Muslim Adviser 'Blocks Obama Meeting With Christian Leader'

From World Net Daily:

An influential Muslim adviser to the White House who has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood has succeeded in canceling a meeting between President Obama and the leader of the persecuted Maronite church in Lebanon, according to the Beirut news agency el Nashra

The Arabic-language report cited an unnamed U.S. source who said Dahlia Mogahed [pictured], "the highest adviser on Arab and Islamic Affairs in the State Department," sought to block a White House meeting with Patriarch Beshara Rahi, according to a translation by blogger El Cid at BigPeace.com.

The report said the move heeded a request by top leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt who want the U.S. to back the Islamist Sunni movement opposing Iranian Shiite influence in the region.

Maronites number about 1 million in Lebanon and more than 10 millions worldwide. About 1.5 million are in the U.S.

Along with her role on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Mogahed is a member of the advisory council of the Department of Homeland Security. She has testified before the Senate on engagement with the Muslim community. She is senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where she led major surveys of Muslims worldwide that routinely concluded the vast majority of Muslims are moderate.

Fight back against CAIR's attack on First Amendment by making a contribution to WND's "Legal Defense Fund." Donations of $25 or more entitle you to free copy of "Muslim Mafia" – the book so devastating to CAIR the group is trying to ban it.

Mogahed was a leading voice in the Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement that issued a 153-page advisory report calling for dialogue with Hamas and engagement with opposition parties in Egypt, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

The U.S. director of national intelligence, James Clapper, drew attention in February when he characterized the Muslim Brotherhood as "largely secular."

The Brotherhood, however, which was banned under Egypt's Mubarak regime, states in its charter that it is an "international Muslim Body, which seeks to establish Allah's law in the land by achieving the spiritual goals of Islam and the true religion." Furthermore, the prosecution of the Hamas-financing scheme in Texas two years ago presented evidence of the Brotherhood's aim to destroy Western civilization from within and establish an Islamic society under the rule of the Quran.

The terror-finance trial also presented evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood's lobbying in Washington is being carried out by front groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

CAIR and MPAC, the BigPeace.com blogger noted, are pushing to eliminate any intelligence analysis focused on jihadist violence, particularly against the Christian communities in the Middle East.

Coptic Solidarity International, which advocates for Coptic Christians in Egypt who have endured increased persecution from fundamentalist Muslims under the new regime, also have unsuccessfully tried to obtain meetings at the White House or with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Iraqi Christians have been ignored, as well, despite the many massacres against Assyrian Christians in the country over the past two years, according to BigPeace.com. Administration officials have declined invitations to speak at the annual Assyrian convention this year...

Read more here.

12 Americans Die As Blast Hits Bus In Afghanistan

From the New York Times:

At least 12 Americans were killed when a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked an armored shuttle bus in Kabul on Saturday, military officials said.

The bombing was the single deadliest assault on Americans in the capital since the war began, military officials said, and follows brazen Taliban attacks on the American Embassy and NATO headquarters in the city last month.

A Western defense official said at least four of the dead Americans were G.I.’s and the rest were contract workers; a Canadian soldier and four Afghans were also reported to be killed.

The attack Saturday and the other high-profile assaults are seen as a shift in Taliban strategy as the militants struggle against a surge in American troops that has loosened their grip on the Taliban heartland in the south and compromised their ability to stage more conventional attacks on NATO forces.

American officials see the latest assaults as the Taliban’s attempt to shake confidence in the Afghan government, which has been taking over security from NATO in Kabul and other areas of the country.

NATO has been laboring to highlight advances in Afghanistan as the Obama administration faces mounting budget problems and pressure to keep to a timetable that envisions most forces leaving in 2014. But the attacks underscore the resilience of the Taliban and NATO’s difficulties in keeping militants from attacking even the heavily guarded capital.

Officials initially reported that all of those reported to have died aboard the bus Saturday were soldiers, but NATO later said five were members of the military and eight were contractors. The precise number and nationalities of the dead remained uncertain Saturday night.

A Western defense official confirmed that one Canadian soldier was killed but said it was uncertain whether the Canadian was included in NATO’s count of dead service members.

The attack on the bus, known as a Rhino because of its heavy armor, took place on Darulaman Road, which is often traveled by military trainers from NATO bases in downtown Kabul to the Kabul Military Training Center.

The force of the blast tossed the bus several yards, according to Afghan police at the scene. One witness, a taxi driver, said that the bus was lying on its side, completely blackened, and that it appeared to have crushed some of the dead Afghan civilians.

Only one person on the bus appeared to have survived the blast, according to NATO officials, but that person’s condition was considered grave.

The attack was one of four in the last two days on allied forces and government offices, including one on Saturday in which an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on the Australian troops he was working with, killing three.

In a sign of the continued tensions between Americans and their Afghan allies, President Hamid Karzai issued a statement condemning the Kabul attack, but did not note the loss of American military lives. “The enemies of Afghanistan carried out a dastardly and cowardly attack that caused sorrow for some Afghan families,” he said.

Mr. Karzai’s comments angered American officials in Kabul already bitter over his statement last Sunday that Afghanistan would back Pakistan in any war with the United States — one in a series of pronouncements that might be intended for domestic consumption but raise fears about Mr. Karzai’s steadfastness as an ally.

Saturday’s attack in Kabul was not only the war’s deadliest in the city for Americans, it was also the first time in a year and a half that United States forces suffered significant casualties from an insurgent attack in the normally safe capital. On May 18, 2010, five Americans and one Canadian were killed when their convoy was struck by a suicide bomber. That attack also took place on Darulaman Road, very close to the scene of Saturday’s carnage.

Kabul has been viewed as relatively safe, compared to large tracts of rural Afghanistan where the Taliban are very active. But the recent spectacular assaults have begun to whittle away at that notion.

Ryan C. Crocker, the United States ambassador, called the deaths Saturday “a huge loss.”

“Our deepest sympathies go out to their comrades and families, but it will not deter us from our mission,” he said. “It’s a shock, but we will not let these guys win.”

The deaths represented the largest loss of American lives in Afghanistan since 30 Americans died in an attack on a helicopter Aug. 6.

Darulaman Road, where Saturday’s attack occurred, is a wide highway that is heavily traveled. Several military facilities, as well as Parliament, are along it.

“Obviously, the Rhinos ferry soldiers back and forth on that road, and while they vary their times and so forth, that is a road you can cruise up and down waiting for them to come,” a Western military official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the attack.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility, saying that a suicide bomber named Abdul Rahman Hazarbos drove a vehicle with 1,500 pounds of explosives into a bus carrying foreign military trainers, killing all aboard. He claimed 25 NATO soldiers were killed.

Such attacks in Kabul in the past have been attributed to the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based group aligned with the Taliban and, according to American officials, supported by that country’s intelligence service. Efforts to block the infiltration of Haqqani militants into Afghanistan from their bases in Pakistan have been a major recent focus of an American offensive.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Sediq Sediqi, said that the Afghan dead included a policeman and three civilians, two of them students, who had been passers-by.

The separate attack on the Australians on Saturday took place in the Nish district of Kandahar Province, at a forward operating base used by the troops to train the Afghan National Army. Gen. Abdul Hameed, the commander of the Afghan National Army’s 205th Corps, said an Afghan Army trainee opened fire on his Australian trainers, killing three of them as well as an Afghan interpreter.

At least nine others were wounded, General Hameed said, seven of them Australians.

“We don’t know the cause of this shooting yet, and we are investigating,” he said. “We have no idea whether he was motivated by the Taliban or killed the foreign soldiers for some other reason.”

Other Afghan soldiers killed the attacker, he said.

A statement by the NATO-led forces said two ISAF service members were killed in the attack, along with the attacker.

Also on Saturday, a young woman suicide bomber on foot attacked government offices in eastern city of Asadabad, wounding four, according to the chief of security for Kunar Province, Abdul Sabor Allayar. Guards at the Afghan intelligence service spotted the woman, who was wearing a burqa, and shot her to death before she could get close enough to cause much harm, he said.

On Friday, insurgents attacked a NATO and Afghan military convoy in eastern Nangarhar Province on Friday, said an ISAF spokesman, Sgt. First Class Michael Montello, and 30 attackers were killed in an ensuing gunfight and airstrikes. He said none of the dead were civilians.

However, Shinwari tribal elders from the village where the attack took place told a markedly different story. They said the fighting started over a land dispute with Afghan authorities. A tribal elder, Malik Amin Azimi, said that when the authorities tried to remove villagers from the area, they resisted and the Afghans brought in NATO troops, leading to the deaths of many civilians.

