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Kathianne
01-04-2008, 07:44 PM
Keeps showing up:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080104/NATION04/410150204/10&template=printart

Funny how it's never the NY Times on things like this.


Inside the Ring


January 4, 2008

By Bill Gertz - Coughlin sacked

Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism, has been fired from his position on the military's Joint Staff. The action followed a report in this space last week revealing opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.

Mr. Coughlin was notified this week that his contract with the Joint Staff will end in March, effectively halting the career of one of the U.S. government's most important figures in analyzing the nature of extremism and ultimately preparing to wage ideological war against it.

He had run afoul of a key aide to Mr. England, Hasham Islam, who confronted Mr. Coughlin during a meeting several weeks ago when Mr. Islam sought to have Mr. Coughlin soften his views on Islamist extremism.

Mr. Coughlin was accused directly by Mr. Islam of being a Christian zealot or extremist "with a pen," according to defense officials. Mr. Coughlin appears to have become one of the first casualties in the war of ideas with Islamism.

The officials said Mr. Coughlin was let go because he had become "too hot" or controversial within the Pentagon.

Misguided Pentagon officials, including Mr. Islam and Mr. England, have initiated an aggressive "outreach" program to U.S. Muslim groups that critics say is lending credibility to what has been identified as a budding support network for Islamist extremists, including front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Coughlin wrote a memorandum several months ago based on documents made public in a federal trial in Dallas that revealed a covert plan by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian-origin Islamist extremist group, to subvert the United States using front groups. Members of one of the identified front groups, the Islamic Society of North America, has been hosted by Mr. England at the Pentagon.

After word of the confrontation between Mr. Coughlin and Mr. Islam was made public, support for Mr. Coughlin skyrocketed among those in and out of government who feared the worst, namely that pro-Muslim officials in the Pentagon were after Mr. Coughlin's scalp, and that his departure would be a major setback for the Pentagon's struggling efforts to develop a war of ideas against extremism. Blogs lit up with hundreds of postings, some suggesting that Mr. England's office is "penetrated" by the enemy in the war on terrorism.

Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for Mr. England, said "no one in the deputy's office had any input into this decision" by the Joint Staff to end Mr. Coughlin's contract. A Joint Staff spokesman had no immediate comment.

3Com probe

The Treasury Department-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) this week extended an initial 30-day investigation into the national security implications of the proposed merger between 3Com and China's Huawei Technologies.

The CFIUS probe is now entering a second, more intensive 45-day investigation, according to U.S. officials close to the review who say that the extension is another sign that the proposed $2.2 billion merger deal is in trouble.

Bush administration officials disclosed earlier that the U.S. intelligence community conducted a required review of the deal and notified CFIUS in November that the merger plan, as currently structured, posed a threat to U.S. national security.

House Republicans in October also passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the White House to block the deal as a threat to U.S. security.

The probe began after reports that Huawei would gain access to computer intrusion technology used by the Pentagon and intelligence community....

Kathianne
01-05-2008, 11:21 PM
More today:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2QzNWYxZThlOTQ4YTBmYzYyNmUzOTQ4MmUzM2M5NDc=


Saturday, January 05, 2008

More on England and Islam [Andy McCarthy]

As noted in Cliff's post yesterday (relying on a Bill Gertz report in the Washington Times), the Pentagon has sacked an authentic, influential scholar of Islam, Stephen Coughlin, who evidently refused to lie about — er, I mean, "soften his views on" — Islamic extremism (which, like it or not, is rooted in Islamic scripture) at the insistence of one Hasham Islam, Army Chief Gordon England's Islamophilic factotum (one of countless such creatures now pervading the federal government).

For more on this, check out this post on the new website of Andrew Bostom, another scholar of Islam. Andy knows Coughlin and his work. He also draws a worthy comparison between Coughlin and William Eaton, whose travails trying to defend the American people against both jihadism and elements in his own government occurred two centuries ago. Particularly interesting is this, from early America's first contacts with the jihadists of the day, the Barbary pirates:


Thirty years earlier, in 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, then serving as American ambassadors to France and Britain, respectively, met in London with the Tripolitan Ambassador to Britain, Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja. These future American presidents were attempting to negotiate a peace treaty which would spare the United States the ravages of jihad piracy—murder, enslavement (with ransoming for redemption), and expropriation of valuable commercial assets—emanating from the Barbary states (modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya). During their discussions, they questioned Ambassador Adja as to the source of the unprovoked animus directed at the nascent United States republic. Jefferson and Adams, in their subsequent report to the Continental Congress, recorded the Tripolitan Ambassador’s justification:


… that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.

'Twas ever thus. Steve Coughlin is apparently gone for saying so.

01/05 01:42 PM

Psychoblues
01-05-2008, 11:30 PM
The finger keeps pointing back to you and those like you, kitty.

