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"Baghdad Vigilantes and the Dark Side of Civil Society

Anyone reading my blog knows I don't skirt away from thought provoking non-PC subjects.  Interesting, eye opening article showing just maybe our own nation and other democracies went through the same thing during very early formation/stabilization processes.

"Baghdad Vigilantes and the Dark Side of Civil Society

By Fredrick Turner

Source TechCentralStationDaily.com

"Isn't something missing in the current accounts of the new wave of Iraqi violence? The situation has changed quite radically, it seems, but nobody is saying exactly how. Here is how it strikes this naïve observer.

 

The attacks against our soldiers go on, but there is no surprise there. The suicide bombings of markets, mosques, bus stations, and police recruiting places do too—nothing new there either. The campaign against those courageous individuals who are trying to create a democratic Iraqi government also continues, as does the opportunistic violence of criminal gangs.

 

What has changed is that all of a sudden there is a whole new category of killing going on. Almost every night scores of individuals, obviously chosen and targeted with care, clearly known personally to their attackers, are being tortured and murdered. Who are they? And who are the killers?

 

The Press, it seems, is deliberately not answering these questions. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are giving the matter any public attention beyond deploring it in loud but utterly unspecific tones—and this in an election season. Even the Iraqi government is trying to hush it up; recently they forbade the hospitals to give out information about the victims.

 

It almost seems as if neither side—the ones who want the Iraqi government to fail, and those who want it to succeed--can afford to answer the awkward questions. Here is a hypothesis.

 

The Sunni extremists, al Qaeda-type Wahhabis and Saddamite Baathist fascists in uneasy alliance, perceived that they were losing the war in Iraq. A legitimate government had been voted in and the Americans were preparing to leave it in charge. It was a disaster. They resorted to a desperation measure: to attempt to foment a religious war between Shiites and Sunnis, in the hope of fishing in troubled waters. In doing so they unleashed a very terrible force. That force is not, as often claimed, civil war as such, or even religious war.

 

It is something with which we have become quite familiar in Latin America: vigilanteism on a massive scale—murder squads and desaparacidos—the force of civil society itself in extremis.

 

When there is a significant fraction of the population that will not join in political compromise, whether because of ideological idealism, addiction to supernatural power, or the passion for revenge, civil society is faced with a diabolical paradox.

 

It wishes to form legal and political institutions that are transparent, correctable by debate, and under the control of the people (with protections for minorities), where people can make good money in the marketplace and raise families in peace. But the reality is that even after all possible compromises have been offered to the refuseniks, civil society is faced with a small but absolutely hostile minority that will be content with nothing but total victory.

 

What can civil society do? The only solution is the disappearance of that implacable moiety. Civil society cannot use the instruments of government to stamp out its mortal enemy—for that would be to invalidate and destroy the very principles and legitimacy of that government, and set in place a precedent by which normal political squabbles could in future be settled by genocide or the Gulag. It would be to do what Saddam did to the Kurds, what Turkey did to the Armenians, what the Soviets and Maoists and Khmer Rouge did to their bourgeoisie.

 

The enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government are almost exclusively Sunnis (though so too are many of its supporters). By logical necessity the exterminators would have to be mostly Shiites and Kurds. The government simply cannot afford to go after its enemies in the systematic way required, for that would be to destroy its claim to represent all minorities. There are, from the point of view of Iraq's nascent civil society, some thousands of people who, in the Texas phrase, need killing. Who is going to do it?

 

In the absence of government intervention, the answer is: ordinary people. Basically the killers are posses of self-organized vigilantes, who know their local area, who know who the bombers are, and who the bombers' relatives are. The posses are expert in distinguishing those people who might be fair political enemies from those who will go on striking, like a snake, even when cut in two.

 

The change is radical. Whereas the Wahhabi/Baathist killers are indiscriminate in whom they kill, as long as their victims may include Shiites or at least people who might have voted in the elections, the death squads are quite focused in their aim. There is all the difference in the world between bombing a marketplace and shooting a man you have identified and chosen. Reason—even a vile and brutal reason—can be found in the second, where it was absent in the first. The whole point of bombing a market or a bus station is to assert the monstrous and magisterial superiority of chaos itself, of unreason—only thus can the ultimate terror be evoked, terror of what no reasonable strategy of complicity or evasion can avoid. Only thus can ordinary decent people be forced to accept any kind of order, however evil they find it, as long as it is predictable.

 

But death squads are rational, in their own horrible way. They may prove, as they did in Latin America, to be a pretty effective method of wiping out implacable enemies of social order and preparing the way for democratic and law-abiding government. In living memory almost every decent and legal regime in Latin America was preceded by a chaotic period in which ordinary men armed themselves with guns, said goodnight to their families, and went out in groups to kill some local dissident. That period was a bit further back in the past for the French, the English, and the Americans. But no nation can be shown to have reached the rule of democratic law without it. The work of the vigilantes is the hideous and dark crime that Socrates and the Greek tragic dramatists hinted must underlie all civilization. That crime is indeed a crime, and its perpetrators must stand trial for it, whether before God or some human tribunal. But it is possible that true civil self-government can only be established with its aid.

 

Death squads are distinctly better than suicide bombers. Their members want to survive and have something to lose—they envisage a future in which they can stop killing and get on with family life, while the horrible nightmares gradually fade.

