Editor and Researcher Elisa Vandernoot

American Freedom Alliance Weekly Gazette

THE WEEK AT A GLANCE

This Week's Editorial

The Humanitarians Who Turn Victims Into Victimizers
By Avi Davis

The brave sailors and passengers aboard the boat brace for what is about to happen.Off to starboard they can see a series of skiffs racing towards them, as a naval gunship, announces emphatically by megaphones in English and Hebrew, that they must  stand down or else be boarded.   But the passengers of this particular craft have sailed too far and endured too much tragedy to be denied.   Within sight of their beloved coastline, these determined passengers are willing to risk capture and even death to reach it.    So when the first soldier places his boot on deck, all hell breaks loose.  In the melee shots are fired and bodies slump.  When the smoke clears, several passengers are dead and the cries of the wounded are heard everywhere.

Think you’ve seen this movie before?  No wonder.  It could have been a scene from any  combination of ships which attempted to run the British blockade of Palestine  from 1939 to 1947.  At that time fleeing Jewish refugees, denied entry to any other world port, sought sanctuary in Palestine where they suspected they would find safe harbor.

Recreating history to become the “21st Century’s Jews” the Palestinians have reversed engineered Jewish victimhood,  in the process becoming the very model of a brutally repressed and forgotten people.  From the self-designation of a national liberation movement (the mantle the PLO adopted in the 1960s) to the assertions of  dispossession to the claims of being the subjects of a  ” Holocaust ” and “genocide,” the Palestinians regularly invoke the images of the Jewish people’s own past, convincing the world that the Jews learned nothing from the centuries of vilification and hatred leveled against them and have become the mirror image of their own oppressors.

So it should come as no surprise that Palestinians and their humanitarian supporters have once again captured the limelight by drawing another historical parallel between themselves and the Jewish people.  The flotilla which sought to subvert the Israeli “blockade” of Gaza ( although no such thing truly exists)  was a carefully constructed pantomime, played out for the benefit of the world press under cover of a humanitarian mission.   In the furor that has met the deaths of the eleven passengers aboard the Turkish registered Marmara, the facts are completely neglected.  Overlooked is the reality that there is no shortage of food or medical supplies in Gaza; that those aboard the Marmara had no intention of staging a peaceful protest but had come armed with clubs and knives and were resolutely determined to take Israeli lives;  that Hamas terror and the incessant bombing of Israeli border towns has given Israel very good reason to interdict the passage of unchecked humanitarian aid , in the interests of preventing future weapons supply of Hamas terrorists.

None of it matters because the far better story -  and the ones the Palestinians and their supporters so earnestly cultivate, is that Jews have transformed into Nazis and their means are both nefarious and oppressive.  The alacrity with which not only the foreign press but supposedly friendly world governments have jumped to condemn the Israeli assault, even when the video footage clearly reveals the Israeli soldiers to have fired in self defense and only as a last resort, is evidence of the increasing willingness of the world to buy a Palestinian narrative of eternal victimhood which is twisted beyond all realities.

Maybe it would be a good idea to look into the provenance of these humanitarians.  The so called Freedom Flotilla maintains extensive terrorist ties.  For instance,  itss primary sponsor, the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH)has been  identified by the CIA as connected to al Qaeda and the millennium plot of 1999.

Also unknown to most people is that the humanitarian aid to Gaza could have been delivered by truck, as the Israelis had offered.  However  flotilla spokeswoman, Greta Berlin made it clear in a Agence- France interview in May that the ” mission, is not about delivering humanitarian supplies.  Its about breaking Israel’s siege. “

Can’t get  much clearer than that.

The danger  of such willing gullibility and open hostility to a democratic government seeking to enforce measures to aid its own self defense are obvious.  The Israeli experience leaves all democracies open to similar forms of harassment as the press is cajoled and fooled into presenting images of the weak against the strong and the bona fides of any humanitarian effort, regardless of the ideologies and intentions of those who carry out the mission.

Thus the United States is increasing taken to task for its failures to uphold the human rights of  incarcerated terrorists, no matter their intentions; and the United Kingdom finds itself purloined by the attempts to stem the tide of  an unwanted and culturally devastating immigration, which continues under the guise of humanitarian openness and pluralism.

Meanwhile truly evil regimes  such as North Korea can torpedo a South Korean ship with the loss of 46 lives without a whimper from the West; a Sudanese dictator can carry on the world’s most devastating genocidal campaign and barely anyone reports it; 45,000 people a month can be murdered in the Congo without it registering on any one’s radar and Iran can continue to develop unimpeded the world’s most deadly and destabilizing weapons system.

It is, as British journalist Melanie Phillips has so powerfully written in her new book, a world truly turned upside down.  But it is only made possible by the West’s willingness to accept a spurious narrative which is divorced from reality.  The West’s  romance with humanitarians who turn victims into victimizers must therefore end beforethe veneration of “heroes”,  such as those aboard the Marmara, eventually castigate us all as Nazis and fascists.

 

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. His writings and blog entries can be found at The Intermediate Zone and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal Blog  On The Other Hand.

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View the best of The Intermediate Zone from last week:

IS ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNISM? Friday, May 14, 2010
GREETINGS FROM THE LAND OF SMILES Thursday, May 13, 2010
THE UNLIKELY U.K. MARRIAGE OF CONSERVATIVES AND LIBERAL DEMOCRATS Tues. May 11, 2010
CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE ON CALIFORNIA CAMPUSES Monday, May 10, 2010
CHURCHILL AND THE PIVOT OF HISTORY Sunday, May 9, 2010
MICHAEL LERNER’S NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS Friday, May 7, 2010
THE BRITISH ELECTIONS IN RED, BLUE, GREEN AND YELLOW Thurs. May 6, 2010
CINCO DE MAYO AS SYMBOL OF HISPANIC SEPARATISM Weds. May 5, 2010
NO BLANKS : KENT STATE 40 YEARS LATER Tuesday, May 4, 2010
J STREET ARRIVES ON MAIN STREET Monday, May 3, 2010

