Islamist Lobbies' Washington War on Arab and Muslim Liberals - Essam Abdallah

(Article below comment)

A note from Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson:

Please take the time to read this very important story written by a courageous Egyptian liberal intellectual about the Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood lobbies in Washington and the Obama Administration's secret collaboration with these pro-terrorist, anti-Western, anti-women, anti-American and anti-Semitic organizations. This is one of the most important articles I have read in years.

It was just revealed two days ago that FBI Director Mueller secretly met on February 8 at FBI headquarters with a coalition of groups including various Islamist and militant Arabic groups who in the past have defended Hamas and Hizballah and have also issued blatantly anti-Semitic statements. At this meeting, the FBI revealed that it had removed more than 1000 presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that was deemed "offensive." The FBI did not reveal what criteria was used to determine why material was considered "offensive" but knowledgeable law enforcement sources have told the IPT that it was these radical groups who made that determination. Moreover, numerous FBI agents have confirmed that from now on, FBI headquarters has banned all FBI offices from inviting any counter-terrorist specialists who are considered "anti-Islam" by Muslim Brotherhood front groups.

The February 8 FBI meeting was the culmination of a series of unpublicized directives issued in the last three months by top FBI officials to all its field offices to immediately recall and withdraw any presentation or curricula on Islam throughout the entire FBI. In fact, according to informed sources and undisclosed documents, the FBI directive was instigated by radical Muslim groups in the US who had repeatedly met with top officials of the Obama Administration to complain, among other things, that the mere usage of the term of "radical Islam" in FBI curricula was "offensive" and 'racist." And thus, directives went out by Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Mueller to censor all such material. Included in the material destroyed or removed by the FBI and the DOJ were powerpoints and articles that defined jihad as "holy war" or presentations that portrayed the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization bent on taking over the world—a major tenant that the Muslim Brotherhood has publicly stated for decades.

During the next several months, the IPT will be releasing a series of major investigative reports revealing the secret infiltration by and collaboration with radical Islamic organizations by the Obama administration that has spread to the National Security Council, the Dept of Justice, the FBI, the Dept of Homeland Security, the CIA and the State Department as well as local law enforcement.

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Islamist Lobbies' Washington War on Arab and Muslim Liberals

by Essam Abdallah
The Cutting Edge News
February 16, 2012

The most dramatic oppression of the region's civil societies and the Arab Spring is not by means of weapons, or in the Middle East. It is not led by Gaddafi, Mubarak, Bin Ali, Saleh, or Assad. It is led by the powerful Islamist lobbies in Washington DC. People may find my words curious if not provocative. But my arguments are sharp and well understood by many Arab and middle eastern liberals and freedom fighters. Indeed, we in the region, who are struggling for real democracy, not for the one time election type of democracy have been asking ourselves since January 2011 as the winds of Arab spring started blowing, why isn't the West in general and the United States Administration in particular clearly and forcefully supporting our civil societies and particularly the secular democrats of the region? Why were the bureaucracies in Washington and in Brussels partnering with Islamists in the region and not with their natural allies the democracy promoting political forces?

Months into the Arab Spring, we realized that the Western powers, and the Obama Administration have put their support behind the new authoritarians, those who are claiming they will be brought to power via the votes of the people. Well, it is not quite so.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Nahda of Tunisia, the Justice Party of Morocco and the Islamist militias in Libya's Transitional National Council have been systematically supported by Washington at the expense of real liberal and secular forces. We saw day by day how the White House guided carefully the statements and the actions of the US and the State Department followed through to give all the chances to the Islamists and almost no chances to the secular and revolutionary youth. We will come back to detail these diplomatic and financial maneuvers which are giving victory to the fundamentalists while the seculars and progressives are going to be smashed by the forthcoming regimes.

In the US, there are interests that determine foreign policy. And there are lobbies that put pressure to get their objectives met in foreign policy. One of the most powerful lobbies in America under the Obama Administration is the Muslim Brotherhood greater lobby, which has been in action for many years. This lobby has secured many operatives inside the Administration and has been successful in directing US policy towards the Arab world. Among leading advisors sympathetic to the Ikhwan is Daliah Mogahed (Mujahid) and her associate, Georgetown Professor John Esposito. Just as shocking, there is also a pro-Iranian lobby that has been influencing US policy towards Iran and Hezbollah in the region.

One of the most important activities of the Islamist lobby in the US is the waging of political and media wars on the liberal Arabs and Middle Eastern figures and groups in America. This battlefield is among the most important in influencing Washington's policies in the Arab world. If you strike at the liberal and democratic Middle Eastern groups in Washington who are trying to gain support for civil societies in the region, you actually win a major battle. You will be able to influence the resources of the US Government to support the Islamists in the Middle East and not the weak democrats. This huge war waged by the Islamist lobbies in America started at the end of the Cold war and continued all the way till the Arab spring. The two main forces of this lobby are the Muslim Brotherhood fronts and the Iranian fronts. According to research available in the US, the Ikhwan fronts such as CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), led by Hamas supporter Nihad Awad, as well as the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Islamic Society of North America, and others waged their political war to block the representatives of Arab liberals and Muslim moderates from making their case to the American public. The Iranian lobby, exemplified by the National Iranian American Committee (NIAC), led by Trita Parsi, has been hitting at Iranian exiles.

