The United States is supporting, funding, and arming “terrorists.” Not through back channels, middlemen, Swiss bank accounts or CIA covert operations, but openly and publicly. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was designated as a foreign terrorist organization on October 8, 1997 by the U.S. Department of State after thirteen years of insurgency, including bombing attacks and kidnappings, against Turkish military personnel and citizens. Aside from its use of terrorist tactics, the PKK found itself on the wrong side of the strategically crucial alliance between the United States and Turkey. Now, however, the United States is actively supporting the PKK rebels in their fight against the Islamic State (IS). Additionally, the United States is arming the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to combat IS; these two political parties were classified as “Tier III” terrorist organizations for their role in the armed uprising against Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, although Senator John McCain introduced a Senate amendment last November to have these groups removed from the terror list.
For months now, news headlines have updated the world on the Islamic State’s terrifyingly swift march through Iraq, as militants captured the major cities of Tikrit and Mosul and approached Baghdad and Erbil, where the United States retains military bases. Thousands, most notably the Christians of Mosul and the Yazidis trapped on the Sinjar Mountains, have been slaughtered or forced to flee their homes by IS militants. The Iraqi army failed to stop the onslaught of the Islamic State, even after the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters joined forces with them. But now, IS’s conquests have temporarily stalled in Iraq, due largely to the guerrilla fighters of the PKK, who have allied with the Peshmerga, their long-time rivals, to take back the Mosul dam with the aid of U.S. air strikes. This is good news for the embattled Iraqis and for the United States, which has suffered a loss of international respect for failing to intervene in the civil war and protect persecuted religious minorities sooner. However, these new Kurdish allies may create a legal problem for the United States concerning its terrorism laws.
A Troubled History
The U.S. government has a history of arming controversial rebel groups, beginning with its global mission to prevent the spread of communist ideology in the aftermath of World War II and continuing in the late 20th and early 21st centuries with groups fighting against Islamic extremists and dictators. Major operations include those in Honduras, Chile, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and now Iraq.
Some of the most infamous rebel groups to receive U.S. support were the Contras, groups of guerrilla fighters working to overthrow the communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. In 1981, the Reagan Administration began financing and arming the rebels. This policy became controversial, not only because of the entanglement in the Iran-Contra Affair, but also because the Contras allegedly engaged in serious and frequent human rights abuses, including attacking and murdering non-combatant civilians, according to Human Rights Watch. Unsurprisingly, the Contras were never listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, but under current U.S. law, the group likely warranted the designation; 18 U.S. Code § 2331 defines “international terrorism” as:
violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping, and occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
Around the same time, on the other side of the world, the United States was arming another group of rebel fighters—the mujahideen of Afghanistan. Beginning in 1979 and continuing through the 1980s until the collapse of the Soviet Union, mujahideen fighters received weapons and training from the CIA to push back Soviet forces and topple the communist government in Kabul. Unlike the U.S.-backed Contras, the mujahideen successfully drove out the Soviets, and liberated Afghanistan from communism. The ideology that succeeded this regime was even worse.
Dealing with the Consequences
From the U.S.-trained and -armed mujahideen sprung Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, responsible for the 9/11 attacks and deaths of more than 2,200 American soldiers and an estimated 20,000 Afghan civilians in the ground war in Afghanistan. A similarly dangerous and potentially more deadly situation is now unfolding with the Islamic State. Stalling in Iraq, IS has turned its attention to a renewed offensive in northern Syria, using U.S. Humvees captured from the faltering Iraqi army to transport militants and weapons across the border. Armed with American weapons, IS has increased its fighting capabilities and emboldened its fighters, which has added the brutal and tragic beheading of American journalist James Foley to its death toll.
While airstrikes in Iraq have been instrumental in the pushback against IS, President Obama has yet to authorize additional strikes in Syria; for now, America’s solution to the carnage wrought by IS is largely to fight terrorists with other terrorists. It goes without saying that IS must be stopped as quickly and effectively as possible. With an estimated 20,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, the PKK are by far the most experienced and well-trained group to lead a counter-ground attack against IS in northern Iraq and Syria, especially with American air support. After three decades of insurgency with Turkey, PKK rebels are battle-tested and well organized, whereas the Peshmerga and other Kurdish fighters have far less experience and have proven unable to take IS head on. The PKK’s support of besieged minorities and civilians against IS has spurred a lobbying effort in the United States to have the group taken off the State Department’s terrorist organization list. Since a cease-fire agreement with Turkey in March of 2013, the PKK has largely aborted the use of terrorist tactics; however, the group has launched several attacks against Turkish security forces in recent weeks, which could undermine peace negotiations and the recent attempt to declassify it as a terrorist organization.
Fighting in the Grey
It is difficult to determine whether the Contras should have been designated as a terrorist group or whether the United States should have been more cautious about arming the Afghan mujahideen; even hindsight isn’t 20/20. Supporting the PKK may well turn out to be a brilliant strategic move if it leads to the destruction of IS. Nonetheless, in this moment, the PKK is a terrorist organization, and that may put the United States government in a legally grey area. 18 U.S. Code § 2339B states, “Whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.”
This section of the law would seemingly prohibit the United States from supporting the PKK, but a later section of the same law states, “No person may be prosecuted under this section in connection with the term ‘personnel’, ‘training’, or ‘expert advice or assistance’ if the provision of that material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization was approved by the Secretary of State with the concurrence of the Attorney General. The Secretary of State may not approve the provision of any material support that may be used to carry out terrorist activity.” This is the exception. As long as the “material support” provided by the United States is not used in a terrorist act, the U.S. government, with approval from both the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, can support foreign terrorist groups. Currently, the PKK is working to defeat IS; killing armed combatants is a legitimate act of war, not terrorism, so it seems that the United States is not acting illegally. However, there is a possibility that arms provided indirectly to the PKK through the Iraqi army and other Kurdish groups could eventually be turned against Turkish security forces and civilians, the latter of which would be an act of terror against a U.S. ally.
A Country Without a Moral Conscious?
What do these situations and potential scenarios mean for U.S. terrorism laws? The point is not whether the United States might entangle itself in grey areas of the laws concerning terrorism; it likely already has. The real question is, do these laws hold any weight? Do they have anything meaningful to contribute to the country’s foreign policy principles and decisions? The United States has chosen not to label groups as terrorist organizations if it is politically inconvenient or would get in the way of a greater policy objective; it provides funding and arms to rebel groups it cannot control, and who have often turned against the United States at a later date; most recently, it is using terrorists to fight other terrorists. If not illegal, this part of American history at least presents a moral predicament, one that we are actively dealing with in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq. Laws are fundamentally impositions of morality on society, but if the laws we write do not create a guiding moral framework, and instead allow us to do what is most convenient, expedient, or politically popular in the moment without serious regard to a higher set of common ethical principles, then where does a secular society based on the rule of law derive its morality from?
Last year, President Obama, now infamously, said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria constituted a moral red line that, once crossed, would result in severe consequences for the Assad regime. This ended up being an empty threat when proposed airstrikes against Syrian military targets failed to gain support on either side of the aisle in Congress. The decisions that need to be made regarding policy in Middle East are complicated, and they are rarely black or white. But that is the entire point of having a strong set of moral principles—you stick to them even when the choices are difficult or unpopular, or when cutting corners might be easier. The question is, what set of moral principles does the United States have, and do its leaders have the backbone to uphold them?
EDITORS NOTE: Featured image source: ntvmsnbc.com.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/islamists-with-weapons-at-dusk.jpg337639Rachael Hannahttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRachael Hanna2014-09-02 07:34:392014-09-04 21:35:17The Ethics of Fighting with Terrorists
Faisal Albagdadi and Ahmed Hindi [pictured above] started the brawl after they walked into the bar already drunk. Drinking alcohol is, of course, forbidden in Islam, and so it may be surmised that Albagdadi and Hindi are not particularly devout. But when Albagdadi threatened to “kidnap an American and behead him, once he’s released from jail,” he was falling back on deeply ingrained cultural and religious touchstones: “when you meet the unbelievers, strike at the necks” (Qur’an 47:4). People start bar fights all the time, and threaten to kill people all the time — but when one brings in beheading, one reveals an Islamic supremacist outlook or upbringing.
“2 arrested after starting bar fight, making threats, Volusia cops say,” by Loren Korn, ClickOrlando.com, August 28, 2014 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
Two men are facing charges after Volusia County deputies said they started a fight at a bar Wednesday night.
Staff at the Jus’ Beachy Bar on Ocean Shore Boulevard claimed they refused to serve alcohol to 54-year-old Faisal Albagdadi and 30-year-old Ahmed Hindi after they walked into the bar already drunk.
“I need cops at Jus’ Beachy Pecker’s Pub immediately. I got a huge fight going. I mean they’re tearing (expletive) up,” the caller told 911 dispatchers. “We wouldn’t even serve him when he came in, he was so drunk.”
Deputies said that’s when the men got angry and attacked the customers.
“They’re using chairs and everything else,” the caller told dispatchers.
Deputies said the men smashed six bar stools, threw several glasses that cut one woman in the eye and beat up a couple of men. At one point, the fight got so out of control, the dispatcher couldn’t get a hold of the caller.
The men took off before deputies arrived, but the caller was able to get their tag number and the description of their car. Ormond Beach police then quickly tracked down the car and arrested the men.
The arrest report showed that not only did Hindi deny initiating the bar fight, deputies said Albagdadi was uncooperative and threatened to “kidnap an American and behead him, once he’s released from jail.”
Both men face criminal mischief and battery charges. The other customers were not seriously injured. However, the men allegedly caused more than $1,200 in damage.
Albagdadi was previously arrested on Aug. 23 for drunk driving charges.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2014-09-01-at-4.15.33-PM.png357640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2014-09-02 06:58:202014-09-02 07:00:11Florida: Muslim threatens to “kidnap an American and behead him”
There is an urgent need for the U.S. to recover its lost sovereignty, especially in terms of borders and immigration but also in more subtle ways such as freeing ourselves from UN Agenda 21 or Common Core in education. Part of our problem is the distorted idea of what sovereignty really is.
Some think national sovereignty is a possible encroachment on state and personal sovereignty. Some say that sovereignty was a term avoided by the Founders because they were conditioned to think it referred to sovereign kings and queens of Europe. These concerns raise the question of what sovereignty really is, and I hope herein to add a few grains to our understanding. There are several levels of sovereignty, which are, from lower to higher, essentially as follows:
The founders did not eschew the notion of sovereignty, as some have worried. In fact, it is central to their founding idea as pointed out here. Nor does national sovereignty imply a loss of state sovereignty. The Tenth Amendment is dedicated to protecting state sovereignty. When I mentioned sovereignty above, I was referring to national sovereignty. National sovereignty is the concept that the national government is not beholden to any other outside country or entity and has the full right to decide its path and destiny.
But in the case of our political class, it is clear that they are following leadership that does not come from We the people. Mind you, it does not necessarily come from the UN or from any particular country. But there are bits and pieces of supranational ,and what could be called ‘foreign’ leadership in Washington.
Recent presidents have all had cabinet members who were members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) or the Trilateral Commission. According to Carroll Quigley, a liberal professor who taught at Georgetown, wrote in his book “Tragedy and Hope”:
“The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American Branch of a society which originated in England… (and) believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years, and was permitted in the early 1960’s to examine its papers and secret records…. I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known.”
Richard Haas, as president of the CFR, once wrote that it is time to “rethink” sovereignty. Only a person who does not want countries to be sovereign would think that way. Now you might say, “what’s wrong with that? The CFR is not part of our government, and even if the organization came from England, it is not making the US subservient to England.” All very true.
However, any organization, whether domestic or foreign, that seeks to weaken our national sovereignty, as Quigley describes above, is intentionally undermining the US as a sovereign nation, taking it closer to becoming part of a supranational entity, similar, for example, to the Soviet Union or the EU, whose member states were barred from making independent decisions (the people of EU nations are starting to push back against this authoritarian top-down rule). Yet all presidential cabinets have prominent members from this clearly subversive organization. This does not bode well for our national security or our freedom to shape our own destiny.
There are two aspects of sovereignty that are being undermined routinely by our national government, and they are: borders and immigration. Just as no household can survive for long if the owner leaves the doors wide open 24-7 and hangs a sign on the door “All welcome to enter any time. Help yourselves to furnishings and fridge contents,” no nation can claim sovereignty if it has no control over its borders or invites all and sundry to enter and stay, with or without ID and without any background checks. Spain, under Prime Minister Zapatero, of which Obama seems to be a reasonable facsimile, kept Spain’s borders notoriously wide open, giving rise to a concept dubbed the “call effect”, an unspoken invitation to illegal immigration, a phenomenon that, in our case has birthed the “children’s invasion” from Central America.
I did not mean to give short shrift to state sovereignty. State sovereignty has been unduly undermined, particularly since Lincoln and needs to be restored to its rightful place. For example, state authorities must annul federal laws that encroach on their sovereignty, as in the case of the Bundy ranch.
As for popular sovereignty, it was a concept held in high esteem by our Founders: Sadly, this concept has been so badly distorted in today’s America that there are groups of people who think they are free to drive cars with no plates or drivers licenses, citing the Constitution’s mention of free travel. Others insist that the Constitution gives them the right to buy, sell and take drugs. It also leads some to side with criminals who are shot by police in self-defense. Many “sovereign citizens” openly defy the law, declaring themselves sovereign when confronted by law enforcement. They have gotten the cart before the horse. You don’t acquire freedom simply by declaring yourself to be sovereign. The authorities do not give people special rights based on their ability to quote the Founders. I have known some who wound up behind bars and were forced to find a new hobby.
This warped concept of “sovereignty” has detracted from the overall concept of national sovereignty and is one reason why our national sovereignty has taken a back seat.
Many fail to apprehend that no one is truly free in a nation that is not sovereign. If people can be deluded into believing that they are each a king or queen, then national sovereignty and winning back our lost national rights to exist are no longer a relevant issue for them. But the reality of the situation is that we are losing jobs and inviting dangerous criminals to our shores in ways that will not be sustainable for too much longer — in ways that will affect even “sovereign citizens.”
So far no national political party has arisen to make this issue of national sovereignty a central part of its platform. Both of the main ones are rushing to open our borders even further, using false mantras and excuses, such as pretending that building a border fence would lead us to become another Soviet Union, with its famous Iron Curtain, or suggesting that because Americans are all descended from foreigners, we should welcome foreigners without background checks or ID. Yet none of these bleeding heart idealists would think of requiring other nations to do likewise.
