Monday, June 30, 2008

Connolly Taking Cash from Terrorists?

Connolly...no surprise here. Will be curious to see how he defends this.

NEWS
For Immediate Release Contact: Jessica Dues
June 30, 2008 (202) 547-8570

TVC TELLS CONNOLLY:
RETURN CONTRIBUTION FROM RADICAL ISLAMIC LOBBY

Connolly Contributor Uses Aliases and Has Links to Hamas

Washington, DC – The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) has called on Fairfax County Supervisor Gerald Connolly to return a contribution his Congressional campaign received from a radical Islamic official and reopen the supervisors’ lease renewal of the Islamic Saudi Academy.

A Federal Election Commission report lists “Nehad Hammad” as the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and reports that he donated $500 to the Congressional primary campaign of Gerald Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

Law enforcement officials note that Hammad is an alias used by Nihad Awad who is the founder of CAIR and is listed on the group’s website as its Executive Director. Before founding CAIR, Awad served as spokesman for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) which the Federal Bureau of Investigation officials have identified as a front-group for the violent terrorist organization Hamas.

According to several sources, Awad uses the name Nehad Hammad on some official forms such as IRS documents instead of the name Nihad Awad he uses publicly as a top official at CAIR. One former federal official refers to CAIR as “Terrorists R Us” and points to a long list of CAIR staff who have been convicted of financing terrorist activities.

“Mr. Connolly should return the check he received from Awad, Hammad or whatever his name is today,” said James Lafferty, a spokesman for the Traditional Values Coalition.

At a May hearing of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Chairman Connolly attempted to bully and shout down witnesses from TVC who quoted parts of ISA textbooks. He repeatedly accused the TVC witnesses of bigotry and yelled “slander” several times.

“The cause of Mr. Connolly’s anger and vehemence in defending the Islamic Saudi Academy is now apparent. Are there other leaders of radical Islam involved in or financing Mr. Connolly’s campaign?

“Mr. Connolly has set a new low for what value-neutral politicians will do to raise money or pander to the most radical voting blocs. He needs to come clean and scrub his campaign of all terrorist influence and sympathizers.

“He also needs to right the wrongs he has done and bring the same passion to reversing the decision of the Board of Supervisors to lease a former county school to the Saudi government. He tried to pawn it off on the State Department which does not have jurisdiction in a desperate effort to save face. It is an affront to every Fairfax County taxpayer to provide classrooms to those determined to indoctrinate young people to become the next generation of terrorists.”

Traditional Values Coalition is an inter-denominational public policy organization speaking on behalf of 43,000 churches. For more information, call
(202) 547-8570. TVC 139 “C” Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Web site address: www.traditionalvalues.org

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Saudi Govt. TV

If anyone doubts what the Saudi's believe, see what they're running on their State TV:
saudiwatch.wordpress.com/videos/

My favorite is at the bottom...Mohammed is our model, sex with a 9 year old is ok...they said it, not I.

ISA owes taxes?

Will post more.
Keep following Patrick Poole articles.

Bottom line: ISA either owes 4 years of County, State, and Federal taxes or is an official extension of the Saudi Embassy and therefore subject to Foreign Missions Act.

Either way, the Sauds will have to answer to the IRS or State Dept will finally have to deal with the ISA.

ISA on Shaky Grounds

http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2008/06/27/virginias-islamic-academy-on-shaky-legal-ground-youre-telling-us/

Patrick Poole had apprised us several days ago that this Pajamas Media expose on the Islamic Saudi Academy’s (ISA) ‘illegal operations’ was in the works. Now, this information on the lack of current corporate papers and US IRS tax flings leads directly to a question about the legal status of the ISA vis a vis the U.S. Foreign Mission Act cited in the USCIRF report.

Here’s the money line from Poole Pajamas media article:

If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn’t appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn’t part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally.

In an email exchange with Poole he posed the obvious dilemma faced by the troubled Saudi-sponsored school in Fairfax County Virginia:

Are they operating directly as an arm of the Saudi Embassy, contrary to the claims of the State Department?

Note what Poole cites as evidence of the Saudi government ISA relationship drawn from the USCIRF report to support an investigation as requested by Rep. Frank Wolf in his letter sent to secretary of State Condi Rice:

When USCIRF reviewed the academy’s corporate documents, it found that the school was using the Federal Employee Identification Number (EIN) of the “Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.” And in its October 2007 report, USCIRF made the following observations regarding the relationship between the Islamic Saudi Academy and the Saudi Embassy:

* It is the only school in the United States that is operated with the direct authority of the Saudi embassy. Twenty such academies are operated by the government of Saudi Arabia in foreign capital cities around the world.
* It operates on two northern Virginia properties owned or leased by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, with the leased property being leased by “the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia d/b/a (doing business as) the Islamic Saudi Academy.”
* The Saudi ambassador to the United States is the chairman of the school’s board of directors, which, according to the Academy’s web site, “oversees the educational and administrative operation” and “provides direction and guidance to every aspect of” the school’s operations.
* The school is funded by the government of Saudi Arabia.
* On numerous occasions, Saudi Embassy officials have spoken to the press on the ISA’s behalf-including in response to inquiries about its curriculum.
* According to the Academy’s brochure, posted on its own web site, the ISA uses Saudi government “curriculum, syllabus, and materials.”

As the academy has forfeited its Virginia incorporation and is now operating as a d/b/a of the embassy, and considering that the school is funded by the embassy, operates on property owned and leased by the embassy, the embassy speaks publicly on its behalf, and it uses Saudi government curriculum, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that it is solely an entity of the Saudi government controlled entirely by the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC — a position directly in opposition to the present claims of the State Department.

These revelations put the matter of the Saudi connection to the ISA in a different and disturbing light. One that will surely catch the attention of Rep. Wolf on the House State and Foreign Operations Committee and should put the State Department and the Royal Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC on notice for a response, not cloaked in either diplomatic bafflegab or taqiyya.

The controversial school funded by the Saudi Embassy had its corporate charter revoked in 2004 and has never filed required tax forms with the IRS.

by Patrick Poole, Pajamas Media, June 27, 2008

An investigation by Pajamas Media has found that more trouble may be on the horizon for the Islamic Saudi Academy and the Saudi Embassy.

PJM first reported on the academy, a school sponsored by the Saudi Embassy, two weeks ago when law enforcement authorities raided it, looking for evidence that the school’s director, Abdullah Al-Shabnan, had covered up sex abuse allegations by a 5-year old student. The raid occurred just three days after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors had renewed the school’s lease despite evidence that the school continued to use textbooks promoting violence and religious hatred.

Since then Abdullah Al-Shabnan has been charged with failing to report the child abuse allegations and obstruction of justice. A protest was held last week in front of the academy and it received considerable local media coverage, including from the Washington Post. That coverage no doubt played a role earlier this week when in a stunning about-face the Fairfax Board of Supervisors sent a letter to the State Department asking them to determine whether the lease should be renewed or not in light of the report earlier this month by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that reviewed the academy’s textbooks and found that incendiary and hateful passages had not been removed.

The school has issued a press release claiming that the passages have been “mistranslated and misinterpreted,” and saying that the “textbooks are no longer at use at the Academy.” That contradicts statements made last week by school officials to the media that textbooks will be rewritten and reissued before the beginning of school. Why would the textbooks need to be rewritten if those under scrutiny are no longer in use?

The textbooks are not the only elements of the school that don’t hold up under scrutiny.

