Iran, Terrorism, Proliferation and Shariah-Compliant Finance

(Compiler's note: A must read item.)

by Christopher Holton

In April of 2008, I attended Harvard Law School's celebration of "Islamic Finance." This event has been labeled by others as "shilling for Shariah" at Harvard and, I must say, that is exactly what it was. During the two days of presentations, there was absolutely no critical thought expressed on the wider issue of Shariah. No one at this event expressed any concern that there might be some problems associated with introducing Shariah into the West or that there might be a possible connection between Shariah and Jihad.

I found this very curious, given the handout that was distributed to conference attendees: Top 500 Islamic Financial Institutions.

On its face, nothing about this publication seemed spectacular. It was a supplement to the November 2007 issue of The Banker, a British financial magazine. It is common knowledge that Shariah-Compliant Finance has a firm foothold in the UK.

But I was truly shocked when I started thumbing through the piece and came to a feature article on page 22. The headline for the article was Iran dominates in the world of sharia compliance.

In the entire two-day Harvard Law School conference, no one uttered the word "Iran." Yet the feature article in the conference handout celebrated the fact that Iran was atop the world of Shariah-Compliant Finance – the same Iran which is the world's foremost sponsor of Jihadist terrorism, a serial nuclear proliferator, has threatened other countries with genocide and armed insurgents in Iraq with advanced weaponry with which they killed American GIs.

THIS is the country that "dominates" the world of Shariah-Compliant finance.

The revelation about Iran's prominent role in Shariah-Compliant Finance should be especially significant given the fact that the promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance like to tout it as a form of ethical investing, want to market it cloaked as such to non-Muslims and claim that Shariah Compliance prohibits investments in "weaponry" as the Washington Post put it in an article back in October.

This is where things really get disturbing.

Also listed in The Banker supplement were the top 500 Islamic financial institutions. Numbers 1, 2, 5, 8, and 11 are all Iranian firms – and all are state-owned.

Number 1 in the world, the top Islamic financial institution in the world is none other than Bank Melli of Iran.

There is a lot that you should know about Bank Melli – and a lot that the folks at Harvard Law School back in April were choosing to ignore.

In October of 2007, the U.S. government imposed sweeping sanctions specifically targeting Bank Melli, citing Melli's financing of the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as facilitating $100 million of payments from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force to the terrorist organizations HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Ethical investing? I guess it all depends on your definition of "ethical." Or maybe it simply depends on whose side you are on...

But the story of Shariah-Compliant Bank Melli does not end there, far from it.

In June of 2008, the European Union, not exactly a hawkish anti-Iranian bloc, also imposed sanctions on Bank Melli due to its involvement in financing aspects of Iran's nuclear program. Australia followed suit by imposing sanctions specifically aimed at Bank Melli in October 2008, just a few months ago.

So, the world's top Shariah-Compliant financial institution is under sanctions by dozens of countries around the globe, including the U.S., for its ties to terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

If a bank like this can be considered A-OK by Shariah authorities, exactly what kind of standards are they using? Unfortunately, they are just going by the book. Literally.

To round things out, you may have recalled that Bank Melli appeared in the U.S. news media again back in mid-December. It seems Shariah-Compliant Bank Melli had formed a front company in New York City called ASSA Corp. to funnel funds from U.S. activities, especially Manhattan real estate, to Iran. You can find complete details of this scheme here.

Despite all of this, the promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance in the West continue their celebration of Bank Melli.

The bank itself touts its international ranking as the world's top Shariah-Compliant institution on its own web site.

Meanwhile, in November of 2008, The Banker published new rankings and Iran is still "dominating" the world of Shariah-Compliant Finance, with more than double the assets of any other nation. And, once again, led by terrorist-financing and nuclear proliferating Bank Melli, six of the top ten Shariah-Compliant financial institutions are Iranian.

So the next time you read an article or report extolling the ethical and wondrous virtues of Shariah-Compliant Finance, remember Number 1, Iran's Bank Melli.

