8/6/13 Army won’t suspend contracts with Al Qaeda-tied companies, citing ‘due process rights’

/in /by

Source: Fox News

The U.S. Army is refusing to suspend contracts with dozens of companies and individuals tied to Al Qaeda and other extremist groups out of concern for their “due process rights,” despite repeated pleas from the chief watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction.

In a scathing passage of his latest report to Congress, Special Inspector General John Sopko said his office has urged the Army to suspend or debar 43 contractors over concerns about ties to the Afghanistan insurgency, “including supporters of the Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda.”

Sopko wrote that the Army “rejected” every single case.
Read more: 

8/29/13 Syria Could Become Another Iraq on Religious Freedom, Says Retired Army Lt. Col.

/in /by

Read the entire story at ChristianPost.com

excerpt from article

But Dr. M Zuhdi Jasser, a Syrian-American and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told CP that the Assad regime encouraged the religious violence.

“Religious liberty is at a historic low in Syria as the Assad regime has employed a scorched earth policy by intentionally stoking militants with sectarian divisions in order to rip apart Syria from within,” said Jasser.  “While the revolution began as a diverse political movement of all faiths against the Assad regime, it has now degenerated into a sectarian conflict dominated by the narrative of a Sunni dominated opposition against an Alawite regime which claims to be the protector of other religious minorities.”

Jasser also said that “if the U.S. takes a military role it needs to be decisive” in regards to military strikes, support for opposition, and the “information war” regarding popular opinion.

“Defeat Assad quickly and the proxy war with Iran ends quickly. Let it go longer and God knows where Iran takes its emboldened positioning,” said Jasser.

8/7/13 Exclusive: Al Qaeda Conference Call Intercepted by U.S. Officials Sparked Alerts

/in /by

Source: The Daily Beast

It wasn’t just any terrorist message that triggered U.S. terror alerts and embassy closures—but a conference call of more than 20 far-flung al Qaeda operatives, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin report.

The crucial intercept that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a conference call between al Qaeda’s senior leaders and representatives of several of the group’s affiliates throughout the region.

The intercept provided the U.S. intelligence community with a rare glimpse into how al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, manages a global organization that includes affiliates in Africa, the Middle East, and southwest and southeast Asia.

Several news outlets reported Monday on an intercepted communication last week between Zawahiri and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate based in Yemen. But The Daily Beast has learned that the discussion between the two al Qaeda leaders happened in a conference call that included the leaders or representatives of the top leadership of al Qaeda and its affiliates calling in from different locations, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence. All told, said one U.S. intelligence official, more than 20 al Qaeda operatives were on the call.

To be sure, the CIA had been tracking the threat posed by Wuhayshi for months. An earlier communication between Zawahiri and Wuhayshi delivered through a courier was picked up last month, according to three U.S. intelligence officials. But the conference call provided a new sense of urgency for the U.S. government, the sources said.

Read more

8/6/13 Fort Hood witness on Hasan: ‘His punishment will come’

/in /by

Source: CNN

(CNN) — [Breaking news update at 10:14 a.m. Tuesday]

The court-martial of U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan began Tuesady morning at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan is accused of opening fire on his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more.

[Original story, posted at 8:24 a.m. Tuesday]

Fort Hood witness on Hasan: ‘His punishment will come’

(CNN) — Chief Warrant Officer Christopher Royal survived the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, with two bullet wounds to his back.

The slugs left him with nerve damage that numbs his left arm and leg and sends streaking pains “shooting up and down my back.” And it’s left invisible scars as well — post-traumatic stress that has hurt his ability to perform his duties as a computer specialist and left him unable to feel safe in his own country.

Read More

8/1/13 Another Arab Spring Moment That Matters

/in /by

Source: Huffington Post

Tunisia remains a central part of the story of the Arab Spring. Going first matters, and Tunisia was the first country in the region to overthrow its autocratic regime through popular protests. It was just under three years ago that Mohamed Bouazizi, a vegetable vendor in Sidi Bouzid, vented his frustration with the seizure of his cart by the an official of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime by lighting himself on fire. Within two months, Ali’s regime was deposed, street protests in Egypt inspired in part by the popular protests in Tunisia had deposed Hosni Mubarak, and Libya was soon to follow.

