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Please read just a few of the headlines that World Net Daily has published.

June, 2006


GLOBAL JIHAD
Al-Qaida: Destroy Denmark, France
Escaped member issues video urging
vengeance for Muhammad cartoons



Responding to the publishing of cartoons depicting Islam's prophet Muhammad, a video posted on the Internet by an al-Qaida member calls on Muslims to attack Denmark, France and Norway.

"Muslims avenge your prophet," said Libyan Muhammad Hassan, who escaped from U.S. custody in Afghanistan last July.

"We deeply desire that the small state of Denmark, Norway and France ... are struck hard and destroyed," he declared, according to Agence France-Presse.

Earlier this year, 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper became an international controversy, prompting the torching of embassies, slaughter of Christians and fatwas issued against those responsible.

In the 35-minute video, Hassan, dressed in military fatigues, is holding an assault rifle.

"Destroy their buildings, make their ground shake and transform them into a sea of blood," said Hassan, also known as Sheikh Abu Yahia al-Libi.

Hassan was one of four Arab terror suspects who broke out of the U.S.'s high-security detention facility at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.


Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in his most recent audio communiqué, aired on Al-Jazeera late last month, called for a global Muslim boycott of American goods similar to the recent boycott of Danish products. He also said the artists who drew the offending cartoons should be handed over to him for trial and punishment.

As Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reported, a dozen young terrorists have departed Afghanistan, bound first for Iran and then Europe, where their mission will be to hunt down the Danish cartoonists.

The report was passed on by Hamid Mir, the Pakistani journalist who has interviewed bin Laden and assistant Ayman al-Zawahiri and who just visited the no-man's land along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While there, he was told by Taliban sources in south Waziristan that 12 young men – nine Afghans and three Pakistanis – are on their way to Europe to kill the Danish cartoonists. While some carry Afghan passports and others carry Iranian passports, all will travel through Iran on their way to Europe, he reports.

Days before that television broadcast, Mir predicted an imminent communiqué from bin Laden to be released on the Arab television network.



Exposing the Muslim lobby

Paul Sperry's shoe-leather investigative journalism is showcased to its fullest in "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington," in which he sets out to prove that, for the past 30 years, the burgeoning Muslim community's representatives in the United States

have been working clandestinely to undermine America's constitutional government and the Judeo-Christian ethics on which it was built ... Their goal, quite simply, is to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Quran, the Muslim sacred book, and turn America into an Islamic state.

Given the gravity of the claim, the prospective reader may rightly ask: Is this book just another conspiracy theory, akin to those who bang on about "Illuminati Jews From the Center of the Earth" and their manipulation of world affairs? Or has Sperry met his evidentiary obligations?

You bet he has. In fact, the mass of evidence Sperry provides is staggering. His findings are based on interviews with some two dozen law enforcement and intelligence officials from the FBI, the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, as well as local law enforcement – including the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia, the heart of the Wahhabi corridor in America. Some of these sources are cited in the book, while others have requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from headquarters for speaking out on classified cases.

In addition to these sources, Sperry cites more than 50 sensitive internal government documents, some classified, and many posted on the book's companion website (sperryfiles.com). If the strength of ideas rests on their relationship to reality, then Sperry has struck a chord with the men in the trenches. Both the NYPD and the DOD have ordered copies of "Infiltration" for training field investigators charged with protecting U.S. military installations across the country. And after reading "Infiltration," one senior member of the federal National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va., who had investigated many of the key Saudi-connected cases along the Wahhabi corridor in the Washington suburbs, said: "Sperry has catalogued the last three years of our lives."

Sperry's most controversial claim is that the radical Islamist assault on the West is based not on some perverse interpretation of Islam, but is rooted in Islam itself. I happen to agree with him, while realizing that this point is subject to considerable debate. However, Sperry's unmasking of radical Islamist subversion in America does not hinge on whether the militants constitute Islam's fringe or its mainstream: Either way, the threat they pose is ominous enough.

The book begins by exposing the countless U.S. Muslim leaders who masquerade as moderates, forswear terrorism, but then do what the Quran commands: "instill terror in the hearts of unbelievers" (Surah 8:12). Embraced by American presidents, the likes of Sami Al-Arian, Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, and Muzammil H. Siddiqi – to name but a few – represent the creme de la creme of "moderate" Islam in America. Sperry traces the career trajectories of these (and other) faux moderates as they've gone from "the White House to the Big House": The first was tried for heading the U.S branch of Islamic Jihad; the second "pleaded guilty of plotting terrorist acts with Libya"; the third, president of the Fiqh Council of North America and the flower of the flock, has confined himself mercifully to merely cussing the United States.

Consider the "moderate" Council on American-Islamic Relations – the media-savvy mouthpiece for militant Islam in America. One CAIR leader, Omar M. Ahmad, is quoted as saying that "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran ... should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth." Says Ibrahim Hooper, another low-key chap from CAIR: "I want to see the U.S. become an Islamic nation." This "mainstream" Islamic group has seen three of its top leaders – Ghassan Elashi, Bassem K. Khafagi, and Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer – convicted on terrorism-related charges.

Even more dispiriting, we learn that there is nothing extraordinary about the characters whose unpleasant acquaintance we make. When addressing gullible Americans and their votes-vying leaders, too many of America's imams are "the picture of piety," observes Sperry. They talk a good game about Islam's devotion to peace and co-existence and they've offered (sham) sympathies for 9-11. However, while whispering sweet nothings in naïve American ears, in private and from their pulpits, revered religious pillars of the Muslim community have been caught advocating violence, advising their followers to work to impose the strict Islamic code of sharia in the U.S., and swearing allegiances to al-Qaida's capo di tutti capi.

Take imams Siraj Wahhaj and Muzammil H. Siddiqi as examples. In 1992, a year after Wahhaj gave the invocation to Congress, no less, he "suggested to a Muslim audience in New Jersey that Muslims had the numbers to take control of the United States in a political coup." For his part, Siddiqi was given the "solemn honor of representing the Muslim faith during the prayer service for [9-11] victims at the national Cathedral in Washington." This, apparently, did nothing to detract from his desire to consolidate a caliphate. In a 2003 fatwa, he reminded the faithful that "Allah's rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts lead to that direction." According to Sperry, such duplicity is in keeping with Taqiyya – the seldom-discussed Islamic practice of lying to non-Muslims in order to win political battles and protect Islam.

Thanks to multiculturalist efforts to appease the Islamist lobby, it has infiltrated deep into American society. A Muslim chaplain corps has been created in the U.S. military and a Saudi-based front for al-Qaida employed to minister to the approximately 20,000 Muslim soldiers. The same religious recruiters are active in penitentiaries, where there are 200,000 Muslim inmates. In fact, U.S. prisons are now the top recruiting ground for al-Qaida in the United States.