Police Study Way to Jam Cellphones in an Attack

By AL BAKER

New York police officials are studying the feasibility of disrupting cellphone communications between terrorists during any attack, after revelations that gunmen in Mumbai received electronic transmissions during their killing spree in November.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly raised the possibility in Washington at a Senate hearing on Thursday, but he noted there were technological hurdles to shutting down cellular service in a narrow location, like a hotel or movie theater.

At the hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Mr. Kelly testified, “Law enforcement needs to find ways to disrupt cellphones and other communications” during an unfolding crisis like the one in Mumbai.

But he stressed, under questioning by senators, that care must be taken in pursuing such plans, suggesting that widespread shutdowns could hamper emergency personnel or keep civilians from making emergency calls.

Later, Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said the department wanted to preserve the option of monitoring conversations between terrorists should that prove more advantageous than cutting them off. He said that any plan to shut electronics transmissions was “only in the discussion stage.”

Mr. Browne said, “Our communications and technology people are looking for ways to disrupt cellphone and hand-held devices in a pinpointed way.”

He added: “We are not at a point where we are testing any equipment. We are talking to the industry and to people in other government agencies and among ourselves. What is known about this? What is possible? And what is being tested along these lines?”

Electronic jamming of cellphones or of global positioning systems is complicated but possible, and might already be in use by foreign military agencies, said Eric Lustig, a data systems manager at Eastern Communications, a Queens company that provides radio equipment to government agencies and other clients.

Cellular service in a big region, like a borough, could be simply shut down, he said. More compact sites, like an official motorcade, could be jammed by devices in the cars.

“You cannot draw straight lines around, or a circle around, an area where you would do it, but it is certainly possible to jam an area,” Mr. Lustig said. “If you are talking about a tall building, you would knock out cellphone communications for a far larger area. If you just wanted to knock out cellphones in a movie theater, it could be done.”

Mr. Lustig said it would be much more difficult to jam a satellite phone than a cellular phone, since the antenna is pointed at the sky.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

D.C. subway braces for Inauguration Day crush

(Compiler's note: This describes a "target rich" environment.)

By Thomas Frank and Kevin Johnson

WASHINGTON — Lisa Farbstein was blunt when she described the suffocating conditions expected in Washington subways on Inauguration Day.

"We call it crush load," said Farbstein, a spokeswoman for Washington's transit authority. "It's going to be very uncomfortable."

Security officials and experts are voicing concern not only about the comfort level, but also about protecting the system from terrorists Jan. 20.

"Given the historic nature of this election and the number of people who are going to be here, the eyes of the world will be focused on D.C." — including those of possible terrorists, said Brian Jackson, an analyst at RAND Corp., a think tank.

More than 1 million riders are likely to cram into Washington's subway cars on Inauguration Day, shattering the single-day record of 850,000 set this past July 4, said Jim Graham, a member of Washington's City Council. The system averages 750,000 riders on weekdays and is the USA's second-busiest, behind New York City's.

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Because rail cars and public buses are likely to be full all day, mass transit will get "special attention," said John Perren, who heads the FBI's counterterrorism division in Washington. "Those areas of high concern are in those enclosed areas."

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs a regional subway and bus system, has asked transit police from other cities to send officers, the first time such help has been sought for an inauguration, authority spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.

Roughly 150 police officers and bomb-sniffing dogs will come from 12 transit authorities, ranging from New York City and Boston to Sacramento and Utah. The Transportation Security Administration will provide 10 dog teams.

"We're doing everything we can," Graham said.

Terrorists have attacked mass transit systems more than any other transportation venue, said Brian Jenkins, director of the National Transportation Security Center at San Jose State University. A study by Jenkins in 2007 found there were an average 30 attacks a year on rail systems from 1998 to 2003.

Since then, terrorists have staged high-profile attacks on rail systems in Madrid, London and Mumbai, where an attack in 2006 killed more than 200 people.

