Editor and Researcher Elisa Vandernoot

American Freedom Alliance Weekly Gazette

THE WEEK AT A GLANCE

NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA

Most New Yorkers Oppose Ground Zero Mosque
New Poll Finds Strong Opposition To Proposal To Build Mosque Near Ground Zero
NEW YORK (CBS)
A newly released poll finds strong opposition to a plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero. According to a Quinnipiac University survey, 52 percent of New Yorkers said they are against the proposal, while 31 said they support the idea. Of those surveyed, 44 percent say they have a generally favorable opinion of Islam, while 28 percent have an unfavorable one. Another 28 percent say they are undecided. In a controversial vote last month, emotions ran running high as enraged 9/11 families vehemently opposed the idea, even as a local community board voted in favor of it. "I don't want a mosque on the grave of my son and on the grave of everybody else who was murdered on that day," Rosemary Cain said. Two blocks from the hallowed ground at 45 and 47 Park Place a Muslim organization called the Cordoba Group, led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, wants to build the center. It would include a recreational facility, including a performing arts center and swimming pool and a library. But the biggest outcry is over the proposal for a prayer center in the buildings. "Muslims pray five times a day," Abdul Rauf said. "Prayer is important to all of us who are people of faith." C. Lee Hanson's son, his daughter-in-law, and their daughter were on one of the planes that struck the towers on 9/11. "I am not a bigot and most of the people in this room are not bigots. I oppose the mosque because it is in poor taste," Hanson said. (WCBSTV)

Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world-Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.In the same interview, Bolden also said the United States, which first sent men to the moon in 1969, is no longer capable of reaching beyond low earth orbit without help from other nations. Bolden made the statements during a recent trip to the Middle East. He told al-Jazeera that in the wake of the president’s speech in Cairo last year, the American space agency is now pursuing “a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.” (Washingtonexaminer)

Controversy Surrounds Construction of Mosques Across U.S.
They're separated by thousands of miles, but they share a common controversy: Mosques. Murfreesboro, Tenn., has joined a growing list of midsized towns in the U.S. that are embroiled in conflicts over proposed mosques being built or bought in their neighborhoods.nIncluding Murfreesboro, residents have risen up against mosques in two other Tennessee towns; in Staten Island, N.Y.; Sheboygan County, Wis.; and the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, as well as the proposed mosque and Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero, which has garnered some of the most heated battles.nA new Quinnipiac Poll shows that well over half of New Yorkers – 52 percent oppose building a mosque near the 9/11 site. Only 31 percent support it. Among ethnic groups, Hispanics show the greatest opposition to the Ground Zero mosque, 60 to 19 percent. Among religious groups, Jews and white Catholics expressed the greatest opposition, both at 66 percent. Those who support building the mosques say the opposition comes from growing Islamophobia, racism and ignorance. Those who oppose adamantly deny that bigotry is involved. In Murfreesboro, Republican congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik says she's not against the building of a mosque, but she does oppose the construction of an Islamic cultural center, which she says would be an Islamic training facility. "This has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with a radical agenda," she says. (Foxnews)

Swimmers plunged into dark after council covers swimming pool windows 'to protect Muslim women's modesty'
A council has sparked anger after officials blacked out windows on a glass-panelled swimming pool to protect the modesty of Muslim women. Darlaston Leisure Centre in the West Midlands' town of Walsall, was hailed for its 'ultra-modern' design when it opened ten years ago. But now council staff have covered 250 windows with dark-tinted film following complaints from Muslim swimmers. But other users say the move has plunged the pool into almost permanent darkness and branded it 'political correctness gone stark-raving mad'. Pauline Poole, 65, a retired legal secretary from Walsall, said: 'I returned to swimming after having a cataracts operation some months ago and was looking forward to looking out on some lovely trees while swimming. 'What I found was a situation that reminded me of how it felt like before my operation, like looking at a horrible cloudy view. 'If it was done for a minority of people, then why was there no vote on it?' Retired building surveyor John Ewart, 63, from Walsall, added: 'I cannot believe this council has agreed to something so loony. 'The whole thing smacks of political correctness gone stark raving mad. (Dailymail.co.uk)

