For The Record - The IPT Blog

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is promoting a story accusing Israel of opening a dam during a freak winter storm, causing massive flooding in the Gaza Strip.

"On Monday, Israel opened the Wadi Sofa dam in the south Gaza Strip that flooded Gazan towns and displaced approximately 10,000 Gazans from their homes leading the United Nations to label it a "disaster area," the article says.

The problem is that the dam doesn't seem to exist, and the story, originally pushed by Hamas, was debunked days ago by the Times of Israel.

A spokesman for Israel's Water Authority told the newspaper that the story is "baseless and false" and that Israel has no dams in that area. The flooding is real, but caused by overflowing reservoirs after 10 inches of rain fell in a three-day period. That's 60 percent of the normal annual rainfall in the area.

While the dam story first came from Hamas's Disaster Response Committee chairman, the Times' story quotes Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook acknowledging Israel tried to help in the storm's wake.

"The Zionists, of course, have taken advantage of the situation, sending some pumps and supplies which they had deprived the besieged Gaza Strip of," Marzook wrote on his Facebook page Sunday.

This isn't the first time MPAC burned itself by promoting questionable material. Last year, it linked to an article defending convicted terrorist Tarek Mehanna, arguing he was a victim of "a hysterical witch-hunt for 'radical' Muslims." Mehanna's conviction for providing support to al-Qaida and conspiring to commit murder abroad was upheld last month by the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts.

He traveled to Yemen in hopes of receiving jihad training. When that didn't work, he returned to Massachusetts and posted translations of material supporting al-Qaida and "Salafi-Jihadi perspectives."

Evidence showed Mehanna's work was "in response to Al-Qa'ida's call," prosecutors wrote, "and that he was pleased to be associated with Al-Qa'ida through his work."

Past MPAC position papers criticized American terrorist designations for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and called the 1983 Hizballah bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon during a peacekeeping operation, "exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington's enemies."

MPAC enjoys good relations with the White House and other politicians and is considered influential on policy. It's a wonder, given the organization's reckless tendency to embrace terror suspects and promote baseless allegations.

NGO Leader's Terror Designation Looks Familiar

Daily Beast reporter Eli Lake picked up Friday on an overlooked angle behind a new terrorist designation by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Abdul Rahman Omeir al-Naimi "has provided money and material support and conveyed communications to al-Qa'ida and its affiliates in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen for more than a decade," a Treasury Department statement issued Wednesday said. That includes a $600,000 transfer earlier this year and Naimi's alleged oversight of monthly $2 million transfers to al-Qaida in Iraq.

This action, which freezes al-Naimi's assets and makes financial interactions with him illegal, likely comes as a shock to many who have worked with him, Lake reports. Al-Naimi is a history professor from Qatar and created a charity, al-Karama, which "has worked closely with the United Nations and American human rights groups, most notably Human Rights Watch."

"If the Treasury Department's allegations are correct," Lake continues, "the story of al-Naimi, who until Thursday was the president of al-Karama's board, illustrates how sometimes human-rights advocacy can also be used as political cover for jihadist networks."

Al-Karama is not directly implicated in the order, but it also designated Abdulwahab Al-Humayqani, the group's Yemen representative, for allegedly helping finance al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

We've seen this before in American charities which claim to advocate for a cause and help needy people, only to be exposed as terror supporters.

Sami Al-Arian, recently seen on Capitol Hill at a program advocating for the restoration of Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, ran a charity that he insisted was only about telling the Palestinian story and aiding needy widows and orphans. But his defenders pretend this video, showing Al-Arian accepting an introduction as the head of "the active arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine," does not exist.

And this clip, which shows fundraising for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad being routed to Al-Arian's Islamic Committee for Palestine, hasn't stopped Islamist groups and academics from casting him as an innocent man done wrong by the government.

Similarly, guilty verdicts against the Holy Land Foundation and five former executives are decried as unjust, as the charity merely sought to provide help to needy Palestinians. But evidence persuaded a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of dollars from the foundation found its way to groups controlled by Hamas. That included fundraisers featuring songs and skits praising Hamas and conference calls and speeches by Hamas leaders.

