WarSclerotic

Brian Levin, J.D.: ‘Godfather of Hate’ Inspired Both UK Jihadist Killer and US Radicals.

( Believe it or not, this appeared in the Huffington Post.  Brian Levin, usually a mealy-mouthed cultural relativist, bit the hand that feeds him.  Clearly he has a long term deal with Huffpo.  No way they would have let this honest expose of the underpinnings of radical Islam appear otherwise.  RECOMMENDED! – JW )

Convert Killer Had Ties to “Godfather” of Hate

Michael Adebolajo, one of the twisted suspected killers seen on shocking video from Woolwich, U.K. soaked in the blood of 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby earlier this week, had ties to one of the most dangerous instigators of radical Muslim extremism, not only in Britain, but here in the United States as well.

While police have made other arrests in the case, it is emerging that a radical exiled cleric apparently planted the seeds of hate into the young mind of the Anglo-Nigerian English-born convert who hacked an innocent military drummer to death near a metropolitan London barracks on Wednesday. Security has been enhanced in Britain since the attack and fighter jets have escorted a passenger jet over England today following an incident on board.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, 54, who has harnessed a dangerous sliver of American and British youth to religious terror and extremism is a notorious English-speaking hate cleric who for almost two decades, while on public assistance, fomented radicalism in the United Kingdom. Now in Tripoli, Lebanon, he could be called the “Godfather” not only to many of the most hateful British extremists, but to a tiny yet, dangerous nexus of American East coast radicals, who reached him and his disciples through internet postings, sermons and live web-based conferences. Most recently his hatred directed at the West cited social depravity as well as governmental policies that hurt Muslims.

He told the London daily The Independent about his connection to Adebolajo:

I knew him as Michael when he came to the meetings and then he converted and he became known as Abdullah; I hear he then started calling himself Mujahid. He asked questions about religion, he was curious. He had first started coming when there was a lot of anger about the Iraq war and the war on terror.

Bakri, defended the carnage:

Under Islam this can be justified, he was not targeting civilians, he was taking on a military man in an operation. To people around here [in the Middle East] he is a hero for what he has done.

Mentor Is Fervent Bin Laden Supporter
Bakri has consistently praised Osama bin Laden, even naming his child after him, as well as the “Magnificent 19” 9/11 terrorists, blamed the 2005 London tube bombings on the British government and citizenry and has said Tony Blair and George Bush should be condemned rather than Bin Laden. He has called his adopted home of Britain “Dar ul-Harb [a land of war].” Bakri has also preached: “The jihad is halal [permissible] for the Muslims wherever they are, the whole ummah [Muslim community] wherever they are. OK brothers – wherever you are, do it.” Recently released Wikileaks documents report that London was a preeminent recruitment center for terrorists and at least 35 Guantanamo Bay detainees passed through British mosques and education centers. Chillingly, Bakri, has also counseled his followers to slit the throats of Westerners.

In August 2010, Paul Cruickshank wrote in West Point’s Counter Terrorism Sentinel:

An emerging network of radical preachers, demagogues, bloggers, and activists are attempting to disseminate extremist ideas among Muslim youth in the United States. Largely excluded from the country’s mosques, they spread their message on the streets, outside the mosque, in small gatherings in private residences, on campuses and above all online, taking full advantage of new social media platforms to maximize their reach. They are a loose constellation of individuals, but have a clear center of gravity in two extremist groups that operate freely and openly in New York City.The groups in question–the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS) and Revolution Muslim (RM), both affiliated with the British extremist organization al-Muhajiroun–are increasingly appearing in counterterrorism investigations.

Bakri’s banned British group al Muhajiron’s tiny American affiliate was a precursor to three small New York extremist groups, the Islamic Thinker’s Society, Revolution Muslim, and its successor Islampolicy. Two members of the original New York affiliate of al Muhajiroun, Syed Hashimi and Mohammed Junaid Babar, whose mother was nearly killed in the 9/11 attacks, were sentenced to federal prison in the United States for their role in traveling overseas to aid al Qaeda. In addition to numerous postings, Bakri has appeared as a main speaker in 2010 and 2011 in at least two major live global extremist Internet web conferences that also included Revolution Muslim and Islampolicy founder Younes Abdullah Mohammad. New Yorker Younes Abdullah Mohammad was arrested in May 2011 in connection with alleged Internet threats directed against the producers of the cartoon series “South Park” and is now serving a lengthy prison term. Followers of these American offshoot groups have been tied to notorious homegrown terrorism cases in the United States. In October 2010, NPR reported, “Of the two-dozen homegrown plots in the United States in the past year, Revolution Muslim was linked to one-third of them.” Similarly, in December 2010 CNN reported, [I]n just the past 18 months, eight of the 27 reported cases of homegrown terrorism saw U.S. terror suspects frequenting, blogging on, or directly linked to Revolution Muslim and the Islamic Thinkers Society — another extremist New York group that another convert and Bakri follower Yousef al-Khattab played a role in.” In addition to Younes Abdullah Muhammad, other dangerous Jihadists linked to either al-Khattab or Revolution Muslim include:

