A Okie look at all thing Politics, eCampaign, New Media and Warfare - - - I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. - John Adams
The Council on American-Islamic Relations may wish it never sued to overturn an Oklahoma ban on Shariah law.
Now the entire nation will get to see it and other Islamists' true anti-American colors.
CAIR is thumping its chest over persuading a Clinton-appointed federal judge to temporarily block Oklahoma from enacting a state constitutional amendment that prohibits state courts from considering Islamic law when deciding cases. Fully 70% of Oklahoma voters passed the landmark measure.
But CAIR has ignited a legal firestorm that will likely rage all the way to the Supreme Court. Thanks to CAIR's latest bit of lawfare, Americans will get to hear a long overdue debate not just about the constitutionality of such bans on Shariah law but about the constitutionality of Shariah law itself.
This is not a debate CAIR wants to have, since it ultimately will have to defend the indefensible. It claims in a press release that Shariah law is "a dynamic legal framework" derived from Islamic scripture "and analytical reasoning."
In fact, there's nothing reasoned about it. It's a medieval legal code that administers cruel and unusual punishments such as stonings, amputations and honor killings. Think the Taliban.
Shariah can be seen in action this week with Pakistan's death sentence on a Christian woman for blasphemy. Between 1986 and 2009, at least 974 people have been charged for defiling the Quran or insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
CAIR, which thinks free speech is a one-way street, is working with the Organization of the Islamic Conference on an international blasphemy law that would criminalize "Islamophobia," according to the book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."
Shariah also permits wife-beating, something CAIR also knows about. Its sister organization, the Islamic Society of North America, condones it in its fatwas (or religious rulings) for Muslim Americans. More, CAIR distributes a book, "The Meaning of the Holy Quran," which authorizes men to hit their wives.
"From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg in a recent court filing.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, a federal judge said in a July 2009 ruling unsealed last week.
"The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with NAIT, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas," U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis said in the July 1, 2009, ruling.
CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) had protested to Solis that they were incorrectly named as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. Among the allegations, HLF was accused of having provided more than $12 million to Hamas.
After a 2007 mistrial, five former HLF officials convicted on 108 counts, ranging from money laundering to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Following the trial, CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT have argued that their inclusion on the list injured their standing in the community, and their image. They wanted their ties to Hamas removed from the trial records and the list sealed.
However, Solis refused to remove references to CAIR and the other groups from the trial record. That's because the government introduced extensive evidence tying CAIR to Hamas. "The public," he wrote, "may make its own judgment from evidence presented at trial."
Solis filed his July 2009 ruling under seal, and until recently, it was unclear what information was actually contained in the order.
NAIT attempted to have Solis' ruling revised, asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to unseal the order and strike any references that tied the organization to Hamas. "The District Court's analysis, NAIT argues, essentially tars it with the same brush of guilt by association that the government used in its pre-trial brief," explained the appellate court. The court agreed to unseal the lower court ruling, but refused to strike Judge Solis' explanation that the groups were tied to Hamas.
"CAIR's status as a co-conspirator is a matter of public record," Solis explained. Examining the trial proceedings, he recounted the numerous ties between ISNA, NAIT, and CAIR.
During the trial, the government introduced documents detailing the Muslim Brotherhood's beginnings in the United States. Amongst those was the May 22, 1991, "Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America," authored by Mohamed Akram.
The memorandum includes a section titled "Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America" which states that the work of the Ikhwan in the United States is a "kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions."
Also contained in the document was a list of the Muslim Brotherhood's "organizations and the organizations of our friends," which includes ISNA, NAIT, the Occupied Land Fund (HLFs former name, and others).
In another exhibit, titled "Preliminary vision for preparing future leadership," dated Dec. 18, 1998, ISNA is listed as an "apparatus" of the Brotherhood. When the Holy Land Foundation first began, it raised money and supported Hamas through a bank account it held with ISNA and NAIT. ISNA checks deposited into the account were often payable to "the Palestinian Mujahiden."
The Investigative Project on Terrorism has long chronicled the financial ties between ISNA/NAIT and Hamas, including coverage of the trial against HLF. Exhibits entered during the trial included an expense voucher from NAIT, an ISNA subsidiary, made out for $10,000 in the name of Musa Abu Marzook, as well as a check drawn on a NAIT account in the same amount made out to Marzook. Another check for $10,000 on the same account was made out to Marzook's wife, Nadia Elashi. Another check for $30,000 was made out to the Islamic University of Gaza (and has Shukri Abu Baker/OLF written on the memo line), a school long known to be controlled by HAMAS, and which counted such notables as former Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantissi and current Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahar as professors, and the recently deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is a former dean of the University.