In Khost, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a car on Friday night, killing four of the occupants, all of them drivers for NATO supply vehicles, said Col. Zeyarat Gul Azans, spokesman for the Khost police chief.

France: Muslims Stone Catholic Festival-Goers

From Jihad Watch:

Will the Islamophobia never end? Eurabia Update: "Muslims Stone Catholic Festival-Goers in France," by Cheradenine Zakalwe at Islam Versus Europe, October 29 (thanks to Jack):

Muslims have attacked Christians attending a Catholic celebration in southern France.

The Joyeuse Union Don Bosco [Joyous Union Don Bosco] takes places in Nîmes, at the Sanctuary of Our Lady the Virgin of Santa Cruz, built by French people repatriated from the Algerian city of Oran following Algerian independence. These people were driven out of the place they grew up by Muslim aggression. Now they face it in France too!

After a day of welcoming and reunions, around 7 pm, the participants were leaving in their cars and vehicles when "young Arab immigrants" from the city started to throw stones at the vehicles descending from the sanctuary.

The local police, whose station is in this area, were immediately notified and the event organisers had to arrange a diversion to another route to protect the occupants of the vehicles from the savage attacks which continued.

As for the press, other than a brief honest article in "la Provence", there was no mention of the "intifada" (war of stones) attacks against the Christian religious community at Nîmes.

...it would seem that the media silence on these facts, which are occurring more and more frequently, serves to exonerate, even protect, the Muslims in their racist and anti-religious acts.

Sounds like the U.S., where as far as the mainstream media is concerned, actual hatred and supremacism is portrayed as righteous victimhood, and freedom fighting is depicted as "hatred" and "bigotry."

Pakistan: Christian Farm Workers Abducted By Muslim Landowners For Money In Faisalabad

From Asia News:

The Masih brothers worked on land owned by the Dogar family. The latter are Muslim and some of its members used to get drunk and beat the tenants. When Asif and Khadim decided to quit, they were abducted. Nothing has been known about their fate since September. The authorities have not investigated the matter because one of the Dogars is a policeman.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – Nothing is known of two Christian brothers from Faisalabad (Punjab) who were seized by the Muslim landowning family that employed them. The two disappeared on 14 September. Since then, “We have no idea where they are, whether they are dead or alive,” their mother told AsiaNews. A money dispute between the two Christian farm workers and their Muslim landlords is at the root of their abduction. Police have not yet opened a First Information Report because one of the landlords is a police officer.

Asif Masih, 23, known as Kali, and Khadim Masih, 35, come from a poor Christian family living in Chak 71, Jaranwala District, Faisalabad. They worked for 2,500 Pakistani rupees (US$ 29) a month for three Muslim landowners, policeman Javed Dogar and his brothers Sajjad Dogar and Rauf Dogar, who hail from Khurrianwala.

The mother of the two Christian brothers, Basheeran Bibi, said her sons had borrowed 20,000 rupees from the landowners, and were paying the loan back every month, out of their salary.

However, working for the Dogars was getting harder and harder. Although Muslims, they were often drunk and brutally beat the two Christians for no apparent reason.

When they found out, the parents of the Masih brothers suggested they pay off the debt and quit. This sparked an angry reaction from the Dogars who stormed the Masih home where they roughed up Niamat, the brothers’ father, who has a heart ailment. After that, they abducted the two brothers in September asking for a ransom of 70,000 rupees, plus the remainder of the debt.

The men’s mother tried to file a report with police, which refused because one of the suspects is a fellow police officer.

“Disputes between landowners and tenant farmers are commonplace in the area,” Fr Augustine, a priest in Faisalabad who provides financial and moral help to families, told AsiaNews. A serious and impartial inquiry should be conducted into the affair. “Farm workers are poor,” he explained. “They don’t have money to pay for legal action against landowners."

Malaysian Muslim Party Calls For Banning First Elton John Concert In Malaysia

From Jihad Watch:

Muslims not infrequently call for banning the concerts of 'infidel' performers, which closely hews with the Islamic script (and scripture). Islam calls for the destruction of many kinds of artistic expression, including, according to many hadiths, music. However, orthodox Muslims have shown a willingness to look the other way if a certain type of music advances the cause of Islam. But it's safe to say that the openly gay Elton John, who will soon sing in concert for the first time in Malaysia, will keep making Malaysian Muslims hopping mad. From AFP (via Google), "Call to ban Elton John Malaysia Concert", 25 October 2011:

KUALA LUMPUR — Members of an opposition Islamic party have called on Muslim-majority Malaysia to ban next month's concert by Elton John, saying Tuesday that the gay singer promotes "hedonism".

Shahril Azman Abdul Halim Al-Hafiz, an official with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), said the concert at the Genting Highlands resort on Nov. 22 would corrupt young Muslims because of John's homosexuality.

"It's not good. In Islam homosexuality is forbidden," he told AFP. "What he is doing is hedonism. Hedonism is not good in Islam."

The British singer is openly gay, marrying his partner in 2005 after same-sex unions were legalised in Britain.

Shahril is the chairman of the PAS youth wing of eastern Pahang state. The casino resort lies on the border of the state, about an hour's drive from the capital Kuala Lumpur.

An official from concert promoter Tune Live declined to comment.

But the show, part of John's "Greatest Hits Tour," is expected to go ahead in the resort. John will be singing in Singapore before he comes to Malaysia and then go on to Jakarta.

PAS often protests concert by Western acts, saying the artists promote a promiscuous lifestyle and corrupt youngsters' minds.

But despite protest threats, most concerts have gone ahead without incidents though performers had to abide by strict rules, barring them from bearing too much skin and kissing on stage.

Terrorist Attack Outside U.S. Embassy In Bosnia

In case you missed this... jihadists targeted U.S. embassy on Friday.

From the AP via The Salt Lake Tribune:

A man armed with hand grenades and an automatic weapon opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia Friday in what authorities called a terrorist attack. A policeman and the gunman were wounded, but the embassy said none of its employees was hurt.

Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen said the gunman "got off a tram with a Kalashnikov and started shooting at the American Embassy." Witnesses told Bosnian television that the man urged pedestrians to move away, saying he was targeting only the embassy.

He wore a beard and was dressed in an outfit with short pants that reveal his ankles — typical for followers of the conservative Wahhabi branch of Islam.

One police officer guarding the building was wounded before police surrounded the gunman. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and AP video showed the shooter slump to the ground.

Police arrested the wounded man — who one of Bosnia’s three presidents said is a foreigner — and took him away in an ambulance as pedestrians cowered behind buildings and vehicles. Hospital spokeswoman Biljana Jandric told The Associated Press the gunman had a minor wound to his leg, and would spend the night at the hospital before being released into police custody.

State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara identified the shooter as Mevlid Jasarevic, from Novi Pazar, the administrative capital of the southern Serbian region of Sandzak, who was tried in Austria for robbery in 2005.

Campara said Jasarevic had crossed the Serbian border into Bosnia Friday morning. He said Jasarevic had two hand grenades with him when he was arrested and is also currently under investigation by Serbian police, but did not detail why.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic confirmed his identity and said he is 23 years old. Bosnian TV said Jasarevic is a Wahhabi follower.

The Wahhabis are an extremely conservative branch which is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Western intelligence reports have alleged that the tense, impoverished area of Sandzak, along with Muslim-dominated regions in Bosnia, are rich ground for recruiting so-called "white al-Qaida" — Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or U.S. cities and carry out attacks.

The Islamic extremists joined Bosnia’s 1992-95 war for independence. They were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to late Serbia’s strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s quest to create "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said several bullets struck the outside wall of the embassy, but that all embassy personnel were safe. She said the wounded police officer had been assigned to protect the embassy. Ambassador Patrick Moon expressed his gratitude for the swift response by the police.

"Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with those who put their lives on the line to protect the embassy," Nuland told reporters.

Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia’s three presidents, issued a statement condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States."

"The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said.

Zeljko Komsic, chairman of Bosnia’s presidency, said told AP that authorities have not yet determined whether the attack "was the act of an individual, or something organized."

Pakistan Safe Havens Challenge U.S. Afghan Effort

From Reuters via Yahoo News:

Even as the United States begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, insurgents abetted by Pakistan pose the major threat to U.S.-led forces, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Security has improved in recent months and enemy attacks are down in Afghanistan compared to a year ago, the Pentagon said in a twice-annual report to the U.S. Congress.