Then there are radical Islam's apologists in academia. Leading the pack is Professor John Esposito, director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, who "argues American heritage can be more accurately defined as 'Judeo-Christian-Islamic.'" Esposito's well-funded, academically credentialed "interfaith phoniness," as Sperry puts it, has gone a long way toward mainstreaming Islam. By sheer fluke, of course, Esposito also "lionizes Palestinian terrorists as leaders of a political movement and the late PLO chief Yasir [sic] Arafat as a statesman. And he urges Washington to distance itself from Israel." Sperry traced Esposito's backers through IRS tax records, and – wouldn't you have guessed it? – Esposito is in the pay of a wealthy Palestinian who hates Israel.

Readers who don't have a dog in the interfaith rivalry will suppress a yawn as our deeply religious author attempts to show that Muslims do not worship the same God as Christians and Jews do – they do not believe Jesus is the son of God. I realize Sperry doesn't write to please the unfaithful. Still, he might have placed a greater emphasis on philosophical rather than theological one-upmanship and juxtaposed the significant ethical and philosophical differences between the Judeo-Christian and the Islamic traditions. For example: universal concepts of justice vs. ruthless particularism; the sanctity and rights of all human beings vs. dominance for some and dhimmitude for others, etc.

Courtesy of an administration that has anesthetized Americans to the essential Islam (and thus continued its predecessor's multicultural mission), Muslims with ominous beliefs and agendas have managed to infiltrate every security agency, from the FBI to the Pentagon. Sperry warns that the FBI, freighted by anti-discrimination laws and pathological political correctness, now harbors Muslim translators with ties to "various foreign military and intelligence agencies in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey." (Could this help explain why urgent intercepts are often left untranslated or are mistranslated?) Easily the most scandalous anecdote in the book is that of FBI agent Sibel Edmonds walking into the Washington field office after 9-11, to find the Middle Eastern linguists making merry – passing around date-stuffed cookies to celebrate the occasion on which America got its just deserts. Were they fired? Stripped of their top-secret security clearances? Au contraire! More of their ilk were hired. Meanwhile, Arabic-speaking Sephardic Jews have been rejected for the job. There were "loyalty concerns," or so the bureau said.

Subversive Muslims and Arabs have also received top-secret clearances at the Homeland Security Department and even the White House, where, according to Sperry, they've "successfully run influence operations against our political system with the help of both Democrats and Republicans, not least in order to badger corporate boards into Islamizing the work place."

So to the big question: What role does Islam itself play in this subversive effort? Sperry has read the CAIR-approved translation of the Quran, as well as the hadiths ("sacred supplements to the Quran"), and concludes – as have scholars such as Robert Spencer (author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" (and the Crusades)) and Serge Trifkovic (of "The Sword of the Prophet" fame) – that "sadly, much of Western terrorism is simply Islam in practice, the text of the Quran in action." Judging by the Quran, Islam is "an inherently violent and intolerant faith," around which a politically correct mythology has been molded.

Osama has heeded, not hijacked, Islam.

In the event that doubts linger, "Infiltration's," "Top 10 Myths Of Islam" blows an even bigger hole in the heart of the Religion-of-Peace fable. Terrorism is an excrescence of Islam, Sperry argues, because while the murder of "innocents" might be prohibited, "orthodox Muslims do not consider Jews and Christians [much less Israeli civilians] necessarily innocent." In other words, "What the public recognizes as murder, these Muslims recognize as justice." The Quran, after all, doesn't teach tolerance toward other faiths, but inveighs against the Jewish "apes and swine" and the Christian blasphemers. Sperry backs his debunking by quoting copiously from the Quran. Here a word about Quranic literalism might have been instructive. Unlike the Jewish and Christian holy texts, which have been reinterpreted by the sages over the centuries, Islam has changed little in 1,400 years – its decrees are not debatable and are taken very literally.

Well, then, what of moderate Muslim leaders and interpreters? Hasn't Sperry given short shrift to the many who promote a more benign version of Islam? The Muslim community, he observes, is divided into Shiites, Sunnis, and more moderate Sufis. The reformers and the moderates come from the ranks of the Shiite and Sufi, but are

not considered part of the established Muslim leadership in America, and have only minor voices in the national debate. Why? Mainly because the vast majority of mosques in America practice Sunnism, Islam's main sect, and as many as eight out of 10 are under Saudi Wahhabi control.

The extent to which the community's Wahhabi-dominated organizations coordinate their schemes is revealed in a chapter titled "The Muslim Mafia." Practically all Muslim groups in America are united under the umbrella of the American Muslim Political Coordinated Council, whose goal, in Sperry's words, is "rolling back U.S. support for Israel and weakening U.S. anti-terrorism laws." A CIA internal report that Sperry references reveals that "at least one-third of the fifty Islamic nongovernmental organizations in existence 'support terrorist groups or employ individuals who are suspected of having terrorist connections.'"

Further FBI investigations have unveiled organizations with "interlocking boards of directors," and an elaborate maze of shell companies and fronts – religious charities and think tanks included – set up to launder terrorist-bound funds. The Holy Land Foundation, a facade for Hamas (recently catapulted into government power by the Palestinians) has since become a synonym for terrorism. Many of these groups' leaders are under indictment, having pled guilty to ties to terrorists. Again, Sperry emphasizes that these leaders and their syndicates are not fringe elements, skulking on the outskirts of the American Islamic community, but are among "the best the Muslim community has to offer."

So what is to be done? The book's Afterword offers pragmatic recommendations that Sperry – a bare-knuckled but beguiling writer – prefaces with a call for us to better understand the nature of the threat:

America is a beautiful, fun, and vibrant place. Its people are friendly and hospitable. Why didn't any of the hijackers have second thoughts? Why didn't they say, 'You know, this place isn't so bad after all. Osama can go pound sand up his nightgown; we're gonna chill here for a while'?

The short answer is a toxic yet intoxicating trinity: Allah, the Quran, and the Pearly Gates that beckon. Yet Washington refuses to grapple with the enemy's inspirations and motives. Our ostensible protectors have not even read, let along understood, the founding document that fuels jihad. Coming to terms with the true Islam and with what drives its foot soldiers is imperative, insists Sperry.

Other more concrete recommendations include investing in mastering Arabic and cracking down on terrorism-supporting charities. The least promising of Sperry's recommendations is the enforcement of the oath of allegiance. Given what our author has told us about deception vis-a-vis Taqiyya, it's naive to hope that prohibiting dual citizenship and enforcing an oath will dissolve the pledge of allegiance to Islam and the greater Ummah.

Then there's the issue of "profiling." Next time you shake in your socks on an American airplane as Middle Eastern men on a suspected dry run strut up and down the isles unhindered, duck into toilets with cell phones and cameras, flout flight rules, and intimidate terrified travelers with menacing gestures, thank the Muslim lobby groups for the experience. (This incident actually occurred last year on a Northwest Airlines flight.) However, you owe deeper gratitude to our elected representatives for legally prohibiting commonsense profiling and other "minimally observant" screening safeguards.

