Leftists just Refuse to Learn: Founder of Group that helped overthrow Mubarak face to face with reality

Ahmed Maher is an Egyptian who co-founded the April 6th Movement, a leftist group formed circa 2008 to fight for social justice and other left-wing causes in Egypt and elsewhere. Ultimately, Maher's movement was instrumental in the overthrow of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

Now, two years later, an Irish news source is reporting that Maher has come to a realization. According to RTE News, Mather tweeted the following after brutal crackdowns on protesters by the Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi. Here is Maher's tweet:

"Mursi has been stripped bare and has lost his legitimacy. Done," tweeted Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 youth movement that helped launch the anti-Mubarak protests.

In the fall of 2011, several months after Mubarak's fall, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement went on an offensive. Van Jones, fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and former Obama administration Green Jobs czar, promoted OWS publicly on MSNBC. On 9/29/11, he called for "an American fall" (a not-so-subtle reference to 'Arab Spring'). About six weeks later - on CNN - Jones called for ratcheting up the protests.

Let's get back to Maher for a moment.

Jones' CAP caught up with Maher, who had traveled to the U.S. and was at Occupy Washington, D.C. a few weeks after Jones called for that 'American fall' on MSNBC. Here is the video of that interview:



If you had difficulty understanding Maher, TP has the transcript.

This should be an extremely teachable moment not just for Maher but for all of the leftists in the U.S. Perhaps no one has enunciated this dynamic as well as Andrew McCarthy, who wrote in his book - The Grand Jihad:

Revolutionaries of Islam and the Left make fast friends when there is a common enemy to besiege. Leftists, however are essentially nihilists whose hazy vision prioritizes power over what is to be done with power. They are biddable. Islamists, who have very settled convictions about what is to be done with power, are much less so. Even their compromises keep their long-term goals in their sights. Thus do Leftists consistently overrate their ability to control Islamists. Factoring the common denominator, power, out of the equation, something always beats nothing.

While the left in America - to include the Obama administration - spends practically every waking moment plotting to defeat Christians, conservatives, and Republicans, groups like the Muslim Brotherhood egg them on while Obama's ventriloquist dummies run interference for Brotherhood groups in America through the media.

Unfortunately, it's not just the left in America that is furthering the cause of Islamists. It's also the John McCain wing of the Republican Party.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill that would stop shipment of Abrams tanks to the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi in Egypt. More Republicans voted to continue sending those tanks than those who sided with Paul.

What happened to Maher is another in a long line of examples that western leaders continue to refuse to learn from.

Perhaps those leaders should start reading their Bibles.

Video: Greta interviews Hillary Clinton about Middle East / Benghazi

Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren sat down with outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss - among other things - Egypt and Benghazi. Those expecting Greta to be a bit tougher on Clinton than was the stable of gelded Republican Senators and Congressmen last week were disappointed but there were some revealing moments.

Commentary after the video:



After exchanging niceties, Clinton refers to the post-Arab Spring in general - Egypt in particular - as a "period of adjustment" and that it's important "not to see these revolutions hijacked by extremists". What she didn't say was that countries like Egypt are adjusting to Sharia law and that the hijacking of those revolutions is a foregone conclusion and was predictable to so many with much less information than Clinton had at her disposal during the early stages of the Arab Spring.

Shortly thereafter, Greta brings up Morsi's 2010 comments, which included him saying the Jews were descendants of "apes and pigs", and that Egypt must "nurse its children on hatred of the Jews". A few hours before Greta's interview, reports came out that a close Morsi aid said the Holocaust never happened and that the Jews secretly moved to the U.S.

Hillary's response?

At the 1:58 mark, she says "We were quite concerned about those statements" and that "the Egyptian presidency has repudiated" the comments.

What more proof does one need that the Democratic Party has more contempt for Christians and conservatives than for the Muslim Brotherhood? Virtually the entire Barack Obama administration, for more than four years, has been engaged in class warfare that involves much more critical and relentless criticism of conservatives who haven't even come close to talking like Morsi.

At the 3:30 mark, when asked about Morsi personally, Hillary said:

"I think he has a lot of the right intentions".

Wait a minute. A leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who also happens to be the President of Egypt has pure intentions?! The intentions of the Brotherhood include the annihilation of Israel and establishing a global caliphate.

Shortly after the 4:00 mark, while mildly defending Morsi, said:

"It's not what somebody says. It's what they do."

You mean like saying Al-Qaeda has been decimated while actually fueling the group's resurgence by siding with the Muslim Brotherhood all over the Middle East?

