Viva Palestina's Journey with Hamas

The fourth Viva Palestina (VP) land convoy, dubbed Viva Palestina 5, is in Syria during its journey "to break the siege of Gaza." As it has previously, the group has met with Hamas officials and received warm welcomes from radical organizations in a variety of cities along the way.

In Istanbul on September 27, Viva Palestina was hosted by the Hamas-tied Turkish organization IHH, currently under investigation by the U.S. State Department. Viva Palestina partnered with IHH during its 3^rd convoy, which arrived in Gaza in January.

At a press conference, IHH head Bulent Yildirim and Viva Palestina leader George Galloway spoke as Palestinian, Turkish and Hamas flags waved behind them.

During the convoy's stay in Turkey for several days, they visited the graves of two activists killed on IHH's Mavi Marmara ship during the May 31^st flotilla raid. Israeli intelligence reports and evidence collected from the ship indicate that the violence carried out by the IHH activists against the Israeli Defense Soldiers was premeditated.

At one grave site, convoy spokesman Zaher Birawi said:

"We feel that we are not alone. And we are going towards the freedom of Palestine. And Inshallah by giving our effort, and our money, our support, is a step towards the freedom of Palestine. But when the others, like our shaheed, and his brothers, they give their blood, their lives, for the sake of Palestine, that means the life of the occupation is shortening" [Emphasis added].

Birawi is a Hamas operative from the Palestinian territories who fled to Britain. In the UK, Birawi serves in leadership positions for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups. Birawi also served as the convoy spokesperson for Viva Palestina's last convoy, and collaborates with Muhammad Sawalha, formerly a senior Hamas activist in the West Bank, and a wanted operative by Israel.

The convoy was greeted by thousands of supporters upon its arrival in Syria on Saturday. Flags of Turkey, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Syrian Socialist National Party flew. Talal Nasser, the Hamas spokesman in Syria, also welcomed the convoy.

On Tuesday, Galloway led a convoy delegation to Damascus, where they met with Hamas leader Khalid Mishaal, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. "Don't feel disappointed that the siege still exists," Mishaal told the delegation. "Politically it is already finished due to your efforts. The siege will continue to be broken."

Blair: Islamists Have Outmaneuvered Western Democracies

The civilized world is at a critical juncture in the struggle with radical Islam, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a New York audience Wednesday.

Speaking at an event sponsored by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Blair said the West has failed to confront the Islamists' false narrative - that "Islam is basically oppressed by the West; disrespected and treated unfairly; that the military action we took post-9/11 was against countries because they are Muslim; and that in the Middle East we ignore the injustice done to the Palestinians in our desire to support Israel, because the Palestinians are Muslims and the Israelis Jews."

Blair emphasized that it will be impossible to defeat Islamist radicalism without rebutting and "defeating" these slanders in the arena of popular opinion. He noted that many websites, blogs and organizations around the world have adopted this narrative oppose terrorism. But the widespread support for the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East illustrates that "far too many" Muslims "buy into far too much of the analysis of the extremists, if not their methodology," Blair said.

The refusal of Western leaders to challenge this world view undermines moderate Muslims who abhor Islamism. Western leaders seem to believe that if they sympathize with the narrative, admit they are partly to blame for radicalism and try to meet the Islamists halfway, they will help Muslim "modernizers," Blair said.

But this approach actually projects weakness and undercuts moderates. It triggers anti-Muslim resentment from people who believe their governments are "pandering" to radicalism, the former prime minister emphasized:

"What we should be doing instead is confronting the narrative head on, forming an alliance across the faiths and across the divides of culture and civilization to defeat it. We should point out with vigor that in Kosovo America and Britain went to the aid of Kosovan Muslims and not because they were Muslims but because they were a people in distress."

Similarly, Western leaders need to emphasize that "9/11 was an utterly unprovoked attack on all who share civilized values," he said. "In Iraq and Afghanistan, whatever you think of the original action, we enabled the people to choose their government….They did so, and the terrorism that seeks to destabilize both countries is not about so-called 'liberation from occupation' but about attacking fellow Muslims just because they want the same freedoms as us."

Blair criticized the premise that world leaders should treat Iran's acquisition of a nuclear bomb as they would atomic weapons possessed by France or India. Anyone who believes that, he said, should read Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech to the United Nations last month, during which he suggested that 9/11 might have been planned by "segments of the American government" for Israel's benefit.

"We should wake up to the absurdity of our surprise at the prevalence of this extremism. Look at the funds it receives. Examine the education systems that succor it. And then measure, over the years, the paucity of our counterattack in the name of peaceful co-existence," Blair said. "We have been outspent, outmaneuvered and out-strategized."

