Flight 93 Update…
August 21, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Flight 93, Islam, Islamofascism, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
Big DC Fundraiser Canceled
Canceled as well the urgent action alert that was going to be the subject of today’s blogburst post. The Memorial Project has just abandoned the “gala” tribute and fundraiser they were planning for almost a year. The event was to be held in Washington DC on September 11th, and yes, they actually called it a “gala,” until Flight 93 family members said NO WAY.
Last month’s announcement of the event promised big:
An impressive Honorary Host Committee has been assembled consisting of over 200 members of Congress and the leadership of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Special state delegations from Pennsylvania and California are also being organized for the event.
Assembled where? In the imaginations of Memorial Project personnel? If there really were 200 Congressmen on board, including the leadership of both parties, what could possibly prompt cancellation?
Has word gotten out that the memorial is actually a terrorist memorial mosque?
Fuggedaboudit. We are a long ways from Congress being alert to the facts. It is possible, however, that there is a growing awareness in Congress that the Flight 93 families are divided over the crescent design (now called a broken circle). Thank Tom Burnett Sr., whose efforts to stop the desecration of his son’s grave drew national television coverage in May, and extensive Pittsburgh coverage this month:
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Moqtada al Sadr’s Penchant for ‘Community Organizing’
August 15, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Frank Salvato, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Religion, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror | No Comments
-By Frank Salvato
Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr is planning to disarm his Mahdi Army and oversee its transformation from Islamist fighting force into a civic and social service organization. Al Sadr wants us to believe that this cadre of anti-American jihadists is going to voluntarily lay down their weapons and all become “community organizers.” The truth is that al Sadr has been an attentive student, having studied the transformations of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza from violent jihadi organizations into armed factions validated by the electoral and political processes.
It has become clear to the wide array of jihadis fighting against US and Coalition forces in Iraq that they cannot win militarily. The superiorly trained and equipped militaries of the West – the US leading the way – are simply too potent to engage on the battlefield. Even in the streets of Anbar Province, where jihadis employ terrorist hit-and-run, urban guerilla tactics, the dark hearts of the jihadi taskmasters have come to understand that Allah will not have his bloodlust satisfied through direct and/or indirect military confrontation with the West.
So, Moqtada al Sadr, understanding the limitations of his military abilities in his stand-off with the West, has chosen to take one step backward to take two steps forward. He is yielding on the military battlefield in deference to engaging on the socio-political battlefield. This is not a unique approach to circumventing the advancement of liberty by those who strive to oppress.
Flight 93 Update…
August 8, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Flight 93, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Patriotism, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
“Flight 93 Families Divided”
Tom Burnett Sr. entered the lion’s den on Saturday to oppose the crescent memorial to Flight 93 (now called a broken circle). An excerpt from the beginning of the Somerset Daily American’s banner headline story about division amongst the families:
“Tom Burnett Jr. led the effort to take the plane back,” his father said. “When I was on the design jury, I saw the red crescent of embrace and realized it was an obvious and blatant symbol of Islam. It does not properly honor our people — those Flight 93 heroes. I think it’s a travesty that it’s moved along so fast.”
He called for an investigation into the design. When he has brought up his concerns, some of the task force and advisory commission members have dismissed him, he said.
“This is a cataclysmic mistake,” he said. “I’m going to save you from yourselves. I’d like to ask for an unbiased, transparent, honest investigation. This is just a terrible, terrible mistake. I’m asking every American — we must stop this mistake. This panel doesn’t own the design, I don’t own it, Pennsylvania doesn’t own it, all of America and all of the world own it.”
He said he is also tired of the controversy, but that they must honor the heroes properly. It will reverberate in history.
“I’m not going to stop fighting this thing, it is very, very bad,” Burnett said. “Wake up. Get your heads out of the sand.”
Islamists Rule American Publishing Industry
August 6, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Religion, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
Correction 8/8/08: The original piece identified the Publisher, Cambridge University Press, as an American publisher. That was incorrect. Cambridge University Press is in England.
America is the land of liberty. It is the place where political expression is protected by law and custom. It is the freest nation on Earth… unless, of course, you wish to talk about Islam. Then, unless you bow and scrape, unless you assert its supposed peacefulness, unless you bend over backwards to make sure that you don’t “offend” Islamists, you will be shut down. At least this is true if you wish to publish a book about Islam, it appears.
Not long ago, a book titled “Alms for Jihad” was ridiculously voluntary destroyed, “pulped” being the term, by its own publisher. This unusual action was taken because one activist Muslim took the bookseller to libel court and won saying that he was somehow maligned by allegations in the book. The ridiculous part is that the book was published by Cambridge University Press, was sued by Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz in a British court, yet the authors were Americans. This foolish publisher voluntarily destroyed its entire run and went to the effort to send a letter to libraries to tell them to remove the book from shelves over the verdict of this foreign court.
Alarmingly, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz has been successful in at least 4 such libel cases against book publishers throughout the world in these compliant, malleable British courts.
A professor at Emory University, who won a libel suit in Britain brought against her and Penguin, Deborah Lipstadt, likewise told The New York Sun that this action by Cambridge University Press was a “frightening development.” She said that it seemed to her that the Saudis were “systematically, case by case, book by book” challenging anything critical of them or anything that linked them to terrorism. She said that she could not think of any publisher that would now accept a manuscript critical of the Saudis. “This affects not only authors but readers,” she said, adding that “ideas are being chased out of the marketplace.”
