Fort Hood Attack - terrorism or not?

It's too early to answer the question posed above. Thirteen people were killed and 30 others injured in the shooting rampage at the Texas Army post on Thursday. So was it a "mad" gunman or someone intent on affecting America's involvement in Muslim countries? Once again, I think it's too early to know.

That's not to say that folks are not jumping into the fray.

CAIR sends out a mixed message- Americans should unite in the face of this outrage, but urges Muslims "to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash."

Phyllis Chesler wrote

Ordinarily, I'd agree with such advice about conclusion-jumping. The military does first have to investigate the matter fully. One can't always believe what one reads in the media, etc. But whether or not Major Hasan acted alone, had allies, was inspired by religious and political Islamism, was psychiatrically troubled–the fact remains that he committed an act of terrorism. He terrified other soldiers precisely where they were supposed to feel safe. So much of the truth is already so clear that it would be insane, insulting to the intelligence to deny or minimize it.

I think right now we all need to take a breath and think about the victims who, after all, represent us all.

Italian Court- Rendition a no-no

In a landmark ruling on Wednesday, an Italian judge convicted a station chief and 22 other Americans accused of being C.I.A. agents of kidnapping in the 2003 abduction of a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan.

So begins the latest news report from The New York Times. Of course, it's Bush's fault-

The case was widely seen as an implicit indictment of the measures the Bush administration relied on to fight terrorism.

Now, this is coming from a country that bungled the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of the Achille Lauro hijackers. Priceless.

Let's see how this story unfolds.

Read the Times' story here.

"It's Radical Islam, Stupid" - CAIR in the cross hairs

In an essay, "It's Radical Islam, Stupid" released on Hudson New York, Steven Emerson once again puts CAIR in the cross hairs.

In 1993, a secret meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood Palestine Committee—mostly senior Hamas leaders--was held in a Philadelphia Marriott. The group discussed new ways to secretly funnel money to Hamas and of creating a new public relations organization to deceive the American about their true objectives of helping Hamas.

Less than a year later, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was created to serve as a front group for Hamas. Since that time, it has morphed into a quasi legitimate “Islamic civil rights” group portrayed in some circles as the equivalent of the NAACP. For 14 years, CAIR got away with the lying to us about who they are, justifying Islamic terrorist attacks, legitimizing suicide bombings, presenting speakers who had been Holocaust deniers, making incendiary presentations about the United States and urging Muslims not to talk to the FBI. CAIR claims that that there is no such thing as radical Islam, but rather a secret cabal to attack all of Islam, while secretly receiving millions of dollars from Saudi financiers and attacking terrorist prosecutions as somehow an “attack on Islam.”

Emerson cites numerous examples of the media's and politician's soft-peddling on CAIR but explains:

There is a much larger pattern here that just the apologia or selective amnesia for CAIR. The free pass given to radical Islam has become a pandemic. The Goldstone Report, which pur- ported to document “Israeli war crimes” in the war with Hamas in January, was one of the most dangerously one-sided, dishonest reports ever produced by the United Nations. Naturally the New York Times played it as a lead item on the front page without any skepticism by their reporter, who is known to take CAIR hand outs.

Read the full essay, It's Radical Islam, Stupid.

Water – the new "blood libel"

Jews are long accustomed to the blood libel, namely, that the blood of Christians is used in the baking of matzoh for Passover. While that libel is certainly not dead, a new one has arisen. This one claims that Israel deprives Palestinians living in the West Bank of water to drink while Israel builds settlements with swimming pools.

Designed to inflame sensibilities, judged by the amount of news coverage the water libel is getting it is succeeding. The story couldn't be further from the truth. While Israelis have reduced their per capita consumption of water from 1967, the Palestinians have increased it beyond proportion.

In the meantime, Palestinians continue to dig illegal wells and build illegal cisterns that deprive their neighbors of water. They also refuse to treat sewage properly with the runoff polluting underground aquifers.

Water is a precious commodity to all in the Middle East, it's sad that the Palestinians use the issue to inflame hatred.


Read this report from Haaretz

Karin Friedemann: Whither After the Goldstone Report?

