Scheuer's Faulty Memory
By Steven Emerson
Counterterrorism Blog
July 20, 2007

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/07/scheuers_faulty_memory.php

On Tuesday, I appeared on the Glenn Beck show with Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer to discuss the Bush administration’s release of the latest National Intelligence Estimate, and Mr. Scheuer experienced a bout of selective amnesia.

During the segment, the subject of the Islamists’ desire to re-establish the caliphate came up:

Beck: Do you really think that (Al Qaeda terrorists) would stop (targeting America) if we -- I mean, what behavior is it that we could possibly change that would stop them when they`re looking for a global caliphate?

Scheuer: Well, I think a global caliphate is kind of the last refuge of the neoconservatives after they`ve been wrong about everything else. There`s no chance of a caliphate in our world any more than there is of all Christians turning the other cheek, sir. (emphasis added)

In Mr. Scheuer’s haste to win debate points, he apparently forgot his own words and analysis, argued in his celebrated “anonymously” published book, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror.

In a section titled, “The Importance of Afghanistan,” (see underlined passages) Scheuer himself described the centrality of the re-establishment of the caliphate in the Islamist mindset, writing (on pages 141-142):

But why, one might ask, is one of the poorest countries [Afghanistan] on earth and a one-eyed, battle-scared, and not superbly educated mullah pivotal in the Islamists’ eyes? The answer, once again, is found in the annals of Islamic history. Since the British completed the destruction of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, no country has replaced Turkey as the Muslim world’s center. In other words, Islam has needed a site from which to launch a new Caliphate, a state that would be governed by the shariah, God's law. (emphasis added)

And:

Suddenly, when the Taleban captured Kabul I 1996, Afghanistan became an official Islamic state – or emirate – ruled by shariah principles, and so the Islamists found themselves having the long-sought basics: a state ruled by an Islamic scholar from which to revive the Caliphate. (emphasis added)

So what was once good enough for Mr. Scheuer and also “found in the annals of Islamic history,” is now somehow “the last refuge of neoconservatives” and something that there is “no chance” of becoming a reality.

Of course, whether or not the Islamists will actually be able to re-establish a caliphate is hardly the point. It is the fact that al Qaeda is intent on trying to do just that – a point which Scheuer himself makes in his book – which is a driving force behind al Qaeda’s extremism and terrorism.

Never mind the fact that one of the ways al Qaeda seeks to generate support amongst Muslims, both for themselves and for the idea of the re-establishment of the caliphate, is by attacking Western targets, obscuring the fact that much of the damage and violence launched by bin Laden and his minions have been against other Muslims.

Mr. Scheuer needs to brush up on his Islamic history a bit, and he should start by reading his own book.

July 20, 2007 12:16 PM

This is where your tax money is going:

Fayyad government to pay salaries of all PLC members, including deposed Hamas cabinet

Date: 23 / 07 / 2007 Time: 14:32

Salam Fayyad [Ma'anImages] Ramallah - Ma'an – The Palestinian caretaker government has resumed payment of members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), including Hamas members such as deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and former Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar. The caretaker government, headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is also meeting today in Ramallah to discuss the plight of more than 6,000 Palestinians stranded in Egypt at the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Official sources in the PLC said that all members have received a portion of their salaries, which were not disbursed at all in the last period. The Palestinian daily Al Hayat quoted caretaker Information Minister Riyad Najib Al-Maliki saying, "The Government transferred part of the employees' salaries in addition to the PLC members' without any exclusions." He also said : "No one can seize the salary of any PLC member because of his political views. The salary payment is part of the job of the Palestinian Authority." PLC deputy speaker Hassan Khraishah said that he found NIS 12,000 in his bank account, part of his previously unpaid salary. He continued, "After a revision of the account and clarifying things with other members I found that the salaries of all the PLC members were paid including the salary of Prime Minister Haniyeh." The Ramallah-based caretaker government was sworn in by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Jully forth after the term of an emergency government expired. The emergency government had been declared following internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Blood Libel Bee
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Palestinian Media Watch | July 23, 2007

The promotion of hatred of Jews through their depiction as cold-blooded murderers is a recurring theme on Hamas TV. Over the weekend at least 2 broadcasts presented these images.

One was during the latest episode of the children's program with Nahool the Hamas Bee, in which Nahool twice reminds the children that the Jews are guilty of murder.

Click to view video on YouTube or PMW website

The following are excepts:

Nahool: �You and we will liberate the sad Al-Aqsa that is waiting for us. Yes, we will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews, who killed my grandfather, and killed Farfur, and history will bear witness to that��

A young caller, Sabah, is asked what she wants to be when she grows up.
Sabah: �Journalist.�
Saraa', girl in studio: �Wow, journalist! Nahool, we need journalists.�
Nahool: "Why? So that� so that they will photograph the Jews when they are killing Farfur and the little children?
Saraa�: �Yes, Nahool.�
Another young caller says: �We will go on [the path] of Jihad when we grow up.�
Nahool: �Yes, we are all Jihad warriors.
Saraa�: �Allah willing.�
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), July 20, 2007]

The killing of Farfur referred to by Nahool, the bee, was from a previous episode when beloved Farfur, the Mickey Mouse look-alike, was beaten to death by an Israeli interrogator. [Click to view video on YouTube or PMW website or to see original bulletin.] In an unusual propaganda technique that could only be effective with young children, it is this beating "death" that was created on their own TV that is now being used as a reason to see Jews as murderers. In an earlier program a child called in and insisted the Jews were dogs because they killed Farfur. So the propaganda may be working.