NATO and Afghan forces largely "stunted" the Taliban's spring and summer offensive, although the insurgency remains adaptive and resilient, with a "significant regenerative capacity," the report said.

But attacks from across the eastern border were up because of the support the insurgency received from safe havens in Pakistan, it said.

"Safe havens in Pakistan remain the insurgency's greatest enabler," the report said. These havens have grown more "virulent" in recent months "and are the most significant risk" to NATO's campaign, it said.

The report comes as President Barack Obama's administration has begun pulling surge forces from Afghanistan -- withdrawing 10,000 this year and the remaining 23,000 by the end of September 2012.

Critics of Obama's plan fear it could undermine the progress surge troops have made and point to faltering security in attacks in Afghanistan's volatile east, along the porous border with Pakistan.

The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), which advises aid and other groups on security, warned this month that the war appeared to be "escalating, not diminishing."

The Pentagon said that recent high-profile attacks in Kabul, including a bold September 13 strike on the U.S. Embassy that rattled perceptions about security in the capital, were carried out by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and "directly enabled by Pakistan safe haven and support."

While high-profile attacks on "soft targets" have increased, overall enemy attacks were five percent lower than the same period a year earlier, said the report, which covers April 1 through September 30. It said enemy attacks continue to decline.

POLITICAL EFFECT

Assassinations and attacks directed from the safe havens in Pakistan could have a "significant political effect" in Afghanistan as well as coalition countries, the document said. Afghan perceptions of security had worsened slightly, it said.

Civilian casualties remained elevated, although the Pentagon noted that most of them were caused by insurgents or roadside bombs, rather than NATO operations.

The report said the security gains provide a firm foundation for gradually putting Afghan forces in charge of security, a goal now set for the end of 2014.

Yet serious doubts remain about how quickly the improving but inexperienced Afghan army and police can take over -- and how long Washington will be willing to pay for them.

Lasting stability was also threatened by a weak Afghan government, it said. Widespread corruption, political disputes and lack of progress toward reforms were threatening the government's long-term viability. The influence of criminal patronage networks on the Afghan military also posed a threat.

It said the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. forces in Pakistan was an important achievement, but strained U.S.-Pakistani ties. U.S. officials have said that communications between foreign forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani soldiers have been inadequate.

Mistrust and divergent interests will also continue to make cooperation difficult between Afghan and Pakistani officials, it said.

Iran also continues to provide lethal aid to insurgents, including weapons and training, the report said.

For the rest of this year, the Pentagon expects that the Taliban-led insurgency's main effort will focus on regaining control of safe havens and population centers in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Kabul would remain a target for high-profile attacks and assassination attempts.

The Haqqani network's main effort will be to re-exert dominance in Khost, Paktika and Paktia provinces, and "it will also continue to target Kabul with high-profile attacks in an effort to maintain its influence on the reconciliation process."

Red Cross Doctors Did Not Examine Gilad Shalit Before Controversial Egyptian TV Interview

From Forbes:

Established journalists are loath to criticize their own: with jobs scarce, cowardice proves the better career path, especially when too many reporters sit blindfolded inside their own glass houses. Add in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the media community goes into a collective coma.

Such is the case in the aftermath of last week’s exclusive “interview” that Egyptian state TV conducted with Gilad Shalit (also spelled Schalit) – the Israeli soldier who’d been held hostage by Hamas for five years. You can watch the interview for yourself here; while only 9 minutes long, you may come away feeling like a hostage yourself – to one of the most egregious interviews of our era, conducted just moments after Shalit was released in exchange for more than 1,000 imprisoned Palestinians. (The deal required Shalit to be turned over to Egypt – serving as a “neutral” intermediary – which, after the interview, sent the soldier to Israel.)

What’s extraordinary is that so few voices in the international journalism community – outside of Israel, Gaza or Egypt – have weighed in on it. Last week, I sent an email to the interviewer, Shahira Amin, Egypt’s most famous TV journalist – posted afterwards in a news story.

Three days ago, she responded at great length in an email, most of which she subsequently published in an open letter in the Jerusalem Post. In her email to me, Amin defends her decision to conduct the interview with Shalit – in part because she says the interview was conducted “AFTER [her caps] he had been released by Hamas and had a medical checkup by the Red Cross.”

But here’s the problem: Red Cross spokesman Hicham Hassan wrote me today that “ICRC representatives met Mr. Shalit briefly after his transfer to the Egyptian authorities. However, he was not met by an IRC doctor as this has [sic] not been solicited.”

This is no small detail: The issue of Shalit’s medical condition (physical and mental) lies at the very heart of why the interview should never have taken place. So does the fact that a masked Hamas soldier – from the group’s armed wing – stood with a camera in that interview room. Just how “released” could Shalit have felt at that moment – in an Israel-unfriendly country such as Egypt – to freely consent to an interview? Considering that masked Hamas men were the only people he could see for five years, did he feel he was in any position to say no?

“This was an illusion of choice,” says Dr. Nancy Zarse of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, an expert in hostage negotiations for the FBI, federal prisons, and the Chicago Police. “I watched the video of the interview. There was evidence of increased autonomic [nervous system] arousal, a lot of heavy breathing, and there were times that I thought he looked scared. This wasn’t really that you have the option to say no. I haven’t met or spoken with him, but I would understand that an individual like this still feels captive – that an interview like this would become part and parcel of the captivity.”

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 have long been used to protect the human dignity of current and former war prisoners. While those laws apply to governments, and not media organizations, keep in mind that the Shalit interview was conducted for Egyptian state TV – an arm of government. Since 2003, the British Red Cross and the British Government have made efforts to provide an updated interpretation of the requirement to protect prisoners of war or civilian internees against “insults and public curiosity” by TV media. For one thing, the Red Cross notes, publicity can humiliate the person and make his return to his own country more difficult. And many of those interviews are done “under duress.”

The Red Cross recognizes that there can be difficult borderline cases, but I think it’s clear to anyone watching Amin’s interview that Shalit was still in a state of shock and very much under duress.

Amin kicked off the interview by saying, “Gilad Shalit, you look fine!” But in her letter to me, she noted that he looked “terribly tired and malnourished … thinner than pictures I had seen of him and pale … His voice was weak and he seemed to have difficulty concentrating, but was in high spirits … .” In a discussion with another reporter, Amin was quoted saying that Shalit seemed “exhausted” and that she felt maternal and “held his hands a few times to calm him down.” She also said the interview had to be stopped several times because Shalit “felt uncomfortable.”

Readers and viewers, of course, can judge it all for themselves. I provided my email exchanges with Amin – plus the link to the video interview – to Gene Foreman, one of the most respected editors in the news business and the author of The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Pursuit of News – a book described as “a GPS for sound decision-making.”

Foreman’s take on the interview done by Shahira Amin? “It’s pretty clear even to a lay person that the soldier is not in physical condition to undergo that kind of interview,” he says, adding that, besides exploiting Shalit, she too might have been exploited by Egyptian state TV, especially by pointedly asking whether Shalit will now “help campaign for the release of the 4,000 Palestinian prisoners still languishing in Israeli prisons.” In her email to me, Amin noted that she “had” to ask that question. Just why she had to do that – she didn’t say.

There are no instructive journalism lessons here – but budding propagandists would do well to take note of Amin’s odious work.

Polygamy In The 'New' Libya Causing Disquiet Among Women, Western Allies

From Jihad Watch:

We've tried to tell you. As the Quran clearly allows one man to marry up to four wives simultaneously (Quran 4:3), the 'new' Libya has strongly hinted that polygamy will be made legal again, much to the consternation of Libya's supporters abroad and women everywhere.

Such consternation must be more rampant Islamophobia, right? Perhaps 'liberated' Libya is just trying to keep up with the Joneses, as it were, since much of neighboring Europe has already adapted to polygamous Muslim marriages. Following up on our previous reporting on this development here; from "Hinting at an End to a Curb on Polygamy, Interim Libyan Leader Stirs Anger," by Adam Nossiter, The New York Times, 29 October 2011:

TRIPOLI, Libya — It was just a passing reference to marriage in a leader’s soberly delivered speech, but all week it has unsettled women here as well as allies abroad.

In announcing the success of the Libyan revolution and calling for a new, more pious nation, the head of the interim government, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, also seemed to clear the way for unrestricted polygamy in a Muslim country where it has been limited and rare for decades.

It looked like a sizable step backward for women at a moment when much here — institutions, laws, social relations — is still in play after the end of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s 42 years of authoritarian rule.

"A sizable step backwards"? Is Islam not grand, noble, pure, etc. etc.? Is even the New York Times becoming Islamophobic?

