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Two American Children Escorted from Taliban Madrassa by American Consulate in Karachi for Flight to NYC “Karachi Kids” Documentary Spurs Action The two brothers have been in a Pakistani madrassa for four years and are the focus of a newly released documentary entitled “The Karachi Kids”. “I have been working for months to secure their exit from the Madrassa and from Pakistan,” said Imran Raza, writer, director and executive producer of the Karachi Kids documentary. “This is great news, but we need to get the other American children out of there, now. There are nearly 80 other Americans currently at this Jamia Binoria madrassa — that teaches Deobandism — the religion of the Taliban. Our government, and the Pakistani government, has more work to do to get the other American children out of there.” Raza discovered the two children from Atlanta while filming a documentary about madrassas. He returned to the madrassa three times in four years to film their transformation in the hands of the radical mullahs. Children in the documentary film “The Karachi Kids” describe beatings and human rights violations for those who reject the radical teachings of their Taliban masters. Children from California and Georgia are interviewed in the film from inside the madrassa and discuss coming back to the United States to spread extremism within our borders. The trailer of the documentary can be seen at www.KarachiKids.com. The headmaster of the Binoria madrassa personally recruits American children to his institution during Ramadan, and says on camera that: “We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others. That is why I’m appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them and they will go back to their home countries and do the work and make people understand.” The headmaster of the Binoria madrassa also states that he has already graduated 100 American children from his madrassa. The trailer of the documentary can be seen at http://www.karachikids.com/ 100 Taliban Madrassa Graduates in USA? Statement of Imran Raza Regarding Release of American Children From Pakistani Taliban Madrassa (Atlanta, GA) - Imran Raza, the director and executive producer of the documentary “Karachi Kids” who discovered up to 80 American children in a Taliban-backed madrassa in Pakistan released the following statement regarding the return of two American children to Atlanta: I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children from Atlanta from a Taliban- backed madrassa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the United States once a year and personally recruits American children to enroll in his madrassa. The remaining 78 children must be returned to the United States. This pipeline to jihad must be closed. Let me be clear - these children do not learn math, or science, or liberal arts. They learn one thing - they memorize over the course of seven years every verse of the Koran coupled with the radical interpretation of their teachers. This is just the first step in integrating these children back to American society. I am proud we did our part so we could say ‘Welcome Home.” It is imperative that Members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind. The Karachi Kids is a documentary about American children in the Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi Pakistan. A trailer of the film is available at www.karachikids.com. ‘Hundreds’ of US kids in Pakistan madrassas ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani filmmaker has launched a campaign to secure the release of 78 American teenagers from a Taliban-backed madrassa in the country and asked the US to step in to check students’ enrolment in radical seminaries to close “the pipeline to jihad”. Imran Raza, who helped secure the release of two US teenagers of Pakistani origin, found nearly 80 other such boys and girls in Karachi-based Jamia Binoria madrassa while shooting “Karachi Kids” a documentary on American children in Pakistan’s seminaries that will be released next week. Raza’s film focuses on Noor Elahi Khan, 17, and Mahboob Elahi Khan, 16, the two brothers from Atlanta who were forced to study at Jamia Binoria. When he met them three years ago, the brothers wanted to take the “first plane back to America”. Three years later, the boys had been “brainwashed” and said the madrassa had made them “better human beings”. The siblings, who were enrolled in Jamia Binoria, considered one of the most radical seminaries in Pakistan, in August 2004, were well into their high school years when they were sent to Pakistan by their father. “I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children to Atlanta from a Taliban-backed madrassa, but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the US once a year and personally recruits American children to enrol in his madrassa,” Raza said in a statement on his website shortly after the release of the Khan brothers two days ago. “The remaining 78 children (from this one school alone) must be returned to the US. This pipeline to jihad must be closed... It is imperative that members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind,” Raza said. Raza’s documentary “Karachi Kids” has been getting rave reviews and he is also running a campaign on his website karachikids.com asking people to help “spread the word”. He encourages internet surfers to display a Karachi Kids Banner on their blogs or join an affiliate programme to help free other American children of Pakistani descent who are still at madrassas. Media Appearances: Geraldo on Sunday & Neil Boortz on Monday He is also scheduled to talk about what he saw behind the walls of the madrassa on Monday on the Neil Boortz radio program. We are optimistic that CNN will take an in depth look at the film and the implications of American children being recruited to radical Islamic madrassa. Call for Congressional Hearings Regarding American Children in Pakistani Madrassas In a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, McCaul writes “I would like to address one specific issue that has come to my attention. Madrassas in Pakistan have come under intense international scrutiny for their anti-Western sentiment and links to terrorism since 9/11, and since the London subway bombings three years ago today, July 7, 2005. Three of the four suicide bombers who carried out the London plot were British nationals of Pakistani descent. Two attended madrassas in Pakistan. The Binoria madrassa is known to recruit Americans most aggressively. It prominently displays a banner supporting the Taliban. And it is documented that Osama bin Laden spoke to students at Binoria before the 9/11 attacks. While these religious schools purport to serve a purpose and educate Islamic children, great concern has grown over the increasing number of “political” madrassas. They mass-produce extremists with a political agenda, including a narrow view of society and no tolerance of Western culture. They radicalize Muslims and are seminaries for jihad. As a result, President Musharref and the newly elected civilian government have both stated the need to register and reform the Madrassa’s in Pakistan, and to remove any foreign students and return them to their home countries. Despite this pledge there has been little follow up by either the United States or Pakistani governments to address the issue. While in Pakistan I raised the issue with President Musharref who reiterated the importance of achieving this goal. In the meantime we have precious little information about the status and number of Americans who are in these Madrassa’s. I am sure we can all agree that a radically trained terrorist with an American passport is a considerable security threat to this country. I intend to introduce a resolution on the issue which I hope you will support and cosponsor. I would also like to request a hearing on the issue so that the House Foreign Affairs Committee can properly investigate the depth of this problem, and to find out what plans the administration has to address it. Mad For Madrassas Islamofascism: Saudi money buys a lot in Washington, even an extension of a lease to an Islamic school that graduates terrorists and teaches its students it's OK to kill non-Muslims. A federal panel wants the Islamic Saudi Academy inside the Beltway shut down for promoting hate, something we've urged for years. But remarkably, this madrassa still has powerful backers — including the State Department. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last week released the results of a probe of the academy, which is financed and operated by the Saudi government. It found the school has failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in textbooks. The texts used at its main campus, located just across the Potomac in Alexandria, Va., contain passages that vilify Jews and proclaim killing non-Muslims is sometimes permissible. Despite the failing grade, local government officials renewed the private school's lease in an old public high school building. The Democrat county supervisor in charge of the lease doesn't see any problem with the school or its texts. In fact, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly reportedly dismissed critics of the Saudi academy as "bigots" as he accepted a check from the Saudi Embassy for another $2.2 million to extend its lease. Perhaps not coincidentally, Connolly is running as a Democrat for Congress. He hopes to fill the local seat of retiring Republican Tom Davis, whose district includes one of the fastest-growing Muslim populations in the country. The commission that looked at the Saudi texts has turned to the State Department to close the academy. State can do this because as part of the Saudi government, the school is subject to the Foreign Missions Act. But the Washington Times says State plans to let the madrassa continue to operate. Why? The Saudis "told us they would revise the textbooks by the 2008 school year," a spokesman said. How foolish. The Saudis have been promising to reform their violent texts every year since 9/11. Yet they just pump more petrodollars into spreading their hateful Wahhabi propaganda here. Within months of the attacks by 15 Saudi hijackers, the Washington Post reported the Saudi academy's 11th-grade textbooks, for example, say one sign of the Day of Judgment will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees. The Post went on to quote several students who say they are taught in Islamic studies that "it is better to shun and even to dislike Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims." One teen told the paper he's taught by academy teachers that it's OK for Muslims to hurt or steal from such "kafirs." This was the steady diet of hate the Saudi academy fed Ahmed Abu Ali, who joined al-Qaida after graduating and plotted to kill President Bush. Lest anyone think Ali was a misfit loner, he graduated valedictorian and was voted as the "Most Likely to Be a Martyr." As we've warned repeatedly on these pages, the Islamic Saudi Academy is a breeding ground for terrorists, operating just across the Potomac from the White House and Capitol. Who has the nerve to disregard Saudi money and influence and shut it down? Madrassas Protest Reform “They assembled on a street near the mosque for a conference organised by hardline religious groups. TV channels reported that leaders of banned extremist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Jaish-e-Mohammed also attended the event. Several clerics made hard hitting speeches