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February 6, 2008 at 14:20:15

I Was a Terrorist; In Defense of My Identity, Story and Credentials

by Walid Shoebat     Page 1 of 7 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

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This article is published by opednews.com as an accomodation to allow Mr. Shoebat respond to an article about him by Eileen Fleming. Unfortunately, our website does not support arabic script, so you will see, where it was used, meaningless characters.
The wisest man in history once said “be good to those who despise you.” In this article I will follow this instruction and personally thank Eileen Fleming who wrote for the Arabisto.com published also on OpeEdNews.com 1 in a smear campaign against myself and the United States Air Force for inviting me to speak against terrorism.

Fleming blames the Air Force academy for not doing due-diligence about me since she just came up with damning evidence about my credibility as a terrorist. But before I present this case, two questions that beg answers:

1—How could the Air Force be responsible for not examining her ‘facts’ especially since she presented her article after this invitation was known publicly?

2—Why should anyone have a problem fighting Islamic terrorism? Unless of course, such people cloak this evil phenomenon as a proper revolution to thwart the ‘evil’ occupiers like the United States and Israel.

Now to my case, I have been denied even my identity, to many I was a “Christian Lebanese Falangist,” a person who “never lived in Palestine,” “was never Muslim,” “no one knows him in Palestine,” “nothing can be confirmed of his origin, name, or identity,” “a fabrication,” “liar,” “imposter,” “Zionist paid agent,” “doing it for the money,” “Islamophobe disguised as X-terrorist,” and of course “racist.”

Yet it doesn’t matter what my critics do, it always benefits the cause of the truth since for years I have been confronted by media and Muslims to provide evidence to prove my identity, origin, Islamic connection and terror credentials which I shunned away. Now the claims regarding my credentials and the due-diligence that anyone needs is in Fleming’s own damning article. She was the reporter I prayed for years to come through, she obtained testimonies from my own Muslim family. Now I have a solid confirmation to my identity, origin, trouble with violence, connection to terrorist relatives and even imprisonment verification. Now I can put such accusations all behind.

THANK YOU EILEEN FLEMING.

The common phrase from the story of Joseph in Quran 12:26 and as we commonly say in the Middle East وشهد شاهد Ù...Ù† اهلها “a family witness” that vindicated Joseph of lying should now apply to my case. While Fleming stated in her half done investigation article:

“Walid's entire biography is a manufactured fabrication. His handlers have taken one point and have twisted it and built up a fictional story.”

But before I poke so many holes in her article including her valued witnesses which included only one name–Kamal Younis. I do believe that Fleming was honest on one point, that she did interview a few family members of mine since Kamal could have not known many details of my life in the U.S. But why the rest of her witnesses never gave their names?

Well, there are two reasons for this:

1—They fear retribution for being related to this infidel Walid Shoebat.

2—They fear retribution from American law for crimes committed by certain family members in the U.S. as you will see.

Let’s start with Kamal Younis’ testimony who is the brother of the prominent attorney Jawad Younis جواد يونس who defended Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian living in Pakistan who is believed to be a key aide to Mr Bin Laden. Jawad was convicted by Israel in the good old days for his involvement and support for terrorism with the P.L.O. Mr.. Jawad Younis is known to have only one hand. His other hand was made out of plastic, but it didn’t have a hook.

Was Jawad a pirate as well?

Well, not exactly, his arm was blown off in his youth while messing with explosives. What was Jawad doing playing with explosives? I leave this to your imagination. Of course, they would claim that Jews planted booby traps in fountain pens to maim Arab kids. Jews would also poison candy, later this evolved that Jews lace Cadbury chocolate with Mad Cow disease. Jawad Younis the brother of Kamal Younis later becomes a prominent figure in exile in Jordan, yet the leopard doesn’t change it’s spots, Jawad as an attorney that defends Al-Qaeda operatives and even send a letter alongside of other delegates to congratulate Nasrallah the terror king pin of Hizbullah for his attacks on Israel.

