HOMELAND INSECURITY
December 18, 2006
Keith Ellison
During a 1998 police protest in Minneapolis, then-civil-rights lawyer Keith Ellison, a former acolyte of Louis Farrakhan, distributes copies of the Nation of Islam leader’s paper, “The Final Call.” (Photo: Minnesota Daily)
A black convert to orthodox Sunni Islam, Ellison spoke to the North American Imams Federation, or NAIF, at the group’s Nov. 19 conference in Minneapolis.
His talk flowed into a breakout session listed on the agenda simply as “American Open University,” according to the conference program. It turns out the university is a “distance-learning” center based in Alexandria, Va., and known to local law enforcement as “Wahhabi Online.”
Later that day, Ellison met with NAIF’s president, Omar Ahmad Shahin, who lectures at the same American Open University. (He also met at the time with New York imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.) The radical Islamic school trains many of NAIF’s more than 150 members, who control mosques across America.
American Open University supports Sharia, or Islamic law. And its founder and chairman, Jaafar Sheikh Idris, has denounced the U.S system of democracy as “the antithesis of Islam” and argued no man has the right to make laws outside Allah’s laws expressed in the Quran.
“There is a basic difference between Islam and this form of democracy,” he says. “The basic difference is that in Islam it is [Allah's] law as expressed in the Quran and the Sunna that is the supreme law within the limits of which people have the right to legislate.
“No one can be a Muslim who makes or freely accepts or believes that anyone has the right to make or accept legislation that is contrary to that divine law,” Idris adds. “Examples of such violations include the legalization of alcoholic drinks, gambling, homosexuality, usury or interest, and even adoption.”
Conversely, laws prohibiting polygamy and domestic violence also violate the Quran.
Further, he maintains that no Muslim elected to Congress or the White House can swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution and still be a Muslim.
“No Muslim could become president in a secular regime, for in order to pledge loyalty to the constitution, a Muslim would have to abandon part of his belief and embrace the belief of secularism – which is practically another religion. For Muslims, the word ‘religion’ does not only refer to a collection of beliefs and rituals, it refers to a way of life which includes all values, behaviors and details of living,” Idris says. “Separation of religion and state is not an option for Muslims because it requires us to abandon [Allah's] decree for that of a man.”
He further explains: “Islam cannot be separated from the state because it guides Muslims through every detail of running the state and their lives. Muslims have no choice but to reject secularism for it excludes the laws of [Allah].”
Also, he asserts that “there is absolutely no compromise: Any belief that contradicts Islam is false.”
Backed by CAIR
Ellison’s campaign was backed by the Washington-based lobby group Council on American-Islamic Relations, a partner organization to American Open University-affiliated NAIF. CAIR held fundraisers for Ellison, a civil-rights lawyer and one-time acolyte of Louis Farrakhan who admits to making anti-Semitic remarks in the past (under various alias including Keith Hakim, Keith Ellison-Muhammad and Keith X Ellison).
CAIR’s founder has argued the Quran should replace the Constitution as the highest authority in the land. The group’s director of communications, moreover, has expressed his desire to see the U.S. become an Islamic state. CAIR is an offshoot of the Islamic Association for Palestine, a suspected front for the terrorist group Hamas.
Pundit Dennis Prager and other critics have demanded Ellison take the constitutional oath on the Bible, arguing the constitution derives its authority from the Bible, not the Quran. If Ellison puts his hand on the Quran, Prager says he would be in effect nullifying his oath and undermining “American civilization.”
“He should not be allowed to do so,” he asserted in a recent column.
Another critic, Glenn Beck of CNN, questioned Ellison’s loyalties. “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies,” he asked Ellison on a recent show.
“There’s no one who is more patriotic than I am,” Ellison replied. “And so, you know, I don’t need to prove my patriotic stripes.”
Others point out Ellison has shown a pattern of disrespect for U.S. laws, raising the question whether he’s qualified to make law. Failure to pay his taxes resulted in liens on his home. Failure to pay more than 40 parking and traffic tickets has twice led to suspension of his Minnesota license. He’s also racked up hefty fines from campaign finance violations and defended the leader of a cop-killing gang.
Red flags
In addition to CAIR, the NAIF-affiliated American Open University, however, has raised a number of red flags at the FBI, including the fact that:
It’s founder and chairman, Jaafar Idris, is a Sudanese radical on the Saudi payroll who was recently deported for visa fraud and spreading extremism in America. Idris, like NAIF’s Shahin, studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and Sudan and says he has “great respect” for the father of the purist Wahhabi movement followed by Osama bin Laden – Saudi theologian Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.
