| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"none" |
| Date: |
19 Oct 2003 10:47:41 AM |
| Object: |
Mark Steyn: With friends like the Saudis . . . |
http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn19.html
Mark Steyn: With friends like the Saudis . . .
Chicago Sun-Times
October 19 2003
Mark Steyn
A year ago, when the self-regarding buffoon Chief Moose was bungling
the Washington sniper investigation and the cable-news shows were full
of endless psychological profiles of "white male loners," a few of us
columnists entertained the notion that the killer was linked to
Islamist terrorism. My colleague Richard Roeper thought this was so
absurd that he very kindly apologized to Sun-Times readers on my
behalf. "An awful lot of conservatives really, really wanted the
snipers to be terrorists," explained Richard. "But they were wrong.
I'll say that because they never will."
Even at the time, the Roeper position required a certain suspension of
disbelief. John Allen Muhammad was a Muslim, a supporter of al-Qaida's
actions, a man who marked the events of Sept. 11 by changing his name
to "Muhammad" and a man who marked the first anniversary of Sept. 11
by buying the Chevy Caprice subsequently used in the sniper attacks.
Coincidence? Of course! According to Richard Roeper, it's only a
handful of conservative kooks who'd even think otherwise.
Interesting item from the London Evening Standard last week:
"Evidence has emerged linking Washington sniper John Allen Muhammad
with an Islamic terror group. Muhammad has been connected to Al Fuqra,
a cult devoted to spiritual purification through violence. The group
has been linked to British shoe bomber Richard Reid and the murderers
of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan last year."
Hmm. Might be nothing. Might be just another coincidence. Lot of them
around at the moment -- like that Saudi Cabinet minister who
coincidentally stayed in the same hotel on the night of Sept. 10 as
some of the 9/11 terrorists. Just one of those things. But the
authorities seem to be taking the links more seriously than when they
first surfaced a year ago.
Here's another coincidence: The guy who heads up the organization that
certifies Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military was arrested at
Dulles Airport last month and charged with illegally accepting money
from Libya. The month before that, Abdurahman Alamoudi was caught by
the British trying to smuggle some $340,000 into Syria.
Think about that for a minute. Ten years ago, at an American military
base, at a ceremony to install the first imam in this country's armed
forces, it was Alamoudi who presented him with his new insignia of a
silver crescent star. And the guy's a bagman for terrorists.
Infiltration-wise, I'd say that's pretty good. The arthritic
bureaucracy at the CIA say oh, no, it would be impossible for them to
get any of their boys inside al-Qaida. Can't be done. But the other
side has no difficulty getting their chaps set up in the heart of the
U.S. military.
What kind of chaplains did Alamoudi's American Muslim Armed Forces and
Veterans Affairs Council pick out to serve our men and women in
uniform? Well, among them was Captain James "Yousef" Yee, recently
detained under suspicion of spying at Guantanamo Bay. Also arrested
were two Arabic translators, found with classified documents from
Gitmo on their CDs, etc.
Infiltration-wise, that's also pretty good. The CIA say sorry, folks,
the best we can do with all the gazillions of dollars we get is
monitor phone calls from outer space. But the other side has no
difficulty getting their boys inside America's most secure military
base and principal terrorist detention center.
The Pentagon, of course, is taking this subversion of its chaplaincy
program seriously. It's currently reviewing all its chaplains. By
"all," I mean not just all the Muslim chaplains, but also all the
Catholic, Episcopalian, Jewish ones. After all, it might just be
another one of those coincidences that the chaplain detained for
spying is Muslim and that the organizations that certified him are
Muslim. Best to investigate the Catholics just to be on the safe side.
If the Democrats hadn't decided to sit out the war on terror by
frolicking on Planet Bananas for the duration, they could be seriously
hammering the administration on this. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber,
was converted to radical Islamism while in prison by a chaplain who
came to Britain under a fast-track immigration program for imams set
up by Her Majesty's Government. They felt they had a shortage of
Muslim chaplains and not knowing much about the business or where to
look for 'em felt it easiest to put up a big neon sign at Heathrow
saying "Hey, mullahs, come on down!" It all seemed to be working well
until they noticed that these guys seemed to be the spiritual mentors
of a lot of the wackiest terrorists.
So how come two years after Sept. 11 groups with terrorist ties are
still able to insert their recruiters into America's military bases,
prisons and pretty much anywhere else they get a yen to go? It's not
difficult to figure out: Wahhabism is the most militant form of Islam,
the one followed by all 19 of the 9/11 terrorists and by Osama bin
Laden. The Saudis -- whose state religion is Wahhabism -- fund the
spread of their faith in lavishly endowed schools and mosques all over
the world and, as a result, traditionally moderate Muslim populations
from the Balkans to South Asia have been dramatically radicalized. How
could the federal government be so complacent as to subcontract the
certification of chaplains in U.S. military bases to Wahhabist
institutions?
Here's an easy way to make an effective change: Less Wahhabism is in
America's interest. More Wahhabism is in the terrorists' interest. So
why can't the United States introduce a policy whereby, for the
duration of the war on terror, no organization directly funded by the
Saudis will be eligible for any formal or informal role with any
federal institution? That would also include the pro-Saudi Middle East
Institute, whose "adjunct scholar" is one Joseph C. Wilson IV.
Remember him? He's the fellow at the center of the
Bob-Novak-published-the-name-of-my-CIA-wife scandal. The agency sent
him to look into the European intelligence stories about Saddam
Hussein trying to buy uranium in Africa. He went to Niger, drank mint
tea with government flacks, and then wrote a big whiny piece in the
New York Times after the White House declined to accept his assurances
there was nothing going on. He was never an intelligence specialist,
he's no longer a "career diplomat," but he is, like so many other
retired ambassadors, on the House of Saud's payroll. And the Saudis
were vehemently opposed to war with Saddam.
Think about that. To investigate Saddam's attempted acquisition of
uranium, the United States government sent a man in the pay of the
Saudi government. The Saudis set up schools that turn out terrorists.
They set up Islamic lobby groups that put spies in our military bases
and terror recruiters in our prisons. They set up think tanks that buy
up and neuter the U.S. diplomatic corps. And their ambassador's wife
funnels charitable donations to the 9/11 hijackers.
But it's all just an unfortunate coincidence, isn't it? After all, the
Saudis are our friends. Thank goodness.
***** Oderint dum metuant! *****
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