CAIR

9/11, CAIR, conspiracy theories

It is time to put the 9/11 “truthers” to shame

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Allen Forkum of Cox&Forkum writes:

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend the new History Channel documentary debunking the 9/11 “truth” movement: 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction. The show airs twice more this weekend: Saturday, August 25 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, August 26 at 12:00 AM.

Troofers (click on image):

Troofers

For nearly six years now, we have witnessed the lies and profiteering of the 9/11 “truthers.” In additon, a menagerie of misfits, mentally ill people, and the willfully ignorant have, either completely or in part, bought into their garbage. The most recent converts to the “truther” cause are apparently two Ohio State University professors. Luke Sheahan, of Family Security Matters wrote of them Wednesday:

The two professors, John Mueller and John Quigley, are both well respected in their fields and both hold endowed chairs. Mueller holds the Woody Hayes Chair for National Security and published the book Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them, which argues the simple thesis that there is no terrorist threat. Quigley, a Harvard-educated scholar, published an article on how Osama bin Laden is really just an anti-colonial activist. Empathy for Osama’s type is thus not hard for those residing in the hallowed halls of academia.

The panel was sponsored by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Ohio and Columbus 9/11 Truth. The Ohio chapter of CAIR contributed two members to the panel, Abukar Arman and Ahmad Al-Akhras [emphasis added mine. More about these two in a moment]. Arman published an article last December in the California Chronicle in support of the Islamic Courts Union’s takeover of Somalia. Arman subsequently lost his place on the Central Ohio Homeland Security oversight board. We’ll ignore for now the obvious question of what he was doing there in the first place. Al-Akhras, Vice Chair of the national CAIR, has spoken out in support of convicted terrorists. And of course, CAIR’s dubious connections with Islamic “charities” are well known.
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What would make distinguished professors at a major American research university fall for the patently absurd ideas propagated by the likes of Columbus 9/11 Truth? Or even allow themselves to be associated with such clearly unsavory fellows as Abukar Arman and Ahmad Al-Akhras? This isn’t just your run of the mill anti-Americanism, its full blown crazy black helicopter conspiracy theories. However, there is a connection. The vision that makes some academics anti-American also lends itself to making them conspiracy theorists.

Professors sitting in their Ivory Towers imagine that a perfect order is attainable in this world. Of course, America falls short of that order, but, comparatively speaking, not far. Historically, most countries are far worse, and few can boast even one or two of the many benefits America has granted its citizens and the world. But that’s neither here nor there.

The dream for a perfect order can never be consummated. In this imperfect world it is impossible; it must forever remain a dream. Those who hold this belief, like Professors Mueller and Quigley and their Communist sympathizing predecessors, must develop an explanation for why their purposes are continually frustrated. Why did the Soviet Union and not the United States fall? It must be that the leaders of the Soviet cause were corrupt and fascist in nature. With the right leaders, perhaps the experiment could one day succeed. As long as corrupt, fallen human beings are at the helm of such enterprises, and they always will be, then I suspect the results will only be more of the same…

9/11 family member Peter Gadiel weighed in about the two professors, CAIR, and a leading “truther”:

The granddaddy of these “the U.S. government did it” fairy tales is a film called “Loose Change,” manufactured by a fellow by the name of Dylan Avery, a film he admits was inspired by the film “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” and conceived while he was “high.” The fastest way anyone can debunk this film is to read the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s interview with Avery.

In that interview, Avery admits lack of foundation or proof for his assertions, and admits the existence of reliable opposing scientific opinion, admits that much of what he says is speculation, and backtracks when confronted with facts (e.g. after saying NORAD intentionally sent planes in the wrong direction in the search for the hijacked planes he then says: ”I don’t want to implicate anybody without hard evidence, but it seems that NORAD and the FAA and a lot of key institutions of our government simply dropped the ball.” (Most of us understand that “dropping the ball” is quite different from intentionally allowing 3,000 people to die.) You can see for yourself the logical gaps (actually they’re logical canyons) in this man’s reasoning.
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In short, with his ludicrous claims of “the government did it,” Mr. Avery is diverting the attention of the American people from the true causes of 9/11 which are Islamist hatred and U.S. government incompetence and corruption. That is the real danger of the “9/11 Truthers.”

Under the circumstances, CAIR would be foolish if it didn’t join this bandwagon; any scheme that will shift blame from Islamists to someone else is okay by them. “Hey dumb Americans,” says CAIR, “don’t believe your own eyes. Islamists didn’t do it, you did.” And Mr. Avery and those Ohio State professors are carrying their message.

Ohioans Abukar Arman, Ahmad Al-Akhras, and third member of CAIR recently accosted a former Marine late one evening outside of his home because they did not like a bumper sticker on his car.

On at least two occasions, Mr. Al-Akhas has expressed his support for accused and suspected terrorists.

In April, Columbus resident Christopher Paul was arrested for terrorism related charges after being under surveillance for four years. Yet the Associated Press quotes Al-Akhras as saying of Paul:

“From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town. They are a good family together.”

