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School Choice: Historic developments in KS, FL, AZ, as other states play defense by Leslie Hiner

May 25, 2014/in Education, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation/by Friedman Foundation

Alabama – Stephanie Linn @StephanieJLinn

U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the Alabama Accountability Act on grounds that the school choice program contained within the Act violated equal protection. The Southern Poverty Law Center had filed a lawsuit contending that its clients, students in “failing” public schools, were unable to take advantage of the program because they do not live near a non-failing public school or a participating private school, and, thus, no student in the state should have the ability to participate in the program. The judge issued his opinion stating:

“The requested remedy is arguably mean: Withdraw benefits from those students who can afford to escape non-failing schools. The only remedy requested thus far would leave the plaintiffs in exactly the same situation to which they are currently subject, but with the company of their better-situated classmates. The equal protection requested is, in effect, equally bad treatment.”

In 2013, the Alabama Supreme Court blocked a challenge to the Accountability Act. A separate lawsuit from the Alabama Education Association is still pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

On April 1, the Alabama Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability Committee passed HB 558 that would have amended the Alabama Accountability Act to lift the cap on individual donations and expand the types of entities that could contribute to scholarship granting organizations. The bill died when the Senate adjourned sine die without taking up the bill.

Alaska – Michael Chartier @Mchart1

The legislative session in Alaska was dubbed “The Education Session” by Gov. Sean Parnell (R), and it certainly lived up to that name. The legislation that most interested the Friedman Foundation was Senate Joint Resolution 9, a constitutional amendment that would have removed sections of the state’s Blaine amendment, allowing for a universal voucher system. Unfortunately for the people of Alaska, that amendment did not make it through the legislature. However, the bright spot on the horizon was in the education funding bill. It contained a corporate tax credit for donations to private and religious schools. It is the Friedman Foundation’s hope that money could be used for scholarships for students. Please see our previous coverage of Alaska’s education funding bill for more information on that unique proposal.

Arizona – Leslie Hiner @LeslieHiner

April 23 was a day of victories and defeats for school choice. Here is a summary of significant legislation:

Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed into law HB 2150, which will allow children of active duty military families to enroll in the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program upon being stationed in Arizona; no prior Arizona public school enrollment is necessary.
Gov. Brewer signed into law HB 2139, which expanded the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program to include siblings of current ESA recipients and children with disabilities who are eligible to enroll in a preschool program.
Gov. Brewer vetoed SB 1048, which would have allowed chapter S corporations to contribute to Arizona’s corporate tax-credit scholarship program.
The Senate defeated SB 1236, which would have expanded the ESA to include children living in ZIP Codes where the average income is 185 percent of poverty or less; children of various emergency services personnel and siblings of current scholarship recipients would also have been eligible. It is estimated that more than 100,000 children would have become eligible. A similar bill, HB 2291, was defeated in the House on April 17.
The House passed HB 2328 and sent the bill to Gov. Brewer. This bill removes the requirement that children with disabilities who qualify for Lexie’s Law scholarships must first attend an Arizona public school to qualify for a scholarship. The bill was signed by Gov. Brewer on May 5.

A week later, Gov. Brewer signed into law HB 1237, which added clarifying language to the existing ESA program. Some of the new specifications include:

requiring parents to use a portion of funding for the child’s current educational needs,
specifying that an individual or facility accredited by a state, regional, or national accrediting organization may provide teaching/tutoring service,
clarifying that only children with disabilities may use the ESA for certain therapies, and
improving the funding formula.

Florida – Stephanie Linn @StephanieJLinn

The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill, April 11, to expand the existing tax-credit scholarship program and a new Personal Learning Scholarship Account Program for students with special needs, similar to Arizona’s ESA program. The expansion to the tax-credit scholarship program included increasing the per-student funding amount, increasing student eligibility by raising the limit on household income, and providing eligibility to students in kindergarten and first grade and siblings of students already in the program. Check out our legislative update for more details of the bill.

Kansas – Michael Chartier @Mchart1

Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a school funding bill into law, April 21, that included a provision creating a corporate tax-credit scholarship program. This development ushered Kansas into the school choice club as the 24th state. Low-income children from failing schools are eligible for up to an $8,000 scholarship from approved nonprofits. Corporations that donate to such nonprofits are eligible to receive a 70 percent income tax credit, with the total amount of credits capped at $10 million. Click here for more program details.

Louisiana – Leslie Hiner @LeslieHiner

On April 10, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court ruling denying parents the right to intervene in the Department of Justice request for injunction against the Louisiana voucher program in the decades-old desegregation case, Brumfield v Dodd, 405 F. Supp. 338 (E.D. La. 1975). Parents now have the right to intervene in the case.

Mississippi – Stephanie Linn @StephanieJLinn

The Mississippi House voted down an ESA bill for students with special needs by a vote of 57-63 on April 2. House sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Crawford said she intends to file the bill again next year.

New Hampshire – Leslie Hiner @LeslieHiner

The New Hampshire Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Duncan v. State of New Hampshire on April 16. This case positions individuals represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans United For Separation of Church and State (AU) against the state’s new tax-credit scholarship program, that is currently serving well over 100 students in schools of their choice. Check out our explanation of that lawsuit here.

Oklahoma – Leslie Hiner @LeslieHiner

On April 24, the House passed HB 2643, enlarging Oklahoma’s Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship program, making sub-chapter S corporations eligible for participation and providing a 75 percent state tax credit to those donors who commit to give for three years. The House dissented in Senate amendments, and the bill is currently in conference committee.

Tennessee – Stephanie Linn @StephanieJLinn

A voucher bill backed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R) made great progress in the Tennessee legislature, but the bill failed to garner enough support to make it over the finish line.

On April 10 the Senate passed the Tennessee Choice & Opportunity Scholarship Act, SB 196, a voucher program capped at 5,000 students in the first year of operation. If the bill had passed, students from low-income households who attend a “failing” public school would be given the first opportunity to receive a voucher. If remaining spots were available, students from low-income households in districts containing failing schools would be eligible to apply. The House companion bill, HB 190, stalled in the House Finance Committee. The bill sponsor, Rep. Bill Dunn, withdrew the bill citing a lack of support in the committee.

ABOUT LESLIE HINER

Leslie Hiner serves as the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice’s Vice President of Programs and State Relations. She also serves on the Schools That Can National Advisory Board. She is an appointee to the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights Indiana State Advisory Committee, and also serves as an appointee to the Indianapolis City-County Ethics Commission.

The Congressmen Who Lied About WMD in Iraq

May 25, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Dave Gaubatz

I love America, I served our country in the US Air Force for 24 years, went into war (Iraq/2003), would have sacrificed my life for the innocent Muslims in Iraq who were being slaughtered by Saddam, and to this day I devote myself to doing the little bit I can to educate people on the dangers of Islam and Shariah law.

To this day I still get emails and phone calls about the issue of WMD in Iraq. Although this is now going on eleven years since we went into Iraq to hunt for WMD, it is still as important an issue for me today as it was in 2003. Most people do not know the truth about WMD in Iraq. I believe President Bush was betrayed by senior U.S. officials who were on the ground in Iraq and supposed to be carrying out a high priority mission of searching for WMD.

I was sent into Iraq for two primary objectives. One was to hunt the Saddam supporters, and the second was to search for WMD. I was in southern Iraq and numerous Iraqi’s risked their lives to provide information about WMD sites. There were four primary sites identified near Nasiriyah, Iraq. My team and I reported our information to the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) in Baghdad. We needed heavy equipment and personnel to excavate the four sites. The Iraqi’s from different backgrounds said if the U.S. doesn’t excavate the WMD, then insurgents from Iran would do so, and some would go to Syria. After repeated requests to the ISG, the sites were never excavated. In late 2003, President Bush says the hunt for WMD is over.

When I returned from Iraq in the summer of 2003, I left federal service because I wanted to go public about the suspected sites in Iraq that were never searched. I was informed by U.S. Federal Agents that some of the Iraqi’s who had identified the sites had been killed by Saddam forces and Al Qaeda. I have always said I don’t know if there was WMD in Iraq, but I do know that sites the ISG team told President Bush were excavated, in reality were not.

In early 2004 a prominent journalist who is still active today contacted me. He wanted to do a TV interview about WMD in Iraq. The interview was aired. This journalist again contacted me and wanted me to meet with a U.S. Congressman to provide all of the details about WMD. For 24 years I had not been aware of the major differences between Republicans and Democrats. I just loved my country and would have gave my life for any Commander in Chief, regardless of political views.

The journalist said Congressman Curt Weldon (R – PA) wanted to meet with me. I was flown to DC. I met Congressman Weldon and gave him all of the intelligence about WMD and how to verify my information. While in Iraq I had written several classified intelligence reports and a Congressman could easily obtain them. Weldon obtained the reports and this verified my information. Weldon was very excited and he wanted Congressman Pete Hoekstra to speak with me. This occurred. Weldon and his Chief of Staff Russ Caso then wanted me to arrange to have one of the Iraqi’s who had identified one site, to come to DC and meet with him and Hoekstra.

You can see the emails between Caso, Weldon, and I about bringing the Iraqi to Weldon’s office. After Weldon met the Iraqi he came up with a plan for us to travel to Iraq, go to the suspected WMD sites and then have a team excavate the sites. Weldon said if WMD is found we will inform the media, but if nothing is found no one would be informed. He said the trip to Iraq would be setup as a visit of the troops. Weldon and Hoekstra informed me that no other politician should be told about this, not anyone in the military and especially no one from the CIA.

Weldon went on to say we would bring four of the Iraqi informants along to Iraq. They had been granted asylum in America because of their assistance to our country. Weldon said the Iraqis would likely not be able to return from Iraq because their asylum stated they could not return to Iraq, and if they did they would lose their asylum. I told Weldon and Caso that I did not want to be part of any scenario that would put the Iraqi’s in danger. They had saved many American lives and I would not take them to Iraq, left, and definitely to be killed by Al Qaeda. This upset Weldon, Hoekstra, and Caso. I cancelled the trip back to Iraq.

