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| Thought Criminal-turned-trophy defendant James Cromitie. |
As an ex-convict, Newburgh, New York resident James Cromitie was thankful to find a steady job. As a Muslim convert, he was particularly grateful that he could wear his kufi -- a knit skullcap akin to a yarmulke -- at work without provoking his supervisor's disapproval. Some of the customers, however, took unintended offense.
"They know I'm a Muslim," Cromitie told Maqsood, a friend he had met at the local mosque, in an October 19, 2008 phone conversation. "My boss say, `Hey, Abdul, I want you to go help this lady.' And then she look at me [and says], `Oh. What is you, Muslim?' I'm like, `Yes.' `Oh, I'll get someone else to help me.... They really don't like Muslims."
When Maqsood asked why people "don't like Muslims," Cromitie, displaying a touch of frustration, replied: "Only Allah knows.... I think they think that we are better than them, but we don't think that." He went on to describe a few workplace conversations in which he described some teachings and practices of his faith; one of those chats was with an individual Cromitie described as "some guy I talked to, [a] nice Jewish guy."
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| Federal Terrorism "facilitator" Shahed Hussain, aka "Maqsood." |
This conversational thread proved irresistible to Maqsood, who eagerly seized it and gave it a stout yank. According to Maqsood, a wealthy man from Pakistan who claimed to be a Muslim religious scholar, the Prophet Mohammed "has forbidden us to have these, the Jews, Yahuds, because they are responsible for all of the evils in the world."
For the rest of the conversation, Maqsood persistently wove anti-Jewish resentment into the conversation, seeking to stitch Cromitie's personal concerns into a larger canvas of hatred. He told Cromitie that "every second adviser in the White House, they Yahuds," and tried to convince him that the bloodshed carried out by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- "where your blood comes from" -- was a reflection of the all-encompassing evil of the Jews.
In fact, Maqsood had been plying Cromitie with messages of this kind for months, and the wealthy Pakistani was a little frustrated that his American acquaintance didn't appear to be a particularly apt pupil. Oh, sure, Cromitie would occasionally let slip a derogatory reference to Jewish people, particularly women who had insulted him at work. But for all of his flaws, mistakes, and frustrations, Cromitie displayed a persistent strain of embattled decency that led him to see Jews as individuals, rather than as a undifferentiated mass of malevolence.
"Even some of our [Muslim] brothers is worser than the Yahudi," Cromitie commented during the October 19 phone chat, displaying an ability to assess individual merit in ways that transcend tribal loyalty. In a similar conversation a week earlier, Cromitie, referring to workplace insults he had experienced because of his Muslim religion, related that his religious convictions gave him the strength to endure them without retaliating: "I'm a Muslim; insha'Allah, Allah will take care of it."
This was entirely unacceptable, insisted Cromitie's self-appointed spiritual tutor. It was good to be angry at Jews and other infidels, but mere anger isn't enough; it has to be transmuted into the kind of "righteous" rage that ends in bloodshed. By way of an example, Maqsood referred to a terrorist bombing of a Marriott hotel in Pakistan. That act, Maqsood insisted, was carried out by people he identified as "brothers" to "send a message" that supposedly brought glory to Allah. The people responsible for that crime were "doing good, wonderful jobs and I'm happy with that," Maqsood told Cromitie, who didn't share his self-designated mentor's enthusiasm.
Madsood spared no effort to shepherd every conversation with Cromitie in the direction of "jihad." He would first identify a personal grievance. Then he would tie it thematically to legitimate acts of armed self-defense carried out by Muslims against Washington's military aggression in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Then Maqsood, his pose as holy man notwithstanding, worked to seduce Cromitie into accepting the proposition that terrorism is a legitimate form of "holy war."
Once again, Cromitie found Maqsood's teachings unconvincing.
"We are kicking their asses in ... Kabul," Maqsood boasted.
"I don't care," replied Cromitie.
Undeterred, Maqsood continued to peddle the notion of militancy to someone not inclined to buy in.
"When I, when I see these, these Mushkirks, these Yahud, killing the Palestines, of killing Muslims, of killing people in, in Iraq or in Afghanistan, one of our brothers, I, I always think about going for a cause, you know?" Maqsood hectored Cromitie. "For a cause of Islam. Have you ever thought about that, brother?"
Cromitie, who was earnest in his faith, was obviously not on the same page with the oddly insistent man from Pakistan.
"It's sad that our Muslim folk and our children folk in Islam has to wake up to a bombing from somebody else every night, cannot sleep, have to be on point 24/7, have to sit up and wait, don't know what's coming next," he replied to Maqsood. "I think we need peace. In some way we have to make it happen." While he allowed that it may be necessary "to go answer the enemy in a different way," Cromitie didn't want to leave the impression that he would countenance violence against the innocent: "Don't look at it like I, like I wanna be a terrorist or something."
Oddly enough, although Cromitie was a convert and his Pakistani friend from the local mosque was a life-long Muslim -- and self-described scholar -- it was the former who espoused the orthodox view of jihad as a war of defense, and the latter who was promoting what traditional Muslims would regard as a heresy, namely jihad as an indiscriminate campaign of lethal violence against non-Muslims.
