Originally posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook
UPDATE July 17, 2008
If there was any doubt how Barack Obama views America on the world stage, his own words now make his position deadly clear.
Obama's July 13th statement defies words. Is he ignorant, a sociopath, or a hardcore Muslim-leaning leftist? The details:
Obama went public and placed unabashed blame on "the West" for Islamic extremism. In an interview on July 13th with CNN's Foreign Affairs Analyst, Fareed Zakaria asked:
[ZAKARIA]: But how do you view the problem within Islam? As somebody who saw it in Indonesia ... the largest Muslim country in the world?Obama reminisced about the years he lived in Indonesia (late 1960's, early 1970's) and then calmly offered up a very firm opinion about "the problem with Islam."
[Obama] And what's interesting is, you can see some correlation between the economic crash during the Asian financial crisis [1997], where about a third of Indonesia's GDP was wiped out, and the acceleration of these Islamic extremist forces.Just to be clear: Obama states unequivocally that "the West" caused a "shift in Islam," and the "shift" caused by the Free World is the "problem with Islam."
It isn't to say that there is a direct correlation, but what is absolutely true is that there has been a shift in Islam that I believe is connected to the failures of governments and the failures of the West to work with many of these countries, in order to make sure that opportunities are there, that there's bottom-up economic growth.
Here are reminders of the "problem with Islam," 4 of which occurred before the Asian financial crash.
A hat tip to Korla Pundit who supplied the details of the March 1, 1973 murder
March 1, 1973 - American diplomats taken hostage in Khartoum, Sudan by the Black September terrorists. 3 dead - 2 of them American officials. A declassified Department of State document states [this is an amended document dated May 4, 2006 - 25 years after the murders] :
The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the head of Fatah. Fatah representatives based in Khartoum participated in the attack,...The word "fedayeen" in the above paragraph, refers to (I think) the Black September Organization - fedayeen meaning "fighters for the faith," and not Saddam's Hussein's fedayeen.
...one of the primary goals of the operation was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement which many Arabs believe would be inimical to Palestinian interests.
The open participation of Fatah representatives in Khartoum in the attack provides further evidence of the Fatah/Black September Organization relationship. The emergence of the United States as a primary fedayeen target indicates a serious threat of further incidents similar to that which occurred in Khartoum
See the original declassified State Department amended document at World Net Daily.
During Bill Clinton's two terms in office [1993-2001], Arafat was invited to the White House more than any other international political figure. (Clinton met Arafat a total of 24 times in eight years.)When Arafat died, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, shaking with emotion, called it “a grave day for the world,” and instructed headquarters in New York to especially fly the UN flag at half-mast. (This is despite the fact that Arafat did not represent any UN member state, and the UN doesn’t usually mark the death of leaders of even its member states in this way. The UN didn’t fly its flag at half-mast when, for example, Ronald Reagan died a few months before Arafat.)
The Black September Organization executed 11 Israeli atheletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, barely 5 months before the murders of Americans in Khartoum.
April 1983 - U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut, Lebanon: 80 died - 17 Americans, 32 Lebanese embassy employees and 14 passersby. Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility.
October 1983 - Beirut U.S. Marine Corps Barracks Bombing: 241 U.S. Marines were murdered and 80 were seriously injured when Islamic factions trucked-in the equivalent of 12,000 tons of TNT, and blew-up American military barracks in Lebanon. Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility, however, Hezbollah - organized, trained and funded by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, is believed to be the perpetrator of the attack. In February 2008, a truck bombing in Damascus, Syria erased Imad Mughniyah from the world's civil societies. Better known to Americans as Hajj, Mughniyah was instrumental in the formation of Hezbollah and was always among the heads of the snake.
October 1985 - The Achille Lauro (an Italian cruiseship) was hijacked by the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) off the coast of Egypt. One American murdered. Leon Klinghoffer, celebrating his 36th wedding anniversary with his wife, was shot in the head and chest while sitting in his wheelchair. The ship's barber and a waiter were forced to throw Mr. Klinghoffer's body overboard. Klinghoffer was Jewish. 400+ passengers were on-board during the two-day saga.
June 1985 - TWA Flight 847 (an American-owned airline) was hijacked by Hezbollah. The airliner was taken over in Athens, then flown to Beirut, Lebanon where it released a few passengers, refueled and continued to Algeria - again releasing a few passengers. Navy Diver, Robert Stethem was identified as U.S. military - beaten, shot and his body dumped on the Beirut tarmac. Over a period of 16 days, passengers were terrorized and flown back and forth between Beirut and Algiers before the whole horrible terrorist act was over.
While cowards commandeered the airplane, a heroic flight attendant, Uli Derickson, hid the passports of Jewish passengers and used her own credit card to purchase jet fuel.
February 1993 - First World Trade Tower Bombing: Terrorism arrived on American soil. 6 dead, over 1,000 injured. Conspiracy theories still fly, but what we do know to be true is that the perpetrators were Muslim. They intended to bring down both World Trade Towers, the plot was enormous - this was no small bombing event. It left a 95' wide crater, multiple stories up and down destroyed. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, planned simultaneous bombings of U.S. aircraft. He was captured by Pakistani forces in an Al-Qaeda safehouse in Islamabad, Pakistan, two years after the bombing. He was tried and sentenced in an American court and is serving a life sentence in Colorado, supposedly in solitary confinement. The taxpayers get to pay for his keep and speculate how many terrorist gangs he has organized, and how many apostles he has gained, while in "solitary confinement." His uncle is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a member of Al-Qaeda and a close association of Osama bin Laden. Yousef and his uncle are both Muslims.
October 2000 - USS Cole is bombed: 17 dead American sailors, 39 injured. It is believed that Al-Qaeda and the Sudenese government worked together to assault the USS Cole as it refueled in Yemen. According to the CIA Factbook, "Military regimes favoring Islamic-oriented governments have dominated [Sudanese] national politics since independence from the UK in 1956.
September 2001 -
American Airlines Flight 11 hijacked and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center: 92 passengers, crew and Islamic terrorists dead.
United Airlines Flight 175 hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. 56 passengers, crew and Islamic terrorists dead.
American Airlines Flight 77 - 9:37 am: Hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. 64 passengers, crew and Islamic terrorists dead. 125 dead in the Pentagon.
American Airlines Flight 93 - Hijacked and crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 44 passengers, crew and Islamic terrorists dead.
A total of 2974 persons are considered dead due to the September 11, 2001 attacks. How many died in each separate building? There seem to be no statistics "by building." I think we know why. Are the 19 terrorists in this count? I don't know the answer. 24 persons are considered missing.
Along with the North and South World Trade Towers, 5 additional buildings in the complex were destroyed and three others were destroyed or were beyond repair: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, The Deutsche Bank Building, and the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall.
The "Asian Financial crises" (recovering began within 9 months) was multi-layered, but to offer it as an excuse for Islamic terrorism is unconscionable.
As we head to the November election, let us be ever mindful of not only those Americans who have died at the hands of the "government" of Islam, but the thousands injured who will never be able to forget for even one day. Let us remember with certainty, that Obama blames America for Muslim Rage.
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