Record­ed May 6, 2007
MP3 Side 1 | Side 2
REALAUDIO

Intro­duc­tion: Begin­ning with dis­cus­sion of the mur­der of Pak­istani crick­et coach Bob Woolmer, the pro­gram sets forth an inves­tiga­tive hypoth­e­sis that attrib­ut­es his death to a fix­ing scan­dal, exe­cut­ed by ISI agents in order to chan­nel the pro­ceeds to Al Qae­da. (The ISI is the Pak­istani intel­li­gence ser­vice, ele­ments of which are wide­ly believed to be help­ing Al Qae­da and oth­er Islamist groups.)

Next, the pro­gram sup­ple­ments pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion about Islamist/­neo-Nazi col­lab­o­ra­tion with intel­li­gence reports that Bin Laden was financ­ing Euro­pean neo-Nazi groups by 2001. A cen­tral ele­ment of Mr. Emory’s analy­sis of 9/11 and relat­ed events is the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Viewed by pow­er­ful transna­tion­al inter­ests as a vehi­cle for pro­mot­ing corporatism—particularly in the Islam­ic and Third Worlds—the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood is receiv­ing favor­able media cov­er­age as a “mod­er­ate” orga­ni­za­tion. We are being told that we can and should work with it. Con­clud­ing with the top­ic of the dis­ap­pear­ance in Iran of a for­mer FBI agent, the broad­cast sets forth his con­tacts with Amer­i­can-born Dawud Salahud­din, a pro­tégé of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Said Ramadan.

Pro­gram High­lights Include: Pak­istani crick­et play­ers’ embrace of fun­da­men­tal­ist Islam and the late Bob Woolmer’s strong crit­i­cism of their behav­ior; Time magazine’s friv­o­lous treat­ment of the threat of Osama bin Laden; an Ital­ian police official’s view that much of the dis­tur­bance at the 2001 G8 sum­mit in Genoa (in 2001) was pro­duced by fas­cist and Nazi infil­tra­tors [pos­si­bly those financed in part by bin Laden); review of the World Bank’s assess­ment of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood eco­nom­ic idol Ibn Khal­dun as the first advo­cate of pri­va­ti­za­tion.

1. The role of orga­nized crime activ­i­ties in gen­er­at­ing rev­enues for Mus­lim Broth­er­hood ter­ror­ist off­shoots is often over­looked. This pro­gram sets forth an inves­tiga­tive hypoth­e­sis assert­ing that Pak­istani crick­et coach Bob Woolmer was killed by ISI agents as part of a sports bet­ting scam to gen­er­ate ter­ror­ist rev­enues. (The ISI is the Pak­istani intel­li­gence ser­vice, ele­ments of which are wide­ly believed to be help­ing Al Qae­da and oth­er Islamist groups. For more about the role of ISI agents in Al Qaeda’s activ­i­ties, see—among oth­er programs—FTR#’s 500, 525.) “. . . Who killed Bob Woolmer? Here’s the only con­clu­sion I can draw with any degree of cer­tain­ty: Hang around crick­et long enough — like, say, a week — and you’ll end up through the look­ing glass. Way through the look­ing glass. Oliv­er Stone-on-the-Kennedy-assas­si­na­tion ter­ri­to­ry. I talk to a Guy. A Guy who knows stuff. A Guy in the infor­ma­tion acqui­si­tion busi­ness. I can’t tell you more. Sor­ry. We meet in the lob­by of the Pega­sus, at night. I sug­gest we get a drink. He walks me past the hotel gym, past the pool­side bar, past the chat­ty bar­keeps and the tabloid writ­ers down­ing Red Stripes. We sit at the far end of the pool, on white plas­tic chairs, in near dark­ness. This is what he tells me: . . . . He says Woolmer was def­i­nite­ly mur­dered. Of this, he has no doubt. He says he saw a pic­ture of Woolmer’s body, there was a mark on Woolmer’s neck, on the right side, just below the jaw line, that sug­gests phys­i­cal trau­ma. He says he’s spo­ken to some­one in inter­na­tion­al intel­li­gence, some­one well-placed, and that ever since the Unit­ed States cut off much of al-Qaida’s fund­ing after the Sept. 11 attacks, the ter­ror­ist group has used ille­gal sports gam­bling in India and Pak­istan as a major source of rev­enue. He says al-Qai­da has ties to Dawood Ibrahim, the Al Capone of India, a man accused of mas­ter­mind­ing a 1993 bomb­ing that killed 257 peo­ple in Mum­bai, a man with ties to the book­mak­er alleged­ly linked to Samuels, a man rumored to have lost mil­lions on the Ire­land-Pak­istan match. He says al-Qai­da also has ties to Pak­istan’s Inter-Ser­vices Intel­li­gence agency, the for­mer — and some say cur­rent — patron of Afghanistan’s Tal­iban. He says the ISI is inter­twined in both the Pak­istani gov­ern­ment and Pak­istani crick­et, and that one of the mem­bers of the Pak­istani crick­et team’s trav­el­ing par­ty is actu­al­ly an ISI oper­a­tive. He says that al-Qai­da may have put a lot of mon­ey on the Pak­istani team, and may have been dis­ap­point­ed in its poor per­for­mance. Mur­der­ous­ly so. He says that Woolmer may have found him­self between a rock and a hard place, because despite what his friends and fam­i­ly have said, the coach knew about larg­er-scale cor­rup­tion and was going to blow the whis­tle.”
(“Mur­der by Crick­et” by Patrick Hru­by; ESPN E‑Ticket; 4/25/2007.)