Americans across the political spectrum would say “we must respect the sovereignty of all nations.”What they mean is, all nations is the U.S.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/WeThePeople1.jpg434640Don Hankhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDon Hank2014-09-01 20:44:502014-09-01 20:50:12Why doesn’t America want to be sovereign?
Not a week goes by without our work at HJS turning out to be ever more prescient and ever more disconcertingly necessary. Sometimes it is our work on Russia and other autocratic states. Sometimes – and never more so than in recent months – it is our work on Islamic extremism, its causes, proponents and the possible answers to it.
The murder of an American citizen by a British subject would always be a cause of shame and horror. But never could it have been more shameful or horrific than in the murder of the American journalist James Foley this week. Everyone is shocked – David Cameron is shocked, the leaders of the opposition are shocked. But shock is not enough, and nor is horror or outrage. We are all capable of feeling that and all do. The question for political leaders is what they are going to do about it.
To date, the political reaction in Britain has been woeful. The normally hawkish former Security Minister Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones was reduced to advocating more ‘tweeting’ to extremists from Britain in Syria. The shadow Home Secretary was reduced to complaining about the coalition government’s watering-down of Control Orders into ‘TPIMs’. Nothing could have been more grossly partisan or inept. Even if the very slightly watered-down ‘TPIMs’ were turned back into Control Orders immediately it could have had no impact on the life or death of James Foley.
So the paucity of debate is striking. Our political leaders remain strangely fearful of trying to answer the problem that we are all now aware of and increasingly concerned by. But that gap of political leadership will at some point have to be filled. And that is one of the areas where The Henry Jackson Society is able to tread. Because we have been ahead of the curve in identifying this problem, we are also in a good position to be ahead of the curve in providing the answers to it.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Content_Marketing_Confusion.png355694Henry Jackson Societyhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngHenry Jackson Society2014-09-01 16:49:452014-09-01 16:49:45“Shock and Flaw”
Most of the nation states of the Middle East, as we know them today, were created in 1916 by the Sykes-Picot Agreement, otherwise known as the Asia Minor Agreement, between Britain and France. The states created include Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. In that agreement, national boundaries were drawn without regard to sects, Shiite or Sunni, and without regard to tribes or clans, setting up an explosive mixture of religious animosities.
After the creation of Iraq and Syria, the French and British drew a line from the Mediterranean due east to Mount Hermon. North of that line, the French created a coastal nation, largely Christian, called Lebanon. While south of that line, between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, the British created a coastal Arab nation which they called Palestine. The territory south of Iraq and east of the Jordan River was divided between two Arab tribes that were allied with the British during World War I, but who didn’t care much for each other. The Sauds were given a large tract of land called Arabia… hence Saudi Arabia… while the Hashemites were given a much smaller territory east of the Jordan River, which they named Trans-Jordan… now Jordan. Thus, six nations were created between the Mediterranean and the Tigris, and south of Turkey. These six nations became seven when the United Nations created Israel in 1947.
As might be expected, the many disparate religious sects found it difficult to occupy the same territory and chaos reigned for most of the next century. For example, in early August we learned that some 40,000 Yazidis, a minority religious sect, had taken refuge on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq. Their choices were to either stay on the mountain, short of food and water, or they could descend the mountain and be slaughtered by terrorists of the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS). The Yazidis were aware that ISIS forces were beheading children elsewhere in Iraq, so rather than risk that terrible fate, many families killed their own children by throwing them off the mountain. Within a week of that report, Yazidi women were also found to be leaping to their death from the mountain rather than face being captured, raped, and sold into slavery.
In other reports, hundreds of Shiite soldiers of the Iraqi military were captured, executed, and buried in mass graves… some of them while still alive. These were the same ISIS jihadists who recently posted a YouTube video showing American newsman James Foley being beheaded by his captors. According to best estimates, some 191,000 people in Syria and Iraq have lost their lives in sectarian fighting since March 2011.
A strong case can be made that the map created in 1916 is now being redrawn through force of arms, and that what is now occurring in the region represents nothing more than a realignment of national boundaries, consistent with religious convictions and backed by the use of terror and military might. It is a struggle in which western powers find it difficult to decide who’s who without a scorecard, or to find any clear national interest amidst all the violence.
It is into this maelstrom of warring factions that the United States and its coalition partners waded in 2003 to depose the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, foolishly believing that the many warring states and factions could be defeated, pacified, or managed. To paraphrase an old Mark Russell line, “Their plan was to make the Shiites and the Sunnis act like Christians.”
What they should have understood, but didn’t, is that no amount of bombing and no amount of ground forces can win a war against the forces of Islam… in the same sense that Germany and Japan were defeated in World War II. The best we can ever hope to accomplish is to contain the forces of Islam in their home countries and to do whatever is necessary to protect our homeland from ISIS-style atrocities. So whatever “strategy” Obama ultimately decides on, it must have an international component and a domestic component… neither of which involve military power.
For example, what few Americans understand about the James Foley video is that it was far more than an unspeakably grisly scene; rather, it was a political statement intended for American audiences as a means of terrorizing them, frightening them into putting anti-war pressure on Congress and the Obama administration.
Even the normally clueless New York Times appears to have recognized the “information warfare” subtleties of the Foley video. In a story dated August 30, the Times reported that, “ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is using every contemporary mode of messaging to recruit fighters, intimidate enemies, and promote its claim to have established a caliphate, a unified Muslim state run according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. If its bigotry and beheadings seem to come from a distant century, its use of media is up to the moment.” As crude and cruel as the beheadings were, the video message is proof that radical Islam is far more adept at the use of modern communications than any western power, including the United States.
So why does the United States, the most powerful and resourceful nation on Earth, not have a sophisticated information warfare, or SOFTWAR, capability to use against radical Islam? Why has the Obama administration not spread the word throughout the Muslim world, covertly, that members of ISIS are not good Muslims? Instead, they engage in Hirabah (prohibited war against society), and that their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is a Mufsidoon (an evil-doer condemned by the Koran). Why are we not spreading the word throughout Islam that those who follow al-Baghdadi and ISIS will surely suffer Jahannam (eternal hell fire) unless they repent?
While ISIS is experiencing some success in Syria and Iraq, they should not deceive themselves that the caliphate they are establishing can ever encompass any major portion of the western world. Aside from protecting the lives of U.S. citizens who live and work in the Middle East, our primary national interest is in seeing to it that they do not establish a foothold on our shores.
So, as sympathetic as I may be to any dilemma that might cause Barack Obama some sleepless nights, I understand that no amount of conventional military power will stop the ISIS onslaught in that region of the world. Any time we spend debating whether or not to commit military forces against ISIS, or how much, is wasted time. Instead, we should be spending our time thinking in terms of how to discredit radical jihadists throughout the Muslim world through the skillful use of information technology, and how we might protect our American homeland. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has recently warned, “If we ignore (ISIS), I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month.” We simply cannot allow that to happen and military power is not the answer.
Instead, we must make the Muslim presence here so unpleasant that they will long for a return to whatever hellhole they came from. To do that, we must make membership or participation in any organization advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government a major criminal offense. In the spirit of Eisenhower’s signing statement as he signed the Communist Control Act of 1954, we must resolve that, “The American people are determined to eliminate from their midst organizations which, purporting to be “religious,” in the accepted sense of that term, are conspirators dedicated to the destruction of our form of government by violence and force…”
To accomplish that end, the Congress should take immediate steps to amend Section 2 of the Communist Control Act of 1954 to read as follows:
The Congress hereby finds and declares that Islam, although purportedly a religious sect, is in fact an instrumentality of a foreign conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. It constitutes an authoritarian dictatorship within a republic, demanding for itself the rights and privileges accorded to individuals of other religious denominations, but denying to all others the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution…
As a segment of the U.S. population, Islam is relatively small numerically and gives scant indication of its capacity ever to attain its ends by lawful political means. The peril inherent in the existence of Islam arises not from its numbers, but from its failure to acknowledge any limitation as to the nature of its activities, and its dedication to the proposition that the present constitutional government of the United States ultimately must be brought to ruin by any available means, including resort to force and violence. Holding that doctrine, its role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear present and continuing danger to the security of the United States. It is the means whereby individuals are seduced into the service of Islam, trained to do its bidding, and directed and controlled in the conspiratorial performance of their revolutionary services. Therefore, the organization known as Islam shall be outlawed in the United States.
With that statute on the books we can make it very uncomfortable for radical Islamists. With eyes and ears planted in every mosque in America, radical Imams such as Anwar al-Awlaki could be quickly exposed and FBI agents could be on the scene within hours to make arrests.
An old adage tells us that “the enemy of my friend is my enemy,” but, as much as that adage has been applicable throughout history, it does not apply in the Middle East today. Recent events in that part of the world should be enough to convince us that the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy. Other than Israel, we have no “friends” in the Middle East; there are only enemies and potential enemies.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself.” Will Barack Obama be wise enough to take that advice? We shall see.
EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of pedestrians waiting at a trolley stop in Oslo, Norway in front of a sign of Nobel Peace laureate Barack Obama Wednesday December 9, 2009. Source: AP.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/obama-oslo-peace-poster.jpg364485Paul R. Hollrahhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngPaul R. Hollrah2014-09-01 13:28:492014-09-01 13:29:54Obama’s No-Win Dilemma
As the world remembers the 13th anniversary of the attack on September 11, 2001 perhaps it is time to remember another September 11th. This September 11th occurred three-hundred thirty-one years ago in 1683.
[I]n the summer of 1683, the main army of the Ottoman Empire, a large and well-equipped force, besieged Vienna. The town was nearing the end of its ability to resist: but just as the capture of Vienna was becoming only a matter of time – not more than a week away, at most – an army came to its rescue [on September 11th]. On September 12th, in an open battle before Vienna, the Ottoman army was defeated, and the city escaped pillage and destruction. There is probably no book on the general history of Europe that does not record these events.
The Chief Commander of the army that rescued Vienna was the Polish King, Jan Sobieski. He brought with him about 23,000 soldiers, without whom the combined forces of the Emperor and the Imperial princes were not have ventured an open battle. It was only the combination of all three that made victory possible.
Perhaps it is now time for another alliance made up of members of the free world to take a stand against the Islamic State. Is it time for an “intifada” (uprising) against those who are spreading violence globally? But who will lead this army?
In 1683 the world was looking for a leader. The major world leaders at the time did not see the danger of the Ottoman Empire. They were so focused on their petty political intrigues and infighting to notice the real threat. Europeans were tired of the fighting that occurred during the Hundred Years’ War, a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 pitting the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois for control of the Kingdom of France.
It was Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland, who stepped up and took on the Ottoman Army. Who is today’s Jan Sobieski?
Leitsch notes:
The battle of Vienna was a turning point in one further respect: the success was due to the co-operation between the troops of the Emperor, some Imperial princes and the Poles. In previous wars against the Ottoman Empire the German princes had frequently sent auxiliary troops; even Italian princes and the Pope had occasionally sent troops and funds. However the co-operation between the two non-maritime neighbours of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, the Emperor and Poland, was something new.
Since the Ottoman Empire had become a menace to the Christian lands in East-Central Europe both countries had repeatedly tried to ensure they received help from the other in case of danger. All their efforts to build up a common defence against the Ottoman Empire remained unsuccessful.
This inability of two states under the same threat to unite was due first of all to the military superiority of the Ottoman Empire. Even the combined forces of the German Habsburgs and the Poles were not necessarily superior to the Ottoman forces. This made any such campaign a risky affair. [Emphasis added]
The free world, the West, must unite once again or ISIS will not stop until it reaches the gates of Vienna.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/knight-templar-kneeling-e1409575586190.jpg358640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2014-09-01 08:53:402014-09-01 08:57:50Is it time for a Free World ‘intifada’ against the Islamic State?
Islamic supremacist academic propagandist Hatem “Hate ‘em” Bazian, a professor of “Islamophobia” at (where else?) the University of California Berkeley, has equated the Boston jihad bombings with “Islamophobia” and, several years ago, called for an “intifada” in the U.S. Tonight he is enraged that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has dared to affirm Israel’s right to exist at the convention of the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood group the Islamic Society of North America. He posted this on Facebook. Be sure to call Snyder and tell him, “Bravo!”:
Call Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and express that Palestinians have the right to exist, be free on their land and an immediate end to Israeli Occupation. You lost the Muslim-Arab vote in Michigan!
(517) 373-3400
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder spoke at the opening session of ISNA’s 51st Annual Convention on Friday held in Detroit and made it a point to declare that Israel has the right to exist without making any references to the Palestinians. The statement was completely out of context and seems intended to make a point to his audience as if to each them a lesson considering the recent situation in Gaza.
Being in America, one understands the political leadership taking its marching orders from AIPAC and repeating the same exact words every opportunity they have as if it is part of the US constitution. While the Governor is welcome to his point of view but to come to a Muslim convention and attempt to score points by pushing AIPAC’s agenda is insulting and demonstrate a lack of basic political respect to the community.
What is more glaring is that no one on the stage jumped to make any comments after him to indicate that the implied insult conveyed by the Governor in this speech is not acceptable to the Muslim community and for it to be expressed at this time considering the slaughter campaign unleashed by Israel on Gaza….
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/MI-Governor-Rick-Snyder.jpg434625Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2014-09-01 07:20:312014-09-01 07:22:12Michigan Governor affirms Israel’s right to exist at Hamas-linked ISNA convention
On Tuesday, August 26, 2014, the thirteenth cease fire in Operation Protective Edge between Israel and Hamas and its terrorist partners in Gaza was declared at 7:00 PM local time. The cease fire had been brokered by Egypt was unconditional and without a set time limit. Despite the onset of this latest cease fire, some rockets continued to be launched from Gaza towards Israel past the time set for cessation of attacks. Subsequently, this latest cease fire has held. It is only temporary and there is no definitive peace agreement in the works. The suspicion is that Israel may have exacted significant punishment on both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad forces who agreed to a tadiah, a time out, with no hudna, or truce in the offing.