criticising the arrest of former Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz as well as the government’s plans for reforming madrassas. The seminary students chanted slogans like “Allah-o-Akbar” (God is great). Clerics said the conference was organised to pay respect to those who died when the army stormed the mosque in the heart of Islamabad after a siege in July last year. Participants demanded the release of Abdul Aziz, the reopening of Jamia Faridia madrassa and rebuilding of Jamia Hafsa madrassa in line with an order issued by the Supreme Court. Both the madrassas are affiliated to Lal Masjid. Jamia Faridia was closed after the military operation while Jamia Hafsa was razed. Abdul Aziz was arrested at the conclusion of the operation while his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi was shot dead. Over 100 people were killed in the operation.” Interior Ministry Memo Reveals Americans in Karachi Kids Documentary are “Blacklisted” by Pakistan Two of the students who are to be deported are Americans and are the focus of the Karachi Kids documentary, which films their transformation from American teenagers fighting to leave the Jamia Binuria madrassa, into students who have willingly converted to fundamentalist doctrine taught at the Jamia Binuria. This document reveals the two Americans, Noor Elahi Khan and Mahboob Elahi Khan, have been blacklisted by the government of Pakistan, and can never legally return to the country. Pakistan is to be commended for its courage to expell these students, as well as the six others studying at the Jamia Binuria madrassa. The estimated 500 foreign students at all the Pakistani Madrassa should also be expelled and deported from Pakistan — including the 75 to 80 American children at the Jamia Binuria madrassa. Noor and Mahboob under go a process of indoctrination, captured on film by the Karachi Kids documentary. It is soul wrenching and saddening to watch. Karachi Kids shows why it is essential that the two key elements of Pakistan law be upheld and enforced that can be used to deport these foreign students. First, that all foreign students who have overstayed their visa be forced return to their native country, and secondly, that the edict against foreigners studying in Pakistani madrassas be enforced. This document may be the start of that process — one which will make the world a much safer place. Stricter Visa Policies Guess who is not happy? The Binoria Madrassas headmaster Mufti Naeem. Undercover city detective finds hints of danger among mosques Hajj to Mecca (above) and anti-U.S. fervor like protest in Turkey (below) radicalize men, says undercover. As the global war on terror approaches the start of its eighth year, the NYPD says it has never been more prepared - but also warns that the city can never let its guard down. In a two-part series, Daily News reporter Patrice O'Shaughnessy looks at the terror threat in New York - and around the world. Sunday's installment focuses on an NYPD undercover officer who dug deep into the potential terrorists in our midst. A young undercover city detective spent four years in the shadowy world of terrorist wanna-bes - taking part in jihadist discussions and training in parks in the dead of night - to get a handle on the homegrown threat. At great personal risk, he participated in everything from prayers at a mosque to martial arts training under cover of darkness to watching jihadist videos, with many of the activities laced with talk of killing, according to a source familiar with the undercover's investigations. His experiences paint a vivid portrait of the potential for local terror. While the picture is in no way indicative of the city's Muslim population as a whole, it provides insight into its most radical element. The detective spent his time interacting with informal groups of youths and men who shared extremist views - and his experiences illustrate what police say is the potential for radicalization of some elements in the community. He reported that after prayers at a neighborhood mosque, there were often private classes that included discussions about bombing different areas. The men discussed violent jihad in bookstores, private houses and on buses en route to paintball and shooting-range events. He was invited to join in "bonding" activities like working out at a gym and martial arts training in parks at night, during which the group discussed ideological justifications for killing Westerners. He also watched military movies and jihadist videos with groups of young men in private homes. During one such evening, one man got so excited he punched a wall. The detective reported that some youths became extremists after they traveled to their home countries; others went on the hajj - the pilgrimage to Mecca - and came back fired up by imams who encouraged violence as a religious obligation. Others, after visiting relatives abroad, became enraged at their family's living conditions and blamed the U.S. for supporting nondemocratic governments. Although the youths talked about ways to attack the U.S., they lacked a strong leader who could help them follow through on a plan, the detective reported. The undercover, a Muslim who came to America from Bangladesh when he was 7, gave only a glimpse of his work as an undercover when he testified during the trial of the Herald Square bomb plotters, the only known New York City homegrown plot to reach the jihadization stage. The groups the detective interacted with resemble the "bunches of guys" that Marc Sageman, a noted terrorism authority and new scholar-in-residence at the NYPD, says are the real concern. His position has stirred a debate among security analysts. While some experts contend the chief threat is Al Qaeda, Sageman, author of "Leaderless Jihad," contends the threat comes more from radicalized individuals who meet and scheme in their neighborhoods and on the Internet. "We're still very much learning about our enemy," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "Sageman will help us do that. He was with the CIA, a consultant to France and Spain. He's a heavyweight." While the homegrown threat is real, "An attack from afar by Al Qaeda is always a possibility," Kelly emphasized. Intelligence analysts for the department have compiled a report, "Radicalization in the West," that "conceptualized the whole notion of the homegrown threat," said David Cohen, deputy commissioner of intelligence. The Internet as training ground and recruitment tool for homegrown radicals is strong, Cohen said, but the number of jihadist Web sites - up from a dozen in 1998 to more than 5,000 now - has probably flattened out. "Along with expanding computer investigations done by the cyber unit, we have expanded our human program," Cohen said, referring to traditional undercover detective work. The detective appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court two years ago as the final witness at the four-week trial of Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, a Pakistani immigrant who was convicted of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station during the Republican National Convention in 2004. The detective was not involved in that case, but testified that he had come across Siraj during his undercover work. Testifying under the fake name of Kamil Pasha, he said he was taken from the Police Academy in October 2002 to be a "walking camera," eyes and ears, among Muslims. He interacted with groups in Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city. The detective has been involved in "numerous" investigations for the intelligence division, part of a cadre of undercovers who act as listening posts. "We don't target a group as a whole; we look for patterns of behavior, travel, training," Cohen said. The NYPD has studied attacks in Europe to enhance its understanding of the homegrown threat. For example, the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings that killed 52 people drove home the issue of plotting being done outside the target area. The attack plan was hatched in Leeds - more than 150 miles from London. "We drew a 200-mile perimeter around the city, and we work with all the local police agencies from Maryland to Canada," Cohen said. "We have our ear to the ground," Kelly said. "We are aware of the possibility of a threat to this city developing very close to home." PAKISTAN'S RISING ISLAMIST TIDE FOR a misery junkie, Pakistan's got it all: gruesome Islamist terror; a phony democracy drowning in corruption; wretched poverty and obscene stolen wealth; a terrified army - and nukes. Last weekend, Pakistani security forces launched a desperate counteroffensive in the Khyber Agency on the Afghan border. They hope to prevent medieval tribesmen (with modern weapons) from overrunning the city of Peshawar and severing the main supply route for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Frontier Corps made some local gains. But their efforts amount to belated sandbagging against the rising flood of militant Islam. Of course, trouble on Pakistan's Afghan frontier isn't new: It was long the stuff of adventure novels and splendid black-and-white movies. A friend reminded me that, during World War I, the Brits fired artillery from the walls of the fort in downtown Peshawar to fend off tribesmen shouting, "God is great!" But there's a vital difference now: In the past, jihads were tribal and local, if fierce. The Islamist rebellions sweeping the country's Northwest Frontier and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas reflect a global vision: It isn't just the Khyber Pass and Peshawar that are threatened these days. What happened? For decades, Pakistani politicians preached anti-Americanism at home while sucking up to Washington in official circles. (Your teeth fell out? Blame the godless CIA.) Not one leading politician in the country's history argued that Pakistan's problems began at home. As fake democracy failed the people again and again, Islamist demagogues found open ears in the dirt-poor tribal areas. Mullahs still blamed Uncle Sam - but they were the first to also blame the country's own politicians for poverty and corruption. The bulk of the country's population in the densely populated regions east of the Indus River still hasn't signed up for extremism - but the fundamentalists now enjoy de facto control of most of the Afghan frontier. Why did one Islamabad regime after another let the cancer worsen? They didn't care. The tribal areas are poor - nothing there to steal, except for drug profits (and the pols got their cut from the dope). By the time Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized the president's chair, a crisis was blazing. Under Musharraf, the security forces (which never fully cut ties with the Taliban) made half-hearted efforts to fight the militants, then tried to bargain with them. Nothing worked. But credit Musharraf: He genuinely cared about his country. Now the situation's worsening by the day. After the assassination last year of the dazzlingly dishonest Benazir Bhutto, her party won a sympathy vote, leaving her jailbird husband as the national power broker. Perched on his wife's grave, Asif Ali Zardari doesn't share Musharraf's patriotism. "Mr. Ten Percent" is delighted to cut deals that leave the fanatics in charge of the impoverished regions west of the Indus - as long as he and his gang remain free to loot what remains in "wealthy" Sindh and Punjab. The army's caught in the middle. On one hand, it's got the most capable chief of staff it's had in many years, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. And it's the only responsible, remotely capable national-level entity. On the other hand, the generals are terrified that an all-out offensive against the militants would fail. And only the army holds Pakistan together. So the military's trying limited operations - sticking it halfway in. In the Khyber, the generals sent out the paramilitary Frontier Corps to push back militant gangs threatening the two-lane "highway" to Afghanistan. They held back the regular army as a reserve - and to protect Peshawar, if things went south. Why act at all? Unlike Zardari and his ilk, the generals now grasp that the Islamists can't be bought off, that no deal will last a day longer than the fanatics find useful. They also realize that the US can't allow the severing of the prime supply link to our forces in Afghanistan. We'd have to do the job ourselves - and that would trigger a political deluge in Pakistan. Meanwhile, the extremists have imposed Sharia law; assassinated or executed officials and insufficiently devout Pakistanis; allied with the Taliban; welcomed al Qaeda - and detached huge swaths of the country. The Pakistani military doesn't know what to do. And the government all the Western Benazir groupies howled for doesn't give a damn. The only remotely positive note is that, despite their public protests, the Pakistani generals are pleased when we hit al Qaeda and Taliban targets on their soil - doing their work for them. But were we to move beyond air strikes and special ops to major incursions, their military would be forced into a face-off with us. What's the underlying lesson? That corruption and sham democracy are the Islamist fanatic's friends. Nothing in al Qaeda's message, or in the calls to arms from other extremists, rings so true to embittered Muslims as attacks on uncaring governments. We should listen. The Stealth Jihad in Turkey Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with President Abdullah Gul and their ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), have been moving for quite some time to dismantle Turkish secularism and transform Turkey into a state governed by Islamic law. But as Prime Minister, Erdogan has not engaged in a direct assault on Turkish secularism. Instead, he and the AKP have steadily chipped away at it, reintroducing provisions of Islamic law piece by piece, while professing to uphold the country’s secular character. In 2004 Erdogan took steps to criminalize adultery, and late in 2005 the AKP banned alcoholic beverages in government cafes and restaurants in Ankara. In May 2008 a new law came into effect that effectively outlawed sale of alcohol by the glass in bars and restaurants. In the 1990s, as mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan was forthright about this goal, expressing his opposition to secularism in no uncertain terms: “You cannot be both secular and a Muslim! You will either be a Muslim, or secular!...It is not possible for a person who says ‘I am a Muslim’ to go on and say ‘I am secular too.’ And why is that? Because Allah, the creator of the Muslim, has absolute power and rule!” Saying that Allah has “absolute power and rule” is a fundamentally political statement. And from its inception Islam has been a political and social system, not just a religious faith in the way most Westerners conceive of religion. The establishment of Islamic law as the only legitimate system of government is a goal that Erdogan shares with Osama bin Laden and other jihadists around the world; they only differ regarding the best means to go about this. While Al-Qaeda and other jihad groups have focused on violent attacks on Western targets, Erdogan has shown himself a master of the stealth jihad: the slow, steady, step-by-step encroachment upon secular societal norms, continuing until Islamic law is fully in place. This effort is proceeding, too, in the West. As a Muslim Brotherhood operative, Mohamed Akram, put it in 1991 memorandum outlining the organization’s strategy in the United States: “The Muslim Brotherhood must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” Akram explained that this sabotaging of Western civilization would take place not through terror attacks, but by numerous non-violent initiatives carried out by a variety of Islamic organizations. With the public geared to be on guard only against terror attacks, these efforts would slip by unnoticed. And so they have in Turkey -- at least up until last week. In line with its small-step, indirect approach, for years now the government has been trying to overturn the law banning the Islamic headscarf in Turkish universities. But on Thursday the Turkish Constitutional Court, the nation’s highest court, overturned a new AKP-backed law allowing the headscarf in universities, saying it contravened the Constitutional tenets providing for Turkish secularism. With the possibility looming that the Constitutional Court could even ban the AKP itself, on the grounds that it posed a threat to Turkey’s Constitutional order, Erdogan canceled a trip to Switzerland and returned to Ankara, where he and his top aides met in an emergency strategy meeting on Friday. If the party is outlawed, Erdogan and Gul could be barred from holding political office. The Turkish courts and military have intervened to save Turkish secularism before. They may now, and soon again. If Erdogan were to be down, he would not be out, and analysts would be well-advised to study his stealth jihad in Turkey: there are groups in Western Europe and the U.S. that are pursuing exactly the same kind of small-scale, step-by-step approach that the AKP has followed with so much success until last week. With story after story appearing documenting the disarray and decay of Al-Qaeda, the stealth jihad could be the wave of the future around the world. And its guiding light, however his personal political fortunes may shift, will be Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Jihadis break cover US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, the Bush administration's point man on policy in South Asia, is a highly regarded and experienced diplomat seldom given to public expressions of exasperation. Anti-Musharraf demonstration in Rawalpindi in June. Picture: AFP "This is not the problem that Pakistan faces right now," he maintains, in what was taken as a warning to the country's floundering civilian Government, installed in office only 100 days ago. "There's danger of bombings and suicide bombers. There's rising food prices. There's energy difficulties. Their electricity is being cut off through load shedding." And, he might have added, there is a leadership vacuum and administrative paralysis in what many regard as one of the world's most strategically important nations, which has opened the door to al-Qa'ida and Taliban militants, who are cutting a swath through much of the countryside and even steadily encircling one of its main cities, Peshawar. Years of double-dealing by the ill-starred Musharraf regime provide the backdrop to the crisis: double-dealing that has resulted in spy agency the ISI working with extremists and able to pick up 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed virtually on Musharraf's doorstep in Rawalpindi in 2003, but unable or unwilling to do anything about finding Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, despite compelling evidence that they are somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas. The same ISI with the same Musharraf-appointed commanders remains firmly in place in Islamabad, still involved in the same shadowy and duplicitous activities, and accused of working with him to undermine the new Government. The same meddlesome activities of the agencies that most Pakistanis believe were responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last December remain the subject of suspicion among the country's political leaders as they helplessly watch the advance of extremism and continued double-dealing with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. Last night there were serious suggestions at a high level in New Delhi that the monstrous terrorist bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday was the work of the ISI working in collusion with the Taliban. As with the Bhutto assassination, most Pakistanis are never sure when a terrorist bomb goes off whether it is the work of genuine militants or those working hand in glove with the agencies. Boucher, at his news conference, did not use the word dire as he spoke. But he will have heard it often enough in Islamabad. "Dire, it is," one senior diplomat in Islamabad says. "Desperate might be another appropriate description of the situation. Here we are in a country that is absolutely critical to the battle against extremism here and around the world, and a Government elected with such high hopes and international goodwill and installed in office only three months seems just about totally unable to get to grips with the situation." A suicide bombing in the heart of Islamabad on Sunday was one manifestation of the crisis. So, too, is the steady encirclement of Peshawar, one of four provincial capitals only a 90-minute drive from Islamabad, with militants moving about at will and many of the city's more affluent people packing their bags and fleeing before what they believe could be an extremist takeover that would include the imposition of sharia law. Little by little, militants are moving in strength ever closer to the city's perimeter, threatening the security of the highway that is the main supply route for weapons shipped to the port of Karachi and bound for the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. According to most sources, in much of Pakistan's northwest the Government's writ is virtually nonexistent. In vast stretches of territory (significantly, including areas where the country's nuclear resources are deployed), al-Qa'ida and Taliban militants enjoy a largely free rein, unchallenged and unhindered as they impose sharia law and send columns of fighters into Afghanistan. Boucher's message to Islamabad was plain, according to diplomats in the Pakistan capital. "For God's sake, the clock's ticking and getting closer to midnight. Start governing and get on with meeting the challenge posed by the extremists before it's too late," one envoy says. All the indications are that few in the newly elected political milieu are listening. The judgment - five months after the country overturned eight years of jackbooted military dictatorship - is that the country is in the grip of "institutional paralysis and a dysfunctional Government", according to former general Talat Masood. "I have a feeling that no one is in charge and that is why the militants are taking advantage," he says. Few would challenge his gloomy assessment. And the failure to get to grips with extremist militancy is a reflection of this. So, too, is the Government's paralysis over such fundamental issues as the restoration of judges sacked by Musharraf when he declared his illegal state of emergency last November - an issue that lies at the heart of much of the despair gripping the nation. Last week the extent of this failure was further highlighted when the judges installed by Musharraf reasserted their support for the dismissal of those who were sacked and the constitutionality of his actions. Largely because of the mismanagement of the previous government appointed by Musharraf, Pakistan's 160 million people are suffering unprecedented shortages of basic foods such