2. The author’s infor­mant believes that ISI agents were cel­e­brat­ing their actions after Pakistan’s final match: “He says Woolmer found out that three inter­na­tion­al umpires were being paid off, and that the ISI had set up off­shore bank­ing accounts for them. He says the bank accounts were financed with Chi­nese mon­ey. I ask why. He does­n’t elab­o­rate. He says he believes the ISI is involved in Woolmer’s mur­der. He says some­one in the Pak­istan team par­ty knows what hap­pened, and dur­ing Pak­istan’s final World Cup game — against Zim­bab­we, after Woolmer’s death — a mem­ber of the team par­ty was spot­ted with his feet up, drink­ing cham­pagne, and the cham­pagne-sip­per in ques­tion is prob­a­bly ISI. He says all of the above is why Pak­istan dis­patched two diplo­mats to Jamaica. While mouthing the word ‘diplo­mats,’ he makes air quotes with his hands. He says the Jamaican police have no sus­pects and no motive, and yet a coro­ner’s inquest has been sched­uled. He says this is a way to drag things out. He says he does not believe the Jamaican police will solve the case. . . .” (Idem.)

3. Pos­si­bly adding fuel to the fire is the fact that mem­bers of the Pak­istani team were Islamists and fre­quent­ly inter­rupt­ed match activ­i­ties for their prayers and lis­ten­ing to pre-record­ed tapes. This might well have caused Woolmer to fall afoul of Islamist inter­ests involved with the team. “Woolmer was upset that sev­er­al mem­bers of the Pak­istani team were fol­low­ers of the Tab­lighi Jamaat, a Mus­lim revival­ist move­ment, Pak­istani media man­ag­er Per­vez Mir indi­cat­ed on Tues­day dur­ing the BBC’s Panora­ma pro­gram. A fat­wa angle has emerged in the mys­te­ri­ous mur­der of Bob Woolmer, with the dis­clo­sure that the Pak­istan coach was report­ed­ly unhap­py with the time spent by play­ers on prayers. Woolmer was upset that sev­er­al mem­bers of the Pak­istani team were fol­low­ers of the Tab­lighi Jamaat, a Mus­lim revival­ist move­ment, Pak­istani media man­ag­er Per­vez Mir indi­cat­ed on Tues­day dur­ing the BBC’s Panora­ma pro­gram, which focused on Bob Woolmer’s mur­der in a Jamaican hotel six weeks ago. Accord­ing to Mir, Woolmer felt that the play­ers were focus­ing more on their reli­gion than on the game. He went on to claim that Woolmer could have even invit­ed a fat­wa had he gone pub­lic with his feel­ings about the play­ers’ focus on prayer. . . .”
(“Woolmer Case Takes a Fat­wa Twist”; PTI; 5/2/2007.)