Avi Davis can be contacted at adavis@americanfreedomalliance.org

NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA

New York Community Board OKs Mosque Near Ground Zero-AP
NEW YORK—After hours of contentious public comment, a New York City community board voted late Tuesday to support a plan to build a mosque and cultural center near Ground Zero. "It's a seed of peace," board member Rob Townley said. "We believe that this is significant step in the Muslim community to counteract the hate and fanaticism in the minority of the community." The vote was 29-to-1 in favor of the plan, with 10 abstentions. The move by the Manhattan Community Board 1, while not necessary for the building's owners to move forward with the project, is seen as key to obtaining residents' support. The organizations sponsoring the project say they're trying to meet a growing need for prayer space in lower Manhattan, as well as provide a venue for the dissemination of mainstream Islam, to counter extremism. "The moderate Muslim voice has been squashed in America," said Bruce Wallace, who said he lost a nephew in the Sept. 11 attacks. "Here is a chance to allow moderate Muslims to teach people that not all Muslims are terrorists." Others at the meeting had a different view. "We think it's an insult," said Pamela Gellar, executive director of Stop Islamization of America. "It's demeaning to non-Muslims to build a shrine dedicated to the very ideology that inspired 9/11." The plan, which would include areas for interfaith activities and conferences and an arts center, has attracted political and social opposition. (WSJ)

Feds Issue Terror Watch for the Texas/Mexico Border-Jana Winter
The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com. The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com. The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami. In 2008, the U.S. government designated Al Shabaab a terrorist organization. Al Shabaab has said its priority is to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on Somalia; the group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States. (Foxnews)

Man Admits Attempting to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction to Bomb Skyscraper in Downtown Dallas-DOJ
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to a felony offense related to his attempted bombing of a downtown Dallas skyscraper in September 2009, announced David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Division. Smadi, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Under the terms of the plea agreement, however, Smadi faces a sentence of 30 years in prison, if the court accepts the plea. Judge Lynn has set a sentencing date of Aug. 20, 2010. "Today’s guilty plea underscores the continuing threat we face from lone actors who, although not members of any international terrorist organization, are willing to carry out acts of violence in this country to further the terrorist cause. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors responsible for this successful investigation and prosecution," said Assistant Attorney General Kris. "I commend the FBI, the lawyers and support staff in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Counterterrorism section at the Department of Justice for their excellent work in bringing this case closer to a successful conclusion," said U.S. Attorney Jacks. (DOJ)

Counterterror Adviser Defends Jihad as 'Legitimate Tenet of Islam'-Fox News
The president's top counterterrorism adviser on Wednesday 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." He repeated the administration argument that the enemy is not "terrorism," because terrorism is a "tactic," and not terror, because terror is a "state of mind" -- though Brennan's title, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, includes the word "terrorism" in it. But then Brennan said that the word "jihad" should not be applied either. "Nor do we describe our enemy as 'jihadists' or 'Islamists' because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children," Brennan said. The technical, broadest definition of jihad is a "struggle" in the name of Islam and the term does not connote "holy war" for all Muslims. However, jihad frequently connotes images of military combat or warfare, and some of the world's most wanted terrorists including Usama bin Laden commonly use the word to call for war against the West. (Foxnews)

Terror attack rocks Southern Russia
An unidentified explosive device has detonated in the city of Stavropol in the south of Russia, killing six and injuring about 40 more people. The blast rocked the center of the city, not far from the Culture and Sport Palace, where a concert was due to take place. Police say the bomb was attached to the wall of a cafe, which was closed at the time. There are conflicting reports as to whether one or two explosive devices went off.
“At 18:45 Moscow time (14:45 GMT) a bomb exploded on Lenin Street, near the city's community center,” said Interior Ministry deputy spokesperson Pavel Klimovsky. “Investigators and the emergency services are working at the scene. A number of people have been killed and injured. They have been taken to hospital. At the moment everything is being done to establish what kind of explosive was used and its exact position. It's believed to have been placed in a kiosk between a café and the city community center. Experts are collecting evidence for a criminal case.”
Rescuers, police and federal security service officers are on the site. A criminal investigation has been launched on charges of terrorism, murder and illegal circulation of explosives. Stavropol lies close to the volatile Caucasus region, but has rarely been the target of terror strikes in recent years. Nikolay Petrov from the Carnegie Moscow Center said that what is going on now is not only an escalation of terrorist attacks in the region, but an expansion of the region where previous attacks have taken place. (RT)

Showing your face in public? The ayes have it-Mark Davis
MOST voters favour a ban on Muslim women wearing the burqa in public, according to an opinion survey by the polling group UMR Research. The national survey of 1000 people of voting age earlier this month found that 59 per cent supported a ban on the full face and body veil in public places. However, 33 per cent of UMR's respondents said they opposed a ban and the remaining 8 per cent were unsure. UMR is the pollster for the federal Labor Party, although the survey on the burqa was carried out as part of its wider opinion research program rather than being commissioned by the ALP. The pollster's managing director, John Utting, said the survey found strong support for banning the full face and body veil, especially among men and older people. UMR's results showed that 63 per cent of men surveyed would support a ban compared with 55 per cent of women. Support rose with age. Among those aged under 30, 49 per cent supported a ban. This rose to 54 per cent for 30- to 49-year-olds; 65 per cent for those aged between 50 and 69; and 72 per cent for people over 70. The online poll was carried out between May 12 and 17 after media coverage of a Sydney armed robbery where a burqa was used as a disguise, and calls by a federal backbencher to ban the garment. (SMH)