Some quarters in the world media have expressed the opinion that this might be the end of the third war between Israel and Hamas in nearly six years. It has been the longest in the series, 50 days. But it is only a temporary halt and the conflict may be renewed. This conflict was perpetrated by Hamas in June with the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish youths near the West Bank community of Hebron. It was reportedly organized by a senior Hamas military wing operative based in Turkey, Saleh Muhammad Suleiman al-Arouri. He took credit for that on August 20, 2014 at the fourth conference of the World Union of Islamic Sages held in Turkey. Al-Arouri allegedly was speaking on behalf of Hamas leader Khalid Mashal ensconced in luxury in Qatar. Al-Arouri may also have planned what some have called a Mega-9/11 event that would have attacked Israel from the West Bank coordinated with suicide Hamas commandos infiltrating Israel’s southern frontier through a network of terror tunnels from Gaza. The IDF and General Security Service, Shin Bet, uncovered arms caches and millions of dollars in the West Bank that could have been used for this attack planned for Rosh Hashanah in late September. That planned attack was evidence of a power play by Hamas seeking to topple Fatah and the PA Leadership in the West Bank, akin to the terror group’s bloody ousting of Fatah in the 2007 takeover in Gaza. PA leader Abbas, sidelined in the current Gaza War, allegedly had heated discussions with Mashal when they met in Qatar in mid-August over the alleged power plot.
This third war between Israel and Hamas firing rocket and mortar barrages on July 6th and retaliatory Israeli air attacks on a command center in southern Gaza. A ground incursion phase by the IDF began following a surprise tunnel attack by Hamas commandos inside Israel on July 16th. More than 4,500 rockets and missiles have been fired at Israel to date during this third war. Israel’s Iron Dome System has been effective in taking down several hundred rockets headed for populated areas. Those rockets and missiles have covered virtually 80 percent of the Jewish nation including Israel’s populous central and northern areas. Israel’s South has been the most exposed since Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) began rocket launches nearly a decade ago. The rain of terror from the skies has targeted communities and cities like Sderot and Beersheba in the Western Negev and Ashdod and Ashkelon on Israel’s southern border. Many residents of those most exposed communities have left temporarily for safety elsewhere. Upwards of 16,000 rockets and missiles and untold thousands of mortars have been fired over the past decade at Israel from Gaza. The vast preponderance of those has been supplied from Iran supplemented by locally manufactured short and medium range Qassem and M-75 rockets.
One community on the frontier with Gaza, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, has borne the onslaught from Hamas and the PIJ during all 50 days in this current war. Forty eight hours before this cease fire, a four year boy, Dan Tragerman, who was about to depart with his family for the security of his grandparents’ home near Tel Aviv, was mortally wounded with shrapnel in a mortar attack. Israel has no defense against indiscriminate mortar fire. He was the first Israeli child to die in the current war. 70 Israeli deaths have occurred in this third war with Hamas, 66 IDF service personnel and four civilians including young Dan Tragerman. Casualties in Gaza according to unconfirmed reports of the Health Ministry there were 2,100 killed, half of whom Israel maintains were Hamas and PIJ fighters.
Israel scored several hits via air strikes on four senior military wing commanders of Hamas, the CFO for the terror group and may have taken out the elusive overall military wing commander, Mohammed Deir. Hamas reacted by publicly executing 18 Gazans who they contended were Israeli collaborators. Those attacks and Hamas’ public executions of civilians may have demonstrated Israeli intelligence prowess in the conflict and its network of local assets in Gaza. Those assets have also assisted in targeting command centers that have been flattened by precision air attacks.
During the ground incursion in a section of northern Gaza City, the IDF uncovered a Hamas combat manual that revealed a conscious policy of using women, children and civilians as human shields by launching rockets and mortars from homes, hospitals, apartment complexes and schools used as refuge centers. The mortar attack that took the life of young Dan Tragerman came from a position near a school in Gaza, one of the refuge centers for displaced Gazans.
One of the unpleasant surprises for Israel was the more than 35 tunnels crossing the frontier from Gaza into adjacent communities inside Israel. Those tunnels had been built using funds diverted from the hundreds of millions of dollars supplied by Qatar for reconstruction following the eight days Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012. Qatar may also have supplied sophisticated cyber warfare technology for remote launching of rockets and booby traps in these terror tunnels. In 2006, Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit was kidnapped and held captive by terrorists who abducted him through one of the tunnels. For whatever reason, the military bureaucracy in Tzahal had stymied development of a system to detect tunnel excavation, an effort begun as early as 2004. A successfully tested system may be deployed by the IDF in 2015, too late for this current conflict. Those dozens of tunnels destroyed by the IDF in Operation Protective Edge are only one aspect of the struggle. The other is the several hundred tunnels between Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai through which weapons and cash could be transferred to Hamas and the PIJ. Egypt under President al-Sisi has successfully destroyed over 1,300 tunnels on the Rafah frontier with Gaza. Those Gaza tunnels have been excavated at great human cost. Reports surfaced during this campaign of over 160 children and dozens of adults killed in the terror tunnel projects. Projects allegedly designed with assistance from Hezbolleh based on North Korean tunnel excavation expertise.
An ominous new terrorist group has emerged in Gaza, the Islamic State, formerly ISIS that has conquered vast swaths of both Syria and Iraq. The black flags of Islam flown by the Islamic State have been seen at funerals and on other occasions in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Against this background, another in the periodic 1330amWEBY Middle East Round Table discussions was convened.
Mike Bates
Mike Bates: Good afternoon and welcome to Your Turn. This is Mike Bates. We are having our periodic Middle East round table discussion and I have with me in the studio Jerry Gordon, Senior Editor of the New English Review and its blog the Iconoclast. Welcome Jerry.
Jerry Gordon
Jerry Gordon: Glad to be back.
Bates: Also we have Rabbi Eric Tokajer. He is the Rabbi at Brit Ahm Messianic Synagogue in Pensacola. Joining us by telephone from Jerusalem is Dan Diker, former Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress. He is currently a research fellow with the International Institute for Counter-terrorism and Foreign Policy and he is a Foreign Policy Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Dan Diker, welcome to Your Turn.
Daniel Diker
Daniel Diker: Good to be with you
Bates: Thank you for joining us. We will begin with what is hopefully good news, a cease fire was announced at roughly 7:00 p.m. Jerusalem time or noon Central time. Dan Diker, what is the cause of that and has it held so far?
Diker: First of all it has held. I am not exactly sure that it’s good news. It’s certainly news that can be called in two words a time out. There is a tendency in the West to look at cease fires of any kind as a stepping stone towards a peace agreement. This is very different from what a Middle Eastern Muslim/Arab understanding is of a cease fire. This is really in Arab/Muslim terms a tahdia, calming down. This is not a hudna, truce. This is not a long term detailed cease fire that would be closer to a Western understanding. Israel has accepted it because there are no conditions attached that would have forced Israel under different circumstances to accept impossible demands by Hamas. It affords Israel the opportunity to watch Hamas from the air, sea and ground and to see how it behaves. To see if there are any terrorist troop movements in the Gaza strip. It essentially allows the Israeli Army to see what is happening on the ground from moment to moment without conceding anything substantial.
Bates: How did this cease fire come about? Who brokered it?
Diker: The cease fire was brokered by Egypt and it was unexpected by many in Israel especially those in the South. They have suffered the most as many know in the United States. A beautiful four year old child, Daniel Tragerman was killed just forty-eight hours ago and then a person was killed today, just minutes before the cease fire went into effect. Many people in the South have fled to Central and Northern Israel to relatives and friends effectively creating a situation which Hamas is publicly celebrating. They call Jewish Israelis who move refugees inside the State of Israel. This is first time that you have had this massive movement away from one particular area of Israel in order to recover from ongoing fire. However, all in all it is a neutral cease fire. Perhaps it joins one of the other twelve cease fires that have come and gone over the last fifty days. I would definitely not hold my breath; my assessment is that this will probably be broken by Hamas. I would not be surprised to see it broken in the coming days perhaps a week, or two. It gives Hamas a much needed chance to lick its wounds, to recover and get ready for the next round of assault against Israel.
Gordon: Dan, there is a strange story out of Israel that the demand for this cease fire came from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. How did that occur and contrast that with the demands typically that Hamas has been making.
Diker: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters have been hit really badly in this latest round. We don’t know exactly the number of PIJ fighters versus Hamas fighters that were killed. We do know that upwards of twelve hundred terrorists have been eliminated in this latest round but we understand through reports coming from Gaza that Islamic Jihad officials were placing a lot of pressure on their Hamas compatriots to accept this cease fire. The Israeli Army stepped up its policy of decapitating, not in the Islamic State sense, but decapitating in terms of eliminating Hamas command structure from mid to senior-levels. The IDF started collapsing buildings making sure that first of all that there were no people inside. However, fifteen and sixteen story buildings that housed command structures were also the homes a lot of Hamas officials. The terrorist leadership felt that enough was enough for this round and they wanted a chance to pull themselves together.
Tokajer
Tokajer: Is this part of an infighting that has been going on between the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad? How does that fit in with Abbas’ new movement to force a vote at the UN on allowing an Islamic Palestinian state in the West Bank?
Diker: Two things. First of all Islamic Jihad is an extension of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps which is under the direct command of Khamenei. Hamas is not under the direct command of Khamenei and the Iranians at this point. There was a falling out between the Hamas leadership and their Iranian benefactors and sponsors two and a half years ago when Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood fell on the wrong side of the conflict in Syria. The Iranian backed Syrian government expelled Hamas and the Hamas leaders looked for a different home. They are now housed by the Qataris. Yet there is a new courting relationship going on between Hamas and Iran. This is sort of an important test for the Hamas leadership in order to re-engage their former benefactors. Having said that, the Islamic Jihad and Hamas have cooperated, however they have also killed each other. This is not unsurprising in the Middle East. Many people believe that the Sunni Jihadist organizations cooperate with, but usually hate their Shiite adversaries which are not necessarily true all of the time. They cooperate and they kill one another when it is convenient for them to do that. However, these two groups have mostly cooperated in their coordinated assaults against Israel. I would not be surprised if Iran also played a strong role in asking their proxies to agree to a temporary halt in the fighting. This is a temporary halt in the fighting. This is not a long term arrangement.
Oh I’m sorry I didn’t answer Eric’s other question regarding Mahmoud Abbas and his threat to take Israel to the International Criminal Court. That move is merely a result of Mahmoud Abbas, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, feeling irrelevant over the last fifty days. Hamas has taken center stage. Part of this war is really behind the black curtain or hijab. It is a darker war between Fatah and Hamas for control, influence, power and support of the Palestinian people. They work it out by attacking Israel. This is exactly the reason why Mahmoud Abbas actually fell into the arms of Hamas in the very beginning of the current war in order to vie for power and support of the Palestinian people. He felt in the last two months completely irrelevant and powerless. The West has re-empowered Mahmoud Abbas by wanting to dance him into Gaza and to become the new white knight there once the Hamas forces are demilitarized which is the demand that’s being made by Israel. He’s taken that to the next level; and said if you guys are going to back me anyway I’m going to threaten Israel and try to force them to withdraw to the 1967 line by going to the International Criminal Court. The Palestinian Authority did the exact same thing in the 2008/2009 Cast Lead Operation. They petitioned the International Criminal Court and brought Israel up on war crimes charges that triggered the Goldstone Report. This is not a new strategy by the Palestinian Authority. However it will fail and it will help them commit suicide in their quest for a Palestinian State. The Israeli public will completely reject that and move further away from the Palestinian Authority as any kind of honest and real partner for peace.
Bates: You brought up the Goldstone Report, not all of our listeners are going to be familiar with that. If you could review what it is and why Goldstone himself ultimately renounced it?
Diker: The Goldstone Report was a grotesquely inaccurate UN sponsored report that was led by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. He made extraordinarily twisted and inaccurate charges against Israel. He charged the Israeli Army with malice of forethought targeting in a premeditated way Palestinian civilians which he himself retracted a year later in either a Washington Post or New York Times Op/ed in which he wrote that he was incorrect. He had the wrong information and these were claims that Israel was making all along. However, the damage to Israel’s image, good name and reputation as a liberal, democratic free country defending itself against radical Islamic terror had already been done. We have seen that the role of the Western media has been particularly injurious to Israel by its largely non-objective reporting. That is due to fear of either being killed or expelled by their Hamas host for reporting what they knew was Hamas’ use of children, women and civilians as human shields. Planting weapon factories and weapon depots very near to where the international media themselves were staying in Gaza.
Bates: The accusations are always on page one and the retractions and corrections are always on page 26 if they appear at all.
Diker: Well said.
Gordon: You mentioned cutting off the snakehead of leadership in Hamas. We had the spectacular series of air assaults by the IAF resulting in the killing of significant military commanders and potentially the head of the military wing itself, Mohammed Deif. Can you connect the dots between those events and what occurred prior to the cease fire, public executions of Palestinians or Gazans as so-called collaborators?
Diker: The summary execution of eighteen most probably completely innocent Palestinian civilians over the weekend really strengthens the charge that Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas, referring to the Islamic State network, was the result of complete desperation in the Hamas leadership. They were absolutely shocked that Israel had completely penetrated their command structure and done it with local informants. Israel has excellent intelligence networks inside Gaza and they had conducted pinpoint operations, many of which were not covered by the press. Israel took out not only leadership but lots of weapons storage and manufacturing depots hitting the homes of Hamas officials and the military structure. They were really freaked out, to use the colloquial expression, that Israel had been able to take out their top three or four commanders and they had to make someone responsible for it. They didn’t know quite how to handle it otherwise and they wanted to send a very strong message to Gaza and to other Jihadis with whom they are competing. Let’s remember, they are competing with ISIS for the reality show of who can be the best Jihadi organization in the Middle East. Thus there was a cognitive reason and PR reason to do that. They were just plain desperate.
Bates: Dan you speak of the Israeli intelligence network in Gaza that has been phenomenal and yet Israel seemed genuinely surprised at the extent of the tunnels coming out of Gaza leading into Israel. Was that genuine surprise?
Diker: That’s a very good question Mike. It’s a very difficult issue for the Israelis. I think one of the better ways to approach the whole surprise over the attack tunnel issue is from an Israeli point of view. Their point of reference was tunnels into Gaza coming from the Egyptian Sinai. Those were the tunnels built over the last fourteen or fifteen years. Their building intensified after the 2005 unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Those were the scores of tunnels that supplied the underground economy that was Hamas driven and mostly controlled with some cooperation of Salafist groups in the Egyptian Sinai. Perhaps there were a hundred tunnels from Sinai into Gaza. What happened since the Egyptian government changed through a coup by President al-Sisi was that he shut down those tunnels. Israel had still not paid enough attention to a whole new tunnel network that was being created as attack tunnels.
