Category Archives: Foreign Influence Operations

Special Travel Benefit for Saudis a “Slap in the Face”

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IPT News
March 20, 2013

Saudi Arabia, the nation which produced 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, is about to become one of a handful of countries whose travelers can bypass normal passport controls at major U.S. airports. Sources tell the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) that this will mark the first time that the Saudi government will have a direct role in vetting who is eligible for getting fast-tracked for entry into the United States.

An agreement to accept Saudi Arabian applicants into the Global Entry trusted traveler program drew little notice when it was announced in January. Now, some officials question why the country merits such a benefit – which is similar to a theme park “fast pass” to avoid long lines – when other allies like Germany and France are not yet included. A program for Israeli travelers was reached last May but has not been implemented.

Travelers approved for the program can skip the normal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lines starting next year and enter the country after providing their passports and fingerprints at a kiosk. Only Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the Netherlands currently enjoy the benefit, although pilot programs could expand it to a handful of others.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the agreement in January after meeting with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. It “marks another major step forward in our partnership,” Napolitano said at the time. “By enhancing collaboration with the Government of Saudi Arabia, we reaffirm our commitment to more effectively secure our two countries against evolving threats while facilitating legitimate trade and travel.”

Details about how the plan will work with the Saudis have not been released. Nayef’s ministry, however, will be responsible for screening which applicants will be considered when the pilot program begins next year. It’s not known whether the Saudi ministry will share its raw intelligence about applicants with its American counterparts. What is known, based on information provided by a Homeland Security source, is that each individual who makes it into the program will have been vetted by both the CPB and by the Saudi Interior Ministry against various databases.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to make anyone available to answer questions about Saudi Arabia’s inclusion in the Global Entry program after repeated requests throughout last week, and after indicating someone would provide more details.

That is cause for concern, given lingering questions about possible Saudi support for some of the 9/11 hijackers and given the Ministry of Interior (MOI)’s inconsistent record on sharing its intelligence on suspected terrorists and terror financiers. Additionally, recent studies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified significant problems in the way DHS components use computer systems and process intelligence for posting watch list lookouts and overseas screening of foreign nationals.

Once accepted into Global Entry, travelers can enjoy the faster border entry for five years.

A memo obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism said Saudi applicants “must meet the individual vetting criteria of both CBP and the MOI, and successfully complete vetting by each side against information available in various law enforcement, customs, immigration, criminal, intelligence, and terrorist databases.”

That doesn’t bring confidence to those who have investigated Saudi Arabian connections to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., whose district lost more than 70 people during the attack on the Pentagon, called the pact a bad idea. He also stated that he had not previously heard about the deal.

“I think you have radical Wahhabism in certain elements in Saudi Arabia, and I think to be more lenient there than in other places would be a mistake,” Wolf said. “There were 15 [hijackers] from that country, and there is a lot taking place in that region.

“Some of the people who went back to Saudi Arabia through Guantanamo – we find that they are in battlefields in Afghanistan or some other place, so I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Saudis have long been known for withholding information from their American counterparts. Wolf recalls that the Saudis obstructed former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s effort to investigate the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing by refusing to share information.

“I think there has been a history of not cooperating,” Wolf said.

The Saudis paved the way for 9/11 by funding the madrassas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which adds to Wolf’s concern.

Unseen Information, Unanswered Questions

“Adding KSA to the program before a full vetting of the Kingdom’s involvement in 9/11 is very unwise,” said Sharon Premoli, a 9/11 survivor who has sued the Saudis for allegedly helping finance the attacks.

“We don’t know if what they tell us is correct. Why should we trust them?” she said in an interview Thursday. She points to a 1998 agreement Saudi Arabia struck with bin Laden and the Taliban prior to 9/11. A 2011 Vanity Fair article described it this way:

In sworn statements after 9/11, former Taliban intelligence chief Mohammed Khaksar said that in 1998 Prince Turki, chief of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Department (G.I.D.), sealed a deal under which bin Laden agreed not to attack Saudi targets. In return, Saudi Arabia would provide funds and material assistance to the Taliban, not demand bin Laden’s extradition, and not bring pressure to close down al-Qaeda training camps. Saudi businesses, meanwhile, would ensure that money also flowed directly to bin Laden.

“They didn’t tell us that,” Premoli said in the interview. “They haven’t been forthcoming on anything.”

Saudi officials deny that deal existed. The only way to find out is to continue investigating, Premoli said. She’s perplexed that the brutal murder of 3,000 Americans even requires an effort to trigger additional investigation.

“Let’s vet them properly. Let’s really declassify. Let’s look at all of it. Until it is done, it’s an open wound. It’s an unanswered question.”