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| Akyol (center) with Pope Benedict and Grand Mufti Mustafa Arc. |
As Turkish free market advocate Mustafa Akyol points out, the Koran -- contrary to the assumptions embraced by modern Islamists and the compulsive mosque-baiters with whom they're joined in a kind of morbid co-depedency -- teaches armed jihad as a defensive enterprise, commands Muslims to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and prescribes limits even in making war against aggressors.
Those principles, writes Akyol, "led the medieval Islamic jurists to create a literature of jus in bello, or rules of a proper conduct of war. For example, many of those jurists limited or banned the use of mangonels and catapults, for these war machines inflicted indiscriminate casualties on the enemy. In other words, even what the Westerners call `collateral damage' these days was a matter of concern for Muslim scholars of the Middle Ages. It is therefore ironic, and sad, that some of today’s Muslims — a tiny minority, to be sure — are willing to inflict not just `collateral' but also intentional damage on the enemy noncombatants."
Distinctions of that kind are not recognized by the intellectual architects of Islamic terrorism because their movement is inspired more by the 19th Century nationalism than by the teachings of Mohammed, according to Akyol. Like their counterparts from other backgrounds, those who peddle Islamist nationalism practice a form of indoctrination Akyol calls the "sloganization of scripture" -- that is, orphaning passages from the appropriate context and deploying them for the purpose of mobilizing political useful hatred.
Contemporary Muslim terrorists, Akyol observes, "attack innocent lives not because their religion tells them to do that — it actually tells them not to do that. They rather attack out of loathing, which is rooted in their political misfortunes." A sincerely devout Muslim, Akyol insists that for those who genuinely share his convictions, "Nothing, simply nothing, can justify the killing of innocents."
Contemporary Muslim terrorists, Akyol observes, "attack innocent lives not because their religion tells them to do that — it actually tells them not to do that. They rather attack out of loathing, which is rooted in their political misfortunes." A sincerely devout Muslim, Akyol insists that for those who genuinely share his convictions, "Nothing, simply nothing, can justify the killing of innocents."
"Sloganization of scripture" can take the form of weaponizing a handful of passages from one's own holy books and treating them as a license to commit political murder. It can also mean winnowing a handful of incendiary texts from the sacred books of a different religion and using them to create a suitably hateful caricature. Maqsood, interestingly, appeared to be performing both of those roles in his dialogues with James Cromitie. This isn't surprising when it's understood that this purported Muslim holy man was actually an FBI provocateur named Shahed Hussain.
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| Cromitie in better times. |
As noted in this space before, Hussain was what federal prosecutors called a terrorism "facilitator." A wealthy and politically connected criminal from Pakistan, Hussain showed up at the mosque in Newburgh flaunting a large, taxpayer-supplied bankroll and a fleet of late-model luxury cars.
Blessed with a career criminal's instinct for sizing up a vulnerable target -- and, most likely, a detailed FBI dossier on his future victim -- Hussain quickly keyed on Cromitie, eventually rounding up three others (David Williams and Onta Williams and LaGuerre Payen) to take part in a purported plot to bomb a nearby synagogue and a local air national guard base.
All of them attended the same mosque. None of them had displayed any inclination toward militancy before the Feds deposited a terrorism "facilitator" in their midst. Yet a federal jury found all four of them guilty on terrorism charges stemming from a "plot" that was entirely manufactured by the FBI and carried out by way of Hussain.
All of them attended the same mosque. None of them had displayed any inclination toward militancy before the Feds deposited a terrorism "facilitator" in their midst. Yet a federal jury found all four of them guilty on terrorism charges stemming from a "plot" that was entirely manufactured by the FBI and carried out by way of Hussain.
"The FBI did not infiltrate a plot. There was no plot." That is, there was no plot on the part of the railroaded defendants. That there was a plot on the part of the FBI and its pet provocateur is indisputable. This would appear to be a perfect specimen of the process of "radicalizing" Muslims, which His Holiness Peter King, Inquisitor General of the Homeland Security State, considers to be the most acute existing threat to life, limb, and virtue.
In fact, the infiltration of mosques by Federal terrorism "facilitators" is the dominant form of "radicalization" taking place today. Similar efforts on the part of authentic Muslim militants may well be underway, but the FBI has refined the relevant techniques into a science.
Most American Muslims who refuse to cooperate with the Feds aren't trying to conceal subversives from the authorities; they're trying to avoid contact with the FBI's ever-growing pool of provocateurs and informants. The frame-up of the "Newburgh 4" splendidly illustrates the wisdom behind the decision not to cooperate with the Homeland Security apparatus, which will exploit any opportunity to manufacture a "terrorism plot."
In fact, the infiltration of mosques by Federal terrorism "facilitators" is the dominant form of "radicalization" taking place today. Similar efforts on the part of authentic Muslim militants may well be underway, but the FBI has refined the relevant techniques into a science.
Most American Muslims who refuse to cooperate with the Feds aren't trying to conceal subversives from the authorities; they're trying to avoid contact with the FBI's ever-growing pool of provocateurs and informants. The frame-up of the "Newburgh 4" splendidly illustrates the wisdom behind the decision not to cooperate with the Homeland Security apparatus, which will exploit any opportunity to manufacture a "terrorism plot."
Through Hussain, the FBI "created the criminal then manufactured the crime," insists a brief filed on behalf of Cromitie seeking for dismissal of the case on the grounds of "outrageous government conduct."
