Atlas Shrugs

Obama nominates pro-jihadist, John Brennan, to head the CIA

Could you imagine an even more dangerous pick than Hagel for Secretary of Defense? Under Obama, yes. Worse is always what's next.

President Barack Obama said today he would nominate former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican, to be Secretary of Defense, and his top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to head the CIA. Astonishing. Obama is doing the full monty.

The president's CIA pick called jihad a "legitimate tenet of Islam," arguing that the term "jihadists" should not be used to describe America's enemies. During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan described violent extremists as victims of "political, economic and social forces," but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should not be described in "religious terms."

White House pro-jihadist John Brennan speechifies in Arabic and has equated Muslim terrorists with shoplifters. Lawmakers have called for his firing (here).

Atlas readers are long familiar with the pro-jihadi thug Brennan. If you recall, during the 2008 presidential election, I ran a number of stories on the breach of Obama's passport at the Department of State. It bears noting that John O. Brennan, whom Obama first appointed to be Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, in which capacity he made his notorious and incredible pro-terror remarks, some in Arabic no less, about the beauty of jihad, was connected with the tampering with Obama's passport. 

He led the investigation into the breach of Obama's passport records -- the mysterious passport Obama traveled to Pakistan on in 1981.

Quid pro quo?

Back in March 2008, State Department employees had tampered with the passport files of Barack Hussein Obama. The State Department launched an investigation into allegations of improper computer access to Obama's passport records. The investigation was focusing on one employee — a contract worker with a company headed by an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (more here at The Washington Times).

Obama said at the time:

In Portland, Ore., Mr. Obama said the series of attempts to "tap into people's personal records" were "a problem not just for me but for how our government functions."

Laughable, considering how intrusive his administration has been and continues to be in accessing private information.

Officials do not know whether information was improperly copied, altered or removed from the database during the intrusions.

[...]

"As soon as we realized that there were these unauthorized accesses for Senator Obama's passport files, we collected the information, we briefed the secretary, we briefed Senator Obama's staff, all before we ever replied to the reporter," Mr. McCormack said.

You will also recall that the key witness in the presidential passport tampering case was murdered. Shot in the head, in his car, in front of his church.

 Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser
updated 9:10 p.m. EDT, Sat March 22, 2008
cnn.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The CEO of a company whose employee is accused of improperly looking at the passport files of presidential candidates is a consultant to the Barack Obama campaign, a source said Saturday.
John O. Brennan, president and CEO of the Analysis Corp., advises the Illinois Democrat on foreign policy and intelligence issues, the source said.
Brennan briefed the media on behalf of the campaign this month.
The executive is a former senior CIA official and former interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
He contributed $2,300 to the Obama campaign in January…

At the time, "State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted."

 The incidents raise questions as to whether the information was accessed for political purposes and why two contractors involved in the Obama search were dismissed before investigators had a chance to interview them.

I always thought they rifled through Clinton's and McCain's files to make it look as if it was all three, but it was Obama's passport records that they accessed. Secondarily, almost as an afterthought, there were "violations" concerning Clinton and McCain. But who stood to gain from a tampering, and why?

There is a video here of Obama's response to the passport "breach" back on March 21, 2008. Watch it -- I think it's telling that he says, not that he has anything to hide: "not because I have any particular concerns" [minute -.23].

Read more here.

Vindication: Egyptian Magazine exposes Muslim Brotherhood Infiltration of Obama Administration

Once again, Geller (and the few brave truth tellers) are proven right. And the silent enemedia, yet again, are shown to be the quislings snakes that they are.

An Egyptian magazine is reporting about Muslim Brotherhood infilitration of the Obama administration at the highest level. This Egyptian magazine names Rashad Hussain, exposed as Brotherhood at Atlas in January 2010; Arif Alikhan, exposed at Atlas here back in Janary 2009; and the others, Salam al-Marayati;  Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, all profiled at Atlas many times. Since June 2009, when Obama invited the then-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to his submission speech in Cairo, his subversive support of the Islamic supremacist organization has wreaked havoc on freedom-loving peoples the world over. 

Americans may very well be painfully clueless about this fatal subterfuge, but it is devastating, really. Look at the world before Obama and after he took the mantle of power (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, etc.).

Egyptian Magazine: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration IPT,  John Rossomando  •  Jan 3, 2013 at 1:10 pm

An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy.

The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House "from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood."

The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers.

The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

Alikhan is a founder of the World Islamic Organization, which the magazine identifies as a Brotherhood "subsidiary." It suggests that Alikhan was responsible for the "file of Islamic states" in the White House and that he provides the direct link between the Obama administration and the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.

Elibiary, who has endorsed the ideas of radical Muslim Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb, may have leaked secret materials contained in Department of Homeland Security databases, according to the magazine. He, however, denies having any connection with the Brotherhood.

Elibiary also played a role in defining the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy, and the magazine asserts that Elibiary wrote the speech Obama gave when he told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave power but offers no source or evidence for the claim.

According to Rose El-Youssef, Rashad Hussain maintained close ties with people and groups that it says comprise the Muslim Brotherhood network in America. This includes his participation in the June 2002 annual conference of the American Muslim Council, formerly headed by convicted terrorist financier Abdurahman Alamoudi.

He also participated in the organizing committee of the Critical Islamic Reflection along with important figures of the American Muslim Brotherhood such as Jamal Barzinji, Hisham al-Talib and Yaqub Mirza.

Regarding al-Marayati, who has been among the most influential Muslim American leaders in recent years, the magazine draws connections between MPAC in the international Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure.

Magid heads ISNA, which was founded by Brotherhood members, was appointed by Obama in 2011 as an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. The magazine says that has also given speeches and conferences on American Middle East policy at the State Department and offered advice to the FBI.

Rose El-Youssef says Patel maintains a close relationship with Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, and is a member of the Muslim Students Association, which it identifies as "a large Brotherhood organization."

