Funding Terror

I led a recent round-table on current affairs on the campus of a major university, the subject was funding terror and how to reduce the threat of terror by eliminating funding—and if that was possible. Naturally, a logical portion of the discussion dealt with the role that energy plays in providing the funding. But more important to the subject is: What other ways funding is provided?

The first question raised by one of the participants was: How do I know that the organizations that I support are not supporting terror? In my opinion, we are not just fighting a war on terror, but witnessing a war between those who wish to impose an Islamist totalitarian form of government verses Western democracy, capitalism, freedom and liberty. In many cases it may be the extension of the same battle that tore Europe apart during most of the twentieth century that has now spread to the Muslim world. The current clash also includes the added dimension of a battle for the control of oil. The West no longer has control of oil resources to provide energy security. See also my earlier article: Give Me Energy Security And I Will Give You A Foreign Policy.

The discussion evolved. Funding of terror really involves many aspects; it can take the form of direct monetary transfer to terrorist organizations, it can include providing labor in the form of organizing demonstrations which promote ideologies which are anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Western democracy, and it can also take the form of supporting causes which prevent the development of energy self-sufficiency thus making the U.S. dependent for our energy supplies from countries supporting terrorism. Jihad should not be considered exclusively a terrorist action, such as blowing up planes and trains; it may take the form of economic jihad such as financing Islamist projects, white-collar jihad—influencing the media, promoting Islamist ideologies in schools and universities or just plain participating in a demonstration or peaceful march. However the goal remains the same, to bring about the Islamic kingdom of God on Earth and to impose Shariah law.

Which leads us the main question, which organizations and/or action of individuals promote anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, etc. I believe that the well-known statement: “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, eats like a duck, it probably is a duck.” How would one apply this comment to the present situation? Some of the organizations mentioned in this study are leaders of protest marches preaching these ideologies. The spokespersons for the organizations have made speeches espousing the ideologies; the funding (eating) includes organizations espousing similar beliefs. I would have to add that certainly not all and possibly most of the organizations do not have all the characteristics, however they do have association through their sponsorship of the events, interlocking of funding and interlocking of boards. I might add, that just like the duck that provides excellent food and delicious pate and other useful products; terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas also have two sides. On the one hand, they provide schools, hospitals, and support for the poor and food. Environmental organizations raise our awareness of need to protect our environment for current and future generations. The goal is therefore is sort out their multiple functions and goals. The Islamists recognized this dual role and therefore have utilized these organizations in their strategy. The strategy is laid out in the sections on “ The Project ” and “ Managing Savagery .” 

The “The Project” an ambitious strategy intended “to establish the kingdom of God over the whole world recommends “to study the local and world centers of authority, and the possibilities of placing them under influence,” “to enter in contact with all new movements engaged in the jihad wherever that it is on planet, to create cells of the jihad,” and “to nourish the feeling of rancor with regard to the Jews.” The document describes the strategy planned to ensure a growing influence of the Brotherhood on the Muslim world. It is stipulated there that the Muslim Brothers “should not act in the name of the Brotherhood, but infiltrate in the existing organizations. Their existence will not be located, and then neutralized.”

If the pattern and actions of the organizations appear to be consistent with the strategy laid out by the Islamists, then one must pay special attention.

If you spend some nights and weekends at a whorehouse, your spouse has every right to assume the reason for spending time there is not for the purpose of playing tennis.

In the document below are presented from newspaper accounts and other sources the association of organizations behind the statements, protests and actions. The Islamist strategy has recently been made public through the publication of translated documents. It is for the reader to further explore the links.

Think about it; check it out. Are you naively funding terror? Because we still have freedom and do not live under a totalitarian government we must respect the rights of others to express their opinions and enter into dialog. However just the participation in an elected form of government and/or economic development does not necessarily lead to freedom, liberty and elimination of terror.  Suggested reading: Promoting Democracy and Fighting Terror by Thomas Carothers from Foreign Affairs, January/February 2003 and Development and Democracy by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and George W. Downs From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2005.

The Islamist strategy of infiltrating in the existing organizations, NGOs and foundations, many of which perform apparently valuable services is extremely valuable to the cause of establishing a totalitarian form of government. The existence of Muslims with an Islamist agenda and supporters of their cause are not easily located and then neutralized.

An Inconvenient Truth

As Jagdish Bhagwati commented in an article on August 16 in the Financial Times Al Gore has been busy returning global warming to center stage with terrifying warnings of disaster with his best-selling book, An Inconvenient Truth, and the popular companion documentary. Tony Blair , the UK prime minister, has joined – even led – the renewed focus on global warming, charging Sir Nicholas Stern , the economist, with solving the problem. Alongside his successful initiative on Africa , this is to be his sure-fire international legacy as he ends his last term in office.

One has to ask: Which is more important in the near term the preservation of democracy, liberty and freedom or global warming? 

Khamenei—the supreme religious authority to Hezbollah followers—said. “With God's help you (Hezbollah) were able to prove that military superiority is not (measured) in the number (of soldiers), planes, warships and tanks. Rather, it depends on the power of faith and holy war,”

Just as the Iranian soccer fans hold photos of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah , during the Iran and Syria Asian Cup 2007 qualifying soccer match in Tehran on Wednesday Aug. 16, 2006 , anti-war demonstrators at protest marches on August 12 demonstrations in the Stop the US Israeli War rally in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and worldwide held up signs in support of the Hezbollah and Hamas. The enemy within has reached America ’s shores.

The Reality of the Inconvenient Truth

In reality, the Inconvenient Truth represents a much broader significance. The environmental movement represented by Al Gore plays a significant role in the “The Axis of Appeasement” and is directly linked to the formation of Leftist/Marxist – Islamist Alliance.

The Inconvenient Truth is that many of the environmental, social justice, anti-war, leftist, and Islamic groups have in common senior personnel, members of advisory and director boards and in some cases common supporters and funding including foundations and corporations. The organizations in many cases have interlinking of the boards. In many cases these organizations are the cosponsors of the rallies and protests we are seeing occur on a global scale. This is in no way to say that all supporters of some of these causes are not sincere in their desire for a better world. As a conservative environmentalist we all need to support environmental action that is also critical for your future. However, support of the organizations naively or otherwise can be contributing to support of organizations that are against liberty and freedom and seek to establish a global totalitarian government. 

The war against the Islamists will not be won with military might and the war on terror; the battle must also be waged in the media, the schools, the NGOs, and the board rooms of corporations.

 The Islmists are following the plan laid out by the Muslim Brotherhood as described and documented in numerous places. The West is falling into line with the plan and strategy.

Islamists Recognize the Value of Joining with the Leftist Movement

The Islmists recognized early on that alliance with these groups provided the grass root support and manpower locally in the West to impact the media, education, and ultimately political elections. Hence the Islamist slogan “from the schoolhouse to the White House.” The Islamist goal remains—world domination and the establishment of the totalitarian Islamic kingdom of God on Earth. It is this cabal, which I refer to as the Leftist/Marxist – Islamist Alliance which is making up the “The Axis of Appeasement.”