Posing as a wealthy and spiritually learned recruiter for the Pakistani terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hussain promised Cromitie and his impoverished friends at least $25,000 apiece (and $250,000 to Cromitie as "ringleader") for help in planting a bomb at a local synagogue and attacking military aircraft with surface-to-air missiles.
Posing as a wealthy and spiritually learned recruiter for the Pakistani terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hussain promised Cromitie and his impoverished friends at least $25,000 apiece (and $250,000 to Cromitie as "ringleader") for help in planting a bomb at a local synagogue and attacking military aircraft with surface-to-air missiles.
"The evidence at trial disclosed Shahed Hussain's cynical, but successful, effort to turn James Cromitie from an angry and disaffected man into a man motivated by money and spiritual reward to participate in a terrorist plot," Cromitie's brief continues. The Feds "designed, funded, supplied, engineered, and directed every detail of a highly dramatic and frightening -- but entirely fake -- terrorist plot, leading to the prosecution and conviction of Cromitie and his late-recruited compatriots."
Once Hussain had focused his attention on Cromitie, he was fiercely determined to suborn the hapless man into carrying out some role in a terrorist "conspiracy" -- even though his target was anything but eager to play along. About the only respite Cromitie experienced during the period between late 2008 and early 2009 was the space of several weeks in which "Moqsood" traveled to Pakistan, at FBI expense and under the Bureau's supervision, to attend a terrorist training camp.
In March 2009, after months of bribes, bullying, and brow-beating, Hussain provided Cromitie with an expensive camera to photographs of the air base and synagogue supposedly targeted in the plot. Rather than doing as he was told, Cromitie actually sold the camera to a neighbor for a fraction of its purchase price. He then told Hussain that he had mistakenly destroyed the camera by sitting on it.
Hussain might have been thinking of that episode during a wiretapped April 5, 2009 conversation in which he tweaked Cromitie for his reluctance to help in the supposed terror plot, despite the promise of a huge payday.
"I have to try to make some money, brother," Cromitie told Hussain, apparently in reference to his efforts to find honest work.
"I told you, I can make you 250,000 dollars, but you don't want it brother," Hussain replied.
The FBI's provocateur continued to pursue his "reward in two ways" strategy, playing on Cromitie's religious earnestness and exploiting his financial desperation by insisting that carrying out terrorist would be both pious and profitable. This meant, among other things, that whenever Cromitie would speak of forgiveness and forebearance in the face of hostility toward his Muslim faith, "Hussain -- posing as a religious wise man -- `corrected' him and proclaimed that the true, religiously mandated approach was to kill non-believers, not out of anger, but for the glory of Allah," summarizes the defense brief.
These religious appeals were coupled with blatant acts of bribery, shameless manipulation -- such as claiming that Cromitie's reluctance to cooperate was putting Hussain's life at risk -- and, finally, "veiled threats of physical harm against Cromitie." The provocateur followed a script written by FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller, who supervised every detail of the frame-up. Fuller provided cars, cameras, cell phones, and dummy explosives; he set up a storage warehouse for the bogus explosives and a "safe house" for those involved in the supposed plot.
Using Hussain as a ventriloquist's dummy in recorded meetings with Cromitie and his friends, Fuller did everything he could to get them to make a dramatic pronouncement of their determination to kill Jews and soldiers out of religious conviction. "Don't do it just for the money," Hussain urged Cromitie in one recorded conversation regarding violence against non-Muslims. "But do it, also say, in the name of Allah."
By early 2009, it must have seemed to Cromitie that he was trapped in some perverse game show. When he wasn't being whipsawed by Hussain's passive aggression, Cromitie was being teased with an ever-expanding list of prizes for cooperating: He was offered a BMW, his own barbershop, an expense-paid two-week vacation to Puerto Rico, and $250,000 in cash. All of this was being promised to an ex-con who was frantic to earn an honest living, a man who had a difficult time making enough to pay the rent.
Finally, after months of being pursued by this tenacious pest, Cromitie wearily relented: "Okay. F**k it. I don't care. Ah, man. Maqsood, you got me."
The problem here was that neither Cromitie nor any of his friends had any useful skills in carrying out a terrorist plot -- no training, no weapons, not even a driver's license. But they were four living, breathing, black American Muslims; all they had to do was show up at the right time and place to be arrested and photographed as living trophies symbolizing another triumph of the Homeland Security State.
In its reply to Cromitie's brief, the Regime stipulates to all of the facts while saying -- almost in so many words -- that it's perfectly acceptable to manufacture a crime in order to justify prosecuting someone who harbors unacceptable attitudes toward the State.
Hussain insists that prior to his recorded conversations with Cromitie, the target had expressed a desire to travel to Afghanistan to fight against U.S. personnel occupying that country. Those comments were never recorded; in fact, Cromitie was captured on tape saying exactly the opposite.
Nevertheless, according to the Feds, the frame-up was justified because Cromitie was an incipient terrorist on account of his "deeply held desire to avenge the injustices that in his eyes had befallen Islam and Islamic people around the world.... Cromitie hated Jews and the United States government and was not shy about expressing either sentiment.... The exploitation of a defendant's warped religious beliefs in violence sails far below the threshold of coercion that would be necessary for a viable claim of outrageous government conduct."
In fact, in every recorded instance in which the persecution of Muslims was addressed, Cromitie maintained that he was willing to leave vengeance in God's hands, trusting that justice would be done on Judgment Day; it was Hussain, the Feds' well-compensated veteran provocateur, who consistently peddled a "warped" religious belief in criminal violence against the innocent.
