By Andrew L. Jaffee

Things continue to improve in Iraq. U.S. troops killed al-Qaeda’s Number Two, a guy who was trying to reorganize the group in the northern part of the country:

American soldiers killed the alleged No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Moroccan who trained in Afghanistan, recruited foreign fighters and ran operations in northern Iraq where Sunni insurgents remain a potent threat, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

The man, who the military said was known as Abu Qaswarah, died Oct. 5 during a raid on a building in the northern city of Mosul that served as a major “command and control location” for the region. Four other insurgents were killed in the operation, the U.S. said. …

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

I have been told that younger Americans get their information mainly online or on TV and not through books. What a pity! To me, books are beautiful to hold and to read. The solitude that reading a book requires, ideally, without interruption, allows for reflection and is better suited to human capacities. Quick reads of brief “breaking news” snippets, which are frequently interrupted, mid-sentence, by other presumed “breaking news” snippets, is an exercise better suited to a machine, and not to a human being. I fear that this cognitive style teaches us to behave as if we all have attention deficit disorders. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

More problems have crept up in Barack Obama’s run for the presidency — this time in Ohio. It would help clarify matters to hear Barack Obama’s stance on voter registration irregularities in the Buckeye State. First, “A federal court ruled tonight that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner violated federal election laws by not taking adequate steps to validate the identity of newly registered voters.” Second, in same the case, the judge’s, “ruling cited the questionable activity of ACORN, a group that has registered thousands of Ohioans.”

According to the Columbus Dispatch, regarding Ohio’s secretary of state:

(more…)

By Walid Phares*

In the Western debate on how best to counter the rise and expansion of the Jihadi movement, particularly the Salafists, within liberal democracies, European experiences are important because of the sheer numbers of militants and the dissemination within many urban areas. France’s counter terrorism experiences are one among these learning processes for all other European Govenrment but also for North American CT planning as well. In an article I published in the Middle East Times today I commented on France’s Interior Minister remarks on the state of confrontation with the Jihadists. In a recent series of seminars in Paris, which I will report about on CTB, I also interacted with a number of French legislators and CT officials dealing with the French involvement in Afghanistan and the Sahel. In short, France is heading towards “increasing engagement with al Qaeda on two continents, Asia and Africa, as well as at home. Below is the article:

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

“The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs.” Did Obama speak of “redistribution” of wealth in 1996, or did an over-zealous DSA member, Bob Roman, put this word into Obama’s mouth? Whatever the case, Obama appeared before the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on February 25, 1996, a group whose platform is to “reject an economic order based on private profit, alienated labor, gross inequalities of wealth and power, discrimination based on race and sex, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.”

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

On my way to Penn Station on Friday afternoon, (on West 29th St. to be precise), there seemed to be some kind of demonstration going on. When we got closer we saw that it was a large Islamic prayer service which had spilled out onto the sidewalk and into the gutter. It was mainly a mass of prostrated men but women in hijab walked nearby. The driver, a silver-haired man of Greek and Bulgarian background, launched into a non-stop monologue. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

by Colin Shindler
Cambridge University Press, 2008. 400 pp. $23.95

Reviewed by Asaf Romirowsky*, Director of Israel and Middle East affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and adjunct scholar at Campus Watch.

Looking Ahead by Looking Back

One of the greatest myths in Middle East studies departments across North America and Europe is that the presence of an Israeli faculty member makes a “balanced” department. In fact, many Israeli academics have built their reputation on scholarship that is critical of Israel and its existence. These academics are frequently given center stage by the Association for Israel Studies, the Middle East Studies Association and Middle East studies centers, which host them and provide visiting appointments. This gives the scholars the visibility they seek, while allowing their hosts to claim balance in presenting an “Israeli viewpoint.”

