Fred Thompson and CAIR

Cross Posted from Wake up America, thanks Maggie for letting me share this with your readers. Hat Tip to our contributor and blog writer Snooper from Freedom Ain't Free and Take our country back blogs for the link to Thompson's words about CAIR. First off, you might notice we have done a few pieces on Fred Thompson, as well as being part of a blogroll for Fred and having a contribute button on the left sidebar. The only way to decide whether or not to endorse him when the time comes is to listen to what he has to say, check his voting record and when the times comes, make the decision, so as I hear and watch him, I bring his words to you also because in 2008, you also will be making the decision of who to vote for. First, lets look at what Thompson had to say about CAIR, then I am going to show you CAIR's extensive history as well as the documented proof of his terror ties.

I've talked before about the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- most recently because it filed that lawsuit against Americans who reported suspicious behavior by Muslims on a U.S. Airways flight. Better known just as CAIR, the lobbying group has come under a lot of scrutiny lately for its connections to terror-supporting groups. This time, though, The Washington Times has uncovered some very good news about the group. For years, CAIR has claimed to represent millions of American Muslims. In fact, they claim to represent more Muslim in American than ... there are in America. This has alarmed Americans in general as the group often seems to be more aligned with our enemies than us -- which isn't surprising as it spun off from a group funded by Hamas. As you know, Hamas has been waging a terrorist war against Israel and calls for its total destruction. It also promises to see America destroyed. Nowadays, Hamas is busy murdering its Palestinian political rivals. Even with this history, and CAIR's conspicuous failure to condemn Hamas by name, it has been treated as if represents Muslim Americans by our own government. The good news is that the financial support CAIR claims to have among American Muslims is a myth. We know this because The Washington Times got hold of the group's IRS tax records. CAIR's dues-paying membership has shrunk 90 percent since 9/11 -- from 29,000 in 2000 to only 1,700 last year. CAIR's annual income from dues plunged from $733,000 to $59,000. Clearly, America's Muslims are not supporting this group -- and I'm happy to hear about it. Of course, every silver lining seems to have a cloud; and this cloud is that CAIR's spending is running about $3 million a year. They’ve opened 25 new chapters in major cities across the country even as their dues shrank to a pittance. The question is; who’s funding CAIR? CAIR's not saying. The New York Times earlier this year reported that the backing is from "wealthy Persian Gulf governments" including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Obviously, we have a bigger problem here than the one with CAIR.

One of the things I am beginning to appreciate about Fred Thompson is he says what needs to be said without regard to "political correctness". Everyone is so damn scared to speak the truth if it might offend someone that too much is being left unsaid. That is dangerous and unacceptable. Our Previous post, written by Snooper talks a bit about the Muslim Brotherhood and Keith Ellison and I am going to expand on that a bit. NOW, a little history abut CAIR and Keith Ellison's links to CAIR, previously shown to you here.