The “unholy alliance” of the leftist with the Islamists cannot last; liberalism cannot survive under the rule of a totalitarian regime imposing Shariah law. At some point one side will decide that this must end. Victor Davis Hanson in his article in National Review Online Hope Amid Despair? commented: In an amorphous war of self-induced Western restraint, like the present one, truth and moral clarity are as important as military force. This past month, the world of the fascist jihadist and those who tolerate him was once again on display for civilization to fathom. Even the most timid and prone to appeasement in the West are beginning to see that it is becoming a question of “the Islamists or us.”

The Islamist is willing to die for their cause. Many liberals may die because of the support of their cause.

The Cease-Fire in Lebanon is Reminisant of Munich in 1938

The perceived victory of the Hezbollah in Lebanon followed by the cease-fire agreement may be the pivotal moment in the creation of a new world order. 

It is pivotal in the same sense that the Munich agreement between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain was pivotal in an earlier battle against the enemies of freedom. The accord in October 1938 revealed to the world that the solidarity of the Western allies was a sham, and that the balance of power had shifted to the fascist dictators.

As reported in the article Iran praises Islam ‘victory’ August 17, Iran 's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme religious authority to Hezbollah followers, in a message to Hezbollah head Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, described the militant group's clashes with Israel as a “victory” for Islam.

“Your unprecedented holy war and steadfastness are beyond the limits of my description. It's a divine victory. It is a victory of Islam,” Khamenei said in the message read by an announcer on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.

Hezbollah is heavily financed and backed by Iran 's Shiite Muslim theocracy.

“With God's help you were able to prove that military superiority is not (measured) in the number (of soldiers), planes, warships and tanks. Rather, it depends on the power of faith and holy war,” Khamenei said.

“You have ridiculed the myth that the Zionist army is invincible,” he said.

Khamenei said Israeli attacks that killed Lebanese civilians and destroyed much of the country's infrastructure have exposed “the real face of America and some European countries, side-by-side with the hated and repugnant Zionist face.”

“They (Israeli attacks) have also uncovered the level of falsehood surrounding the hollow slogans ... about human rights and democracy,” Khamenei said.

He lashed out at President Bush for declaring that the Israeli assault in Lebanon was self-defense and had defeated the Shiite guerrillas.

Resolution 1701 shows that, for the time being at least, the balance has likewise shifted to the terrorists and their state sponsors. Like Munich, it marks the triumph of the principle of putting off until tomorrow what needs to be done today. Like Munich, it will mean not peace in our time, but a bigger war in our future.

“We have passed an awful milestone in our history,” Winston Churchill said after the Munich agreement was signed. “Do not suppose this is the end… This is only the first sip, the first foretaste, of a bitter cup that will be proffered to us year by year.” Despite the failure of appeasement, Churchill still believed the Western democracies would make the “supreme recovery” and take up the banner for freedom again.

The United States and the forces of democracy will recover from this debacle—even with a Democratic Congress in 2006 and a Democratic president in 2008. The reason will not be because Bush's opponents—“The Axis of Appeasement” have a better strategy, or a clearer vision, or even a Winston Churchill waiting in the wings. It will be because the Islamists will give us no choice.

 Less than a year after Munich , Nazi panzers rolled into Poland . Instead of fighting a short, limited war over Czechoslovakia , the Western democracies ended up fighting a world war, the most destructive in history. The war with the Islamists is coming. It is only a question of whether it will be at a time or on a ground of our choosing, or theirs—and whether it is fought within the shadow of a mushroom cloud.

Without the background of history as a guide, it is difficult to understand the present.

Founding of the Green Party

In January of 2005, Germany 's Greens, now the strongest Green Party in the world turned 25. There won't be any grand parties or brouhaha. They did a bit of that in 2004 to fete the unofficial 25-year anniversary. Since then, they have strayed from their sunflower-laced ideals, which over the years included pulling Germany out of NATO and instigating super high gas prices. Still, it is worth taking a moment to raise a glass to a party that began as a scruffy band of pacifist idealists and has evolved into one of Germany ’s biggest power players. Many of the Greens' early devotees were members of the famous '68 generation, a group of left-wing radicals who wanted to change the world. Others were Trotskyites and Maoists. They sailed into the German conscience on the wave of post-World War II memories and experiences. That wave remains powerful even today and continues to influence the Greens' and other parties' policies.

How it all began

The founding of the Green Party was hardly done in a flurry to civilize the nation in 1968 and the years that followed, at the height of the Cold War, Berlin and other German cities saw pitched battles against police in protest against the Vietnam War and “Nazi” influences in postwar West Germany.

They, themselves, never thought of it that way. For them, the important thing was changing, not bettering, the system. They produced a newspaper called “APO Press” - APO standing for Extra-Parliamentary Opposition - to spread the '68ers revolutionary message: against war, against US “imperialism” and against the alleged “fascist” tendencies of West German politics, especially the police.

“People know that the Sixties changed Germany.” And the Sixties changed the world. In many cases it is the same players and political ideologies that are leading the “Axis of Appeasement.” 

The '68 movement made a fatal mistake, when Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader co-founded the Baader-Meinhof Gang, and sought to justify the use of terrorist methods to try to bring down the West German state.

“The resort to terrorism killed the protest movement.”

Today, it uses the media, the Internet, education and politics to change the world. The goal remains the same—political power to impose their ideology. The Islamists using the same techniques are gaining political power globally.

Success in the “War on Terror” may win a battle, but will not win the war against the Islamists. With the Leftists against the War on Terror as put forward in the Wall Street Journal article on August 16 by George Soros: A Self-Defeating War, the effort to even win the battle becomes more difficult. The article in the U.K based Socialist Worker further supports the position of George Soros: Who are the true terrorists? “The only way to stop Islamist terrorism is to end the domination of the Middle East by Western imperialism. This won’t happen overnight. But by continuing to build a united and dynamic mass movement against the “war on terrorism”, we can show that there is a better way of opposing the crimes committed by our government.” In the interview presented below of Jimmy Carter, the same theme is put forward about the crimes of the United States.

Fischer: A self-justification

Joschka Fischer attended lectures on Marxism at Frankfurt University, though he was not officially enrolled. The self-taught Marxist became a leading figure in a group called “Revolutionary Struggle”, getting a job in a car factory to stir up revolutionary ideas among the workers.

He has frankly acknowledged his mistake as a young man in succumbing then to the lure of revolutionary violence. But he firmly maintains that the '68 movement was essential to German democracy.

In a speech in London in January 2005, Fischer said the protest movement had given birth to his party, the Greens.

And that, he said, had brought about “the integration of radical left-wing groups - Leninist, Trotskykist, anarchist, feminist or whatever - into the democratic process.”