Jihadists enjoy unfettered access to the White House

My worst predictions outlined in my book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America, have been far exceeded by the enemy in the White House. Muslim Brotherhood groups whose stated goal is "eliminating and destroying 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 other religions" have absolute access to the White House. Embedded infiltration is complete. Is it any wonder that freedom's defenders are so attacked, demonized, and rendered radioactive?

This is nothing short of a coup made possible by a seditious administration. More revelations from White House visitor logs.

Is it any wonder that Obama's DoJ scuttled the prosecution of these same Muslim Brotherhood groups named in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation's history, the Holy Land Foundation trial?

A Red Carpet for Radicals at the White House

by Steve Emerson and John Rossomando IPT News
October 21, 2012

A year-long investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has found that scores of known radical Islamists made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, meeting with top administration officials.

Court documents and other records have identified many of these visitors as belonging to groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.

The IPT made the discovery combing through millions of White House visitor log entries. IPT compared the visitors' names with lists of known radical Islamists. Among the visitors were officials representing groups which have:

• Been designated by the Department of Justice as unindicted co-conspirators in terrorist trials; Extolled Islamic terrorist groups including Hamas and Hizballah;
• Obstructed terrorist investigations by instructing their followers not to cooperate with law enforcement;
• Promoted the incendiary conspiratorial allegation that the United States is engaged in a "war against Islam"— a leading tool in recruiting Muslims to carry out acts of terror;
• Repeatedly claimed that many of the Islamic terrorists convicted since 9-11 were framed by the U.S government as part of an anti-Muslim profiling campaign.

Individuals from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) visited the White House at least 20 times starting in 2009. In 2008, CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist money laundering case in U.S. history – the trial of the Holy Land Foundation in which five HLF officials were convicted of funneling money to Hamas.

U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis later ruled that, "The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the association" of CAIR to Hamas, upholding their designations as unindicted co-conspirators. In 2008, the FBI formally ended all contact with CAIR because of its ties to Hamas.

In January 2004, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR's Los Angeles office, publicly defended Palestinian terror attacks in comments before Muslim students at the University of California – Los Angeles, saying that terrorists were exercising their "legitimate right" to defend themselves against Israeli occupation.

Ayloush, who was a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., casts the United States as controlled by Israeli interests. At a 2008 CAIR banquet in San Diego, he imagined "an America that respects and humanizes religion. It's an America that is free to act on its values and not on the interests of any foreign lobby." In 2004, he said that the war on terror had become a "war on Muslims." Ayloush attended at least two White House meetings.

The logs show Ayloush met with Paul Monteiro, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement on July 8, 2011 and Amanda Brown, assistant to the White House director of political affairs Patrick Gaspard, on June 6, 2009.

According to reliable sources, Monteiro was White House liaison for secret contacts with CAIR, especially with Ayloush. IPT has learned that the White House logs curiously have omitted Ayloush's three meetings with two other senior White House officials.

Louay Safi, formerly executive director of the Islamic Society of North America, visited the White House twice – meeting in intimate settings with Paul Monteiro on June 29, 2011 and July 8, 2011.

Law enforcement first noticed Safi in 1995 when his voice was captured in an FBI wiretap of now-convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian. At the time of his conversation with Al-Arian, Safi served as executive director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, an organization listed in law-enforcement and in internal Muslim Brotherhood documents as one of the movement's top front groups in North America.

Safi also wrote for the Middle East Affairs Journal, produced by the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). That group was established by Hamas deputy political leader Mousa Abu Marzook and part of the Hamas-support network called the "Palestine Committee."

Safi has repeatedly expressed understanding for the underlying causes that provoke terrorism: "Terrorism cannot be fought by…ignoring its root causes. The first step…is to examine the conditions that give rise to the anger, frustration, and desperation that fuel all terrorist acts." He also called Palestinian terrorists "freedom" fighters.

Esam Omeish, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood-created Muslim American Society, visited the White House three times.

In 2000, Omeish personally hired the late terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki to be the imam of Falls Church, VA, Dar al-Hijrah mosque. According to IPT analysis, more terrorists have been linked to Dar al-Hijrah since 9/11 than to any other mosque in America.

Omeish publicly mourned the Israeli airstrike that killed Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin at an April 10, 2004, MAS conference.

Click to hear audio

According to video captured by IPT, Omeish went a step further at the December 22, 2000, Jerusalem Day rally in Washington's Lafayette Park, praising Palestinian terror groups, saying they had learned "the jihad way" to "liberate" Palestine.

In a sermon at Dar al-Hijrah in 2009, Omeish called for "an American Islamic movement that transforms our status, that impacts our society, and that brings forth the change that we want to see."

Click to hear audio

Last month, Omeish attended a reception for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi during Morsi's United Nations visit. Morsi is a longtime Egyptian Brotherhood leader. Omeish posted a picture of the event on his Facebook page and noted: "His Excellency provided great insights and we share important perspectives."

Mohamed Elibiary, appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in October 2010, spoke at a December 2004 seminar in honor of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, titled: "A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary."

Elibiary condemned the convictions of the defendants in the Hamas money-laundering trial as a "loss for America" and dismissed the prosecution as "a political trial trying to achieve a government policy." He also opposed the targeting of American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, saying it wouldn't be "worth the ramifications of having to chase his ghost as a martyr for the next half century."

Interestingly, the Obama administration's enthusiastic support for gay rights did not prevent it from inviting Islamists who support laws overseas giving gays the death penalty.

In a June 21, 2001 article in The San Francisco Chronicle, Muzammil Siddiqi, the former head of Islamic Society of North America, said he "supported laws in countries where homosexuality is punishable by death." Siddiqi met with Monteiro on June 8, 2010.