Even though Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped in 2006 and held captive for five years in Gaza, was kidnapped and dragged through one of those new types of attack tunnels. Hamas created a major network of these attack tunnels. So yes there was surprise to the extent these tunnels were actually death tunnels, attack tunnels. Some were million dollar tunnels that you could move cars through. These tunnels also provided, much to the surprise of some in the Israeli Security and Defense Establishment, the whole underground city to protect Hamas operatives, senior members and their families. So yes, there is a real serious question as to why Israel did not know the full extent of this massive network. Hamas leadership intended to send hundreds of Hamas operatives through these tunnels simultaneously next month in order to launch a mega-9/11 attack against Israeli cities.
Tokajer: Could you comment upon the drop in support that Bibi Netanyahu is receiving now? I saw polls that said he went from over 80% favorable to down to about 33% favorable currently as a result of these constant cease fires. The Israeli public actually wanted him to send the military in force into Gaza to stop these attacks.
Diker: That is correct. It is ironic, because it is precisely Netanyahu’s strategy of staged attacks against Hamas using Hamas’ breaking of the cease fire to create additional legitimacy abroad and support at home for the Israeli army to take the next military step. That has backfired on his local support. There has been a very large amount of support from the Israeli public for the Israeli Army to go into Gaza in a full-fledged multi-divisional ground assault against Hamas. They wanted the IDF to get rid of all of Hamas’ weapons and demilitarize Gaza. Netanyahu chose not to do that, ironically in order to maintain more legitimacy. He felt that the perceived price as discussed by the media in Israel, was pending large IDF Israeli casualties from a massive ground operation. He thought that would please the Israeli public to keep things done from the air. I will say this. It was noted in Israel that he did not launch a ground operation even though it did reflect in lower public support numbers ended up forcing Hamas into an unconditional cease fire without sending in ground forces. The jury is still out as to whether that decision was right or wrong. However, there was a big outcry by many in the public, especially in the South that wanted to finish this problem. They have been dealing with this for years in the South. They have been getting hit by Hamas rockets and mortars for fourteen years and they said enough is enough. No country in the world would put up with it and Israel shouldn’t put up with it either. Therefore, they wanted the government to finish the job even if it took another three, four or five months and that didn’t happen. The public wants certainty. Number two, the public feels uncertain as to what the government strategy is. The example of that is this unconditional cease fire that nobody really understands what it means. My assessment of this, it is just a calming down. It’s a seventh inning stretch. It’s just a momentary cease fire before Hamas starts firing again.
Gordon: There was a heated discussion in Qatar last week between PA President Abbas and Hamas leader Khalid Mashal who lives there in luxury. What was that all about and what is the connection to this current war?
Diker: Behind this current war has been the well known enmity between Fatah and Hamas. It was recently reported that the Israeli Security Services uncovered a plot by Hamas to launch mass casualty attacks from the West Bank and at the same time engineer a coup against, Fatah for control in the West Bank and take over the PLO. The Hamas/Fatah competition for control of the PLO has been the Arab/Palestinian narrative that has governed these very bloody relationships between Fatah and Hamas. The Israeli Security Service in searching for the kidnapped and ultimately murdered Israeli teens used the help of the PA, against Hamas. Hamas has positioned Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah as essentially stooges of the Israelis and the United States. Hamas sees itself as the true inheritors of the PLO throne. Further, they have been taking violent actions in order to topple Fatah. We saw an example of that in 2007 in Gaza when Hamas took over. Remember Fatah used to control Gaza until 2007 so this has been a bloody war. The attempts in Qatar were to try to broker the existing shell of unity between these two unfriendly factions. They cooperate on Monday, kill each other on Tuesday and cooperate on Wednesday. That’s exactly what Fatah and Hamas have been doing to one another.
Bates: Has the funding of Hamas continued out of Turkey and Qatar? Why hasn’t Washington been doing more to put pressure on those two nations to reduce or preferably cease funding of the Hamas terrorists?
Diker: That is a really complex question Mike. There was a real brouhaha in Israel when the Obama administration through the auspices of Secretary of State Kerry proposed and backed Turkey and Qatar as the two potential brokers for a long term peace agreement for a cease fire. You remember they gathered in Paris just a few weeks ago and there was real displeasure in Israeli government circles over that as opposed to the Israeli full-fledged support for the Egyptians as much more favorable brokers. It’s a matter of public record that President Obama has pursued a strategy of engaging political Islam which translated into support for the Muslim Brotherhood. He supported President Morsi in Egypt. He was not exactly thrilled with the actions of President al-Sisi when he overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt. President Obama has made Turkey a key partner. Turkey is a Muslim Brotherhood supporter as is Qatar. While he has come out in favor of Israel’s right to defend itself the American administration has never come out in this current war and said Hamas is a terror organization. It really raises questions. At the same time, one does have to say publicly the United States continues to be Israel’s major ally in defense, intelligence and in other matters. However, there are real questions that have gone unanswered as to why Israel and the United States are not completely on the same page. Both countries are facing radical Islamic terror on their borders. I remind Americans that Hezbollah at the behest, funding and backing of Iran is sitting in Mexico today working with Mexican drug cartel groups close to America’s Southern border.
Tokajer: How do the Israelis view the United States and the rest of the world the situation from their perspective? They seem to only identify the conflict going on in Israel. For instances, we have the Egyptians, the United Arab Emirates that are involved in Libya now. We have ISIS all over Syria and Iraq. We have these Islamic battles going on with hundreds of thousands being killed. Contrast that with hundreds and low thousands being killed in the Israel conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Diker: The Israeli body politic feels very much alone at this juncture. There is a strong feeling here in Israel that the American people and Congress embrace the Israeli people. There is, to be a little bit cynical about it, probably more support for Israel in the American Congress than there is in the Knesset if you take all of the parties together. That’s just an attempt at humor, to express an idea that’s very profound in Israel. They really do feel embraced by the American people. But on the world stage there is a completely disproportionate view of the world towards Israel versus the Palestinians than the much larger problem of radical Islamic terror in the world. No one can quite understand why people in the West refuse to understand that Hamas, the Islamic State formerly ISIS, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Iran are all the same in terms of their ultimate goals. That is to kill Americans, kill Israelis, kill Christians, kill Jews, and kill anybody that is not a Muslim in their image. We do not understand why people are not making the connection to radical Islamic terror and have isolated the Palestinian/ Israeli Conflict as if it were some other sort of conflict other than the Jihad in Gaza. It is the same Jihad that attacked the United States on September 11th and twenty-nine times after that trying to penetrate the borders of the United States.
Tokajer: How do the Israeli people view the world accusing them of disproportional use of weaponry against Hamas? Yet the United States may have used much more weaponry in just a short time against ISIS than Israel has used in Gaza during this whole fifty day period.
Diker: I’m unclear as to what is the charge of disproportional force. As former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “If a murderer comes into your house do you call one police officer or do you call the entire police force to come and save you?” That’s what, the understanding here is of disproportional force. The disproportional force is that which is used to maintain security and protect the civilian population of any country. People, either with malice of forethought or people who are just ignorant, do not understand it has nothing to do with international law, the use of massive force in order to turn back or kill terrorists. If we were to use the common understanding of proportional force, that would mean that Israel would be entitled to send over three thousand rockets indiscriminately into Gaza because that’s what they send in to Israel. Would that be proportional?
Bates: Of course they are blaming it on the death toll but what is ridiculous about that as I have argued many times on this program with callers who somehow think Israel is the bad player here. Even though I think anywhere on the world stage in the modern era if there is a clear good player and a clear bad player it is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and Israel is clearly the good guy. The example that I always cited is if you are in a military firefight and your enemy is poorly armed and poorly trained they’re just firing at you indiscriminately. If your forces are all expert marksmen are you not allowed to take out one of them until they luck out and take out one of you? I mean that’s absurd and Israel is using precision munitions. Gazans are just firing indiscriminately hoping to kill civilians in Israel. Rabbi Eric before we began this program you were telling me that Hamas is actually saying that they want precision munitions. What’s that about?
Tokajer: Right, the leader of the Hamas in Gaza came out and said they do not purposely fire at civilians in Israel. They just have unguided munitions and if the world will provide them with guided munitions then they will only fire at military installations. It’s not their fault that they don’t have the equal equipment to not kill civilians.
Diker: Right. Exactly. That is their use of psychological warfare on the part of Hamas. One should applaud their …
Tokajer: Creativity?
Diker: … upgrade in use of psychological warfare. That’s exactly why they attempted to target our nuclear facilities, our airport, all of our sensitive installations with the weapons that they already had. If they had precision weapons they would be killing children not indiscriminately but very discriminately as their Charter calls for. We have to be very firm in terms of our moral clarity as to whom we are dealing with. We are dealing with an evil, radical Islamic, genocidal, terrorist organization that is dedicated to murdering Jews, Christians, people from the West. That’s what they say, that’s what they do. So all of this other stuff is pure nonsense and should be ignored.
Bates: While I support Israel completely I must confess that I often don’t understand why they are playing so nicely. If I was in charge it would be a lot more like Dresden than Gaza. Let me just point out that Israel, throughout this entire conflict has been providing humanitarian aid into Gaza. Just last week, on the 21st and 22nd of August, there were periods when Israel was bringing into Gaza 232 trucks full of food, medicine and supplies, 262 tons of gas and one hundred seventy-two thousand, two hundred sixty-five gallons of gasoline and in exchange Hamas fired 83 rockets back “during” the crossings! What country in the history of warfare has provided assistance to the people that are attacking them? I can’t think of anyone but Israel.
Diker: Your memory is correct and in fact, it’s worse than that. It has not been reported in the West, but is clearly well known in Israel, that Hamas systematically refuses international humanitarian delegations to come to Gaza. They have systematically refused to allow injured Palestinian civilians to come to a field hospital that was set up by the State of Israel. This installation on the border outside of Gaza where Israel was prepared with a full contingent of surgeons, nurses, orderlies, specialists to receive Gazans that Hamas had used as human shields and had been injured inadvertently in Israeli strikes against Hamas. Israel was prepared to take care of them by the hundreds. Hamas refused to allow civilians to cross the border into Israeli territory to be given medical care.
Gordon: There is also a blood libel going on. We see it on posters in the US and elsewhere saying that Israel murders Palestinian children. Rabbi Tokajer, you had something on that that we were just discussing?
Tokajer:Time Magazine is coming out with a news article which proclaims as blood libel that Israelis are harvesting organs from the Palestinians to make a profit off them. Blood libel goes way back to the 1400’s with the Spanish Inquisition, the claim of Jews making matzo out of blood of babies and such but this is a constant thing that comes up. Dan, can you talk about that?
Diker: Frankly what was been uncovered were propaganda sheets that Hamas used to re-energize the 15th century blood libel that Jews use blood of, they didn’t even say blood of Christians in this case, but they said blood of Muslims in order to make Matzos on Passover. Hamas in a very sophisticated way, working even in the United States through Muslim Brotherhood backed organizations and in Europe, promoted these blood libels against Israel. These libels have been transformed into what many Americans understand as BDS, Boycotts, Divestitures and Sanctions. The BDS movement is an extension of a terrorist strategy. That is not a grassroots punitive initiative by well meaning people in order to create two states for two peoples solution as many in the United States think it is. It is not that at all. It is war by other means. It is political warfare in order to cause the dissolution of Israel through its criminalization and isolation in the international community. Back of it are these blood libels advanced by Hamas the way the Nazis and Soviets did. As you pointed out Rabbi, the Spanish did that in the Inquisition. It’s just a continuation of the same blood libel.
Bates: I’ve got a question about the Islamic state ISIS, ISILL, whatever name they happen to be going by today. They just beheaded an American journalist, James Foley, and they are threatening to kill more. It is very clear that they pose a threat to the region. Is Israel concerned about their border integrity vis-a-vis ISIS or the Islamic State?
Diker: Let’s be clear about what the Islamic State is. The Islamic State is a terrorist network very well funded in Syria and Iraq. Now they are finding their footing, a little more difficult in Southern Lebanon because that is controlled by the Hezbollah an enemy of ISIS. However, they are in Gaza and operatives have been found in the West Bank. From an Israeli point of view a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist. If it’s Hamas that targets children or executes innocent Palestinians by shooting them as opposed to beheading them or crucifying them as ISIS does, Israel looks at it as all the same. Hamas itself is no less cruel and evil than ISIS. We are surrounded by Hezbollah in Lebanon, ISIS in Syria and in Gaza. Israelis are surrounded by radical Islamic terrorist threat on all sides. ISIS plays a role in it. There is no additional challenge to Israel’s border integrity by them than by anyone else. Hamas is clearly in control in Gaza as Hezbollah is in Southern Lebanon. Those are, the central addresses that Israel looks for when defending their territory.
Bates: I thank Ha Shem that Israel has the Golan Heights because without holding the high ground there it would pose a much greater threat coming out of Syria into Tiberias and along the sea of Galilee.
Diker: Very true.
Bates: The Iron Dome has been very successful intercepting the rockets that have been fired out of Gaza. Now Hamas is firing mortars and Iron Dome is not designed to intercept mortars. How big of a threat are these mortar attacks?
Diker: Mortar attacks are a threat. They claimed the life of that young child, Daniel Tragerman, just the other day and claimed the life of an Israeli today as well. There are only three seconds in between the firing of a mortar and the alert for a person to zip into a protected area. There is virtually no trajectory on mortars. It’s very low. It is a dangerous nuisance and one that affects the Southern most communities abutting the Gaza border. The majority of projectiles fired have been these short and medium range rockets. Even with medium range rockets there are only between twenty and sixty seconds to get into a protected area. Iron Dome doesn’t protect against mortars and they have been part of the difficulty. They are considered no less dangerous in terms of an overall threat to Israel. This is no tolerance policy for mortars or rockets. There is a no tolerance policy for any of it.
Bates: Dan, thanks much. We’ve been speaking with Jerry Gordon, Rabbi Eric Tokajer and Dan Diker on this international round table discussion here on 1330 WEBY.
Listen to this August 26, 2014 audio from the WEBY AM 1330 “International Middle East Round Table Discussion”: Segment 1, Segment 2, Segment 3 and Segment 4.
EDITORS NOTE: This Middle East round table discussion with Dan Diker, Mike Bates, Eric Tokajer and Jerry Gordon originally appeared on the New English Review.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/IAF-Strikes-in-Gaza.jpg357635Jerry Gordonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJerry Gordon2014-09-01 06:53:522014-09-01 06:55:20Has the Third Gaza War Between Israel and Hamas Ended?