The second murder by Jews over the weekend on Hamas owned Al-Aqsa Television [July 22, 2007] shows a child running with an adult, presumably with his father, until the adult is shot in the back. The child seems to ignore the dead father but takes the key the father was holding � implying it is the key to their home in Israel.

Previously on Tomorrow�s Pioneers, Nahool said: �We shall avenge the enemies of Allah, the murderers of the prophets [i.e., the Jews], the murderers of innocent children, until Al-Aqsa will be liberated from their filth.� [Al Aqsa TV, July 13, 2007]

Also previously on the children's program, a three year old caller went on air saying the Jews killed Farfur. The hostess of the show, Saraa�, replied: �That�s right� The Jews are criminals and enemies, we must expel them from our land.� [Al-Aqsa TV, June 27, 2007]

Palestinian Oppression by their Arab Brothers


Dear Friends,

Difficulties faced by Palestinian Arabs have been a focus of world attention for decades. But oppression of Palestinians by fellow Arabs barely rates a mention.

Often subject to political racism, Palestinian Arabs have been forced into refugee camp ghettos in many Arab states . Identical to the racist laws against Jews in those places, they are also unable to hold citizenship, own land, get jobs or otherwise integrate into their host states. And despite Palestinian Authority or Hamas control of Gaza, there have been no steps toward dismantling the camps there. This is a situation condoned and maintained by the UN and its institutions. If the Arab states were truly interested in helping the Palestinians, they would give them full social and economic rights.

The world appears oblivious to this apartheid policy; both East and West politically and financially encourage it. Taxpayers support it with hundreds of millions channeled annually through UNRWA to pay for basic education, housing and medical services. All of which could probably be paid for by the welfare recipients themselves, if they were only allowed to work freely and integrate into the society around.

It is outrageous that the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in Tripoli, Lebanon , is nearly empty after months of bombing by the Lebanese army. The refugees, who were never allowed to integrate into their adopted country, have become refugees once again. In one day last week, a 16 year old was killed and a 13 year old girl was severely injured - both bystanders in the fighting between the Lebanese army and Palestinian 'militants'.

Or in Gaza; after a bloody coup, summary 'justice' is being handed out by Hamas against their Fatah rivals . Hamas allows a humanitarian disaster to accumulate, while spending fortunes importing huge supplies of advance weaponry into Gaza. Vast quantities of weapons and military equipment are smuggled in – and yet food and medicines are in short supply . It is easy to blame Israel for the poverty and distress and leave the Western taxpayer with the responsibility of picking up the pieces. No human rights group raises even an eyebrow.

Unfortunately, NGOs so vocal about Israel's infractions as she defends her citizens have more important things on their agenda than to be concerned about these innocent civilians. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Christian Aid (to name just three NGOs focusing significant resources on Palestinian issues) have yet to issue a condemnation of the attacks in Nahr el-Bared.

These same NGOs, supported by the world media, strongly criticize Israel for closing its borders to Gaza . Despite the use of these border crossings for the smuggling of weapons and terrorists that threaten her civilians, Israel assists the passage of food, medicine, stock feed and other basic necessities. In the last month I have counted reports of some 33,000 tons of solids and 1.2 million liters of liquids in these categories. Hamas response has been to attack those very border crossings , to scare away international supervisors, and force closures.

The last weeks have seen Israel release both hundreds of convicted terrorist prisoners and large sums of back taxes. Victims of violence in Gaza – civilian and militant – are receiving the best of medical care in Israel's hospitals. All this while the Kassams still rain down on the Israeli city of Sderot and its surrounds.

Those truly concerned about Palestinian welfare would best focus on making border crossings safe, allowing food and medicine to enter Gaza, allowing trade to flow in both directions; or help to stop the fighting in Lebanon; or prevent the destabilising arms build up in those two places; or end corruption in the Palestinian Authority that siphons billions in international aid away from the average Palestinian toward corruption and violence; or... the list is almost endless of important ways of helping the Palestinians which do not involve criticising Israel…unless, of course, the motivation is more sinister.

David

To subscribe or unsubscribe to my occasional "letter from Israel", just email me at David.Frankfurter@iname.com

To comment on this letter or read my archive, go to http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/

Fatah-affiliated fighters refuse to handover weapons or renounce violence
against Israel
Date: 22 / 07 / 2007 Time: 17:33
www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24188

Jenin - Ma'an - The official spokesperson of the Fatah-affiliated Martyr Abu
Ammar Brigades, Abu Mohammad, affirmed the brigades' loyalty to political
leaders and Fatah decisions, but announced that the group refuses to
handover its weapons or renounce violence against Israel.

The announcement follows the declaration of the main military wing of Fatah,
the Al Aqsa Brigades, last Sunday in which the fighters abandoned the armed
struggle against Israel.