A sampling of the emails from Caso and Weldon to me about bringing the Iraqi’s to his office and the trip to Iraq:

Dave,

Please contact him and I can go pick him up. Also please give me a call when you get a minute at 202-225-xxxx..

Thanks

Russ

—–Original Message—–
From: curtpa07
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 11:05 AM
To: Caso, Russell
Subject: Fw: Updated info Gaubatz

Please arrange this for me tomorrow

—–Original Message—–
From: dave gaubatz <pdgaubatz@yahoo.com>
To: curtpa07 <curtpa07@mail.house.gov>
Sent: Wed May 03 11:03:49 2006
Subject: Re: Updated info Gaubatz

Yes Sir, I can contact him now. I do not know if he has transportation, would there be any possibility for a car to pick him up? .If you tell me
what time, I know he would want to speak with you. He id’d the site in Basra. He speaks English pretty good, but his wife speaks perfect English (she was an Iraqi Doctor). It might be good for her to come also. thank
you, Dave Gaubatz

curtpa07 <curtpa07@mail.house.gov> wrote:

Dave,

Can I meet with him privately tomorrow?

Thanks,

Curt

—–Original Message—–
From: dave gaubatz <pdgaubatz@yahoo.com>
To: curtpa07 <curtpa07@mail.house.gov>
Sent: Wed May 03 10:52:01 2006
Subject: Updated info Gaubatz

Congressman Weldon,

Below is additional information: Hassan XXXX (former Nasiriyah and Basra Iraqi Police Captain) was granted humanitarian parole (political asylum) in 2003 by the U.S. State Department partly due to his information he provided on one of the WMD sites near Nasiriyah. He risked his life to take me to a site. He lives in Washington DC with his family and would assist by going to sites as well. He is very familiar with the locations and understands the people from the area. He would be good for language and safety issues as well. thank you, Dave Gaubatz

I have numerous emails from Weldon and Caso. I have again reported on this matter because I know there is a high probability insurgents from Syria and Iran excavated the WMD in Iraq, and there is a high probability it will be used against innocent people. Possibly some of it was used against Syrians by the Syrian government. I also believe it is important for people to know that I do not play the politics card. Regardless if one is a Democrat or Republican, if they put our country in danger I will expose them.

It should be noted that during our out processing from Iraq we had to have a medical checkup. My medical report says I was exposed to high levels of radiation and the water in Iraq had high levels of radiation.

While the media goes wild about an 82 year old owner of an NBA team (Clippers) going on a racist rant, we have Islamic terrorists who will likely use WMD inside our country. Where are our priorities?

US lawmakers pressure Obama to grant asylum to Christian Sudanese mom sentenced to death for leaving Islam

May 25, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News, Policy, Politics/by Jihad Watch

Why aren’t all the Muslim spokesmen in the West, who claim that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others), jetting to Khartoum now to explain to Sudanese authorities that they are misunderstanders of Islam and must release Meriam Yehya Ibrahim immediately?

One wonders: why, if it is so clear that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, do so many Muslims misunderstand that? And why is it “Islamophobia” to point out that so many don’t seem to get the memo?

Muhammad said: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57).

“US Lawmakers Pressure Obama Administration to Grant Asylum to Christian Sudanese Mom Sentenced to Death,” Chinatopix, May 24, 2014:

Lawmakers in the US are calling on the Obama team to provide asylum to a pregnant Sudanese wife of an American citizen after she was sentenced to death for upholding her Christian faith.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim has been imprisoned with her 20-month-old son for over three months because she refused to recant her Christianity. Last week, a Khartoum judge stirred international condemnation by sentencing the 27-year-old mom to death by hanging after giving birth and nursing her baby for two years, wrote Fox News.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Marco Rubio said he was shocked with the “inhumane verdict” given to Ibrahim. GOP senators Roy Blunt and Kelly Ayotte have already sent two letters to the White House requesting for “immediate action” and political asylum for Ibrahim and her child.

On Wednesday, four senators filed a resolution condemning the death sentence and urging Sudan to respect their people’s religious freedom in order to restore their ties with the US or reduce their economic sanctions. Republican Jim Inhofe and Democrats Chris Coons and Bob Menendez co-sponsored the said resolution.

Ibrahim was raised as a Christian when her Muslim father abandoned the family when she was still a child and has now been charged by the Sudanese court has charged with apostasy, or leaving Islam. In some Muslim countries, this crime has a corresponding death penalty.

Ibrahim was also sentenced to receive 100 lashes after she gives birth, for adultery, for having relations with her Christian husband. Her lawyers said the eight-months-pregnant woman is chained by her feet in jail.

Jen Psaki, the State Department’s spokesperson, said the Obama team is doing their best on Ibrahim’s case.

Daniel Wani, Ibrahim’s husband, is confined to a wheelchair and is fully dependent on his wife for everything, the lawyer explained. Wani said he called the US Embassy in Khartoum before the death sentence, but the embassy showed no interest in their problem.

After stating that his son was an American citizen, he was asked to present DNA evidence. He conceded and provided their wedding documents and his son’s birth certificates as additional evidence, but Wani said the embassy still did not offer any help.

Ibrahim’s case is being further complicated by political forces in her country. According to Sudanese Parliament speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen, it is not true that Ibrahim was raised as a non-Muslim and added that it was her Muslim brother who filed the complaint against her….

Oklahoma Could Be First to Really Dump Common Core

May 25, 2014/in Education, Must Read, News, Policy, Regulation/by Mercedes Schneider

On May 23, 2014, both the Oklahoma House (71-18) and Senate (31-10) voted to dump the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

All that is left is for Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to sign the legislation, HB 3399, into law. (Fallin was not governor when Oklahoma signed on for CCSS as part of Race to the Top {RTTT} in 2010.)

In December 2013, Fallin issued an executive order that included absorbing the term Common Core into the broader term, Oklahoma Academic Standards.

Fallin also noted that the Oklahoma legislature aligned its education legislation with CCSS and even included the language to align Oklahoma’s English Language Arts (ELA) and math standards “with the K-12 Common Core State Standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative.”

The Oklahoma legislature might have approved CCSS effective August 1, 2010, but it has apparently reversed its decision on May 23, 2014.

This is no “rebrand,” folks. HB 3399 appears to be a genuine rejection of CCSS.

Here is some of the language from the bill:

Section 11-103.6a B.1. …To be considered college- and career-ready, the standards shall be evaluated by the State Department of Education, the State Regents for Higher Education, the State Board of Career and Technology Education and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and be determined to be such that the standards will address the goals of reducing the need for remedial coursework at the postsecondary level and increasing successful completion of postsecondary education. The subject matter standards and corresponding student assessments for English Language Arts and Mathematics shall be solely approved and controlled by the state through the State Board of Education.

2. Upon the effective date of this act, the State Board of Education shall begin the process of adopting the English Language Arts and Mathematics standards and shall provide reasonable opportunity, consistent with best practices, for public comment on the revision of the standards, including but not limited to comments from students, parents, educators, organizations representing students with disabilities and English language learners, higher education representatives, career technology education representatives, subject matter experts, community-based organizations, Native American tribal representatives and businesscommunity representatives.

3. Until the statewide student assessments for English Language
Arts and Mathematics are implemented… the State Board of Education shallimplement the subject matter standards for English Language Arts andMathematics which were in place prior to the revisions adopted by the Board in June 2010. [Emphasis added.]

In short, until the new Oklahoma standards and associated assessments are ready (“on or before the 2017-18 school year”), Oklahoma will return to the math and English Language Arts (ELA) standards in place prior to CCSS completion in June 2010.

(An aside: Oklahoma’s appendices for its Phase 1 RTTT application shows impressive effort to establish its case for both national and international benchmarking of the College and Career Readiness Standards {CCRS} in math– the “anchor” math standards that were never finalized and just disappeared. Oklahoma also tried to show that CCRS math fit in with CCSS precursor, the American Diploma Project. Furthermore, RTTT Phase 1 reviewer comments indicate that Oklahoma submitted a CCSS MOU though I could not find it in the 900-page RTTT appendices and that Oklahoma “has initiated procedures for adoption of Common Core Standards well before August, 2010.” Oklahoma’s Phase 2 appendices clearly states the intention of CCSS adoption later effected by Oklahoma 2010 SB 2033.)

On May 23, 2014, the Oklahoma legislature clarifies that there are to be no more memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between Oklahoma and federal government, indicating that the Oklahoma legislature intends to be the legal authority over Oklahoma public education:

D. 1. The State Board of Education shall not enter into any
agreement, memorandum of understanding or contract with any federal agency or private entity which in any way cedes or limits state discretion or control over the process of development, adoption or revision of subject matter standards and corresponding student assessments in the public school system, including, but not limited to, agreements, memoranda of understanding and contracts in exchange for funding for public schools and programs. If the State Board ofEducation is a party to such an agreement, memorandum of understanding or contract on the effective date of this act, the State Board of Education shall initiate necessary efforts to amend the agreement, memorandum of understanding or contract to comply with the requirements of this subsection. [Emphasis added.]

For all of its efforts to meet federal, RTTT criteria (and it did try– reading the RTTT docs shows OK’s willingness to bend), Oklahoma did not receive RTTT funding.

However, it seems that in drafting the CCSS-exit legislation, 2014 Oklahoma lawmakers are taking no chances.

The newly-approved bill continues with stating that the state board of education can still seek waivers (presumably from No Child Left Behind {NCLB}) provided such waivers do not limit state authority over education standards or assessments. Furthermore, the bill does not prohibit benchmarking Oklahoma standards with other states or nations, but it does require the Oklahoma State Board of Education to “maintain independence” and not “relinquish authority.”

HB 3399 states that Oklahoma school districts will “exclusively determine… instruction… and curriculum.”