Since the 1990s CAIR and its allies have attacked Copts, Southern Sudanese, Lebanese, Syrian reformers, Assyrians and Chaldeans, and Muslim dissidents in the United States. The Ikhwan of America demonized any publication, book, article, or interview in the national media or local press raising the issue of secular freedoms in the Middle East. The Islamists wanted to eliminate the liberal cause in the Arab world and replace it with the cause of the Islamists. What is also shocking is that CAIR and its allies stood by the oppressive regimes and visited them, claiming they speak on behalf of the peoples. CAIR and the Brotherhood fronts in America destroyed systematically every project that would have defended the seculars and liberals originating from the Middle East. The notorious and well-funded Islamists of the US allowed no book, documentary, or show on the liberals in Arab civil societies to see the light.

Thanks to this powerful lobbying campaign, the American public was not given a chance to learn about the deep feelings on the youth in the region. Americans were led to believe that all Muslims, all Arabs and all Middle Easterners were a strange species of humans who cannot appreciate freedom. Instead, the American Islamists, helped by apologists on the petrodollars payrolls, convinced the mainstream media that the Arab world has authoritarians and Islamists only.

Dr Shawki Karas, president of the American Coptic Association, told me in the late 1990s how he was harassed by Islamist activists for speaking up against the Mubarak regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in America. He was threatened with losing his job at the college where he taught. Reverend Keith Roderick, who has assembled a coalition of more than 50 group rights from the Muslim world, was severely attacked by the Islamists and was threatened to be removed from his church position. Muslim American leaders who are conservative and secular, such as Dr Zuhdi Jasser, were crucified by CAIR and the Brotherhood for daring to challenge the Party line of the Isl.amists in America and claiming that the Jihadists are the problem in the region. Muslim liberal dissidents such as Somali Ayan Hirsi Ali, Saudi Ali al Yammi, Syrian Farid Ghadri, Iranian Manda Ervin, and many others were trashed by the Islamist lobbies to block them from defending the causes of secular liberty in the US. Egyptian liberals as well as seculars and democracy activists from Iraq, Sudan, Syria, and other countries have been attacked by CAIR and allies. The pro-Iranian lobby targeted most Iranian-American groups and tried to discredit them, particularly with the rise of the Green Revolution in Iran. By smearing the Muslim liberal exiles, the Islamists were trying to destroy their causes in the mother countries. In the 1990s and the years that followed 9/11 the region's dictators supported the efforts by Islamist lobbies to crush the liberal exiles. The Mubarak, Bashir, Gaddafi, Assad, and Khomeinist regimes fully supported the so-called Islamophobia campaign waged by CAIR and its Iranian counterpart NIAC against dissidents for calling for secular democracy in the region. The dissidents were accused of being pro-Western by both the Islamists and the dictators.

The Islamist lobbies also severely attacked members of the US Congress such as Democrats Tom Lantos, who has since passed away, Eliot Engel, Howard Berman, Gary Ackerman, and Joe Lieberman as well as Republicans Frank Wolfe, Chris Smith, Trent Franks, John McCain, Rick Santorum, and Sam Brownback for their efforts in passing legislative acts in support for democracy and liberty in the Middle East. CAIR and NIAC heavily savaged President Bush's speeches on Freedom Forward in the Middle East, deploying all the resources they had to block US support to liberal democrats in the region. Islamist lobbies in Washington are directly responsible for killing any initiative in the US Government to support Darfur, southern Sudan, Lebanon, the Kurds, liberal women in the Muslim world, and true democrats in the Arab world and Muslim Africa.

In the think tank world, CAIR and its allies aggressively attacked scholars who raised the issue of persecution against seculars or minorities in the Arab world and Iran. Among those attacked were Nina Shea and Paul Marshal from the Hudson Institute and the founder of an anti-slavery group, Dr Charles Jacobs, who was exposing the Sudan regime for its atrocities. Last but not least is the Islamists' relentless campaign to stirke at top scholars who advise Government and appear in the media to push for democratic liberation in the region. The vast and vicious attacks leveled against Professor Walid Phares—initially by CAIR's Nihad Awad and then widened by pro-Hezbollah and Muslim Brotherhood operatives online—has revealed to Arab and Middle Eastern liberal and seculars how ferocious is the battle for the Middle East in the US. Phares's books, particularly the latest one, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (2010), hit the Islamist agenda hard by predicting the civil society revolts in the Middle East and then predicting how the Islamists would try to control them. Phares was attacked by an army of Jihadist militia online like no author since Samuel Huntington in the 1990s. As a freedom activist from the Middle East, Mustafa Geha, wrote, Phares is a hero to Muslim liberals. Along with dissidents, lawmakers, experts, and human rights activists, Phares is a force driving for a strategic change in US foreign policy towards supporting secular democracies in the region. This explains why the Islamists of America are fighting the battle for the forthcoming regimes with all the means they have.

