Copyright 2008 Steve Emerson Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:42:27 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.steveemerson.com/blog webmaster@steveemerson.com en-us Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/07/organizers-past-raises-questions-about.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/07/organizers-past-raises-questions-about.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:36:00 EST In an ironic twist, an international interfaith conference set to start Wednesday in Madrid was organized by a man accused of working with a senior Al Qaeda financier and who unabashedly supports Palestinian suicide bombings. Abdullah al-Turki is organizing the conference on behalf of the Muslim World League (MWL), where he is secretary general. The MWL was created by the Saudi royal family in 1962 to "promote Islamic unity" and spread Wahhabi doctrine. Wahhabism is an austere form of Islam Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/06/a-pact-with-the-devil.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/06/a-pact-with-the-devil.html Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:19:00 EST As Qassam rockets fired from Gaza landed in the Southern Israeli town Sderot on Wednesday morning, and again on Thursday, Hamas terrorists proved once again what everyone should already know – their word is meaningless. Well, Hamas' word on matters of peace, anyway. One need not look any further than Hamas' charter, which calls for Islam to "obliterate" Israel, to understand why. And yet despite that foreknowledge, and despite a considerable degree of public skepticism, the Olmert government Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/06/kristof-never-mind-the-terrorists.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/06/kristof-never-mind-the-terrorists.html Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:34:00 EST In his June 19th piece titled, "Strengthening Extremists," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof lambastes the American and Israeli policy of isolating the terror group Hamas, alleging that Hamas' international isolation and resulting pressure have only managed to empower the so-called Islamic Resistance Movement. And to "prove" his point, Kristof interviews two Gazans who, unsurprisingly, hate Israel. In Kristof's world, the siege of Gaza has only made Hamas more popular. Never mind that Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/05/fairfax-cop-who-tipped-terror-suspect-helped.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/05/fairfax-cop-who-tipped-terror-suspect-helped.html Fri, 9 May 2008 14:12:00 EST A Fairfax County Police sergeant who admits tipping off a terrorism suspect that he was under FBI surveillance also helped kill what had been a successful intelligence and terrorism-related training program within his police department. Sgt. Weiss Rasool was sentenced to two years probation on April 22 after pleading guilty to illegally accessing a police database to run license tag numbers for a friend who thought he was being followed. Those tags traced back to FBI agents who had Rasool's Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/05/investigative-project-releases-govt-memos.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/05/investigative-project-releases-govt-memos.html Fri, 2 May 2008 14:25:00 EST The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is refusing to identify the "influential Muslim Americans" and "leading U.S.-based scholars and commentators on Islam" who met with Secretary Michael Chertoff in helping shape a softer approach to government lexicon about terrorists and their ideological motivations. "Our policy is we don't comment on the Secretary's private schedule," spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told the IPT. Nor would she identify any of the participants' organizational affiliation. DHS and Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/dangerous-word-games.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/dangerous-word-games.html Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:40:00 EST This is a memo to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), Hizballah (the Party of God), the Islamic State of Iraq, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and others: Please consider changing your names to something a tad less religious sounding. Where you infuse your theological thought into radical politics and violence, things might get a little awkward for us. You see, if we point out that you identify yourselves with a religion, we might offend someone. That's the new policy of the Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/do-hamas-columnists-get-paid-post-wont-say.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/do-hamas-columnists-get-paid-post-wont-say.html Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:29:33 EST Former President Jimmy Carter's Middle East trip has generated a fair amount of scorn because of his direct meetings and open embrace, both literal and figurative, of the terrorist group Hamas. Carter argues that peace between Israel and Palestinians cannot be reached without talking to the terrorists. It is not a widely shared view. "The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" peace Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/what-about-sami-new-york-times-buys-into.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/what-about-sami-new-york-times-buys-into.html Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:19:15 EST The New York Times today became the latest tool in an aggressive lobbying campaign aimed at sabotaging a terror investigation in northern Virginia. The campaign to free Sami Al-Arian started last year, led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS), and other American Islamist groups after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operative was held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with consecutive grand jury subpoenas. He now is defying his Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/fighting-global-islamist-ideology.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/fighting-global-islamist-ideology.html Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:16:00 EST (Note: This article summarizes my testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. My written remarks can be found here. Also, Congressional Quarterly's coverage of the hearing can be found here.) American outreach efforts with the Muslim world have been nothing short of a disaster because we continue seeking partners among those who foster anti-American sentiment and who facilitate, rather than rebuke, radical Islamist ideology. That's the message I brought to Capitol Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/cair-pushes-phony-charges-of.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/cair-pushes-phony-charges-of.html Fri, 4 Apr 2008 13:28:50 EST For links to the complete CAIR series, click here: http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/172) In a series of thorough and carefully documented articles, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has detailed the sinister side of the self-proclaimed Muslim civil rights group CAIR. Today's tenth and final installment takes a look at CAIR's persistent -- and often contrived -- charges of "hate crimes" perpetrated against Muslims and supposed "anti-Muslim hysteria" rampant in this country. Here Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/leaders-statements-illustrate.