Archive for January, 2010

Analysis: Did the Long Arm of Iran Reach the Dead Sea Highway?

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

By Jonathan Spyer

The revelations of possible Iranian involvement in the attack on Israeli diplomats earlier this month in Jordan appear to offer the latest evidence of direct engagement by Teheran in subversion and paramilitary activity across national borders.

The Jordanian investigation is still in its early stages. But the suggestion by sources close to the well-respected Jordanian General Intelligence Department that the explosives used for the attack may have been brought into the kingdom by Iranian diplomats is certainly plausible. It would conform to similar incidents on which the fingerprints of Iran were later unmistakably identified. It would also fit the current pattern of Iranian support for destabilizing its regional enemies.

(more…)


Israeli IDF hospital the Rolls Royce of medicine in Haiti

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Canada’s National Post stated yesterday that, “CBS News (as repeated here on Sky News) (18 January) calls the Israeli IDF hospital the ‘Rolls Royce’ of medicine in Haiti.” The article also noted, “Conspicuous by its absence [in the Haiti relief effort] is the entire Muslim world, including the extremely rich oil producing nations.” According to CBS, the nations actively helping Haiti recover from its massive earthquake disaster are the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Finland, South Korea, Ireland, Spain, Germany, India, China, Sweden, Venezuela, Mexico, France, Iceland, Portugal, Taiwan, Israel, and Switzerland. Read for yourself:

(more…)


Assuring Adequate Penalties for Identity Theft: New Report Looks at Statutes, Cases, and Solutions

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

WASHINGTON (January 19, 2010) — A key statutory tool to prosecute identity thieves was significantly weakened by a May 2009 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Flores-Figueroa v. United States. The case held that prosecutors not only must prove that there was an identity-theft victim, but that the defendant knew he had used a real person’s identity information, as opposed to not knowing whether the information was counterfeit or real. The result is to curtail prosecutors’ ability to go after the crime of identity theft, which is disproportionately committed by illegal immigrants.

A new Center for Immigration Studies report explores this issue with an eye toward offering a solution. In ‘Fixing Flores: Assuring Adequate Penalties for Identity Theft and Fraud,’ CIS Director of National Security Studies Janice Kephart does the following:

(more…)


Syria’s Financial Support for Jihad: Syrian Terrorism

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

by Matthew Levitt*

It costs a lot of money to run an insurgency. There are arms to buy, attacks to launch, bribes to pay. The local population has to be won over, and extensive networks have to be actively maintained, often involving members of various groups, criminal syndicates, corrupt officials, and independent operators such as local smugglers. Explosive devices have to be made, guns have to be brought in from abroad, volunteers have to be indoctrinated and trained.

(more…)


Not All Muslims Are Suicide Killers - But All Suicide Killers Are Muslims

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

by Phyllis Chesler

Earlier today, I was lying on my gynecologist’s table in a highly exposed position when suddenly she said: “You’re probably going to think this is very politically incorrect but isn’t it crazy not to profile? I mean, isn’t it clear who’s doing what?”

I immediately shot straight up and engaged this worthy liberal in a very politically incorrect conversation. (No, she had absolutely no idea what I’ve been writing about).

So: Some things are becoming clear and can no longer be denied. Not even by some liberals.

(more…)


The Resistance Strategy: The Middle East’s Response to Calls for Peace and Moderation

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

By Barry Rubin

Have you heard from any of the Western mass media about the Resistance strategy of Middle East radicals? I’m sure you haven’t. Yet without understanding this powerful and widely accepted worldview how could anyone possibly comprehend events in the region?

“Resistance” is the slogan used by Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah especially but also is used by Iran’s regime, other Lebanese supporters of the Iran-Syria bloc, and assorted radicals throughout the region. While the word has echoes for any Western auditor of the French Resistance against the Nazis, this is not the origin of this Middle East usage.

(more…)


Why I Stand with Geert Wilders

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

by Daniel Pipes*

Who is the most important European alive today? I nominate the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I do so because he is best placed to deal with the Islamic challenge facing the continent. He has the potential to emerge as a world-historical figure.

That Islamic challenge consists of two components: on the one hand, an indigenous population’s withering Christian faith, inadequate birthrate, and cultural diffidence, and on the other an influx of devout, prolific, and culturally assertive Muslim immigrants. This fast-moving situation raises profound questions about Europe: will it retain its historic civilization or become a majority-Muslim continent living under Islamic law (the Shari’a)?