Colleen LaRose, aka “Jihad Jane” 49* Attempted murder of Dutch
cartoonist Lars Vilks. Plead guilty attempted murder

Samir Khan, 25, Linked to Al Qaeda, Internet media editor. Killed in drone strike in Yemen in Sept. 2011

Zachary Chesser, aka Abu Talhah al-Amrikee, 22, Posting threats re: cartoon South Park and attempted membership in Somalia Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab, 25 year federal prison sentence

Abdel Hameed Shehadeh Posted on Revolution Muslim and on civiljihad.com promoting Osama bin Laden and Anwar al Awalki; lied to federal authorities about travel to Pakistan, Arrested on October 26, 2010

Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, 22, A plot to bomb an Armed Forces recruiting station in Cantonsville, Maryland, Charged in January 2011

Bryant Michael Vinas , aka Bashir al-Ameriki, 29,Truck driver who was connected to Al Qaeda’s plot to bomb Long Island Rail Road with bomb plot, Plead guilty to three charges

Daniel Joseph Maldonado, Trained at al Shabaab sites in Somalia, Charged*ages are at time of arrest.

“Totenham Ayatollah’s” Life of Hate
Born in Syria in 1958 the “Totenham Ayatollah,” was considered Al Qaeda’s most prominent spiritual supporter in the United Kingdom before being banned from the country in 2005 while on a trip to visit his mother in Lebanon, where he has remained ever since. He was sentenced to a life prison term in Lebanon, but that sentence was overturned after two witnesses surprisingly recanted their allegations.

Bakri came to Britain in 1986 after being forced out of Saudi Arabia for his radicalism and started collecting thousands of pounds in government funds in aid. Once in England Bakri was pivotal in the development of two of the most extreme groups there, that later created offshoots and successors both in the United States and the United Kingdom. One group the anti-capitalist, anti-democratic Hizb ut-Tahrir, “Party of Liberation,” founded in 1953, seeks worldwide Muslim rule and has affiliates in over 40 countries, including a small American following in California, New York City, and the Chicago area. The small secretive group, which since Bakri’s departure has condemned acts of terrorism, nonetheless, seeks to transform the United States and other nations into theocratic states in a Muslim Caliphate through non-violent means. The American affiliate is tied to the older UK organization.

After growing the British Hizb ut-Tahrir from a nominal presence to thousands of members over ten years, Bakri was booted from the organization in 1996. He continued to lead the more incendiary al-Muhajiroun, which he founded in Saudi Arabia in March 1983. He transferred that organization to the UK after the Saudis banned it in 1986 and renewed his attentions to it in 1996. Bakri was also directly involved in the International Islamic Front which sent fighters into the former Yugoslavia and Chechnya. Al Muhajiroun, which was disbanded in 2004 following a government pronouncement of its upcoming prohibition, was relaunched by followers and banned under different names, until getting banned again in 2010.

Groomed British Radicals
Bakri was crucial in the empowerment of other notorious British radicals. He financially and rhetorically supported hook handed hate cleric Abu Hamza al Masri, who is also tied to Jamaican hate cleric Abdullah el Faisal. Al Masri, a former Imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque is a vigorous bin Laden supporter who held 9/11 commemorative celebrations and preached that killings of non believers “kafirs” is justifiable. Al Masri faces terrorism related charges in the United States and he has been extradited here. Bakri is also a mentor to his former partner at al Muhajiroun radical ex lawyer Anjem Choudary, 46, who remains in Britain. Choudary has led banned and reconstituted organizations, including most recently Islam4UK, in a cat and mouse match with British authorities. Choudry and Bakri are also allegedly behind a new American group “Sharia 4 America” which calls bin Laden a “martyr,” has wanted posters of Western leaders, and calls for a revolution to replace the United States with a Muslim theocracy.