Cromitie had already spent a dozen years behind bars by the time the Feds targeted him for their provocation op. His most recent stint came after he was arrested for selling cocaine to an undercover narcotics operative behind a school. The narc most likely chose that location because of federal sentence enhancements: For someone who makes a living enticing people into committing drug offenses, getting a repeat offender to sell drugs near a school is the equivalent of a Scrabble maven playing "z" on the triple letter score square.
Like everything else of consequence done in the name of counter-terrorism, the Newburgh 4 case was staged for the institutional benefit of the Homeland Security State and the individual career advancement of a handful of FBI agents, federal prosecutors, and one exceptionally squalid informant.
One very telling indication of the perverse priorities at work here is found in the fact that the FBI actually intervened to prevent the arrest of David Williams, Cromitie's co-defendant, on larceny charges so that they could bust him as part of their contrived terrorist plot.
What political profit would result from allowing local authorities to prosecute Williams on a charge involving an actual property crime? On the other hand, arresting him as part of a black Muslim terrorist cell -- now, there's a bust with a high Q rating. Or, to recur to the Scrabble analogy, that's like playing the "z" tile on the triple word score square at the intersection of two fifteen-letter words.
In signaling her willingness to hear the Newburgh 4's appeal, Federal District Judge McMahon candidly described the supposed terrorist conspiracy as a pure Federal fabrication: "The plot was created before our very eyes in this courtroom," she stated.
"The law allows that to happen," lied Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin in reply.
The FBI's provocateur continued to pursue his "reward in two ways" strategy, playing on Cromitie's religious earnestness and exploiting his financial desperation by insisting that carrying out terrorist would be both pious and profitable. This meant, among other things, that whenever Cromitie would speak of forgiveness and forebearance in the face of hostility toward his Muslim faith, "Hussain -- posing as a religious wise man -- `corrected' him and proclaimed that the true, religiously mandated approach was to kill non-believers, not out of anger, but for the glory of Allah," summarizes the defense brief.
These religious appeals were coupled with blatant acts of bribery, shameless manipulation -- such as claiming that Cromitie's reluctance to cooperate was putting Hussain's life at risk -- and, finally, "veiled threats of physical harm against Cromitie." The provocateur followed a script written by FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller, who supervised every detail of the frame-up. Fuller provided cars, cameras, cell phones, and dummy explosives; he set up a storage warehouse for the bogus explosives and a "safe house" for those involved in the supposed plot.
Using Hussain as a ventriloquist's dummy in recorded meetings with Cromitie and his friends, Fuller did everything he could to get them to make a dramatic pronouncement of their determination to kill Jews and soldiers out of religious conviction. "Don't do it just for the money," Hussain urged Cromitie in one recorded conversation regarding violence against non-Muslims. "But do it, also say, in the name of Allah."
By early 2009, it must have seemed to Cromitie that he was trapped in some perverse game show. When he wasn't being whipsawed by Hussain's passive aggression, Cromitie was being teased with an ever-expanding list of prizes for cooperating: He was offered a BMW, his own barbershop, an expense-paid two-week vacation to Puerto Rico, and $250,000 in cash. All of this was being promised to an ex-con who was frantic to earn an honest living, a man who had a difficult time making enough to pay the rent.
Finally, after months of being pursued by this tenacious pest, Cromitie wearily relented: "Okay. F**k it. I don't care. Ah, man. Maqsood, you got me."
The problem here was that neither Cromitie nor any of his friends had any useful skills in carrying out a terrorist plot -- no training, no weapons, not even a driver's license. But they were four living, breathing, black American Muslims; all they had to do was show up at the right time and place to be arrested and photographed as living trophies symbolizing another triumph of the Homeland Security State.
In its reply to Cromitie's brief, the Regime stipulates to all of the facts while saying -- almost in so many words -- that it's perfectly acceptable to manufacture a crime in order to justify prosecuting someone who harbors unacceptable attitudes toward the State.
Hussain insists that prior to his recorded conversations with Cromitie, the target had expressed a desire to travel to Afghanistan to fight against U.S. personnel occupying that country. Those comments were never recorded; in fact, Cromitie was captured on tape saying exactly the opposite.
Nevertheless, according to the Feds, the frame-up was justified because Cromitie was an incipient terrorist on account of his "deeply held desire to avenge the injustices that in his eyes had befallen Islam and Islamic people around the world.... Cromitie hated Jews and the United States government and was not shy about expressing either sentiment.... The exploitation of a defendant's warped religious beliefs in violence sails far below the threshold of coercion that would be necessary for a viable claim of outrageous government conduct."
In fact, in every recorded instance in which the persecution of Muslims was addressed, Cromitie maintained that he was willing to leave vengeance in God's hands, trusting that justice would be done on Judgment Day; it was Hussain, the Feds' well-compensated veteran provocateur, who consistently peddled a "warped" religious belief in criminal violence against the innocent.
Cromitie had already spent a dozen years behind bars by the time the Feds targeted him for their provocation op. His most recent stint came after he was arrested for selling cocaine to an undercover narcotics operative behind a school. The narc most likely chose that location because of federal sentence enhancements: For someone who makes a living enticing people into committing drug offenses, getting a repeat offender to sell drugs near a school is the equivalent of a Scrabble maven playing "z" on the triple letter score square.
