Category Archives: USA

Pipes denounces knighthood for Iqbal Sacranie

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Iqbal Sacranie“Sacranie has been one of the most important advocates of radical Islam in the United Kingdom…. Among Sacranie’s actions: calling for censorship of religious speech, trying to change the plot of the action series 24, boycotting Holocaust Remembrance ceremonies, denying the existence of Islamic terrorists, interpreting the Bush administration’s true agenda as the ‘recolonization and the re-mapping of the Middle East’, and accusing Israel of genocide.”

Daniel Pipes takes exception to Iqbal Sacranie of the MCB being included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Among the authorities Pipes cites for evidence of Sacranie’s extremism is Militant Islam Monitor. Well, you can’t find a much more reliable source than that, can you? And to think there are sceptics who question Pipes’ standing as an expert in Islamic studies.

Daniel Pipes’ blog, 12 June 2005

US campaign produces few convictions on terrorism charges

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On Thursday, President Bush stepped to a lectern at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy in Columbus to urge renewal of the USA Patriot Act and to boast of the government’s success in prosecuting terrorists. Flanked by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush said that “federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted.”

Those statistics have been used repeatedly by Bush and other administration officials, including Gonzales and his predecessor, John D. Ashcroft, to characterize the government’s efforts against terrorism. But the numbers are misleading at best.

An analysis of the Justice Department’s own list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people – not 200, as officials have implied – were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.
Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law – and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. For the entire list, the median sentence was just 11 months.

Washington Post. 12 June 2005

Time magazine reveals abuse of Guantánamo detainee

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Time GitmoA secret document obtained by Time magazine shows the pressure tactics used against a major al-Qaida suspect by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The magazine said in an article set to hit stands Monday it obtained a secret 84-page interrogation log for Mohammed al Qahtani, believed by the U.S. government to have entered the country in August 2001, intending to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The document says al Qahtani’s head and facial hair were forcefully shaved; he was deprived of sleep, submitted to a drill known as “Invasion of Space by a Female,” strip-searched and forced to stand nude, and intimidated with a dog. The magazine said in an article set to hit stands Monday it obtained a secret 84-page interrogation log for Mohammed al Qahtani, believed by the U.S. government to have entered the country in August 2001, intending to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

UPI report, 12 June 2005

See also New York Times, 12 June 2005

For the official response, see US Department of Defense news release, 12 June 2005

And for further details of abuse at Guantánamo, see Cageprisoners.com, 12 June 2005

Dog returns to vomit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Harry’s Place resumes its attack on Yusuf al-Qaradawi as an anti-semite, with the use of material provided by … yes, I know, this does all have a wearying familiarity … the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Harry’s Place, 10 June 2005

Perhaps the author of that post would be advised to consult another piece from MEMRI which gives a fuller and relatively accurate of Qaradawi’s position on Judaism. (Quite why MEMRI published this latter excerpt is unclear – it was in the context of a widely publicised attack on their self-proclaimed objectivity, and was perhaps a defensive manoeuvre. Whatever the explanation, the change of line didn’t last long.)

MEMRI Special Dispatch Series No.858

Religious hatred bill is unveiled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

bnp-islam-posterControversial plans to make incitement to religious hatred illegal are being unveiled by the government. The government says the legislation is a response to the concerns of faith groups, particularly Muslims.

The Muslim Council of Britain has welcomed the move, arguing that the courts have already extended such protection to Sikh and Jewish people. Sher Khan, a council spokesman, said to protect some groups but not others contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.

BBC News, 9 June 2005

The BNP states that the new law “is intended to stop the British National Party and other individuals pointing out that Islamic fundamentalism poses a serious threat to the well being of Britain. It has been drafted at the behest of Muslim organisations and New Labour’s increasing dependence upon the Islamic vote to stay in power has led to the creation of this piece of legislation. The law is a further erosion of free speech and one which even gay actor and comedian Stephen Fry called ‘a sop to Muslims’ on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon.”