The Global Entry deal comes three years after U.S. officials briefly placed Saudi Arabia on a list of 14 countries whose travelers would face enhanced scrutiny when entering the United States. It followed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab‘s failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.

A cable sent from the American embassy to the State Department that was published by Wikileaks reported that Saudi government officials expressed “shock to be included on the list” and threatened to “to re-evaluate areas of cooperation, including counter-terrorism cooperation” if it was not rescinded.

The policy was dropped three months later, replaced with a new program designed to use threat assessments and intelligence of traveler’s behavioral traits and travel patterns.

Read more at IPT 

Update:

Video and transcript: Emerson on Fox News with Megyn Kelly Discussing the expose by the IPT revealing Saudi Arabia’s Unprecedented Role in Vetting Visa Applicants to the U.S.

 

See also:

Obama ends restrictions on Saudis entering U.S., 60% increase since 2010 (creepingsharia.com)

Robert Spencer interviews John Guandolo on John Brennan’s Islam and Muslim Brotherhood infiltration

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John-Brennan-stooge-for-jihad1Jihad Watch:

John Guandolo is the former FBI agent who broke the story that Obama’s nominee for CIA director, John Brennan, converted to Islam while in Saudi Arabia — which would explain why he is so hospitable to the Muslim Brotherhood. Last Wednesday on my ABN show, I interviewed John Guandolo.

GAFFNEY: How Muslim proselytizing creeps into public schools

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b1-gaffney-apple-iislam-gg_s160x215By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.:

The Loudoun County School  Board is reaching the denouement of a multiyear deliberation about an  application for a charter school that has strong ties to Fethullah Gulen,  a Turkish Islamist. His followers have already started some 135 American charter  schools. Their focus is to promote an increasingly Shariah-dominated Turkey.

Incredibly, the school board’s  members are studiously avoiding any acknowledgment or discussion of the role of  Fethullah Gulen and his movement in the charter  school. They have wrestled for many months with a host of problems with the  application — such as serious deficiencies with the proposed curriculum, the  financing, the management, the teachers and Maryland’s  Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School, the school  in Anne Arundel County specifically cited as the “model” for the Loudoun  Math and Information Technology Academy.

Yet the members of the school board  have, to date, been unwilling to recognize that these problems are actually  endemic in Gulen-associated schools — including Chesapeake Science Point. These problems are also  much in evidence in three Gulen charter schools in  Fulton County, Ga. Two of the three have lost their charters; the third — an  elementary school — may soon follow suit.

I had the occasion to visit Fulton County last week and talked with several  people involved in one aspect or another of its difficulties with the Gulenists.  These included a former teacher, the parent of a former student and a local  administrator. One thing is clear from these conversations: You simply cannot  begin to understand, let alone cope with, the sorts of issues inherent in “Gulen-inspired” schools if you indulge — for whatever  reason, be it “political correctness,” sensitivity to “diversity,” fear of  litigation or being branded an “Islamophobe,” racist, etc. — in the pretense  that applications like the one in Loudoun County can be properly evaluated while  excluding from the evaluation process the 800-pound gorilla in the room: the  applicants’ manifest associations to the Gulen  movement.

Read more at The Washington Times

Related posts:

http://counterjihadreport.com/category/fethullah-gulen/

Al Jazeera Likely Violating Multiple U.S. Laws

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imagesCA9KZ10GBy: James Simpson:

Excerpt:

Cliff Kincaid is holding a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Tuesday, February 5th to bring these facts to public attention. Sharing the podium with him will be broadcaster Jerry Kenney, who has documented some of Al Jazeera’s alleged criminal activity. Noted Islamist fighter, Pam Geller, will also be in attendance. Pam scored a major victory against Islamic radicals in court by defending her right to post billboards highlighting Islamic terrorism at public transportation stops and other locations throughout the U.S.

Terrorist TV

A 2010 Supreme Court decision (Holder vs. The Humanitarian Law Project) holds that speech normally protected under the First Amendment can be a criminal act if directed by a terrorist organization. Al Jazeera seems to fit the bill. Kincaid and Kenney have documented Al Jazeera’s anti-American propaganda and its many terrorist connections. A few highlights:

  • The Emir of Qatar, who owns Aljazeera, recently donated 400 million dollars to Hamas, a State Department designated terrorist group.
  • Film footage of captured terrorists in Iraq shows they came to kill Americans because of Al Jazeera.
  • NBC News reporter Lisa Myers said: “Why do they go [to fight in Iraq]? Saudis captured in Iraq say it’s because of pictures on Arab television network Al-Jazeera.
  • CNN reports that a document found in bin Laden’s compound after his death referred to a meeting with the Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Pakistan.
  • The new film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” mentions that the courier who eventually led the CIA to bin Laden was located in Pakistan near an Al Jazeera office in order to get the terrorist leader’s videotapes to the channel for worldwide distribution.
  • 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed… was protected by the government of Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera.
  • Father of journalist Daniel Pearl, the journalist beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, says, “Al Jazeera is the main propaganda machine of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
  • French media openly report that Qatar is supporting the Mali terrorists
  • An Al Jazeera story, “Mali: The ‘gentle’ face of al-Qaeda,” reported that the terrorists “are playing the role of humanitarians” by providing food to local people.
  • Al Jazeera supports the radical Muslim and far-left campaign to free “Lady al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui, currently serving a life sentence for attempted murder and wife of 9/11 planner Ammar al-Baluchi,.
  • In the U.S., the movement to free Siddiqui includes Ramsey Clark, the Workers World Party (WWP) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
  • Al Jazeera reporter Tayseer Allouni, was convicted as an agent of al Qaeda.

Allowing an Al Jazeera propaganda mill to operate in the U.S. while our troops fight and die in the Global War on Terror is akin to having permitted Japanese radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose” or Nazi Germany’s “Lord Haw Haw” to broadcast from our shores during World War II.

Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) Violation

The State Department has identified Al Jazeera as a property of the Qatar government, adding that “[Qatar] exercised editorial and programmatic control of the channel through funding and selection of the station’s management.” As such, Al Jazeera must by law register as a foreign agent. It has not done so, nor has it disclosed its status when broadcasting, as required by FARA. Jerry Kenney submitted a complaint to the Holder Justice Department in October 2011 requesting they investigate these allegations. They responded that they would take it “under advisement,” but nothing has yet been done.

Unauthorized Control of a Broadcast TV Station

Al Jazeera is currently broadcast on 28 noncommercial television stations in the U.S. According to Kenney, Al Jazeera cannot legally own a U.S. TV station license, but “may have unlawfully taken control of some public broadcast stations through an illegal affiliate agreement that forced them to carry the Aljazeera programming.” He filed a complaint with the FCC almost two years ago, but they have done nothing. Recall that FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski is a longtime friend and Harvard classmate of President Obama. Genachowski’s ex-wife, Martha Raddatz, moderated the sole Vice Presidential debate last year. No influence there…

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)

According to its website:

CFIUS is an inter-agency committee authorized to review transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign person (“covered transactions”), in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States.

Al Jazeera claims their purchase doesn’t require CFIUS review, but past foreign media purchases of much more benign import have come under CFIUS authority. It seems clear that Al Jazeera does fall firmly within CFIUS purview, but once again, the government has chosen inaction.

Read more at Red State

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Did Hezbollah, foreign agents and unions infiltrate the Republican Party?

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Kerry Patton

Kerry Patton

by Kerry Patton:  Republicans are nothing more than Democrats in disguise,” a conservative friend told me recently. More and more conservatives are displeased with the Republican Party. Some believe the party has actually been infiltrated by not only left leaning persons but foreign influencers and Islamists as well.It’s sad that in today’s political arena, a person cannot present sound critical questioning to their own party without being castrated. It appears that more and more self-proclaimed Republicans are playing a game of ad hominem attacks, just as Democrats do. If conservatives favor a two party system, it’s critical we fix a very broken Republican Party. The first step could be to begin vetting members appropriately. This requires asking critical questions and demanding answers.Bearing Drift: Virginia’s Conservative Voice, an online media platform, recently published an article titled Del. David Ramadan Kicks Butt! The author praised Delegate Ramadan (R-87th) for his initiative on passing House Bills 1760 and 2120. Everything sounds good so far. But reading comments on the blog revealed a troubling pattern.One commenter posed a very simple question: Who is Imad David Ramadan? The question should have been more appropriately presented by asking, Who is Lebanese born Imad Afif Ramadan? Yes, the person we know as “David” Ramadan is actually a Shi’ite Muslim born in Lebanon with the birth name Imad Afif Ramadan.

What’s interesting is the fact that the author who wrote “Del. David Ramadan Kicks Butt” is the same author who in August, 2011 wrote Questions Swirl Around David-Imad Ramadan in 87th HOD. This article revealed David Ramadan’s past, including his ties to Lebanese Intelligence, the fact that he was formerly married to a Muslim woman who has gone missing, the fact that he filed bankruptcy, and his breach of the oath of American citizenship by signing a petition with his two brothers called DEMAND[ING] THE RIGHT TO VOTE AS CITIZENS OF LEBANON.

Something just doesn’t seem right about the entire debacle surrounding David Ramadan. Why would any online media outlet expose David Ramadan and then, months later, do everything in its power to act like they are his best friend?

Let me be very clear. I am not saying one way or another David Ramadan is aligned with any international terrorist organization nor am I claiming he has ties to any foreign state. Nor am I claiming the team at Bearing Drift are doing anything wrong. Maybe they just had a sudden “change of heart.”