Karin Friedemann: Whither After the Goldstone Report?

A pro-Hamas supporter comments on the Goldstone Report reflects condemnation from that side of the divide.
But Miss Friedemann goes one step further and seems to advocate for the view that all Israelis are considered to be fair targets for terror actions. It's a sad commentary on how violent Palestine's supporters have become.

Well, that's what I have to say.
Stephen M. Flatow

CAIR planting spies on Capitol Hill? David Kupelian says "Yes!"

In a recent post on WorldNetDaily, David Kupelian writes about CAIR inserting itself into positions of influence with members of the House of Representatives and US Senate.

While a Washington, D.C.-based Muslim organization the government classifies as an unindicted terror co-conspirator – and which has, in fact, seen several of its leaders imprisoned on terrorism convictions – scoffed last week at congressional charges it was attempting to plant interns and staffers in key Capitol Hill offices to influence policy, a hot-selling new book documents the controversial group is successfully doing precisely that.

The book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to
Islamize America" by P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry, is based in part on a daring six-month undercover investigation that resulted in many alarming revelations about the supposedly "moderate" group, backed by 12,000 pages of internal documents.

Among the charges leveled against CAIR are these:

• Ghassan Elashi: One of CAIR's founding directors, was convicted in 2004 of illegally shipping high-tech goods to terror state Syria, and is serving 80 months in prison. He was also convicted of providing material support to Hamas in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial. He was chairman of the charity, which provided seed capital to CAIR. Elashi is related to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.
• Muthanna al-Hanooti: The CAIR director's home was raided in 2006 by FBI agents in connection with an active terrorism investigation. Agents also searched the offices of his advocacy group, Focus on Advocacy and Advancement of International Relations, which al-Hanooti operates out of Dearborn, Mich., and Washington, D.C.
• Abdurahman Alamoudi: Another CAIR director, is serving 23 years in federal prison for plotting terrorism. Alamoudi, who was caught on tape complaining that bin Laden hadn't killed enough Americans in the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, was one of al-Qaida's top fund-raisers in America, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
• Siraj Wahhaj: A member of CAIR's board of advisers, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The radical Brooklyn imam was close to convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and defended him during his trial.

And the list of individuals similarly tarnished and actions of CAIR goes on and on. They belie its claim to be a Muslim equivalent to the NAACP.

Read the full WND article, Yes, CAIR is planting 'spies' on Capitol Hill.

Stephen M. Flatow

Investments in Hamas Tunnels Collapse

No pun intended in the caption but it seems that our enterprising Palestinian brethren are victims of their collapsing investments in smuggling tunnels that the Israel Air Force has helped collapse physically this past year.

According to Jonathan Ferziger writing on Bloomberg.com,

Investment opportunities are rare in the Gaza Strip. So when Nabila Ghabin saw one last year, she pawned her car and jewelry and put $12,000 into a network of tunnels that brought in supplies smuggled from Egypt.

She was one of about 4,000 Gazans who gave cash to middlemen and tunnel operators in 2008 as Israel blocked the overland passage of goods. Then Israeli warplanes bombed the tunnels before and during the Dec. 27 to Jan. 18 Gaza offensive and the investments collapsed.

No, this isn't an April Fools' day story. It's legitimate.

The report continues,

Now investors, who lost as much as $500 million, want their money back from Hamas, which runs Gaza. Hamas Economics Minister Ziad Zaza says about 200 people were taken into custody in connection with the tunnel investments; most have been released. Hamas is offering a partial repayment of 16.5 cents on the dollar using money recovered from Ihab al-Kurd, the biggest tunnel operator.

And who is Hamas's Madoff? According to investment victim Nabila Ghabin,

“The imam told us that we wouldn’t regret joining this blessed business,” she said in her apartment in an unfinished 12-story high-rise overlooking the Mediterranean as her husband played the lute. “This happened in mosques all over Gaza.”

I for one, hope the "collapse" of the tunnel market bankrupts every last one of these clowns.

Read the full story: Hamas Finds Gaza Tunnels' $500 Million Loss Worse Than Madoff.

Stephen M. Flatow