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Reviving Jewish Race Science at Columbia U Conference-Brendan Goldman
The population of Jews in the US is three percent ... but [their 'genius'] leads to their controlling so much power that even presidents are scared [of them]. Whether [President Barack] Obama will be able to escape the notion that three percent of the country is so powerful that the top gentile in the land cannot criticize Israel is not clear. The above statement was made not by a Hamas or KKK leader, but by Ali al-Amin Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at SUNY Binghamton. He was addressing the Ifriqiyya Colloquium Conference, held on the top floor of Columbia University's International Affairs Building, on Thursday, May 6. Mazrui is a darling of the far left, appearing prominently in venues such asDemocracy Now, as well as at Islamist forums like the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Columbia Professor Mahmood Mamdani and Barnard College Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj also sat on the panel, the former serving as moderator. Mamdani introduced the speaker, telling the audience that the Ifriqiyya Colloquium was about "gain[ing] some depth to the study of Africa." It may require a Ph.D. to appreciate how Mazrui's anti-Semitic diatribe relates to that mission statement. Mazrui's lecture was entitled "Euro-Jews and Afro-Arabs: The Semitic Divergence in History," but he spent most of his time discussing the development of Jewish "genius" and "cultural impurity" in a European context. Ostensibly, Mazrui was comparing the impact of Jews on Europe to the impact of Arabs on Africa. However, he was more interested in why "Arabs lagged behind Jews in manifest genius." After admitting he knew little about Arab history and even less about Jews, Mazrui proceeded to spend his allotted time talking about the history of both peoples. (Americanthinker)

The Hicks File: Radical Arizona Educators Now in the Crosshairs-Joe Hicks
The nation’s ultra-liberals and leftists have made Arizona the focus of their anger. Why? Let’s examine this. Beyond advocating an ever-expanding nanny state, working to undermine the nation’s military, defending racial preferences, and maintaining Big Labor as the Democrats’ political machine, only two other issues are seen by leftists as issues worth waging nationwide battles over. Immigration and indoctrination (through identity-based high school and college classes) are these two other causes. Arizona has just thrown down the gauntlet against these two pet causes of the left. Arizona’s political leaders “called out” the left when SB 1070 [1] was signed into law. Twenty days later they signed into law a bill [2]outlawing race-specific ethnic studies classes. As I’ve said, Arizona’s on a roll! Bringing to life a tough anti-illegal immigration law was considered an “in-your-face” act by the nation’s open-border advocates. They immediately began screaming for a national boycott, claiming the law was “racist.” Knee-jerk leftists everywhere genuflected. In Highland Park, Illinois, the local high school is preventing its girls’ basketball team from traveling to Arizona to play in a basketball tournament. The assistant superintendent said the trip “would not be aligned” with the schools “core beliefs and values.” (Pajamasmedia)

MEDIA BIAS

Who In the MSM Will Stand Up For Michael Yon?-Ron Futrell
The best war journalist of our time has been kicked out of Afghanistan and the media could not care less. Let the administration boot Helen Thomas out of her seat in the front of a White House press conference and there would be outrage. Remove Jonathan Karl from the Capitol and media would revolt. Kick Andrea Kremer off Sunday Night Football and there would be pandemonium. And yet nobody in the media seems to have much of a problem with Michael Yon being removed from the front lines by Obama/General McChrystal. Yon has openly stated the problems in Afghanistan right now and how we could lose this war, unless changes are made. He has been critical of the current rules of engagement that have put our troops in danger and could actually make this war like the Vietnam that the leftist media claimed it was early and often when Bush was president (it’s strange you don’t hear those comparisons from them anymore). Yon’s reward? He’s lost his embed status, banished to Bangkok. Yon could return but his access might be limited and you can’t just pop in and out of that theater like it’s the neighborhood movie palace. Mess with Yon enough and his resources wear thin, but his patience will not. You will not stop this soldier. He is the ultimate warrior for those who fight and die for this country. His reports are honest, chilling, gripping and are as reflective of the battles they represent as anything I have ever read. But this administration is making it as difficult for him to do his job. You can’t believe this is by accident. The most critical battle in Afghanistan is about to take place, the battle for Kandahar, and the voice of the American soldier is not allowed in. (Bigjournalism)

Fancy restaurants and Olympic-size pools: What the media won’t report about Gaza-Tom Gross
In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mideast, has been full of stories about “activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials.” The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.) Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent “mass humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. What they won’t tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip’s crowded shops and markets. Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn’t fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write. Here, courtesy of the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, is a report on Gaza’s new Olympic-sized swimming pool . (Most Israeli towns don’t have Olympic-size swimming pools. One wonders how an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid builds an Olympic size swimming pool and creates a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?) (Nationalpost)

Why Is the Washington Post Afraid to Use the Words “Muslim” And “Honor Killing” In The Same Article?-Phyllis Chesler
In the last seven years, the print version of the Washington Post has covered honor killings sparingly, tangentially, briefly, and only in passing. Clearly, the mainstream media believes that some news is not fit to print. For example, in 2004, in a Washington Post article [1] which argued that the United States should grant political asylum to women fleeing violence, the authors note: “Persecution is a high standard to reach, involving extreme and offensive conduct, such as honor killings, sexual slavery and rape.” Fine with me — but there is no discussion of what an honor killing is or who commits one. Two years later, in 2006, the Post ran a small item [2] under “World in Brief” which reads as follows: “A 14-year-old Pakistani girl died of an infected wound a month after being shot four times in an attempted ‘honor killing’ in Karachi, police said. Nur Jehan was shot in the stomach, leg, knee and arm and left for dead by her relatives, who accused her of having sex with a young man.” In the summer of 2007, the Post ran a three-paragraph piece [3] about the high-profile honor murder of a young Iraqi Kurdish woman in England. Later that same year, in the fall, the Post ran a full-length AP story about how Kurds in Iraq are attempting to stop the practice of honor killing their daughters. The piece is based on the story of one unmarried woman who was refused an abortion by every doctor she consulted, tried to kill herself, then chose to keep her pregnancy a secret and moved to a hidden location — all to avoid being honor-murdered and to avoid “shaming” her family so that her unmarried sisters would still be able to find husbands. (Pajamasmedia)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Reform of our libel law is long overdue-Simon Singh
We need bolder defences for those writing about matters in the public interest, says Simon Singh.
This could be an extraordinary week for free speech in England. Long-overdue reform of libel law is on the cards at last. Lord Lester, the Liberal Democrat peer, is championing a private member's Defamation Bill and in today's Queen's Speech the Government might even produce its own measure, since it is included in the coalition agreement. Lord Lester's Bill, due to be published tomorrow, is likely to be wide-ranging and will address many of the issues that concern journalists, authors, scientists and doctors. It will deal with the technological issues arising from the internet, such as the fact that each new download of an article refreshes the defamation, leaving the author open to a new libel writ. As the law stands, it is potentially risky to allow web access to archives that might contain something controversial. This problem exists because of an absurd ruling in a 19th-century libel case. In 1848, the Duke of Brunswick sent his manservant from Paris to London to collect a copy of the Weekly Dispatch from its publisher. Although the article in question had been published 17 years earlier, this constituted a fresh publication and enabled the duke to sue for libel. More generally, Lord Lester's Bill should provide clearer and bolder defences for those writing about matters of public interest. For example, Dr Peter Wilmshurst, a consultant cardiologist, is currently being sued in London by an American company for an interview he gave in America, at an American conference, for an American online magazine, to a Canadian journalist. (Telegraph.co.uk)