Some questions about Ramadan’s past do warrant answers, however. We the people deserve those answers without being chastised for posing such questions. I will touch more on Bearing Drift and at least one of its board members.

Some Republicans may believe Ramadan and Bearing Drift don’t matter so long as they continue the conservative path. I disagree. The conservative path is not about lies, deception, and monetary influence. That’s the path of today’s Republicans and Democrats. Again, I am not saying anyone has lied, deceived, used or uses foreign or domestic monetary value to influence duties. I just want answers.

We must not allow fellow so-called conservatives to jump on Republican bandwagons. Remember, through our party’s history, we have had many sell-outs. It’s time to weed out the fake conservatives wearing a Republican disguise. We cannot afford for our party to be further infiltrated.

And yes, we conservatives have allowed our party to become infiltrated. Let’s not forget the case of one Pakistani agent by the name of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai who infiltrated our party not long ago in an attempt to influence our elected officials.  The 62 year old Fairfax, VA resident was supported by the Pakistani ISI—the very organization who many believe supported in the aiding and harboring of Osama Bin Laden. [Ed. Note: Nabi Fai's activities dated to the terms President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, served.]

If you believe Nabi Fai is the only foreign agent to infiltrate and influence our party, you are wrong. It happens more often than you could imagine. He just happened to get caught.

Read more at The US Report

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is author of Contracted: America’s Secret Warriors.

See also:

Who is Imad “David” Ramadan? (counterjihadreport.com)

Persecuting Partners: Murdoch’s Saudis Vs. Gore’s Qataris

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imagesCAQBUC44by Andrew Bostom:

Yesterday, highlighting a particularly egregious example of preening by Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, I reiterated my contention that Fox’s well-paid media personalities behave hypocritically when they ignore the morally cretinous Saudi/Rotana/Al-Risala dealings of their owner Rupert Murdoch, while lashing out at Al Gore’s sale of Current TV to Qatar’s Al-Jazeera English.

Let me preface this post by noting that I support the righteous effort of Cliff Kincaid/ Accuracy in Media demanding House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) convene hearings on the overall danger posed by Al-Jazeera’s broadcasting in America, including specific inquiries about the associations between Al-Jazeera, Al-Qaeda, and the government of Qatar. I find compelling Kincaid’s analogy between Al-Manar and Al-Jazeera, i.e., previously banning Al-Manar in the US because of its ties to the jihad terrorist organization Hezbollah, and now doing likewise with Al-Jazeera because of its support of Al-Qaeda. Indeed, to gauge Al-Jazeera’s continued grotesque supportive propaganda regarding Al-Qaeda, read this puff piece on the “gentle face” of Al-Qaeda’s butchers and thugs who recently overran Mali.

However, Fox’s shading of the civilizational jihad, due to its obeisance to Murdoch’s Saudi business partners (which includes, as but one of a myriad examples this intellectually and morally bankrupt attack on Michelle Bachmann for advocating an investigation of Muslim Brotherhood influence peddling), must also be confronted, particularly by conservatives.

The objective findings (hat tip Nina Shea; methodology here) in this World Watch List report just issued by Open Doors on global religious persecution of Christians, provides a ranked comparison of Murdoch’s Saudi Arabia (an “extreme” offender, and second worst overall to North Korea), and Gore’s Qatar (a “severe” offender, and 20th overall), noting also, that fully 10 of the 11 most egregious persecutors were Muslim nations.

Bottom line, lest we (and the Fox news personalities and loyal viewers) forget, Murdoch’s Saudi Arabia is still measurably worse than Gore’s Qatar. Details from the Open Doors report are reproduced below:

[Saudi Arabia, Rank 2; Extreme]: There is no provision for religious freedom in the constitution of this Islamic kingdom. All citizens must adhere to Islam and conversion to another religion is punishable by death. Public Christian worship is forbidden; worshippers risk imprisonment, lashing, deportation and torture. Evangelizing Muslims and distributing non-Muslim materials is illegal. Muslims who convert to Christianity risk honor killings, and foreign Christian workers have been exposed to abuse from employers.

[Qatar, Rank 20; Severe]: The state religion is conservative Islam and nearly all Qatari citizens are Sunni or Shia Muslims. Christian worship is only allowed in designated religious complexes, of which there are only two at the moment, which makes them easier to control and monitor. Many expat laborers are denied access to these complexes as they live too far away or are prevented from attending by employers. A Muslim who converts is considered an apostate and may face the death penalty. Foreign workers who evangelize non-Muslims are frequently deported.