EDITORS NOTE: The featured edited image originally appeared on Jihadmin.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/the-key-to-paradise.jpg360640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2014-09-01 06:33:212014-09-01 06:44:11New Jihadi Entitlement Program — A One Way Ticket to Paradise
According to a confidential and highly reliable source, Major General Stephen M. Twitty, Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss Military Reservation in El Paso,Texas, was briefed on Friday, August 29, 2014 by the CIA on a credible threat by ISIS against the US. Based on intelligence from chatter and intercepted radio transmissions, General Twitty was told that a truck bomb or other Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) attack along the US southern border may be imminent.
Further information revealed by Judicial Watch indicates that the attack may emanate from the border city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, across the border from El Paso, where terrorist groups, including ISIS, have been very active. This report flies in the face of Friday’s statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest that “There is no evidence or indication right now that ISIL (ISIS) is actively plotting to attack the United States homeland.”
Washington cross-talk notwithstanding, we have been alerting our readers over the last few months that ISIS has targeted the US and already has agents within her. They are escorted by ‘coyotes’ as ‘special customers’ for as much as $50,000 per head. The probability that once here they will attempt to attack American targets is very high.
ISIS terrorists are savage, brutal, and deadly. They fervently believe in their cause – the global caliphate according to the strictest interpretation of Shariah law. They welcome death as part of their belief system. You cannot intimate those you are not afraid to die. This enemy, with billions of dollars in financial resources to support its efforts, is more dangerous and more committed to our destruction than any terrorist group we have yet faced. Yet, despite the CIA warning, there seems to be little urgency in the White House. The President flew to New York to attend yet another fund raiser, after having admitted on open mike that he has “no strategy” to deal with ISIS.
Michael Morell, former Deputy Director of the CIA in a CBSinterview on August 21, 2014 said:
After explaining what he thought needed to be done to defeat the terrorists (more targeted strikes and better intelligence), he said that “if an ISIS member showed up in a mall in the United States tomorrow with an AK-47 and killed a number of Americans I would not be surprised.”
“Over the long-term, I worry that this group could present a 9/11-style threat,” he added, noting the group presents both a short-term and long-term threat.
We drew attention to exactly this scenario in a New English Review article in June 2009 on the Somali Émigré threat. The article discussed the threat posed by recruitment of dozens of fighters in the Twin Cities to join Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab, Foot Solders of Islam. We warned of a possible swarming attack by returning Al Shabaab veterans on a mall in the US or Canada.
We hypothesized:
Such attacks could be perpetrated by homegrown Jihadis like those naturalized American Somali youths, alleged to have ‘disappeared’ to join Al Shabaab militia groups in Somalia. Those returnees could constitute cadres to train fellow American Somali youths. They could orchestrate swarming attacks against public facilities in this country using so-called low tech means: cheap weapons and pickup trucks. These possible swarming attacks could be devastating ‘mini- 9/11events.’ The casualties from such orchestrated swarming attacks could be devastating and the economic impacts, significant.
Just think of the Nairobi Westgate Mall attack in September 2013. Our report was entitled Al Shabaab is a Threat to the World at Large. Exchange ISIS for Al Shabaab and the threat looms considerably larger. Given the new information about the latest threat, we should be adding a Kansas City bombing scenario to the possibilities.
The situation on the southern border is not our only vulnerability. Neither border is secure, nor are the over 15,000 airports in the United States, including 378 primary airports that support scheduled commercial air service, and 2,952 other landing facilities including 2,903 general aviation airports, 10 heliports, and 39 seaplane bases. Most of the smaller airports represent a significant threat to the US, because they are generally close at sunset, have minimal security, and represent a large vulnerability gap which is exploited by traffickers, cartels, gangs, and terrorists.
The northern Canadian border is porous from Maine to the State of Washington. A recent trip along the northern border of New England showed just how porous it is. Not far from customs stations, one could cross from one country to the other by using logging roads which crossed the border through heavy forests, across open lakes, rivers, and open fields. Helicopters crossed the border unchecked, and during this trip, the co-author witnessed a drug drop from one of them.
Even at the check points, security is lax. Algerian Ahmed Rassem nearly got through a checkpoint at a US border crossing at Port Angeles in Washington on December 14, 1999, when he tried to cross with a car load of bomb making materials, intended for a New Year’s Eve attack on the Los Angeles International Airport, the so-called LAX Millennium Plot. Only an alert customs inspector who found Rassem’s behavior odd stopped him before he could carry out his plot. An explosives expert later concluded that the bomb making materials in his car could have produced a blast 40x greater than that of a conventional car bomb at one of the world’s busiest airports.
There are more than 500 Canadians who are estimated to have joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Add to that the American ISIS contingent of at least 150. Their return home from the training fields of Iraq and Syria using their valid passports opens the possibility of ‘home-grown’ terror attacks in Canada and the US.
Four American ISIS fighters were killed in Syria this past week, including 33 year old Douglas McAuthur McCain. The four came from the Somali émigré community or were converts associated with that community. Three came from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and McCain came from San Diego. Instead of journeying to Somalia, they evaded the FBI, found the means of entering Syria via Turkey, and joined up with ISIS in Syria.
In another instance, a young Vero Beach, Florida man, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, undertook a massive suicide truck bombing of a Syrian military base in March 2014. In a recent video he explained his reasons for joining up with the Al Qaeda militia, Jabhat al Nusra. He said that the FBI was tailing him, but he was never detained by the FBI, and they did not stop him from accomplishing his deadly mission.
Canada’s major cities, especially Metro Toronto and Montreal, have large communities of Somalis, Middle Eastern or Asian extremist Muslims. There are reports that some of these ISIS fighters may have already slipped into the US over the easily traversed US/Canadian border. Another 3,000 ISIS fighters may carry foreign passports that give them access to this country under the visa waiver system.
The news that a senior US military commander has been briefed on the credible threat of an ISIS jihadi team successfully infiltrating our southern border to conduct a devastating truck bombing only heightens concerns as we approach the 13th commemoration of 9/11.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on the New English Review.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/ISIS-620x350.jpg350620Jerry Gordonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJerry Gordon2014-08-31 16:08:432014-08-31 16:08:43Did the CIA Brief the U.S. Military on an ISIS Bombing Plot on the Texas Border?
The definition of peace between the Palestinians and Israelis is when the two can work alongside each other, earning equal wages, benefits, and economically energizing their neighborhoods, in a ‘so called’ peaceful environment.
Peace broke out in Maale Adumim, West Bank at the SodaStream factory 15 minutes west of Jerusalem. 600 West Bank Palestinians, 300 East Jerusalem Arabs, and 300 Israeli Jews entered, without knowing, into a voluntary peace deal at SodaStream. All this achieved without outside interference from the United Nations, United States, and UK.
The SodaStream factory had an on-site synagogue and mosque. Jew and Palestinian break bread everyday sharing the same cafeteria in peace and harmony. The economy of Maale Adumim, West Bank was benefiting from the positive financial benefits as SodaStream’s Palestinian workers were building homes, buying local goods, and saving money for their future.
How Did This Peace Work?
Al Monitor asked SodaStream’s President Daniel Birnbaum to explain how this peace worked between Israeli and Palestinian.
“You know, as far as many of them(Palestinians) are concerned, the only Israelis they know are settlers and the policemen at checkpoints. Most of them had never even been to Israel until I took them on a tour last summer. Then they saw Israelis on the beach and in the street. They saw plain, ordinary people.
On the other hand, it was also an opportunity for us to break through the barriers of hatred and to get to know the other side, so that we could finally recognize that not every Palestinian is a terrorist. I’m proud of that. I want people to finally realize that we’re talking about people and that peace is possible, despite the politicians. If there were another hundred companies like us extending a hand to the other side, we would have a peace agreement, because everybody wants it, including the Palestinians.”
This SodaStream economic peace effort was a glimmer of light at the end of a very dark and bloody tunnel. Then, out of nowhere, Oxfam and BDS Movement came into play with a world wide action which at the end of the day is hurting over 3,500 Palestinians.
900 Palestinians and Arabs Betrayed By Oxfam and BDS’ Nonsense
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) is a global campaign to increase economic and political pressure on Israel i.e. branding Israel as an apartheid state. BDS puts public pressure on companies like SodaStream by protesting and intimidating retailers around the world for selling their products.
The BDS movement has evolved into a non-affiliated arm of Palestinian terrorism. Oxfam/BDS are hell bent on Israel’s economic destruction. Sacrificing the economic future of 900 Palestinian workers was a very small matter to the BDS movement.
Oxfam
Oxfam’s mission statement: “Working with thousands of local partner organizations, we work with people living in poverty striving to exercise their human rights, assert their dignity as full citizens and take control of their lives.”
Oxfam International in its zeal to hurt SodaStream violated its own mission statement.
Oxfam went on a personal rampage mission to destroy SodaStream, in January 2014, after their international spokesperson, Ms. Scarlett Johansson, appeared in a SodaStream worldwide TV ad campaign.
Oxfam got hot under the collar when Ms. Johansson’s publicist gave this reason for leaving Oxfam. “Ms. Johansson, respectfully decided to end her ambassador role with Oxfam after eight years… She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.”
In a January 30, 2014 Oxfam press release the ‘aid’ groups politics become crystal clear, “Oxfam believes that businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.”
Oxfam International, with an operating budget of $1.2 Billion US and net assets of $396 Million, decided to exact their pound of flesh from SodaStream. Ms. Scarlett Johansson publicly exposed Oxfam’s political bias against the State of Israel in favor of the BDS Movement. The only one’s who got hurt at the end of the day were the 900 Palestinian and Arab workers who were earning four times more than the average wage in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).
Back To Square One
JTA reports, Daniel Birnbaum, SodaStream CEO said, “We are committed to continue serving as a bridge and to sowing hope.” The flames of that hope were extinguished because of outside influences from Oxfam International and BDS, both showing their anti-semitism.
“SodaStream’s case, some say, is one example of how boycotting an Israeli company doing business in the West Bank can end up hurting the very goals that boycott proponents say they are trying to achieve: Palestinian rights and Israel-Palestinian peace.”
Conclusion
SodaStream will soon be closing their West Bank plant and moving it to the Be’er Sheva area in the Negev. With an average of 4 people per household approximately 3,600 Palestinians and Arab workers are being directly impacted by the SodaStream West Bank plant closing.
Many of these Palestinian and Arab workers had been earning enough money with SodaStream to apply for mortgages and building homes. When those mortgage payments can’t be paid and the foreclosures start there will be much anger and frustration in these West Bank communities. There is no work in the West Bank for these Palestinians to move into comparable earning jobs and support their families.
Now there are 3,600 additional frustrated and angry Palestinians in the West Bank. Their anger, strangely enough, will not be focused on Oxfam International and the BDS Movement who are responsible for them losing their livelihood.
That anger will be focused like a laser on the Jews and Israel. If I was a Palestinian community organizer I would be channeling this anti Jew/Israel anger by building more violent terrorist cells in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with all these now unemployed SodaStream workers.
Qatar would be smart to give these families a little bit of money and food to tide them over for a short time instead of financing a Gaza weapons buying spree. When the money and food runs out, desperation sets in. Generosity in the Arab world comes with a very high price tag.
The payment will almost certainly be the radicalization of these once proud Palestinian SodaStream workers.
Sadly, there are no profits in peace between the Palestinians and Israelis for groups like Oxfam and the BDS Movement who thrive on poverty and misery.
The Big Picture
The idiocy of Oxfam BDS campaign created a situation where some EU and USA large wholesalers had to cancel orders of Israeli products. The unintended consequence is that Russia is now buying up from Israel what the EU and USA are unfortunately boycotting.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Generic-Oxfam-e1409513780270.jpg261640Alan Kornmanhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngAlan Kornman2014-08-31 15:37:242014-08-31 15:39:56Oxfam and BDS Hypocrisy by Wallace Bruschweiler and Alan Kornman
Video of an HonestReporting event at their headquarters in Jerusalem on August 27, 2014 featuring Melanie Phillips. Phillips states:
“The intractable problem of Gaza has been exacerbated by the meddling incomprehension of a western world that just doesn’t grasp how Islamist fanatics play by entirely different rules.”
For more than three decades, Melanie Phillips has served as Britain’s political conscience. Followed by members of the Royal Family as well as by homemakers, ubiquitous on radio and television as well as in the print media, Melanie Phillips is widely regarded as an indispensable force for good in the battle to restore western civilization.
EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of YNaija.com
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/HAMAS-monitor.jpg360640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2014-08-31 14:24:562014-08-31 14:24:56Melanie Phillips: Islamic fanatics ‘play by entirely different rules’
The jihad attack that took the lives of 2,996 Americans and foreigners on 9/11 was perpetrated by 19 middle class Egyptians, Saudis and Yemenis. This dastardly act by Al Qaeda (AQ) Islamic terrorists destroyed an iconic landmark of American International economic prowess, the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Another plane took out one side of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and another crashed into a rural area near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The last recorded voice heard from Flight 93 was “allahu akbar” – their god Allah was “the greatest.” This was the first act of Islamic terrorism perpetrated from afar on America. 9/11 was called the “Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century.”
9/11 was followed over the past 13 years by other AQ- inspired acts of jihad terrorism in the US, two of which killed American service personnel in Little Rock and Fort Hood. Dozens of AQ-inspired attempts were foiled in Detroit, Times Square and other locations across the country. As of early 2014, 6,802 American service personnel and an estimated 6,800 contractors died in both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts fighting AQ and Taliban jihadists.
The West and the world were unprepared when 9/11 occurred, although many warnings had been given.
The 9/11 warnings still have not been heeded. On August 19, 2014, the Islamic State (IS), formerly ISIS, released a “Message to America” – a video of the gruesome barbaric beheading of intrepid American photo journalist Jim Foley of Rochester, New Hampshire. He was captured in November 2012 by radical elements of the Free Syrian Army who contributed their captive to the extremist Salafist jihadi group, ISIS. ISIS is rumored to hold several other Americans captive, among them, journalist Steven Joel Sotloff was featured in the same video.
IS threatens the Levant from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, the West and even the US. The 13th commemoration of 9/11 finds us no safer, perhaps unprepared to deal with this supremacist jihadist threat.