Like everything else of consequence done in the name of counter-terrorism, the Newburgh 4 case was staged for the institutional benefit of the Homeland Security State and the individual career advancement of a handful of FBI agents, federal prosecutors, and one exceptionally squalid informant.
One very telling indication of the perverse priorities at work here is found in the fact that the FBI actually intervened to prevent the arrest of David Williams, Cromitie's co-defendant, on larceny charges so that they could bust him as part of their contrived terrorist plot.
What political profit would result from allowing local authorities to prosecute Williams on a charge involving an actual property crime? On the other hand, arresting him as part of a black Muslim terrorist cell -- now, there's a bust with a high Q rating. Or, to recur to the Scrabble analogy, that's like playing the "z" tile on the triple word score square at the intersection of two fifteen-letter words.
In signaling her willingness to hear the Newburgh 4's appeal, Federal District Judge McMahon candidly described the supposed terrorist conspiracy as a pure Federal fabrication: "The plot was created before our very eyes in this courtroom," she stated.
"The law allows that to happen," lied Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin in reply.
This is actually quite a stunning admission, coming as it does from someone of exalted rank within the "Justice" Department: He acknowledged that the Feds consider it to be legal and proper to manufacture terrorist plots in order to justify what can only be described as show trials.
This isn't a news bulletin to people who had been paying attention, but there is some value in getting one of the producers of the long-running melodrama called Homeland Security Theater to make that key admission on the record.
Obiter Dicta
Thanks to the generous assistance of my friend Kevin Craig, my Freedom Zealot podcasts now have a home on the Web. If my circumstances permit me to do so, I intend to produce them at least once a week.
In my next Pro Libertate installment, I am going to be examining the CPS/SWAT assault on the family of Detroit resident Maryanne Goldboldo, who had attempted to protect her teenage daughter from being forcibly drugged by agents of the local psihuska. I was immersed in the story above when news broke of the atrocity in Detroit.
If you can, please help keep Pro Libertate on-line. Thanks, and God bless!
Dum spiro, pugno!
18 comments:
Fascinating story. If the relevant facts have been represented fairly, then, yes, James Cromitie was railroaded by FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller and his allies. In fact, by the end I was wondering what motives Shahed Hussain could have had for his participation. And why does Agent Fuller have so little better to do than to manipulate a weakminded man like Cromitie? Aren't there any Islamic terrorists in the USA more dangerous than Cromitie? Maybe Shahed Hussain is one such terrorist, and he cut a deal to save his own skin. Or maybe Hussain is a common criminal who needed to cut a deal to save his own skin....
...Ok, I just skimmed Doyle Murphy's article at the Times-Herald Record. Sure enough, Hussain had legal troubles, esp. immigration ones. Clever racket that those FBI guys have set up.
Still, I think a little skepticism is called for when dealing with Islam and Muslims. The jizyah (Koran 9:29), the protection fee due to Muslims from dhimmis, is in no way a "defensive enterprise". Nor is the command to "slay the idolaters wherever you find them" (Koran 9:9). In fact, the title of Koran 8 is "Spoils", "Al-Anfal", and the record of Muhammad's brigandry is not in doubt. The guy was a nasty, clever gangster. Even the great battle of Badr was provoked by Muslims when word got around that some Muslims were planning to raid a caravan.
And what about people who refuse both to accept Islam and to accept dhimmi status? When Muslims are a majority, or at least have the sufficient numbers and ability to act in concert, no one can reasonably expect that nonmuslims who refuse dhimmitude will be treated as equal to or better than dhimmis.
I wonder if James Cromitie even knew what he was getting hisself into when he converted. It would not have been the first time that a person joined a cult without first conducting an investigation with due diligence.
Lesson learned: Beware of Islam. It's dangerous in its own right and might put you at risk of the FBI's careerists, too, even if you are naive about Islam and harbor no malice toward nonmuslims upon your conversion.
Mr. Grigg, as usual, a fantastic column. I am sending this off to all my Islamophobic friends and relatives who still worry there might be a Muslim 'terrist' under the bed.
In response to 'Anonymous':
"The jizyah"
Historically, during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the jizyah was a single tax which replaced the regimen of taxes non-Muslim rulers had previously inflicted on their subjects to pay for the state's expensive and pointless wars and bureaucracies. The Jizyah tended to be far less burdensome than the previous taxes non-Muslims suffered at the hands of their co-religionists, which is one of the reasons why many an over-taxed and war-weary Christian welcomed the Muslims invaders with open arms in the 7th century (the fact that Muslims didn't care about Christian doctrinal disputes, while the Byzantines were slaughtering their own subjects over them, was another big factor).
"slay the idolaters wherever you find them" (Koran 9:9)
First off, this is 9:5 - not 9:9 - and you should finish reading the rest of the verse before you go spouting off: "...but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." The next few verses say: "If one amongst the pagans [the polytheists of Mecca who were out to destroy the nascent Muslim community] ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of Allah; and then escort him to where he can be secure: That is because they are men without knowledge. (6) How can there be a league before Allah and His Messenger, with the pagans, except those with whom ye made a treaty near the Sacred Mosque? As long as these stand true to you stand ye true to them: for Allah doth love the righteous. (7)"
"In fact, the title of Koran 8 is "Spoils""
Other surah names include "al-Baqara" (the Cow), "al-Nahl" (the Honey Bees), and "al-Talaq" (Divorce). Are we to take it based on this that Islam is a religion of cow-worshipping beekeepers who love getting divorced? Most of the big Old Testament prophets also have a Surah named after them, as well as Mary, mother of Jesus. The fact that two or three of the 114 Surahs have names relating to warfare is supposed to mean what, exactly?
