U.S. Postpones Samira Ibrahim Award Over Anti-Semitic, Anti-American Tweets

The State Department made another major oopsy by not taking the time to vet Egyptian activist Samira Ibrahim before offering her the International Women of Courage Award. One would think they would have taken the time to vet an individual before bestowing upon them a prestigious award, but nope.

It turns out Samira, who sued the military-led government and won a ban against forced virginity tests after she was subjected to one after being arrested during the Tahrir Square protests in 2011, has posted anti-Semitic and anti-American comments on her Twitter account.

Regarding the Bulgarian terror attack that killed Israeli tourists on a bus:

“An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”  

And then there's this:

Last August 4, commenting on demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, she described the ruling Al Saud family as “dirtier than the Jews.” Seventeen days later she tweeted in reference to Adolf Hitler: “I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler.”

Screen Capture with page translation

Ibrahim holds other repellent views as well. As a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, pulling down the American flag and raising the flag of Al Qaeda, Ibrahim wrote on twitter: “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.” Possibly fearing the consequences of her tweet, she deleted it a couple of hours later, but not before a screen shot was saved by an Egyptian activist.

Michelle Obama and  Secretary of State John Kerry were to present the award until enough people started balking. So they've deferred, for the time being. According to the State Department's Victoria Nuland:

“We as a department became aware very late in the process about Samira Ibrahim’s alleged public comments." “After careful consideration, we’ve decided that we should defer presenting this award to Ms. Ibrahim this year so that we have a chance to look further into these statements.”

Mrs. Nuland added that Mrs. Ibrahim “has categorically denied” to the State Department that she wrote the unsavory messages and claimed that “she was hacked” by someone else who made the remarks on her behalf. “But we need some time and, in order to be prudent, to conduct our own review,” Mrs. Nuland said.

Of course Samira is denying it, and Nicole Gaoulette of Bloomberg says Department officials believe her.

“State officials tell me they’ve looked at 1000s of her tweets & believe her account was hacked."

So why are those offensive Tweets that were allegedly posted by hackers months ago still on her Twitter feed?  Had my Twitter account been hacked, you can rest assured that I would have removed every single hacked comment. The State Department is probably just trying to save face, hoping that with time all will be forgotten.

But look at Samira's tweet from yesterday March 8:

"Refused to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America on previous statements hostile to Zionism under pressure from the u.s. Government, the award was withdrawn."

I think that pretty much settles it.

Thanks to other Egyptian activists- who informed the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum about the true face of Samira who in turn contacted State- an embarrassing event was averted. For now.

Source: Fox News, Free Beacon, Weekly Standard

U.S. Condemns Egypt's Morsi For His 2010 Anti-Semitic Rhetoric

UPDATE:  Here's Morsi's 2010 video where he calls Obama insincere and talks about "nursing our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them."

It's taken a while for the U.S. to respond to both a translated video of a 2010 interview with Egypt's current President Mohammed Morsi that emerged on January 3rd, courtesy of MEMRI, showing his virulently anti-Semitic side, and another video of Morsi at a rally purportedly encouraging Egyptians to "nurse our hatred" for Jews and Zionists.  But they finally have, via State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

Nuland said:

“The language that we’ve seen is deeply offensive. We think that these comments should be repudiated, and they should be repudiated firmly.” [snip] “We completely reject these statements as we do any language that espouses religious hatred." “This kind of rhetoric has been used in this region for far too long. It’s counter to the goals of peace.”

But why would he repudiate what he said when he obviously believes it? And even if he did, that wouldn't change a thing.

White House mouthpiece, Jay Carney, had this to say:

“We believe that President Morsi should make clear that he respects people of all faiths and that this type of rhetoric is unacceptable in a democratic Egypt."

And why should Morsi be any different than his counterparts in other Middle Eastern and Muslim Asian nations?

Granted, Morsi has said he will maintain the peace treaty with Israel, but for how long?