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/leaders-statements-illustrate.html Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:33:00 EST Repeated statements by CAIR's leaders illustrate the group's extremist and anti-Semitic positions. Today's installment in the Investigative Project on Terrorism's detailed analysis of the self-proclaimed civil rights group, the ninth in a series, presents a compilation of those statements. Here are some of the highlights: · CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper is on record as supporting financial assistance to the families of "martyrs." Reporting in 2002 on tens of millions of dollars that Saudi Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/cair-has-backed-islamist-meetings.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/cair-has-backed-islamist-meetings.html Wed, 2 Apr 2008 14:13:58 EST CAIR has co-sponsored and taken part in multiple Islamist conferences in the United States, while at the same time condemning and seeking to censor more moderate Muslims. Those actions are described in today's installment in IPT's comprehensive 10-part series on the group. Among the highlights: In May 1998, CAIR co-sponsored with IAP, HLF, MAYA and others a rally at Brooklyn College where speakers spewed anti-Jewish rhetoric. Radical Egyptian cleric Wagdy Ghoneim -- denied entrance to Canada Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/cair-seeks-to-define-away-threat.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/04/cair-seeks-to-define-away-threat.html Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:28:00 EST Jihad? Fatwa? Wahhabism? Islamist terrorism? All terms distorted or created by the U.S. government and media to stigmatize the Muslim religion and scare the public -- or so CAIR officials would have you believe. But their protestations ignore much evidence to the contrary available in radical Islamist writings, as well as statements by CAIR officials themselves intended for internal consumption. IPT's detailed examination of CAIR focuses today on its leaders' reassuring words, and places them Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/cair-portrays-war-on-terrorism-as.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/cair-portrays-war-on-terrorism-as.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:46:24 EST "The new perception is that the United States has entered a war with Islam itself," CAIR Chairman Parvez Ahmed declared at Washington's National Press Club in July 2007. But, in fact, CAIR officials and spokesmen have been peddling that same "new perception" ever since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. They have portrayed virtually every intervening prosecution of an alleged terrorist who is Muslim and every investigation of an alleged terrorist front group as an insidious attack on their religion. Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/quick-to-defend-alleged-terrorists.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/quick-to-defend-alleged-terrorists.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:13:00 EST CAIR's soft spot for terrorists extends well beyond the Hamas connections documented in yesterday's installment in this comprehensive series on the group. Today we focus on its portrayal of virtually any law enforcement action against radical elements as an assault on all American Muslims. · Days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, CAIR-New York Executive Director Ghazi Khankan used an online chat with the Washington Post to launch a weeks-long campaign casting Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/cair-remains-apologist-for.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/cair-remains-apologist-for.html Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:59:00 EST To say that The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has contorted logic and language to avoid criticizing its early patron, the terrorist group Hamas, would be damning enough. But the full truth is even worse: CAIR and its leaders have, over the years, actively supported Hamas positions and regularly done their best to discredit critics of militant Islamic activity. Those ties with Hamas are at the center of today's installment in our examination of CAIR's history and activities. · Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/some-cair-officials-convicted-of.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/some-cair-officials-convicted-of.html Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:08:00 EST The questionable associations and actions by many of its leaders cast serious doubt on CAIR's claims of moderation and restraint. Some have committed criminal acts themselves; others have ties to organizations with connections to Islamic extremism. Those convicted of direct criminal activity include Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR-Texas; Randall (Ismail) Royer, once a communications specialist for the national group, and Bassam Khafagi, the organization's one-time director of Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/funding-ties-with-hlf-and-foreign.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/funding-ties-with-hlf-and-foreign.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:04:54 EST (Part II of our series on CAIR can be found here: http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/110.pdf) Summary: The Council on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR)'s financing over the years challenges its self-description as a benevolent group out to protect the civil rights of the Muslim community in the United States. The clichéd admonition to "follow the money" gives a clear picture of the group's actual role as an enabler for organizations linked by the U.S. government to Islamic Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/cair-exposed-part-1---as-iap.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/cair-exposed-part-1---as-iap.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:30:10 EST From the Hamas ties of its founders in 1994 to its solicitous stance toward accused terrorists today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demonstrated that its actual mission is far removed from the civil rights advocacy it claims to pursue. Still standing as perhaps the clearest evidence of CAIR's insidious role, two key leaders of the group attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia called by Hamas members and supporters to devise a strategy for torpedoing the Oslo Accords aimed Steven Emerson http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/who-will-stand-against-terrorism.html http://www.steveemerson.com/blog/2008/03/who-will-stand-against-terrorism.html Fri, 7 Mar 2008 18:09:23 EST Eight young men, unarmed and in the relative security of their Jerusalem yeshiva, are gunned down in cold blood. In Gaza, thousands take to the streets to celebrate. Their government encourages them to do so. How toxic is a society when the governing party suggests celebrating a massacre of teenaged boys? The brutality of Thursday's massacre at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva exposes some ugly truths about the blood lust that has been fostered by leaders in Palestinian society and the unwillingness of