So why didn’t Ms. Fleming contact the other side before publishing her story? Well it’s simple, she knows that I would have been glad to offer evidence to thrash her dishonest reporting which she knows she would never publish, but I will, point by point:

 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7

 

www.shoebat.com

Keith Davies is Director of The Walid Shoebat Foundation

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Eileen is the Reporter and Editor of wearewideawake.orgProducer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"

Eileen FlemingEileen is the Reporter and Editor of wearewideawake.orgProducer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"

The NY TIMES is following this story!

The New York Times


February 7, 2008

Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

The Air Force Academy was criticized by Muslim and religious freedom organizations for playing host on Wednesday to three speakers who critics say are evangelical Christians falsely claiming to be former Muslim terrorists.

The three men were invited as part of a weeklong conference on terrorism organized by cadets at the academy’s Colorado Springs campus under the auspices of the political science department.

The three will be paid a total of $13,000 for their appearance, some of it from private donors, said Maj. Brett Ashworth, a spokesman for the academy.

The three were invited because “they offered a unique perspective from inside terrorism,” Major Ashworth said. The conference is to result in a report on methods to combat terrorism that will be sent to the Pentagon, members of Congress and other influential officials, he added.

Members of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a group suing the federal government to combat what it calls creeping evangelism in the armed forces, said it was typical of the Air Force Academy to invite born-again Christians to address cadets on terrorism rather than experts who could teach students about the Middle East.

“This stuff going on at the academy today is part of the endemic evangelical infiltration that continues,” said David Antoon, a 1970 academy graduate and a foundation member.

The three men were invited to talk about being recruited and trained as terrorists, not religion, although one of them, Zak Anani, did tell students that converting to Christianity from Islam saved his life, said John Van Winkle, another spokesman for the academy.

Muslim organizations objected to the fact that no other perspective about Islam was offered, saying that the three speakers — Mr. Anani, Kamal Saleem and Walid Shoebat — habitually paint Muslims as inherently violent. All were born in the Middle East but Mr. Saleem and Mr. Shoebat are now American citizens, while Mr. Anani has Canadian citizenship.

“Their entire world view is based on the idea that Islam is evil,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on Islamic American Relations. “We want to provide a balancing perspective to their hate speech.”

Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem’s account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s.

Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., heard Mr. Saleem speak last November at the college and said he thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical organizations.

“It was just an old time gospel hour — ‘Jesus can change your life, he changed mine,’ ” Mr. Howard said. “That is mixed in with ‘Watch out America, wake up America, the danger of Islam is here.’ ”

Mr. Howard said his doubts about their authenticity grew after stories like the Golan Heights saga as well as something on Mr. Saleem’s Web site along the lines that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam. “The grand wazir of Islam is a nonsensical term,” Mr. Howard said.

Keith Davies, the director of the Walid Shoebat Foundation, which organizes their appearances, said critics tried to undermine the speakers’ reputation because “they can’t argue with the message.”

Arab-American civil rights organizations question why, at a time when the United States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are allowed to circulate freely. A spokesman for the F.B.I. said there were no warrants for their arrest.

by Eileen Fleming (127 articles, 37 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 553 comments) on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 7:31:43 AM
 


Eileen is the Reporter and Editor of wearewideawake.orgProducer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"

Eileen FlemingEileen is the Reporter and Editor of wearewideawake.orgProducer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"

my first threat of leagl action

I received my first threat of legal action on Feb. 5th AM, just hours after

Failure of Intelligence to Support the Troops

Read more...

Was published.

 

At 1 AM on Fat Tuesday morn, Keith Davies, Walid's handler sent me an email threat of a lawsuit unless I issued "a full apology and retraction"

 

Walid's OP followed his threat, which OPN has published in full and from which I only excerpt. Before I reply to Walid's epistle, I begin with my email reply to his handler:

Hi Keith,



No apology and no retraction will come from me. The issue for me and the point of my article which Walid and you ignore is:



Walid's brand of Christianity has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus who promised it is the peacemakers who are the children of God and not those that bomb, torture, starve or occupy others.