In addition to the financial connections, the trial also revealed cooperation between the organizations and their respective leadership. During the trial, the government introduced documents relating to the creation of the "Palestine Committee," which was established to support Hamas.
The Committee was run by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, and included representatives from the Islamic Association of Palestine, the Holy Land Foundation, and CAIR, represented by founder Omar Ahmad.
Ahmad also attended the 1993 Philadelphia conference, where leaders of the organizations under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella met to discuss the future of the Brotherhood in the United States. The Philadelphia conference was attended by several members of the Palestine Committee, which supported and collected money for Hamas.
At the conference, attendees discussed how to proceed in light of the recently negotiated Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians. Hamas opposed the accords because it called for the recognition of the state of Israel. The attendees discussed how they would have to be careful in their opposition to the Oslo Accords because they did not want to be viewed as being against the peace process or as aligned with terrorist groups.
As Special Agent Lara Burns testified during the trial, President HLF President Shukri Abu Baker explained that the new entity should present a benign face compared to existing Islamist groups: "And let's not hoist a large Islamic flag, and let's not be barbaric-talking. We will remain a front so that if the thing happens, we will benefit from the new happenings instead of having all of our organizations classified and exposed."
US Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg was quoted in legal proceedings, “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists.” (US v. Sabri Benkahla)
US Attorney James T. Jacks was quoted to say, “CAIR has been identified by the government as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization—a conspiracy from with CAIR never withdrew.” (USA v. HLF)
In 2007, CAIR was named an un-indicted co-conspirator in a terrorism case in which leaders of the Texas based "Holy Land Foundation" were convicted of funneling money to Hamas in the largest terror financing case in US history.
“The feds say the Holy Land Foundation was a bogus North Texas Muslim "charity" that had actually served since 1989 as Hamas's largest clandestine source of funding in the United States--collecting "over $57 million" in donations between 1992 and 2001.” – Weekly Standard, 2/13/06
“CAIR has been advised of the reasons behind our suspension of formal partnership. These reasons include the fact that CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in United States v. Holy Land Foundation and CAIR’s failure to answer our questions about a connection between their executives and Hamas. Until these questions are answered, the FBI does not consider CAIR an appropriate partner for formal liaison activities.” An unindicted co-conspirator is a person or entity that is alleged in an indictment to have engaged in conspiracy, but who is not charged in the same indictment.” - FBI, March, 2010
The new year arrived with more bloodshed in the Middle East.
It's often hard for Americans to sort out the warring factions there, but in the case of Israel's defense against continuous mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza, the situation is clear. Israel is defending itself against terrorism.
A little history might help clarify the issues.
Israel occupied the Gaza Strip at the end of the 1967 Six Day War, which began when Arab countries attacked Israel. After many years, Israel agreed, in the 1994 Oslo Accords, to turn over most governing authority in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Israel also withdrew most of the settlers who had made homes in Gaza after 1967.
Unfortunately, the militant terrorist organization Hamas later overthrew the PA and effectively took over Gaza. They almost immediately began launching mortar and rocket attacks into Israel.
Imagine if 20 or 30 explosive rockets and mortar bombs were falling in Bethany every day, launched from a hostile Warr Acres. Gaza is that close to Israeli communities. Of course Israel has a right to defend its citizens from terrorism.
The Israelis did just that in late December, launching selective air strikes and later ground attacks designed to remove Hamas leaders and terror cells. It is clear that Israeli forces are being as careful as they can in efforts to minimize destruction and civilian casualties.
Sadly, this situation merely brings more misery to the people of Gaza. They have been used and abused for years by bad leadership. Israel has routinely subsidized food and medical care for Gaza's citizens, regardless of their allegiances, because the corrupt and inefficient governing bodies that have ruled that region were unable to provide for their own people.
There have been demonstrations against Israel in some cities, including here in Oklahoma. In one case a demonstrator waved a sign bearing a Nazi swastika joined with the Star of David. That's both unfortunate and misguided.