On the occasion of this 13th Commemoration of 9/11, we interviewed a survivor of that attack in lower Manhattan; Deborah Weiss, Esq. Ms. Weiss heads Vigilancenow.org. She formerly worked for the Committee on House Oversight in Congress; the Forbes for President Campaign in 1995-96; and served as an attorney in New York under the Giuliani administration. Her articles have also been published in FrontPage Magazine, American Thinker, American Security Council Foundation, the Weekly Standard, Washington Times, and National Review Online. She is the co-author of Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamist Terrorist Network (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). She is the principal researcher and writer of Council on American-Islamic Relations: Its Use of Language and Intimidation.
Watch this You Tube video of Deborah Weiss presenting at the Westminster Institute in August 2013:
Jerry Gordon, Senior Editor New English Review
Jerry Gordon: Deborah Weiss, thank you for consenting to this interview.
Deborah Weiss, Esq.
Deborah Weiss: Thank you for inviting me.
Gordon: You are a 9/11 Survivor. Where were you when the terrorist attack occurred?
Weiss: I was running late for work or I would have been inside the WTC. Instead, because it was Election Day for the mayoral primary, I was still in my apartment at Gateway Plaza, the closest residence to the WTC. I was getting ready for work and all of a sudden, I heard a really loud noise, like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I couldn’t figure out what it was. It sounded like my upstairs neighbor’s furniture was falling down. I also heard people screaming outside, but I’m not a morning person and NYC can be noisy, so at first, I didn’t bother to look out the window. I turned on the radio and found out that a plane had hit the WTC, so I turned on the TV. A little while later, I heard another noise, even louder than the first one. I knew then that the first plane wasn’t an accident, but that these were terrorist attacks. The lights in my apartment flickered and then went out. The building started to shake and I fell to the floor. I knew I had to get out of there and it was pretty scary. I made the decision to take my cat. So I went inside the closet to get her box and when I came out, I couldn’t see anything outside my window except pitch black. I had a huge window facing away from the WTC. I remember it was a beautiful sunny Tuesday morning. Just a bit earlier I had looked out and saw the sun and the leaves of a tree pressing against my window. The window was very wide and covered the whole side of my living room. Yet, after I got up, I couldn’t see one ray of light. Part of what makes it so scary when you’re in the midst of it is you don’t know what’s happening. People in other parts of the world know more of what is going on than you do. I thought we were getting bombed. All you really know in that situation is someone is trying to kill everyone around you and something really, really bad is happening and that you might not get out alive.
I dug my nails into my cat, threw her into her box and ran down the stairs. In the lobby, a lot of people were entering our building from the WTC side. They were covered in white with red eyes. Smoke started coming in and it became increasingly difficult to breathe. Along with some others, I entered a back apartment on the ground level and sat down on the floor. I remember one woman there with tears in her eyes holding her newborn twins, one in each arm. We couldn’t exit the back door of the building because it was locked. Finally, they unlocked it and a lot of people fled. I had learned that all the dust I saw was from the collapse of the first tower. Because there was no plan and nowhere to run, a few of us decided to stay put. Then, all of a sudden, a police officer came to the apartment and started screaming hysterically for us all to leave NOW! I ran out the door and knew immediately that we were at war. Everything was covered in white: the trees, the streets and the benches. I ran along the water. Looking backwards, I saw the remaining tower burning and tilting in my direction. Suddenly, a Coast Guard rescue ferry appeared and approximately 15 of us jumped on. Moments later, when we were a yard or two out, the second building collapsed. We all said a prayer for those who had just died. We were taken to a triage center in NJ, where we sat all day listening to radio updates. All the phones were out because the transmitters were in the WTC. So it was awhile before you could reach anyone by phone. Once you could, all the hotels were quickly filled up.
I was fortunate in that I wound up meeting a nice young woman whose mother had come to get her. Her mom took me and her daughter’s roommate home with her. She gave us clean clothes, food, and a place to sleep. I was very grateful. It became clear in the coming days that I was not going to be able to go back home or to work any time soon as both my apartment and office were in the inner zone of Ground Zero. It was hard to get information since we couldn’t call the premises. I had to listen to TV updates to find out the status of my home and office.
In the end, I was homeless for two months, hopping from couch to couch, a week here and a week there until I finally put money on a new apartment uptown. For a year, I had to deal with FEMA and other agencies, get hazardous waste cleaners, and throw out my new couch, chair, and bed. Amidst all that, I had to pack whatever I had left in order to move. We had to wear masks and sign a liability release to enter our apartments and get our belongings. At work, my office had a whole wall blown off. The contamination required the office to replace all its carpets, computers and other equipment. We were displaced and dispersed for 8 months.
Gordon: Describe what it was like in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Weiss: A lot of people don’t realize how large the scope of the attack was. It wasn’t just two WTC buildings; all 7 buildings collapsed. And within a two mile radius, buildings had windows bashed in, walls that fell down, computers shooting outside, and the streets covered in white.
When I returned to get my belongings, a really high fence had been erected and the vicinity was divided into 3 zones. There were military tanks on the street with camouflaged guards. ID was required to determine which zones you could enter. The whole area was silent. It was a ghost town. The few people on the streets wore masks and had tears in their eyes. It didn’t look like America. It was very eerie. Subsequently, spontaneous memorials sprang up, with teddy bears, photos, love letters and flowers. Grown men stood by the memorials and cried. This was a daily thing for at least a year. If you worked in the area, there was no escaping it. It was like being in a war zone.
Gordon: How did 9/11 change the course of your professional career?
Weiss: In the beginning, there wasn’t a real change and I continued to work as an attorney in NYC. The main difference was that our office was dislocated and a lot farther away and it was rather hard to concentrate for many of us that were at the scene of the attack. Our office, which consisted of an entire building, had to separate different departments into different buildings and even different boroughs. When we finally moved back to the original location, we had to pass the WTC site on a daily basis. It was very hard. At first, they were employing rescue efforts. But after awhile, they realized there was nobody else left alive, so they started searching for dead bodies. It was like passing a morgue every day. We could still smell the stench, and the smoke which burned for months. They also had a helicopter regularly flying over the Ground Zero site. Our office secured psychotherapists and held group sessions to inform us about the symptoms of PTSD and also offer private therapy sessions, which were paid for by the NYC Crime Victims office and Red Cross. There were several people in our office who had been on the way to work and were frozen in front of the WTC, watching the people jump. They were very traumatized. It wasn’t until I moved to Washington and started exploring why the 9/11 hijackers wanted to murder US citizens did I start to understand that it wasn’t just a few crazy guys who wanted to kill us. I learned that there is an entire movement or movements that want Sharia law on a worldwide scale. Indeed, my conclusion after years of research was that what I call “non-violent radical Islam” for lack of a better term, really poses more of a threat to freedom and western civilization than terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic; it’s the last step in the process. But the goal is Sharia law and in fact, some groups don’t believe in achieving it through violent means as it brings too much attention. So there are many groups that have this same goal, but work to achieve it through peaceable, often even legal means. This is much more insidious because it often goes unnoticed, so they are better able to achieve their goals gradually and incrementally. Once I was convinced that such a movement existed, I felt I had to do something to raise awareness because if you are not aware of a threat you are powerless to combat it. I didn’t want to be like a non-Nazi German, standing idly on the sidelines. So I began writing, speaking, and teaching on the subject, with a special emphasis on Islamist stifling of free speech and its consequences. I gained an expertise in the concept of “combatting defamation of religions” and have written extensively about it, particularly as it is being pursued and implemented by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and CAIR. I wrote a chapter in the book titled, Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Terrorist Network and I was the primary writer and researcher for the book, Council on American Islamic Relations: Its Use of Lawfare and Intimidation. I also am a frequent contributor to many online publications on the subject and speak nationally to various organizations.
Gordon: When the national 9/11 memorial museum opened in lower Manhattan, did you visit it and what were your impressions and emotions?
Weiss: Yes, it was very tastefully done. I thought it was thorough and I was surprised by its objectivity. As you might have heard, there was great controversy regarding a short documentary included in the museum about the rise of Al-Qaeda. Many liberal clergy in NYC objected to the use of the words “jihad” and “Islamist” in the film, though Al-Qaeda itself used that language. Nobody challenged the accuracy of the film, but many wanted to turn the film into a statement on Islam, and a politically correct statement at that. But the film was not intended to be commentary on Islam. It was intended to tell the history of Al-Qaeda, and its goals and motivations. To its credit and to my surprise, the museum stood by the film and refused to change it. The museum had many different sections, so if you go, plan in advance to determine what you want to see. I was there for 8 hours and still did not see everything. There were sections on the structure of the building, which I skipped, but also a room where they discussed a little about each person killed, they had totaled vehicles, remnants from survivors, the controversial cross of course, and the last column standing and even a semi-demolished staircase from inside the World Trade Center. They also showed footage pertaining to the US’ invasion of Iraq as well as those who supported it and protestors against it. I felt that generally, the museum did not comment or take a side on any of these issues but just objectively portrayed both sides of the story. They did an excellent job and I would recommend it to anyone visiting the city.
Gordon: What do you believe are the important lessons to be learned from 9/11?
Weiss: The most important lesson we learned from this is that we are not immune from attack on US soil, as I think many previously believed. Second, we have enemies that pose a real threat to American freedom and security and we had better take them seriously. Additionally, we need to understand the goals and motivational ideology of Islamists and address these in their early stages if we want to prevent future attacks rather than merely clean up after-the-fact.
Finally, I think it’s a big mistake to focus only on the violent aspects of Islamism. Many talk about “peace” as though non-violence is the end goal. But the goal should be to retain our freedom, through whatever means necessary and not to surrender just to have “peace” without freedom. This is another reason that Islamist ideology needs to be understood, so that we can also address it on political, educational, and legislative fronts, not just as a military issue. We had forefathers that believed in freedom and believed it was worth dying for. Now that we have it, we have to be vigilant to ensure that we don’t let it slip away.
Gordon: Have these lessons been reflected in national security and counterterrorism policies following the recommendations of both the 9/11 Commission Report and its recent 2014 update?
Weiss: Some of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations have been implemented and some have not. There has been an increase in communication between the FBI and the CIA; there has been the creation of the NCTC and the Department of Homeland Security; there’s been a dramatic increase in Airport and seaport security, and many of Al-Qaeda’s top leaders have been captured and/or killed. But cyber security threats and emerging threats, especially in the Middle East, are still underfunded, and our military budget is being cut. Additionally, our porous borders have not been sealed, as we’ve seen with the recent influx of illegal immigrants. And, we have failed to tighten up sources of identification so that we know who is in the US.
However, where we are really falling short is on clearly defining the threat, addressing the ideological underpinnings of Islamist terrorism, and adequately training those in intelligence, law enforcement and national security on the goals, strategies and motivations of Islamists. This is really a huge problem and in fact, we are moving in the wrong direction in this regard.
Gordon: Can you give some examples of how both the Bush and Obama Administrations have censored language regarding Islamic Jihad war doctrine and changed their national security policies to align with this censorship?
Weiss: Certainly. The censorship started under the Bush Administration, but got noticeably more flagrant under the current Administration. At the urging of groups like CAIR, Bush started censoring his language regarding Islam, presumably not to offend Muslims. During his term, the Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory memo to its employees, discouraging them from using words like “jihad,” “Islamist,” or anything related to Islam. He also censored himself in public speeches. This is the exact opposite of what the 9/11 Commission report recommended. Under the Obama Administration, things have gotten exponentially worse. On his watch, all federal agencies have totally purged any mention of Islam-related language. Programs designed to train national security and counterterrorism experts have been rewritten to exclude any training about Islamism or Islamic terrorism. Some of the agencies have gone as far as to purposely teach their professionals to focus on terrorist behavior, (which is merely a symptom), and “delink it” from the underlying ideology that motivates it. Agencies that have rewritten their training programs include the FBI, DHS, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), State Department, CIA and others. At least Bush asserted in the National Security Strategy Memo, the document that guides all the U.S.’ national security strategies, that “militant Islamic radicalism is the greatest ideological conflict of the 21st century.” But under the Obama Administration, that phrase was deleted and all mention of anything Islam-related is strictly verboten. Instead, the Obama Administration teamed up with the OIC and CAIR on a number of fronts. He has turned a blind eye to Islamist supremacism, to Islamist goals, and to Islamist ideology. The stance on censorship that this Administration has taken, has not only changed the national security lexicon, but has changed what the Administration can talk about. The focus is away from Islamic terrorism and its motivating ideology, which should obviously be our main concern. Now, we collaborate with Islamist nations to discuss issues like the environment, poverty and education, while ignoring the human rights violations, oppression and violence spawned by the ideology this Administration refuses to discuss, or even acknowledge.
Gordon: Can you tell us a little more about the Administration’s relationship with the OIC?
Weiss: The two main Islamist groups that the Obama Administration has worked with are the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and CAIR, though there are others as well.
The OIC constitutes the largest voting bloc in the UN so it has quite a lot of power. It holds itself out as a moderate organization, but in fact is an Islamist supremacist group whose long term vision is worldwide Sharia law. One of the OIC’s main goals in the international criminalization of all speech that is critical of anything Islam-related, including Islamic terrorism. The OIC does not engage in violence directly, but instead uses UN resolutions, international “consensus building” and multilateral conferences in order to achieve its goals. It is a mastermind at language manipulation, using words that are palatable to the West but employing different meanings. Those who are naïve wrongly believe the OIC and the West have a meeting of the minds. The OIC basically wants Islamic blasphemy laws in the West. But if it came out and stated so, nobody would listen. Instead, the OIC asserts that we should have “responsible speech” or “sensitive speech” or “respectful speech.” In each case, what they really mean is censorship. The Bush Administration appointed the first envoy to the OIC, thinking we could engage with the Muslim world. In fact, to date, all of our engagement has amounted to nothing more than capitulation as we have ever tightening self-censorship and censorship as a matter of policy, rather than persuading the OIC countries to be freer and comply with human rights standards. Under the Obama Administration, former Secretary Hillary Clinton actual held the first international conference to “implement” the infamous Resolution 16/18, which is something not normally done for UN resolutions. This started a series of conferences and collaborations with the OIC, resulting in US policies aimed at censoring language regarding our Islamist ideological enemy. The Administration has also teamed up with OIC countries in other areas, such as the formation of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, which excludes Israel and fights a “terrorism” it can’t define, since the OIC countries refuse to define terrorism to include anything that allows Israel to defend herself.