"the record of Muhammad's brigandry is not in doubt."
Is it? If the dozen or so years of non-resistant passivism preached and practiced by the Muslims in Mecca before being driven into exile qualifies as some kind of 'brigandry', well, I don't know what to tell you. It was only after the civil authorities in Mecca tried to murder Muhammed and forced the Muslims to leave the city of their birth that they took up the sword in their own defense. Of course Muhammed had to fight a few battles - he and his people were at war with an enemy that was out to utterly destroy them. Muhammed's legendary brigandry is pretty tame compared to many of the prophets of the Old Testament, who annihilated entire tribes of people.
"Lesson learned: Beware of Islam."
I think the lesson here is to beware of ignorant buffoons who would lead one off the path of truth and justice.
Abdul Haq,
Thank you. Anyone can quote words and point to actions out of context. One could accuse Jesus of committing suicide by not even attempting to escape his fate, and paint Christianity as a dangerous and corrupt "suicide cult." Obviously, that is not the whole story, by a long shot.
I remember a scene, I believe from the movie, "A Passage to India," or it might have been from "Gandhi" - A Hindu peasant boasts, "I know a Christian. She drinks blood. Every Sunday." Such are the fruits of ignorance and religious propaganda.
Many "Christians" have not even read their own Bible, but rely on "preachers" and "ministers" to tell them what it says. Just like quotations from the Koran, these snippets of text are often taken out of context, and are used to support the most outrageous positions.
Too often, the intent of these authority figures is not to enlighten, uplift, educate or liberate the people, but to confuse, control, subjugate and enslave them.
Most regrettably, these same deluded people end up sitting on juries, in judgment of unfortunates like Cromitie who have been targeted by Moloch and Leviathan for persecution and destruction.
Moloch's purpose in hunting down and crucifying these innocent victims is not the pursuit of justice or law, but the stirring up of fear and hatred, to further control the ignorant, the gullible and the mentally lazy.
It is all lies. Let us all fix this thought in our minds: Every single thing, without exception, that the Government says, or does, or pretends to believe, is a vile, filthy, foul, ugly, callous, corrupt, nasty, bloodsucking, stinking, rotten, motherfucking LIE.
- Lemuel Gulliver.
(PS: Please excuse the inadequacy of my language to fully convey the depravity and filth of our Satan-worshiping rulers.)
Lesson learned: Beware of Islam. It's dangerous in its own right...
No more dangerous than any other organized religion.
Abdul Haq,
Thanks for the response to Mr. 'Anonymous' - you beat me to the punch. Anyone who reads the entire set of verses knows logically it is far more nuanced and specific to a certain context; how can you be commanded to 'slay them wherever you find them' and then later preach to a non-Muslim and then 'escort him to where he can be secure' - how can he be secure anywhere you know his location.
Also - about the jizyah - it was left out that this was only for fighting-age males who had the requisite income. I bet most people don't know this, but under classic Islamic law there is one category of person who has absolutely no tax liability at all and can still benefit from the state protection and service; the non-Muslim woman! Assuming she does not own cultivated land (which is generally taxed for all), she can be wealthy beyond belief, owning businesses, etc., but owes nothing, absolutely nothing to the state. This is stated unequivocally in the classic manual 'Ahkam As-Sultaniyyah' (Rules of Governance by Imam Mawardi). That's right non-Muslim ladies - it's (tax-free) ladies' nights (and days) in dar us-salaam!
But getting back to the point as this is not generally a forum for theological niceties; this should scare any citizen. If the government wants to villify and target any particular group (animal rights, pro-environment, anti-abortion, tax-freedom, pro-secession etc.) it can use these same tactics to take a person from a reasonable passionate stance into one who is able to destroy lives and property with the right persuasion and coaching. These saps are then paraded in front of the cameras to rouse the public and put in more draconian measures to monitor that particular groups or restrict their activities.
Mr. Grigg, you champion all our liberties, may God bless you and your family!
Surah 9:5,
"Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."
And verse 6 teaches that if the idolaters seeks Muslim protection it is to be granted to them, but if the idolaters do not seek Muslim protection, they are to "repent and establish worship"; which is to say they are to convert to Islam, the straight path, or be slain, for Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
The Federal Bureau of Inquisition has once again saved the good people of Amerika by exposing the witches within their mists. The truth about Mr.Cromitie will soon be exposed by the Grand Inquisitor Napolitano when she throws him into a lake. If he floats he's a terrorist; If he doesn't float it's because he's a new, more devious terrorist: one who was weighed down by explosives hidden inside his body. Which means, of course, that the TSA must now give everyone a pre-death autopsy to ensure the security of Der Homeland.
(Yeah, I mixed my metaphors but I work fourteen hours a day and drink probably way too many White Russians before hitting the sheets, so give me a little slack.)
I feel so sorry for these people! They are NOT terrorists; they are manufactured “terrorists” by the government who will now spend years in prison if not the rest of their lives because when the government gets through with them, they must face a group of 12 people called jurors culled from a “jury pool”; during voir dire, they get the “opinions” of the jurors and the outcome is assured. I was recently called for jury duty and was surprised that during voir dire, the DA lays out the entire case and wants to know what we think about it. I said “Why you're trying him a second time for the same crime. That’s double jeopardy.” The others that agreed with me and myself certainly did not serve on that jury.