At the 4:40 mark, the conversation shift's to Morsi's welcoming of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who is responsible for mass genocide in his country. Clinton doesn't just excuse Morsi for doing so by saying such meetings take place all over the Middle East but check out this quote, delivered by her at about the 5:20 mark:

"He (Bashir) does need to be held accountable for what happened on his watch as President."

Interesting to hear such language coming from Clinton, which makes a nice segue to the question about Benghazi, which is asked shortly after the 12:00 mark. It was a two-part question and just as open-ended as many of the questions asked by Republican Senators and Congressmen at last week's hearings.

1.) Can Americans feel confident that security at embassies and consulates will be sufficient, moving forward?

2.) Should we go back to Benghazi?

Clinton's answer ultimately led to a sales pitch for more money to help keep these installations more secure. Again, like what happened at the Senate and House Committee hearings, that pitch went unanswered by Greta, despite earlier testimony from Charlene Lamb, a State Department bureaucrat, who testified that a lack of funds was not the reason for a lack of security in Benghazi.

In that hearing, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) asked Lamb if lack of security due to budget concerns. Her answer (at about the 1:45 mark) was "no sir":



Breitbart was not too happy with Van Susteren's failure to ask any follow-up questions of Hillary about Benghazi.

The case of Mohamed ElBaradei and be careful what you wish for

As the 'Arab Spring' was dawning in Egypt in early 2011, perhaps one of the most prominent and loudest voices that demanded the ouster of Hosni Mubarak was former Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei. Here is an excerpt of an interview he gave a short time before Mubarak stepped down.

Via Der Spiegel:

SPIEGEL: Shouldn't you be headed down to Tahrir Square to try to use your authority to calm people down there?

ElBaradei: I was there once, and things broke out in turmoil. I need to watch out for my own safety. There are people who think they'd be doing the regime a favor by killing me. The longer things continue on this way with Mubarak, the clearer it becomes that the country is imploding both politically and economically. Mubarak must go; not at some point, but now. I believe the Americans are also getting very impatient.

SPIEGEL: You've given Mubarak an ultimatum. It expired on Friday, which the demonstrators dubbed the "day of departure" ...

ElBaradei: ... and I will say it again: He must go away quickly. I'm sure that some Arab country will take him in. I've heard from Bahrain. If he still has one spark of patriotism, this is his last chance.

As Egypt's newly elected Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Mursi doubles down on dictatorship at breakneck speed, ElBaradei's perception of the implosion of Egypt in early 2011 is nothing compared to what he's seeing now. As for his comment to Der Spiegel that the "Americans are also getting very impatient," his recent comments indicate that he would like to see that impatience continue but, to this point, the White House has been virtually silent over Mursi's most recent power grab.

Via Neil Munroe at the Daily Caller:

Morsi decreed Nov. 22 that his pronouncements and edicts were beyond the reach of judicial review. The announcement was met by resistance from the nation’s top judges, who said they would fight Morsi’s unusual self-elevation to near-dictator status.

“I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity,” declared Mohamed ElBaradei, who is one of Egypt’s more visible non-Islamist politicians.

This was a very foreseeable problem. Those of us who saw the 'Arab Spring' for what it was had far better vision than the likes of ElBaradei, who is becoming like another in a long line of Arab secularists who never seem to learn that when it comes down to them vs. the Islamists, the Islamists always seem to win.

As for that American (Obama administration) impatience now compared to then, Munroe seemed to sum that up quite succinctly:

There has been no White House response to ElBaradei’s Nov. 24 comments.

To be fair to ElBaradei, he's not the only secularist who was wrong. Just look at practically every Democratic politician in the U.S., a handful of Republicans, and the mainstream media.

It isn't rocket science but liberal secularists still never get it.

Tyrone Woods' father: Hillary told me they would 'prosecute' filmmaker

It didn't take long for many in the Muslim world to exploit the 9/11/12 attack in Benghazi by doing what the Obama administration did - they pointed to the Innocence of Muslims video. The video was being held up as an example of why it's wrong to criticize anything Islam. We learned that before the attack, forces were already at work, plotting to call on international bodies as well as national governments to make any speech against or criticism of Islam a crime. At the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi called for restrictions on free speech.

The Obama administration pointed to the video as well. However, as the weeks have passed, a specific motive for doing so has been attributed to the administration. As the thinking goes, Obama and his team were using the video as an excuse so that the lack of security would not be exposed. It makes perfect sense. On October 19th, in a letter to Obama, Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa accused the administration of looking to "normalize" Libya despite an opposite reality on the ground. It's become widely accepted that Obama, Hillary, et. al. wanted to use the video as a distraction and as an excuse.

