border=0> Support pin for slain Coptic family quotes Matthew 10:28 (photo ? Carrie Devorah)

WASHINGTON – Relatives of a brutally slain New Jersey Christian family spoke out yesterday for the first time at a National Press Club news conference.

The bodies of the Coptic-American family, including father Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife Amal Garas, 37, and daughters Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, were found bound and gagged with their throats slashed in their New Jersey home on Jan. 14. Hudson County prosecutors are said to be exploring several possible motives for the slayings, including retaliation by terrorists against Hossam Armanious, described as an outspoken advocate for Coptic Christian religious freedom in Egypt and a well-known leader of an online ministry to the Muslim-American community.

Yesterday’s news conference included a statement by U.S. Copts Association President Michael Meunier.

“We feel it is extremely important that the public hear the Armanious family members’ side of the story and we are pleased to help them express their point of view on this disturbing crime,” Meunier said.

Family members were cautious in their speech and unwilling to ascribe any outright motive for the slaying. When questioned by the press, Meunier did say the manner of the slayings was consistent with passages in the Quran that describe how to kill an infidel. The family stressed it is waiting for the investigation to play out. Regarding the possibility the slaying was a jihadist act, family uncle Emile Garas told WND afterward, “We’re not ruling anything out.”

The Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick, Washington representative of Christian Solidarity International and secretary general of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, offered a statement relating to concerns over the manner in which the crime is being investigated.

“The investigation is not complete; no suspects have been identified,” said Roderick, “and the district attorney’s office of Hudson County is pursuing a number of theories related to the motive and nature of the crime. Public statements by that office indicate that theories related to robbery have been given precedence over a possible hate crime as a motive. By stressing that there are no facts substantiating a religious motivation to this crime, the confidence of the family has been eroded that the local investigation will lead to a resolution.”

Roderick said that a “great deal in the media” has been made of the potential conflict within the Christian and Muslim communities if the investigation leads to a religious motive. Indeed, an Associated Press story, “Slaying spurs new wave of anti-Muslim bias” detailed community tensions and quoted Ahmed Shedeed, director of the Islamic Center of Jersey City as saying, “We Muslims living in America are getting sick of this crap. Why should we have to apologize for or make a defense of something we had nothing to do with? There is no proof at all that Muslims had anything to do with this, yet we are taking the blame again. Is Islam on trial, or is a killer on trial?”

“The central issue here,” Roderick said in his statement, “should not be about communal disputes, but the fact that the perpetrators of this vicious crime are still at large. To avoid pursuit of what may be the most obvious motive of the murder for fear of maligning one part of the Jersey City community or creating a backlash against that community is irresponsible.” The reverend indicated he hopes the investigation will confront the case “honestly without the fear of sectarian concerns.” Leaders of the communities and social workers are the people most qualified to address those concerns, not law enforcement, he said.

Roderick joined with his colleagues in urging the Justice Department to take a greater lead in the investigation and give special attention to the civil-rights dimension of the case.

“From the perspective of ethnic and religious minorities who have fled religious persecution in their native countries, this case is unnerving,” he said. “Many non-Muslim immigrants have told me that they believed that when they fled to the United States from these pressures, they would be safe. This case had made them feel vulnerable.”

The American Jewish Committee is also offering their support to the family, with New Jersey Area Director Allyson M. Gall sending a letter to Edward J. De Fabio, Hudson County prosecutor.

That letter read, in part, “While we are well aware that charges have not yet been brought, and that the full circumstances of this horrific murder are not yet known, we also know that there are valid reasons to consider that this may have been a hate crime, or even an act of terror. We cannot stress enough that the current heightened sense of fear in the Coptic community must be squarely addressed.”

Gall said that should the slaying turn out to be a hate crime or act of terror, her organization stands willing to give any appropriate assistance to the Coptic and Muslim community, including but not limited to helping organize other ethnic and religious groups to stand together and speak out against the intimidation inherent in such a crime.

Copies of Gall’s letter were also sent to Rep. Robert Menendez, Gov. Richard Codey, Jersey City Chief of Police Ronald Buonocore, Mayor of Jersey City Jerramiah T. Healey, Dr. Monir A. Dawoud and Attorney General Peter C. Harvey.

When asked by reporters whether any Muslim organizations had offered support, the family indicated they had received support only from Christian and Jewish organizations.

Family members addressed media rumors that robbery was a motive: “The Armaniouses were not rich. Hossam and his wife, Amal, lived modestly with their two young girls in Jersey City. Despite speculation regarding a possibly robbery, the facts before us today appear to contradict such a supposition. The jewelry in the home, including Amal’s ring, worth approximately $3,500, was left intact. As far as knowledge of our own family, the family did not keep large amounts of cash in their home so as to invite such a crime.”

They added, “If the primary motive was robbery, why would they have killed each person in such a cruel and vindictive manner? Robbery is certainly not a motive in this case.”

The family also dismissed another theory that has been circulated, that of an “old country vendetta” – an attempt to link an old Egyptian practice with the killings of the family. The family offered two reasons such a theory lacks credibility: “First, such vendettas, while common practice decades ago in Egypt, are no longer tolerated or practiced in modern society. Just as rivals in the West no longer engage in duels, so too has the notion of an old country vendetta or “tar” been eradicated from modern-day Egyptian society. Secondly, if such a theory were to be considered, the logical victims of such an attack would be family members in Egypt, and not here in the United States.”

The family said other misinformation published in recent reports includes a reference to Hossam Armanious’ alleged visit to Egypt last year as a factor in the slayings: “Hossam’s last visit to Egypt occurred in the summer of 2002 and played no role in the brutal murder of his family this year.”

Family member Garas told WND that the New York Post had asked him if the family had fled persecution. “Not true,” Garas told the Post reporter, who he said then published the theory anyway. The family is encouraging media to contact them directly with their questions. “We want the media to get their information right,” said Garas.

Family members also said they had no knowledge of any Internet threats against the family and had learned about the possibility after reading about it in the press.

