Israel:
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Organizers Linked To Worldwide Terrorism
The so called Gaza
Peace Freedom Flotilla is using
electronic Jihad to incite thousands of Muslims.
By
Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem
---- May 29, 2010 . The "Gaza Freedom Flotilla",
a group of ships carrying up to 800 people and 10,000 tons of
supplies destined for the Gaza Strip has the alledged aim of stirring
international debate regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
However, questions have been raised as to their motives especially
given evidence of the organizer's direct ties to international
terrorist organizations including al Qaida and Hamas.
Israel security
sources have told the Israel News Agency that the main
organization behind the "freedom" flotilla that is now
sailing towards the Gaza Strip is called The Turkish Humanitarian
Relief Foundation (IHH), a so-called "relief" organization
from Turkey.
This is an
organization unabashedly proud of its close ties to Hamas, a terror
organization as recognized by the United States, Israel and the
European Union (EU).
The Turkish
Humanitarian Relief Foundation is openly supportive of Hamas,
an organization that is widely seen as the one of the largest
perpetrators of human rights violations, having violently seized
control of the Gaza Strip, and committed immeasurable human rights
violations against its own people, not to mention hundreds of
terror attacks initiated targeting the citizens of Israel.
These aren't
the only roles the IHH has played to support Islamic terror, as
if this wasn't enough. In fact, not only is IHH linked to global
Islamic terror organizations, but it is the direct supporter of
not only terrorism against Israel, but a primary backer of world-wide
terrorism against nations which practice democracy.
At the heart
of many terrorist networks are so-called Islamic "relief"
organizations have proven invaluable as sources of cash, weapons,
and recruitment of terror operatives. So effective is their role
in covering up terrorist activity from the international intelligence
community under the guise of promoting humanitarian aid, that
Osama bin Laden has admitted that these NGO "charities"
have been al-Qaida primary source of funding and have enabled
the build-up of his organization to fly under the radar.
Examples of
Islamic organizations funneling funds to terror organizations
masked as NGOs include: the Benevolence International Foundation,
Global Relief Foundation, Taibah International Aid Association,
all of whom and countless other have been shut down, banned and
its leaders arrested by the US government.
The IHH is
one of such organizations, a primary example of an NGO that functions
as a "charitable" organization in order to divert resources
to terror activity.
In a working
paper for The Danish Institute for International Studies, an independent
international affairs research institution of Denmark, terrorism
analyst and expert witness for the prosecution in U.S. terrorism
trials, Evan Kohlmann details IHH's extensive affiliation with
the Islamic terror network, including: explicit ties to Hamas,
al-Qaida, as well other militant Islamic organizations based in
Algeria, Libya, Turkey.
Even in Turkey
there have been hostile exchanges between the IHH and the Turkish
government, who had previously made efforts to combat home-grown
terrorism. In December 1997, Turkey authorities began a criminal
investigation into IHH when sources revealed to them that the
IHH had purchased semi-automatic weapons from Islamic terror groups.
Their Istanbul bureau was thoroughly searched and the local leaders
arrested. Inside the bureau an array of items were found: "firearms,
explosives, bomb-making instructions and a jihadi flag."
After analyzing seized IHH documents, the Turkish authorities
determined that the arrested leaders had been on their way to
fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.
During the
1999 earthquake in Turkey, the IHH was banned from providing relief
aid efforts because the organization was deemed by the government
as a fundamentalist organization and would not provide transparency
of their bank accounts to Turkish officials.
It is odd
that today Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports
the IHH in their attempt to break the maritime closure of the
Gaza Strip, and ranks the IHH's efforts as his "top priority"
for the country.
The IHH has
also provided aid to insurgents seeking to kill American troops
in Iraq. In his working paper, Kohlmann notes that the IHH played
a large role in providing "charitable donations" to
insurgent rich areas in central Iraq such as Fallujah and that
the current president of IHH and organizer of the "Freedom
Flotilla", Bulent Yildrim, had galvanized anti-America sentiment
and incitement in these areas against U.S. troops during the Iraqi
War.
Not only have
the IHH stirred trouble in Turkey for supporting terror, but their
aims to promote terror activity have reached a worldwide level.
In 1996, phone
records of the IHH showed calls to an Al Qaida guesthouse in Milan
and to Algerian terror cells throughout Europe.
Kohlmann also
cited that famed counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere
found that in the mid 1990's Bulent Yildrim also conspired to
recruit members in anticipation for a coming jihad, and sent IHH
members to war zones in Muslim countries in order for them to
gain combatant experience. He sought to obtain support by these
Muslim countries for the IHH by transferring weapon and explosives
caches to these countries.
Jean-Louis
Bruguiere has also testified to a U.S. Court in 2003 that the
IHH played a "central role" in the attempted al-Qaida
Millenium bomb plot targeting Los Angeles International Airport,
among other areas of the world. Bruguiere added that the IHH is
a "cover-up" NGO which had served to recruit, forge
documents and traffic weapons for the terrorists involved in the
terror attack attempt.
The same U.S.
Court document cites that the IHH has also had contact with Abdurahman
Alamoudi, founder of the American Muslim Council, who is serving
a 23 year sentence for illegal transactions with the Libyan government
and was part of a Libyan plot to assassinate the Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah.
The IHH organization
is banned in Israel as part of a group of organizations ironically
titled the "Union of Good." Israel Defense Minister
Ehud Barak signed an order citing the IHH as an organization that
fund-raises and assists Hamas.
It would be
comical to assume that an organization so entrenched in terror
activity has good intentions in orchestrating a large PR publicity
stunt for an area with a supposed "humanitarian crisis",
and it would be naïve to assume that most of the so called
peace activists on the ships heading towards Gaza are unaware
of their organization's connections with terror.
In fact, one
of the 39 principles of Islamic Jihad or Holy War practiced and
advocated by Al-Qaeda's Jihad, which was exposed in a private
study by Israel researcher Col. Jonathan D. Halevi (res.), explicitly
illustrates a how-to chapter on performing electronic Jihad.
These people
are not riding donkeys, rather these 21st century Jihadists have
their fingers dancing on computer keyboards across the globe.
In performing electronic Jihad - Al-Salem attributes paramount
importance to the Internet as a component for Jihad. He calls
believers to join the Jihad against all Jews and Christians by
participating in Internet forums to defend the Islam and Mujahideen,
to preach Jihad and to encourage Muslims to learn more about this
sacred duty. The Internet provides an opportunity to reach vast,
target audiences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and respond
swiftly to opposing allegations. Islamic computer experts are
asked to use their skills and experience in destroying American,
Jewish and secular Websites as well as morally corrupt web sites.
The so called Gaza Peace ships are using this inciteful electronic
Jihad as they broadcast live using the Internet from their ships.
Sadly, much
of the international media from the BBC, SKY News and CNN
to Reuters, AP and AFP are not reporting about recent
previous terror activity and present media public relations tactics
of the IHH, as well as the long history of bogus NGO's created
to divert funds to Islamic terror groups.
The IHH and organizations similar to it have always sought to
generate PR publicity stunts of providing humanitarian aid in
order to mobilize their extremist base and the "Freedom Flotilla"
is yet another example of this.
The
Israel News Agency,
which is accredited by Israel Government Press Office, was the
first on line news organization in Israel. The INA reaches up
to 60 million readers through Google News and Internet social
networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from
New York, London, Moscow and Paris to Toronto, Los Angeles, China
and India. Leyden is presently launching the United
States News Agency using the INA as a successful working model.