Subway security has been increased for past major events, most notably the 2004 Democratic and Republican conventions, held in Boston and New York City. Police in those cities searched subway riders at random and focused on people who had large bags or appeared suspicious, perhaps by wearing a heavy coat in the hot weather.

Cold weather is likely at Barack Obama's inauguration, so a terrorist hiding a suicide vest under a heavy coat would blend in with the crowd, said security consultant Jerome Hauer, former head of New York City's Office of Emergency Management.

Another concern is that the Washington transit authority, known as Metro, is not putting any special restrictions on what subway riders can carry on cars Jan. 20. "Passengers may be going to other places and need to carry briefcases to work," Taubenkibel said.

Suitcases are a common sight on two of the system's five subway lines that run through downtown Washington on their way to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

"You certainly could put a size limitation (on bags) for one day," Jenkins said. Size restrictions might not stop a bombing but could limit its lethality, Jenkins said.

The subway system has 86 stations in Washington, Maryland and Virginia, 106 miles of track and 420 police. Each rail car can hold about 150 people.

Trains go throughout downtown Washington and run within a couple of blocks of the White House and the Capitol but do not travel underneath those buildings.

Subways pass under Pennsylvania Avenue, site of the Inaugural Parade, and the National Mall, where more than 1 million spectators are likely to watch the inauguration.

Amtrak authorities are preparing for a single-day record number of travelers on inauguration morning in Washington's Union Station, an iconic 101-year-old marble structure. Dogs will sweep the station, and police will be ubiquitous.

"You won't be able to go 20, 30 feet without seeing someone in authority," said John O'Connor, Amtrak police chief.

New York Police Learn from Mumbai Attacks

by Mickey McCarter

Officers of the New York Police Department (NYPD) traveled to Mumbai last month to examine the methods used by terrorists in the attacks there on Nov. 26, 2008, and have incorporated lessons learned from the attacks into the department's training, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the US Senate Thursday.

Police recruits first received training in three types of heavy weapons last month, based on the department's observations of the kinds of weapons used by terrorists in the Mumbai attacks, Kelly said. Earlier that month, the department conducted a tactical drill for its Emergency Service Unit and a tabletop exercise based on the attacks.

"In the exercise with our command staff, we raised the possibility that we might have to deploy our Emergency Service officers too thinly in the event of multiple simultaneous attacks such as those in Mumbai," Kelly testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "We also recognized that if the attacks continued over many hours, we would need to relieve our special units with rested officers. In response to both challenges, we have decided to provide heavy weapons training to experienced officers in our Organized Crime Control Bureau."

The officers visiting Mumbai toured the crime scenes and quizzed police authorities in India, Kelly explained. They realized that the terrorists, suspected to be part of Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba, had trained well and sometimes new the layout of buildings they targeted better than police forces did. In response to that observation, New York City police offices have been touring hotels and other major facilities in the city to improve their familiarity with buildings that could be targets of terrorist attacks.

Kelly raised concerns that the Mumbai attacks marked a shift in strategy for a major terrorist attack.

"From the perspective of the New York City Police Department, one of the most important aspects of this attack was the shift in tactics from suicide bombs to a commando-style military assault with small teams of highly trained, heavily armed operatives launching simultaneous, sustained attacks," he stated. "They fanned out across the city in groups of two and four. They carried AK-56 assault rifles, a Chinese manufactured copy of the Russian AK-47."

The highly coordinated assault killed six Americans, including two New Yorkers. Mindful that the attackers entered Mumbai via small boats, Kelly emphasized that the city's harbor police have weapons training and sends divers to inspect vessels.

New York police also keep updated on security developments in their city through special partnerships, including NYPD Shield, an alliance between the department and private security managers in New York City; Operation Nexus, which includes businesses that terrorists might attempt to exploit; and Security our Cities, a Department of Homeland Security initiative to place radiation monitors around the city's perimeter.

