Hamas chief on 9/11 mosque: ‘Islam must build everywhere’

Terror-group leader: Muslims in U.S., around world united in common cause

WND

Two days after President Obama came out in support of a plan to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, the controversial project has received yet another high-profile endorsement – this one from the chief of the terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places,” stated Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas who is regarded as the chief of the group in Gaza.

Zahar said that as Muslims, “We have to build everywhere.”

“In every area we have, [as Muslims] we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer, especially for the people when they are looking [to be] in the group, not an individual,” he said.

Zahar was speaking in a radio interview today with Aaron Klein, WND’s Jerusalem bureau chief and host of investigative show on New York’s WABC Radio.

Zahar told Klein he was speaking on the mosque issue with authority, claiming Hamas “is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world, especially the Islamic side.”

Zahar said that Muslims around the world, including those in the U.S., are united in a common cause.

Stated the Hamas chieftain: “First of all, we have to address that we are different as people, as a nation totally different. We already are living under the tradition of Islam. … Islam is controlling every source of our life as regard to marriage, divorce, our commercial relationships. … Even the Islamic people or the Muslims in your country, they are living now in the tradition of Islam. They are fasting, they are praying.”

New York Islamic leader Faisal Abdul Rauf, president of the Cordoba Initiative, has caused a stir with his proposed 13-story, $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque near the corner of Park Place and West Broadway – about two blocks from the site of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Rauf sparked controversy last month when he refused during a live interview on Klein’s WABC show to condemn violent jihad groups as terrorists. Rauf repeatedly refused on the air to affirm the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization or call the Muslim Brotherhood extremists.

The Brotherhood openly seeks to spread Islam around the world, while Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.

During the interview, Klein also asked Rauf who he believes was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

“There’s no doubt,” stated Rauf. “The general perception all over the world was it was created by people who were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. Whether they were part of the killer group or not, these are details that need to be left to the law-enforcement experts.”

Rauf has been on record several times blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been quoted refusing to admit Muslims carried out the attacks.

Referring to the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf told CNN, “U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We (the U.S.) have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.”

Unknown Obama stepsister dies

WND

Raises question of whether president adopted by Indonesian stepfather

 

By Jerome R. Corsi

A previously unknown stepsister of Barack Obama died unexpectedly earlier this year.

Internet researchers made the link between the president and his previously undisclosed stepsister, Holiyah "Lia" Soetoro Sobah, after translating from obituaries published in Indonesia. She died Feb. 26.

The obituaries identified Lia as having been adopted by Lolo Soetoro, Obama’s stepfather, and Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro, the president’s mother.

The surfacing of Lia as an adopted child of Lolo Soetoro and Dunham raises the question of whether Barack Obama himself might have been adopted officially as Lolo Soetoro’s stepson while in Indonesia from 1967-1971.

Even though Obama makes no mention in "Dreams from My Father" of having had an Indonesian stepsister, the Indonesian obituaries make clear that Obama slept in the same room as his stepsister while the two of them grew up together in the Soetoro home in Jakarta.

According to the Indonesian obituaries, Barry Soetoro and Lia Soetoro were always together, playing, traveling on family vacations and even bathing.

Obama was in Indonesia from ages 6 to 10.

There is nothing on the public record to indicate that he sent any condolences or even acknowledged the death of his stepsister in February.

The Indonesian obituaries also state Lia was born in 1957 and that she had three children with her husband, Edi Sobah, with whom she lived in West Java, Indonesia.

A photograph of Lia shows her holding a monkey doll and wearing clothes given her by Madelyn Dunham, Obama’s maternal grandmother, when Lia visited Hawaii for three months. The visit apparently was in 1971, the year Obama left Indonesia permanently.

Obama also does not discuss in his autobiography "Dreams from My Father" any visits to Hawaii after he left Indonesia permanently in 1971 that were made by Lolo Soetoro or a Soetoro stepsister from Indonesia.