“It is very important,” he added, “to rethink the process of the '80s.” That was the decade when Fischer abandoned direct action and entered politics, and the Greens built up their support in preparation for their current role in government. His conclusion: “So it can be very productive.”

The creation of the Green Party did, however, manage to civilize one group of Germans –the scrappy band of disillusioned rebels—many of who were the children of bourgeois, the children of privilege or even Nazi families—who nonetheless gravitated to what they called “alternative scenes.” For many of these radicals, the Green Party came too late. For them, the best solution came in the form of the terrorist group the Red Army Faction, which was founded in the late 1960s and was dedicated to obliterating class differences through violence. At the height of its power in the 1970s, the RAF—founded by, among others, Ulrike Meinhof—was Europe's most feared terror organization and is responsible for the death of dozens. The RAF disbanded in 1998, the same year the Greens got their first taste of federal power. Hardly a coincidence.

 Not that the Greens have similarity with the RAF. Naturally, oceans of difference separate the two and politically they have nothing in common. But many of their members began in the same idealistic place. In 1998, the split was complete: the political status of each group arrived at wholly different realities.

But will the Greens’ success continue or will they simply be a phenomenon of one generation? It's a question debated by many. No party better understands how to play the media game than the Greens. And no party leader does his job better than Joschka Fisher, the Moses of the movement. The use of the media has been key factor in promoting the agenda of both the Greens and the Islamists.

Abandoning the hard line of “boots on the ground” and combining with and the embracing of environmental movement with Leftist/Marxist ideologies and the anti-War ideologies provided a powerful base for the alliance with Islamists.

The Greens gained financial support and the willingness of a cadre of people willing to die for a cause and the Islamists gained the credibility and most important the access to the manpower and halls of power.

Al Qaeda Forges the links with the Leftist/Marxist Alliance

It was al Qaeda’s number two man—Aymen-al-Zawahiri—who first advocated a Leftist/Marxist - Islamist Alliance against Western democracies. In August 2002, he urged al Qaeda sympathizers to seek alliance with “any movement that opposes America, even atheists.” The strategy of penetrating and joining existing organizations was put forward in “The Project,” to be discussed below.

Like Joschka Fischer before them, al Qaeda recognized that they could utilize the media and political action to accomplish their goals. Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt followed the lead.

According to Susanne Koelbl writing on August 17 in Spiegel Online: Terrorists are becoming increasingly adept at producing high-quality videos. DVDs depicting bloody beheadings are now available at markets in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They're also on the Web.

That the Internet has become a communication platform for terrorists—as well as for their supporters and their adversaries—is nothing new. These days, though, a close monitoring of the Web reveals the increasing brutality of the international jihadist movement. The radicals' isolation and desperation is also on full display. The images, though, also document the vulnerability of Western armies in the remote mountainous regions of Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the challenges they face in dealing with the realities of the countries in which they operate.

Intelligence services believe that the Pakistani city of Quetta is home to what is probably the most professional media workshop of terror. The city, in the state of Beluchistan in the Pashtun border region, is considered a Taliban stronghold. And it plays host to al-Qaeda's propaganda headquarters, the “Foundation for Islamic Media Production,” or “Al-Sahab.”

The most important statements issued by the godfather of terror Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the head of al- Qaeda's Iraq division until he was killed in June, were edited and processed here. What began as an amateur operation producing poor-quality videos has since turned into a highly professional outfit.

Al-Qaeda Issues An ‘Invitation’

In February 2005, Jane's Defense Weekly wrote with concern about what it called “significant developments” in the composition of jihadist terror cells, including “an increase in the number of members who have 'joined' and were no longer 'recruited.'”

An Arabic pamphlet circulating on Islamist Web sites at about the same time, titled “How can I become a member of al- Qaeda?” seems to confirm that the path to al-Qaeda & Co. is growing ever shorter. The pamphlet's response to its own question, according to a translation provided by the Washington based institute SITE, is as follows:

Al-Qaida is no longer merely an organization fighting Jews and crusaders alone. Today the al-Qaeda issues an ‘invitation’ that asks all Muslims to rise up in support of God's religion. ... Whoever answers this call is seen as part of al-Qaeda, whether or not you wish this to happen. But if you are a true Muslim, you have no other choice but to heed this call.

With this approach, al-Qaeda is attracting instant mujahedeen who like the London bus and subway bombers, essentially recruit themselves within a breathtakingly short amount of time. As a result, they are far more unpredictable and difficult to recognize than Afghanistan veterans.

Complications on the Issue of Profiling

The debate over profiling airline passengers revived after the thwarted Islamist plot to bomb 10 airplanes in London on Aug. 10. The sad fact is, through inertia, denial, cowardice, and political correctness, Western airport security services — with the notable exception of Israel's — search primarily for the implements of terrorism, while largely ignoring passengers.

The profiling techniques such as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, now operating in twelve U.S. airports did discover passengers with forged visas, fake IDs, stolen airline tickets, and various forms of contraband — its utility for counter-terrorism is dubious. Terrorists trained to answer questions convincingly, avoid sweating, and control stress should easily be able to evade the system.

The fact that the Muslims are recruiting themselves for al-Qaeda complicates the issue of profiling. As reported in a UPI article on August 16, a number of prominent persons such as the former Metropolitan Police Chief Lord John Stevens has lent his support to profiling at all airports, saying Islamic terrorism in the West has been 'universally carried out by young Muslim men,' usually traveling alone or in small groups.

Meanwhile Times of London columnist Martin Samuel scoffed at arguments that terrorists rarely fit a certain profile.

In the event of racial profiling, there will be no Mid-Surrey branch of al-Qaida forming on the hoof. As for cunning disguises, we know them. There are two looks: beard on and beard off,' he wrote.

Evidently neither Lord Stevens or Samuel have ever attended a meeting of the outlawed militant group al-Muhajiroun, which counts numerous young men, women and even children of white and black British descent among its members.

When this UPI journalist went undercover into a London meeting of the group last year, she was shocked to meet a significant number of white British converts to this radical interpretation of Islam, many of whom were young women from middle class families in rural counties such as Dorset, Somerset and yes, even Surrey.

Like their dark-skinned, bearded associates, they too swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden and pledged to raise their children to become suicide bombers, with no apparent concern that they did not fit the usual profile of a potential terrorist.

A similarly flagrant disregard for stereotypes was displayed by July 7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, of Jamaican origin, and the white British Muslim convert suspected in last week`s airline plot, from the genteel Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe.

One can be sure that should Osama bin Laden get wind that airport officials are focusing their search on young men of Asian appearance, individuals like these will be the first he turns to carry out his next plot.

Likewise, the assumption that all citizens of the Arab and Muslim world are of one appearance is mistaken. Throughout the Middle East, particularly in countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Iran, there are millions of individuals with fair coloring who would be indistinguishable from their European or American counterparts.