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Saudi Textbooks:Still Teaching Hatred - NINA SHEA & BONNIE ALLDREDGE
Saudi royals are regularly hailed for their philanthropy. Their fans should take a closer look at the content of the kingdom’s 1–12 education.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will be received by President Obama in Washington today, nearly two years after the deadline by which the kingdom’s educational curriculum was to have been completely reformed. As the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote to the president last week, “This promise remains unfulfilled.” According to Arab News, the U.S. ambassador to Riyadh, James Smith, described this White House visit as a “very important” meeting, directed toward coordinating efforts to confront terrorism. The test of its seriousness will be whether President Obama uses the occasion to personally press King Abdullah to finally keep his pledge of textbook reform. Saudi textbooks teach, along with many other noxious lessons, that Jews and Christians are “enemies,” and they dogmatically instruct that various groups of “unbelievers” — apostates (which includes Muslim moderates who reject Saudi Wahhabi doctrine), polytheists (which includes Shiites), and Jews — should be killed. Under the Saudi Education Ministry’s method of rote learning, these teachings amount to indoctrination, starting in first grade and continuing through high school, where militant jihad on behalf of “truth” is taught as a sacred duty. These textbooks are used not only in Saudi Arabia but in Saudi-funded schools around the world. (Nationalreview)

MEDIA BIAS

National Public Radio: Choosing Sides and Controlling the Terms Of the Debate With Our Money-Ken Blackwell
Pro-lifers have long understood the issue of media bias. Years ago, the late, pro-choice David Shaw wrote a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times showing how biased his own newspaper was when reporting on abortion. Shaw showed that bias came through not just on stories about abortion. Shaw showed how even stories that related to surgery on unborn children were skewed or spiked to avoid anything that might have a pro-life message. Now, we have National Public Radio (NPR) lining up to support the pro-abortion side in the ongoing struggle over this issue. Managing Editor David Sweeney recently issued a memorandum to staff ordering them to use only the politically correct designations for the contending sides in the debate: abortion rights advocates is the approved way of referring to those who favor liberalized abortion; abortion rights opponents is the only way NPR will refer, from now on, to pro-lifers. This should not come as any great shock to us. NPR has long been hostile to conservatives and traditional values. The part I object to most strenuously, that I think we should all object to, is that NPR takes public tax money to spread its pro-abortion bias. You are more likely to hear about transvestites in Mongolia on “All Things Considered” than to learn about the 3,000-plus Pregnancy Resources Centers created and staffed by American volunteers. “Fresh Air” would be more likely to cover a hole in the ozone layer than to report on California’s underground reporter Lila Rose. Lila Rose’s brave and truthful reporting blew the cover off Planned Parenthood’s racist practices and disclosed how that world trafficker in abortion ignores laws on statutory rape. (Bigjournalism)

The Progressive Magazine Commemorates Anti-America Historian Howard Zinn for the Fourth of July: 'Put Away the Flags'-Jeff Poor
Fireworks, barbecue, parades on the Fourth of July ... but hold the flags. Sounds ridiculous, right? Although Howard Zinn died earlier this year, that was his suggestion back in 2006. And what does The Progressive magazine do this July 4th? They trot Zinn's anti-American sentiments out for their left-of-center audience by republishing his piece, "Put away the flags." [1] "On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blesse[d]," Zinn wrote. "Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?" And that disgusting sentiment comes in addition to Progressive magazine editor Matthew Rothchild's immature July 3 anti-patriotism piece [2] saying that "between God, country, and apple pie, I'll take the apple pie" suggesting patriotism is "toxic." Although it's not out of the norm to see left-wing vile coming from such a publication, it is a little surprising to see anti-American tripe - including Zinn's tired and nearly four-year old screed about America's role in history. (Newsbusters)

CNN Editor Mourns Death of Hezbollah's Spiritual Leader-Daniel Halper
How did CNN senior editor of Middle East affairs Octavia Nasr celebrate July 4? By mourning the passing of Hezbollah's Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. Here's what the CNN editor posted on her Twitter account: Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot..#Lebanon Fadlallah "famously justified suicide bombings," as the New York Times recalls in its obituary for him: In a 2002 interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph, he was quoted as saying of the Palestinians: “They have had their land stolen, their families killed, their homes destroyed, and the Israelis are using weapons, such as the F16 aircraft, which are meant only for major wars. There is no other way for the Palestinians to push back those mountains, apart from martyrdom operations.” The Times also reports in its obit that Fadlallah is believed to be responsible for the killing of 241 U.S. Marines during the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings: (Weeklystandard)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