Virtually all of the establishment media press reports have wrongly claimed that the school operates independently of the embassy as a private entity. Even Tom Casey, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, made this error during his June 24 daily press briefing:

QUESTION: I understand that you’ve received a letter from the — from Fairfax County asking you whether you could give an opinion on the lease of the Saudi school in Alexandria and whether the county should extend that lease, which I am told it’s worth $2.2 million a year. But — just, I mean, do you expect to pronounce yourselves on that? Is that something that you –

MR. CASEY: Well, I think it’s something we’ve just gotten. We’ll certainly take a look at it and see what kind of response would be appropriate, but I — you know, it’s not something we’ve had a chance to really look through. As you know, this is a school that is incorporated and overseen through the county there. It’s not an institution that we have any sort of formal role in accrediting or managing. But certainly, we’ll take a look at the letter and if there’s some thoughts or advice that we can offer, we’ll certainly do it.

And State Department spokesman Nichole Thompson has also said:

This is a private school. It is not a part of the Saudi embassy. It is not part of a diplomatic mission.

These claims by State Department officials make clear their position that the Islamic Saudi Academy has maintained a separate corporate identity from the Saudi Embassy. But a review of the corporate records on file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission finds that the Islamic Saudi Academy’s corporate charter was terminated by the state on December 27, 2004. There is no indication from state records that the incorporation has been revived or renewed, and the last corporate report the school has filed with the state of Virginia that we could find was 2004 — the same year its corporate charter was terminated. A check of corporations in neighboring District of Columbia and Maryland found nothing for the academy.

And statements made about the school’s alleged independence from the Saudi Embassy also appear to be unfounded. When USCIRF reviewed the academy’s corporate documents, it found that the school was using the Federal Employee Identification Number (EIN) of the “Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.” And in its October 2007 report, USCIRF made the following observations regarding the relationship between the Islamic Saudi Academy and the Saudi Embassy:

* It is the only school in the United States that is operated with the direct authority of the Saudi embassy. Twenty such academies are operated by the government of Saudi Arabia in foreign capital cities around the world.
* It operates on two northern Virginia properties owned or leased by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, with the leased property being leased by “the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia d/b/a (doing business as) the Islamic Saudi Academy.”
* The Saudi ambassador to the United States is the chairman of the school’s board of directors, which, according to the Academy’s web site, “oversees the educational and administrative operation” and “provides direction and guidance to every aspect of” the school’s operations.
* The school is funded by the government of Saudi Arabia.
* On numerous occasions, Saudi Embassy officials have spoken to the press on the ISA’s behalf-including in response to inquiries about its curriculum.
* According to the Academy’s brochure, posted on its own web site, the ISA uses Saudi government “curriculum, syllabus, and materials.”

As the academy has forfeited its Virginia incorporation and is now operating as a d/b/a of the embassy, and considering that the school is funded by the embassy, operates on property owned and leased by the embassy, the embassy speaks publicly on its behalf, and it uses Saudi government curriculum, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that it is solely an entity of the Saudi government controlled entirely by the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC — a position directly in opposition to the present claims of the State Department.

Our investigation also found that at no time has the Islamic Saudi Academy ever filed an IRS Form 990, which is required of every tax exempt organization, including private schools. And according to IRS Publication 78, at no time has the school ever requested or received a tax exemption letter from the IRS. Nor, apparently, has it ever filed corporate taxes with the US government as would be required if it were an entity independent from the Saudi embassy, as it has no recognized tax exemption.

If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn’t appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn’t part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally.

This new evidence doesn’t give much leeway to the State Department to shirk the matter. However, it is understandable why State Department officials are eager to take a pass on this diplomatic and public relations conundrum. But there is no indication that the controversy surrounding the Islamic Saudi Academy is going to subside anytime soon.

As Congressional Quarterly observed in an article on Wednesday, the Islamic Saudi Academy has now become a campaign issue for the chairman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, Gerry Connolly, who is running as the Democratic Party candidate for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, where the school is located. The National Republican Campaign Committee issued a press release this week accusing Connolly of flip-flopping on the issue of the school: he had publicly charged opponents of the academy’s lease renewal of “slander” for continuing to raise questions about the school’s curriculum. Later, he and his colleagues admitted in a letter to the State Department that they were not qualified to judge the matter.

Connolly’s Republican challenger, Keith Fimian, has criticized Connolly on the issue, telling CQ that the criticisms of the academy’s texts were well-known and should have been taken into consideration before renewing the school’s lease.

That same CQ article also quotes Rep. Frank Wolf, ranking member of the House State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, calling for a congressional investigation into the matter. According to a follow-up CQ article published on Thursday, Wolf has sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging State to do a complete translation of the school’s textbooks. In a blunt assessment, Wolf appears to have handwritten on the letter to Rice, “The State Department is not doing its duty.”

One issue that the committee may want to look into is the alleged report prepared by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approving the school’s textbooks. While such a report was repeatedly invoked in the Board’s renewal of the school’s lease, the Board’s own spokesman, Merni Fitzgerald, told the Washington Times this week that no written report was ever issued and that the review was conducted by “a Fairfax County employee familiar with Arabic.” As CQ observes:

The board conducted its own study of the textbooks last year at the request of Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district encompasses the academy, according to the Associated Press.

Although Hyland and the county did not release the results of what they had found, Hyland said at the meeting in which the vote was taken that, “I would be less than frank if I didn’t tell you that the curriculum does contain references to the Quran, which, if taken out of context and read literally, would cause some concern.”

If the report was not written, on what basis did Supervisor Hyland and others make their statements?

The Islamic Saudi Academy controversy has also gone international, with Al-Jazeera wading into the fray with a June 17 video report (translated by MEMRI), claiming that opposition to the school is being led by congressmen “known for their great hostility towards Arabs and Muslims” and charging the school’s critics of violations of religious freedom — a particularly hypocritical charge, as the Saudi Kingdom enforces a draconian policy of religious apartheid prohibiting any religious expression except Islam in its borders and bans under the penalty of death anyone but Muslims from entering or even approaching the cities of Medina and Mecca.

Meanwhile, despite its protests that its texts are being “mistranslated and misinterpreted” by the USCIRF, the Islamic Saudi Academy and the State Department continue to refuse to turn over the school’s textbooks to the commission (the USCIRF had independently obtained copies of the texts for its recent report). It would seem that many questions could be resolved by providing such. That, however, doesn’t seem likely at the moment, and it might take a congressional investigation for the commission to accomplish.

In response to the Fairfax Board of Supervisors passing the issue off to the State Department, Wednesday’s Washington Times article appears to signal that State is attempting to distance itself from the issue, claiming a lack of authority. But the information regarding the school’s loss of its corporate charter and its operation as an arm of the Saudi Embassy clearly points to the fact that the school falls under the Foreign Missions Act — and thus is an issue that the State Department cannot escape responsibility for and must act on.

Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to Pajamas Media, and an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforcement and the military.

EU Blogger Regulations

Scary, very scary...

Friends:

This is alarming. If you want to know what the Democrats will do in five years, then look now at what the EU is concocting, which is rapidly devolving into a Soviet style thought-control dictatorship. First “hate speech” codes at our universities, then at the workplace, next the Fairness Doctrine to stifle talk radio, and then they will monitor the internet. These characters bear watching.

http://thinendofthewedge.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/eu-proposes-regulation-of-blogging/

EU proposes regulation of blogging

Approved by 33 votes to one, the EU’s Culture Committee has passed a draft report on blogging which could lead to all European bloggers being required to gain an official stamp of approval simply to exist.

Concerned that blogs could prove a useful tool for the “less principled”, Estonian Socialist MEP Marianne Mikko (author of the draft report) said: “They are in position to considerably pollute cyberspace. We already have too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent in cyberspace”. She added, “I think the public is still very trusting towards blogs, it is still seen as sincere. And it should remain sincere. For that we need a quality mark, a disclosure of who is really writing and why. “

Ms Mikko has been granted such an amazing ability to pack so many begged questions into a couple of fairly short sentences that surely a career in the East Enders script writing team is hers for the asking.