Despite the President's public proclamations that he is standing strong against terrorism, the White House logs demonstrate that he has legitimized the very same groups that espouse radical Islamic terrorism.

MPAC's Influence on Policy

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has secured the closest working relationship with the Obama White House despite a record of anti-Semitism, whitewashing the terrorist threat and hostility toward law enforcement. Fifteen MPAC officials have been welcomed by the White House. Executive Director Salam al-Marayati enjoyed at least six White House visits between September 2009 and July 2011, mostly involving meetings with Monteiro. Alejandro Beutel, who was MPAC's government liaison until July 2012, had 10 White House visits between July 2010 and May 2012.

MPAC's Washington director Haris Tarin made 24 trips to the White House between December 2009 and March 2012. Those meetings often were intimate in nature, involving a handful of people at most.

Edina Lekovic, an MPAC spokeswoman, visited the White House twice in July 2010. As a UCLA student, Lekovic served as an editor of a Muslim magazine called Al-Talib, which in 1999 ran an editorial calling Osama bin Laden "a great mujahid" and saying when bin Laden is called a terrorist, "we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter, someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah's cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah." That issue identified Lekovic as a managing editor.

Like CAIR, MPAC also has pushed that "war on Islam" message. MPAC defended Hizballah's 1983 attack on a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon which killed 241 Americans and questioned U.S.-terror designations for Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

But the White House turned to MPAC officials as it prepared two papers on combatting what it calls violent extremism in America.

On July 18, 2011, White House Senior Director for Global Engagement QuintanWiktorowicz hosted four MPAC officials for a private meeting. Two weeks later, the White House issued "Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States," a counter-terrorism initiative which made no mention of radical Islam or jihad waged by its followers. Rather, it named only al-Qaida as the enemy and included a vow to counter al-Qaida's narrative that America is at war with Islam.

That focus fits neatly with MPAC's agenda. It has lobbied for years to strip references to Islam from national security dialogue, even though terrorists from al-Qaida to Hamas use Quranic doctrine to justify their bloody campaigns.

And it marks the culmination of a dream described by MPAC founder Salam al-Marayati in a 2005 speech: "Counter-terrorism and counter-violence should be defined by us," he said. "We should define how an effective counter-terrorism policy should be pursued in this country. So, number one, we reject any effort, notion, suggestion that Muslims should start spying on one another … That is why we are saying have them [law enforcement] come in community forums, in open-dialogues, so they come through the front door and you prevent them having to come from the back door."

Wiktorowicz, a member of President Obama's National Security Council who authored a 2005 ebook on radical Islam, was a receptive host for MPAC government and policy analyst Alejandro Beutel, Washington, D.C. office director Haris Tarin, policy analyst Hoda Elshishtawy and Shammas Malik, an MPAC intern, White House logs show.

MPAC didn't tout the July 18 meeting publicly but quickly praised the White House initiative. It "echoes MPAC's long-standing position of emphasizing community-based solutions in addressing violent extremism," the organization said in an August 3, 2011 news release.

Days before the meeting, President Obama called Tarin personally to commend his work with the Muslim American community and the nation.

MPAC repaid the courtesy a month later by issuing a paper blasting the American opposition to a Palestinian scheme to get United Nations recognition of statehood without pursuing it through peace talks.

The MPAC report questions the Obama administration's integrity by suggesting that the "U.S. is so out of step with global public opinion" on this issue because it is unduly influenced by "domestic political consequences" and campaign concerns, an allusion to the perceived political power of the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., which MPAC often invokes.

Despite MPAC's strident public opposition to U.S. policy, Wiktorowicz again hosted Beutel, Tarin, and Elshishtawy on November 4, 2011 – just a month before a follow-up counter-terrorism document was released.

Access Didn't Moderate MPAC

There is much more. Go.

Simon Wiesenthal Center calls on President Obama to publicly condemn the latest call for jihad against Israel #savage

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the world's leading Jewish human rights organization that confronts anti-Semitism, calls on Obama to ....support the civilized man.

"Wiesenthal Center: Obama should sever ties with Brotherhood" Jerusalem Post, October 12, 2012

The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Friday called on US President Barack Obama to publicly condemn the latest call for jihad against Israel by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and to sever all contacts with the organization until the threat is withdrawn.

The Center's call comes after Badie reportedly said in his weekly message to supporters that "The Jews have...spread corruption on earth [and] spilled the blood of believers," and therefore Arabs Should confront the Jewish state "Through holy jihad, high sacrifices and all forms of resistance."

In a joint statement, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, respectively founder and dean and associate dean of the Center, denounced Badie, saying his "rant confirms our long held view that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the most dangerous anti-Semitic organization in the world today."

According to the statement, "We are not dealing with a Youtube video or a lone extremist Imam, but a call to anti-Semitic violence by a man who has tens of millions of followers and leads the organization that controls Egypt's future. It cannot be business as usual in Washington when such an assault is launched against the Jewish people."

They concluded by urging "President Obama to condemn the rhetoric and cut off all official and unofficial US contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood until they desist from their hate and war mongering."

VIDEO: Pamela Geller with Ezra Levant on SUN TV: Obama & The Blind Sheikh

High Treason: Obama's State Department Considering Talks to Release WTC Bombing mastermind ‘Blind Sheikh’ to Egypt

US relied on Muslim Brotherhood for Libyan Consulate security

The United States left the security of our highest diplomatic officials to the Muslim Brotherhood. This complete and utter breakdown is astonishing. The White House is colluding with America's worst adversaries. And the complicit enmedia continues its jihad against this country. They are not the fourth estate but the fifth column. They are the enemy. I blame the media not in large part, but entirely. The American people are completely in the dark (not enough blog readers). There is no way Obama could have a fighting chance at re-election if the American people had any indication of the great and terrible harm he has done to us.

