Last month, Sen. Rick Santorum schooled CNN’s Candy Crowley on the subject of President Barack Obama’s appeasement of America’s enemies.

Today, on NBC’s Meet the Press, it was David Gregory’s turn.

Like Crowley, Gregory attempted to “fact-check” Santorum by arguing that it could not possibly be “accurate” or “objective” to describe Obama’s foreign policy as “appeasement.”

In particular, he challenged Santorum to distinguish Obama’s policy on Iran from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. (For several years, Democrats have tried to defend Obama by pointing out that the Bush administration refused to approve military strikes, either by the U.S. or by Israel.)

Santorum, as usual, delivered the facts on demand:

Santorum pointed out that Obama failed to support Iran’s democracy movement–and later added that Obama cut funding to pro-democracy programs that Bush had supported. He noted that Obama has given tacit support to Islamist political parties in Egypt and other Arab countries that oppose America and our allies. (more…)

Third Geneva Convention, Article 13: “…prisoners of war must at all times be protected…against insults and public curiosity.”

On Oct. 17, as Gilad Shalit was being brought back to Israel as agreed, Egypt TV–colluding with Egyptian intelligence and Hamas terrorists–interrupted his journey to force him to answer questions on camera. Shalit, confused and uncomfortable, was made to answer a prepared set of questions designed to flatter his Palestinian captors and the post-Mubarak Egyptian regime.

His responses were deliberately mis-translated, as Amir Mizroch points out:

Some of Shalit’s quotes were mistranslated by the translator…

Shalit said “I don’t feel very well, am not used to seeing so many people,” but the translator said: “He feels well, thanks the people who freed him.”

The Egyptian journalist, Shahira Amin, also attempted to use Shalit–one last time–to apply pressure on the Israeli government to release more Palestinian terrorists. As Mizroch relates:

I don’t know where Gilad found the strength to deal with this.

And when the interviewer asks: There are 4,000 Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails, will you campaign to free them?

He replies, with intelligence and dignity: I will be glad if they are released, and if they do not continue fighting against Israel. I hope this deal furthers peace between Israel and Palestinians and that there will be no more wars between them.

Forcing a prisoner to participate in televised propaganda is not only cruel; it is also a violation of Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention, which prohibits the use of prisoners for “public curiosity”–in this case, propaganda. (more…)

From Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid:

In a major blow to Al-Jazeera’s drive for acceptance and respectability in the West, the government of Israel says that one of the channel’s correspondents has confessed to acting as an agent of the terrorist group Hamas. The Israeli government also claims to have uncovered a network of Hamas operatives using Al-Jazeera as a cover.

The U.S. State Department designates Hamas as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” and states that it “was formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Hamas does not recognize Israel and its founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. The group considers Israeli settlers and civilians legitimate military targets.

Samer Allawi, a Palestinian who ran Al-Jazeera’s Kabul, Afghanistan, bureau, was released, sentenced to time served, and agreed to pay a $1,400 fine. He was arrested on August 9 and held in an Israeli prison. Various press freedom groups had clamored for his release.

Some commentators are saying that the treatment of the Al-Jazeera correspondent is evidence of a tougher policy by Israel toward Qatar, an Arab dictatorship which completely finances Al-Jazeera and selects its news and editorial personnel. A classified report prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and leaked to the Israeli media in August outlined Qatar’s more radical stance in the Arab and Muslim world and noted evidence of more frequent Hamas visits to Doha, the capital, and funding by Qatar of Hamas.

A story on the Israelnationalnews.com website about the report also indicated that Israel may start restricting the activities of Al-Jazeera correspondents inside Israel. It said, “Qatar is also the home of Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera, which the Foreign Ministry considers extremely anti-Israel. As a result, the Ministry has worked in recent months to prevent reporters from the network from operating in Israel, and has stopped giving them visas. Currently, the only way for an Al-Jazeera reporter to enter Israel is using a passport from a country that has full diplomatic relations with Jerusalem, but the Ministry is seeking ways to keep these individuals out of Israel as well.”

Although the emir of Qatar pours hundreds of millions of dollars into the channel, making it effectively a propaganda machine for the regime, he prohibits a free press and free elections at home. Bloggers critical of the royal family are simply taken away and tortured, while Al-Jazeera turns a blind eye and deaf ear to their fate.

