Cables Show Qaradawi's Terror Advocacy

Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Los Angeles chapter, has said he "cannot think of one Muslim scholar that I know of, that I have ever heard of, who has actually condoned terrorism." Ayloush added that there "is no debate actually within the Muslim world. There is no scholar who says otherwise."

That's odd, since he posed for a photograph with one (at right). Prominent Muslim Brotherhood theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi has a long history of advocating terrorism and violence, which includes praising Nazi persecution of Jews and expressing hope that he could die a martyr killing them.

Qaradawi's extremism has been a topic of discussion for U.S. diplomats and their foreign counterparts, cables just made public by Wikileaks show.

A January 2010 cable provides details of a sermon in Doha, Qatar in which Qaradawi reportedly demanded an investigation of whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was guilty of collaborating with Israel. According to the "eyewitness account" provided by a Palestinian ambassador, Qaradawi condemned Abbas for failing to actively support the Goldstone report, which accused Israel of committing "war crimes" during Operation Cast Lead. Abbas had caved in to Israeli pressure, he added, and should be investigated and tried for collaboration.

If convicted, Qaradawi reportedly said, Abbas should be stoned.

Another cable described a 2005 meeting with U.S. diplomats in Qatar, in which Qaradawi declared that "I support martyrdom operations" (suicide bombings). He justified this as the only way to respond to the "rape" of the Palestinian people and the destruction of their homes by Israel and called suicide attacks the "dearest type" of weapon. Qaradawi said he supported the Iraqi insurgency "because it is a resistance to occupation by a foreign power," U.S. diplomats reported.

Qaradawi "called the Israeli issue the number one problem in the region. He said he will not engage in dialogue with Jews who are Israeli or who support Zionism," the cable said.

In another cable, U.S. diplomats described a January 2009 sermon in which Qaradawi condemned Jews for spreading "corruption in the land" and called for "the revenge of Allah" upon them.

"Allah willing, it will be by our own hands," Qaradawi said during the sermon, which was broadcast on al Jazeera Arabic. "Oh Allah, count their numbers and kill them, down to the very last one."

Qaradawi's influence was shown in February when, for the first Friday prayer after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's ouster, Muslim Brotherhood officials brought him back into the country to give a sermon.

Read about the Wikileaks cables here. Read more about Qaradawi's advocacy of anti-Semitism and violence here.

Trial Starts in Oren Speech Case

Ten students from the University of California, Irvine and Riverside went on trial this week on misdemeanor charges that they orchestrated a systematic disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's February 2010 speech at the Irvine campus.

In opening statements, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner rejected free speech arguments offered by the defense. "They didn't want to have an exchange of ideas to see who was telling the truth and who was not," Wagner said. "What their intention was, make no mistake, was to shut him down."

He pointed to emails from Muslim Student Union leaders with extensive plans to disrupt the talk. The students followed that plan closely, reciting their scripted lines before campus police escorted them out.

By their actions, Wagner said, Oren's right to free speech was hindered.

Defense attorneys insisted that the students stayed within the law while expressing their political views. "Each statement is for roughly five seconds. Some of the longest ones go 8 seconds — no more," said Dan Mayfield, who represents two of the defendants. "The evidence will show the interruption by the defendants — all of them together— lasts roughly a minute."

The prosecution itself infringes on the students rights, defense attorneys argued.

UCI claims it punished the students involved as well as the MSU chapter. The MSU was officially suspended for one quarter, which was reduced from the original year-long punishment recommended by a school investigation. MSU functions continued during the suspension but were sponsored by other campus groups. Student privacy laws prohibit the school from disclosing punishment meted out to the individual students.

The case has become a lightning rod for Muslim activists. The students are being singled out for prosecution "because they were protesting the activities of [Oren's] country, and also because the young men were all Muslims and because perhaps those behind the Prosecution thought that they could get away with it because of the rampant Islamophobia in this country," said Ameena Qazi, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles chapter.

If convicted, the students could be fined and face up to six months in jail.