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Congress Must hold Hearings into the Al Jazeera Deal

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20130103_al_gore_+_aljazeera_sale_2013_LARGE

by CLIFF  KINCAID

If Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) lets  the Al Jazeera-Al Gore deal go through without scrutiny, then every broadcast  entity or communications facility in America is ripe for the plucking by any of  our nation’s enemies and adversaries.

For those who haven’t been paying attention lately, the government of Qatar  has announced a deal through Al Jazeera with former Democratic Vice President Al  Gore for his Current TV cable channel, in order to transform it into an arm of  its Jihadist or “Terror TV” network, once known as a mouthpiece for mass  murderer Osama bin Laden. They are planning to call it “Al Jazeera America,”  when the oil money for the transaction is coming from abroad. This is part and  parcel of the deception, which is designed to make it appear as though Al  Jazeera is as American as apple pie and simply has a foreign-sounding name.

To be sure, the deal was not technically announced by Qatar, a Middle Eastern  dictatorship where freedom of the press is not permitted. Instead, Al Jazeera  made the announcement. But that is part of the deception. Al Jazeera is an arm  of the Qatar regime and is not in any sense of the term an “independent” news  organization. It is government-funded with “advertising” from such entities as  Qatar Airways, the national airline partly owned by the regime. Qatar and Al  Jazeera are one and the same.

The purpose of this transaction is to soften the American people up for more  Middle East revolution, including within the borders of the U.S. Dr. Judea  Pearl, the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, supports an  investigation of the deal and says, “Al Jazeera weaves the ideological  structure and combustible angers from which Jihadi recruits eventually  emerge.”

Qatar postures as a friend of the United   States and hosts a U.S military  base. But Qatar also served as the base for anti-American and anti-Semitic  “cleric” Yusef al-Qaradawi before he returned to Egypt to help consolidate the  Muslim Brotherhood revolution there. Al-Qaradawi is a leading television  personality on Al Jazeera.

You may have missed the news that Qatar just extended another $2.5  billion in economic aid for Egypt, following a gift of $400 million that the  emir of Qatar made to the terrorist group Hamas.

Al Gore and his partners, including Joel Hyatt, got more than that-$500  million, according to reports. Whether or not that is an accurate figure, any  amount is a drop in the bucket to the emir, who is worth billions of dollars and  lives in opulence.

By the way, Muslim Brotherhood leader and president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi,  just told  CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he wants the release of the Blind Sheikh, sentenced  to life in prison for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City. This  first terrorist attack on the World  Trade Center killed six people and injured  over 1,000 others.

Dr. Pearl calls Al Jazeera ”the main propaganda machine” of the pro-terrorist  Muslim Brotherhood. It is no surprise, therefore, that Qatar would underwrite  the Egyptian regime and Hamas, and that the Obama Administration would voice no  public objection to the sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera.

However, there is no reason to believe this sale is legal. The circumstances  surrounding the sale clearly require Congressional hearings and this is where  the Republican House of Representatives and its new chairman of Homeland  Security, Rep. Michael McCaul, come in.

If ever there was a time for Congress to take action, this is it. This is not  a time to let the Obama Administration take the lead, since it has already  approved the questionable deal, which fattens the coffers of two prominent  Democrats.

There are many things about this deal that stink and which require an  investigation by McCaul’s committee.

First, there are unresolved complaints to the Federal Communications  Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) about Al Jazeera’s  operations in the U.S. Jerry Kenney of Kenney Broadcasting has asked that the  DOJ enforce the law by requiring that foreign propaganda pumped into American  homes by Al Jazeera be labeled as such. He says, “Why is it that if I buy a pair  of tennis shoes made in China, it has to be labeled made in China? But foreign  propaganda which is being aired in the U.S. is not being labeled as foreign  propaganda, with its country of origin, in violation of the law? I want to know  what I am getting. If you know who has produced something, you look at it  differently.”

Secondly, it appears that Al Jazeera has evaded the law requiring federal  approval for foreign investments in America that have national security  implications.

Read more: Family Security Matters

If you would like to express your opinion on conducting hearings into this  curious transaction, the Committee on Homeland Security can be reached at  202-226-8417.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing EditorCliff  Kincaid is Editor of Accuracy in Media. He can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.

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Is Saudi prince steering News Corp. coverage?

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Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (center) with the Supreme Advisory Board of Al Risala TV

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (center) with the “Supreme Advisory Board” of Al Risala TV in December 2012. The board includes Muslim Brotherhood figure and al Qaeda-linked financier Omar Abdullah Naseef (to the left of Alwaleed, I believe), at whose home this photo was taken. The occasion was Al Risala’s receipt of an award for excellence. Part-owner Rupert Murdoch was not in attendance.