After all, Muslim identity groups are not paid to protect Americans – the government is. Yet it appears stone deaf to our fate, while all ears to the bellyaching of resentful Muslim advocacy groups. Sperry, our epistolary Jack Bauer, exposes many former and present government officials, such as the FBI's Robert Mueller, the CIA's George Tenet, and Transportation's Norman Mineta – all of whom opted for multicultural outreach and sensitivity training to the detriment of counterterrorism and counterintelligence. Considering the severity of their transgressions – and the stakes – the words "gullible" and "politically correct" do not begin to describe their dereliction.

In the final analysis, Sperry's book constitutes a withering indictment of an administration that has not only failed in its constitutional duty to uproot America's enemies on the home front, but has done its best to accommodate and appease them.


World Net Daily
May, 2006



 

 






FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU

'We're on the eve of World War III'
Ex-Mossad chief urges West to unite, warns of Muslims imposing ideology


JERUSALEM � Global civilization is on the verge of "World War III," a massive conflict in which the Islamic world will attempt to impose its ideology on Western nations, according to Meir Amit, a former director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.

Amit, one of the most esteemed figures in the international defense establishment, warned Islamic nations and global Islamist groups will continue launching "all kinds of attacks" against Western states. He urged the international community to immediately unite and coordinate a strategy to fight against the "Islamic war."

"We are on the eve of war with the Islamic world, which will wage a war and all kinds of actions and attacks against the Western world. We already noticed the terrorists in the world hit Spain, England, France. I call it World War III. You must look at it from this angle and treat it wider, not as a problem of terrorism here and there," said Amit, speaking during an exclusive interview with WND's Aaron Klein and ABC Radio's John Batchelor broadcast on Batchelor's national program, for which Klein serves as a co-host. (Listen to the Amit interview.)

Amit served as Mossad chief from 1963 to 1968. He directed some of the most notorious Mossad operations during that time and pioneered many of the tactics currently used by intelligence agencies worldwide. The subject of multiple books and movies, Amit is routinely described as a "living legend." Now in his mid-80s, Amit serves as chairman of Israel's Center for Special Studies.

The former intelligence chief referenced recent terror attacks against Israel, Europe and the United States; Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions; the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan; and worldwide Muslim riots.

"It looks to me like it is a kind of coordinated or contemplated problem to somehow impose the Islamic idea all over the world," Amit said.

Israel is routinely attacked by Palestinian terror groups. Since December 2000, 993 Israelis have been killed. Spain in March 2004 was struck by a series of coordinated bombings on its commuter train system, killing 192 people. London was rocked last July by bombings on its transportation system. France has been the scene of violent Muslim riots and attacks. And on Sept. 11, 2001, 2,986 people were killed when the U.S. was hit with coordinated terror attacks.

Violent Muslim riots erupted last month in the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon after cartoon images of Muhammad were printed in a Danish newspaper. The riots spread across the Middle East and throughout Europe.

At least 40 people were killed yesterday in a blast north of Mosul in Iraq. Iran and Syria have been accused of aiding the insurgency there and in Afghanistan against U.S. and European troops.

Amit urged Western nations to "unite and work together. Unfortunately, the world is not uniting. China and Russia are problems. This should be taken into consideration."

Both China and Russia have been aiding Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran claims is intended for peaceful purposes only. Russia last month received a delegation of Hamas leaders, and pledged to maintain diplomatic relations with the terror group in spite of efforts by the U.S. and Israel to isolate the newly elected Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Amit said Iran currently poses the most serious threat to the international community.

"The Iranians [are] financing terrorists in Israel and sending money," Amit said. "This is [my country's] immediate problem. But I think the most serious problem is Iran developing nuclear power."

Amit said Israel should not lead a military attack against Iran's suspected nuclear facilities, instead urging support for the course of diplomacy and sanctions.

"The problem of [Iranian] nuclear armaments is not an Israeli problem; it is a worldwide problem. Your question refers to what Israel can do. It shouldn't do anything by itself. It should maybe throw the idea that this is a world problem and all the Western world should unite, join hands and work together," said Amit.

"I am not sure whether a military operation would be the best solution. At least not the first solution. But you can put sanctions on Iran."

With regard to his warnings of a new world war, Amit clarified he was not advocating the international community take measures against all Arab countries:

"I know very well the Arab world. I have many friends in Arab world leaders. Not all of them think the same. They are also split in different groups. ... Although I think they will wage an Islamic war against the Western world, we must take into account they are not one piece. Somehow we must learn the differences between different sections and parts of the Arab world."


World Net Daily
March, 2006


 



FAITH UNDER FIRE
Man faces death penalty
for becoming Christian

Despite ouster of Taliban by U.S., court still prosecutes ex-Muslim

Despite the fact the hardline Taliban regime is no longer in power, an Afghan man faces possible execution for allegedly abandoning his Islamic roots and becoming a Christian.

"Yes that's true, a man has converted to Christianity. He's being tried in one of our courts," Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told the Middle East Times.

The case centers on Abdul Rahman, believed to be 41, who converted from Islam to Christianity some 16 years ago. His relatives reportedly notified authorities about the conversion.

The constitution in Afghanistan is based on Shariah law, which states any Muslim who rejects his or her religion should be sentenced to death.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge told the Associated Press. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."

If he indeed is sentenced, Rahman would be the first person punished for leaving Islam since the Taliban was ousted by American-led forces in late 2001, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S.

Prosecutor Abdul Wasi says he offered to drop the charges if Rahman made the switch back to Islam, but the defendant is maintaining his Christian beliefs. The judge is expected to rule within two months.

About 99 percent of Afghanistan's 28 million people are Muslims, with the rest mostly Hindus.


World Net Daily
March, 2006



 

 


Other related articles from other sources:


Monitor the mosques!

 

On June 2 and 3, Canadian law enforcement in Toronto arrested 17 Muslim men for planning terrorist attacks on Canadian targets. The leader of the group, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, recruited young Muslim males by speaking at Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, a storefront mosque in Mississauga. Law enforcement officials across the globe are searching for suspects connected to the Toronto 17; American law enforcement has already discovered at least two terrorism suspects who spoke with members of the Canadian terrorist cell.

In May 2004, London authorities arrested hook-handed, one-eyed imam Abu Hamza al-Masri. The United States immediately filed charges against al-Masri and asked that Britain expedite him for trial. Among other terrorist acts, the indictment charged al-Masri with attempting to set up a terrorist cell in Oregon. Al-Masri was also linked to terrorists Zacarias Moussaoui, who was involved in the Sept. 11 plot, and Richard Reid (a.k.a. Tariq Raja and Abdul Rahim), the shoebomber. Al-Masri was the imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, where he used his pulpit to recruit terrorists and preach hate.