Relatives praised the slain family, saying, “They were hardworking immigrants, devoted to their children, their church and their faith. Indeed, Hossam was a deeply religious man whose activities included engaging in religious dialogue via the Internet, on chat-rooms such as Paltalk, where Hossam practiced his newfound freedom of speech.”

“As we grieve the loss of our loved ones,” the family said, “we continue to demand and pray that justice be served. We respectfully request that such justice be rendered swiftly. As long as the murderers roam free, our streets are unsafe, and so we implore any person with information regarding the details of these brutal crimes to contact the appropriate authorities.”

Members of the Garas family present at the press conference included Ayman, Ferail, Elad Fahmy, Wanas, Alphonse, Milad, Gameel and Emile.

Related stories:

Source: Slayings resembled Islamist executions

Christians stalked on Islamic website

WASHINGTON – Today, the Associated Press reports that filmmaker George Butler is suing Sinclair Broadcast Group over an alleged plan by the company to include footage of his film in the big POW piece running tonight.

Butler wanted to stop Sinclair from using his pictures and film, the pro-Kerry “Going Upriver.” This after Butler’s executive producers Vincent Roberti and Bill Samuels joined in Deborah Rappaport’s phone press conference Tuesday to make a big noise about how Sinclair should show their film along with “Stolen Honor” – to be fair and balanced – and offering over $1 million to Sinclair to air the documentary. “I’m really comfortable with this offer,” Roberti said Tuesday, “I think it’s a great alternative.”

The Associated Press makes no mention of the previous Rappaport offer, even though AP reporter Alex Dominguez was in the phone press conference and reported the offer before. The AP story is running on Newsday, Fosters Online ABC News (WJLA ), News 24 South Africa, and on the Dow Jones newswires. A Reuters story also makes no mention of the previous offer.

Butler said the airing of clips would violate his copyrights. AP doesn’t tell you that at Tuesday’s press conference, Deborah Rappaport said she and husband Andrew had purchased the airing rights so that the film could be aired on Sinclair, offered to cover all the costs associated with airing the film, in addition to giving Sinclair $ 1million on top of that, to get the film on the air.

If the true intent here really was to get “Going Upriver” (or parts of it) on the Sinclair airwaves, surely working out copyright details is a minor matter. It’s interesting to recall Samuels’ comments at the million-dollar offer press conference. The “best outcome,” Samuels said, would be for Sinclair to “back off” and not show “Stolen Honor” … or his own film.

It was MoveOn.org that originally started pushing for Sinclair to air “Going Upriver.” That theme ran through all the other Democratic-led attacks on Sinclair over the last two weeks. The Rappaports pushed for it, the film’s executive producers pushed for it, the Veteran’s Institute pushed for it Wednesday at the National Press Club.

AP describes Butler as a “longtime chronicler” of Kerry, but omits a more nuanced identification of him as a 40-year friend of Kerry’s who worked on the senator’s first campaign.

AP notes that Butler has taken thousands of pictures of Kerry since 1969 and that the film includes many of Kerry’s Vietnam War comrades praising his leadership and valor.

In contrast, “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal” is described as an “anti-Kerry documentary.”

“That film consists mostly of interviews with U.S. prisoners of war who survived imprisonment and torture in Hanoi, and emerged enraged at Kerry for helping lead the anti-war movement after he completed his Vietnam service.” AP reports.

This typical characterization of the POW testimony goes light on Kerry, implying the POWs are hawks who despise “those peaceniks” like Kerry. As in other press accounts, the specter of Kerry giving public testimony that characterized the U.S. military in sweeping terms as predominantly evil, at a time when POWs were still being held and under threat of death and torture, seems not to register as controversial with reporters. No distinction is made in the full spectrum between believing the war was a mistake, working to end it, and the graphic and over-the-top public pronouncements of Kerry. No reporter seems to have seen fit to ask if Kerry’s motivations were sincere. Why did his actions all have to be in the public limelight? If Kerry was sincere, why didn’t he express his graphic concerns privately with government officials and work through channels that represented no psychological or physical threat to present POWs?

Diana West of the Washington Times asks today, why won’t any reporter ask Kerry exactly what kind of war crimes he’s guilty of? (He confessed publicly that he had committed war crimes, at a time when it was more popular than now to say such things.)

And to top off today’s story of the filmmaker lawsuit, comes word from defense lawyers at Sinclair that “A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media” will not contain any of the copyrighted works.

Perhaps Butler had hoped to throw a last-minute wrench into their production/editing process.

Related stories:

Sinclair: Kerry’s attacks waged amid private talks

Sinclair execs accused of insider trading

Sinclair won’t run all of ‘Stolen Honor’

Over $1 million offered to get Kerry film on air

Kerry wants ‘equal time’ to counter ‘Stolen Honor’

FCC won’t block anti-Kerry film

Pro-Kerry film wants equal time

‘Stolen Honor’ producer predicts Kerry apology

FCC official blasts plan to air anti-Kerry film

David Brock protests airing of anti-Kerry film

Pulitzer winner behind Kerry POW film

Next up: POWs blast Kerry in TV documentary

WASHINGTON- Adding fuel to the fire of controversy over Sinclair Broadcast Group’s decision to air a documentary critical of presidential candidate John Kerry, powerhouse attorney and Democratic party donor William S. Lerach sent a letter today to the news company calling the broadcast plan “reckless,” alleging insider trading by officers and threatening a shareholder lawsuit.

Citing Sinclair’s “dismal performance” over the past year, Lerach noted that the stock lost 50 percent of its value and substantially under-performed the Nasdaq and Broadcasting and Cable TV indexes.

Since Lerach publicized his letter, Sinclair issued a statement saying it will not run the anti-Kerry document in its entirety.

The letter of demand, obtained by WND, stated, “In light of the collapse of Sinclair’s stock price and the apparent insider trading of senior executives and board members, we are also dismayed at the company’s seemingly politically motivated determination to air a program that from all reports is a politically partisan criticism of one of the candidates for president.”

The letter warned of additional stock decline and additional damage to the company’s reputation and success.