Jump forward to today now. Does everybody remember the Flying Imam incident? Where six Imams were removed from a plane for acting suspiciously, praying loudy (which is what CAIR focused on), asking for seat belt extensions and then placing them at their feet instead of using them, speaking in a manner than when translated showed complete anti-American, Pro Saddam Hussein rhetoric and placing themselves in a seating arrangement exactly like the 9/11 terrorists did before those fateful crashes. Ellison also took part in "Community Night" with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, and Imam Dr. Omar Shahin. This was “for Imams to meet and interact with community members.” Some of the participants of this meeting became involved in the Flying Imams controversy after being removed from an Arizona bound plane for concerning behavior. Ellison became involved in this controversy shortly after it erupted when he attempted to arrange a meeting between parties including US Airways executives, the Metropolitan Airports Commission, and other legislators and community members. Questions about Shahin surfaced in July 2005, when author and terrorism investigator Steven Emerson, author of "Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.," mentioned him in testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee investigating the financing of terrorists. Emerson identified Shahin as a fundraiser for KindHearts, a Toledo-based Muslim charity that has been a subject of federal scrutiny for suspected links to terror-related groups in the Mideast. Emerson also noted Shahin's work as an imam for the Islamic Center of Tucson, which, he said, "has an extensive history of terror links." Okay, so lets give Ellison the benefit of doubt once again and chalk his connection with Shahnin and the Nation of Islam up to coincedence or bad judgment. [...] Since its founding in 1994, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its employees have combined, conspired, and agreed with third parties, including, but not limited to, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (“HLF”), the Global Relief Foundation (“GRF”), and foreign nationals hostile to the interests of the United States, to provide material support to known terrorist organizations, to advance the Hamas agenda, and to propagate radical Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, and certain of its officers, directors, and employees, have acted in support of, and in furtherance of, this conspiracy. Senior CAIR employee Randall Todd Royer, a/k/a “Ismail” Royer, pled guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in prison for participating in a network of militant jihadists centered in Northern Virginia. He admitted to aiding and abetting three persons who sought training in a terrorist camp in Pakistan for the purpose of waging jihad against American troops in Afghanistan. Royer’s illegal actions occurred while he was employed with CAIR. CAIR's Director of Community Relations, Bassem Khafagi , was arrested by the United States due to his ties with a terror-financing front group. Khafagi pled guilty to charges of visa and bank fraud, and agreed to be deported to Egypt. Khafagi’s illegal actions occurred while he was employed by CAIR. On December 18, 2002, Ghassan Elashi, founding board member of CAIR-Texas, a founder of the Holy Land Foundation, and a brother-in-law of Musa Abu Marzook , was arrested by the United States and charged with, among other things, making false statements on export declarations, dealing in the property of a designated terrorist organization, conspiracy and money laundering. Ghassan Elashi committed his crimes while working at CAIR, and was found Guilty. CAIR Board Member Imam Siraj Wahaj, an un-indicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing, has called for replacing the American government with an Islamic caliphate, and warned that America will crumble unless it accepts Islam. Consistent with Hamas ideology, CAIR has served as a conduit for the distribution of materials and funds from foreign nationals to groups and institutions within the United States for the purpose of promoting radical Islam and Hamas ideology, and attacked Islamic clerics and scholars who reject radical Islam and the Hamas agenda. Siraj Wahaj and Omar Shahin were both part of that "community night" that Ellison took part in. Both also involved with the incident on the plane and all three involved with CAIR. Yet another coincedence? OK, sure...lets call that a coincedence too, shall we? Now we have two separate controversial events that happened after that "community night" meeting. One the flying Imams, then we have Ellison deciding to use the Koran for his swearing in, at a time when our country is at war with extremists that are using the Koran in a perverted way to justify killing innocent people. Another coincedence? You decide. What about Ellison's "association" with CAIR? The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was an ardent supporter of Ellison’s 2006 campaign, a fact that caused some controversy (see below). Two days after the 2006 election, CAIR announced Ellison would be a keynote speaker at their annual banquet in Virginia less than two weeks later. According to a CAIR press release, this would be Ellison's first major post-election address. On November 13, 2006 the Star Tribune reported Ellison said he “would not be the keynote speaker at the annual banquet for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)”. Acknowledging that “His appearance had already been announced by CAIR…Ellison said it [the apparently mistaken announcement] was the result of a ‘natural, normal miscommunication.’” Though Ellison was not able to attend the event in person he sent a videotaped address. Now, to be fair, Ellison's associations with the Nation of Islam and CAIR could just be very bad judgment, his timing with his controversial decision to use the Koran at his swearing in ceremony could also be chalked up to bad judgement. But everything together, the connection to the Imams that were removed from the plane, the CAIR invovement, the Nation of Islam involvement, the fact that two VERY controversial incidents happened after that "community night" meeting and the fact that all of the above had some form of involvement with CAIR, all together has to make one stop and say hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ok, bad judgment at the very least. That isn't the only time Ellison has shown bad judgment though, nope, not at all. We then have his campaign finance violations: Campaign finance has also been an issue for Ellison. In early 2006, the Minnesota State Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board reprimanded Ellison for unreported contributions, discrepancies in cash balances, and misclassified disbursements. These transgressions occurred in the years 2002-2004. In 2005 when the board tried to get more information about the problems in Ellison's reports, they got no response from Ellison or his treasurer (his wife Kim). When the board heard nothing, they opened the investigation. Ellison was subpoenaed and fined. The board has also fined Ellison numerous times for late filings, been sued twice by the attorney general, and has been warned many times for absent or incomplete disclosure. (Source) Ellison also failed to pay all or part of his income taxes five separate years between 1992 and 2000, forcing the state and Internal Revenue Service to put liens on his home. He later paid in excess of $18,000. This man certainly has his fair share of bad judgment doesn't he? An awful lot of coincedences too. There is much, much more out there, available at our fingertips, just by using the search engine. Makes one wonder why everyone is so quiet about this man.....are they scared that it may not be "politically correct" to bring up issues about this man, simply because he is a Muslim? Have we become so PC that justified questions are not asked simply because of a mans religion? If this was a non-Muslim politician, Democrat OR Republican, would these things NOT have become major stumbling blocks to their career? Legitimate questions all....anyone have any answers?

