Pulling Imran Khan off a plane in Canada, and making him miss his Eid fundraising lunch in New York, is pretty crass of the United States, a country that claims its foreign policy is motivated by freedom. The idea that low level US immigration operatives needed clarificiation on Khan’s well-known views on killings by US drones in Pakistan is plainly nonsense. But this wasn’t routine or an error; Khan wasn’t questioned at a desk on arrival in New York, he was pulled off a plane by US operatives in Canada. It was an exercise in humiliation.
But if you look under this event you find some interesting, creepy crawly creatures.
From the Toronto Sun report linked above:
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition from Phoenix, Ariz. wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week, pressuring her to revoke the U.S. visa granted to Khan because of his sympathetic views towards the Taliban.
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition followed this up with a press release with the notably un-Islamic contact name of Gregg Edgar of Gordon C James Public Relations.
From Wikipedia on Gordon C James:
James grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Iowa in 1969 where he served several years in the Iowa National Guard. James worked in the real-estate management business in Des Moines, renting space to presidential candidates in town for the caucuses. In 1978, he met and rented space to former President of the United States George H. W. Bush (then Ambassador Bush).[1]
After the 1988 election James worked as Lead Advance Representative at the White House for two years under President George H.W. Bush and Director of Invitations and Ticketing for the 51st Presidential Inaugural Committee.[2] James was also employed as deputy director of events for the 54th and 55th Presidential Inauguration.[3] In 1990 he founded the public relations firm Gordon C. James Public Relations.
In 2004, James was employed by former U.S. Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to improve U.S. public relations in Iraq during the transition of governments.[4] For more than five months he served as the Director of Advance and Special Events in the Office of Strategic Communications and Director of the Presidential Palace Studio for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. While there he advised Ambassador Paul Bremer and was responsible for coordinating the Ambassador’s relations with Western and Pan-Arab media outlets and produced several events including the signing of the Tal (Iraq’s Declaration of Independence) and 100 Days to Sovereignty, the countdown to the transfer of power from the CPA to newly founded Iraqi government.[5]
In 2004 James assisted in several political stops with the Bush-Cheney campaign and in 2005, he was employed as lead advance representative for President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton’s tour of the Tsunami-hit regions of Indonesia.[6]
James has traveled to five continents as a lead advance representative for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
There are some Muslims in the American Islamic Leadership Coalition. In Phoenix with Gordon C James is M Zuhdi Jasser, of Syrian origin but for eleven years a medical officer in the US Navy. And the AILC has another interesting Syrian, leader of “The Reform Party of Syria”, Farid Ghadry. The AILC website includes the quote:
“Gossip is he is the next president of Syria”
Ghadry lives in Washington and is the author of such fascinating blog posts as “Israel Builds for Nobel Prizes, Arabs are Suicide Bombers”.
Like the Quilliam Foundation in the UK, doubtless the AILC has hoovered up plenty of public funds for its useful work for the security services. BUt the idea that it genuinely represents a strand in Islamic thinking is ludicrous. It is marvellous what being an establishment shill can do for your media profile though. Zuhdi Jasser addressed his largest mass rally of supporters – highly optimistically estimated by the media as three dozen – in a New York rally in support of NYPD’s controversial surveillance and agent provocateur operations against Muslims. Rather than laughing at it, the tame mainstream media covered it infinitely better than they cover anti-war rallies 1,000 times larger, and portrayed it as a genuine sign of Muslim community support for the surveillance.
Just as none of the mainstream media reporting the current Imran Khan story – most of whon quote the AILC – say anything about who the AILC really are. What do people working in the mainstream media think the purpose of their existence actually is?
Good piece of detective work Craig Murray. You can see who’s behind all this shit in the world. It backs up into the Bush sewerage system.
I was proud of Imran Khan in ignoring Western-generated false news about his life being in danger when he visited West Pakistan border regions in protest at the use of drones in the region by office-bound joystick manipulators in the west. If it was in danger it was in danger from the West. Imran Khan is a good man, a man with a conscience. A good cricketer too in his day.
I tried to post this three times and keep getting “Unable to establish a database connection error” message.
It’s nearly Halloween and this proves that the living dead can return to haunt us. He says he intends to return to the Lords. He is apparently called Lord Bannside!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20110775
Suhayl Could you explain what is special about the Pentagon metro station. I am intrigued. Is it a vast space that diminishes the human being or some other sort of statement?
(Hi all. If anyone got an error in the last five mins, nothing to worry about. Just trying new anti-spam stuff).
