The late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a commander during the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt in 1967. 

We join our story in progress:  By nightfall, Sharon’s forces had advanced three-quarters of the way from Abu Agheila to Nakhl. Their progress had been extremely difficult and slow, following the course of a wadi through the desert. Their average speed for much of the way had been a snail’s pace of 3 mph. As they continued their advance by night, they ran into a minefield and lost one of their armored troop-carriers. Sharon decided to halt their advance for the night. . . .

At dawn, as they advanced on, they suddenly came face to face with a whole brigade of Stalin tanks, much more powerful than their own tanks.  Behind the tanks were several large self-propelled guns. The Israeli tanks charged into battle,  but the Egyptian tanks, strangely, made no move at all. The Israelis couldn’t believe what they were seeing: every tank was intact but their accompanying troops had left.  Later, after the battle, Sharon spoke with the commander of this Egyptian tank brigade, who had been taken prisoner.

He told Sharon that he did not believe his armored brigade could resist the Israeli attack (although he had no idea of the size of the Israeli force) so he had decided to escape with all his men without even stopping to blow up his tanks.

He sorrowfully told Sharon:

You spoiled all my plans.

The Egyptian, El-Naby, said that on Tuesday night, he heard the noise of a large body of tanks coming up on his position nearby. The tanks in fact turned out to be an Egyptian armored brigade that was also moving up from the west about which he had not been told.

On Wednesday night, El-Naby again heard tanks advancing toward him. By now he had been informed of the Israeli advance, and, afraid that he was about to be attacked, he decided to abandon all his tanks and artillery and withdraw his men in half-tracks westward toward Bir Thamada, which he believed was still in Egyptian hands.

A grinning Sharon replied:

 It wasn’t.  Our boys were already there.

After a brief battle with the Israelis, El-Naby skipped out on his troops and, taking with him a lieutenant-colonel and a major, headed south-west on foot.

In an interview with Charles Mohr of the New York Times, when asked why he did not destroy his tanks, he said:

I had orders to withdraw. My orders did not say to destroy my tanks. . . . If I had blown up the tanks the Jews would have heard me. It makes a lot of noise to destroy a tank.

El-Naby said that the first part of his withdrawal took place ‘in very good order’ with his troops still organized by units and responding to discipline. The trouble happened at a road junction in the central desert when Brigadier El-Naby’s men hit what he called an ‘ambush’ or an Israeli roadblock:

Because of the ambush we had to take different roads and head for the Mitla Pass further south.

Why didn’t he try to fight his way through the roadblock?

He said:

That was impossible.

An Israeli captain who was monitoring the conversation broke in:

Why? What kind of force and weapons do you suppose we had in that roadblock?

The Egyptian replied:

Well.  I heard light machine guns and I think I heard .50-calibre heavy machine guns.

The Israeli captain threw his hands and eyes upward and said:

You had a whole brigade and we held the roadblock with light forces. (A brigade is 3000 to 5000 men.)

El-Naby Said:

Yes , but you must remember that I had left the tanks behind. . .

At the Mitla Pass, the brigade fell to pieces, although it was not in contact with enemy forces.

The Egyptian added:

I lost all my order at the Mitla.  Everyone wanted to flee for his own skin. All vehicles were abandoned and the men set off on foot to cross the mountains to the west.

Many of the Egyptians discarded their weapons, helmets and much of their personal equipment.  Brigadier El-Naby left in such a hurry that he did not take any food or water with him when he started his own trek.  He was asked whether he attempted to keep any men under his command with him. He answered:

No, no. As I said, everyone wanted to save his own skin.

Some accounts say it was a desert mirage that caused El-Nady to see hundreds of Israeli tanks where there were no more than a dozen.  The Israelis will tell you that it was Divine Intervention.

On November 3, 2008 , in an article for the New York Times titled The Republican Rump, Economist Paul Krugman said:

I’m not saying that the G.O.P. is about to become irrelevant. Republicans will still be in a position to block some Democratic initiatives, especially if the Democrats fail to achieve a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

And that blocking ability will ensure that the G.O.P. continues to receive plenty of corporate dollars: this year the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has poured money into the campaigns of Senate Republicans like Minnesota’s Norm Coleman, precisely in the hope of denying Democrats a majority large enough to pass pro-labor legislation.

But the G.O.P.’s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat.

This will pose a dilemma for moderate conservatives. Many of them spent the Bush years in denial, closing their eyes to the administration’s dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law. Some of them have tried to maintain that denial through this year’s election season, even as the McCain-Palin campaign’s tactics have grown ever uglier. But one of these days they’re going to have to realize that the G.O.P. has become the party of intolerance.

