The Islamists are going on tour but if you miss them this time around, don’t worry—they won’t be retiring anytime soon.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a> contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Ryan Mauro</strong> on <strong>The Kelly File</strong> discussing: <em>American Student Brutally Beaten by Muslim Gang in London:</em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zvYRw8KWKPI" height="315" width="460" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>The Brotherhood on Campus: Your Tax Dollars at Work</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-on-campus-your-tax-dollars-at-work/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=muslim-brotherhood-on-campus-your-tax-dollars-at-work</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-on-campus-your-tax-dollars-at-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:50:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MSA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Endowment for the Humanities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rep. Joe Kennedy II]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shenandoah University]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TeamSarah.Org]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[University]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=209043</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The National Endowment for the Humanities' disturbing funding activities. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/va-shenandoah.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-209045" alt="va-shenandoah" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/va-shenandoah-450x337.jpg" width="315" height="236" /></a>The National Endowment for the Humanities <a href="http://www.neh.gov/about">says</a> it “strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities.” Apparently, the federal agency believes that funding student outreach by the <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/international-institute-islamic-thought">International Institute of Islamic Thought</a> (IIIT), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity, fits this description.</span></b></p>
<p>On October 24, IIIT held an <a href="http://www.iiit.org/NewsEvents/UpcomingEvents/tabid/63/ModuleID/434/ItemID/154/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx?selecteddate=%5bEventDateBegin%5d">outreach event</a> at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA with the school’s <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/muslim-students-association">Muslim Students Association</a>, another group founded by the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>The IIIT summary states that the program “is offered in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities” and the event is supported by Student Life’s Intercultural Programs, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Alson H. Smith Jr. Library.</p>
<p>The FBI had informants inside the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network that <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/159.pdf">warned</a> about IIIT’s plan to “institute the Islamic Revolution in the United States” as far back as 1988. A declassified FBI document shows that a spy recalled the leadership “stated that the Muslims in the United States have to be prepared for martyrdom.”</p>
<p>The spy said that IIIT was currently focused on “peacefully get[ting] inside the United States government and also American universities.” Therefore, in this case, IIIT is using a taxpayer-funded federal agency to pursue the objective it has pursued for decades.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/Muslim_Brotherhood_Explanatory_Memorandum">1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo</a>, later seized by the authorities, substantiated the FBI informant’s reporting. The secret document listed IIIT as one of the Brotherhood’s secret fronts as part of its “work in America as a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”</p>
<p>Skeptics will point out that 1988 and 1991 were a long time ago, but 2002 isn’t. That’s the year when IIIT’s offices were raided as part of a terrorism-financing investigation. The probe continued until at least 2007 when the U.S. government was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062102032.html">pressuring</a> Sami al-Arian, a convicted terrorist, to testify about his strong links to IIIT.</p>
<p>In 1992, the President of IIIT wrote a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/redirect/Exhibit325.pdf">letter</a> to Sami al-Arian that said, “For us, we deem all of your institutions our own…” The letter discussed IIIT’s financial support of al-Arian’s group.</p>
<p>As recently as 2011, an IIIT official in London was <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/iiit-official-us-gov%E2%80%99t-military-are-terrorists">writing articles characterizing the U.S. government and military as terrorists.</a> He accused the U.S. of “killing literally millions of people and setting a dozen of countries on fire” since 2001. That IIIT official, Dr. Jasser Auda, also has links to Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, the terrorism-supporting spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>The IIIT website proudly <a href="http://www.iiit.org/NewsEvents/IIITVisitors/tabid/323/Default.aspx">hosts a photo</a> of two of its leaders meeting with then-President Morsi on September 27, 2012 in New York. At that time, Morsi was moving the Brotherhood’s Sharia agenda in Egypt full speed ahead. And, according to the caption beneath the photo, he “welcomed the participation of IIIT in the rerform [sic] of higher education in Egypt.”</p>
<p>To sum it up: The same organization that the Muslim Brotherhood wanted to “reform” education in Egypt is now educating American students with the help of a taxpayer-supported federal agency.</p>