Dr. Essam Abdallah is an Egyptian liberal intellectual who teaches at Ain Shams University and writes for the leading Arab liberal publication Elaph.

Original Piece: http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=53331&pageid=44&pagename=Slices

Reposted: http://www.investigativeproject.org/3453/islamist-lobbies-washington-war-on-arab

Syrian Children Join the Anti-Assad Revolution in Ma'arat al-Nu'man, Syria

By Sam Bazzi

February 16, 2012

Children from Ma'arat al-Nu'man, Idlib Governorate, Syria, joined the revolution against the Assad regime.

In this is video clip, posted by the Syrian opposition on YouTube, a girl standing among a group of about 20 children from Ma'arat al-Nu'man, a city in the Idlib Governorate, announced "We the children of Ma'arat al-Nu'man announce our defection from our schools and abandonment of our toys/games to join the Free [Syrian] Army and protect our people/families ― this after the whole world failed to protect or offer a helping hand to them."

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is the main armed opposition group fighting against Bashar al-Assad's Alawite-dominated Iranian-allied Baathist regime. The FSA consists of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel and civilians who have joined them.

The girl in the video further added, "The world should not blame us because we cannot sit cross-armed [idly] while we watch the blood of our people being spilled before our eyes. We have the right to defend our childhood, which was forsaken by the beastly al-Assad army."

The girl also condemned Russia for thwarting a United Nations resolution calling upon al-Assad to resign. Said she "And we say to Russia: our blood will not forgive you. Shame on you for supplying al-Assad with weapons, which are tearing our bodies. In light of the shameful international silence we have decided to carry weapons to protect our people and ourselves."

In reality, the FSA does not field child soldiers. These kids were only making a political appeal while carrying plastic toy guns and knives. They are in fact too young to be able to fire weapons. Obviously, their message is directed at their fellow Arabs from the Gulf countries and international sympathizers to entice them to help the Syrian Revolution.

The girl further added "We say to the dictatorial regime of Bashar: have you not had enough of our blood that you bomb us with tanks and artillery? You shall fall, you shall fall, like it or not, even if you bomb us with airplanes, for we are willing to sacrifice our lives for our defense and the victory of our revolution."

The message of the girl carried a very strong Islamic religious tone as she opened her announcement with a Quranic recitation: "And against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of God and your enemies." (Quran: 8:60)

The children concluded their video message with three collective invocations of "Allahu Akbar" ― Arabic for "God is Greater."

Indeed, God is greater than Bashar al-Assad, the Hezbollah terrorist Hassan Nasrallah and the Tyrant of Tehran Ali Khamenei ― all enemies of the Syrian Revolution and of freedom and liberty.

بشار: "إرحل عنا، ما بنحبك!"

To Bashar, from the children of Ma'arat al-Nu'man: "Leave us, we do not love you!"

Sam Bazzi is the director of the Islamic Counteterrorism Institute. He blogs at sambazzi.com

http://islamiccounterterrorism.org/story/syrian-children-join-anti-assad-revolution-maarat-al-numan-syria

Is Iran Behind the Death of its Own Scientists?

By Emanuele Ottolenghi

Commentary Magazine

02.16.2012

The way attacks were conducted against the car of an Israeli diplomat’s wife in Delhi has contributed to an interesting, if disconcerting theory among pundits. Iran’s wave of attacks against Israeli targets is tit-for-tat against what are presumed to be Israeli-sponsored assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists inside Iran. Ian Black in the Guardian, for example, wrote two days ago that:

“The use in Delhi of a sticky bomb attached to an Israeli embassy vehicle by a man riding a motorbike seemed to mimic the modus operandi used by Israel’s agents in Tehran. Hints, surely, do not come much heavier than that?”

Black also refers to the Newsweek report that Michael Rubin and Jonathan Tobin also discussed, which suggested that Israel may be conducting false flag operations inside Iran by relying on the much-despised Mujahedin al-Khalq opposition group.

In short, the inference is that Israel had it coming and the Iranian intelligence operatives involved have a well-developed sense of humor, if they chose to use the same method Israeli proxies relied upon to kill Iranian scientists.

The likelihood of Israel conducting such operations inside Iran is, in fact, quite low. Israel has not had an intelligence presence inside Iran since 1979. Running an intelligence operation that can track down scientists in heavy morning traffic and disappear without a trace requires vast human resources. And Israelis, quite simply put, do not run false flag operations. Israel may have an interest in killing Iranian scientists – although Israel is not alone in that. But responsibility is also a matter of capabilities, not just presumed intentions.

Presuming Iranian responsibility for the Delhi, as well as the Tbilisi and Bangkok hits earlier this week, what then can we conclude about the use of the same technique – a magnet bomb stuck on the car by a passing motorcycle?

As Potkin Azarmehr, a brilliant Iranian blogger and journalist based in the UK suggests, the hand behind the assassinations in Iran may just as likely be the regime’s.