“Our clients are more interested in the success of the company than they are in the political views of Sinclair’s executives or Board of Directors,” Lerach wrote, “and we are extremely concerned at the firestorm Sinclair has ignited – especially the boycott of Sinclair’s advertisers as indicated at www.boycotsbg.com and www.stopsinclair.org.”

Lerach called a press conference today and public relations firm Fenton Communications provided a graph showing sales of over 1.3 million shares at a value of over $18.6 million by the three Smith brothers, who are contributors to the Republican Party. The shares were sold between Dec. 23, 2003, and April 7. Lerach wrote that most of the sales took place near the stock’s 52-week high of almost $15.50 per share. The letter also stated that for Sinclair Director Robert E. Smith and Vice President J. Duncan Smith the sales respresented almost 100 percent of their Sinclair holdings. Vice President Frederick Smith’s sales were stated as 15 percent of his total holdings.

When asked what inside knowledge the officers allegedly were trading on, Bill Hamilton of Fenton Communications said, “I don’t think the lawyers would be willing to speculate publicly at this point, but if/when the case gets to depositions it is a point they likely would press.”

On behalf of Sinclair shareholders, Lerach is demanding that the company commence legal proceedings against the Smiths for breaches of fiduciary duties, including allegedly causing the company to issue false statements, and for engaging in insider selling, “exposing the company and its shareholders to tens of millions of dollars in potential liability.”

Lerach also referenced the move by Wachovia and Bear Stearns to downgrade the stock and the share price.

“Surely, this is not in the shareholders’ best interests, and this reckless use of company assets – air time – should be abandoned to prevent further harm to Sinclair’s reputation and its advertisers,” Lerach wrote.

Calling the move to air “Stolen Honor” “reckless,” Lerach warned that the decision should be abandoned to prevent further harm to Sinclair’s reputation and its advertisers.

“The expense and impact of this scandal will surely be the topic of many questions from analysts on the Nov. 4th call and we are extremely concerned that it will lead to additional downward pressure on Sinclair’s stock price, as well as additional damage to the company’s reputation and success,” Lerach wrote.

When asked how many shareholders were preparing to sue, Hamilton replied, “[T]he demand letter needs only a single shareholder or group of shareholders,” adding, “The named client is 1199 SEIU Greater New York Pension Fund, which is supported by the 150,000 hospital and health-care employees who belong to the union, plus thousands of retirees. … Lerach said they had other clients – public pension funds and private Taft-Hartley retirement systems – that hold millions of shares of Sinclair shares who are not, at this point, ready to be pubic about their involvement. As you may know, the demand letter is a precursor to a probable shareholder derivative lawsuit which would have to be brought, if and when it happens, on behalf of specific shareholder groups.”

New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi also sent a letter expressing concern to Sinclair Broadcast Group on behalf of the state’s pension fund. The AP quoted Hevesi’s letter: “Given the stock’s already poor performance, it would seem that any bad news would risk reducing investor interest and, thus, risk a lower stock price.” Hevesi’s letter was sent on behalf of the state’s $115 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, which holds 256,600 shares of the company.

“Some critics suggest that Sinclair management is more interested in advancing its partisan political views than in protecting shareholder value,” Hevesi wrote, “They say Sinclair’s partisan agenda also risks alienating viewers, advertisers and regulators.”

“By appearing to tie the future prospects of the company so closely to the outcome of a national election, are you adding political risk to the normal economic and business risks that face your company?” Hevesi asked.

In February Hevesi, a Democrat, voiced support for Kerry’s presidential campaign, saying, “John Kerry is an incredibly smart, tough, caring and courageous American. Because of his experience, judgment and his ability to work under fire, Kerry will make a great president. Most important, he is the Democrat best able to defeat George Bush, and it is imperative we retire Bush in order to save our economy.”

Kerry acknowledged Hevesi’s support, saying, “I am grateful and energized to have the support of Sheldon Silver, Alan Hevisi and Betsy Gotbaum. They all are respected and accomplished figures in New York, always working for the best interest of working families.

“New Yorkers are fortunate to have strong leaders committed to improving our schools and growing the state’s economy. I am honored to have them by my side in this campaign.”

Lerach was named in Mother Jones magazines’ MoJo Top 400 of 1996, as the No. 2 top political contributor to Democratic causes.

Reporter W. John Moore noted that four days after President Clinton and Lerach schmoozed at a private White House dinner on Dec. 15, 1996, the president vetoed the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The bill, which was designed to make it more difficult for shareholders to sue their own companies for securities fraud, enjoyed wide bipartisan support, Moore noted, but Clinton startled his party with a last-minute veto. (In late December, Congress overrode the veto.)

Lerach’s law firm, Milberg Weiss, is the acknowledged leader in shareholder class-action litigation and secures annual settlements estimated at $225 million from such suits.

Lerach is one of “the most loathed men in Silicon Valley,” Moore wrote, “where vacillating stock prices open the door for shareholders to sue companies if executives make incorrect predictions of corporate success. Milberg Weiss has filed such suits agains the likes of Apple, Silicon Graphics, and Intel (five times in 1994 alone).”

Author of “Why Insiders Get Rich and the Little Guy Loses,” Lerach has been chief counsel in many of the largest and highest profile securities class-action and corporate derivative suits in recent years, including Enron, Dynegy, Qwest and WorldCom.

He was honored by Clinton with an appointment to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

At the end of Lerach’s press conference, Fenton Communications went immediately into Deborah and Andrew Rappaport’s press conference detailing their “outrage” and offer to Sinclair of over a million dollars to air “Going Upriver,” a pro-Kerry film that has been described by the Associated Press and Scripps Howard News Service as a partisan campaign ad for Kerry.

Related stories:

Sinclair won’t run all of ‘Stolen Honor’

Over $1 million offered to get Kerry film on air

Kerry wants ‘equal time’ to counter ‘Stolen Honor’

FCC won’t block anti-Kerry film

Pro-Kerry film wants equal time

‘Stolen Honor’ producer predicts Kerry apology

FCC official blasts plan to air anti-Kerry film

David Brock protests airing of anti-Kerry film

Pulitzer winner behind Kerry POW film

Next up: POWs blast Kerry in TV documentary

WASHINGTON – Saying they are “deeply outraged” over Sinclair Broadcast Group’s decision to air “Stolen Honor,” a film highly critical of John Kerry, a California couple have offered the company over $1 million to run George Butler’s film, “Going Upriver, the Long War of John Kerry.”