On Tuesday, November 2, 2010,  a Political Tsunami, fueled by a Conservative awakening, is scheduled to sweep Conservatives back into political relevancy, thanks to the failed policies of a tone-deaf president who said the following while on a trip to Turkey:

Now Progressives will say that Tuesday’s Midterm Elections, predicted to be the biggest Congressional sweep since 1894, is nothing more than a cyclical event that happens all the time.  However…there are  a lot of Americans who have spent a lot of time on their knees before their Creator (You remember Him:  The One who gave Americans our inalienable rights?) who know better.

Imagine walking down the street in the heart of your city, and a car bomb suddenly explodes, or some idiot yelling “Allahu Akbar!” detonates the bomb that they have strapped to their waist, killing and wounding dozens of Americans.

Could it happen here?  Most assuredly.

 According to European intelligence officials, a group of Islamic Terrorists from the German city of Hamburg are believed to be at the heart of the recent al Qaeda plot to launch co-ordinated terrorist attacks against European cities,

The plan caused the U.S. State Department to issue a Europe-wide security advisory for Americans traveling in Europe.

Western intelligence officials learned about the plot when Ahmed Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan descent was arrested in Afghanistan in July and taken to the U.S. Airbase at Bagram for questioning. He has not been charged and  he is co-operating with intelligence sources in Germany.

In early 2009 Sidiqi and ten others left Hamburg for the tribal areas of Pakistan.  Most of them joined an Islamic Terrorist group fighting U.S. and coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan, according to German intelligence officials.

Sidiqi told American interrogators that at least one member of his travel group was to be a “foot-soldier” in the plot, with other members of the group helping to plan the attacks.

According to German officials, the Hamburg group were all recruited from the Taiba mosque in Hamburg. In the 1990s the same mosque — then called Al Quds – was attended by the lead hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta.

A friend of Atta from those days has emerged as a crucial figure in the new plot. Naamen Meziche, 40, a French citizen of Algerian descent, worked to persuade a number of young men praying at the Taiba mosque to fight Jihad. His whereabouts are unknown.  He is thought to be in the Afghan/Pakistan border area.

According to a European counter-terrorism official, Meziche had longstanding connections to al Qaeda dating back to the 1990s.  He used these connections once he arrived in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The group got together late in 2008, and most of them had left for Pakistan before authorities had a chance to prevent them, despite constant surveillance of suspected terrorists at the Taiba mosque.

In November 2008, an assault on hotels and other “soft targets” in Mumbai by members of Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terror group based in Pakistan, killed more than 160 people.

The Imam of the Taiba mosque in Hamburg is Mamoun Darkazanli, a German businessman originally from Syria. The 9/11 Commission identified him as having links to al Qaeda financiers. In 2003 he was charged with membership of al Qaeda by Spanish authorities, but as a German citizen was not extradited. He faces no charges in Germany.

After the “success”of 9/11, the Taiba mosque became the place to go for al Qaeda sympathizers across Europe.

According to an official with German Intelligence:

They all wanted to come and pray where Mohammed Atta prayed. 

Hamburg authorities finally shut down the mosque a few weeks after Sidiqi was arrested.

Officials in Hamburg said that the decision to shut the mosque was a difficult one, because the presence in one place of so many militants made it easier to monitor their activities.  They had to close it because the mosque had become a recruiting center for jihadists across Europe.

Several militants now back in Germany who failed to make it to Pakistan’s tribal areas are of continuing concern to German intelligence services, who have kept them under observation.

According to another German Intelligence official:

Their greatest enemy is the United States.

Well, duh.

A recent report by Hamburg’s intelligence services stated that 45 Muslim Terrorists lived freely and openly in the city, from where they actively supported al Qaeda. High evidence thresholds under the German legal system have made it very difficult for authorities to make arrests.  In addition to those actively supporting al Qaeda. another 200 Islamists living in the city are described as having “violent tendencies.”

German intelligence officials say that like many European cities, Hamburg faces a challenge from Islamist extremists, but that some cities, like London, have even bigger problems. They say they are increasing resources to confront the problem of Muslim extremism. They say that radicalization is on the rise because of the growth of German-language extremist websites and the revolution in social media.

A senior German counter-terrorism source said that some 200 individuals have left the country since 9/11 to receive training with militant groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and that dozens have returned. According to German intelligence officials, the increase in U.S. drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan has not staunched the enthusiasm of German Muslims wishing to travel there.