Potkin reviews the four hits and offers some useful insights on why the four individuals were unlikely to be targets for Israel but may have been likely targets for the regime:

1. Professor Ali Mohammadi, killed in front of his home by a booby-trapped motorcycle parked outside, was a public supporter of the Green Movement and a member of a regional science project to which Israeli scientists also participated. He taught quantum physics: “It stretches the imagination to assume the Islamic Republic of Iran would include one of its key nuclear weapon/power scientists, who could be a possible target for assassination by Western agencies, on this SESAME project, where he would regularly meet in conferences with colleagues from other countries, including Israel.” An assassin, Jamal Fash, was paraded on TV, but the “TV confessions of Jamali Fash were full of contradictions and it later emerged that he was an ardent pro-Ahmadinejad devotee and a kickboxer member of the national team.”

2. Professor Majid Shahriari, killed on November 29, 2010, was a member of the same regional project alongside Ali Mohammadi. Potkin notes that “There was no appeal made by the state for the public to come forward as witnesses and until now no one has been arrested or charged with his murder. I have come across one eyewitness myself however. A former employee of the interior ministry, who saw the whole thing and told me it bore all the hallmarks of an Iranian regime hit squad.”

3. Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani survived an attempt a few minutes after Shahriari was killed and was later appointed as head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. This guy was clearly linked to the program but, as Potkin helpfully notes, “Footage of Abbassi Davani’s car shown afterwards, show a few bullet holes on the bonnet and windscreen and unlike Shahriari’s car, his car was not blown up. If these assassinations were the work of highly sophisticated Western/Israeli sent hit squads, how is it that a theoretical research physicist not on the sanctions list is eliminated so efficiently but the more obvious target who is clearly connected to the nuclear program and is on the sanctions list, is not even hurt?”

4. Dariush Rezaei Nejad was murdered as he waited for his daughter at kindergarten on July 23, 2011. He is the namesake of a nuclear scientist, but he himself was an electrical engineering master student. His Wikipedia entry tells us that “At the time of his killing he was described by officials as a ‘nuclear scientist’ and an academic associated with Iran’s atomic activities, but days later as a postgraduate electrical engineering masters student at Tehran’s K.N.Toosi University of Technology, who was waiting to defend his thesis.” Potkin weighed in on this by adding that “He even had a Facebook page and on his Facebook page, he had included the dissident Iranian singer, Shajarian, as one of his favorites. It is unthinkable that an Iranian scientist connected with Iran’s nuclear program would have a Facebook page which shared his friends and family and their photos.”

It is, of course, just a theory – although information extracted from the Iranian suspects arrested in Bangkok and Delhi may offer additional insights.

But killing its own expendable ordinary citizens – especially if they belong to the opposition or see no evil in participating in joint research projects with Israeli scientists – is in keeping with the Iranian regime’s moral standards. And given the similarity of the technique used, I at least am inclined to believe Iran had a hand in killing its own people and then spinning the murders for its propaganda war with the West.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/02/16/iran-death-of-scientists/

Iran as Victim? University of San Francisco's Stephen Zunes Thinks So

by Cinnamon Stillwell and Rima Greene

FrontPage Magazine

February 16, 2012

A crowd of would-be revolutionaries gathered last month at Revolution Books in Berkeley to hear Stephen Zunes—chair of the program in Middle Eastern studies and professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco—speak on a panel with the improbable title, "U.S.-Israeli Assault on Iran Escalates: The Danger of War Grows." The title originated with an article by co-panelist Larry Everest, author and correspondent for Revolution, the newspaper for the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, an organization whose cult of personality revolves around well-known Stalinist Bob Avakian. Fittingly, event posters on the walls sported slogans such as "Re-visioning Socialism" and "Another World is Possible," and the shelves were filled with books by Avakian and other communists.

Revolution Books inhabits a choice retail location just blocks from the University of California, Berkeley campus, and in contrast with other events featuring left-wing academics whose talks are assigned to students, the audience in this instance was largely middle-aged to elderly. Spanish speakers provided simultaneous translations in the rear seats, producing a continuous background hum, while a very casually dressed woman entered, radio to her ear, listening to President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address.

All who entered were handed a copy of Revolution along with a flier for International A.N.S.W.E.R.'s then-forthcoming "national day of action" in San Francisco, which trumpeted the do-nothing rallying cry, "No War on Iran, No Sanctions, No Interventions, No Assassinations!" Like the rally to come, the atmosphere at Revolution Books was fiercely anti-American, anti-Israel, and apologetic towards, even supportive of, the Iranian regime.

In a nod to the setting, Zunes proclaimed at the outset, "I'm not a communist," but his repetitive references to "imperialists" demonstrated his familiarity with leftist jargon. He elaborated: "A lot of what I'm going to say overlaps, but I am coming from a slightly different angle."

Affirming the contention of the preceding speaker, Larry Everest, that the Iranian regime had allegedly given up pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003 according to a 2007—and later discredited—National Intelligence Estimate, Zunes added, "No one who is intellectually honest could disagree with your analysis." Was International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano intellectually dishonest when he stated last month that the IAEA, "has credible information that Iran is engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosives"?