Fortunately, some authors are trying to fight back to some extent.
The director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy, Rachel Ehrenfeld, said that Cambridge University Press “capitulated” and “didn’t even try to fight.” Sheikh Mahfouz sued her for her 2003 book “Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed — and How to Stop It.” Rather than contesting the case in Britain, Ms. Ehrenfeld has taken to the American courts. In June, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in her favor, finding that if an American writer is sued for libel in a foreign court, that person can appeal to an American court to request that a British decision not be enforceable here.
But this is not the end of the matter. Sadly, another American publisher has capitulated in the face of the hatred and threats of radical Islamists. According to the Wall Street Journal, Random House has “abruptly called off publication” of a new book about the sex life of Aisha, the child bride of the pedophiliac Prophet Muhammad.
In fact, for the sum of a $100,000 dollar advance, Random House had already bought the book and had begun to plan the book tour for author Sherry Jones. But, the publisher abruptly changed their decision as word that the review copies sent in advance had brought warnings of unrest. Sadly, it seems an American professor is the one responsible for starting the Islamofascist ball rolling on this one. In an effort to silence the publication of this book, Denise Spellberg, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, began to send warnings about the book to radical Islamists throughout the world.
After this Professor, a fellow traveler of radical Islam, got done rounding up the many hatemongers in Muslim communities she was in touch with, and her agitators in turn got in touch with the publisher, Random House got cold feet. In fact, they became scared to death.
On a May 21 conference call, Random House executive Elizabeth McGuire told the author and her agent that the publishing house had decided to indefinitely postpone publication of the novel for “fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims” and concern for “the safety and security of the Random House building and employees.”
So much for America being the land of political and religious freedom, the land where anything can be achieved. It has become a land afraid of its own shadow, ruled by the stern warnings of lawyers and the fear of mob action. It has become a land where radical haters who claim to be “religious” can force law abiding citizens to live by foreign courts and ideas antithetical to liberty.
There was once a time when saying the west was not at war with Islam was all the rage. But as each year passes, that sentiment is proving to be woefully naive. If everything we are isn’t under siege from without, there never has been a time when we were.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Brits, Inat’l Community, Subsidizing Torture With Aid
August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Europe, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Israel, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
By now, we are all familiar with the specious European efforts to bring President Bush up on charges of “crimes against humanity” because of the authorized torture he and his administration supposedly instituted. Oh, the Euros are in high dudgeon over their assumed sense of moral superiority in their claims against the evil, evil America. Despite the rapidly improving situation in Iraq, the calls to throw our national leaders into some Euroweenie calaboose have surged unabated. Yet, as these same hypocrites have been funding a supporting torture (not to mention financing the exportation of terrorism) for decades and now there is another report that points this little hypocritical fact out for all the world to see.
On July 29, The Guardian newspaper reported that two “leading human rights groups” are reporting that the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah routinely capture and torture members of each others organizations as well as Palestinians not known to be affiliated with any group.
Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian human rights group, said yesterday that more than 1,000 people have been detained by each side within the past year. An estimated 20%-30% of the detainees suffered torture, including severe beatings and being tied up in painful positions, said Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin, citing sworn statements from 150 detainees. It said mistreatment had led to three deaths in Gaza and one in the West Bank.
Another human right group, Human Rights Watch, concurs that torture “is dramatically up.”
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch makes similar allegations in a 113-page report due out tomorrow. “The use of torture is dramatically up,” said Fred Abrahams, a senior researcher for the group. The report found detainees in Gaza were held for shorter periods than those in the West Bank but the abuse was more intense.
And what is the response to this torture by the vaunted “international community”? They want to throw money at the Palestinians.
CNN Adds Video of Riots in Budapest to Report of Riots in Belgrade
August 1, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Europe, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently, CNN decided that they didn’t have enough video of rioting in their recent story on unrest in Belgrade, Serbia, so they decided to add in footage of rioting in Budapest to sexy up the story. I have to say, if the Kosovars intend to make the cut with CNN in the future, they’d better start rioting to the satisfaction of CNN’s video editors. Either that, or CNN can start showing us all some truthful video with their stories. Whatever the case, CNN’s misstep doesn’t just make them look bad, it makes all Americans look bad.
On July 30, CNN aired a report in their international news titled “Serb Ultranationalists Rally” in which footage of riots in two different cities and two different countries were edited together to represent the unrest in Kosovo. Serbian TV was a bit mystified by this embellishment, and rightfully so. RTS asserted that since CNN didn’t have violent enough footage for their riots story, they “resorted to their favorite Hollywood trick” of “montaging and pasting together the sequences from Budapest and Belgrade protests” to accompany the story. (See foreign language report from Serbian RTS TV)
Naturally, since the original airing and posting on the Internet, and since people began to ridicule CNN for the melding of video of riots in different countries, CNN has removed the video without comment. Making matters worse, many now see a conspiracy where they originally just saw incompetence. A screen shot of the original CNN page clearly shows a snapshot of the video compilation.