Meanwhile, in New York City, United States of America…

From the New York Times:

Visitors to the upper floors of the Muslim community center planned for near (NYT’s word) ground zero would walk through lofty spaces — for art exhibitions, for contemplation and prayer, for programs on interreligious dialogue, for a 9/11 memorial — as sunlight streams through irregularly shaped windows between white crisscrossing beams.

The planners have not begun to raise the $140 million needed for construction or hired an architect.

An image of the façade has been in circulation since early this year, but last week the planners revealed renderings of how some interior spaces might look and how the center’s many amenities — including a restaurant, theater, day care center, gym and pool — might be stacked in a building of up to 15 stories.

There would also be a 9/11 memorial and a space open to people of “all faiths and of no faith” for prayer, contemplation and meditation, Mr. Gamal said.

The space for Muslims would be in the basement. Technically, it would be a prayer hall known as a musalla, because its construction would not meet rules required to sanctify a mosque.

Muslims who worship in a musalla often refer to it as a mosque or masjid.

On February 27th,2007, speaking to Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, in an interview since deleted from their archives, Barack Hussein Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

In fact, Obama recited the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan, “with a first-class [Arabic] accent.”
The opening lines of the Adhan (Azaan) is the Shahada:

“Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet? ”

According to Islamic scholars, reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, makes one a Muslim. This statement expresses a Muslim’s complete acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam. Obama chanted it with pride and finesse. 

And yet, this “Christian” falsely attributed a Biblical quote about “being his Brother’s Keeper” as spoken by Jesus Christ, when, in fact, it was spoken by Cain, the son of Adam, to God in Genesis 4:9:

Am I my brother’s keeper?

But, I digress.  If the Cordova Intiative/Park51/whatever they are calling themselves today comes up with the money to build the Ground Zero Mosque, the sounds of the Muslim Call to Prayer will be echoing, several times a day,  from the site of the worst Terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil, which killed 3,000 men, women, and children, that happened to be perpetrated by those who claimed to be devout Muslims.

Personally, I would rather hear this:

In a backyard in Albuquerque, New Mexico yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) answered an obviously planted question by pontificating on the reasons he became a Christian as an adult, telling a group of hand-picked residents in attendance that he was a “Christian by choice” and that “the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead – being my brother and sister’s keeper.”

That’s why his brother lives in a hut in Kenya, making $12 a month, and his aunt’s living in Boston, illegally until recently, on welfare, while his mansion sits empty in Chicago.

Obama, who has been questioned about his claim to be a Christian, gave a lengthy dissertation on his “faith”:

I’m a Christian by choice. My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. Being my brothers and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me, and I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes and we achieve salvation through the grace of God.

Becoming a Christian isn’t like joining the Moose Club , Mr. President.

But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That’s what I strive to do, that’s what I pray to do every day.

Yet, he said that as president, he also:

…deeply believes that part of the bedrock strength of this country is that it embraces people of many faiths and of no faith.

Is that why you slipped up and mentioned …”your Muslim faith” a couple of years ago, Mr. President?

For 20 years, Mr. President, you sat under the teachings of Rev. Jeremiah Wright at the Trinity United Church of Christ .  Let’s look at the background of Rev. Wright, shall we?

What most people do not know is that Reverend Jeremiah Wright was a Muslim  and a Black Nationalist before he became the founding pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, a Black Liberation Theology Church.

The rest, you already know.  To sum Rev. Jeremiah Wright up:

• Longtime pastor and spiritual mentor of Barack Obama
• Considers the U.S. to be a nation rife with racism and discrimination
• Blames American racism for provoking the 9/11 attacks
• “Islam and Christianity are a whole lot closer than you may realize,” he has written. “Islam comes out of Christianity.”
• Embraces liberation theology and socialism
• Strong supporter of Louis Farrakhan
• Likens Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa’s treatment of blacks during the apartheid era

But, what is Black Liberation Theology? 

The chief architect of black liberation theology was James Cone, author of Black Theology and Black Power. One of the tasks of this movement, according to Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of blacks who have long been victimized by white oppressors. According to black liberation theology, the inherent racism of white people precludes them from being able to recognize the humanity of nonwhites; moreover, their white supremacist orientation allegedly results in the establishment of a “white theology” that is irrevocably disconnected from the black experience. Consequently, liberation theologians contend that blacks need their own, race-specific theology to affirm their identity and their worth.

“What we need,” says Cone, “is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” Observing that America was founded for white people, Cone calls for “the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.” He advocates the use of Marxism as a tool of social analysis to help Christians to see “how things really are.”

Another prominent exponent of black liberation theology is the Ivy League professor Cornel West, who calls for “a serious dialogue between Black theologians and Marxist thinkers” — a dialogue that centers on the possibility of “mutually arrived-at political action.”