What happened in Libya was an act of war made possible by a reckless White House that continues to pursue our enemies, no matter how many Americans are slaughtered in the process.

Video from Libya: "Don't Shoot! We were sent by President Morsi" At least two separate groups of gunmen in Libya were loyal to the President of Egypt. And they were guaranteeing our security?

And the White House response to all this? Lie, lie, lie, in league with the enemedia.

Bill Clinton stuns Dems by hosting Morsi in NYC

US relied on Muslim Brotherhood for Benghazi Consulate security Jihadwatch

This should put paid forever to the notion that the Muslim Brotherhood is "moderate" and that the U.S. Government should work with it. But it won't.

"US Relied on Muslim Brotherhood for Benghazi Consulate Security," by Daniel Greenfield at FrontPage, September 21:

The more we learn about what happened in Benghazi, the clearer things become.

Two U.S. intelligence officials told The Daily Beast that the intelligence community is currently analyzing an intercept between a Libyan politician whose sympathies are with al Qaeda and the Libyan militia known as the February 17 Brigade—which had been charged with providing local security to the consulate. In the intercept, the Libyan politician apparently asks an officer in the brigade to have his men stand down for a pending attack—another piece of evidence implying the violence was planned in advance.

The Martyrs of the Feb. 17 Revolution Brigade is Islamist and linked with the Muslim Brotherhood. It was repeatedly accused of engaging in atrocities during and after the Libyan Civil War.

Many more-secular politicians in Libya are suspicious of Mr. Bukatef and his brigade because of their own Islamist reputation. He has been a member of Libya’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and one of his group’s commanders reporting to him is Ismail al-Salabi, who leads a group of Islamist fighters and is the brother of Libya’s most prominent Islamist thinker, Ali al-Salabi.

Read it all.

High Treason: Obama's State Department Considering Talks to Release WTC Bombing mastermind ‘Blind Sheikh’ to Egypt

This is too monstrous for words. I posted previously here and here that the real impetus for the violent Muslim riots was to demand the release of the blind sheikh, mastermind of the World Trade Center bombings in 1993.

On its face, such a release would be inconceivable -- it would be no different from releasing Osama Bin Laden. But this is Obama we are talking about, who never misses an opportunity to denigrate, demoralize and betray this country. His sympathies lie with the Muslim Brotherhood, not the American people.

Osama bin Laden credited Rahman, a long-time friend and ally of al Qaeda’s deceased master, with issuing the fatwa that condoned the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Rahman is serving a life sentence in an American prison for his role in 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which prefigured 9/11, and a follow-on plot against New York City landmarks. Rahman’s spiritual guidance directed those terrorists.

"Source: State Department Considering Talks to Transfer ‘Blind Sheikh’ to Egypt" The Blaze

An Egyptian follower of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman flashes his poster outside in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Sept.11, 2011. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

The U.S. State Department is actively considering negotiations with the Egyptian government for the transfer of custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as “the Blind Sheikh,” for humanitarian and health reasons, a source close to the the Obama administration told TheBlaze.

The Department of Justice, however, told TheBlaze that Rahman is serving a life sentence and is not considered for possible “release.”  Previous calls to the State Department were referred to the Department of Justice and so far, the State Department has neither confirmed nor denied the report.

The Blind Sheikh is currently serving a life sentence in American prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but the newly-elected Islamist government in Egypt has been actively petitioning his release.  Many have pinpointed a cause of last week‘s unrest in in the country to be protests over the Blind Sheikh’s release — not an anti-Muslim YouTube video.

#epicfail: Obama Administration ignored Islamic radicalization "We knew what was happening, but the Americans preferred to find excuses"

Worst. president. ever.

Is it any wonder the Obama adminstration and the enemedia are on a jihad to shut Romney up? This faux outrage about the "timing" of Romney's correct American response to the Obama adminstration's apology for our first amendment was nothing more than a device and a distraction. Obama's foreign policy is blowing up, quite literally, and the response by the enemedia and the Democrats is to blow up Romney.

Protesters in Bangladesh burned American and Israeli flags and tried to march to the U.S. Embassy to protest a YouTube clip widely perceived as anti-Islam. Photo by AFP

"Israeli Foreign Ministry officials say U.S. ignored Arab radicalization" Haaretz, September 15, 2012

Foreign Ministry official on signs of 'radicalization' in Arab world: ‘We knew what was happening, but the Americans preferred to find excuses.’

For months before the most recent attacks on U.S. embassies in North African states, Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department officials had been arguing over developments in these countries. Senior figures in Jerusalem claimed that Washington was burying its head in the sand and ignoring the increasing radicalization in states such as Tunisia and Egypt.

The Obama administration, which since the beginning of the Arab Spring has aided, directly or indirectly, the forces that brought down the dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Lybia, now finds itself in a position of helplessness. The attack on the consulate in Benghazi, in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed, and the storming of the U.S. embassies in Tunis, Sanaa and Cairo, proved the great hostility to the United States and the unwillingness of these country's new leaders to challenge domestic public opinion.

Senior Foreign Ministry officials say their conversations with their Washington counterparts have focused on what Jerusalem terms "radicalizing trends" against not only Israel but also against the United States and the West in general.

VIDEO: Pamela Geller on FOX News discussing Obama, LIbya, Egypt and the violent Muslim Protests across the world

In case you missed my appearance on FOX earlier this morning....

Obama: "Egypt is not US ally, nor an enemy" but they were before O

Cairo Now: A riot policeman passes burning vehicles

Egypt was an ally, a good solid ally before Obama overtly and covertly worked to overthrow him with the Muslim Brotherhood. The enemedia never points this out. The enemedia never informs the American people how Obama worked from early on in his presidency to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

Why doesn't Obama ever have to explain his role in bringing this all about, and why doesn't media ever challenge him on it?

