Theodore's World

Spokesman for 6 Muslim clerics barred from US Airways flight
Jihad Watch
Spokesman for 6 Muslim clerics barred from US Airways flight
One of six Muslim imams pulled from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last night by federal authorities is affiliated with a Hamas-linked organization and acknowledged a connection to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s.
Omar Shahin, who served as a spokesman for the clerics, is a representative of the Kind Hearts Organization, which had its assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury pending an investigation, notes Islam scholar Robert Spencer on his weblog JihadWatch

Treasury spokesman Stuart Levey in February said KindHearts “is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving.”

The imams had attended a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, who is president of the group.

“They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way,” Shahin said after the incident last night.

Today, Shahin called for Muslims and non-Muslims to boycott US Airways unless the company changes its policy.

“They know what they have to do, they have to be fair and just with everybody,” he said.

The Washington, D.C., based lobby group Council on American-Islamic Relations planned to file a complaint, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

“Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it’s one that we’ve been addressing for some time,” Hooper said.

CAIR, however, has its own ties to Hamas, having been identified by two former FBI counter-terrorism chiefs as a spinoff of a front group for the Palestinian terrorist organization.
A Sept. 28, 2001, story in the Arizona Republic that said Arizona appears to have been the home of an al-Qaida sleeper cell, named Shahin as one of three part-time Arizona residents who “fits the pattern” of the terrorist group.
Shahin, identifed as being with the Tucson Islamic Center, said members of his mosque may have helped bin Laden in the early 1990s when the al-Qaida leader was fighting against the Russians.
The CIA at that time, Shahin said, called bin Laden a “freedom fighter.”

“Then they tell us he is involved in terrorist acts, and they stopped supporting him, and we stopped,” he said.

In the story, Shahin expressed doubt that Muslims were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks and said he “didn’t trust much of what the FBI has divulged – including the hijackers’ identities.”
As for Al-Qaida nests in America, Shahin said, “All of these, they make it up.”
Witnesses to the imam’s explusion last night said some of them made anti-American comments about the war in Iraq before boarding the flight, according to Minneapolis airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.
Also, some of the men asked for seat belt extensions even though a flight attendant thought they didn’t need them.

“There were a number of things that gave the flight crew pause,” Hogan said.

Shahin claimed three members of the group prayed in the terminal before the six boarded the plane. Last night, however, he said they had prayed on the plane.
The imams boarded the plane individually, Shahin said, except for a blind member who needed assistance. They didn’t sit together and “did nothing,” he contended.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Nothing better to sooth your soul before a flight like a group of Imams getting in the aisle of the airplane and begin praying! They are lucky the passengers didn’t hit them over the head with a metal fire extinguisher.
I could care less if they do boycott the airlines. I’d prefer the airline that throws imams off the plane personally.
CAIR must have their their fax machine on speed-dial so they can file complaints more rapidly.
Just thinking here but how about if US airlines would switch from peanuts and other crunchies to pork rinds.

Death penalty approved for Akbar
Army Times
The death sentence for convicted murderer Sgt. Hasan Akbar was approved late last week at Fort Bragg, N.C., by Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, commander if XXVIII Airborne Corps and court martial convening authority in the case.
Akbar was sentenced to death in April 2005 by unanimous vote of a military panel for the March 23, 2003, grenade attack that killed Capt. Christopher Seifert and Maj. Gregory Stone.
The grenade attack, which also wounded 14 others, took place at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, where the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, was preparing to cross the berm into Iraq.
Akbar lobbed grenades into three tents while members of the brigade slept, and then fired shots at those who emerged from the smoky blasts.
Approval of the death penalty means that Akbar’s case will automatically go to appeal and be reviewed by the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and ultimately could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

“He can’t be executed until the president gives a firm OK,” said military law expert Eugene Fidell, who is not involved in the Akbar case.

However, he added, Akbar’s case will likely be in appeals for some time to come.

