CAIR’S “FOXY” Behavior

Lot of stuff going on at Fox News these days and not just the hiring of Sarah Palin as a  commentator, although that should be interesting.The real thing  that  interests me is the emergence of  CAIR spokesmen on the network. For the uninitiated, it is the Council for American Islamic Relations. Betcha there is no counterpart to it  in your favorite Middle Eastern country.

Anyway, one of the CAIR spokesmen was on Bill O’Reilly the other day, his second appearance in  a month. Ibrahim Hooper was discussing  profiling of Muslims following the recent Christmas Day bombing attempt. Prior to his appearance, CAIR’s top guy Nihad  Awad,  among others,  had appeared on FOX to refute any the notion that the Fort Hood shooter had any Islamic ties. Oh, almost forgot. After  Hooper’s latest appearance O’Reilly called him a ” stand-up guy.”  Somehow, he failed to make mention of the organization’s terror connections. Our government has it as an un-indicted terrorist  co-conspirator  as well as investigating it through the FBI.

(CAIR could be called many things but I suppose  a connection to FOX would have not been one of them. The Administration itself  barely considers them a news organization, much less a fair and balanced one. But that may charge.)

So, is there any reason, logical or otherwise, as to why these guys should get deferential treatment from the FOX guys? Could be. As Rush is wont to say, one should always follow the money. For our purposes, the money comes from a Saudi Arabian source and goes to both  CAIR and to FOX. The financial guy is a Saudi prince named al-Walid bin Talal, who at present owns a 5.5% voting share in the FOX parent company News Corp, run by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. That fact is no secret, as it is readily admitted by News Corp. But, our friend bin-Talal also helps bankroll CAIR as do other Saudis, a fact that is blatantly denied by their leadership, but has been confirmed  through State Department and other sources.

So CAIR, who is not a legitimate source for Islamic interests continues to portray itself as  such’ when in reality it is much closer to those who advocate violent behavior. Seems that with FOX, they are getting their own bully pulpit to influence American public opinion in  a manner not consistent with the usual perception  of  FOX as one who tilts to the right. Maybe Palin can look into this. Or better yet, what about it Mr Beck? Is there a story here?

All Aboard For Babylon,Iraq

With all we here about Iraq and have heard for the last several years, one place we that somehow flies under the radar is Babylon. This blog made its most recent “visit” to Babylon about 4 months ago and so it seemed time for an update. Today was a day for major celebration in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as Iraqi forces took over significant responsibilities that had been held by American forces for some time.

So in consideration of these events, what is happening in the former capital city, that was once the most important city in the world? Once again, we start with Joel Rosenberg and move to an article in yesterday’s Stars and Stripes which gives some truly fascinating detail.

Seth Robson wrote an article entitled U.S.,Iraqi experts developing plan to preserve Babylon, build local tourism industry. The article discusses how soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins of the ancient city as part of a joint U S -Iraqi effort to preserve the are and prepare it to be a tourist destination. US tourism experts  Gina Haney and Jeff Allen just made their first visit  in their capacity as the State Department’s  site managers/developers. Numbers in the millions of  visitors per year are envisioned. Admittedly this will take time and money, of which the latter is poised to return to Iraq in a big way. There has even  been a recent story from Taiwan about tours that have already begun in  order to  to watch the city’s rebuilding up close and personal.

Very, very interesting stuff and well worth keeping an eye on. I cannot help but wonder what the Old Testament prophet Daniel would have thought of this.

U S soldiers guarding the ancient city

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Korea Is Heating Up

June 3, 2009 photo of N Korean female soldier

Things seem to be going from bad to worse on the Korean peninsula. Two American journalists are now imprisoned, N Korean leaders warn of a nuclear war, S  Koreans demonstrate and no doubt worry. What happens next is hard to foresee. Our State Dept urges N Korea to back off  and return to negotiations. Perhaps most telling are comments from the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan one of two cities actually hit by an atomic bomb.Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said”I am furious with them(North Korea) for defying strong protests from the international community, including Hiroshima,the city attacked in an atomic bombing.This means a grave challenge for the international community, which can never be forgiveable”.

It seems, unfortunately, that N Korea meets every sanction or condemnation with stronger rhetoric. The U N Security Council approved new sanctions on Friday and the next day, N K orea threatened  war on any country that tried to stop its ships. The sanctions were further described as a “vile product” of a U.S. inspired campaign.

As S Korean President Lee Myung-bak headed for Washington and a meeting with President Obama, he told his security people to ” resolutely and squarely” cope with these latest threats. The N Koreans  in response say they will weaponise all their plutonium.

If  there are cooler and more rational individuals within the N Korean hierarchy, we can only hope that their influence is felt and the temperature  in the region drops to a saner level.