In his speech, Mr. Abdel-Jalil declared that a Qaddafi-era law that placed restrictions on multiple marriages, which is a tenet of Islamic law, or Shariah, would be done away with. The law, which stated that a first wife had to give permission before others were added, for instance, had kept polygamy rare here.

“This law is contrary to Shariah and must be stopped,” Mr. Abdel-Jalil told the crowd, vowing that the new government would adhere more faithfully to Shariah. The next day he reiterated the point to reporters at a news conference: “Shariah allows polygamy,” he said. Mr. Abdel-Jalil is known for his piety.

Shariah allows polygamy? Perhaps someone should inform Jay Leno's wife.

Libya's Prime Minister Confirms Presence Of Chemical Weapons

From the AP via Fox News:

Libya's interim prime minister has confirmed the presence of chemical weapons in Libya and says foreign inspectors would arrive later this week to deal with the issue.

Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Sunday that Libya has no interest in keeping such weapons.

Last week, Ian Martin, the top U.N. envoy to Libya, told the U.N. Security Council that undeclared chemical weapons sites have been located in Libya.

Jibril did not provide any details about the chemical weapons.

In August, Fox News interviewed Rep. Mike Rogers, R.-Mich., who said he saw a chemical weapon stockpile in the country during a 2004 trip. At the time, he said the U.S. was concerned about "thousands of pounds of very active mustard gas."

He also said there is some sarin gas that is unaccounted for.

A Russian-drafted U.N. resolution, to be voted on this week, calls on Libyan authorities to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons in coordination with international authorities.

In February, the U.S. State Department told reporters that some chemical weapons remained in the country and the U.S. government was encouraging the Libyans to secure the sites.

The U.S. had been trying to revive a program to prevent Libyan chemical, biological and nuclear scientists from working for terror groups or hostile nations, a State Department official said last month.

Besides chemical weapons, hundreds of experts worked in Muammar Qaddafi's weapons of mass destruction programs.

After Qaddafi agreed to dismantle the programs in 2003, the U.S. launched an effort to steer Libya's WMD scientists into civilian research projects, including water desalination, oil and gas production and nuclear medicine.

Since Qaddafi's fall, American and U.N. officials have warned that the failure to control Libya's weapons could destabilize the whole of North Africa.

It remains unclear how many weapons have been uncovered in Tripoli since Qaddafi's fall, said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, who has been searching the city for them.

Lots of munitions appear to have been hidden in civilian buildings to avoid airstrikes by NATO, which bombed regime military targets under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians.

At one unguarded site, Bouckaert said he found 100,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Elsewhere, he found weapons caches hidden under fruit trees.

"The problem is that the locals usually find out first and by the time we arrive and we can get some guards there, a lot of the most dangerous weapons have already been taken away," he said.

Assad Warns Against Intervention In Syria, Says Action Would 'Burn Region'

From the AP via Fox News:

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned against Western intervention in his country's 7-month-old uprising, saying such action would trigger an "earthquake" that "would burn the whole region."

Assad comments, published in an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph, were made against a backdrop of growing calls from anti-regime protesters for a no-fly zone over Syria and increasingly frequent clashes between government troops and army defectors, the latest of which left at least 30 troops dead Saturday.

"Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake," Assad said. "Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"

Assad's remarks appeared to reflect his regime's increasing concern about foreign intervention in the country's crisis after the recent death of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who was toppled by a popular uprising backed by NATO airstrikes.

Syrian opposition leaders have not called for an armed uprising like the one in Libya and have for the most part opposed foreign intervention, and the U.S. and its allies have shown little appetite for intervening in another Arab nation in turmoil. But with the 7-month-old revolt against Assad stalemated, some Syrian protesters have begun calling for a no-fly zone over the country because of fears the regime might use its air force now that army defectors are becoming more active in fighting the security forces.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a clash Saturday night in the restive central city of Homs between soldiers and gunmen believed to be army defectors left at least 20 soldiers dead and 53 wounded. It also said gunmen ambushed a bus carrying security officers late Saturday in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing at least 10 security agents. One attacker was also killed.

The Associated Press could not verify the activists' accounts. Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it impossible to get independent confirmation of the events on the ground. Syria's state-run news agency SANA, said seven members of the military and police, who were killed in Homs and the suburbs of Damascus were buried Sunday.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said Sunday that 343 people, including 20 children, have been killed in Syria since Oct. 16, when the Cairo-based Arab League gave Damascus a 15-day deadline to enact a cease-fire. A meeting was scheduled for later Sunday in Qatar between an Arab committee set up by the 22-member Arab League and a Syrian delegation expected to be headed by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

The unrest in Syria could send unsettling ripples through the region, as Damascus' web of alliances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, the militant Palestinian Hamas and Iran's Shiite theocracy.

Unlike Qaddafi, Assad enjoys a number of powerful allies that give him the means to push back against the outside pressure. A conflict in Syria risks touching off a wider Middle East conflict with arch foes Israel and Iran in the mix. Syria wouldn't have to look far for prime targets to strike, sharing a border with U.S.-backed Israel and NATO-member Turkey.

In case of an international intervention, Assad and his main Mideast backer, Iran, could launch retaliatory attacks on Israel or -- more likely -- unleash Hezbollah fighters or Palestinian militant allies for the job. To the north, Turkey has opened its doors to anti-Assad activists and breakaway military rebels, which also could bring Syrian reprisals.

Assad alluded to those concerns at home and abroad, saying "any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region."

The uprising against the Syrian regime began during a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The U.N. says that Assad's crackdown has left more than 3,000 people dead since the uprising began in mid-March.

Facing an unprecedented threat to his rule, Assad is desperate to show that only he can guarantee security in a troubled region where failed states abound.

In a show of support to Assad's regime, thousands of Syrians carrying the nation's flag and Assad posters rallied Sunday in a major square in the southern city of Sweida, some 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Damascus, near the Jordanian border. There have been two similar massive pro-Assad demonstrations in recent days in the capital Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia.

Assad said that Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely." He was apparently referring to a wave of sanctions that were imposed by the European Union and the U.S.

"But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different," Assad said.

The Syrian president described the uprising as a "struggle between Islamism and pan-Arabism." He was referring to his ruling Baath party's secular ideology and the Muslim Brotherhood that was crushed by his regime in 1982.

"We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them," Assad said.

Assad also spoke to Russia's state Channel One television, and in an interview broadcast Sunday hailed Moscow's veto of a European-backed U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria that aimed to impose sanctions on Damascus.

"We are relying on Russia as a country with which we have strong historic ties," Assad said.

The measure vetoed by Russia and China earlier this month would have been the first legally binding resolution against Syria since Assad's forces began attacking civilian protesters.

Hamas-Linked CAIR Issues Press Release Lying About Pamela Geller Event

From Jihad Watch:

Hamas-linked CAIR claimed that Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott of Florida pulled out of a Tea Party event because Pamela Geller was speaking. CAIR was lying, of course. Will Honest Ibe Hooper or his Florida henchmen issue a retraction and apology? I won't be holding my breath. War is deceit, eh, Ibe?

Here is the Tea Party group's press release setting the record straight, as published at Atlas Shrugs:

Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Makes hasty press release for attempted political exploitation of Senator Rubio and Governor Scott Press Release October 30, 2011

Response to press release from the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) thanking Governor Scott and Senator Rubio for not speaking at the Florida State Tea Party State Convention in Daytona Beach Fl.

http://news.yahoo.com/cair-fl-thanks-rubio-scott-avoiding-event-hate-195012459.html

Senator Rubio and Governor Rick Scott never confirmed their appearance at our Florida Tea Party Convention. They were invited but due to scheduling conflicts are unable to attend. It was an error on my part that they were listed as confirmed speakers and our website has been corrected.

We thank CAIR for pointing out the mistake. We wish that the leadership of CAIR had checked with us first to confirm their status before sending out a mass press release stating that the Senator and the Governor were skipping our event.. We would like to thank Governor Scott and Senator Rubio for endorsing our convention and for scheduling a representative and or offering a letter of support in lieu of appearing at our convention. Its unfortunate their schedule will not permit their attendance in person. Senator Rubio has offered to send us a video and or a letter of support for all attendees in lieu of his appearance.

All guest speakers have a right to address the convention as per the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution and Senator Rubio and Governor Scott wish all the speakers well because they support their Constitutional rights.

Ms. Pamela Geller has a right to speak too. It is unfortunate that the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) do not support her 1st Amendment rights even if they disagree with her message. This would fall in line with Sharia law.

