Thread: Napolitano adds adviser with ties to terror

HOMELAND INSECURITY
Napolitano adds adviser with ties to terror backers
Swears in leader of Arab group that hailed jihadists as 'heroes'
Posted: June 07, 2009
9:27 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily


Kareem Shora

JERUSALEM – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano swore in to her official advisory council the head of an Arab American organization whose officials have labeled deadly anti-U.S. jihadists as "heroes" and opposed referring to Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC, also has close ties to anti-Israel professor Rashid Khalidi, whose association with President Obama – first exposed by WND – stirred controversy during last year's presidential campaign.

The ADC also leads the opposition to domestic anti-terrorism measures taken after the 9-11 attacks, such as watch lists, background check delays for visas and an initiative meant to more comprehensively screen visitors from select Mideast countries or specific individuals labeled as possible national security threats.

Last week, Napolitano swore in Damascus-born Kareem Shora, the ADC's national executive director, to a position on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, an outside-the-department group of national security experts that advises the secretary. Shora is the first Arab rights advocate on the panel.

At the ceremony in Albequrque, Shora reportedly recounted how he watched with his immigrant father Obama's address last week to the Muslim world. Shora said his father cried when he heard Obama's message of reconciliation.

(Story continues below)

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ADC glorifies terrorism

The ADC takes an openly anti-Israel line. Its official material has accused the Jewish state of "apartheid" and "atrocities" against the Palestinians. In 2006, a local ADC group drew up a petition calling on the U.S. to stop providing Israel with weapons.

Scores of senior ADC officials have expressed positive views toward terrorist organizations.

In 1994, during one of the main peaks of Hamas suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, then-ADC President Hamzi Moghrabi said, "I will not call [Hamas] a terrorist organization. I mean, I know many people in Hamas. They are very respectable. … I don't believe Hamas, as an organization, is a violent organization."

Discover the Networks notes that two years later, Moghrabi's successor, Hala Maksoud, defended the Hezbollah terrorist group.

"I find it shocking," Maksoud said, "that [one] would include Hezbollah in … [an] inventory of Middle East 'terrorist' groups."

In 2000, new ADC President Hussein Ibish characterized Hezbollah as "a disciplined and responsible liberation force."

When Israel released Hezbollah prisoners in early 2004, Imad Hamad, ADC's Midwest Regional Director, openly celebrated the freedom of "the heroes."

Besides its deadly terrorism against Israel, Hezbollah distinguishes itself as second only to al-Qaida among terror groups responsible for killing the most Americans. It's responsible for such deadly attacks as the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which killed 299 servicemen, including 220 U.S. Marines.

ADC linked to Khalidi

The ADC is linked to Columbia University's Khalidi, who spoke at several of the organization's events. At one speech, in June 2002, the New York Sun documented how Khalidi appeared to condone the killing of armed Israelis.

"Killing civilians is a war crime. It's a violation of international law. They are not soldiers. They're civilians, they're unarmed," Khalidi said in a recorded address. "The ones who are armed, the ones who are soldiers, the ones who are in occupation, that's different. That's resistance."

The ADC also has collaborated on numerous projects with the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, an organization founded by Khalidi's wife Mona, and which WND first reported received start-up funds from a nonprofit, the Woods Fund, on which Obama served as a paid director.

The AAAN, headquartered in the heart of Chicago's Palestinian immigrant community, worked on projects supporting open boarders and education for illegal aliens. Speakers at AAAN dinners and events routinely have taken an anti-Israel line. The organization co-sponsored anti-Israel projects and exhibits.

Khalidi, an apologist for PLO terrorism, holds the position of Columbia's Edward Said professorship of Arab Studies. Said, a well-known far-leftist intellectual and apologist for Palestinian terrorism, served on an advisory counsel to the ADC.

ADC opposes anti-terrorism screening

According to the ADC charter, the organization seeks to "empower Arab Americans; defend the civil rights of all people of Arab heritage in the U.S.; promote civic participation; and encourage a balanced U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East."

The organization has actively lobbied against the Patriot Act and was reportedly instrumental in scaling back some of the restrictions of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System program, or NSEERS. Shora was personally involved in those efforts.

The NSEERS required persons whose nationality identifies them as a possible security risk to submit to control processes governed by the Department of Justice. NSEERS also targeted specific individuals labeled as possible national security threats, at times making them undergo fingerprinting, photographing and registration.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php? ... eId=100486

I am sorry but Hamas and Hezbolah are freedom fighters imo. Al Qaeda is the terror organization that people need to fear. Hamas and Hezbolah are just fighting the Zionist jews for the same chunk of land. And thats their fight, NOT ours.