'Leaving Islam?' NYC Bus Ads Targeting Disenfranchised Muslims-AP
NEW YORK -- The questions on the ads aren't subtle: Leaving Islam? Fatwa on your head? Is your family threatening you? A conservative activist and the organizations she leads have paid several thousand dollars for the ads to run on at least 30 city buses for a month. The ads point to a website called RefugefromIslam.com, which offers information to those wishing to leave Islam, but some Muslims are calling the ads a smoke screen for an anti-Muslim agenda. Pamela Geller, who leads an organization called Stop Islamization of America, said the ads were meant to help provide resources for Muslims who are fearful of leaving the faith. "It's not offensive to Muslims, it's religious freedom," she said. "It's not targeted at practicing Muslims. It doesn't say 'leave,' it says 'leaving' with a question mark." Geller said the ad buy cost about $8,000, contributed by the readers of her blog, Atlas Shrugs, and other websites. Similar ads have run on buses in Miami, and she said ad buys were planned for other cities. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Geller's ad was reviewed and did not violate the agency's guidelines. (Foxnews)

ANTISEMITISM

'Peace convoy'? This was an Islamist terror ambush-Melanie Phillips
As the international community rushes to condemn Israel for the violence on board one of the ships in the Gaza flotilla, which left a reported 10 people dead and dozens injured, it is now obvious that the real purpose of this ‘armada of hate’ was not merely the further delegitimisation of Israel but something far worse. Gaza’s markets are full of produce, thousands of tons of supplies are travelling into Gaza every week through the Israeli-controlled border crossings, and there is no starvation or humanitarian crisis. It was always obvious that the flotilla was not the humanitarian exercise it was said to be. Here is footage of the IDF offering to dock the Marmara -- the main flotilla ship -- at Ashdod and transfer its supplies and being told ‘Negative, negative, our destination is Gaza’. And now we can see that the real purpose of this invasion -- backed by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a radical Islamic organization outlawed by Israel in 2008 for allegedly serving as a major component in Hamas’s global fund-raising machine -- was to incite a violent uprising in the Middle East and across the Islamic world. As I write, reports are coming in of Arab rioting in Jerusalem. (Spectator.co.uk)

Amnesty repeats war crimes claims-Jonny Paul
References to Israel in annual report focus on Cast Lead.
Israel was sharply rebuked and accused of war crimes and serious breaches of international law in Amnesty International’s annual report, published on Wednesday. The 430-page report provides an overview of the state of human rights worldwide and lists each country’s alleged human rights abuses during the previous year. The chapter dedicated to Israel focused on Israel’s human rights violations during and in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, as well as its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank. “Israeli forces committed war crimes and other serious breaches of international law in the Gaza Strip during a 22-day military offensive code-named Operation ‘Cast Lead’ that ended on 18 January. “Among other things, they carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians, targeted and killed medical staff, used Palestinian civilians as ‘human shields’ and indiscriminately fired white phosphorus over densely populated residential areas,” stated the report. The report also blamed Israel for creating an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza by enforcing what Amnesty describes as an “illegal blockade.” “The restrictions included a military blockade of the Gaza Strip, which effectively imprisoned the 1.5 million residents and resulted in a humanitarian crisis. (Jpost)

IDF Photos of Knives Contradict Turkish Claims of ’No Weapons’-Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IDF photos of two dozen knives, including a machete, plus clubs, chains and metal rods used against Israeli Navy commandoes in the flotilla clash Monday contradict Turkish claims that the passengers did not carry weapons on board. “Customs officials at the Port of Antalya have denied Israeli claims that weapons were detected on a ship taking humanitarian aid to Gaza that took off from Antalya on Sunday,” the Turkish news site Today’s Zaman reported. It quoted a customs official as stating, “Forty-two passengers boarded in Istanbul and 504 passengers got on the ship here. They were screened. We spotted no weapons and there is no such record in our logs. We did not notice anything suspicious about the Mavi Marmara. Had our officers had any suspicions, they would have reported it.” The IDF confiscated and photographed the weapons, which were used to brutally attack Navy commandoes as they descended one of the ships via ropes from hovering helicopters. Greta Berlin, spokeswoman for the Free Gaza movement, claimed to Israel National News that the IDF edited the video showing the commandoes landing on board. Concerning the weapons, she told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, "I will venture to say that Israel is lying about this because the weapons that I saw coming on board this morning belonged to Israel. If there were weapons, they planted those weapons." (INN)