The leadership of CAIR is welcome to speak in Daytona Beach at our convention. Perhaps they could discuss Sharia Law and its subjugation of women. They could talk about schools having to cater to their prayer needs, making sure our school text books are vetted by Muslims to make sure they are Sharia compliant. They could discuss child brides and the stoning of women after being buried up to their necks in sand for breaking Sharia Law. They could discuss Jihad which means war against the Kafirs or non believers with an ultimate goal to establish Sharia law world wide.

It looks like Muslims will get their Sharia law in Libya and Egypt thanks to military and political intervention by President Obama in direct violation of Article 2, Section 8 of the US Constitution.

We do welcome CAIR at our Convention to speak before or after Ms. Pam Geller addresses the crowds. Let us know your intent.

CAIR was offered the same opportunities to speak at the US Constitution and Freedom Rally on August 21st 2010 in Fort Walton Beach Florida but they never showed up. Instead CAIR tried to shut down the Constitutional speaking rights of gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional candidates by placing political pressure on them not speak at our rally. CAIR tried to disrupt our freedom of speech which could have also disrupted the Constitutional rights of Brigitte Gabriel the President of Act for America.

We all ignored the demands of CAIR and the event went ahead as planned. The Constitution does not capitulate to Sharia law or those who disagree with our message. The US Constitution is a strong and powerful document that sustains itself no matter how hard people try to usurp it. Ms. Pamela Geller is also welcome to speak at our US Constitution and Freedom Rally II on March 17th 2012. The leadership of CAIR is welcome to speak too. Instead of muzzling our free speech CAIR should embrace it. Any attempts by the leadership of CAIR to shut down our 1st Amendment rights will be ignored and or dealt with as required depending on the level of its severity.

God Bless America.

Copy to:

CAIR-South Florida Executive Director Nezar Hamze, 954-673-9459 E-Mail: nhamze@cair.com;
CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Hassan Shibly, 813-541-4321, E-Mail: hshibly@cair.com;
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com;
CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

Geoff Ross
President
Emerald Coast Tea Party Patriots
Media Relations. Florida Tea Party Convention
Senior Chief Petty Officer USN (Ret.) Surface Warfare/Air Warfare/ Airborne
www.theroguepatriot.org
850-313-1893

Pam Dahl
Chairman
Florida Tea Party Convention
Daytona Beach

Copy to all leaders of the Tea Party across the United States of America

Saudi Cleric: Kidnap Soldier - Get $100,000

From Y-Net:

Famous Muslim cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni offers reward in response to similar cash prize offered by Israeli bereaved family. Hamas minister: Gaza pullout enables us to keep Shalit captive

A week after the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, top Saudi cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarn [pictured]i is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who kidnaps Israeli soldiers.

He is responding to an ad published by the Libman family offering a similar reward for anyone who catches the person who murdered their relative Shlomo Libman. Libman was killed by terrorists near the settlement of Yitzhar in 1998.

The press reported that the Zionist settlers will pay huge amounts of money to whoever kills the freed Palestinian prisoners," al-Qarni said. "In response to these criminals I declare to the world that any Palestinian who will jail an Israeli soldier and exchange him for prisoners will be rewarded with a $100,000 prize," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Al-Qarni's post has already received more than 1,000 likes and extensive coverage in Hamas-affiliated newspapers in Gaza.

Al-Qarni is a famous Muslim cleric who often guests on TV shows and operates his own website where he discusses various religious law issues. The Palestine-Islam issue is particularly close to his heart.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas Minister Fathi Hamad admitted that Israel's withdrawal from the Strip enabled Hamas to hide Gilad Shalit for so long.

In an interview with Lebanese daily as-Safir Hamad said that the "military campaign in Gaza abolished any security coordination with Israel and the Strip's liberation allowed us to conceal Shalit for five years."

Hamad stressed that Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Hamas' military wing managed to keep Shalit captive despite Israeli attempts to extract him and admitted that they paid a heavy price for keeping Shalit captive.

"That is why the deal is a triumph for the Palestinian people and residents of Gaza who have sacrificed 600 lives during Israel's first response to the bold abduction."

Indonesian Court Slashes Radical Cleric's Sentence

From the AP via Denver Post:

A radical Islamic cleric accused of setting up a terror training camp in western Indonesia had his prison sentence slashed from 15 years to nine years, an appeals court said Wednesday. No reason was given for the decision.

Abu Bakar Bashir, known as the spiritual leader of al-Qaida-linked militants blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, was accused of providing key support for the camp that brought together men from almost every known extremist group in the predominantly Muslim country.

They were allegedly planning Mumbai-styled gun attacks on foreigners in the capital, Jakarta, and the assassinations of moderate leaders, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In March, a district court sentenced the 72-year-old cleric to 15 years in prison for inciting terrorism, but his lawyers appealed.

The Jakarta High Court quietly handed down its ruling Oct. 20.

"All I can say right now is that his sentence was reduced to nine years," Achmad Sobari, a court spokesman, told The Associated Press.

"I do not know exactly what factors were taken into account in the judge's decision."

Bashir's lawyer, Mohammad Mahendradatta, said he was awaiting official notification from the court. He stressed, however, that his client was innocent and should be freed.

Even nine years was an outrage, he said, vowing to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Indonesia, a secular nation of 240 million people, was thrust into the front lines in the battle against terrorism in 2002, when Jemaah Islamiyah, co-founded by Bashir, attacked two crowded nightclubs on the resort island of Bali.

Many of the 202 people killed were Australian tourists. Seven were Americans.

There have been several suicide bombings since then, but all have been less deadly, and the most recent was two years ago, something analysts attribute to a security crackdown that has resulted in hundreds of arrests and convictions.

Just as it appeared the country's terror threat was diminishing, however, authorities discovered the jihadi training camp in westernmost Aceh province early last year.

Bashir, a potent symbol for the country's radical Islamists, spent several previous stints in detention. But efforts to link him to terrorist activities have repeatedly fallen short.

Arrested almost immediately after the Bali blasts, prosecutors were unable to prove direct involvement, and judges sentenced him to 18 months in prison on relatively minor charges of immigration violations.

Soon after his release, he was re-arrested and sentenced to 2 1/2 years, this time for inciting the twin nightclub attacks. That charge was overturned on appeal and he was freed in 2006.

Last year, Bashir was brought in again, this time for his role in the Aceh camp.

Captured militants testified that the aging cleric watched a video as they trained and received written reports assuring him the $100,000 he'd helped raised was being used for the struggle to build an Islamic state.

Judges said, however, they didn't have enough evidence to prove Bashir knew the money was going to be used to buy guns, ammunition and equipment for training, settling just on incitement.

Security analyst Noor Huda Ismail called the cat-and-mouse game with Bashir "the weakest link" in the war on terrorism.

"First police and prosecutors demanded he be given life or a death sentence, but there wasn't adequate evidence, so they gave him 15.

"And now, again, they cut it to just nine?"

At the same time, other perpetrators like Bali bomber Ali Imron—spared the death sentence because he expressed remorse and has cooperated with police—will likely lose confidence in the judicial system.

While they're serving prison sentences of 12, 15 years or life, Bashir, unrepentant, continues to see his sentences slashed, he said.

The cleric told reporters before the March verdict he didn't know about the Aceh camp when it was operational but approved of its aim.

He said he was a victim of a U.S. and Australian conspiracy and that all charges against him were fabricated in an attempt to put him away for good.

Obama: It "Only Cost Us A Billion Dollars" To Install Shariah Regime In Libya

From Jihad Watch:

And just watch for the dividends that will come in from that billion: oppression of women (polygamy has already been legalized in Libya), oppression of non-Muslims (a Jew who returned to Libya after decades in exile has already been harassed and deported), the denial of free speech and the freedom of conscience, and more virulent anti-Americanism than Gaddafi ever imagined. A bargain!

"Obama on Libya: 'We led from the front,'" by Jamie Klatell for The Hill, October 26 (thanks to Wimpy):

President Obama said Tuesday the often-repeated idea that the U.S. led from behind in the ouster of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi was incorrect.

"We led from the front," Obama said in a pre-taped interview for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "We introduced the resolution in the United Nations that allowed us to protect civilians in Libya when Gadhafi was threatening to slaughter them. It was our extraordinary men and women in uniform, our pilots who took out their air defense systems, set up a no-fly zone."...

Because his administration was "able to organize the international community," Obama told Leno, operations in Libya "only cost us a billion dollars" and no U.S. troops were killed or injured....