Galloway Brings Bluster to Canada

George Galloway – the former British MP and leader of a convoy aimed at breaking the blockade on Hamas in Gaza – was greeted by enthusiastic supporters at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Saturday. It was his first time in Canada since the Immigration Minister banned his entry due to his alleged support for Hamas. But a recent ruling by a judge noted that Galloway never tried to enter the country since the March, 2009 ban.

Galloway has been traveling with the fourth Viva Palestina convoy en route to Gaza. Hosted by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, he delivered a speech to a crowd of hundreds on Sunday, praising the judge's ruling and slamming Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who made the decision to try keeping Galloway out of Canada national security grounds:

"I am not, nor have I ever been a terrorist, or a supporter of terrorism, or any kind of security threat to Canada. But I think I am a threat to Jason Kenney's political career. And I intend to continue to be so until he's gone."

Despite his meetings with Hamas officials, providing money to Hamas, and supporting Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Galloway defiantly declared:

"I am not nor have I ever been a supporter of Hamas. But I am a supporter of democracy. And the only people, the only people entitled to choose the leadership of the Palestinian people are the Palestinian people themselves. That's the long and the short of it. And so we will continue to break this siege until it is ended."

Galloway later proposed a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which calls into question the legitimacy of Israel as a state:

"Let's have one country. Let's have one country in this small land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, one country Israel-Palestine, Palestine-Israel, whichever way you want to look at it, where the Jews, and the Muslims, and the Christians live as equal citizens under the law. One man, one woman, one vote, one government. Why not?"

He continued: "The Palestinian refugees now in their million have a legal, and moral, inalienable ever-lasting right to return to their land and their homes. And that will never ever be relinquished."

Calls for a bi-national state and the Palestinian right of return have been cited as euphemisms for the destruction of Israel – the goal of the terrorist Hamas group. While Hamas fights Israel with violence, Galloway is fighting Israel by elevating the Hamas regime in Gaza.

In his remarks, Galloway threatened to sue Kenney for defamation. Kenney's office didn't seem concerned, but a spokesman reiterated its position on Galloway.

"Our government is opposed to terrorism and to those who support terrorism," Alykhan Velshi said in a statement. "That said, the federal court made a decision on this particular case. We continue to be worried about Mr. Galloway's past actions with respect to Hamas and Israel."

Rashad Hussain Reportedly Yanked From OIC Chicago Conference

Things apparently did not go smoothly at last week's Chicago conference on "Islam and Muslims in America," which was sponsored by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

President Obama's special envoy to the OIC, Rashad Hussain, had been scheduled to address the event, held at the American Islamic College. But after news reports highlighted his participation, Hussain reportedly withdrew at the last minute, citing a "scheduling conflict." This earned him an angry rebuke from websites like this (which the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report asserts is "an arm of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.")

"Why is he submitting to the intimidation and smear tactics?" the Ikhwanophobia website asked. "Are the higher ups telling him to sit this conference out because it would be bad for PR? Do they and he not realize that this essentially empowers the goons on the far right?" Two other administration officials were scheduled to participate: presidential appointee Dalia Mogahed and Farah Pandith, the State Department's special representative to Muslim communities.

One who addressed the conference was OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who said the primary objective of the conference was to reach out to the American public with a message about the OIC and its relations with the United States.

According to an OIC press release, Ihsanoglu declared "Islamophobia" to be "among the major preoccupations and concerns facing Muslims nowadays. The OIC boss said Islamophobia "has shown how vulnerable basic misunderstanding and deep rooted bigotry" can "pit one part of humanity against the other." He emphasized the importance of "forging a new relationship and understanding through respect for cultural diversity."

In the name of diversity and cultural sensitivity, the OIC has sought to have Islamophobia recognized by the international community as a form of racism which can be prosecuted under international law. This would in effect put Islam off-limits from criticism. Read more here and here.

Times Square Bomber Sentenced to Life in Prison

The failed Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, has been sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in New York.

Though he pled guilty, Shahzad has remained angry and defiant. "The defeat of the U.S. is imminent and will happen in the near future," he said in court. ABC News reports that he said "Allahu Akbar" after hearing his sentence, and said "We have laws made by Allah. We don't need laws made by humans."

Since Shahzad's Nissan Pathfinder failed to detonate in Times Square on May 1, law enforcement authorities have unraveled a complex network in the United States and abroad that helped to plan, train, and finance, the attack.