as flour. An economy that only a few months ago boasted the highest foreign exchange reserves, a solid growth in exports and gross domestic product, and a soaring stock market is, too, in dire straits. So, who is to blame for all this, and why has everything turned so sour so quickly after all the optimism following the February election? Why are things so dire? A generous view among some is that any new democratic government coming to power after eight years of military rule would have problems, and that it's far too early to reach a conclusion of failure. That, however, fails to recognise the effect of conflicts that have preoccupied the new leaders to the exclusion of getting to grips with issues. Within weeks of its formation, the new Government had run aground on the issue of the restoration of the judges, and the popular former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, had led his ministers out of cabinet when it became clear that Asif Ali Zardari, chairman of the dominant Pakistan People's Party, was going to renege on the fundamental promise to restore the judges. The judges and Musharraf lie at the centre of the plight Pakistan finds itself in, which is contributing significantly to the inability of security forces to get to grips with the onslaughts by the Islamic extremists linked to al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. If there is a core issue in Pakistani politics it is the reinstatement of chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the 60 or so sacked judges. It is an issue that every indicator shows has great popular support. It is one that accounts for Sharif's huge backing, since he alone has been faithful to the promise made by him and Zardari for their restoration. But Musharraf, apparently still enjoying the support of the armed forces that have ruled Pakistan for most of the past 61 years, has been implacable in insisting that the judges should not be restored. And Zardari, effectively running the country through his hand-picked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has sided with Musharraf, apparently fearing that if the judges are restored they might not limit themselves to challenging Musharraf's legality but also turn their sights on Zardari's colourful past. Zardari and the PPP have twisted and turned, changed and rechanged their positions, all the time promising that the judges will be restored. But the reality is that despite constitutional lawyers saying reinstatement requires no more than a simple vote in parliament, nothing has happened and government is paralysed. Woven into every aspect of this stand-off is Musharraf's position - whether he should stay or go, whether he should quit voluntarily or be impeached by the parliament or even be arraigned on charges of high treason and punished - and until it is resolved, most analysts believe, there will be no solution to the crisis. And it's not just Musharraf's position that is at issue. Incredibly, in the view of many critics, the Government has left untouched such pillars of the military dictatorship as the attorney-general and the boss of the notorious ISI spy agency, apparently unable to move its own people into these key roles. Boucher, in making the plea for the political class to divert itself from preoccupation with Musharraf and get on with the real issues of the day, was articulating the US administration's longstanding support for the former military ruler as a key ally in the war against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. It is support that has earned the US highly damaging unpopularity in Pakistan and, in the view of many who have long been familiar with the country, contributed significantly to the growth in backing for Islamic fundamentalism that is now being seen at every level of society, not just in remote badlands. Indicators have shown that about 73 per cent of Pakistanis have an unfavourable view of Musharraf. The cries of "Go, Musharraf, go" that have echoed across the country since that dark day in March last year when the military ruler made his first abortive attempt to sack the chief justice are approaching a crescendo. So, too, are the cries of "Allah-o-akbar" as the militants, taking advantage of the political and administrative paralysis, steadily advance out of the tribal areas to which they were previously confined and close in on cities such as Peshawar while launching the sort of suicide bombing attack that was seen in the heart of Islamabad. To those who have closely observed Pakistan since that fateful day more than 30 years ago when general Mohammed Zia ul-Haq overthrew the democratic government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the political and security conflicts besetting the Islamic republic have seldom looked more challenging. In any country they would be deeply worrying. In one that is both a nuclear power and nominally a vital bulwark in the battle against global terrorism, the prospects could hardly be more portentous. Boy Beaten in Madrassa — Near Death “A 14-year-old madrasa student has been hospitalised and is in serious condition after being thrashed by his teacher, the teacher’s brother and the teacher’s son. The issue was a minor one; the student told the cleric’s son not to enter his room with his shoes on. The victim has been identified as Muhammad Zahid, a resident of Muzaffargarh district. The cleric’s brother’s name is Umer and son’s name is Abu Bakar. The victim’s brother, Muhammad Shahid, told Daily Times on Friday that his brother and he studied from Qari Suleman in Umer Farooq Madrassa near Doctor’s Hospital. He said that the cleric’s son entered his brother’s room with his shoes on, on which his brother asked the cleric’s son to take his shoes off. “This infuriated Abu Bakar, who beat my brother up. Umer also came in the room and smashed my brother’s head against the wall several times and stamped on his face about a dozen times. They beat him mercilessly. The next day the cleric came to know about the incident and started beating my brother up. He thrashed him as if he were an animal. My brother was seriously shaken up, but could stand straight. He went to Jinnah Hospital, but doctors told him he was okay.” Jinnah Hospital House Officer Dr Khalid said, “Muhammad Zahid was brought to hospital by his relatives about a week ago. He ran a high fever. We didn’t know about the beating. We came to know about the incident three days ago. By then Muhammad Zahid’s condition worsened because of the blows to the head and he could not breathe.” The victim’s father, Muhammad Khan, said he could not afford a good school and therefore was forced to send his children to a madrasa. “It is my fault that my son is in this condition. I haven’t contacted the police because I know they won’t do anything,” he added. Torture at a Madrassa The Daily Times reports that police in Lahore, Pakistan have recovered a 12-year old boy from a madrassa where he was found in shackles. Police raised the madrassa and found the child tied in iron chains. The mother of the child had sought help of local human rights activists for the recovery of her son. Pakistan orders deportation of 8 foreigners studying at Islamic seminary KARACHI, Pakistan: An Islamic seminary says the Pakistani government is deporting eight foreign students. Mufti Naeem Ahmed, head of the Jamia Binuria seminary, says the Interior Ministry is ordering the students to leave the country within 15 days. The students are from the United States, Thailand and Fiji. Ahmed says the government gave no reason for the order and the seminary will appeal to have it rescinded. About 500 of the seminary's 5,000 students are foreign. Pakistan's Islamic seminaries have been accused of being breeding grounds for militants. Several leaders in the Taliban militia fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan graduated from religious schools in Pakistan. Stricter visa policies for foreign madrassah students The stay of thousands of foreign students studying at madrassahs in the country is under threat again, now that the visa policy has reportedly been tightened by the government of Pakistan. The step is attributed to what officials referred to as “increasing terrorist activity” in the country. Insiders commenting on the step said that foreign students going back home during winter vacation would not be issued visas. Moreover, the visas od students whose term was expiring would also not be extended. This has caused anxiety among students, because they will then be penalised for overstaying in the country. The government, officials said, was under immense pressure from the US to get the “madressah issue” resolved. The US government is of the view that Islamic clerics in Pakistan are the main source of disturbances, especially in tribal areas. The Sheikh-ul-Hadis and administrator of Binnoria University International, Mufti Mohammed Naeem said, however, that Pakistan was identified as an Islamic country only because of religious seminaries and Ulema. In his view, madressahs build character and provide education in order to make students good human beings. He also refuted the allegation levelled by Interior Minister Rahman Malik wherein the latter had blamed madressahs for terrorism. He said that the present government was continuing the policy of the previous one. Naeem also requested that the government soften the visa policy for foreign students. Thousands of foreign students studying at madressahs are a lucrative source of revenue, and are an honour for the country, because they return to their countries as Pakistan’s ambassadors, Naeem maintained. Lawmaker Expects American Teens to Be Released From Pakistani Madrassa Two American teenage boys unable to leave the radical madrassa where they've been studying for the past four years in Karachi, Pakistan, should be released in the next week, a Texas congressman told FOX News on Tuesday. Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, along with Democratic Reps. Gene Green and Henry Cuellar, also of Texas, called on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to help get the boys released from the school. "That is our hope, if the madrassas will let them go. The passports have been tendered over to the government at this time, and it's a question of the madrassas releasing these two American children and letting them come home," McCaul said. The boys, identified as Noor Elahi Khan, 17, and Mahboob Elahi Khan, 16, are from the Atlanta area; their parents are Pakistani. Noor and Mahboob were born in the U.S. and lived there until being sent to Karachi several years ago by their father. A family member said that the boys were sent to Pakistan to learn to memorize the Koran, which the family believed would enable the entire clan to gain entry to heaven. A congressional source told FOX News that the family has decided that it wants the boys back, but their father is very reticent to speak because he is afraid it will reflect negatively on Islam and would be viewed dimly, a situation that the family wants to avoid because the boys are still in Pakistan. The story of the three boys became known after a documentary filmmaker went to the madrassa and filmed the boys' alleged radicalization. The filmmaker went to McCaul to tell him his concerns about the boys. The three congressmen flew to Pakistan last week to discuss military affairs with Pakistani officials. On their way to meet with Musharraf, McCaul told the others about the American boys who were studying at a madrassa, or Islamic religious school, called the Jamia Binoria Institute. Green and Cuellar were unaware of the teens' plight. In their July 4 meeting with Musharraf, the Pakistani president assured McCaul that the teens would be let go, as did the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, saying they could be sent home as early as this week. Musharraf told the congressional delegation that he has been trying to close this particular madrassa, according to Green. "There's been a concern about madrassas who teach people how to hate America," said the congressman. "The madrassas is holding these children in there against their will," said McCaul. "But I know President Musharraf and he has a policy to exclude all foreigners from the madrassas including Americans. Obviously, this policy is not being effectuated." Within hours of the lawmakers' meeting with Musharraf, Pakistan's new civilian government announced that it would continue with his madrassas' reform policy, which includes expulsion of foreign students, registration with the federal government, control of funding and standardization of the curriculum, according a McCaul press release on his negotiations. McCaul told FOX News that Pakistan has 20,000 madrassas, and he knows of at least 80 Americans studying in them. Green said it isn't uncommon for lawmakers to get involved in "domestic disputes" between family members in different countries, though in many of those cases, one parent is in the United States and the other is in Mexico. The fact that this situation deals with parents from Pakistan "makes it a little more complicated," said Green. "Sharia law is a little different," he said. "It may give preference to the father." A Justice Department source told FOX News that Pakistan has revoked the teens' visas, and officials there say they want to send the boys back to the United States. Two American Children Released from Taliban Madrassa Two American Children Escorted from Taliban Madrassa by American Consulate in Karachi for Flight to NYC The two brothers have been in a Pakistani madrassa for four years and are the focus of a newly released documentary entitled "The Karachi Kids". "I have been working for months to secure their exit from the Madrassa and from Pakistan," said Imran Raza, writer, director and executive producer of the Karachi Kids documentary. "This is great news, but we need to get the other American children out of there, now. There are nearly 80 other Americans currently at this Jamia Binoria madrassa -- that teaches Deobandism -- the religion of the Taliban. Our government, and the Pakistani government, has more work to do to get the other American children out of there." Raza discovered the two children from Atlanta while filming a documentary about madrassas. He returned to the madrassa three times in four years to film their transformation in the hands of the radical mullahs. Children in the documentary film "The Karachi Kids" describe beatings and human rights violations for those who reject the radical teachings of their Taliban masters. Children from California and Georgia are interviewed in the film from inside the madrassa and discuss coming back to the United States to spread extremism within our borders. The headmaster of the Binoria madrassa personally recruits American children to his institution during Ramadan, and says on camera that: "We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others. That is why I'm appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them and they will go back to their home countries and do the work and make people understand." The headmaster of the Binoria madrassa also states that he has already graduated 100 American children from his madrassa. The Stealth Jihad in Turkey US 'Not Permitted' to Hunt Osama in Pakistan NEW YORK - Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader. In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants. "Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said Saturday. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in." The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has offered U.S. troops to strike at terrorism networks. Critics in Washington also have expressed frustration with the new Pakistani government's pursuit of peace deals with tribes in the region. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Tension between the U.S. and Pakistan have been high after Pakistan said U.S. aircraft killed 11 of its soldiers at a border post in June. U.S. officials have said coalition aircraft dropped bombs during a clash with militants. Qureshi said he tried to reassure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their meeting Friday that his government was doing everything it can to combat militants in lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Fighting militants Qureshi also met Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who agreed to Pakistan's request to establish an independent commission that will investigate Bhutto's killing. Qureshi acknowledged Saturday that "there are some infiltrations" still occurring, but there are no covert U.S. military operations trying to catch al-Qaida figures and its chief, Taliban members or any other suspected militants. "There are none," he said. "It will create such an anti-U.S. feeling in Pakistan that I would say would mar the atmosphere of cooperation that exists between us." Qureshi described Pakistan's counterterrorism as a "grassroots" approach. "Our strategy is that the military option alone is not enough," he said. "This war has to be fought besides the armies, with the help of the people, by winning hearts and minds." Does he believe bin Laden is in Pakistan? "I don't think so. I'm not sure," he said. "Nobody's aware of that. Nobody can speak with certainty. But our policy's very clear. We are allies in this war. And if Pakistan has actionable information vis-a-vis Osama bin laden or any other high value target, Pakistan will immediately take action." US Poised to Attack Pakistan Extremists US commandos are reportedly poised to launch raids against al-Qa'ida and Taliban targets in Pakistan as Washington moves an aircraft carrier into the Arabian Sea. The redeployment of the Abraham Lincoln and its escort vessels from the Gulf yesterday came after US military intelligence officials recorded an increase in the number of foreign fighters travelling to Pakistan's tribal areas to join with militants. A US military spokesman told the The New York Times there had been a corresponding drop in the number of foreign fighters entering Iraq -- now less than 40 a month, compared with up to 110 a month one year ago -- and that "the flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia seeking to take up arms against the West". The officials say the influx shows a strengthening of al-Qa'ida forces in the tribal areas, a key base of support for the Taliban. The paper reported that jihadist websites were encouraging foreign militants to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which was considered a "winning fight," compared with the insurgency in Iraq. Three US congressmen back from a trip to the region revealed yesterday they were briefed about US plans to stage raids against targets in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where most of the militancy feeding the insurgency in Afghanistan is believed to be based. The congressmen said plans for heightened US military operations were in response to Pakistan's failure to disrupt terrorist training camps and cross-border attacks blamed for the almost 40per cent increase in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan in recent months. Attacks in Afghanistan in June exceeded those in Iraq. Pakistan's new democratic Government has insisted it would not allow cross-border raids into its territory by any country. One of the congressmen was quoted as saying: "If we don't do something now, they're going to strike us again (in the US), and it is going to be out of this area." Democrat Henry Cuellar added: "Either Pakistan does more or we will be taking things into our own hands. If our troops are fired on, there will be hot pursuit into that territory." Frustration with Pakistan spilled over at the UN yesterday when Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told the Security Council that a key reason for the worsening security in his country was "the de facto truce" in Pakistan's tribal areas. The new Government in Islamabad began talks with Islamic militants in the region soon after winning elections in February, including with Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who was blamed by the previous government and the US for the December assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto. "One of the main factors contributing to the deterioration of the security situation in the country is the de facto truce in the tribal areas beyond the border," Mr Spanta said. A secret agreement between the US and President Pervez Musharraf to allow US special forces to enter Pakistan in pursuit of terrorists in the FATA region is said to have stalled under the new administration in Islamabad. Jihadi forces have promised to increase suicide bombings if it co-operates with coalition operations in Pakistan. --- Baby-faced Hamza Bin Laden — just 16 but already dubbed the Crown Prince of Terror — also ranted in his evil ode that the US and our other allies must be wiped out. The teen declared in his demented ditty to fanatics: “Accelerate the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark.” He continued: “Oh God, reward the fighters hitting the infidels and defectors. Oh God, guide the youth of the Islamic nation and let them assist with the fighters’ plans. “God, be pleased with those who want to go for jihad — and blind those who are watching and want to capture them.” The vile verses, by the youngest of the al-Qaeda warlord’s 18 sons, appeared on an extremist website to mark three years since the 7/7 London suicide bombings killed 52 innocents. The poem urged: “Grant victory to the Taliban over the gangs of infidels.” His words — believed to be recited by the lad himself — accompanied a short video clip featuring old footage of his dad. Respected terrorist expert Chris Dobson said: “Despite his youth he is emerging as Bin Laden’s likely heir.” Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a member of the Home Affairs Committee, said: “The sins of the father are being visited upon the son. We now have the Crown Prince of Terror taking up his father’s mantle.” Author and internet terror expert Neil Doyle warned: “There’s been a rising level of extremist chatter online about attacks on Britain. The comments will add fuel to that.” Jacqui Putnam, who survived the 7/7 attacks, said: “It’s deeply distressing. He should be doing what any boy his age in any culture should be doing and finding out about life in a normal way.” The Muslim Council of Britain also blasted the poem, branding al-Qaeda “mass murderers”. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={67736123-6864-4205-B51E-BCBDEF45FCDE} One might be led to think that if international law enforcement authorities and Western intelligence agencies had discovered a twenty-year old document revealing a top-secret plan developed by the oldest Islamist organization with one of the most extensive terror networks in the world to launch a program of “cultural invasion” and eventual conquest of the West that virtually mirrors the tactics used by Islamists for more than two decades, that such news would scream from headlines published on the front pages and above the fold of the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, Le Monde, Bild, and La Repubblica. If that’s what you might think, you would be wrong. In fact, such a document was recovered in a raid by Swiss authorities in November 2001, two months after the horror of 9/11. Since that time information about this document, known in counterterrorism circles as “The Project”, and discussion regarding its content has been limited to the top-secret world of Western intelligence communities. Only through the work of an intrepid Swiss journalist, Sylvain Besson of Le Temps, and his book published in October 2005 in France, La conquête de l'Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (The Conquest of the West: The Islamists' Secret Project), has information regarding The Project finally been made public. One Western official cited by Besson has described The Project as “a totalitarian ideology of infiltration which represents, in the end, the greatest danger for European societies.” Now FrontPage readers will be the first to be able to read the complete English translation of The Project. What Western intelligence authorities know about The Project begins with the raid of a luxurious villa in Campione, Switzerland on November 7, 2001. The target of the raid was Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, who has had active association with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years and who admitted to being one of the organization’s international leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood, regarded as the oldest and one of the most important Islamist movements in the world, was founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928 and dedicated to the credo, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” The raid was conducted by Swiss law enforcement at the request of the White House in the initial crackdown on terrorist finances in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. US and Swiss investigators had been looking at Al-Taqwa’s involvement in money laundering and funding a wide range of Islamic terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS (the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood), the Algerian GIA, and the Tunisian Ennahdah. Included in the documents seized during the raid of Nada’s Swiss villa was a 14-page plan written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, which outlines a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth” – identified as The Project. According to testimony given to Swiss authorities by Nada, the unsigned document was prepared by “Islamic researchers” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. What makes The Project so different from the standard “Death of America! Death to Israel!” and “Establish the global caliphate!” Islamist rhetoric is that it represents a flexible, multi-phased, long-term approach to the “cultural invasion” of the West. Calling for the utilization of various tactics, ranging from immigration, infiltration, surveillance, propaganda, protest, deception, political legitimacy and terrorism, The Project has served for more than two decades as the Muslim Brotherhood “master plan”. As can be seen in a number of examples throughout Europe – including the political recognition of parallel Islamist government organizations in Sweden, the recent “cartoon” jihad in Denmark, the Parisian car-burning intifada last November, and the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London – the plan outlined in The Project has been overwhelmingly successful. Rather than focusing on terrorism as the sole method of group action, as is the case with Al-Qaeda, in perfect postmodern fashion the use of terror falls into a multiplicity of options available to progressively infiltrate, confront, and eventually establish Islamic domination over the West. The following tactics and techniques are among the many recommendations made in The Project: Networking and coordinating actions between likeminded Islamist organizations; Infiltrating and taking over existing Muslim organizations to realign them towards the Muslim Brotherhood’s collective goals; Using deception to mask the intended goals of Islamist actions, as long as it doesn’t conflict with shari’a law; Avoiding social conflicts with Westerners locally, nationally or globally, that might damage the long-term ability to expand the Islamist powerbase in the West or provoke a lash back against Muslims; Establishing financial networks to fund the work of conversion of the West, including the support of full-time administrators and workers; Conducting surveillance, obtaining data, and establishing collection and data storage capabilities; Putting into place a watchdog system for monitoring Western media to warn Muslims of “international plots fomented against them”; Cultivating an Islamist intellectual community, including the establishment of think-tanks and advocacy groups, and publishing “academic” studies, to legitimize Islamist positions and to chronicle the history of Islamist movements; Developing a comprehensive 100-year plan to advance Islamist ideology throughout the world; Building extensive social networks of schools, hospitals and charitable organizations dedicated to Islamist ideals so that contact with the movement for Muslims in the West is constant; Involving ideologically committed Muslims in democratically-elected institutions on all levels in the West, including government, NGOs, private organizations and labor unions; Instrumentally using existing Western institutions until they can be converted and put into service of Islam; Drafting Islamic constitutions, laws and policies for eventual implementation; Instituting alliances with Western “progressive” organizations that share similar goals; Inflaming violence and keeping Muslims living in the West “in a jihad frame of mind”; Supporting jihad movements across the Muslim world through preaching, propaganda, personnel, funding, and technical and operational support; Making the Palestinian cause a global wedge issue for Muslims; Adopting the total liberation of Palestine from Israel and the creation of an Islamic state as a keystone in the plan for global Islamic domination; Instigating a constant campaign to incite hatred by Muslims against Jews and rejecting any discussions of conciliation or coexistence with them; Actively creating jihad terror cells within Palestine; Linking the terrorist activities in Palestine with the global terror movement; Collecting sufficient funds to indefinitely perpetuate and support jihad around the world; In reading The Project, it should be kept in mind that it was drafted in 1982 when current tensions and terrorist activities in the Middle East were still very nascent. In many respects, The Project is extremely prescient for outlining the bulk of Islamist action, whether by “moderate” Islamist organizations or outright terror groups, over the past two decades. At present, most of what is publicly known about The Project is the result of Sylvain Besson’s investigative work, including his book and a related article published last October in the Swiss daily, Le Temps, L'islamisme à la conquête du monde (Islamism and the Conquest of the World), profiling his book, which is only available in a French-language edition. At least one Egyptian newspaper, Al-Mussawar, published the entire Arabic text of The Project last November. In the English-language press, the attention paid to Besson’s revelation of The Project has been almost non-existent. The only mention found in a mainstream media publication in the US has been as a secondary item in an article in the Weekly Standard (February 20, 2006) by Olivier Guitta, The Cartoon Jihad. The most extensive commentary on The Project has been by an American researcher and journalist living in London, Scott Burgess, who has posted his analysis of the document on his blog, The Daily Ablution. Along with his commentary, an English translation of the French text of The Project was serialized in December (Parts I, II, III, IV, V, Conclusion). The complete English translation prepared by Mr. Burgess is presented in its entirety here with his permission. The lack of public discussion about The Project notwithstanding, the document and the plan it outlines has been the subject of considerable discussion amongst the Western intelligence agencies. One US counterterrorism official who spoke with Besson about The Project, and who is cited in Guitta’s Weekly Standard article, is current White House terrorism czar, Juan Zarate. Calling The Project a Muslim Brotherhood master plan for “spreading their political ideology,” Zarate expressed concerns to Besson because “the Muslim Brotherhood is a group that worries us not because it deals with philosophical or ideological ideas but because it defends the use of violence against civilians.” One renowned international scholar of Islamist movements who also spoke with Besson, Reuven Paz, talked about The Project in its historical context: The Project was part of the charter of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was official established on July 29, 1982. It reflects a vast plan which was revived in the 1960s, with the immigration of Brotherhood intellectuals, principally Syrian and Egyptians, into Europe. As Paz notes, The Project was drafted by the Muslim Brotherhood as part of its rechartering process in 1982, a time that marks an upswing in its organizational expansion internationally, as well as a turning point in the alternating periods of repression and toleration by the Egyptian government. In 1952, the organization played a critical support role to the Free Officers Movement led by Gamal Abdul Nasser, which overthrew King Faruq, but quickly fell out of favor with the new revolutionary regime because of Nasser’s refusal to follow the Muslim Brotherhood’s call to institute an ideologically committed Islamic state. At various times since the July Revolution in 1952, the Brotherhood has regularly been banned and its leaders killed and imprisoned by Egyptian authorities. Since it was rechartered in 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood has spread its network across the Middle East, Europe, and even America. At home in Egypt, parliamentary elections in 2005 saw the Muslim Brotherhood winning 20 percent of the available legislative seats, comprising the largest opposition party block. Its Palestinian affiliate, known to the world as HAMAS, recently gained control of the Palestinian Authority after elections secured for them 74 of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Its Syrian branch has historically been the largest organized group opposing the Assad regime, and the organization also has affiliates in Jordan, Sudan, and Iraq. In the US, the Muslim Brotherhood is primarily represented by the Muslim American Society (MAS). Since its formation, the Muslim Brotherhood has advocated the use of terrorism as a means of advancing its agenda of global Islamic domination. But as the largest popular radical movement in the Islamic world, it has attracted many leading Islamist intellectuals. Included among this group of Muslim Brotherhood intellectuals is Youssef Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born, Qatar-based Islamist cleric. As one of the leading Muslim Brotherhood spiritual figures and radical Islamic preachers (who has his own weekly program on Al-Jazeera), Qaradawi has been one of the leading apologists of suicide bombings in Israel and terrorism against Western interests