In2HiDef
01-13-2010, 07:47 AM
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694
Long a reliably patriotic media source in the war on terror, Fox News may now be among news outlets who have fallen under the spell of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' propaganda machine. "We own the media," CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper privately brags, according to a source currently working inside the aggressive Islamist lobby group.
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly last week invited the TV-savvy Hooper on his show to debate passenger profiling, the second guest appearance by the CAIR spokesman in a month. At the end of the segment, O'Reilly thanked Hooper and called him a "stand-up guy," sending shockwaves through the conservative blogosphere.
CAIR is no ordinary guest. The government has blacklisted it as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, and the group remains under criminal suspicion by the FBI, which has cut off outreach ties to it.
Congress and the IRS also are investigating CAIR, which has had no fewer than 15 executives (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) and board members convicted or implicated in terror probes, including its founding chairman.
In addition, CAIR's very existence as a legitimate corporation has been challenged in a lawsuit in federal court (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121440).
Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore. (http://superstore.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=3219)
Given CAIR's proven ties to terrorism which O'Reilly failed to mention why would Fox offer the group's top executives a virtually uncritical forum on prime-time cable TV? Saudi Arabian money may be a factor.
It turns out that the same billionaire Saudi prince who owns a major stake in Fox's parent company also bankrolls Washington-based CAIR. And sensitive State Department records reveal Hooper despite his repeated public denials has personally solicited cash from the prince and other members of the ruling Saudi royal family during recent trips to the kingdom.
The common financial bond between Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and Fox, and between bin Talal and CAIR, raises questions not only about Fox News's independence, but about the truthfulness of CAIR's top spokesman.
Hooper repeatedly has denied that CAIR receives foreign support, insisting it's a "grass-roots" nonprofit organization. In CAIR press releases, Hooper has stated unequivocally: "We do not support directly or indirectly or receive support from any overseas group or government."
However, smoking-gun video footage obtained during a recent six-month covert investigation of CAIR (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112751) puts the lie to Hooper's claims.
In a private conversation with undercover researcher Chris Gaubatz, who was posing at the time as a CAIR intern, Hooper boasted that he personally can "bring (in) a half million of overseas money" a year, adding: "If some guy's got a lot of extra money in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), I don't mind taking it." Hooper made the remarks Aug. 30, 2008, during the Islamic Society of North America's 2008 annual convention in Columbus, Ohio.
A State Department cable (http://www.wnd.com/files/cable-saudi.pdf) citing Hooper by name, moreover, directly contradicts Hooper's denials about foreign support, according to the blockbuster book "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," (http://superstore.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=3219) which exposes the secret inner workings of CAIR, among other radical Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America. (The book is based, in part, on voluminous documentary and videotaped evidence gathered by Gaubatz during his internship.)
The sensitive but unclassified communiqué was written by U.S. Embassy staff in Saudi Arabia, who in June 2006 reported the following after meeting with a CAIR delegation: "One admitted reason for the group's current visit to the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was to solicit $50 million in governmental and non-governmental contributions."
"(Saudi) King Abdullah knows CAIR very well," the cable added.
Among other things, CAIR said the money would be used to "counter negative stereotypes about Muslims in the U.S." media, a phenomenon described by CAIR as "Islamophobia."
The core delegation, according to the cable, consisted of Hooper, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad and then-CAIR Chairman Parvez Ahmed. Besides Riyadh, the trio also visited Mecca and Jeddah.
Just three months after the trip, Hooper denied soliciting Saudi government funds (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#).
"To my knowledge, we don't take money from the government of Saudi Arabia," he said in a September 2006 appearance on MSNBC's Tucker Carlson show.
At a meeting held that year at the Saudi headquarters of the kingdom-run World Assembly of Muslim Youth whose U.S. branch was formerly run by Osama bin Laden's nephew CAIR announced the launch of a massive PR campaign and warned potential donors that the U.S. was trying to curtail the political activity of Muslims.
Awad, with Hooper at his side, said CAIR needed a well-funded endowment to change American opinion. He proposed spending $10 million annually for five years on the media campaign.
"We are planning to meet Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal for his financial support to our project," Awad told the Arab press. "He has been generous in the past."
Indeed, the Saudi prince donated at least $500,000 to CAIR after 9/11. He also presented a $10 million relief (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) check to then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani or at least he tried. Giuliani rejected the gift (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) after bin Talal blamed America's "pro-Israel" policies in the Middle East for the attacks.
Prince Bin Talal's voting stake
Bin Talal, a member of the Saudi ruling family, owns a 5.5 percent voting stake in Fox News' parent News Corp., run by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. The prince has said he is willing to increase his share in Fox's parent to fend off hostile takeover bids by rivals. Murdoch, in turn, has invested in bin Talal's Saudi-based enterprises.
