NBC News Shows Rare Al Qaeda Outtakes

NBC News reporter Jim Popkin had an interesting look Monday at Al Qaeda's emphasis on controlling the message in the martyrdom videos of its terrorists.

Popkin shows never-seen-before raw footage from 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah's martyr video. Jarrah appears uncomfortable acting the part his handlers want, and they scold him to be more dramatic.

Jarrah hijacked United Flight 93, sending it into a nosedive over a Pennsylvania field as passengers, aware of the fate that awaited them, fought back.

Popkin also interviewed 9/11 Commission member Tim Roemer and former IPT analyst Evan Kohlmann, an authority on terrorist web sites. They explained the recruitment value Al Qaeda places on such martyrdom tapes.

"Every word has to be right," Kohlmann says. "Every phrase has to be right. Everything is being carefully monitored."

HLF Verdicts - Collateral Interest

Today realized convictions on all counts against all defendants in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) terrorism support trial in Dallas. The verdicts are a significant counter-terrorism victory for the U.S. Government. Part of the prosecution's case involved identifying an extensive list of unindicted coconspirators who the Government claimed were, while not criminally charged, linked in some conspiratorial way to the HLF efforts to provide support to the terrorist organization Hamas. Those efforts originally grew from a subversive plan rooted in the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) that called for the establishment of front organizations in the United States to facilitate covert support operations for the MB and its affiliates. Hamas, a terrorist organization, is one of those "affiliates."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and ISNA's offshoot organization the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) are among those covert organizations named as unindicted coconspirators. Those organizations have vociferously protested inclusion on the Government's unindicted coconspirator list and have sought legal action in court to be removed from the list, action that remains pending. However, with today's guilty verdicts, it now becomes clearer the U.S. Government's evidence related to the unindicted coconspirators has been vindicated. The case, including the evidence related to those listed coconspirators, was accepted by the jury that returned guilty verdicts across the board.

It will be interesting to watch how other branches of the Government now proceed in their dealings with CAIR, ISNA and NAIT. Some Government agencies, including the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and FBI...the very agencies involved in investigating and prosecuting the HLF case...have engaged in seemingly cozy "community relations" arrangements with these same organizations, even while the HLF prosecution was underway. CAIR even provided "sensitivity training" to FBI and DHS law enforcement personnel. Now the status of these organizations as coconspirators in a terrorism criminal case has been proven in a criminal trial, will Federal agencies continue these relationships? Close Congressional oversight from hereon would surely be warranted.

Muslim Writer Decries Weak Response to Zawahiri

Following up on our story about CAIR's quick and easy condemnation of the Ayman al-Zawahiri tape in which Al Qaeda's No. 2 man slurs President-Elect Barack Obama, blogger Abdur-Rahman Muhammad shows us some groups aren't even capable of taking such an easy shot. He asks:

"Where is the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), ostensibly the representative of Black Islam in this country, to stand up and defend the honor and reputation of the millions upon millions of Black folks, indeed all of Americans, who voted for this brilliant young man?"

Muhammad then lists a series of Black Muslim leaders including the Muslim American Society's Mahdi Bray, who, at the time of his posting, had not been heard from about Zawahiri's slur:

"The absence of any public indignation on the part of these so-called leaders is truly a disgrace, and if it were any people other than the Muslims would have been a scandal. In my judgment, if there are any "house negroes" around, it is these servile, supine, completely useless leaders who allow their people to be abused in this ugly manner without a word!"

Muhammad often confronts the conventional wisdom of self-proclaimed spokesmen for the American Muslim community. He read the evidence and court filings about Sami Al-Arian and challenged those defending him. Saying it was his "duty to tell the Muslims that they are blindly defending someone who admitted to helping terrorists." (Author's emphasis)

He even posted this internal Muslim Brotherhood document from 1991 defining the group's role in America as ""a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within."

It prompts some interesting debate and some name calling by Muhammad's critics. For those of our readers who view Islam as monolithic, Muhammad's blog, A Singular Voice, is an eye opener.

Squeezing Hamas Funders

While waiting for jurors in Dallas to decide whether officials at the Holy Land Foundation illegally funneled millions of dollars to Hamas, it's worth noting that a leading British bank is cracking down on a similar Hamas support arm.

Interpal is claiming that a decision by Lloyd's TSB to cut off its accounts next month could lead to the charity's closure.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated Interpal as a terrorist entity in August 2003, saying it was used "to hide the flow of money to HAMAS." But the British government so far has declined to act in kind. The United Kingdom Charity Commission is investigating Interpal for a third time

Here is a good summary of Interpal and the British investigations.

Interfaith Dialogue Perils, Continued

At the Weekly Standard, Nina Shea reports on two recent interfaith meetings and, like Ruden, defines the one-sided nature of the effort:

"As President Bush made clear in his remarks at the U.N. meeting, tolerance is understood in the West as respect for religious freedom. For the Muslim leaders in New York, tolerance means respect for religion itself, particularly Islam. As the astute Turkish political observer Ziya Meral pointed out, if Muslim leaders really wanted tolerance for different religious viewpoints, they would be holding similar discussions within their own societies. But no such discussions are going on."

Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, focuses on efforts to have the United Nations pass a ban on speech considered defamatory toward Islam.

"This measure would aim to curb the freedom not only of Danish cartoonists but also of scholars, writers, dissidents, religious reformers, human rights activists, and anyone at all anywhere in the world who criticizes Islam."

As an example, she cites a recent case in Morocco. A discussion of the similarities between Islam and Christianity led to the banning of a magazine.

When in New Haven...

Don't do as Yalies do. That's the complaint Sarah Ruden, a Quaker and visiting scholar at Yale Divinity School, has for last summer's conference hosted by the university. It was intended to build upon a statement of Muslim-Christian reconciliation. Last year, 138 Muslim scholars and clerics issued "A Common Word Between Us and You," which said Christians and Muslims should find common ground based upon their shared love of God and neighbor.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace," the open letter said.

But in a provocative essay published by the Wall Street Journal, Ruden argues that the response by Yale and others sacrifices candor for hope, and therefore cannot succeed.

Drawing on years she spent in South Africa watching that nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission fail, Ruden argues that true rapprochement requires a sincerity that was lacking at what she called Yale's "phony love-fest:"

"That doesn't mean accepting nothing about others, demanding that they become like us before we even talk to them, but it does mean refusing the same kind of demand from them. If in any instance this principle results in not being able to talk right now or in not being able to talk about a given topic, it isn't a defeat but a mere acknowledgement of facts, the first step in any mediation that has a chance."

Ruden points out that the sessions between Muslim and Christian leaders in the conference called "Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed: Implications for Muslims and Christians," were closed to the public and the broader university community. But that didn't stop university officials from issuing suggestions for dress and behavior on campus during the conference "to defer to our guests' [author's emphasis] sense of propriety whenever possible."

The attempt not to offend was offensive to Ruden:

"When last I checked, the world-wide norm of hospitality was that the guest accepts the way things are done where he is visiting (not that he himself should have to do anything forbidden to him at home) or stays away. But here we were being asked to ‘defer' in all ‘definitions'—not just in our actions, that is, but in our thoughts. (This, I guess, would make Yemeni "honor killings" of young women, on the suspicion of sexual impropriety or merely to cover up their rape by their brothers, honorable in our minds.)"

The deference reached some fairly extreme depths. Crucifixes were among the victims of the temporary dress code, she reports:

"Often worn over a woman's breasts or on a man's chest, it is an image not only of God, but also of God dying nearly naked and in agony. To Muslims, it is blasphemy broadcast through lewd idolatry. No explanation is likely to change their minds, but we should at least try to get across our commitment. We should state plainly that not only are we inspired by this image, but that we shaped our societies around it. It led us to express love not through power but through its sacrifice, so that, over time, we came to see defending the weak as the only legitimate use of force, limited our governments accordingly, and emerged looking—to Muslims—thoroughly godless. We're not: we've merely got the societies our God demanded, and most of us are happy to serve our God within them."

Ruden clearly believes in dialogue. But hers is rooted in argument and exchanging ideas, even those that might be difficult, rather than in niceties for the sake of making people feel good. Isn't that the principle for which universities are supposed to stand?

Lormel: HLF Retrial the Right Move

While we wait for jurors to determine whether five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation violated the law, check out Dennis Lormel's post at the Counterterrorism Blog about why the government's second attempt to convict the men was worth it, regardless.

A mistrial ended last year's trial after jurors were unable to reach unanimous verdicts on most counts. As we reported, prosecutors made a series of significant adjustments to strengthen their case.

Lormel, who created the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations Section, said those changes should help. The Justice Department was right to try again, he said, because the evidence warranted it and because it showed determination by the government that it wouldn't look the other way when charity money is funneled to terrorists.

For HLF defenders who lament the loss of aid to needy Palestinians, Lormel says their anger is misplaced:

"Blame and criticism should not be pointed at DOJ. Win or lose the jury verdict, bringing this case forward was the right thing to do. Blame and criticism should be directed at HAMAS. HAMAS is a terrorist organization, who clearly exploited the vulnerability of charitable giving for their organizational benefit as opposed to the benefit of the Palestinian people. If HAMAS had truly cared about the Palestinian people they would have ensured funds from HLF and like charities would have gone to charities that were not affiliated with them. Instead, HAMAS ensured they were the beneficiaries furthering their logistical and psychological needs."

Separate Incidents Spark FBI Interest in Arizona

Is Phoenix becoming a hotbed of radical Islamist activity? The FBI is investigating a string of incidents in the area to determine if that's the case, the Arizona Republic reports.

While the episodes appear unrelated, family ties and other connections have triggered the scrutiny. It started with the infamous "flying imams" case in which six clerics traveling to a conference in 2006 were removed from a US Airways flight after passengers complained about their suspicious behavior.

