How news media protect Muslim Mafia

By Art Moore

Coverage of lawmakers' charges ignores terror ties

Is the Council on American-Islamic Relations merely a civil rights organization exercising its constitutional right to lobby on Capitol Hill like hundreds of other non-profit organizations?

That's the way Politico and other mainstream news outlets have portrayed CAIR – despite the FBI's decision this year to cut off ties to the Muslim group after its designation by the Department of Justice as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the largest terrorist-finance case in U.S. history.

In its coverage of a press conference on Capitol Hill in which four Republican House members presented an internal CAIR document revealed in the new WND Books release "Muslim Mafia" that shows the group sought to place interns in the intelligence, homeland security and judiciary committees, Politico characterized the document as a "fairly straightforward public relations and lobbying strategy."

There was no mention of the undisputed fact that along with CAIR's designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, many of its leaders and prominent supporters have been convicted in terrorism-related cases.

FBI officials have testified CAIR's parent group, the Islamic Association for Palestine, was founded as a front group for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. And evidence from the FBI presented at the Holy Land trial showed CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad and founder Omar Awad participated in a three-day summit in 1993 of U.S.-based Hamas members and supporters.

Wiretaps revealed Ahmad argued for using Muslims as an "entry point" to "pressure Congress and the decision makers in America" to change U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York – who has described CAIR as an organization "which we know has ties to terrorism" – formally supported the FBI's divorce with CAIR in a letter to the agency's director signed with Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

In 2007, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California withdrew an award to the head of CAIR's Sacramento chapter, citing "concerns" about the group's associations. She explained her office had not thoroughly researched CAIR.

Internal e-mails, according to "Muslim Mafia," show CAIR debated going "all out against" Boxer in a smear campaign but decided against it because she's a popular Democrat, and CAIR didn't think it could make an attack "hurt her enough."

Read more here,,,,

Source: WND

Abbas pleads with UN for Gaza help

Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas

January 07, 2009

PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas has pressed the UN Security Council to call for an "immediate and full cessation of Israeli aggression" in the Gaza Strip and for the lifting of the "suffocating siege" of the territory.

“I call on the council to take the first necessary step to save my people in Gaza: a resolution calling for an immediate full cessation of Israeli aggression,” he told the 15-member body in New York on the 11th day of an Israeli military invasion that has claimed 660 Palestinian lives in Gaza, including about 200 children, local medics say.

Israeli troops kept up their assault on Hamas fighters in Gaza today as diplomats sought to persuade Israel to end its action.

And Barack Obama finally broke his silence on the issue, saying: "The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me."

An air strike killed a Palestinian gunman and wounded three in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood, where some of the heaviest fighting has occurred since Israeli troops invaded the crowded coastal strip on Saturday, medics said.

Clashes were continuing in Zeitun, and there were reports of air strikes on the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

The latest fighting follows Israeli strikes yesterday on three UN-run schools that killed at least 48 people, taking the civilian death toll even higher and prompting growing calls for an immediate ceasefire.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply dismayed” by the strikes on the schools and called them “totally unacceptable”.

While the UN Security Council discussed the crisis in New York, Egypt's president and veteran Middle East peace mediator, Hosni Mubarak, was pushing for an immediate ceasefire.

He called on Israel and the Palestinians to discuss security on the Egypt-Gaza border, following talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Egypt “invites the Israelis and Palestinians for an urgent meeting to reach arrangements and guarantees that would not allow the repeat of the current escalation,” Mr Mubarak said.

Such guarantees would include “securing the borders and ... opening of the border crossings and lifting the siege,” he said.

Mr Mubarak also said he proposed an immediate ceasefire that would allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian-Israeli talks.

Mr Sarkozy, who began a whirlwind tour of the region on Monday, said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about Mr Mubarak's initiative and that “he will react soon”.

“I have very precise elements that allow me to say that an Israeli delegation will meet an Egyptian delegation to discuss the matter of security,” he said.

Mr Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the UN Security Council presidency, said a resolution on Gaza would “complicate” the task of achieving peace.

A Hamas delegation is already in Cairo to discuss a ceasefire.

Egypt brokered a six-month truce that ended on December 19. Hamas refused to renew the deal, accusing Israel of reneging on it by not relaxing the crippling blockade of Gaza it first imposed when the Islamists seized control of the territory in 2007.

Mr Olmert earlier said the “terrorist” rocket attacks and weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza must end before Israel halts its offensive on the Palestinian territory.

Mr Ban said he would travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories next week.

Protests against Israel have spiralled worldwide, and Al-Qa'ida deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to attack Israeli and Western targets in revenge for the offensive.

Israel has denied there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but Mr Olmert's office announced today that the Jewish state would open a “humanitarian corridor” into the territory.

“This involves opening up geographical areas for limited periods of time during which the population will be able to receive the aid and stock up,” his office said.

International Committee of the Red Cross operations director Pierre Kraehenbuehl said earlier that “there is no doubt in my mind that we are dealing with a full-blown and major crisis in humanitarian terms. The situation for the people in Gaza is extreme and traumatic.”

Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse

Islamist Group - MPAC - Directs Stealth Jihad Against CA Senator Barbara Boxer

By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz

March 25, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - As we noted in a March 18 piece 'Why Is Senator Barbara Boxer's Staff Meeting With CAIR?' California's junior Senator is once again unapologetically meeting with the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR], a group she had harshly rejected only a little over a year ago, and other Islamist organizations including MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Queried about why Boxer has apparently changed her "no-meet" directive against the Saudi funded Hamas friendly group, the Senator's staff has, of this writing, still not provided any explanation, let alone a plausible one.

In an "after-action" move, MPAC today is conducting a disingenuous call-in telephone campaign directed at Boxer's DC office.

PipeLineNews came into possession of an email being circulated by MPAC detailing the group's strategy which includes callers representing themselves as "Christians" apparently in order to cast the effort in the most public relations friendly manner. Read more ...

Source: PipeLine News

Why Is Senator Barbara Boxer's Staff Meeting With CAIR?

March 18, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Despite what appeared to have been a blanket rejection of the Saudi funded Islamist group CAIR [an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation prosecution] in 2006 by California's junior Senator, Barbara Boxer, according to the March 13 CAIR newsletter, representatives of her office recently met with the controversial group which sought to convey its feelings on the "crisis" in Gaza, a Hamas stronghold.

"Southern California Muslim and interfaith leaders met Wednesday with representatives from Senator Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) office to express their concerns about Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and the resulting humanitarian crisis. Those joining the meeting were: Sharaf Mowjood, Government Relations Coordinator of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Area..."[source, CAIR Newsletter 3/13/08, MUSLIM, INTERFAITH LEADERS MEET BOXER STAFF OVER GAZA CRISIS] Read more ...

Source: PipeLineNews.org