Diaspora critics rallying to challenge Israel-Simon Rocker, Nathan Guttman and Marcus Dysch
Signs of growing diaspora discontent with Israeli policy have emerged with the launch of a petition by American Jewish figures calling for a settlement freeze and a compromise over Jerusalem's sovereignty. For the Sake of Zion was inspired by a European initiative, JCall, headed by French Peace Now earlier this month. The campaign has exposed sharp divisions in Britain in attitudes to Israel. Paul Usiskin, chairman of British Peace Now, said there was "increasing anxiety" over the direction of the Israeli government. "Voices of criticism in Europe have been dismissed by Israel for too long. But those voices in America will resonate with the diaspora." But Samuel Hayek, chairman of JNF UK, said: "The Israelis are not stupid natives waiting for their brothers and sisters across the ocean to tell them how to compromise their security." The US petition, which has collected 800 signatures, says: "As our European counterparts correctly point out, 'the occupation and the continuing pursuit of settlements in the West Bank and in the Arab districts of Jerusalem … are morally and politically wrong and feed the de-legitimisation process that Israel currently faces abroad.'" It was the right of American Jews to "call attention to decisions the government of Israel takes which, in our view, endanger the state we hold so dear". The petition's organising committee includes such figures as the leading Jewish sociologist Professor Steven Cohen; political theorist Professor Michael Walzer; Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the educational organisation Clal; and musician Theodore Bikel. (Thejc)

Australia expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai assassination-Bonnie Malkin in Sydney and Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
Australia followed Britain's lead by expelling an Israeli diplomat after investigations concluded four Australian passports used in the assassination of a Hamas commander were almost certainly forged by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
The move increases the international pressure on the Jewish state to acknowledge its role in the killing in Dubai last January. Stephen Smith, the Australian foreign minister, said he had given the diplomat a week to leave the country. The diplomat was not named, although reports suggest he was the Mossad representative at Israel's embassy in Canberra. Australia's response has dashed hopes in Israel that Britain's ejection of one its diplomats from London in March marked the final word in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. With Germany, France and Ireland, the three other countries unwittingly caught up in the saga, yet to make a formal response there will be concern in Israel that the fallout from the scandal could spread still further. According to Dubai police, at least 32 individuals carrying forged passports were involved in the killing of Mr Mabhouh, who was smothered in his hotel room on January 19. The investigation concluded that 12 or more of the assassins passed themselves off as British. France and Germany are understood to have been reluctant to expel diplomats but could now reconsider their positions in the wake of the Australian decision. Ireland is also considering similar action, a diplomatic source said. For Israel, such coordinated action would turn a bilateral dispute with Britain into an unprecedented foreign policy crisis with countries considered to be close allies of the Jewish state. (Telegraph.co.uk)

TERRORISM, security and policy

One of Those Moments-Mark Steyn
The president has become the latest Western liberal to try to hammer Daniel Pearl’s box into a round hole.
Barack Obama’s remarkable powers of oratory are well known: In support of Chicago’s Olympic bid, he flew into Copenhagen to give a heartwarming speech about himself, and they gave the games to Rio. He flew into Boston to support Martha Coakley’s bid for the U.S. Senate, and Massachusetts voters gave Ted Kennedy’s seat to a Republican. In the first year of his presidency, he gave a gazillion speeches on health-care “reform” and drove support for his proposals to basement level, leaving Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to ram it down the throats of the American people through sheer parliamentary muscle. Like a lot of guys who’ve been told they’re brilliant one time too often, President Obama gets a little lazy, and doesn’t always choose his words with care. And so it was that he came to say a few words about Daniel Pearl, upon signing the “Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act.” Pearl was decapitated on video by jihadist Muslims in Karachi on Feb. 1, 2002. That’s how I’d put it. This is what the president of the United States said: “Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.” Now Obama’s off the prompter, when his silver-tongued rhetoric invariably turns to sludge. But he’s talking about a dead man here, a guy murdered in public for all the world to see. Furthermore, the deceased’s family is standing all around him. And, even for a busy president, it’s the work of moments to come up with a sentence that would be respectful, moving, and true. Indeed, for Obama, it’s the work of seconds, because he has a taxpayer-funded staff sitting around all day with nothing to do but provide him with that sentence. (Nationalreview)

Options Limited for Fighting Online Radicalization and Recruitment, Experts Say-Matthew Harwood
Jihadists' efforts to radicalize and recruit Americans online have been largely unsuccessful, but incidents are growing in number and the campaign is tough to stop, terrorism experts told lawmakers [1] today. "On-line exhortations to Americans have produced a very meager return—an army of online jihadists, but only a tiny cohort of terrorists in the real world," RAND Corporation's Brian Michael Jenkins told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment.
In marketing terms, he said, jihadist recruitment messages have failed miserably, noting there are thousands of English-language jihadist sites and yet only 125 U.S.-based individuals have turned jihadi. Jenkins, however, did note the number of cases have risen sharply since 2009 and that the threat of homegrown jihadist attacks are real. (For more on the threat of homegrown terrorism, see Joseph Straw's cover story for June, "The Evolving Terrorist Threat [2].") Georgetown University Professor Bruce Hoffman was the most concerned member of the panel, calling naturalized U.S. citizen and Pakstan native Faisal Shahzad's failed attack in Times Square "a wake-up call." Since last year, Hoffman identified 15 plots—11 in 2009 and four in 2010—to attack the U.S. homeland, the majority from citizens, naturalized immigrants, and legal immigrants. "The one thing that the majority of them had in common was the role that the Internet played in their respective plots and often their radicalization," Hoffman said. There's also the estimated 30 Somali-Americans who left their communities in California, Minnesota, and Ohio to fight with an Islamist militia in Somalia with ties to al Qaeda. "We failed to comprehend that this was not an isolated phenomenon... but that it indicated the possibility that an albeit embryonic terrorist radicalization and recruitment infrastructure had been established in the U.S.," Hoffman said. The Obama administration is expected to weigh in on the issue this week in its new national security strategy, which includes homegrown terrorism among the major threats to the United States. The document is scheduled for release later this week, according to a press report. (Securitymanagement)