The OIC’s concept of “combatting defamation of Islam” has severe repercussions on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, human rights and national security. America should not be aligning with the OIC, which includes some of the most egregious human rights oppressors in the world. Instead, we should be holding ourselves out as a role model for freedom, human rights and equality.
Gordon: You were the primary writer and researcher on a book titled, Council of American-Islamic Relations: its Use of Lawfare and Intimidation. What is CAIR and its agenda?
Weiss: CAIR holds itself out as a Muslim Civil Rights organization, but in reality it is a Muslim Brotherhood front group, spawned out of Hamas and the Islamic Association of Palestine, which are terrorist organizations. CAIR is basically Hamas’ propaganda wing located in America and Canada. It was also an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terror-financing trial in the history of the United States. CAIR appears to have three main goals. The first is to censor all criticism of anything related to Islam including Islamic terrorism and human rights violations committed in the name of Islam. The second is to Islamize the workplace. It does this partly by filing EEOC claims on behalf of clients demanding special preferences not given to other religions. For example, it often demands special prayer break times for Muslims, longer breaks, the on-site provision of a prayer room, and exemptions from various company policies. Third, CAIR works hard to hamper national security in a number of ways including tying up government resources by filing endless FOIA requests and requesting “investigations” of anyone investigating Islamic supremacist groups or individuals that might pose a threat to US national security interests. Ultimately, CAIR, like other Islamist supremacist groups would like to see the implementation of Sharia law in the West.
Gordon: Who funds CAIR and why has the US government allowed CAIR to function as a non-profit organization under the guise of legitimacy?
Weiss: Because CAIR is incorporated as a non-profit organization, it is not required to make its donors public. It should be mentioned that CAIR is not one legal entity, but has numerous chapters that are all separately incorporated, though they often work together with interlocking and overlapping staff and goals. CAIR claims that it has approximately 50,000 members and obtains its funding from member donors. However, the evidence is that CAIR membership is significantly lower. And, in recent years, CAIR has had numerous large donations, often from abroad. For example, CAIR has received large donations from Prince Talal of Saudi Arabia, The Islamic Development Bank based in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Hamden bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and even indirect funds from the OIC, funneled through Georgetown University. CAIR is permitted to function as a non-profit because in order to outlaw CAIR and groups like it, the US would have to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. To date, the US has not done that. Recently, Egypt has officially named the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Now would be an ideal time for the US to do the same. Additionally, because CAIR has foreign funding and works closely with foreign entities, it should be required to register as a foreign lobbying agent.
Gordon: Tell us about the US government’s relationship to CAIR.
Weiss: For awhile, the Bush Administration worked with CAIR until it realized CAIR’s direct and indirect ties to terrorist organizations. Then, the FBI officially cut off all ties with CAIR. Unfortunately, under the Obama Administration, the relationship with CAIR has been slowly creeping back, even if it’s not official or made public. The Obama Administration has consulted with CAIR, MPAC and other Muslim Brotherhood front groups for “advice” and “community outreach” on a range of matters regarding national security, terrorism and homeland security.
The current Administration has also hired a number of individuals with associations to CAIR, ISNA, and MPAC for a variety of diplomatic and national security posts. These organizations believe in an ideology that is in direct opposition to the values espoused in the US Constitution. We should not be placing affiliates in sensitive government positions.
Gordon: Can you give us some examples of CAIR’s tactics employed in its lawfare and intimidation campaign? Has CAIR been effective in achieving its objectives?
Weiss: CAIR employs a myriad of tactics to silence people and get its desired results. Some of these include frivolous lawsuits to bleed dry the target, pressuring organizations to cancel speakers, name-calling, false accusations of “bigotry” or “Islamophobia,” smearing the reputations of individuals and organizations, harassment, company-wide boycotts, veiled threats and intimidation. CAIR has a wide range of targets including public speakers, politicians, prayer leaders, corporations, film producers, cartoonists and even clothing designers. Their intimidation, threats and lawsuits often include demands for silencing speech, product recalls from the market, requiring companies to have “sensitivity training,” donate money to mosques, and make public apologies. Unfortunately, CAIR has been very successful is achieving its goals. Many individuals capitulate because they simply don’t have the funds to fight a lawsuit, for example. Companies cave in because at a certain point, they either can’t get business done due to the interference or bad publicity, or the threats are so great that they are afraid their business will have to shut down. Government, on the other hand, simply has no excuse for caving in to groups like CAIR. At a minimum, our government and law enforcement should stop working with them and capitulating to their censorship demands, giving them the cover of legitimacy.
Gordon: Al Qaeda perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, but it has now been eclipsed by the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS. IS has declared itself to be the Caliph over conquered areas of Syria and Iraq. Does ISIS represent a potential threat to the US? How is the IS different from other terrorist organizations and why has it been so successful?
Weiss: The Islamic State is absolutely a threat to the US. When the US pulled out of Iraq prematurely, it created a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum and IS came to fill the space created. It is a big mistake to think that any jihadist terrorist group is only a threat abroad, but it is especially a mistake when the group threatens US interests or, as in the case of the IS, makes direct threats to the United States. Recently, addressing the United States via Twitter, the IS asserted that it will “drown us” in blood, and that eventually, the US will “disappear” at the hands of the Caliphate. Subsequently, it beheaded an American journalist. We have to take it seriously. IS is unlike other terrorist organizations we have witnessed. It is the most well-funded, well-staffed, and heartless terrorist organization to date. Reportedly, it has about 2 billion dollars and over 10,000 fighters from all over the world. It is organized, ideological, and goal-oriented. IS does not consist of isolated terror cells, but is a large movement, with a sophisticated marketing and recruiting campaign that attracts jihadists from around the world. And while its immediate goal is to take over power in Iraq and Syria, and then next in other parts of the Middle East, if it accomplishes that, it will not stop there. This is a battle between freedom and tyranny and we must not sit by passively. At the same time, it’s probably false that the IS is the most immediate or greatest terror threat to the U.S. We shouldn’t forget about Iran, which this Administration seems not to take seriously. The Obama Administration appears to have aligned with Iran on numerous fronts, and to engage and negotiate with them, to the point where Iran believes, and correctly so, that it has the upper hand. For example, America stood by and said nothing during the Green Revolution, when freedom fighters were dying on the streets of Iran. We should have made a clear statement in their support and perhaps found a way to provide some of them with assistance. The only point, on which the US tried to override Iran’s objectives, was in the nuclear negotiations, and most experts believe that the talks were a failure, merely allowing Iran to buy time. There are other areas in which we failed to stand up to Iran as well. When this happens, the Sunni Gulf States including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, see this and realize that America is not their friend. This Administration’s foreign policy seems to be the appeasement of American enemies and the abandonment of our allies. It’s not good for America, it’s not good for the world and it’s certainly not good for the cause of freedom.
Gordon: This fall, the House Select Committee on Benghazi begins its investigation under Chairman, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy. Given what has been revealed to date about the events of 9/11/12, what might be the outcome of this committee’s investigation?
Weiss: I hope the committee will be able to get to the bottom of the events that transpired on 9/11/12. We all know by now that the attack on our embassy in Libya was a terrorist attack committed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate and not a “spontaneous uprising” as the Obama Administration originally claimed. So the job for the Select Committee is to determine exactly what was happening on the ground on that fateful day, and to uncover the truth about why Ambassador Stevens and his cohorts were not sent help when they seemed to have asked for it repeatedly. Additionally, the Committee should find out why the truth of the facts regarding that day were covered up and who initiated the talking points about the so-called “anti-Islam video.” I think it’s important to point out that by perpetrating this falsehood; the Administration killed two birds with one stone so-to-speak. First, it mislead the public about the truth of what transpired at Benghazi at a minimum, to hide its failed foreign policies, and second, it conveyed to the Muslim world that America won’t “defame Islam.” Instead, America should have been standing up as a shining example of freedom of speech. In an ideal world, there would be appropriate firings and perhaps a prosecution or two as a result of the committee’s findings. However, I think we are witnessing the most politicized Department of Justice that we have seen in the history of our country. This Administration seems to believe it has the authority to pick and choose which laws it will uphold and which it will disregard. Unfortunately, no matter what findings of fact the Select Committee uncovers, I think there is a reasonable chance that appropriate legal action will not follow since that determination rests in the hands of Attorney General Eric Holder, who has shown himself to be a real partisan even while acting with the title of highest prosecutor of the land. It is imperative that the American public realize the importance of the rule of law, and understand that we are supposed to be a nation of laws, not men. I hope people will keep that in mind during the next election.
Gordon: As a 9/11 survivor do you believe that this country is more secure against possible jihadist attacks on this 13th commemoration?
Weiss: Unfortunately, 13 years after 9/11, I have to say that I think our country is less safe than it was before. We are witnessing the proliferation of Islamist groups all around the world. In part because America stood idly by while Iranians bled in the streets protesting their Islamist regime and we said nothing to support them. That regime is still in power and cracking down on freedom more than it was before the protests. Because America pulled out of Iraq prematurely, it created a vacuum that was filled by the IS, a threat not only to the Middle East but to the west as well. We have seen the proliferation of Al-Qaeda affiliates, Al-Shabab and others, the virtual genocide of Christians in the Middle East including crucifixions and the beheading of children; Jews are fleeing Europe as anti-Semitism, largely from Islamist immigrants, is the highest it’s been since WWII; we see Israel, while fighting the same enemy (Islamism) that America is fighting, being criticized and demonized merely for defending herself. And of course, in Sudan and other parts of Africa, Christians are also in an existential struggle.
We cannot continue to view these wars as a series of separate wars. That is not how the enemy views it. Instead, it is one war, fought on different fronts. The war that Israel fights with Hamas is the same war that America is in with Al-Qaeda, is the same war that Iraq is in with the IS. It is Islamist ideology in pursuit of a Caliphate and worldwide Sharia law versus freedom, equality and human rights. It’s easy to be complacent when we live in a relatively secure country and people are busy with their jobs and families. But if we want to pass on that freedom for generations to come, we had better wake up before it’s too late. 9/11 wasn’t the first day our enemies were fighting us and it wasn’t the last. We need to be vigilant if we want to keep America free.
Gordon: Deborah Weiss thank you for this engrossing and comprehensive interview.
Weiss: My pleasure.
EDITORS NOTE: This interview originally appeared in the New English Review.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/sept_11_museum-61-e1628332722841.jpg401640Jerry Gordonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJerry Gordon2014-08-31 13:51:202014-08-31 13:51:34Interview with a 9/11 survivor: ‘We are not immune from attack on U.S. soil!’ (+Video)
Destroyed home of Mohammed Deif in Gaza city, August 20, 2014. Source: AFP
Yesterday in Jerusalem, with visiting American Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) at his side, Israeli PM Netanyahu heaped considerable praise on Shin Bet-Israel’s General Security Service – for the targeted killings of senior Hamas commanders in Rafah. The International Business Times(IBT) quoted Netanyahu saying:
The “hard work and professionalism” of Shin Bet had enabled the Israeli military to “carry out this operation against the Hamas leaders who plotted fatal attacks against Israelis,” Netanyahu reportedly said, referring to pre-dawn air strikes in Rafah that killed the three Hamas commanders.
“In the name of every Israeli citizen, I thank the Shin Bet, the heads of the intelligence and operational units, and the chief of the organization, Yoram Cohen,” he said, according to Ha’aretz. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said that it had killed six militants of the Islamic Jihad — a Palestinian Islamist organization — as they were “about to launch rockets into Israel.”
Possibly in retaliation, today, Hamas, publicly executed 18 ‘collaborators’. These public executions come in the midst of a rising wave of ‘collaborator’ executions in the terrorist stronghold of Gaza. Israel National News reported a series of such reprisals in an article, “Hamas Goes on an ‘Israel Collaborator’ Killing Spree”:
Majd, a website close to Hamas, on Thursday reported that Hamas’s military wing,the Al-Qassam Brigades, executed three Gaza residents and arrested seven others for ‘collaborating’ with Israel during Operation Protective Edge.
No date was given for the executions or arrests, but the Hamas security official quoted in the report said the three were killed after “revolutionary procedures” were completed against them.
The same website reported on August 6 that “a number” of Arab collaborators had been killed, again without giving a date.
In the last week of July, Palestinian sources reported that over 30 Gazans were executed by Hamas, most of them in the Shejaiya neighborhood. In that case too, Hamas claimed that they were collaborators with Israel.
The Times of Israelreported a revelation by a Lebanese publication that a phone call between Hamas leader Khalid Mashal in Qatar and Mohammed Deif, the elusive head of the Hamas military wing, may have provided Israel with intelligence that sealed the fate of both he and his family. According to the TOI Mashal may have broken protocol to discuss a possible cease fire with Israel. The Deif residence in Gaza was hit with several bunker buster bombs which cratered the structure. That resulted in a massive funeral purportedly for Deif’s wife and children. Hamas spokesman persist in conveying the impression that Deif escaped the fatal attack, and yet have not provided any proof of life. That attack signifies, as one source told me, that the IAF is flying missions with small bunker buster bombs, in just such a instance to make an instantaneous attack.
Mohammed Deif, Hamas military leader.
A report by the Shaham Palestinian news service published a picture of Deif along with this statement:
“The bodies arrived at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after the occupation planes attacked the al-Dalo home, in the Rimal neighborhood in the north, in Gaza City, last night,” the report said. “The document we obtained was confiscated by an armed squad of the Al-Qassam brigade from Shifa’s archive, and also changed the check-in information in the hospital to erase Deif’s name from the list.”
“We at Saham News are forced to tell the Palestinian nation, with great sadness, of the death of Deif,” it concluded. “We belong to Allah, and to him we return.”
Shin Bet is also to be credited for its role in uncovering the Hamas power play against Fatah in the West Bank with funds and arms caches. Many observers believe this may have been a key part of the Rosh Ha Shanah attack plan by Hamas that included infiltration of suicide commandos through the terror tunnels dug across the frontier between Gaza and Israel. The joint IDF-Shin Bet Operation Brother’s Keeper that detained hundreds of Hamas operatives in the search for three murdered Jewish Yeshiva students may have provided the intelligence resulting in disclosures of the thwarted plot. Senior Hamas representative ensconced in Turkey, Salah al-Aruri, announced his role in orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish yeshiva students. The Jerusalem Postreported:
Hamas Military leader in Turkey, Salah al-Aruri.
A senior Hamas official admitted for the first time on Wednesday that the organization’s armed wing, the Kassam Brigades, was behind the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah in the West Bank in June, Channel 2 reported.