Obama: Egypt is not US ally, nor an enemy BBC

President Barack Obama has said the United States does not currently consider Egypt to be an ally.

He was speaking with reference to violent clashes at the US embassy in Cairo, over a US-made anti-Islamic film which has sparked anger among Muslims.

His comments also came after the storming of the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed the US ambassador on Tuesday.

President Obama referred to US-Egypt relations as a "work in progress".

"I don't think we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy. They are a new government that is trying to find its way," Mr Obama said in a television interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo.

He said that so far Egypt's government has "said the right thing and taken the right steps" but it has also responded to other events in ways that "may not be aligned with our interests".

Obama refuses to meet with Israel's Netanyahu on U.S. visit

As Obama continues to abandon freedom in his vicious pursuit of Muslim Brotherhood and sharia revolutions and regimes, he takes the extraordinary step of further isolating Israel - the only democracy in that Middle East. He has denied a request for a meeting from Israeli Ambassador Netanyahu at a time when US - Israeli relations could not be more strategically important to the free world.

"Obama won't see Israel's Netanyahu on U.S. visit: White House" Reuters, September 12, 2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House denied on Tuesday that President Barack Obama refused a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentayahu to meet in the United States this month but said no meeting would take place, citing conflicts in the leaders' schedules.

Amid U.S.-Israeli tensions over Iran's nuclear program, an Israeli official said earlier Netanyahu's aides had asked for a meeting when he visits the United Nations in late September but the White House had informed them Obama's schedule would not permit it. Obama is expected to address the U.N. General Assembly on September 25, while Netanyahu will speak in New York on September 28.

Obama’s Most Revered Islamic University Outlaws Judaism in Egypt

Obama's malignant pro-jihadist foreign policy continues to yield poisonous fruit.

President Obama made his infamous submission speech to the Muslim world at Al Azhar University back in June 2009. President Obama invited the then-banned Muslim Brotherhood to hear his speech.

Obama described Al-Azhar University this way: "For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement."

Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, is issuing these genocidal edicts and calling for homicide bombings.

Why doesn't Obama ever comment about these historical events? He will comment on the most mundane things, but on the monstrous persecution of minorities, not. a. word. FPM has this:

In 2009, Barack Obama spoke at Al-Azhar and declared, “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.  It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.”

In 2012, Dr. Abdul Hamid al-Atrash, the head of the Fatwa Committee of Al Azhar in Egypt, which issues rulings of Islamic law, declared that Jews could be banned from going to pray in a synagogue.

Al-Atrash says that as long as Muslims cannot travel to Jerusalem while it is in Jewish hands, then Muslims have the right to bar Jews from visiting their own holy places, under the Islamic concept of “reciprocity.” Therefore, he says, Egyptian authorities have the right to ban Jews from going to the Alexandria synagogue on Rosh Hashanah.

Always this sick, perverse Islamic "logic."

Muslims can visit Jerusalem. They choose not to because it’s full of Jews. And since they are too bigoted to visit Jerusalem, then Jews shouldn’t be able to pray in Egypt either.

For all intents and purposes this means that Judaism is on the verge of being outlawed in Egypt. It can still be practiced privately, but not communally, and Judaism is a communal religion.

At Al-Azhar, Obama said, “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.  We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition.  I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country.  That is the spirit we need today.  People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind and the heart and the soul.  This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it’s being challenged in many different ways.”

And we keep seeing that tolerance over and over again. At Al Azhar, Obama boasted of standing up for the right of Muslim women to wear the Hijab. Will be similarly stand up for the right of Jews to pray in a synagogue in Egypt?

Obama Refused Cardinal's Prayers at DNC but Lists Muslim Jumah Prayers as "official function"

"I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." Barack Hussein Obama, page 261, The Audacity of Hope

Last week I posted about the Jumah jihad at the DNC, an event led by an imam who urged the overthrow of the "filthy" U.S. government and who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade center bombings. Obama's DNC lists the assembly as an “official function." The group is hardly “mainstream,” being represented by Siraj Wahhaj, who will be the “Grand Imam” for the gathering.

Wahhaj and the co-leader of the Charlotte event, Jibril Hough, are both heavily involved in the separatist American Islamist movement. Many of the participants in the “Jumah at the DNC” will most likely represent radical networks that have long-time, but little-known, operations in the Charlotte region. (Read more: Storm headed for Charlotte thanks to 'Jumah at the DNC' | Washington Times Communities )

Looks like Obama is engaging in his own holy war. At a speech in 1995, Siraj Wahhaj informed the world that it was his “duty and our duty as Muslims to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Quran.”

But the Cardinal is not welcome.

"Cardinal sin: Bam blew off DNC blessing" NY Post, August 24, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Obama turned down a chance to have Timothy Cardinal Dolan deliver a prayer at the Democratic National Convention after Dolan told Democrats he would be “grateful” to deliver a blessing in Charlotte.

Dolan — considered the top Catholic official in the nation, as head of the Archdiocese of New York and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops — tipped off Democrats a few weeks ago that he had agreed to deliver the prime-time benediction at the Republican convention in Tampa next week, Dolan’s spokesman Joseph Zwilling told The Post.

“He wanted to make sure that they knew that this was not a partisan act on his part and that he would be just as happy and grateful to accept an invitation from the Democrats as he would to have received one from the Republicans,” said Zwilling.

“He has not been contacted by them” since, he added.

A senior Obama campaign official said yesterday that the Democrats would have a “high-ranking” Catholic at the convention, but indicated the arrangements weren’t yet final.

“I can’t announce it because the person hasn’t got their plane ticket,” said the official.

Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher would say only, “The Catholic clergy will be an important part of a diverse community of interfaith leaders represented in Charlotte.”

Obama and Dolan have clashed publicly over a health-care law requiring employers to provide abortion coverage.

Dolan and other groups filed suit against the rule, claiming it forces church-related groups to act against their conscience.