By Diana West at WND:

Ever since Al Gore sold Current TV to Al Jazeera, the network founded and funded by the oil-rich emirate of Qatar, the former vice president has drawn continuous fire in conservative media. Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, for example, have all castigated Gore, a man of the left and leading avatar of “global warming,” for such hypocrisies as timing the deal to avoid lefty tax hikes and bagging $100 million in greenhouse-gas money.

These same news outlets share something else in common: They all belong to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. That means they also belong to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Alwaleed owns the largest chunk of News Corp. stock outside the Murdoch family. Shortly after his purchase of 5.5 percent of News Corp. voting shares in 2005, Alwaleed gave a speech that made it clear just what he had bought. As noted in The (U.K.) Guardian, Alwaleed told an audience in Dubai that it took just one phone call to Rupert Murdoch – “speaking not as a shareholder but as a viewer,” Alwaleed said – to get the Fox News crawl reporting “Muslim riots” in France changed to “civil riots.”

This didn’t make the “Muslim” riots go away, but Alwaleed managed to fog our perception of them. With a phone call, the Saudi prince eliminated the peculiarly Islamic character of the unprecedented French street violence for both the viewers at home and, more significantly, for the journalists behind the scenes. When little owner doesn’t want “Muslim” rioting identified and big owner agrees, it sets a marker for employees. Alwaleed’s stake, by the way, is now 7 percent.

We can only speculate on what other acts of influence this nephew of the Saudi dictator might have since imposed on Fox News and other News Corp. properties. (I have long argued that News Corp. should register as a foreign agent, due to the stock owned by a senior member of the Saudi ruling dynasty.) Alwaleed hasn’t shared any other editorial exploits with the public. But that opening act of eliminating key information from News Corp.’s coverage of Islamic news might well have set a pattern of omission.

Recently, such a pattern of omission in News Corp.’s coverage of the Gore-Al Jazeera deal seems evident. I say “seems,” because I can’t be entirely certain that I haven’t missed something in my research. But judging from online searches of news stories and audio transcripts, two salient points are missing from at least the main body of News Corp.’s coverage.

One is reference to the noticeable alignment of Al Jazeera with the Muslim Brotherhood, the global Islamic movement whose motto is, “The Quran is our law; jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” The second (with an exception noted below) is reference to Al Jazeera’s superstar host and ideological lodestar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure. The influence of al-Qaradawi at the network and in Qatar – where, according to Freedom House’s 2012 press report, it is against the law for journalists to criticize the Qatari government, the ruling family or Islam – can hardly be overestimated.

Strange omission? This relationship between the Qatari-controlled network and the Muslim Brotherhood organization has been observed for years. Back in 2007, for example, Steven Stalinsky reported in the New York Sun that various Arab commentators referred to Al Jazeera as “the Muslim Brotherhood channel” and the like. What’s more, reference to the relationship appears at least in passing in coverage of the Gore deal at mainstream media sites such as USA Today and the Seattle Times. More discussion is available at some conservative outlets, including Rush Limbaugh and The Blaze. (Searches at Breitbart and the Washington Examiner, like News Corp. sites, yielded nothing on these same points. Call it, perhaps, “the Fox effect.”)

Given the rise of Muslim Brotherhood parties in the revolutions of the so-called Arab Spring – undeviatingly cheered on by Al Jazeera – the network’s Muslim Brotherhood connection, which extends to Al Jazeera’s sponsors inside the Qatari ruling family, is a crucial point to miss. Especially when it seems to be missed across the board.

The same goes for failing to mention Al Jazeera’s leading personality, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in the Gore deal coverage. This longtime “spiritual guide” of the Muslim Brotherhood hosts one of Al Jazeera’s most popular shows, “Shariah and Life.” Among other poisonous pronouncements, al-Qaradawi has called for Americans in Iraq and Israelis everywhere to be targeted by terrorists (“martyrs”) who would then find a place in Islamic paradise. Given Al Gore’s refusal to sell his network to Glenn Beck’s The Blaze TV due to political differences, Muslim Brother Al-Qaradawi and his Shariah ideology become highly relevant. Then again, maybe one man’s news story is just another man’s clipping on the cutting-room floor.

Meanwhile, the one story I found in News Corp. coverage of the Gore deal that mentions al-Qaradawi – a column by Gordon Crovitz – neglected to note al-Qaradawi’s place in the Muslim Brotherhood. Particularly given current events, this is a little like forgetting to mention that Hermann Goring was in the Nazi Party.

Could normal editorial discretion or plain ignorance be at work here? I suppose so. Still, there is that tie-in between News Corp. and the House of Saud to consider, a partnership I find more troubling than Gore’s deal with the Qatari emirate. Not only does Alwaleed own a stake in News Corp., Murdoch owns an even more substantial stake (18.97 percent) in Alwaleed’s Arabic media company Rotana.

