Backlash Against Boycott of Glenn Beck/Supporters Fire back

Backlash Against Boycott of Glenn Beck

Sunday, August 23, 2009 5:32 PM By: David A. Patten Article Font Size

Glenn Beck signs copies of one of his best-selling books for a fan. The campaign to oust him began after Beck remarked that President Obama is a "racist" after the president’s chastising of the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. James Crowley for acting "stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. (AP Photo) A left-wing group’s effort to intimidate corporate advertisers on Fox News’ Glenn Beck show appears to be backfiring as it triggers a wave of support from grass-roots fans rushing to defend the popular TV personality from the attacks. Even before the liberal boycott of Glenn Beck began this summer, the best-selling author and TV host had became a ratings superstar, with his 5 p.m. cable news program pulling mega prime-time viewership numbers. Beck also had become a lightning rod for liberal groups who didn’t like his anti-Obama message and his staggeringly large audience. But now Beck’s fame seems to be growing even more as a spontaneous, nationwide effort has sprung up among fans to defend their hero, including Web sites, Facebook groups, homegrown e-mail blasts, and individual telephone campaigns. The reaction in support of Beck comes in the wake of the advertiser-boycott campaign launched by Color of Change, an African-American advocacy organization with close ties to the Obama White House. Although the group garnered some success initially, it appears that it is making claims that don’t match reality, with several major companies claiming they never joined any boycott of Beck’s show. Major advertisers such as Wal-Mart, CVS, ConAgra, and Sargento have directed Fox News not to air their ads during the Glenn Beck Program, according to Color of Change. The group probably would have been dismissed as a gadfly were it not for its high-level connections to the Obama White House. Color of Change co-founder Van Jones now works in the Obama administration as the president's "green jobs czar." Beck has been a fearless critic of both President Obama and Jones, whose association with Color of Change was said to have ended in December 2007. Color of Change Executive Director James Rucker tells Newsmax that his organization wants Beck silenced for his July remark on Fox & Friends that Obama -s "racist" — an opinion Beck voiced in the context of the president’s chastising of the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. James Crowley for acting "stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. "It's preposterous and absurd," Rucker tells Newsmax of Beck's utterance. "It's insulting to black Americans, and it corrupts honest debate. Anyone who uses such a platform to spew such vitriol, whether Glenn Beck or anyone else, has no place on the air, and we at Color Of Change would use every resource available to us to remove corporate sponsorship from their platform." Conservative Backlash Beck's enemies on the left, however, have awakened a sleeping giant in their campaign to destroy Beck. Like the town hall protesters, Beck's supporters are rising up to declare they're fed up and not going to take it anymore. And joining in their counterattack are some of the most respected voices in conservative media. "Glenn Beck is to be congratulated," New York Times best-selling author Peter Schweizer tells Newsmax. "They only go after you when you are being effective — he must really be causing them problems." And Rich Noyes, research director for the conservative Media Research Council watchdog organization, says, "I think it tells us a lot about the style of politics coming from the organized left and this White House. They want to be so strenuous in going after their adversaries that they have a take-no-prisoners approach. I think it would be unthinkable if conservatives, particularly those affiliated with the Bush White House, had gone after a media figure associated with one of the other networks." Conservative icon and direct-marketing expert Richard Viguerie tells Newsmax: "That's Chicago politics. We're seeing the Chicago-ization of politics. We hear how dangerous it is for some of these people to come in the vicinity of the president with a weapon. Then we see the chairman of a powerful committee, Henry Waxman, issuing subpoenas to 50 insurance executives for their corporate records. That's how they play the game. They will use any method they can to attain power and then hold onto that power. They tried to do the same with Rush Limbaugh, but Rush Limbaugh is too big for them to handle. This is how Democrats operate." On Thursday, DC Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott wrote: "Funny, I don't recall that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression to everybody except those whose opinions the four members of ColorofChange.org find ‘repulsive and divisive.’" Tapscott called on readers to conduct a reverse boycott against the companies bowing to left-wing pressure, who are pulling their ads from Beck's program. Those companies, Tapscott says, "are aiding and abetting a vicious, political campaign to slander him by an outfit apparently created for just such a purpose." A reverse boycott is precisely what's taking place. On Aug. 16, Beck supporter John Hill launched a Web site, DefendGlenn.com. Five days later, the site had recorded 1.9 million visits, racked up 1,033 Twitter followers, and garnered 5,800 user comments on its "Support Wall," Hill says. "Let your voice be heard! Fight back against the lies and the extremist boycott of Glenn Beck," the site declares. DefendGlenn.com provides contact information for companies that have pulled their advertising. It also lists and encourages the companies who have stuck with the Beck program. "We launched DefendGlenn basically just to counter a lot of the distortions and lies that were put out by this group Color of Change, which we saw weren't being countered at all," Hill tells Newsmax. Among the messages fans left on the DefendGlenn "Support Wall" to show their support for Beck: "Freedom of speech applies to all speech, even those from the right," wrote Matt Elmore of Woodbridge, Va. "You are not alone, but like Gen. Washington, out in front of the troops," wrote Michael Lyon of Estero, Fla. "Never give up,” Leonor Godwin of Stephenville, Texas, wrote him. “They are trying to break you. You are our inspiration and our rock." Hill also tells Newsmax he has received 5,000 e-mails from people who tell him they are canceling their Geico insurance policy because the company has joined the boycott against Beck, and about 6,500 e-mails from consumers who say they never will buy a Sargento product again. "I don't want to do that," Hill tells Newsmax. "I think boycotts are stupid. But if they're going to join the boycott, boycotts work two ways. Earlier in the week, the companies were saying, 'Yeah we're dropping the ads.’ But as soon as people started getting in touch with them, they started denying they were dropping anything.'" Other Beck supporters also are getting into the act. They include an upstate New York stay-at-home mom who became alarmed when she saw the orchestrated campaign to make one of the most independent voices in American media a pariah. Already a member of the 912 organization Beck initiated to recapture the nonpartisan spirit of unity the nation experienced after the 9/11 terror attacks, she created SupportGlennBeck.com. The site includes a petition that states: “Through his radio and television show, he promotes God, family, and country — which resonates with a majority of Americans. “There are some people who have an ideological problem with Glenn Beck. These people will not be satisfied until voices such as Glenn’s are silenced. For the millions of us who share Glenn’s values, there is nothing more frightening than losing our forum,” the petition states. The growing pro-Beck movement has also reached social networking sites. One example: Beck supporter Doug Edelman of St. Louis has established a new Facebook group, “Defend Glenn Beck Against Thug Inspired Boycott.” During its first week, more than 790 members joined the group, which includes a statement of support for Beck and lists contact information for companies that are said to be boycotting his show. Exaggerated Boycotts The anti-Beck activists claim that more than 20 advertisers have dropped the Beck program. Hill and others on the pro-Beck side dispute say Color of Change has greatly exaggerated the effect of its boycott. Many of the companies the organization lists now deny they have anything to do with the boycott. Newsmax contacted Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, SC Johnson, and Radio Shack, all of which said they have not directed Fox News to pull their ads from the Glenn Beck Program, as Color of Change has stated. In fact, these companies’ representatives tell Newsmax that, as a matter of corporate policy, they never did advertise on the Glenn Beck Program and ask how they could boycott a program they never placed an ad on in the first place. Another company, State Farm, tells Newsmax that its ad was never supposed to air on the Glenn Beck Program. State Farm has a longstanding company policy against advertising on any "political or opinion programming," its spokesman says. Having discovered the error, State Farm says, it will not be advertising on any cable talk show. And it is careful to emphasize it is not singling out Beck in this regard. As State Farm’s response suggests, the net effect of the anti-Beck crusade probably will be fewer advertisers willing to advertise on the talk shows of any cable network. Consider, for example, the corporate response from Clorox. On Thursday, company executives wrote Hill stating: “After a comprehensive review of political talk shows across the spectrum, at this time we have made a decision not to advertise on political talk shows.” Assuming the pro-Beck backlash continues, that probably means the activist campaign intended to hurt Beck will, ironically, damage Beck’s progressive competitors more than it hurts him. Lost ads will impact smaller networks such as MSNBC far more than it will affect ratings juggernaut Fox News, industry sources say. Nearly 2.5 million viewers tuned in to Beck’s show in its 5 p.m. Eastern time slot last week, according to Mediabistro’s TV Newser. Beck’s ratings on Fox exceeded those of CNN, MSNBC, and Headline News combined. All of which calls into question whether advertiser boycotts work anyway. “It’s funny because I think their calculation is that by going after advertisers they are going to affect his bottom line,” Schweizer says. “But this is a common misperception of liberals. Beck isn’t in this for the money. So even if they could succeed, they won’t silence him.” Michael Harrison has seen plenty of media campaigns come and go as publisher of Talkers Magazine. “My guess,” he says, “is he will weather this storm.” “Beck expected to get hostile feedback, and a whole bunch of publicity, and he succeeded on both counts,” Harrison says. “People have the right to be offended and businesses have the right to spend their advertising dollars however they choose. Free speech guarantees the right of having an opinion without government censorship. It doesn’t guarantee that people won’t be angry and withhold their support. The free marketplace of ideas is not for the faint hearted!” And for ratings giant Fox, Beck’s remarkable connection with viewers has made the free market a profitable one indeed. “The advertisers referenced have all moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network,” a Fox spokesman recently told Ad Age, “so there is no revenue lost.” Below are companies listed on the DefendGlenn site as having joined the Color of Change boycott against Glenn Beck: Ally Bank President and CEO Mark B. Hales (877) 247-2559 6985 Union Park Center Midvale, Utah 84047 ------------------- Broadview Security (Brinks) Robert B. Allen (800) 445-0872 8880 Esters Blvd, Irving, Texas 75063 ------------------- CVS Caremark Corp. Thomas M. Ryan (401) 765-1500 One CVS Drive Woonsocket, R.I. 02895 ------------------ Geico Chairman and CEO Tony Nicely (800) 861-8380 5260 Western Ave. Chevy Chase, Md. 20815 ------------------- Healthy Choice Foods A subsidiary of ConAgra Foods Inc. President and CEO Gary M. Rodkin (402) 595-4000 1 ConAgra Drive Omaha, Neb. 68102-5001 ------------------- Lawyers.com A subsidiary of LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell CEO Andrew Prozes (800) 526-4902 121 Chanlon Road New Providence, N.J. 07974 ------------------- Men's Wearhouse Chairman and CEO George Zimmer (281) 776-7200 6380 Rogerdale Road Houston, Texas 77072 ------------------- Sanofi-Aventis U.S. President and CEO Gregory Irace (800) 981-2491 55 Corporate Drive Bridgewater, N.J. 08807 ------------------- Sargento Foods Inc. Chairman and CEO Louis Gentine (800) 243-3737 One Persnickety Place Plymouth, Wis. 53073