Also, the Oklahoma State Board of Education may participate in a testing consortium “but shall not bind the state, contractually or otherwise, to the authority of any other state, organization or entity which may supersede the authority of the Board….” In other words, Oklahoma must be free to exit any testing consortium if it wishes.

Another interesting component of HB 3399 concerns both academic standard content and related standardized testing content, thereby guarding against testing companies such as Pearson sneaking questions that have nothing to do with a given subject area into its subject-area tests. To such shady practices, Oklahoma lawmakers say “no”:

H.1. All subject matter standards and corresponding statewide student assessments adopted by the State Board of Education shall be carefully circumscribed to reflect direct application to subject matter proficiency and shall not include standards or assessment questions that are designed to collect or measure noncognitive, emotional or psychological characteristics, attributes or skills of students.

As for the creation of a new set of Oklahoma standards for math and ELA, HB 3399 includes the following stipulations:

Section 11-103.6 A.6. The subject matter standards for English Language Arts shall give Classic Literature and nonfiction literature equal consideration to other literature. In addition, emphasis shall be given to the study of complete works of literature.

7. At a minimum, the subject matter standards for mathematics shall require mastery of the standard algorithms in mathematics, which is the most logical, efficient way of solving a problem that consistently works, and for students to attain fluency in Euclidian geometry. [Emphasis added.]

At the end of two years, the new Oklahoma standards are to be compared to the “previous” CCSS across numerous criteria, including subject matter content, sequencing, developmental appropriateness, measurability, and development of critical thinking.

If this were merely an effort at “rebranding,” the turn-around would certainly be faster than three years and three months, and there would be no return to previous, state standards in the interim.

Now Oklahoma only needs a signature from its governor– a governor willing in December 2013 to try for a CCSS “rebrand.”

Fallin has until June 2, 2014– fifteen days following the may 23, 2014, adjournment of the Oklahoma legislative session– to sign the bill. Otherwise, her not signing is know as a pocket veto– the decision to take no action. The bill would die unless the Oklahoma legislature calls a special session.

This will certainly be one to watch.

Terrorist Attack on Brussels Jewish Museum Triggered by “Climate of Hate”

May 24, 2014/in Culture War, Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

Policemen close the access of the scene of a shooting near the Jewish Museum in Brussels, on May 24, 2014. Three people were killed and one badly injured in a shooting Saturday near the Jewish Museum in Brussels. (Photo credit: AFP/ Belga Photo/NICOLAS MAETERLINCK

Reports have just come in about a possible terrorist attack on The Jewish Museum in Brussels by a perpetrator and accomplice, one of whom entered the lobby and shot dead two men and a woman seriously injuring a fourth person.. The attack took place in mid afternoon, GMT, not far from the EU headquarters in Belgium’s Capital city. The Jewish Museum, which is not operated by the country’s Jewish community, was open on Saturday and is located in the antique district popular with visitors.

The recent ADL Global 100 Index of Antisemitism indicated that an estimated 27% of Belgians evinced some form of Antisemitism. Belgium has a large emigre Muslim community. A 2008 study estimated that 6% of Belgian’s population, 628,751 were Muslim. A November 2012 Gatestone Institute article by Soeren Kern, “Belgium Will Become an Islamic State” drew attention to Muslim dominance in Brussels, noting:

Speaking to a reporter from Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), the public broadcasting service of the French-speaking part of Belgium, Ahrouch said: “The agenda is still the same, but our approach is different now. I think we have to sensitize people, make them understand the advantages to having Islamic people and Islamic laws. And then it will be completely natural to have Islamic laws and we will become an Islamic state.”

The reporter interjected: “An Islamic State in Belgium?” Ahrouch replied: “In Belgium, of course! I am for the Sharia. Islamic law, I am for it. It is a long-term struggle that will take decades or a century, but the movement has been launched.”

The rise of the Islam Party comes amid a burgeoning Muslim population in the Belgian capital. Muslims now make up one-quarter of the population of Brussels, according to a book recently published by the Catholic University of Leuven, the top Dutch-language university in Belgium.

In real terms, the number of Muslims in Brussels — where half of the number of Muslims in Belgium currently live — has reached 300,000, which means that the self-styled “Capital of Europe” is one of the most Islamic city in Europe.

Here are excerpts from the Times of Israel report, ‘Climate of hate’ blamed for attack on Brussels Jewish museum that kills 3″:

The murder of three people at the Brussels Jewish Museum Saturday afternoon was a result of “a climate of hate,” said Joel Rubinfeld, the head of the Belgian League against anti-Semitism.

Rubinfeld told AFP it clearly “is a terrorist act” as a man had been seen driving up and entering the museum before opening fire inside and running off.

One person remained in critical condition as a result of the shooting. Twelve people were being treated for shock, according to local sources.

“Two women and one man are dead, a third person is in hospital,” Interior Minister Joelle Milquet said at the scene. “We don’t yet know if they were tourists or staff, they haven’t been identified.”

Asked whether she believed it was an anti-Semitic attack, she said it was too early to say as a police and judicial inquiry was under way but that given the target “there are strong grounds for presuming so”.

One man was reported in custody after the attack.

Milquet said the government had moved to increase protection at Jewish buildings as well as the Israeli embassy.

The country’s foreign minister, Didier Reynders, tweeted Saturday that he was “shocked by the murders committed at the Jewish museum.”

“I am thinking of the victims I saw there and their families,” he said.

Forensic experts examine the site of a shooting at the Jewish museum in Brussels, Saturday, May 24, 2014. (Photo credit: AP/Yves Logghe)

The La Libre newspaper said on its website that an Audi had driven up and parked outside the museum, and that both a passenger and the driver had gotten out.

It said the driver placed two bags on the ground and then opened fire on bystanders before driving off.

“A person wearing a backpack was seen opening fire before fleeing,” Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) reported [in French].

Police and emergency services were at the site, which was blocked off in the Belgian capital.

The Jewish Museum of Belgium, which was not answering calls, is located in the heart of the Sablon district which is home to the city’s top antique dealers. The area is a popular weekend haunt for shoppers.

The museum is not run by the Jewish community, and is therefore open on Saturdays. There were visitors at the museum at the time of the shooting.

The head of Belgium’s Jewish Consistory told La Libre that “is is probably a terrorist act. For us it is an extremely serious act.”

Read more: ‘Climate of hate’ blamed for attack on Brussels Jewish museum that kills 3 | The Times of Israel

<[youtube]http://youtu.be/aNWeLZARCUI[/youtube]

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

National Council on Teacher Quality Gets Caught in a Data Collecting Lie

May 24, 2014/in Education, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Mercedes Schneider

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) will be “grading” university-level, traditional teacher training programs again soon.

Last year, 2013, they released this report on June 18. They “grade” in a superficial manner, relying upon program artifacts to form skewed judgments– judgments that they publish in US News and World Report and that are meant to damage the credibility of traditional teacher training in favor of the privatization of American public education. Just consider who ends up on their advisory board. (For example, in a profound irony, NCTQ’s board even includes five-weeks-of-training, temporary-teacher organization Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp.)

Georgia State University Professor Emeritus of Science Education Jack Hassard had this to note about reading NCTQ’s “report” on traditional teacher training programs:

When you read the NCTQ report it seems as if teacher prep institutions are the enemy. …All of the data come from paper or online documents. None involved interviews or discussions with people at the teacher prep institutions. As hard as this is believe, it is the pattern that the NCTQ has followed since it was formed by the Thomas Fordham Institute. [Emphasis added.]

Passing maligned judgment is what NCTQ does. And because their reporting is done with much fanfare and is backed by reformer cash (Gates alone has paid NCTQ $11 million since 2005), the public views NCTQ as a credible source for information on teacher education.

NCTQ is the creation of the Fordham Institute, a pro-privatization organization that is pushing hard for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), having itself taken over $6 million from Gates, $2 million of which is earmarked for the CCSS push. Fordham Institute’s VP Mike Petrilli is even willing to tell states with comparable or better standards that they should retain CCSS.

Back to NCTQ’s shallow “reviews” of teacher training:

The beauty of NCTQ’s grading teacher training programs based upon artifacts (as opposed to on-site observations and in-person, open communication with the evaluated programs) is that NCTQ is still able to complete its “evaluations” even when programs do not wish to participate.

As far as non-accredited, self-appointed traditional-teacher-training policeman NCTQ is concerned, programs are not allowed to refuse the NCTQ intrusion.

NCTQ insists upon gathering teacher training program artifacts, and it will resort to deceptive tactics to get those artifacts.

Consider this email sent to a Fordham University teacher education professor even today (May 23, 2014). The entire account was forwarded to me by Fordham University Associate Professor John Craven. (Note: Fordham University is not affiliated with the Fordham Institute):

Dear Professor **,

I was informed you would be able to assist me. My daughter is currently looking at different grad programs. Being a teacher myself, I have a question about the student teaching aspect of the program. I was on the school website and couldn’t find how many formal observations are conducted by the university supervisor during the student teaching semester. Could you please elaborate on this?

Thank you.

Emilie Baker [Emphasis added.]

An odd email: A teacher “parent” writing on behalf of a college-age “student” and singling out the number of formal observations??

The Fordham professor to whom this email was addressed wrote the following to Craven and others:

I’m pretty sure this would be an attempt to get information from us for NCTQ (or similar) purposes. Have any of you received something similar?

Teacher training faculty are apparently alert to NCTQ’s tactics.

Craven responded to “Emilie Baker” on behalf of the initial Fordham faculty member:

Dear Ms. Baker,

As coordinator, I’ve been forwarded a request you recently made regarding our program. Firstly, let me thank you for your interest in our programs at Fordham. Secondly, I understand you are seeking to better understand our clinically rich programs (funded by NYSED) and scholarship opportunities for initial certification. It would be my pleasure to mail you a copy of our scholarship program, student handbook, and requirements for field experiences. Following internal policies, I need to send hard copies of these materials to interested prospects and potential applicants. Accordingly, can you please indicate where you would like these materials sent? I’ll have my graduate assistant send out the information immediately upon our response to this email. Again, thank you for your interest in the programs at Fordham.