As the Association of Chief Police Officers rightly warns, stereotyping terror suspects will 'create a gap' in policing for terrorists to exploit. Start looking for dark-haired individuals and one can be certain that Al Qaeda will put aside its contempt for western values and start reaching for the peroxide, if it furthers their cause.

Three conclusions emerge from this discussion. First, because Islamist terrorists are all Muslims, there does need to be a focus on Muslims. Second, such notions as "Muslim-only lines" at airports are infeasible; rather, intelligence must drive efforts to root out Muslims with an Islamist agenda.

Daniel pipes in his article Time to Profile Airline Passengers? in the New York Sun on August 22, commented: Noting the limited impact that losing 3,000 lives had in 2001 and building on my "education by murder" hypothesis — that people wake up to the problem of radical Islam only when blood is flowing in the streets — I predict that effective profiling will only come into effect when many more Western lives, say 100,000, have been lost.

Joe Lieberman vs. Ted Lamont

 When antiwar activist and atheist Ned Lamont, the heir of the Lamont family fortune and its vast political clout announced he would seek to unseat an incumbent Democratic Senator, all of Lieberman's Democratic colleagues in the US Senate quickly distanced themselves from Joe, stating that it would not be right for them to side with either candidate during the August primary race, adding that—whichever one won—they would solidly support the winner of the August 9 primary. There was no doubt in the minds of any of them that the winner would be Ned Lamont. However, as election eve approached, Lieberman cut Lamont's double-digit lead of 13 points down to 6—51 to 46 and then, 4 points.

On the eve of the election, it was anyone's ball game. So, late in the 9th inning, Connecticut's senior Senator Christopher Dodd [D] showed up for a pre-balloting photo op with Lieberman. So did New York's Chuck Schumer [D]. So did Massachusetts' Edward Kennedy and so did Delaware's Joe Biden. None were 100% sure that Lamont would win. If Lieberman won the nomination, he would be reelected. If he was reelected, his colleagues within the Democratic Party needed to make sure Joe was not mad at the party—or those colleagues who would have to count on his vote. The night before the balloting it was clear that the election would be decided by voter turnout. But, the moment the count was tallied; all of them ran to embrace Lamont as the winner.

As the Lieberman Campaign worked to get voters to the polls, hackers stepped in. With the primary boiling down to how the candidates used the means at their disposal to provide transport for voters, or directions to polling places, the Lieberman camp discovered their website had been hacked and knocked out of cyberspace. Lieberman supporters who needed a ride to the polls could not access the Lieberman for US Senate website to contact the Campaign for ride share information. Lieberman told reporters that:

“...[s]omething outrageous happened to our website today. It's been hacked and sabotaged and knocked down. We don't know that it's my opponent's campaign—but who else would have the motivation to hack into and knock down our website on primary day?”

This showed the power of the Internet and its role in political movements. These events are not unnoticed by Al-Qaeda, as we will see below.

Lamont forces, of course, denied they had anything to do with the sabotage—and, they probably didn't. There were enough anti-war, anti-American George Soros MoveOn.org people around to do the dirty work. Asked by the media if his people sabotaged Lieberman's website, Lamont called it “just another scurrilous charge” by Lieberman as he denied tampering with the website. Lamont offered to send a technician to fix it. But having Lieberman's website down during peak voting hours may have given Lamont just the edge he needed to eek out a primary victory.

 The anti-war contingent of the Axis of Appeasement plays a role in U.S. elections. Jon C. Ryter in his article When The Invisible Power Chooses To Be Seen commented: This is a significant and sad step in the Democrats’ transformation from serious political party to mouthpiece for the anti-war, anti-capitalist, “Blame America First” crowd.  No longer merely the lunatic fringe, the far left—best represented by Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, various Hollywood half-wits, and MoveOn.org, funded by billionaires like George Soros and Peter Lewis—now openly control one of the two major political parties in America.  This race has shown that there is no longer any place for moderation or alternative points of view in the party ranks.  Though not all Democrat voters are left-wing radicals, not even in deep-blue Connecticut, any potential nominee for office must gain the approval of that group.  Not even a long-time favorite like Joe Lieberman can represent the Democrats if he expresses a conflicting point of view on a major issue like Iraq.

This is the group the Islamists and their supporters have apparently hitched their wagon to—at least temporarily. The Internet is also the choice of the Islamists.

The Internet

Widely recognized as the indispensable tool of anti-war activists, the Internet has indeed revolutionized the organization of social movements in general. As a low cost, global tool for communicating and disseminating information, the Internet works below the radar of the mainstream media, providing a wide variety of information websites, on-line petitions, and up-to-date schedules of events.

MoveOn exemplifies the modern activist organization, skilled at Internet communication for the purposes of petition-signing, on-line fundraising, and gathering the masses for street protests. Founded to promote civic action and democracy, MoveOn has rapidly become one of the best-known Internet-based organizations involved in the Anti-War Movement. Wes Boyd, MoveOn founder, said his organization was designed to “connect with those who do not support the war but who aren’t always comfortable with showing their feelings by taking to the streets”. Following the October 2002 protests, MoveOn decided that the anti-war rally was “all over the map politically and not very appealing to a mainstream perspective”, so they discussed forming a more ‘mainstream, patriotic coalition’ that would be more “welcoming to mainstream constituencies”.

Since then, MoveOn has leveraged the Internet to create a new kind of organization with the ability to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and move tens of thousands of people to action within hours. On March 11, 2003, MoveOn delivered a petition to the fifteen members of the United Nations Security Council with more than one million signatures collected from around the world in less than five days. In another effort, MoveOn collected more than $400 000 US to finance anti-war television advertisements. The money funded a re-made version of the “Daisy” ad, originally aired in the 1960s, which shows a girl plucking petals from a daisy, contrasted with a missile launch countdown and nuclear mushroom clouds. MoveOn’s most recent activities include the organization of a global candlelight vigil (vigils were organised in more than seven thousand communities around the world), as well as petitioning, emailing policy makers, raising and distributing money, as well as other forms of direct activism and grassroots media buying.

The organization currently has more than 750 000 members in the US alone, and is both active and supported worldwide. One of MoveOn’s organizers, Eli Pariser, suggests reasons for MoveOn’s success: “In a sense, part of MoveOn’s attraction is that it aims for normal people, not just activists, and it engages them successfully…Part of its appeal is that it serves as a ‘direct line to god’. There is no big bureaucracy. You make a contribution, you sign something, and you get immediate action.” MoveOn is also a member of the Win Without War coalition.

August 12, 2006 Anti-War Demonstrations

More then 30,000 demonstrators filled the streets around the White House chanting, “Stop the US-Israeli war against Lebanon and Palestine” in Washington, D.C. Similar demonstrations were held in other major cities across the country and worldwide. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation and the National Council of Arab Americans initiated the demonstration.