By the way, did you know that Senator Obama was opposed to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which would wind up passing unopposed in the U.S. Senate?

From Jill Stankek:

BAIPA sailed through the U.S. Senate by unanimous vote. Even Sens. Clinton, Kennedy and Kerry agreed a mother’s right to “choose” stopped at her baby’s delivery.

The bill also passed overwhelmingly in the House. NARAL went neutral on it. Abortion enthusiasts publicly agreed that fighting BAIPA would appear extreme. President Bush signed BAIPA into law in 2002.

But in Illinois, the state version of BAIPA repeatedly failed, thanks in large part to then-state Sen. Barack Obama. It only passed in 2005, after Obama left.

I testified in 2001 and 2002 before a committee of which Obama was a member.

Obama articulately worried that legislation protecting live aborted babies might infringe on women’s rights or abortionists’ rights. Obama’s clinical discourse, his lack of mercy, shocked me. I was naive back then. Obama voted against the measure, twice. It ultimately failed.

In 2003, as chairman of the next Senate committee to which BAIPA was sent, Obama stopped it from even getting a hearing, shelving it to die much like babies were still being shelved to die in Illinois hospitals and abortion clinics.

The preceding information about Senator Obama was courtesy of kindlingforcandles.com.

Matthew 23:25 (Whole Chapter)
[For Matthew 23:25-28, Matthew 15:11-20 ] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For [Luke 11:39, 40 ] you clean the outside of [Mark 7:4 ] the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of [Luke 16:14; 20:47] greed and self-indulgence.

Hurry up, November 2nd!  I pray that Americans make this guy a lame duck for 2 years.

Israelis, Palestinians and U.S. mediators are scrambling to find a compromise that would allow the collapsing Mideast talks to continue after an Israeli settlement slowdown expires at midnight.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already stated that the 10-month-old moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank will not be extended, despite pleas from President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) to do so. The Palestinians have warned that if the slowdown ends, they will quit the talks.

If the sides fail to strike a compromise, the midnight end of the building restrictions will signal the end of the Mideast peace talks that began at the White House less than a month ago.

Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, and defense minister, Ehud Barak, were traveling from the U.S. to Israel this morning after attempting to reach a compromise with American and Palestinian representatives.

However, the chief negotiators, Saeb Erekat for the Palestinians and Yitzhak Molcho for the Israelis, stayed behind  in the U.S., keeping a slim hope alive for a last-minute agreement.

Israeli settlers and their supporters are pressuring Netanyahu to keep an explicit promise he made to resume construction in Israel’s West Bank settlements. Several thousand settlers are expected todayat a rally to count down the hours to the midnight deadline.

Faced with heavy pressure from the Palestinians and their allies, the Obama administration, to back down, Israel’s government was keeping its mouth shut as the deadline approached. Netanyahu told his Cabinet ministers not to speak to the media about the crisis Sunday, according to Israeli officials, and even the prime minister’s spokesman refused to comment.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that:

Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlement.

According to Abbas, the Palestinians and the Middle East are continuously pushed into “the corner of violence and conflict” as a result of Israel’s “mentality of expansion and domination.”

Uh Huh.  It’s never the Palestinians’ fault.  Just like it’s never Obama’s fault.  Hmmmm.

But, afraid of being blamed if the talks collapse, Abbas told a group of American Jewish leaders last week that he would not necessarily walk away from the negotiations even if settlement construction resumes. And senior Palestinian officials have said they are willing to show “some flexibility.”

Weasel.

Netanyahu, for his part, has said Israel would not necessarily resume construction in full.

The Palestinians oppose all Israeli construction in the West Bank, saying it cripples plans for a viable Palestinian state.  Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

Israel rejects preconditions to negotiations, saying settlements should be discussed in the talks.

Abbas has problems back home.  He has to deal with his rivals from the Islamist Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip and rejects any recognition of Israel. Abbas “should withdraw immediately from the negotiations” and concentrate on unifying Palestinians to fight Israel, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told the AP in Gaza.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, faces heavy pressure within his pro-settler governing coalition to resume construction. Hardline elements could try to bring down the government if Netanyahu extends the settlement slowdown.

In reality, the slowdown has brought about only a slight drop of about 10 percent in ongoing construction in the settlements. On the other hand, it has significantly cut new housing starts — by about 50 percent, according to the dovish Israeli group Peace Now.

Israeli Cabinet minister Limor Livnat told Israel Radio on Saturday that around 2,000 homes can begin construction immediately once the slowdown ends.