Jon; Just a point of Order; On the previous thread, the first Chinese spammer had a time-stamp of around midnight your time. Were you on at that time? Just curious.
Karel said
‘Nowdays, anyone who ostensibly calls himself “marxist” is most probably a zionist or a zionist stooge.’
would you include young Malala in this?
http://shujarabbani.wordpress.com/tag/malala-yousafzai-malala-yousufzai-pakistan-pakistani-afghanistan-taliban-imran-khan-balochinstan-uk-england-london/
Further, although he might not want to speak up about it Is this not the far greater fright to Tarek, just as the fears of the Taliban were expressed in this attempted murder, that communism once again is popular enough and could get a foothold in Afghanistan.
Ben, de nada
Just curious but what does ‘The racism of lower expectations you practise comes to millionaires mimicking misery who play revolutions on video games, not real life’ mean? Is it infering that to critically analyse is an action of covert racism? It’s a great line but it’s bally incoherent.
Q. What do people working in the mainstream media think the purpose of their existence actually is?
A. To serve the status quo.
Schadenfreude!
New blow for billionaire Nat Rothschild after his boat builder ‘fails to deliver £35million superyacht’
Banking scion in legal battle with makers of his 240ft superyacht
One of four millionaires in dispute with manufacturer Peter Landers
Extraordinary sequence of events leads to police raid off Gibraltar
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224325/Nat-Rothschild-group-billionaires-left-sinking-feeling-yacht-builder-fails-deliver-orders.html#ixzz2AcimYsvF
An end to the spambots now with Jon’s inclusion of Captcha. Thank you.
testing
“You are welcome to embrace homophobe, misogynist creationists of Islamdom, but then own up to that creed.”
Tarek Fatah is a degenerate self-hating whoore worth a couple of sheckles, give him a couple of glasses of zionist man-milk and he is ready to go.
Nevermind, there are many of us who are called marxist or claim to be marxists. I used to be one of those accused of being one but never quite understood what the accusers meant. The problem is that it is rather difficult to explain what this label actually means. It seems that this Malala, as sorry as I am about her and other injured children in pakistan, totally dominates the discourse on unrelated matters. You can just as well bring in the holocaust or 9 fucking 11. I just do not know what so and so said and whether so and so is a taliban or a marxist. I am not convinced that there is a grain of truth in the sources you are quoting and doubt very much that the so called taliban (soon we will all fall into that category) cares about who is a marxist and who is not and actually knows what it implies. If someone writes that “taliban said” than you can just laugh about it. Communism in Afghanistan? a sick joke. If you are convinced or stand behind that what you write then we can have a bet. Clark has my E-mail. Just write to me with your proposals but do not forget to define what you mean by communism.
Suhay Saadi you are right that it is not so in South America. Neither Chavez nor Castro are zionists. But what about Canada, USA or Europe?? I have been neither to Pentagon nor to its station. Should I go there? Would I be well received?
What makes me think this is a red herring, muddying the water.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9638566/Claims-emerge-Alps-murder-victim-may-have-had-access-to-part-of-Saddam-Husseins-fortune.html
Very valuable observations. Thanks, Craig. Closely following the events in Pakistan, the coming four years are set to be very interesting…
Mary, Karel, ha! Thanks. Re. the Pentagon Metro station, no, there’s nothing special about it at all, apart from the fact that there are lots of people in uniform getting on and off the trains. That’s the point, I suppose, it’s ‘nothing special’, it’s neither the Colosseum or the statue of Sargon, it’s just business as usual, with clipboards and briefcases, and yet – and so – right there, above the station, is the pulsing heart of empire. It’s the thought, you know?
BTW, Tarek’s opinin, however expressed, of Imran’s fascism is not totally baseless… For whatever I’ve heard, it looks like another dictator in the making.
(Not that the current rulers of Pakistan are anything better.)
Jon,
what is your and Craig’s position on the issues of silencing true posters, due to privacy or acessability issues?
I’d appreciate this matter be taken seriously with weeks (not days) of prior notice (not buried in some thread) and opportunity for discussion before the door slams shut, as I raised in an earlier post about Captchas and registration.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/10/drone-murder/#comment-374921
If this math quiz requires javascript, that may already shut out some.
In AILC’s very first press release they say:
“AILC was created by American Muslim leaders after being brought together with the help of members of the Congressional anti-terror caucus. The coalition held its first formal meeting in Washington, DC on Capitol Hill on September 26, 2010.”