In September 2002, American law enforcement arrested six members of a larger terrorist cell in Buffalo, N.Y. All six were young Muslim men, and all six had attended terrorist training in Afghanistan. The leader of the group, Kamal Derwish, had recruited all the arrested members by speaking at his local mosque in Lackawanna. All six men pled guilty to terrorism charges.

Mohamed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, used a mosque in Hamburg, Germany, to network with potential recruits, including Ramzi Binalshibh, who would act as a coordinator for the attacks. Two of the potential Sept. 11 terrorists, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, hooked up with an imam at Rabat Mosque, Anwar Aulaqi; Aulaqi would later aid al-Hazmi and Mihdhar's replacement, Hani Hanjour, in relocating east as Sept. 11 approached.

Mosques across the globe have provided material aid to terrorist groups ranging from al-Qaida to Islamic Jihad to Hezbollah to Hamas. Muslim terrorists use mosques as networking sites and often as recruitment centers for future terrorist comrades. There is no doubt that law enforcement should be heavily scrutinizing the membership and administration of mosques. Doing so before Sept. 11 could have prevented that catastrophe, just as scrutiny of a small, seemingly insignificant storefront mosque may have prevented major terrorist attacks in Canada. Muslim terrorists are, above all, religious. They will attend mosques, even if only to pray. Forget racial profiling – monitoring mosques is simple common sense.

Leaders in the Muslim community don't seem to get it. "People are suspicious and there's anger," complains Aly Hindy, imam at the Toronto-based Salaheddin Islamic Center in Scarborough. "We are being targeted not because of what we've done, but because of who we are and what we believe in."

No doubt this is true to some extent. But that is the difference between prevention of crime and after-the-fact investigation of crime. For attempts to remain attempts, suspects must be stopped in the inchoate processes leading up to attacks. Prevention is undoubtedly the only option if civilized nations wish to preserve their citizenries from the sadistic barbarism of our enemies. Monitoring mosques is the simplest and most effective way of preventing terrorist attacks. Many imams are trustworthy; many mosques are clean. Nonetheless, law enforcement must pursue a strategy of "trust, but verify." Lives depend on it.

June
2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.





A Defeat for Islamism in America


Frontpage Interviewed Reed Rubinstein, the Washington, D.C., attorney who successfully represented Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR in CAIR's libel suit against him.

FP: Reed Rubinstein, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

 

Rubinstein: Thanks, Jamie. It is a real pleasure to be here.

 

FP: First, tell us briefly what this libel suit was about.

 

Rubinstein: CAIR filed suit against Andrew Whitehead, claiming Mr. Whitehead’s statements on the Anti-CAIR website (www.anti-cair-net.org) were false and defamatory. The main statements were that CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization, that CAIR was founded by Hamas supporters seeking to overthrow Constitutional government in the United States and replace it with an Islamist theocracy, and that CAIR receives funding from Islamic terrorist supporting countries. In other words, this case was about CAIR’s connections to and support for radical Islam.

 

FP: CAIR clearly had something to hide by not wanting to open up its records right?

 

Rubinstein: Well, I think that this is one conclusion that could be fairly drawn. It would be logical to assume CAIR did not want to expose its finances, its connections to foreign interests, and possibly the beliefs and intentions of its key leadership to legal process. My guess, based on the information we obtained during this case from a variety of sources, is that CAIR may have been most concerned about protecting its funding sources and its foreign backers. In truth, its leadership has been pretty open about ideology and goals.

 

FP: Tell us some people that have been found to be connected to CAIR.

 

Rubinstein: As stated in papers filed with the court, CAIR has been connected to the Islamic Association of Palestine (which has been held civilly liable for the Hamas murder of an American teenager), convicted Hamas financier Ghashan Elashi, Saudi interests, and radical groups, among others. The court papers state:

 

*CAIR is connected to Musa Abu Marzook ("Marzook"), a key Hamas operative. Marzook was named a terrorist and deported from the United States. On May 10, 1996, CAIR's Omar Awad organized a press conference to support Marzook at which Awad said, "[T]he arrest, detention and extradition is politically motivated...[and] this campaign has been orchestrated to serve as a wedge between America and Islamic countries." In June 1996, CAIR signed an open letter to then Secretary of State Warren Christopher that railed against “the injustice that has prevailed Dr. Marzook" and alleged that “our judicial system has been kidnapped by Israeli interests."

 

*CAIR is connected to Ghassan Elashi, a founder both of CAIR’s Austin, Texas, chapter and the notorious Holy Land Foundation (Hamas’ U.S.-based fundraising front), was convicted in July 2004 of having illegally shipped computers to Libya and Syria. He was convicted in April 2005 for conspiracy and money laundering with a known terrorist. Elashi has also been charged with providing more than $12.4 million to Hamas through HLF. Before 9/11, CAIR issued an e-mail “alert” stating the federal action against HLF and its principals was part of an “anti-Muslim witch hunt” promoted by “the pro-Israel lobby in America." After 9/11, CAIR used its website to knowingly funnel money, under false pretenses, to Elashi’s Holy Land Foundation.

 

*CAIR is connected to a variety of foreign funding sources, primarily Saudis. For example, a press release from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington states that in August 1999, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) – functionally controlled by the Saudi government – gave CAIR $250,000 to help purchase its Washington, D.C., headquarters, which was acquired through an unusual lease-purchase transaction with the United Bank of Kuwait. In September 2002, CAIR bought out the Kuwaiti bank with funds from the Al-Maktoum Foundation, based in Dubai. The markings on the deed indicate that the foundation provided “purchase money to the extent of $978,031.34” to CAIR, or roughly one-third the value of the property. CAIR also received $500,000 from Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal to distribute Islamist literature throughout the United States. The centerpiece of the distribution was an English version of the Koran that had been banned by the Los Angeles School District because it was, as one Moslem scholar put it, “a polemic against the Jews.” A Senate Judiciary subcommittee report noted “Saudi Arabia’s long history of sympathy, coordination and support for terrorist groups” and found “CAIR receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from Saudi individuals and organizations.”

 

*CAIR is connected to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). In December 1999, WAMY announced at a press conference in Saudi Arabia that it “was extending both moral and financial support to CAIR.” WAMY also agreed to “introduce CAIR to Saudi philanthropists and recommend their financial support for the headquarters project.” In 2002, CAIR and WAMY announced, again from Saudi Arabia, their cooperation on a $1 million public relations campaign. At that time, and to this day, WAMY, and its leader Sheikh Saleh Al-Sheikh, the Saudi minister of Islamic affairs, have been linked to terror. Both Indian officials and the Philippine military have cited WAMY for funding terrorist groups and militant Islamists. Osama Bin-Laden’s brother was WAMY’s treasurer. The Saudi Gazette, which reported the story, said that Awad “had already met leading Saudi businessmen” in order to “brief them about the projects and raise funds.”

 

*CAIR is connected to the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which gave CAIR $14,000 in 2003. IIIT is part of an interwoven group of terror-financing conduits that sent money to, among others, Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian.