Two views in Houston terror trial-MARY FLOOD
Jurors on Monday heard two wildly different views of ex-Houston Community College student Adnan Babar Mirza, who is on trial for possessing weapons illegally and conspiring to give money to the Taliban. Prosecutors painted the man on trial in federal court as having violated the terms of his student visa, participated in military-like training in Texas woods in preparation for aiding U.S. enemies in Afghanistan and hoped to get some money to the Taliban, a designated terrorist organization. His lawyer David Adler told jurors Mirza was a good student who regularly fed Houston's homeless and worked with Houston police on a local public access channel to explain Muslim ways to police and citizens. Adler said his client did learn to fire a weapon, but never violated his visa and wanted to send money to war victims, not to the Taliban. Mirza, 33, sat in court in glasses and a beige suit across the room from a 14-person panel of jurors and alternates in U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein's court.
On student visa A co-defendant of Mirza's, Kobie Diallo Williams, previously pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in which he admitted to paramilitary training and donating money to the Taliban and was sentenced to 4½ years in prison. Jurors were shown a picture of Mirza and three other men in front of a tent while camping in Willis. In the photo were Williams, an FBI informant and an undercover agent. (Hustonchronicle)

Jamaican Cleric Uses Web To Spread Jihad Message-DINA TEMPLE-RASTON
A pattern is emerging about the way young Muslims in the U.S. are becoming radicalized. It is happening on the Internet. Young men are finding radical clerics on the Web and, at their direction, taking up violent jihad. Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American who is accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square earlier this month, says he was radicalized via the Internet. Intelligence officials tell NPR that one of his inspirations is Sheik Abdullah Faisal, who recently set up shop in the Caribbean. Radicalizing young men like Shahzad used to be a process that took months and generally required one-on-one recruiting, officials say. Now the radicalization process appears to happen at breakneck speed, just with the click of a mouse.
Linked To Plots Around The World
Abdullah Faisal is one of the best known radical clerics on the Internet today. NPR set up an interview with Faisal weeks ago. But when he arrived to speak to us in Montego Bay last week, he demanded money for the interview. NPR refused. So he declined to speak on tape. But what he revealed in a conversation provided a peek into the mindset of an Internet cleric who is dancing along the line between free speech and incitement. He is a compact man who, on that day, wore a pale blue button down shirt, jeans and a blue skullcap. Faisal, 46, is a Jamaican convert to Islam and is the island's most infamous Muslim — largely because of his alleged connections to terrorist plots around the world. (NPR)

The Pakistani Taliban's Suicide Bomber Trainer: A Profile of Qari Hussain Mehsud-Brain Wolfe
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) released three videos immediately after the failed May 1 attack in Times Square, one of which was an audiotape claiming responsibility for the attack. A deputy TTP commander, Qari Hussain Mehsud, recorded the audiotape, bringing to the forefront an individual known as Ustad-e-Fidayeen—literally, the teacher of freedom fighters, but, as used among militant groups in Pakistan, the teacher of suicide bombers. Hussain’s connection to the bombing is significant for several reasons:
• First, Hussain is the cousin of the current TTP commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, and the two have planned other deadly attacks that targeted both Pakistanis and Americans.
• Second, Hussain has multiple connections to other militant groups, highlighting that any policy response must deal with all militant Islamist groups in Pakistan, not just those directly targeting American interests.
• Third, Hussain is highly skilled in training others on suicide operations, and now that he is connected to a plot inside the US, his abilities are even more of a threat to the US.
• Fourth, Hussain instructs individuals in schools located in South Waziristan, rather than in urban areas throughout Pakistan, revealing the importance of safe haven territory to militant groups. It is possible Hussain even trained Shahzad.
INTRODUCTION
Qari Hussain Mehsud (typically referred to as Qari Hussain) built his ruthless image around one activity—the training and indoctrination of suicide bombers. As a senior commander in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hussain is in a position to organize and indoctrinate aspiring militants in suicide missions. He takes pride in recruiting individuals to carry out destructive operations that focus on what he views as enemy forces, including Pakistani and Western targets. Until recently, Hussain’s operations have primarily been confined to Pakistan, but a video originally released on May 1 claims Qari Hussain and the TTP are responsible for the attempted bombing in Times Square on that same day.[1] (Details on the event can be found here) A Wall Street Journal report states that the Times Square suspect, Faisal Shahzad, trained at a Hussain-run camp in South Waziristan, where he was brought by a Jaish-e-Muhammad intermediary known as Mohammed Rehan.[2] Although officials are still investigating TTP connections to the man who placed a vehicle laced with explosive materials in Times Square, if the ties are accurate, then the TTP and Hussain may have enhanced their international capabilities and shifted their targeting priorities. (Criticalthreats)

Lion's Den: How Islamists came to dominate European Islam-Daniel Pipes
Ian Johnson's new study is classic 1950s intrigue, complete with rehabilitated Nazis, CIA-front organizations and dueling Soviet-American ambitions.
The 7/7 bombings in London, in which Islamists killed 52 and injured 700, prompted British authorities to work with Muslims to avoid future violence. However, rather than turn to anti-Islamist Muslims who reject the triumphalist goal of applying Islamic law in Europe, they promoted nonviolent Islamists, hoping these would persuade coreligionists to express their hatred of the West in lawful ways. This effort featured Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Islamist intellectual. For example, London’s Metropolitan Police partially funded a conference Ramadan addressed and prime minister Tony Blair appointed him to an official “working group on tackling extremism.” Deploying an Islamist may have seemed like a original and clever idea but it was neither. Western governments have been allying without success with Islamists for decades. Indeed, they have been allying with Ramadan’s own family. In 1953, US president Dwight D. Eisenhower hosted a group of foreign Muslims that included Said Ramadan, a leader of arguably the most influential Islamist organization of the 20th century, the rabidly anti-West Muslim Brotherhood – and also Tariq’s father. The Eisenhower-Ramadan meeting took place in the context of sustained US government efforts to rally Muslims against Soviet communism, in part by putting Ramadan on the CIA payroll. Talcott Seelye, an American diplomat who met with him about that time, explains: “We thought of Islam as a counterweight to communism.” (Jpost)