California’s 9/11 Cover-Up-Lloyd Billingsley
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, and killed nearly 3,000 people. On September 24, 2001, only 13 days after the attacks, California artists R.J. Waldron, Eric Noda, and Thomas Hanley, as a tribute to those who lost their lives, painted a 35-foot American flag on a concrete wall near Interstate 680 in Sunol, about 40 miles southeast of San Francisco. For nearly nine years, passing motorists could view the mural — that is, until the California Department of Transportation, known as “Caltrans,” destroyed the artwork by covering it over with paint. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, found the cover-up disturbing, particularly the timing. “It has come to my attention that Caltrans has recently removed a patriotic and meaningful flag mural that was painted on the side of Interstate 680 following the tragic events of 9/11,” said the Governor Schwarzenegger in a written statement. “To do so only days before we celebrate our independence and reflect on the freedoms we are lucky enough to enjoy in America is unconscionable.” According to news reports, Caltrans considered the American flag mural to be “graffiti.” (Frontpagemagazine)

Is the First Amendment in Jeopardy?-Daniel Huff
The U.S. government has always had the right to ignore any treaty inconsistent with the First Amendment but it that about to change?
The Declaration of Independence did more than dissolve the bonds with England. It put the world on notice that America is sovereign; that the rights of its citizens will not be dictated by foreign powers. That is why it is hard to believe that free speech, the pillar of American democracy, could be in any actual jeopardy from U.N. treaties banning “hate speech” or recent efforts to proscribe what is being called “defamation of religions.” This complacency is reinforced because the U.S. government has always reserved the right to ignore any treaty provisions inconsistent with the First Amendment. The problem is international law and the First Amendment are not independent issues. The existence of treaties limiting speech can color the way U.S. courts construe the boundaries of free expression. The more such treaties there are, the greater the likelihood courts will find they embody a compelling government interest which trumps the First Amendment. This subtle danger lurks in the administration’s recent announcement that the U.S. will “work together” with Islamic countries “on the issue of defamation of religion.” Their pious sounding initiative is in fact a pernicious attempt, spearheaded by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (“OIC”), to enshrine a prohibition on insulting Islam in international law. (Foxnews)

ANTISEMITISM

Losing a Legacy?-Judy Lash Balint
This week marks the 34th anniversary of Operation Yonatan, Israel’s dramatic rescue of 103 hostages that took place on July 4, 1976 at Entebbe, Uganda. As a college student in the US, I vividly remember watching events unfold as most of the rest of the nation was focused on the celebration of America’s bi-centennial. Jews around the world held their breath as the terrorist incident ended with a relatively minimal loss of life. Pride and admiration for the daring and courage of Israel’s decision-makers and generals was the order of the day. In Israel, the anniversary of the operation was marked for years by public official commemoration ceremonies. This year, it appears that the only remembrance will be for Yoni Netanyahu, commander of the operation and the only Israeli soldier killed at Entebbe. The Netanyahu family placed a newspaper ad announcing the annual pilgrimage to the grave of Yoni, older brother of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Back in July 2001, during the height of the terrorist war that followed the Camp David talks, things were different and an official state commemoration of the 25th anniversary took place at the Binyanei Hauma Convention Center in Jerusalem. In a masterful, moving event that was at once entertaining and educational, the state of Israel marked the passage of a quarter of a century since the dramatic hostage rescue. If the event were to be translated and exported, Israel ’s image problems could be improved dramatically, and Jews the world over might even begin to regain pride in the Jewish state. In the week leading up to the anniversary, Israel’s media focused on the unprecedented operation that took dozens of soldiers from Israel’s elite brigades on a daring and dangerous mission to rescue Jews thousands of miles away. (Frontpagemagazine)