 

In a sense, the great new weapon, the suicide bomber—which had seemed to all the world to be irresistible—has, like all weapons, shown its fatal flaw. That flaw was first revealed in the Jordan bombing of the hotel wedding party, which radicalized Jordanians against al Qaeda. Now it has turned to bite the radicals in Baghdad. If civil society finds itself threatened by utter chaos, it may resort to free-enterprise war against its enemy. By definition what it does then cannot be law-abiding or approved by its own government; it is in Hobbes' state of nature; but it can be a kind of savage rationality that might precede law.

 

But, as Socrates knew, this dark archetypal crime must be hidden. The American authorities in Baghdad are not saying much about it because the vigilantes are doing their work for them, with infinitely greater precision and expertise. The Iraqi government is not doing or saying much about it either, because it would lose legitimacy if it cooperated with the death squads, and sabotage its own interests if it tried (probably unsuccessfully, anyway) to stop them; but it obviously cannot admit that this inaction is its policy. The U.S. Republican Press cannot say anything about it because it would imply in an election year that it approved of the death squads. The Democratic Press cannot give the vital information—that most of the victims probably deserve their fate—because that would imply that the Iraqis have finally started to do what they were expected to do all along, that is, clean up their own house.

 

Everybody is waiting—the Iraq government, until the terrorists are all dead (whereupon it will launch a great campaign of national reconciliation and a long unsuccessful quest for justice against the vigilantes); the US armed forces, until their work is done for them; the irredentist Baathists and Wahhabis, hoping for true civil war; the Republicans, until the violence burns itself out; the Democrats, until the American people can no longer hold down its lunch at what is going on."

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=102506A

Entry #638

"Why Johnny is reading Islamist propoganda

"Why Johnny is reading
Islamist propoganda
Critics charge Muslim radicals
determining textbook content
Posted: October 26, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh
Source WorldNetDaily.com

"Islam is being taught in the nation's public schools as a religion to be embraced because "organized Islamists have gained control of textbook content," according to an organization that analyzes textbooks.

The American Textbook Council has concluded that the situation is the consequence of "the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners."

It has gone so far that correcting the situation now becomes a problem, because "educational publishers and educational organizations have bought into claims propounded by Islamists – and have themselves become agents of misinformation."

That comes from Gilbert T. Sewall, who not only wrote the organization's report on Islam and textbooks, but also generated a response to the flood of criticism he encountered.

(Story continues below)

William J. Bennetta, author of The Textbook Letter and a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, also has documented dozens of instances of advocacy for or against a belief system, and has produced a list of books where the "religion preaching" leaves them "unfit for use."

Indeed, Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes even has repeatedly expressed concern about the "privileging of Islam in the United States" and warns the stakes go well beyond 7th-grade texts. His opinion of Houghton Mifflin's "Across the Centuries? Full of "apologetics" and "distortions."


WND recently reported on a case in Oregon, where parent Kendalee Garner objected to having her son being taught Islam, including the memorization of the "Five Pillars" of Islam and dressing up as a Muslim.

That episode followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision just a few weeks ago not to review a lower court's ruling that a similar class requirement in the Byron Union School District in California, where students were instructed to "become Muslims" was "cultural education."

WND also has reported that a man arrested as a terror suspect for allegedly trying to transport $340,000 from a group tied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and who reputedly had connections to Osama bin Laden, helped write the "Religious Expression in Public Schools" guidelines issued by President Clinton during his tenure in office.


Abdurahman Alamoudi with President Clinton, Vice President Gore

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was president of the American Muslim Council and a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, worked with President Clinton and the American Civil Liberties Union when the guidelines, guidelines later used by a federal judge to conclude such teaching was legal, were compiled.

Sewall said in his elaboration that his study showed world history textbooks "hold Islam and other non-Western civilizations to different standards than those that apply to the West" even while "Islamic pressure groups and their allies seek to suppress the critical analysis of Islam inside and outside classrooms."

Such textbooks result when "nervous publishers" obey educational fashion and rely more heavily on diversity experts than on trustworthy scholarship, he said.

"Textbook editors seem not to recognize that a school-related Islamic agenda in the U.S. uses multiculturalism as a device to guarantee a purely favorable and uncritical view of all things Muslim. At extremes, the report suggested, multiculturalism contributes to a form of peaceable cultural jihad meant to discredit or 'problematize' European civilization in favor of non-Western cultures," he wrote.

The ATC describes itself as an independent national research organization set up in 1989 to review the history and social studies textbooks used in the nation's schools.

Also contributing to the criticism is the work of Bennetta, whose conclusions are available at TextbookLeague.org. He finds that textbooks from a wide range of many of the best-known publishing houses used in public schools today simply shouldn't be there.

"When we examine the textbooks that major publishers try to sell to public schools, we sometimes find fraudulent passages that function as instruments of religious indoctrination: Religious myths are depicted as accounts of real people and events, religious superstitions are depicted as matters of fact, and the origins of religious writings are obscured or are wrapped in outright lies," Bennetta wrote.

"These passages of religious propaganda have been devised by individuals or groups that seek to use the public schools for spreading their own sectarian doctrines and for recruiting converts. In various cases, publishers evidently have accepted material from religious pressure groups and have put the material into textbooks, even though it is laden with blatant preaching, miracle-mongering and fake 'history,'" he wrote.

Bennetta, who is equally adamant that no religious beliefs be included as preaching in textbooks, cites a Houghton Mifflin book "Across the Centuries" as having a lot of Muslim "propaganda." He said the 1999 version has one thing an earlier edition didn't: an apparent source.