"The purpose of creating the Holy Land Foundation was as a fundraising arm for Hamas," presiding U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis said during a sentencing hearing.

Lake reports there were "signs" of al-Naimi's extremism, especially when it came to education and opportunity for women. Those signs are overlooked because few of the players care to see them, Human Rights Foundation CEO Thor Halvorssen told Lake. "The lack of due diligence regarding this organization by reputable groups in Europe and the United States is indicative of a deeper problem: choosing allies on the basis of agreeing with their conclusions as opposed to agreeing with their mission."

Iranian Foreign Minister Threatens Immediate Uranium Enrichment Resumption

The ink on last month's Iranian nuclear deal is barely dry, yet Iran's foreign minister is warning that the Islamic republic can resume 20 percent uranium enrichment in its nuclear program within a day.

"The structure of our nuclear program has been maintained and the 20 percent enrichment can be resumed in less than 24 hours," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a gathering of students in Tehran, according to the Times of Israel.

Iran promised under the terms of the Nov. 23 agreement to limit its uranium enrichment to 5 percent and slow down the development of the Iranian nuclear program for six months, as negotiations continue on a final agreement.

Iran reportedly has already gained access to $8 billion in frozen assets. On Thursday, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate calling for more sanctions if Iran fails to comply with the interim agreement's terms. But Congress begins its Christmas recess tomorrow, so action on that bill is weeks away.

But Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel advocated for increased sanctions on Iran until the country formally gives up its nuclear weapons program.

"I appeal to President Obama and Congress to demand, as a condition of continued talks, the total dismantling of Iran's nuclear infrastructure and the regime's public and complete repudiation of all genocidal intent against Israel," Wiesel wrote in full-page ads placed this week in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. "And I appeal to the leaders of the United States Senate to go forward with their vote to strengthen sanctions against Iran until these conditions have been met."

Western diplomats are not backing down on the pressure. One unnamed diplomat told Reuters it is in Iran's best interest to conclude a final agreement because sanctions will not be eased until a deal is reached.

This may be creating discomfort for the Iranians, evidenced by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's comments to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency, saying an "antagonistic" atmosphere from the west was pulling the deal apart.

Iran added to tensions Thursday with a new round of military exercises in the Persian Gulf. "Really, these war games show not much has changed inside the Islamic Republic. It's business as usual," former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin told the Washington Free Beacon.

FSA Commander's Assassination Underscores Jihadist Momentum in Syria

The killing of a top Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander over the weekend by al-Qaida linked jihadists underscores the declining fortunes of the Western-backed faction.

Jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) executed FSA Secretary General Ammar al-Wawi after he entered Syria from Turkey. Al-Wawi had been an intelligence officer with the Syrian army and an important liaison between the FSA and the Western press.

Al-Wawi's execution follows the seizure of warehouses containing non-lethal aid from the West by forces loyal to the newly-formed Islamic Front last week. The Front is a coalition of seven Islamist militias, many of which have al-Qaida ties. Its fighters also seized the headquarters of FSA Chief of Staff Salim Idris in northern Syria. Idris fled to Qatar as a result.

The seizure led the United States and the United Kingdom to cutoff the non-lethal aid it had promised to the FSA.

At least two of the Islamic Front's leaders were members of the FSA's military council while simultaneously fighting alongside Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria's other al-Qaida linked faction. The rise of the jihadists has already prompted some FSA commanders to defect and join them.

Saddam al-Jamal, the FSA's top commander for the eastern region of Syria, announced his defection to the ISIL on Dec. 1. Jihadists previously tried assassinating him in late September. He charged in his defection video that the FSA was controlled by foreign intelligence agencies such as those of the Saudis, Qataris, French, Americans and British.

These developments have taken a toll on Idris's credibility with the Syrian National Council, which nominally oversees the FSA.

"Salim Idris has failed to make an institution," Asa'ad Mustafa, the SNC's defense minister told The Telegraph. "I don't think everything can continue in the same way."