4. Next, the pro­gram high­lights a report that Osama Bin Laden was financ­ing Euro­pean neo-Nazi groups, alleged­ly in order to dis­rupt the 2001 Genoa G8 con­fer­ence. (In FTR#456, we exam­ined the Nazi and fas­cist con­nec­tions to 9/11. Note, in par­tic­u­lar, the oper­a­tional links in the 9/11 attacks and oth­er ter­ror­ist inci­dents between Islamists and neo-Nazis.) “ . . . Accord­ing to Ger­many’s intel­li­gence ser­vices, Osama Bin Ladin, the Islamist extrem­ist, has start­ed to finance far-right groups through­out Europe in order for them to car­ry out attacks in Italy dur­ing the G8 sum­mit meet­ing in the sum­mer in Genoa, an Ital­ian paper says. Gen Saba­to Palaz­zo, head of the Cara­binier­i’s Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Sec­tion, has said that the threat should be tak­en seri­ous­ly and that fringe groups who do not want the event to take place are being mon­i­tored. The fol­low­ing is the text of a report by Antoni­et­ta Cal­abro, ‘Osama fund­ing neo-Nazis against G8 sum­mit’, by Ital­ian news­pa­per Cor­riere del­la Sera on 14 Feb­ru­ary: Rome: A red alert over the G8 sum­mit in Genoa has come in the last few hours from Ger­many. Accord­ing to infor­ma­tion in the hands of Ger­many’s intel­li­gence ser­vices, Osama Bin Ladin, the king mak­er of Islam­ic ter­ror­ism, has start­ed to finance Nazi skin­head groups through­out Europe, in order for them to car­ry out attacks and acts of vio­lence in Italy dur­ing the sum­mit of heads of states and heads of gov­ern­ment which is to be held in five months time in the region­al cap­i­tal of Lig­uria Genoa. . . .”
(“Ital­ian Paper Says G8 Sum­mit at Risk from Bin Laden-Fund­ed Attacks” [Cor­riere Del­la Sera]; BBC; 2/14/2007.)

5. A Genoa police offi­cial con­firmed that there were, in fact, neo-Nazi and fas­cist infil­tra­tors among the demon­stra­tors, although the report­ed remote-con­trol plane gam­bit did not occur. “He con­firmed the same news he had denied one month ago. Cam­ou­flaged neo-Nazis among the peace­ful pro­test­ers of the Genoa Social Forum. Yet anoth­er resound­ing rev­e­la­tion, includ­ing even a pre­cise fig­ure: six-hun­dred infil­tra­tors. The for­mer Que­store [local chief of police] Coluc­ci (whom the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs sacked after the July 20–21 riots) stat­ed this dur­ing the 7‑hour long inter­view in front of the Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee inves­ti­gat­ing G8-relat­ed events. This offi­cial­ly con­firms the pres­ence of groups of far-right­ist prova­ca­teurs. . . .”
(“Six-Hun­dred Nazi Infil­tra­tors in Genoa: Ex-Chief of Genoa Police Con­firms” by Wu Ming; Il Sec­o­lo XIX; 9/01/2001.)

