Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
US President-elect Barack Obama will try to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims and will follow tradition by using his entire name, Barack Hussein Obama, in his swearing-in ceremony, he was quoted as saying in an interview published Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Obama promised during his campaign that one of his priorities would be to work to repair America's reputation worldwide, and that one element of that effort would be a speech delivered in a Muslim capital.
He pledged anew to give such a speech, though he declined to say whether it would happen during his first year in office.
"It's something I intend to follow through on," Obama said in the interview.
"We've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular. So we need to take advantage of that."
Obama said his message would be two-fold: that his administration will be unyielding in stamping out terrorist extremism but also "unrelenting in our desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership with countries."
"I think the world is ready for that message," he said in the interview, conducted Tuesday.
During the campaign, Obama repeatedly faced questions about whether he is a Muslim, particularly in whisper campaigns that noted his middle name, that his father is Kenyan, and that he lived for a time as a child in Indonesia.
Obama is a practicing Christian.
Asked if he would drop his middle name during his inauguration on January 20, the president-elect said he would not.
"The tradition is that they use all three names and I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement on way or another," he said.
Obama also talked about the spiritual support he sought during his White House bid, particularly since he and his family left Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ after inflammatory comments by its pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a campaign issue.
Obama said he set up a "sort of prayer circle across the country" of pastors who would pray for him every morning on a conference call. Obama said he sometimes joined the call, which involved leaders from various Christian denominations and other religious faiths.
"I'm not even sure that all of them voted for me," Obama said. "But they were willing to pray for me, and that's something that was wonderful."
On other subjects, Obama would not put a timetable on issues important to organized labor, what he called his promise to "put an end to the kinds of barriers and roadblocks that are in the way of workers legitimately coming together in order to form a union and bargain collectively."
Among other things, he has promised support for a card-check system for unions trying to organize a new workplace and for adding labor and environmental protections to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The man about to be the nation's first black president said he will make enforcing civil rights laws and making the criminal justice system color-blind top priorities for his administration.
Re: Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
Report: Obama to Use 'Hussein' at Inauguration Ceremony, Give Speech in Muslim Capital
Saying he wants to "reboot" the U.S. image abroad, President-elect Obama tells The Chicago Tribune that like his predecessors, he's going to use his middle name -- Hussein -- at his swearing in ceremony.
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama says he will try to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims and will follow tradition by using his entire name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- in his swearing-in ceremony.
The U.S. image globally has taken a deep hit during President Bush's two terms in office, primarily because of opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, harsh interrogation of prisoners, the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and mistreatment of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Obama promised during his campaign that one of his top priorities would be to work to repair America's reputation worldwide, and that one element of that effort would be a speech delivered in a Muslim capital.
He pledged anew to give such a speech, though he declined to say whether it would happen during his first year in office.
"It's something I intend to follow through on," Obama said in an interview published Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. "We've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular. So we need to take advantage of that."
Obama said his message would be twofold: that his administration will be unyielding in stamping out terrorist extremism but also "unrelenting in our desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership with countries."
"I think the world is ready for that message," he said in the interview, conducted Tuesday.
During the campaign, Obama repeatedly faced questions about whether he is a Muslim, particularly in whisper campaigns that noted his middle name, that his father is Kenyan, and that he lived for a time as a child in Indonesia. Obama is a practicing Christian.
Asked if he would drop his middle name during his inauguration on Jan. 20, the president-elect said he would not.
"The tradition is that they use all three names and I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement on way or another," he said.
Obama also talked about the spiritual support he sought during his White House bid, particularly since he and his family left Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ after inflammatory comments by its pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a campaign issue.
Obama said he set up a "sort of prayer circle across the country" of pastors who would pray for him every morning on a conference call. Obama said he sometimes joined the call, which involved leaders from various Christian denominations and other religious faiths.
"I'm not even sure that all of them voted for me," Obama said. "But they were willing to pray for me, and that's something that was wonderful."
