Unmasking Power’s Abuse of Power - Matthew Vadum

by Matthew Vadum

More proof emerges that Obama used spy agencies to undermine Trump.

President Obama’s UN Ambassador Samantha Power was reportedly “unmasking” Americans almost on a daily basis right up to President Trump’s inauguration, which bolsters Trump’s claim that the Obama administration tried to rig last year’s election by spying on the then-GOP candidate’s campaign.

Fox News is reporting that in the closing months of the Obama administration, Irish-born Power reportedly made more than 260 requests to identify Americans whose names turned up in foreign intelligence collection, a process called unmasking. Why an envoy to the United Nations would be involved in unmasking anyone, in this case focusing on the private communications of hundreds of Americans, has not been explained.

These private communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies that were surveilling the Trump campaign. Conversations between Trump associates and persons not under surveillance themselves are referred to in the intelligence community as examples of “incidental collection.”

In incidentally collected communications the name of the person whose conversations have been intercepted are supposed to be redacted or “masked,” unless the information is thought to have value as foreign intelligence. Masking is carried out to protect “U.S. persons,” a term of art referring to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the U.S., who may get inadvertently caught up in the electronic dragnet from being falsely accused of crimes or otherwise improper behavior.

The unmasking of a U.S. person is supposed to be reviewed at the highest levels of government because it is a powerful tool that can be abused.

National Security Agency (NSA) Director Adm. Mike Rogers summarized the unmasking review process before lawmakers in June.

"We [the NSA] apply two criteria in response to their request: number one, you must make the request in writing. Number two, the request must be made on the basis of your official duties, not the fact that you just find this report really interesting and you're just curious,” he said. “It has to tie to your job and finally, I said two but there's a third criteria … the basis of the request must be that you need this identity to understand the intelligence you're reading."

Before Power’s tenure, previous UN ambassadors made unmasking requests, but Fox News reported that in total they number in the low double digits.

With this latest revelation of Power’s apparent interference in the democratic process, it is becoming painfully obvious that the unmasking power was serially abused and that undermining Trump was an official Team Obama effort.

Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice was also involved in unmasking individuals in the Trump orbit. At first she lied about the unmaskings she requested, saying she didn’t use the process to conduct opposition research on the Trump campaign. Then, in April, the high-profile pathological liar and apologist for Obama’s chaotic foreign policy claimed unmasking was a routine part of her job, but assured those who would listen that she had not used the process for partisan political purposes. Then CNN reported earlier this month that behind closed doors Rice informed congressional investigators this summer that “she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year.”

The royal visit to the Big Apple took place after the endlessly-hyped, relentlessly-misrepresented meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower that the media howls proves the Left’s wacky Trump-Russia election collusion conspiracy theory.

Relying on unnamed sources, CNN reported that after the election the UAE began trying to establish a back-channel for communication between Russia and the incoming would-be Trump White House. The crown prince of the UAE reportedly met with top Trump officials in December during the transition period, but apparently violated protocol by not providing advance notice to the Obama administration. At a bare minimum, Rice appears to have unmasked identities of individuals whose names came up in the intelligence-gathering process that sought information about UAE activities.

After the UAE story surfaced in the media, President Trump publicly condemned Rice.

"She's not supposed to be doing that, and what she did was wrong. And we've been saying that and that's just the tip of the iceberg," Trump said of Rice's ethically dubious and possibly unlawful unmaskings. "What she did was wrong. Not supposed to be doing that. You know it. The unmasking and the surveillance [of the Trump campaign], and I heard she admitted that yesterday. Just not right."

Rice’s fellow mischief-maker, Power, is expected to testify in secret before federal lawmakers next month who are investigating Obama administration officials’ extremely unusual mid-campaign and post-campaign efforts to obtain the identities of Trump associates in intelligence reports.

As Fox reports:

In a July 27 letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said the committee had learned "that one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence-related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama Administration."
The "official" is widely reported to be Power.

Power, Rice, and Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan, were reportedly named in congressional subpoenas served on three U.S. intelligence agencies in May. Records were requested regarding Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes but were not subpoenaed.

Of course, Power denies doing anything wrong. On Thursday her mouthpiece sent out a statement saying, "The anonymously sourced reports about Ambassador Power’s intelligence requests are false. Ambassador Power looks forward to engaging the bipartisan Committee in the appropriate classified forum."
Stay tuned.

Matthew Vadum senior vice president at the investigative think tank Capital Research Center, is an award-winning investigative reporter and author of the book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267945/unmasking-powers-abuse-power-matthew-vadum

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Israel To Arm Apache Helicopters With Its Own Spike Missiles - Ari Lieberman

by Ari Lieberman

How Obama's betrayal during the 2014 Gaza War made it possible.

Following Israel’s lightning Six-Day War victory over the Arabs, Israel’s military leaders determined that the time was ripe for the acquisition of a new tank to meet the challenges of the modern battlefield. The Soviets had begun supplying the Arabs with more modern T-62 tanks and Israel needed to maintain its qualitative edge.  

After conducting extensive tests and trials and examining alternatives, the Israelis determined that the British Chieftain tank, Britain’s own successor to the venerable Centurion, would be best suited for Israel’s needs. In 1968 Britain’s Ministry of Defense agreed to the sale but the following year, the British Foreign Office, which had always maintained hostility toward the Jewish State, nixed the deal.