“Experience teaches that this case will not be over while Mr. Bush is in office,” Fidell said.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Hang him now, stop this insane length of time please to get rid of this killer of our troops.

Manhattan: Second Man Charged in Terror Plan
NYT
A New Jersey man has been charged with conspiring to help the terrorist group Hezbollah by allowing people to obtain satellite broadcasts of a Hezbollah television station, federal prosecutors said yesterday.
The man, Saleh Elahwal, 53, of Matawan, N.J., was charged in an 11-count indictment unsealed yesterday in Federal District Court. The indictment also charged another man, Javed Iqbal of Staten Island, who was arrested in August.
The indictment charges the men with helping people receive broadcasts of Al Manar, which features programming that promotes Hezbollah’s positions, prosecutors said. Messages left for the men’s lawyers were not returned yesterday.
Mr. Iqbal’s supporters have said he was exercising free speech.

This was the previous story about this dated back in August of 2006 this year…….
Man Charged With Relaying Hezbollah TV
NEW YORK (AP) – A businessman was charged with providing satellite broadcasts of a Hezbollah television station to New York-area customers, authorities said Thursday.
Javed Iqbal, 42, was arrested Wednesday on conspiracy charges of enabling the broadcasts of al Manar, which was designated by the U.S. government this spring as a global terrorist entity, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement.
Garcia said Iqbal used satellite dishes at his Staten Island home to distribute the broadcasts through a Brooklyn company called HDTV Limited.
The probe began after a tip from a confidential source in February, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The U.S. government considers Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most sophisticated Shiite group, to be a terrorist group. An attack by Hezbollah guerrillas on an Israeli outpost last month plunged Lebanon and Israel into 34 days of destruction that killed more than 800 people.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Can someone please explain to me why this man is still breathing American air. (Jail or not)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20—
More than 1,000 people turned out on Saturday at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet in Arlington, Va., to hear addresses by several elected officials, including Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress.
The event raised more than $620,000 to support CAIR’s civil rights and advocacy work on behalf of the American Muslim community. (Another dinner held by CAIR’s Southern California chapter (CAIR-LA) over the weekend raised more than $430,000. Some 1,800 people attended that event.)
Elected officials who spoke at the sold-out event included:
Representative- elect Ellison (D-MN)
Reps. Mike Honda (D-CA)
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
Albert Wynn (D-MD).
Ellison and Jackson Lee offered their addresses by video.
Saqib Ali, who was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates (District 39) on November 7, was also in attendance.
Other speakers included Special Agent in Charge Joseph Persichini, Jr. of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Fairfax County Police Chief Col. David M. Rohrer and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Most members of CAIR’s national board also took part in the banquet, which was emceed by Julia Shearson of CAIR- Ohio’s Cleveland office.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Good grief! God help us!
I guess all those that gave to CAIR got a promise to be killed last. If left up to the Democrats it will be the Islamic States of America. Well they can try but they will never succeed!
Their speeches make me sick and furious!