AP added that Al-Akhras said his group will work to make sure Paul’s constitutional rights are granted.

In November 1999, two men were removed from an American West flight from Phoenix to Columbus and detained after landing because they had made repeated attempts to enter the cockpit area of the plane during the flight:

“…the 9/11 Commission Report (page 521, footnote 60, pdf reader required) explains that the FBI now considers the incident as a “dry run” for the 9/11 hijackings. And the two men involved? As the 9/11 Commission Report explains, Hamdan al-Shalawi was in Afghanistan in November 2000 training at an Al-Qaeda camp to launch “Khobar Tower”-type attacks against the US in Saudi Arabia, and Mohammad Al-Qadhaieen was arrested in June 2003 as a material witness in the 9/11 attacks. Both men were friends of Al-Qaeda recruiter, Zakaria Mustapha Soubra, who drove them to the airport that day in Qadhaieen’s car. Another friend of Shalawi is Ghassan al-Sharbi, another Al-Qaeda operative that would later be captured in Pakistan with high-level Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida.
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“Their current silence and website purge notwithstanding, immediately after the November 1999 “dry run”, CAIR was not shy about publicly speaking on the incident. “It seems like they single out some individuals because of their name, the way they look or their national origin,” huffed current CAIR National Vice Chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras (who was then president of the CAIR Ohio chapter) in an interview with the Egyptian daily, Al-Ahram. That same article quoted Nihad Awad, Executive Director and Co-Founder of CAIR, who explained, “the hysteria around [the crash of] EgyptAir [Flight 990] has created a negative atmosphere that leads to such incidents.”

As thousands of 9/11 family members and friends gathered last September 11 at Ground Zero in remembrance of those we lost six years ago, a crowd of perhaps 250 “truthers” collected nearby (see image below) like slime in a cesspool.

Alex Jones and his ghouls gather at Ground Zero 9112006

As the 9/11 “truthers” have no shame, it is about time we starting judging them all for the company they keep.

American jihad, CAIR

CAIR resents FBI’s release of suspicious ferry passengers

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Anyone who knows these men or their whereabouts are asked to call the FBI at (206) 622-0460:

Two men wanted by FBI for questioning

The FBI says it does not know their names, ethnicity, place of origin, or even their religion; they just acted suspiciously and a ferry boat captain took their photographs:

10:29 PM PDT on Monday, August 20, 2007
By CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News (Seattle)

SEATTLE – The FBI is asking for the public’s help to identify two men who have been seen acting suspiciously aboard Washington State ferries recently. The FBI released a bulletin late Monday, including photographs of the two men. One of the photos shows the men side-by-side and the other is a solo shot of one of them. They were snapped by a ferry employee who thought the pair acted suspiciously. “They had more than the average interest in the working parts of the ferry, the layout of the ferry, the size of it — more than you would see in normal passenger,” said FBI spokesperson Robbie Burroughs.

Despite the FBI’s claim to know little about the pair, the release of their photos has upset some in the Puget Sound area who self-identified themselves based upon their ethnicity or affiliation:

Dozens of Muslims and Arabs have complained to community leaders about the photographs. The fallout has led to a meeting planned today between Muslim- and Arab-American community leaders and law-enforcement officials.

“We need to get some type of apology from them and figure out how to get back to where we were,” said Rita Zawaideh, head of the Arab-American Community Coalition.

Community leaders also expect to raise questions about another recent incident. On Aug. 12, leaders say half a dozen men of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent were stopped and questioned for up to six hours as they left a ferry in Seattle following a trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Those men contacted Zawaideh to report the incident as profiling.

David Gomez, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office, said he was aware of an incident in which five or six ferry passengers were questioned, but wasn’t clear whether it was the same one.

Zawaideh said she met with FBI officials about the August incident three days before the agency released the photos of the two men. But the FBI didn’t bring up that subject.

“Why not ask us then and we would have had a way to ask people in the community,” she said.

Gomez said the agency needs to address certain sensitive issues, but “people in those communities have to get over this sensitivity toward feeling victimized.”

Many passengers have been stopped and questioned recently, as the ferry system has stepped up security once the FBI concluded the men might be watching the system. The stops are based on activities, not skin color, Gomez said.

Two days ago, a Seattle Times photographer, who is white, was stopped and questioned after taking photographs near the Mukilteo ferry terminal.

The FBI didn’t take the photos of the two men to the Arab- and Muslim-American community because the agency doesn’t know if the men are Middle Eastern, Gomez added.

“That seems potentially prejudicial to me, and in some ways worse than simply putting [the photos] out the way we did,” Gomez said. “It is not us saying these guys look Middle Eastern.”

Zawaideh countered: “They’re not saying these men are Arabs, but insinuating they are.”
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Both Zawaideh and S. Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), say their organizations have been receiving more reports lately involving allegations of discrimination.

The one on the right looks a lot like someone I know yet I also know that he has never been in the Seattle area. By the way, he is American born, of Irish and Italian desent, and Catholic. One should not assume too much from a photograph. Perhaps people ought to judge others based upon their actions don’t you think?