Zunes reiterated a position he took in a 2009 article—on the heels of Iran's stolen election—titled, "Why U.S. Neocons Want Ahmadinejad to Win":

What's important is that Neocons and the imperialists in this country want the green revolution crushed. They need each other to justify the kinds of policies the U.S. imperialists want.

This logic, such as it is, concludes that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provides a handy excuse for so-called warmongers in the U.S. to block the Obama administration's diplomatic overtures to Iran. Such a conspiracy theory ignores the fact that Neoconservatives and others on the right were strong critics of the Obama administration's refusal to offer moral support to the green revolution at its outset.

Zunes insisted that U.S. intervention only inspires the Iranian people to side with their government:

Everyone emphasizes the Islamic characteristics of Iran, but what's really kept the regime in power is nationalism. The Iranians are the most nationalistic people in the entire world . . . it's something the regime can capitalize on when it hears these threats [of sanctions]. What we don't hear in the media is that the opposition supports the government in its conflict with the U.S. They oppose U.S. intervention.

Yet dissident voices within Iran continue to express disgust with the regime and a lack of animosity towards the U.S. For instance, a young Iranian woman who corresponds regularly with American journalist Michael Yon recently sent him the following:

To make the long story short, people in Iran, not just youth, hate the government and want to move out of the country as soon as they can. . . . The Iranians do not hate you nor do they hate ur [sic] government. This is all the media. . . . No one is against you here except for those on the government's side.

Iranian exiles who were tortured in Iran's Evin Prison provided letters and live testimony at the UN Watch-organized event, "We Have A Dream: Global Summit Against Discrimination and Persecution," held in September, 2011 to coincide with the United Nations 66^th Session of the General Assembly. To no avail, the organizers begged the international community to intervene.

Of such voices, Zunes had nothing to say, and he casually discounted Iranian exiles living in the U.S., many of whom fear for their lives:

There have been some U.S.-funded opposition groups. Most of these are tied to exiles who have virtually no support inside the country, no impact on uprisings . . . there have been all sorts of sordid interventions . . . you have a few wannabes in the exile community, particularly in L.A.

As for the Iranian regime's threats to annihilate Israel, Zunes blithely assured the audience that:

Iran is not going to nuke Israel. Get real. It's a repressive regime, but they are not suicidal. Israel has massive deterrents as does the US and other allies.

This would come as news to the Iranian mullahs, who are adherents to Mahdism, the apocalyptic belief in the return of the twelfth Imam who, at the end of times, will wage war against unbelievers and the forces of evil and establish a worldwide Islamic state. Might a nuclear conflict with Israel spark such a fanatical scenario? Zunes never raised the question.

Echoing a well-worn canard originated by University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole, Zunes claimed:

And by the way, Ahmadinijad, he's really hardcore, he's anti-Semitic, but he never said 'Israel should be wiped off the map.' That idiom doesn't even exist in Farsi. What he's doing is quoting Ayatollah Khamenei from twenty years ago. . . . What he said was the regime occupying Jerusalem should 'vanish from the pages of time'. . . . Ahmadinejad clarified that in a later interview. He's talking about a unified Palestine. He's not talking about killing the Jews . . . he's talking about regime change.

Zunes might want to consult Nazila Fathi of the New York Times Tehran bureau, who provided a translation of Ahmadinejad's October 26, 2005 speech at "The World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran—the source of the quote in question. His exact words were: "Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement." In addition, and as noted by Iran expert Michael Rubin, "the Islamic Republic provides its own clarification. In its official translations, it headlined Ahmadinejad's call to 'wipe Israel off the map.'" The Iranian regime's genocidal incitement can been seen on propaganda billboards across the country and heard in countless statements from officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who recently called Israel a "'cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut." It doesn't get much clearer than that.

Zunes claimed that a potential attack on Israel is not up to Ahmadinejad because, as he put it, "He's not the commander-in-chief. It's up to the Guardian Council—a committee—and as a rule committees don't go for crazy provocative acts."

Apparently, a committee would never try to: assassinate a Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C.; kill its own nuclear scientists for talking to the IAEA; use its proxy, Hezbollah, to blow up U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut; kidnap the entire U.S. embassy staff; bomb a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires; attempt to take over Lebanon; terrorize and assassinate Iranian dissidents in other countries; supply weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah; help train the 9/11 terrorists; nor order all Muslims worldwide to kill a writer for alleged blasphemy. Yet all of this was done in the name of the Khomeinist Islamic revolution.

Zunes referred to the current scenario in which Israel, according to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's recent statement to the media, could attack Iran's nuclear facilities in the spring, by asking if,

Israel [would] do something on its own? Obama has made clear he would not tolerate that. You saw Eisenhower in 1956 . . . when it comes down to real important national security issues, Israel can't change U.S. policies. But even if they don't plan to go to war, we prepare and threaten war . . . it makes it difficult to stop.

In Zunes's mind, the U.S. and Israel are always the instigators of war, rather than the bellicose Iranian regime that has terrorized not only its own population, but much of the civilized world. He would do better to direct his closing call to "prevent another war in the Middle East" to Tehran.

Berkeley resident Rima Greene co-wrote this article with Cinnamon Stillwell, the West Coast Representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. She can be reached at stillwell@meforum.org.