Listed as a consultant is "Shabbir Mansuri, Founding Director, Council on Islamic Education, Fountain Valley, California."

Bennetta said the CIE is "a conspicuous Muslim outfit that evidently specializes in inducing schoolbook-writers to sanitize and eulogize Islam, to retail Muslim religious claims as facts, to retail Muslim woo-woo as history, and to depict Islam as an amicable religion that resembles, and is compatible with, Judaism and Christianity."

He said other texts and publishers for which he's found a basis for criticism include "Human Heritage: A World History" by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill; "A Message of "Ancient Days" by Houghton Mifflin; "Across the Centuries" by Houghton Mifflin; "Heath World History: Perspectives on the Past" by McDougal Littell; "Ancient World" by McGraw-Hill School Division; "Making Thirteen Colonies" by Oxford University Press, "World History: Continuity and Change" by Holt, Rinehart and Winston; and "World Cultures: A Global Mosaic" by Prentice Hall, among others.

Sewall said in his treatise that older textbooks didn't so much misrepresent Islam as neglected and ignored it. Now, those same textbook publishers have moved from ignorance to "self-censorship."

For example, a concern raised by Swarthmore historian James Kurth notes "the possibility of structural incompatibility between Islam and the American polity" because of the resistance of American Muslims to assimilate.

"These scholars should at least obtain a fair hearing. They do not," Sewall concluded.

And, he said, the California-based Council on Islamic Education director Shabbir Mansuri concluded the ATC was an "extremist" organization for issuing a report on such concerns, even though there's no evidence of that.

Houghton Mifflin's chief publicist, Collin Earnst, also criticized the report, suggesting that such "bias has misled the public into believing that Islam is a barbaric and murderous religion."

Earnst told WND that his company has a careful process for obtaining input on books, reviewing that input, and then deciding what should be published. Where issues of "belief" by a religious group are involved, reasonable citations and attribution are included, he told WND.

He said among the groups used for comment in the past have been Hadassah and the Christian Educators Association.

But Sewall said there were no such conclusions in his report. "The publisher made these cynical claims to deflect attention from the source of the problem: the textbooks themselves."

He cited one passage from Houghton Mifflin's "Patterns of Interaction":

 

"In Islam, following the law is a religious obligation. Muslims do not separate their personal life from their religious life, and Islamic law regulates almost all areas of human life. Because of this, Islamic law helped to bring order to Muslim states. It provided the state with a set of values that shaped a common identity. In addition to unifying individual states, law helped to unify the Muslim world. Even though various Muslim states might have ethnic or cultural differences, they lived under a common law."

That, Sewall said, "conveys nothing." Further, it never explains that sharia bears "no resemblance to U.S. law, which grew out of the British constitution."

Other criticism came from the report's concerns over why Muslims so often don't get along with neighbors. "Looking at Algeria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, for example, where religious wars are being conducted today against infidels, this proposition is more than plausible," Sewall wrote.

In the California case that was litigated, Edward White III, of the Thomas More Law Center wondered, "Would it have been 'just cultural education' if students were in simulated baptisms, wearing a crucifix, having taken the name of St. John and with praise banners saying 'Praise be to Jesus Christ' on classroom walls?"

From Nyssa, Ore., where one parent raised objections to the Islamic teachings, Supt. Don Grotting, said the text includes assignments for students to learn the "Five Pillars" and study Ramadan.

Grotting acknowledged to WND that textbooks do "take a slant" on some issues, because publishers "are wanting to sell a textbook that is meeting the needs of the state and federal mandates."

And in the California case, school officials also blamed the "possible cant" of the textbook.

Sewall said textbooks in America should "explain the historically potent strain of Islam that promotes separatism and theocracy. Instead, they are trying to trim history to please Islamic pressure groups and allied ideologues.

"The implications for U.S. civic education are immense, especially if students are unaware of or even accept the idea that for politically esthetic reasons they are being lied to or emotionally manipulated."

"If our nation's cultural underpinnings are in conflict with religious dogma and values that are intent on replacing or even eradicating them, should not children and their teachers be made aware? Just as pro-Soviet enthusiasms, Mao worship, and Cold War revisionism seem naïve today, currently prescribed views of Islam may also some day seem like dangerous nonsense. And what key points might replace the obvious flaws in the current generation of textbooks? That militant Islam is a real force in the world today, an insurgency that is a real threat to the nation's democratic way of life and freedoms that its citizens often take for granted."

"Today, Christmas and Nativity scenes are outlawed while Clinton's nominee, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, recently approved 'Islam: A Simulation' where children learn to become Muslim, recite the Quran, fast for Ramadan and pray to Allah including this prayer: 'In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgment-day! You alone we worship, and to You alone we pray for help, Guide us to the straight path,'" wrote Jen Shroder, on her BlessedCause.org website.

"America does not comprehend Muslim resolve to make America Islam," Shroder wrote. "Suicide bombers have already demonstrated their willingness to kill and die for it."

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52623

Entry #637

A New Campaign Tactic: Manipulating Google Data

Precisely why I use either Clusty or Copernic which uses several search search engines for research.  Highly resistent being fed the same swill everyone else drinks from.

http://clusty.com/

http://www.copernic.com/

A New Campaign Tactic: Manipulating Google Data

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/26/us/politics/26googlebomb.html?ei=5090&en=cf9c1ba8c49c62b2&ex=1319515200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
Entry #636

"The Islamic States of America?