 

*CAIR is connected to the IAP, a radical Islamic organization that preached the inevitability of conflict between “divinely inspired” Islamic civilization and the materialistic, God-less West. Its website stated there “is a civilizational conflict waged between, on the one land (sic) Islamic civilization with its divinely inspired laws and mission to create on this earth the society of justice and freedom which has been ordained by God; and on the other hand, Western civilization with its materialistic culture, worship of ethnicity and the state, and denial of God’s supremacy."

 

*CAIR Founder and Executive Director Awad was IAP’s public relations director. He complained to the Simon Wiesenthal Center because it placed a picture of the notorious Ayatollah Khomeini on a “wall of demagogues.” Awad wrote in the Muslim World Monitor that the World Trade Center trial, which ended in the conviction in 1994 of four Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, was “a travesty of justice” and that there was “ample evidence indicating that both the Mossad and the Egyptian intelligence played a role in the explosion.” He is an admitted supporter of “the Hamas movement.”

 

*CAIR Founder and Board Chairman Ahmad, also a former IAP official, was heard on FBI surveillance tapes of Hamas meetings in the United States during 1993 explaining that for political reasons the IAP could not admit its support for Hamas, and then discussing how the Hamas agenda could be cloaked and advanced in the United States. Ahmad’s practice while at IAP was to bring Hamas representatives to speak at IAP conferences.

 

*Mohammed Nimer, a CAIR official, was on the board of the United Association for Studies and Research, a Hamas front founded by Marzook.

 

*Doug AKA “Ibrahim” Hooper (“Hooper”), CAIR’s director of Communications, also worked for the IAP before joining CAIR. He has said, “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future…” On the Michael Medved radio show in 2003, he said that if Muslims ever become a majority in the United States, it would be safe to assume that they would want to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law, as most Muslims believe that God’s law is superior to man-made law.”

 

*Ihsan Bagby, a CAIR board member, has written Moslems “can never be full citizens” of the United States “because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country” as the United States is not a Moslem country.

 

*Randall (“Ismail”) Royer, CAIR’s communications specialist and civil rights coordinator, is serving a 20-year prison term, having pled guilty after being charged with conspiring to help Al Qaida and the Taliban kill Americans in Afghanistan. When arrested, CAIR’s Royer had: “AK-47-style rifles, telescopic lenses, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and tracer rounds, documents on undertaking jihad and martyrdom, [and] a copy of the terrorist handbook containing instructions on how to manufacture and use explosives and chemicals as weapons.”

 

*Bassem Khafagi, CAIR’s community relations director, pled guilty in September 2003 to lying on his visa application and passing bad checks, and was deported. Khafagi was also a founding member and president of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), a radical organization under federal investigation for terror-related activities.

 

*Rabih Haddad, a CAIR fundraiser, was arrested on terror-related charges and deported from the United States.

 

*Siraj Wahaj, a CAIR advisory board member, is a former member of the Nation of Islam (NOI) who supports polygamy and full implementation of Islamic law in the United States. In 1991, speaking to the Islamic Association of North Texas, Wahaj called Operation Desert Storm “one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals of history,” and that the war was “part of a larger plan, to destroy the greatest challenge to the Western world, and that’s Islam.” In 1995, he was named an un-indicted co-conspirator in the plot to blow up the World Trade Center that was led by the “blind sheikh,” Omar Abdul Rahman. CAIR described Wahaj as “one of the most respected Muslim leaders in America.”

 

FP: Let's talk about the importance of this libel suit to free speech. CAIR has used the courts as a tactic to stifle criticism of the Islamist threat to America. This is a tactic that was first used by the Saudis in Great Britain and it appears to have been imported here. How do you think the Whitehead case has counteracted this?

 

Rubinstein: The Whitehead case has counteracted the tactic of using U.S. courts to stifle free speech by demonstrating that the blowback from a defamation lawsuit – properly defended – is generally far worse than the harm caused by the original statements themselves. Defamation plaintiffs that take on a defendant with a good legal team often lose in two ways: First, the act of filing suit results in the original statements becoming more widely circulated. Second, anything less than either a plaintiff’s verdict, a retraction or a correction, is quite rightly perceived as an affirmation that the challenged statements are in fact true in all respects. Because U.S. laws reflect respect for robust free speech, filing a defamation suit to chill criticism is a very risky tactic, and can work only if the target refuses to fight back. Mr. Whitehead fought back.

 

FP: What are some lessons learned from this case?

 

Rubinstein: Lessons learned include:

 

1) As Justice Brandeis once said, the sunlight of public disclosure is the best disinfectant. For example, in its responses to our discovery requests, CAIR refused to admit Hamas murders innocent civilians. Now, we uncovered evidence – all of it in the public record, by the way – showing CAIR’s relationship with Hamas and its supporting entities. But if anyone still had questions regarding CAIR’s true views on this matter, this answer should put all doubts to rest.

 

2) CAIR avoids critical scrutiny, and its leaders are especially thin-skinned. To me, these traits suggest CAIR is vulnerable. It’s important to remember that parties who resort to using lawsuits as a substitute for open debate generally do so for two reasons: First, they have the money to do so, and second, they recognize they can’t win a fair exchange of ideas. CAIR apparently had the economic resources available to support its litigation campaign. But I can only speculate why CAIR tried to silence Mr. Whitehead. My sense is that every time a CAIR official appears on television, more of the truth seeps out, and CAIR alienates more and more Americans. In fact, I believe that if the mainstream media subjected CAIR to a fraction of the scrutiny given to the Duke Lacrosse team case, CAIR would be totally discredited.

 

3) More needs to be done to expose and make public CAIR’s funding sources and financial practices. There are stories in the Arab press on CAIR’s foreign donors. Why these articles have not been printed in the U.S. press is something of a mystery to me.

 

4) Don’t back down. Ever. CAIR’s only hope of success is if Americans fail to stand up for what makes this country great.

 

FP: The record clearly shows that CAIR does have extensive and significant ties to Saudi funding sources, that it does promote fundamentalist Islam, and that it does promote and advocate the termination of the State of Israel. Now the worry is: does CAIR genuinely reflect the views of Muslims in the US? If it does, we have a serious problem, no?

 

Rubinstein: I believe CAIR most assuredly does not speak for all Muslims, for I know there are American Muslims who oppose the policies of CAIR’s current leadership. Nevertheless, I have come to the conclusion that the world view of CAIR’s current leaders – at least the one I found reflected in over a decade’s worth of public statements and activities – has traction among key Muslim elites (e.g. clerics and community activists) who have come to this country from the Mid-East, Pakistan, Malaysia, and India, and among certain Muslim converts. As I went through CAIR’s paper and Internet trail back to approximately 1994, it seemed to me CAIR’s world view, its “meta-message” as it were, can be broken down into three key themes. The first is terrible fear. It seems from reading their material that Islam is under intense assault. The second is triumphalist confidence. It seemed to me that the authors of CAIR’s e-mail alerts and website texts and written reports believe that Mohamed said that Islam is the only true faith, so Muslim control and domination are eventually assured. The third is that Jews and Zionists are apparently a source of and explanation for Muslim problems and failures. The conclusion seems to be Muslims will reap the benefits if Jewish “power” is reduced.