Walid's brand of Christianity defies that "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment." 1 John 4:16, 18



Walid's brand of Christianity as professed by anti-Christ's [against the teachings of Christ] such as John Hagee and Tim La Haye's Left Behind nonsense is the epitome of the spirit of the anti-Christ: fear of the other that drives one to violence.



Walid's brand of Christianity thrives on fear and Jesus said: "FEAR NOT! You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free."





Walid's brand of Christianity leaves behind all the non-negotiables for those who claim to be a Christian; which is you must forgive, bless and love your enemies.



The problem is not with Christianity but that too few have done it the way Jesus taught and modeled: to always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with compassion and forgiveness, as Jesus did when nailed to a cross and he prayed: "Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing."



St. Paul who never hesitated expressing his freedom of speech warned, "Do not judge the non-believer, it is none of your business. But, when it comes to the believer, provoke one another to good works."



God knows the motivations of Walid's heart, but as Rev. Awad warned, "Christians are called by God to prayerfully use the gift of discernment."



Discernment and good intelligence is what our troops need, and that is not what they are receiving on February 6, 2008 at the USA Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the heart of the western Bible Belt.





"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down."-Tom Petty

Eileen Fleming,

Reporter and Editor WAWA:

by Eileen Fleming (127 articles, 37 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 553 comments) on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 7:44:08 AM
 


I am 27 years old, live in Buffalo, NY and am a doctor and antiwar activist.
Suhail ShafiI am 27 years old, live in Buffalo, NY and am a doctor and antiwar activist.

Why are you not holed up at Guantanamo ?

If this Walid Shoebat person truly is a terrorist, then will somebody please explain to me WHY is he not being prosecuted for his crimes. The way I see it is, if the man spent the best years of his life murdering and maiming innocent Israelis, then he should be holed up at Guantanamo and be serving time for his actions, not be treated like some kind of media star. Would we forgive the perpetrators of 9/11 simply if they were to convert to an extremist form of fundamentalist Christianity ?

 

The man keeps blabbering away, yes, yes, I was a terrorist. How pathetic can it get ? If he really was a terrorist, please LOCK HIM UP and stop misusing the nonsense he sprouts as a means of slandering innocent Muslims, who, unlike him, for the most part are not involved in illegal activities.

by Suhail Shafi (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 6:47:16 PM
 


Fair and Balanced. Facts only type of person, don't give me one sided reports.
Marie PetersFair and Balanced. Facts only type of person, don't give me one sided reports.

Is this Balanced?

How is this balanced reporting?

I read both articles, this one and Walid's rebuttal. It's fair to present your theological disagreement with Walid Shoebat, yet in all fairness, your article has testimonies from Walid's own family stating that he was in prison and that he got himself involved with terrorists. So why does your article call this man a fraud? You have the right to call him a false-Christian if you do not agree with his brand of Christianity, yet to call the man a fraud on the basis of his story is absolute rubbish and you know it. The very statements from his family which YOU obtained yourself testifies that he was in prison and did get involve in terrorism. These are obvious contradictory statememnts in your article.  Can you see your contradictions?

Also, he stated in his rebuttal that the man you interviewed "Kamal Younis" is a brother of Jawad Younis, an activist and a lawyer who represents Al-Qaeda operatives and defended Abu Zubaida and also sent letter of congratulations to Nassrallah, a known terrorist. Anyone can google this and see for themselves. This also confirms Walid's validity. Have you examined these witnesses any further to see their involvement in terrorism? Or did you fail since a biased slant had to overcome serious and balanced journalism. Are you simply filled with joy when like-minded peopel as you salute you with "hip hip hurrreyyy", or are you a journalist convicted with clear concious of what you write? Just which one are you?

This is a choice only you can answer.

by Marie Peters (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 6:55:07 PM
 

 

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