A co-founder of the school, Salah As-Sawi, is a professor at Al-Azhar in Egypt, a bastion of the dangerous Muslim Brotherhood, which gave rise to Hamas and al-Qaida. In fact, American Open University is a fully accredited satellite campus of Al-Azhar. As-Sawi worked with Idris at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Sciences in Washington, a propaganda center set up by the Saudi Embassy to spread Wahhabism in America. It was raided after 9/11 and is still under surveillance by federal authorities.
Alumni of the “university” include convicted members of the Virginia Jihad Network, who trained to kill American troops overseas.
The school has received funding from a suspected al-Qaida front that has expressly advocated suicide attacks and using airliners as weapons. The Islamic Assembly of North America, or IANA, is bankrolled by the Saudi religious minister who stayed at the same Washington-area hotel as the hijackers the night before they attacked the Pentagon. (He feigned a heart attack when FBI agents tried to question him and was subsequently evacuated with other Saudi officials on White House-approved escape flights after 9/11.)
A former CAIR official, Bassem Khafagi, headed IANA. He pleaded guilty to terror-related charges and was deported after 9/11.
Last month’s NAIF conference program outlining Ellison’s session, titled “Imams and Politics,” says Muslim involvement in Western politics is a “sensitive” issue.
“Imams must be able to provide Muslims with the proper guidance and educate them on the etiquettes [sic] of any political involvement within the Islamic context,” the program says. “Questions also arise on whether imams and Islamic centers should be involved in politics at all and what the extent of this involvement should be.”
Transcripts of his talk and the subsequent breakout session on American Open University were not made available to the public.
Michigan Passes Emergency Powers Act! -NRA-
December 14, 2006
Michigan Legislature Passes Emergency Powers Protection Act!
Fairfax, VA – Michigan’s State Legislature has passed a two-bill package backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to create the state’s “Emergency Powers Protection Act” (HB 6363 and HB 6364). The new laws prevent local governments from confiscating lawfully owned firearms during a declared state of emergency, as witnessed in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
“Law-abiding Michiganders have won a significant victory in the State Legislature,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA’s chief lobbyist. “The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina confirmed a fear long-held by American gun owners: the day government bureaucrats declare our Second Amendment null and void, leaving law-abiding citizens defenseless in the midst of chaos and lawlessness.
“We promised then to take measures to ensure that the Second Amendment is not another casualty during a declared emergency and we are proud to have delivered on that promise.”
In the first year since Hurricane Katrina, state legislatures in Alaska, Idaho, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and Louisiana passed measures that echo the spirit of Michigan’s “Emergency Powers Protection Act”.
This fall, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed a similar federal bill with broad, bipartisan support, which President Bush signed in October.
Michigan’s bills passed overwhelmingly in the State Senate, 37-1 and unanimously in the State House, 105-0.
“No matter what the circumstances, lawful gun owners have the right to possess their firearms in their homes. And if forced to evacuate, they have the right to transport their firearms to a safe place. Nobody has the right to disarm them. That’s what this legislation ensures.”
“On behalf of our many NRA members in Michigan, I want to thank Rep. Scott Hummel for his leadership and dedication to seeing the “Emergency Powers Protection Act” passed in both houses of the legislature. I also want to thank the representatives and senators who recognized the will of the people and voted overwhelmingly to pass this sound legislation,” concluded Cox.
-nra-
American Hero’s Helping Iraqis Everyday
December 10, 2006
Multinational Corps Commander: ‘American Heroes’ Helping Iraqis Every Day
By Kathleen T. RhemAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2006 – The situation in Iraq would be much worse “if not for the American heroes that are out on the street every day in Baghdad and across (Iraq),” the commander of combat troops in Iraq said today.
