Recorded May 6, 2007
MP3 Side 1 | Side 2
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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.
Discussion
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