Maybe you ought to reconsider your thoughts so you don't have to answer yourself on the board to keep your pet peeve from disappearing to page 2 of the forum?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!?

Watermark
01-07-2008, 12:26 AM
Keeps showing up:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080104/NATION04/410150204/10&template=printart

Funny how it's never the NY Times on things like this.

Hello fearmonger.

Kathianne
01-07-2008, 06:52 AM
Hello fearmonger.

LOL! Ok, how is bringing up a topic fearmongering? You are too funny, I think you have a crush. :cool:

Gaffer
01-08-2008, 12:38 AM
Hopefully he'll write a book now about the islamic dangers.

Another casualty in the war on islam.

Kathianne
02-06-2008, 04:59 PM
Emerson on the England/Islam issue:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/596


Pentagon Aide's Invitations Contradicted U.S. Policy

by Steven Emerson
IPT News
February 4, 2008

At the urging of a subordinate, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England scheduled at least two meetings with foreign emissaries in direct contradiction of U.S. policy at the time. The meetings date back to 2005. They involved a Lebanese ambassador considered a proxy for the Syrian government and a leading member of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood.

U.S. policy at the time was not to engage in talks with either man, because they represent groups with whom the United States was not to communicate. The meetings were organized by England's special assistant for international affairs, Hesham Islam.

An invitation to Muslim Brotherhood official Husam al-Dairi was canceled in late 2005 after a senior State Department official heard about it and insisted it not take place. That official, J. Scott Carpenter, told IPT News he was shocked that such an invitation was issued, let alone that it was done without anyone consulting the State Department.

Carpenter was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs at the time and knew the meeting went against U.S. policy toward the Muslim Brotherhood...

...

...After Carpenter relayed his concerns to England's office, a staff member called back. She told him it would be "a huge hassle to postpone it" and if that happened, England's office would make it clear this was the result of the State Department "putting its foot down and [saying] the meeting should not take place."

Carpenter said that was fine by him. The episode, including the serendipitous way he learned about it, made him wonder whether other meetings like that took place without State Department consultation, he said...

...

...Schenker declined to discuss the controversy in England's office or Hesham Islam. But he confirmed that Islam is the "junior staffer" referenced in his article.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who chairs the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said news of the invitations was a cause for concern.

"You have to wonder, what do you have, freelancers out there?" Hoekstra asked. "Clearly it's sending a conflicting message to some of these groups. When you have a lack of clarity it always creates problems."

Islam has become embroiled in a power struggle of sorts within England's office. Late last month, Army Reserve Major Stephen Coughlin, who also reports to England, was told his contract would not be renewed. Allies consider Coughlin the Pentagon's lone specialist on Islamic law, especially as militants use it to justify terrorism. That was the subject of Coughlin's thesis for the Joint Military Intelligence College completed last year, titled "To Our Great Detriment: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad."

In addition, Coughlin issued a memo in September analyzing evidence in the Texas-based trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). The foundation and five of its officials were charged with illegally funneling money to Hamas.

Evidence released at the HLF trial implicated, among other Islamist groups, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) as part of a Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S. Coughlin concluded that the Department of Defense should cease its outreach programs with ISNA. Yet England has met repeatedly with ISNA officials, including an April 2007 luncheon at the Pentagon.

The Washington Times reported Coughlin's ouster was rooted in a disagreement with Mr. Islam over the tone of Coughlin's writings. In one meeting, the Times reported, Islam referred to Coughlin as "a Christian zealot with a pen." Pentagon officials maintain Coughlin's contract was not renewed due to basic budgetary concerns.

Whatever the cause, Coughlin's pending departure from the Pentagon has generated concern on Capitol Hill. U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-NC, indicated she may try to organize an inquiry by the bipartisan House Anti-Terrorism Caucus.

The Pentagon appears reluctant to address questions about Coughlin or Mr. Islam.

On Jan. 25, Claudia Rosett challenged a series of key components in Islam's biography.

An October profile published on a web site called Defense Link was removed from the Department of Defense website by the next business day. Rosett reported that no one responded to her requests for an explanation. The profile can still be seen here.

The DOD public affairs office did not respond to numerous telephone messages and e-mails seeking information about the article's removal, the two invitations from England's office or more information about Hesham Islam. The Washington Times quoted a top Pentagon spokesman Friday saying the profile was "taken down in an attempt to reduce the rhetoric and the emotion surrounding this issue while we try to determine the facts."

...

Yurt
02-06-2008, 05:04 PM
Hello fearmonger.

hello dhimmi

I wanna be a dhimmi, yes I do (http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/)

top left

actsnoblemartin
02-06-2008, 08:05 PM
this is a very important thread, the u.s. government is not taking jihadists seriously, so we can play nice with muslim countries, who we are paranoid about offending, sad really