On other topics:
--Obama would not put a timetable on issues important to organized labor, what he called his promise to "put an end to the kinds of barriers and roadblocks that are in the way of workers legitimately coming together in order to form a union and bargain collectively." Among other things, he has promised support for a card-check system for unions trying to organize a new workplace and for adding labor and environmental protections to the North American Free Trade Agreement. "I don't want to anticipate right now what sequences will be on these issues," Obama said.
--The man about to be the nation's first black president said he will make enforcing civil rights laws and making the criminal justice system color-blind top priorities for his administration. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division "over the last eight years has had a lot of problems and really declining morale," he said.
--Obama said he, his wife Michelle and their two young daughters will make frequent visits during his presidency back to their home in Chicago, perhaps as often as every six weeks. "My Kennebunkport is on the South Side of Chicago," he said. "Our friends are here. Our family is here. And so we are going to try to come back here as often as possible."
Re: Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
Barack Obama:
Neither Oblivious Nor Deceptive
December 12, 2008
Death by a thousand cuts. That is exactly what is happening to President-Elect Barack Obama’s credibility as he and his campaign continue to abuse the “plausible deniability” political tactic. As the list of radicals, political opportunists and ethica lly challenged elected officials that Mr. Obama portends not to know continues to grow, the voters who believed they voted for “hope” and “change” are starting to realize that the promise of an Obama presidency, well, it isn’t so much...
Admittedly, I did not vote for Barack Obama to be President of the United States. I didn’t support him not because of the color of his skin (in fact I would have voted for Michael Steele or even Ward Connerly should they have decided to run and made it to the ballot). I didn’t support Mr. Obama because of tangible reasons that included three significant facts:
▪ He hasn’t the experience needed to steward our nation through times that include a declaration of war against the United States by committed jihadists and a contingent of one-worlder billionaires making a concerted effort to compromise the economic strengths of the United States.
▪ He possesses a voting record that lands so far to the left of center it would make the now deceased leader of the Communist Party USA and four-time US presidential candidate, Gus Hall, green with envy.
▪ But most significant to my inability to vote for – or support the candidacy of – Barack Obama was that he is a product of the Chicago Democrat Machine; a political organization that in many respects is so corrupt that you can picture the boys in the smoky back rooms lighting their cigars with subpoenas and laughing.
It is significant that Barack Obama is a product of the Chicago Democrat Machine because in “The Machine” everybody knows everybody else, whether they have direct dealings with one another or not. There is a hierarchy in Chicago and Illinois Democrat politics that one must acknowledge, defend, feed and then engage if one is to become a serious political player in Chicago or Illinois. Barack Obama acknowledged, defended, fed and engaged “The Machine” and it did well by him.
Understanding Chicago politics, to the extent one can not being a “player,” I was willing to give Mr. Obama a pass on many of his questionable associations. I understood that what he was trying to achieve by embracing those associations was to achieve his Chicago Democrat Machine bona fides. An aspiring Democrat politician emanating from Illinois or Chicago must have his credentials in place or he will find that “The Machine” doesn’t work on Election Day (I think it’s a union thing).
Where the Reverend Jeremiah Wright was concerned it was obvious, at least to me, that Mr. Obama was attempting to acquire the credentials needed to achieve support from the large Black communities of the South and West sides of Chicago. Honestly, when there are White candidates running for Cook County Board or Commissioner positions, it isn’t uncommon to see their pasty white faces at churches not unlike Trinity United where they unabashedly and, most often, disingenuously kowtow for votes. It doesn’t mean they are anti-white, it means they were “putting their time in” with the Black folk in order to say, “I feel your pain! Viva hope and change!” In this same vane I wasn’t surprised about Obama’s celebrity with Louis Farrakhan’s crowd.
And I wasn’t too surprised that Mr. Obama’s first political fundraiser took place in the living room of two unrepentant terrorists, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. These two reprobates, who now advance their Socialist goals masquerading as university professors while professing their love of education reform, symbolize the cream of the crop when it comes to Chicago’s Progressive-Left community. The objective of Obama’s association with this contingent was to shore up his Progressive-Left credentials, regardless of the fact that he is more in tune with the ideology championed by the Progressive-Left than any other political ideology. His goal wasn’t to advocate, it was to solidify support. The same can be said for his associations with the folks at ACORN.
