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- Shoshana Bryen: Iran Deal: Was the West Skinned?
- Samuel Westrop: BBC Plugs Jihadi Charities
Iran Deal: Was the West Skinned?
by Shoshana Bryen
December 4, 2013 at 5:00 am
December 4, 2013 at 5:00 am
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The administration's position is
that the nuclear deal is separate from any other conversation with Iran
including the fate of the Americans imprisoned there: retired FBI agent Robert
Levinson, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, and Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini,
who is currently housed in a "violent offenders" prison.
We get, essentially, nothing. But it is worse than that.
Whatever the P5+1 believes it achieved pales in comparison to what the deal
cost.
The nuclear-related agreement signed between the P5+1 and the Iranian
government is, on its face, one-sided. In essence, according to Senator Mark
Kirk (R-IL), they get: billions in sanctions relief, 3,000 new centrifuges, a
plutonium reactor and enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb. We get,
essentially, nothing: no centrifuges dismantled; no uranium shipped out of the
country; no facilities closed; no delay at the Arak plutonium plant; and no
stop to missile testing, terrorism or human rights abuses. But it is, actually,
worse than that.The administration's position is that the nuclear deal is separate from any other conversation with Iran, including the fate of Americans imprisoned there. Asked whether retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, and Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini were discussed in Geneva, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said, "The P5+1 talks focused exclusively on nuclear issues, but we have raised – repeatedly raised [these cases] in our bilateral discussions with Iran."
Retired FBI agent
Robert Levinson, shown in this photo sent to his family in 2011, has been
held prisoner in Iran since 2007. (Image source: Levinson family)
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- Releasing high-value prisoners to Iran; and
- Separating U.S. demands for access to Iran's nuclear bomb development complex at Parchin (and perhaps other military sites) from the nuclear talks.
Prisoners
American hikers Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were targets of opportunity, captured and imprisoned as spies by Iran in July 2009. Shourd was released in 2010, Bauer and Fattal in September 2011. As part of an arrangement or not, in 2012, the United States released Iranian prisoners Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan, Nosratollah Tajik, and Amir Hossein Seirafi. Unlike the Americans, however, the released Iranians were clearly working for the Islamic Republic's military establishment. Gholikhan had been convicted on three counts of weapons trafficking. Tajik, a former Iranian ambassador to Jordan, was caught attempting to buy night-vision goggles from U.S. agents. Seirafi was convicted of attempting to purchase specialized vacuum pumps that could be used in the Iranian nuclear program.It appears the price for the three hikers was three purchasers of illegal weapons for the Iranian government. The lopsided deal was made considerably odder by the later release of Mojtaba Atarodi, a top Iranian scientist.
The then-secret U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks began in March 2013, after the three-for-three. In April, according to Kerry Picket at Breitbart News, the U.S. released Atarodi, arrested in 2011 for attempting to acquire equipment that could be used for Iran's military-nuclear programs. The Atarodi case is very problematic, beginning with why such an Iranian scientist was allowed in the U.S. In cases involving theft of technology, charges are generally public and there is a trial. Atarodi's arraignment was secret and the U.S. attorney refused to provide any public information. It appears Atarodi was to have to have been released to house arrest with electronic monitoring, due to concerns about his health, but the deal fell through and he was kept in a federal detention facility in California. There is no public information on what he was attempting to acquire, but previous cases involving Iran have included very high speed cameras, very high frequency oscilloscopes, and nuclear trigger Krytrons. Atarodi would have been considered a high-value prisoner.
Meanwhile, the three Americans -- Levinson, Hekmati, and Abedini -- remained in jail in Iran. A balanced deal would have seen these three released. Levinson has been an Iranian prisoner since 2007. Hekmati was sentenced to death as a CIA spy, but while the Iranians set aside the death sentence and decided to have a new trial, it has not taken place. Abedini was sentenced to 8 years in prison for "anti-Iranian activities," which appears to mean having practiced his Christian faith while in Iran. He is currently housed in a "violent offenders" prison.
The fact that the U.S. negotiators failed to have any of them – let alone all of them – released in exchange for Atarodi could be seen as a harbinger of the unbalanced deal to come. And it came with the Western decision to omit any discussion of the military facility at Parchin.
Parchin
The IAEA has been demanding to inspect the Parchin facility near Tehran since 2005, believing the site was used to test explosive triggers for a nuclear device. Satellite photography of Parchin shows the construction of a special explosives containment building that would serve precisely that purpose. Satellite imagery from August 2013 indicates major alterations in the Parchin site, including paving that would diminish "the ability of IAEA inspectors to collect environmental samples and other evidence that it could use to determine whether nuclear weapons-related activities once took place there," according to the Institute for Science and International Security.That would seem to make it essential even to the strictly nuclear-related conversation the State Department claims it was having with Iran. But Parchin was not part of the discussion and not part of the deal. In its "Fact Sheet" the White House alludes to Parchin, saying "a number of issues" involving Iran's compliance with Security Council resolutions need to be resolved, including "questions concerning the possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear program, including Iran's activities at Parchin."