Israel was outraged and its prime minister, Golda Meir, personally visited London to persuade Prime Minister Harold Wilson to change his mind, but to no avail. The Foreign Office was to have the last word on the matter. To add insult to injury, the British had agreed to sell Chieftain tanks to Israel’s enemies, including Libya!

Britain’s perfidious conduct turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for it planted the seeds for the development of the Merkava tank, Israel’s own indigenously designed creation. In 1978, the Merkava was unveiled to the world and has undergone continuous improvements since that time. It is currently the mainstay of Israel’s vaunted armored corps, and is rated to be among the finest tanks in the world.

Throughout its history, Israel has had to endure similar betrayals. For example, up until 1967, France had been Israel’s principle supplier of jet fighters but just prior to the Six-Day War, it imposed an arms embargo on Israel. Israel had already placed an order for 50 Mirage V fighters, which it had paid for in full but the French refused to deliver them and like the British, ended up selling them to Israel’s enemies. That betrayal planted the seeds for the development of Israel’s indigenous Kfir fighter bomber, which saw combat during Operation Peace for Galilee and saw service with the U.S. Navy, and the air forces of Columbia and Sri Lanka.

In the summer of 2014, Israel was forced to go to war yet again, this time with the genocidal Arab terrorist group, Hamas. Hamas has deliberately placed its military infrastructure adjacent to civilian areas, cynically exploiting Gaza’s civilian population as human shields. In some instances, Hamas appallingly used UNRWA schools to store weapons and as a platform to fire rockets and mortars at Israel. Israel quickly identified the sources of fire and retaliated in measured fashion with precision guided munitions, neutralizing the threats.
Barack Obama, who had always harbored deep-seated hostility and resentment toward Israel, tried to force Israel into accepting a lopsided ceasefire agreement brokered by the pro-terrorist regimes of Qatar and Turkey. To facilitate this goal, he adopted a series of measures aimed at pressuring Israel. He ordered the State Department to issue a travel advisory against Israel. The following day, his Federal Aviation Administration issued a directive prohibiting U.S. carriers from flying to or from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport after a rocket launched by Hamas fell harmlessly about a mile south of Tel Aviv airport. These directives were insidiously designed to inflict economic harm on Israel.

But Obama did not stop there. While Hamas was firing rockets at Israeli cities and digging tunnels for the ghoulish purpose of kidnapping kindergarten-aged children, he ordered the Department of Defense to withhold shipments of Hellfire missiles to Israel. Israeli Apache attack helicopters utilized the Hellfire missile in support of ground operations and where pinpoint precision was required.

It was an unprecedented move. While Israel was at war with a genocidal enemy committed to its destruction, Obama decided to withhold vital military equipment in an effort to place Israel at a military disadvantage.

Despite his best efforts to harm Israel, the Israelis decidedly won the 2014 Gaza War and taught Hamas a lesson it would soon not forget but Israel drew lessons of its own. It realized that Obama was at best, an unreliable ally and Israel could potentially be held hostage to the irrational whims of an unfriendly administration in times of war.

Following the Gaza War, the Israeli company Rafael, maker of the battle-tested and proven Spike precision missile, was asked by the government to modify the Spike so that it could be integrated with the Apache platform. Rafael obliged and soon after, Israeli Apaches were photographed equipped with the NLOS (Non-Line Of Sight) variant of the Spike.

Both the Spike and the Hellfire are precision guided but the Spike possesses capabilities lacking in the Hellfire. It has a range of up to 25 km, surpassing the Hellfire’s and renders the Apache less vulnerable to anti-aircraft defenses. The Non-Line Of Sight option means the target can be hit without the operator actually seeing the target and the missile can be guided via a laser designator or real-time wireless data link. The operator can also abort the mission after launch or change targets. This is an important feature that enables the operator to limit collateral damage should civilians suddenly appear or alternatively, to direct the missile toward a more valuable or dangerous target. The dynamic and fluid nature of the modern battlefield makes this feature invaluable.

During his tenure, Obama’s relationship with the Mideast’s only democracy was at best, acrimonious, and often times marred by petty feuds initiated by Obama or his shills, who took their cues from their boss. But Israel owes Obama a debt of gratitude for it was his misguided petulance during the Gaza conflict that produced the successful marriage between the Apache and the Spike NLOS, thus providing Israel with an even greater qualitative edge over its enemies.

Ari Lieberman is an attorney and former prosecutor who has authored numerous articles and publications on matters concerning the Middle East and is considered an authority on geo-political and military developments affecting the region.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267925/israel-arm-apache-helicopters-its-own-spike-ari-lieberman

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Report: Israeli planes attack Hezbollah weapons warehouse - Orly Harari

by Orly Harari

Syrian media claims Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, Syrian Army weapons storehouses.

Israeli aircraft on Friday night attacked several targets near the Damascus airfield, Syrian media reported.

The attack seems to have been directed at weapons storehouses belonging to Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army.

Syrian websites published pictures of fires which were claimed to be the result of the attack.
An IDF spokesperson said he would "not respond" to the reports.

On September 7, the Syrian army claimed Israeli warplanes had attacked a military base in western Syria. According to the announcement, two soldiers were killed in the strikes and part of the base was destroyed.

The IDF did not confirm responsibility for the attack.


Orly Harari

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/235807

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UC-Irvine: Abetting Terrorism and Targeting Jews - Sara Dogan

by Sara Dogan

“Intifada, Intifada/long live the Intifada!”