Our World: Standing down the hate-filled jury-Caroline Glick
As we see today in the wholesale perversion of law in the service of Israel’s destruction in Western countries, law is but a tool. And it can be a force for injustice
In Britain today, hating Israel has become a valid criminal defense. Last week five people charged with destroying property valued at some $225,000 at the EDO MBM arms factory in Brighton during a January 2009 break-in were found not guilty of all charges. They were found innocent although all five admitted to having committed the crime. As the Guardian reported, the defendants boasted in on-line forums at the time of the incident, their crime was premeditated. It took place during the IDF’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Their declared aim was to “smash up” the factory. And they achieved their goal. The jury found the five innocent because it accepted as a valid defense their claim that they vandalized the plant because they wanted to prevent Israel from carrying out war crimes in Gaza. EDO MBM does business with the IDF, therefore, the defendants claimed and the jury agreed, it deserved to be attacked. In finding as they did, the jurors were acting in accordance with the guidance they received from the presiding judge. As the Guardian reported, Judge George Bathurst- Norman instructed the jury, “You may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time.” What this verdict shows is that in British courts, hatred of Israel has become a license to break the law. This turn of events is the logical flipside of Parliament’s abject refusal to amend Britain’s outrageous universal jurisdiction law. British lawmakers, government officials and jurists all basically agree that the law, which allows magistrates to issue arrest warrants against foreigners based on allegations filed by British subjects, is a legal travesty. It subverts the capacity of the British government to conduct foreign policy by placing all foreigners at the mercy of political activists. (Jpost)

Abbas Eulogizes Munich Massacre Mastermind-Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has euologized Abu Dauod, the mastermind of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munch Olympics in 1972 and who died Saturday. “He is missed. He was one of the leading figures of Fatah and spent his life in resistance and sincere work as well as physical sacrifice for his people's just causes,” said Abbas. Dauod, a former commander of the Fatah party that Abbas now heads, died late Friday night as the age of 73. Abbas’ eulogy and praise for the planner of the murders came less than a month after he told American Jewish leaders in Washington that he will work to stop incitement of violence against Jews. Abbas provided the funds for the Munich massacre, according to Dauod. The Black September gang said it received its orders from Fatah, which denied involvement in the massacre. The Munch murder gang consisted of masked terrorists who stormed the apartments where Israeli athletes were staying in the Olympic Village. The terrorists took the athletes as hostages and demanded the release of 200 Arabs from Israeli prisons. By the time the attack was over, the Israeli athletes were killed, along with one German officer and five of the terrorists. Daoud and one other member of the gang survived. (INN)

Central Council of Jews in Germany slams vote of anti-Israel resolution in Budestag-Maureen Shamee
BERLIN (EJP)---The Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have expressed outrage over Thursday’s vote in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, that condemned Israel over the Mavi Marmara incident on May 31 and backed calls for an international investigation of the Turkish-led pro-Hamas Gaza-bound flotilla. "Hypocrisy and double standard immorality won the day in the Bundestag," said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, respectively founder and dean and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations. "We heard no such unanimity from German politicians when Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists targeted Israeli civilians, including Holocaust survivors and their families," they said, adding, "We are not surprised that the Left Party, some of whose members support Hamas and Hezbollah and have had the audacity to liken Israel to Nazis are in lockstep with efforts to demonize the Jewish State, but we are deeply shocked that mainstream German parties rushed to judgment by expressing support for yet another UN-led judicial lynching of Israel, even before the Middle East’s only democracy completed its own investigation." The Bundestag resolution also called for Hamas to be brought into the negotiating process. It criticized Israel for "violating the principle of proportionality" by employing violence against the activists aboard the Mavi Marmara ship. "The blockade of Gaza is counterproductive and does not serve the security interests of Israel," it said. The precedent-setting resolution gained a united support from both the conservative Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), the governing liberal coalition partner Free Democratic Party (FDP), the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party. (EJP)