“Emilie Baker” offers the following response– including an address:

Great, thanks so much! I’d like it all sent to the following address:

Andrew McCorry

1823 W. Henderson St, #3

Chicago, IL 60657

Well, now. Who is Andrew McCorry in Chicago?

Craven investigated and uncovered the following Linkedin bio:

Andrew McCorry
Research Analyst at National Council on Teacher Quality

Greater Chicago Area

Nonprofit Organization Management

Uh oh. Looks like NCTQ has been found out.

As for “Emilie Baker”: No information that clearly connects her to NCTQ is available. However, NCTQ is known for hiring students to collect teacher training program artifacts (as noted in these Central Washington University October 2011 meeting minutes).

In his review of the 2013 NCTQ “report,” Hassard notes the unorthodox “student solicitation” role:

…I’ve never read a study in which researchers demanded cooperation from the research participants. The NCTQ policy is very clear. If you don’t give us what we want we’ll use legal means to get it. They also “reached out” to a few students to supply materials that were requested from the administration.

The so-called NCTQ researchers not only resort to coercive strategies to get data (syllabi, curriculum, etc.), but you get the feeling that they snoop around universities, trying to find what texts are used by bookstore shopping.

The NCTQ “snooping” apparently incorporates direct-yet-deceptive solicitation of information from university departments of education.

NCTQ should really better “train” its information gatherers in their would-be-deceptive practices.

Otherwise, they might reveal more information about NCTQ than they manage to gather– and that NCTQ “research analyst” Andrew McCorry might prefer.

The Good Thing About the Donald Sterling Incident by Michael Nolan

May 24, 2014/in Culture War, Must Read, News/by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

The NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers have become relevant for the first time in decades. They came to dominate the news, however, because their long-reviled owner’s stark racism finally handed a smoking gun to somebody. It figures that, just as they got a taste of the on-court success Donald Sterling never seemed all that concerned with bringing to them, he one-upped them off the court.

In case you don’t know, a tape of Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to his games or to advertise that she associates with them was leaked to TMZ last weekend.

This page will give you all the detail you want on the case. Or type “Sterling Clippers” into Google and buckle in.

Of course Sterling’s comments are despicable. They’re so blatant and blunt, I admit my first reaction was astonishment that anyone holding such racist thoughts would say them out loud. I thought they had to be fakes. But they didn’t leave any room for doubt.

Heck, I wondered how anyone could get up in arms about Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson? I’m from the land of Larry Bird (that’s “Larry Legend” to you) and I still love Magic.

Well, the tape wasn’t a fake. So this is one of the rare, cut-and-dried instances where it’s easy to call “racism.” There’s nothing else to call it. High-profile racial controversies are rarely so simply a matter of good guys/bad guys. That doesn’t stop people from coming out of the woodwork to portray them as such and, in the process, try to spread guilt far and wide.

So it’s kind of a relief that, in this case, there’s no real danger of that. There’s still a difficult question: How do you deal with a racist? It’s a lot more complicated than it sounds; front-office employees might have had a lot fewer options than the players. Sterling might have been little more than a tyrannical boss—everyone, sooner or later, has to learn to put up with one of those—about whom nasty rumors floated. Now they aren’t rumors.

The key is that now we can prove he acted on his racism. It wouldn’t be totally okay if he just harbored these feelings. But at least keeping them inside constrains action to some degree. That doesn’t apply here. This case is, if anything, actually encouraging.

Here’s why: Within hours, the people who do business with Sterling—starting with the players and coach who sell tickets and jerseys and stake him to a slice of the ever-more-lucrative broadcast rights pie—brought the full weight of their social power to bear against him.

Around here, we tend to like spontaneous action. Well, here it is.

The labor-vs.-management framework sportswriters like to apply to collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations usually rings a little hollow. We’re not talking about miners asking not to be killed at work only to see Pinkerton agents set loose on them with clubs and guns.

But in this case, the labor side (well, the one that anyone notices, and the one with leverage) took control of the situation. Active and former players took their protests directly to the public—in interviews, via Twitter and other social media outlets—and made it clear they could and would inflict massive damage on the NBA if management got away with this behavior.

Even former players, like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson (Jordan is part owner of another NBA team, Johnson part owner of baseball’s L.A. Dodgers)—two media-savvy guys if ever there were any—used their platforms to bring pressure. LeBron James took the gloves off, and he’s still playing.

Other owners also got into the act, only hedging a little about the authenticity of the tape—Sterling’s a litigious sort and likely to start filing lawsuits if there’s even a whiff of defamation.

Sponsors moved away as quickly as they could, too.

More to the point, the Clippers were set to boycott their Monday-night playoff game. Apparently all the other teams playing that night were ready also. I don’t know what U.S. labor laws—which tend to have a lot of strict, complex rules about strikes—would say about this. I don’t know if the players even cared about that. It doesn’t look like they did, and that’s how it should be.

Then, of course, NBA commissioner Adam Silver dropped the hammer. I didn’t know until this story broke that there was such a thing as an NBA Constitution; apparently it’s a secret document only the owners get to see. But it does allow them to force an owner out of the league.

I’m among those who’d like to see racism completely eradicated from human society. I doubt that’s a realistic goal, but then neither is permanent peace, justice, and prosperity, and yet I still want those things.

But the approach to that eradication is everything. Consider some extreme scenarios: If mind-control chips could be installed in every potential bigot, the monetary costs would amount to nothing next to all the others (social, psychological, you name it). A couple steps back from that extreme, maybe allowing the State to execute, immediately, anyone who could be shown to have the “wrong” opinions (bigotry, homophobia, violent religious extremism, approval of the New England Patriots) would at least make everyone clam up about it. But then the fights over who got to be in charge would be even more vicious and divisive than U.S. politics are already. You think arguments over school curricula or who gets to say what a marriage is are nasty?

I don’t think outcomes such as these are very likely, and I doubt anyone else does, either. But informal mechanisms of imposing costs on these kinds of attitudes tend to get short shrift. After all, if there’s a controversy big enough to break out of the sports pages, politicians are going to get a whiff of it and elbow their way to the front of the pack in responding to it.

I’m aware that a politician was involved here; the players turned to former NBA player and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson for some advice and leadership. That’s a far different scenario. Johnson, after all, was a former player. And he has a lot more experience in crisis management, negotiation, leadership, and a host of other skills than NBA players—who’ve spend most of their lives honing their playing abilities and anyway still have work to do—are likely to have.

Maybe someone would want to mount some kind of First Amendment argument here. But that’s bogus: The NBA’s relationship to the State is, like that of every other sports league in the United States, pretty murky and distasteful. It still remains a private organization. Private organizations should get a very wide berth to choose the people with whom they’ll do business, and who gets let in. That should include giving the boot to a guy this far beyond the pale. Those fleeing sponsors? Well, they were exercising their First Amendment rights, too.

But the point is, this isn’t an issue of the State punishing or restricting anyone’s speech. The First Amendment protects people who object as much as it does people saying objectionable things. The only meaningful constraints there have to do with matters of civility and etiquette—which the league values—and Sterling had already placed himself well outside of that kind of consideration.

I know there are people who are frustrated—at the very least—that when Sterling sells, he’s going to make a huge profit on the purchase, aside from whatever he’s pocketed since he bought the team in 1982. I’d bet there are plenty of people who want the team simply taken from him, along with the $2.5 million fine.

And it’s galling that he’s still going to be rich—and probably still a cro-magnon bigot—after all of this shakes out. It’s galling whenever lousy people get rich. This is why it was so easy to pass off the narrative that 2008 was only about Wall Street sleazeballs, and why, even though I don’t buy that narrative, I don’t sympathize with those Wall Street sleazeballs. It takes an effort to remind myself that “Wall Street” and “sleazeballs” aren’t actually 100 percent synonymous. That’s bias on my part.

The NBA can’t address the infuriating fact that bad people prosper sometimes. But the important point is that they shouldn’t. Because rules matter, and the more freedom people have to draw up the rules by which they’ll associate, the more flexibility societies have to address both desires and problems on whatever scale they occur. On the one hand, this is why it’s good to be able to move to another state if you don’t like the regime in your current one. On the other, it’s why the feds are maybe the worst people to, say, weigh in on the proper interpretation of the bylaws of a local Masonic Lodge.

It’s reassuring that the NBA has rules in place that do not restrain it from doing something in a case like this. And, as bad a name as profit has, it’s also doing its backstopping work: If the rules hadn’t allowed the NBA to address this situation this way, well, the players could have hit the owners and the league right where it hurts and walked off the court. There’s no telling if they would have been able to recoup any losses they might have incurred that way. I’m not clear what the rules are on that point. But kudos to every player willing to go to the wall about that; I’d bet they didn’t spend a ton of time reading bylaws and contract clauses, and that’s as it should be.

As a final note, I thought Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, showed a lot of guts. I can see why people in the league (and fans of the rival San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets) might find the guy obnoxious, and I don’t know enough about him to give him any sort of blanket endorsement. But I do like his willingness to go out in public and poke the NBA (and the NFL, even, which I think was recently granted its own SWAT team) when he thinks something stinks. He doesn’t seem intimidated by the imperious, authoritarian air that pro sports league offices tend to cultivate.

But he aired a concern that, in its complexity, is probably familiar to every libertarian who’s ever so much as thought about states’ rights and had to confront the very real likelihood that, in response, people will accuse him of being pro-slavery and worse. Here’s his statement:

“What Donald said was wrong. It was abhorrent,” Cuban said. “There’s no place for racism in the NBA, any business I’m associated with. But at the same time, that’s a decision I make. I think you’ve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It’s a very, very slippery slope.”

There’s always a danger—and it’s heightened in a case like this one, where the person in question was so blatantly, despicably clear about it—in letting the emotional reaction carry the day and calling for someone’s head. I can imagine someone wanting that literally to be taken from Sterling. I can’t blame them. And I don’t see any problem at all with emotions getting involved here. But Cuban’s exactly the sort of guy who, if the NBA is given blanket permission to punish at will for whatever they don’t like about an owner, would be . . . well, he’d still be doing other stuff, a lot of which at least sounds cool. But he’d be kicked out of the league faster than you can say “Mavericks’ maverick owner.”