Afghanistan: Married Girl Hanged In Ghor By In-Laws

From Rawa News:

...the victim had long been subjected to domestic violence by her in-laws and she was finally hanged
By Muhammad Hassan Hakimi & Ramin

A young woman was allegedly hanged to death by her father-in-law in western Ghor province, officials said on Sunday.

The 22-year-old was found dead on the outskirts of Chaghcharan late on Saturday, deputy police chief, Col. Abdul Rashid Bashir, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the girl's four in-laws had been arrested in connection with the murder. Her spouse was out of the province at the time of the killing, he said.

An area resident, who wished not to be named, said the victim had long been subjected to domestic violence by her in-laws and she was finally hanged.

Provincial Human Rights Commission Director Dr. Aqala Sharaf condemned the incident, saying efforts were being made to determine the cause.

Since the beginning of the year, she said, 24 cases of violence against women had been registered with the commission. The cases included domestic violence and forced marriages, she concluded.

Kent State Professor Reportedly Yells "Death To Israel" At Event With Israeli Diplomat

From Jihad Watch:

This guy again: "In March 2007, a KSU official said that [Julio] Pino, 48, had acknowledged providing news stories to a jihadist Web site but had stopped."

"Kent St. prof. reportedly yells ‘Death to Israel’ at event with Israeli diplomat," by Christopher Santarelli for The Blaze, October 26:

A Kent State history professor, who has allegedly been linked to elements of Muslim extremism, reportedly lashed out at a former Israeli diplomat speaking at the university Tuesday night.

The event was co-sponsored by the undergraduate student government and entitled “An Evening with Ishmael Khaldi.” Khaldi spoke in regards to his book, A Shepherd’s Journey, which details his life journey from a small tent in a Bedouin village to the inner-circles of the Israel Foreign Service. When his speech ended, Khaldi opened the floor to a Q&A, where History Professor

Julio Pino rushed to be the first to question Khaldi.

John Milligan of KentWired, an independent student publication, reports that Pino began to question how Khaldi could justify speaking of foreign aid given from Israel to countries like Turkey, when that aid was financed by “blood money that came from the deaths of Palestinian children and babies.” Milligan, a senior majoring in magazine journalism, then captured the the most shocking part of the exchange:

“The crowd fell into an awkward silence as the two continued to exchange words from across the auditorium.

‘It is not respectful to me here,’ Khaldi said.

Pino responded by saying ‘your government killed people’ and claimed Khaldi was not being respectful to him.

‘I do respect you, but you are wrong,’ Khaldi said. ‘It’s a lie.’

The exchange ended as Pino stormed out of the auditorium shouting ‘Death to Israel!’”

US Indicts Singaporeans And Iranian In Alleged Bomb Plot

From the Telegraph:

US justice officials said on Tuesday they had indicted four Singaporeans and an Iranian for exporting radio equipment to Iran, for roadside bombs in Iraq.

At least 16 radio antennas were found in unexploded improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq, the US Justice Department said in a statement, noting that the Iranian suspect in the case is still at large.

The US military has repeatedly accused Shiite militias in Iran of conducting bomb attacks in neighbouring Iraq in an attempt to foment sectarian hatred.

The indictment said thousands of antennas were meant to be exported from the United States to Iran, and in addition to the four Singaporeans, four companies from the southeast Asian nation had been charged in the alleged plot.

"Yesterday, authorities in Singapore arrested Wong Yuh Lan (Wong), Lim Yong Nam (Nam), Lim Kow Seng (Seng), and Hia Soo Gan Benson (Hia), all citizens of Singapore, in connection with a US request for extradition," the statement said.

"The United States is seeking their extradition to stand trial in the District of Columbia," it said.

"The remaining individual defendant, Hossein Larijani, is a citizen and resident of Iran who remains at large."

AFDI/SIOA Condemns Nashville Hutton Hotel's Cancellation Of Freedom Conference, Capitulation To Islamic Supremacism

From Yahoo News:

A prominent national human rights and advocacy organization has condemned the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee for capitulating to Islamic supremacist threats and intimidation and canceling the Preserving Freedom Conference scheduled for November 11.

Steve Eckley, Senior Vice-President of Hutton Hotel, told conference organizers Monday that he had been getting threatening letters and calls, and that consequently the hotel would not honor its contract for the conference. Eckley even said that if conference organizers and attendees showed up at the hotel, they would not be let in.

AFDI/SIOA executive director Pamela Geller, who is scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the conference, noted that Hyatt Hotel Place in Sugar Land, Texas, similarly caved in to Islamic supremacist intimidation last week, canceling an event at which she was speaking.

"The Hyatt was subsequently inundated with calls and emails protesting their surrender to the foes of free speech," Geller said in a statement. "The Hyatt apologized and promised redress to the Sugar Land Tea Party. The Hutton Hotel has learned nothing from this, and again allowed enemies of free speech to run roughshod over the rights of Americans. This is the second time in no less than a week that a major hotel has capitulated to intimidation and demands to enforce the blasphemy laws under the Sharia here in America."

Geller called on the Hutton Hotel, at 1808 West End Avenue in Nashville, to apologize, reverse its cancellation, and hold AFDI/SIOA sensitivity training sessions to train its employees about the importance of the freedom of speech and the Islamic jihad threat.

"Why is the Hutton Hotel more afraid of fascists and supremacists than they are of losing our cherished freedoms?" asked Geller.
She also called upon free people to boycott the Hutton Hotel until this decision is reversed, and to contact the Hutton Hotel and politely and courteously protest the hotel's cancellation and capitulation to Islamic supremacism. "Americans must boycott these cowardly enterprises and raise their voices in protest," said Geller. The Hutton Hotel's telephone number is 615-340-9333; fax: 615-340-001. Steve Eckley: 720-318-4238.

The Preserving Freedom Conference was to feature Geller as a keynote speaker, along with Robert Spencer, Wafa Sultan, Mark Durie, William Murray, Father Keith Roderick, and a host of voices for freedom.

"We will find a new venue," said Spencer, associate director of AFDI/SIOA, "but the Hutton Hotel's capitulation to Islamic supremacist threats and intimidation is a disgrace, and a disquieting reminder of just how much the freedom of speech is threatened in America today."

"The silencing of free speech is key to the Islamization of America," explained Geller. She chronicles many similar anti-freedom initiatives and explains how to combat them in her book Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.
AFDI/SIOA calls upon the Hutton to apologize for its capitulation to the enemies of freedom, and to hold sensitivity training sessions for all its employees to teach them the value of the freedom of speech and the truth about the jihad threat facing the U.S. and the West.

AFDI/SIOA offers diversity and sensitivity training to corporations and government agencies at the local, state and national levels.

AFDI/SIOA's diversity training is designed to help these entities understand the jihad threat in all its different manifestations, including Islamic supremacist cultural initiatives to assert Islamic law and practice in the American workplace. It helps them protect their business practices in the face of demands for special accommodation for Muslim employees.
For more information or to schedule a session, please write to writeatlas@aol.com.

AFDI/SIOA is one of America's foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States.

Join the SIOA Facebook group here.

For more information, contact Pamela Geller at writeatlas@aol.com.
SOURCE American Freedom Defense Initiative

Syria Group Calls For International Protection

From Fox News:

BEIRUT-- A key Syrian opposition group is calling for international protection for civilians ahead of an expected visit to Damascus by senior Arab officials.

The delegation led by the prime minister of Qatar is expected to arrive in Syria Wednesday to discuss the possibility of starting a national dialogue between the opposition and President Bashar Assad's regime.

But a statement issued Tuesday by the Syrian National Council makes clear there can be no dialogue with the government while it continues to the military crackdown on protesters that the U.N. says has already killed 3,000 people.

The statement called for Arab and international observers to be allowed into Syria immediately. It did not elaborate.

Syria has grown increasingly isolated during the crisis. The U.S. pulled out its ambassador to Damascus Monday.

Official: Qaddafi's Son Nearing Niger Border

From Fox News:

DAKAR, Senegal-- A high-ranking Tuareg official in Niger told has The Associated Press that Muammar Qaddafi's son is making his way toward the country.

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, appears to taking the same route his brother al-Saadi Qaddafi used in September to flee Libya.

Rissa ag Boula is a former Tuareg rebel leader who is now a member of the regional municipal council in Agadez. He told the AP on Tuesday that the latest Qaddafi son headed for Niger is being ferried by ethnic Tuaregs, who were among Qaddafi's strongest supporters.

Niger's government has said that members of the Qaddafi regime seeking refuge in the West African nation will not be turned back to Libya without guarantees for their safety.