Let’s knock the obvious nail on the head first as the EUgh is fast becoming the feather-bedded home of unintended consequences. If any form of regulation of blogs is required in order to stop the less principled exploiting the medium I give you a cast-iron guarantee that the only people who will be stopped are principled individuals who blog for no reason other than to please themselves. Ms Mikko, has it not occured to you that the “less principled” are likely to have the time and resources to sail through any quality mark process without disclosing who they are or what they are really pushing? No, thought not.

Let us then briefly dwell on the words “less principled”. Only briefly. And only with the same intent that we afford every other lunatic state or suprastate proposal. Who defines what constitutes “less principled”? I suspect that Ms Mikko feels that she has all the God given wisdom necessary to be the sole arbiter of who has more principles, who has just enough and who, of course, has less. Do we feel happy with that thought? No, thought not.

And the same test can be applied to the awful state of ‘cyberspace’ as defined by Ms Mikko that bloggers are in a position to further pollute. It is, she says already full of “too much spam, misinformation and malicious intent”. As we are feeling charitable given the rich pickings in this single quote, let’s cast “spam” to the cupboard under the intellectual stairs and focus only on “misinformation” and “malicious intent”. Soloman himself were he alive today and grappling with the complexity of the Internet would not be able to promise to always get it right when sorting information from misinformation. Ms Mikko really is a very optimistic lady if she thinks her MEP colleagues are capable of pulling their snouts from the EUgh trough for long enough to even ponder the challenge. Are we that optimistic? No, thought not.

And as for “malicious intent”, well I suspect you are there before me. Exactly, who defines what particular intent is tagged as bearing malice? And, to go a tad further, malice has to have an object, so who produces the big EUgh approved list of things towards which malice should not be shown? Anyone not connected with the EUgh by any chance? No, thought not.

Strangely, none of the above points particularly aggravate me as nothing is now expected from politicians (of whichever colour and in whatever institution) other than self-referential legislating with no greater intellectual or moral legitimacy than personal prejudice.

What really did concern me was Ms Mikko’s belief that on one side of the equation is something called “the public” and on the other is something called blogging. Now I know that Estonia is a very small country which has suffered terribly from decades of Soviet political, financial, physical and, above all, cultural oppression, but surely things have not got so bad that one of its leading politicians is incapable of understanding the very simple fact that blogging is the first medium in which “the public” is both consumer and producer? There is no distinction between the public and bloggers, they are one and the same. Or do you think that is exactly why Ms Mikko wants to turn up the regulation machine a notch or two? Yes, I think you could be right.

ISA Accreditation

Courtesy of saudiwatch.wordpress.com
Haven't been posting to RFDAH that much as post mostly on saudiwatch.wordpress.com for ISA issues.

By Jerry Gordon, American Congress for Truth, blog

Christine Brim of the Center for Security Policy found a fascinating article from the Washington Post, circa, 2002, concerning the “withdrawal” of the embattled Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) from the prestigious Virginia Association of Independent Schools. According to the Washington Post, article:

Sources familiar with the decision said the Virginia accrediting agency became concerned that the school was not adhering to its standards on funding and governance and asked questions earlier this year. The association’s standards require that the governing board be independent, that the administration be stable and that funding not come primarily from a single source.

The Washington Post article further noted:

Sources said that the association’s board probably would have stripped accreditation from the school if it had not withdrawn, but that it had not met to discuss such a move.

The sources also said that some board members were concerned about aspects of the school’s curriculum. The Washington Post in January reported that some Islamic studies classes at the school use Saudi Arabian textbooks that promote hatred of other religions. However, the curricular concerns were not part of the questioning that led to the withdrawal, sources said.

It seems that the concerns about ISA hate texts and espousal of Wahhabi doctrine were in evidence back in 2002.

We have confirmed that the ISA is not on the roster of VAIS. See here.

If you go to the ISA website it states:

ISA is fully accredited with SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) and CITA (Commission for International and Trans Regional Accreditation). The ISA’ achieved SACS Standards and received re-accreditation. The Academy will also adhere to the Action Plan set forth to implement the recommendations by the SACS quality assurance team.

Note that the head of SACS accreditation back in 2002 said:

…he would be concerned if the [ISA]was teaching hatred.

With the release of the USCIRF report on the hate texts used in the current school academic year, shouldn’t SACS be concerned about this evidence of ISA teaching hatred?

To answer this question, I put a call into the Decatur, Georgia office of SACS and found that Mr. Bush had gone into ‘semi-retirement’ and was referred to the Virginia office. I posed concerns about what SACS would do in the wake of the release last week of the USCIRF report on the hate texts. The person who answered said that a ‘responsible officer’ would get back to me.

Equally troubling were the answers quoted in the Washington Post article by the spokesperson for the Saudi US Embassy , Nail Al-Jubeir, brother of the current Saudi Ambassador . Al-Jubeir, the Embassy spokesperson in 2002, said:

We don’t do the day to day running of the school.

The embassy views the school as independent because it runs its own affairs, though “it is part of the royal court”.

In a recent post on the ISA kerfuffle, we noted:

The ISA is closely related to the Saudi government. The chairman of the northern Virginia Saudi-sponsored school is the Royal Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. The lease with Fairfax County, just renewed for a term of two years, was executed and paid for by the Royal Saudi government. The annual lease payment is $2.2 million The federal Employer Identification Number used on the leasehold documents is that of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC.

Another revelation of seeming importance is the ISA tax status. The IRS as of this spring had no record of ISA paying taxes or of any filing of the required application to exempt it from paying taxes. Its FEIN (Federal Employer Identification Number) is registered to the “Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia”, according to the USCIRF.

The plot thickens as to what has been uncovered about ISA, the investigations will doubtless reveal more.

All triggered by the USCIRF report of hate texts used by ISA. Stay tuned for more.

UAC ISA Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
County Board of Supervisors Unanimously Reverses Support for Islamic Saudi Academy, Responds to Interfaith Coalition and Public Outcry, Demands Full US State Department Investigation.

The United America Committee
June 24, 2008
Fairfax, VA

The efforts of United American Committee (UAC), as a part of an interfaith coalition of grassroots organizations, have resulted in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (BoS) calling for a full U.S. State Department investigation of the Islamic Saudi Academy. The UAC’s Virginia and New York chapters have worked with the Traditional Values Coalition, ACT! For America’s Virginia and Maryland Chapters, Center for Security Policy, and Stop the Madrassa to demand transparency, due diligence, and accountability from local and Federal government. This coalition has made a difference.

On June 23, 2008, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, responding to public outcry, unanimously reversed its support of the Islamic Saudi Academy, and called for the U.S. State Department to investigate the school. Though the UAC applauds the BoS’s decision to demand such an investigation, the UAC disagrees with the BoS’s claims of ignorance regarding the ISA. Given the preponderance of available government reports, and the testimony presented to the BoS during a May 19, 2008 hearing on the ISA, the BoS only remained unaware of relevant information due to its own preference. The UAC questions how the BoS on May 19th, proclaimed their investigation of the ISA sufficiently resourced and conclusive, yet now claims the County lacks the capability to conduct an adequate investigation.

The UAC regrets that it took the arrest of the ISA Director General, another government report, and a protest to convince the BoS to finally take action and heed the warnings of the USCIRF reports that BoS Chairman Gerry Connolly called TVC member Jim Lafferty slanderous for citing.

The UAC also disagrees with the BoS assertions of impotency, as, on May 19th, it fully had within its power to delay the approval of the ISA lease until completion of a US State Department investigation. Instead it issued the ISA, and its now arrested Director General, an apology. The BoS has now called upon the US State Department to conduct the same investigation UAC and coalition partners requested on May 19th.

The UAC believes the BoS can do even more, and believes the ISA has abused the goodwill of its hosts. The BoS must stop passing the buck and finally hold the ISA accountable for its repeated lies and running a curriculum of religiously sanctified murder for almost 20 years. Accordingly, the UAC calls for the closure of the ISA and competitive bidding for use of the County property it leases.