Anyone reading my blog would be well advised to pay VERY close attention to this article.  We think in terms of radical terrorist takeover, but we are like frogs in a pot of cold water where the heat is being turned up slowly and we're not noticing changes until we're cooked. 

Little by little bits and pieces Sharia law is being implemented by PC zealots on the socialist left eager to appease, believing if they do so then business as usual.  Not so .... for about 40 years we've been conditioned for socialism to become our economic system which weakens the nation by the very implementation of it.  Look at the Euro-weenies which can't even handle Islamic immigrant unrest within its own borders much handle any other threat to its existence. 

The socialist left bankrolled by Soros is pushing for a plan for the US to become another European Union with the creation of the North American Union which will subordinate all US laws to a higher governing body answerable to the UN which already has Sharia law written into its rules.  As Islamic law creeps inch by inch into our own US laws then our US Constitution is further subordinated to a religion which is a political system within itself, one NOT separate from the other.

So if that doesn't matter to you think of this.  Here in Atlanta there is a trial underway of a father accused of performing circumcision of his then two year old daughter with a pair of scissors, which the little girl has testified on the witness stand that she was held down by another man while he did it.  I'll provide a link http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=86605    so you can read the gut-wrenching details yourself which is a practice perfectly normal in Islamic countries.

In a nation where we have separation of church and state it seems very foolish to be voting for a party, the Democrats, which is the party terrorists are hoping will win because they know they'll cut and run in Iraq, bend over backwards to please known terrorist supporting organizations based in the US .... for more votes. 

Keith Ellison (D, MN)  http://www.powerlineblog.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=Keith+Ellison  Powerline has written extensively about him and his sponsors, ties and media support. 

"Give 'em what they want and they'll go away" worked well for Kim Jong didn't it???? 

There's more at stake than just politics as usual.  So you're not going to be around when it happens, think about your children and their children, and especially the little girls.

Muslim Brotherhood  search      http://discoverthenetworks.org/viewgroups.asp?txtKeyword=Muslim

"The Islamic States of America?

by Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com
September 23, 2004

 

"The hardest thing for Westerners to understand is not that a war with militant Islam is underway but that the nature of the enemy's ultimate goal. That goal is to apply the Islamic law (the Shari‘a) globally. In U.S. terms, it intends to replace the Constitution with the Qur'an.

This aspiration is so remote and far-fetched to many non-Muslims, it elicits more guffaws than apprehension. Of course, that used to be the same reaction in Europe, and now it's become widely accepted that, in Bernard Lewis' words, "Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century."

Because of the American skepticism about Islamist goals, I postponed publishing an article on this subject until immediately after 9/11, when I expected receptivity to the subject would be greater (it was published in November 2001 as "The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America"). I argued there that

The Muslim population in this country is not like any other group, for it includes within it a substantial body of people—many times more numerous than the agents of Osama bin Ladin—who share with the suicide hijackers a hatred of the United States and the desire, ultimately, to transform it into a nation living under the strictures of militant Islam.

The receptivity indeed was greater, but still the idea of an Islamist takeover remains unrecognized in establishment circles – the U.S. government, the old media, the universities, the mainline churches.

Therefore, reading "A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America," in the Chicago Tribune on Sept. 19 caused me to startle. It's a long analysis that draws on an exclusive interview with Ahmed Elkadi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader in the United States during 1984-94, plus other interviews and documentation. In it, the authors (Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Sam Roe, and Laurie Cohen) warily but emphatically acknowledge the Islamists' goal of turning the United States into an Islamic state.

Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day. But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well. …

Brotherhood members emphasize that they follow the laws of the nations in which they operate. They stress that they do not believe in overthrowing the U.S. government, but rather that they want as many people as possible to convert to Islam so that one day—perhaps generations from now—a majority of Americans will support a society governed by Islamic law.

This Brotherhood approach is in keeping with my observation that the greater Islamist threat to the West is not violence – flattening buildings, bombing railroad stations and nightclubs, seizing theaters and schools – but the peaceful, legal growth of power through education, the law, the media, and the political system.

The Tribune article explains how, when recruiting new members, the organization does not reveal its identity but invites candidates to small prayer meetings where the prayer leaders focus on the primary goal of the Brotherhood, namely "setting up the rule of God upon the Earth" (i.e., achieving Islamic hegemony). Elkadi describes the organization's strategic, long-term approach: "First you change the person, then the family, then the community, then the nation."

His wife Iman is no less explicit; all who are associated with the Brotherhood, she says, have the same goal, which is "to educate everyone about Islam and to follow the teachings of Islam with the hope of establishing an Islamic state."

In addition to Elkadi, the article features information from Mustafa Saied (about whose Muslim Brotherhood experiences the Wall Street Journal devoted a feature story in December 2003, without mentioning the organization's Islamist goals). Saied, the Tribune informs us, says

he found out that the U.S. Brotherhood had a plan for achieving Islamic rule in America: It would convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office. "They're very smart. Everyone else is gullible," Saied says. "If the Brotherhood puts up somebody for an election, Muslims would vote for him not knowing he was with the Brotherhood."