 

The reason I think this world view has traction among many Mid-Eastern and South Asian Muslim elites, is that I saw these same themes reappear over and over again on a variety of Muslim websites, that I explored, and in many mosque sermons and Islamic publications that I read. In the course of defending Mr. Whitehead, we engaged in a great deal of wide-ranging research, and I must tell you that I found entering the Islamic Internet world was like walking through a sewer. The contempt and intolerance for difference and dissent (even by other Muslims) is shocking. Anti-Americanism and disdain for Western civilization is a given. The oppression of women seems to be a basic cultural norm. And, of course, raw, eliminationist anti-Semitism is ubiquitous. Frankly, the obsessive fixation on Jews, Jewish control of the United States, and Jewish worldwide plots at times led me to believe there is some sort of mass psychosis at work. By comparison, CAIR’s use of language is more restrained. However, the fact that CAIR might genuinely reflect the views of many Muslims in the United States does not necessarily mean we have a serious problem. Muslims are a tiny minority in this country, and it is important to remember the Muslim community is not a monolith. In my view, we will have a serious problem only if the truth is hidden, ignored, or whitewashed, if our leaders fail to take appropriate measures, and if the American majority fails to aggressively defend its values.

 

FP: Reed Rubinstein, thank you for joining us today.

Rubinstein: Thank you, Jamie. FrontPage's work is critically important, and most appreciated.

 


Frontpagemag.com
May, 2006

 

 





Silencing Dissent at Michigan State

On April 27, the State News of Michigan State University carried an editorial titled, "Poor choice, professor" in which a professor named Indrek Wichman was castigated for comments he made in a private e-mail to the Muslim Students Association (MSA).

In the e-mail, Wichman gave his opinion of a protest led by the MSA. The e-mail read, in part:

Dear Moslem Association:

As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.

Professor Wichman later explained: "I used strong language in a private communication that I would certainly not have used if this communication would have gone public."

But this failed to satisfy the leaders of the MSA. They wanted blood in the form of a letter of reprimand; diversity training for faculty; and a mandatory freshman seminar on hate and discrimination.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations had to get its shot at Wichman in as well. Executive director, Dawud Walid, had this to say: "It was upsetting, yet sad…it's scary when you think about the power that this gentleman has." Walid then added that the university should denounce the e-mail, conduct a formal investigation, and, of course, conduct "sensitivity training" on how to deal with Muslims on campus.

However, before the MSA demands anything, let’s look at some of its history.

  • In 2003, the MSA of Penn State invited the chairman of a racist and anti-Semitic organization, the Populist Party, to speak at events celebrating "Islam Awareness Week".
  • In 2002, during a protest in front of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, former MSA president Ahmed Shama shouted, "Victory to Islam! Death to the Jews!..."
  • Prior to the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9-11, the MSA formally assisted the Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief, and the Benevolence Foundation in fundraising. Following the attacks, all three so-called "charities" were ordered closed. The reaction of the MSA? "How three of the nation's largest Muslim charities could be made inoperable at the peak of the giving season of Ramadan seemed unbelievable." Never mind that these three groups were providing funds to Islamic terrorist groups.

Notwithstanding its self-serving claims, the MSA is not a "Muslim civil rights" organization. The MSA is here to promote the intolerant, bigoted, and hateful cult of Islam known as "Wahhabism". From inviting bigots to speak; calling for the death of Jews, and denouncing the closing of Islamic terrorist linked "charities", the MSA has clearly shown that they are on the wrong side in the battle against Islamist terror.

Were Professor Wichman’s words a little strong? In light of the facts about Wahhabi Islam, he is telling the truth. The Wahhabis are one of the most intolerant sects of Islam and have a very brutal history that includes neglect for basic human rights, misogyny toward their own women, the imposition of the most strict forms of Sharia Islamic law and a hatred for Western culture that borders on fanatical. In calling attention to this reality, the professor made the right choice.

Frontpagemag.com
May, 2006

 

 


Sami Al-Arian gets 18 months more in terror case
TAMPA -- A judge sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian on Monday to another year and a half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism conspiracy case.

Al-Arian, 48, was sentenced to four years and nine months, but he will get credit for the three years and three months he already has served while being held before and after his trial.

His lawyer, Linda Moreno, asked the judge to release her client now, but the judge refused and called Al-Arian "a master manipulator."

Al-Arian signed a plea agreement April 14 in which he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a State Department-designated terrorist group responsible for hundreds of deaths in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The former University of South Florida computer engineering professor took the plea deal despite a jury failing to convict him of any of the 17 charges against him after a six-month trial last year. His family said he took the deal to get out of jail and end their suffering.

As part of the plea agreement, Al-Arian admitted to being associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the late 1980s and providing "services" for the group, which included filing for immigration benefits for key members, hiding the identities of those men and lying about his involvement.

It was not immediately clear where Al-Arian will be sent once he is deported. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents, he was reared mostly in Egypt before coming to the United States 30 years ago. He has been jailed since his arrest in February 2003.


heraldtribune.com
May, 2006

 

 



Al-Arian deal: He admits ties to terror group

The federal plea agreement links him to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Details of Sami Al-Arian's plea agreement emerged Monday after a federal judge unsealed documents related to hearings held last week out of public view.

In it, the fired University of South Florida professor admits being a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and helping others associated with the terrorist group -- including his deported brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar -- in immigration matters and lying to conceal their ties.

Al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of "conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad." In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped eight outstanding terrorism-related charges on which jurors deadlocked during a six-month trial.

Prosecutors also agreed to recommend that immigration officials "expedite" Al-Arian's expulsion after his sentencing. His family has previously said their first stop may be Egypt before they try to begin anew in the Palestinian territories.

Department of Justice officials on Monday praised the guilty plea as vindication of their anti-terrorism policies, while Al-Arian's supporters sought to distance the professor from the more serious terrorism charges he once faced.

"We have a responsibility not to allow our nation to be a safe haven for those who provide assistance to the activity of terrorists," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Ahmed Bedier, a Tampa-based spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the "plea has nothing to do with violence, and it has nothing to do with financing terrorism."

Two other co-defendants, ex-USF graduate student Sameeh Hammoudeh and Chicago-area businessman Ghassan Ballut, were acquitted. Hammoudeh, a Palestinian, has been held at a Bradenton jail awaiting deportation after pleading guilty in an unrelated tax case.