Naturally, the Israelis are a tad concerned since this has all come to light,

“When the leader of a country has a history of statements demonizing Jews, and he does not do anything to correct it, it makes sense that many people in Israel would conclude that he cannot be trusted as a partner for peace,” Kenneth Jacobson, deputy national director of the U.S. based Anti-Defamation League, told The New York Times.

Of course, no comment from Morsi and his people.

I still want to know what took so long for the U.S. to condemn Morsi. I posted about the video on January 3rd, it is now the 15th. Perhaps it took Egyptian satirist Bassem Yousef, who is in trouble himself for lambasting Morsi and who aired the video recently on his TV programme, to prod them into action.

Taliban Shoots 14-Year-Old Rights Activist In Head

Young 14-year-old rights activist Malala Yousafzai is struggling to stay alive in a Peshawar hospital after the Pakistani Taliban shot her, point blank, in the head. All Malala wanted to do was go to school, while the Taliban want to keep their women barefoot, pregnant and ignorant- the better to control them. She is now suffering the consequences.

A team of senior doctors late Tuesday completed her medical examination in a combined military hospital (CMH) and described her condition as critical.

“We have thoroughly examined her, she is in critical condition. The bullet travelled from her head and then lodged in the back shoulder, near the neck,” a doctor in the CMH told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

“She is in the intensive care unit and semi-conscious, although not on the ventilator,” he said, adding that the next three to four days would be crucial.

Earlier another doctor in Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Swat’s main town of Mingora had said the bullet penetrated her skull but missed her brain, leaving her out of danger.

Seeking revenge for her activism, Taliban militants targeted her while on her school bus. Two other girls were also wounded, though not critically. And they threatened anyone who might dare to criticize their actions.

I don't recall Malala's story, but apparently three years ago she partnered with the BBC to write a blog about the horrific things the Taliban were doing in the Swat region of Pakistan. That was when girls' schools were being torched at the behest of cleric Maulana Fazlullah.

In 2011 she received several accolades including the

.. first-ever national peace award from the Pakistani government last year, and was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by advocacy group KidsRights Foundation in 2011.

What shocks and frightens many Pakistanis is that this happened during the day in an area where the army was supposed to have flushed out the Taliban- three years ago.

As happens, stories regarding the attack on Malala changed over the course of the day.

Initially, an officer told AFP Malala was shot as she was getting on the bus, then later that a gunman had flagged down the vehicle some distance away.

“One of them, who had a small beard, went inside and asked the children which was Malala,” Shah told AFP.

“He fired three shots. One bullet hit Malala’s head. The second hit the shoulder of her school friend and the third inflicted a minor leg injury to another girl on the bus,” the policeman added.

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP the Islamist group carried out the attack after repeatedly warning Malala to stop speaking out against them.
“She is a Western-minded girl. She always speaks against us. We will target anyone who speaks against the Taliban,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“We warned her several times to stop speaking against the Taliban and to stop supporting Western NGOs, and to come to the path of Islam.”

Yes, that's the way civilized people deal with opposition and criticism- just shoot 'em dead. Even children.

Of course there were the useless and obligatory condemnations from the usual suspects including Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardaro, who said they would continue to fight Islamist militants. Right, this from a country that harbored (knowingly or not) the world's most wanted man (Bin Laden) for so many years. Then the U.S. State Department's Victoria Nuland said:

“Directing violence at children is barbaric, it’s cowardly, and our hearts go out to her and the others who were wounded, as well as their families.” 

You think?

Amnesty International piped in with:

“This attack highlights the extremely dangerous climate human rights activists face in northwestern Pakistan, where particularly female activists live under constant threats from the Taliban and other militant groups.” 

As though any of that will make one iota of difference in how the Taliban militants deal with what they consider infidels.  And everyone thinks they are becoming a more moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban, as Lara Logan put it.  What a joke. They're as vicious and stronger as ever.