Letter Warns Universities on Anti-Semitism

An Israeli civil rights group is advising American universities about their legal responsibilities to protect students from anti-Semitism on campus. The Israel Law Center sent warning letters to the presidents of colleges and universities throughout the United States warning that they "may be liable for massive damages" should they fail to prevent anti-Semitic acts on campuses

"Anti-Israel rallies and events frequently exceed legitimate criticism of Israel and cross the line into blatant anti-Semitism, resulting in hateful attacks against Jews," the center's lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said on Wednesday. "By condoning it, college administrators have allowed an environment of intimidation and hostility against Jewish students and faculty to fester on campus."

The warning is made even more relevant by the ongoing litigation against University of California, Berkeley administrators. Two students sued the school and administrators for failing to protect them from verbal and physical assaults on campus. They allege they were the targets of attacks as a result of their pro-Israel stances and Jewish identities by members of the Muslim Students Association the Students for Justice in Palestine group.

University officials have claimed that much of the activity constitutes protected free speech, but Kenneth Leitner, the Israel Law Center's director of American affairs, said that condones the behavior, creating "an environment of intimidation and hostility against Jewish students and faculty."

A 2005 paper from the United States Commission on Civil Rights found campus anti-Semitism was "a serious problem warranting further attention." That bigotry often is presented in classic anti-Jewish stereotyping and imagery, but also at times "camouflaged as anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism." Chronic episodes could create a hostile environment for students, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Israeli Airliners to Get Missile Protection Systems

Concerns that terrorists may be planning to attack passenger airplanes are prompting Israeli officials to expedite a plan to arm their airplanes with a system to divert missile fire.

It's an idea first debated after an attempted 2002 attack in which missiles were fired at a chartered Israeli airplane flying from Kenya. It has been held up, though, by budget issues.

The system is similar to that already used on fighter planes, releasing flares to divert any missiles fired at a plane. It reportedly has been installed on some El Al aircraft already.

There has been a spike in attempted terrorist attacks against Israel in recent months, and officials believe there may be plans to use shoulder-fired rockets to target commercial aviation.

CNN reports that a cache of Grinch SA-24 shoulder-launched missiles have gone missing in Libya. "They can shoot down a plane flying as high as 11,000 feet and can travel 19,000 feet straight out," the report said.

While other weapons smuggled out of Libya are believed to be heading to al-Qaida operatives, Israeli officials last week indicated some Libyan arms have been smuggled into Gaza.

Final Bronx Plotter Sentenced to 25 Years

A federal judge sentenced a fourth man to 25 years in prison Wednesday for plotting to blow up New York National Guard aircraft and bomb synagogues.

Laguerre Payen joins co-conspirators James Cromitie, Onta Williams and David Williams in receiving 25 years in the plot, which was monitored by the FBI with the use of an informant.

"Laguerre Payen was a willing participant in a plot to use bombs and missiles to target New York synagogues and U.S. military planes," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a statement. "Although these weapons were fake, the defendant believed they were real, and today's sentence underscores the gravity of these crimes."

In court, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon criticized the government's use of the informant, which she also did in sentencing the other defendants. But that criticism was not enough for her to overturn the convictions, because she said, the evidence showed the defendants were "predisposed to commit violent terrorist acts against Jews and American government facilities" before the informant entered the picture.

Prosecutors say Cromitie approached the informant first, in 2008, saying his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there. He expressed interest in going to Afghanistan saying he would go to paradise if he died as a martyr. He also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," the government statement said.

Payen was not considered a leader in the plot, but was present when the group picked up what it thought were live Stinger missiles and improvised explosive devices for the attacks. Those weapons were rendered inert by the FBI and did not pose an actual threat.

Payen pleaded his innocence to McMahon Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, but the judge was not persuaded.

"You were prepared to do terrible things and you tried to do terrible things and you tried to do it for a terrible reason," she said. "Maybe that doesn't make you a terrorist as I understand what a terrorist is, but it makes you a criminal…It makes you guilty of a hideous crime."

Turkey Suspends Military and Defense Ties with Israel

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the suspension of military and defense ties with Israel on Tuesday. The move follows the publication of a United Nations report on Friday which defended Israel's maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The findings of the UN report on the May 2010 Gaza flotilla incident enraged Turkey, causing the country to expel Israeli diplomats that same day. Since Friday, ties between the two countries have continued to deteriorate.

Though the report backed the legality of Israel's blockade against the Hamas government in Gaza, and its right to enforce it, Erdogan is furious that Israel will not apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish activists killed on the ship Mavi Marmara. The report found that passengers provoked the violence as Israeli commandos landed on the ship.