When Tony Rezko surfaced as a major contributor to President-Elect Obama’s state and then federal political campaigns the notion almost garnered a yawn. Republicans and Conservatives tried to make great hay out of the relationship because Rezko was “dirty.” Note to the politically aggrieved from outside of Chicago, you shouldn’t be surprised when a Chicago Democrat Machine politician has tainted money contributed to their coffers...as Sean Connery’s character in The Untouchables, Jim Malone, said, “It’s the Chicago Way.”
Now come questions about Mr. Obama’s association with scandal-ridden Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich; a man who profanely espoused his contempt for Mr. Obama suddenly “not playing the game” by sweetening Blagojevich’s Chicago Democrat Machine “401K.”
Through it all, Mr. Obama’s one and only defense when asked about these associations was to deny them. He never heard Rev. Wright puke his racist remarks over the twenty years he sat in the pews of Trinity United Church of Christ. William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are just people who live down the street, whose children went to the same schools as Obama’s. Tony Rezko was just some over-zealous supporter who Obama never really had all that much contact with. And Rod Blagojevich...who is he?!
In each instance when a radical relationship or detrimental association was questioned, Mr. Obama – the lawyer that he is – tried to execute the political tactic of plausible deniability. With his “betrayal” of Gov. Blagojevich, someone he had to know – both personally and professionally because of his political ties to the Chicago Democrat Machine – he effectively over-exposed his willingness to play the plausible deniability card. From this point forward, Mr. Obama will be required to explain himself. After all, he is now squarely in the public eye and is so as a public servant.
Prior to the election I expressed my concern for the well-being of our nation’s political system – and our nation, for that matter – if it came to Barack Obama winning the presidency. I explained to readers what they would get for their vote in an article titled, This Is What a Vote for Obama Gets You. Now, as I stand witness to the demise of my state’s governor at his own greedy, arrogant, Chicago Democrat Machine created hand, I wonder just how deep the corruption goes and whether or not the “powers that be” will allow it all to be exposed. Simply put, I “hope” for “change” where the corruption executed at the hand of the Chicago Democrat Machine is concerned.
When these authors wrote these words, Israel is conducting a major ground assault in the Gaza Strip. Israeli ground troops and heavy armor had moved deep into the Gaza Strip ("Israeli forces split Gaza in two"). According to the BBC, the move had, in effect, cut the territory in two (ibid). This ground assault followed hot on the heels of Operation Cast Lead, a December 27-28 series of Israeli airstrikes conducted in Gaza in response to Hamas' refusal to renew the truce brokered by Egypt in the summer of 2008 (Khalil, "The already-strained Hamas-Egypt relationship sours").
Hamas had been launching rocket attacks into Israel since December 24, when no less than 70 rockets hit the small Jewish state, and Israel decided to strike back ("Israeli jets hit Hamas target, killing 1"). Doubtless, the conflict between Israel and Hamas is one of the many issues that Obama will have to address when he enters the Oval Office. Is the President-elect sincere in his opposition to the terrorists responsible for the current Middle East crisis? Obama has repeatedly condemned Hamas, calling the group a terrorist organization (Oinounou, "A Hamas problem for Obama?") The President-elect even went as far as to condemn former President Jimmy Carter for meeting with Hamas (ibid). But the words of Ahmed Yousef, a top Hamas political advisor, during a WABC interview, seem to suggest that Obama's opposition to Hamas may be a mere public relations ploy. During the interview, Yousef stated:
"We don't mind-actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance." (Ibid)
Why would Hamas support an Obama presidency? The answer may lie in a group known as the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to former CIA operative Robert Baer, Hamas was an offshoot of the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (172). Founded in 1928 by an Egyptian schoolteacher named Hassan al-Banna with the expressed purpose of purifying Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood is anything but a benign Muslim organization (172). According to Baer, the Brotherhood "is another of the cauldrons from which al Qaeda emerged" (172). Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of the September 11 attacks, joined the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of sixteen and attended the Brotherhood's desert youth camps (Mintz and Farah, "In Search of Friends Among Foes"). Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Egyptian branch (ibid).