‘Kill a Jew’ page on Facebook sparks furor-Yaakov Lappin
Detractors claim site not proactive enough in stopping hate-mongers
A murderous anti-Semitic theme appeared on Facebook Sunday, when a user named “Alex Cookson” launched an open invitation to an “event” called “Kill a Jew Day.” The page on the popular social networking Web site urged users to violence “anywhere you see a Jew” between July 4 and July 22. A large image of a swastika was placed at the top of the page. Under the heading “description,” Cookson wrote, “You know the drill guys.” It was the fourth time that a call to murder Jews had been put on Facebook within recent days. The site attracted a torrent of anti-Semitic responses. “Can’t wait to rape the dead baby Jews,” one user wrote. Another user posted images of corpses piled on one another. A third user posted quotes by Adolf Hitler. Within hours, however, a large number of Israeli users converged on the site and posted comments on the page, with some expressing their disgust, and others mocking Cookson and his supporters. Others still expressed their anger at the page by sending profanities and threatening to track down anti-Semitic users. (Jpost)

TERRORISM, security and policy

We have not learnt the lesson of the July 7 suicide bombing-Douglas Murry
In the five years since suicide bombers killed 52 people in London, placatory government policy on Islamist terrorism has achieved little but store up trouble for the future, argues Douglas Murray.
Tomorrow marks the fifth anniversary of the day suicide bombing came to Britain. On July 7, 2005 three young British-born men exploded their devices simultaneously on the London Underground. A fourth man detonated his an hour later on a bus in Tavistock Square. Together they left 52 people dead, many more injured, and a country only starting to realise that a problem it had long exported had found its way home. While July 7 was the first time that jihadi terrorism had come to British streets, these were not the first streets to which British-born Islamists had brought terror. Two years earlier, two young British men had gone to Mike's Place, a bar in Tel Aviv, and carried out a suicide bombing. Almost a decade before July 7 – in 1996 – the man said to have been Britain's first suicide bomber died in Afghanistan, self-detonating to kill opponents of the Taliban forces he was fighting alongside. By 2005 British-raised jihadis had fought around the world, spurred on by radical clerics at home, backed by British networks and allowed to operate by a government and security service who believed that this was a problem for other people. It took 10 years for Britain to extradite to France the Algerian man accused of blowing up the Paris Metro in 1995. Britain had become a soft touch: a magnet for foreign jihadis and a hub of home-grown radicalisation. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Jihadist group a threat to us all-Melanie Phillips
WHATEVER its protestations, Hizb ut-Tahrir actively promotes terror and violence, says Melanie Phillips.
HIZB ut-Tahrir , which held its controversial rally in Sydney on Sunday, is not just yet another radical Islamist group. It is one of the most manipulative and effective recruitment fronts for the Islamic jihad, particularly among the educated Muslim young. It is precisely because its spokesmen do not appear to be wild-eyed fanatics but are usually highly intelligent and even intellectual that it is so appealing and therefore so dangerous. But because it takes such care to conceal its links to terror, governments in Australia and Britain, where it has managed to establish a significant and highly troubling presence, find it difficult to deal with it. Liberal societies are reluctant to ban any organisation unless it can be proved to be connected to terrorism or violence. Since neither Australia nor Britain says it has found any such links, they allow HT to continue to operate while monitoring its activities. Hence Sunday's meeting in Sydney. But HT members in other countries have been involved in terrorism, and whatever its protestations to the contrary, the organisation actively promotes and encourages violence. And since it regards itself as a global movement that does not recognise national boundaries, the comforting fiction that it presents no threat to Australia is particularly otiose. In Russia, HT has been banned since 2003, when the leaders of its Moscow cell were arrested in possession of plastic explosives, grenades, TNT and detonators. In August 2005, nine members of HT in Russia were convicted of illegal possession of weapons and incitement to racial and religious hatred. (Theaustralian)

We must crush the Taliban and Al Qaeda in a 'long war' in Afghanistan-John Bolton
Our policy chaos over Afghanistan shows that counter-terrorism's objectives are too limited to keep Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in safe hands, and its resources too inadequate to destroy the Taliban. America's Afghanistan policy is in chaos. Fear of another Vietnam is palpable, and our friends and adversaries worldwide sense it. NATO allies are lining up to depart the battlefield. Domestic political support is crumbling, all because of the utter incompetence of the war's management. The Obama administration has changed military commanders in Afghanistan for the second time, and the top civilian hierarchy may also change. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is said to be negotiating with the enemy. Reportedly, billions of dollars, packed into suitcases or piled on pallets, have been flown out of Afghanistan, seriously challenging the American public's willingness to support war during a deep recession and posing the question of why all this conveniently portable financial assistance was necessary to begin with. But these controversies — personnel changes, weak Afghan leadership and corruption — distasteful as they are, are merely manifestations of the administration's flawed policy. The real problem is confusion about America's basic aims and how to achieve them. (Latimes)