Okay, Tbow009, your prejudicial slip is showing: Zionist jews? And explain, please, why you believe these freedom fighters have never connected with Al Quaida or have not embraced their interpretation of the Quran--the radical one that says it is okay to kill anyone that does not believe in the faith or even those Muslim sects that do not embrace the interpretations they prefer.

"Iran: Training and Arming Terrorist Groups that Target Israel
The Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism. Its Qods Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - a branch of the Iranian military - has had a long history of supporting terrorist organizations that target Israel. Iran has provided funding, material support, training and intelligence services to its three main proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).[1] These terrorist groups, which share the same basic ideological goals as Iran’s leadership, are in many ways extensions of Iran’s military network. They act as proxies for Tehran by attacking Israeli targets while providing reasonable deniability for the Iranian government on the international stage.[2]

Iranian funding of Hezbollah

Iran has provided Hezbollah with weapons, funding, guidance, and intelligence,[3] transferring $100 million - $200 million to Hezbollah annually, [4] in addition to an estimated $300 million after the war with Israel in 2006.[5]

The Qods force has trained more than 3,000 Hezbollah fighters in the use of anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles, surface-to-surface missiles and rockets, and unmanned aerial vehicles at camps inside Iran, and actively operates training facilities in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.[6]

Iranian aid to Hezbollah actually increased after Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 as Hezbollah expanded its military force in preparation for conflict. These preparations culminated in Hezbollah’s illegal cross-border attack on an Israeli border patrol in July 2006, sparking the 34-day Hezbollah-Israel war.[7]

A member of Hezbollah involved in the July 2006 abduction of Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser admitted being trained in Iran along with 40-50 other Hezbollah members.[8]

In 2002, Israel seized the Karine A, a Palestinian Authority naval vessel containing 50 tons of advanced weaponry, including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles. Iran and Hezbollah had jointly loaded the material, routed for Palestinian Naval Police in Gaza.[9]

During the Hezbollah-Israel 2006 war, intelligence sources, Iranian agents assisted in firing a land-to-sea missile that almost sank an Israeli warship.[10]

Iran has been aggressively rearming Hezbollah since the end of the 2006 war.[11] It is estimated that Hezbollah now has roughly 30,000 rockets in its possession – more than twice as many as it had before the 2006 war.[12] The newly replenished arsenal includes about 10,000 long distance rockets.[13] Hezbollah has 500 Iranian “Zilzalâ€

I don't have any confidence in anyone Janet hires in any capacity as there always seems to be some horrible catch.

About the Middle East

I don't understand the hatred between the Middle Eastern countries, Israel and the US. I have traveled around the world and have heard explainations from both sides and frankly I am still confused by it.

all I know is the moment we abandon Israel this country will be doomed. I am not thrilled with some of the things going on there... but lord help the US of A on the path the Obamanation is taking us by the neck

While I have putzed around the Middle East there were few political stands that I could understand in the mid-70s. I knew that the Syrian family I stayed with had a son that spoke better Russian because he was a MIG pilot readying for war against Israel after that country blasted Damascus.
The Arabs see Israelis as interlopers on their lands and they really hate the US for our undying support for Israel. GWB did us no great favor by going to war with Islamic Iraq. And previous administrations have done us no good by staging American troops in Muslim countries. (Turkey, also Muslim, refused to have our troops staged and flying out of there to attack Iraq.)
They want our nose out of there--just give them the armaments to fight their regional wars!
I think is right in talking to everyone, as talk is a lot cheaper than the lives of American military in some foreign theater.

Originally Posted by vortex

While I have putzed around the Middle East there were few political stands that I could understand in the mid-70s. I knew that the Syrian family I stayed with had a son that spoke better Russian because he was a MIG pilot readying for war against Israel after that country blasted Damascus.
The Arabs see Israelis as interlopers on their lands and they really hate the US for our undying support for Israel. GWB did us no great favor by going to war with Islamic Iraq. And previous administrations have done us no good by staging American troops in Muslim countries. (Turkey, also Muslim, refused to have our troops staged and flying out of there to attack Iraq.)
They want our nose out of there--just give them the armaments to fight their regional wars!
I think is right in talking to everyone, as talk is a lot cheaper than the lives of American military in some foreign theater.

Well said Vortex. I am personally tired of OUR troops getting in the middle of religious wars that we do not belong in. I would much rather see the troops home defending our borders against the criminals that cross everyday by the thousands.