According to Seymour Hersh, the Brotherhood may have even been involved in the September 11 attacks. Hersh states: "Many of the September 11th hijackers had operated out of cells in Aachen and Hamburg, where Al Qaeda was working with the Brotherhood" ("The Syrian Bet"). The Brotherhood's hatred of the United States was clearly expressed in a 1991 internal memorandum written by Mohamed Akram for the Shura Council of the Muslim Brotherhood. Entitled "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," the document states that the Brotherhood's activities in the United States represent:
a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions. (Akram)
Akram's memorandum failed to mention the powerful, white, English-speaking individuals that have given assistance to the Brotherhood's "grand Jihad." The Muslim Brotherhood is not only a radical and dangerous party; it is intimately tied to the power elite. This connection probably had its start prior to World War Two when British travel writer and intelligence agent Freya Stark forged an alliance between the Brotherhood and British intelligence (Dorril 622). Brotherhood collaboration with Western intelligence continued with an alliance between the Brotherhood and the CIA that began around 1955. According to former CIA agent Miles Copeland, it was around this time that America began looking for the Muslim equivalent of Billy Graham, hoping to use such a charismatic individual to influence the Arab world. When this failed, the Agency began forging ties with the Muslim Brotherhood (Aburish 60-61).
The connection between the Brotherhood and the power elite is perfectly illustrated by the party's audience with the Bush Administration. On June 20, 2007, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department hosted a meeting with other intelligence community representatives to discuss the opening of "more formal channels" to the Muslim Brotherhood (Lake, "Bush Weighs Reaching Out to 'Brothers'"). One of the Brotherhood supporters at the June 20 meeting was Robert Leiken (ibid). Robert Leiken, a scholar at the Nixon Center, was commissioned by the National Intelligence Council to put together a paper on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood earlier in 2007 (ibid). According to administration officials, Leiken's paper to the National Intelligence Council drew the attention of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior members of the National Security Council (ibid). George W. Bush even encouraged Tariq al-Hashemi, the leader of the Iraq branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, to form an alliance to oppose Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (Slavin, "Iraqi VP says Bush wants coalition to counter al-Sadr").
After his election victory, Barack Obama promised that change was on the way. Will that change include an end to Washington's contact with the Muslim Brotherhood? Unfortunately, there is evidence that the Brotherhood will maintain its audience with Washington circles during the Obama reign.
When the Obama campaign needed an individual to reach out to the Muslim community, it turned to Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi for help (Simpson and Chozick, "Obama's Muslim-Outreach Adviser Resigns"). But Asbahi's connections to the Muslim Brotherhood did more to raise questions than it did to bridge gaps. By August of 2008, Asbahi had resigned from his position as volunteer coordinator for Muslim American affairs for the Obama campaign (ibid).
Asbahi was the Democrats' equivalent of GOP/Bush political operative Grover Norquist, meant to court Muslim American voters. And like Norquist, Asbahi had several radical associations that raised eyebrows and set off alarm bells. Eight years before taking up the Obama cause, Asbahi served on the Board of the Allied Asset Advisors (Spencer, "Obama's Muslim Outreach Problem"). Allied Asset Advisors is a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) (ibid). According to the 1991 internal memorandum authored by Akram for the Muslim Brotherhood, NAIT is part of the network conducting the Brotherhood's "grand jihad" ("An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America"). NAIT is also connected to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), an organization believed to be involved in the financing of Muslim Brotherhood offshoot Hamas (Josh Gerstein, "US: Facts Tie Muslim Groups To Hamas Front Case"). According to the prosecutors in the HLF case, NAIT has an "intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood" (ibid).
When the Wall Street Journal and other media organs began raising questions, Asbahi quickly went to work on damage control. The Chicago lawyer claimed he resigned from Allied Asset Advisors' board immediately after learning about fellow board member Jamal Said's connection to Hamas (Simpson and Chozick, "Obama's Muslim-Outreach Adviser Resigns").