<p>Despite IIIT’s record, it has <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/mb-front-succeeds-partnering-us-universities">relationships with American schools around the country.</a> Politicians and professors <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/professors-politicians-join-iit-iftar-dinner">attend IIIT Iftar dinners</a> and some teachers took part in a recent <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/us-professors-participate-brotherhood-linked-program">IIIT summer education program for selected students.</a> One even teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy.</p>
<p>Shenandoah University is just a case study in what IIIT is accomplishing. Dr. Calvin Allen, Dean of its College of Arts and Sciences, <a href="http://iiit.org/AboutUs/Agreements/Shenandoah/tabid/111/Default.aspx">signed a Memorandum of Agreement with IIIT</a> so the Brotherhood front could “designate an instructor to co-teach with Dr. Allen a course on Islamic civilization.”</p>
<p>Allen signed the agreement with Jamal Barzinji, IIIT’s Vice President and one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. In 2003, the authorities <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/891.pdf">searched</a> Barzinji’s residence because he “is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.” Allen also <a href="http://iiit.org/NewsEvents/News/tabid/62/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/228/IIIT-Hosts-Friends-of-IIIT-IftarDinner.aspx">spoke at a IIIT fundraiser on August 24, 2011.</a></p>
<p>IIIT is just one Islamist group that is building relationships with academia. The <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/alavi-foundation">Alavi Foundation</a> in New York is a front for the Iranian regime and it has <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/iranian-regime-front-funded-30-universities-us-canada">donated to 30 schools in the U.S. and Canada</a>. In addition, it financed <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/iranian-govt-front-group-funded-over-60-islamic-sites-us">over 60 Islamic sites in America</a> and <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/irans-secret-interfaith-outreach-in-america/">many other non-profit organizations.</a> <i>The Blaze</i> is the only television program to cover the Alavi Foundation’s donations (<a href="http://youtu.be/ZAxr4GF1xJs">watch my segment here</a>).</p>
<p>Readers are encouraged to send this article and the <i>Clarion Project</i>’s <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/international-institute-islamic-thought">full profile of IIIT</a> to Shenandoah University. The listed contact for the event is Dean Cal Allen (<a href="mailto:callen@su.edu">callen@su.edu</a>). The school can also be contacted at <a href="mailto:shenuniv@su.edu">shenuniv@su.edu</a> and 540-665-4500.</p>
<p>The National Endowment for the Humanities can be contacted at <a href="mailto:info@neh.gov">info@neh.gov</a> and 202-606-8400. You can also write the agency at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C., 20506.</p>
<p>Every cent given to a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization is a cent wasted. American taxpayers need to make their voices heard.</p>
<p><em>This article was sponsored by the <a href="http://www.theird.org/">Institute on Religion and Democracy.</a></em></p>
<p>*<br />
<em>Don&#8217;t miss<strong> Jamie Glazov&#8217;s</strong> video interview with <strong>Steven Emerson</strong> about the Muslim Brotherhood&#8217;s penetration of our government and society:</em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/SaNMPpgPCh4" height="315" width="420" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>How Soviet Intelligence Promoted Christian Marxism</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/how-soviet-intelligence-promoted-christian-marxism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-soviet-intelligence-promoted-christian-marxism</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Oct 2013 04:20:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Disinformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KGB]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marxism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pacepa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pope pius xii]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=206137</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And how the strategies are still in play today. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dis.jpeg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-206156" alt="dis" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dis-232x350.jpeg" width="232" height="350" /></a>When you can’t beat them, join them. That’s what the Soviet Union did to curtail Christianity’s anti-communist influence. In a new book titled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Disinformation-Strategies-Undermining-Attacking-Promoting/dp/1936488604/"><i>Disinformation</i></a>, a covert campaign to discredit Pope Piux XII is revealed. In addition, the Soviets tried to influence the church with a Marxist-friendly version of Christianity.</p>
<p>The communists’ strategy against the church had three pillars: A propaganda offensive; the implanting of agents of influence and the promotion of Liberation Theology, an anti-Western spin on scripture.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Disinformation-Strategies-Undermining-Attacking-Promoting/dp/1936488604/"><i>Disinformation</i></a> is written by Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Soviet bloc defector and Ronald Rychlak, Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi. A related documentary has also been released, titled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Disinformation-Secret-Strategy-Destroy-West/dp/B00DD5R8F4"><i>Disinformation: The Secret Strategy to Destroy the West</i></a><i>.</i> They disclose how a primary target of Soviet “active measures” was Pope Pius XII.</p>