Within the Alwaleed-Murdoch-Rotana galaxy is a 24-hour-Islamic outlet called Al Risala, which Alwaleed founded in 2006. The channel’s director and popular “tele-Islamist” is Tareq Al-Suwaidan, widely reported to be a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait. The station’s “Supreme Advisory Committee” includes Abdullah Omar Naseef, who, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, is “a major Muslim Brotherhood figure” involved in the financing of al-Qaida.

Al Risala, then, would seem to fit right into the Al Jazeera-Qaradawi-Muslim-Brotherhood lineup.

We know Alwaleed has influenced Fox editorial matters before. Could that Alwaleed influence – even his very presence – account for why News Corp. hasn’t hit harder on the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaradawi angles of the Gore-Jazeera deal?

I don’t know, but I wonder. Don’t you?

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Call for Congressional Hearings into Al Jazeera as a Homeland Security Threat

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stop al JazeeraBy Pamela Geller:

I am honored to fight alongside Cliff Kincaid in beating back the jihadist media machine that is buying whole dangerous access to the American news consuming public. I am honored to be a primary signatory of this letter to Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul,  requesting that the House Homeland Security Committee convene hearings into the national security threat posed by Al Jazeera on American soil.

This is an ongoing battle. I spoke to this grave threat at a press conference with Cliff Kincaid on Al Jazeera back in April 2011. Watch the video here. More here and our AlJazeera conference videos and materials here. We have just begun to fight. Stay tuned.

Download Ltr2Chairman-McCaul_Al-Jazeera

January 9, 2013

The Honorable Michael McCaul Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security U.S. House of Representatives H2-176 Ford House Office Building

Dear Chairman McCaul:

We respectfully request that the House Homeland Security Committee convene hearings into the national security threat posed by Al Jazeera on American soil. The announcement that the Qatar-funded enemy propaganda channel, which has functioned as a voice for al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, has taken over an existing U.S.-based cable TV channel, Current TV, must be examined by the Congress.

Dr. Judea Pearl, father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, has informed us, in regard to this controversy, “I support your call to investigate the impact of this transaction.” His statement reads as follows:

“A decade of watching over its programs has left me no doubt: Al Jazeera is the main propaganda machine of the Muslim Brotherhood. Posing as a benign alternative communication medium, Al Jazeera choreographs a world stage in which the West is a perennial villain, Hamas is the ultimate role model, and entire societies are dehumanized to a lower form of life, stripped of any mark of dignity or empathy. While refraining from explicit incitement to violence, Al Jazeera weaves the ideological structure and combustible angers from which Jihadi recruits eventually emerge.”

Details are sketchy, but it is reported that Current TV was owned by former Democratic Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt and that the reported purchase price was $500 million, with $100 million of that going to Mr. Gore personally.

These issues present themselves:

  • What is the nature of the contract between Al-Jazeera and Current TV owners Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, and the cable and satellite providers implicated in the deal?
  • Why did Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt reportedly bypass the prospect of selling the cable TV property to an American citizen and media personality, Glenn Beck, in preference for a foreign entity owned by an Arab government?
  • What federal rules or laws are in place to guard against foreign acquisition of American media organizations? Should they be strengthened? Should this deal be approved or examined by the federal government?

The House Homeland Security Committee is the appropriate and necessary vehicle for this inquiry because it was specifically established in part to “better protect the American people against a possible terrorist attack.”

There is a clear and present danger in American cable and satellite providers  accepting carriage of Al Jazeera. In a statement made available on February 23, 2011, Dr. Pearl said,“Al Jazeera’s popularity and general acceptance in the West has emboldened its management to take an even harder anti-Western stance. Their glorification of child-killer Samir Kuntar, and their leaking of the so called Al-Jazeera Palestine Papers in January of 2011, aimed to destroy the credibility of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and to end all hopes for [a] negotiated Mideast settlement are two of many steps attesting [to] their aims and tactics.”

In the case of Samir Kuntar, a released terrorist who had smashed the head of a four-year-old girl with his rifle butt in 1979 after killing her father before her eyes, Al Jazeera not only covered but helped sponsor an August 2008 birthday party for him. Kuntar had been released by Israel in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, who were kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2006.

Clearly, Al Jazeera is unlike any other foreign “news’ operation. However, there are some some striking similarities to Al Manar television, a satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon, which has been officially labeled a terrorist entity by the U.S Government and banned from the United States.

 

Does the treatment of Al Manar serve as a template for how to deal with Al Jazeera’s presence on American soil? Obama Administration officials should be asked to explain what differences, if any, they perceive there to be between Al Manar and Al Jazeera.

One admitted difference is that Qatar, which finances Al Jazeera, is a government, not an officially-designated terrorist organization. Still, the regime supports terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and is viewed by some as a state sponsor of terrorism. In the case before us, we believe Congress should examine whether Al Jazeera itself functions as a terrorist entity and not just a diplomatic tool of the Qatar regime.