But because the country hosts a U.S. military base, it enjoys a moderate and even pro-Western reputation. Qatar uses expensive public relations and lobbying firms like Barbour, Griffith & Rogers (BGR) and Brown Lloyd James.

(more…)

At The Corner the other morning, Andy McCarthy points out the LA Times’ “mainstreaming of the Muslim Brotherhood” by providing a forum for Mousa Abu Marzook—at one time the most senior Hamas operative living in the US:

This was akin to giving equal time to the director of the FBI and the head of Cosa Nostra. Marzook is the most important Muslim Brotherhood operative ever stationed in the U.S. I discuss him in some detail in The Grand Jihad. During his 14 years here, which ended when he was deported in 1994, he actually ran Hamas (the terrorist organization that is the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch) from his home in Virginia.

Mousa Abu Marzook

This was in the early 90s, during the Intifada. He also had a hand in the establishment of many of the Islamist organizations with which we are familiar today. The Islamist infrastructure he helped build here was the foundation of the Justice Department’s successful terrorism financing prosecution against the Holy Land Foundation for funneling millions of dollars to Palestinian terrorists.

(more…)

I enjoy the simple fact that George Soros pays people to monitor my radio show and post – what is their term? – “selectively edited” video on their website. I believe I am now on record as creating more jobs than our current administration.

Today I said that the President sided with the terrorists on Israel. He would rather give the holiest sites to Jews and Christians to Hamas, the terrorist government of Palestine. He would rather, according to his remarks on the 1967 boundaries, leave Israel unable to protect itself.

Apparently, Media Matters doesn’t believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization, even though they are classified as such by our own United States government.

(more…)

From Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid:

With much of the world in shock over the brutal Palestinian murders of five members of an Israeli family, the Al-Jazeera Forum ^[1] in Doha, Qatar featured Osama Hamdan, a top member of the political bureau of Hamas, a group that considers Israeli settlers and civilians legitimate military targets.

Americans attending this event included Steve Clemons ^[2] of the George Soros-funded New America Foundation. He has been a cheerleader for Al-Jazeera and his blog ^[4] features a “Watch Al-Jazeera Now” ad. He reports ^[5] that he was at the Al-Jazeera Forum as a “guest” of Al-Jazeera, apparently meaning that the terror channel paid his way and accommodations.

The U.S. State Department designates ^[6] Hamas as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” and states that it “was formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Hamdan was on a panel with former Obama adviser Robert Malley of the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group. The title of the panel was, “Palestinian national strategy in the new Middle East.”

Another American participant in the Al-Jazeera Forum was Ahmed Rehab ^[7], executive director of the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood spin-off.

A report on the event noted ^[9] that several speakers declared that “the fall of dictatorial regimes that were allies of the US and Israel could motivate the Arab streets to strengthen calls for liberation of Palestine …” The phrase, “liberation of Palestine,” is a euphemism for the destruction of the state of Israel.

This is not the first time that the channel has given Hamdan a platform. Al-Jazeera’s Andrew Wander interviewed the Hamas leader ^[11] at a previous Al-Jazeera Forum so that he could define Palestinian “resistance.” He described how civilians, in addition to Israeli soldiers, become terrorist targets. He expressed no regret over this.

(more…)

As the protests in Egypt have raged on now for more than a week, President Obama and members of his administration continue to practice restraint in their communications and careful selection of the words that are spoken.  Hillary Clinton has cautioned against anything that could increase chaos.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told television networks that the “complex, very difficult situation in Egypt requires careful progress toward a peaceful transition to democracy rather than any sudden or violent change that could undermine the aspirations of the protesters.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs echoed the sentiments that while Egypt needs to change, it’s not the place of the United States to publicly support or oppose the removal of Mubarak.  Likewise, most Republicans are also on the same page as the Obama administration, speaking out in support of democratic reforms in Egypt, yet taking great care not to back or oppose Mubarak either way – at least not publicly.  Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “I don’t have any criticism of President [Barack] Obama or Secretary [Hillary] Clinton at this point.  It’s important for U.S. officials “to speak as one voice during this crisis.”  As many have noted, Egypt is perhaps one of the only issues that’s rendered an overwhelmingly bi-partisan response.