Lemuel, you are so right: for the last ten years I have read remarks and responses from “Christians” to Muslims and Muslims to “Christians” and you don’t have to guess which religion sounds righteous and which sounds mean-spirited and bigoted. Christians don’t read their Bible, except for the soothing verses “For God so loved the world…” They only wear those “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets so they can do the opposite.
I am ashamed to say that it took 9/11 to open my eyes to what our gov’t does. For one thing, the NSA knew that two of bin Laden’s followers were headed to California. This alarmed an FBI agent who worked there, so he wrote a memo to his superiors to get the word out to NOT allow these two men to enter the US. Well, his boss at the NSA spiked the memo, the two terrorists freely entered the US, took flying lessons, hooked up with their fellow terrorists and the rest is history. (The man who spiked the memo was later promoted, of course.)
So the gov’t knew a year before that bin Laden was planning something here; he even said so. But we needed a new enemy, and so what that Americans must die? I took Ron Paul’s advice and bought the book “Blowback” by Chalmers Johnson. In the introduction he wrote “The American people may not know what is done in their name, but those on the receiving end surely do…” Now I know. The Muslims are no more my enemies than the Cubans are, but the Amerikan government surely is.
9/11 was a gift to the gov’t, better even than the idiotic “Drug War.” Did you notice that it took them exactly one second to go from foreign terrorism to homegrown terrorism? (Which they must manufacture themselves.)
Oh, yeah, and guess who said this:
“It is obviously impracticable in the federal government of these states, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all: INDIVIDUALS entering into society, MUST GIVE UP A SHARE OF LIBERTY to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights WHICH MUST BE SURRENDERED, and those which may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty was encreased by a difference among the several states as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests.”
It sounds like George Bush except it’s English. Old formal English. George Washington English. It is from Washington’s Letter of Transmittal to the President of the Continental Congress, September 17, 1787.
"Conceived in liberty?" I don't think so.
The financial ruin of the US Gunvernment cannot come soon enough.
Bankruptcy will bring this whole rotten criminal enterprise right to its knees.
Justice in this country - my ass! There is no justice for those hapless proles who happen to be in the way when the dragoons sweep through.
Yossarian,
9-11 was NOT "blowback." It was a false flag operation, conceived right here in America by powerful Republicans, and implemented by the CIA, the Pakistani ISI, the Mossad, and possibly also Turkish Intelligence. The central characters were the Bush Crime Family and their Friends, the Bin Laden Family, and the ibn Saud Royal Family. The factor tying all these families together was their membership in the Carlyle Group.
All the wacko conspiracy theories since then have either been started and promoted by the Government, or encouraged by them, in order to distract the public's attention from the central questions: WHO KNEW? And also, WHO PLANNED IT?
The evidence is all there for anyone with an enquiring and open mind to see, but I like my life, so I will not enumerate it. The most powerful people in the world are not immune from assassination by the people who planned 9-11. They have done it before, many times, and can do it again. It would be pointless to even try to expose them. After they murdered 3,000 people in cold blood, any too-curious individual can be exterminated like stepping on a bug. I swear to you, I am making none of this up.
This case of Cromitie is just one more ludicrous terror operation by the DHS, after Shoe bombers and Underwear bombers and SUV bombers and Christmas Tree bombers. What will they pull next - Toilet Bowl bombers? Barbie Doll bombers? Sesame Bagel bombers?
I can just see the headlines: "Cuban Model's Breast Implants Found to be Explosive Devices." We know what sort of warped enjoyment TSA employees can anticipate after THAT false flag operation. Or perhaps, for those TSA goons of a different sexual persuasion, "Cuban Woman in Men's Clothing Tries To Board Plane While Wearing Penis and Testicles Molded from Plastic Explosives." That would cause a rush to join the TSA among the members of NAMBLA. (If that has not already happened - one wonders sometimes...)
The employees of Moloch either have an extremely warped sense of humor, or they think, perhaps correctly, that America is populated by cretins.
Or, more likely, the whole DHS, TSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, NRO, PDQ and the other 1,928 surveillance organizations spending our tax money are peopled with sexual and moral deviants.
- Lemuel Gulliver.
I've never heard that before, but it doesn't shock me. Who benefited? This was the best thing that ever happened to the u.s. gov't. It is not only the gift that keeps on giving, but apparently, it is eternal. It's so embarrassing; all these years later other countries have had tragedies and moved on, but not us. We will not budge an inch from 9/11.
Great article as usual from Grigg. Yet again, this shows that the worship of the state, and of the state at war, is far more dangerous than even any established religion.
Also, I could be wrong, but I don't think 9-11 was a false flag op. Based on everything I have read, it appears to be similar to the "sneak attack" of Pearl Harbor where the US government did its best to bait an enemy, knew they were coming, and sat back and let it happen to allow a drastic increase in the state's power and approval from the public for war.