The couple, Deborah and Andrew Rappaport, made the offer in a letter delivered to Sinclair this afternoon.

It’s the latest volley in the burgeoning controversy over Sinclair’s plan to air “Stolen Honor.” The company owns 62 television stations that cover about 24 percent of U.S. households.

As WorldNetDaily first reported, “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal” presents former POWs who tell how Kerry’s 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was used as propaganda against them by their North Vietnamese captors, intensifying their persecution and possibly prolonging imprisonment.

The Rappaports purchased the rights to the film version of “Going Upriver” and paid the cost of editing it to 42 minutes – a move designed to offer a film of the exact same length as “Stolen Honor.”

Andrew Rappaport, a venture capitalist, and his wife, Deborah, a philanthropist, made the offer to buy an hour of broadcast time. In addition, they have offered Sinclair $1 million on top of the advertising revenue Sinclair would lose for showing the program without commercials, and any fines or penalties that might be accrued for pre-empting the scheduled broadcast.

The couple have requested Sinclair respond within 24 hours to allow for adequate time to carry out the offer. They are also waiting for Sinclair to tell them what the cost of an hour of pre-empted time would be.

The letter requests an equal audience reach and equal promotion as that given to “Stolen Honor.”

When asked in a press conference today whether purchasing the broadcast time would be considered illegal or an “in-kind” contribution to the Kerry campaign, Rappaport said no.

Deborah Rappaport was questioned several times by reporters as to whether or not she had been contacted by the Democratic Party or had notified party officials of the business offer to Sinclair.

“We don’t talk to them, and they don’t talk to us,” she responded.

Introduced to reporters as a donator to “progressive causes,” the Rappaports have given at least $2.66 million to Democratic causes, including $1.1 million to the New Democratic Network.

Vincent Roberti, one of the executive producers of “Going Upriver,” challenged other “TV executives” to come forward to show film, without “forcing private citizens to shell out money for this to happen.” When asked if there were any plans to show the film on another network, he replied, “Not yet.”

Roberti said the best outcome would be that “Stolen Honor” would not be shown.

Deborah Rappaport said “Stolen Honor” was “widely seen as overtly partisan, and it cannot be allowed to go unanswered.” She noted, “We can’t stop them from airing it,” but added the couple’s offer “should be appealing.”

“We’re providing the means to balance the coverage. This is a critically acclaimed film, that directly addresses ‘Stolen Honor.’”

“We’re not alone in our outrage,” Rappaport said, “There are advertisers, consumers and critics who are also outraged.”

She said her first reaction to Sinclair’s plan to air “Stolen Honor” was,”How dare Sinclair,” but then said she knew she needed to “turn outrage to action.”

“In the last 24 hours, ‘Stolen Honor’ has been denounced as biased political propaganda, and sadly Sinclair fired their Washington bureau chief over his protest.

“I hope they realize the error of their ways,” Rappaport said, “And that we hear from them in the next 24 hours so we can go forward in a timely fashion.”

Filmmaker George Butler has been described as a “confidant” of John Kerry and boasts of a 40-year friendship with the presidential candidate. In 1969, the friendship also included a political partnership when Butler agreed to handle the media for Kerry’s first campaign (for the Third Congressional District in Massachusetts). Because they were so short on staff, Butler not only managed the campaign’s media, he also took its publicity photos. He co-edited (with Kerry and David Thorne) “The New Soldier,” a book about the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Related stories:

Kerry wants ‘equal time’ to counter ‘Stolen Honor’

FCC won’t block anti-Kerry film

Pro-Kerry film wants equal time

‘Stolen Honor’ producer predicts Kerry apology

FCC chief blasts plan to air anti-Kerry film

David Brock protests airing of anti-Kerry film

Pulitzer winner behind Kerry POW film

Next up: POWs blast Kerry in TV documentary

As headlines read “Triumph of the bloggers” and Reuters posits that American journalism may never be the same, a media watchdog and conservative web group are leading protests today outside CBS’ Washington headquarters.

The event led by Accuracy in Media and Free Republic comes the day after anchor Dan Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heyward issued statements saying they no longer will defend the authenticity of documents used in a Sept. 8 “60 Minutes II” report that raised questions about President Bush’s National Guard service.

Free Republic began as a staunchly conservative web community but has been drawing a broader base of “Freepers,” including libertarians, gays, practicing pagans and others attracted to its interactive forums of “netizens” often well-versed in history and equipped with dry humor.

The groups say the purpose of the protest, scheduled for 11:30 a.m., is to draw attention to the seriousness of the media fraud perpetrated on the American public by the forged document scandal and to call for the firing of Dan Rather, CBS News President Andrew Heyward and Mary Mapes, producer of the “60 Minutes II” segment.

Also, Accuracy in Media is calling for a federal probe into the use by CBS News of forged documents which it says were intended to affect the presidential campaign and the coming Nov. 2 presidential election.

As a precedent, the group cites the FBI investigation of the origin of forged documents in the Iraq uranium matter.

At the time of the uranium controversy, noted AIM editor Cliff Kincaid, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that the forgeries on Iraq and uranium “may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq.”

His pressure forced the FBI to announce an inquiry into the origin and distribution of the Iraq documents, Kincaid noted, adding that the forged documents used by CBS News also seem to be part of a larger deception campaign — to defeat President Bush for re-election.

“Nothing could be more serious that a fraudulent attempt to determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential election through the use of fake documents,” said Kincaid.

“And with CBS News now taking the curious position that the White House should have exposed the documents as forgeries before CBS News went on the air with them, it is imperative that the FBI or some appropriate law enforcement agency get to the bottom of this scandal,” he continued. “Both CBS News and the White House should support such a probe.”