Citing documents and interviews, the Tribune team notes that the secretive Brotherhood, in an effort to acquire more influence, went above ground in Illinois in 1993, incorporating itself as the Muslim American Society. The MAS, headquartered in Alexandria, Va. and claiming 53 chapters across the United States engages in a number of activities. These include summer camps, a large annual conference, websites, and the Islamic American University, a mainly correspondence school in suburban Detroit that trains teachers and imams.

Of course, the MAS denies any intent to take over the country. One of its top officials, Shaker Elsayed, insists that

MAS does not believe in creating an Islamic state in America but supports the establishment of Islamic governments in Muslim lands. The group's goal in the United States, he says, "is to serve and develop the Muslim community and help Muslims to be the best citizens they can be of this country." That includes preserving the Muslim identity, particularly among youths.

Notwithstanding this denial, the Tribune finds MAS goals to be clear enough:

Part of the Chicago chapter's Web site is devoted to teens. It includes reading materials that say Muslims have a duty to help form Islamic governments worldwide and should be prepared to take up arms to do so. One passage states that "until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful." Another one says that Western secularism and materialism are evil and that Muslims should "pursue this evil force to its own lands" and "invade its Western heartland." [links added by me, DP]

In suburban Rosemont, Ill., several thousand people attended MAS' annual conference in 2002 at the village's convention center. One speaker said, "We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state" in America, but it would have to wait because of the modest Muslim population. "We mustn't cross hurdles we can't jump yet."

These revelations are particularly striking, coming as they do just days after a Washington Post article titled "In Search Of Friends Among The Foes," which reports how some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials believe the Muslim Brotherhood's influence "offers an opportunity for political engagement that could help isolate violent jihadists." Graham Fuller is quoted saying that "It is the preeminent movement in the Muslim world. It's something we can work with." Demonizing the Brotherhood, he warns, "would be foolhardy in the extreme." Other analysts, such as Reuel Gerecht, Edward Djerejian, and Leslie Campbell, are quoted as being in agreement with this outlook.

But it is a deeply wrong and dangerous approach. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood is not specifically associated with violence in the United States (as it has been in other countries, including Egypt and Syria), it is deeply hostile to the United States and must be treated as one vital component of the enemy's assault force.

_________

Sep. 26, 2004 update: In a verbose and technical response to the Chicago Tribune article cited above, Esam Omeish, the president of the Muslim American Society, acknowledges that MAS has been influenced by the "moderate school of thought prevalent in the Muslim Brotherhood" and makes no effort to refute the article's premise that MAS has in mind "the goal of an Islamic state." How odd.

May 25, 2005 update: For more on this subject, see my weblog entry, "The Muslim American Society's Goals."


http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2100
Entry #635

"CNN Terrorist Outreach

"CNN Terrorist Outreach

By The Prowler 

Souce The American Spectator 

SNIPER NETWORK NEWS
Much has been written about CNN's decision last week to run portions of a video provided to the news network via a group identified by CNN as "the Islamic Army of Iraq."

This video, shot by the insurgent groups as propaganda for the Muslim world as well as a recruiting tool for a number of Islamo-fascist websites, showed terrorist snipers attacking American soldiers in Iraq.

According to CNN, the video was provided after a producer for CNN sent the group an email asking about its activities.

"I think the American public would be interested in exactly what the email contained, at least from the CNN side of things," says a producer for a rival news network, who was made aware of the video's existence before it aired. "My understanding is that email sent by CNN could not be construed any other way than as supportive of the Islamic militants' position in Iraq. There are people inside CNN who are disgusted by their colleagues' activities in Iraq and here in the United States in covering the war."

Attempts to get a copy of the email were unsuccessful. But one CNN source familiar with the techniques employed by network producers to get the Islamic extremist perspective says that it's common for producers to use Iraqi or Muslim contract employees to get information and access to the terrorists, and they do so by claiming sympathy or support for what the terrorists are doing.

"Anti-Americanism pays off for us over there, no doubt about it," says the CNN employee. "Questions were raised about this video and the way we got it. Once it was confirmed that it was real, the next question was how did we get it. And the answer was, we promised to give the terrorists a fair shake. I know that we are saying there was soul-searching here about running the tape. But I didn't see much of that. There were somber people here, but there was also a segment of people on staff, once the tape had run and created a firestorm, that celebrated. They thought they were so courageous."

A former CNN news employee says that at that network there is a decidedly anti-war approach to what they do. "It might not be so clear from some of our anchors, but there are people here who direct the news operation who are very comfortable giving aide and comfort to the enemy. They wouldn't call it that, but I would."

http://www.americanprowler.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10535

Entry #634

"Michael J Fox's Stem Cell Ads

Enjoy learning legal points providing clarity as opposed to partisan BS designed to inflame.  Emphasis added, mine. 

BTW, I also concur that any stem cell research should be in the private sector not subsidized by government funds.  Remember the Nazis and their drive for a perfect human race?  Better to keep it in the private sector away from politicians.

 

"MICHAEL J. FOX'S STEM CELL ADS

"In an attempt to elect more Democrats, Hollywood actor Michael J. Fox is recording campaign commercials for Democrats.  The most-talked about one is in Missouri [watch it], where Republican Senator Jim Talent is running for re-election against Democrat Claire McCaskill.  The polls currently show it's a dead heat, with maybe Talent up by a few points...but still under 50 percent.  This is going to be a close one.

Enter Michael J. Fox.