Has Damascus Stopped Supporting Terrorists?

by Ryan Mauro
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2009

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On March 3, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that she would send Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of State, and Daniel Shapiro, a senior National Security Council official, to meet with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.[1] The trip was the most prominent manifestation of the Obama administration's moves to reverse the Bush administration's isolation of Syria, imposed because of Syrian sponsorship of terrorism, its continued interference in Lebanon, and its support for insurgents in Iraq.[2]

Syrian president Bashar Assad (L) meets with U.S. senator Benjamin Cardin (Dem., Md.) in Damascus, February 18, 2009. The Syrian government continues to provide critical support to the infrastructure that allows the Iraqi insurgency and Al-Qaeda to survive in the Middle East. Despite Syrian support for terrorist activities, the Obama administration has been keen to engage the regime.

Diplomatic normalization may be premature, however. While the Pentagon reported in early 2008 that Damascus had decreased the flow of foreign fighters across their border into Iraq by half,[3] Syria's contributions to the insurgency's start and survival are fact. The government of Syria continues to provide critical support to the infrastructure that allows the Iraqi insurgency and Al-Qaeda to survive in the Middle East. In the absence of real reform in Damascus, the Syrian government can reactivate or augment its networks as the U.S. military scales down its presence in Iraq.

Is Syria an Al-Qaeda Enabler?

The U.S. State Department has listed Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism for the past twenty years. The 2007 Country Reports on Terrorism noted that Syria provides political support to myriad Palestinian terrorist groups. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command continue to operate offices openly in Damascus.[4] The Syrian government provides material support to Hezbollah, the organization responsible for the deaths of more Americans in terrorist attacks than any group until Al-Qaeda struck New York City and Washington on September 11, 2001. The Syrian government long hosted—until his February 2008 assassination –Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah's operations chief, who engineered the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, and the kidnapping, torture, and execution of American hostages, including William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon.[5]

Despite the Syrian government's continued support for terrorists targeting U.S. citizens and U.S. interests—or perhaps because of it—the Obama administration has been keen to engage. In his inaugural speech, Obama declared, "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit … we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."[6]Obama, after all, promised during his campaign to focus U.S. counterterrorism efforts more on Al-Qaeda.[7] However, it is difficult to reconcile the fight against Al-Qaeda with a new embrace of Syria, given the Assad regime's array of both direct or indirect links to bin Laden's organization and its operatives.

Many international Al-Qaeda plots have Syrian links. The head of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings in Casablanca in May 2003, trained in Syria.[8] The prosecutor in the trial of the terrorists who attacked Madrid in 2004 suspects Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain member Hassan el-Haski of involvement in the train bombings.[9] In May 2004, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's lieutenants and, perhaps Zarqawi himself, held meetings on Syrian territory to plan terrorism in Iraq aimed at provoking sectarian violence.[10] Syria harbored and refused to extradite Suleiman Khaled Darwish, Zarqawi's second-in-command and, reportedly, a liaison between Al-Qaeda and Syrian military intelligence.[11] (He was finally killed in October 2008 in a U.S. raid on Syrian territory).[12]

Abu Faraj al-Libi, a high-level Al-Qaeda operative, met with several of his colleagues in Syria to plan terrorist attacks on the U.S., Europe, and Australia, according to testimony at his hearing.[13] Hamid Mir, the only journalist to interview bin Laden after 9/11, explained in 2006, "Syria is a safe haven for Al-Qaeda now" even if Al-Qaeda does not trust the Syrian leadership.[14]

While Al-Qaeda can pursue its own operations, the organization must often establish symbiotic relations with states that host it. The Taliban, for example, utilized Al-Qaeda in their fight against Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.[15] Perhaps in exchange for free passage if not a safe haven in Syria, Al-Qaeda has launched attacks against states whose governments Assad distrusts, including Jordan, Lebanon, and the United States.

Between May and September 2002, for example, Zarqawi set up the terrorist cell in Syria which, on October 28, 2002, gunned down U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley outside his home in Amman.[16] Then, in March 2004, Jordanian authorities thwarted an Al-Qaeda chemical weapons attack that had been organized in and launched from Syria.[17] Operatives linked to Zarqawi planned to attack the Intelligence Ministry, the U.S. embassy, and the Office of the Prime Minister, killing up to 80,000 people and, according to King Abdullah, decapitating the government.[18]

The Syrian government has also used its contacts in an Al-Qaeda affiliate to destabilize Lebanon. The Syrian government had long used its army's presence on Lebanese territory to exert its influence over its neighbor, but after the February 14, 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, both Lebanese outrage and diplomatic pressure compelled Damascus to withdraw its troops. According to Lebanese officials, rather than allow the Lebanese government to go its own way, the Syrian regime used its ties to Al-Qaeda to assert leverage by sponsoring a radical, Sunni terrorist group, Fatah al-Islam, which established itself in Lebanon's Nahr al-Barid refugee camp. Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora, for example, reported to the United Nations that interrogations of captured group members showed direct contact between Fatah al-Islam and senior Syrian intelligence officials.[19] Arab press reports suggest that the Syrian government both provided weaponry through groups under its control and used Fatah al-Islam to assassinate thirty-six individuals in Lebanon who opposed the Syrian government.[20]