To view Keith Ellison’s address……..CLICK HERE

To view Jackson Lee’s address…….CLICK HERE

Reno Files Challenge to Terror Law
Breitbart.com
Former Attorney General Janet Reno and seven other former Justice Department officials filed court papers Monday arguing that the Bush administration is setting a dangerous precedent by trying a suspected terrorist outside the court system.
It was the first time that Reno, attorney general in the Clinton administration, has spoken out against the administration’s policies on terrorism detainees, underscoring how contentious the court fight over the nation’s new military commissions law has become. Former attorneys general rarely file court papers challenging administration policy.
Suspected al-Qaida sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is the only detainee being held in the United States.
The former prosecutors challenged the Justice Department’s right to bring al-Marri before a military commission.
A citizen of Qatar, he was arrested in 2001 while studying in the United States. He had faced criminal charges until authorities designated him an enemy combatant and ordered him held at a naval base in South Carolina.
The Justice Department said in court papers last week that a new anti- terrorism law strips detainees such as al-Marri of the right to challenge their imprisonment in court.
Some of the eight attorneys named in the document are now in private practice and represent detainees at the military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Most served under President Clinton, though the list includes former U.S. Attorneys W. Thomas Dillard and Anton R. Valukas, who served under President Reagan.
“The existing criminal justice system is more than up to the task of prosecuting and bringing to justice those who plan or attempt terrorist acts within the United States without sacrificing any of the rights and protections that have been the hallmarks of the American legal system for more than 200 years,” the attorneys wrote.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Well it seems Reno is Ramsey Clarks new side kick. Janet Reno’s so concerned about terrorists. She can kiss my ass. The Clintons are pulling them all out to destroy this country, aren’t they!?!! I mean what business does she have in today’s world anyway.
I am not sure but I think International Law says that non-uniformed combatants may legally be shot on sight. Not captured unless capture is desired. Not given trials. Not given attorneys. In their quest to attack all things GOP/Conservative (and deliberately hinder our war effort), the Left would order attorneys for every prisoner our awesome troops capture.

Holiday season is here, Thanksgiving and Christmas and spending time with loved ones.
Many of our troops are going to be spending the holidays in Iraq or Afghanistan or deployed to other hostile locations, without their families. Still others will have left there already via medevac. It is for them that Operation Santa was born, and specifically, Operation Santa/Bethesda-Walter Reed:
Our troops give so much every day, we owe them more then we can ever repay. Please join me in thanking them and making sure they have a Christmas.

I know that they’d rather be back with their units in Iraq or Afghanistan AND at home with their loved ones but they can’t be either place. They must be there to heal.
I am pleased to announce the newest Operation Santa venture: Operation Santa/Bethesda and Walter Reed. It will work mostly the same was as the other Operation Santas. We want to bring them a stuffed stocking and a little bit of home. Candy canes, cookies, crackers, ornaments, cards, books, dvds, cd’s, batteries, new socks.
You can help us do this. You can send some Christmas cheer to a wounded servicemember at Bethesda or Walter Reed. You can donate money, you can donate gift cards from Sam’s, Walmart, Target, etc. You can donate material goods.You can make a difference in a servicemember’s holiday away from home.

All this is being organized by Carrie, whom you’ve probably seen around the blogs in comments, and Andi of Andi’s World.
From Andi:

You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Please be sure to note that your donation is specifically for Operation Santa/Bethesda and Walter Reed, otherwise your donation will go to the general fund for Operation Santa.
Donations by mail can be sent to:
Marine Corps Family Foundation
4000 Lancaster Drive- Suite 57
Salem, OR 97309
Thanks in advance for your help. It’s hard to describe the joy these troops feel when strangers work to ensure that their Christmas is as good as it possibly can be.

If you use Pay Pal – send your donations to donations@marinecorpsfamilyfoundation.org–again, make sure you note that the donation is for Operation Santa–Bethesda/Walter Reed.

Hat tip to:
* Andi’s World
* MVRWC
* The Cotillion

This weeks Guard the Borders blogburst is brought to you by Heidi Euphoric Reality
Last week, two Muslim leaders in Boston were arrested for immigration fraud – illegally filing
fraudulent visa documents and obtaining religious workers’ visas. The arrests were the
culmination of a multi-year
investigation in Boston and New York:

The ICE agents arrested Hannan Wednesday along with 32 other people in eight
states and the District of Columbia in connection with an alleged nationwide scheme to help many
foreigners, mostly from Pakistan, immigrate and remain in the U.S. by filing false applications for
religious workers’ visas. Most of
those taken into custody did not have religious training or experience to qualify for the visas, and held
secular jobs here in the U.S., such as working at gas stations and factories or driving trucks, according
to the ICE. Others were religious workers but had used fraudulent identity documents to get their visas,
the agency said.
The agency claims the petitioners of the visas took substantial cash fees from the foreigners for the false paperwork filed on their behalf.