So I give him credit here for making this point, even at the risk of some opportunist jumping on his statement as evidence that he doesn’t really hate racism—and therefore is probably a racist himself. Or that he actually defended Sterling, which . . . well, go reread that quote.

But he makes a point about rules and the importance of people being able to form and change them in private groups, and hopefully to serve all members of those groups. I hope this topic comes up more in the following weeks, as the NBA maneuvers to rid itself of Sterling and avoid an avalanche of lawsuits.

But for now, this story is the main headline (warning: Maybe Not Safe for Work). And the secondary header is that nobody was just going to submit to whatever solution their “leaders” or our rulers came up with.

Utterly eliminating racism—like, even in its faintest shades, from the innermost hearts of everyone—isn’t easy; it might not be possible. But bigotry can be made a lot more expensive. Too expensive, even, for a guy who hands out Bentleys like other people bum cigarettes.

ABOUT MICHAEL NOLAN

Michael Nolan is the managing editor of The Freeman.

Democracy Inaction: Who would be a politician?

May 23, 2014/in Must Read, News, Politics/by Henry Jackson Society

Who would be a politician? It’s a serious question. At the best of times politicians face an unpleasant set of challenges. They work ungainly hours. They have to live under permanent public and media scrutiny. And they have to smile and nod while members of the public address stupid remarks to them. In Britain, even the manner in which a party leader might eat a bacon sandwich has opened up as a potential avenue for criticism.

But if the lot of politicians has always looked poor, the situation has just got a whole lot worse. Because having lived through an age of comparative political indifference, we now seem to have entered an era of anti-politics. Across Europe people are casting their votes, and an increasing number of votes seem to be going to anti-politics politicians. This leads to several conundrums, not least: what does an anti-politics candidate do once they become a politician themselves?

But the bigger question is for the political mainstream. Because it is no good for mainstream politicians to condemn the public for not voting for them, or to say that the public are voting for the wrong people for the wrong reasons. In recent years the whole relationship between politicians and the public has suffered a number of terrible blows. Some, like the British Parliamentary expenses scandal, are specific. Others, are the result of too much being promised and too little being delivered. But whatever the cause, an increasing number of people are showing themselves willing to vote for absolutely anyone, so long as they promise to be opposed to the mainstream political class which they rightly or wrongly deem to hold sway.

Of course relationship breakdowns of this kind cannot be rectified overnight. But this one is too important to leave broken. One way to start mending it is for politicians to be far more honest about what they can and cannot achieve. From Barack Obama and other Western leaders, the world can hear many lofty speeches. It is sometimes even possible for a moment to be carried aloft on their words. But then, when it turns out that the new Jerusalem hasn’t just been ushered in, the elected politician may hope that nobody has noticed, but we do notice. And remember.

In this age of globalization it is especially necessary to say what is simply not in our control. This may be a humbling process, but it may prove more and more necessary. Politicians could improve their lot significantly if they were more frank about the world that we live in. It is a world where a mortgage financing problem in America can trigger a worldwide recession and where a law may have been passed in Brussels without ever having come before any politician in Westminster. It may sound like a risky strategy, but it is a vital one. Anti-politics comes from a sense that politicians are lying to the people. One solution for that problem is for politicians to tell more truths to the public: especially difficult truths. And among the unpalatable truths they may venture to say is, ‘You know what, we’re not always in charge.’ At the very least it might return politics to being what it is meant to be – a masterclass not in the politics of fantasy, but in the art of the possible.

The Slow, Sure Death of “Climate Change” Lies

May 23, 2014/in Environment, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics/by Alan Caruba

Even though President Obama continues to lie about “climate change” and employs the many elements of the federal government to repeat those lies, this huge hoax is dying.

Obama is on record saying that climate change “once considered an issue for the distant future, has moved firmly into the present” and is “affecting Americans right now.” Climate change as studied by climatologists is measured in terms of centuries whereas the weather is what is happening today. It has been happening before and since the rise of civilization. Obama’s claim that “climate-related changes are outside of recent experience” and “have become more frequent and/or intense” is a lie from start to finish.

The White House recently released its latest “National Climate Assessment.” It is 841 pages of outlandish claims that reflect the lies generated by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. When you consider that the federal government spends an estimated $2.6 billion annually in grants for climate research, about the only beneficiaries are those “scientists” employed to further the hoax.

The UN’s IPCC was created in 1983 and has issued a series of reports whose sole intention has been to frighten people around the world with claims of global warming that are scientifically baseless.

The Heartland Institute, a non-profit market-based think tank, responded by creating the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) and by sponsoring a series of international conferences. The 9th conference will be July 7-9 in Las Vegas. That effort began in 2003 in cooperation with the Science & Environmental Project led by Dr. S. Fred Singer and was joined by the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.

I am an advisor to the Institute, having written about environmental and energy issues for several decades at this point.

Click on the image to view and download a free copy of the report.

Calling on thousands of scientists around the world, in 2013 the NIPCC published the first of a three-volume response to the IPCC’s fifth assessment. This year, it has published a volume of Climate Change Reconsidered devoted to biological impacts, a 1,062 page opus. The NIPCC is an international panel of scientists and scholars with no government affiliation or sponsorship, and it receives no corporate funding.

Writing in the Financial Post in October 2013, Lawrence Solomon, the executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based environmental group, noted that “solar activity is now falling more rapidly than at any time in the last 10,000 years.” The Earth’s climate is primarily a reflection of solar radiation or the lack of it. From 1300 to 1850, the Earth was subject to a mini-ice age. While the global warming hoax began in the late 1980s, Solomon noted that, in the 1960s and 1970s, the scientific consensus was that the Earth “was entering a period of global cooling. The media in those years was filled with stories about a pending new ice age.

It was only the intervention of the UN’s IPCC that changed the “consensus” to one of global warming. A cooling cycle that began around fourteen years ago could lead to another mini-ice age or the planet could be on the cusp of a full-fledged one. On average, the interglacial periods of the Earth have lasted about 11,500 years and we are at the end of such a period.

Climate Change Reconsidered II devoted to biological impact features scientific studies that conclude:

“Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant.” Considering that all vegetation on Earth depends on it, it is not surprising that another conclusion was that the ongoing rise in the air’s CO2 content is causing a great greening of the Earth.
As a result, “there is little or no risk of increasing food insecurity due to global warming or rising atmospheric CO2 levels and that terrestrial ecosystems have thrived throughout the world as a result of warming temperatures and rising levels of atmospheric CO2. Multiple lines of evidence indicate animal species are adapting, and in some cases, evolving, to cope with climate change of the modern era.”
In addition, “rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels to no pose a significant threat to aquatic life and that a modest warming of the planet will result in a net reduction of human mortality from temperate-related events.”

The irony of the latest NIPCC report, of course, is that it responds to the claims of global warming and carbon dioxide’s role at a time when the Earth is cooling. It makes one wish that all the talk about “greenhouse gases” is true enough to help us escape from the present cooling.

One thing we do know for sure is that the Greens talk of climate change has lost its grip on the public imagination and attention. As the cooling cycle continues, people around the world will be far more focused on increased evidence of massive ice sheets at both poles, on frozen lakes and rivers, on shortened growing seasons, and on the desperate need for more fossil fuels to warm our homes and workplaces.

Are Liberal Democrats Slaves to their Muslim Masters?

May 23, 2014/in Culture War, Must Read, National Security, News/by Dave Gaubatz

My columns and newsletter are read by many Muslims and Liberal Democrats, as well as those from the right of the political spectrum. For the sake of my liberal Democrat readers who have a limited knowledge of Islam, I will keep this article simple and to the point. My intent is to educate about how the liberal Democratic world views are similar to and differ from Islam. The following table provides twenty categories for comparison of key policies liberal Democrats hold and compares them to Islamic laws and policy:

Liberal Democrats	Islam
Pro-Homosexuality and same sex marriage	Punishment is death for homosexuals and Lesbians
Women are equal or superior to Men	It takes 4 Women to make 1 Man
Do not advocate marriage and Sex to Children	Islam/Shariah allow marrying infants to aged men and allow the girl to be ‘raped’ at age 9
Abortions is allowed	Abortions are allowed
Advocate for big Government	Big Government only in Non-Muslim Countries
Advocate against First Amendment for ALL	First Amendment for Muslims only
Anti-Guns and Second Amendment	Pro Guns, Chemical, Nuclear and Biological weapons for Muslims
Haters for all things ‘Right Sided’	Haters of all non-Muslims: Specifically Jews and Christians
Separation of Church and State	Allah above any form of man-made Government
Do not advocate Freedom of Religion (aside from Islam)	Does not advocate ANY Freedoms of Religion (aside from Islam)
Anti-War	Strong Advocates for war (jihad) anytime and anywhere
Anti-Christian & Jewish: Lovers of Islam	Anti Any Religion Except For Islam
Strong Haters of Jesus	Strong Haters of Christians and the Jewish Jesus
Against the Death Penalty for felons	Advocates for killing and executions of anyone (without trial)
Anti-Big Oil Companies	Strong Advocates of Big Oil
Very Hypocritical	Very Hypocritical
Haters of America	Haters of America
Haters of Israel	Haters of Israel
Pro-Obama	Pro-Obama until a Stronger Muslim becomes President
Anti-U.S. Constitution	Anti-U.S. Constitution
Animal Rights Advocates	Haters of all things with 2 or more legs

The above is just a sampling of Liberal Democrat and Islamic views. Of the twenty-one issues, the liberal Democrat and the Islamic ideology align together on just eight of the twenty, or 40%.

Why then do liberals support an ideology that is so different from their own core values?

