So much for secrets, I agree with Peter King

What's with the intelligence community?  I always thought that operatives--in the good old days, spies--were to be anonymous, working in the background, with methods of operation and identities protected.

Comes now the CIA and Saudi intelligence authorities talking about the operation that interrupted another Al Qaeda underwear bomb plot.

As reported in the New York Times,

The suicide bomber dispatched by the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda last month to blow up a United States-bound airliner was actually an intelligence agent for Saudi Arabia who infiltrated the terrorist group and volunteered for the mission, American and foreign officials said Tuesday.

 I'm not the only one puzzled by this behavior.  Congressman Peter T. King of Long Island, New York has also weighed in:

But American intelligence officials were angry about the disclosure of the Qaeda plot, first reported Monday by The Associated Press, which had held the story for several days at the request of the C.I.A. They feared the leak would discourage foreign intelligence services from cooperating with the United States on risky missions in the future, said Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

OK, guys, good job here, but let's keep these stories out of the newspapers.

Well, that's what I think.

Stephen M. Flatow

Open Season on Christians in the Islamic World

Phyllis Chesler writing in the Chesler Chronicles comments on the fate of Christians in Muslim lands.

For centuries, Muslims committed genocide against Hindus in India and what is now Pakistan. Today, in Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, Pakistan, Gaza, and Iran, it’s open season on Christians.

She asks,

When will Westerners truly understand that it is not only the West that has engaged in imperialism, racism, colonialism, and capitalism, but that the so-called East has done so too? African and Arab Muslims had a heavy hand in the African slave trade and, to this day, still keep slaves; Islam is a primarily imperialist venture which has colonized huge tracts of other people’s land. And, how would anyone describe the traffic in oil, drugs, and sex slaves which Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are currently engaged in as anything other than rank capitalism?

Read Open Season on Christians in the Islamic World

Saudi King's Interfaith Conference - a Follow-up

Last week we wrote about the Saudi king's interfaith conference at the United Nations. Today New York Post writer Benny Avni weighs in with a column called UN Masquerade.

Recognizing that the "king won much praise last week for convening talks at the United Nations ostensibly meant to promote peace and 'religious tolerance'" Avni advises that

"if you take a close look at King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud's agenda, some of it is hardly praiseworthy. In fact, if he gets any traction at the UN (or anywhere else), it'll mark a giant step backward for both peace and tolerance."

Writing about what he calls a "scary agenda," Avni points out that the king

"wants the world's moral blessing to restrict any and all speech about Islam,its adherents and regimes that promote them - except, of course, that which is approved by official censors. He also wants to throw the UN's moral weight behind punishments meted out to those who violate such restrictions, even if he doesn't say that explicitly.

"Meanwhile, Abdullah failed to make even the slightest gesture toward softening his own regime's brutal intolerance of other religions and cultures. Some parley on "religious tolerance."

Looks like the king is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Let's hope the world is smart enough to see through his latest PR stunt.

Read UN Masquerade

The Saudis Dubious Interfaith Agenda at the UN

"The country's lack of religious freedom betrays its lofty rhetoric. The real aim of its 'dialogue' is to promote a global blasphemy law." So write, Donald H. Argue and Leonard A. Leo in today's (Nov. 13, 2008) edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

They write

World leaders gathering at the United Nations this week for a special session of the General Assembly to advance interfaith dialogue should have no illusions that their efforts will miraculously promote mutual respect between religious communities or end abuses of religious freedom.

"What," you ask, "does this have to do with terrorism?" Good question with a better answer. Terrorism as we know it today arises from intolerance of views. How much different is it when Palestinians murder Israelis because they see no place for Jews in the Middle East and Islamists murder artists for "blaspheming" Mohammed? Not much, if you ask me, because Islamists believe that it is either their way or the highway, the bloody highway.


The Saudis' dubious interfaith agenda at the UN | csmonitor.com

Islamic Saudi Academy Fails to Report Child Abuse

Last week we commented on the Virginia based Islamic Saudi Academy and its use of some very unfriendly textbooks.

Today it was reported that the school's administrator was arrested for failing to report a child abuse allegation that is required under Virginia law.

So in light of last week's report on the academy teaching hate, and its administrator not following local law, we just have to ask, "what's up with the Islamic Saudi Academy?" And, for how long will it be allowed to remain open?

Where do Terrorists Come From?

It's our belief that terrorists are made, not born. How they are made is up for discussion. Well, not really.

One can argue that it was American government policies that drove Timothy McVeigh to murder more than 240 innocents in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Believed to be a sympathizer of a militia movement and that his motive was to retaliate against the government's handling of the Waco (the bombing occurred on the anniversary of the Waco catastrophe) and Ruby Ridge incidents, McVeigh came from a broken family, he joined the military, seems to have enjoyed the mayhem of war and tried to join the Green Berets. When he could not reach that goal, he resigned from the military and by all accounts became a loner drifting from gun show to gun show selling anarchist books, becoming a white supremacist in the process. Government policies. Hardly. Sounds more like a sociopath to me.

United States Commission on Human Rights and its June 11, 2008 Report on textbooks used at the Saudi government's Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia. According to the Report,

”Last fall, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom asked the U.S. Department of State to secure the release of all Arabic-language textbooks used at a Saudi government school in Northern Virginia, the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA). The Commission took this action in order to ensure that the books be publicly examined to determine whether the texts used at the ISA promote violence, discrimination, or intolerance based on religion or belief. The ISA is unlike any conventional private or parochial school in the United States in that it is operated by a foreign government and uses that government’s official texts. It falls under the Commission’s mandate to monitor the actions of foreign governments in relation to religious freedom. The government of Saudi Arabia, as a member of the international community, is committed to upholding international standards, including the obligation not to promote violence, intolerance, or hate."

What was found in the textbooks obtained from ISA? How about this passage from the Report:

"A twelfth-grade Tawhid (monotheism) textbook states that “[m]ajor polytheism makes blood and wealth permissible,” which in Islamic legal terms means that a Muslim can take the life and property of someone believed to be guilty of this alleged transgression with impunity. (Tawhid, Arabic/Sharia, 15) Under the Saudi interpretation of Islam, “major polytheists” include Shi’a and Sufi Muslims, who visit the shrines of their saints to ask for intercession with God on their behalf, as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists."

So, there we are. And the students at ISA, are they new Timothy McVeighs and Mohamed Attas in the making or just getting an old fashioned Islamic education?

When you teach hate, you get haters. End of story.