Despite the fact that the imams were not arrested precipitously, but only after a multi-year investigation,
they have an excuse ready:

“All it is is a minor administrative technicality error” in his immigration paperwork, said
Vilal Kaleem, associate director of the American Muslim Society’s Boston chapter. “It’s completely
disgraceful in the manner they dealt with it,” he said of the federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents.
[…]
Kaleem said Hannan was driving his family to an immigration office for an interview for the
green-card proceedings on Wednesday when the federal agents arrested him. Hannan’s son and
daughter were crying following the arrest, Kaleem said.

So, so sad. My heart breaks.
Meanwhile, the Muslim community in Boston is doing what Muslims do best: seething.

Muslim leaders in the Boston area expressed outrage yesterday over
the arrest and jailing of two senior clerics…”It’s just so flabbergasting the way they would do this” …
“This seems to be a direct attack at our religion and community”…”it is deeply humiliating
when a man of such high religious status in our community is treated as a criminal in
front of the world”…”Why do you just arrest some respected members of the community and haul them away?”…”People are attached to the imam. They will be very upset. Everyone loves him.”

Oddly enough, it is apparently not humiliating for “a man of such high religious
status” to act as a criminal. Because though our government rarely enforces it, it is
still technically illegal to break our immigration laws. Unfortunately, when it comes to our immigration
law, this will likely turn into the following scenario: They broke the law. They got arrested for
breaking the law, but now it’s the government’s fault for enforcing the law.
The Muslim American Society provides contact information to their community so that they can
demand a “safe and speedy return” and to demand “fair, speedy, and respectable treatment” of the
imams. I’ll provide the contact info here for you should you prefer to register thanks that our laws
are actually being enforced:
The MAS provides contact information, so folks can insist on “fair, speedy and respectable” treatment
of the imams.

Senator Edward Kennedy (617)565 3170
Request to speak to Tom Cohan, (ext. 119)
Senator John Kerry (617) 565-8519
Request to speak to Carmen Velazquez

Yeah, I know – fat lot of good it will do to contact those two Senators, but if you’ve got
nothing better to do, have at it.
At a time when Muslim immigration to America is at an all-time high, even more are sneaking into the country
illegally than ever before. In July, Homeland Security discovered that more than one-third of religious
workers visas were obtained using fraudulent means, and the fraud was particularly rampant among Muslims.

The probe found a particularly high fraud rate among applicants from countries the
government deemed to pose a security risk, such as Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq, the
report found.
[…]
Some immigration watchdogs say that the program should be seriously curtailed because, even in
cases where the applications are legitimate, the visas could bring radical clerics into the country.
Last year, for example, the FBI arrested three Pakistani men associated with a mosque in Lodi, California.
All had entered on religious-worker visas. Two were accused of ties to a terrorist training camp in
Pakistan before coming to the United States, and the third, an imam, allegedly delivered sermons endorsing
violence against non-Muslims before he came to America.

This is only one more reason among many why our immigration enforcement is the front line of our
national defense. The two issues are inextricably intertwined. To remain lax in immigration
enforcement is to invite infiltration and attack. This is why all those whose first act on American
soil is a criminal one MUST be deported, no matter their ethnicity or nationality.
Our immigration laws have to be strictly enforced if we are to have any hope of future security.
This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the
forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror.
If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst!
Just send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.

U.S. keeping an eye on sensitive projects at Bell Labs ~ French Takeover
Star-Ledger Staff
Although a French company soon will own the famed Bell Labs, the U.S. will exercise “unprecedented” control over sensitive government projects at the New Jersey facility, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Dist.) said yesterday.

“The U.S. government will be able to veto any people who have direct control over Bell Labs, and can veto the removal of any persons who have control over Bell Labs,” said Andrews, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and was briefed last week on the pending takeover of Lucent Technologies by Alcatel of France.