Hollywood celebrities recording campaign commercials endorsing one candidate or another are nothing new.  It happens all the time.  But in this case Fox, the popular actor currently suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease, has produced ads that are deceptive.  The issue is federal funding embryonic stem cell research....and Michael J. Fox is the new stooge in the Democratic Party's campaign of deception.

Like a lot of Republicans, Talent is opposed to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.  Aided by the mainstream media, Democrats have been advancing the lie for several years now that if you're opposed to the federal funding of something...then that means you want to ban it.  Not so...in fact, what administration has provided more federal funding for stem cell research than another other?  Your answer:  the current Bush Administration.

I admire Michael J. Fox.  I admire his courage in facing this horrible disease.  I, too, want to see more research in this area.  I admit to having a problem with the taxpayers funding that research.  Is it a proper function of government?  Or of private research institutions?  My big problem here is that perhaps these ads are convincing voters that the Bush Administration and the Republicans are somehow working for a total ban.  That's just not so.

If there is so much promise and so many cures to be had from embryonic stem cell research, then there is absolutely nothing stopping private companies from pursuing it.  Embryonic stem cell research is not illegal...never has been.  It just the Democrats exploit people like Michael J. Fox to attack candidates opposed to federal funding.  But don't believe the hype....embryonic stem cell research is not now, nor has it ever been, illegal." 

http://boortz.com/nuze/200610/10252006.html#mjfox

Entry #633

"Spending Is The Problem

I heard an interview with Sen. George Allen last Friday.  He says he does YES support the Fair Tax among other things.

"Spending Is The Problem

"RedState is pleased to welcome Virginia's Senator George Allen to the front page. We'll be keeping this up top for a while. You can scroll down for more recent content.

“Congress doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.”

Just a few short years ago, the blogosphere – a powerful new branch of the media – burst onto the scene and swiftly became an integral part of our American laboratory of ideas. In short order, it became something that no pundit or journalist could afford to ignore. Candidates gradually learned the ropes of the blogosphere, too, and few candidates today would dream of campaigning without engaging the blogosphere.

Recently, though, the blogosphere took the next step. Because of the efforts of bloggers – and, in particular, a bipartisan blog effort called Porkbusters – the blogosphere helped to pass legislation. The Federal Funding Accountability And Transparency Act of 2006 was signed into law on September 26th, 2006, creating a searchable database of federal grants and contracts so that, beginning in 2008, citizens can go online to see exactly how and where the Federal Government is spending their money. That means greater transparency and accountability for American taxpayers. I was proud to be a sponsor of that bill.

Porkbusters represents citizens demanding accountability from their government. That is grassroots activism at its very best, and I share their goal.

Read on . . .

Congress doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. Toward that end, I have supported a “Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights,” including:

  • The Line Item Veto: Senator Talent and I have taken the lead on legislation proposing a Constitutional amendment to give the President the authority that 43 State governors presently possess, and which I had as Governor of Virginia – the line-item veto – which would hold the President and Congress accountable for non-essential wasteful government spending.
  • The Balanced Budget Amendment: I have also introduced a constitutional balanced budget amendment which ensures both fiscal responsibility and helps to restrain the federal government to its constitutionally limited mandates, leaving more powers and freedoms to the States and to the people.
  • The Paycheck Penalty: This legislation that I introduced would withhold the salaries of members of Congress if they do not pass appropriations bills on time. This helps to avoid omnibus spending packages that become great vehicles for wasteful spending
  • Supermajority Vote: I support requiring a supermajority vote to increase spending beyond the rate of inflation.

I am also a sponsor of the “Commission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies Act,” which would establish a commission to review Federal agencies and programs and recommend the elimination of duplicate, wasteful, or outdated programs and agencies.

I also support passage of the “Stop Over Spending Act of 2006,” which I have sponsored, that includes several important provisions including: Presidential line-item veto authority; statutory caps for discretionary spending; a commission to look for fraud, waste, abuse and duplications across federal agencies and programs; an Entitlement Solvency Commission to make legislative recommendations to save the entitlement programs from financial ruin; and creation of a two year budget, authorization, and appropriation cycle.

I applaud Porkbusters’ citizen activism, which aims to increase transparency in government in order to cut wasteful and unnecessary pork barrel spending. I share that goal. "

http://www.redstate.com/stories/elections/2006/spending_is_the_problem

Entry #632

"North Korea Ready to Compromise?

"NORTH KOREA READY TO COMPROMISE?

"Since the end of last week we've been hearing that The Gargoyle apologized to China for his test of a nuclear weapon.  Why apologize to China?  Because China was furious about the test, and they let Kin Jong Il know it.  The Norks are fully dependent on Chinese aid ... so when China is mad things aren't well in North Korea.

Now .. that brings us to the Democrats.  You will recall that as soon as Kim Jong Il detonated his bomb the Democrats were insisting that bush give him just what he wanted ... two-party talks with the United States.  Bush said no.  Two-party talks would strengthen the Nork psychopath and demean the U.S.  Bush insisted on the multi-party talks and sent Secretary of State Rice to talk to the countries most directly affected by North Korea's actions.  The result?  China puts pressure on Kim Jong Il and another test doesn't seem to be in the cards, and now they seem to be willing to return to the six-party talks.

The Democrat way --- a strengthened Kim Jong Il.  Bush's way --- Kim Jong Il bowing to Chinese pressure."

http://boortz.com/nuze/200610/10232006.html#nkorea

Entry #631

Terrorists Attempting To Influence US Elections With Current Violence

'Today': Terrorists Attempting To Influence US Elections With Current Violence Wave

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 19, 2006 - 08:06.