Obama Admin to Inherit Southern Border Nightmare

by Anthony L. Kimery

‘Mexico is ... fighting for survival against narco-terrorism’

Barack Obama shortly will inherit a war an ocean away in the Middle East that potentially could spiral out of control dragging the US into it, but he immediately faces a far more deadly war that’s raging on his own back doorstep on the US-Mexican border. It's a war fast becoming America’s most serious and direct homeland security threat as described in the January HSToday cover report, Savage Struggle on the Border.

Ground zero of America’s war on drugs is in Mexico, where President Bush recently told the Washington Times Obama faces a looming war with drug cartels where "the front line of the fight will be Mexico."

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged this past week that he told Obama’s choice to succeed him, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, that he had had to put the border security problem at the top of his list of immediate national security concerns. ....

Cutting Off Rogue Nukes

by Phil Leggiere

Senator Bayh urges Obama administration to champion nuclear fuel bank concept.

Over the past few years significant progress has been made in addressing the threat of nuclear terror through technological improvements in detecting potentially smuggled nuclear materials, and better operational intelligence and forensics to identify and disrupt black market distribution networks of ‘loose” nuclear materials.

Despite this progress, however, relatively little progress has been made in cutting off the potential supply chain of rogue nukes at its most likely origin, rogue nations using the legal cover of legitimate civilian nuclear energy programs as a pretext to acquire nuclear bomb making capability.

In a Memo to the President”, published by the Progressive Policy Institute, Senator Evan Bayh (D-IND), makes the case that preventing that kind of duplicitous access needs to become a top strategic counter-terror priority for the incoming Obama administration.

“The 21st century has ushered in unprecedented demand for energy around the world,” Bayh writes in his memo. “Given the rapid rates of growth in such developing countries as China and India, prices for traditional sources of energy are likely to remain high. Supplies of oil, gas, and coal are finite, so countries increasingly are looking elsewhere for affordable and clean sources of energy. Nuclear energy, which generates tremendous power with no greenhouse-gas emissions, is an obvious place to look.”

The problem with this, the memo points out, is that, “As nuclear generating plants sprout up around the world over the coming decades, many new states will get their hands on nuclear technology and materials. This will exponentially raise the risk of fissile or bomb-making material being acquired by rogue nations or terrorist groups.”

Current global regulation and oversight of this process, which is based on the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (often referred to as the Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT), negotiated back in mid-1970s is currently woefully inaccurate, Bayh argues.

In particular, Bayh explains, the NPT recognizes the “inalienable right of all Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.” This provision, which was exploited by North Korea in its drive to develop nuclear weapons capacity, is also being abused by Iran.

“Once this genie gets out of the bottle, there is no putting it back,” Bayh says. ‘At a minimum, allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear warhead would be a regionally destabilizing event certain to spark a Middle East arms race. At worst, it would be a global security catastrophe in which Tehran obtains the means to blackmail its European neighbors and threaten Israel’s destruction."

The threshold question, according to the memo is: How do we respond to valid and growing demands for civilian nuclear energy worldwide without permitting more countries to acquire nuclear weapons?

The answer, in Bayh’s view, is to set up an international nuclear-fuel bank that would supply fuel to any country that agrees not to develop its own enriching and reprocessing facilities.

The proposed fuel bank would allow developing nations seeking civilian nuclear power for peaceful purposes to gain access to a reliable and affordable supply of nuclear fuel. In return they would need to agree to forgo enriching uranium themselves and also submit to rigorous inspections of their civilian reactors to guard against North Korean and Iranian-style cheating. It would allow countries to draw fuel for use in their own civilian nuclear reactors and then return the spent fuel for safe reprocessing under the oversight of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Countries, on the other hand, that refuse fuel-bank services would come under immediate suspicion about their weapons intentions.

The economic advantages of this approach over indigenous fuel cycle development would be significant to developing nations, according to Bayh.

“Due to bigger economies of scale,” he writes,“it is now much cheaper for countries lacking enrichment capacity to purchase fuel. Even a small enrichment facility would cost at least $1 billion to build and more than $100 million to operate each year. But an international nuclear-fuel bank could supply the same amount of fuel at market prices for roughly $15 million a year.”