Read more

8/20/13 Al Jazeera opens propaganda front on US Shores

/in /by

Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Western veneer does not change ideological root of Qatari owned Islamist media

 

PHOENIX (August 20, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” released the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) regarding the commencement of operations by Al Jazeera America.

“Imagine if at the height of the cold war the Soviet Union’s state run media Pravda had opened a major broadcasting arm that had access to over 50 million American homes.  The outrage would have been palpable. That outrage would have been led by American journalists who were offended that an American journalism label would be put on such a clearly state controlled message.

Fast forward to today as Al Jazeera America commences operations. Al Jazeera Media Group has been one of the greatest, if not the primary tool for the spread of Islamist ideas around the world. Meanwhile, the greatest threat to American security remains jihadist groups that are the byproduct of Islamist ideology which are fueled by an undercurrent of transnational political Islam.

Often trying to package itself as a legitimate global news service which adheres to Western standards of journalism, the reality is that Al Jazeera Media Group is wholly owned and operated by the government of Qatar and the royal family of the House of Thani. While they have attracted a number of high-profile American and Western journalists, Al Jazeera cannot disown themselves of the standards set by their own history, their operating government and family, and their close association with leading global Islamists like hate-monger Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.

Qaradawi, a leading icon of Sunni Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood thought, broadcasts his anti-Semitic and anti-U.S. hatred on his program “Shariah and Life” on Al Jazeera Arabic to over 60 million homes across the world. He continues to have a travel ban to the UK and the U.S. because of his repeated advocacy for terror acts against Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Israelis. Sheikh Qaradawi’s programming has often been a clinic in sowing the seeds of virulent anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and deep-seeded sectarianism in the region.

Make no mistake. Regardless of the veneer of the product produced today on its Al Jazeera America brand, the total business model and ideological force of Al Jazeera Media Group is not compatible with liberal democracy and in fact is at odds with our Constitution and our national security.

As the Washington Post reported, there are a number of journalists like David Marash who have left Al Jazeera reporting endemic bias after short stints on the air. At the height of the war in Iraq, Al Jazeera served as the region’s central disseminator of horrific videos from Al Qaeda and the primary Islamist global influence operation against America. They blatantly misrepresented and exaggerated death tolls and incidents like Abu Ghraib.

Qatar hosts the world’s only foreign office of the militant Islamist Taliban and has just recently pledged $400 million to the militants of Hamas. Elliott Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations recently pointed out that “Qatar is no model for human rights, much less democracy.” This government which has deep problems with forced labor and human trafficking among many other human rights violations described by Human Rights Watch will be writing the paychecks of its American reporters and those who begin to give them advertising space.

The Arab Awakening is an opportunity not a destination. While the White House sleeps and presents no foreign policy strategy or doctrine, Islamists are putting their global influence operations into high gear to fill the vacuum.  Al Jazeera is clearly positioning itself to fill that vacuum with an operation that will package the news from Qatar to our own shores in a way that keeps the Islamist ship headed towards populist victories across the 56 Muslim majority nations.

Sadly, The New York Times this morning heralded the launch of Al Jazeera America as a “more sober look at the news.” Clearly the Times has little to no palpable concern over the journalistic hypocrisy peddled by the American arm of the Al Jazeera global operation.

Adding the thin covering of western anchors such as Soledad O’Brien and Ali Velshi cannot erase Al Jazeera’s Islamist roots. While Al Jazeera may not be airing live rants from Qardawi on this channel, the ideological influence at home base Qatar cannot disappear regardless of their denials.

Their access to American homes will give this foreign government owned organization unearned legitimacy in the American public space.