Jabhat al-Nusra and the ISIL have been gaining strength as a direct result of this and other defections from the FSA, which renamed itself the Syrian Rebel Front (SRF) last week.

A September study by IHS Jane's found that nearly half of the 100,000 rebel fighters seeking to oust dictator Bashar al-Assad were either jihadists or hardline Islamists who have a similar worldview. An estimated 10,000 fighters belong to Jabhat al-Nusra, and another30-35,000 fighters belonged to hardline Islamist factions.

By contrast the Western-backed Free Syrian Army has an estimated 45,000 fighters under its command.

These events could have an effect on the planned Geneva II peace talks that are scheduled for next month because the jihadists have rejected peace talks and the FSA cum SRF's credibility has been severely damaged.

Iran's Supreme Leader Likens Zionists to Nazis

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei compared Zionists with Nazis on his official Twitter feed Monday, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The account, believed to be run by his office, also featured a graphic marking the anniversary of the 1998 trial of French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, a communist intellectual who converted to Islam.

Much of the Muslim world embraced Garaudy's book, The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics, after it appeared in the 1990s. Khamenei's tweet derived from an April 1998 meeting Khamenei had with Garaudy where he said, "The Zionists are just like the Nazis."

"We hold no prejudice and negativity against the Jews and the #Jews are living in Iran in #peace and comfort," the Facebook post stated. "The issue of Zionists is different from that of the Jews; the Zionists are just like the #Nazis and display the same #racist behaviors."

Khamenei's Facebook page attacked American human rights in a Dec. 2 post with a twist of irony, charging that little has changed in the United States since Harriet Beecher Stowe penned Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.

"The reason 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' novel is still alive after 200 years is that the racist and inhumane approaches are still applied by the US government," the post says. "These are the realities about the United States; this is the American government; this is the distinguishing feature that introduced the American system to the world with no freedom and no human equality. What equality?!"

Other Khamenei posts discard accusations of terrorism against Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or the al-Aqsa Brigades as "baseless."

"Courageous #resistance by the people whose country and homes are occupied is recognized by international conventions and encouraged. Accusing them of terrorism is baseless," a Nov. 28 tweet said. "The obvious #terrorist is the #ZionistRegime; & #Palestinian resistance is a movement against the oppressive terrorists & is a sacred movement."

Days earlier, Khamenei wrote that Israel was "the sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region."

Hizballah Leader Bashes Saudi Arabia Over Syria

Saudi Arabia is believed to be making it easy for Sunni jihadists to make it to Syria to join the jihad against dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Nearly 1,000 Saudis have gone to Syria to fight with groups tied to al-Qaida, western officials say, "and they suspect that number will exponentially grow in the coming months," Jamie Dettmer reported Monday for the Daily Beast. This is raising fears about a terrorist blowback similar to what happened after Saudis flocked to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union during the 1980s.

It also is ratcheting up the sectarian divisions driving much of the violence. Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah took the unusual step of naming Saudi Arabia as complicit in the Nov. 19 suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut. The blast killed 25 people, including the Iranian cultural attache. Saudi Arabia's intelligence services financed the attack, Nasrallah claimed in the Dec. 3 interview, Al-Monitor reports.

Saudi Arabia is reacting to Iran's involvement in the Syrian civil war, especially the use of Hizballah – its terrorist proxy – to fight alongside Assad's forces, Al-Monitor reports. Hizballah fighters won back the strategic city Qusair in June after rebel forces had taken control. This was considered a turning point giving Assad's forces the upper hand in the conflict.

Hizballah officials believe Saudi involvement goes as high as Prince Bandar bin Sultan and is driven by a desire to exact a price for Hizballah's intervention in Syria. American officials say Saudi Arabia is looking the other way as an increasing number of jihadists and radical clerics make their way to Syria.

Prince Bandar tells American officials that he shares concerns about letting al-Qaida affiliates in Syria grow in strength, but Dettmer reports, Saudi arms and supplies easily wind up in the hands of the Al-Nusrah Front and other jihadists.