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Barack Obama has found another inflammatory ally, Rep. John Lewis, Democrat from Georgia, to add to his long list of his extremely dubious supporters and connections. In a very ugly smear, Lewis today “likened the politics of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin to segregationist Gov. George Wallace” and claimed that McCain and Palin were “sowing the seeds of hatred and division.” John McCain is no racist and has never fanned the flames of bigotry. In actuality, it is the Obama campaign which consorts with racists and seeks to create ugly racial divisions all in pursuit of the American presidency.

(more…)

by Supna Zaidi*

Have you seen the little old lady who passes out Jehovah’s Witness literature in your neighborhood? Some people stop and show interest. Others roll their eyes, and keep walking. But, would you ever expect anyone to threaten her? Call her a racist, and try to get her arrested?

Islamists would. And that is exactly what happened to two English Christian ministers who had the nerve to proselytize on a street corner in a predominantly Muslim immigrant area in the UK in 2007.

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

The Dow is falling just as the Twin Towers once fell. Obama’s campaign soars on the wings of this crisis. Some Obama supporters no longer care about facts and become exceedingly aggressive when one tries to offer any. “I dare you to prove that,” they yell, their faces all a-snarl. “That’s a right-wing racist lie.” … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Thomas Drewing

My friends, (I know… but he always says that!) I want to bring up a painful lesson I learned some 20 years ago. I had what I thought was a friend in a man who turned out to be a criminal — a very smart one, but a criminal nevertheless. I was taken in by John Keating, as were some others. And while it was quickly determined by Democratic investigators that I was innocent of any wrong-doing, just the fact that I had been taken in like that, was disturbing to me, and very sobering.

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

How long can one election go on? In the future, will elections begin at birth and end after the next life? I am serious. Even I, who am not a political junkie, already know — no, I can predict — the favorite words, phrases, slogans of each candidate. This is political theater at its worst and I must ask: What kind of person does this, day-in-day-out, year after year, traveling from city to city, from one television studio or stadium to another, getting up at dawn, never stopping? Only actors, models, musicians — and politicians. By now, everyone, including the politicians, consider themselves entertainers. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

by Supna Zaidi*

Imagine Dodger Stadium full of loud and whooping fans cheering on, not baseball, but your weekly stoning and flogging of adulterers, thieves and other errant citizens of southern California.

This is America under Islamic law, or Shari’a, a system that everyone should fear. Or so, Alan Kornman, director of the United American Committee (UAC) thinks. He continues to fundraise for a freeway billboard in Florida stating, “Shari’a Is Hate,” to educate America before it’s too late.

(more…)

By Barry Rubin

In response to a casual question, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dropped a historical bombshell, an offhand remark telling more about how the Middle East works than 100 books. And a former Marine commander adds an equally big revelation about long-ago events quite relevant for today.

Almost thirty years ago, President Jimmy Carter tried to show what a nice guy he was by pressing the Shah not to crush the revolutionaries. After the monarch fell, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski met top officials of the new Islamist regime to pledge U.S. friendship to the government controlled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. At the time, I wrote that by approaching some of the milder radicals, the administration frightened the more militant ones. U.S.-Iran relations must be smashed, they concluded, lest Washington back their rivals. In fact, as we’ll see in a moment, the Carter administration offered to back Khomeini himself.

(more…)

by Daniel Pipes*

The recent distribution of some 28 million copies in the United States of the 2005 documentary Obsession has stirred heated debate about its contents. One lightening rod for criticism concerns my on-screen statement that “10 to 15 percent of Muslims worldwide support militant Islam.”

The Muslim Public Affairs Council declared this estimate both “utterly unsubstantiated” and “completely without evidence.” Masoud Kheirabadi, a professor at Portland State University and author of children’s books about Islam, informed the Oregonian newspaper that there’s no basis for my estimate. Daniel Ruth, writing in the Tampa Tribune, asked dubiously how I arrived at this number. “Did he take a poll? That would be enlightening! What does ’support’ for radical Islam mean? Pipes provides no answers.”

(more…)