<p>“The Soviets understood that Pius XII was a mortal threat to their ideology, despising communism as much as he did Nazism. They thus embarked on a crusade to destroy the pope and his reputation, to scandalize his flock, and to foment division among faiths,” Rychlak told me in an interview.</p>
<p>The claim that Pope Pius XII was “Hitler’s Pope” originates in a 1945 broadcast from Radio Moscow or, in other words, the Soviet propaganda apparatus. Later, the Soviets reacted to his death in 1958 with a new disinformation campaign. It’s a lot easier to lie about someone when they can’t respond.</p>
<p>Pacepa, who was serving in Romanian intelligence at the time, says Soviet Premier Khrushchev approved the KGB-drawn plan in February 1960. It was code-named “Seat-12” and Pacepa says he was the Romanian representative for it. He is now <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219739/moscows-assault-vatican/ion-mihai-pacepa">publicly detailing his involvement.</a></p>
<p>Revealing this operation against Pope Pius XII isn’t only important for historical analysis. It teaches us a sober lesson about the effectiveness of enemy influence operations that are undoubtedly ongoing.</p>
<p>“It tells us that disinformation experts can convince us of anything. They took a person widely regarded as a champion of the Jews and other victims—someone who was despised by Adolf Hitler—and convinced the world that he was a virtual collaborator,” Rychlak said.</p>
<p>The second leg of the KGB’s anti-church strategy was to influence those it could not destroy using East Bloc churches, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church.</p>
<p>KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin provided a secret 1961 directive to infiltrate the Russian Orthodox Church. The objective was to implant agents of influence that could then push out “reactionary” and “sectarian” church figures that were seen as threats to communism.</p>
<p>Mitrokhin disclosed a secret meeting of senior East Bloc intelligence officers in Budapest in July 1967. Two KGB officers gave instructions regarding “work against the Vatican; measures to discredit the Vatican and its backers; and measures to exacerbate differences within the Vatican and between the Vatican and capitalist countries.”</p>
<p>Pacepa <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219739/moscows-assault-vatican/ion-mihai-pacepa">illustrates</a> the success of this operation with multiple examples. For example, in January 2007, the newly-appointed archbishop of Warsaw had to resign amidst revelations that he had been a secret collaborator with the Polish secret service during the Cold War.</p>
<p>Rychlak said that Soviet efforts to influence Protestants were also targeted. In 1944, the Soviets established the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists, now named the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Russia.</p>
<p>The president of the <a href="http://www.theird.org">Institute on Religion and Democracy</a>, Mark Tooley, has <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/mark-d-tooley/world-council-of-churches-the-kgb-connection/">written about the communist use of the World Council of Churches</a>.  He notes that hundreds of Protest and Orthodox churches belonged to it as it towed the Soviet line and even went so far as to finance Marxist guerillas.</p>
<p>The third leg was promoting an anti-capitalist, anti-Western brand of Christianity. If the KGB could not eliminate Christianity, it reasoned it might as well manipulate it. Liberation Theology was born.</p>
<p>Pacepa <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35388">recalls</a> hearing Khrushchev say in 1959, “Religion is the opiate of the people, so let’s give them opium.” He flatly says that Liberation Theology is “KGB-invented.” He has first-hand knowledge of secret Romanian agents being dispatched to Latin America to spread it among the religious masses.</p>
<p>Pope John Paul II had a Vatican committee study Liberation Theology in 1984, Pacepa documents in a <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35388">2009 article for <i>FrontPage</i>.</a> It concluded that it was a mixture of “class struggle” and “violent Marxism.”</p>
<p>Robert. D. Chapman <a href="http://www.aei-ideas.org/2010/02/liberation-theology-and-the-kgb/">writes</a> in the <i>International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence</i>:</p>
<p>“Without doubt, the Theology of Liberation doctrine is one of the most enduring and powerful to emerge from the KGB’s headquarters. The doctrine asks the poor and downtrodden to revolt and form a Communist government, not in the name of Marx or Lenin, but in continuing the work of Jesus Christ, a revolutionary who opposed economic and social discrimination.”</p>
<p>In my interview with Rychlak, Pacepa’s co-author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Disinformation-Strategies-Undermining-Attacking-Promoting/dp/1936488604/"><i>Disinformation</i></a>, he remarked that the book was written today for a reason. These strategies are still in play.</p>
<p>“When Nazism was removed from Germany, we had de-Nazification panels…That never happened when the Soviet Union fell. The same people were left in charge,” Rychlak said.</p>
<p>He continued, “In fact, today Russia is run by a former KGB officer who has surrounded himself with his old associates. We are looking at the first superpower that is being run by intelligence officers.”</p>
<p>Pacepa is trying to wake the West up about how its enemies, including him in his past life, exploited its weaknesses. It isn’t easy to admit that one has been manipulated or beaten in some way but the West must, or it will happen again.</p>
<p><em>This article was sponsored by the </em><a href="http://www.theird.org"><em>Institute on Religion and Democracy.</em></a><b><a href="http://www.theird.org"><br />
</a></b></p>
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