Amidst all the MSM reports about this being the deadliest month for US troops in Iraq in a long time, there was a stunning bit of candor today from NBC reporter Richard Engel suggesting this is not mere coincidence, but a conscious effort by the terrorists to elect Democrats.

At the end of his report on this morning's 'Today' on the situation in Iraq, having spoken with US soliders, Engel reported:

"They believe insurgents are intensifying attacks against American soldiers now in an attempt to influence November's mid-term elections."

Shouldn't it give Americans pause to consider that in the eyes of our men on the ground, our enemy wants to see the Democrats take power?

Perhaps George Soros will sponsor a new MTV series: 'Rocket-Grenade The Vote'.

http://newsbusters.org/node/8439

5 Comments
Entry #630

...Why Democrats Are 'Dangerous' When It Comes To America's Defense

"Just Why Democrats Are 'Dangerous' When It Comes To America's Defense

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 10/20/2006

"Thomas Sowell, the distinguished Stanford scholar, wrote on this page a week ago that there's a difference between the major parties: "The Republicans are disappointing and the Democrats are dangerous." We'd like to take this opportunity to elaborate on his second point."........

........."While Democrats in Congress always assert they "support our troops," their political policies and actions have continually undermined our nation's fight to win the war on terror and defend America. Here is their national security record:
1. On missile defense of America — Democrats voted against it.".............

......." 7. On telling the world (and our enemy) about a timetable for withdrawing from and deserting Iraq — this is Democrats' retreat and defeat plan.

Think that's bad? Here's the Democrats' national defense record for the last 40 years:"........

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=246237121883661 

Comments
Entry #629

"KGB Letter Outlines Sen. Kennedy's Overtures to Soviets

"KGB Letter Outlines Sen. Kennedy's Overtures to Soviets, Prof Says
By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 20, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The antipathy that congressional Democrats have today toward President George W. Bush is reminiscent of their distrust of President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, a political science professor says.

"We see some of the same sentiments today, in that some Democrats see the Republican president as being a threat and the true obstacle to peace, instead of seeing our enemies as the true danger," said Paul Kengor, a political science professor at Grove City College and the author of new book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.

In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan's foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.

The letter, dated May 14, 1983, was sent from the head of the KGB to Yuri Andropov, who was then General Secretary of the Soviet Union's Communist Party.

In his letter, KGB head Viktor Chebrikov offered Andropov his interpretation of Kennedy's offer. Former U.S. Sen. John Tunney (D-Calif.) had traveled to Moscow on behalf of Kennedy to seek out a partnership with Andropov and other Soviet officials, Kengor claims in his book.

At one point after President Reagan left office, Tunney acknowledged that he had played the role of intermediary, not only for Kennedy but for other U.S. senators, Kengor said. Moreover, Tunney told the London Times that he had made 15 separate trips to Moscow.

"There's a lot more to be found here," Kengor told Cybercast News Service. "This was a shocking revelation."

It is not evident with whom Tunney actually met in Moscow. But the letter does say that Sen. Kennedy directed Tunney to reach out to "confidential contacts" so Andropov could be alerted to the senator's proposals.

Specifically, Kennedy proposed that Andropov make a direct appeal to the American people in a series of television interviews that would be organized in August and September of 1983, according to the letter.

"Tunney told his contacts that Kennedy was very troubled about the decline in U.S -Soviet relations under Reagan," Kengor said. "But Kennedy attributed this decline to Reagan, not to the Soviets. In one of the most striking parts of this letter, Kennedy is said to be very impressed with Andropov and other Soviet leaders."

In Kennedy's view, the main reason for the antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1980s was Reagan's unwillingness to yield on plans to deploy middle-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe, the KGB chief wrote in his letter.

"Kennedy was afraid that Reagan was leading the world into a nuclear war," Kengor said. "He hoped to counter Reagan's polices, and by extension hurt his re-election prospects."

As a prelude to the public relations strategy Kennedy hoped to facilitate on behalf of the Soviets, Kengor said, the Massachusetts senator had also proposed meeting with Andropov in Moscow -- to discuss the challenges associated with disarmament.

In his appeal, Kennedy indicated he would like to have Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) accompany him on such a trip. The two senators had worked together on nuclear freeze proposals.

But Kennedy's attempt to partner with high-level Soviet officials never materialized. Andropov died after a brief time in office and was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev.

In his attempt to reach out the Soviets, Kennedy settled on a flawed receptacle for peace, Kengor said. Andropov was a much more belligerent and confrontational leader than the man who followed him, in Kengor's estimation.

"If Andropov had lived and Gorbachev never came to power, I can't imagine the Cold War ending peacefully like it did," Kengor told Cybercast News Service. "Things could have gotten ugly."

In the long run of history, Kengor believes it is evident that Reagan's policies were vindicated while Kennedy was proven wrong. In fact, as he points out in his book, Kennedy himself made a "gracious concession" after Reagan died, crediting the 40th president with winning the Cold War."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200610/NAT20061020b.html
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Entry #628

"Syrian psychiatrist on her way to Israel

In a metaphysical article I read a prediction of sorts which said that Middle East peace would be begun by a woman, a mother, on the opposite side from the Jews.  It appears we are witnessing that prediction unfold through the actions of one very courageous woman, Dr. Wafa Sultan. 