FrontPageMag Editor's note: The David Horowitz Freedom Center today announced the University of California-Irvine as the second school named in its new report on the “Top Ten Worst Schools that Support Terrorists.” It joins its sister school, the University of California-Berkeley on the list. Coinciding with the naming of UC-Irvine to this list, the Freedom Center placed posters on Irvine’s campus exposing the links between Students for Justice in Palestine and the terrorist organization Hamas, whose stated goal is the destruction of the Jewish state.

As revealed in recent congressional testimony, Students for Justice in Palestine is a campus front for Hamas terrorists. SJP’s propaganda activities are orchestrated and funded by a Hamas front group, American Muslims for Palestine, whose chairman is Hatem Bazian and whose principals are former officers of the Holy Land Foundation and other Islamic “charities” previously convicted of funneling money to Hamas. The report and posters are part of a larger Freedom Center campaign titled Stop University Support for Terrorists. Images of the posters that appeared at UC-Berkeley may be viewed at www.stopuniversitysupportforterrorists.org.

University of California-Irvine

Over the past decade, the University of California Irvine has earned a well-deserved reputation as a base for supporters of anti-Israel terrorism and hostility towards Jews. At several events over the past few years, members of UCI SJP have entirely disrupted pro-Israel events, chanting slogans promoting terrorism such as “Intifada, Intifada/long live the Intifada” and “when people are occupied/resistance is justified,” forcing Jewish students to disperse under the watch of campus police. Irvine hosts an annual Israeli Apartheid Week which has been variously called “Anti-Zionism Week” and “Resisting Zionism Week.” A mock “apartheid wall” displayed during the week has glorified convicted hijacker Leila Khaled a member of the murderous terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and also depicted a map of Israel with the entire nation labeled as “occupied territory.” It has also contained incitements to terrorism such as the statement “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”

Speakers invited to Irvine by the campus chapter of the Muslim Student Union include BDS movement founder Omar Barghouti and infamous terrorist-supporting anti-Semite, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, who has openly stated his allegiance to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. Irvine’s student senate was one of the first in the nation to pass a resolution in support of the Hamas-backed and funded BDS campaign against Israel. Irvine students even met with a prominent Hamas leader during a secret trip to the Middle East in 2009.

Supporting Evidence:

An event hosted by UCI’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) featuring a panel of Israeli Defense Reservists in May 2017 was disrupted by a contingent of approximately 40 protestors from UCI SJP—some clothed in t-shirts stating “UC Intifada,” a call to terrorist violence—who shouted slogans urging violence and the destruction of the Jewish state. SJP’s chants included: “Israel, Israel what do you say, how many kids have you killed today?” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” A woman identified as a former president of SJP yelled, “These people are occupiers, they’re colonizers; you should not be allowed on our f–ing campus!” The head of SSI also reported that assistance from campus police was inadequate. Despite every expectation that SJP would attempt to disrupt the event, campus police showed up late and then proceeded to lead the Israel supporters out through a crowd of protestors, increasing the risk of attack against them. The next day, one of SJP’s student leaders bragged that the organization had gone “to disrupt the event” in order “to let them (the panelists) know that we refuse to allow the normalization of their presence here.”

 In May 2017, UCI SJP held “Anti-Zionism Week 2017: On This Land.”  The week included the erection of a mock “apartheid wall” threatening terrorist violence against Israel. Panels included in the wall declared “When people are occupied, resistance is justified” and the quote “The colonizer brings pure violence in the homes and minds of the colonized.” Other panels advocated for the Hamas-backed BDS movement against Israel and accused Israel of genocide.

An anti-Trump rally held on campus in January 2017 morphed into a denial of Jewish self-determination when a student speaker declared to the crowd, “I want you guys to be about anti-Islamophobia; I want you guys to be anti-Zionism; and I want you guys to be anti-Israel because Trump didn’t come up with these things on his own, he got the idea of the wall from Israel.” The student then led the crowd in a chant of, “from Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.”

On May 18, 2016, Irvine SJP succeeded in disrupting a pro-Israel film screening that was co-sponsored by the campus chapters of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) and Hillel. SSI reported on its Facebook page that, “Tonight one of our events was disrupted by certain student organizations. They were in violation of UC Regents Hate Speech policy and were shouting various anti-Semitic statements. The police had to escort attendees out of the event for their own safety.” Video of the event reveals students shouting their support for anti-Israel terrorism, screaming “Intifada, Intifada/long live the Intifada,” “displacing people since ‘48/there’s nothing here to celebrate!” and “when people are occupied/resistance is justified.” Following this event, UCI SJP was put on probation until March 2017.

During May 2-5, 2016, Irvine’s chapters of SJP and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) collaborated with other student groups to hold an “Anti-Zionist Week” on campus. The week featured a huge mock “apartheid wall” which celebrated anti-Israel terrorism in multiple panels. One panel depicted an image of convicted hijacker Leila Khaled holding a gun with the slogan “Women Leading Resistance” below it. “Resistance” is a euphemism for anti-Israel terrorism. Another segment of the wall repeats the slogan, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.” Another segment depicted a map of Israel with the entire nation labeled as “occupied territory,” an allusion to Hamas’s genocidal goal to rid Israel of its Jews. The wall also endorsed the Hamas-inspired Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel.

In addition to the apartheid wall, Irvine’s anti-Zionist week featured a mock funeral procession for a Palestinian “martyr.” One of the students participating in the funeral procession held a sign proclaiming “Long Live the Intifada.” Another event featured a speech by anti-Israel Rabbi YisroelDovid Weiss who comes from a fringe Jewish sect. During his address, Weiss resorted to anti-Semitic caricatures, claiming that Zionism is “a Madoff scheme” and Zionists use their “billions and billions of dollars” to intimidate “the media” and “any politician who dares …to show too much sympathy for the Palestinian cause.” He also claimed that “newspapers are conglomerates that are owned or controlled by Zionist organizations.”