Commenting on the case, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said:

"The case of Faisal Shahzad demonstrates the global scope of the terrorist threat. Distinctions between home-grown and foreign terrorists are blurred when a U.S. citizen travels to Pakistan to learn bomb-making from a known terrorist organization, then returns to the U.S. and receives financial backing from the overseas organization."

In December 2009, Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen, received explosives training in Waziristan, Pakistan from Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), an organization now designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States. Following his training, he returned to the United States where he received payments totaling $12,000 from TTP financiers in Pakistan via an American hawaladar. A separate investigation into the financing of the attacks resulted in the recent arrest and indictment of Mohammad Younis for operating an unregistered money transfer business.

Following the failed attack, Shahzad attempted to flee to Dubai, but was arrested by authorities at JFK Airport in New York on May 3, 2010. He was formally charged in a 10 count indictment the following day, and pled guilty to all charges on June 21. At the hearing during which he pled guilty, Shahzad said:

"I want to plead guilty and I'm going to plead guilty a hundred times forward because until the hour the US pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan and stops the occupation of Muslim lands and stops killing, the Muslims and stops reporting the Muslims to its government, we will be attacking US, and I plead guilty to that."

Commenting on the mandatory sentence of life in prison, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said:

"Faisal Shahzad is a remorseless terrorist who betrayed his adopted country and today was rightly sentenced to spend the rest of his life in federal prison. While his life sentence ensures that he will never again threaten the security of New York City and our nation, together we must remain vigilant against those like him who wish to do us harm."

New Trial Sought for Convicted Founder of Islamic Charity

The founder of an Islamic charity convicted of conspiring to move money out of the United States without declaring it, and with filing false tax return to hide the fact that the money ever existed, has filed a motion for a new trial.

Seda, the founder of al Haramain Islamic Founation, was convicted by a federal jury in Oregon on September 9, after a week long trial demonstrated his role in transferring $150,000 to Chechen mujahideen. According to federal officials, Seda accepted a large donation intended to support "our Muslim brothers in Chychnia," and then surreptitiously shifted the money to Saudi Arabia in the form of difficult to trace traveler's checks.

But, despite the evidence admitted at trial, on September 25, the defense team filed a motion demanding that the court throw out the guilty verdict and hold a new trial. Their motion was based, in part, on "the cumulative prejudicial impact of the government focus on Islam, terrorism, and anti-Semitism in a case that is charged as essentially a tax case."

In seeking the new trial, the defense argued that the jury was pre-disposed to anti-Islamic sentiments, and that the government selectively introduced evidence at trial in order to force jurors to draw the conclusion that Seda was a radical Islamist.

According to defense attorneys the problems in the case began during jury selection:

"During the questioning of the prospective jurors, the presence in the jury pool of strong and emotional anti-Islamic sentiment became apparent…[But defense counsel was] prohibited from determining how many other jurors held similar views."

But the selection of an allegedly "anti-Muslim" jury was not all that the defense complained about in their motion for a new trial.

Referencing federal prosecutor Chris Cardani's admonition that "the government is not accusing Mr. Sedaghaty for being a terrorist," the defense argued the case was fraught with references to terrorism. And while the prosecution said that the case was not about Islam, "during closing arguments, prosecutor Chris Cardani was waiving the Qur'an around and then tossed it down on the table in front of the jury." These, and other actions, defense attorneys argued, prejudiced the jury and are grounds for a new trial.

The prosecution has not yet responded to the defense motion, and sentencing is set for November 23. Seda has been in the custody of federal marshals since he was found guilty.

Shocking Tour for Terror Imam

The FBI has confirmed that a Chicago Muslim cleric with long ties to terrorist groups Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood was part of a group given a tour of the National Counterterrorism Center and FBI headquarters, the Washington Times reported.

Kifah Mustapha, imam of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Ill., was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding trial and was a longtime associate of leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, which was shut down by the government in 2001. Five Holy Land officials were convicted in 2008 of giving more than $12 million to Hamas.

FBI leaders allowed Mustapha in the six-week training program at the FBI's Quantico, Va., facility, because they didn't consider him a security risk, said FBI Chicago spokesman Ross Rice. "If we thought he was a security risk, we wouldn't have included him," Rice said.

Earlier this year, the Illinois State Police rescinded an invitation to Mustapha after the Investigative Project on Terrorism published a report outlining his ties to HLF and Hamas.

Experts Tell Congress: Government Policy Against Radical Websites Lacking

Note: To view the full webcast of the hearing, please go here.