The question is, where were these demonstrators while Hamas was bombarding Israeli neighborhoods and families with rockets and mortar shells for years?
I have had the opportunity to travel to Israel and meet with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. I know there are Palestinians who desperately want peace and it pains me to see them endure hardships.
But the reality is that Israel has been under almost constant assault for 60 years. Hamas has publicly stated its intent to murder everyone in Israel and exterminate the Israeli nation. Israel has every right to defend itself, and like the vast majority of Americans, I support the Israeli people in their fight against terrorism.
As soon as Operation Cast Lead began to take shape just over a week ago, Dan Peguine started the program QassamCount, a system that updates users' statuses on Facebook with the number of Kassams that hit Israel.
Within the first three days, 10,000 people had donated their statuses to the cause.
Peguine first started a program counting Kassams about a week before the operation in Gaza began. He used Twitter, which sends users' statuses to all their "followers," to help people understand how often rockets hit the South.
"When you live in Tel Aviv and you read at the end of the day, '20 Kassams hit Sderot, Ashkelon,' you do not really understand what it means to live through this," Peguine told The Jerusalem Post. "So by having a feed that pops up every time a Kassam hits, I thought it would be a good way to convey this."
After recognizing the quick success of the Twitter program, to which 600 followers had subscribed in three days, Peguine decided to apply the same form to a larger social network. He partnered with Arik Fraimovich and set up the application on Facebook.
"I think that the Internet is a medium that needs to be used to reach audiences that are not usually aware of the situation in Israel," Peguine said.
"We hope to bring to the world's attention the fact that Hamas fires rockets at Israel daily," he said.
"When it comes to bias against Israel, it's very easy for our enemies to be on the constant attack," said David, the spokesman for the JIDF, who asked that his last name not be published. He said he had received death threats since beginning his activities.
The JIDF formed in response to the second intifada in 2000 and functioned on a grassroots level, mainly through e-mail campaigns. The group then began operating on various Web sites to spread news about Israel and Jewish issues.
"Throughout the years, we have tried to help shape public opinion with our own brand of Israel advocacy on-line, and it's very refreshing to see Israel taking an active on-line role," David said. "The videos on YouTube showing secondary explosions have had a major impact, as do the videos and photos of all the humanitarian effort."
Israel and the Jewish People have always faced bias in the media, he said, adding that anti-Semitism and a false perception of Israel as an aggressor have played a role.
Photos of Israeli soldiers taken in Operation Cast Lead show them wearing big, floppy hats that look like Chef’s hats.
What’s the deal?
They’re for camouflage.
The hat—called a mitznefet in Hebrew—attaches to a regular combat helmet and obscures its rigid, round shape.
As the mitznefet flops about, it takes on an irregular form that’s harder to recognize in a shadow or out of the corner of your eye. The hat also protects against the sun and the moon, which might reflect off the surface of the helmet. A standard mitznefet consists of reversible mesh fabric, with a greenish woodland camouflage print on one side and a brown desert print on the other.
The Israeli attack on Hamas forces in Gaza on December 27th, hit fifty targets within 220 seconds.
The fifty Israeli aircraft assembled off the coast, and delivered a well rehearsed attack designed to take out Hamas targets before key commanders could get away.
Israeli intelligence had discovered Hamas plans for such an Israeli attack, which involved key Hamas personnel immediately dispersing to hiding places. These included hospitals, where the Hamas men would dress in staff uniforms and blend in. Other safe havens included nursery schools, and other places where the Hamas officials would be surrounded by lots of civilians at all times. Thus the tight timing for the Israeli attack, intended to catch the key Hamas personnel before they could disperse.
Hamas knew that the Israelis have an informant network in Gaza. The key to Israeli success in dealing with Palestinian terrorists has always been an informant network within the Palestinian community. Many of these Palestinian informants are doing it for the money. Israelis pay for information. They also use other inducements (help with the bureaucracy, medical care, etc). Palestinian terrorist organizations have been unsuccessful in their attempts to shut down the informant networks, and many innocent Palestinians have died simply because they were falsely accused of being informants.
In addition, the Israelis gain a lot of information via electronic intelligence work and UAVs that are constantly in the air over Gaza. Israel seeks to make the terrorists think that it's the gadgets, not informants, gathering the information. To the Israelis, inducing paranoia among the Palestinians is seen as a successful weapon. All this has helped keep the terrorists out of Israel for nearly five years now, something no one thought was possible.