As reported on the A.N.S.W.E.R website: “Speakers at the Washington D.C. demonstration included, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Mahdi Bray the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard an attorney and co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice; Brian Becker the National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition; Dr. Mounzer Sleiman of the National Council of Arab Americans; Osama Siblani Publisher at Arab American News; Peta Lindsay Howard University student and Coordinator ANSWER Student and Youth; and Dr. Clovis Maksoud the Former ambassador from the Arab League to the U.N, Arab-American Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), and others.”

To get some image of the Stop the US Israeli War rally in San Francisco, August 12, 2006, you may view the photos of the flags of the Hezbollah and Hamas.

The article posted on the ADL website: ANSWER, Antiwar Rallies and Support for Terror Organizations provides interesting background on the organization. The ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, which has organized scores of antiwar demonstrations in the U.S. since its founding by the New York-based International Action Center (IAC) in 2001, has played a key role in inserting anti-Israel sentiment into the antiwar movement. 

ANSWER’s National Coordinator Brian Becker described the march as the first national protest against “the new U.S.-Israeli war” that is “killing the people of Lebanon and Palestine.”  During a recent appearance on FOX News, Becker said, “The acts of the Israeli government, the Israeli Air Force, with U.S.-supplied weapons and U.S. taxpayer money are acts of terrorism against civilians.”  He later added, “Do I consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization?” “The answer is no.”

Becker’s view of Hezbollah is no surprise. ANSWER, which considers Israel a capitalist outpost for Western powers, has supported anyone that counters the spread of capitalism around the world, including genocidal dictators such as Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosovic.  This worldview has been apparent at many ANSWER rallies that have included support of Palestinian terrorist leaders over the past few years.

The August 12 march follows many rallies organized by ANSWER, IAC and other anti-Israel groups across the country since the start of the current Middle East conflict in June.  These rallies have promoted a very harsh and unapologetic message denouncing Israel and U.S. foreign policy.  They have also included a proliferation of anti-Semitic expression and support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. 

March 20, 2004: ANSWER organized major antiwar demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco to coincide with antiwar rallies against the war in Iraq across the United States and the world. Other antiwar groups led by United for Peace and Justice, the other major protest organizer, initially intended to focus solely on the situation in Iraq, but ANSWER organized a coalition of anti-Israel groups who petitioned United for Peace and Justice to include an anti-Zionist message at there events. United for Peace and Justice eventually acceded and anti-Israel messages pervaded the demonstrations.

Sojourners is a member organization of the Win Without War and United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalitions. Giving voice to Sojourners' intense anti-Americanism, Jim Wallis called the U.S. “… the great power, the great seducer, the great captor and destroyer of human life, the great master of humanity and history in its totalitarian claims and designs.” Please note, as a coalition of organizations, UFPJ does not have individual members. Individuals are encouraged to join a local group in their community. For the list of national and international member groups see: United for Peace and Justice. Truly an astounding list brings together the Green Party, anti-war groups, Greenpeace, Code Pink and socialist and communist party organizations.

In New York, Al-Awda, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and other pro-Palestinian groups waved Palestinian flags, while some chanted “Intifada Intifada, Long Live the Intifada.” The anti-Israel presence was even more dominant at the nearly 10,000-strong rally in San Francisco. Signs and messages included “No blood for Israel,” “I want you to die for Israel. Israel Sings: Onward Christian Soldiers” and a model Israeli tank with dollars dripping blood and the sign, “Paid for with US tax dollars.”  Another sign read, “I Love NYC even more without the World Trade Center.”

Many conspiracy theorists attended the New York City and San Francisco protests. A group called the 9/11 Truth Alliance [A member group of United for Peace and Justice.], which contends that the Bush administration staged the attacks, distributed signs saying “Stop the 9-11 Cover-Up” at both rallies. It also handed out “deception dollars,” large replicas of paper currency covered with links to conspiracy and also anti-Israel and anti-Semitic Web sites.

December 2003: At the Second International Cairo Conference, ANSWER representatives met with Hamas leader Osama Hamdan. Hamdan, who heads Hamas in Lebanon and openly supports suicide bombing, was invited to the conference by the event’s sponsors, the International Campaign Against U.S. and Zionist Occupations, a movement co-founded by the IAC. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who heads the IAC, co-director Sara Flounders, and Elias Rashmawi of ANSWER all served as organizers for the conference. This conference is described in my article The Origins of the Next Great War are Visible.

To understand the magnitude of impact of the Anti-War Movement and the list of the organizations interlinked it is suggested that you read: THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT WAGING PEACE ON THE BRINK OF WAR Geneva, March 2003 –Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations (CASIN).

The US and Israel Stand Alone

In the Spiegel Interview with Jimmy Carter on August 12, 2006, he is quoted as follows:

SPIEGEL: You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Given this circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington's call for democracy in the Middle East has been discredited?

Carter: No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon.

SPIEGEL: But wasn't Israel the first to get attacked?

Carter: I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that's justified, no.

SPIEGEL: One main points of your book is the rather strange coalition between Christian fundamentalists and the Republican Party. How can such a coalition of the pious lead to moral catastrophes like the Iraqi prison scandal in Abu Ghraib and torture in Guantanamo?

Carter: The fundamentalists believe they have a unique relationship with God, and that they and their ideas are God's ideas and God's premises on the particular issue. Therefore, by definition since they are speaking for God anyone who disagrees with them is inherently wrong. And the next step is: Those who disagree with them are inherently inferior, and in extreme cases – as is the case with some fundamentalists around the world – it makes your opponents sub-humans, so that their lives are not significant. Another thing is that a fundamentalist can't bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality. And so this administration, for instance, has a policy of just refusing to talk to someone who is in strong disagreement with them – which is also a radical departure from past history. So these are the kinds of things that cause me concern. And, of course, fundamentalists don't believe they can make mistakes, so when we permit the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, it's just impossible for a fundamentalist to admit that a mistake was made.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Role of Hezbollah in the Middle East

      According to report on August 17, 2006 by the GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEF Strategic Forecasting, Inc. “Organizations like Hezbollah are needed in Egypt, Iraq and Jordan to assist Muslims in continuing their campaigns against Israel, leading Sunni religious scholar, Qatar-based Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi [Spiritual leader if Muslim Brotherhood.], said during a speech at Cairo University, Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm reported.”

Recognize that the Muslim Brotherhood has worldwide influence through its offshoots in the U.S. and on college campuses.

As reported by the AFP on August 17, 2006 Leading Islamist calls for holy war on Israel. The prominent Islamist preacher Sheikh Youssef Al Qaradawi has called for a holy war against Israel, an Egyptian newspaper reported Wednesday. [Note the parallel call: Ayatollah Ali Khamemenei also called for ‘holy war’.]

“Muslims must carry out jihad to liberate all the land of Islam. Palestine does not belong only to the Palestinians but to all Muslims,” Qaradawi was quoted as saying by the Al-Masri Al-Yom independent daily. [This is a very significant statement, thus promoting the concept of the ummah, the Islamic kingdom of God on Earth—one world without borders.]