Secret Saudi Document Shows Kingdom Linked with Al-Qaeda Terror-Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
An Iraqi news agency has revealed more evidence linking Saudi Arabia with terror. The Buratha news service published what it said it is a secret document disclosing how much money the Saudi kingdom has transferred to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The kingdom reportedly sends explosives and weapons to terrorist groups in Iraq. Saudi Arabia did not comment on the report and instead criticized intelligence officials for disclosing the document. Buratha said that King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ordered a special committee to investigate the intelligence leak and inform him about those liable in the case. Saudi authorities reportedly have arrested 37 of the country’s intelligence officials for being behind the leak. It was published shortly after former Saudi army officer Abdullah al-Qahtani was arrested in Iraq over charges of planning a terrorist attack during the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The Saudi kingdom publicly condemns terror but frequently has been accused of financing terrorists and terrorism. It also has been charged with direct involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A third airliner aimed at the White House crashed instead in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers, knowing they were doomed, rushed their terrorist captors and sent the plane into a nosedive a scant few miles short of its target. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the multiple aerial attacks were Saudis. (INN)

Pakistan Court Rules Mumbai Suspect Can Remain Free-Tom Wright
KARACHI, Pakistan—The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a firebrand Pakistani cleric who India believes masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attacks can't be jailed due to lack of evidence against him. Pakistan's government put Hafiz Mohammad Saeed under house arrest a month after the Mumbai attacks in which more than 160 people died. But the Lahore High Court a year ago ruled that there was insufficient evidence to hold Mr. Saeed and he was freed from home detention. The government, under intense pressure from India to act on the matter, appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the Lahore High Court's verdict that there was insufficient evidence linking Mr. Saeed to the Mumbai attacks and to al Qaeda, according to his lawyer, A.K. Dogar. A spokesman for the Supreme Court declined to comment until the ruling is officially made public. The decision is likely to set back efforts to improve relations between India and Pakistan, who are currently planning talks aimed at mending ties that were frayed after the Mumbai attacks. (WSJ)

Mosque unbecoming-M. ZUHDI JASSER
In the 1960s, my parents left their despotic motherland of Syria for the promise of genuine liberty and religious freedom in America. In the decades since, we have led the construction of a number of mosques in the towns where we lived. Some went up without challenge from the local community, but others met with palpable local discontent. In those cases, the law and the natural American affinity for religious freedom eventually paved the way to the ribbon cutting. These were all humble mosques, funded locally by our congregations. It's plain the planned "Ground Zero mosque" is something very different. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, his wife, Daisy Khan, and an investor intend to build "Cordoba House," an ostentatious $100 million, 13-story Muslim community center including a gym, a swimming pool, a performance-arts facility and a mosque. My first concern is whether the financing truly represents the local American Muslim community or comes with strings from foreign Islamists. But that is far from my last concern. I am an American Muslim dedicated to defeating the ideology that fuels global Islamist terror -- political Islam. And I don't see such a "center" actually fighting terrorism or being a very "positive" addition near Ground Zero, no matter how well intentioned. To put it bluntly, Ground Zero is the one place in America where Muslims should think less about teaching Islam and "our good side" and more about being American and fulfilling our responsibilities to confront the ideology of our enemies. (Nypost)

Ground Zero Imam: ‘I Don’t Believe in Religious Dialogue’-Walid Shoebat
Is Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf — founder of the hugely controversial Ground Zero mosque [1] — lying to the American public and his fellow New Yorkers? We have uncovered extraordinary contradictions between what he says in English and what he says in Arabic that raise serious questions about his true intentions in the construction of the mosque. On May 25, 2010, Abdul Rauf wrote an article [2] for the New York Daily News insisting:
My colleagues and I are the anti-terrorists. We are the people who want to embolden the vast majority of Muslims who hate terrorism to stand up to the radical rhetoric. Our purpose is to interweave America’s Muslim population into the mainstream society. [emphasis added]
Oh, really? Only two months before, on March 24, 2010, Abdul Rauf is quoted in an article in Arabic for the website Rights4All [3] entitled “The Most Prominent Imam in New York: ‘I Do Not Believe in Religious Dialogue.’” Yes, you read that correctly and, yes, that is an accurate translation of Abdul Rauf. And Right4All is not an obscure blog, but the website of the media department of Cairo University, the leading educational institution of the Arabic-speaking world. In the article, the imam said the following of the “religious dialogue” and “interweaving into the mainstream society” that he so solemnly seems to advocate in the Daily News and elsewhere:
This phrase is inaccurate. Religious dialogue as customarily understood is a set of events with discussions in large hotels that result in nothing. Religions do not dialogue and dialogue is not present in the attitudes of the followers, regardless of being Muslim or Christian. The image of Muslims in the West is complex which needs to be remedied. (Pajamasmedia)

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

EU sets toughest targets to fight global warming-Ben Webster
Europe will introduce a surprise new plan today to combat global warming, committing Britain and the rest of the EU to the most ambitious targets in the world. The plan proposes a massive increase in the target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in this decade. The European Commission is determined to press ahead with the cuts despite the financial turmoil gripping the bloc, even though it would require Britain and other EU member states to impose far tougher financial penalties on their industries than are being considered by other large economies. The plan, to cut emissions by 30 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, would cost the EU an extra £33 billion a year by 2020, according to a draft of the Commission’s communication leaked to The Times. The existing target of a 20 per cent cut is already due to cost £48 billion. The Commission will argue that the lower target has become much easier to meet because of the recession, which resulted in the EU’s emissions falling more than 10 per cent last year as thousands of factories closed or cut production. Emissions last year were already 14 per cent below 1990 levels. Business leaders fear that thousands of jobs could be lost and energy bills could soar. Carbon taxes on road fuel, heating and other sources of emissions could be introduced, with proceeds reinvested in renewable energy products. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Climategate and the Scientific Elite-Ian Murry
Climategate starkly revealed to the public how many global-warming scientists speak and act like politicians.
The news that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who popularized the idea of a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism, has been struck off the register of general practitioners in the United Kingdom testifies to the fact that, in many scientific fields, objectivity still reigns. Britain’s General Medical Council found that Wakefield had used unethical and dishonest research methods and that when his conclusions became common knowledge, the result was that far more children were exposed to the risk of those diseases than would have been the case otherwise. Unfortunately, in other areas, some scientists have been getting away with blatant disregard for the scientific method. The most prominent example, “Climategate,” highlights how dangerous the politicization of science can be. The public reaction to Climategate should motivate politicians to curb such abuses in the future. Yet it was politicians who facilitated this politicization of science in the first place. The economic historians Terence Kealey (The Economic Laws of Scientific Research) and Joel Mokyr (The Gifts of Athena) help us understand just how science progresses. Their central insight involves the recursive nature of the scientific process. In Mokyr’s terms, propositional knowledge (what politicians term “basic” science) can inform prescriptive knowledge (“applied” science). However, the reverse happens just as often. (Nationalreview)

SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE


New Threats to U.S. Blood Supply-LAURA LANDRO
Public health officials are battling a host of new infectious threats to the nation's blood supply. Blood centers, which have long tested for risks like hepatitis C and AIDS, have added a number of new tests on donated blood in recent years, including checks for West Nile virus and Chagas, a tropical parasitic disease. But new screening tests are hard to develop and can take years to win government approval. Currently, for instance, there's no way to screen for newer threats like babesiosis, a parasitic infection that has been linked to 10 U.S. deaths through blood transfusions since 2006. And a dangerous virus known as Chikungunya has spread to the U.S. and Europe from Africa in the last several years. Blood supply officials are urging the U.S. government to adopt so-called pathogen-reduction technology that can kill a wide range of contaminants in blood after it has been donated. One method already in use in about a dozen countries in Europe, Asia and elsewhere destroys most pathogens with a combination of chemicals and ultraviolet light. The Food and Drug Administration declined to approve the technology several years ago, citing possible side effects. But the agency is continuing to evaluate it. (WSJ)

Why Are American Doctors Mutilating Girls?-Ayaan Hirsi Ali
A new proposal by the American Academy of Pediatrics would have doctors assisting families in the ritual of female circumcision, but activist and Nomad author Ayaan Hirsi Ali says they’d just be complicit in perpetuating a grave injustice.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently put forward a proposal on female genital mutilation. They would like that American doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial pinprick or “nick” on girls born into communities that practice female genital mutilation. Female circumcision is a custom in many African and Asian countries whereby the genitals of a girl child are cut. There are roughly four procedures. First there is the ritual pinprick. This is what Pediatrics refers to as the “nick” option. To give you an idea of what that means, visualize a preteen girl held down by adults. Her clitoris is tweaked so that the circumcizer can hold it between her forefinger and her thumb. Then she takes a needle and pierces it using enough force for it to go into the peak of the clitoris. As soon as it bleeds, the parents and others attending the ceremony cheer, the girl is comforted and the celebrations follow. There is a more sinister meaning to the word “nick” if you consider the fact that in some cases it means to cut off the peak of the clitoris. Proponents compare “nicking” to the ritual of boy circumcision. But in the case of the boys, it is the foreskin that is all or partly removed and not a part of the penis head. In the case of the girls, the clitoris is actually mutilated. Then there is the second method whereby a substantial part of the clitoris is removed and the opening of the vagina is sewn together (infibulation). The third variation adds to this the removal of the inner labia.

Why Sharia Is Incompatible With Western Law-David P. Goldman
To what extent is sharia compatible with Western law? Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Britain’s Supreme Court president Lord Phillips created a stir in 2008 by proposing that British courts might permit the application of Muslim religious law. Numerous American scholars have suggested that sharia might have an application to family law. All the proponents of importing sharia into the West cite the example of Jewish religious law, Halakha, which has coexisted seamlessly with Western law for two thousand years. In a “Spengler” essay published today at Asia Times Online, titled “Wife-beating, Sharia,and Western law,” I characterize these proposals as “monstrous.” Sharia, I argue, stems from a radically different, and indeed antithetical, concept of the relation of the individual to the state. More than the Koran’s sanction of wife-beating, the legal grounds on which the Koran sanctions it reveals an impassable gulf between Islamic and Western law. The sovereign grants inalienable rights to every individual in Western society, of which protection from violence is foremost. Every individual stands in direct relation to the state, which wields a monopoly of violence.Islam’s legal system is radically different: the father is a “governor” or “administrator” of the family, that is, a little sovereign within his domestic realm, with the right to employ violence to control his wife and children. That is the self-understanding of modern Islam spelled out by Muslim-American scholars – and it is incompatible with the Western concept of human rights. (Firstthings)

How We Bury the War Dead- YOCHI J. DREAZEN and GARY FIELDS
Bringing fallen troops home is a fairly modern idea. Today, the military sees it as a sacred duty
The U.S. military didn't always bring home its dead. In the Seminole Indian Wars in the early 1800s, most of the troops were buried near where they fell. The remains of some dead officers were collected and sent back to their families, but only if the men's relatives paid all of the costs. Families had to buy and ship a leaded coffin to a designated military quartermaster, and after the body had been disinterred, they had to cover the costs of bringing the coffin home. Today, air crews have flown the remains of more than 5,000 dead troops back to the U.S. since the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began. For those charged with bringing out the dead, it is one of the military's most emotionally taxing missions. The men and women of the Air Force's Air Mobility Command function as the nation's pallbearers, ferrying flag-draped remains to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware from battlefields half a world away. The missions take a heavy toll on the air crews, but many of the pilots and loadmasters say their work is part of a sacred military obligation to fallen troops and their families. Air Force Capt. Tenaya Humphrey was a young girl when her father, Maj. Zenon Goc, died in a military plane crash in Texas in 1992. She remembers his body being flown to Dover before his burial in Colorado. Capt. Humphrey and her husband, Matthew, are now C-17 pilots who regularly fly dead troops back to the U.S. and then on to their home states for final burial. "It's emotional for everyone who's involved," she says. "But it's important for the family to know that at every step along the way their loved one is watched over and cared for." (WSJ)

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