Fatah al-Islam leader, Shakir al-'Absi, is a former Syrian air force officer, sentenced to death in absentia by Jordan for his involvement in the 2002 assassination of Laurence Foley.[21] While 'Absi denies the group is part of Al-Qaeda,[22] it is allied with Asbat al-Ansar which, according to the State Department, is an Al-Qaeda affiliate.[23]

Syria and the Iraqi Insurgency

Perhaps nowhere does the Assad regime's willingness to enable Al-Qaeda impact U.S. interests as much as in Iraq where, even after the troop surge, insurgents and terrorists continue to threaten, wound, or kill U.S. soldiers. As the U.S. administration prepared to launch Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, the Syrian government was already transforming its territory into a critical lifeline for the Iraqi insurgency.[24] While the Syrian government says they have no control over foreign fighters entering Iraq, eyewitness reports from the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom described how "fighters swarmed into Iraq aboard buses that Syrian border guards waved through open gates."[25]Toward the end of 2004, Bush administration pressure led Syrian domestic intelligence services to sweep up insurgency facilitators, but many returned after just a few days.[26] In 2004 after coalition forces recaptured Fallujah, photographs were found of Muayid Ahmad Yassin, the head of the Jaysh Muhammad insurgent group, meeting with a senior Syrian official. Coalition forces also captured a GPS system that showed waypoints in western Syria.[27] Damascus rebuffed Riyadh's demands to shut a terrorist training camp in Syria, then hosting approximately 1,000 Saudi jihadis.[28] Four streams of Syrian financing totaling $1.2 million per month reached insurgents in Ramadi as of 2004.[29] Fatiq Sulayman al-Majid, a former Iraqi intelligence officer and a relative of Saddam Hussein, is also a key financier of the insurgency in Iraq.[30] The Iraqi insurgency consists of two major components: Iraqi Baathists fighting for nationalist reasons and foreign fighters serving Al-Qaeda. From 2003 to 2007, the interests of the two parties converged. So, too, did their reliance on Syrian facilitation.

The Baathist element of the insurgency has long enjoyed safe haven in Syria. The Bush administration reportedly presented the Assad government with videotape of Iraqi Baathists dining in a Syrian resort town.[31] Former members of Saddam Hussein's regime have formed a "New Regional Command" that directs and finances the insurgency from Syria.[32] At an April 15, 2004 press conference, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported, "There are other foreign fighters. We know for a fact that a lot of them find their way into Iraq through Syria."[33] By the end of 2004, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officials concluded that Syria played a larger role in directing the insurgency than they had earlier realized. U.S. troops in Fallujah, for example, found a GPS system in an explosives production facility that showed routes originating in western Syria.[34] The Iraqi defense minister in 2005 said that 400 detainees had trained in Syria.[35]

Since 2006, Syria has hosted Misha'an al-Jaburi, a former member of the Iraqi parliament and owner of Az-Zawra'a television, which broadcast pro-Baathist and insurgent propaganda. In one case, Jaburi broadcast songs with secret messages in them for the Islamic Army of Iraq. His nephew provided him with safe houses in which to store weapons and money that was moving in and out of Iraq.[36] While Jaburi was publicly critical of Al-Qaeda, the U.S. Treasury Department has argued that he worked with an Al-Qaeda jihadist umbrella organization, the Mujahideen Shura Council, to fund Sunni extremist operations.[37]

Syrian support of terrorism has helped other Al-Qaeda affiliates in Iraq. Ansar al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-linked group that operated out of northern Iraq, benefited greatly from Syria's lax attitude. Italian court documents show that Ansar operatives traveled to Europe from Iraq and vice versa through Syria. These Syria-based operatives oversaw the flow of terrorists and often made telephone calls to their colleagues in Europe. In a police state such as Syria, such high-level coordination and communication by telephone is unlikely without the authorities' knowledge. Among the operatives overseeing this network in Syria are fugitives linked to the Hamburg Al-Qaeda cell that planned 9/11 and also to a car bomb targeting Israelis in Kenya in November 2002.[38] Italian authorities arrested seven Al-Qaeda operatives that took part in this network after they sent forty terrorists to Iraq via Syria where the Al-Qaeda operatives were to team up with Ansar al-Islam.[39]

Perhaps no network was as devastating within the context of the Iraqi insurgency as Zarqawi's. In May 2004, Zarqawi's lieutenants held meetings on Syrian territory to plan a terrorism offensive in Iraq aimed to provoke sectarian violence.[40] On February 23, 2005, Iraqi television aired the confession of a detainee who admitted to "receiving all the instructions from Syrian intelligence" to "cause chaos in Iraq." The detainee, who identified himself as Lt. Anas Ahmad al-Issa, said he was sent to Iraq in 2001 in order to prepare for the day that America would invade. Reuters quoted another group of captured insurgents who said they were being trained in Latakia, Syria, as far back as 2001 in terrorist tactics that included kidnappings and beheadings.[41]