It is not immediately clear if bin Talal has influenced Fox's decision to book CAIR. But there is strong evidence that bin Talal has directly influenced Fox News content in the past.
As WND reported (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47771), during violent street protests involving Muslim immigrants in France in 2005, the Saudi prince persuaded Murdoch to change a screen banner that identified the unrest as "Muslim riots."
"I picked up the phone (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) and called Murdoch (and told him) these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty," bin Talal said. "Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from 'Muslim riots' to 'civil riots.' "
Fox News has acknowledged it changed the banner after receiving complaints from unnamed Muslims abroad. It has not denied bin Talal's influence in its internal operations.
Bin Talal isn't the only member of the ruling Saudi elite bankrolling CAIR.
Bank wire records published exclusively in "Muslim Mafia" show another Saudi royal family member has pumped six-figure sums into CAIR coffers. In 2007, for example, Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad transferred $112,000 directly into CAIR's bank account at Citibank.
The Saudi bank transfers further undermine the official line peddled by Hooper, who has a reputation for dissembling.
Longtime CAIR critic Andrew Whitehead, for one, calls him "CAIR's liar-for-hire," and argues he cannot be trusted as a media spokesman. CAIR sued Whitehead for defamation and lost.
"The record shows CAIR habitually engages in deception," said terror expert Steven Emerson, executive director of the "Investigative Project on Terrorism" and author of "Jihad Inc."
In 2003, for example, CAIR accused WND of "demonizing Muslims" for citing a Bay Area newspaper's report that CAIR's then-chairman, Omar Ahmad, told a gathering of Muslims that Islam was in America to dominate and that the Quran would one day rule over America. In a phone interview, Hooper insisted to WND that CAIR had sought a retraction (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32341) from the newspaper. But Hooper was forced to backtrack when confronted with the fact that the editors and reporter had just declared they never spoke with CAIR and, furthermore, stood by the story.
Despite CAIR's dubious reputation, Fox has recently given Hooper and other top CAIR leaders an unchallenged platform to persuade the American public to back off passenger profiling and other measures to counter an ominous upswing in terrorism.
Since the Fort Hood terrorist attack by a Muslim Army officer, CAIR's leaders have been invited on Fox at least four times, even though there are several other Muslim groups considered genuinely moderate who could speak for the Muslim community, such as the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
Long a reliably patriotic media source in the war on terror, Fox News may now be among news outlets who have fallen under the spell of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' propaganda machine. "We own the media," CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper privately brags, according to a source currently working inside the aggressive Islamist lobby group.
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly last week invited the TV-savvy Hooper on his show to debate passenger profiling, the second guest appearance by the CAIR spokesman in a month. At the end of the segment, O'Reilly thanked Hooper and called him a "stand-up guy," sending shockwaves through the conservative blogosphere.
CAIR is no ordinary guest. The government has blacklisted it as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, and the group remains under criminal suspicion by the FBI, which has cut off outreach ties to it.
Congress and the IRS also are investigating CAIR, which has had no fewer than 15 executives (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) and board members convicted or implicated in terror probes, including its founding chairman.
In addition, CAIR's very existence as a legitimate corporation has been challenged in a lawsuit in federal court (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121440).
Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore. (http://superstore.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=3219)
Given CAIR's proven ties to terrorism which O'Reilly failed to mention why would Fox offer the group's top executives a virtually uncritical forum on prime-time cable TV? Saudi Arabian money may be a factor.
It turns out that the same billionaire Saudi prince who owns a major stake in Fox's parent company also bankrolls Washington-based CAIR. And sensitive State Department records reveal Hooper despite his repeated public denials has personally solicited cash from the prince and other members of the ruling Saudi royal family during recent trips to the kingdom.
The common financial bond between Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and Fox, and between bin Talal and CAIR, raises questions not only about Fox News's independence, but about the truthfulness of CAIR's top spokesman.
Hooper repeatedly has denied that CAIR receives foreign support, insisting it's a "grass-roots" nonprofit organization. In CAIR press releases, Hooper has stated unequivocally: "We do not support directly or indirectly or receive support from any overseas group or government."
However, smoking-gun video footage obtained during a recent six-month covert investigation of CAIR (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112751) puts the lie to Hooper's claims.
In a private conversation with undercover researcher Chris Gaubatz, who was posing at the time as a CAIR intern, Hooper boasted that he personally can "bring (in) a half million of overseas money" a year, adding: "If some guy's got a lot of extra money in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), I don't mind taking it." Hooper made the remarks Aug. 30, 2008, during the Islamic Society of North America's 2008 annual convention in Columbus, Ohio.