"We did not and will not handover our weapons and cease resistance against
the Israeli occupation as long as it is targeting Palestinians and invading
the Palestinian territories and as long as it continues to pursue the
Palestinian resistance everywhere," said Abu Mohammad.

Abu Mohammad also said that the brigades do no recognize "the Israeli pardon
of resistance men." He asserted "we, the Palestinians, are not murderers, so
we should automatically be immune to pursuit, we are resisting and this is
our legitimate right."

At the same time, Abu Mohammad congratulated the 256 Fatah prisoners on
their release from Israeli jails and appealed for ongoing efforts to release
all prisoners.

IDF: Hizbullah moving rockets inside s. Lebanese villages

---

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 22, 2007

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Hizbullah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages in an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and UN troops, IDF officials said Sunday.

The new moves are part of Hizbullah's reorganization after the Second Lebanon War, the officials said. During the summer's war, Hizbullah fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel.

While Lebanon criticized the IDF for targeting civilian areas during the war, Israel said Hizbullah was to blame for operating among civilians and putting them at risk.

Last summer, many of Hizbullah's rocket batteries were located in unpopulated rural areas, where the guerrillas dug networks of tunnels and fortifications, the officials said. But the army's new intelligence indicates that those positions had now largely been abandoned in favor of populated villages, which provide better cover for the group's activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

The UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the war expanded UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, to 13,000 troops, entrusting it with ensuring that Hizbullah was not rearming near the Lebanon-Israel border.

Yasmina Bouziane, a UNIFIL spokesman in Lebanon, refused to comment on the Israeli charges.

A Hizbullah official in Beirut also refused to comment on the allegations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said only that in the past Hizbullah guerrillas fired rockets at Israel from valleys and mountainous areas and not from inside villages.

The officials said Hizbullah's postwar efforts also included the construction of new fortifications north of the Litani River, farther from the Israeli border and out of UNIFIL's jurisdiction.

Want to Understand Islam? Skip John Esposito's Apologias
by Winfield Myers
Campus Watch Web Log

This post from:

http://www.campus-watch.org/weblog/id/85

As if to confirm the observations that Cinnamon Stillwell made in her post from yesterday, below, John Esposito of Georgetown University has produced yet another breezy, ahistorical look at radical Islam. Writing in the Washington Post, Esposito titles his article, without a hint of irony, "Want to Understand Islam? Start Here." To which one might retort, start anywhere but there.

Esposito offers a series of bromides designed to paper-over the influence of Wahhabi Islam, the state religion of his financial benefactors at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding: Muslims worship the Abrahamic God, as do Jews and Christians; Muslims revere Moses and Jesus; Muslims see Islam as a continuation of those earlier religions. These are proferred as a substitute for rigorous examination of the epistemological crisis of much of modern Islam, a crisis manifested by terrorism, hatred for Jews and Christians, and jihad.

In fact, Esposito (keeping true to form) writes that keeping in mind Muhammed's place in Islam "helps us appreciate the widespread anger" many Muslims harbor toward the West. But he refuses to condemn the rampaging mobs and murderous thugs who put a fatwa on Saman Rushdie, sent into hiding the Danish cartoonist who lampooned terrorists with his drawing of Muhammed, and openly vowed to kill Pope Benedict XVI (and did kill a priest and a nun) following his Regensberg lecture last summer. Esposito nowhere mentions the details of these threats; he's concernced instead that we grasp the source of Muslim rage. Free speech, freedom of intellectual inquiry, outrage at killing one for his thoughts, the inability for mob rule and intimidation to co-exist with civil society and the rule of law: Esposito says nary a word about these matters, nor about the billions of Saudi dollars that support Wahhabi Islam worldwide.

Esposito also obfuscates the meaning of jihad by hauling out the tired, politically correct definition: "In the Koran, Islam's sacred text, jihad means 'to strive or struggle' to realize God's will, to lead a virtuous life, to create a just society and to defend Islam and the Muslim community."

But as Daniel Pipes has shown conclusively, "the way the jihadists understand the term [obligatory holy war] is in keeping with its usage through fourteen centuries of Islamic history." As Pipes has elsewhere pointed out, David Cook of Rice University has dismissed Esposito's definition of jihad as "bathetic and laughable."

Esposito ends his encomium with another apology for radical Islam: "My years studying those attitudes [of the world's Muslims] suggest that Muslim hostility toward the West is mostly political, not religious, and that Muslims hope the West will show their faith more respect."

Are we to think that the repression of Egypt's Copts, the murder of Iraq's Christians, the vile anti-Semitism so widespread on Arab television, and other acts of violence against Jews and Christians are mere expressions of political outrage? That there is no religious hatred at work--a hatred fanned by Wahhabi Islam?

Showing respect for Muslims is indeed a virtue, and bigotry is condemnable whenever and wherever it it practiced. But what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Middle East studies professors like John Esposito should hold radical Islamists to the same standards to which they hold the non-Muslim West. But, given his track record and the Saudi source of his sinecure at Georgetown, even-handedness and historical accuracy are not virtues he's likely to pursue.