Anyone at all? Didn't think so. In a related article today, we have a Muslim women telling us a few things that offend her, and it isn't what you would expect so please read the whole piece, I am only showing excerpts.(Emphasis will be mine)

GROWING up in Vancouver, I attended an Islamic school every Saturday. There, I learned that Jews can't be trusted because they worship "moolah, not Allah", meaning money, not God. According to my teacher, every last Jew is consumed with business. But looking around my neighbourhood, I noticed that most of the new business signs featured Asian languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi and plenty of Urdu. Not Hebrew, Urdu, which is spoken throughout Pakistan. That reality check made me ask: What if my religious school isn't educating me? What if it's indoctrinating me? I'm reminded of this question thanks to the news that Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses and 10 other works of fiction, will be knighted by the Queen. On Monday, Pakistan's religious affairs minister said that because Rushdie had blasphemed Islam with provocative literature, it was understandable that angry Muslims would commit suicide bombings over his knighthood. Members of parliament, as well as the Pakistani Government, amplified the condemnation of Britain, feeding cries of offence to Muslim sensibilities from Europe to Asia. As a Muslim, you better believe I'm offended - by these absurd reactions.

She then goes on to list things that offend her:

I'm offended that it is not the first time honours from the West have met with vitriol and violence. In 1979, Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam became the first Muslim to win the Nobel Prize in science. He began his acceptance speech with a verse from the Koran. Salam's country ought to have celebrated him. Instead, rioters tried to prevent him from re-entering the country. Parliament even declared him a non-Muslim because he belonged to a religious minority. His name continues to be controversial, invoked by state authorities in hushed tones. I'm offended that every year, there are more women killed in Pakistan for allegedly violating their family's honour than there are detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Muslims have rightly denounced the mistreatment of Gitmo prisoners. But where's our outrage over the murder of many more Muslims at the hands of our own? I'm offended that in April, mullahs at an extreme mosque in Pakistan issued a fatwa against hugging. The country's female tourism minister had embraced - or, depending on the account you follow, accepted a congratulatory pat from - her skydiving instructor after she successfully jumped in a French fundraiser for the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. Clerics announced her act of touching another man to be "a great sin" and demanded she be fired. I'm offended by their fatwa proclaiming that women should stay at home and remain covered at all times. I'm offended that they've bullied music store owners and video vendors into closing up shop. I'm offended that the Government tiptoes around their craziness because these clerics threaten suicide attacks if confronted. I'm offended that on Sunday, at least 35 Muslims in Kabul were blown to bits by other Muslims and on Tuesday, 80 more in Baghdad by Islamic "insurgents", with no official statement from Pakistan to deplore these assaults on fellow believers. I'm offended that amid the internecine carnage, a professed atheist named Salman Rushdie tops the to-do list. Above all, I'm offended that so many other Muslims are not offended enough to demonstrate widely against God's self-appointed ambassadors. We complain to the world that Islam is being exploited by fundamentalists, yet when reckoning with the opportunity to resist their clamour en masse, we fall curiously silent. In a battle between flaming fundamentalists and mute moderates, who do you think is going to win?

Read the rest... Moderate Muslims are our friends and I have shown multiple instances where Moderate Muslims have stepped up, risking their very lives, to speak out against the radical extremists that have hijacked their faith for murder and suicide bombings and killing innocent men, women and children. More need to do so though and we cannot let "political correctness" stop us from speaking the truth for fear that we "may" offend someone. That type of mindset is what will get us killed. A MUST READ piece from Debbie at Right Truth called "Some turning against Israel - is the answer a healthy dose of neutron bombs?". Go. Read. It is well worth the time.