Obama, Hillary, and the rest of the Smart Power Super Friends have 2 chances, at this point, of reaching a settlement between Israel and the ever-internally-squabbling Palestinians:  slim and none.

In their self-delusional quest to proclaim themselves the smartest American administration evah, they severely overestimated their foreign policy expertise.  Obama’s only prior experience with something even remotely resembling this situation would have been settling disputes between street gangs as a community organizer in Chicago.

Why is the government of the United States backing a bunch of barbarians that hate us and each other, and teaming up with them against one of our closest allies?  Israel is a nation which is pivotal in the faith of  over 75 % of Americans.  America was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system.  This boneheaded foreign policy initiative is as naive as Obama’s wish to sit across the negotiating table from that barbarian, Ahmadinejad.  Didn’t Carter try something like this?  The only thing that came out of his Middle East Peace Initiative was the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

I still say that, evidently, Rev. Jeremiah Wright never discussed Genesis 12: 1 – 3 in his church.  If he did, Scooter slept through it:

 ¹Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

And he wonders why his presidency is failing…

Dr. Faiz Khan is a former board member of  the American Society for Muslim Advancement, along with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, better known as the founders of the Cordoba Intiative, the ones trying to build the Ground Zero Mosque.   

Khan was listed as one of three directors of the American Society for the Advancement of Muslims in its 1997 incorporation papers, when it went by the name of the American Sufi Muslim Association.

He has preached at least twice at the former Burlington Coat Factory building, the site of the proposed mosque.   He is a 9/11 Truther and is a founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, known as MUJCA.  Here is his biography according to their website:

Dr. Faiz Kahn is a Muslim scholar and educator as well as an M.D. with a dual specialty in emergency and internal medicine. He has been living and working in New York City since 1969. A 9/11 first responder, he has been in the forefront of post-9/11 peace and education efforts in New York and elsewhere.  He is well-known as a staunchly outspoken opponent of terror in all its guises, and has participated in two memorial services for the victims of 9/11, as well as the New York group Muslims Against Terrorism. Dr. Khan is the author of “9/11: An Islamic Perspective” published by Belief Net in their selection of essays on religion and 9/11. An Assistant Imam at two New York area mosques, Dr. Kahn has treated subjects related to Islam, politics, and 9/11 at numerous speaking engagements and publications. He also served as assistant producer to the film Becoming Muslim – Submitting to Allah in America.

Here’s is an excerpt from an article he wrote for the website.  This is a “Moderate” Muslim?

Most American Muslims, both lay, and “educated’ had lost their way from the very start.  However, for a few American minds of various religious persuasions, or no religious persuasion – as of September 12th, 2001 onward, the widely displayed “good Muslim – bad Muslim” dialectic just didn’t cut it as an explanation of why the attacks of 9/11 occurred and succeeded.  Their instincts served them correctly. 

The surest sign of intellectual incompetence within the mass of 9/11 discourse is blindly accepting the limits that are constructed in discussing the phenomenon, especially when this blind acceptance occurs in the face of clear and compelling evidence that the limits of discourse must be expanded if some sort of explanation of the attacks of 9/11 is to surface.  In effect, what occurred from September 12th onward was the emergence of a sustained yet unbelievably ludicrous mainstream explanation as to the factors that produced 9/11, followed by this mainstream’s frantic inquiry to “American Islam” asking how could such a thing emerge from ‘the nebulously frightful geographic and ideological Islamic World’ – as if the main cause of the assaults and their success on 9/11 came from this quarter. Naively, yet predictably, the American Muslim scene performed its role by reeling onto the defensive, and sucking the bait. Prominent Muslims busied themselves trying to explain “real Islam”, distracted by and then swallowing the “mainstream thesis.” Most completely neglected the grotesque inconsistencies and outright lies which suggest that the success of the attacks had less to do with “militant Islam” and more to do with the inescapable fact that 9/11 was an inside job.

The ‘9/11 Truth’ thesis categorically rejects the mainstream thesis and asserts that the prime factor for the success of the criminal mission known as 9/11 did not come from the quarter known as ‘militant Islam’ although the phenomenon known as ‘militant Islamic networks’ may have played a partial role, or even a less than  partial role – perhaps the role of patsy and scapegoat.

Moreover, the rise and popularization of so called militant Islamic networks, from these networks’ ideology to actual empowerment, and the linking of this to western corporate driven government covert operations – this relationship is one that needs to be explicitly and loudly proclaimed by Islamic voices.

In an e-mail exchange with The New York Post, Khan claimed that he ended his affiliation with the ASMA in “2002 and 2003,” although there is a record of him speaking at a 2006 ASMA conference in Copenhagen, where his bio listed him as a board member.