Join the United American Committee, Traditional Values Coalition, ACT! For America, Center for Security Policy, Stop the Madrassa, and a growing group of concerned citizens, in demanding transparency, due diligence, and accountability from our government. Visit saudiwatch.wordpress.com on how to help.

For more information contact:
John Cosgrove
Virginia Chapter Director
United American Committee
571-213-4496
virginia@unitedamericancommittee.org

Monday, June 16, 2008

Islamic Saudi Academy Director Arrested for Obstruction of Justice

Radio Free Dar al Harb Exclusive:
Breaking it here first. Citizen journalism in action.
Visit saudiwatch.wordpress.com for all your ISA information.

Islamic Saudi Academy Director Arrested for Obstruction of Justice

June 16, 2008

Fairfax, VA

On June 9^th, Fairfax County Police arrested the Director General of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), Mr. Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, on the charges of Obstruction of Justice without Force (VA Code 18.2-460). Charged and released on the same day, Mr. Al-Shabnan is out on his own recognizance as he awaits his first hearing at Fairfax County General District Court on August 1, 2008, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. Al-Shaban’s arrest stems from an investigation into the ISA’s alleged failure to comply with State requirements for reporting child abuse. According to authorities, instead of reporting the child abuse, Mr. Al-Shabnan deleted the report, contacted the student’s parents, and recommended psychological counseling for the young victim. Mr. Al-Shaban’s June 9 arrest comes after a May 23^rd police search of the ISA where they gathered evidence that has contributed to the charges against Mr. Al-Shabnan.

Years of Controversy Continue

The ISA has been at the center of controversy for many years. A 2007 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report promoted members of Congress to call for the closure of the school. The 2007 USCIRF report prompted a coalition of concerned grassroots organizations to request the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to delay the renewal of the ISA lease until a Federal investigation into the ISA was completed. During the hearing, County Supervisors dismissed concerns as slanderous, bigoted, and unfounded. During the course of the hearing, Fairfax County Chairman, and Democratic Candidate for the 11^th Congressional District, apologized to Mr. Al-Shabnan for what he deemed slanderous accusations that impugned the integrity of the Islamic Saudi Academy.

Since that May 19 hearing, the Mr. Al-Shabnan has been arrested and the USCIRF has confirmed ISA textbooks justify murder as an Islamic right.

Only Supervisor Gross has responded to the issue, and she continues her support for the ISA, and its textbooks that contain passages filled with hate and incitement to violence. Chairman Connolly has yet to retract his apology to the ISA and Mr. Al-Shabnan. Supervisor Hyland has not yet commented on whether the texts cited in the USCIRF report are the similar to those he identified as “texts of concern” during his independent and undocumented investigation of the ISA.

These hateful passages remain despite a 2006 US State Department request for the ISA to remove all insensitive and offensive content from textbooks. The ISA’s non-compliance with the 2006 US State Department request has not been accounted for and raises concerns about what the ISA, as an extension of the Saudi government, considers offensive, and the level of accountability they have to their local hosts and Federal government.

Since the US Treasury Department still considers Saudi Arabia as one of the leading financiers of terrorism, and USCIRF reports identify Saudi Arabia’s education as filled with incitements to murder as a religious freedom, the US State Department has not commented as to whether they will extend this policy and allow Iran and North Korea to open official schools in the US as well.

The ISA’s has run afoul of Virginia law before in hiring a bus driver, Abdelrazeg Abdalla, who had a suspend license, seven traffic violations, a misdemeanor for kidnapping his wife and child at knife point, and a six month detainment by Homeland Security. Nevertheless, the ISA hired Mr. Abdalla as a bus driver. Mr. Abdalla, operating a faulty ISA, bus was responsible for a 2005 multi-car accident.

Additionally, the ISA winner of the superlative Most Likely to Be a Martyr, and 1999 class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, has been convicted on charges of terrorism and attempting to assassinate President Bush.

As a result for the a May 19 hearing, the ISA’s lease of Fairfax County property continues as the Board of Supervisors unanimously supports the ISA as a model school beyond reproach.

A video of the complete May 19 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Hearing on the Islamic Saudi Academy can be found at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/cable/channel16/vod.htm

Select “Public Hearings” from the May 19 links.

Of Note:
42:58 Fairfax County Chairman Connolly charges of slander remarks
49:35 Supervisor Gross: Latin can be violent and Parochial Schools contain material as equally offensive as the ISAs.
1:02 Supervisor Hyland begins testimony about why and how they’re is no documentation on his investigation.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Obey Your Saudi Overlords!

This just in...State Department and Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross announce plan to confront an academy teaching murder. It is bold in its simplicity, as it has only three steps:

Locate sand
Insert head
Rinse and repeat until desired level of denial is achieved

This plan of action, just narrowly beat out a competing, yet equally compelling strategy, one, that as runner-up, will be the contingency plan.

Hear no Evil
See no Evil
Do no Evil

William Flock of the Examiner, June 13, 2008, reports the following actions:

"The US State Department expects the Saudi government to purge intolerant passages from its educational curricula by the beginning of next school year" And this time the State Department really really really means it, or else...the Saudi's will be placed in time out to think about what they've done.

Meanwhile back in the vast and desolate wasteland that is Supervisor Gross's plane of thought,
Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross chooses to ignore being lied to.

“We are not in a position to determine what is going to go on in a classroom there,” said Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross. The fundamental problem (one among many) here, is that what is going to go on in a classroom has already been determined...Jihad!

Supervisor Gross continued Operation Pass the Buck by concluding: “What we were asked to do was consider leasing the land and school to the Islamic Saudi Academy, and that’s what we did.”

Based on this flaccid policy, expect to see her champion my leasing of the old Fairfax City library for environmental welfare classes on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front. Charles Manson acolytes have also taken this as a signal of approval to begin hosting sacrifices at the Burke Lake Amphitheater.

So as not to think I am singling out Supervisor Gross without merit, I encourage you, dear reader, to watch her testimony during the May 19 hearing. She was presented with the following facts during the hearing:

The Academy had a Senior Superlative of Most Likely to Be a Martyr
The 1999 winner of that Superlative, and valedictorian, is in jail for terrorism and assassination attempts
Saudi Arabia still kills infidels, sentences rape victims, is considered by the US Treasury Dept to be a leading financier of terrorism, and has had two of its charities closed for terrorism related offenses

Her response to these evils was to joke in Latin and place parochial schools on the same level as maddrassas. I could not make this up. Her vapid ruminations can be found at the 49:25 minute mark here:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/cable/channel16/vod.htm

Select "Public Hearings" from the May 19 links.

State Department: Saudis to scrub curriculum by school year start

William C. Flook, The Examiner
2008-06-13 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 61 of 8,936

WASHINGTON -

The U.S. State Department expects the Saudi government to purge intolerant passages from its educational curricula by the beginning of next school year, a spokesman said Thursday, a day after a federal commission drew attention to texts condoning violence and martyrdom at a Fairfax County Saudi prep school.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Wednesday issued a highly critical review of textbooks used by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which has two campuses in Fairfax, citing materials that demonized other religions and excused the killing of non-believers and adulterers. The school is tied to the Saudi government.

The report comes two weeks after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote to extend the academy’s lease for a year, and eight months after the commission first recommended closing the school if it didn’t prove it wasn’t inciting religious hatred.

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos, in response to a question on Wednesday’s report at a daily press briefing, said the Saudi government first acknowledged the need to revise the textbooks used at its schools in July 2006 “to remove all intolerant passages that disparage or promote hatred toward other religious groups or religions,” and agreed to cut them by the 2008 school year.

Dwight Bashir, senior policy analyst for the commission, said the State Department has been looking at the school’s texts for years and has yet to publicly issue its views.