The Joint Plan of Action, however, says nothing about Parchin or about Marivan near the Iraq border, where large-scale explosive testing is also reported to have taken place. There are probably dozens of other facilities in Iran where work on nuclear weapons is going on. None of the military facilities is part of the deal.
Conclusion
Anything the P5+1 believes it has achieved pales in comparison to what the deal cost. The West gave permission for Iran to continue uranium enrichment; permitted continued secrecy for a military-related facility that the international community had demanded to inspect; and acquiesced to continued imprisonment for three Americans caught in the Iranian prison system, while Iranians who were part of the nuclear program went free. And those are only the debits on nuclear-related issues. If Iran's human rights nightmare, support for the mass slaughter taking place in Syria, and support for terrorism around the world are factored in, the American pre-payment was a very bad deal for the West.
Related Topics: Iran
| Shoshana
Bryen
BBC Plugs Jihadi Charities
by Samuel Westrop
December 4, 2013 at 4:00 am
December 4, 2013 at 4:00 am
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"Al Fatiha Global has a
strict vetting policy ... We have certain people who actually go out and check
people's social networking profiles, like Facebook and Twitter. If somebody has
something on there which may seem a bit radical, then that's it, they're not
accepted." — Kas Jameel, Aid Convoy Driver
Jameel, however, apparently forgot to vet his own social
media postings.
BBC's leading current affairs program, Newsnight recently broadcast
an eight-minute film in which a BBC reporter accompanied a British "aid
convoy" headed to the most dangerous parts of Syria.The Aid for Syria convoy, comprised of half a dozen ambulances, travelled over three thousand miles through Europe and Turkey before finally crossing the border into Syria, purportedly to deliver food, shelter and medical supplies. The journalist Catrin Nye markedly noted the diverse background of their convoy's participants, introducing a "a doctor from Manchester, a pharmacist from Halifax and a restaurant owner from West Yorkshire."
During the broadcast, the BBC did not, however, reveal the names of the charities involved with the convoy. The Aid for Syria Convoy is, in fact, managed by charities that many might justifiably regard as "extremist": One Nation, Al Fatiha Global and Aid4Syria.
These charities regularly organize fundraising events with Islamist themes, and invite radical preachers as guests. In mid-November, for instance, the Aid for Syria convoy ran an event named "O'Ummah [Community of Muslims], Wake Up and Rise", starring as its key speakers, Zahir Mahmood and Moazzam Begg.
Zahir Mahmood just so happens to be a supporter of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the charter of which calls for genocide against the Jewish people. Mahmood claims that, "Hamas are not terrorists. They're freedom fighters."
Moazzam Begg, meanwhile, was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay who now runs a group called CagePrisoners, which lobbies in support of imprisoned Al Qaeda terrorists. Begg has previously admitted that he was responsible for "small arms and mountain tactics" at al-Qaeda training camps, to which he also sent money, on the Afghan-Pakistani border. Begg has also admitted that he fought alongside jihadists in Bosnia. Through CagePrisoners, Begg presently campaigns for the release of his fellow Guantanamo detainee, Shaker Aamer, whom Begg himself had previously described as a "recruiter" for al-Qaeda. The human rights activist Gita Sahgal has called Begg: "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban."
The aid convoy will be hosting another fundraising event this coming December 22 in Birmingham, where the jihadist Moazzam Begg is once again a guest, along with Yusuf Ahmed Az Zahaby, a British Islamist preacher.
Zahaby is a leading member of Al Hikma Media, where his colleagues include: Shady Suleiman, who calls for the killing of women who engage in pre-marital sex; Abdur Raheem Green, who speaks of a "Jewish stench" and claims it is permissible to beat women to "bring them to goodness;" and Suhaib Webb, who, according to FBI surveillance documents, spoke at a dinner in 2001 alongside the late Al Qaeda operative, Anwar Al-Awlaki, and raised £100,000 in donations for the legal defence of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, an Islamist radical who shot and killed two police officers in Georgia, USA.
Convoy organizers have named some of their vehicles and charitable gifts after Aafia Siddiqui, an Al Qaeda activist described by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller as "an al-Qaeda operative and facilitator." When arrested in 2008, Siddiqui was found in possession of bomb-making instructions and a list of New York landmarks. During her trial, Siddiqui demanded the court ensure none of the lawyers or jurors involved was Jewish.
A convoy vehicle named
after Aafia Siddiqui, a convicted terrorist.
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A placard for one of
the convoy's charitable projects that bears Aafia Siddiqui's name.
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Catrin Nye does briefly explain the nasheed [Islamic vocal music] to which convoy participants listen throughout the journey, although she fails to explain its contents. The nasheed in question is entitled, "I Weep for Syria" and is performed by Mishary Rashid Alafasy, a Kuwaiti singer of religious verse.
A spoken word section at the beginning of the nasheed claims the Baathists "rape honourable women in front of their husbands, and in front of their fathers and brothers. They [the Baathists] do not acknowledge religion and have nothing to do with humanity." The nasheed itself further details the crimes of the Baathists against the ummah [the Islamist concept of the entire Islamic people], and notes that, "[The Syrian people] hold fast to their religion/ Their blood is the perfume of graves." This nasheed is apparently popular with jihadi groups.