Kincaid also pointed out that current federal law prohibits the use of false, altered or forged public records and documents to defraud the U.S. Penalties include up to 10 years in prison.

“If the expectation of CBS News was that the White House should have exposed the documents as forgeries, as reported by the Washington Post, then CBS News should have no objection to a federal probe into where the documents came from and how they came into the possession of CBS News.” Kincaid said. “Indeed, if CBS News has nothing to hide in this scandal, it should forego any First Amendment protections and welcome such an inquiry.”

New York University Journalism professor Jay Rosen is wary of the network’s internal investigation and wonders whether those leading it will all be from “inside the club.” Writing in Pressthink, Rosen sees a “full-fledged credibility crisis” for CBS and anticipates a “political campaign” by the conservatives against CBS “now that the surrender has come.”

Rosen also mused that top staffers at CBS seemed to have a “reading comprehension of near zero” and that yesterday’s announcements were “just one part of a massive institutional failure at CBS, much of it is still to be uncovered.”

Early on, CBS and other mainstream outlets denigrated the criticism of the documents by characterizing it as rooted in partisan conflict. In the Sept. 20 edition of Time magazine, Joe Klein named “conservative bloggers” as culprits in muddling the guard controversy. While it was bloggers who first cast light on the suspect nature of the documents, it was aggressive reporting by mainstream media, especially the Washington Post, which caused the story to reach critical mass.

CBS and Rather were roundly criticized for dissembling, and the Los Angeles Times referred to the sequence of events as a “trainwreck.”

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post noted, “[W]hen you have a major anchor and the most respected newsmagazine accuse the president of the United States in the middle of his re-election campaign based on memos that turn out to be forgeries, that is a huge development for both politics and the press.”

Related stories:

Affiliates distance themselves from CBS

Rather apologizes
for CBS ‘mistake’

CBS News claims: We were deceived

Col. Staudt denies Bush got special treatment

Group petitions FCC against CBS

CBS docs traced to Texas Kinko’s

CBS News chief defends memos

Congress asked to probe CBS

Democrats hammer Bush in new video

Ben Barnes’ daughter: Father lied about Bush

Rather backs docs on Evening News

CBS News denies Bush docs forged

Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and current Bush campaign strategist for the Southeast, has responded to allegations that he had been secretly taking funds from one Indian tribe with a casino monopoly as payment to launch a moral crusade against a competitive tribe that wanted to start up its own casino.

In the July 12 edition of The Nation, a leftist publication, veteran journalist Jack Newfield wrote that if the rival Jena Band tribe obtained rights to run a casino, it posed a potential $1 billion loss in gambling revenue to the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana.

border=0> Jack Newfield

The Coushattas are one of four tribes being investigated by Congress for some $45 million paid to Washington lobbyist/lawyer Jack Abramoff and public-relations executive Mike Scanlon, the former spokesman for House GOP Majority Leader Tom Delay.

The tribe has paid more than $32 million to Abramoff and Scanlon.

According to Newfield, Reed was hired by the Coushatta to fend off the newcomers and offset the influence of former GOP national Chairman Haley Barbour, who had been hired by the Jena Band to help ensure their casino compact was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“This was not a crime, just furtive hypocrisy,” Newfield wrote.

Newfield cites “unearthed evidence” from a federal investigation, the testimony of three witnesses and documents obtained by The Nation.

But Newfield’s allegations are not true, says Reed. Declining to be interviewed, Reed released this statement to WND through Sarah Few, communications director for his public-affairs firm, Century Strategies:

border=0> Ralph Reed

“The Nation story is filled with falsehoods and inaccuracies and liberal bias. The facts are these: Ralph Reed and Century Strategies have long been opposed to casino gambling. We have worked with broad coalitions to oppose its spread, including grass-roots organizations, churches and other like-minded citizens. We are proud of the work we’ve done to help prevent the spread of casino gambling because it’s consistent with our philosophical views and those of the citizens we have organized. And while we have participated in broad coalitions, we have never represented or worked for a casino company.”

WND asked Few to comment specifically on Newfield’s report that Reed was able to keep his deal secret, by being paid via money laundered through firms controlled by Abramoff and Scanlon. Newfield buttressed his story by citing documents he obtained that allegedly show Reed sent bills to Abramoff and Scanlon and that one of his consulting companies, Century Strategies of Duluth, Ga., received $250,000 from Capitol Campaign Strategies – a Scanlon company. An invoice to Abramoff from another Reed company, Capitol Media, for $100,000, states only that the payment is for “Louisiana Project Mgmt. Fee.”

“All, of course, are false statements,” Few said, declining further comment.

In the 1990s as executive director of the Christian Coalition, Reed denounced gambling as anti-family, stating that “alcoholism, theft, organized crime, suicide, divorce and unemployment follow gambling wherever it appears.”

WND invited Jack Newfield to read and comment on Reed’s statement but received no response.

Newfield is currently a fellow of The Nation Institute and has won numerous awards for his work.

Calls made to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs regarding the investigation were not immediately returned.

In a rapidly growing story, Honduran officials report that one of the top terrorist suspects in the world, Adnan G. Shukrijumah, was spotted in Honduras recently.

border=0> Adnan G. El Shukrijumah

Readers might want to reserve judgment, however, taking the reports with a grain of warm Honduran sand, since contradictions have become apparent. It’s unclear whether the problematic elements to the story stem from inaccurate statements made by government officials, from inaccurate reporting of those statements, from a lack of forthcoming detail, from poor communications between international allies or a combination of these.

Here are some points to consider:

• The date: According to Leonel Sauceda, spokesman for the Honduran
  Security Ministry and another official with the ministry who spoke with WND today, the suspect was seen on May 27 at an Internet caf? in Tegulcigalpa.

  Hours after WND and the Miami Herald reported the date, href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-71adnan,0,7692219.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines">the
  Associated Press reported that the date was not known, that Security
  Minister Oscar Alvarez declined to state the date “on security grounds”
  when being interviewed, leaving the interpretation open that he could have been referring to a more recent sighting.