Another Iraqi detainee in the videotapes named a range of insurgent groups and said they were Syrian fronts. Ten Iraqis on the tapes said that Syrian intelligence recruited them.[42] Egyptian and Sudanese insurgents also confessed to being trained in Syria. One of Issa's aides said that insurgents were required to send progress reports back to Syria, that they received $1,500 per month, and were supplied with weapons, explosives, and other equipment. The aide said that he was originally recruited in an Iraqi mosque in 2001 and then went to Pakistan for eleven months of training. After that, he traveled to Syria for a month where Syrian intelligence provided training before his dispatch to Iraq.[43]

There is little doubt that the foreign fighters network in Syria constitutes a link between the regime and Al-Qaeda. It is impossible for Syria not to know that the networks it sponsors are working with Al-Qaeda. In fact, in April 2005, an admitted supporter of Al-Qaeda was arrested in Iraq as he was planning a car bomb attack. He confessed to his captors that he had links with Syrian intelligence.[44]

The Iraqi government said in 2007 that more than half of the foreign fighters arrive in Iraq via Syria.[45] A large number of these fighters fly into the Damascus International Airport.[46] In October 2007, U.S. military forces discovered a stockpile of records in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar documenting 606 foreign fighters in Iraq. These "Sinjar records" describe how foreign fighters met with Al-Qaeda representatives upon arriving in Syria. Approximately 90 percent of the fighters that arrived in Iraq between 2006 and 2007 arrived via Syria, and these fighters are responsible for 90 percent of the suicide bombings in Iraq.[47]

Syria's assistance to the Iraqi Baathist network directly benefits Al-Qaeda. Today, it is virtually impossible to make a distinction between the two forces because of their tight cooperation. Many of these ex-Baathists have joined Al-Qaeda, partially morphing the two forces into one insurgent army.[48]

Syria: Ally in the War against Terror?

Some diplomats and analysts argue that if Washington engages Damascus, Syria could become a responsible partner in the war on terror. The State Department praised Syria for its cooperation in 2003, but Cofer Black, the department's counterterrorism coordinator, said that public proclamations do not tell the whole story. In 2003, he told Newsweek, "We clearly don't have the full support of the Syrian government on the Al-Qaeda problem. They have allowed Al- Qaeda personnel to come in and virtually settle in Syria with their knowledge and support."[49] Still, the idea that engagement can flip Syria has resonance. After all, intelligence shared by Syria helped thwart a terrorist attack against the U.S. navy in Bahrain. Syrian cooperation, however, was less than complete. The Syrian government refused to give U.S. investigators direct access to Muhammad Zamar which, according to one expert, means it can be "safely assumed that the Syrians did not pass on information that reflected poorly on them in any way."[50] The high profile 2006 Iraq Study Group report, cochaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III, and Lee H. Hamilton, the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, for example, recommended that the United States should "actively engage Iran and Syria in its diplomatic dialogue, without preconditions."[51]

The Assad regime has become more adept at public relations. In an attempt to portray itself as a natural ally in the war on terror, the Syrian government has framed itself as an enemy and target of Al-Qaeda. The examples given of Al-Qaeda targeting Syria, however, do not hold up. In April 2004, the Syrian regime accused Al-Qaeda of bombing a vacant U.N. building, an attack for which Al-Qaeda did not claim credit.[52] Timing, however, was suspect since the alleged Al-Qaeda operation occurred just as the U.S. Congress debated placing tougher sanctions on Syria. Syrian officials then refused to allow U.S. investigators to look into the incident. Nor is there any evidence that a September 12, 2006 attack on the U.S. embassy in Damascus was Al-Qaeda's handiwork.[53] Within ninety minutes of the attack, the crime scene was cleared of debris, including the destroyed vehicle, the bodies, and any forensic evidence. If the Syrians believed Al-Qaeda was behind the attack, they failed to allow the examination of any evidence.

Proponents of diplomacy base their recommendation on the assumption that the Syrian government has reformed. Practitioners, however, find evidence to support such conclusions lacking. In an October 2008 interview, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commander in Anbar province, said, "The Syrians clearly have harbored AQI [Al-Qaeda in Iraq], allowed them to live over there and go back and forth. It's a sanctuary." And "They have done cross-border raids and killed Iraqis. The biggest mistake they made was a cross-border raid on the second of May and murdered 11 Iraqi policemen. They cut their heads off, a sickening thing. It was a huge mistake. We know the guy who did it, AQI guy. Kind of a big dog who works with Syrian intelligence."[54]

Conclusion

The Assad regime sponsors terrorism because it is a regime based on terrorism. The advantages for the Assad regime to sponsor jihadists are many. They seek to use terrorists to defeat the United States in the region, thwart the development of democracies in Lebanon and Iraq, and to employ terror as a means of waging war against Israel. Outmatched by the weapons the West possesses, Syria repeatedly turns to unconventional means. Terror sponsorship also creates a dependency upon the Assad regime making it counterproductive for the forces of Islamic extremism to wage war against it. So long as Assad retains a tight grip on Syria, he need not fear these forces turning against him. Finally, the regime sponsors such forces as a tool of diplomacy. By supporting insurgents and terrorists and allowing radical Islam to show its head inside Syria, Assad makes clear that there is no viable alternative to him and that it is he who must be courted if the West is to be successful in the region.