While none of these claims about the Baathists' violence is implausible, this is not the rhetoric one expects of a charitable organization.
Nye also fails to address accusations that aid convoys are linked to terrorism. During a brief search of the convoys' vehicles at the British border, Nye narrates: "They head first to Dover, but they face an early setback … One ambulance is stopped by counter-terrorism officers. The group do face suspicion that they are going to Syria to fight." It is also briefly noted, without explanation, that border police turned away one member of the convoy at the Greek-Turkish border.
Nye asks no further questions of the convoy organizers. Nye has also ignored the Gatestone Institute's requests for comment.
While the convoy travels through Turkey, the charities liaise closely with the Turkish charity IHH. The Times has reported that the IHH, a banned terrorist organization under Dutch law, is involved in gun-running missions to Syria. In 2001, during the trial of Ahmed Ressam, it was revealed that the IHH was involved in a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.
The BBC does not follow the convoy into Syria itself. Once the convoy leaves the BBC cameraman and journalist behind, with the support of the IHH, the convoy of ambulances crosses into Syria.
German media has recently reported that similar convoys of ambulances from Germany, ostensibly full of medical supplies, are actually used to bring weapons into Syria. Once the convoys arrive in Turkey, out of the reach of European security services, according to German newspaper General-Anzeiger, the German charities' ambulances allegedly take on new cargo – switching medical supplies for Kalashnikov rifles. Like the British convoys, the German charities are also involved with Salafist organizations and extremist preachers.
Nye appears convinced that her aid convoy, unlike its German cousins, rejects extremist thought; there is no mention of any links of terrorism. Nye even films one of the convoy drivers, Kas Jameel, explaining that the organizers are dedicated to preventing anyone with extremist ideas or violent designs from participating in their charitable mission. Jameel has added in television interviews that, "Al Fatiha Global has a strict vetting policy ... We have certain people who actually go out and check people's social networking profiles, like Facebook and Twitter. If somebody has something on there which may seem a bit radical, then that's it, they're not accepted."
Jameel, however, apparently forgot to vet his own social media postings. In a number of them on his Facebook account in the last few months alone, Jameel has lauded Syrian jihadi "martyrs" and paraphrases the quote by Osama Bin Laden: "Our men love death like your men love life."
Jameel has further promoted excerpts from religious commentary on the Quran that justify violence against Jews; he describes them as "dishonest" and the "enemies of Allah." Jameel also claims that Shia Muslims have "defamed the mother of believers."
Other posts by Jameel have expressed support for the Saudi preacher Mohammad Al-Arifi, who has declared that, "Devotion to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and the desire to shed blood, to smash skulls and to sever limbs for the sake of Allah and in defense of his religion, is, undoubtedly, an honor for the believer."
On November 19, Jameel promoted a group protesting the arrest of an Al Qaeda operative, Abdul Basit. The group supported by Jameel describes the Muslim woman who informed the authorities of Basit's connections to terrorism as an "FBI witch" who will be "sent to her grave."
Facebook pages controlled by the convoy charities themselves have also promoted inflammatory material. One of the charities, Aid4Syria, has circulated a video by Sheikh Muhammad Al-Arifi, in which he encourages his listeners to wage war in Syria: "Nothing is left but death, either your die for the sake of your religion or be sold to those transgressors." Arifi has previously described the killing of "infidels" as a "great honour" and advocates the murder of Jews.
Other convoy participants are even more explicit in their support for terror. Majid Freeman, who in the BBC film is introduced as just "Majid," has encouraged European Muslims to "do jihad in Syria," and has promoted "tributes" to the late Al Qaeda terrorist Anwar Al-Awlaki on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Freeman has also posted tributes to the Al Qaeda operative Aafia Siddiqui: "Not a day goes by when we don't think of a our sister Aafia Siddqui. … Allah, unite the Ummah and remove the backstabbers … and use us as a means to help the oppressed."
The continual failure of the media and politicians to examine these extremist charities properly is a weary one; the British Charity Commission has repeatedly warned that aid money for Syria is ending up in the pockets of extremist groups.
Much of the media seems to subscribe to the naïve notion that honorable endeavors attract only those with honorable ideas. Even if these Islamist charities solely pursue charitable objectives, however, they have apparently planned a supplementary purpose for these convoys: establishing terror-aligned Islamism, through the provision of social welfare, as an indispensible component of an anti-Assad Syria.
This phenomenon is not even new: it has been examined before in a piece about Interpal -- a British charity that works with the Palestinian terror group, Hamas -- in which it was made clear that charitable support for terror groups' social services only helps justify and fund the terror groups' violence.
An important step towards tackling this problem would be an undertaking by members of the media -- especially the BBC, funded by taxpayers -- to start living up to their minimal professional obligations by taking a straightforward look at the ideas and persons behind these charitable groups, which they falsely portray as paragons of virtue.
Related Topics: United
Kingdom | Samuel Westrop
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