But one man in particular is not exactly in agreement with that bi-partisan response:  George Soros.  And he’s warning us to toe the line – his line, that is.

The leftist billionaire who made his fortune on the back of US capitalism is taking aim at all the “rigid and ideological supporters of Israel” and “the religious right” for standing in the way of democracy for Egypt.

(more…)

The title of this article refers to pro-Palestinian groups that organized last May’s six-ship bid to breach Israel’s anti-armament maritime blockade of Gaza. The so-called humanitarian mission ended with nine passengers dead and dozens of other injured. Seven Israeli naval commandos were shot, stabbed, and beaten by peaceful terror-enablers on board the lead craft, the Mavi Marmara.

Now, slow learners who survived the first encounter say they plan to send more, and larger such convoys towards the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave on the upcoming first anniversary of the event.

The Hamas-affiliated Turkish IHH and the Free Gaza movement said they would send another two sea convoys in April and May, Israeli media reported on Monday.

Flotilla supporters say Israel’s blockade causes privation and starvation, is inhumane and violates international law.

However, Hamas often responds to Israel’s allowing in humanitarian aid via several monitored crossing points by issuing counter-offers promising Israel’s annihilation, and then bombing said crossing points, cutting off the aid along with their noses.

So, after the Islamist group’s violent coup wresting power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, and deadly shrapnel showers visited on Israeli cities by close to 10,000 Kassam rockets for more than seven years, Israel cordoned off the Strip until further notice, meaning either Hamas’ leadership learns to dance the hora, or, failing that, that their jig is up. (more…)

Over the last few days, on the news channels and the net, it has been wall-to-wall coverage of the Juan Williams firing by the tools over at National Public Radio. NPR was serving the hydra-headed, Hamas-supporting Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which called on them to take action against Williams.

I am grateful for this high-profile incident. Much like with the Ground Zero mosque affair, Americans have suddenly become aware of something quite terrible — a sea change, a profound transformation of a basic assumption, and a stunning reversal of their very basic unalienable rights. Their sensibilities are shaken. How could such a major seismic shift be kept hidden, kept so secret, until suddenly Juan Williams, a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, gets fired for telling the truth? Is it any wonder that recent polls show that the majority of Americans no longer trust the media? That is a good thing.

To Williams’ point, we have an entire government agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), dedicated to protecting us from terrorists who are largely Muslim. We have torturous security procedures at every stage of air travel. We bear unfathomable costs in taxpayer dollars, but worse, in the surrender of privacy and individual rights because of Islamic jihad: because of the 9/11 Muslim terrorists; and the British Muslims who planned to blow up seven planes and kill 4,000 Americans and/or British people in the name of Islam in 2006; and because of Richard Reid, the Muslim with the exploding shoes; and the Christmas day bomber, the Muslim with the exploding crotch.

And yet in watching the mainstream media coverage of Juan Williams affair, we witness the fact that the media still cannot face up to its own capitulation. It’s all over the airwaves, but no one will discuss what is actually happening — the loss of the freedom of speech to Islamic supremacism and domination. This is a deadly fight — Islam in the West and its suppression of free speech. (more…)

Quote unquote:

The truth? In the week that three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money; they’re enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on… Asked in a March poll to name the “most urgent problem” facing Israel, just eight percent of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty. Israeli Arabs placed peace first.

Obviously that poll actually shows that Israelis are preoccupied with educating their children, keeping their families safe from crime, and not getting killed by neighboring countries. Ergo listing those as priorities one, two, and three. But why let mere numbers get in the way of “Jews are too busy ‘making money’ to embrace negotiations?”

And obviously the West Bank Arabs with whom the Israelis are negotiating are very explicitly not Arabs who “used to live on this land,” insofar as they’re Arabs who “are living on this land” right now. That’s in sharp contrast to the descendants of Jews who were expelled from Arab lands, and who are being left out of the “comprehensive” peace talks. But why let all that get in the way of eliminationist, anti-Israel themes? (more…)

Democratic National Committee

Minutes, Oval Office Meeting

Sept 1, 2010

MEMBERS PRESENT

Tim Kaine, Chairman

Howard Dean, Chairman Emeritus Idiotis

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, DNC mascot

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker pro tempore

Harry Reid, Majority Leader

Senator Charles Schumer

Katie Couric, Network Liaison

Eric Boehlert, Media Matters

Keith Olbermann, DNC Cable Guy

ALSO PRESENT

Rahm Emanuel, WH Chief of Staff

Michael Moore, fabulist

George Soros, DNC Sugar Daddy

President Obama

John Zogby, pollster

James Clyburn, CBC observer

Unidentified Hamas Observer

Proceedings:

Chairman Kaine called the meeting to order at 7:00 p. m. in the Oval Office after aides fetched a booster seat for Mr. Kucinich and removed American flags from the room per request Mr. Moore and Mr. Soros.

President Obama left, pleading a golf date. (more…)

In his latest Time.com piece, Mark Halperin, Editor At Large and Senior MSNBC Political Analyst, has decided that the GOP must not jump into the furor surrounding the latest slip of the First Tongue as it relates to the controversy around the proposed Ground Zero Mosque.

Halperin is quick to point out that the situation has obvious “political potency” but he advises the GOP to avoid using it.  This is like asking Alex Rodriguez to layoff a hanging curveball because it’s late in the game and the Yankees have a large lead. What’s next, a slaughter rule for the upcoming elections?  Will your follow-up story on Time.com ask for candidates with a commanding poll lead to limit spending or fund raising in order to allow their opponent to catch up or save them from public embarrassment?

The savvy analyst also states what everyone else already knows, the GOP stands to win back a number of seats in the mid-term elections without pointing out the obvious problems with the President’s Ramadan Dinner statement being used as additional fuel on the campaign fires.

Halperin goes on to claim: (more…)

DAVID GREGORY:  Our guest today on Meet the Press, CIA Director Leon Panetta.  Welcome, sir.

PANETTA:  Good Morning, Tim.  I heard you’d passed away. Glad you’re back.

GREGORY:  Uh, thanks.  How do you see the Afghan struggle playing out?

PANETTA:  Well, my wife insists on a wall covering, but I prefer a rug, say a Turkestan Kunduz in the Persian style.  We may need a mediator.

GREGORY:  Sir, would you embed journalists in CIA special ops teams?

PANETTA:  I resent that question, Tim.  I’m a happily married man.

GREGORY:  Sorry.  Do you employ Muslims at Langley, sir?

PANETTA:  I do, Tim.  I chose muslin with cheery Wide Ruffles® for my office windows.  I also ordered muslin backdrops for videographic contrast in our interrogation rooms.

GREGORY:  The ”ticking time bomb” scenario, sir. You capture a terrorist after he’s hidden a nuke in New York.  Now what? (more…)

Libya has apparently decided that, if they’re going to have a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, they’re going to own it. So in between using the UNHRC to spread antisemitic organ harvesting libels, they’ve dispatched a ship in the direction of Gaza. This is actually the second time in three years that they’ve tried to break the Israeli blockade, the intention being to establish a pipeline between Hamas and their Tehran sponsors and to build an Iranian port on the Mediterranean Sea. Because the Iranians, they’re humanitarians too.

When Israel intercepted the Turkish flotilla two months ago, it took five or six news cycles before the media’s beatific unarmed activists were proven to be lunatic death-worshiping jihadists. By then the anti-Israel narrative had already hardened, though Reuters gamely kept trying to hide the evidence and the New York Times continued hyperventilating about how “angry Israeli commandos” turned a “ship of protesters into a bloodbath” – just in case.

Now there’s this Libyan ship Amalthea, which may or may not end up reaching Israel. If it does, and if there’s a confrontation, the media coverage won’t exactly swing wildly in Israel’s direction. Instead you’ll see the same mostly lame attempts to whitewash the same mostly pathological jihadists. Except in this case there’s already tape on the whole lunatic death-worshiping thing, courtesy of an Al Jazeera interview with one of the passengers:

Here then, is the evidence that the media will be ignoring tomorrow, today: (more…)

As an American citizen who has spent seven years fighting against and promoting awareness of the threat of libel tourism to American free speech rights, I am writing in support of the S 3518, the “Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act,” or the “SPEECH Act,” now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The SPEECH Act marks a critical step in the defense of American national security and the freedoms of expression that form the cornerstone of our democracy. The Act protects these First Amendment guarantees by guarding authors and publishers from enforcement of frivolous foreign libel judgments from countries that do not have the United States’ strong free speech protections. Such suits, which have been pressed with increasing frequency worldwide over the past several years, have been used as a weapon to silence American researchers, scientists, reporters, bloggers and others.