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain said Bakri won’t be missed during his absence, “He is someone who for 20 years was given shelter by this country and he has spent almost all that time vilifying this country and its values.” The married father of seven apparently also failed to inspire at least one former follower about the depravity of Western values. His daughter, Yasmin Fostok, a 29 year old dyed bloned, says “I don’t get on with my dad.” She was a London pole dancer who said she would go topless “if the venue is right.”

Kerry calls for “hard decisions” in Israel – while Hizballah-al Qaeda forces build up in Syria.

Al Qaeda gunmen march into Syria

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After spending 48 hours in Jerusalem and Ramallah, trying to talk Israeli and Palestinian leaders into reviving the long-stalled Middle East peace process, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s exit line Friday, May 24, was: “We’re getting toward a time now when hard decisions need to be made.”That was all he had to say about Israel’s comments on US proposals on the subject as unworkable and the Palestinian view that American ideas were still unformed and conditions for reviving talks non-existent.In any case, the Syrian crisis hurtling forward heedless of its disastrous potential for its neighbors is fully exercising their leaders’ attention at this time and confronting them with much more urgent “hard decisions.”

The Secretary himself had just come from a Friends of Syria meeting Thursday in Amman, which was attended by a sparse 11 members compared with the original 80. The meeting ended with a demand that the international conference on Syria, which Kerry is trying to convene in Geneva in the first week of June in partnership with Russia, will not accept Assad regime representatives with blood on their hands.

Moscow took exception to this demand Friday by means of a Russian Foreign Ministry statement that Syria has agreed in principle to participate in the conference, but obstacles to a date were still raised by the Syrian opposition.
It can’t therefore be said that Washington and Moscow see eye to eye on the key issues of Syrian representation at the conference they are jointly sponsoring.

The US still insists that Bashar Assad must go before a political solution can be broached, while Russia continues to champion and arm him.

The most conspicuous feature of Kerry’s current Middle East tour is the strong dichotomy between his public statements and mission and the events taking place in the real world around him.
debkafile analysts assign this gap between the Secretary’s perceptions and reality to US President Barack Obama’s own evasiveness on the “hard decisions” he needs to take for determining the level of US involvement in the acute crises shaking this highly volatile region.

This was evident in the speech he delivered  Thursday, March 23, in which he stressed the effort to pull the United States away from its inclusive “post 9/11 war on terror” and “return to normalcy.”

He said “lethal force [such as drones] will only be used against targets who pose a continuing imminent threat to Americans.”
Obama’s message was totally unrelated to the rising militancy of the two most virulent Islamic terrorist movements of the present day.

As he spoke, Al Qaeda, on the one hand, and the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah, on the other, continued to pour fighting strength into Syria and feed the flames of a calamitous civil war which has claimed more than 80,000 lives in a little more than two years.
Our military sources report that Hizballah brigades are forming up with the Syrian army for their next decisive battle, after their al-Qusayr victory, for the capture of the northern city of Homs; Al Qaeda jihadis are streaming across the border from Iraq to cement rebel control of the Deir a-Zor region of eastern Syria.

The aggressive actions of both Hizballah and al Qaeda in Syria are outside the bounds of the US president’s revised objectives for the US war on terror – hence, the rationale for US non-involvement in any part of the Syrian conflict.
At the same time, both these movements are at war, declared or undeclared, on Israel, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Their destabilizing impact extends to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah too.

In terms of timing and immediacy, therefore, the ”hard decisions” John Kerry called for are right outside the current Middle East context. Israel’s leaders must decide urgently how to address Syria’s headlong descent into more bloodshed at a time that Iran, Russia, Al Qaeda and Hizballah are in charge of events.The initiative led by the US Secretary of State and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for an international conference to hammer out a political solution for the Syrian crisis in no way slowed its momentum.
Israel’s leaders would therefore be wise to ignore Kerry’s bid for a return to talks with the Palestinians and devote all their attention to determining how best to handle the perils looming from Syria.

Column One: Thank you, Hafez Assad | JPost | Israel News.

In the face of American rank incompetence, Assad has already broken all the red lines he and his father followed for more than 40 years.

Iran could use a nuclear weapon against Israel and get away with it | The Daily Caller.

Posted By David Meyers On 11:39 AM 05/23/2013 In Opinion