(more…)


Waiting for Armageddon [Film Review]

Monday, January 18th, 2010

A Film By: Franco Sacchi, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Reviewed by Fern Sidman

In an hour and a quarter, filmmakers Franco Sacchi, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner take us through a tumultuous journey to the final scenario of the world as we know it, as they present the religious prophecies of the 50 million strong American Evangelical Christian movement in a new and powerful documentary entitled, “Waiting For Armageddon.” Riding the wave of the all pervasive eschatological (or End Times) phenomenon that has, in recent years, been highly touted in the media and in literary circles; the filmmakers provide an in depth view of what some interpret to be the Biblically mandated perspective on the final days of our universe. Told in the first person voices of mainstream Christians who subscribe to the beliefs of the evangelical church, they inform us that the end of days will occur in the Land of Israel, with the Jewish people figuring prominently in this venue.

(more…)


Update on Fuzzy Words in the Immigration Policy Debate

Monday, January 18th, 2010

By David North, CIS.org

The open-borders supporters continue to push the linguistic boundaries as they seek to impose on all of us new and fuzzier ways of discussing immigration policy, a subject covered in an earlier blog of mine.

There was extensive coverage last month of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s use of the phrase “undocumented immigrant” in one of her first high court opinions. According to the New York Times this was the first time that this term had been used in a Supreme Court document; “illegal immigrant,” a slightly more precise term, had been used often before.

(more…)


Canadian Muslim Newspaper Spouts Blood Libel

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

The good people over at HonestReporting have documented how some Muslims continue to live in the Stone Age and harbor the most terrible hatreds:

… Canadian investigative journalist Terry Glavin recently reported on an odious story that British Columbia Muslim newspaper Al-Ameen Post had carried, which “reported” on an alleged Israeli conspiracy to kidnap 25,000 Ukranian children in order to harvest their organs. The report was entitled “Ukrainian kids, new victims of Israeli organ theft.”

(more…)


Honor Killers: Prosecuted in Europe, Seen as Psychiatric Victims in America

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

by Phyllis Chesler

When it comes to honor killings and honor-related violence, America had better start learning a few things from Europe.

On October 20, 2009, near Phoenix, Arizona, Noor Al-Maleki’s father, Iraqi-born Faleh Hassan Al-Maleki, ran over his 20-year-old daughter with a two-ton jeep. He struck down her female companion and protector as well. His daughter died. Although she was seriously wounded, Amal Edan Khalaf, the other woman, survived. Just like Yaser Said, who fled Dallas after honor murdering his two daughters (and who has not yet been found), Faleh Hassan Al-Maleki also fled, first to Mexico, and then to England. However, he was captured, extradited back to Arizona, and charged with first-degree murder.

Well done! Continue reading…

(more…)


Radical Islamism: An Introductory Primer

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

By Barry Rubin

The following is intended as a work in progress to provide a very brief discussion of issues involving radical Islamism. Naturally, it is too short to make all points, deal with all aspects, and cover all details. I plan to expand it in future to include possible solutions.

A young American named Ramy Zamzam, arrested in Pakistan for trying to fight alongside the Taliban, responded in an interview with the Associated Press: “We are not terrorists. We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism.”

(more…)


Steven Emerson: Combating Radical Islam

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

by George Michael*

On Christmas afternoon in 1992, Steven Emerson, then a staff reporter for CNN, noticed a large group of men in traditional Arab clothes congregating outside the Oklahoma City Convention Center. At first, he thought they were extras for a movie — until he remembered the date. So, he explored a bit; inside, he discovered a conference sponsored by the Muslim Arab Youth Association. The vitriol of the speakers, replete with hateful rhetoric against Jews, Israel, and America mixed with exhortations of violence toward these enemies, alarmed him. Spontaneous shouts of “Kill the Jews” and “Destroy the West” came from the audience throughout the event.[1]

(more…)


Security Theater Now Playing at Your Airport

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

by Daniel Pipes*

As hands are wrung in the aftermath of the near-tragedy on a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit, a conversation from London’s Heathrow airport in 1986 comes to mind.

It consisted of an El Al security agent quizzing one Ann-Marie Doreen Murphy, a 32-year-old recent arrival in London from Sallynoggin, Ireland. While working as a chambermaid at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane Murphy met Nizar al-Hindawi, a far-leftist Palestinian who impregnated her. After instructing her to “get rid of the thing,” he abruptly changed his tune and insisted on immediate marriage in “the Holy Land.” He also insisted on their traveling separately.

(more…)


Arab World: Battleground Yemen

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

By Jonathan Spyer

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently described the current situation in Yemen as “a threat to regional stability and even to global stability.” She was referring to the fact that Yemen is the latest failed state to become a haven for elements of the Sunni global jihad. Like Afghanistan and Sudan before it, Yemen is becoming a key regional base for al-Qaida.

Unlike in the other two countries, in Yemen this has come about not because of an agreement reached between the jihadis and the authorities; rather, the inability of the Yemeni authorities to impose their rule throughout their country, coupled with the close proximity of Yemen to Saudi Arabia - a key target for al-Qaida - has made the country a tempting prospect for the terrorists.

(more…)