Pakistan Doctor Who Helped Capture Bin Laden Sentenced To 33 Years UPDATE:

If there was any doubt that Pakistan knew about and harbored Osama Bin Laden for all those years in Abbottabad, set those doubts aside, because it's quite obvious they sympathized with one of the world's most infamous terrorists. They've always shown anger and disapproval over the killing of Bin Laden, and now they've sentenced Shakil Afridi, the doctor who was instrumental in capturing Bin Laden, to 33 years in jail for high treason. A man who should have been honored for helping rid the world of an incredibly evil man is instead being severely punished.

According to a Pakistani official, Nasir Khan, he has also been fined around $3,500, and if he doesn't pay up 3 1/2 years will be added to his sentence.

The U.S., of course, has asked for his release, and the State Department's Victoria Nuland said of the situation,

“Our views on it haven’t changed. We continue to see no basis for Dr. Afridi to be held,” Nuland said. “We will continue to make those representations to the government of Pakistan.”

When asked why she only referred to Afridi’s charges and did not acknowledge his actual conviction and sentencing, Nuland said: “It’s not clear that the legal process is over, OK? There may be other options for him legally.”

Since Afridi was charged with treason last year, the U.S. has been trying to get Pakistan to allow the good doctor and his family to come to the states, obviously to no avail. John McCain-R and Carl Levin-D of the Senate Ared Services Committee both have called the sentence "shocking and outrageous" and want him pardoned and released immediately.

“Dr. Afridi’s continuing imprisonment and treatment as a criminal will only do further harm to U.S.-Pakistani relations, including diminishing Congress’s willingness to provide financial assistance to Pakistan,” they warned.

Not that Pakistan cares. They've been pulling the proverbial fleece over our eyes for years, pretending to be allies when they're really not. They're no better than the terrorists they seem to aid and abet.

UPDATE: 5/31/12  Now Pakistan is claiming it had nothing to do with his CIA affiliation, but rather his alleged ties to militants.  Like that's believable.

US Navy Rescues Iranian Fishermen Held Hostage By Pirates

In response to U.S. calls for tighter sanctions against Iran, the Iranian government has been threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Of course it's highly unlikely they would, according to various sources, considering Iran needs to transport its oil to China (one of its few remaining customers) through that narrow waterway.

"We would be committing economical suicide by closing off the Hormuz Strait," said an Iranian Oil Ministry official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Oil money is our only income, so we would be spectacularly shooting ourselves in the foot by doing that."

Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a political scientist running for parliament from the camp of clerics and commanders opposing Ahmadinejad, said it is "good politics" for Iran to respond to US threats with threats of its own.

"But our threat will not be realised," Ardestani said. "We are just responding to the US, nothing more."

And just as well, for them, that they didn't block it off, since several of our U.S. Naval warships (the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier and the USS Kidd) rescued 13 Iranian fisherman who had been captured by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea.

“The Iranians and the dhow (a traditional vessel) have been released and they’re on their way back home,” said Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

Apparently a rescue team from the USS Kidd came to the aid of  the fishermen who had been held captive for more than 40 days,:

"The Al Molai had been pirated and used as a ‘mother ship’ for pirate operations throughout the Persian Gulf, according to members of the Iranian vessel’s crew."

The 15 pirates will be held on board the Stennis until decisions are made as to where and who will prosecute them.   According to Victoria Nuland of the State Department, there are more than 1,000 pirates currently being prosecuted for piracy in about 20 different countries.

Of course, there's been all the predictable chatter about this possibly helping thaw relations between the U.S. and Iran, but I doubt it.  And there probably won't be any official word of thanks. If there is any mention of the incident, it will more than likely have an anti-U.S. spin.

But you have to love the irony- the ships that Tehran told to stay out of the Hormuz Strait wound up rescuing 13 Iranian citizens.


Source: CBS, Al Arabiya