in the Middle East. Both Sylvain Besson and Scott Burgess provide extensive comparisons between Qaradawi’s publication, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, published in 1990, and The Project, which predates Qaradawi’s Priorities by eight years. They note the striking similarities in the language used and the plans and methods both documents advocate. It is speculated that The Project was either used by Qaradawi as a template for his own work, or that he had a hand in its drafting in 1982. Perhaps coincidentally, Qaradawi was the fourth largest shareholder in the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, the director of which, Youssef Nada, was the individual in whose possession The Project was found. Since 1999, Qaradawi has been banned from entering the US as a result of his connections to terrorist organizations and his outspoken advocacy of terrorism. For those who have read The Project, what is most troubling is not that Islamists have developed a plan for global dominance; it has been assumed by experts that Islamist organizations and terrorist groups have been operating off an agreed-upon set of general principles, networks and methodology. What is startling is how effectively the Islamist plan for conquest outlined in The Project has been implemented by Muslims in the West for more than two decades. Equally troubling is the ideology that lies behind the plan: inciting hatred and violence against Jewish populations around the world; the deliberate co-opting and subversion of Western public and private institutions; its recommendation of a policy of deliberate escalating confrontation by Muslims living in the West against their neighbors and fellow-citizens; the acceptance of terrorism as a legitimate option for achieving their ends and the inevitable reality of jihad against non-Muslims; and its ultimate goal of forcibly instituting the Islamic rule of the caliphate by shari’a in the West, and eventually the whole world. If the experience over the past quarter of a century seen in Europe and the US is any indication, the “Islamic researchers” who drafted The Project more than two decades ago must be pleased to see their long-term plan to conquer the West and to see the Green flag of Islam raised over its citizens realized so rapidly, efficiently and completely. If Islamists are equally successful in the years to come, Westerners ought to enjoy their personal and political freedoms while they last. Read the English translation of The Project here: http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=22416&p=1 Mujahideen Monitor U.S. Economy, Attempt to Undermine Dollar Numerous postings on Islamist websites in the past two years reflect the mujahideen's growing interest in the state of the U.S. economy. As was argued in a 2007 MEMRI analysis, [1] many of the jihadists and their supporters have come to view their struggle against the U.S. and the West as an economic war. More specifically, they have come to the conclusion that it is financial, rather than military, losses that will prompt the U.S. to change its policies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Consequently, they emphasize the importance of targeting U.S. interests around the world, and of directing their military jihad primarily at targets that affect the U.S. economy. "The Dollar Can Expect Two Additional Blows That Will Break Its Back" The author lists among the key factors the economic damage caused by Hurricane Katrina; the losses caused by the September 11 attacks; the cost of the war on terror and of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the U.S.'s persistent trade deficit and growing government debt; investors' growing faith in the Euro; the recent subprime crisis in the U.S.; and the fact that financial institutions around the world have started to reduce their dollar reserves, thereby flooding the market with dollars and decreasing the demand for this currency. The author ends his analysis with the following threat: "The dollar can expect two additional blows that will break its back... [namely] the announcement of the return of the Caliphate..." and the reinstatement of the gold standard in international monetary trade. A recent posting on the Al-Ikhlas forum urges the mujahideen and their supporters to sell their dollars, if they have any, because Al-Qaeda is planning a strike inside the U.S. so that it will undermine the American economy: "[I advise you] to get rid of [your] American dollars... and buy gold instead... or real estate. The next attack inside the U.S. is imminent... Zawahiri will convey his instructions [regarding this attack] in his next [message]... This attack will put an end to the so-called United States of America and destroy its economy completely... The day of the attack is very near..." [3] Given that it is highly atypical for Al-Qaeda to give prior warning of its attacks, the message is probably an attempt to pressure Muslims to sell dollars, in order to generate pessimism in the dollar market and thus accelerate the drop in its value. U.S.: Al Qaeda In Iraq Training Children An undated image from a video released by the U.S. military which said it shows an apparent al Qaeda in Iraq training operation involving child recruits. Security officials tells CBS News that al Qaeda is extending its search for suicide bombers among the children of central Asian republics. (AP Photo/US Military ) Al Qaeda has successfully established a network for recruiting boys as young as 12 from across central Asia as it seeks new volunteers to enlarge its team of prospective suicide bombers and militants fighters, senior security officials from the Middle East have revealed to CBS News. News of al Qaeda venturing into the former Soviet central Asian republics with a population that has a largely Muslim heritage marks a significant addition to reports earlier this year that the hardline group had recruited young boys in the Pak-Afghan border region. Last May, a senior Pakistani security official showed a rare video clip to CBS News documenting a boy, barely 12 years old, using a machete to severe the head of a middle-aged man whom militants probably suspected as being a spy for the U.S. In an execution which typified the Taliban brand of quick justice, that boy severed the head of his victim who was completely tied up and thrown on the ground as a crowd of hundreds of spectators cheered. The mountains visible in the background of the video suggest that it was carried out in the rugged terrain somewhere in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “The effort to recruit young boys for the cause has been extended to central Asia. We have reports that this effort may now be up to two years old,” said one senior Middle Eastern security official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. He said al Qaeda appears to have had more success in central Asian countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - the two states at the center of Islamic militancy - compared to other central Asian republics. Though impossible to document the scale on which al Qaeda has successfully recruited young boys, the security official said, "You are looking at maybe a few hundred such cases." While confirming the report of al Qaeda recruiting boys in central Asia, another Middle East security official said the militant group was eager to build its ranks in the former Soviet republics, which are seen as an emerging important frontier. “There is too much pressure on al Qaeda in the Pak-Afghan region, so they are looking at others areas to spread their wings,” said the second official who also spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. “They (al Qaeda) probably believe that heading out to central Asia would be good for their cause. One big advantage is that, unlike the Pak-Afghan region, there is less focus by the U.S. in central Asia" - a reference to the large presence of U.S. military forces on the ground in Afghanistan. News of this recruitment pattern comes as Pakistani authorities on Friday braced for the first anniversary of last year’s military attack on the "Lal" (red) mosque in the center of Islamabad, once a nerve centre of Islamic militants. The late Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, a firebrand Islamic preacher from the mosque, had vowed to establish an Islamic system of justice, and last summer ordered his followers to enforce strict Islamic interpretations. The edict included attacking shops selling music CDs. The stand-off surrounding the mosque revealed that a number of armed militants who fought the military last year had joined hardline groups when they were still teenagers. The fighting culminated with the killing of Ghazi and his co-militants. Islamic hardliners have now promised to commemorate the anniversary on Sunday, when many who sympathized with Ghazi’s cause are expected to visit the mosque and pay their respects. Farhan Bokhari has been covering Southeast Asia for several large European news organizations for 16 years. Based in Islamabad, he focuses his coverage on politics and security issues surrounding the war against terrorism. Islam-promoting principal defied order to protect kids Noted a WND reader: "All I could think while reading this was what would have happened to this school had it been Christianity being taught? "Then I thought, 'So where's the ACLU and the other complainers?' … I guess some religions are more equal than others." Texas children roped into Islamic training The parent reported the presentation was 30 to 40 minutes long and handled by two Muslim women from CAIR's Houston office. CAIR, as WND has reported, is spinoff of the defunct Islamic Association for Palestine, launched by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and former university professor Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Among the convicted CAIR staffers are former communications specialist Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges he trained in Virginia for holy war against the U.S. and sent several members to Pakistan to join a Kashmiri terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida; and Bassem Khafagi, who was arrested in January 2003 while serving as CAIR's director of community relations and convicted on fraud and terrorism charges in connection with a probe of the Islamic Assembly of North America, an organization suspected of aiding Saudi sheiks tied to Osama bin Laden. In October 2006, Ghassan Elashi, a member of the founding board of directors of the Texas branch of CAIR, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for financial ties to a high-ranking terrorist. The parent reported Lowe told students her sister, niece and nephew were Muslim. But the parent complained the Muslims "were given full attention of our kids, during academic school time, to present their religious beliefs. … This was put right at the end of the school year … which will most likely prevent a Christian response." There also was no parental notification, and students were required to attend. "The kids did not even know they were having an assembly or what topic it pertained to until they entered the gym," the parent wrote. "I send my kids to school for academics. … I teach them religion at home." Islam studies required in California district In the wake of Sept. 11, an increasing number of California public school students must attend an intensive three-week course on Islam, reports ASSIST News Service. The course mandates that seventh-graders learn the tenets of Islam, study