However, Asbahi later admitted that his resignation from the Obama campaign was purely a "strategic decision," suggesting that the explanation for his involvement in the Allied Asset Advisors was contrived (Spencer, "Obama's Muslim Outreach Problem"). Asbahi's alibi further disintegrated on September 15, 2008 when the former Muslim liaison met with members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) (ibid). CAIR's parent organization, the Islamic Association for Palestine, is named in Akram's Muslim Brotherhood memorandum as part of the Brotherhood's "grand jihad" network (ibid). Asbahi's resignation did not end the Obama campaign's love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood. Also present at the September 15, 2008 meeting was Asbahi's replacement as the Obama campaign's Muslim liaison, Minha Husaini (ibid).
Obama may also connect to the Muslim Brotherhood through his old Chicago mob friends. Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Syrian-American political fundraiser and Chicago real estate developer provides the bridge. On June 4, 2008, Rezko was found guilty in federal court on 16 corruption charges ("Rezko begins serving time immediately"). It seems that when Rezko wasn't busy helping his friends in the Illinois political scene, such as scandal-embroiled Governor Rod Blagojevich and Obama, he was knee-deep in a kickback scheme that involved taking bribes from companies that desired state contracts (ibid).
Obama owes a lot to his good friend Tony. Rezko began his career as Obama's political godfather in 1995, when two of his food companies contributed $2,000 to Obama's campaign (Novak, "Obama and his Rezko ties"). It was the beginning of a beautiful political friendship. Rezko helped bankroll Obama in five election runs (Fusco, et al., "Obama explains Rezko relationship to Sun-Times"). After some ducking and weaving, Obama admitted to receiving $250,000 from Rezko's fundraising efforts (ibid). According to the Chicago Sun-Times, this amount was "about $100,000 more than had previously been disclosed and about five times more than Obama conveyed during a November 2006 question-and-answer exchange with the Sun-Times" (ibid).
Standing behind Rezko is Talat Othman, a leader in the American Muslim community in Illinois and an extremely successful Arab American businessman. It was Othman who introduced Rezko to former Illinois governer Jim Edgar and it was Othman who aided Rezko in gaining access to Illinois political circles (Hanania, "Arabs in Chicago discover political clout and controversy"). Rezko was also recognized as "Entrepreneur of the Decade" by Othman's Arab-American Business and Professional Association (ibid).
Othman has a close relationship with M. Yaqub Mirza, a naturalized Pakistani businessman and physicist (Trento 336). Othman and Mirza were co-chairmen of the Islamic Society of North America 2001 Convention (336). The two were also involved in Amana Mutual Funds Trust, an Islamic mutual fund which, according to investigative journalist Joseph Trento, "specializes in investments that are consonant with Islamic beliefs" (336). Othman sits on Amana's board and Mirza served as the mutual fund's chairman (336).
On March 20, 2002 a U.S. Treasury task force known as Green Quest raided 14 homes and businesses believed to be involved in terrorism financing that were affiliated with Mirza (Guidera and Simpson, "Agents Raid Properties Affiliated with Chairman of Islamic Fund"). According to Guidera and Simpson, the Green Quest investigators were "most interested in Mr. Mirza's role as an officer in the Saar Foundation, a nonprofit started in the 1970s by members of the Saudi Arabia's al-Rajihi family, which has interest in banking, construction, and real estate" (ibid). Stephen Schwartz identifies the Saar Foundation as the "keystone" to the Mirza-related network ("Wahhabis in the Old Dominion").
The hidden hand of the Muslim Brotherhood can be identified through the Saar Foundation's connection with a shell company known as Al-Taqwa (Schwartz, "Wahhabis in the Old Dominion"). The Al-Taqwa shell game was originally based in Switzerland and had as one of its leading figures a notorious Nazi disciple named Ahmed Huber (ibid). It was an extensive network that included companies based in the Bahamas, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein (Hosenball, "Attacking the Money Machine"). Al Taqwa even had a foothold in the United States until after September 11 when its assets were frozen and its operations were shut down by a U.S. presidential order ("Wahhabis in the Old Dominion"). According to a Newsweek investigation, the Al Taqwa network "was set up in the 1980s by prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood" ("Attacking the Money Machine"). Al-Taqwa' chairman, Youssef Nada, even admitted to being a member of the Brotherhood for 50 years (ibid).