NB: If you wish to make your views known to the administration of the University of San Francisco, you may contact the office of the president, the Rev. Stephen A. Privett, S.J., at:

Email: president@usfca.edu

Telephone: (415) 422-6762

Fax: (415) 422-2303

The office of the board of trustees may be contacted at:

Tel: (415) 422-6712

Fax: (415) 422-2303

Original Post:

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/16/iran-as-victim-stephen-zunes-thinks-so/

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/12069

Syrian Democratic Coalition: Syrian People are paying for Western inaction with their lives

Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Syrian People are paying for Western inaction with their lives

Obama administration needs to lead the world in providing direct aid to the Syrian people to stop the genocide in Syria

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977

PHOENIX (February 14, 2012) – Dr. Zuhdi Jasser on behalf of the Syrian Democratic Coalition released the following statement regarding the escalating humanitarian crisis in Syria and the inability of the Obama administration to lead the world with a coherent strategy and action to directly aid the Syrian people in their quest for freedom rather than simply words:

“After over a year of demonstrations and over 7,000 Syrian men, women and children killed by Assad’s killing machine for simply wanting their freedom, it seems that there is no end in sight to the brutality of Bashar al-Assad and his military and no hope from the West or the UN for navigating a path forward for a Syria free of tyranny.

Bizarrely the United States and its western allies seem to be following the lead of the Arab League and its friends at the United Nations, cliques of autocrats often no better than Assad himself rather than lead free nations and immediately implement a clear strategy to end Assad’s regime. Britain’s foreign minister William Hague essentially took western intervention off of the table when he flatly stated ‘I don't see the way forward in Syria as being western boots on the ground in any form, including in any peacekeeping form.’ Few are actually calling for “boots on the ground” but a Kosovo style solution with targeted bombing of military facilities and armamentarium would have essentially the same impact it did against the Serbs for the Bosnians giving in this case the Free Syria Army room and momentum to gain position, time, and safe zones. Hague’s comments seem to rather reflect a raising of the white flag in the face of determined opposition from Iran, Russia, China, and of course Syria itself.

The US’s attempt to bring together “Friends of Syria” is admirable but only one component of what should be a far more forward and comprehensive strategy to bring down the Assad regime and help foster a genuine transition toward democracy. The paralysis of the US and the West due to a fear of what may come next, sentences the Syrian people to their current miserable condition and bloodshed at the hands of the Baathist butchers in control of the Syrian military. Any transition will be messy but let us not let fear of change become accomplices in a horrific genocide occurring in towns across Syria. In the last week alone the city of Homs has seen continued shelling of neighborhoods, daily death tolls in the hundreds and an attempt to smother a town into silence by cutting off food, water and electricity.

There is no excuse whatsoever in 2012 for massacres like Homs to occur with inaction from the US and the free world. Shortsightedness may paralyze our weak leaders but in the end once the Syrians have rid themselves of Assad and all of his corrupt military leaders enacting kill orders across their nation against their own people, they will not forget how little the US openly did inside Syria to counter the forces of evil in Syria. If we have any desire to bring liberty to Syria rather than see it become Islamist, American soft power and some hard power must be utilized or all the Syrian people will know is how we sat silent as Iran, Russia, China, and Hizballah armed the Syrian military and they were aided only by a few Arab League nations. This is not the American legacy our families came to the US knowing and loving.

A Kosovo style solution with bombing, military air support, black ops and intelligence support, humanitarian aid, border aid with safe zones, genuine economic isolation through comprehensive sanctions (in addition to sanctions against direct Syrian supporters ie. Russia, China, Iran, and Lebanon) is possible and the only genuine support that will be in any way meaningful to the Syrian people. Any other so-called support with repeated diplomatic meetings, delay tactics, empty statements at press conferences is empty and transparently useless. The Syrian people know who is coming to their aid and who is not.

When Jay Carney on the behalf of the White House stated last week that the ‘right solution is a political solution’ for Syria this demonstrates such a profound ineptness and inability to articulate and understand the evil that is Assad and his military leadership that the US has fallen to an all-time low in its reliability in defending liberty abroad.

American diplomacy has taken a tragic turn when it is the UN’s Ban Ki Moon who is advocating the loudest for the freedom seeking people of Syria. Strategically Syria represents our greatest opportunity against the Iranian crescent of control through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. As an ethnically and religiously diverse nation Syria stands as the Arab nation ultimately most likely to arise out of both secular fascism and Islamist fascism.

Our inaction is being paid for with the lives of the Syrian people. The Security Council gridlock will do nothing to change the situation on the ground.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov told a news conference that ‘We should first have peace,’ before we agree to the Arab League proposal. Hypocritically the Russians are best suited to bring that peace by ceasing the arming and fueling of Assad’s military. The Syrian government does not make its own weapons. The United States needs to step away from the table at the UN and stop grasping at straws for a solution and seize the opportunity to lead for there to be any hope for change within the Middle East.”