Bayh’s newest push for the formation of a global, multi-nationally administered nuclear fuel bank, revives an effort he and Senate collegues initiated two years ago.

In 2007 Bayh along with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) introduced legislation that would facilitate create the multinational supply regime outlined in the memo. The bill, titled The Lugar-Bayh Nuclear Safeguards and Supply Act, S. 1138 and strongly supported by then Senator and now Vice-President Joe Biden, would make it US policy to discourage the development of enrichment and reprocessing capabilities in additional countries, to encourage the creation of bilateral and multilateral assurances of nuclear fuel supply, and ensure that all supply mechanisms operate in strict accordance with the IAEA safeguards system and do not result in any additional unmet verification burdens for the system.

In August 2008 the US Department of Energy has announced a $50 million donation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the purpose of establishing an International Nuclear Fuel Bank.

Watch Obama commercial they don't want you to see

Fox, CNN, MSNBC refuse ads questioning Barack's eligibility

from WorldNetDaily

"With the date for congressional approval (of the Electoral College today), we wanted them to have access to the facts," she told WND. "Congress is sworn to uphold the Constitution."

She said the donors who contributed the funding that was to be used for the ads were being contacted to find out whether they wanted to reach another direction in the media.

The ad to be broadcast already is available on YouTube, and also is embedded here:

"Heard rumors about Barack Obama's citizenship? These are the facts," the ad states.

It cites a statement from the president-elect's paternal grandmother that she was present at his birth in Kenya, his refusal to release his original birth certificate, his attendance at school in Indonesia "as Barry Soetoro when only Indonesia citizens were permitted to attend," and Obama's travel to Pakistan in 1981 "when it was illegal to enter as a U.S. citizen."

Join the campaign to urge the Supreme Court to take the eligibility question seriously by FedExing the justices.

It concludes, "Our Constitution still matters."

Congress officially declares Obama next president

Rayyan Trained His Kids to Die

by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) When Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan was assassinated in an IAF strike last week, his four wives and 11 of his children died with him. According to his surviving children, the death of the Rayyan family children was not an accident: Rayyan had trained his wives and children to die with him as "martyrs."

Surviving family members spoke to local Arab media and said that in the days before his death, Rayyan had repeatedly asked his children, "Who wants to die with me as a martyr?" The children would respond, "Yes, daddy, we all want to be with you alive or dead."

Rayyan's adult daughter, Wala, said even the younger children wished to die with their father. "If you had asked my four-year-old sister Aisha, who died in the attack, she would have told you that she preferred to die as a martyr," Wala told Ma'an news.

One of Rayyan's daughter-in-laws said she was offered the chance to die with the family. She stopped by the family's large home in Jabaliya and was asked by Rayyan if she wished to die with him, his wives and their children. She agreed to die, but later left the building, shortly before the IAF strike.

As it turned out, when Rayyan offered his daughter-in-law the "opportunity" to die he had already received a phone call from the IDF warning him to evacuate his house due to an impending airstrike.

The 11 children who died with Nizar Rayyan ranged in age from one year old to 16. Another son died years earlier when Rayyan sent him to carry out a suicide bombing in Gaza. Two Israelis were murdered in that attack. %ad%

Rayyan was one of Hamas' extremist preachers, and believed that those who die fighting Israel die as "martyrs" and go directly to paradise. He encouraged his followers to have several wives and as many children as possible, in order to provide future soldiers in the fight against Israel. He also encouraged Hamas to take over Judea and Samaria and carry out suicide attacks targeting Jews.

Passengers pounce on man who made threats aboard L.A.-bound flight

Musician Chris Llewellyn was among those who sprang into action after a man shoved a flight attendant and tried to open an exit door.

Group That Funded Rep. Ellison's Pilgrimage to Mecca Called a Front for Extremism

Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison -- America's only Muslim in Congress -- took a trip to Mecca in December that was funded by a group terrorism experts say is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist movement.