“In the debate over the events happening in Iraq, I think that some people have lost sight of the daily acts of heroism that our servicemembers perform here in the name of service to our nation and to freedom,” said Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq. Chiarelli, who gives up command Dec. 14, spoke to reporters in the Pentagon via a satellite connection from Baghdad. He said he believes Americans see only the negative side of operations in Iraq because coverage of the daily violence — which he admitted is “much higher than any of us want it to be” — gets in the way of seeing the progress U.S. servicemembers are making. “I will tell you that if it were not for the soldiers, the Marines, the sailors and the airmen who look the devil in the eye every single day that they conduct … mission after mission to go out and, first of all, do their best to keep the sectarian violence down and, second of all, the promotion of a democratic Iraq, things would be a lot worse,” Chiarelli said. “I believe that with all my heart.” As an example of a U.S. military member’s heroism, Chiarelli told of recently signing a posthumous award for a soldier who threw himself on a grenade to save four other people in his vehicle. “This is just one example of the daily acts of heroism, courage and selfless service our servicemembers perform for each other and for their Iraqi counterparts,” Chiarelli said, adding that he is extremely proud of the service of U.S. military members in Iraq. “It’s hard to leave knowing that much work still needs to be done,” he said. “But the performance of these servicemembers on the ground is what has made me feel so honored to have been their commander this last year, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for that opportunity.”
Incoming Congress prepares to launch ‘Operation Surrender’ by Ann Coulter
The “bipartisan” Iraq panel has recommended that Iran and Syria can help stabilize Iraq. You know, the way Germany and Russia helped stabilize Poland in ‘39.
Now that Democrats have won the House, they can concentrate on losing the war. Despite all the phony conservative Democrats who got elected as gun-totin’ hawks, the Democrats will uniformly vote to dismantle every aspect of the war on terrorism. They’ve started a runaway train and can’t stop it now.
The Democratic base is at a fever pitch with visions of storm troopers listening to their phone calls and ruthlessly torturing innocent accountants at Guantanamo, where the average inmate has his own lawyer, his own prayer rug and is wondering what to do about that extra weight — known as the “Gitmo 20″ — he’s put on since being captured. They are oddly copacetic about actual storm troopers’ daily harassment of actual citizens at airport security checkpoints. Liberals have no problem with government oppression as long as it’s mandatory and applied equally to all Americans.
In a broadcast on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, NBC’s Matt Lauer tried to nail down the Manhattan portion of his audience by aggressively questioning President Bush about the possible use of “waterboarding” against terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Lauer said ominously, “It’s been reported that with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he was what they call ‘waterboarded.’”
At NBC, they apparently expected most Americans to react to this fact by exclaiming: They did WHAT to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Wait — are you sure about that? OK, that’s it. I will never vote Republican again!
President Bush refused to discuss techniques used on terrorists, saying, “We don’t want the enemy to adjust.” But Americans “need to know,” he said, “we’re using techniques within the law to protect them.”
While normal people would be happy if we were using cattle prods on the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Lauer was testy about the possible use of waterboarding against him. “I don’t want to let this ‘within the law’ issue slip,” he said.
“I mean, if, in fact, there was waterboarding used with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — and for the viewers, that’s basically you strap someone to a board, and you make them feel as if they’re going to drown. You put them under water. If that was legal and within the law, why couldn’t you do it at Guantanamo? Why’d you have to go to a secret location around the world?”
In point of fact, we strap people to wooden boards and make them feel like they’re drowning all the time in this country. Mostly at theme parks like Six Flags.
Bush again said he wasn’t going to talk about techniques. But Lauer’s relentless grilling was getting to him. If he’d been at Gitmo, at this point Bush would have demanded a lawyer, another copy of the Quran and a couple of chocolate eclairs.
Lauer continued to pester the president, demanding to know whether these “alternative techniques you use … if they are used, are you at all concerned that at some point, even if you get results, there’s a blurring the lines of — between ourselves and the people we’re trying to protect us against?”
Hey, I forget: When did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed use aggressive interrogation techniques against a known mass murderer in an effort to thwart another 9/11-style attack on thousands of innocent civilians?
There are few better examples of how out of touch liberals are. They go right to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and expect Americans to be outraged that he may have been waterboarded.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks and is believed to have played a role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Bali nightclub bombings, the filmed beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a thwarted 2002 attack on a bank tower in Los Angeles, and Operation Bojinka, a plot to blow up 11 commercial airliners simultaneously. Oh, and he took home the coveted “world’s craziest terrorist” prize at al-Qaida’s end-of-season office party last year.
I think waterboarding should be a reward for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: OK, you’ve been good, Mohammed, we’re only going to waterboard you today. Let’s get you out of those cold electrodes and onto a nice, warm waterboard, OK?
Now that they’re our new best friends, how about we turn to Iran and Syria for help on our interrogation techniques?