Still, Dolan invited both Obama and Mitt Romney to his annual Alfred E. Smith dinner in New York City in October.

“The Republicans are smart enough to get the ‘pope of America,’ and the Democrats are stupid enough not to invite him,” said Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League, who said he spoke with Dolan yesterday.

Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman: America Will Be Brought to Its Knees

Obama brought this about. Obama made this possible.

"Former Spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Kamal Helbawy: America Will Be Brought to Its Knees" MEMRI

Following are excerpts from an address by Kamal Helbawy, former spokesman of Muslim Brotherhood in the West. The address was delivered at a rally, organized by the right-wing secular Al-Wafd Party, calling for the release of Omar Abd Al-Rahman (the Blind Sheik), who is imprisoned in the US for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The address by Helbawy was posted on the Internet on July 26, 2012.

Kamal Helbawy: These criminals, with the administration, their system, and their institutions – the Pentagon, the White House, the CIA, Homeland Security, the FBI, and others...

They are all criminals, planning the killing of people, young and old, planning to kill the revolutions in their cradle. They deceive all parties. They have defended that criminal and plundering state of Israel.

We should not fear America or whoever is behind America. We fear none but Allah.

If we use the capabilities at our disposal properly, America will be brought to its knees, and will be defeated like the Soviets in Afghanistan.

This is no difficult task for Allah...

The Muslim Brotherhood in its own words

One more time for the blind, deaf and dumb. Obama is empowering and supporting this global movement.

The Muslim Brotherhood in its own words

PMW translation of

Jihad is the Way by Mustafa Mashhur,

leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt,

from 1996 - 2002

PMW, by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

A very important book for understanding Muslim Brotherhood ideology has been translated by Palestinian Media Watch. Jihad is the Way by Mustafa Mashhur explains the beliefs and aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood. Particularly significant today are how the Brotherhood sees violent Jihad and the necessity of patience and timing in bringing about a world under Islam.

PMW's op-ed "The Muslim Brotherhood's Patient Jihad" that appeared in yesterday's bulletin cited from Jihad is the Way.

To read the translation of the entire book, click here.

PMW has selected the following quotes from the book to illustrate the critical ideologies of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Muslim Brotherhood goal: Islamic world domination

- "...the Islamic Ummah [nation]... can regain its power, be liberated and

assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted

nation among men, as the teachers of humanity..."

- "...know your status, so that you firmly believe that you are the masters of

the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation..."

- "It should be known that Jihad and preparation for Jihad are not only for the

purpose of fending-off assaults and attacks against Muslims by Allah's

enemies, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of

establishing an Islamic state, strengthening the religion and spreading it

around the world..."

- "...Jihad for Allah is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries.The Muslim homeland is one and is not divided. The banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and it shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, the State of Islam will be established..."

 

Means: Jihad - a mandatory religious duty

- "Jihad is a religious public duty... incumbent upon the Islamic nation. Jihad is a personal duty to fend off the infidels' attack on the nation..."

- "The problems of the Islamic world, such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, or the Philippines, are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are problems of Islam and the Muslims, and they can be resolved neither by negotiation nor by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole. Rather, the only option is Jihad for Allah, and this is why Jihad is the way."  

- "The symbol of the [Muslim] Brotherhood is the book of Allah [the Quran]

between two swords. The swords symbolize Jihad and the force that protects

the truth represented in Allah's book."  

- "You should be prepared to answer the call of Jihad whenever you are

called, in any region of the Islamic world. Our Islam is universal not regional,

and all Islamic countries are one homeland. ...Go out to battle, oh believers,

young and old, by foot or on horseback, under all circumstances and

conditions..."

 

Timing: Don't rush, prepare carefully for Jihad

- "The [Muslim] Brotherhood will never rush after the youth's enthusiasm to

carry out immature and unplanned actions, which will not alter the corrupt

reality and may even harm Islamic activity, and will benefit the people of

falsehood..."

- "...it is not necessary for the Muslims to repel every attack or damage

caused by the enemies of Allah immediately, rather [this is required] when

ability and the circumstances allow for it."  

- "Prepare yourself and train in the art of warfare, and possess the

components of power. You must learn the ways, manners and laws of war.

You must learn them and embrace them and adhere to them, so that

your Jihad will be accepted by Allah."

- "... every Muslim has an unavoidable personal duty to equip himself and

prepare for Jihad..."

Personal goal: Aspire to Shahada - Death for Allah 

- "Allah is our goal, the Prophet is our leader, the Quran is our constitution,

Jihad is our way, and death for Allah is our most exalted wish."

- "Jihad is our way and Shahada (Martyrdom - Death for Allah) is our

most exalted wish. This is the call that we and the men of Da'awa (Islamic

missionary activity) have always called ... Many of our beloved ones have

already achieved this wish ... We ask Allah to accept all of them... May He join us with them..."

 Jihad against Israel

- "Honorable brothers achieved Shahada (Martyrdom) on the soil of beloved

Palestine, in 1947 and 1948, in their Jihad against the criminal, thieving gangs of Zion."
- "The problems of the Islamic world, such as Palestine... are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are problems of Islam and the Muslims, and they can be resolved neither by negotiation nor by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole."

To view the entire translation of Jihad is the Way in PDF,  click here.

 

Christians flee Islamic "rebels" in Syria

Obama is arming these devout Muslim "rebels."

Obama has completely abandoned the religious minorities that are being crushed in the "islamic spring." As the violence continues to escalate against Christian women and children in Egypt, part of Obama's anti-freedom foreign policy is to suppress the horror of what is happening under his watch. He has gone so far as to remove the Religious Freedom Section from the State Department's Human Rights reports ...