While Obama has not acknowledged having had a stepsister in Indonesia, he discussed at length in his autobiography his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who was born in Indonesia to Lolo Soetoro and Ann Dunham on Aug. 15, 1970.

WND has reported that in a passport amendment submitted Aug. 13, 1968, Obama’s mother identified her son with an Indonesian surname as Barack Obama II Soebarkah, and asked the State Department to drop him from her U.S. passport.

The transaction could have been part of an effort by Dunham to obtain Indonesian citizenship for her son.

WND also reported in August 2008 that the Associated Press published a photograph purportedly of Obama’s registration card at Indonesia’s Francis Assisi school. The card showed he was enrolled as "Barry Soetoro" and listed as an Indonesian citizen whose official religious identification was Muslim. An AP spokesman affirmed to WND that the photograph was authentic.

Iran ready to ‘support’ Lebanese army

Follows WND report of Tehran’s infiltration

 

By Aaron Klein

Iran yesterday offered support to Lebanon’s army a week after Beirut forces engaged in a deadly cross-border clash with Israel that prompted U.S. lawmakers to block funding to the Lebanese military.

Last week, WND quoted Egyptian and other Middle Eastern security officials stating Western, Israeli and Arab intelligence services have identified a growing penetration of Iranian Revolutionary Guard units into the Lebanese army.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon met yesterday with Lebanese army chief Jean Kahwaji, stating Tehran was ready to "cooperate with the Lebanese army in any area that would help the military in performing its national role in defending Lebanon."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Beirut next month.

Earlier this week, two U.S. Democratic lawmakers said they were holding up a $100 million aid package that was approved for Lebanon’s army but not yet spent. A senior House Republican, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, said future funding should be stopped, too, pending an inquiry into the clash.

Cantor said the lines between Hezbollah, the Lebanese military and the government had become "blurred."

But U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said President Obama was not planning to re-evaluate its military cooperation with Lebanon.

"It allows the government of Lebanon to expand its sovereignty. We think that is in the interest of both of our countries and regional stability as a whole," he said Monday.

Last week, WND quoted Egyptian and other Middle Eastern security officials who pointed specifically to the Division 9 Lebanese army border patrol as being heavily infiltrated by Iran and Hezbollah. That unit is suspected of carrying out last week’s attack on Israeli troop positions that resulted in the deaths of three Lebanese soldiers, one Lebanese reporter and an Israeli soldier.

The security officials said Iran has penetrated Lebanese army positions along the Israeli border, replacing Hezbollah inside the first lines of the Lebanese army.

The security officials said a committee of the Arab League that publicly asked Lebanon to inspect its army for Israeli agents was really mostly concerned about the growing role of Iran in the Lebanese army.

Egyptian security officials, meanwhile, have told WND they suspect last week’s rocket attacks on Eilat and the Jordanian port city of Aqaba were coordinated by Iranian agents, in particular an axis of the Iranian-backed Hamas and Hezbollah that works from the Egyptian Sinai desert.

The attack itself may have been carried out by cutouts, specifically Islamist organizations that operate under the umbrella of al-Qaida ideology, the officials said.

In the last two weeks, a series of border attacks have struck Israel. Two weeks ago rockets were launched from Gaza into nearby Jewish communities. One of the rockets smashed into a children’s hydrotherapy center in the populated town of Sderot. The center, normally bustling with more than 100 workers and children during working hours, was closed at the time of the strike.

One week ago, Grad-style rockets hit the Sinai, Aqaba and Eilat in coordinated attacks.

Last week also saw a series of deadly clashes along Israel’s northern border.

"Iran is sending a message that they are able also to bring any war into the Israeli land and not only in the Iranian field," said a Middle Eastern security official. "The message is also intended for Egypt and Jordan, which is accused of helping Israel train for a war with Iran."

"Iran is leading a huge campaign in the Middle East to counter military signs that Israel may strike. Iran is worried about what they view as an agreement that the Arab countries will remain silent if Israel attacks Iran," the security official said.