On February 19, 2016, SJP held an event titled “Unlearning Zionism: A Workshop and Discussion” with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. The Facebook page for the event featured side-by-side photos labeled “Warsaw 1944” (an image of the Warsaw ghetto) with “Gaza 2009,” implying an equivalence between the Holocaust and the treatment of Palestinians.

On October 12, 2015, an event featuring former Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak at Irvine was interrupted by 20-30 anti-Israel protestors, forcing police to interrupt the event and escort Barak and the other attendees out of the event.

During May 4-7, 2015, UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union staged an “Anti-Zionism Week” on campus. As part of the week’s activities, SJP and MSU sold T-shirts emblazoned with “UC Intifada,” openly stating their allegiance to Jew-killing terrorists. The back of the T-shirt read “End Settler Colonialism” (a core Hamas fiction) and depicted a genocidal Hamas map which falsely alleged that an Arab nation called “Palestine” existed in 1947 and was over-run by Jews.

On April 23, 2015, a pro-Israel festival held by Anteaters for Israel (“Anteaters” is the school team name) was disrupted by anti-Israel protestors, who used their bodies and large signs to block a walkway and loudly chanted pro-terrorist slogans such as “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” an attempt to whitewash terrorism.

In March 2015, UC-Irvine professor Rei Terada was among the signatories of an op-ed appearing in the Daily Californian urging the administrators of the UC system to support the Hamas-sponsored BDS Movement boycott of Israel.

In December 2014, UC Irvine SJP held an event in defense of terrorist RasmeahOdeh, with law professor Marjorie Cohn, calling Odeh “our comrade and sister.” Odeh was convicted by an Israeli military court in 1970 for her involvement in a supermarket bombing which killed two Jewish students: “Join us as we host Marjorie Cohn, Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former President of the National Lawyer’s [sic] Guild and current Deputy Secretary of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers as she discusses the implications of the U.S.’s targeting of our comrade and sister, RasmeaOdeh. Ms. Cohn recently authored an article titled, “US Leaders Aid and Abet Israeli War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes Against Humanity.”

In July 2014, UC Irvine SJP shared on its Facebook page the following statement about Israel’s belated response to the unprovoked firing of thousands of Hamas rockets into Israel’s civilian areas (Israel’s response was called “Operation Protective Edge”): “Israel’s war on Gaza is not an attempt to strike back at Hamas, nor was it in the 2008 war on Gaza or the previous wars it has waged against Palestinians. This is an attempt to murder as many Palestinians as they can before they decide to stop. If you are shocked that Israel is killing Palestinian women and children do not be, this is their intention and the principle on which their state was created. Every couple of years Israel wages a war on defenseless populations in their quest to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people. Remember, even if the current war stops, they will come back to kill more Palestinians in the future. Do not get comfortable today, and do not ignore Palestine tomorrow. Continue to spread awareness about what is happening. It should not take more than 150 lives for us to wake up and decide to care. Palestine is under occupation all day, every day. May we all see a free Palestine. #‎gazaunderattack#‎FreePalestine”The SJP statement parroted Hamas’s war propaganda that “Operation Protective Edge” was an aggressive initiative to indiscriminately murder Palestinians.

In June 2014, UC Irvine SJP posted a statement on Operation Protective Edge, repeating Hamas lies and defending its war crimes: “718 People. 718 Palestinians. Israel is massacring Palestinians on such a mass scale, it’s a wonder why no media outlet is stating that they are targeting civilians. The lives taken speak louder than Israel propaganda.” Hamas deliberately locates its rocket launchers in civilian neighborhoods which accounts for the civilian casualties when Israel attempts to eliminate the Hamas rocket threat. SJP parrots this cynical propaganda as a loyal and uncritical ally of Hamas terrorism. UC Irvine SJP also shared a post from Holocaust-denying former professor Norman Finkelstein commenting on Operation Protective Edge and listing “the names of Palestinians that Israel has murdered.

On May 6, 2014, UC Irvine SJP crashed a pro-Israel demonstration called “IFest” with a large sign stating, “End Apartheid.”  A group of SJP and MSU members pushed through a gathering of pro-Israel students to intimidate them, causing injuries to some. One student was reportedly grabbed and deliberately pushed to the ground and left with scratches and bruises. SJP proudly showcased the demonstration on their Facebook page: “This is how we welcomed Ifest (Israeli Fest) today. This is how we remember; Israel’s Independence day is our catastrophe. #‎IsrealiIndependenceEqualsGenocide#‎FreePalestine”

On November 12, 2013, UC Irvine SJP hosted an event with anti-Israel activist Ben White, author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guideand co-author of Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. White’s talk was titled “Israel: Apartheid, Not Democracy.” White has defended Hamas’ attempts to kill Israeli civilians, stating “Israel’s hasbara (public relations) says context for assault is rocket fire. Well, context for rocket fire is 64 years of expulsion & occupation.” This is a brazen lie.Actually several brazen lies. There has never been a “Palestine” to expel anyone from. More than one million Israeli citizens are Arabs with more rights than any of the Arabs of Gaza or the West Bank.Gaza was a staging ground for three unprovoked aggressive wars against Israel, and in 2005 Israel withdrew its security forces from Gaza in a gesture of peace which was immediately answered by thousands of Hamas rockets aimed at Jewish civilians. 