 Her debate video  http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null

"Syrian psychiatrist on her way to Israel
Dr. Wafa Sultan, the Syrian-American psychiatrist who was made famous by speaking out against Islam in a television debate earlier this year, met with the Israeli Consul General to Los Angeles Ehud Danuch. During the meeting Sultan agreed to visit Israel and the two began discussing specific dates for the visit.

Sultan left Syria in 1989 and arrived in the US with her husband and her three daughters. In Syria, Sultan says, the citizens of the country are brainwashed on the subject of the Jewish and Arab worlds.

Sultan is convinced that the conflict between the west and Islam is a religious conflict, not a political one. “The problem is built within Islam and within the Koran itself. Solve the religious problems, and the political problems will be solved by themselves,” she said.

Sultan explains that for 1,400 years, Islam has been “charging forward” without anyone doubting it. “Nobody has ever dared to challenge Islam, and because of that, two generations will have to pass in order for the message to seep in. The next generation is already saturated with hate that our generation has passed on to it.” The first crack in the wall, says Sultan, was the famous caricature of the prophet Mohammad published in the Danish newspaper earlier this year.

The solution, she says, must come from international pressure exerted on the leaders of the Arab-Muslim world to change. The problem is that things are going in the opposite direction. When Sultan left Syria, there were very few private schools teaching men religious studies. Today there are more than 5,000 of them who teach the Koran to the boys of the next generation. Despite that, Sultan emphasizes that she is pessimistic as to the seriousness of the western world. ”The Arab-Muslim world must be helped by the western world through the internet, television, radio, and any other possible way, she says.”

“Nobody can get out of prison by himself, Sultan concluded referring to the millions of Muslims living under oppressive regimes. “The world needs to help those who are locked away inside the Arab-Muslim world under regimes such as in Iran and Syria,” she said. "

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=9920

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Entry #627

Tennessee ~ wheels coming off Ford campaign

From Powerlineblog.com 

VIDEO  http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015611.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXSPyDP8i3k&eurl=

"I thought earlier this week when I saw the Corker campaign ad (above) about Harold Ford that it was devastating. Offhand, I can't think of a more devastating campaign ad that I have ever seen based on simple statements of facts. The ad seems to have rattled Harold Ford and had something to do with the apparent desperation on his part that Glenn Reynolds puzzles over (with several video links) here. Ford refers to the ad in the second video news clip posted here (Ford says the ad criticizes his appearance, while in fact the ad says he looks good on television, i.e., it implies that he is glib), and Hugh Hewitt comments on the video news clip here.

JOHN adds: If you haven't already seen it, this is the local news coverage of Ford's bizarre attempt to crash Corker's press conference. The wheels appear to be coming off the Ford campaign:

VIDEO      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h5MZMpXgWI&eurl=

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015611.php

Comments
Entry #626

"Saudis to Invest Over SR2 Billion in Iraq

If Iraq were going down the tubes there would not be investors ready to put down cash.

"Saudis to Invest Over SR2 Billion in Iraq
Source Arab News
"RIYADH, 22 October 2006 — Many Saudi businessmen are now getting ready to establish a number of development projects in Iraq after the Iraqi Parliament approved its foreign investment law, the Al-Eqtisadiah daily reported.

Iraqi authorities are studying the projects and providing the necessary guarantees to attract investors and attract more Arabian capital. Thaeer Al-Feili, consultant at the Iraqi Ministry of Housing, said that there are three big projects that Saudi investors tend to launch in Iraq. The projects include industrial, housing and agricultural investments. The total investment of these projects are estimated at more that SR2.2 billion ($587 million). Al-Feili said that the biggest of these projects is the agricultural project, lead by big Saudi investors. The project will take large space of land and will improve the Iraqi agricultural production. He said that these investments would be the first step toward many Saudi investments coming to Iraq. He said that the General Iraqi Investment Committee has received many investment applications from Arabs and foreigners. He said that many Saudis applied for investment in Iraq and their requests is under study at the moment and soon it will be done within weeks.

He said, "Saudi investors have great experience in business investment especially investment abroad. They will help in developing the infrastructure of Iraq and their money investment will be a great benefit to Iraq." The investment projects will receive many incentives like tax free for ten years and the option to transfer the money abroad after paying the Iraqi government. The law will provide the investor, regardless of his nationality, all incentives and guarantees including living in Iraq.

Al-Feili said that Saudi businessmen supported Iraq in the past by exporting food to Iraq and other necessary products. He pointed out that a business forum would be held in the following two months in Kuwait where Iraqi businessmen will meet with Arab businessmen to reveal investment opportunities in Iraq. About 500 Saudi companies are expected to attend the gathering."
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093131391
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Entry #625

...."asks Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters

I wish they'd bar all embedded reporters period, but do hope they permanently ban CNN for this.  Hey anything for ratings since theirs are down the tube.               

 

"House Defense chair asks Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters
KESQ-Channel 3

<Excerpt>

SAN DIEGO The chair of the House Armed Services Committee asked the Pentagon today to remove C-N-N reporters embedded with U-S combat units.

The network televised portions of a video on Wednesday showing insurgent snipers targeting U-S military personnel.".......

......."Executives said the tape came to the network unexpectedly through contact with an insurgent leader.
http://www.kesq.com/global/story.asp?s=5569487&ClientType=Printable
2 Comments
Entry #624
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