A fourth defendant, U.S. citizen Hatem Fariz of Spring Hill, still faces a retrial after jurors deadlocked in his case, too. Federal Public Defender R. Fletcher Peacock, whose office represents Fariz, on Monday said plea negotiations are ongoing.

"I think that Dr. Al-Arian's resolution is showing that the government is doing a good-faith effort to resolve the case," Peacock said. "I think that will be reflected in the outcome for our client as well."

Signed Feb. 28, Al-Arian's plea recommends a prison sentence of 46 to 57 months. However, prosecutors have hinted that they will not oppose a lower term, or even a sentence of time served that considers Al-Arian's three years of incarceration.

Al-Arian and his associates were arrested in February 2003 in a case the government once hailed as an example of the controversial USA Patriot Act.

In a jail interview with the Sentinel on Feb. 22, Al-Arian said he would sign a plea deal if there was any way that could be "respectable."

His wife, Nahla Al-Arian, later spoke of her desire for a family reunion.

"Anywhere my husband goes, I will go with him," Nahla said. "I believe that the situation is so suffocating. . . . I don't feel free anymore. Yes, I want to leave. I love America. It breaks my heart to leave everyone here.

"What I want to see is see this suffering end -- for my husband, my kids and myself."

Orlando Sentinel
May, 2006

 

 



CAIR Beaten in Court Again
By Andrew Whitehead and Lee Kaplan



The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has suffered another setback in its effort to gag all those who would criticize its cozy relationship with Hamas and radical Islam.  The Canadian branch of CAIR was forced this week to back off its defamation suit against David Harris, Director of the International and Terrorist Intelligence Program (INSIGNIS), a strategic intelligence research corporation based in Ottawa. This retreat comes on the heels of a similar lawsuit that the US division of CAIR filed against Andrew Whitehead, the head of Anti-CAIR in the United States, and was forced recently to withdraw.

Harris had appeared on an Ottawa radio station, CFRA radio, and during an interview made some remarks about the need for Canadian authorities to take a hard look at CAIR-CAN and the fact that some 70% of the funds it raises goes to the American chapter of the organization. He was then hit by a SLAPP lawsuit launched by Dr. Sheema Kahn and Riad Saloojee, the Executive Director of CAIR-CAN. (Both CAIR-CAN leaders have since lost their jobs.)

According to Harris, CAIR-CAN "dropped the suit cold" with no damages, costs, and, as with its dismissed $1.35 million action against ACAIR in the U.S., with no apologies or detailed clarification.  A lawyer involved in criminal and national security matters who has testified before the Congress and is a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and who appears frequently on radio, Harris said in a prepared press statement:

"As a commentator on national security affairs, my guiding principle throughout CAIR-CAN's lawsuit was never to compromise hard-won rights of media and media commentators to their exercise of responsible free expression under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  I viewed this as a responsibility at a time when Canadians in Afghanistan and elsewhere are dying for such rights, and when civil liberties must be vigorously defended at home.”    

He added, "It is unknown whether this unease [on the part of the court] stemmed from concern about the detailed review and disclosures that would derive from such proceedings.  Or
whether the collapse of its mother organization's US$1.35 million libel case against the American Anti-CAIR organization played a part.  We do not know whether it was the unearthing of a December 2003 court document in which Dr. Khan had sworn to CAIR-CAN's subsidiary status in relation to the troubling US CAIR group.  Perhaps it was a concern that, on the witness stand, CAIR-CAN officials would be asked to answer the questions I had asked about that relationship on CFRA radio."

Just as with the Anti-CAIR case, CAIR-CAN sought to spin its loss in a press release stating that Harris, who was a regular "security consultant" on CFRA -radio, would not be invited back as a guest. (He has in fact appeared several times on the channel as a guest since the instigation of the lawsuit.) CAIR-CAN has also suggested that it had silenced its Canadian critics by its legal action, just as it had silenced its critics in the U.S.  But the Anti-CAIR group has become even more relentless in its pursuit of CAIR since the lawsuit was dropped.  

This is actually the third round in the battle against CAIR and its effort to destabilize the domestic War on Terror that has been won by its opponents.

The first loss came when CAIR-CAN dropped its suit against columnist David Frum of the National Post.  Frum, a former White House speechwriter for the Bush administration who is credited with the "axis of evil" phrase, was sued by CAIR-CAN because of his suggestion in a (Canadian) National Post article that CAIR-CAN had terrorist affiliations. Frum issued this statement about his own case after the David Harris victory:  "The lawsuit against the National Post and myself was settled with an editor's note that likewise offered no apology or retraction.  The settlement of the Harris lawsuit should be of special interest to Canadians. David Harris is one of Canada's leading experts on terrorism: a former chief of strategic planning for CSIS and now president of the IINSIGNIS consulting firm. His views are regularly heard on television and radio. Now he has recovered his full freedom to speak and to alert Canadians to the dangers in their midst.”
   
What lessons will CAIR take from the reverses it has suffered in these three court actions?  Will the organization moderate its support of Hamas and other radical Islamist organizations?  Will there be a shakeup in CAIR's leadership, as there has been with CAIR-CAN? And most importantly, will the "rank and file" membership of CAIR finally recognize that this organization is not a “civil rights” group and represents radical Islamists overseas and not ordinary Muslims here at home?


Frontpagemag.com
April, 2006

 

 



CAIR Backs Down from Anti-CAIR



In a stunning setback, the Council on American-Islamic Relations defamation suit against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR has been dismissed with prejudice.  The Anti-CAIR website, www.anti-cair-net.org, reports a mutually agreeable settlement, the terms of which are confidential. However, Whitehead notes that he issued no public apology to CAIR, made no retractions or corrections, and left the Anti-CAIR website unchanged, so that it continues to post the statements that triggered CAIRs suit. Specifically, CAIR had complained about Whitehead calling it a terrorist supporting front organization  founded by Hamas supporters that aims to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States. It also objected to being described as dedicated to the overthrow of the United States Constitution and the installation of an Islamic theocracy in America.

That clears the decks; no additional actions are pending between these two parties. In brief, Whitehead won a sweet victory, while CAIR suffered a humiliating defeat.

 

CAIR initially filed suit in a Virginia Circuit Court on March 31, 2004, claiming six of Whiteheads statements were false, that Whitehead made them with knowledge of their falsity, and that the statements were actionable because they impute the commission of a criminal offense. CAIR further claimed injury to its standing and reputation throughout the United States and elsewhere, and sought $1 million in compensatory damages, $350,000 in punitive damages, plus legal fees and interest.  It did so despite Whiteheads telling a reporter I haven't got any [money].

 

The original five statements as quoted in CAIRs complaint were:   

        Let their [sic] be no doubt that CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization that is partially funded by terrorists, and that CAIR wishes nothing more than the implementation of Sharia law in America.

        CAIR is an organization founded by Hamas supporters which seeks to overthrow Constitutional government in the United States and replace it with an Islamist theocracy using our own Constitution as protection.