Apparently, the Green Quest raids made Othman extremely nervous. Two weeks after the raids, Othman and several other Muslim activists met with Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill to protest the raids (Trento 337). Was Othman afraid that the investigation would connect him to the Muslim Brotherhood's plan for a "grand jihad"? Four individuals who were targets of the investigation were affiliated with Amana, the mutual fund where Othman serves as a trustee (337). It is also interesting to note that another Amana board member, Samir Salah, is known to have ran a Caribbean branch of the Muslim Brotherhood's Al-Taqwa network ("Wahhabis in the Old Dominion").
When Obama tries to downplay his connections to Rezko, is he merely trying to conceal his poor judgement in the realm of campaignfinance? The 44th President may be trying to hide a much more disturbing reality from the eyes of the public. That reality is the fact that our own government, in league with the power elite, will continue collaborating with America's enemies. The "grand Jihad" proclaimed by Akram in his 1991 memorandum does not only constitute the Muslim Brotherhood's crusade to destroy Western civilization. It also constitutes the power elites's war on the plebians.
Iran
Obama's Muslim Brotherhood connections may motivate him to go soft on Hamas when it comes time for him to deal with the current Middle East crisis. The Muslim Brotherhood is still very close to its Hamas offshoot. If the new administration was too supportive of Israel in its efforts to end the terrorist attacks, it could potentially alienate its Muslim Brotherhood connections.Those connections may prove useful when the new administration unveils its plans for Iran.
According to investigative researcher Webster Tarpley, power in Washington has shifted away from the neocon "rogue" faction of the elite to the Trilateral faction that stands behind Obama ("US Policy Shift On Iran-Iraq Again Shows Brzezinski Rules In Washington"). This faction seeks to redirect the American Empire's hostilities away from Iran and focus them on Russia and China (ibid). Such a plan requires that Iran be transformed into an asset, which means that Tehran's efforts to procure nuclear weapons may even be tolerated, so long as Iran is willing to act as a nuclear proxy of the American Empire (ibid). Iran has long desired to revive the Persian Empire, and Trilateralists such as Carter's former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski believe that they can insure that a revived Persian Empire is merely an extension of the American Empire.
For Obama, diplomacy really means imperial recruitment. The Muslim Brotherhood could provide the bridge in the recruitment process. According to Robert Baer, Iran has substantial ties with Jordan's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, known as the Islamic Action Front (178). Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot currently fighting with Israel, is also extremely close to Iran. Iran first began establishing contact with Hamas in 1992, when Israel expelled 415 members of Hamas's leadership as punishment for their involvement in the first intifada, which was a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule (172). When the exiled leaders crossed the border into Jordan, they found Hezbollah, a Shi'a paramilitary organization that acts as Iran's Lebanese proxy, waiting for them with open arms (172). Hezbollah provided the Hamas leaders with tents, clothes, and food (172-173). A few days later, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer also arrived on the scene to provide assistance to the Hamas leaders (173). Without a doubt, the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran are becoming extremely close as Iran attempts to co-opt every major movement and political party in the region as part of its bid for empire.
The Obama administration may wish to use its connection to the Muslim Brotherhood as a means of establishing diplomatic channels with Iran. But that means the new President may not be as supportive of Israel in its struggle with Hamas. Obama may even pressure Israel to come to the table of diplomacy and establish yet another truce with Hamas. The 1988 Hamas Covenant, however, painfully illustrates why peace overtures on Israel's part would be an act of folly. Article seven of the covenant states:
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." ("Hamas Covenant 1988")
Article 28 reiterates the document's anti-Jewish theme when it states: "Israel, Judaism, and Jews challenge Islam and Muslim people. 'May the cowards never sleep.'" ("Hamas Covenant 1988"). Obviously, the idea of Israel establishing a truce with a group that adheres to such ideas is unthinkable. It would merely give Hamas an opportunity to lick its wounds and continue to prepare for the day when it hopes to finally wipe Israel from the face of the earth.