Bell Labs, birthplace of the transistor, was inherited from AT&T by Lucent a decade ago. The labs are centered in Murray Hill.
President Bush approved the merger of Lucent and Alcatel on Friday, based on a review by a multiagency federal panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
His approval hinges on both companies following through on “two robust and far-reaching agreements designed to ensure the protection of our national security,” according to a statement from the White House. One of those agreements involves oversight of Bell Labs by three former top defense and intelligence officials.

Andrews said Bell Labs is involved with just about “anything that touches on imperatives for the country’s security.” But he called the merger of the two telecom companies vital for their economic health, “good for the country, and good for New Jersey.”

“The U.S. government will have more control over the flow of information in and out of this entity than it has over the flow of information into other so-called American entities,” Andrews said. “I think this is an unprecedented level of control, where the U.S. government will have an ongoing window into the management of Bell Labs.”

Inder Singh, an analyst for Prudential Equity and a former Lucent executive, said it should not be hard for Bell Labs to segregate sensitive projects behind a “firewall.”

“It won’t be very different from what Bell Labs has done, historically,” Singh said.

Lucent and Alcatel are aiming to close their deal on Nov. 30. The combined company, Alcatel Lucent, will be the largest supplier of equipment for mobile phone networks. It will be based in Paris, and employ 88,000 people at first. About 9,000 job cuts are expected later.

“We’ve gotten all the regulatory approvals we need and are just finalizing the last steps,” said Lucent spokeswoman Joan Campion.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Just another consolidation of critical infrastructure within the grasp of foreigners.
I think this is insane! Bell Labs is responsible for a HUGE number of America’s technology innovations since 1920 (this is only a fraction of the things Bell Labs has invented or first-developed):
* Fax (1920)
* Movies with synchronized sound (1926)
* Television (first transmission, 1927)
* Radio astronomy (1931)
* Speech synthesizer (1937)
* Calculators (1940 and later)
* Photovoltaic (PV) cell (1940s)
* Scrambler for speech (1943)
* Transistor (1947)
* Teleprinter (1949)
* Microwave research (1950s)
* TransAtlantic cable (1956)
* Electronic music (1957)
* LED (1962)
* CO2 Laser (1964)
* Charge-coupled device (1969)
* UNIX (1970)
* C language (1970)
* Fibre optics (1976)
* 32-bit CPU (1980)
* Cellular phone (1980)
* Breakup of AT&T (1984)
* Wireless networking (1990)
* 56k modem (1991)
* Electron lithography (1996)
* Voice over IP (1998)
* Plastic transistors (2000)
We’re selling this??? What are we, crazy? Sadly, I think so…

Hotel Chain Blocks CNN
Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp., a Midwest hotel chain, has blocked CNN from the selection of TV channels it provides to guests, claiming that an Oct. 18 report showing Iraqi insurgents shooting U.S. troops was “shocking and repulsive” and “supported terrorism.” James Thompson, president of the company, which operates hotels in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, told the Associated Press that he acted in “a moment of conscience.” He said his decision to remove CNN from his hotel guest rooms was permanent.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
It is always great to know of Americans that support our troops, that appreciate what our military, our troops, our Veterans have done for all of us. I already have posted about what CNN did but I wanted to share this great story with you about what one of the Hotel Chains has done about it as well.
This is their website
I emailed this Inn when I heard the news last week and this is the letter I got back:

The management of Stoney Creek Inns respects and supports diversity of opinion. America’s strength comes from the freedoms we embrace. I support the men and women of the United States military, who protect those freedoms. The October 18th broadcast of a terrorist propaganda tape, witnessing the sniper assassinations of American soldiers is an obscenity! A decision of conscience was made.
We continue to offer a variety of news channels for our guests with a wide diversity of coverage.
Respectfully,
James H. Thompson
President
Stoney Creek Hospitality Corporation