 

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:         Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977

8/7/13 Prison and 600 lashes for criticizing Saudi religious leaders is barbaric

/in /by

 Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Prison and 600 lashes for criticizing Saudi religious leaders is barbaric

President Obama needs to call on the Saudi government to immediately release Raif Badawi

 PHOENIX (August 7, 2013) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith” released the following statement on behalf of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) regarding Saudi Arabia’s sentencing of liberal Muslim journalist Raif Badawi for essentially holding a discussion on the role of religion in society and government:

 “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s latest attack on liberal activists and individual human rights cannot be ignored and allowed to stand. America’s silence against our so-called ally, Saudi Arabia, is an embarrassment and appears to the champions of freedom around the world to be complicit.

On July 29, Saudi judge Faris Al-Harbi, handed down a typically draconian interpretation of Shariah law to Raif Badawi for supposedly “insulting Islam,” a charge Badawi vehemently denies. His subsequent sentence to 600 lashes and 7 years in prison is pure barbarism and the State Department’s response of being “deeply concerned” is woefully inappropriate.

Badawi’s crime? He founded a free “liberal” Muslim website, in many ways similar to our own at AIFD and so many of our liberal Muslim allies, that questions the role of religion in society and thus allegedly insults religious authorities. Badawi is the editor of the Free Saudi Liberals website and was arrested in Jeddah in June 2012 and charged with setting up a website that undermines general security, ridiculing Islamic religious figures and going beyond the realm of obedience. The crime of apostasy, which carries a mandatory death penalty in Saudi Arabia, was leveled against him as well, but the judge threw out the apostasy charge bizarrely claiming leniency.

This charge and sentencing is indicative of a greater more systematic strategy by the Saudi government and judicial system to quell dissent and invoke fear in their populace both on the internet and in public discourse intentionally making examples of high profile cases like Badawi’s.  With a legal system that is based on radical interpretations of principles of Islamic law, judges are given latitude to interpret what constitutes a serious offense against the regime and render obscene punishments that are not within any realm of acceptable legal parameters. This system is profoundly oppressive and make no mistake is being used to keep the Arab awakening and calls for freedom from taking hold in the kingdom.

Human Rights Watch reported that, “Judge Faris al-Harbi noted simply that Badawi had created a ‘liberal’ website, and said that ‘liberalism is akin to unbelief’.”

Badawi is just one in a growing series of arrests over the past few years. Mohammed al-Qahtani was charged in a Saudi Arabian court in 2012 on 11 charges including: “setting up an unlicensed organization and ‘breaking allegiance to the ruler’ among other bogus charges. His organization, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (CPRA) is a leading human rights organization in the kingdom being denied a license to operate by the Kingdom since 2008. Al-Qahtani courageously met with me and other members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom during our trip to Saudi Arabia in February of this year. Sadly, and again without a sound from the White House, just one month later, on March 9, 2013 he was found guilty of several charges and sentenced to ten years in prison and ten years of travel ban.  In February, Saudi novelist Turki al-Hamad was arrested after he tweeted a series of comments felt to “insult Islam” in December 2012.  The list goes on far more than we can begin to comprehend, and will continue to grow without leadership and exposure from Washington of these prisoners of conscience.

What is also disappointing is the tepid response that the State Department gave to the announcement last week of Badawi’s sentence. Failing to even demand Badawi’s release, Jen Psaki a State Department Spokeswoman stated:

We believe that when public speech is deemed offensive, be it via social media or any other means, the issue is best addressed through open-dialogue and honest debate.”

No outrage, no condemnation and no cries for reform, simply a lukewarm statement of concern followed by platitudes to a belief in “open-dialogue”.  Mr. Badawi is facing seven years in prison and 600 lashes from a whip for expressing his views on religion, and the U.S., the greatest champion of freedom of speech and individual liberty fails to stand for those American principles.

The United States should adamantly demand Badawi’s release and pressure our supposed ally on their abysmal and exponentially deteriorating record at protecting individual rights and their very clear attempt to hold power over their people through brutal oppression.

Our system of governance is built on the ability of the individual to question faith, government and check the power they have over our lives.  When we fail to stand for those principles around the world, we call into question the validity of our own society.

President Obama should personally demand the release of Badawi and all dissidents who are merely seeking the right to speak freely.”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

MEDIA CONTACTS:         Gregg Edgar

Gordon C. James Public Relations

gedgar@gcjpr.com

602-690-7977

####