No Reprisals For Frenchman Who Burned Quran

From The Local:

An appeals court on Tuesday confirmed the acquittal of a Frenchman accused of inciting racial hatred after posting an internet video of himself burning a Koran and then urinating on it.

Ernesto Rojas Abbate was arrested in October 2010 after posting footage of himself wearing a devil mask and tearing pages from the Islamic holy book before setting it on fire and later urinating on it to extinguish the flames.

Prosecutors, who had been seeking a three-month suspended sentence and €1,000 ($1,400) fine, appealed after a court acquitted him in May on charges of inciting racial hatred.

In the footage Rojas Abbate, a 31-year-old resident of a suburb of the eastern city of Strasbourg, used pages of the Koran as a prop in a simulation of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York.

He made paper airplanes from pages of the Koran, threw them at glasses meant to represent the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, then burned the pages and the book before urinating on them.

The appeals court ruled that, while the video was "wilfully outrageous and deliberately provocative", there was no evidence Rojas Abbate had intended "to arouse feelings of hostility... aimed at provoking discrimination, hate, or violence towards Muslims."

His lawyer, Renaud Bettcher, hailed the ruling, saying: "In a secular and republican society, it is incomprehensible that my client was prosecuted. Blasphemy does not exist in France."

Police arrested Rojas Abbate after local Muslim leaders in Strasbourg reacted with outrage at the video.

Mahmoud Abbas Poised To Demand Prisoner Releases To Resume Peace Talks

Give us our terrorists, says Mahmoud Abbas. Then we'll talk about peace... maybe.

From the Telegraph:

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, is poised to demand the release of hundreds of prisoners from Israeli jails as a condition for resuming peace talks in a further blow to an international initiative to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Tony Blair, the Middle East peace envoy, met with representatives from the International Quartet on Tuesday in an effort to advance a US plan to break the latest stalemate in the peace process.

The Quartet – which comprises the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia – will hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Wednesday, the first contact of any kind that the two sides have had in 10 months.

But hopes for a breakthrough, never high to begin with, suffered a further setback as it emerged that Mr Abbas intended to hold Israel to a pledge made three years ago to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to his moderate Fatah party.

Last week Israel began releasing 1,027 Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement with Fatah's Islamist rivals Hamas to secure the freedom of its soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held captive in Gaza for more than five years.

The deal triggered widespread Palestinian rejoicing, but Fatah's popular standing has suffered as a result, with Hamas boasting that only Israel only responds to its violent methods and taunting Mr Abbas for remaining wedded to a fruitless policy of peace.

Desperate to wring concessions of his own, Mr Abbas has reminded Israel of a promise made by its former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to follow up any prisoner swap with Hamas by a similar deal with Fatah. Ahmad Tibi, an Israeli Arab MP with close links to Palestinian officials, said that Mr Abbas would now have no choice but to make fulfilment of the Olmert agreement a condition for renewing talks.

But the Israeli government is understood to oppose making any concessions to Mr Abbas in an attempt to punish him for pursuing a bid for Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

"Israel is not planning on offering Abbas any gestures," an Israeli official was quoted as saying.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has also refused to countenance Palestinian demands for a freeze of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and a commitment that the borders of a future Palestinian state will roughly be based on land Israel seized in the Six Day War of 1967.

Mr Abbas has refused to join talks unless both conditions are met.

Senior Israeli generals have reportedly urged Mr Netanyahu to make major concessions, including a further release of prisoners, out of a fear that the Palestinian Authority led by Mr Abbas will collapse, exposing Israel to more radical forces in the West Bank hitherto kept in check by Fatah's moderating influence.

But the plea has been rebuffed. "We don't want the Palestinian Authority to collapse but if it happens, it won't be the end of the world," an aide to Mr Netanyahu told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Mr Abbas's woes only deepened on Monday as Israel agreed to free 25 Egyptian prisoners in return for Ilan Grapel, an Israeli national held since June on suspicion of spying.

Tunisia: Islamic Party Claims Lead In Vote, Secular Party Concedes Defeat

From Jihad Watch:

As the opposition leader said, "the trend is clear."

"Ennahda says it models itself on the ruling AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which like Tunisia to date has a secular state," but considering Turkey's behavior under the AKP, that is not exactly a reassuring statement. For that matter, Tunisia is certain not to have a secular constitution, without reference to Islam. In Turkey, Sharia has been on the outside trying to get back in; in the "new" Tunisia, it will get in on the ground floor.

An update on this story. "Islamists claim lead in Tunisia poll," from Agence France-Presse, October 24:

Tunisia's main Islamist party claimed on Monday to have captured about 40 per cent of the vote in the country's first free polls, as the cradle of the Arab Spring basked in praise for its democratic revolution.

Official results were only due on Tuesday but provisional results released by some media outlets appeared to confirm Ennahda's prediction that it would be the dominant force in Tunisia's constituent assembly.

The leader of the secular centre-left PDP party, tipped as Ennahda's main challengers before the vote, conceded defeat.

"The trend is clear. The PDP is badly placed. It is the decision of the Tunisian people. I bow before their choice," leader Maya Jribi said at her party's headquarters.

Tunisians turned out en masse Sunday to elect an assembly seen as the custodian of the pro-democracy revolution that brought dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-old rule to a crushing end nine months ago.

"We are not far from 40 per cent. It could be a bit more or a bit less, but we are sure to take 24 (of the 27) voting districts," Samir Dilou, a member of Ennahda's political bureau said, quoting "our sources".

Another executive member said the Ennahda party's own count showed it would have between 60 and 65 seats on the 217-member body.

Data posted on the site of independent radio station Mosaique FM also gave Ennahda the lead based on non definitive results from a few dozen polling centres.

The polls, for which over 90 percent of some 4.1 million registered voters turned out, won hearty acclaim from world leaders closely scrutinising developments on the soil of the Arab Spring's trailblazer.

"This landmark election constitutes a key step in the democratic transition of the country and a significant development in the overall democratic transformation in North Africa and the Middle East," UN chief Ban Ki-moon said.

US President Barack Obama late Sunday hailed the vote as "an important step forward".

The 27-member European Union vowed support for the new authorities while former colonial power France hailed Tunisian voters' "democratic fervour".

Analysts widely predicted Ennahda to win the most votes but fall short of a majority in Sunday's elections for the new assembly that will rewrite the constitution and appoint a president to form a caretaker government.

The assembly will decide on the country's system of government and how to guarantee basic liberties, including women's rights, which many fear Ennahda would seek to diminish despite its assurances to the contrary.

It will also have interim authority to write laws and pass budgets.

Ennahda says it models itself on the ruling AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which like Tunisia to date has a secular state.

Its critics have accused Ennahda of preaching modernism in public and radicalism in the mosques, but Tunisia's progressive left remains divided with party leaders having failed to form a pre-vote alliance.

Second Grenade Terror Attack Hits Kenyan Capital

From Sky News:

A second grenade attack has occurred in Nairobi, two days after the US warned of an impending terror blitz in the Kenyan capital.

At least one person died and eight were injured after the blast at a crowded bus stop during the rush hour on Monday evening.

Peter Ndungu Kiarie, 35, said he was in his vehicle when he heard the second explosion and saw people rushing toward him.

"I assisted some until an ambulance came," he said.

Many people were wounded in the legs, he said, suggesting the explosive device was lying on the ground.

The first blast occurred at 1.15am on Monday morning when a grenade exploded inside a working class Nairobi bar.

A dozen people suffered horrific burns and shrapnel wounds in the nightclub attack, three seriously.

Witnesses said they saw a man trying to enter the Nairobi club before hurling the explosive device inside the front door.

Victims were rushed to hospital and later told of the panic inside the nightspot when the "loud explosion" happened.

Kevin Otieno described the incident as "hell" and said he was "lucky to be alive".

Another bar-goer Jonah Mwangi, who is recovering in hospital, said: "It was so loud and immediately I started feeling pain and blood splashing at me and we were just trying to get out."

Police have linked the bomb blast to the militant Somali group, al Shabaab, who last week warned of reprisal attacks in Kenya after troops were sent over the border.

Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere told a news conference that the authorities could not yet name suspects from the first blast.

No group has admitted being behind the incident.

Nairobi soldiers crossed the Somali border last week to hunt the al Qaeda-linked fighters it blames for a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, including a British tourist, on Kenyan soil.

They claim the kidnappings have threatened the country's multi-million dollar tourism industry.

Al Shabaab has denied holding foreigners captive and has repeatedly threatened major reprisals if Kenyan troops did not withdraw.

