Author: Debbie Schlussel
Publication: World Net Daily
Date: October 16, 2001
URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24940
Too bad Patrick Henry isn't around
to advise President Bush.
"We are apt to shut our eyes against
a painful truth," Henry remarked. "For my part, I am willing to know the
whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it."
Though Henry never faced modern-day
Islamic terrorists, he was around for other miscreants, known as pirates.
And unlike Bush and Colin Powell, neither he nor our other founding fathers
consorted with the pirates' representatives and pro-pirate "civil rights"
groups in America. In those days, our leaders didn't make "Coalitions Against
Piracy" with the countries who hosted and harbored pirates. And they didn't
make statements saying that this was not about piracy and pirates, a peaceful
group who just wanted to plunder, rape and pillage.
But, unfortunately, as I've described
in my recent columns, President Bush has invited representatives of the
most radical, pro-terrorist Islamic groups in America to pray with him
at the National Cathedral, to pray with him at the Washington, D.C., mosque,
to sit near Mrs. Bush at the big speech to Congress and to hold hands with
him at the White House.
One of those groups, CAIR, the Council
on American Islamic Relations, is among the most dangerous to American
security. CAIR is an outgrowth of Hamas front group the Islamic Association
of Palestine. Oliver "Buck" Revell was the FBI's associate director in
charge of Investigative and Counter-Intelligence Operations from 1985 to
1991, in charge of all FBI terrorism investigations. "[The Islamic Association
of Palestine] is an organization that has directly supported Hamas military
goals," he told Capitol Hill newspaper, "The Hill." "It is a front organization
for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants. It has produced
videotapes that are very hate-filled, full of vehement propaganda. It is
an organization that has supported direct confrontation." It is also an
organization that exists without impingement in Texas.
CAIR's founder and executive director,
Nihad Awad, was IAP's public relations director ("Muslim-Americans in Mainstream
America," The Link, February-March 2000). Islamic Association of Palestine's
publications, including Muslim World Monitor - of which Awad was contributing
editor - and Al-Zaitonah, frequently praise terrorist actions.
Awad was the gentleman with the
neatly trimmed beard, sitting a couple seats from Mrs. Bush at the president's
big speech to Congress and standing next to Bush at several events, including
the D.C. mosque and National Cathedral services. IAP and CAIR, according
to Revell, had "intertwined membership" and CAIR used IAP propaganda materials.
Incidentally, Awad - for mysterious
reasons - appears to have changed his name. On CAIR's 1994 IRS form 990,
he is listed as "CAIR Executive Director Nehad A. Hammad." And then there
is the similarity in staff.
Besides Awad, CAIR Director of Communications
Ibrahim Hooper also worked for IAP. Rafeeq Jaber, IAP's current president,
was a founding director of CAIR.
CAIR's funding comes from groups
like the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). HLF is
on the State Department terrorist list. When it was founded in 1994, CAIR
received its original $5,000 from HLF. Mohammed Nimer, director of CAIR's
Research Center, was on the Board of United Association for Studies and
Research (UASR), the strategic arm of Hamas in the U.S., according to the
New York Times. It was founded by Mousa Abu Marzook, the political chief
of Hamas and a well-known terrorist operative.
Awad, in the Muslim World Monitor,
called the trial and conviction of the first World Trade Center (WTC) bombers,
"a travesty of justice." He has openly expressed his support for terrorist
groups, like Hamas. "I am in support of the Hamas movement," he said at
a 1994 Barry University panel discussion, "The Road to Peace: The Challenge
of the Middle East." He's also openly praised Ayatollah Khomeini. Remember
him - the guy who directed the taking of U.S. hostages in Iran?
Hooper, echoing the Taliban government,
has always refused to condemn Osama bin Laden. In a 1998 aol.com interview,
after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, Hooper said the bombings
were a result of "misunderstanding of both sides." Today, he still will
not condemn bin Laden, only the attacks on the WTC. Hooper also defended
Arab Muslim Sudan's murder of over two million black Christian citizens
and the slavery, rape and torture of millions more, dismissing it as "inter-tribal
hostage-taking."
Imam Siraj Wahaj, a CAIR board member,
is one of the most respected American Muslim leaders and is vice president
of the Islamic Society of North America. But, according to Islamic expert
Dr. Daniel Pipes, he "calls for replacing the U.S. government with a caliphate."
Wahhaj was a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the Muslim
cleric convicted of taking part in the first WTC bombing and planning to
blow up U.S. buildings and bridges. Wahaj was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator
in that case. According to Salon.com, in a 1991 speech before the Islamic
Association of North Texas, Wahaj called Operation Desert Storm, "one of
the most diabolical plots ever in the annals of history" and predicted
that America will fall unless it "accepts the Islamic agenda."
CAIR's demand for the removal of
an anti-bin Laden billboard (that merely declared him "the sworn enemy")
in Los Angeles, and its protest of the FBI, INS and Customs raid are minor
compared to its strong Oval Office connections. It's hard to believe that
President Bush pronounced "Islam is Peace" while surrounding himself with
the least peaceful representatives of it in America.
Long John Silver and other pirates
were a lot less successful because they didn't have groups like CAIR furthering
their cause. Silver only had a wooden leg and an eyepatch to show for his
efforts.
Today's terrorists have full entrée
into the White House.