• The timing: The question of why contradictory information is emanating
  from the same government agency (if that information was accurately reported) leads to the next question of why the information is just now being released, more than a month after the alleged sighting occurred.

• The escape: In addition, Alvarez told the Associated Press that the suspect fled after being sighted. “This man was seen at an Internet business in
  Tegucigalpa, and then he fled the country,” Alvarez said, referring to
  Honduras’ capital city.

  It’s unclear how the Honduras government knows the suspect fled
  the country since they never were able to locate or apprehend the suspect
  in the first place.

• The alert: If the suspect fled Honduras over a month ago, why
  have Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama just now been put on alert by
  Honduras that the suspect may be trying to enter one of those countries?

• The previous stop: While the Associated Press reported that “El Shukrijumah … apparently entered Honduras illegally from Nicaragua or Panama,” the
  Honduran Security Ministry told WND it was not known how or when the suspect entered the country. It’s unclear, therefore, how it is known where the suspect was prior to arriving in Honduras. Before the Honduran sighting news, the suspect had last been seen in Guyana. It’s also unclear why the suspect is thought to have entered from Nicaragua (a neighbor) or Panama (not on the border of Honduras). If the suspect
  arrived by sea, it’s unclear why arrival from Costa Rica, Cuba, Belize or elsewhere is not thought possible, or by land from El Salvador or Guatemala.

• Late alert or late arrival? The AP reported that Alvarez implied the Honduran government received news of the man’s sighting after it was too late to catch him. WND was told by the Security Ministry that police arrived at the Internet caf? after the suspect had left.

• Who said what?: This news follows a tangle of misreporting yesterday
  about an alleged plot to bomb the Panama Canal. Agence France-Presse
  published a story saying Leonel Sauceda, spokesman for the Honduran
  Security Ministry, had confirmed comments Security Minster Oscar Alvarez
  allegedly made to the Honduran press about the plot. Sauceda allegedly
  confirmed to AFP that Alvarez said Shukrijumah had been involved in a
  plot to use explosives to damage the Panama Canal. The AFP story was
  then picked up by Bloomberg News. But the bombing story was false. There are
  indications also that some journalists may have started off on the
  wrong foot by mistranslating some details that were in the Honduran press.

• What bomb plot?: After WND reported that neither FBI headquarters nor
  the U.S. Embassy in Panama nor the FBI legal attache in Panama knew
  anything about the allegations, and could not therefore confirm them,
  the Security Ministry told WND that Alvarez never made the comments, but
  simply referred to the May 27 sighting of the terrorist. The headline
  story in Panama today was that there was no bomb plot.

• What alert? What sighting?: While the FBI today said it had no further
  comment on Shukrijumah’s case or the Central American alert – adding, “We’re going to let what’s already out there in the media stand” – Joe Reap, spokesman for the U.S. State Department Office of Counterterrorism told WND he had not heard of the sighting or the Central American alert. Ditto for another State Department official. So far, the information is being confirmed solely by Central American government sources, and U.S. Embassy officials are simply confirming that they’ve been told the same thing by
  those governments.

The U.S. Embassy in Panama told WND they are awaiting guidance from the
State Department – the same State Department that apparently knows nothing about
the situation.

So, stay tuned for more details. Oscar Alvarez, security minster for
Honduras, has been in meetings all day with the president and various
cabinet members. WND is expecting a call from him this evening.

Related stories:

Police searching for ‘next Mohammed Atta’

Panama Canal target of al-Qaida suspect?

]]> http://mobile.wnd.com/2004/07/25376/feed/ 0 http://mobile.wnd.com/2004/07/25364/ http://mobile.wnd.com/2004/07/25364/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2004 01:00:00 +0000 Sherrie Gossett http://wp.wnd.com/?p=25364

Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama are on alert for the possible entry of suspected terrorist Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, after Honduran authorities warned that the 29-year old suspect, referred to by law enforcement sources as “the next Mohammed Atta,” may be seeking to cross into one of the countries.

Costa Rica is bordered on the north by Nicaragua and on the south by Panama.

Shukrijumah, who is considered one of the FBI’s “top 5″ terrorist concerns, allegedly was spotted in Honduras on May 27 at a Tegucigalpa Internet cafe

border=0> Adnan G. El Shukrijumah

“We found out that this man was in Tegucigalpa at the end of May,” Leonel Sauceda, spokesman for the Honduran Security Ministry told media. “He was seen in an Internet cafe in the city and we confirmed that he made phone calls to France and the United States from there.”

Calls were also made to Canada, according to the Security Ministry.

An official with the Honduran Security Ministry told WND the female Internet caf? owner recognized Shukrijumah from photos in the newspaper. Police arrived at the caf? just after the suspect had left.

He apparently was speaking in English, and a little in Spanish and French. The suspect was seen with two bearded individuals who “had a rough appearance,” according to the government official. Information from the cafe’s phone records has been relayed to various allied foreign intelligence agencies.

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The Honduran official told WND that border security in Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua had been strengthened after the terror suspect was spotted in Tegucigalpa.

She also said, “We don’t know his arrival date or the method of his arrival.”

Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez currently is in a meeting with the Honduran president. The Security Ministry is working closely with the U.S. Embassy in Honduras.

Carlos Bakota, the U.S. Embassy press attache in Costa Rica, also
confirmed that the country was on alert for possible entry of the suspect. Costa Rican Security Minister Rogelio Ramos will meet officials of the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica today. The US Embassy in Panama is awaiting guidance from the State Department.

The Honduran press initially quoted Security Minister Oscar Alvarez as saying Shukrijumah had been involved in a plot to disrupt shipping lanes by using explosives to damage the Panama Canal. Three hours after WND reported that FBI officials, the U.S. Embassy in Panama and the FBI legal attache in Panama had no knowledge of the allegations and could not confirm the report, Oscar Alvarez clarified the allegations and denied he referenced a plot to bomb the Panama Canal.

The bomb-plot story was also picked up by Bloomberg News, which used the Agence France-Presse story as its sole source.