Sorry I don't buy the revisionist bent to whitewash Islamic history. History tells a tale of muslim warmongering, not "defensive jihad." Islam was spread by the sword not by the good news of Allah's salvation. If not for Charles Martel in France, the bulwark of Constantinople, and Sobieski in eastern Europe, there would have been no Reformation, as all of Europe would be facing Mecca today. Just how were these aggressive wars of Islam defensive? Were the Barbary Pirates also being defensive when they hijacked ships and enslaved their sailors? Do I also need to review the litany of muslim-lit brushfires that continue to this day? -Philippines, Kashmir, Sudan, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, etc.
I respect your moral integrity but you are wayoff in this.
My God, Lemuel, does your tinfoil hat ever get too tight?
Not as tight as your ass, or so your boyfriend told me.
Anonymous @12:03 PM,
Your God? Your God? Your God is a simpering little shrimp from Texas, with all the character of a hyena. People like you are the reason the power elite, the oligarchs, and the politicians are so totally contemptuous of the "Great American People." One cannot blame them. A bunch of vacuous, twittering little girls, devoid of character, devoid of brains, devoid of curiosity, devoid of ambition, and devoid of testicles. You will bend over again and again, and let them all take turns screwing you to the wall. You and your ilk are are a pathetic herd of suck-titty jackasses, braying at the moon - I wish you and your whole furry family a long life. Very long indeed. I hope you all live long enough to discover, and spend many years pondering, just how thoroughly you have been screwed by those vampires you thought were your "heroes."
Mr. Grigg,
I am dropping out of this small forum of talking heads. I have better things to do with my time than preach to the choir, or try to get through the swamp gas between the ears of people like Anonymous who is afraid to give his name, and who STILL thinks George Bush was the greatest President we ever had.
Seriously - this is not because of the nameless jackass - he is not even worth heaping contempt upon - but because I have started a new project which will take a lot of my time, and composing these long screeds is more than I can continue to do.
America is doomed, economically, socially, morally, and educationally, and all your preaching, or mine, will do nothing to change that. After the unimaginably foul and numberless vicious crimes this country has committed over the past 100 years, it deserves everything that is coming to it. Be assured I shall watch its collapse with great satisfaction. If you want my opinion, I recommend you divide your wonderful children into two groups, and teach one group Chinese, and the other Hebrew. That will assure them a far better future than your maintaining this blog.
Better yet, pretend you are from Ethiopia and convert to Judaism. It might work. (For sure, you couldn't pass for Chinese.)
From time to time I may come back here, to see if you are still around, and to read about how you are all changing the world. Sometimes, after all, one needs a good laugh in order to relax and unwind. (Do you remember the prelude to the War on Iraq? Ten million people demonstrated loudly in some 50 cities all around the world against that war - ten million! - and see how much difference THAT made.)
Enjoy your life in Idaho, and by all means keep on telling your audience how royally they are being screwed. It will not make one flea-turd's worth of difference, except that it will keep all the slaves down in the back pasture happy, while they discuss how they will one day own the plantation.
Live long and prosper!
- Lemuel Gulliver.
Mark F: Wouldn’t it be a better idea to concentrate on the whitewash of American history? How about the slaughter of the Native Americans? (Grant said in his inaugural address that if the Indians didn’t adopt our ways, we would start [continue] an extermination program. Nobody batted an eye.) How about starting a fake war with Mexico to steal half their land? Or using 10-year-old Filipino boys for target practice? How about destroying Dresden and the civilians therein? Nagasaki? Hiroshima? Carpet-bombing? The Civil War, maybe? The CIA roams the earth continually like a roaring lion starting wars between countries, executing elected leaders and installing “our” people, starting revolutions, and killing people. Has any country but this one used atomic weapons (WMD, let’s call them) on civilians? Has any other country used them, period? How about the founding fathers starting a war with England – not to liberate America, but so they could steal from (tax) the “toilers,” as president McKinley called us. Your chances of being murdered by the govt are greater than being murdered by a non-govt terrorist. I don’t know how many unarmed people are shot daily by the police, but I know that seven people die every month after being tased.
Each state has a terrorism awareness program, mostly written by the Southern Poverty Law Center, but I think most of them were yanked off the internet after Alabama’s went viral and the state dhs closed down temporarily because of all the traffic. However, the PA Terrorist Awareness Program is still online. Three short pages are devoted to “International” terrorism while a full eight pages are devoted to “homegrown” terrorism. (It is almost word-for-word like AL's). If you want to know what groups the u.s. govt thinks may produce terrorists, read from Talha Rizvi’s response above: “animal rights, pro-environment, anti-abortion, tax-freedom, pro-secession etc.”
This is from the PA Terrorist Awareness Program:
“The modern Anti-Government movement [terrorists, according to the govt] evolved in reaction to gun control laws of the 1990s; the federal government’s actions at Waco (Branch Davidians); the federal government’s actions at Ruby Ridge (Randy Weaver)." Somewhere it is mentioned that if you talk about the constitution a lot, you could be a terrorist.
"There are separatist and nationalist movements all over the world. These are people wanting their own homeland. Some separatists are willing to commit crimes to secure this independence.
"Separatist groups within the U.S. include: White Supremacists; Black Separatists/Nationalists; Puerto Rican Nationalists; American Indian Activists; Neo-Confederates.” (Oddly enough, Pennsylvania has neo-confederates while Alabama just has “hate” groups.)
Then there are the “single issue” groups, the most dangerous group of all, according to “law” enforcement, which includes Talha Rizi’s list above and, well, EVERYBODY ELSE. Are you a loner? Are you an extrovert? Then you are on A List.
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