He said the Saudi government uses the same curriculum at the 19 schools it runs abroad, including the Islamic Saudi Academy, as it uses for schools within the country.

While Bashir said the State Department has repeatedly cited progress on removing the offending passages, many remain “peppered” within the Islamic Saudi Academy’s texts the commission reviewed.

“The incitement to violence, that stuff is still there,” Bashir said. “And the real demonizing stuff about other groups is also still there. And this is just a little sample.”

Fairfax County supervisors said Wednesday’s report has not made them rethink their decision to renew the lease.

“We are not in a position to determine what is going to go on in a classroom there,” said Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross. “What we were asked to do was consider leasing the land and school to the Islamic Saudi Academy, and that’s what we did.”

No one who could speak for the academy could be reached Thursday.

wflook@dcexaminer.com

www.examiner.com/
a-1439312~State_Department__Saudis_to_scrub_curriculum_by_school_year_start.html

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

ISA Caught Red Handed!

The results are in...the obvious now confirmed...wonder how the County Supervisors feel now?

Review: Troubling passages in textbooks at Va. school

June 11, 2008 - 7:31pm

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press Writer

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - Textbooks at a private Islamic school in northern Virginia teach students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to a federal investigation released Wednesday.

Other passages in the school's textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists."

The passages were found in selected textbooks used during the 2007-08 school year by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which teaches 900 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax and receives much of its funding from the Saudi government.

The academy has come under scrutiny from critics who allege that it fosters an intolerant brand of Islam similar to that taught in the conservative Saudi kingdom. In the review, the panel recommended that the school make all of its textbooks available to the State Department so changes can be made before the next school year.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel formed by Congress, last year recommended that the school be closed amid concerns that it promotes violence and too closely mimics the conservative Saudi educational system.

The commission made its recommendation last year to close the school even though it had not reviewed the textbooks. Now that some have been reviewed, "we feel more confident that the potential problems we flagged before really are there," said the commission's spokeswoman, Judith Ingram.

School officials have long denied that the academy fosters intolerance. It has acknowledged that some of the Saudi textbooks contain harsh language, but says that the texts have improved in recent years and are revised as needed by the academy before being distributed to students.

School officials and the State Department did not immediately respond to phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment Wednesday.

The commission said it obtained 17 of the academy's textbooks through a variety of channels, including from members of Congress. The texts did appear to contain numerous revisions, including pages that were removed or passages that were whited out, but numerous troubling passages remained, according to the panel:

- The authors of a 12th-grade text on Koranic interpretation state that apostates (those who convert from Islam), adulterers and people who murder Muslims can be permissibly killed.

- The authors of a 12th-grade text on monotheism write that "(m)ajor polytheism makes blood and wealth permissible," meaning that a Muslim can take with impunity the life and property of someone believed guilty of polytheism. According to the panel, the strict Saudi interpretation of polytheism includes Shiite and Sufi Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists.

- A social studies text offers the view that Jews were responsible for the split between Sunni and Shiite Muslims: "The cause of the discord: The Jews conspired against Islam and its people. A sly, wicked person who sinfully and deceitfully professed Islam infiltrated (the Muslims)."

More generally, the panel found that the academy textbooks hold the view that the Muslim world was strong when united under a single caliph, the Arabic language and the Sunni creed, and that Muslims have grown weak because of foreign influence and internal divisions.

The commission's findings issued come a month after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to extend the academy's lease for its main campus, which sits on county property.

The county conducted its own study of the textbooks last year at the request of Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district encompasses the academy.

Hyland and the county never released results of what they had found, but Hyland said in approving the lease that he is comfortable with the school's teachings, though he did so with a qualification.

"I would be less than frank if I didn't tell you that the curriculum does contain references to the Quran, which, if taken out of context and read literally, would cause come concern," Hyland said at the meeting at which the lease was extended.

___

On the Net:

Islamic Saudi Academy: http://www.saudiacademy.net/

USCIRF Press Release: http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?optioncom_content&taskview&id2206&Itemid1

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press Writer

Other passages in the school's textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists."

School officials and the State Department did not immediately respond to phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment Wednesday.

- The authors of a 12th-grade text on Koranic interpretation state that apostates (those who convert from Islam), adulterers and people who murder Muslims can be permissibly killed.

The commission's findings issued come a month after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to extend the academy's lease for its main campus, which sits on county property.

The county conducted its own study of the textbooks last year at the request of Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district encompasses the academy.

Hyland and the county never released results of what they had found, but Hyland said in approving the lease that he is comfortable with the school's teachings, though he did so with a qualification.

___

Friday, June 6, 2008

Hottest Summer Ever!

Taking a break from the jihad to address another hot item...the heat.
Just going on record, this is going to be one of the hottest summers in the DC area in memory. This will be the quintessential mid-atlantic August, but for three straight months! Should be a sauna.

Be prepared.
72 hours of food and water per person. Batteries, flashlight, radio. 1/2 tank of gas.
Look after the elderly and infirm in your neighborhood.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Jihadi Freed by Insanity Defense

Nothing insane about him at all, just like there was nothing insane about the Beltway Snipers or the UNC Alumni who drove into a crowd of Chapel Hill students...pre-meditated acts of individual jihad.

Another example of how lack of awareness will doom us all. So long as the jury pool (the public) remains uneducated about Islamist aggression, you will see much more of the insanity defense for Jihadis.

From the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004458503_haq05m.html

Judge declares mistrial in Haq case; Jewish Federation jury couldn't agree

By Natalie Singer

Seattle Times staff reporter

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Naveed Haq is flanked by attorneys C. Wesley Richards, left, and John Carpenter as a mistrial is declared Wednesday. Behind them, Jewish Federation volunteers react.

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Women with scars on their bodies and indelible memories of gunfire struggled to grasp an incongruous truth: After six weeks of testimony, thousands of pages of evidence and eight days of deliberation, a jury couldn't decide on the guilt or innocence of their attacker, Naveed Haq.

Yet even as the victims and prosecutors grappled Wednesday with the mistrial declared in Haq's case, momentum was quickly mounting for a second trial.

"It didn't shake our confidence," said King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg. "We're going to come back and do it again."

Prosecutors immediately announced that they would seek to retry Haq after Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas, reacting to word that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked on 14 of the 15 criminal counts against Haq, declared a mistrial.

A status hearing will be held next Thursday to discuss the retrial, an undertaking that presents new challenges for attorneys on both sides and promises to extend the emotional roller coaster the victims have been riding since Haq burst into their workplace and began shooting nearly two years ago.

"I can't begin to figure out what they were thinking," Carol Goldman said as she tearfully contemplated the jurors' decision. Goldman testified during Haq's trial that she was shot in the knee by the gunman. Jurors delivered their only verdict on the count involving Goldman: They found Haq not guilty of first-degree attempted murder but deadlocked on the lesser charge of second-degree attempted murder. "I really was never expecting this verdict," Goldman said.

Haq, 32, showed no emotion when the mistrial was declared, and shook the hands of his attorneys when court concluded.

Jurors had deliberated since May 23, and through several written questions to the judge over the past week it was clear they were having a difficult time determining whether he was guilty as charged or not guilty by reason of insanity. On Monday, the jury passed a note to Judge Kallas informing her they were deadlocked on all but one charge; she ordered them to continue.

On Wednesday, Kallas received another note from the jury just after lunch that stated, "The jury has continued deliberations ... there has been no change." After filling out a verdict form for their one acquittal, the six women and six men entered the courtroom and were asked whether anyone disagreed with the statement that they were deadlocked. No one did, and they were excused by the judge.

The mistrial was a bitter disappointment for victims, who said they supported prosecutors and a retrial.