While the long-term threats remain to be seen, the maneuvers are seen as prolonging a conflict that already has claimed 120,000 lives.

Alleged Kansas Bomber Wanted to Be "Obedient Slave of Allah"

An FBI sting has led to the arrest of a Wichita, Kan. man who thought he was about to die in a suicide car bombing that targeted a terminal at the city's Mid-Continent Airport.

Terry Lee Loewen, 58, worked at the airport as an avionics technician. This gave him access to airport grounds. He was arrested before dawn Friday after he tried to open a security gate and get on the tarmac, the Kansas City Star reports.

According to a three-count complaint, Loewen discussed his view of faith as a Muslim. That included expressing "his desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of al Qaeda" during an online conversation with someone whom, unbeknownst to him, was an FBI employee.

"I don't understand how you can read the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) and not understand that jihad and the implementation of Sharia is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim Ummah," Loewen allegedly wrote Aug. 5. "I feel so guilt-ridden sometimes for knowing what's required of me but yet doing little or nothing to make it happen. I love my Muslim brothers and sisters, whether they agree with me or not, it's just hard to deal with the denial that some of them appear to be going through."

Osama bin Laden and American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki "are a great inspiration to me, but I must be willing to give up everything (like they did) to truly feel like a (sic) obedient slave of Allah (swt)," he wrote a few days later.

Later that month, he asked for help finding "someone who is active in jihad and could use an occasional influx of 'help' ... I just hate the kaffar government and those who are following it to the Hellfire, and the sooner it and its followers get there, the better."

Loewen was trying to drive a van packed with explosives to a terminal as part of a plan he spent months developing, a Department of Justice statement says. He "talked about his commitment to trigger the device and martyr himself."

The explosives were rendered inert by the FBI and the public was never in danger. Agents were drawn to Loewen early last summer after he made statements about jihad. He is with trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Many national Islamist groups have criticized similar sting operations, arguing the FBI is manufacturing a terrorist threat where it might not exist. If Loewen's correspondence in the complaint proves accurate, however, he was a man with the motivation and access to pull off a horrific attack. Left alone, he might have found ways to make his own bomb.

At one point, Loewen acknowledged not knowing whether he could trust his contact. But it wasn't enough to discourage him from pursuing an attack. "my greatest fear is not being able to complete an operation because I was set up," he wrote. "I hate this government so much for what they have done to our brothers and sisters, that to spent (sic) the rest of my life in prison without having taken a good slice out of the serpents head is unacceptable to me."

Jihadist Magazine Calls for New Attacks in the West

The "biggest contribution" jihadists can make to their cause is launching "further attacks in the West," a new issue of a jihadist magazine says.

"The damage that is caused to the kuffar (unbelievers) is far greater when an attack is carried out against them on their own soil, in comparison to when their troops abroad are attacked," says an article in Azan magazine entitled "To the Jihadis of the West."

The author suggests there should be an attack every month to get the people to pressure their leaders to change their foreign policies toward Muslim nations. Muslims from Western countries are best suited to carry out these attacks because they "can work there without arousing suspicion."

Maj. Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter, is held up as an example and is called a "hero" for every Muslim.

The magazine, issued by the Taliban in Khurasan, targets American Muslims for recruitment, suggesting no Muslim in America is immune from persecution. And it invokes the narrative considered most effective at radicalizing young Muslims, saying America is at war with Islam.

"The kuffar will always hate the Muslims, unless the Muslims abandon their belief or follow the kuffar's way," says in an article actually entitled "It's a war against Islam" "And the day is not far off when they (Muslims) will be told directly to either abandon Islam or head for the concentration camps or the gallows."

American Muslims are also repeatedly urged to follow the path of notable American jihadists, namely Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were leaders in Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) who were killed in a September 2011 drone strike. Khan was the founding publisher of Inspire magazine, which offered similar exhortations for attacks and provided how-to instructions.

It tells Muslim students they can engage in unrestricted dawah if they join the jihadist cause without fear of being arrested by the police.