Last week, six people were killed in a suicide attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, near a meeting involving two Kenyan ministers.

Pakistan: Young Woman Killed By Fiance For Refusing To Drop Out Of School

From Dawn.com:

PESHAWAR: Though shaken by the killing of a local female student by her fiancé over refusal to abandon education, schoolgirls in the provincial capital are committed to continue their studies.

Pakistani school girls take part in full-dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony of 31st National Games at Qayyum stadium in Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, Dec. 24, 2010. – AP Photo

Mostly from middle and lower middle class, parents of these government school students have no formal education.

Mehnaz, a 10th grader, was killed on Wednesday when she was on her way to school in Pishtakhara neighbourhood.

Sheeba, who is in ninth grade, told Dawn that the news of the schoolgirl’s killing had dazed her as she couldn’t comprehend the opposition to the girls’ education.

“I don’t know why people oppose education of girls at schools. It not only helps girls lead a better life but also turns out to be a means of monetary support for their families in difficult times,” she said.

Irum, another student, said education could change a girl’s life for better as an educated girl could better manage family affairs after marriage and bring up her children in a better way compared with uneducated girls.

She said she had been in a state of shock since the hearing of the schoolgirl’s killing by her fiancé over refusal to abandon education.

A female nine-grader of a government school said she saluted the dead student for defying bullying to continue with her studies. She said the brutal killing showed the extremist mindset of a segment of society.

Kosar, another schoolgirl, favoured female, saying it lets girls know their rights. She, however, regretted that the girls’ views were not respected and often rebuffed by male members of their families, who were mostly illiterate.

She said an educated girl could help her younger siblings lead a better life especially when her parents had no formal education.

Nabeela, a teenaged girl, said Islam allowed girls to get education but most of the families didn’t follow Islamic teachings and denied their female members right to education.

She said many girls in the city went to school wearing veil but even then if anyone opposed it, that was appalling.

According to the available statistics, around 800 girls schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been destroyed by militants opposed to female education since 2007.

Ironically, the perpetrators of these acts of sabotage went scot-free.

Rebels Impose Shariah Law As Islamic Rules Become 'Basic Source' Of Libyan Legislation

From the Daily Mail:

Unanswered questions: Libya's Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril wanted the opportunity to interrogate Gaddafi
Islamic Sharia law will be the ‘basic source’ of legislation in free Libya, its new leader has proclaimed.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil’s vision has come as a shock to some of the millions of citizens still celebrating their liberty from decades of tyranny.

The chairman of the National Transitional Council declared that a future parliament would have an ‘Islamist tint’ and any existing laws contradicting the teachings of Islam would be ‘nullified’.

Under the new regime, men will even be permitted to take up to four wives, he suggested.

The sudden lurch by a country seen as very moderate towards Islamic extremism will alarm many in the West who supported the ousting of Colonel Gaddafi.
It could also prove deeply embarrassing to David Cameron as he ordered the £1billion mission to back the rebels despite advice from all sides urging caution.

Yesterday ordinary Libyans expressed their surprise at the turn of events.


Mohammed Bodima, said: ‘We have fought and spilled blood for democracy. What is this about sharia law?’ The father-of-two used to live in Catford, south-east London, but now resides in Benghazi, birthplace of the revolution.

He added: ‘If we are to have sharia, it must be voted on by the population. That would be democracy.’

Tripoli resident Abdul Azzud said: ‘I am very worried. Nobody realised this is what we would get.

‘They are going in the wrong direction if they impose sharia. It is extremely concerning.’ After making his surprise announcement at a liberation ceremony in Benghazi, Mr Abdul-Jalil stepped from the podium to kneel and offer a prayer of thanks.

Later he was at pains to insist Libya would not drift towards religious extremism.

‘I want to assure the international community that we as Libyans are moderate Muslims,’ he said. And he said the proposed constitution was ‘temporary’ and would be put to a referendum.

But in his earlier speech, he announced: ‘Any law that violates sharia is null and void legally,’ citing a marriage law passed by Gaddafi imposing restrictions on polygamy.

The Muslim holy book, the Koran, allows men to take up to four wives.

‘The law of divorce and marriage, this law is contrary to sharia and it is stopped,’ Mr Abdul-Jalil declared.

His remarks were condemned by Adelrahman al-Shatr, a founder of the new centre-right Party of National Solidarity.

‘By abolishing the marriage law, women lose the right to keep the family home if they divorce,’ he said. ‘It is a disaster for Libyan women.

‘It is a subject that should be discussed with the political groups and the Libyan people. These declarations create pain and bitterness among women.’

A 40-year-old Libyan woman called Rim added: ‘It is shocking and insulting to state, after thousands of Libyans have paid for freedom with their lives, that the priority is to allow men to marry in secret.

‘We did not slay Goliath so that we now live under the Inquisition.’

Deadly Attacks Show Al-Shabaab Expanding Its Reach, With Potential For U.S. Targets

From Fox News:

There is growing evidence that the Al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, known as al-Shabaab, is becoming more of a regional terrorist player, with the potential to go global as it targets U.S. citizens and interests.

"We have been getting threats from al-Shabaab against Americans and Westerners," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC News when asked about a decision to warn Americans in Kenya of an imminent terrorist threat. "So it's a very dangerous, uncertain situation. And we want to be sure that whatever information we have, we immediately present to Americans who live, work or may be visiting in Kenya."

In the past day, two targets in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi were attacked with explosive devices. An explosion at a bus stop Monday evening killed at least one person and injured eight others. An earlier attack on a Nairobi night club with a grenade left 13 injured. Both incidents came after the U.S. warned that al-Shabaab would carry out retaliatory attacks after Kenyan troops entered Somalia in mid-October.

A rambling statement posted to a jihadist website purportedly from al-Shabaab promised more violence if foreign troops failed to withdraw. Although the online statement specifically mentioned troops from nearby Burundi, it seemed to underscore al-Shabaab's intention to rid Somalia of any foreign military presence.

"You now have a choice to make," the statement warned. "Either you call for the immediate withdrawal of your troops from our country or you shall receive the bodies of your remaining sons delivered to you in bags. Think long. Think hard. Think of your sons' futures."

In Washington, the State Department could not immediately comment on the latest attack or the intelligence that led to warning American citizens in Kenya to avoid crowds and malls, but department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland did not dispute that the warning was tied to al-Shabaab.

Last summer, when al-Shabaab launched suicide attacks in Uganda to coincide with the World Cup, U.S. officials questioned whether Uganda was the seminal attack, which showed the group was no longer a local player but could launch suicide bombings in other countries.

U.S. officials have consistently warned that the Al Qaeda affiliate has been adept at recruiting Western Europeans and Americans by playing off their allegiance to their native country. A new photo, from the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, purports to show an American citizen and spokesman for Al Qaeda, Abu Abdallah al-Muhajir, who recently travelled to Somalia to deliver Korans, clothing and food for victims of the drought.

Seeming to take a page out of Usama bin Laden's playbook, Alabama native Omar Hammami, first identified by Fox News as a spokesman and battlefield operative for al-Shabaab, released an audio message to his followers on Oct. 8. Hammami claimed Islam and life in the West were incompatible, and to reconcile the two is a "dream world."

In a translation by MEMRI, Hammami stresses that the life of jihad may lack modern conveniences, but it is worth the sacrifice and doesn't take long to get used to. Hammami appears to quote an American TV commercial, another nod to his Alabama upbringing, when he says, "If I can do it, you can do it too."

Also known as al-Amriki, which translates as the American, Hammami says the life of the fighter "is not what you see in movies." And appearing confident in his own security, Hammami seems to bait the U.S. intelligence community that monitors the Horn of East Africa. He mocks the "incompetence" of agents claiming that "They always seem to recruit the dumbest of spies to do their dirty work."

Nearly two dozen Americans of Somali descent have disappeared into the al-Shabaab camps since 2007. Last week, two Minneapolis women who claimed they were helping the poor were convicted of providing money to the terrorist group. And Minneapolis native Shirwa Ahmed was the first documented case of an American suicide bomber when he blew himself up as part of al-Shabaab operation in Northern Somalia in late 2007.

U.S. officials tell Fox News that al-Shabaab and the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, which was behind the last two major plots involving planes against the United States, are now working together -- sharing training and bomb-making techniques. It is creating what one analyst described as an arc of instability that now stretches from Yemen and Somalia in the east, to North Africa and west to Nigeria where a little known Islamist group called Boko Haram has increasingly adopted Al Qaeda tactics, including car bombs.