This phenomenon is known as rational irrationality. Rational irrationality is not double-think — it does not state that the individual deliberately chooses to believe something he or she knows to be false. Rather, the theory is that, when the costs of having erroneous beliefs are low, people relax their intellectual standards and allow themselves to be more easily influenced by fallacious reasoning, cognitive biases and emotional appeals. In other words, people do not deliberately seek to believe false things but rather stop putting in the intellectual effort to be open to evidence that may contradict their beliefs.

My analysis is that for liberal Democrats the Islamic ideology frightens them so much, that it is easier to align themselves with ideologies that are over 60% contrary to their own. They do not fear conservatives because they realize Christians are a God loving people and will not intentionally harm them.

In a prison you have the weak and the strong. The strong always prey upon the weak. The weak will always align themselves with their enemies because it is easier to kneel than to fight.

Our U.S. military has always had the reputation of being strong, therefor the majority of military personnel traditionally have conservative values. They do not run or kneel to the enemy. They fight the enemy even if it means their own death is certain.

With a weak Commander in Chief we have seen our military deteriorate. There are still many more brave heroes than there are liberal Democrats, but the gap is closing. It will not be long before same sex marriages in the military will be the norm, instead of abnormal.

There is nothing that can change a liberal Democrat into a strong fighting machine. One has to have a love for their country that only the strong can appreciate and respect.

Nigeria: Two Kidnapped Christian Girls Escape from Boko Haram

May 22, 2014/in Culture War, Must Read, National Security, News/by Dr. Rich Swier

According to Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), “Two sisters, Kamka, 19, and Naya, 16, were sleeping when radical Muslims invaded their home. The armed terrorists entered their brother’s room and shot him in the hand before demanding to know where the girls’ father was. When they realized the two sisters were not married and their father was not home, they took the girls by force.”

VOM is providing assistance to these two sisters who recently escaped captivity from Boko Haram.

The Boko Haram terrorist group has declared war on Christians in Nigeria, frequently attacking Christian villages, burning Christians’ houses and murdering indiscriminately. They also kidnap teenage girls and force them to convert and marry Boko Haram members.

After forcing Kamka and Naya to walk through the woods at gunpoint, the terrorists immediately put them to work fetching water and cooking. A few days later, the girls were told that both of them were to be married. “We’re too young,” Naya protested. But the leader then showed them his daughter, a girl of 7 or 8, who was already married.

“If we refused to cooperate, we would be killed,” Naya told a VOM worker. “The man whom I was forced to marry took me. He picked up his gun and a knife and threatened to murder me if I continued to resist.”

The sisters cried and prayed together, unsure of what would become of them. But after two weeks, a Muslim woman took pity on them. While fetching water with the girls, she showed them an escape route and told them to run away.

The girls escaped under cover of darkness. They knocked on the door of the first house they came to, praying the owner would be friendly. Although he was Muslim, the man took pity on the girls. He allowed them to bathe and eat, and then had his sister take them to a nearby Christian village.

The girls were traumatized by their experience but are now doing reasonably well. Since it is unsafe for them to return to their home, VOM is providing care for them at a safe house through one of our project partners.

“I thank God that He has saved us from the hands of these bad people,” Naya said. “Everything is now behind me and I’m not afraid anymore. I only want to look forward now.”

And Kamka is also thankful for God’s protection. “I am very grateful that many Christians pray for me,” she said. “Despite what I’ve been through, I still have faith in God.”

The Voice of the Martyrs invites you to support our work in Nigeria. Your contributions help believers like Naya and Kamka as well as providing support to families of martyrs and medical assistance to victims of extremist attacks.

ABOUT VOM

To order your copy of Tortured for Christ click on the image.

The Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, inter-denominational Christian organization dedicated to assisting the persecuted church worldwide. VOM was founded in 1967 by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned 14 years in Communist Romania for his faith in Christ. His wife, Sabina, was imprisoned for three years. In the 1960s, Richard, Sabina, and their son, Mihai, were ransomed out of Romania and came to the United States. Through their travels, the Wurmbrands spread the message of the atrocities that Christians face in restricted nations, while establishing a network of offices dedicated to assisting the persecuted church. The Voice of the Martyrs continues in this mission around the world today. To learn more about the VOM mission click here.

Turkish Newspaper Blames Jews for Soma Mine Disaster

May 22, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

It was inevitable, after Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan’s “Israel Spawn or Sperm” epithet to a protester in Soma during his visit to the site of the mine disaster that took the lives of 301 shift Miners on Tuesday May 13^th. A Turkish newspaper, Yenit Akit, supporting the AKP government of Prime Minister, pinned the debacle on, who else, the Jews. In particular it was all due to the alleged Jewish son-in-law of the Soma mine owner, Alp Gurken. Yenit Akit accused Gurken of” “giving his daughter to a Jew,” and claimed that that was the main reason why foreign media outlets were “attacking Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan” The Daily Hurryiet noted the Yenit Akit paper has a “long track record of anti-Semitic slurs”.

A Daily Hurriyet column, cited the irony of Erdogan calling “Antisemitism a Perversion”, when he received a so-called Courage Award from Abe Foxman of the ADL at a ceremony in New York back in 2005. Things were different back then, Erdogan wanted to curry favor with Jews and Israel. What a difference a decade makes. Erdogan even went on in his ADL acceptance speech condemning the Holocaust saying:” “Anti-Semitism is a shameful mental illness; it is perversion. The Jewish genocide [Holocaust] is the heaviest crime against humanity throughout history. Genocide, discrimination, Islamophobia, Christianophobia, ethnic cleansing are all different forms of the same illness.”

Now it’s all about “Zionist plots” and “Israeli spies”. The Daily Hurriyet column noted the latest accusation:

Daily Yeni Akit ran a front-page headline story on May 20, saying that the son-in-law of Alp Gürkan, the owner of the Soma mine in which 301 people died on May 13, was a Jew. The paper was proud to have “deciphered the reason why Zionism-manipulated domestic and foreign media was attacking PM Erdoğan by taking advantage of Soma” by revealing the Jewish son-in-law, instead of questioning the failures of the company and the government in taking necessary safety measures in accordance with international standards. But that was not all; the son-in-law, Mario Asafrana, was using the Muslim name of “Mahir.” And his father, İshak, had been using “Izzet” as well, without, of course, mentioning that the majority of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey also use Muslim or Turkish names so as not to be a source of social attention; there was a de facto ban on giving names in Kurdish and Circassian (despite being Muslim) in the country up until a few years ago.

The same day, PM Erdoğan thanked Israel for canceling its National Day reception in respect for the three days of mourning in Turkey because of Soma. But Yasin Aktay, the AK Party’s deputy chairman in charge of foreign relations, said that he did not omit the possibility of “sabotage” in Soma, and the AK Party head of Parliament’s Constitutional Commission, Burhan Kuzu, a professor of law, mentioned the mine-owner’s son-in-law in a Twitter message.

A day before that, the ADL revealed research on global anti-Semitism. According to this research, 69 percent of Turkish people have anti-Semitic feelings, behind Iran at 56 percent but the same level with Greece.

Obviously it’s all about the Mavi Marmara incident in which 9 Turks, including a Turkish American, were killed during attacks on a boarding party of Israeli Naval commandos trying to stop the ferry from running the blockade of Gaza on May 31, 2010. A voyage backed by the pro-Hamas IHH Muslim charity that owned the vessel. IHH was raided in January 2014 because of allegations about funding Al Qaeda. Erdogan outraged demanded compensation. Israel under pressure from a visiting President Obama in March 2013 had Israeli PM Netanyahu call Erdogan and “apologize” . Israel in March 2014 offered to pay $20 million in the equivalent of ‘wrongful death compensation” as blood money to renew relations. Meanwhile, Erdogan supplanted Iran as the largest supporter of Hamas to the tune of $250 million. Hamas is a US foreign designated terrorist organization whose charter states its objective of destruction of the Jewish State. Israelis were outraged.

During the Soma visit, a protesting miner who booed Erdogan was called’ Israeli sperm” and slapped by the agitated Prime Minister peeved that his own supporters would do such a thing, when they handed a victory in the local March 2014 local elections to his AK party. This is a man who said death is an acceptable risk in the Turkish mining industry which may have upwards of 400 unsafe mines. Whose AKP super majority in the Ankara parliament rejected a study commission to investigate complaints about unsafe conditions at the Soma mine requested by the opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP) in April 2014 in the Ankara Parliament.

A Turkish Jew, Haymi Behar wrote a column in The Daily Hurriyet, “Being an Israeli Spawn in Turkey”. Behar wrote what it was like to be despised as a native born Turkish Jew:

It means being a part of a mere 13 million tribe in a sea of 7 billion in the world, and being a small sample of the 17,000 “spawn brothers” in Turkey.

It means trying to figure out why you are being held personally responsible Jesus’ crucifixion and the killing of Sultan Fatih the Conqueror, even though Jews only make up 0.2 percent of the world’s population.

It means having the ability to have all the answers ready, waiting in your mind, to respond anytime in your life to all these colossal historic questions.

It means trying to create a happy life for yourself while baring the burden of your ancestors having been enslaved, expelled constantly, despised and being the victims of the most massive industrially planned genocide ever committed.

It means keeping in your mind the question, “How did we manage to be the leading actors of so many conspiracy theories with such a small population?”

It means getting used to hearing hate speech and discrimination any God given day.

[…]

It means knowing that there will be no more “Israeli spawn” in Turkey in the next generation, but the hatred will still live on.