The Egyptian-born cleric, best known for his regular appearances on the Qatari satellite channel, Al Jazeera, said that the Islamic world “needs men like those of Hezbollah: in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and everywhere.” [Qaradawi is bridging the gap between the Sunni and Shia—a common enemy is Israel and the U.S.]

“There isn't even an Arab willingness to fight Israel,” he complained at a seminar at the University of Cairo, adding: “The peace that the Arab leaders are calling for is in fact a capitulation.”

Qaradawi, who now lives in Qatar and has close links to the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, said that Islamic law, or Shariah, dictated, “if a land of Islam is occupied, the entire population must resist and start jihad.”

The 78-year-old achieved star status with his appearances on Al Jazeera's weekly religious affairs program “Al Sharia wa Al Haya” (Islamic Law and Life) and has consistently defended Palestinian suicide attacks against Israel. Qaradawi is a brilliant and very influential scholar of Islam and has a huge following not only among Muslim countries, but throughout the world.

Islamist Sunni-Shia Convergence

On Wednesday 16 August 2006 From Ikhwan’s official website we learn of the Islamist Sunni-Shia convergence occurring in Lebanon: Lebanese Ikhwan announces it will join Hezbollah in reconstruction.

On August 21, 2006, President Bush pledges the United States will increase its humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Lebanon to $230 million to help the country recover after weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Speaking at the White House August 21, Bush said the funds would help the Lebanese people return to their communities and rebuild their homes, restore infrastructure such as bridges and roads and rehabilitate schools in time for the beginning of the fall school year.

“Our nation is wasting no time in helping the people of Lebanon,” he said.  “America is making a long-term commitment to help the people of Lebanon because we believe every person … deserves to live in a free, open society that respects the rights of all.”

Islamists have wasted no time moving in to gain support. In these critical first days after the war, Hezbollah and its financial backers in Tehran have seized the moment. They are appeasing those who might have been expected to denounce Hezbollah from the wreckage of their homes. And they are entrenching their support among a growing army of sympathizers.

Iran’s money is crucial. Estimates vary widely, but one Hezbollah source said as much as $1 billion had been made available by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president; another that the Iranian leader had placed no limit on the money pouring in.

After the UN-brokered ceasefire solidified, the Lebanese Islamists announced that they will be a partner in reconstruction operations. In an exclusive statement to Ikhwanweb, Deputy Chairman of the Lebanese Jama’a Islamia (The Muslim Brotherhood offshoot in Lebanon) said that the reconstruction process requires strenuous efforts especially financial ones to restore or rebuild the war ravaged areas.” The reconstruction process requires astronomical sums of money, and of course our group cannot afford such hefty funds, so we intend to share with our utmost financial and other relief works, especially that we took part in so many relief activities during the war, opening our institutes and schools before the displaced citizens and provided them with all available accommodation”, he said, adding that it is Hezbollah which has a plan for the reconstruction of the south. He quoted Hezbollah Chairman Hassan Nasrullah in his recent address as pledging to reconstruct the south and pay one -year rent for the war-hit families pending the end of the reconstruction plan and their return to their homes, adding that Iran could provide financial aid for the Hezbollah’s reconstruction plan

Following the Strategies Laid Out by The Muslim Brotherhood

On October 28, 2005, President George W. Bush denounced IslamoFascist movements that call for a “violent and political vision: the establishment, by terrorism, subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.”

The Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun) also known as the Ikhwan is a good example of what the President described and what he must protect us against.

The Muslim Brotherhood (“MB”) organization describes itself as a political and social revolutionary movement; it was founded in March 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, who objected to Western influence and called for return to an original Islam.

The Brotherhood is an expansive and secretive society with followers in more than 70 countries, dedicated to creating a global Islamic order that would isolate women and punish nonbelievers. Its members and supporters founded al Qaeda, as well as one “of the largest college student groups in the United States.”

Quoting from my latest book: Islamic Economics and the Final Jihad - The Muslim Brotherhood to the Leftist/Marxist - Islamist Alliance.

Al-Banna had connections to Sufism, and he used the sufi-tariqa model for organizing the Brotherhood while rejecting Sufi “superstitions.” At first, the Muslim Brotherhood concentrated mainly on moral and social reforms, establishing educational and welfare programs. Then, following its rapid growth, it became more politically active and founded a secret military arm. It developed a tightly knit organization with a network of branches, subdivided into secret cell groups, with a missionary network that spread into Syria, Palestine and the Sudan. Members were recruited from rural and lower class backgrounds, as well as from the urban middle classes, and they received intensive ideological and physical training.

Al-Banna outlined a gradualist strategy in three stages: the Propaganda (preparation) Stage, the Organization Stage (aimed at educating the people), and finally, the Action Stage. While tactics might change, the strategic objectives of the Brotherhood remain unchanged: to receive explicit political recognition so as to be able to operate freely in the social, economic and political arena, and to implement Shariah in an Islamic state.

The strategy of al-Banna has and is being implemented today in Europe and the rest of the world. We are witnessing the effect of the final stages in Europe. He could only have dreamed of the success we are seeing today.

The Project and the Protocols of Zion

According to Sylvain Besson, an investigative journalist for the daily newspaper, Time, in Geneva, in his book of “La conquete de L’Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes“ (The conquest of the occident: The secret project of the Islamists), Swiss authorities made a worrying discovery at the time of a searching carried out in the villa of Egyptian banker Youssef Nada in Lugano in November 2001. Swiss investigators discovered “The Project,” an ambitious strategy intended “to establish the kingdom of God over the whole world.”

“The Project” is a fourteen-page leaflet, dated December 1982, calling for the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest of the world. It is a detailed roadmap to attain this objective. The Muslim Brothers must infiltrate existing institutions, rather than create their own. It calls for a guerilla war against Israel in the Palestinian territories and support to diverse armed Muslim groups from Bosnia to the Philippines. Swiss investigators confirm that the Project is the proof of the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in supporting and inspiring the “worldwide jihad.”

Nada was the manager of the “Al-Taqwa” bank, suspected by the Americans of supporting terrorism. However, Nada, who has denied any ties with terrorism, has admitted being in the past one of the principal leaders of the international branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Nada denied to have written “The Project,” as it was simply kept during twenty years. The Time article explained why “Islamic researchers” wrote this document, but it does not represent an official position of the Muslim Brotherhood. The identity of its author, for example, remains unknown. (al-Qaradawi was a director of Al-Taqwa bank and the intellectual guide of the European Council for Fatwa and Research.)

The document also recommends “to study the local and world centers of authority, and the possibilities of placing them under influence,” “to enter in contact with all new movements engaged in the jihad wherever that it is on planet, to create cells of the jihad in Palestine,” and “to nourish the feeling of rancor with regard to the Jews.” The document describes the strategy planned to ensure a growing influence of the Brotherhood on the Muslim world. It is stipulated there that the Muslim Brothers “should not act in the name of the Brotherhood, but infiltrate in the existing organizations. Their existence will not be located, and then neutralized.”