On October 27, 2013, UC Irvine SJP posted on its Facebook page the series of Hamas-created maps that falsely depict a non-existent Arab nation of “Palestine” existing in 1947 and being colonized by Jews.

During May 6-9, 2013, UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union (MSU) held a week of events on “Resisting Zionism: The Palestinian Narrative.” The week featured an enormous “apartheid wall” plastered with anti-Israel propaganda including a call for BDS and a list of the purported “Rules of Occupation” which invert the reality that Israeli security measures are necessitated by Palestinian terrorism and aggression to assert the false claim that Israel is seeking to oppress and ethnically cleanse Palestinians. In fact, the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel have more rights and protections than the Arabs of any other Middle Eastern nation. The week of anti-Jewish activities included multiple anti-Israel events including one with anti-Israel activist MikoPeled and also a discussion on “The Need for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.”

On February 4, 2013, UC Irvine SJP held an event featuring BDS Movement founder Omar Barghouti titled “All About BDS.”

In November 2012, UC Irvine’s student senate became one of the first in the nation to pass a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution against Israel. The BDS movement is a Hamas-inspired and funded campaign to strangle the Jewish state. The vote was unanimous, 16-0.

On May 8 2012, anti-Semitic hate speaker Amir Abdel Malik Ali, a black racist “Imam” from Oakland, spoke at Irvine’s Palestinian Liberation Week which is organized by the Muslim Student Union.  In addition to defending suicide bombers, Malik Ali has compared the Jews to Nazis and openly expressed support for Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

In February 2010, UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union disrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on campus, which resulted in the arrest of nine of its members (and another two from the UC-Riverside chapter). MSU members stood up one at a time and shouted accusations at Oren including, “Mr. Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech” and “Israel is guilty of 101 war crimes.” The MSU members refused to cease their disruption, even after an administrator repeatedly begged for civility and ultimately scolded the students: “Shame on all of you!” The tactics used by the MSU are in keeping with Hamas’ prohibition on the “normalization” of relations with Israel and supporters of Israel. For its violation of campus rules of civility, the MSU received a one-year suspension, which was ultimately shortened to only one semester after the organization and its lawyer appealed.

In September 2009, UCI students participated in a campus program called the Olive Tree Initiative and met with prominent Hamas leader Aziz Duwaik during a trip to Israel and the West Bank.  The students were told to keep the meeting a secret to avoid being prevented from re-entering Israel from the West Bank and to avoid a conflict with Jewish community leaders and others who would have disapproved of the meeting.

Sara Dogan

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267936/uc-irvine-abetting-terrorism-and-targeting-jews-sara-dogan

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Facebook, Twitter, YouTube deleting popular ex-Muslim’s Arabic material criticizing Islam - Robert Spencer

by Robert Spencer

Hat tip: Dr. Jean-Charles Bensoussan

Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism are all fair game, but Islam is off limits

Here is still more about how the social media giants are steadily choking off all material that looks at Islam with a critical eye. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism are all fair game, but Islam is off limits, as our moral superiors move to impose Sharia blasphemy laws upon the West.

“My dilemma with Facebook and YouTube in Arabic,” Brother Rachid, September 18, 2017:

As a former Muslim hosting a live TV show for over a decade, I’ve come to rely on social media platforms to connect with my audience now more than ever before. My show, “DaringQuestions,” is watched via satellite TV (through Alhayat TV) by millions of viewers around the world (mainly in Arabic speaking communities). My show is popular among Muslims because it is highly controversial. I raise many bold questions about the Islamic faith and I expose the danger of some Islamic doctrine. I also present testimonies of ex-Muslims who have left Islam and allow them to share their experiences in order to empower others and encourage them to do the same. To engage further with audiences and the wider, global, Muslim community, these questions and testimonies are also posted on my two main websites, “BrotherRachid.com” and “IslamExplained.com,” as well as on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. However, Muslim governments impose restrictions and heavy censorship and my websites are often inaccessible in many Muslim countries due to material I present which uses critical thinking to address Islamic doctrines. As a result, social media platforms are an increasingly crucial way for me to reach out to the Muslim world and surpass the censorship that Muslim countries place on the material I present.

However, I face a dilemma that needs to be addressed and exposed to the whole world. The Arabic content for giant social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube is overseen predominantly by Muslims (since the majority of those who speak Arabic are Muslims). 
These companies have offices in the United Arab Emirates and give their Arabic speaking staff the authority to delete and block any material that does not fit their guidelines. 
However, this authority is abused when any channel or page that criticizes Islam or presents opposing views to Islam is blocked, deleted or removed. For example, my Facebook page (which has over 1.5 million likes) was once deleted, while the Facebook page of Alhayat – the channel that broadcasts my show – was also deleted without any explanation, causing the channel to lose all the money they had spent on advertising, among other damages. My YouTube channel (which has also garnered millions of views) was once removed for ‘breaking guidelines.’ Thank God, I appealed the removal and explained the details to those in charge in the US and have since been able to gain my channel back. My Facebook posts are removed on many occasions and I am frequently blocked from posting because a post allegedly “does not follow Facebook guidelines!” No further explanation is provided. Sometimes, even my own picture is reported and removed because it violates copyrights! Recently, I posted a cover of my book in French; the post was removed for breaking “Facebook guidelines” and yet nobody could explain to me how a book that is published legally and sold on Amazon can break Facebook guidelines.