"There is no argument Haq killed [federation employee] Pam [Waechter]. There is no argument he viciously shot five others. There is no argument that he made anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements. Somehow, all this was not enough," federation President and CEO Richard Fruchter said.

The hung jury also ignited anger.

Victim Cheryl Stumbo said the look in Haq's eyes at the time of the shooting was so vacant she didn't understand how anyone could doubt his intent when he opened fire.

"You don't drive over the pass with ... a rifle and hollow-point bullets and point a [gun] at somebody's head and not mean to kill them," she said.

Stumbo said she wished the jury had deliberated longer. "I'd like to hear them explain. I know it was a hard thing to do."

Most jurors declined to comment to reporters, but one, who didn't give her name, called the decision "heart-rending."

"I am very upset," she said. "I have great compassion for the victims and their families and everyone else in this case."

Asked to describe the atmosphere in the jury room Wednesday, the juror said "We were all very, very sad."

Haq's parents, who testified for the defense during the trial, said they were relieved to hear of the hung jury. "This tragedy has hopefully brought some awareness to the debilitating effects that schizophrenia/bipolar disorder have on someone who suffers from these mental diseases ... There is no real closure to this case as we continue to agonize over the death of [Pamela Waechter] and the suffering of the wounded victims," Haq's father, Mian Haq, wrote in a statement.

Haq will remain in custody pending outcome of the retrial.

Throughout the trial, Haq's attorneys never disputed that the Tri-Cities man barged into the Belltown offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on July 28, 2006, and killed Waechter and wounded five others. Haq, of Pakistani heritage, reportedly railed against Jews and U.S. policies with Israel when he opened fire.

Haq, who has a long history of mental illness, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all counts, his attorneys arguing that he was not criminally liable for his actions.

In order to find Haq not guilty by reason of insanity, which would result in commitment to a mental hospital, the jury would have had to agree unanimously that at the time of the shootings, Haq was unable to perceive the nature and quality of the act with which he is charged; or that he was unable to tell right from wrong with reference to that act.

To find him guilty of aggravated first-degree murder, the most serious charge he faced, they would have had to agree unanimously that he killed federation employee Waechter with premeditated intent.

Legal experts say insanity cases can be tough for juries to decide because of conflicting, complicated medical testimony.

In the Haq trial, doctors testifying for both sides clashed on many fronts and provided a range of differing opinions, from Haq's diagnosis to his mental state before and during the shootings.

"At some point the judge has to accept they cannot reach a verdict," said John Junker, a professor of law at the University of Washington. A case of this magnitude is "a big responsibility to put on somebody."

From the type of questions the jurors sent out to the judge — seeking further definitions of the insanity requirements and of "right" and "wrong" — it seemed as though they were locked in a philosophical debate, said Philip Anthony, CEO of the jury-and-trial consulting firm DecisionQuest. Anthony is not involved in the Haq case.

"When cases are very difficult for jurors, they almost always revert to the definition of words," Anthony said. "They [were] divided at a really fundamental level as opposed to factual," he guessed.

One challenge for Haq's defense attorneys heading into another trial will be the task of finding a jury that knows little of the high-profile case or mistrial, legal observers said. And prosecutors will lose the element of surprising the defense when it comes to their experts and presentation of evidence, said Anthony.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that they would not likely have to change much about their case, except to reduce count six, the one involving the shooting of Goldman, to second-degree attempted murder to reflect the jury's sole acquittal.

Haq was originally charged with one count of aggravated first-degree murder for slaying Waechter; five counts of attempted first-degree murder for shooting five other women; one count of first-degree kidnapping; one count of unlawful imprisonment; one count of first-degree burglary; and six counts of violating the state's hate-crime law.

Attorneys on each side painted very different pictures of Haq during the complex trial. Prosecutors described him as a frustrated, chronically unemployed and awkward man who decided that "suicide by cop" was the answer the morning he drove from the Tri-Cities area toward the federation with three guns in his pickup.

Haq's attorneys said that he had suffered through an abusive childhood and increasingly paranoid teenage and college years, loathed his short stature and Muslim heritage and was reeling from a dangerous regimen of prescription medications when he entered a manic state and heard God telling him to go on a mission.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times staff reporters Jennifer Sullivan and Nancy Bartley contributed to this report.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Saudi Academy Afoul of the Law Again

Why would anyone expect the Saudi's to start obeying our laws? According to orthodox Islam, when the laws of a country conflict with the laws of Islam, you follow the laws of Islam. A true muslim also never betrays another muslim. Not my thoughts, just the Islamist doctrine as espoused by Said Qutb and other Islamist scholars.

Need proof, lets see what the House of Saud's premier DC Academy is up to:

Ignoring laws to report child abuse
Employing a kidnapper with a suspended license as a bus driver
Injuring people due to faulty equipment
Permitting a "Most likely to be a martyr" class superlative
Producing a valedictorian convicted of plotting to assassinate the President
Using Saudi curriculum that our Federal government and a local Supervisor identify as containing "texts of concern."

Of note, this is the same academy that you can watch the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors compete to heap superlatives on:

Available here: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/cable/channel16/vod.htm
Select "Public Hearings" from the May 19 links.

Islamic School Searched After Abuse Allegations Surface

Authorities Say School's Director Didn't Report Abuse Allegations

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. -- Fairfax County police searched the Islamic Saudi Academy's west campus last month in connection with an investigation into child abuse allegations. A 5-year old girl told a teacher in mid-May that her father was molesting her, News4's James Adams reported.Virginia law requires abuse allegations to be reported within 72 hours, but authorities were not notified.

According to court documents, the school's director, Adalla Al-Shabnan, did not believe the girl's complaint.He told investigators that he recommended psychological counseling for the girl after meeting with her parents.Authorities said Al-Shabnan never reported the allegations of abuse to a child protective or law enforcement agency.On May 23, detectives searched and seized computers, notes and records from the school's Fairfax campus.Fairfax County police declined to comment on the investigation.Calls to the academy's director were not returned.No charges have been field.
www.nbc4.com/news/16479059/detail.html?dl=headlineclick&taf=dc

So you kidnapped your family and have a suspended license, but part of the Ummah? How about a job as a bus driver?

http://northernvirginiastan.blogspot.com/search?q=Islamic+Saudi+Academy

Monday, April 25, 2005

WaPo conflates two school bus accidents

The subtitle of the article Second Child Dies of Injuries From Bus Crash from the April 21 edition of the WaPo is School's Driver Charged In Unrelated Accident. I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of the deaths of Harrison Orosco, 7, and Lilibeth Gomez, 9, who died from their injuries in the school bus accident last week, but this blog is about "monitoring how Islam is subverting public institutions (media, politics, business, schools, and religious organizations) in Northern Virginia and the greater DC metro area": for that reason, I will be focusing on the unrelated incident.

"In a separate incident in Alexandria yesterday, a private school bus with faulty brakes and bald tires crashed, but none of the 34 students aboard was injured. Police said the driver should not have been behind the wheel."

"In yesterday's crash of the private school bus, the driver, Abdelrazeg Abdalla, 31, of Falls Church, was charged with several counts, including operating the Islamic Saudi Academy bus on a suspended license."

"Investigators said Abdalla's driving privileges had been suspended at 12:01 a.m. yesterday because of insurance-related issues. He was fired by school administrators shortly after the charges -- including citations for reckless driving and driving a vehicle with faulty equipment -- were issued.

"They determined that the bus had little or no brakes at all and that the tires were in fact bald," said Alexandria Police Capt. John Crawford, adding that investigators found skid marks to suggest that Abdalla tried to apply the brakes.

The chain-reaction crash, in which two other drivers sustained minor injuries, occurred as the school bus ferrying students to the Islamic Saudi Academy failed to stop as it traveled south down a hill on North Quaker Lane near Duke Street. The bus struck a Honda Civic, causing a chain-reaction crash involving the bus and three cars.