Early in May, UPI reported that the Honduran Attorney General’s office and the Ministry of Security were investigating possible links between the terrorist group al-Qaida and Islamic organizations in Honduras. After three months of investigations, Attorney General Ovidio Navarro told media that a network of Islamic organizations in Honduras was attempting to recruit Honduran youths.

Muslim groups allegedly offered to finance their contacts’ studies in Middle Eastern countries, with the ultimate objective of recruiting followers for a guerilla war against the West. Extensive illicit trafficking in fake Honduran passports being used by Afghan and Pakistani citizens has also been reported.

Earlier this year the U.S. Embassy in Honduras sent an official report to President Ricardo Maduro revealing that a Honduran consulate in an undisclosed Latin American country was secretly issuing the documents.

Honduras is thought to be a possible al-Qaida target due to its support of the U.S. in Iraq. The threats have caused authorities to amplify efforts to track suspicious international fund transfers and to ramp up safety measures in airports, commercial ports and public areas.

An area Muslim leader has expressed skepticism of the charges, stating that the Arab-Honduran population of Honduras was mainly made up of the very young or elderly, most of whom had converted to Christianity, while maintaining the language and traditions of their Middle Eastern countries of origin.

Terror suspect Adnan G. El Shukrijumah is a former resident of Miramar, South Florida, where he attended computer and English classes at Broward Community College in 1997.

A native of Guyana, El Shukrijumah’s father, Gulshai, died in Miramar on June 12. Relatives said he suffered a series of strokes since hearing his son had been named by the FBI as a serious threat to U.S. interests at home and abroad. Family members deny the charges.

The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., said the son is also not a Saudi citizen and if he is traveling using a Saudi passport, then he has obtained it and is using it illegally. He was last spotted six months ago in Guyana.

“He is a big threat,” FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela previously told media. “We believe that he could be planning terrorist activities against the U.S. interests here or abroad. So, we’d like to find him as soon as we can.”

Today the FBI said it had no further comment on Shukrijumah’s case or the Central American alert.

“We’re going to let what’s already out there in the media stand,” said the official.

Related story:

Panama Canal target of al-Qaida suspect?

Officials with the FBI and the U.S. Embassy in Panama said this evening they could not confirm an href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10007733%255E1702,00.html">
Agence France-Presse report stating a member of al-Qaida had href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=as5DRu6fTf_E&refer=latin_america">targeted the Panama Canal.

Officials at both agencies said they were not aware of the allegations until contacted by WND.

Today AFP reported Leonel Sauceda, spokesman for Honduras Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, confirmed comments the minister made to local media, that the “38-year-old suspect” – identified as Adnan Guishar El Shukrijumah, or Jafar al-Tayar – was in Honduras late last month and “planned to plant explosives in the Panama Canal to hamper boat traffic in the area.”

Alvarez’s remarks were published in the daily La Tribuna today, along with photos of the suspect.

El Shukrijumah is wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States.

The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading directly to his capture. FBI records give the suspect’s birthdate as Aug. 4, 1975, making him 29 years of age.

El Shukrijumah speaks English and is said to carry a Guyanese passport, but according to the FBI, could attempt to enter the U.S. with a Saudi, Canadian, or Trinidadian passport.

At the time of this report, Security Minister Oscar Alvarez could not be reached for comment. It has not been made clear whether others were implicated by the Honduran government, what interrupted the alleged plot or where El Shukrijumah is thought to be at present.

Update: Three hours after the filing of this report, Oscar Alvarez clarified the allegations and denied local media reports which quoted him referring to a plot to bomb the Panama Canal. The story, which originated in the Honduran press, was also picked up by Bloomberg News, which used the Agence France-Presse story as its sole source.
Alvarez told Miami Herald reporter Juan Tamayo that a tipster had alerted Honduran security forces that the suspect, El Shukrijumah, had been seen in a Tegucigalpa Internet cafe in May.

The cafe’s owner allegedly identified Shukrijumah from a photo lineup and said he had been in the cafe with two other men, “all badly dressed and bearded,” who spoke English and French but little Spanish. Tamayo reported that the other two men have not been identified.

“We found out that this man was in Tegucigalpa at the end of May. He was seen in an Internet cafe in the city and we confirmed that he made phone calls to France and the United States from there,” spokesman for the Honduran Security Ministry Leonel Sauceda told media. An anonymous Honduran security source told the Miami Herald that calls were also made to Canada. The phone records have been passed on to allied foreign intelligence services.

It is now being reported that Costa Rica is on the alert for the possible entrance of the alleged terrorist.

Security Minister Rogelio Ramos told the press that both the Honduran and Costa Rican governments had strengthened their border security after confirming the terrorist was seen in its capital Tegucigalpa. Nicaragua lies to the north of Costa Rica and Panama to the south.

Minister Ramos will meet officials of the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica tomorrow to discuss developments in the situation.

The Cuban government and state-controlled press have disseminated the same bogus GI gang-rape photos that WorldNetDaily reported originated on porn sites.

As previously reported by WND, the publication of the images and stories about the images added confusion to the unfolding Abu Ghraib crisis especially in the Middle East, where top newspapers and political sites published the hard-core porn photos side-by-side with genuine photos of abuse.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba has published eight of the gang-rape porn photos under the heading, “Accusing Photos.” A link on the Ministry’s main page, called “The photos that the US does not want to be seen,” (“Las Fotos que EE.UU no quiere que se vean”) takes readers to a page that presents real photos of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse along with the eight fake rape photos, plus three fake photos of abuse by British soldiers which were published but then retracted by the Daily Mirror.

As of publication time, Felipe P?rez Roque, minister of foreign affairs for Cuba, could not be reached for comment. Roque was appointed in May of 1999.

The URL of the Cuban Ministry photo page, “De la Prensa Cubana,” suggests the photos were republished from state-controlled media.

Indeed, Diario Granma, the official newspaper of Cuba’s Communist Party, published the fake “rape” photos in the online May 7 edition under the title, “Humiliate, beat, torture and murder, these are the rules of American soldiers.” (“”Humillar, golpear, torturar y asesinar… m?ximas de los soldados norteamericanos.”)