Any strategy to tackle Assad's support for terrorism must rely on more than engagement and shuttle diplomacy. The Obama administration should develop ways to make Syrian support of terrorism counterproductive to its own objectives. Rather than allowing terrorism to be an effective tool of diplomacy, such actions must be met with economic sanctions and international pressure. Rather than handing Assad victory in the region, every move by Syria should be countered. The regime must see no gain and only loss from its support of terrorism. Finally, the West should find a third option beyond either reliance on Assad or removing him from power—which would allow the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamists to take his place. The Obama administration should assist the development of the democratic opposition forces in Syria, however weak they may be. By promoting Syrian democratic forces, Washington will regain a strong hand at the negotiating table, simultaneously decreasing the power of Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood and, most importantly, ending the brutal terrorist regime that threatens innocents both in the Middle East and in the West.

Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com and the assistant director of intelligence of The Counter Terrorism Electronic Warfare and Intelligence Centre.

[1] Associated Press, Mar. 4, 2009.
[2] Claudia Rosett, "Commerce Department Waives Syria Sanctions," Forbes, Feb. 12, 2009.
[3] Agence France-Presse, Jan. 20, 2008.
[4] "State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview," Country Reports on Terrorism 2007, U.S. Department of State, Apr. 30, 2008.
[5] The Guardian (London), Feb. 13, 2008.
[6] "President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address," The White House, Jan. 21, 2009.
[7] "Homeland Security," "Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need," official campaign website, accessed Mar. 23, 2009.
[8] Emerson Vermaat, "Madrid Terrorists Possessed an Important Al-Qaeda Manual," Militant Islam Monitor, Feb. 20, 2007.
[9] Ibid.
[10] International Herald Tribune (Paris), May 19, 2005.
[11] The Daily Star (Beirut), Oct. 1, 2004.
[12] BBC News, Oct. 28, 2002.
[13] "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal—Al Libi, Abu Faraj," U.S. Department of Defense, Feb. 8, 2007.
[14] Author interview with Hamid Mir, May 24, 2006, via e-mail.
[15] "Profile: Afghanistan's 'Lion of Panjshir,'" Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Sept. 5, 2006.
[16] Jane's Security News (Surrey, U.K.), June 16, 2003.
[17] CNN.com, Apr. 26, 2004.
[18] The Jordan Times (Amman), Apr. 27, 2004.
[19] The New York Sun, Oct. 25, 2007; Ar-Ra'y (Amman), June 8, 2007.
[20] Ya Lubnan (Beirut), June 5, 2007; Michael Young, "Syria's Useful Idiots," The Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2007.
[21] CNN.com, May 24, 2007.
[22] The International Herald Tribune, Mar. 15, 2007.
[23] The New York Daily News, June 18, 2007.
[24] The Washington Post, June 8, 2005.
[25] The Washington Post, June 8, 2005.
[26] The Washington Post, June 8, 2005.
[27] The Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 23, 2004.
[28] The New York Sun, Sept. 14, 2007.
[29] Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), p. 409.
[30] The New York Times, July 5, 2004.
[31] Gary Gambill, "How Significant Is Syria's Role in Iraq?" Terrorism Monitor (Jamestown Foundation, Washington, D.C.), Oct. 7, 2004.
[32] The Washington Post, Dec. 17, 2004.
[33] "Coalition Provisional Authority Briefing with General Richard Myers, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander, Coalition Ground Forces," Baghdad, Iraq, Apr. 15, 2004.
[34] The Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2004.
[35] "180 Terrorists Escape to Syria at Start of Operation Steel Curtain," Kuwait News Agency, Nov. 5, 2005.
[36] "HP-759: Treasury Designates Individuals, Entity Fueling Iraqi Insurgency," U.S. Department of Treasury, Jan. 9, 2008.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Los Angeles Times, Apr. 27, 2003.
[39] Los Angeles Times, Apr. 17, 2003.
[40] The International Herald Tribune, May 19, 2005.
[41] BBC News, Feb. 23, 2005.
[42] Associated Press, Feb. 24, 2005; USA Today, Feb. 24, 2005.
[43] USA Today, Feb. 24, 2005.
[44] CNN.com, Apr. 12, 2005
[45] CNN.com, Feb. 4, 2007.
[46] Sen. Joseph Lieberman, "Al Qaeda's Travel Agent," The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 20, 2007.
[47] The Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2008.
[48] Mark Eichenlaub, "Hundreds of Loyalists and Benefactors of Saddam Hussein's Regime Have Been Found Working with or for Al-Qaeda in Iraq," RegimeofTerror.com, July 20, 2007.
[49] Newsweek, May 6, 2003.
[50] Matthew Levitt, "Iran and Syria: State Sponsorship in the Age of Terror Networks," lecture presentation, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mar. 7, 2005.
[51] The Iraq Study Group Report (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace, 2006), p. 36.
[52] BBC News, Apr. 29, 2004.
[53] BBC News, Sept. 13, 2006.
[54] U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 27, 2008.

The Republicans and the Democrats are the same club , People have had it and won't take it anymore Gerald Celente

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Republicans and the Democrats are the same club , People have had it and won't take it anymore Gerald Celente

Gerald Celente on Financial Newshour Aug 21 2009

the people have had it and won't take it anymore ,people are losing everything , they are losing their homes , they have lost their jobs , they have lost their pension,they can see and smell a crook when they can see and smell them , and the crooks are in Washington and Wall street , people are not that stupid when we bailout banks and give them hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars and then they scheme of the top and gave themselves bonuses after losing billions, this is about The People have had it and won't take it anymore....this is going to last and continue to build in momentum ...the second American revolution has begun and the media is missing it the first three shot have been fired , The Greatest depression is on hold for now , the democrats and republicans are the same club ,

Has the Church Become Irrelevant?~(BPT)

Has the Church Become Irrelevant?