These authors believe that history will characterize the Obama administration's attempts at diplomacy with Iran as a lost opportunity. Iran has been a hotbed of radicalism ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Instead of facilitating Iran's departure from radicalism, Obama and his puppeteers will work to turn the radicals against the American Empire's competitors, such as Russia and China. A chance to move Iran in a moderate direction will slip away as Obama and his Establishment handlers try to employ the country as an asset in their fight for dominance in the New World Order. In the process, Obama will help expedite the Brotherhood's "grand Jihad."
June 4th, 2009, 18:50
vector7
Re: Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
CAIRO (AP) - Quoting from the Quran for emphasis, President Barack Obama called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims" Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East.
"This cycle of suspicion and discord must end," Obama said in a widely anticipated speech in one of the world's largest Muslim countries, an address designed to reframe relations after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The White House said Obama's speech contained no new policy proposals on the Middle East. He said American ties with Israel are unbreakable, yet issued a firm, evenhanded call to the Jewish state and Palestinians alike to live up to their international obligations.
In a gesture to the Islamic world, Obama conceded at the beginning of his remarks that tension "has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations."
"And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear," said the president, who recalled hearing prayer calls of "azaan" at dawn and dusk while living in Indonesia as a boy.
At the same time, he said the same principle must apply in reverse. "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire."
Obama spoke at Cairo University after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the second stop of a four-nation trip to the Middle East and Europe.
The speech was the centerpiece of his journey, and while its tone was striking, the president also covered the Middle East peace process, Iran, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the violent struggle waged by al-Qaida.
Obama arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday, greeted by a new and threatening message from al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden. In an audio recording, the terrorist leader said the president inflamed the Muslim world by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in the Swat Valley and block Islamic law there.
But Obama said the actions of violent extremist Muslims are "irreconcilable with the rights of human beings," and quoted the Quran to make his point: "be conscious of God and always speak the truth ..."
"Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace," he said.
"Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist," he said of the organization the United States deems as terrorists.
"The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people," Obama said.
"At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" on the West Bank and outskirts of Jerusalem, he said. "It is time for these settlements to stop."
As for Jerusalem itself, he said it should be a "secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims ..."
Obama also said the Arab nations should no longer use the conflict with Israel to distract its own people from other problems.
He treaded lightly on one issue that President George W. Bush had made a centerpiece of his second term - the spread of democracy.
Obama said he has a commitment to governments "that reflect the will of the people." And yet, he said, "No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other."
At times, there was an echo of Obama's campaign mantra of change in his remarks, and he said many are afraid it cannot occur.
"There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward," he said.
The president's brief stay in Cairo included a visit to the Sultan Hassan mosque, a 600-year-old center of Islamic worship and study. A tour of the Great Pyramids of Giza was also on his itinerary.
The build-up to the speech was enormous, stoked by the White House although Obama seemed at pains to minimize hopes for immediate consequences.
"One speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East," he told a French interviewer. "Expectations should be somewhat modest."
Eager to spread the president's message as widely as possible, the tech-savvy White House orchestrated a live Webcast of the speech on the White House site; remarks translated into 13 languages; a special State Department site where users could sign up for speech highlights; and distribution of excerpts to social networking giants MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.
Though the speech was co-sponsored by al-Azhar University, which has taught science and Quranic scripture here for nearly a millennium, the actual venue was the more modern and secular Cairo University. The lectern was set up in the domed main auditorium on a stage dominated by a picture of Mubarak.
Human rights advocates found that symbolism troubling: an American president watched over by an aging autocrat who's ruled Egypt since 1981.
"Egypt's democrats cannot help being concerned," wrote Dina Guirguis, executive director of Voices for a Democratic Egypt.
The university's alumni are among the Arab world's most famous - and notorious. They include the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfuz. Saddam Hussein studied law in the '60s but did not graduate. And al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri earned a medical degree.
June 4th, 2009, 18:54
vector7
Re: Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
06/04/09 8:45 AM EDT
As Barack Obama sends his message to the Muslim world, it's fascinating to compare his statements, and those of his staff, with things he said during the presidential campaign. In his speech this morning, he said:
I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.
While the president was a little vague about his father's religion, in a briefing before the speech, national security aide Denis McDonough was a bit more explicit:
I think the fact is, that the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans [are] a key part of Illinois and Chicago.