This would necessarily mean that Islamists and the administration had adopted the same narrative but for different reasons.

Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, may have called that entire premise into question when he called in to the Lars Larson show on October 24th. In describing his visit with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when the casket of his son and three other Americans arrived in at Andrews Air Force Base three days after their deaths, Tyrone's father dropped a bit of a bombshell.

Take note of what Charles says he was told by Hillary Clinton, beginning at the 6:15 mark.

"We're going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video."

I'll explain why this is potentially so very important, after the clip.



If Hillary Clinton was willing to "prosecute" the filmmaker, this puts her in direct opposition to the Constitution she swore an oath to uphold. It also potentially calls into question the premise that the video was used solely as an excuse to cover-up the lack of security at Benghazi.

Here is Hillary speaking at Andrews on the day that four caskets containing the bodies of four dead Americans arrived. Beginning at the 6:15 mark, Hillary essentially points to the video and indignantly says the U.S. Government had "nothing to do with (making it)".



This begs a very serious question: If the administration was only using the video as an excuse to prevent the truth about what happened in Benghazi from coming to light, why would Hillary take that a step further and tell the father of Tyrone Woods that the filmmaker would be prosecuted?

Such a reality doesn't just put the Obama administration on the same page with Islamists when it comes to blaming the video (but for different reasons). It actually suggests that the reasons for pointing to the video were the same.

If Hillary told Charles Woods that the filmmaker would be prosecuted, it meant that she was interested in criminalizing criticism of Islam as well. That would be a direct attack on the first amendment, which is something even the Obama administration is not yet willing to be seen as doing. Obama himself, in a PSA for Pakistan in which he appeared with Hillary, wouldn't go that far publicly, saying there was "no justification for this senseless violence... none". Again, Hillary accentuated the assertion that the "United States Government had absolutely nothing to do with this video" (I have always been intrigued by how adamantly she has stated that).



It's important not to forget that Hillary's Deputy Chief of Staff and closest advisor - Huma Abedin - has extremely close and irrefutable ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, Abedin's mother Saleha and Mohamed Mursi's wife are two of 63 leaders in the Muslim Sisterhood, which makes them close colleagues. Yes, that's the same Mursi who spoke at the CGI several days after the Benghazi attack and said there should be limits to free speech. Isn't it possible that the Abedins share that view? Isn't it also possible for Huma to influence Hillary to adopt it?

Islamists have been pointing to the video in order to target our first amendment rights. Was the Obama administration attempting to do the same thing?

Threatening to prosecute someone for exercising his first amendment rights makes that possibility far more plausible.

This latest development does not mean the filmmaker - Nakoula Basseley Nakoula - doesn't warrant further investigation relative to his associations and motives for making the video. Both remain highly suspect and require more sunlight.

h/t Gather

Obama Administration and Muslim Brotherhood; why the same narrative about the movie?

In the days after the September 11th attacks of 2012, practically every senior member of the Obama administration insisted that the reason for the riots / attacks could be traced back to a 'disgusting' and 'reprehensible' video that the Muslim world found insulting. As they say, the dam has broken on that narrative.

Via CNS News:

As more senior administration officials use the word “terrorism” in describing the deadly September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice’s repeated insistence five days later that the incident was a “spontaneous reaction” to an obscure anti-Islam video continues to draw scrutiny and criticism.

Fox News reports that administration officials knew within 24 hours that the Benghazi attack was terrorism.

Since we now know that President Barack Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and White House spokesman Jay Carney all lied about the crudely produced Innocence of Muslims video being responsible for riots, we deserve to know why.

Charles Krauthammer makes the very credible case that the reason for the deception had to do with the fact that five days prior to 9/11, at the Democratic National Convention, the President's party spiked the football repeatedly on the Obama administration's crowning achievement - the killing of bin Laden.

Consider another reason, whether exclusive or in conjunction with what Krauthammer charges. Does the administration embrace the idea of blaming the video for the same reason the leaders in the Muslim world do - to attack free speech? It's quite clear through a litany of examples that when it comes to the U.S. Constitution, this administration sees it as an obstacle and if there is one thing that is standing in its way, being called out on its lies is definitely front and center.

We already know why the Muslim world is blaming the video. The Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, Mohamed Mursi, told us while at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) this week.

It's about going after Americans' first amendment right of free speech.

So, the Obama administration lied about the video being responsible. By adopting that lie in the first place, it aligned itself with the likes of Mursi and the radical elements of the Muslim world.

