Radical Middle East Groups
Have A Supporter In Soros
An international “crisis management” group led by billionaire George Soros has long petitioned for the Algerian government to cease “excessive” military activities against al Qaeda-linked groups and to allow organizations seeking to create an Islamic state to participate in the Algerian government.
The organization, the International Crisis Group, also is strongly tied to the Egyptian opposition movement whose protests recently led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Soros’s own Open Society Institute has funded opposition groups across the Middle East and North Africa, including organizations involved in the current chaos.
Following protests that led to the resignations of Mubarak and Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali – both key U.S. allies – Algeria similarly has been engulfed in anti-regime riots.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has ruled the country with a tough hand. And he has been an ally of the U.S. in fighting al Qaeda. Islamist parties serve as Bouteflika’s main opposition.
In a July 2004 ICG report obtained by this column, Soros’s group calls on the Algerian government to curb military action against al Qaeda-affiliated organizations, particularly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, GSPC, which, like the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, aims to establish an Islamic state within Algeria, and an armed Islamic terrorist group known as Houmat Daawa Salafia, or HDS.
Soros’s ICG names the two Islamic groups in its recommendations to the Algerian government.
The ICG has issued at least six other reports recommending transition to a democracy in Algeria that will allow the participation of the Islamic groups seeking to create a Muslim caliphate.
AFL-CIO Indirectly Tied To Algerian Protests
One of the main anti-regime organizations leading protests in Algeria is funded by a quasi-governmental group partly led by an arm of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. union organization.
The AFL-CIO has also been prominently organizing protests against the Wisconsin governor who proposed federal employees pay up to 12 percent of their healthcare and half their pensions – still less than most in the private sector – to try to close a $3.6 billion budget gap.
In Algeria, Islamic groups have joined in the protest coordination, including the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front and its leader, Ali Belhadj.
The protests have also been spearheaded by a group called the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (ALDHR). Scores of ALDHR members have been arrested in recent days while the group’s leaders have been serving as spokespeople for the anti-regime riots.
ALDHR is an Algerian nongovernmental organization that has been leading the drive for electoral reform. It has received near annual grants from the National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-governmental agency. The American Institute for Free Labor Development, an arm of the AFL-CIO, is one of four NED founders.
All But Nine Islamic Terrorists Have
Escaped Egyptian Jails
The vast majority of Islamic terrorists who were being held inside Egypt’s prisons have escaped in recent weeks, this column has learned.
This development raises the prospect of further instability in Egypt, in particular in the region of the Suez Canal, which carries about eight percent of global seaborne trade.
According to Egyptian security officials, out of hundreds of jailed terrorists, only nine Islamic terrorists currently remain in any Egyptian prison.
Those terrorists include two from the Palestinian Islamic jihad; one Hizbullah militant; one member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah; and three members of Jihadiya Salhafiya, which is an Islamic group allied with al Qaeda.
The jailed terrorists include three recaptured Palestinians who had escaped from prison and who were part of a larger cell suspected of planning attacks against tourist sites and economic targets, including the Suez Canal.
Seven more members of the cell, including gunmen from Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, are at large after escaping from prison amid the recent riots in Egypt targeting the regime of Hosni Mubarak, an intelligence official said.
The speed with which the three Palestinians were captured and the priority given to the escaped cell at a time when Egypt’s military was busy quelling weeks of unrest clearly testifies to the magnitude of fear Egypt has of the terrorist cell.
MK Danon: Israel Cannot Rely On America
Israel can no longer rely on the White House and must trust only itself due to a lack of leadership on the part of President Obama, declared a Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.
“We have to understand that if, God forbid, we will be in the case of trouble, we can trust only ourselves because we see a lack of leadership coming from the U.S. today,” said Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon.
“And we should be worried about it, because we always think, well, we have a friend in the White House, we can call them when we are in need, and we see that is not the case,” said Danon, the deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament.
Danon was speaking in an interview on this reporter’s investigative program on New York’s WABC Radio.
The Israeli politician took the occasion to slam Obama’s treatment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
“We don’t see a leadership role of the American president and actually they [the Obama administration] are following what is happening in the Middle East. On the one hand, they support Mubarak; the next day they are against him.”
Danon added, “Frankly speaking, unfortunately we see a lack of leadership coming from Washington. They don’t actually take decisions. They follow, and they look at the news and then they deliver statements to the media.”
Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.
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