About Syrian Democratic Coalition

The Syrian Democratic Coalition (SDC) is an emerging coalition of diverse Syrian organizations coming together to help bring an end to the Assad regime and promote the transformation of Syria into a secular democracy based in liberty... The coalition is founded upon a belief in the separation of religion from state and is dedicated to establishing a new constitution and transparent federal republic in Syria, based in reason that equally protects minority rights, promotes gender equality, and embraces the rights and liberties of every individual as enumerated in the United Nations Declaration for Human Rights. This growing coalition crosses all ethnic, religious and tribal lines to represent all Syrians.  It currently includes members of Save Syria Now!, the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, the Union of Syrian Arab Tribes and the Christian Democratic Movement.

####

25 Bahman, Iran: Protesters Against the Regime in the Streets of Tehran

From Freedom Messenger: https://www.facebook.com/Freedom.Messenger

All the videos (except one that is the night protest) are from year 2011, the same goes for the pictures, which are from year 2010

Videos & Pictures Below, with Article:

Burning Pictures of Khomeini: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrlY65U1kuw



Anti-Regime Protesters in the Streets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kugKt8L7Uhg



Military Police Attack Peoples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx3zeV3kBW0



Nightly Protest from Rooftops - "Death to Dictator!" and "God is Great!":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhbmNWVR3TQ

http://www.kanoonjb.com/2010-11-18-07-56-03/14565--25--------------.html

http://hra-news.org/00/11357-1.html

http://www.kanoonjb.com/2010-11-18-07-56-03/14567--25--------------.html

http://www.kanoonjb.com/2010-11-18-07-56-03/14564--25---------.html

Security forces begin arrests on 25 Bahman

According to reports on “Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran.”The central parts of Tehran has been occupied with military garrison in the central streets of the city and large forces have been deployed…

Despite the unprecedented deployment of heavy forces in the central streets of Tehran, the people especially the younger generation are present at the scenes and preparing to start the protests.

The security forces have started to arrest people in fear of being attacked. It has been reported that over 6 people have been arrested where 3 were women. These military forces are acting in an inhumane way were they beat and arrest anyone they suspect.

Eyewitnesses claim that the amount of forces are much higher than last year’s event were the forces use their cars to create a blocking chain.

But the people are determined to continue shouting freedom slogans in order to break this power games by the Iranian regime.

Human Rights and DemocracyActivists in Iran

February 14, 2012 / 25 Bahman 1390

http://www.freedomessenger.com/archives/46698

Fifth Revolutionary Guard Commander Dies of Heart Attack

By Reza Kahlili

Pajamas Media

The Iranian State media just announced that another high ranking Revolutionary Guard commander, Ahmad Sodagar, has died of a heart attack.

Sodagar, a major general, had served as the head of security and intelligence of the Guards’ Khatam-al-Anbia Base and was the chief commander of the Guards’ Prophet Mohammad Division. He had served in the Iran-Iraq war and, at the time of his death, was the head of the program “Defaeh Moghadas” or Holy Defense.

This is the fifth Guard commander to die because of a heart attack or stroke in the past month.

Those reported to have died before him were:

Vafa Ghafarian (52), a senior Guard officer, former senior manager of the Guards defense industry and electronic warfare, and the active chairman of Iran’s telecommunications. It was announced that he died due to illness, although the exact cause of death was not reported.

Abbas Mehri (52), another senior commander of the Guards, was reported by the Iranian authorities to have died in recent days of a stroke.

Ahmad Siafzadeh (55), former head of the Guards University died in recent days due to heart attack.

Mansour Torkan (50), former Guard commander and general manager of a company affiliated with the municipal office of Tehran. The cause of his death was announced as a stroke.

As reported before, a “Removal Committee” was formed recently by the order of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The agenda of this committee is based on the possibility of war with the United States. Its mission includes sabotage and assassination before the war, during the war and after the war.

The activities also include “accidental” deaths of opposition members, “suspicious deaths” of those commanders within the Iranian armed forces opposing war, and terrorizing known personalities not in line with Khamenei, then blaming it all on the regime’s enemies. Bombings in public places would again be blamed on the enemies to heighten fear among the populace and consolidate power within loyal forces.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award winning book, A Time to Betray. He is a senior Fellow with EMPact America and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA)

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/02/10/fifth-revolutionary-guard-commander-dies-of-heart-attack/

Iran Aids Assad in Blood Bath

Report: Assad's family attempts to escape Syria - Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=255681

Report: Iran Quds Forces March into Syria - Reza Kahlili

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/02/07/report-iran-quds-forces-march-into-syria/

Syria: Iran Military Chief Said to be in War Room with Assad

p://www.ibtimes.com/articles/295040/20120208/iran-syria-homs-russia.htm

Syria: Iran's elite Quds force 'advising Assad regime'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9072798/Syria-Irans-elite-Quds-force-advising-Assad-regime.html

Egypt: Honoring religious freedom after 'Arab Spring'

Written by Leonard A. Leo and Elizabeth H. Prodromou

Friday, 10 February 2012

Leonard A. Leo and Elizabeth H. Prodromou
U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

National constitutions should recognize freedom of religion, thought, conscience, and belief as a universal right. 