I think Facebook and Twitter need to revise how Arabic content is handled – there is no balance here. Muslims criticize Christianity right and left and their Facebook pages and YouTube channels face no problems whatsoever, yet Christians, Atheists, and ex-Muslims as myself face huge challenges in criticizing Islam on social media in Arabic. Our pages are unfairly deleted, our posts are wrongfully removed, and our accounts are blocked and removed. We had thought that social media was about freedom of speech, but unfortunately it appears that Muslim censorship is prevalent even on social media. We are unable to express ourselves even on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

N.B: My show and my posts never promote hatred or violence against Muslims; I always emphasize critiquing Islam as a doctrine but on loving Muslims as all other human beings.


Robert Spencer

Source: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/09/facebook-twitter-youtube-deleting-popular-ex-muslims-material-criticizing-islam

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Is Missile Defense Dangerous? - Dan Perrin

by Dan Perrin

This prediction, while logical in theory, has not been borne out by reality. Indeed, the opposite has occurred.

North Korea has launched a ballistic missile over Japan for the second time this month. “Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” state-run media offered by way of explanation, “The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb.”

The prospect of a U.S. ally being nuked by a rogue regime, and one that is also pursuing long-range missiles aimed at the U.S. homeland -- might serve as a reason to bolster missile defense systems. To some degree it has, as seen by the renewed calls this week on Capitol Hill to increase missile defense spending as part of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

For many in the think-tank and scholarly community, however, North Korean provocations have engendered a different concern. More dangerous than the threat from North Korean missiles, they maintain, may be Washington’s decision to react by enhancing its missile defense shield.

A case in point is a recent piece in Defense One by Tom Collina. While conceding that North Korea’s acquisition of a “nuclear missile that can reach the United States” is “only a matter of time,” Collina maintains that anti-missile interceptor systems “could leave us worse off.” Why? Because investments in missile defenses could lead to a dangerous overconfidence in their efficacy. Believing that the United States has the ability to deter a missile attack, Collina predicts that President Trump would be “more likely to escalate a conflict” and allow the country to “stumble into unintended wars.”

Collina outlined the argument in rather personal terms toward the president. But groups like the Ploughshares Fund, where Collina is policy director, have warned about the incentives that missile defense could create long before this presidency.

The basic idea is that a stable balance of power already prevails in the world, and it does so because countries tread carefully out of fear that provocative steps could invite retaliation by another state. Even countries without nuclear weapons have conventional arsenals that could impose unacceptable costs against their rivals.

Critics suggest that missile defense might disrupt this equilibrium. If a country developed advanced systems that could blunt the missile threat posed by rival powers, they might be tempted to project power with impunity -- with unfortunate consequences.

This prediction, while logical in theory, has not been borne out by reality. Indeed, the opposite has occurred.

When President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to pursue the Strategic Defense Initiative, critics howled that the United States was igniting an arms race and possibly even laying the groundwork for a first strike against the Soviet Union. In reality, SDI did not fundamentally alter U.S. strategy toward the Soviet Union way. SDI did, however, have an immense psychological impact on the Kremlin. Uncertain as to the potential of U.S. missile defense systems, Soviet policymakers agreed to unprecedented arms control agreements in an effort to weaken the United States through diplomacy. In the meantime, Soviet strategists doubled down behind defense plans that the Moscow could not afford, bankrupting the empire into oblivion.

Fast forward to 2001, when the George W. Bush administration announced its intention to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to pursue more robust missile defense systems. Far from rekindling an arms race, the United States signaled at the same time that it was prepared to reduce its nuclear stockpiles unilaterally. Seeing an opportunity to rein in its own outdated program, Russia, in 2002, signed with the United States the Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty (SORT) -- a landmark agreement in which both countries agreed to limit their arsenals.

SORT laid the groundwork for a series of U.S.-Russia arms control agreements over the ensuing decade -- agreements that the two sides negotiated even when tensions between the two powers escalated, and even as improvements in U.S. missile defense capabilities far outpaced those of rival nations. With every missile test, the United States has been able to isolate and solve problems while completing tests with increasing complexity in objectives and targets.

History provides little evidence for the contention that American investments in missile defense either encourage a reckless U.S. foreign policy, or destabilize international order. If anything, U.S. investments in missile defense have tended to advance rather than stymie progress on arms control. Past experience, of course, does not discredit these theoretical warnings altogether -- missile defense may very well motivate imprudent statecraft in a different context with different actors. But weighed against the very real threat of a North Korean strike on the U.S. homeland, theoretical objections to missile defense appear rather unpersuasive.


Dan Perrin is the president of the HSA Coalition. He is a former U.S. Committee on Foreign Relations staff member, where he served for more than seven years, and a former staffer with the U.S. Senate Steering Committee.

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/09/is_missile_defense_dangerous.html

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Terror-Linked Charity Islamic Relief Escapes Ban on Receiving Your Tax Dollars - Sam Westrop

by Sam Westrop

Islamic Relief officials openly promote extremist ideas.

Please click here to sign a Change.org petition calling on the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) to end its financial support for Islamic Relief and other Islamist hate groups.
 

An Islamic Relief event in London in 2012, image via Wikimedia Commons.

Hurricane Irma helped out Islamic Relief on September 7, after an amendment barring federal grants to the Islamist charity was dropped when the sponsoring congressman rushed back to Florida to deal with the oncoming storm.

Islamic Relief (IR) and a number of prominent Islamic voices, including Linda Sarsour, did not attribute the withdrawal of the amendment to an Act of God, but rather claimed its failure was due to the advocacy and mobilization of its supporters, which included Oxfam, American Jewish World Service, Catholic Relief Services, among others.