Accordingly, the Project could play a part in creation by the Muslim Brothers and their heirs to a network of religious, educational and charitable institutions in Europe and in the United States.

The Project indeed recommends “to build institutions—social, economic, scientific and medical, and to penetrate the field of the social services to be in liaison with the people.” Some of the most successful strategies leading to conversion and ultimate membership in jihadist organizations have been through social organizations, including daycare centers and nurseries.

The importance of the Project is due as much to its history, and that of the men who surround it, than with its contents. Its intellectual origins go back to the years 1960, when Sa’id Ramadan, the “theorist as a chief” of the Muslim Brotherhood, found refuge in Geneva. In September 1964, its newspaper, El Muslimoun, published a text inviting it to launch an “ideological war” against the Occident. It was then a question of answering the creation of the State of Israel, considered by the Islamists as an element of a vast plot against the Islamic religion and its faithful: “This is why we are convinced that this elaborate ideological plan must be countered by an ideological plan quite as elaborate, and that it is necessary to answer its ideological attacks, with its ideological war, by an ideological war.” The article explicitly refers to the “Protocol of Elders of Zion,” a document manufactured by the Tsarist police force that describes an alleged Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. Although it is a forgery, this text’s anti-Semitism is taken seriously in the Islamist media.

In August 2004, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the “Protocol” was quoted during a recent meeting of he European Council for Fatwa and Research (CEFR). According to a participant in the meeting, the Protocol of the Elders showed the existence of a Jewish plot intended to destroy the values morals of the Muslim families. It is understood that to such ideas, the Islamists wanted to react by developing their own “Project.”

Al-Qaradawi’s ideas fall into line with some of the ideas of the Project. Thus, in a text published in 1990, the CEFR proposed to develop the presence of the Islamic Movement within the “groups of Jihad” in order “to eliminate all the foreign influences from the grounds of Islam, from Morocco to Indonesia.”

Just as a side, for most European secret services, Tariq Ramadan, the new advisor on terrorism to British Prime Minister Blair, is the unofficial head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. It looks as if the infiltration is working fine! It is not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2004 revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America’s premier universities. But this has just happened, and it is a good thing. The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty—his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928. Tariq is a Swiss citizen because his father, Sa‘id Ramadan, also a leading Islamist, fled from Egypt in 1954 following a crackdown on the Brotherhood. Sa‘id reached Geneva in 1958, where Tariq was born in 1962.

Thanks to his pedigree and his talents, Ramadan has emerged as a significant force in his own right. Symbolic of this, Time magazine in April 2004 named him one of the world’s top hundred scientists and thinkers. And so when Notre Dame University went looking for a Henry R. Luce professor of religion, conflict and peace-building, it unsurprisingly settled on Mr. Ramadan. As Lee Smith writes in The American Prospect, he is “a cold-blooded Islamist, whose cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it’s still jihad.”

Al-Qaeda Book on Managing Savagery

Also contributing to the West’s understanding of the Islamist’s strategy for world domination is the book The Management of Savagery.  Stephen Ulph describes the content of this book as the thinking of an al-Qaeda strategist on the next stages of the struggle. Posted on the al-Ikhlas jihadi forum [http://ekhlas.com/forum] the work is entitled Idarat al-Tawahhush, “The Management of Barbarism,” further defined as “the phase of transition to the Islamic state.” Due to the strategic importance of the document, Terrorism Focus of the Jamestown Foundation has undertaken an in-depth examination of the Arabic text.

Published by the Center of Islamic Studies and Research (an al-Qaeda affiliate), the 113-page work ‘Management of Barbarism’ aims to map out the progressive stages of establishing an Islamic state, from early beginnings in defined areas in the Arabian Peninsula, or Nigeria, Jordan, the Maghreb, Pakistan or Yemen, and its subsequent global expansion. The author is Abu Bakr Naji, a name familiar from his contributions to the Sawt al-Jihad online magazine (which are republished at the end of this book).

By “Management of Barbarism” the author refers to the period just after the collapse of a superpower, the period of “savage chaos”. It appears pointedly to be a method of not repeating the experience of Afghanistan prior to the rule of the Taliban, and of improving controls over the periods experienced, for instance, in Somalia after the fall of Siad Barre.

Jihadi strategy.

The ‘Path of Empowerment’ theme constitutes the strategy of the mujahideen. In this the author further sub-divides into three distinct phases:

1) The Disruption and Exhaustion phase

2) The Management of Barbarism [Savagery] phase

3) The Empowerment phase

In the first “Disruption and Exhaustion” phase, the mujahideen are to a) exhaust the enemy's forces by stretching them through dispersal of targets and b) “attract the youth through exemplary targeting such as occurred at Bali, Al-Muhayya and Djerba.”

At the “Management of Barbarism phase”, the mujahideen are to “establish internal security, ensure food and medical supplies, defend the zone from external attack, establish Shariah justice, an armed force, an intelligence service, provide economic sufficiency, defend against [public] hypocrisy and deviant opinions and ensure obedience, and the establishment of alliances with neighboring elements that are yet to give total conformity to the Management, and improve management structures.”

The “Empowerment” phase is an extension of the above. The policy is to continue Disruption and Exhaustion activities, at the same time establishing logistic links with the various Management zones. A conspicuous example of this phase is the series of events leading up to the September 11 attacks on the United States, which “destroyed the peoples' awe of America and of the lesser ranking Apostate armies.” The fall of Afghanistan, the author explains, was either planned to happen, or was due to happen even without the September 11 events, and had as the result the multiplication of jihadi groups bent on revenge.

[As shown above, the result of the Lebanon war was the destruction of awe of the Israeli military might.]

As for future targeting, this should be variegated “in all parts of the Islamic world and beyond it. For instance, in striking at tourist resorts frequented by Crusaders, all tourist resorts will have to be secured,” with all the dispersal of energy and costs [economic jihad] this involves. The same goes for Crusader banks in Turkey employing interest, or petrol installations near Aden, which will subsequently oblige security hikes for refineries, pipelines and shipping. “If two apostate authors are simultaneously liquidated in two different countries, it will require the security for thousands of writers in the Islamic world.” [The Islamist terrorist plot against the airlines in London resulting increased security and flight delays.]

An important feature of this phase is the attention to be given to media and propaganda strategy, both for winning support and recruitment, and for deterring opposition. [The extensive Iranian propaganda claiming victory for the Hezbollah in Lebanon, resulting in increased support for the Islamists throughout the region and possibly the world. Thus the events and subsequent cease-fire agreement empowered further the anti-war movement.] The media strategy should ‘target in depth middle ranking officers in the armed forces [of Muslim nations] to push them to join the jihad.’ It should ‘aim at every stage to justify operations to the populous legally and intellectually … given that, assuming that our long struggle will require half a million mujahideen, getting such a number from a nation of millions is easier than from the ranks of the Islamic movement.’ [Thus the linking with the leftist’s anti-war movement.]

Jihadi Tactic

The third theme, “The Most Important Principles and Policies,” gives details on tactics. After discussing the necessity of establishing a proper chain of command, in both the doctrinal and military fields, the author outlines important military principles (“striking with the heaviest force at the weakest point; a superior enemy is defeated by economic and military attrition”). He further suggests four major reference sources: “The Encyclopedia of Jihad (prepared by the mujahideen in Afghanistan) [The Encyclopedia of Jihad is now available on the web. See: AL-QAIDA'S ONLINE UNIVERSITY - Jihad 101 for Would-Be Terrorists], the al-Battar magazine; the writings of Abu Ubayd al-Qurashi in the al-Ansar magazine, along with other works on the al-Uswa website; general works on military science, particularly on guerrilla warfare, provided the student rectifies the errors in them respective to Islamic law.

In the sub-section “The Application of Vehemence” subtitled “The Policy of Paying the Price,” Abu Bakr Naji warns against the dangers of anything other than maximum violence as a deterrent, or as a response, even if the response should take years. The response, the author states, “is best done by other groups and in other countries than those suffering the act of enmity … to give the enemy the sense of being surrounded and his interests exposed … and to confuse him.” An example of this method would be, say, in response to the Egyptians' imprisonment of mujahideen, an attack by mujahideen upon an Egyptian embassy in the Arabian Peninsula or the Maghreb, or the kidnapping of Egyptian diplomats, who should be “liquidated horrifically” if the mujahideen's demands are not met.

Stress is then laid upon the need to understand how international politics work. In the sub-section “Understanding the Rules of the Political Game” Abu Bakr Naji highlights how mujahid groups that refused to soil their hands with profane political calculations paid the price. The difficulty of reconciling Islamic legal propriety with pragmatic military interest is resolved, in the author's eyes, by recourse to the example set by [the 14th century jurist] Ibn Qayyim, who set Prophetic precedent as a preference, but not an obligation.

An important feature of this game, Naji illustrates, is the manipulation of the international media, and ensuring that the message gets through to the target, in its widest sense, and not just to the minority elite. “We must therefore set up an association whose purpose is to ensure the communication of our demands to people, even if this should expose them to dangers akin to the perils of combat … such as the taking of a hostage. After raising the hullabaloo concerning him we demand that media correspondents publish our demands in full in return for his release … Our demand might be a statement of warning or justification for an operation.” An effective response to government media's demonization of mujahid actions is to prepare the ground by first demonizing the target as something Islamically forbidden or serving the economic interests of the enemy. Naji then gives an imaginary scenario of an attempt to adjust oil prices in favor of the people where a deadline is issued and an oil engineer or manager or journalist is kidnapped to ensure that the demand is fully publicized.

Points of weakness

The fourth major theme in the work covers “The Most Pressing Difficulties and Obstacles” that will face the mujahideen. These are listed as the diminution in the numbers of believers as casualties in war, the lack of sufficiently trained administrators (and the relative social distance many of these have from the rank and file) and the problems caused by over-enthusiasm in the behavior of some. Naji also highlights the problems that will be faced with old loyalties to other Islamist groups impeding administration in the new Management phases, or the threat of schism.

The Underlying Cause Driving the Axis of Appeasement

It appears to be lack of moral values corresponding to the Judeo-Christian ideologies and seeking economic gain at any cost further drives it. Some of the Fellows at Hoover Institute have published recent articles about the subject but do not seem to have the answer to counter the influence. The ideologies seem to go back the lack of understanding the risks dating to the 1930’s as noted by Victor Davis Hanson in his article The Brink of Madness and Thomas Sowell in his article Pacifists versus peace. It appears that this may have coalesced into the  “The Axis of Appeasement.”

Man Seeking Consensus

Man by nature seeks consensus. But the means he manipulates for this end do not always serve the purpose. Human history is full of momentous events whereby certain individuals or groups have endeavored to effect an agreement but the consequences of these events have far exceeded the innocence of their initiators. Religions or belief systems have always occupied a significant place in man’s struggle for consensus. Some contemporary intellectuals have stressed the importance of inter-religious communication to the degree that without a factual understanding between the adherents of various world religions, they claim, the future of mankind will remain under threat. In seeking this consensus we are witnessing the rise of the ‘Axis of Appeasement’. The name that is commonly used for this new era is postmodernism.

Following in the footsteps of the pre-postmodern Nietzsche – God is dead, the intellectuals that were the philosophers of the Frankfurt School developed philosophies known as “Critical Theory’ or ‘Cultural Marxism’ thus promoted postmodernism to go after the hearts and minds of the population. The intellectual ‘reformers’ of Islam are utilizing these same successful tactics used to create the Postmodern Era and are now utilizing ‘Critical Islam’ as the guideline - the strategic weapon for communication with the adherents of other religions. Thus one of their slogans is ‘From The Schoolhouse To The White House’.

The uniformity of fundamental beliefs among believers of the same religion is no longer in intact, due to exposition to various propaganda influences of different cultural orientations.  Easy access to the knowledge of alien cultures has caused considerable polarization among co-religionists, so much that difference of opinion between two members of a religion on essential matters may become greater than that may exist between members of two different religions. A good example of this is the discrepancy in respect of worldview between a traditional Muslim and a secular one. The former may feel that a practicing Christian is nearer to him than the secular Muslim as far as the similarity between their respective fundamental (metaphysical) beliefs is concerned. In such a situation it would be more befitting for a Muslim that is anxious to propagate his belief, to start with his coreligionist: the so-called secular-minded Muslim, rather than attempting to convert a Christian. It is also this ‘Moral Trade Deficit’ within the Christian church that provides the vacuum being filled by postmodernism and ‘Critical Islam’.

As we witnessed following the 3/11 terrorists attacks on the trains in Spain during run up to the election in 2004, the terrorists were able to control the election. The populous were more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance. One more step toward achieving Osama bin Laden’s goal of returning Andalusia into the caliphate. 

  

Bio: David J. Jonsson is the author of Clash of Ideologies –The Making of the Christian and Islamic Worlds, Xulon Press 2005. His new book: Islamic Economics and the Final Jihad: The Muslim Brotherhood to the Leftist/Marxist - Islamist Alliance (Salem Communications (May 30, 2006). He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics. He worked for major corporations in the United States and Japan and with multilateral agencies that brought him to more that fifteen countries with significant or majority populations who are Muslim. These exposures provided insight into the basic tenants of Islam as a political, economic and religious system. He became proficient in Islamic law (Shariah) through contract negotiation and personal encounter. Jonsson may be reached at: djonsson2000@yahoo.co.uk

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