"Could Samir Khan have published Inspire Magazine had he stayed in the USA? Or could I be writing freely for Azan Magazine if I stayed at home? So abandon this thought and join us," Abu Salamah Al-Muhajir writes in "To the Jihadis of the West."

British National Pleads Guilty to Operating Jihad Websites

A British national charged in the United States for operating websites promoting jihad pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material support to al-Qaida and other jihadi groups.

Babar Ahmad operated a chain of jihadi websites called "Azzam Publications" through a service provider based in Connecticut, court records show. The al-Qaida-tied websites sought to recruit individuals to be mujahideen as well as solicit funds for jihad, including for the Chechen Mujahideen and the Taliban.

Ahmad, a resident of the United Kingdom, was extradited to the United States last year after a protracted legal fight.

He used the Azzam websites to communicate with a U.S. naval enlistee Hassan Abujihaad who served as a signalman on the destroyer USS Benfold. Abujihaad disclosed to Ahmad "then-classified information about his battle group's itinerary, listing dates for anticipated port calls in Hawaii and Australia, and for the battle group's transit through the Strait of Hormuz." Abujihaad also "discussed the battle group's perceived vulnerability to terrorist attack."

Investigators found that secret Navy information on a floppy disk in the London apartment of one of the website's organizers during an investigation into Azzam Publications. Abujihaad was sentenced in 2009 to 10 years in prison for material support to terrorism and leaking classified information.

Ahmad's accomplice Syed Talha Ahsan, also charged in connection with the case, was scheduled to plead guilty today. Ahmad faces up to 30 years and Ahsan up to 15 years in prison during sentencing. Ahmad's sentencing is scheduled for March 2014.

Terrorist Killed British Soldier to "Make it to Paradise"

A British court Monday heard yet another first-hand statement that jihadist terrorist attacks are motivated by radical Islamic religious beliefs.

Michael Adebolajo is one of the two men charged with hacking British soldier Lee Rigby to death in a brutal, daylight attack in London last May. He testified Monday, telling the court he did kill Rigby.

While Islamist groups and even the United States government argue religion should not be part of the conversation when it comes to terrorist attacks, Adebolajo – a convert to Islam – made it clear it was the driving force behind his actions.

"My religion is everything," he said. "When I came to Islam I realised that... real success is not just what you can acquire, but really is if you make it to paradise, because then you can relax."

'To fight Jihad for the sake of Allah, it's not something that is to be taken lightly, fun or something like this," Adebolajo said.

That is consistent with what he said moments after Rigby's murder. "But we are forced by the Qur'an, in Sura At-Tawba, through many ayah in the Qu'ran, we must fight them as they fight us," he said, still carrying the meat cleaver, his hands covered in Rigby's blood.

And it is consistent with what other killers and would-be terrorists have said for years.

Faisal Shahzad's car bomb parked in Times Square in May 2010 turned out to be a dud. But he told his sentencing judge that he had hoped to fire a salvo in "the war against people who believe in the book of Allah and follow the commandments, so this is a war against Allah ... which will only give rise to much awaited Muslim caliphate, which is the only true world order."

Naser Jason Abdo was caught before he could try to bomb a restaurant popular with personnel from Fort Hood, Texas in July 2011. "The reason is religion, Mom," he later said in a jailhouse visit with his mother.

Farooque Ahmed scouted Washington, D.C. area Metrorail stops, believing he was helping an al-Qaida terrorist plot.

"There's an incessant message that is delivered by radical followers of Islam," his own lawyer told the judge at Ahmed's sentencing, "that one cannot be true to the faith unless they take action, including violent action, most especially violent action … that is a message that can unfortunately take root in individuals who feel like if they don't do something, that they literally will not find salvation under their faith."

Too often, the reaction to such brutality is to say it has nothing to do with the terrorist's interpretation of Islam.

So whose message should we heed – the bureaucrats and activists promoting a politically correct ideal? Or the individuals who attempt to kill, or succeed in killing people because they believe Islam compels it?