The Turkish PM called the 2010 Israeli raid in the Mediterranean "an act of state terrorism and savagery" and said the UN report "holds no value for us."

Israel has expressed regret over the loss of life and said it was willing to pay compensation to the families of those killed, but said it will not apologize.

"Israel has always acted like a spoiled child in the face of all UN decisions that concern it," Erdogan told reporters Tuesday. "It assumes that it can continue to act like a spoiled child and will get away with it."

According to a Turkish daily, naval forces will expand their operations in the Mediterranean. "The eastern Mediterranean is no stranger to us. Our ships will be seen more frequently in those waters," Erdogan said.

Erdogan threatened to take further action against Israel, "If the measures [we have] taken so far [against Israel] are part of a Plan B, then there will also be a Plan C. Different steps will be taken depending on the course of developments."

Senior American diplomats, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are working to "de-escalate" and "defuse" the crisis between Turkey and Israel, the State Department said Tuesday.

"We want to avoid future confrontations and we want both of these strong allies of the United States to get back to a place where they have a good working relationship with each other," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Turkey received support from the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), an Egyptian political party created by the Muslim Brotherhood. "The Turkish stance expresses that Turkey is a country that respects its people, dignity and interests. It indicates that such acts of aggression by the Israelis will not be tolerated. A fine and deserving example has been illustrated to the Arab and Muslim world. Israel only understands the language of action not words," said FJP Secretary General Saad Katatny.

On Friday, members of Hamas and a member of The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's political bureau praised Turkey's decision to expel the Israeli ambassador. Hamas spokesmen also criticized the UN Palmer Report, calling it biased against Turkey and the Palestinians.

Virginia Man Charged with Supporting Lashkar

A Virginia resident of Pakistani origin has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and lying to federal authorities in a terrorism investigation.

Jubair Ahmad allegedly received religious and commando training from the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), according to an FBI affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint.

Ahmad lived in Pakistan until he was 19, and then moved to the United States with his family in 2007. The FBI launched an investigation into Ahmad in 2009 after receiving information he might be associated with the LeT.

The affidavit alleged that in September 2010 Ahmad produced and posted a propaganda video on Youtube to "develop support for the LeT and recruit jihadists" to the terrorist group. The five-minute video contained images of LeT leader Hafeez Saeed as well as "jihadi martyrs and armored trucks exploding after having been hit by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)."

The video showed Saeed leading a prayer in Arabic that includes words such as "mujahideen" and "jihad," the affidavit said. The video also contained a logo of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), pictures of the Abu Ghraib military detention facility in Iraq, including a picture of a naked prisoner in a defensive position in front of American soldiers, one of whom is holding an attack dog.

At the time of the video's production, Ahmad was communicating with someone named "Talha." In a subsequent conversation with another individual, Ahmad identified "Talha" as "Talha Saeed," the son of LeT commander Hafiz Saeed, the affidavit claimed.

Ahmad allegedly revised and reposted the video in October under Talha's instructions. Ahmad wanted to include images from the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, when 10 armed men from Lashkar laid siege on India's financial capital, killing 166 people including six Americans. But Talha warned Ahmad against including any reference to Mumbai. Instead he told Ahmad to include references to "Palestine and operations of mujahideen in Kashmir."

Talha's concern about referencing the Mumbai attacks could be a result of growing pressure from India on the Pakistani government to bring the terrorists responsible to justice. Several individuals involved in the attacks, including the attacks' mastermind Hafeez Saeed remain at large in Pakistan.

Ahmad denied any involvement with the video when interviewed by FBI agents interviewed him last month, the affidavit said. He faces 23 years in prison if convicted on the two charges.

U.S. Hands Free-Speech Foes a Victory

The Obama administration's collaboration with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in combating "Islamophobia" may soon "result in the delegitimization of freedom of expression as a human right," Hudson Institute scholar Nina Shea writes at National Review Online.

In March, the administration beat back efforts by the OIC (formerly known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference) to pass a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council calling for criminal penalties against "defamation of religions." For more than a decade, the OIC had attempted to win passage of the measure.