A May 10 story by Jean-Guy Allard, titled “Abu Ghraib prison: The images of horror,” contains three of the fake rape photos and is linked to from a special section of the website called Huellas de la ‘Liberaci?n’ de Iraq (“Traces of Iraq’s ‘Liberation’”).

Underneath the link to Allard’s story and a thumbnail photo of a hooded prisoner reads the following: “Images reminiscent of the horrors of Hitler’s concentration camps go around the world.” (“Im?genes que recuerdan los horrores de los campos de concentraci?n hitlerianos, recorren el mundo.”)

Unlike other media outlets that published the staged photos and/or stories about the photos, Allard suggests they are of British, not American soldiers. He writes: “Many pictures are simply revolting, they show Iraqi women being sodomized by British soldiers.” (“Muchas fotos son simplemente asquerosas. Ense?an mujeres iraqu?es mientras son sodomizadas por soldados de Gran Breta?a.”)

The fake rape photos were also published in Juventud Rebelde (“Rebel Youth”), the official newspaper of Cuba’s Union of Communist Youth. Juventud Rebelde has a circulation rate second only to Granma. Four of the fake rape photos are published alongside genuine photos of abuse under the title, “Torture, abuse, mistreatment and humiliation.” (“Torturas, abusos, maltratos y humillaciones.”)

Juventud Rebelde has a weekly journal called La Jiribilla, which also published the fake rape photos under “Galeria de las Fotos del Horror” (“Gallery of the horror pictures”). In addition, the Jean-Guy Allard piece is republished in La Jiribilla.

Chris Perez, of South Florida’s Cuba Free Press Project, brought the Cuban publication of the images to WND’s attention.

“Keep in mind that nothing gets published in that newspaper without Castro’s personal authorization,” Perez said. “In a country where all the media is monopolized by the government and no alternate press is allowed, it is not difficult to figure out what’s next. If it is published in Granma, it gets re-published again and again and every big and little local news outlet across the country.”

Perez was born and educated in revolutionary Cuba, graduated in the Soviet Union, and arrived to the U.S. in the early ’90s. A telecommunications engineer by profession, Perez runs the interactive Cuba Free Press website which publishes articles on the Internet and serves as a discussion forum for related issues. During the last six years he has investigated the intricacies of Cuba’s internal digital networks and the regime’s use of the Internet for asymmetrical operations and propaganda.

Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans fronti?res), an international organization that defends and supports press freedom, calls Cuba the world’s biggest prison for journalists and labels Fidel Castro “a predator of press freedom.”

“There are instigators and powerful people behind press freedom violations whose responsibility is not always apparent,” reads one RSF statement. “Whether presidents, ministers, chiefs of staff, religious leaders or the heads of armed groups, these predators of press freedom have the power to censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and, in the worst cases, murder journalists.”

Ironically, Granma’s Jean-Guy Allard, after producing the article featuring the fake rape photos, went on to castigate Robert M?nard, secretary general of RSF, for “contradictions,” labeling him a probable CIA agent, due to his efforts to contact and elicit information from Cuban dissident writers.

“Robert M?nard is not afraid of contradictions,” Allard wrote. “… His defense of press freedom is a farce, a fraud, a grotesque tale that does not correspond in the slightest with what he’s actually doing.” Allard also accused M?nard of circulating “slander, lies and libelous comments.”

Juan Granados, editor of the Cuban Free Press Project, emphasized the veracity of the assessment made by Reporters without Borders, and underlined the irony of Cuba ignoring its own scandalous prison abuses.

The editor told WND that out of the 75 dissidents imprisoned last year in a notorious roundup, 25 had written for the Cuba Free Press Project or relayed information for publication to them.

The 75, whose prison terms averaged 20 years each, were charged with belonging to “illegal” groups of independent journalists, running independent newspapers and libraries,and associating with American diplomats.

“We’ve stopped publishing new writers,” Granados said. “The damage done to our people has been significant. We are under great stress. This is a time of great pain for us.”

“We have been working hard to support freedom of the press, and all it seems we have accomplished it to get these writers into prison.”

“It is unbelievable, these independent journalists in Cuba now live in individual drawers in prison.”

Granados was referring to prisoners kept in solitary confinement in lightless cells called gavetas. According to dissident testimony, the most recent version of the gavetas resemble coffins and measure approximately 7 feet long by 18 inches tall by 24 inches wide.

In October of last year, the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights reported on conditions of psychological and physical terror and torture suffered by women detained in the gavetas. The “drawers” reportedly include a hole on the ground for “bodily needs,” and are infested with a multitude of rodents, roaches and other insects. Juan Carlos Gonz?lez Leiva, the imprisoned, blind lawyer and president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights reported hearing “screams of tormented women in panic and desperation who cry for God’s mercy.” Leiva claimed the women were sometimes injected with sedatives to silence them. (Leiva’s description was publicized via his wife Maritza Calderin in a conversation that was taped, transcribed and translated into English by the Coalition of Cuban-American Women.)

Cuba has not allowed the International Red Cross to visit or inspect its prisons since 1989.

Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, previously told the Washington Post about the “punishment cells” (gavetas) in which the 75 dissidents are held. He told the reporter the cells were about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.

“These jails are like concentration camps,” Sanchez said. “There is no doubt that this is a deliberate policy of extreme cruelty on the part of the state.”

Cuba Free Press Project Editor Juan Granados declined further comment to WND, saying: “I have been very affected by all of this. Last year I had a heart attack.”

But he added, “Thank you. In the name of all those in prison now, thank you for taking an interest in them.”

Related stories:

Bogus ‘rape’ photos used in call for jihad

Fake ‘rape’ photos sent to TV show

Globe blames councilor for bogus ‘rape’ photos

Globe publishes apology for fake ‘GI rape’ photos

Boston Globe publishes bogus GI rape pictures

U.S. calls for Arab retractions

Fake rape photos infuriate Arab world

Porn site depicting ‘GI rapes’ shut down

Bogus GI rape photos used as Arab propaganda

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