Then in March, 20 young Muslim men ventured to a recreation area off a desert road for some target shooting. The group fired off between 500 and 1,000 rounds using assault rifles, a sniper rifle and other guns. Police charged six men with weapons violations. One of those charged is the son of one of the imams from the US Airways incident.

In August, the father of another young man charged with weapons violations was indicted for lying to federal investigators about his fundraising work for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which is accused of sending millions of dollars to Hamas. According to the Republic story:

"The FBI is monitoring the family and community ties among Valley residents involved in the jetliner, shooting and charity probes, said John Lewis, who runs the FBI's Arizona office.

‘All of these things come on our scope,' said Lewis, the agency's former head of counterterrorism operations.

The FBI routinely watches communities and groups that show patterns of radicalism seen in terrorism cases in the U.S. and Europe; those include radical Islamic theology, anti-Western political rhetoric and fundraising tied to terrorist groups."

Omar Shahin, the imam from the US Airways incident whose son was charged with weapons violations, has questioned whether Muslims carried out the 9/11 attacks, raised money for HLF and wrote a book invoking Abdullah Azzam, who is considered an inspiration to Osama bin Laden.

All of this prompts American Islamic Forum for Democracy founder M. Zuhdi Jasser comment: ""You can't help wonder where this is going."

MSA: Consistently Radical

Over at Pajamas Media, Reut Cohen has an important article showing the recent anti-democracy rant of a San Diego Muslim Student Association (MSA) officer. The student urged Muslims to sit out the 2008 elections, arguing whoever wins "will subjugate our brothers and sisters. And they will certainly support Israel in killing our brothers and sisters. There is no ‘lesser of two evils' here. They are both greater evils."

The posting and the student's personal web pages were taken down after the IPT highlighted them.

As Cohen succinctly points out, such comments shouldn't surprise people who follow MSA activities, which have "gained notoriety for radicalism on North American college campuses."

Cohen knows what she's talking about, being an alumnus of UC-Irvine, home perhaps to the most extreme MSA chapter in the nation, and having focused on radical activities on college campuses for some time now:

"Despite the disturbing behavior that Muslim Students Associations have engaged in throughout North America, they are in good standing with universities across the United States. Various MSA chapters have brought anti-Semitic, anti-American, and even homophobic speakers to campus. While the MSA has the right to exercise their First Amendment rights, it is unwarranted that such a hateful organization abuses university resources and even solicits student government funding — paid for in part by tuition dollars — to engage in their vile behavior."

She notes that the MSA was created by Muslim Brotherhood members in the United States, financed by Saudi Arabia, tied to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and organizer of a host of radical rallies and fundraisers.

And she cites the MSA Starter's Guide: A Guide on How to Run a Successful MSA, and its call for MSA chapters "to Islamicize the politics of their respective university. …The MSA needs to be a more ‘in-your-face' association."

The problem is MSA's near monopoly on Muslim student activity at many campuses. Anecdotally, she recounts students she met who seemed moderate until becoming active in the MSA. "These students, who were initially amicable and reasonable, grew increasingly radical as they became more immersed in MSA activities," Cohen writes.

Muslim Brotherhood Leader Encourages Jihad…Again

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammad Mahdi Akef, is back, yet again making calls for armed jihad. In a report originally posted on the Muslim Brotherhood's Arabic-language website, and translated by the BBC Worldwide Monitoring service, Akef said that jihad is required to bring about "the change to which the nation is aspiring." Akef's call was far-reaching, and with a keen eye toward the future, stating: "tyranny requires the raising of the young people on the basis of the principles of jihad so as to create mujahidin who love to die as much as others love to live and who can perform their duty towards their God, themselves and homeland."

Akef's words leave little doubt as to his true intentions. Jihad, in this case, is clearly not meant to be confused with "peaceful inner struggle" – a toned down definition of the term often promoted on Muslim English-language websites, including that of the Brotherhood.

Akef's support for violence against the West and non-Muslims is nothing new. In February 2007, Akef used the platform of his weekly address to reassure his followers that jihad is the path to crushing Western civilization and ushering in the ascendance of Muslim civilization. This approach is not surprising when considering the Brotherhood's motto: "God is our goal, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle [jihad] is our way, and death in the service of God is the loftiest of our wishes…" Additionally, one of its core principles is "the introduction of the Islamic Shari'ah as the basis controlling the affairs of state and society."

In 2005, Akef's extremism was widely reported in the Western press when the Muslim Brotherhood leader publically proclaimed the Nazi Holocaust to be a "myth." His remarks also went on to blast Western democracy, which he said "was drawn up by the sons of Zion."

The Muslim Brotherhood and its leader, Akef, have connections in one way or another to most of the major U.S. Muslim organizations, including the Muslim Students' Association (MSA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Akef's role in the 1993 establishment of MAS is particularly documented, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune, "Akef says he helped found MAS by lobbying for the change during trips to the U.S."

Evidence recently released in Dallas as part of the Hamas-funding trial against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) has helped to further illustrate the deep-seated connections between the Brotherhood and MAS (see page 10, item A of the link).

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