This weekend, Erdogan travels to Cologne, German to speak to a rally of ex-pat Turks for his campaign to become Turkey’s first directly elected President this August. He has been an admonished by German government official to be ‘sensitive’ in his remarks to a partisan crowd on the Saturday, May 24, during the European Parliament elections. German President Gauck during a visit in April to Ankara criticized Erdogan’s treatment of street protests and expansion of the police powers of his intelligence agency, MIT in the face of roiling corruption charges. Erdogan responded: “it looks like Gauck still sees himself as a priest,” and advised Gauk to “keep your advice to yourself.” Erdogan speaks his own mind all too frequently. The leopard will hardly change his spots this coming weekend in Germany. He’s eager to become Turkey’s first freely elected Emir imposing draconian Sharia on a restive and despairing Turkish population seeking an end to his Islamist autocracy.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

Returning Jihadi Fighters from Syria are a Clear Threat to Public Health

May 21, 2014/in Healthcare, Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

Dr. Jill Bellamy van Aalst is an international renowned Bio-warfare expert whom we have interviewed and published articles by her in both the NER and The Iconoclast blog. Recently we posted on a Dutch intelligence report concerning the threat of returning home grown Jihadis from the Syrian civil war. In this article, republished from Dr. Bellamy’s The Biowarfare Blog, Black Six, she assesses the potential bio-warfare threat posed by these returning Dutch jihadis.

Returning Jihadi Fighters from Syria: The threat to European Public Health Security

“The tendency in our planning is to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable. The contingency we have not considered seriously looks strange; what looks strange is thought improbable; what is improbable need not be considered seriously.” — Thomas C. Shelling

blogs.discovermagazine.com

European security services are quietly monitoring radicalized groups and returning jihadi fighters from Syria. The Netherlands has instituted new laws designed to criminalize travelling to war zones to fight jihad or commit acts of murder and terrorism. While the Dutch should be applauded in their efforts, it may ultimately prove irrelevant. According to French sources, “As things are now, it’s easy enough identifying just who is in Syria-or returned and are urging others to join the fight. But that’s bound to change when jihadi leaders in Syria and elsewhere decide to internationalize their fight, and order recruits to mask their identities and movements even before they leave to join Syrian militias.” “According to the French official, security forces across Europe anticipate jihadi leaders will instruct European fighters to take their holy war beyond the borders of Syria, once they return home from fighting Assad.” “Under most scenarios, they have little to lose by unleashing terror operative in Europe and would tend to view such activity as logical within their wider worldview,” That’s the one very bad way we don’t expect Syria to be much different from Afghanistan–except in possibly being an even bigger threat.” See: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0422/Europe-keeps-wary-eye-on-jihadists-traveling-to-fight-in-Syria.

The problem however and the threat to Europe is multi-dimensional, particularly where biological weapons may be the next coveted and possibly preferred weapon of use in Europe by returning and trained jihadi fights and operatives; mainly due to deniability. While the current focus both of returning jihadi fighters and the services which monitor them, appears centered on conventional threats, the risk such fighters may be trained on chemical and biological weapons or deployment tactics suitable to releasing weaponized biological agents cannot be ignored; particularly in light of continued statements by Al Qaeda to use biological weapons against said targets. It may be naive to consider Al Qaeda would task inexperienced radicalized youth with deploying biological warfare agents in European cities, it is possible such Europeans may have been trained in deployment tactics, suitable to releasing weaponized biological agents and not the weapons itself. Such training could be undertaken at a later date and in different locations. Recalling too that “The use of biological weapons against population centers is allowed and is strongly recommended,” U.S. born Anwar-al Awlaki is quoted as saying in one of two issues of the Inspire Magazine. Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in September 2011.” See: http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20120503-alawlaki-posthumously-urges-biological-chemical-attacks-on-u-s

“According to counter-terrorism officials and independent experts, the number of newly radicalized European Muslims flocking to fight with jihadi militias in Syria more than doubled in 2013, as the war ground toward its fourth year.Though figures vary significantly, specialists’ estimates indicate between 2,000 and 3,000 Europeans are currently acquiring combat and explosives skills as part of their anti-Assad fighting. Virtually all are considered a formidable potential terror threat whose eventual return home is just a question of time.” See: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0422/Europe-keeps-wary-eye-on-jihadists-traveling-to-fight-in-Syria

disease spreading via airplanes In Silico Study of Role of Airports During Disease Epidemics (video)

photo: medgadget

“MIT researchers have been studying how US international airports would affect a rapidly spreading disease epidemic to maybe one day help in dealing with a real situation. A number of relevant factors have been used in the simulation including how many planes come in and out of airports, their intersecting times, the patterns of passengers coming through and the geographic variety of the people int he airports. ” See: http://www.medgadget.com/2012/07/in-silico-study-of-role-of-airports-during-disease-epidemics-video.html

The use of biological agents in a multi-state attack would surely give Al Qaeda the spectacular type of attack it has been calling for since 911. Perhaps concern should be raised as well that the networking of such radicals and operatives (I draw a distinction, with the later being professionally trained and instructed in intelligence operations), increases the risk that unconventional weapons will be selected for use in Europe; and that such networking increases the potential for a well orchestrated multi-state attack. Biological weapons are well suited for enclosed mass transit infrastructures which run unimpeded across Europe i.e. trains, subway systems, air transport.

www.seat61.com

A well orchestrated multi-state attack which introduced disease into a number of commuting infrastructures could exponentially increase the attack and give Al Qaeda more bang for their buck. Health surveillance systems which are fairly robust in some European countries are almost non-existent in others. Such inconsistencies are known by Al Qaeda and would certainly be exploitable. Selected points of release which included rapid transit in countries with minimal bio-defence capabilities would likely succeed. Even a small train station or a line which runs to a major train station could be quite vulnerable to this type of deployment. Additionally, as is usually incorporated into war-games and scenarios (see Atlantic Storm: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1369238/) , staged releases of BW, weeks apart using different locations and transit veins throughout Europe, perhaps with a focus on the Balkan states, would be likely to produce higher numbers of casualties.

While a number of suspected AQ terrorist attacks involving trains has been a major concern in Europe, the threat appears to be a conventional one. See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10251941/Al-Qaeda-planning-attacks-on-Europe-rail-lines.html

The risk of radicalized European fighters returning from Syria, fighters who know their local transport infrastructures and who may have networked with operational AQ members, exists that they might become involved in wider and complex plots involving unconventional weapons using, conventional means. European transportation infrastructures are highly vulnerable to this type of attack.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

Soviet Socialism in the 21st Century: The Strange New Political Leaders

May 21, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News, Policy/by Simona Pipko

Escalation of a war in Ukraine was not accidental–Ukraine prevented Russian offense, the “Russian Spring.” Yet the fire in union’s building of Odessa on May 2, 2014, killed 46 people. There is information that the cause of the fire was an arson and application of WMD. Time will tell–investigation is going on. There is no news for us, the citizens from socialist countries, our memory knows such characters, as Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein; the history they made and a legacy they left. It is the history of the mention above characters and knowledge about their “assembly line of murders,” that shade some lights on the crime in Odessa. If the evidence confirm the suspicions, there will be a new term in a vocabulary of the 21st century: the “Putin’s Reichstag” in Ukraine.

The historical connections also allow us to figure out the Putin’s motivation in the war against Ukraine. The world leaders came to the consensus that it is a desire to reinstate the Soviet Union. This is true only partially, yet his key immediate task is that of obtaining the ports of Odessa and Illichevsk to open a corridor to the Mediterranean. This is an old Stalinist strategy of “oil conspiracy” to use the Middle East and Radical Islam–it is a continuation of WW III against the West (described in What is Happening to America?). To prove my statement let me give you a story and evidence of an extricable connection between corrupt, violent, and brutal Radical Islam and Russian Intelligence.

Who do you think of when I speak of a corrupt, brutal and violent Muslim Arab who was a fighter for the Islamic cause? He was responsible for the murder of many people, hated the West and Jews, and within his innermost circle bragged of inventing the bloody practice of hijacking passenger planes.Perhaps you think that description applies to many Muslim Arab leaders. Perhaps some of you immediately think of Muammar Gaddafi, given recent events in Benghazi. You are wrong. I am speaking of Yasser Arafat.

One cannot fully comprehend the essence and historical context of the Arab Muslim Revolution taking place in the Middle East without an understanding of Arafat, the very embodiment of that process. I am certain that most Americans are unaware of the real influence he exerted over the Arab world for several decades. His actions throughout his life followed the dictates of the well-known Stalinist design for world domination and global governance under the auspices of the USSR as described in my preceding articles.

Allow me to present some information that I believe bolsters my position. If you have already read the book Mao: the Unknown Story, then you know that two of the most effective ways to implement the Stalinist design is through recruitment and infiltration. The instability in China in the 1920’s was an essential element for the realization there of the Stalinist model. Viewed in a historical context, the situation prevailing in the Middle East of the 1950’s was analogous to that existing at the time of the Suez Crisis. With the Cold War at its period of greatest intensity, the oil-rich Muslim region presented an enormously tempting opportunity for Russian Intelligence to divide and conquer…

At that time, Israel had spurned Stalin’s overtures and instead turned to America for support, thus depriving the Soviet dictator of yet another Soviet Socialist Republic in the Middle East. The process of recruitment and infiltration began in the Middle East, which became a testing ground for the Soviet arms industry. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt, received an enormous quantity of Soviet arms, ammunition, tanks, aircraft and other materiel. This weaponry provided the means for two Arab wars against Israel that ended in both cases in defeat for the Muslims and many new cemeteries on both sides.

Although Nasser was a great friend of the Soviet Union and was decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union, there is no evidence that he was ever actually recruited. When we speak of Yasser Arafat, however, the case is otherwise. Arafat was a Cairo-born Egyptian. After the Suez Crisis he “struggled to obtain a visa to Canada and later Saudi Arabia, but was unsuccessful in both attempts…In 1957 he applied for a visa to Kuwait…There he encountered two Palestinian friends…both official members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood” (Wikipedia). Arafat had met both his friends while studying at Cairo University. In Kuwait, the two became Arafat’s right-hand men and helped further his political future by helping him develop other friendships among Palestinian refugees and to found the militant group Fatah. Keep in mind when the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood the first mentioned in connection with Arafat, for it is greatly important to remember.