When The Post asked Khan who he thought was responsible for 9/11, he initially declined comment, but later said in an e-mail:

I am certain of a few things . . . The towers and WTC 7 could not have collapsed without controlled demolition place from the ‘inside.’

Ray Locker, managing director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said:

For someone who claims he wants the mosque project near Ground Zero to help build bridges and heal the wounds from 9/11, it’s odd that one of Feisal Rauf’s fellow bridge builders is someone who thinks the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people were an ‘inside job’ by the US government.

Khan told a group of 9/11 deniers at a 2006 Chicago summit called “Revealing the Truth/Reclaiming Our Future” that

…the most logical explanation” for 9/11 is that the hijackers were working for corporate America and that the heroin trade creates “billions of dollars” that are laundered by “Citicorp and Procter & Gamble”.

Imam Rauf has refused to comment about the situation.  Now, this is the same guy who was recently sent, using our money, on a Middle Eastern “Goodwill” (fundraising) Tour and is supposedly a “Moderate” Muslim cleric.  Where are the funds for the Ground Zero Mosque going to come from?  And how about all their political support, including that of President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him)? 

Like Lucy Ricardo, they’ve all got lots of ‘splainin’ to do.

Speaking at “hallowed ground” at the Pentagon yesterday, President Barack Obama  (peace be unto him) alluded to the controversy over a mosque — and a Florida pastor’s threat, later rescinded, to burn copies of the Muslim holy book. Obama made it clear that the U.S. is not at war with Islam and called the Al Qaeda attackers “a sorry band of men” who perverted religion.

“We will not give in to their hatred,” Obama said. “As Americans, we will not or ever be at war with Islam.”

Excuse me, Mr. President, they sure do seem to be at war with us. 

According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, released on September 9th, 49 percent of all Americans say that they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say that they have favorable ones.    This figure is almost 20 % higher than it was, immediately after 9/11/01.

I have a question for you, gentle reader.  How many well-known practitioners/leaders of Islam can you remember speaking out after the horrible events of  September 11th, 2001?

I’m waiting.

Not too many, huh.  If you can remember any at all, you can count them on one hand.  One that remains at the forefront of opposition to radical Islam to this day is Dr. M. Juhdi Jasser.  I’m sure you’ve seen him in his appearances on Fox News as a contributor.  

Do you remember when those 6 Imams behaved suspiciously on an airplane, resulting in their arrest?  After Dr. Jasser spoke out about the incident, he appeared on Mark Levin’s radio show and told him about the Muslim world’s reaction to his speaking out, which included being pulled from a 2007 PBS series which featured an episode titled Islam vs. Islamists:

The producers had seen my work and followed our travails with the moderates here, with what we’re doing against the fundamentalists locally. They came and spent the week with me and looked at all of our activities, the interfaith community, and spent time interviewing some of the imams locally [Arizona] and others… It is sort of a microcosm of what happened. People say, “Where are the moderates, why aren’t they speaking up?”

The movie looks at some of the response and how I’ve been demonized. I’ve been labeled as a false Muslim. I’ve been told that even though I’m proud to raise my kids Muslim and I pray and I fast that really I’m imposing a secular separation of religion and politics in our faith and for me to try to get the imams to stop talking politics in their sermons is to impose something false into our faith…

All I’ve tried to do is open the debate. The important thing this documentary did was to begin the debate and to say that certainly the fundamentalists are able to express what they want in our free speech but they shouldn’t suppress what I have to say. They should allow us to bring this debate into the Muslim community.

For this to get pulled really shows that our government and the mainstream media feel they’re basically tools of the Islamists. They’re going to respond to them and not push the issue and you wonder where the voice of the moderates is. The voice is in the wilderness because nobody [in the media] wants to hear it and nobody is going to give time…

According to the show’s producer, it was pulled on political grounds:

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide. Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank. “I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds,” Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

I related that moment from 2007 to try to explain what’s happening in this country today.  Yesterday, on the 9th anniversary of the worst attack ever on American soil, the American President was continuing to push a  message of reflection (on our bigotry) and service (atonement) on a day where Americans for the past 9 years have instead chosen to honor and remember those 3,000 innocent people who were murdered by Islamic Terrorists.  It was not a “man-caused disaster”.  It was an act of war.

Y’know, there’s a “moderate” Imam who wants to build a mosque at Ground Zero.  Did he condemn that horrific attack?  Nope.  He was interviewed on 60 Minutes by host Ed Bradley on September 30, 2001.  Here is a partial transcript:

BRADLEY: Are — are — are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

BRADLEY: OK. You say that we’re an accessory?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Yes.