Again, why would the Obama administration lie while taking the side of the Muslim Brotherhood in the commission of that lie?

One of the many elephants in the room here is Mursi's connection to the mother of Hillary Clinton's closest adviser, Huma Abedin. Mursi's wife (Najla Mahmoud) and Huma's mother (Saleha Abedin) represent two of the 63 leaders within the Muslim Sisterhood. This is relevant for at least two reasons. First, we know the administration - to include Hillary Clinton herself - lied about the video being responsible for the attacks. Second, it was the same lie being pushed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Again, in committing this egregious lie, the administration aligned itself with the Brotherhood on yet another issue.

Why, why, why?

Here is Mursi's not so subtle suggestion that Americans should not be allowed to exercise their freedom of speech when it comes to Islam.

Via GWP:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi speaks at Clinton Global Initiative

Yesterday, I posted about Mitt Romney's misguided decision to speak at Clinton Global Initiative annual conference. It appears that decision was more misguided than previously thought because in addition to Romney's speech, one was given by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Mursi. Here is the relevant excerpt Via GWP:

“Demonstrations and clashes recently broke out in a large number of Arab and Islamic countries in response to an incident in response to the defamation. We must acknowledge the importance of freedom of expression. We must also recognize that such freedom comes with responsibilities especially when it has serious implications for international peace.”

Here's the video:



Again, need we be reminded that Mursi's wife and the mother of Hillary Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin are colleagues in their roles as two of 63 leaders of the Muslim Sisterhood?

Two Suspects identified in U.S. Embassy attack in Cairo

At act of war was committed against the United States in Cairo on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Now it's being learned that one of two people who could be most responsible is scheduled to visit the United States on September 15th for a business trip. This would be like inviting KSM into the United States after 9/11.

The names of the two men identified by Arabic sources discovered by Walid Shoebat are Wisam Abdul Waris and Nader Bakkar. The reason behind the attack seems to be quite simple - and very Alinsky-esque. The riots were intended to create a crisis that was allegedly caused by an anti-Muslim film, whereby an agenda could be pushed that would criminalize (internationally) attacks on Islam.

Via Shoebat:

The attacks on U.S. Embassies had very little to do with the latest film and much more to do with the old story of the Muhammad Cartoon and the failure of Muslims to prosecute internationally the culprits who drew the Muhammad cartoons. This will be another attempt to change the laws globally.

Wisam Abdul Waris of Dar Al-Hekma (House of Wisdom) – about whom the Nour Salafist party announced publicly that its call to demonstrate was in support of – began a call to push for the passage of laws to be placed in the Egyptian Constitution – as well as internationally – that would make it illegal to criticize Islam.

In an interview posted to YouTube on September 9th, Wisam said the following (translation by Shoebat):

We have moved to review... all the legal procedures today by which we created The Voice of Wisdom Coalition (I’itilaf Sawt al-Hekma); it will hold accountable everyone who insults Islam locally and internationally, in accordance with every country’s laws. We all know the problems Yasser Al-Habib had in London and after that in Berlin… in Germany, an extremist group was allowed to publicize cartoons that insult the prophet in front of the Salafist Mosque in Berlin, through a legal decision. So what we did was to ask Sharabi Mahmoud to reject this legal decision on behalf of the Egyptian people who are Muslim; for this reason, we created this coalition. We also made an official request from the Church in Egypt to issue a public announcement, to state it has nothing to do with this deed.

This is where Nader Bakkar comes in. As a prominent member of the Nour Party, he echoed Wisam's sentiment and the official facebook page of the Nour Party posted the following:

Salafi Nour Party officially joined the Commonwealth of ‘voice of wisdom’ with Wisam Abdul Waris, as well as with Nader Bakkar, the party’s official spokesman and Dr. Ahmed Khalil Khairallah, member of the supreme body.

Said Bakkar:

"Ahmed Khalil, of the supreme body, and I joined the Association of the voice of wisdom with Dr. Wisam Abdul Waris as official representatives from Nour Party and the Salafist call."

On his personal facebook page, Bakkar said the following:

"…after the movie that abused the Prophet (peace be upon him), none will dare object to our determination to put an article in the constitution that criminalizes insults of the divine through portrayal or animation of the prophet, His companions, and all His House and mothers of the believers… this is the least we can do."

It's important to understand that this entire episode smacks of Middle Eastern-style Community Organizing. Ratcheting up the 'never let a crisis go to waste' mantra involves CREATING a crisis that you don't let go to waste. In this case, mobs of Muslims riot while pointing to a film as the source of their rage. Meanwhile, characters like Wisam and Bakkar can help push an agenda that involves criminalizing criticism of Islam.