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There are fewer than 10 "highly dangerous" radical Islamist websites operating today and shutting them down would "dry up" the others, Mansour Al-Hadj, a former extremist Muslim from Saudi Arabia, told a House subcommittee Wednesday.

Al-Hadj, the director of the Reform in the Arab and Muslim World Project at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), was among a group of cyber-radicalization experts who testified Wednesday during a hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade that examined the threat of web-based radical Islamic indoctrination.

During the hearing, committee members and witnesses seemed to agree that the United States is marching blind in the fight against the spread of jihadist ideology online. Also, they said, the rapid transformation of technology has outpaced the creation of a web-focused U.S. counterterrorism policy. That means there is no consensus about whether the sites should be eliminated, either through cyber attacks or voluntary removal, or engaged in a head-to-head war of ideas.

But while radical websites and forums have been shuttered, online social networks have become the chosen vehicle for getting this message out to the world. That includes services such as Facebook, YouTube, Google Video and Twitter. Al-Hadj said this is particularly clear with American-born al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) spiritual leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, whose presence on YouTube exploded after authorities took down his website after last November's killings of 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas.

The free world faces a threat "based on ideology and ideas," said Christopher Boucek, an analyst in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. To combat it, authorities should engage radicals online, "highlight[ing] the flaws and the inherent discrepancies in these arguments." To succeed, however, this strategy must also be accompanied by a "more rigorous shut-down approach," in which radical sites are denied access to the web by cyber-attack or other means.

Shutting down these sites does work, said Pepperdine University law professor Gregory McNeal. However, there has been "no concerted government effort to shut down these sites."

Also on Wednesday, another video by American-born al-Qaida representative, Adam Gadahn (aka Azzam al-Amriki) leaked out on jihadist forums. Gadahn has evaded American authorities since shortly after 9/11, but is thought to be in hiding along the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. His face has become known to the world through his numerous appearances in al-Qaida-produced jihadist videos broadcast online. On Friday, al-Qaida leader Osama bin-Laden's face found his way to computer screens around the world as well, in a new video released by the group.

Rep. Brad Sherman, the California Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said one reason YouTube doesn't take down radical videos is because it makes too much money from them. "They feel that if they let everybody on, that just makes a little bit more money for them. And for them to endanger lives nationwide for that reason, is a decision that they've made."

Michigan AG won't prosecute agents in Luqman Abdullah case

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said Thursday his office will not prosecute the FBI agents who shot and killed Luqman Ameen Abdullah during an Oct. 28, 2009, confrontation and shootout in Dearborn, Mich.

A review by his office found the agents had violated no Michigan law, Cox said in a statement released by his office. Cox's ruling follows one by the Wayne County, Mich., prosecutor not to file charges against the agents.

Abdullah, an imam of Masjid Al-Haqq in Detroit, had made statements threatening the lives of federal officers, according to documents filed in U.S. district court in Michigan. Abdullah also called the FBI an "enemy of Islam."

When agents arrived to arrest Abdullah and four others, Cox's statement said, they knew Abdullah was armed. "The evidence reviewed by the Attorney General's office shows that Abdullah was armed, resisted arrest, rejected repeated commands to surrender and show his hands, and still refused to comply when warned that a dog would be deployed," Cox's statement said."Instead, after the dog was deployed, Abdullah revealed a handgun and fired in the direction of law enforcement agents. Four FBI agents were directly involved in the shooting. Each reported fearing for their lives and the lives of others and, in accordance with Michigan law, returned fire in self-defense, resulting in Abdullah's death. All four of Abdullah's associates involved in the incident complied with commands by law enforcement agents and were arrested without incident."

Since the shooting, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has criticized the FBI, saying that some photos taken after the incident "raised questions." CAIR, however, failed to show that Abdullah had fired at least three shots.

Waziristan Drone Strike May Have Foiled Attacks in Europe

Western intelligence officials think they may have uncovered an al-Qaida plot to stage Mumbai-style terrorist attacks against London, Paris and Berlin. The attacks (which were reportedly to have been carried out by British Muslims training with al-Qaida) were in the final stage of preparation. A combined operation involving U.S., British, French and German intelligence agencies was key to derailing the plot.

After learning of plans to carry out the attacks, the U.S. military launched a series of drone strikes against aimed at leaders of the plot in North Waziristan. The territory is part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a region of the country that has long been a base for al-Qaida and other jihadists.

Information about the plot may have come from a German terrorist suspect known only as Ahmad S., who was detained while attempting to fly from Kabul to Europe. The suspect is reportedly a member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an al-Qaida-linked terror group which has recently stepped up efforts to attract new recruits in Germany.

Read more here and here.

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