The fascists promise: “If the Bill does become law the BNP will not stop its public awareness campaign [sic] against militant Islam and we will find ways around the legislation to continue to point out that the Islamic wolf is already in the secular/Christian/non-Muslim lamb’s pen.”

BNP news article, 9 June 2005

Over at Jihad Watch, under the heading “Freedom of speech in grave peril”, Robert Spencer warns that the adoption of such legislation “would be a cornerstone of the Islamization of Britain”.

Dhimmi Watch, 9 June 2005

Show trial in Florida

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leena“After more than two years in prison – much of it spent in solitary confinement – former University of South Florida professor and political activist Sami Al-Arian finally went on trial in Tampa, Fla., this week. There’s little chance, however, that Al-Arian will be able to get a fair trial…. This trial is part of the U.S. government’s post-September 11 witch-hunt of Arabs and Muslims.”

Socialist Worker (US), 10 June 2005

See also Islam Online, 7 June 2005 and the Free Sami Al-Arian campaign

Carter calls on US to shut down Guantánamo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Former President Jimmy Carter called on the United States on Tuesday to shut down its prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to demonstrate the country’s commitment to protecting human rights.

“Despite President George W. Bush’s bold reminder that America is determined to promote freedom and democracy around the world, the U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation as a champion of human rights because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo,” Mr. Carter said in a news conference following a two-day human rights conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta.
In addition to closing Guantánamo Bay and two dozen other secret detention facilities, Mr. Carter said, the United States needs to make sure no detainees are held incommunicado and that they all be told the charges against them.
His other recommendations included that the United States stop transferring detainees to foreign countries where torture has been reported and that an independent commission be created to investigate where terrorism suspects are held in American custody.
Mr. Carter also said that the United States should reaffirm its commitment to due process and international law, and assure that the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners are enforced.

Associated Press, 8 June 2005

Islamic leaders, two others held in California terror probe

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Federal agents searched the homes of two Islamic leaders in Lodi, California, and have made four arrests since Sunday, part of an ongoing terrorism investigation, according to the FBI and witnesses. Two of those arrested are top Muslim leaders in Lodi, including one who publicly condemned the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and issued a declaration of peace with Christian and Jewish leaders in Lodi three years ago

CNN, 8 June 2005

Miami Islamic school vandalized for third time in past year

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic leaders renewed their calls for a hate-crime investigation on Tuesday after someone threw a rock through the glass doors of the Islamic School of Miami.

The incident, which occurred Monday, was the third at the mosque and the fifth in South Florida in the past year, according to Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Ali said worshipers arrived at the mosque located at 11699 SW 147th Ave., at about 5 a.m. Tuesday and found the gate leading into the center broken and the two glass doors shattered. The damage came a week after vandals shattered another window there on May 28.

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Manufacturing Muslim ‘terrorists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

tarikshahThe US has a vast and very expensive Homeland Security bureaucracy with nothing to do. There hasn’t been a terrorist attack in America since 2001. There have been a vast quantity of terror alerts, the purpose of which was to scare Americans into supporting an unnecessary and illegal aggressive attack on Iraq.

As very few, if any, real terrorists have turned up, the FBI has resorted to creating terrorists by soliciting Muslim-Americans and appealing to them with schemes to aid ‘jihadists’. Recently, two American citizens were caught in a FBI sting. One, an Ivy-League educated physician, is charged with agreeing to provide medical care to wounded holy warriors in Saudi Arabia. The other, a famous jazz musician, is charged with agreeing to train jihadists in martial arts.

According to the Washington Times of June 1, the FBI began its sting in 2003, so it took two years of work and cajoling to manufacture the case against these two Americans.

What the FBI has done to Dr. R.A. Sabir and Tarik Shah was once known as entrapment. Judges would throw out entrapment cases, because crime was believed to require intent. If the intent was given to the accused by the police through enticement or threats, it was not regarded as criminal intent on the accused person’s part.

Unfortunately, “law and order” conservatives used fear of crime to “give our police more effective measures to clear criminals off our streets” and managed to eliminate the entrapment defense.

Antiwar.com, 7 June 2005