A State Department cable (http://www.wnd.com/files/cable-saudi.pdf) citing Hooper by name, moreover, directly contradicts Hooper's denials about foreign support, according to the blockbuster book "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," (http://superstore.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=3219) which exposes the secret inner workings of CAIR, among other radical Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America. (The book is based, in part, on voluminous documentary and videotaped evidence gathered by Gaubatz during his internship.)
The sensitive but unclassified communiqué was written by U.S. Embassy staff in Saudi Arabia, who in June 2006 reported the following after meeting with a CAIR delegation: "One admitted reason for the group's current visit to the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was to solicit $50 million in governmental and non-governmental contributions."
"(Saudi) King Abdullah knows CAIR very well," the cable added.
Among other things, CAIR said the money would be used to "counter negative stereotypes about Muslims in the U.S." media, a phenomenon described by CAIR as "Islamophobia."
The core delegation, according to the cable, consisted of Hooper, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad and then-CAIR Chairman Parvez Ahmed. Besides Riyadh, the trio also visited Mecca and Jeddah.
Just three months after the trip, Hooper denied soliciting Saudi government funds (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#).
"To my knowledge, we don't take money from the government of Saudi Arabia," he said in a September 2006 appearance on MSNBC's Tucker Carlson show.
At a meeting held that year at the Saudi headquarters of the kingdom-run World Assembly of Muslim Youth whose U.S. branch was formerly run by Osama bin Laden's nephew CAIR announced the launch of a massive PR campaign and warned potential donors that the U.S. was trying to curtail the political activity of Muslims.
Awad, with Hooper at his side, said CAIR needed a well-funded endowment to change American opinion. He proposed spending $10 million annually for five years on the media campaign.
"We are planning to meet Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal for his financial support to our project," Awad told the Arab press. "He has been generous in the past."
Indeed, the Saudi prince donated at least $500,000 to CAIR after 9/11. He also presented a $10 million relief (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) check to then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani or at least he tried. Giuliani rejected the gift (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) after bin Talal blamed America's "pro-Israel" policies in the Middle East for the attacks.
Prince Bin Talal's voting stake
Bin Talal, a member of the Saudi ruling family, owns a 5.5 percent voting stake in Fox News' parent News Corp., run by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. The prince has said he is willing to increase his share in Fox's parent to fend off hostile takeover bids by rivals. Murdoch, in turn, has invested in bin Talal's Saudi-based enterprises.
It is not immediately clear if bin Talal has influenced Fox's decision to book CAIR. But there is strong evidence that bin Talal has directly influenced Fox News content in the past.
As WND reported (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47771), during violent street protests involving Muslim immigrants in France in 2005, the Saudi prince persuaded Murdoch to change a screen banner that identified the unrest as "Muslim riots."
"I picked up the phone (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=121694#) and called Murdoch (and told him) these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty," bin Talal said. "Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from 'Muslim riots' to 'civil riots.' "
Fox News has acknowledged it changed the banner after receiving complaints from unnamed Muslims abroad. It has not denied bin Talal's influence in its internal operations.
Bin Talal isn't the only member of the ruling Saudi elite bankrolling CAIR.
Bank wire records published exclusively in "Muslim Mafia" show another Saudi royal family member has pumped six-figure sums into CAIR coffers. In 2007, for example, Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad transferred $112,000 directly into CAIR's bank account at Citibank.
The Saudi bank transfers further undermine the official line peddled by Hooper, who has a reputation for dissembling.
Longtime CAIR critic Andrew Whitehead, for one, calls him "CAIR's liar-for-hire," and argues he cannot be trusted as a media spokesman. CAIR sued Whitehead for defamation and lost.
"The record shows CAIR habitually engages in deception," said terror expert Steven Emerson, executive director of the "Investigative Project on Terrorism" and author of "Jihad Inc."
In 2003, for example, CAIR accused WND of "demonizing Muslims" for citing a Bay Area newspaper's report that CAIR's then-chairman, Omar Ahmad, told a gathering of Muslims that Islam was in America to dominate and that the Quran would one day rule over America. In a phone interview, Hooper insisted to WND that CAIR had sought a retraction (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32341) from the newspaper. But Hooper was forced to backtrack when confronted with the fact that the editors and reporter had just declared they never spoke with CAIR and, furthermore, stood by the story.
Despite CAIR's dubious reputation, Fox has recently given Hooper and other top CAIR leaders an unchallenged platform to persuade the American public to back off passenger profiling and other measures to counter an ominous upswing in terrorism.
Since the Fort Hood terrorist attack by a Muslim Army officer, CAIR's leaders have been invited on Fox at least four times, even though there are several other Muslim groups considered genuinely moderate who could speak for the Muslim community, such as the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.