Terror -- and candor in describing the Islamist ideology behind it-Charles Krauthammer
The Fort Hood shooter, the Christmas Day bomber, the Times Square attacker. On May 13, the following exchange occurred at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee:
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.): Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam?
Attorney General Eric Holder: There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions. . . .
Smith: Okay, but radical Islam could have been one of the reasons?
Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people --
Smith: But was radical Islam one of them?
Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people do these things. Some of them are potentially religious-based.
Potentially, mind you. This went on until the questioner gave up in exasperation.
A similar question arose last week in U.S. District Court when Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attacker, pleaded guilty. Explained Shahzad: "One has to understand where I'm coming from . . . I consider myself a mujahid, a Muslim soldier." Well, that is clarifying. As was the self-printed business card of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, identifying himself as SoA: Soldier of Allah. Holder's avoidance of the obvious continues the absurd and embarrassing refusal of the Obama administration to acknowledge who out there is trying to kill Americans and why. In fact, it has banned from its official vocabulary the terms jihadist, Islamist and Islamic terrorism. (Washingtonpost)

Ex-Official Accuses Justice Department of Racial Bias in Black Panther Case
In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who quit over the handling of a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party accused his former employer of instructing attorneys in the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants and white victims. J. Christian Adams, testifying Tuesday before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said that "over and over and over again," the department showed "hostility" toward those cases. He described the Black Panther case as one example of that -- he defended the legitimacy of the suit and said his "blood boiled" when he heard a Justice official claim the case wasn't solid. "It is false," Adams said of the claim. "We abetted wrongdoing and abandoned law-abiding citizens," he later testified. The department abandoned the New Black Panther case last year. It stemmed from an incident on Election Day in 2008 in Philadelphia, where members of the party were videotaped in front of a polling place, dressed in military-style uniforms and allegedly hurling racial slurs while one brandished a night stick. (Foxnews)

Jihad journal-Todd Venezia
Anna Wintour just got a rival for the title of most coldblooded editor in the world. Cave-dwelling al Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden and his minions apparently are putting out an English-language magazine with stories on topics close to the jihadi heart -- such as "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." The new mag, called "Inspire," marks the biggest publishing foray by a criminal since Martha Stewart Living. It reportedly was scheduled to be available Wednesday on terror Web sites before a computer glitch scuttled the plan. The magazine has all the info that today's on-the-go jihadist needs to plan his weekend of hate and mayhem, including a piece on "Sending and receiving encrypted messages," and one explaining "Open source jihad." Three pages of what's purported to be the murderous mag were obtained by The Atlantic yesterday, including a table of contents showing a piece titled "The way to save the Earth" supposedly taken from a speech by Osama himself. Another page with an "Editor's Letter" explains the magazine's purpose. "In the West, in the East . . . and elsewhere there are millions of Muslims whose first or second language is English," the editors wrote. "It is our intent to be a platform to present the important issues facing [al Qaeda] today to the wide and dispersed English speaking Muslim readership." (Nypost)

Exclusive: Why Is This Islamist Group Still Legal In The USA?-Gadi Adelman
They have been banned by most countries in the Middle East. Even not so moderate countries such as Syria, Lebanon,Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and yes, even Pakistan. They are barred from Germany, all the former Soviet states in Central Asia, Russia and the Netherlands. They came close to being banned in the UK in August 2005 when then-Prime Minister Tony Blair announced his intentions to ban the group.That was until threats of riots made him drop the idea. I am of course speaking of Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation). Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) still operates freely here in the US and just last year held their first conference “The rise of Islam and the fall of Capitalism”in Chicago shortly after Obama became President. According to Bridgette Gabriel of ACT for America: “The Islamic Party of Liberation focuses on recruiting boys between the ages of 8 and 18 years old to become suicide bombers and Jihadists to advance Islam throughout the world.” HT has been linked to being responsible for terrorist acts or plots throughout the world including Germany, Uzbekistan, Israel, China, Central Asia and Russia just to name a few. The group which was founded in 1953 by Mohammed Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s oldest Islamist organization. Two close associates and mentors to Taqiuddinal-Nabhani's would themselves become senior figures in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy. (Familysecuritymatters)