Contrast those statements to remarks Obama made to a Jewish organization in Cleveland in February 2008:
My grandfather, who was Kenyan, converted to Christianity, then converted to Islam. My father never practiced; he was basically agnostic. So, other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for four years when I was a child, I have very little connection to the Islamic religion.
June 4th, 2009, 19:40
vector7
Re: Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
U.S. President Barack Obama met with members of Egypt's Islamist opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, earlier this year, according to a report in Thursday editions of the Egyptian daily newspaper Almasry Alyoum.
The newspaper reported that Obama met the group's members, who reside in the U.S. and Europe, in Washington two months ago.
According to the report, the members requested that news of the meeting not be publicized. They expressed to Obama their support for democracy and the war on terror.
The newspaper also reported that the members communicated to Obama their position that the Muslim Brotherhood would abide by all agreements Egypt has signed with foreign countries.
Obama landed in Cairo on Thursday to deliver a conciliatory speech as part of his outreach to the Arab and Muslim world.
The Muslim Brotherhood is considered a Sunni-dominated fundamentalist Islamic organization that has spawned numerous factions across the Arab world that have engaged in terrorist activity, including the Palestinian rejectionist group Hamas.
It is also the main opposition bloc to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime is viewed favorably in the West due to its adherence to the thirty-year-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
The Cairo University setting in which Obama will make his Middle East speech is spectacular and will accommodate a highly unusual audience.
Israel's ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, who had been specifically invited by the White House, will be seated not far from Iran's representative and the 11 members of the Egyptian Parliament who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Also present will be a group of Egyptian artists who oppose normalization with Israel, including film stars Adel Imam and Leila Alawi.
Just hours before the speech, the hall in which Obama will speak was nearly filled to capacity.
Egyptian sources said Ambassador Cohen was invited by the president of the university, Prof. Hossam Kamel, who told journalists the instruction to invite Cohen came from "on high" and was "impossible to refuse." The White House constructed the guest list together with the director-general of Mubarak's office, and the Egyptian president personally authorized the result.
The Muslim Brotherhood MPs had requested an emergency debate in parliament on the invitation of the Israeli ambassador, and university lecturers threatened to block Cohen from entering the campus.
However, the protests were said to have subsided when the Muslim Brotherhood MPs found their names on the guest list as well, along with the name of recently released opposition activist Ayman Nour.
June 6th, 2009, 08:33
vector7
Re: Obama wants to try 'rebooting US image' amongst Muslims
With his trademark humility, President Obama noted in his speech this morning that "change cannot happen overnight" and that one speech in Cairo -- even delivered by him -- will not bring about world peace.
But if world peace is attained by complimenting those on the other side into submission, he made some serious progress.
Obama really buttered them up in Cairo.
He thanked them for everything from algebra to the pen, though he curiously failed to mention that they often throw people in prison for using it.
He even went so far as to tell the audience that he considers "it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."
Wow. That won't be the last time you hear that line.
And anyway, where exactly is that in the oath of office he took?
And if talking is going to resolve all the problems in the world, Obama got a good bit of that out of the way today.
He talked and talked and talked and talked.
And then kept talking.
Vacillating between a lecture-some professor and a talk show therapist, Obama started out numbering the grave and important issues he wanted to discuss. After a half-dozen, he junked the whole numbering system.
Or, lost count.
The problem with talking so much is that you eventually just start babbling and saying a bunch of stuff that makes no sense.
At one point, Obama fretted over the rise of new power that, to the horror of civilized people, exudes an obsessed and twisted view of "sexuality" and "mindless violence."
Islamo-fascism?
No, the Internet.
They guy is confronting one of the most evil and relentless mindsets in the history of man and he finds room in his big address to whine about the Internet -- by far a greater tool for freedom than anything else.
He also promised -- again, with his trademark modesty -- to bring to the effort of peace in the Middle East all "the patience that the task requires."
That's a lot of patience for one man. Like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King combined.
Good thing he's the master of so much patience because he'll need every bit of it -- even with great speeches in Cairo.