the important figures of the faith, wear a robe, adopt a Muslim name and stage their own jihad. Adding to this apparent hypocrisy, reports ANS, students must memorize many verses in the Koran, are taught to pray "in the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful" and are instructed to chant, "Praise to Allah, Lord of Creation." "We could never teach Christianity like this," one outraged parent told ANS. Elizabeth Christina Lemings, a teacher in the Byron, Calif., Union School District, was unaware of the course until her seventh-grade son brought home the handouts. Obtained by ANS, the handouts include a history of Islam and the life of Mohammad, its founder. There are 25 Islamic terms that must be memorized, six Islamic (Arabic) phrases, 20 Islamic proverbs to learn along with the Five Pillars of Faith and 10 key Islamic prophets and disciples to be studied. "We can't even mention the name of Jesus in the public schools," Lemings laments, "but ... they teach Islam as the true religion, and students are taught about Islam and how to pray to Allah. Can you imagine the barrage of lawsuits and problems we would have from the ACLU if Christianity were taught in the public schools, and if we tried to teach about the contributions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Apostle Paul? But when it comes to furthering the Islamic religion in the public schools, there is not one word from the ACLU, People for the American Way or anybody else. This is hypocrisy." ANS reports that students are to pretend that they are Muslims, wear Muslim clothing to school, stage their own jihad via a dice game and pick out a Muslim name (to replace their own) from a list of 30. When asked what they thought about the course, students described it as "fun," while others described Islam as "a pretty culture." Joseph Lemings, 12, told ANS, "the jihad was like playing a video game." The "fun" description disturbs Elizabeth Lemings, who sees the course as a tool, not only to engender sympathy and support for the Muslim cause, but for recruitment. "This is not just a class of history of examining culture," she said. "This course is entirely too specific. It is more about indoctrination." Nancy Castro, principal of Intermediate-Excelsior School of Byron, told ANS that the Islam course (included within "History of Culture") reflects California educational standards. Castro maintains the course "is not religion, but ancient culture and history. We do not endorse any religion; we just make students aware." Castro further emphasized the course textbook is in use throughout California. The textbook used for the Islamic course, "Across The Centuries," is published by Houghton-Mifflin and has been adopted by the California school system. In it, according to ANS, Islam is presented broadly in a completely positive manner, whereas the limited references to Christianity are "shown in a negative light, with events such as the Inquisition, and the Salem witch hunts highlighted in bold, black type." ANS notes the portrayal of Islam leaves out word of "the wars, massacres, cruelties against Christians and other non-Muslims that Islam has consistently perpetrated over the centuries." TV news crew probing Islam at public school attacked The KSTP crew was dispatched to the school to cover the story and obtain reaction from school officials, according to a statetment on the station's website . "While on school grounds, our crew was attacked by school officials," the station said. "Our photographer was injured while wrestling with the two men over the camera. Our photographer was examined by paramedics and suffered minor shoulder and back injuries." O'Connell said that as soon as he and his cameraman stepped onto the school property, two men from the school "came right out" and tried to wrestle the camera away. "There were two guys on my cameraman," he said. O'Connell called police. "It's quite clear they targeted us as a station," he said. He said police were investigating various charges related to the cameraman's injuries, as well as possible trespassing charges against the news crew brought by school officials. "The police are going to try to look into our videotape," O'Connell said. "Our competing station also got video from another point of view. It's pretty telling video. You see it all go down." The state report said many of the school's operations comply with state charter school law and federal guidelines for prayer in schools, but the two areas – the formalized Islamic prayer time during the school day and the plan delaying transportation home for children until after the post-class religious instruction is finished – must be addressed. School director Asad Zaman told the Star-Tribune, "I now have proof that this is not a religious school." The Star-Tribune previously documented that the charter high school for kindergarten through eighth-grade students is named after a Muslim warlord, shares the address of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, is led by two imams, is composed almost exclusively (99 percent) of blacks and has as its top goal to preserve "our values." And it's all funded by the taxpayers of Minnesota. Star-Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten wrote she was denied permission to visit the school. The school also has declined to return WND telephone requests for an interview. The institution has drawn criticism from a number of observers, including Robert Spencer, who monitors such developments at Jihad Watch. "Can you imagine a public school founded by two Christian ministers, and housed in the same building as a church? Add to that – in the same building – a prominent chapel. And let's say the students are required to fast during Lent, and attend Bible studies right after school. All with your tax dollars," he wrote. "Inconceivable? Sure." If such a place existed, Spencer said, "the ACLU lawyers would descend on it like locusts. It would be shut down before you could say 'separation of church and state,' to the accompaniment of New York Times and Washington Post editorials full of indignant foreboding, warning darkly about the growing influence of the Religious Right in America." The substitute teacher Getz told Kersten after she spent the day at the school, "The prayer I saw was not voluntary. The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred." Kersten previously revealed other links between the school and Islam, including a carpeted space for prayer, halal food in the cafeteria and fasting for students during Ramadan. The Muslim American Society of Minnesota has not hidden the fact that the charter school is located at its facility. The published program for its annual convention last year – featuring the theme "Establishing Islam in Minnesota" – asked, "Did you know that MAS-MN … houses a full-time elementary school?" On the adjacent page was an ad for Tarek ibn Ziyad. Muslim religion taught under guise of history The "Five Pillars" of Islam – charity, fasting, prayer, belief and pilgrimage – are being taught to public school students in Nyssa, Ore., under the guise of world history, the school has confirmed to WND, even though a parent raised a complaint about the same teachings a year ago. In a letter to parents following the concerns that were raised at that point, Supt. Don Grotting and other school officials told parents that the text called "Journey Across Time" features a chapter on "Islamic Civilizations." As part of that, "class activities have included guest speakers (including an American soldier serving in Iraq and a practicing Muslim woman who is an American citizen living in Mountain Home) who talked about geography, dress, climate, religion, economy and culture and student skits, in which students prepare and perform three- to five-minute skits about the tenets of Islam belief: charity, fasting, prayer, belief, and pilgrimage." Janine Weeks, the curriculum director at the school, this week told WND that the curriculum, and class activities, are continuing. "We've not made any changes," she said. "The content standards require that we present information about the rise of Islam in the context of world history." She said there are "choices" about the way students can respond to the chapter's requirements. "Perhaps one of the items might be the fact that there is a religious journey that is part of the belief system; the kids can present that in a report," she said. However, she said she was unaware of what requirements there were for presenting the basic beliefs of any other religion, including Christianity, to students. The McGraw-Hill book itself, according to its online outline, heavily emphasizes the positive aspects of Islam. "Muslims were successful merchants, in part because they had a common language and a common currency. Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus grew wealthy from trade and became important centers of learning, government, and the arts. The cities featured mosques that served as Muslim houses of worship and centers of learning. The bazaar was a very important part of the Muslim city. Although Muslims enjoyed great success and cities grew, most Muslims lived in villages and farmed," the book says. "Muslims made valuable contributions in math, science, and the arts. Muslim scholars saved and translated the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Muslims are well known for their beautiful buildings. The Taj Mahal, which is made of marble and precious stone, is one of the world's most beautiful buildings," it says. Meanwhile, in its chapter on Christianity, it notes that Christianity "attracted many followers because it gave meaning to people's lives, appealed to their emotions, and promised happiness after death." It goes on to talk about the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church that still exists. For a student exercise, it suggests students study the American Red Cross. In its chapter on Judaism, the book notes "the 12 tribes of Israel often quarreled, so they asked a prophet to choose a king to unite them against their enemies." Then, after World War II, "Palestine was divided into a Jewish nation called Israel." The parent who raised the concerns a year ago, Kendalee Garner, was contacted and told WND that essentially Christianity and Judaism are not being taught. "They teach the history of Hinduism but not the tenets of its faith," she said. "When I asked the teacher today if they were changing the curriculum she replied there is nothing we need to change," she said. Idalia Stam, the chair of the school board, confirmed the same teaching curriculum was being used, but declined further comment on the issue. A lawyer who has argued over such teachings in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court said the procedures wouldn't last 10 seconds in a public school if Christianity were being addressed. "Would it have been 'just cultural education' if students were in simulated baptisms, wearing a crucifix, having taken the name of St. John and with praise banners saying 'Praise be to Jesus Christ' on classroom walls?" Edward White III, of the Thomas More Law Center, told WND earlier. As WND has reported the case White handled was almost a duplicate. Teachers were having students memorize Islamic prayers, wear Islamic dress and learn to behave as a Muslim under the guise of studying history. Some parents objected and their resulting lawsuit was turned back by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals where the opinion called it "cultural education." The presence o |