Justice Department Files Suit Against Arizona Immigration Law-FoxNews
Accusing Arizona of trying to "second guess" the federal government, the Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the state's immigration policy -- claiming the "invalid" law interferes with federal immigration responsibilities and "must be struck down." In the suit, which names the state of Arizona as well as Gov. Jan Brewer as defendants, the Justice Department claims the federal government has "preeminent authority" on immigration enforcement and that the Arizona law "disrupts" that balance. It urges the U.S. District Court in Arizona to "preliminarily and permanently" prohibit the state from enforcing the law, which is scheduled to go into effect at the end of the month. "Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration, and the federal government has a responsibility to comprehensively address those concerns," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a written statement. "But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens such as terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country's safety. Setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility. Seeking to address the issue through a patchwork of state laws will only create more problems than it solves." Brewer slammed the U.S. government saying the suit is a "massive waste of taxpayer funds." (Foxnews)

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

Review Finds Issues at Climate Panel-Jeffrey Ball
Dutch Agency Backs U.N. on Warming, Spots Error, Calls for Broader Summary
A new review of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supports the IPCC's warning that global warming presents a significant danger, but it says some of the summary conclusions of a seminal IPCC report don't adequately discuss some "uncertainties" and "positive impacts" of climate change. In the report released Monday, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, an institute that advises the Dutch government, found the summary conclusions of the portion of the IPCC's 2007 report dealing with how climate change might affect various regions of the world to be "well founded." But the Dutch report said the summary conclusions it reviewed "tend to single out the most important negative impacts of climate change." It also uncovered what it called "another significant error" in one of the underlying chapters in the IPCC report—a projected 50% to 60% drop in the productivity of anchovy fisheries on Africa's west coast which the Dutch report says was based on "an erroneous interpretation of the literature references." The literature in fact suggests a 50% to 60% decrease in "extreme wind and seawater turbulence, with some effects on the anchovy population that were not quantified," the Dutch report said. The review is the latest in a string of investigations focusing on the IPCC's 2007 report, which concluded climate change is "unequivocal" and is "very likely" caused by human activity, and which helped win the IPCC a Nobel Peace Prize. (WSJ)

'Climategate', 'Amazongate' - when will the truth be told?-Christopher Booker
Critical evidence from climate change sceptics continues to be ignored by the political and scientific establishments, says Christopher Booker
What are we to make of the efforts by the political and academic establishments to hold the line against all those revelations, such as "Climategate", which last winter rocked the authority of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? The most obvious feature of the four official inquiries into the "Climategate" emails (a fifth report is due this week from Sir Muir Russell), is that not one has engaged with the central point at issue. This is the evidence from the emails and other documents confirming that the key IPCC scientists involved had been manipulating data to show temperatures having lately shot up to levels unknown in the past 1,000 years. A familiar example was the IPCC's "hockey stick" graph, created by the American scientist Michael Mann, but shown by the statistics expert Steve McIntyre to be no more than a statistical artefact. Last week, a second inquiry by his own university cleared Dr Mann, again making no attempt to discuss the central issue. Instead, it merely asserted – while acclaiming him as "among the most respected scientists in his field" – that the techniques used to compile his graph were wholly acceptable. Similarly, McIntyre was startled last week to get a dismissive email from Lord Oxburgh, whose Science Appraisal Panel also avoided the crucial issue in its perfunctory five-page report, bizarrely claiming that "the science was not the subject of our study". (Telegraph.co.uk)

SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Study Shows Hope for Gene Therapy-Amy Dockser Marcus
Researchers have launched a new gene-therapy trial for children with a rare disease known as "bubble boy syndrome," reflecting fresh hopes that the strategy of delivering working genes can be used to treat many intractable ailments. In the new study, sponsored in the U.S. by investigators at Children's Hospital Boston and expected to open at five sites around the world, scientists plan to enroll 20 boys with SCID-X1, which stands for severe combined immunodeficiency, X-linked—a genetic condition that affects boys and leaves them unable to fight germs. Without treatment, which is currently possible only by bone-marrow transplantation, most children die before age one. The study comes seven years after two similar trials in Europe—one in Paris and one in London, involving a total of 20 children—were temporarily halted when two participants were diagnosed with leukemia. Three others eventually developed the blood cancer, and one died. Those who survived were cured of SCID-X1, but the episode prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to put a hold on certain gene-therapy studies. While gene-therapy studies in other diseases have gone forward, the new trial is the first involving SCID-X1 to take place in the U.S. since the hold. Researchers believe they have stripped out the feature of the treatment that caused leukemia. (WSJ)

Why I'm gunning for people who don't talk proper-Roger Moore
Can you imagine James Bond speaking cockney? ‘Oi, Miss Moneypenny! Get off the Dog and Bone [phone] and gi ’us a Heavenly Bliss [kiss].’ Or how about him ordering a Martini — shaken, not stirred — in Brummie or Scouse. It just wouldn’t be 007. Commander Bond has to speak the Queen’s English — and how I wish more of us would. I have always spoken that way. But if I were a young actor trying to find work today, the way I talk would be a handicap. In fact, my actress daughter, Deborah, who also speaks like me, claims she regularly struggles in auditions because her accent ‘isn’t regional enough’. For it seems that these days no one wants to speak like Her Majesty, especially on stage and screen. This is a great pity. I love local accents, but some are so strong that people from another region haven’t the slightest hope of understanding them. On the other hand, I defy anyone not to be able to understand someone speaking the Queen’s English, regardless of where they’re from. Received Pronunciation is a wonderful leveller. The only problem is that it has become terribly unfashionable. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Wonder Woman the Non-American: How Soon Will She Be Wearing A Burqa?-Phyllis Chesler
Once, back in the 1960s and 1970s, multiculturalism and globalization seemed like the best way forward. How could one culture, one country, speak for the entire world? Why not absorb and embrace all cultures, many cultures? Or so we thought back in the day. But back in the 1940s, no one challenged the fact that the amazing Amazon comic book figure, Wonder Woman, (Diana Prince), was an American girl. Wonder Woman’s costume was red, white, and blue, the colors of the American flag. America’s golden eagle was emblazoned on her bodice. William Moulton-Marston, her creator, was a psychologist who portrayed his female action figure as royal, strong, fearless, sisterly, and in possession of special weapons such as invisible flying planes, telepathy, and magic lassos. At a time when mainly male warriors were fighting World War II, Wonder Woman fought evil in fabulous female form. Indeed, she was half-naked, dressed in a low cut bodice, high, sexy boots, and a short ice-skater’s skirt. There was, as yet, no feminist movement to critique this. Wonder Woman stops bullets with magic bracelets. She lifts evil men, who are twice her size right off the ground, ties them up, and escorts them to jail and justice; she saves Planet America many times over, and in any number of centuries. (She time-travels too). Fear not: This Amazon is no man-hater. In fact, she’s in love with Steve, an earthling America soldier, with whom she works and whom she repeatedly rescues. (Newsrealblog)

Obama Meets Ahmadinejad by Amil Imani / Reviewed by: M. D. Murdock
Although a great work of fiction which at times resembles reality, it is a fantastic, powerful and hilarious creative writing by Amil Imani. I'll be recommending it to all my colleagues. Wafa Sultan, A God Who Hates
"Obama meets Ahmadinejad" combines the fiercest of intellects with the humorous in presenting important information about our world today, in the context of a raucous display of hilarity the likes of which has rarely been seen outside of "Animal House" or, possibly "Animal Farm." Amil's alter ego takes the reader on a wild romp through the political hay. He - they - treat the reader to an entertaining exposé of germane and newsworthy events that have shaped our world - such as rigged and fraudulent elections, surprising ancestry, and countless "misdeeds real or rumored" that have nevertheless made their way into popular consciousness. Controversial and hazardous subjects such as the "Birther Movement," Iran's nuclear program, Islam's treatment of women and the Gulf oil disaster - none of these is off-limits in this witty wrecking ball of a ride. (INN)

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