Saul Alinksy's Rules for Radicals comes in quite handy at this point. In particular, check out Rule #8.

Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”

So if criminalizing criticism of Islam is on the international agenda of the Muslim world, where is it on the Obama administration's agenda? This video from July of this year should answer that question quite simply. It is an exchange between Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), - one of the five courageous Congressmen who are asking legitimate questions about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. Government - and Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division:

Video: Gunmen in Libya say, 'Don't Shoot us! We were sent by Mursi!'

The first 1:30 of this video is of no use if you don't speak Arabic. However, once it changes to the raw footage of a fire fight in Benghazi, it becomes very interesting very quickly. Listen carefully - the news report loops the portion of the video - as one gunman can be heard shouting the name 'Mursi' (Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president).

The full translation according to Shoebat is basically a plea to prevent friendly fire.

'Don't Shoot us! We were sent by Mursi'



This doesn't just point to the attacks on U.S. Embassies in Egypt and Libya being jointly coordinated; it would seem to point to the President of Egypt, who happens to be of the Muslim Brotherhood, as being involved in both attacks.

Egypt's Mohamed Mursi and John McCain allies together Syria

Senator John McCain (RINO-AZ) used his speech at the Republican convention to give voice to a common refrain of his - that the United States should arm the Syrian rebels against Bashar al-Assad (video at bottom of this post). Almost simultaneously, Muslim Brotherhood leader / President of Egypt Mohamad Mursi was calling for the end of Assad's 'oppressive' regime. Mursi likely nodded and applauded when McCain expressed his views on Syria.

Via Reuters:

Egypt called on Thursday for intervention to halt bloodshed in Syria, telling a meeting of 120 nations it was their duty to stand against the "oppressive regime" of Bashar al-Assad, prompting a Syrian walkout.

President Mohamed Mursi, elected two months ago after a popular uprising toppled Egypt's long-standing leader Hosni Mubarak, said Assad had lost legitimacy in his fight to crush a 17-month-old revolt in which 20,000 people have been killed.

Mursi's scathing speech to a summit of non-aligned leaders, hosted by Assad's Shi'ite ally Iran, prompted Syria's foreign minister to accuse the moderate Sunni Islamist leader of inciting further bloodshed in Syria.

The political broadside against the Syrian president came as rebels said they shot down a fighter plane in northern Syria, where his air force has been bombarding opposition-held towns in a fierce counter-offensive against insurgents.

Has anyone been able to figure out why the likes of McCain are seemingly so passionately sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood's cause in Syria?

Let's back up a bit. Who is Mursi's wife? The answer is Najla Ali Mahmoud; she is one of 63 leaders of the Muslim Sisterhood and serves alongside the mother of a woman McCain vehemently defended on the Senate floor last month when questions were raised by Rep. Michele Bachmann about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. Government. The name of the woman McCain defended while smearing Bachmann is Huma Abedin, Secretary of State Hillary's Clinton's closest advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff.

Saleha Abedin is another one of those 63 leaders and is a close colleague of Mahmoud in that regard. Saleha Abedin is Huma's mother. The effusive and near blind praise McCain heaped upon Saleha's daughter was almost surreal. He admitted to being taken by her charm. Has he also taken up the cause of her mother as a result of that charm?

Here is an excerpt from McCain's floor speech last month, during which he adamantly defended Huma:

“Huma Abedin represents what is best about America,” said McCain. “The daughter of immigrants who has risen to the highest levels of our government on the basis of her substantial personal merit and her abiding commitment to the American ideals that she embodies.”

“I am proud to know her,” McCain continued. “And I am proud – even with some personal presumption – to call her my friend.”

These are precisely the reasons why the details behind Huma Abedin being granted a security clearance must be understood and why charges of 'guilt by association' are unwarranted when denying security clearances because of those associations. Huma hasn't denounced her mother nor the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, she is in a position where she could have a conflict of interest. If she were sympathetic to the Brotherhood's cause (which is the cause of her mother), would she not attempt to influence a U.S. Senator who already thinks highly of her?

By the way, Saleha must have been pleased with this part of the speech too:



Perhaps if Mr. McCain were as taken with a Coptic Christian woman as he apparently is with Huma Abedin, he would care more about real persecution in Egypt (right now under Mursi) instead of wanting to arm vicious Muslim Brotherhood rebels in Syria.



Here is another video that shows Coptic persecution in Egypt: