Kudos to all Americans who took to the streets, the highways, and the byways and stood for America up at Beck's Restore America rally on the mall. "Restoring Honor" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. "We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrating on the scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished - and the things that we can do tomorrow. The story of America is the story of humankind." Beck's rally .... a peaceful and non-political "re-dedication" of the traditional honor and values of the nation. The event is taking place on the same stage where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech 47 years ago to the day, a coincidence that has caused controversy. Demonstrators came on foot from hotels and parking garages, with thousands of others piling onto trains as Metro stations across the region were crowded Saturday morning. WASHINGTON (AP) — Sarah Palin says the way to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is to honor those men and women in the military who protect the United States. The potential 2012 presidential candidate says those who fought at Bunker Hill andGettysburg protected the freedoms that allowed thousands of people gather on the National Mall in Washington on the 47th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. While broadcaster Glenn Beck’s rally isn’t billed as a political event, Palin says voters must reject calls to “fundamentally transform America.” Instead, she says “we must restore America.” Palin, whose son served in Iraq, says the country is at a perilous moment. AFDI/SIOA Manhattan bus ad campaign poster Ken Vogel of Politico is hot on my trail to track the funding of AFDI (American Freedom Defense Initiative) and SIOA (Stop the Islamization of America), the two fledgling organizations I founded operating on a shoe string (and a wing and a prayer.) Orchestrating various campaigns with my colleague Robert Spencer (bus ads, rallies) Vogel is tracking that dough! There is no there there but what Vogel doesn't understand is, what we lack in the bank we more than make up for in sheer will and passion for liberty and no amount of jihad petrol money can defeat that. The latest in $125 million dollar rub-our-faces-in-it Ground Zero mosque money story - where racketeering, laundering, terror financing,rap sheets, and foreign money abound -- seems to have barely piqued in the interest of the hard hitting journolists over at Politioc: Sharif el-Gamal was a waiter a few years ago, who has turned into a real estate powerhouse. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making it big in America, as long as el-Gamal is playing by the rules. But is he? Charles Leaf found out that el-Gamal’s SOHO Properties real estate business, which owns the site on which the Ground Zero mosque is to be built, has been receiving financial support from an Egyptian-born owner of several medical companies named Hisham Elzanaty. Elzanaty, Mr. Leaf reports, is the guarantor on a $39 million loan that el-Gamal’s company assumed. Mr. Elzanaty’s name is listed in campaign donation records as contributing to the campaigns of President Obama andSenator Kirsten Gillibrand, both supporters of the mosque. One of Mr. Elzanty’s companies was audited by New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General who found that the company was overpaid $331,336 for Medicaid services. Hisham Elzanaty was also in the center of a racketeering and fraud suit brought against him and others by State Farm MutualAutomobile Insurance Company in 2007. The complaint charged, among other things, that Mr. Elzanaty arranged for a doctor to set up a “facade” of fraudulently incorporated professional service companies under her name, which Elzanatry actually controlled, to receive payments from State Farm that they were not eligible to receive. The complaint described Elzanatry’s alleged scheme as a: common “shell game” used by participants in doc-in-the-box arrangements – to create entities with new names and new tax identification numbers (like Quality Medical) to continue submitting fraudulent charges to insurers for the same medically unnecessary services provided by the same individuals in the same locations, after insurers begin questioning the claims of other entities with other tax identification numbers (like Accurate Medical and JP Medical) which are controlled by the same people (like Elzanaty) This racketeering suit was apparently settled, although its terms are undisclosed. But the suit reveals a disturbing pattern of alleged conduct by Mr. Elzanatry that may well be at work in helping to fund the developer behind the Ground Zero mosque. We know that radical Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood operate through many front organizations. Could the funding of the Ground Zero mosque be all part of an elaborate mosque-in-the box shell game to cover up something far more sinister? Maybe not. But we won’t know until the Ground Zero mosque developer Sharif el-Gamal and his financial backer Hisham Elzanaty begin to come clean about where their money is really coming from. (more at News Real blog) Not to worry folks, Vogel of Pelosi's Politico is on the money trail. No, not that money trail. Vogel is all over my $18 and $25 and $50 donations (yes, every once in while I get three figures and a couple of times, four!) Vogel hounded me for a phone call but even that is a time luxury I cannot afford. But Atlas readers will get a kick out of this exchange: And, if so, at what number can I call you? Thanks, Ken Kenneth P. Vogel ___________________________________________________ Email me -- Pamela ____________________________________________________ I have reached out to both of you separately, but since my specific questions for you (pasted into the text below) overlap, I figured I would email you simultaneously and let you decide how to respond: 1 – Robert indicated in his blog post that you two raised $10,000 for the New York bus ads. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority tells us that the Coalition for the Preservation of Ground Zero paid $8,000 for a 1-month run of the “Why here?” ads on 36 buses. Is that the extent of your ad campaign right now? Are more ads planned? 2 – Unlike the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America, the Coalition for the Preservation of Ground Zero does not appear to have a website or any means of accepting donations. How did it raise the money for the bus ads? 3 – What is the relationship between the Coalition for the Preservation of Ground Zero, the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America? 4 – How are each of the above groups registered (we could not find a record of any with the New York Department of State’s corporations division or the New York State Attorney General’s charities division)? ">5 – Robert told the Washington Post that you two raised $50,000 for bus ads – which groups raised that money? 6 – Did Jihad Watch – the stand-alone 501(c)3 (EIN # 20-0699967), rather than the project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center – contribute or transfer money to the Coalition for the Preservation of Ground Zero, the Freedom Defense Initiative and/or Stop Islamization of America for bus ads or any other anti-mosque activities? Thanks in advance for your help, Ken POLITICO www.politico.comm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4) There is only one org: AFDI. It is not at this time a tax deductible charity. People donate money without expecting a tax deduction but to stand up for America’s constitution and liberty. 5) See 4. 6) There are non-profit organizations that have provided grants for our initiatives. If they wish to make their grants public, they will do so. If and when AFDI becomes a tax deductible charitable organization, we’ll make all required public disclosures. How is it legally structured now (non-profit, partnership, LLC, etc.)? ____________________________________________________________ It's a corporation. If you have any further questions, please contact my attorney, David Yerushalmi 202.379.4774 (D.C. office) And that was that. Robert blogged about it here: Cost of New York bus ads: $10,000 I just got a call from Kenneth P. Vogel of Politico, asking me a series of questions about donations to our efforts against the Ground Zero mega-mosque, and growing increasingly hostile and belligerent when I declined to answer. Vogel even said to me at one point, "Look, you can make this hard, or you can make this easy" -- apparently he has been watching too many Law and Order reruns. Well, Politico can be very proud of itself. Instead of looking into where the pro-Sharia, anti-freedom of speech, refuses-to-denounce-Hamas Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his thug developer Sharif El-Gamal are getting their $100 million to build the mega-mosque, when they haven't ruled out funding from Iran and Saudi Arabia, they're spending their time trying to trace the few thousands it will take Pamela Geller and me to mount our rally against the mega-mosque on 9/11. Bravo, Politico. Do your worst. I'll reveal the secret: all our funding comes from the Vast Zionist Conspiracy. And when this all comes down, you'll be in the running for a Walter Duranty Award. Don't know who he was, Vogel? Look him up. The relentless whitewashing of Islamic imperialism and supremacism in history is insulting and demeaning to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the history of Islam. Today, the Wall Street Journal stooped to a New York Times-esque low, running an oped piece; "Islamism is not Islam" by Maajid Nawiz "The furor over the inaccurately dubbed 'Ground Zero Mosque' has done nothing but reinforce al Qaeda propaganda." *sigh* If concretes are not the foundation of an argument, well then, just say anything, and Nawiz most certainly does. The premise of Nawaaz's argument flies in the face of over a millennium of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilation and enslavements. The terrible fact is Al Qaeda (arabic for headquarters -- think Centcom) is made up of devout Muslims who follow pure, original Islam. Muhammad would be proud. Nawaaz's piece in the WSJ is superlative taqiya (the religious mandate in Islam to lie, deceive to advance Islam) but it is patently untrue and deceptive, mirroring much of Imam Rauf's rhetoric to the English press (versus the recently discovered audio tapes exposing Rauf, in which he echoes al Qaeda's message). David Yerushalmi, the legal expert handling (and winning!) FDI/SIOA's lawsuits against NYC MTA, Detroit SMART for violation of free speech, and the trademark office (denying SIOA trademark status because it offends CAIR), and in another matter suing the US government for funding sharia finance, penned this letter to the editors at WSJ on the UK effort to justify Ground Zero mosque. Yerushalmi cogently argues: I write in response to Maajid Nawaaz’s oped in Saturday’s WSJ (link here) in which he attempts to draw a distinction between Islam and Islamism. While there may indeed be such an argument if “Islam” means any given Muslim’s personal, subjective approach to the divine and “Islamism” means Sharia-adherence and –advocacy, this is not the argument Nawaaz presents. In fact, Nawaaz never really tells us what he means except to slide into an argument that Islamic “traditionalists,” impliedly devout and even Shariah-adherent, reject the political and hegemonic aims of the “Islamists.” In other words, Nawaaz wants us to believe that there is a good “traditionalist” Shariah and a bad, modern (20th century) “Islamism” that has perverted Shariah by its demand to control the political institutions of state power. Nawaaz seeks to prove that this “traditionalist” Shariah-adherence never sought political power by calling upon what he calls “the social sciences.” You know you’re in trouble when the answer lies in the “facts” of “social science,” notorious for its inability to discover any truth other than there is no truth. So, Nawaaz tells us that these social sciences demonstrate that throughout the more than millennium of a hegemonic Islamic empire known as the Caliphate, only rarely was Shariah imposed as state law and typically only used as a rationale for religious wars. Even if this statement were entirely true, and it is not, it would simply mean that Muslim political leaders are as subject to debauchery and the exploitation of religious fervor as the next tyrant. It does not tell us what Shariah demands. Indeed, even Nawaaz concedes that there were times when Shariah was state law. The question of course is how could that be if Shariah demanded as a theoretical matter to be separated from the political sphere. Does the Islamic traditionalist’s Shariah adopt the extant Christian doctrine of “render unto Caesar” or does it not? Anyone who would argue publicly that doctrinaire “traditionalist” Shariah demands anything other than political power in a hegemonic Caliphate either knows literally nothing of Shariah or is engaged in deception and propaganda. All one needs to do is open up the most authoritative text on Islamic law available in English today, Reliance on the Traveler. It has the imprimatur of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, the Harvard of Shariah. Turn to the Book of Justice—where else? Once there, turn to the sections on Jihad. There you will learn the when, where and how of the law. It isn’t what Nawaaaz says it is by a quite lengthy stretch. Moreover, the argument can be made persuasively that only since Ataturk’s now failing Turkish experiment to secularize the remnants of a dismantled Ottoman Empire and the manifestly dismal autocracies created by the Muslim nationalists who took power after the end of colonial rule in the Near East and South Asia was there any hope of defanging Shariah and its lust for political, indeed, hegemonic political power. That experiment in secularism is failing in Turkey as the Kemalists are on the run and it is also collapsing in the rest of the Muslim world as the “traditionalists” flex their muscles in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf region, Gaza, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, Egypt, North Africa, East Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bosnia, Chechnya, and even in Europe. It is no coincidence that when given a chance to really vote, whether at the polls or in surveys, Muslims in the Muslim world overwhelmingly embrace a very strict and very political Shariah. (See World Public Opinion Poll: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/apr07/START_Apr07_rpt.pdf.) This table speaks louder than Nawaaz’s assertions: And here in the US we are paying for extremist imams (like Rauf) and their wives to go on Middle Eastern junkets to raise money for Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mosques. Sick. Rome, 27 August (AKI) - Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah's Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament. Bradford: Smoke bombs thrown at English Defence League protest Chanting "give us our country back" and holding signs saying "no more mosques" and "no to sharia (law)," the EDL protesters were soon pushed back by police. The English Defence League was founded a year ago in Luton as a response to the vile Muslim protests hurling disgusting abuse at returning Brit soldiers. The stated goal of the EDL is to oppose militant Islam and the sharia. What's wrong with that? Everything to the PC, leftist slaves in the media and the government. Things got ugly at a demonstration in Bradford, UK today. Expect media to blame the EDL when, in fact, the Muslims and the leftists (under the Orwellian moniker UAF -- United Against Fascism) showed up to agitate and incite violence. The fascists always show up at EDL demonstrations to deliberately incite to violence. The goosesteppers take their talking points from Goebbels.... fascists yelling fascist: Around 1pm two coaches of EDL supporters arrived and were met by shouts of "fascists off our streets". For public safety, mounted police pushed people away from the Urban Gardens down Market Street, while other officers forced EDL members away from the barricade into the centre of the gardens. The group were allowed to hold a static protest by police having had their original march through Bradford banned by Home Secretary Theresa May. Earlier police said about 700 had gathered at the Urban Gardens, between 250 and 300 at the Crown Court Plaza for the Unite Against Fascism/We Are Bradford event, and 150 for the community event called Be Bradford - Peaceful Together at Infirmary Fields. (here) "Peaceful together" -- that is so Rauf. Peaceful, only if you submit. I will update as I get unbiased, responsible coverage -- you cannot go to mainstream media on anything EDL (or SIOA). From waiter to "developer" of the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mega-mosque................once a thug, always a thug. The more you look under the Ground Zero mosque rock, the uglier it gets. When Sharif El Gamal threatened a fellow Muslim who opposed the mosque, it was typical of his violent history. And this criminal expects the taxpayer to pay for the Islamic supremacist mosque on Ground Zero, The slasher who attacked the Muslim cabdriver worked wit Park 51 (Cordoba Conquest Initiative). Hmmmmm. From the NY Daily News: Years before his latest real-estate project ignited an uproar, Sharif El-Gamal racked up at least seven run-ins with the law, including a bust for patronizing a prostitute. [....] His most recent arrest was for a Sept. 10, 2005, assault on a barber who sublet a Manhattan apartment from El-Gamal's brother, Sammy. The brothers and another man went to the apartment that afternoon to retrieve back rent from Mark Vassiliev, criminal and civil court records show. El-Gamal allegedly cursed at Vassiliev, called him the Arabic curse word "sharmouta" and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and cheekbones. When he was arrested, El-Gamal denied he socked Vassiliev, but conceded, "[Vassiliev's] face could have run into my hand," court papers say. El-Gamal eventually settled the civil case for $15,000 - and the 2008 negotiations provided a glimpse into his finances. Vassiliev's lawyer, Erik L. Gray, said there was no indication El-Gamal had assets beyond a $1.1 million upper West Side pad he owned with his wife. Even after El-Gamal inked the deal, he was slow to pay and the matter ended up in mediation - where his lawyer, Marshall Isaacs, told Gray there were money problems. "He had told me [El-Gamal] was struggling financially and was having trouble coming up with the payment," Gray said. "It was based on the fact El-Gamal agreed to fork over $1,360 in interest and fees but paid up in installments, Gray said. If his 2008 cries of poverty were genuine, El-Gamal experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune a year later, scoring a $39 million mortgage to buy a W. 27th St. commercial building. He had a partner, Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who co-signed the loan. Elzanaty denied to discuss his dealings with El-Gamal. In a deposition for the Vassiliev suit, El-Gamal testified he worked as a waiter from 1997 to 2001 when he "moved onto greener pastures." The son of a bank executive, El-Gamal has said he turned to Islam after 9/11 and that his religious awakening followed a troubled youth. He pleaded guilty in 1994, 1998 and 1999 to disorderly conduct in Manhattan. He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in 1990, DWI in 1992 and attempted petit larceny in 1993, Nassau County prosecutors said. Details were unavailable, but a source confirmed a 1994 arrest for patronizing a prostitute. Someone forward this to crack journo-tool Mark Jacobson. I am sure the journos over at The NY Times are hiding under their desks. These guys are dangerous. Obama is dropping the case against the Cole bombing, a jihadist act of war. In October 2000, the Cole was attacked by Muslim terrorists in a homicide attack in the Yemeni post of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and thirty-nine were injured, and the ship was damaged. Today we hear they are dropping the case. Another big fat lie, to what end? To advance what agenda? Whose interests? Certainly it's not America's. Obama Administration Halts Commission Trial Against Cole Bomber NRO It’s a sleepy Friday in late August, the president is on another vacation, Congress is out of town, no one is paying much attention. What better time for the Obama administration to pull the plug, once again, on military commissions? This time, it has halted the case of top al-Qaeda operative Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was to be prosecuted by a military court for the Cole bombing. The Washington Post report is here, and Jen Rubin has thoughts at Contentions. None of this is terribly surprising. Prosecuting the Cole case by military commission sticks in the Left’s craw because it shows the incoherence of the Obama/Holder position. They want to treat the war like a crime and endow our enemies with all the rights and advantages of civilian courts; yet, they went military in the Cole case, despite the fact that there is a pending Justice Department civilian indictment addressing that attack. There can be only one explanation for that: they are afraid the case against Nashiri is weak and might not hold up under (slightly) more exacting civilian court due process. That is, the Obama/Holder position is not principled — for all their “rule of law” malarkey, they are willing to go where they have the best chance to win. But there were no military commissions when the Cole was bombed, so what is the basis for trying it militarily? Answer: the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war . . . except the Left doesn’t accept that it’s a war and the administration wants to prosecute the 9/11 plotters in civilian court. None of it makes any sense. I have been saying for a while now: Keep your eye on the civilian prosecution against Ahmed Ghailani, one of the embassy bombers. That case is now pending in Manhattan federal court before Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has made significant rulings in favor of the government — declining to throw the case out on the grounds of “torture” and delay. As I said back in May: It is . . . worth noting that Ghailani is not charged just with blowing up the embassies. The indictment against him alleges the overarching al-Qaeda conspiracy to murder Americans — going back to 1991. The same indictment, with a few tweaks to add the terrorist rampages that occurred after the embassy bombings, could easily be used to charge the 9/11 plotters, as well as other enemy combatants. Despite all the outrage it stirred, Attorney General Holder has not abandoned his push for a civilian trial of [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 plotters] in New York. Don’t be surprised if the Justice Department uses the Ghailani ruling to argue that the naysayers’ concerns about giving KSM a soapbox are overblown. Don’t be surprised if Justice tries to slide the 9/11 attacks right into the embassy-bombing indictment. That would land KSM squarely before Judge Kaplan. More Andy McCarthy here.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
AMERICA ON THE MALL
And Governor Palin:Restoring Honor
Subject: got a quick minute? Date: 8/27/2010 2:42:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: kvogel@politico.com
POLITICO
703.647.7985
www.politico.comSubject: Re: got a quick minute? Date: 8/27/2010 2:43:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: Writeatlas@aol.com
Subject: POLITICO questions Date: 8/27/2010 4:57:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: kvogel@politico.com Subject: Re: POLITICO questions Date: 8/27/2010 9:10:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: Writeatlas@aol.com
Kenneth,
Pamela Geller
Robert Spencer
_______________________________________________________________Subject: RE: POLITICO questions Date: 8/28/2010 2:51:21 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: kvogel@politico.com
Thanks very much for this, Pam.[sic]
Just a few quick technical follow-ups, if I might:
1 - When was the American Freedom Defense Initiative created and who runs it?
2 - Is it registered/incorporated with any authority?
3 - If it's not a tax exempt organization, does it pay taxes on the contributions it receives and, if so, to whom?
Thanks again,
Ken
___________________________________________________________Subject: Re: POLITICO questions Date: 8/28/2010 9:45:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: Writeatlas@aol.com
Yes, Ken, it will file tax returns and pay taxes on any taxable net income.Subject: Re: POLITICO questions Date: 8/28/2010 10:33:23 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: kvogel@politico.com Thanks.
Subject: Re: POLITICO questions Date: 8/28/2010 11:26:32 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time From: Writeatlas@aol.com
Politico rushes to do Nancy Pelosi's bidding, investigating funding of Ground Zero mega-mosque foes
Cost of press release: $1,500
Cost of watching the lapdog media track the sources of these sums while ignoring the questionable funding of a $100 million dollar mosque: PricelessSaturday, August 28, 2010
HISTORICAL REVISIONISM IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
SHILLING FOR GROUND ZERO MOSQUE IMPERIALISMITALY: ISLAM NOT RECOGNIZED AS A RELIGION -- DENIED RELIGIOUS TAX STATUS
Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income tax revenue for Italy's established churches. The great majority of these funds go to the Catholic Church, although if they wish, individual tax payers may elect to give the money to charities and cultural projects instead.
The head of COREIS, one of Italy's largest Muslim groups, Yahya Pallavicini, said he was bitter that Islam had been denied the revenue from Italian income tax.
"Work should be begun on legally recognising those moderate Muslims who have for years shown themselves to be reliable interlocutors who are free of and fundamentalist ideology," he said.
Islam is not an established religion in Italy and there is only one official mosque in the country, Rome's Grand Mosque. Politicians from the ruling coalition cite radical imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women's rights by Muslims immigrants as obstacles to recognising Islam as an official religion in Italy.
Until now, only the Catholic Church, Judaism and other established churches including Lutherans, Evangelists, Waldensians and 7th-day Adventists have received the income tax revenue from the Itallain government.SMOKE BOMBS, ROCKS, THROWN AT ENGLISH DEFENSE LEAGUE RALLY TODAY
THE THUG BEHIND THE MOSQUE: MILE LONG RAP SHEET: SHOUTED "'SHARMOUTA' AND PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE, BREAKING HIS NOSE AND CHEEKBONES"
that he was in real estate and the real estate market was depressed."
OBAMA DROPS PROSECUTION OF USS COLE
Sunday, 29 August 2010
1) If we raise more money, we will run more ads. Right now funds for buses have ben exhausted and we are raising money for costs associated with the mega rally against the mega mosque
2) The Preservation for Ground Zero an organization - it's a campaign - SIOA is on the buses. It's an AFDI/SIOA initiative
3) The American Freedom Defense Initiative is the organization. SIOA is AFDI’s trademark (application pending). Coalition for the Preservation … is an initiative of AFDI.
Yours in liberty,
Looking forward to your reportage on Feisal and Gamal's finances, with the same transparency, of course.
Yours in liberty,
Pamela
_______________________________________________Italy has denied religious status to Islam. Politicians cited extremist (fundamentalist) imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women's rights by Muslim immigrants as obstacles to recognizing Islam as an official religion in Italy.
Posted by
Britannia Radio
at
08:23
Posts