6. The late Edith Whar­ton once observed that: “A friv­o­lous soci­ety can only achieve dra­mat­ic sig­nif­i­cance through what its friv­o­li­ty destroys.” Indica­tive of the friv­o­lous atmos­phere of the Unit­ed States dur­ing the sum­mer of 2001 is a piece in Time mag­a­zine that makes light of Bin Laden. That tone was to change dra­mat­i­cal­ly. “. . . . Then there is the sub­lime: For sheer dia­bol­i­cal genius (of the Hol­ly­wood vari­ety), noth­ing came close to the reports that Euro­pean secu­ri­ty ser­vices are prepar­ing to counter a Bin Laden attempt to assas­si­nate Pres­i­dent Bush at next mon­th’s G8 sum­mit in Genoa, Italy. Accord­ing to Ger­man intel­li­gence sources, the plot involved Bin Laden pay­ing Ger­man neo-Nazis to fly remote con­trolled-mod­el air­craft packed with Sem­tex into the con­fer­ence hall and blow the lead­ers of the indus­tri­al­ized world to smithereens. (Pag­ing Jer­ry Bruck­heimer.) The Rus­sians, who believe a Bin Laden attack in Genoa is more like­ly to be car­ried out by their old ene­my, the Chechens, have sent an advance team of anti ter­ror­ism experts (armed, we hope, with small-scale anti-air­craft weapons). . . .”
(“Bin Laden Rides Again: Myth vs. Real­i­ty” by Tony Karon; Time; 6/20/2001.)

7. Revis­it­ing the sub­ject of the Islam­o­fas­cist Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, the pro­gram notes the cog­ni­tive re-pack­ag­ing of the Broth­er­hood as “OK.” Mr. Emory com­pares the con­tem­po­rary media treat­ment of the Broth­er­hood to the media’s delib­er­ate soft­pedal­ing of the Nazi Ger­many and fas­cist Italy in the run-up to World War II. Sym­pa­thet­ic to the cor­po­ratist phi­los­o­phy of fas­cism, as well as its doc­tri­naire anti-com­mu­nism, many pow­er­ful media barons gave the Axis pow­ers favor­able reportage. (For more about this favor­able media cov­er­age of the Axis, see AFA#1, avail­able from Spit­fire. For more about the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, see—among oth­er programs—FTR#’s 343, 455, 537. For more about the Mus­lim Brotherhood’s accep­tance by the mul­ti-nation­al cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ty, see FTR#’s 560, 561.) “ . . . . This isn’t your father’s Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. It’s still the world’s old­est and largest Islamist move­ment. But as with Arshead him­self, these days it’s gone heavy on populism—and light on God. Known as the Ikhwan in Ara­bic, renowned for its con­ser­v­a­tive and often back­ward ways, it now counts women as mem­bers. Once wary of engag­ing in the parochial rough-and-tum­ble of pol­i­tics, it increas­ing­ly col­lab­o­rates with non-Mus­lim and even sec­u­lar groups push­ing for demo­c­ra­t­ic reform. That ‘big tent’ polit­i­cal prag­ma­tism is now help­ing the Broth­er­hood move deci­sive­ly into the Arab main­stream, scor­ing big elec­tion advances from Moroc­co to Egypt to Lebanon as the cham­pi­on of the lit­tle man con­cerned with such dai­ly life issues as heath care, the price of cook­ing oil and good, clean gov­ern­ment. Wash­ing­ton seems to be tak­ing note. Ear­li­er this month, a del­e­ga­tion of U.S. con­gress­men met a group of Egypt­ian law­mak­ers that includ­ed a senior Ikhwan leader—once at the Egypt­ian Par­lia­ment and again for din­ner at the U.S. ambas­sador’s res­i­dence. ‘The Broth­er­hood has become more mod­er­ate as it matures,’ says Adnan Abu Odeh, a Pales­tin­ian activist in Amman. ‘The new gen­er­a­tion cares more about pow­er than God.’ . . . .”
(“Mideast: The New Mus­lim Broth­er­hood” by Stephen Glain;Newsweek Inter­na­tion­al; 4/30/2007.)