BRADLEY: How?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Because we have been an accessory to a lot of — of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, it — in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

This is a “moderate” Muslim?

While I don’t, as a Christian, condone the burning of the Koran or the ripping out of its pages, I do understand where the rage is coming from.  The oppression of the Politically Correct Elite, including those now in positions of power over us, has created a backlash.  In their zeal to forcibly unite a nation created on Judeo-Christian principles with a political ideology masquerading as a religion, Progressives have become responsible for the public demonstrations of dissent that they claimed were so “patriotic” during the Bush administration.  Unfortunately for the “smartest people in the room”, they did not realize how deeply Americans would resent being apologized for to those who view us as infidels.

Perhaps they’ll have a clue after November 2nd, 2010.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – First Amendment to the United States Constitution

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. – 1 Corinthians 6:12 – English Standard Version

A Florida “pastor” yesterday announced that he had called off his scheduled burning of a bunch of Korans after proclaiming that he had a deal that would move the abomination known as the Cordoba House away from the site of the 9/11 terror attacks.  However, the Muslim cleric in charge of the Ground Zero mosque quickly denied to ABC News that he had agreed to move his project.

Pastor Terry Jones was upset and said that the denial was “very disturbing” .  He told ABC News’ Terry Moran that the promise of a deal by Florida imam Muhammad Musri led him to drop his plan to burn Korans Saturday on the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks.

Jones said in an interview airing tonight on ABC News’ “Nightline”:

We were promised from the imam here.  In the meeting, there were several people who can confirm that. We find that very devastating. If that [denial] is true, that would mean the imam lied to us.

Imam Muhammad Musri said he was clear on Thursday when he told the Rev. Terry Jones that he could set up a meeting with planners of the New York City mosque, but insisted he never promised to shift the location. Jones announced after the meeting — with Musri at his side — that they had a bargain and that he would call off the Koran-burning for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, later said that Jones wasn’t confused or misled and that “after we stepped out in front of the cameras, he stretched my words” about the agreement. The imam in charge of the New York Islamic center and mosque project also quickly denied any deal was made.

Musri said Jones had instead caved into the firestorm of criticism from around the world and that his announcement might have been a ploy to try to force Muslim leaders’ hand on the Islamic center. “After we stepped out in front of the cameras, he stretched my words” about the agreement, Musri said.

Jones said later that he expected Musri to keep his word and “the imam in New York to back up one of his own men.” Musri said he still plans to go ahead with the meeting Saturday.

According to the Florida Imam, moving the mosque is not why Jones canceled his threat.  Instead, according to this character, Musri, he relented under the pressure from political and religious leaders of all faiths worldwide to halt what President Barack Obama called a “stunt.” Musri said Jones told him the burning “would endanger the troops overseas, Americans traveling abroad and others around the world.”

Musri said:

That was the real motivation for calling it off.

In reality, Jones had never invoked the mosque controversy as a reason for his planned protest at his Dove World Outreach Center.  Instead, he proclaimed that the Koran is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.

President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) urged Jones to listen to “those better angels,” saying that besides endangering lives, it would give Islamic terrorists a recruiting tool. Defense Secretary Robert Gates even called Jones personally to ask him not to burn the Korans.

Jones’ church, which has about 50 members, most of whom are relatives, is independent of any denomination.  It follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern-day.

The cancellation also was welcomed by Jones’ neighbors in Gainesville, a city of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus. At least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in the city had mobilized to plan inclusive events, including Koran readings at services, as a counterpoint to Jones’ protest.

Jones claimed at the news conference that he prayed about the decision and concluded that if the mosque was moved, it would be a sign from God to call off the Koran burning.

Jones said, before he figured out that he was double-crossed:

We are, of course, now against any other group burning Korans.  We would right now ask no one to burn Korans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.

In a related story,  the owners of the property that is scheduled to be turned into the Ground Zero Mosque, have turned down a lucrative offer from Real Estate Mogul Donald Trump to purchase the site.

Wolodymyr Starosolsky, a lawyer for the investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site, says Trump’s offer is “just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight.”

In a letter released Thursday by Trump’s publicist, the real estate investor told Hisham Elzanaty that he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.

The letter said:

I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse.

Trump also attached a condition to his offer: He said that as part of the deal, the backers of the mosque project would have to promise that any new mosque they constructed would be at least five blocks farther away from the World Trade Center site.

So, there you have it:  a bunch of publicity hounds seeking their 15 minutes of fame.  Yes, it is legal for “Pastor” Jones to burn Korans.  Yes, it is legal for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative to build a Victory Mosque at Ground Zero.  But, is it noble?  Is it respectful?  Is it helpful?  NO.