The sudden transformation of Arafat into a political leader of his own group, Fatah, was not accidental. Listen to a description of Arafat by a General in the KGB, who handled Arafat for many years:

“…I was given the KGB’s ‘personal file on Arafat. He was an Egyptian bourgeois turning into a devoted Marxist by KGB foreign intelligence…he is a career terrorist, trained, armed and bankrolled by the Soviet Union and its satellites for decades. …I was responsible for giving Arafat about $2,000,000 in laundered cash every month. The dubious honor of inventing hijacking actually goes to the KGB, which first hijacked a US passenger plane in 1960 to Communist Cuba. Arafat’s innovation was the suicide bomber, a terror concept that would come to full flower on 9/11…” ( “The KGB’s Man,” Ion Mihai Pacepa, Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2003.)

Living in the Soviet Union, many of us were certain that Arafat was a Soviet henchman, but Pacepa knew it for a fact, since he was Arafat’s “handler” for many years. Many of us were surprised by the events and characters described in Pacepa’s article. Hopefully, it will shed light for you on events that are taking place now, in the 21^st Century.

“The KGB had trained him [Arafat] and in the mid-1960s decided to groom him as the future PLO leader. First the KGB destroyed the official records of Arafat’s birth in Cairo, replacing them with fictitious documents saying that he had been born in Jerusalem and was therefore a Palestinian by birth.”

This probably comes as news to you, but it was not the end of the story. The KGB had numerous departments, all of which coordinated their activities to specific ends. In the case of Arafat, they certainly did so. The fraudulent birth certificate created for Arafat was not sufficient, according to Pacepa:

“The KGB disinformation department then went to work on Arafat’s four-page tract called Falastinuna (Our Palestine), turning it into a 48-page monthly magazine for the Palestine terrorist organization al-Fatah…Next the KGB gave Arafat an ideology and an image, just as it did for loyal Communists in our international front organizations.”

I would add that the KGB further perpetrated a kind of deceit or fraud upon the public for political purposes by eliminating the word “communist” from Arafat’s title to obscure the reality and avoid frightening the international community.

The KGB officer who for decades handled Arafat’s political career revealed the truth about the Arab leader’s inextricable link to the KGB, but of equal interest is the assessment by the KGB’s highest officials of Arafat and his targets:

“KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov in February 1972 laughed at me about the Yankee gullibility for celebrities. We’d outgrown Stalinist cults of personality, but those crazy Americans were still naïve enough to revere national leaders. We would make Arafat into just such a figurehead and gradually move the PLO closer to power and statehood.”

We know the current fight of the Palestine Autonomy for statehood. But let us continue the story told by KGB General Pacepa below.)

“We…were directed to help Arafat improve his extraordinary talent for deceiving. The KGB chief of foreign intelligence, General Alexander Sakharovsky, ordered us to provide cover for Arafat’s terror organizations, while at the same time building his international image.”

The close, decades-long cooperation between Arafat and the KGB is obvious. It was aimed at influencing the future and this is confirmed by the same KGB chief of foreign intelligence Alexander Sakharovsky: “Arafat is a brilliant stage manager and we should put him to good use.” He was quite right to carve out the future of Arafat. Just recall how Arafat charmed Presidents Carter and Clinton. The latter was especially kind to Arafat, and thanked him for “decades and decades of tireless representation of the longing of the Palestinian people to be free, self-sufficient and at home.” Remember Clinton’s opinion.

It is no surprise that Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It serves to remind us that something sinister has been underway in our global society for decades. I hope you are beginning to grasp this idea. I would add that the KGB specialized in shaping the future by creating Soviet-style political leaders around the world. Arafat became a model to be replicated by Soviet officials and minions over and over. All these Soviet-style leaders were inextricably tied into the master plan, as we see from Pacepa’s recollections below:

“In 1969 the KGB asked Arafat to declare war on American ‘imperial-Zionism’ during the first summit of the Black Terrorist International, a neo-Fascist pro-Palestine organization financed by the KGB and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. …in fact, ‘imperial-Zionism’ was a Moscow invention, a modern adaptation of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ and a long-favorite tool of Russian intelligence to foment ethnic hatred. The KGB always regarded anti-Semitism plus anti-imperialism as a rich source of anti-Americanism.”

KGB recruitment and infiltration activity by its proselytizers were vitally important, but there were many other front organizations through which the struggle for socialism worldwide could be waged. The Stalinist grand design utilized espionage, sabotage, ideological indoctrination, intimidation, black mail and other nefarious methods to achieve their goals. Remember, be alert to fraud—Russian intelligence is a master of fraud, orchestrated political scandals, subversion, and crises. It is an important issue and one to which I devoted some time for discussion in my books and previous articles. I do not wish to be the only voice you hear. For this reason, I will also, offer you my recommendations for works of other respectable and trustworthy authors.

Oleg Gordievsky is another former KGB agent; his books are especially recommended, try The KGB from Harper-Collins, 1990.
2. The Russian Factor: from Cold War to Global Terrorism, Xlibris, 2006.
Russian human rights advocate and journalist Valeria Novodvorskay.

Please remember Yasser Arafat. You will be seeing different versions of Arafat among Muslims, Christians and Jews “working” together across the world: In the Middle East and Asia, in Europe, Africa, and both Americas… You can identify these strange new political leaders by the destruction they have caused in their respective countries. I hope my articles will help you be ready to recognize and expose these new leaders.They are spreading and implementing the ideology of Soviet Fascism around the Globe…

Do you remember the former President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovich? He has destroyed Ukraine, turning the country into the Russian colony. It was his “Region” party that ruled in Donetsk and Lughansk, which proclaimed now union with Russia. Maybe you also remember the war Russia waged against Georgia in 2008 to prevent it desire to be with the West. I wish that student at Rutgers University and other incompetent and intolerant leftists know the real history….

To be continue www.simonapipko1.com

Obama’s Intel Chiefs lied to Congress about Muslim Brotherhood connections

May 21, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Allen West

Ever since President Obama’s speech in 2009 in Cairo — the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — there have always been questions about the Obama administration’s link to the grandfather of Islamic terrorism. Now, thanks to the work of Ryan Mauro at the Clarion Project, it seems the concern is warranted, as Mauro reports that “Newly declassified documents obtained by the Clarion Project show that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) misled members of Congress in 2012 about its involvement with Muslim Brotherhood-linked entities. Further, the documents show that there were even a number of internal communications within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence expressing concerns about the Brotherhood links of these entities.”

There is no doubt that this current administration is very close to groups such as the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

The Clarion Project reports that the story of the deception began when the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified to Congress on February 10, 2011 saying that the Muslim Brotherhood is “a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has described Al-Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”

If this weren’t so serious, it would be laughable. For Clapper to state the Muslim Brotherhood has eschewed violence and is some benign organization is ludicrous and calls into question his competence. Obviously Director of National Intelligence Clapper has never read the MB’s Explanatory Memorandum for their Strategic Objective in North America. Furthermore, he has never read the MB Charter, which is much aligned with the “perversion of Islam” of al-Qaida, a group which spawned — and it’s not really a perversion if you read the Koran and the hadiths. Just ask Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the 27-year-old pregnant woman being held in prison in Sudan for apostasy about the perversions of Islam — we reported on her story here.

In the hearing in February 2011, Clapper was asked by Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) about the administration’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. He answered, “There have been outreaches to the Muslim community in general, but I guess we’re not aware of any direct outreach to these particular organizations. That is, if you’re speaking domestically.”

FBI Director Mueller then chimed in, saying there is “no relationship with the Brotherhood. Period.” The CIA Director Leon Panetta then agreed, dismissively laughing in the process. Clapper’s office later issued a clarification, backtracking on his inaccurate statement that the Brotherhood is “secular.”

Just four months later, on June 12, 2012, a 90-minute “Roundtable Discussion” took place at National Intelligence’s headquarters in McLean, Virginia. At the meeting, Clapper met in person with a representative of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Also present were National Counter-Terrorism Center Director Matthew Olson and Alexander Joel, ODNI Civil Liberties Protection Officer.

Mind you, in 2007, the Justice Department listed ISNA as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and designated them as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism-financing trial of the history of the U.S. In that trial, the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood front, was found guilty of funding Hamas. You can read the Clarion’s report on ISNA here. In fact, ISNA was identified as Brotherhood front as early as 1987.

Yet in 2012, the president of ISNA, Imam Mohamed Magid, was invited to meet with the Director of National Intelligence. Unable to attend, he sent a substitute in his place. The email that went out inviting ISNA’s president (among others) stated that he was chosen because, “We believe you have important insights to share with the Intelligence Community (IC) about how the IC pursues its mandate of providing the most insightful intelligence possible, while simultaneously safeguarding civil liberties and privacy.”

ISNA has important insights to share with the America intelligence community about pursuing insightful intelligence? How dumb and naive can one possibly be?

Just a little insight into ISNA and their former ISNA-Secretary General, Sayyid Syeed, the National Director of ISNA’s Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances. In the Grand Deception, a documentary about the Muslim Brotherhood in America, Syeed appears in footage taken in 2006 declaring, “Our job is to change the Constitution of America.” Syeed was the supervisor of ISNA’s Director of Community Outreach, Mohamed Elsanousi who attended the meeting with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). As well, shortly after meeting Clapper, Elsanousi accompanied ISNA President Imam Mohammed Magid to a conference in Mauritania hosted by a top leader of a major Muslim Brotherhood organization named the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

The day after the meeting, on June 13, 2012, five members of Congress asked the Director of National Intelligence’s Intelligence Community Inspector-General, I. Charles McCullough III, to begin a formal investigation or evaluation of the Director of National Intelligence’s work with groups linked to the Brotherhood, specifically mentioning the Islamic Society of North America and its leader, Magid.

I could go on forever but I think you get the gist. Either the Obama administration — especially ODNI Clapper — is horribly naive, or they are complicit and guilty of coordination with our enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Frankly, I don’t care where President Barack Hussein Obama was born. What I do care about – with deep concern — is an Eastern, Islamic orientation he apparently possesses which permeates his administration and ideology — resulting in aiding and abetting those who seek to destroy our Constitutional Republic.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com.