American writers and media outlets have been sued for libel in England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Singapore, and others. They were forced into expensive lawsuits abroad, staining their reputations, discouraging research in their fields, and depriving the American public of vital information. (more…)

Having been caught doctoring pictures during of the violence aboard the guerilla flotilla boat, Mavi Marmara, Reuters is circling the wagons and looking for other ways to discredit Israel.

Officially, Reuters says the elimination of the IHH terrorists holding knives in the pictures it originally published to its wire was an editing error.

Reuters is committed to accurate and impartial reporting. All images that pass over our wire follow a strict editorial evaluation and selection process. The images in question were made available in Istanbul, and following normal editorial practice were prepared for dissemination which included cropping at the edges.

“Committed to accurate and impartial reporting?” Gee, if that was the case why did they add biased captions to the pictures when they posted the non-cropped versions? As reported by Omri Ceren on Big Journalism earlier today the wire service added a political message to the pictures.

Pro-Palestinian activists hold down an Israeli commando on the Gaza-bound Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea early May 31, 2010. Israeli marines stormed the Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza on Monday and nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed, triggering a diplomatic crisis and an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council.

I agree with Omri when he says: (more…)

Helen Thomas, the liberal harpy bestowed with legendary status by virtue of outliving her contemporaries, has finally been forced from her seat in the front row of the White House briefing room. Thomas’s odious comments sparked an outcry in the U.S., as well they should, but the media should spare us their outrage.

Thomas’s comments are indistinguishable from the pus spewed by members of the aid flotilla and their Hamas compatriots. The “peace activists” on the aid flotilla told the Israelis to “Go back to Auschwitz.” Yet the media portray the aid flotilla as a group of humanitarians seeking to deliver relief to distressed Palestinians, and the Israelis as bloodthirsty butchers. Thomas’s comment, horrible and reprehensible as it is, is the natural child of utter historical ignorance and the media’s continual focus on the supposed evils of the Israelis and lamb-like suffering of the Palestinians.

The Palestinians certainly suffer, but most of their suffering is the result of Hamas’s insistence on killing civilians within Israel. If terrorists wouldn’t cross over into Israel, there would be no need for a fence. Egypt also fears Hamas, and also prevents Gaza residents from entering Egypt. (“Israel consistently alleged that Iranian and other weapons were being smuggled into Gaza through a series of tunnels, and with Egypt maintained tight control on the enclaves borders,” Hamas, Council on Foreign Relations.) The Israelis take extreme measures to avoid killing civilians. (more…)

*** Updated: Pamela Geller will be speaking at our event.. We are very happy and pleased that she will be attending! The TNTPC believes (CAIR) to be a hate group. We will not follow any request from them. Anthony Shreeve, convention organizer

I am one of the featured speakers at the Inaugural statewide Tea Party Convention in Tennessee’s beautiful Smoky Mountains this weekend. But look at this: the unindicted co-conspirator, terror-tied Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is trying to get the good, decent Americans of the Tennessee Tea Party to crush free speech by dropping me from the Tea Party convention this weekend.

Why is CAIR starting this campaign now? This is all about the mosque that Muslims are planning to build near Ground Zero. I spoke the truth about this supremacist initiative on the Sean Hannity radio show last week, in a debate with Islamic apologist Michael Ghouse. Who won the debate? Well, you be the judge:

The next day I was scheduled to be on the Mike Huckabee Show on Fox News along with a representative from the mosque, but at the last minute they decided not to send anyone. They sent Huckabee a written statement, which he read to me on the air. And now CAIR sends around this press release full of lies and distortions, trying to intimidate the Tennessee Tea Partiers into canceling me. The CAIR press release starts this way:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the organizers of the inaugural Tennessee Tea Party Convention to be held this weekend in Gatlinburg to drop an anti-Islam speaker who claims that ‘Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam’ and that Islam ‘mandates’ lies and deception.

Sounds terrible, right? Except for one thing: it’s true. (more…)