The Israelis also have hundreds of police and military operatives who can pass as Arabs (their families came from Arab countries shortly after Israel was founded in 1947). These Israelis speak fluent Arabic (with a Palestinian accent), in addition to their Arab appearance. These agents dress as Palestinians and enter Palestinian areas to recruit and run Palestinian informants. At least in the West Bank. In Gaza, the Israelis use pro-Fatah Palestinians. At least a third of the Gaza population is still pro-Fatah, and continued Hamas pressure has not changed that.
The Israelis also make use of the phone system to avoid civilian casualties. For example, the bombing campaign after the initial attack was directed mostly at the thousands of rockets Hamas had stockpiled. Most of these were stored in civilian housing. This was a technique pioneered by Hezbollah in Lebanon. There, some homes would have a basement excavated, to provide more space for rockets. Israeli intelligence is still identifying these storage locations. When one is found, the Israelis will phone the home just before the attack and tell the civilians they have a few minutes to get out before the place blows up. In at least one case, the civilians were defiant, and went to the roof, believing that the Israelis would not bomb with women and children in plain sight. In response, the Israeli fighter came in low and fired some 20mm cannon shells right next to the building. The panicked civilians fled the building and the place blew up shortly thereafter.
Israel is waged 'Operation Cast Lead' on several fronts, including unprecedented use of New Media.
Israeli officials said they are satisfied that Israel is winning sympathetic media coverage that has provided its military with the breathing space it needs to continue the strikes against Gaza.
“Israel has no small measure of understanding and support and even approval from many countries,” Dan Gillerman, a former ambassador to the United Nations, said last week. “Unless something very dramatic happens, such as a blundered hit that kills large numbers of civilians, then we will have enough time to do what we need to do.”
Led by Yarden Vatikai, a former official with the defence ministry and the Jewish Agency, the directorate decided to replace the traditional wartime press conferences with a wide range of initiatives using new media.
“In terms of communicating our message, new media is the future,” said Avi Benayahu, the chief spokesman for the Israeli army, who has organised a series of workshops for his staff over the past six months.
“Explaining your actions is a kind of ammunition in this sort of war.”
The YouTube channel, established the day after the first air strikes, is currently the most popular on the site. The dozen's videos relating to the current operation have recorded hundreds of thousands of hits.
Israel has turned to other New Media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter @IsraelConsulate /Twitter @IDFspokesperson, blogs and chat rooms, often relying on former army personnel and public relations consultants, to advance its case.
In addition, reporters and diplomats have been blitzed with text messages offering interviews, briefings and tours of Israeli communities in the Negev close to the Gaza border. Other initiatives are likely to be unveiled if and when a ground invasion is launched.
“We have photographers embedded in all the units preparing to enter Gaza and we already have incredible footage that we are planning to release [if] we go in,” Dinor Shavit, commander of the Israeli army’s filming unit, told The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Opposition politicians, including the Likud party head, Benjamin Netanyahu, have set aside their campaigns for the parliamentary election next month and been recruited to the public relations offensive.
Officials believe coverage of Israel’s actions in Gaza have benefited as a consequence. According to a survey by the foreign ministry of the international broadcast media, Israeli spokespeople have been given three times as much airtime as Palestinian representatives.
Daniel Seaman, the head of the government press office, “We know that Hamas is in complete control of the news and that reports from Gaza are carried out under duress. Foreign media in Gaza will become fig leaves for the news, and will give credibility to the reporting.”
It took 15 years and two trials, but the government has won a terrorism conviction against what had been the nations largest Muslim charity and five of its leaders for funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
A federal jury in Dallas found 'Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development' and its officials guilty of funneling more than $$12 million to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
"It involves a conspiriacy that spanned a 13-year period of an effort," U.S. Attorney Richard Roper said. "A sophisticated effort to support the terrorist organization Hamas." "This is a real victory for all of us in the sense that the funding for terrorism is essential for its continuation and we have done many things to weaken their operational capacity," Deputy Director MIPT David Cid said.
The convictions carry sentences up to 15 or 20 years on each count.
Ghassan Elashi, Holy Lands former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, Holy Lands chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 counts, including supporting a specially designated terrorist, money laundering and tax fraud.
Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted of three counts of conspiracy.
Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization.