IR's claims are patently untrue. Representative DeSantis explains: "Due to Hurricane Irma, I left Washington on Thursday to help my family and community prepare for the storm. I was thus unable to offer my amendment, but remain committed to blocking taxpayer funds for organizations with ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas."

Recent expressions of support for IR from politicians, charities and various online personalities are sorely misguided. For its entire history, IR has been managed by prominent Islamist operatives closely linked to the international Muslim Brotherhood. In 2015, the United Arab Emirates, following a similar ban in Israel, designated IR as a terrorist organization because of its links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. And in the last few years, both UBS and HSBC have closed IR bank accounts over concerns about terrorism financing.

IR officials openly promote extremist ideas. Khalid Lamada, the chairman of IR's U.S. branch, has published text praising the "jihad" of the "Mujahidin of Egypt" for "causing the Jews many defeats," as well as posts that praise Hamas for inflicting a "huge defeat" against the "Zionist entity." One recent trustee of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), the charity's headquarters in Britain, was Ahmed Al Rawi, who signed a declaration in 2004 supporting jihad against British and American forces in Iraq.

An amendment banning grants of government money to Islamist groups is an important and necessary step in the fight against extremism and terror. IR has spent decades insuring itself against such actions by soliciting the support of politicians, journalists, various faith groups and other charities. IR's response to the planned amendment on September 7 was a test of its decade-long effort to deceive its well-meaning but naive public partners.

To preserve this deception, IR turned to Congressman Keith Ellison, who wrote a letter to all members of the House urging that they vote against the amendment. Ellison informed his colleagues that "IRW has never been affiliated with Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood." Again, this is simply untrue. Key IRW officials have been named as top Muslim Brotherhood officials by the German government and British media. IRW's co-founder, Essam El Haddad, even served as the foreign policy representative of the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt. Once that government fell, Haddad was convicted on terrorism charges, including his collaboration with Hamas.

Nevertheless, Rep. Ellison continues: "This amendment singles out IRW for its religious affiliation. This is another attempt to criminalize and demonize organizations that are affiliated with the Muslim community."

This particular deception is IR's most efficient argument. By claiming to represent all American Muslims, and thus to be a victim of anti-Muslim bigotry, charities such as IR can hide the fact they belong to a dangerous Islamist network that has little mandate from ordinary Muslims. IR relies on claims of 'Islamophobia' to amass further support from non-Muslims keen to show off their progressive credentials.

IR has been able to build such an enormous franchise of charities around the world not, in fact, because of support from Western Muslims, but because of the legitimacy and millions of dollars of funding it has received from Western governments, non-Muslim charities and faith groups. IR officials have spent decades building these partnerships -- seeking endorsement from credulous politicians, puff-pieces by incurious journalists and interfaith falafels with naive faith leaders. These connections have served to sanitize IR's history of extremism and safeguard it against future criticism.

Islamic Relief is a dangerous organization. In America and Europe, it brings extremist preachers to speak before Muslim youth; and overseas, it is financially connected with violent Islamist movements. There are plenty of Islamic charities, worthy of support, whose officials and guest speakers do not advocate killing Jews and American troops. Islamic Relief is not one of them. Islamist duplicity must be revealed, and the taxpayer must stop subsidising this global charity's extremism.

Sam Westrop is the Director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.

Source: http://www.islamist-watch.org/27266/terror-linked-charity-islamic-relief-escapes-ban

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Sweden: What You Won't See in This Book... - Bruce Bawer

by Bruce Bawer

One of Sweden's former prime ministers, Fredrik Reinfeldt, pronounced with approval in December 2014 that the future of Sweden belonged not to ethnic Swedes but to immigrants.

• What won't you see in this book? You won't see a picture of Muslim "morality police" patrolling neighborhoods and controlling women's conduct. You won't see Muslim men cutting in front of Swedish women in queues and then calling them "whores" when they protest.
• One of Sweden's former prime ministers, Fredrik Reinfeldt, pronounced with approval in December 2014 that the future of Sweden belonged not to ethnic Swedes but to immigrants.

Speaking at a rally in Melbourne, Florida, on February 18, President Trump mentioned recent terrorist attacks in Nice, Paris, and Brussels, and then said:

"You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible."

Nothing major had happened the night before in Sweden, except that the country has taken in armies of Muslims, and as a result is descending into social and economic disaster.

The Swedish media might have responded to Trump's comment by addressing their country's immigrant crisis honestly. Instead, they took it as an opportunity to mock Trump. The Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet ran an article in English headlined: "Here's what happened in Sweden Friday night, Mr President." The article included a list of innocuous news items, among them technical problems that had occurred at rehearsals for Swedish Eurovision and the temporary closing of a highway because of lousy weather.

So much for that episode, right? No. Several Swedish photographers decided to drag it out way beyond a single news cycle. The result: a new coffee-table book entitled Last Night in Sweden.

At least one Swedish photography website has applauded this project. This book, the anonymous author wrote, is a "profound and insightful" work that "encapsulates a true and candid Sweden," shows "the country as it really is, from the inside -- in its multiplicity, subtle textures, and political, social and cultural nuance."