'We're Too Frightened to Talk' Christians Flee from Radical Rebels in Syria

By Ulrike Putz in Qa, Lebanon, Spiegel, July 25, 2012

Thousands of Syrians are fleeing into neighboring Lebanon -- not entirely due to fear of the Assad regime. The country's minority Christian population is suffering under attacks waged by rebel troops. In the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, Christian families are finding temporary refuge, but they are still terrified.

There had been many warnings that the Khouri* family wouldn't talk. "They won't say a word -- they're too scared," predicted the mayor of Qa, a small market town in northeastern Lebanon where the Khouris are staying. "They won't even open their door for journalists," said another person, who had contacted the family on behalf of a non-governmental organization.

Somehow, though, the interview was arranged in the end. Reserved and halting, the women described what happened to their husbands, brothers and nephews back in their hometown of Qusayr in Syria. They were killed by Syrian rebel fighters, the women said -- murdered because they were Christians, people who in the eyes of radical Islamist freedom fighters have no place in the new Syria.

In the past year and a half, since the beginning of the uprising against Syria's authoritarian President Bashar Assad, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled their homes and sought safe haven abroad. Inside the country, the United Nations estimates that 1 million people have left their homes to escape violence and are now internally displaced. The majority are likely to have fled to escape the brutality of Assad's troops. Indeed, as was the case at the start of the Syrian civil war, most of the violence is still being perpetrated by the army, the secret services and groups of thugs steered by the state.

With fighting ongoing, however, the rebels have also committed excesses. And some factions within the patchwork of disparate groups that together comprise the Free Syrian Army have radicalized at a very rapid clip in recent months. A few are even being influenced by foreign jihadists who have traveled to Syria to advise them. That, at least, is what witnesses on the ground are reporting in Qusayr, where fierce fighting has raged for months. Control of the town has passed back and forth between the two sides, at times falling into the hands of the regime and at others of the rebels. Currently, fighters with the Free Syrian Army have the upper hand, and they have also made the city of 40,000 residents a place where the country's Christian minority no longer feels safe.

Campaigns against Christians

"There were always Christians in Qusayr -- there were around 10,000 before the war," says Leila, the matriarch of the Khouri clan. Currently, 11 members of the clan are sharing two rooms. They include the grandmother, grandfather, three daughters, one husband and five children. "Despite the fact that many of our husbands had jobs in the civil service, we still got along well with the rebels during the first months of the insurgency." The rebels left the Christians alone. The Christians, meanwhile, were keen to preserve their neutrality in the escalating power struggle. But the situation began deteriorating last summer, Leila says, murmuring a bit more before going silent.

"We're too frightened to talk," her daughter Rim explained, before mustering the courage to continue. "Last summer Salafists came to Qusayr, foreigners. They stirred the local rebels against us," she says. Soon, an outright campaign against the Christians in Qusayr took shape. "They sermonized on Fridays in the mosques that it was a sacred duty to drive us away," she says. "We were constantly accused of working for the regime. And Christians had to pay bribes to the jihadists repeatedly in order to avoid getting killed."

Grandmother Leila made the sign of the cross. "Anyone who believes in this cross suffers," she says.

Foreign Jihadists in Combat in Qusayr

It is not possible to independently corroborate the Khouri's version of events, but the basic information seems consistent with what is already known. On April 20, Abdel Ghani Jawhar involuntarily provided proof that foreign jihadists are engaged in combat in Qusayr. Jawhar, a Lebanese national and commander with the terrorist group Fatah al Islam, died that day in the Syrian city. An explosives expert, Jawhar had been in Qusayr to teach rebels how to build bombs and accidentally blew himself up while trying to assemble one. Until his death, Jawhar had been the most wanted man in Lebanon, where he is implicated in the deaths of 200 people. Lebanese authorities confirmed his death in Syria. The fact that the rebels had worked together with a man like Jawhar fomented fears after his death that the ranks of insurgents are increasingly becoming infiltrated by international terrorists.

The Khouris' decision to flee Syria last year is partly attributable to the almost daily threats that they, as well as other Christians in town, began receiving. And yet it was also a product of the fact that fighting in the city had simply become unbearable. "The bombs were falling right in the middle of our neighborhood. We can't say who was firing them -- the rebels or the army," a family member says. During a break in the firing on one bitterly cold winter day, the family finally left. "We arranged a car and drove to Lebanon. It's only a 45-minute trip."

Rim's husband also fled with them. His fate was sealed when he drove back to Qusayr on Feb. 9. He had owned a mini-market in his hometown and he wanted to go back and get food to take back to his family in exile. His family only knows what happened to him because of the stories relatives and friends who remained in Qusayr have shared. "He was stopped at a rebel checkpoint near the state-run bakery," says Rim. "The rebels knew he was a Christian. They took him and then threw his dead body in front of the door of his parent's house four or five hours later."

Grandmother Leila makes the sign of the cross again. It wasn't only her son-in-law who got killed. Her brother and two nephews were also killed. "They shot one of my nephews, a pharmacist, in his apartment because he supported the regime," she says.

Fear of Syrian Compatriots

Thirty-two Christian families have found shelter and asylum in Qa, which is located only 12 kilometers away from the Syrian border. Although the city is also Christian and looks out for those who have fled the rebels for this reason, the Khouris and their fellow victims nevertheless live in a state of constant fear. For one, they can hear the muffled hum of artillery being fired in nearby Syria. The sound travels well beyond the border and serves as a constant reminder of what is happening in their country. On the day of the interview, a column of smoke could be seen rising above the next mountain range. A day earlier, a shell hit a gas station on the Syrian side of the border and it had been smouldering ever since. Four weeks ago, the Khouris learned that their home in Qusayr had been completely destroyed after being struck by a rocket.

But the family's greatest fear is that of their own Syrian compatriots. As a border town, Qa is a magnet for two types of refugees, says Mansour Saad. "On the one hand, you have the Christians who are fleeing from the rebels," he says. "And then you have the refugee families of men who are fighting within the ranks of the FSA." The two enemy groups sometimes clash in Lebanese exile. "There is a lot of tension between them," says Saad. "We do our best to keep the two groups apart."