Police said Abdalla told them he was unable to stop the vehicle as traffic slowed. State police towed the bus to a maintenance lot for examination."

Virginia State Police determined that the bus was unsafe to drive and said it would remain out of service until the problems were repaired.

David Kovilik, director of education for the Fairfax County academy, said the bus was not part of the fleet's normal daily rotation, calling it "a spare."

He said that the bus passed its Virginia state inspection in July and that it was subject to daily mechanical checks as well as monthly preventive maintenance.

"I looked at the bus [after the crash], and the tire tread was thin, and on one axle the brake was worn down to the metal," Kovilik said. "The other three tires had functioning brakes."

Kovilik said Abdalla was hired as a driver in August after a comprehensive background check that he said included a search for any past convictions and "points on his license."

But a check of court records in Virginia revealed seven past charges, including several traffic violations for speeding and crossing a double yellow line. Several of the charges had been dismissed.

Abdalla also had a misdemeanor conviction in Fairfax for abducting his estranged wife and 3-month-old daughter at knifepoint. He had originally been charged with felony kidnapping, but friends and family -- including his wife -- wrote letters of support to the court on Abdalla's behalf, and he agreed to plead guilty in May 2003, after nearly three months in jail, to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault and battery.

After his release, Abdalla was picked up by Department of Homeland Security officials and detained for about six months, according to court records. It could not be determined why he was detained.

A phone number for Abdalla could not be found yesterday.

Kovilik said Abdalla's firing was based solely on his driving the school bus without a valid license. He said he was stunned by news that Abdalla had a court record.

"Oh no, no, no!" he said. "I'm going to revisit this."

Graduates Meet Real Life

Great Commencement Address.

Courtesy of The Grendel Report.

Subject: Texas A&M Graduate Commencement Address

This is long but worth reading.

This Texas lawyer, himself recipient of an Honorary Degree, is obviously opinionated, but to say what he does, in a commencement address a couple of weeks ago, in front of a class of Texas A & M graduates, and especially the faculty, is amazing. I would have loved to have been there just to see the faculty reaction.

Commencement Address ( Texas A&M) Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:14:32 +0000
This should be considered must-reading for every adult in North America . It is extremely rare that anyone speaks the truth like this at any College or High School Commencement Address.
Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a Texas AGGIE (Texas A&M), and now a nationally syndicated talk show host from Atlanta . His commencement address to the graduates of this year's A&M class is far different from what either the students or the faculty expected. His views are thought provoking.

'I am honored by the invitation to address you on this August occasion. It's about time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to impress you; you'll have enough smoke blown up your bloomers today. And you can bet your tassels I'm not here to impress the faculty and administration. You may not like much of what I have to say, and that's fine. You will remember it though. Especially after about 10 years out there in the real world. This, it goes without saying, does not apply to those of you who will seek your careers and your fortunes as government employees.

This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty. You've heard the old saying that those who can - do. Those who can't - teach. That sounds deliciously insensitive. But there is often raw truth in insensitivity, just as you often find feel-good falsehoods and lies in compassion. Say good-bye to your faculty because now you are getting ready to go out there and do. These folks behind me are going to stay right here and teach.

By the way, just because you are leaving this place with a diploma doesn't mean the learning is over. When an FAA flight examiner handed me my private pilot's license many years ago, he said, 'Here, this is your ticket to learn.' The same can be said for your diploma. Believe me, the learning has just begun.

Now, I realize that most of you consider yourselves Liberals. In fact, you are probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so much. You want to help so much. After all you're a compassionate and caring person, aren't you now? Well, isn't that just so extraordinarily special. Now, at this age, is as good a time as any to be a liberal; as good a time as any to know absolutely everything. You have plenty of time, starting tomorrow, for the truth to set in.

Over the next few years, as you begin to feel the cold breath of reality down your neck, things are going to start changing pretty fast... including your own assessment of just how much you really know.

So here are the first assignments for your initial class in reality: Pay attention to the news, read newspapers, and listen to the words and phrases that proud Liberals use to promote their causes. Then, compare the words of the left to the words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless, greedy conservatives. From the Left you will hear 'I feel.' From the Right you will hear 'I think.' From the Liberals you will hear references to groups -- The Blacks, the Poor, The Rich, The Disadvantaged, The Less Fortunate. From the Right you will hear references to individuals. On the Left you hear talk of group rights; on the Right, individual rights.

That about sums it up, really: Liberals feel. Liberals care. They are pack animals whose identity is tied up in group dynamics. Conservatives and Libertarians think -- and, setting aside the theocracy crowd, their identity is centered on the individual.

Liberals feel that their favored groups have enforceable rights to the property and services of productive individuals. Conservatives and Libertarians, I among them I might add, think that individuals have the right to protect their lives and their property from the plunder of the masses.

In college you developed a group mentality, but if you look closely at your diplomas you will see that they have your individual names on them. Not the name of your school mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority, but your name. Your group identity is going away. Your recognition and appreciation of your individual identity starts now.

If, by the time you reach the age of 30, you do not consider yourself to be a libertarian or a conservative, rush right back here as quickly as you can and apply for a faculty position. These people will welcome you with open arms. They will welcome you, that is, so long as you haven't developed an individual identity. Once again you will have to be willing to sign on to the group mentality you embraced during the past four years.

Something is going to happen soon that is going to really open your eyes. You're going to actually get a full time job!

You're also going to get a lifelong work partner. This partner isn't going to help you do your job. This partner is just going to sit back and wait for payday. This partner doesn't want to share in your effort, but in your earnings.

Your new lifelong partner is actually an agent; an agent representing a strange and diverse group of people; an agent for every teenager with an illegitimate child; an agent for a research scientist who wanted to make some cash answering the age-old question of why monkeys grind their teeth. An agent for some poor demented hippie who considers herself to be a meaningful and talented artist, but who just can't manage to sell any of her artwork on the open market.
Your new partner is an agent for every person with limited, if any, job skills, but who wanted a job at City Hall. An agent or tin-horn dictators in fancy military uniforms grasping for American foreign aid. An agent for multi-million- dollar companies who want someone else to pay for their overseas advertising. An agent for everybody who wants to use the unimaginable power of this agent's for their personal enrichment and benefit.

That agent is our wonderful, caring, compassionate, oppressive government. Believe me, you will be awed by the unimaginable power this agent has. Power that you do not have A power that no individual has, or will have. This agent has the legal power to use force, deadly force to accomplish its goals.

You have no choice here. Your new friend is just going to walk up to you, introduce itself rather gruffly, hand you a few forms to fill out, and move right on in. Say hello to your own personal one ton gorilla. It will sleep anywhere it wants to.

Now, let me tell you, this agent is not cheap. As you become successful it will seize about 40% of everything you earn. And no, I'm sorry, there just isn't any way you can fire this agent of plunder, and you can't decrease its share of your income. That power rests with him, not you.
So, here I am saying negative things to you about government. Well, be clear on this: It is not wrong to distrust government. It is not wrong to fear government. In certain cases it is not even wrong to despise government for government is inherently evil. Yes ... a necessary evil, but dangerous nonetheless ... somewhat like a drug. Just as a drug that in the proper dosage can save your life, an overdose of government can be fatal.

Now let's address a few things that have been crammed into your minds at this university. There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as possible. These ideas may work well in academic environment, but they fail miserably out there in the real world.

First is that favorite buzz word of the media, government and academia: Diversity! You have been taught that the real value of any group of people - be it a social group, an employee group, a management group, whatever - is based on diversity. This is a favored liberal ideal because diversity is based not on an individual's abilities or character, but on a person's identity and status as a member of a group. Yes, it's that liberal group identity thing again.

Within the great diversity movement group identification - be it racial, gender based, or some other minority status - means more than the individual's integrity, character or other qualifications.