As Hurricane Earl steams toward the East Coast of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) and his administration are brokering the first face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in almost two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will sit down together today for the first of what Obama and his State Department hope will be a series of meetings that lead in a year’s time to an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state.

According to Obama, speaking from the White House:

This moment of opportunity may not soon come again.

Obama said he was “cautiously hopeful” about the talks, which begin with dim expectations and have been marred by two shooting attacks against Israelis in as many days.

Held at the State Department by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell, the two leaders’ discussions face numerous obstacles, not least renewed violence and provocations from Israelis and Palestinians opposed to Obama’s goal of an independent Palestine and secure Israel.

Gunmen from the militant Palestinian Hamas group, which opposes the talks, killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington. And on Wednesday, hours before the leaders were to eat dinner together at the White House, gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank. Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack as well.

The top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip rejected compromise with Israel in a fiery speech Wednesday.

Addressing Hamas members, Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar said the movement would resist peace efforts and criticized the Palestinian president for joining the negotiations:.

Today marks the start of direct negotiations between someone who has no right to represent the Palestinian people and the brutal occupier, to provide a cover for Judaizing Jerusalem and stealing the land.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas have been battling each other since the group seized Gaza from Abbas’ forces in a violent takeover in 2007, leaving him only in control of the West Bank.
Before the White House dinner with Netanyahu, Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Obama said they all had a stake in the peace efforts as leaders and fathers.

 Obama asked in the packed East Room of the White House:

Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?

Each of the leaders expressed hopes for a breakthrough, with the U.S. playing the role of peace broker, but the event was subdued, reflecting broad pessimism about chances of success after nearly two decades of failed peace talks.

Israelis “recognize that another people shares this land with us,” Netanyahu said at the White House on Wednesday. However, he added that any agreement must guarantee Israel’s security and could not be a repeat of Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, where territory evacuated was seized by Iran-backed militants who launched further attacks on Israel.

Netanyahu said:

We left Lebanon, we got terror. We left Gaza, and we got terror once again. We want to ensure that territory we concede will not be turned into a third Iranian-sponsored terror enclave aimed at the heart of Israel.

Abbas joined Netanyahu in declaring that it was time to seize the moment:

We don’t want blood to be shed, neither that of Palestinians nor of Israelis. We want peace, we want normal life. We want to live as partners and neighbors

But Israel, Abbas added, needs to give the Palestinians tangible signs, including freeing all Palestinian prisoners and freezing all settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for their future state.

The talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government’s declared slowdown in settlement construction is slated to end.

According to Palestinians, settlement construction will torpedo the talks. The Israeli government is divided over the future of the slowdown, and a decision to extend it could tear apart Netanyahu’s coalition. Netanyahu has given no indication so far that it will continue beyond the deadline. Speaking to Clinton on Tuesday, Netanyahu said his government’s decision on a 10-month freeze that would end in September remained in effect.

Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration has spent its first 20 months in office trying to get the two sides back to the bargaining table. Despite the success in launching the talks, gaps between the sides are wide, distrust remains after years of violence and deadlock, and expectations are low.

But American officials are pushing to get the two sides to agree to a second round of talks, likely to be held in the second week of September.

That could be followed by another meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly near the end of the month in New York. The stated goal is to reach a final peace settlement within one year.

After listening to the Mideast leaders he convened Wednesday night, Obama pronounced himself carefully optimistic:

I am hopeful, cautiously hopeful, but hopeful.

As Obama attempts to complete his plan to divide Israel, Hurricane Earl is barreling toward America’s East Coast.  Coincidence?  Not according to believers like William Koenig, author of Eye to Eye – Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.

On the back cover of this book, last updated in 2006, Koenig asks:

What do these major-record setting events have in common?

 The ten costliest insurance events in U.S. history

The twelve costliest hurricanes in U.S. history

Three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history

The two largest terrorism events in U.S. history

All of these major catastrophes and many others occurred or began on the very same day or within 24-hours of U.S. presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush applying pressure on Israel to trade her land for promises of peace and security, sponsoring major land for peace meetings, making major public statements pertaining to Israel’s covenant land and /or calling for a Palestinian state.

In his book, Koenig presents significant events during Israel’s struggle for existence from its forming to 2006 and their correlation with natural disasters and terrifying events that occurred at the same time that Israel’s sovereignty was threatened in some way.

These two events happening simultaneously gives those of us who believe in the Sovereignty of God and His promises to His chosen people, pause to reflect on the administration’s policy toward Israel and its consequences.