National constitutions should also affirm that religious freedom includes the right to keep or to change one’s own religion or belief without coercion and to manifest it publicly, as well as to persuade others to change their beliefs or affiliations voluntarily.

As Egypt marks the first anniversary of Hosni Mubarak’s historic departure on February 11, urgent challenges await it and other Middle Eastern and North African states. From Tunisia to Egypt, elections raise hopes for democracy.

Yet the ballot box alone will not ensure the triumph of human rights and freedom over tyranny and oppression. What happens after the elections is as critical.

Will the rule of law be enforced? Will women’s rights be defined and protected? Will minority rights be respected? Will the full panoply of human rights be guaranteed under law and applied by government officials? Will the freedom of religion or belief be recognized as central to democracy? The answers to these questions will determine whether democracy will take hold.

None is more important than whether religious freedom will be protected. Studies show a positive correlation between this freedom and civil and political rights, economic liberty, and personal and national security -- and a negative correlation with social conflict and state violence and repression. Egypt’s frightening sectarian violence, threatening religious pluralism and religious minority communities, underscores these linkages.

One of the most crucial ways that elected leaders can bolster religious freedom and related rights is by enshrining them in their constitutions. It is not all that must be done, but it’s an essential first step. Egypt can set the standard. By protecting religious freedom, Egypt’s parliament can send a message to the region about the intrinsic linkages between this foundational right and broader liberties.

Elsewhere, Prime Minister Erdogan recently announced his government’s intent to proceed with long-delayed reforms to Turkey’s constitution. Jordan’s King Abdullah II is being pressed by political opposition parties for reforms to his country’s constitution. Bahrain’s King Hamad has met with opposition critical to recently-announced constitutional amendments. While contexts vary, such efforts must ensure that international standards are respected in constitutional drafts. There are a number of key touchstones to consider.

First, national constitutions should recognize freedom of religion, thought, conscience, and belief as a universal right. By signing the UN Charter, each of the 193 member states of the United Nations concurred, as did the drafters of numerous international instruments, beginning with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Egypt and other nations should act accordingly through their own constitutions.

Constitutions must recognize religious freedom for individuals and communities alike. Each person’s freedom to hold and to manifest any religion or belief -- and, equally important, not to hold any religious belief -- should not be abridged, aside from exceptions spelled out in international law. Whether part of a religious minority or majority, whether an adherent of a traditional religion, a newer religion, or no religion, and whether a citizen or a non-citizen, every human being should possess the freedom of religion or belief.

Besides recognizing it as a universal right and empowering individuals and communities to exercise it, national constitutions should also affirm that religious freedom includes the right to keep or to change one’s own religion or belief without coercion and to manifest it publicly, as well as to persuade others to change their beliefs or affiliations voluntarily. Any limitations on these freedoms must be prescribed by narrowly construed law consistent with international agreements.

Finally, for countries declaring one religion as the official religion, religious freedom must be respected for all, without bias. Providing benefits to state religions not available to other faiths would constitute discrimination, as would excepting them from processes normally required for faith communities to establish legal personality.

As Egypt marks the one-year anniversary of Mubarak’s fall, its leaders can set an example by drafting a new national constitution that upholds these international legal standards for religious freedom. Such a constitution would enhance the prospect that democracy, marked by principles of equality and tolerance, takes root. To be sure, neither elections nor constitutions that respect religious freedom can guarantee democracy, but they are necessary steps along its path.

Leo and Prodromou serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Paul Liben at pliben@uscirf.gov or (703) 870-6041.


https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150669945269369&id=537079368

Syrian Christians for Democracy: "Stop Assad Now!"

For Immediate Release

Stop Assad Now!

4th of February, 2012

Press Contact:

Communications Director: George Stifo, 508-667-6599, George@syrian-christian.org
Executive Director: Ayman Abdelnour, 514-317-2744, ayman@syrian-christian.org

Syrian Christians for Democracy calls on the free world to condemn the vicious crimes committed by Assad’s forces tonight in different cities of Syria. The humanitarian situation is precarious and the sectarian peace is in peril. Civil war might become a reality if the International community does not act now to protect the Syrian people from their dictator.

Our organization is sickened by the 200 innocent Syrians who were killed by Assad’s death squads and a canon barrage targeting their homes. The death toll is expected to be higher in the morning hours. The Assad media arm is propagating that the initiator of this new offensive is the Christian minister of defense, General Daoud Ragha, who was appointed to his current position last march when the revolution started, albeit all outside observers know that in Syria, the military orders come straight from Assad’s palace.

Therefore, we solemnly ask the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to take immediate legal action against the Syrian Army field officers, their general commander and his deputy Daoud Ragha.

The impact of this desperate act of resistance might tear up the Syrian social fabric and plunge the country in a violent period of sectarian strife.

Syrian Christians for Democracy
2300 M Street NW, Suite 800

Washington, DC 20037
Office phone: +1 202 973 2800
email: scd@syrian-christian.org

website: www.syrian-christian.org
501(c)3 – nonprofit organization

http://syrian-christian.org/scd-press-release-04022012-stop-assad-now/

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https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s2034

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http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rm/176948.htm