Brace yourself. You are about to move from this academic atmosphere where diversity rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual achievement and excellence actually count. No matter what your professors have taught you over the last four years, you are about to learn that diversity is absolutely no replacement for excellence, ability, and individual hard work. From this day on every single time you hear the word 'diversity' you can rest assured that there is someone close by who is determined to rob you of every vestige of individuality you possess.
We also need to address this thing you seem to have about 'rights.' We have witnessed an obscene explosion of so-called 'rights' in the last few decades, usually emanating from college campuses.

You know the mantra: You have the right to a job. The right to a place to live. The right to a living wage. The right to health care. The right to an education. You probably even have your own pet right - the right to a Beemer for instance, or the right to have someone else provide for that child you plan on downloading in a year or so.

Forget it. Forget those rights! I'll tell you what your rights are! You have a right to live free, and to the results of 60% -75% of your labor. I'll also tell you have no right to any portion of the life or labor of another.

You may, for instance, think that you have a right to health care. After all, Hillary said so, didn't she? But you cannot receive healthcare unless some doctor or health practitioner surrenders some of his time - his life - to you. He may be willing to do this for compensation, but that's his choice. You have no 'right' to his time or property. You have no right to his or any other person's life or to any portion thereof.

You may also think you have some 'right' to a job; a job with a living wage, whatever that is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to force your services on another person, and then the right to demand that this person compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure you would scream if some urban outdoors men (that would be 'homeless person' for those of you who don't want to give these less fortunate people a romantic and adventurous title) came to you and demanded his job and your money.

The people who have been telling you about all the rights you have are simply exercising one of theirs - the right to be imbeciles. Their being imbeciles didn't cost anyone else either property or time. It's their right, and they exercise it brilliantly.

By the way, did you catch my use of the phrase 'less fortunate' a bit ago when I was talking about the urban outdoors men? That phrase is a favorite of the Left. Think about it, and you'll understand why.

To imply that one person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced out on drugs, unemployable, and generally miserable because he is 'less fortunate' is to imply that a successful person - one with a job, a home and a future - is in that position because he or she was 'fortunate.' The dictionary says that fortunate means 'having derived good from an unexpected place.' There is nothing unexpected about deriving good from hard work. There is also nothing unexpected about deriving misery from choosing drugs, alcohol, and the street.

If the Liberal Left can create the common perception that success and failure are simple matters of 'fortune' or 'luck,' then it is easy to promote and justify their various income redistribution schemes. After all, we are just evening out the odds a little bit. This 'success equals luck' idea the liberals like to push is seen everywhere. Former Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to high-achievers as 'people who have won life's lottery.' He wants you to believe they are making the big bucks because they are lucky. It's not luck, my friends. It's choice. One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by Og Mandino, entitled 'The Greatest Secret in the World.' The lesson? Very simple: 'Use wisely your power of choice.'
That bum sitting on a heating grate, smelling like a wharf rat? He's there by choice. He is there because of the sum total of the choices he has made in his life. This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for some people to accept, especially those who consider themselves to be victims of something or other - victims of discrimination, bad luck, the system, capitalism, whatever. After all, nobody really wants to accept the blame for his or her position in life. Not when it is so much easier to point and say, 'Look! He did this to me!' than it is to look into a mirror and say, 'You S. O. B.! You did this to me!'

The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.
Some of the choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school. Whether or not to get pregnant. Whether or not to hit the bottle. Whether or not to keep this job you hate until you get another better-paying job. Whether or not to save some of your money, or saddle yourself with huge payments for that new car.

Some of the choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the movies with. Whose car to ride home in. Whether to watch the tube tonight, or read a book on investing. But, and you can be sure of this, each choice counts. Each choice is a building block - some large, some small. But each one is a part of the structure of your life. If you make the right choices, or if you make more right choices than wrong ones, something absolutely terrible may happen to you. Something unthinkable. You, my friend, could become one of the hated, the evil, the ugly, the feared, the filthy, the successful, the rich.

The rich basically serve two purposes in this country. First, they provide the investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the formation of new businesses. Businesses that hire people. Businesses that send millions of paychecks home each week to the un-rich.
Second, the rich are a wonderful object of ridicule, distrust, and hatred. Few things are more valuable to a politician than the envy most Americans feel for the evil rich.

Envy is a powerful emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional minefield that surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch of White House interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And they keep that power by promising the envious that the envied will be punished: 'The rich will pay their fair share of taxes if I have anything to do with it. The truth is that the top 10% of income earners in this country pays almost 50% of all income taxes collected. I shudder to think what these job producers would be paying if our tax system were any more 'fair.'

You have heard, no doubt, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Interestingly enough, our government's own numbers show that many of the poor actually get richer, and that quite a few of the rich actually get poorer. But for the rich who do actually get richer, and the poor who remain poor .. there's an explanation -- a reason. The rich, you see, keep doing the things that make them rich; while the poor keep doing the things that make them poor.

Speaking of the poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an endless string of politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor So, you need to know that under our government's definition of 'poor' you can have a $5 million net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes, all completely paid for. You can also have a maid, cook, and valet, and $ million in your checking account, and you can still be officially defined by our government as 'living in poverty.' Now there's something you haven't seen on the evening news.

How does the government pull this one off? Very simple, really. To determine whether or not some poor soul is 'living in poverty,' the government measures one thing -- just one thing. Income. It doesn't matter one bit how much you have, how much you own, how many cars you drive or how big they are, whether or not your pool is heated, whether you winter in Aspen and spend the summers in the Bahamas, or how much is in your savings account. It only matters how much income you claim in that particular year. This means that if you take a one-year leave of absence from your high-paying job and decide to live off the money in your savings and checking accounts while you write the next great American novel, the government says you are 'living in poverty.'

This isn't exactly what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy statistics, is it? Do you need more convincing? Try this. The government's own statistics show that people who are said to be 'living in poverty' spend more than $1.50 for each dollar of income they claim. Something is a bit fishy here. Just remember all this the next time Charles Gibson tells you about some hideous new poverty statistics.

Why has the government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the government needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare programs, which translates into an expansion of its power. If the government can convince you, in all your compassion, that the number of 'poor' is increasing, it will have all the excuse it needs to sway an electorate suffering from the advanced stages of Obsessive-Compulsive Compassion Disorder.

I'm about to be stoned by the faculty here. They've already changed their minds about that honorary degree I was going to get. That's OK, though. I still have my PhD. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz Institute for Insensitivity Training.. I learned that, in short, sensitivity sucks. It's a trap. Think about it - the truth knows no sensitivity. Life can be insensitive. Wallow too much in sensitivity and you'll be unable to deal with life, or the truth. So, get over it.
Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few random thoughts.

* You need to register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are living off the efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting down and shutting up until you are on your own again.

* When you do vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more important than your vote for president. The House controls the purse strings, so concentrate your awareness there.

* Liars cannot be trusted, even when the liar is the president of the country. If someone can't deal honestly with you, send them packing.

* Don't bow to the temptation to use the government as an instrument of plunder. If it is wrong for you to take money from someone else who earned it -- to take their money by force for your own needs -- then it is certainly just as wrong for you to demand that the government step forward and do this dirty work for you.

* Don't look in other people's pockets. You have no business there. What they earn is theirs. What you earn is yours. Keep it that way. Nobody owes you anything, except to respect your privacy and your rights, and leave you the hell alone.

* Speaking of earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers Forty hours should be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don't see highly successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at five. The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The winners drive home in the dark.

* Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.

* Finally (and aren't you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino wrote,
'1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.
2. Use wisely your power of choice.
3. Go the extra mile .. drive home in the dark.

Oh, and put off buying a television set as long as you can. Now, if you have any idea at all what's good for you, you will get the hell out of here and never come back.
Class dismissed'

Radio Free Dar al Harb