Lee Roden of the free Swedish newspaper The Local agreed, claiming that the pictures in the book "combat the hysteria about the country provoked by people like US President Donald Trump." The photographer in charge of the project, Jeppe Wikström, told Roden that people smear Sweden out of jealousy: "We manage to combine diversity with success. We do have high taxes, but we also have a very successful business life." Wilkström admitted that there are some odd things about Swedes: "We take off our shoes before going inside, put money into the right position and make sure it's not so wrinkly before paying at a cash register."
The first copy of Last Night in Sweden, published on September 7, was mailed to Donald Trump. Other copies have been, or will be, sent to "all members of the US Congress and European Parliament" as a way of countering "false news." [This is how they put it] At the end of October, an exhibition of photos from the book will move from Stockholm to the European Parliament in Brussels.

The book contains pictures of an ethnic Swedish man sitting on a snowmobile on a snow-covered icy river; a young guy walking around a gym practicing the tuba; a 94-year old Swedish woman in a retirement home being pushed in her wheelchair by a Somali immigrant; an octogenarian Swedish couple sitting in their home sauna in Lapland; a handicapped Algerian immigrant working out in the gym he founded; a Romani beggar woman kneeling on a city street; an elderly Swedish couple playing in their kitchen with their dog. And so on. In other words, a bunch of images showing immigrants doing things that, in one way or another, enhance life in Sweden, mixed in with a few photos of ethnic Swedes living pretty much the same way they did before the immigration tsunami started.

What won't you see in this book?

You won't see Muslim violence in Sweden's public libraries, which has increased so dramatically in the last couple of years that many librarians are looking for other jobs. You won't see a picture of the three condos in which a newly arrived Syrian immigrant's three wives and sixteen children are being put up at a total cost to Swedish taxpayers of $1.75 million. You won't see a picture of Muslim "morality police" patrolling neighborhoods and controlling women's conduct. You won't see Muslim men cutting in front of Swedish women in queues and then calling them "whores" when they protest.

You won't see a TV news crew from Australia being physically attacked by Muslims for entering a no-go zone. You won't see Muslim girls being beaten by their families for removing their hijab. You won't see Muslims setting cars on fire, and then hurling bottles and stones at the firefighters who show up to put out the blaze.

You won't see a picture of a recent event at which politicians and welfare officials met with residents of Stockholm's Järva neighborhood to address the prevalence of violence, forced marriage, compulsory hijab, and other forms of oppression within Muslim families – only to be told by the locals that they were not interested in conforming to "Swedish values." You won't see a picture of the head of the Swedish security service, Anders Thornberg, who in a TV interview the other day admitted that the number of potential perpetrators of terrorist violence in Sweden had risen immensely in recent years.

You won't see a gang of Muslim youths raping an infidel teenager. You won't see a Syrian refugee raping the fourteen-year-old daughter of the woman who took him into her house out of compassion. You won't see ten men committing a gang rape in August of last year – or their arrest, which finally took place earlier this month because it took that long for the police to fit it into their schedule. They are too busy these days investigating murders to spend much time on rapes.

You won't see convicted Muslim rapists being punished by paying small fines and performing community service for a few days. (When they pay the fine, do they put the money in the right position and make sure it's not so wrinkly?) You won't see a Muslim youth perusing the new booklet put out by the Swedish Ministry of Youth and Civil Affairs, which explains to immigrants that Swedish culture disapproves of rape. You won't see Muslim girls being raped by relatives – a common enough event that goes unreported because the victims know that if they go to the authorities they'll be killed. You won't see a picture of the annual, highly popular Bråvalla summer music festival, which will no longer be held after this year because the number of rapes occurring at the event has gotten out of hand.

Of course, Sweden's current crisis is not an invention of Islamophobic foreigners. It has been acknowledged by Swedish police inspector Lars Alvarsjö, who has warned that the scale of immigrant crime is straining the country's police departments and courts to the breaking point.

It has been acknowledged by Swedish police investigator Peter Springare, who has said that virtually all of the criminals he deals with are Muslims. It has been acknowledged by Malmö police chief Stefan Sinteus, who has said that Muslim immigrants in his city are responsible for an "upward spiral of violence." And of course it has been acknowledged by the recent history of the Sweden Democrats, the only party to speak the truth about these problems, and now enjoys so much voter support that the so-called cordon sanitaire erected around it by the mainstream parties will soon no longer be able to hold.

In recent weeks, Norwegians on social media have been sharing a 1977 video in which Carl I. Hagen, founder of Norway's Progress Party, warned that Sweden, by admitting too many immigrants and giving them special benefits, has started down a long road to self-destruction. He saw it forty years ago, but even now, many Swedes still refuse to see it. One of Sweden's former prime ministers, Fredrik Reinfeldt, pronounced with approval in December 2014 that the future of Sweden belonged not to ethnic Swedes but to immigrants. (Why didn't Wikström and his colleagues erupt in outrage at that remark? Why, instead, get angry at a foreign head of state for actually showing empathy for their plight?)

This is a country in which it was reported on September 9, that a new Muslim political party has filed papers to field candidates in next year's parliamentary elections. The party is called Jasin, which is also the name of the thirty-sixth sura of the Koran. On September 10, seventeen-year-old Fatemeh Khavari, who wears hijab and who recently led a weeks-long sit-in protesting the expulsion of rejected asylum seekers, told a reporter that her goal is to be Sweden's prime minister. And why not? By the time she is old enough, she will be just what they are looking for.

Riot police in Gothenburg, Sweden. (Photo by Sion Touhig/Getty Images)

Bruce Bawer is the author of the new novel The Alhambra (Swamp Fox Editions). His book While Europe Slept (2006) was a New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11035/last-night-sweden

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