8. High­light­ing the cor­po­ratist phi­los­o­phy of the Broth­er­hood, the pro­gram reviews infor­ma­tion from FTR#560. “. . . . In recent years, some 500 Islam­ic banks and invest­ment firms hold­ing $2 tril­lion in assets have emerged in the Gulf States, with more in Islam­ic com­mu­ni­ties of the West. British Chan­cel­lor of the Exche­quer Gor­don Brown wants to make Lon­don a glob­al cen­ter for Islam­ic finance—and elic­its no howl of protest from fun­da­men­tal­ists. How Islamists might run a cen­tral bank is more prob­lem­at­ic: schol­ars say they would manip­u­late cur­ren­cy reserves, not inter­est rates. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood hails 14th cen­tu­ry philoso­pher Ibn Khal­dun as its eco­nom­ic guide. Antic­i­pat­ing sup­ply-side eco­nom­ics, Khal­dun argued that cut­ting tax­es rais­es pro­duc­tion and tax rev­enues, and that state con­trol should be lim­it­ed to pro­vid­ing water, fire and free graz­ing land, the util­i­ties of the ancient world. The World Bank has called Ibn Khal­dun the first advo­cate of pri­va­ti­za­tion. His found­ing influ­ence is a sign of mod­er­a­tion. If Islamists in pow­er ever do clash with the West, it won’t be over com­merce.”
(“Islam in Office” by Stephen Glain; Newsweek; 7/3–10/2006.)

9. Con­clud­ing with the sto­ry of a for­mer FBI agent who dis­ap­peared in Iran, the broad­cast high­lights Robert Levinson’s con­tacts with Dawud Salahud­din, an Afro-Amer­i­can who con­vert­ed to Islam and emi­grat­ed to Iran. Salahud­din was a pro­tégé of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Said Ramadan, who recruit­ed him to kill a for­mer Iran­ian offi­cial and helped him get to Afghanistan to fight against the Sovi­ets. (For more about Salahuddin’s rela­tion­ship with Said Ramadan, see FTR#373.) It remains to be seen just what Levinson’s fate is. “An Amer­i­can fugi­tive liv­ing in Iran since he mur­dered an Iran­ian oppo­si­tion activist in the US in 1980 has revealed that he met a for­mer Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion agent short­ly before the lat­ter dis­ap­peared on the Iran­ian island of Kish a month ago. US author­i­ties have been anx­ious­ly seek­ing infor­ma­tion about the for­mer agent, Robert Levin­son, for sev­er­al weeks. The Iran­ian for­eign min­istry says it is try­ing to clar­i­fy his where­abouts. US offi­cials sus­pect he is in Iran­ian deten­tion. Euro­pean diplo­mats in Wash­ing­ton hes­i­tate to describe Mr Levin­son as a ‘hostage’, say­ing details of his case remain murky. They are con­cerned that the US, Britain and Iran are stum­bling into a new phase of tit-for-tat pris­on­er-tak­ing that was kicked off when the US detained five Iran­ian offi­cials in Iraq in Jan­u­ary, spark­ing anger in Tehran. The US State Depart­ment has revealed few details about Mr Levin­son’s vis­it to Iran, insist­ing he was there on pure­ly pri­vate busi­ness. But Dawud Salahud­din, an Amer­i­can who con­vert­ed to Islam and was giv­en refuge in Iran in 1980, shed light on the mys­tery when he con­firmed to the Finan­cial Times in Tehran that he had met Mr Levin­son in a hotel on Kish on March 8. Mr Salahud­din, known in Iran as Has­san Abdul­rah­man, said he was detained by offi­cials in plain clothes at 11pm and tak­en from the room he shared with Mr Levin­son to be ques­tioned about his Iran­ian pass­port. Mr Salahud­din was freed the next after­noon and told by the offi­cials that Mr Levin­son had flown back to Dubai. . . .”
(“Fugi­tive Says He Met Miss­ing Ex-FBI Agent in Iran”; Finan­cial Times; 4/13/2007.)

10. Two video pro­duc­tions are being gen­er­at­ed by a cou­ple of doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ers. One is a DVD of a three-lec­ture series called “The First Refuge of a Scoundrel: The Rela­tion­ship Between Fas­cism and Reli­gion.” To learn more about this, vis­it The Anti-Fas­cist YouTube.com page. In addi­tion, there will soon be a doc­u­men­tary about Mr. Emory, titled “The Anti-Fas­cist.” For more about this project, vis­it theantifascist.com.