The relationship between Qatar and Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood also requires attention. We note that Ikhwanweb, the official English website of the Muslim Brotherhood, has referred to Al Jazeera as “the greatest Arab media organization.”

The U.S. State Department designates Hamas as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” and states that it “was formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Dr. Judea Pearl has commented in the past — and has reiterated here —that Al Jazeera is the voice of the Muslim Brotherhood. That voice has a real name and face – Yusef Al-Qaradawi, the Al-Jazeera TV personality who has stated, among other things, that Hitler was divine punishment for the misdeeds of the Jews; that the Holocaust was exaggerated; that he desires to end his life in the service of Jihad by visiting Israel and throwing a bomb, becoming a“martyr” in the process; and that the U.S. will collapse if it doesn’t end its“unjust ways.”

The immediate danger that must be addressed is that Al Jazeera’s influence over potential Muslim extremists could inspire home-grown Jihadists to commit terrorist acts against Americans. We already have evidence that the words and images on Al Jazeera have inspired foreign terrorists to kill Americans in places such as Iraq. The captured terrorists have said so on film in a documentary produced by Accuracy in Media.

Read the rest at Atlas Shrugs

Al Gore Profits from the Stealth Jihad

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Current AlJazeeraBy Frank Gaffney, Jr.

Let’s call it Al Goreera.  That seems a fitting title for the new network that former Vice President Al Gore is launching with the jihadists’ favorite television outlet: Al Jazeera.  The effect will be to create vast new opportunities for our enemies to propagandize the American people, a key ingredient of their “civilization jihad” against our country.
It is hard to overstate the magnitude of this treachery.  Imagine the furor that would have erupted if, during the Cold War, one of the United States’ most prominent former leaders had enriched himself to the tune of $100 million by giving the Soviet Union’s intelligence service, the KGB, a vehicle for engaging in information and political warfare in some 40 million homes across this land.  If anything, the danger posed by Al-Goreera today is even greater since most of us — and especially our elites — are unaware that such warfare is even afoot.
Yet it is.  In the Holy Land Foundation trial — the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history — the government introduced into evidence the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategic plan for its operations in America. This 1991 document, entitled “The Explanatory Memorandum on the Strategic Goal of the Group,” established that the Brothers’ mission here is “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within…by their hands [meaning ours] and the hands of the Believers  so that God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
Toward this end, Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood employ various subversive techniques.  Among the most important are those aimed at achieving what the military calls “information dominance.”  Al Jazeera is used by jihadists the world over — including its Wahhabi owner, the Emir of Qatar — to promote their narratives of hatred of the infidel West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.
The Washington Free Beacon recently identified (http://freebeacon.com/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-al-jazeera/) seven illustrative examples of the network’s regular dissemination of praise for terrorists and their sponsors.  These include the likes of the late Yemini-American al Qaeda leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, and Sudan’s genocidal dictator, Omar al-Bashir.  The virulently shariah-promoting, Qatari-based cleric Yousef al-Qaradawi even has a regular show on Al Jazeera’s programming for Muslim consumption.  He uses it to sanction murderous holy war against American soldiers and Israelis, including women and children.
Of course, those promoting the network’s penetration of the United States — among them Mr. Gore, who will get a board seat on the new network to be formally known as Al Jazeera America — tend to pooh-pooh concerns about the Arabic-language mother ship’s service to the jihadi cause.  In any event, these apologists insist that the programming in English is objective and fair, claiming that Colin Powell says it is the only network he watches.  Who knows, given their appalling predilections, it may also be the favorite of President Obama’s newest nominees, Defense Secretary-designate Chuck Hagel and CIA Director-designate John Brennan.
The truth, however, is that over time if not immediately, the dictates of the owner and the editorial board in Doha will ensure that the content of Al Goreera helps obscure, rather than illuminate, the ominous nature of civilization jihad and promotes the shariah doctrine it seeks to insinuate into this country.
Regrettably, the Federal Communications Commission has washed its hands of this transaction claiming, in the words of a spokesman, it “doesn’t have regulatory oversight of transactions relating to ownership of cable networks.”  It’s a safe bet that the deeply Islamist-penetrated Department of Justice (see Part 9 of www.MuslimBrotherhoodinAmerica.com) won’t intervene, either.  In light of the stakes, Congress must inject itself into the matter.
At the very least, Al Jazeera America should be obliged to register as a foreign agent.  That term is defined by the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) as individuals or entities that are wholly owned by a foreign government, that take instruction from the owners or their agents and that attempt to influence public opinion and policy in America.  Al Goreera would certainly fit that description, and Congress should ensure that its broadcasts are identified accordingly.
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