By Chuck Baldwin

America's Christian heritage is both rich and deep. What most historians and educators refuse to acknowledge, our forebears understood clearly: it was mostly Christians and churches that formed and shaped the new land that became known as the United States of America.

For example, when discussing the brave exploits of the passengers on board the Mayflower, people seem to have forgotten that the voyage was mostly the endeavor of a single church congregation. And don't forget that it was Pastor Jonas Clark's male congregants who withstood British troops at Lexington and fired the very first of the shots heard 'round the world. The famous French historian, Alexis De Tocqueville, credited the pulpits and churches of Colonial America with inspiring America's successful War for Independence and subsequent prosperity much more than its institutions of learning, halls of Congress, or industries of invention. From the very beginning, America's Christians and pastors were intricately involved in the establishment and building of this republic.

It is no hyperbole to say that without the influence, sacrifice, dedication, blood, sweat, and tears of America's early Christians, this country would not exist.

But what do we see today? We see pastors and church congregations who are, for the most part, totally ignorant of their own heritage and history. They have little or no understanding of the principles of Natural Law - something America's founders knew almost by second nature (no pun intended). They seem to know next to nothing of the Biblical principles of liberty and government. All they seem to be able to do is regurgitate some mindless interpretation of Romans 13 - an interpretation that could have been written by King George III or even Adolf Hitler (Read my column regarding Romans 13).

Ignoring the great examples and exhortations of both Testaments, today's Christians seem to have lazily latched onto a modern-day "divine right of kings" philosophy, through which they have become the pathetic slaves of arrogant and pompous political wolves dressed (barely) in the sheepskins of legitimacy.

Where are America's watchmen on the wall? Where are the great stories of courage and commitment demonstrated by America's founders that once emanated from church pulpits? How is it that today's Christians know more about sports celebrities than they do America's heroes? How is it that these lying, conniving, con artists called politicians can sucker church members as easily as they do the un-churched? How is it that Christians do not seem to recognize the devilish doctrines of socialism, fascism, elitism, or globalism for what they are? How can they be so easily manipulated? How is it that these corrupt politicians - who vote to kill unborn babies, merge America into internationalist and global entities, strip Americans of their God-given natural right of self defense, promote homosexual marriage, or allow America to lose its identity, culture, and heritage through unbridled illegal immigration - remain in "good standing" with any number of supposed "Christian" churches?

Even though there are more churches in America than anywhere else in the world, the pastors and Christians of this country have, for the most part, become completely irrelevant to preserving "the blessings of liberty" - or even fundamental Biblical principles, for that matter.

Churches used to be respected as lighthouses in communities: places free from the jaundiced juxtaposition of political correctness and avarice. Today's churches are filled with both. Where once churches stood as guardians of truth, they have now become progenitors of error. Where once preachers stood in the similitude of Elijah and John the Baptist, they now grovel in the image of Joel Osteen and Rick Warren. Sunday Schools were once bastions of Bible teaching; today they are glorified coffee shops and playgrounds. The modern Christian home cannot even disciple its own children: how can it then be expected to "make disciples of all nations"?

I repeat: the modern American church has, for the most part, become irrelevant.

It is little wonder that more and more people are losing interest in the organized church. Instead of finding Christian love and kindness, they find the same kind of gossip, slander, petty bickering, favoritism, and selfishness that they might find at any office water cooler. Instead of hearing a prophet of God declare the Word of God, they hear a milquetoast minister meekly musing the latest self-help book.

The complete irrelevance of today's organized church in America to the preservation of Christian liberty and constitutional government is especially disconcerting to those of us who still have freedom's fire burning in our souls. Where do we go for respite and instruction?

I tell you the truth: there are hundreds of thousands of patriotic, freedom-minded Christians all over America who have had it "up to here" with these spineless social clubs called churches! They are tired of petrified pastors groveling before corrupt politicians and businessmen. They hunger for truth, and they are not finding it in most organized churches.

As an example, go to my list of people who have written me to let me know that they are desperately seeking a Black Regiment-type church that they can attend. The list grows by the day (See the list here).

These people are not looking to be entertained or pampered. They do not care about social standing or making "business contacts." They don't care which church has the "most exciting" youth program, or how many softball teams it has. They want a church where the pastor isn't afraid to speak truth to power and take a stand for liberty. And, unfortunately, such churches are getting harder and harder to find.

In fact, I submit that the true church is not "emerging"; it is "submerging." As in totalitarian regimes all over the world, where there are basically two types of churches: the organized State-approved church, where people who worship the State go to put on a religious show; and the underground church, where real Christians go to worship God with honest, likeminded believers.

The "underground" church in America is not totally underground - yet. But the schism is taking place rapidly. Unlike the houses of State Worship, which enjoy large congregations and ornate buildings, underground churches are, for the most part, small and unassuming. Home churches are also mushrooming and must be considered part of the underground church movement. And, of course, Black Regiment churches are springing up all across the country (See the list of Black Regiment churches here).