But the OIC, sensing defeat, opted not to try to push the measure through the council. The decision followed murder of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister of minorities, who opposed his own nation's blasphemy laws. Bhatti's murder followed the slaying of Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, who defended a mother of five who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

At the time, Shea characterized the outcome in the human rights council as "a small but essential victory for freedom." But the win was short-lived. In July, the administration decided to launch an anti-Islamophobia initiative in conjunction with the OIC. On July 15 - a few days after the Norway massacre - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-chaired an OIC session in Istanbul dealing with "religious intolerance."

At that conference, she unveiled an initiative calling on states to "to counter offensive expression through education, interfaith dialogue, and public debate…but not to criminalize speech unless there is an incitement to imminent violence." That echoes the First Amendment standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in this case.

But the OIC is taking full advantage of Washington's opening to air grievances about "Islamophobia" by reasserting its demands for global blasphemy laws. In an Aug. 17 op-ed, OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu pointed to examples like the Muhammad cartoon controversy in writing that Islamophobia is "increasingly finding place (sic) in the agenda of ultra-right-wing and political parties and civil societies in the West."

Ambassador Zamir Akram, Pakistan's permanent representative on behalf of the OIC to the Human Rights Council, vowed that, in its struggle, the OIC would not compromise on "anything against the Quran, anything against the prophet."

Shea warns that the Obama Administration is giving the OIC an opportunity to "re-litigate" blasphemy laws in a forum where "freedom of expression will be put on trial and inevitably condemned by most forum participants as, itself, a human rights violation."

Read the article here.

Appeals Court Reinstates Convictions of Boston Islamist Charity Leaders

A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated the convictions of three men charged with lying to authorities to obtain tax-exempt status for a terror-linked charity.

A federal jury in January 2008 found Emadeddin Muntasser along with associates Muhammad Mubayyid and Samir al-Monla guilty of deceiving the government to grant tax-exempt status to the now-defunct Boston-based charity, Care international. But a federal judge overturned the convictions on the main conspiracy charge of hiding the charity's pro-jihadist activities, saying evidence did not justify the verdict.

Both the government and the defendants appealed the verdict and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an opinion that reversed the district court's acquittal and reinstated the jury's verdict.

The defendants are all senior officials of Care International, an Islamist charity founded by Muntasser in 1993 in Boston. Mubayyid was the charity's former treasurer and al-Monla served as its president from 1996 to 1998. The charity ceased to operate in 2003. Although the charity ostensibly sought to provide humanitarian aid to refugees and war victims, it in fact served as a branch office for the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Boston.

Al-Kifah was established as the U.S.-affiliate of the Mekhtab-e-Khademat (MeK) in the mid-1980s by Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentor Sheik Abdallah Azzam. The MeK - or Afghan Service Bureau - served as a clearinghouse for international volunteers seeking to wage Islamic jihad against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.

Care's fundraising literature glorified jihad and martyrdom. Its ultra-militant newsletter contained violent exhortations for jihad: "The one who leaves his home for nothing but to make jihad in the path of Allah and believes in His words is in the custody of Allah until he returns home or is killed and therefore goes to heaven."

Report: Hizballah Setting Up 90 Miles From U.S.

More than two dozen Hizballah operatives are setting up an operations base in Cuba, an Italian newspaper reports, with the objective of plotting revenge attacks for the 2008 assassination of former terrorist operations chief Imad Mughniyeh.

The operatives will start with a $1.5 million budget, working to make "new contacts, obtain and produce travel documents for various South American countries, recruit informants, and develop relationships with smugglers that move merchandise and are involved in human trafficking," according to a translation of the Corriere della Serra article.

Most of the operatives were handpicked by Talal Hamia, who reportedly runs Hizballah's clandestine operations.

The Lebanese-based terrorist group already has established a vast network of operatives throughout Latin America, particularly along the Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, engaging in drug trafficking and other criminal operations. In addition, Cuban ally Hugo Chavez of Venezuela reportedly held a secret summit last year in Caracas, hosting leaders of Hizballah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Dozens of people have been arrested in the United States for providing support to the group. Law enforcement officials fear some of those supporters could be used to launch attacks against American interests ordered to do so by Hizballah leaders or the group's Iranian patrons.

Now Hizballah appears to be planting seeds in this hemisphere for precisely that reason.

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