        ACAIR reminds our readers that CAIR was started by Hamas members and is supported by terrorist supporting individuals, groups and countries.

        Why oppose CAIR? CAIR has proven links to, and was founded by, Islamic terrorists. CAIR is not in the United States to promote the civil rights of Muslims. CAIR is here to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States and convert our country into an Islamic theocracy along the lines of Iran. In addition, CAIR has managed, through the adroit manipulation of the popular media, to present itself as the moderate face of Islam in the United States. CAIR succeeded to the point that the majority of its members are not aware that CAIR actively supports terrorists and terrorist supporting groups and nations. In addition, CAIR receives direct funding from Islamic terrorists supporting countries.

        CAIR is a fundamentalist organization dedicated to the overthrow of the United States Constitution and the installation of an Islamic theocracy in America.

 

In January 2005, Whiteheads counsel, Reed D. Rubinstein of Greenberg Traurig LLPs Washington, D.C. office, submitted 327 discovery requests of CAIR; I have posted this important, well-informed discovery document at http://www.danielpipes.org/rr/3511_1.pdf. Whitehead sought extensive information regarding CAIRs finances, its relationship to Hamas, its ties to Saudi Arabia, and ties to other Islamists.

 

Signs of CAIRs problems came in June 2005, when  perhaps realizing how much was available in the public record about its activities, perhaps wishing to curtail some of the discovery process  it amended its complaint by dropping nearly all of its original claims. The amended complaint alleged only two brief statements to be false and defamatory:

        Let their [sic] be no doubt that CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization.

        CAIR seeks to overthrow constitutional government in the United States.

(For an analysis of this amended complaint, see Sharon Chadha and my article, CAIR Founded by Islamic Terrorists?)

 

In anticipation of a court hearing regarding discovery, Rubinstein filed papers in the Virginia Circuit Court in October 2005 and December 2005 alleging extensive links between CAIRs organizers and control group with Hamas and other foreign and domestic Islamists. Among other things, these papers alleged:

        CAIRs lineage goes back to a key Hamas leader (Musa Abu Marzook), and that CAIR has long been connected with, and exploited the 9/11 attacks to raise money for the Holy Land Foundation, a Hamas front group.

        CAIR is heavily supported, financially and otherwise, by suspect Saudi and UAE-based individuals and groups.

        CAIR states that the U.S. judicial system has been kidnapped by Israeli interests, and claims that anti-terror law enforcement action against the Holy Land Foundation was an anti-Muslim witch hunt promoted by the pro-Israel lobby in America.

CAIR refused to respond to Anti-CAIRs discovery requests in its November 2005 response to Rubinstein. For example, it did not admit that Hamas murders innocent civilians, it refused to disclose the identities of its Saudi donors, it declined to answer whether it aims to convert American Christians to Islam, and it avoided questions about the anti-Semitic and anti-American activities of its founder and executive director, Nihad Awad, including his communications with Hamas terrorists, speeches supporting suicide bombings, and advocacy of violence against Jews.

 

In March 2006, shortly before a scheduled court hearing to decide on several of Whiteheads requests (compelling CAIR to disclose its financial data, to answer questions about its relationship with Hamas and other Islamists, and to provide information regarding its leaders activities and intentions), the case was settled and then dismissed with prejudice by stipulation (meaning, the plaintiff has agreed to forever drop all of the claims that were in, or could have been in, the complaint).

 

Asked about these developments, CAIRs spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, confirmed to the New York Sun that the libel case was dismissed at the request of both parties and added that It was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Asked if he implied that Whitehead had paid the organization to drop the case, Hooper replied, We filed the suit. Asked the same question again, Hooper repeated the same answer.

 

Comment:

 

(1) I had a role in this story, for it was my article, Why Is CAIR Suing Anti-CAIR? published only a week after CAIRs initial filing, that brought this case to Reed Rubinsteins attention and led to Greenberg Traurig LLPs serving as Whiteheads wonderfully capable, pro-bono legal counsel.

 

(2) In that initial article, I expressed puzzlement why CAIR would voluntarily expose itself to discovery. Did it file this case expecting to steamroll Whitehead, whom CAIR may have perceived as an easy target, and thereby intimidate its critics? What seemed early on to be a mistake by CAIR is now confirmed as such; it ran into a litigation buzz-saw, and it seems to have cut and run. CAIR preferred the ignominy of walking away from the case it initiated rather than open to public scrutiny its finances, its list of supporters, and the beliefs and intentions of its key leaders.

 

(3) CAIRs November 2005 brief to the court contains several statements of note:

        CAIR has established a status of enviable prestige within highest echelons [sic] of the Washington establishment (p. 3). That is correct and it neatly sums up Sharon Chadhas and my extensive analysis in CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment.

        CAIR stands up for America and speaks out against terrorism in pronouncements to the general public, thereby earning the enmity of the very terrorists Whitehead claims CAIR supports (p. 6). Sounds good, but CAIR did not provide any evidence in its brief of such enmity.

        CAIR has communicated with various members of the United States Senate concerning both the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation. (pp. 27-8) This comes as news. One wonders what information on these two terrorism-funding groups CAIR provided.

        CAIR states that it advised Frontpagemag.com of possible legal action concerning a doctored photograph it employed to illustrate an article written by Whitehead (p. 28). Its amusing that CAIR, which itself famously doctored a photograph, accuses FPM of doing this; in fact, FPM merely posted a graphic, as it often does, one showing Hooper with Hamas figures in the background.

(4) Hooper stated the case settled for an undisclosed amount but did not disclose in which direction that amount went. The terms being confidential, one can only speculate. Perhaps CAIR desperately wanted out of the burdensome, embarrassing, and harmful case it foolishly had initiated? Rubenstein hinted as much when he observed that CAIR became more disposed to settle in late 2005, when a judge was considering what CAIR would have to divulge about its financing and its ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. Rubenstein told the New York Sun that the lawsuit would have opened up CAIRs finances and their relationships and their principles, their ideological motivations in a way they did not want to be made public.

 

(5) According to CAIRs own analysis of Whiteheads initial statements, they impute the commission of a criminal offense by CAIR, in that these suggest CAIR actively supports terrorists, and advocates the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution in favor of Islamic law. It bears noting that none of these words were found to be false, they were not retracted, and they remain posted on Anti-CAIRs website.

 

(6) The collapse of this lawsuit, combined with the even more recent ending of two other CAIR legal actions (versus Cass Ballenger and David Harris), suggests that CAIR is no longer the plaintiff in any court cases; more broadly, what I in 2004 called its pattern of growing litigiousness seems finished.

 

(7) With CAIRs hopes of defeating its opponents in the legal arena at least temporarily defeated, the next step for those of us in North America unwilling to live under Islamic law is to thwart the organizations social and political ambitions. I am doing my part by announcing today the establishment of Islamist Watch, a new project to combat the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries.

 

Frontpagemag.com
April, 2006