The Hamas official, Salah al-Aruri made the comments during a conference of Islamic clerics in Turkey. He praised the “heroic action of the Kassam Brigades who kidnapped three settlers in Hebron.”
Israeli lawyer, Nitsana Darshan Leitner of Shurat ha Din (Israel Law Center) asked US Attorney General Eric Holder to invoke the extradition treaties between the US and Turkey to bring to justice al-Aruri for the murder of Israeli-American, Fraenkel. Meanwhile, PA President Abbas is reported to have had heated conversations in Doha, Qatar with Mashal triggered by Hamas’ plans to overthrow Fatah . Further, there are indications that pressure is building on the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to eject Mashal from his luxurious palace in Doha. Qatar has been a major funder of Hamas, supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS, along with Erdogan’s Turkey. If that eventuated Mashal might then be subject to apprehension and possible trial in Egypt. Lest we forget, PM Netanyahu was caught in an embarrassing position in 1998, when an attempted assassination of Mashal by Mossad agents was disclosed by the late King Hussein of Jordan. Mashal also could have been taken out, while a resident in Damascus, before his departure for Qatar at the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Witness the Mossad assassination in February 2008 of Hezbollah terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyeh.
Whether it is human intelligence through cultivation of assets, or ELINT ears and eyes in the skies over Gaza, these targeted assassination episodes by the IDF with assistance from Shin bet have succeeded in decimating the military leadership of Hamas. These actions clearly indicate that unlike the Biblical Shimshon, Samson the Nazerite, Israel is not ‘sightless’ in Gaza.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/israel-palestinian-agreement.jpg352512Jerry Gordonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJerry Gordon2014-08-31 05:08:182014-08-31 05:15:49Israel is not ‘sightless’ in Gaza
Those who hadn’t read my books are wondering why I am spending so much time, presenting Stalin, who died 60 years ago. I have to repeat: I am a child of Stalinism, I know the system he created, I know his Doctrine, which is alive and spreading throughout the world in the 21st century. The past always haunts the present. One Russian song of Stalin’s time had these words:
“There is a swarm of dark clouds on the sky and a smell of the storm is in the air.”
I recall them, because those are the exact words to describe the predicament in America and the world in August 2014. That is the reason I am writing about Stalin and his Doctrine, the essence of which is the creation of a One World Government under the Kremlin auspices. I called his Doctrine–Soviet Fascism. We former citizens of the Socialist countries are deeply disturbed, watching the implementation of Soviet Fascism across the world, including America. Only truth and facts equal reality.
History made the German people responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich, History must make the Russian people responsible for the crimes committed by Soviet Fascism. Until that happens there won’t be peace on the globe. Today, in the summer of 2014, two people, President Putin and President Obama are responsible for the war against Israel, and the blood bath and genocide of the Christians in the Middle East. Of course, they had some help from other leaders, but the design came from Russia and was executed by Stalin’s henchmen. Please remember the Stalin world strategy of building A Global Government under the Kremlin auspices. That strategy has never been changed by any following Soviet or Russian leaders, including a former KGB officer of the counterintelligence Vladimir Putin.
On day two of Putin’s aggression in Crimea, I have warned you to expect violence of different types around the world to divert public attention from the crime committed in Ukraine.Today I know that annexation of Crimea and a war with Ukraine has been a long-term strategy of the Russian General Stuff. When Putin offered a plan to destroy WMD in Syria,I knew that a kind of master-plan was in the mind of the aggressor: I did not know that it would be a war against Ukraine.Yet as soon as the Crimea peninsula was occupied, I also warned you that Crimea has no water and can’t survive–the necessity of the Ukrainian land had predicted a further aggression..And of course, besides coordinating ISIS and Hamas in the war against Israel, Syria could divert attention from Ukraine and Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well.
Do you remember the paragraph about Syria in my preceding column? Here it is:
“Russia’s incredibly quick response to John Kerry’s suggestion yesterday that Syria could avert a US strike if it handed its chemical weapons was a masterful tactical move by the Kremlin master. Putin instructed his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to make a statement that Russia will ensure that Syria will surrender and agree to the destruction of its chemical weapons, extending a process a lifeline to president
Obama who was struggling to convince US representatives of the necessity of attacking Syria.
“Many commentators have pointed that Putin’s quick thinking has offered a convenient solution for all involved, but few have recognized the role that chess played in this incident. Keen enthusiast of the game will recognize that Putin’s proposal was a variation on the classic ‘Jabowntski sacrifice’, in which a functionally-degraded chess piece is sacrificed to create space for maneuver elsewhere. But that is only half the story.”
The Incredible Story of How Putin Used Secret KGB Chess Tactics to Outwit the US, by Karl Marks, Sept. 10, 2013. Please, remember these conclusions:
”a functionally-degraded chess piece is sacrificed to create space for maneuver elsewhere.” Just go to the map and see it. Knowing the Stalinist strategy, I would add other advantages of the aggressor’s maneuver–Putin was buying time, diverting attention from the master-plan in Ukraine, and uplifting his name as a peacemaker of the world. Also please remember–Syria is vitally important to Putin, the only Russian military base on the Mediterranean is in Syria–a real connection to the Middle East… Furthermore– Syria was a snake-pit of Stalinism in the Middle East under both Father and son Assad for several decades… I am afraid that Putin can create a situation where America will be forced to make a partnership with Assad and Iran. I am also afraid that in order to divert attention from Ukraine, we can expect violent events in America and around the globe, including natural disasters, I have already described it in my third book…
Besides all that, Russia, signing Geneva Convention, prohibiting application of WMD (chemical and biological agents), had never honored it. Instead, in violation of a mentioned Convention, Russia has continued developing different types of Nerve Gas and provided with WMD all her henchmen, including Saddam Hussein and Assad at the time. I warned the Commission on 9/11 just about that and of the mysterious diseases of our soldias fighting in Iraq. Then, I warned you again about something of Menace is coming in 2012. I did not know what, but I detected the preparation by Russia to commit crime in the Middle East. Now I know–events in the Middle East were constructed to divert public attention from the invasion of Ukraine. You have to know Stalinism to detect Putin’s strategic thinking in his further steps. Russia will invade Ukraine. I am not alone, someone else thinks the same way:
This situation is straight out of the KGB old playbook, a book that Putin, a former KGB spy, knows well. After he created a fake reason to annex Crimea, he began to fan the flames of conflict across Eastern Ukraine. With the so-called “humanitarian crisis,” he has now created the pretext for an invasion to stop it. – See more here.
To calculate and evaluate the predicament in Ukraine, Iraq and Syria and to observe the big picture of the world, I’d like to remind you of the paragraph written by me in the preceding article: “I believe that Putin and Obama have established a joined venture named Destruction of the American Republic, where Putin is the CEO and Obama is his “flexible”junior-partner with no accountability. You know the result–all the Obama scandals have the same root course and the same source–a joined venture named Destruction of The American Republic is quite successful ”–Putin is up, America is down. My above mentioned article had introduced only one of Stalin’s programs though there were many others no less significant to our problems in the 21st century. This is the reason all my books are giving the readers the history of Stalin’s strategy in creating of a One World Government under the Kremlin auspices. For example, the parapsychology program of molding the Soviet style leaders throughout the globe. I have named some such leaders and the destruction they brought to their countries. Read my third book and think about the American predicament in the summer of 2014, a few months before a November election.
Today in August the 2014 President Obama is making us believe that he is totally surprised by the catastrophic development in the Middle East. It is a familiar political game to avoid responsibility. I am not alone in thinking that:
”President Obama seems to have been completely surprised by the rise of the terrorist organization known as ISIS, and now he seems to be at a total loss as to what he should do to mitigate the danger that ISIS poses to the American people. That could be a very dangerous thing for us…”, Senator Lindsey Graham. Read more here.
As a matter of fact, Obama was warned about the strategic threat of ISIS many months earlier. A real American leader would have immediately ordered a massive airstrike to prevent further annexation of the Iraqi territory and oil. Obama was waited for eight months, providing ISIS with time to grow and spread. And again America lost and Putin won the time for further aggression. For your information ISIS is inextricably connected to what happened in Benghazi. Our incompetent Intelligence made our national security equals to ZERO. Obama reminds me of another man, Bill Clinton, who had dozens of opportunities to kill Bin-Laden. To delay, he was looking for the law allowing him to do that..It is laughable to deal with the terrorists by applying our law. Meanwhile 9/11 happened. There are many more similarities between Obama and Clinton, our vulnerability is higher today then ever before, just read the Epilogue of my third book.
America, then please know and remember Ukraine, Putin’s imperial impulses, the Russian war against Georgia of 2008, and Stalin/Hitler’s Pact of August, 1939…. WWII had began September 1,1939.
Of course, Senator Graham is right. Yet he did not read my explanation of the situation in the Middle East, which is a part of the global Russian strategy to build a Stalinist design by using all his henchmen with familiar to you modus operandi in order to confuse the decent world: lies, deceit, fraud, provocations, obfuscations, and so on. To make a long story short, just read Chapter 7, WW III: Recruitment and Drugs, Infiltration and Assassinations. I wrote this Chapter in 2006-2007, when the essence of the American Democrats and their leaders had become clear to me. President Harry Truman was the real democrat with endless love for America, Chapter 3 of my third book is titled; Lessons from President Truman. I am afraid that the Party of Democrats has become transformed and radicalized enormously for the last forty years–nothing left from the party of Harry Truman. The leaders of the party determine the face of the political party and its credibility today. Where is Democrats’ credibility?
The Republicans are blaming Obama for many wrong actions, yet, the truth of the matter is that: Obama is not alone; all of what is going on is done together with the Democrat Party, which is responsible for the dramatic changes in America.
You will be surprised by the prediction about these changes in America made by Stalin 50-60 years ago:
”America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: Its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.” – Joseph Stalin.
Please read this quotation again.Tell me why after the end of WWII, where America and Russia had been allies, Stalin was predicting the collapse of America? And now please analyze the strategic tactics, and behavior of all terrorist groups and you will find a completely similar identity in all of them, regardless of their official names. You can start with the Red Brigates and Arafat in the 50-60, then Taliban, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda in the 70-80, and today dozens new names with the same psychology of violence, inflicting fear and destruction. They are all the franchises or branches of the same agenda, techniques, and special operations by a centralized corporation named a Global Government under the Kremlin auspices. You can read in my third book how the henchmen and all their leaders had been trained.
The answer to Stalin’s prediction is that: In Stalin’s mind, America was a target No. 1 on a line of WW III to begin with.
While I am writing this column, the riots in Ferguson, MO have been going on for over two weeks. I can’t analyze the events in Ferguson now–too many contradictions. I have to wait for the official investigation. Yet, I believe that Ferguson is much bigger event than we think–it is a catalyst or imputes of the ongoing cultural changes in America. Therefore, I’d like to discuss another type of Stalin’s henchmen, which has a connection to Ferguson–agents of influence. If you do not know the term, please read pp.128-129 in What is Happening to America? The term is identified and described by the official Soviet military document in 1955-56. Please read the bottom of page 128, but better read the entire document to grasp Stalin’s policy of divide and power to establish A Global Government under the Kremlin auspices and please remember America was in his mind from the beginning. So, I saw the agents of influence in Ferguson. How would you call leaders, who inflamed the riots, instigated violence and spoke from the podium, identifying Blacks as the victims of oppression and Police Brutality? Some are definitely the agents of influence.
Please look at Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, moreover try to learn about Jesse’s youth, you’ll find his very questionable connections that requires a separate research. As a matter of fact, we are witnessing not only a deep division in politics between the parties, we also see a divided Black community; there is a group of Ben Carlson and Tomas Souwl and another group with the leaders like Jesse Jeckson. To show you the masters, who trained the future agents of influence and waging an assymetrical war against Western civilization, allow me to return to the conversation of two KGB’s Generals, I have alredy introduced for a different subject in my article published 7,18, 2014. It is the most valuable piece of the 20th century’s history to clarify events in the 21st century, a vivid embodiment of Stalin’s inheritance,carried out by the KGB.
So, here is a piece from my article with a conversation that took place 40 years ago. If you have any doubts about my fingering Stalin’s ideology of Soviet Fascism as the cause of World War III, go no further than the first person to confirm the identity of both–the Chairman of the KGB from 1967-1982, Yuri Andropov a devoted disciple of Stalin. No less an authority than Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking KGB officer ever to defect to the U.S, tells us of a meeting he had with Yuri Andropov:
“In 1972, the Kremlin decided to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the U.S. As KGB Chairman, Yuri Andropov told me that a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the inflamed emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States. No one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should any longer feel safe.” (“Russian Footprints,” by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, August 24, 2008.)
Please look at those who is talking about the policy of victimology, preached by the agitators and racial provocateurs like Jackson and Sharpton–they are attempting to change our culture of a melting pot to undermine the American capacity. Do you remember Stalin’s words?
General Pacepa wrote in the same article: “According to Andropov… the Muslims had a taste for nationalism, jingoism, and victimology. Their illiterate, oppressed mobs could be whipped up to a fever pitch. Terrorism and violence against Israel and her master, American Zionism, would flow naturally from the Muslims religious fervor, Andropov sermonized.” Vladimir Putin is a devoted disciple of Yuri Andropov. For the last decade Russian military grew by 79 per cent, and today the Soviet Mafia and Jihad are together defrauding the West on many fronts to TRANSFORM America and to destroy Western civilization… Nothing ever seems to change in Russia, does it?”
There are definite changes in our White House–The Muslim Brotherhood, trained by Russia, works in the White House… I’d like to end this column with a speech of another Black man from the group of Ben Carlson:
Sudan – A remarkable address to the recent ” Durban Conference” in New York by a former slave Simon Dang. I came here as a friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I came to protest this Durban conference, which is based on a set of lies. It is organized by nations who are themselves guilty of the worst kind of oppression. It will not help the victims of racism. It will only isolate and target the Jewish state. It is a tool of the enemies of Israel. The UN has itself become a tool against Israel. For over 50 years, 82 percent of the UN General Assembly emergency meetings have been about condemning one state – Israel. Hitler couldn’t have been made happier! The Durban Conference is an outrage. All decent people will know that.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/putin-3-e1398335177401.jpg298640Simona Pipkohttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngSimona Pipko2014-08-30 12:53:452014-08-30 13:00:17Soviet Socialism in the 21st Century Part 13: Stalin and His Henchmen Around the Globe
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