I am convinced that it is through these independent, unaffiliated, unorganized, or underground churches that relevancy will return. It is in these churches where Christians can be taught the Biblical principles of Natural Law, where children who are disciplined and know how to behave are not considered oddities, where pastors aren't afraid to proclaim truth, where people are still committed to constitutional government - and understand the difference between a democracy and a republic - and where self-serving neocons are not regarded as heroes.

Syria, Iraq recall ambassadors in falling-out over Damascus' terror haven

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 25, 2009, 7:10 PM (GMT+02:00)

Death, devastation engineered from Syria

Damascus has turned aside a demand from Baghdad to extradite two Iraqi Baathist leaders (Saddam Hussein's party) believed to have orchestrated from their base in eastern Syria the deadly coordinated bombing attacks which rocked the Iraqi capital on Aug. 19, killing 100 people and leaving more than 1,000 injured. This is reported by DEBKAfile's intelligence and counter-terror sources.

The Iraqi security authorities named Mohammad Younis al-Ahmed, head of the Baath party's military arm based in Damascus and his operations officer Sattam Farhan.

The demand followed broadcast confessions by detainees held in Iraq on suspicion of taking part in the atrocity. They named the two Syrian-based chiefs as having ordered the bombing attacks and providing the explosives.

The Assad regime responded to the Iraqi demand by recalling its ambassador from Baghdad. Iraqi reciprocated by summoning his ambassador home from Damascus.

DEBKA file reports that this row is highly relevant to the Obama administration's ambition to improve relations with Damascus.

On Aug. 13, a high-ranking US delegation headed by Fred Hoff, head of the Mitchell group's Syrian desk and Gen. Michael Moeller of the US Central Command arrived in Damascus. They were there to find out if president Bashar Assad was ready to put a stop the flow of terrorists and weapons from his country into Iraq and the smuggling of Iranian arms to the Hizballah in Lebanon? That willingness is perceived in Washington as the litmus test for a possible rapprochement. But almost two weeks have gone by and Assad has still not answer those questions.

A few days later, on Aug. 18, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki went to Damascus with the same query. He told the Americans that Iraq was a sovereign state and their intercession on its security problems was unnecessary. This time Assad flatly denied that Syria was permitting Iraqi Baath terrorists to operate from its soil. The following day, Baghdad suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks in his history. Maliki was thus treated to a test of his neighbor's two-faced attitude on terrorists. While promising to fight terrorists, Assad gives them free rein to operate undisturbed from bases in his country.

Andy Stanley Preaches on 'Losing Your Religion'

By Audrey Barrick

Christian Post Reporter

Pastor Andy Stanley has met many people over the years who said they stopped believing in God, are on the edge of losing their faith, or are just lost.

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It's not that a bad experience or circumstance pushed them away from God or caused them to doubt. And it's not that they're on some campaign against God and religion. But many of them just woke up one day and wondered if they really did believe.

It's as if they just put their faith away in a box somewhere.

His short but memorable conversations with such people have prompted Stanley to launch a series on "Losing Your Religion" at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga.

According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 15 percent of Americans claim no religion and that statistic is apparently still rising. Also, a recent Grand Valley State University survey on the nonreligious found that most nonbelievers had a religious childhood.

It's common to everybody to question their beliefs at some point in their life, Stanley indicated during the sermon series kickoff on Aug. 16.

"All of us ... run the risk at some point of losing our religion," he said.

Most people, Stanley pointed out, don't even care much about religion, the rituals and the traditions. All they want is some assurance that God exists and that God knows their name and cares about them.

"One of the reasons that religion and faith often slip away has nothing to do with God as much as it does that there is a tendency on our part to look for God in all the wrong places, to look for God in all the wrong people, to look for God in all the wrong sets of circumstances ... and in systems that make big promises," he said.

And while looking in the wrong places, many have lost what Stanley called "the epicenter of enduring faith," which is the idea that they need forgiveness for sin.

"If that idea ever slides off front and center or if that idea was never front and center, then I'm telling you whatever religious system you've chosen, whatever religious system you bought into and whatever brand of Christianity that you've brought into eventually you will find unfulfilling because the point that God wanted to make to the world wasn't everything you believed up until this point is wrong. What God wanted ... and introduced in the New Testament is that every single person ... understand what it means to be forgiven of sins."

"God says I want everyone to experience my forgiveness," Stanley added. "What God wants ... is to restore the relationship."

The Alpharetta pastor called people back to "the starting point" of a relationship with God because at the end of the day it's not about a ritual, a routine, a church, a speaker or a book.

In fact, religion, oftentimes, is what gets in the way of the authenticity that people want with God, he noted. And what people need to do is strip all the "junk" – the superstitions, judgmental attitudes, legalism, and hypocrisy – that got loaded up with Christianity and focus on the person of Jesus, Stanley stressed.

"Religion's always asking 'who's right?' The better question is 'who is Jesus?'" he noted. "Religion asks 'what's true?' The better question is 'what happened?'"

So on one note, losing your religion can be good, the prominent megachurch pastor said in his most recent sermon.

Stanley received a letter from a church attendee who is a nonbeliever. The anonymous writer is convinced he'll never become a Christian but he stated that he's starting to doubt his doubts about God.

Encouraging attendees and listeners, Stanley said, "If you're on the edge ... if you have your doubts ... my challenge to you is to draw back in to the simple story and the teaching of Jesus."

Jesus, he said, is not religion 2.0 nor is he an option to add to other religious options. Jesus is the answer to the questions that religion had been asking for generations.