Like many Lebanese and Syrian Christians, Saad is also a supporter of the Assad regime. As a religious minority in the Middle East, Christians don't have much choice other than to align themselves with a strong leader who can protect them, Saad says. "The rebels haven't managed to convince me they are fighting for more democracy," the mayor says.

And while there may be a number of open questions about the Assad regime, like the fact that "there is certainly no freedom of expression in Syria," he says the rebels aren't one bit better. There may have been respectable aims at the start of the uprising, but the insurgency has since been hijacked by Islamists, the mayor argues. "And we know the types of Muslims who have emerged at the head of the rebellion: The ones who would like to lead the people back into the Stone Age."

* The names in this story have been changed in order to protect the identity of the interview subjects.

Muslim Brotherhood meets with leaders of terrorist Hamas

Our elected leaders are clueless or complicit, but the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into the senior ranks of DoD, DoS and the White House is undeniable. While they bury their heads in the sand, the Muslim Brotherhood is seizing control in one country after another ....... Spencer has a good piece on that today at PJM here.

Muslim Brotherhood meets with leaders of terrorist Hamas, strengthen ties Posted on July 22, 2012 by Creeping Sharia, July 2

McCain, Boehner, Rubio,  coached by Ellison and sworn to by Napolitano will be denying this shortly and framing anyone who mentions it as dangerous. via Gaza PM praises Hamas leader’s meeting with Morsy | Egypt Independent.

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh praised Egypt’s role in serving the Palestinian cause and said that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy’s meeting with Hamas leaders on Thursday was “a fruit of the Egyptian revolution.”

Morsy met with a Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’ political bureau, in the presidential palace on Thursday. Hamas described the meeting as “historic,” adding that it was a warm meeting.

Haniyeh said in a Friday sermon that the Arab revolutions would liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation, stressing that Israel has no future on Palestinian lands.

He added that a high level of Islamic awareness in the region was behind the revolutions, which would achieve the desires of the people.

Haniyeh announced on Thursday that he would meet with Morsy next week.

Morsy and Meshaal on Thursday discussed Egypt’s efforts to support the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian reconciliation process and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, as well as ways of supporting the people of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also in Cairo on a separate trip and met with Morsy Wednesday, amid reports that members of Hamas and Fatah would soon conduct their own meeting.

More, Morsi-Meshaal Meeting Elevates Hamas in Egypt-Palestine Relations:

“If you are Abbas, you are very concerned about the strengthening and emboldening of Hamas,” said David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He emphasized that the meeting between Morsi and Meshaal marked the first meeting between Hamas, the militant offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and an Egyptian head of state.

Symbolically, he said, it raises Meshaal to the level of president.

Though Meshaal is the political leader of Hamas, he leads from exile in Doha, Qatar, while Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh heads the Hamas administration in Gaza. Haniyeh is expected to meet with Morsi next week.

Schenker said one of the roles Morsi had prior to the fall of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was to serve as liaison between the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Palestinian branch of Hamas. “For the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood there is no institutional prejudice whatsoever against Hamas,” he said. “The atmospherics within these meetings must be shocking to members of Fatah, and not welcome.”

Both Schenker and Gerald M. Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, said it was widely believed that a Morsi presidency would mean a dramatic change in Egyptian-Palestinian relations, particularly given the close relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Schenker said it remains unlikely that Morsi would put extreme pressure on Hamas to make concessions to Fatah.

“These guys are in the same club, and they share a similar worldview vis-à-vis Israel and to a lesser extent vis-à-vis the U.S.,” Schenker said.

Taking bets on when Obama removes Hamas from the list of known terrorist groups: 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of his 2nd term? Or sooner?

Obama's Anti-Freedom Strategy: State Department squashes truth about Religious Oppression

America, what have you wrought? We have unleashed a force so evil, the toll will be unimaginable and voiceless.

Obama removes Religious Freedom Section from Its Human Rights reports ...

"State Department To Downplay Religious Oppression" Investors Daily

Rights: The U.S. government no longer includes religious freedom in its annual Human Rights Report. We won't embarrass anyone by pointing to burnt out churches abroad while suppressing religious liberty at home.

The declared reason for dropping the coverage is to avoid duplicating another document, the annual Report on International Religious Freedom. We suspect the reason is that an administration that's been apologetic about our leadership role in world affairs no longer wants to offend those nations who tolerate or even foster assaults on religious liberty, even as the administration suppresses it at home.

The Pew Research Center has produced two studies showing that 70% of the world's population lives in countries where religious freedom is severely restricted, either by governments or by hostile groups allowed to run amok by indifferent or hostile leaders.

Religious liberty was considered so important by our Founders that it was written into the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in a country populated by those fleeing the religious oppression of governments.

We considered religious liberty a bedrock of freedom and democracy and, as stated in our Declaration of Independence, we believed we were endowed with Unalienable rights by our Creator, not by men or governments.

The U.S. in recent years has grown increasingly indifferent to the lack of religious tolerance around the world as it has taken an increasingly violent turn.

Christians in places like Nigeria and Iraq, along with Coptic Christians in Egypt, have been subject to ruthless persecution by those for whom religious tolerance and freedom are a threat.

As 2011 began with a New Year's attack on an Egyptian Coptic Christian church that killed 21 worshippers, it ended with attacks on two Nigerian churches that killed 35 and injured at least 57.

While such attacks are officially condemned, they are part of a campaign of violence and suicide bombings for which 34% of Nigerian respondents in a Pew Global Attitudes Project poll expressed support.

Such violent attacks on Christian churches in Nigeria mirror the Oct. 31 attack on Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad in which 68 people were murdered.