As the “Congressional anti-terror caucus” supports US drone attacks, it really is no surprise that the organisation they “brought together” should stand against a prominent opponent of drone attacks.
http://americanislamicleadership.org/link1
The press release goes on to say:
“AILC supports the efforts of Congressman Peter King [Republican – New York] as a catalyst for a Muslim-led open dialogue on the growing problem of radicalization within Muslim communities.”
Peter T. King R-NY is Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, and a member of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, so I suspect is central to the “Congressional anti-terror caucus” that “brought together” AILC. This caucus very likely influenced AILC to choose the Republican PR firm Gordon C James Public Relations to represent AILC.
@Phil
Monbiot is having a (rather weak) dig at Medialens. He says the guardian is full of anti-corporate stuff and media lens are testy.
http://www.monbiot.com/2012/10/28/the-art-of-dissuasion/
I think he meant “tasty” ;O)
(Hi Ben, I think I wasn’t around at the time, and zapped the spam later. Tbh I do so much thread reviewing it’s hard to remember when I did what!
Mary, you’re most welcome. Let me know if there’s any problems. Hopefully it should mean that all real contributions are published immediately.
Snap, post that on an older thread please, so we keep this thread on-topic; I’ll get back to you when I can. Also, try to remember I’m a volunteer.)
Romney Rep. Peter King: Presidential Kill List “Totally Constitutional”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6GQr8m5cOY&feature=player_embedded
Obama Supporters Actually Hate Obama’s Policies
***ATTENTION: This video is NOT in support of Mitt Romney, in any way, nor is this organization***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Skw-0jv9kts
as for the MSM, if ever proof was needed that they exist only to uphold the left/right paradigm, this would be it. just think how BBC/Guardian led the ferocious attack on murdoch media over the phone hacking scandal, and yet we now have:
BBC: Jimmy Savile and the BBC: Who’s who
Nick Pollard
Former head of Sky News Nick Pollard has been asked by the BBC to
investigate why the Newsnight investigation was dropped last year. He will look at whether there were any management failings by the BBC. He will also look at the handling by the Newsnight investigation of material that might have been of interest to the police or relevant authorities
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20028188
Mr Entwistle told MPs he was bringing in Dinah Rose QC – who represented News International in phone hacking cases – to look at how the BBC handles sexual harassment cases.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2222203/Jimmy-Savile-sexual-abuse-scandal-NINE-BBC-employees-frame.html
and the most extraordinary thing is not the Guardian, nor any other MSM, has found these BBC appointments IRONIC! LOL.
Jon;
Don’t know if I should get out my arithmetic flash-cards again, or what.
Captcha keeps giving me error messages.
(Ben, thanks – however you managed that one! If you can record error messages, the captchas you were presented with and the answers you gave – and post on an older thread – I’ll look into it/them. Early days yet, I may have to do some tweaking 🙂 )
Glenn Greenwald on the matter. Plus 488 comments!
US detention of Imran Khan part of trend to harass anti-drone advocates
The vindictive humiliation of Pakistan’s most popular politician shows the US government’s intolerance for dissent
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 October 2012 14.06 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/28/detention-imran-khan-drones
” Plus 488 comments!”
Rather evenly divided on his bona fides…
Jon; Just had another thread-fart. It seems futile to continue to enter the equations.
When I ‘reloaded’ or refreshed, the problema disappeared. I think the problem occurs when you fail to enter the captcha at first post, which I do, frequently.
Tarek Fatah a marxist? That is new. In Toronto he usually claims that he is a Muslim and appears on all kinds on conservatives shows and talks there as a Muslim.
Now about his Marxism. He was in a left of center Student Association in the late 60s when he was barely adult. It was not a marxist group by any means. He was arrested during a public demonstration, spent sometime in jail and after the release, got a job with Pakistan TV during the PPP Government under Zulfiqar Bhutto. He was dismissed from PTV and then landed in Saudi Arabia wehre he used to offer prayers five times a day. He never mentioned his Marism in Saudia.
You know what they do with people who call themselves Marxist in Saudi Arabia?
He landed in Toronto sometime in the late 90s and now he writes columns for conservative newspaper, appears in shows as a Muslim-not Marxist- analyst, showed up in a Jewish meeting with Daniel Pipes and walked out of the meeting as some speaker hurt his Muslim feelings.
He works with Daniel Pipes, a conservative Islamophobe.
Most of this info is gleaned from Tarek Fatah’s own writings and his couple of pages on Facebook.
just testing