Walid Shoebat and the Call of Cucullu

Well, it looks as though someone scraped together the necessary cash (there was a hitch) which will allow Walid Shoebat to dispense his wisdom at Western Michigan University:

The topic of the speech is Why We Want To Kill You and deals with the mindset of a terrorist. Introduction by General Gordon Cucullu. Admssion free.

Shoebat’s answer to the title’s question, of course, is because Islam is inherently violent – although Shoebat has remarkably managed to milk this monomanic assertion into a never-ending gravy-train (adding stuff about a Muslim anti-Christ when in church settings).

Cucullu, meanwhile, is yet another “security hawk” pundit on the right-wing circuit; a profile at “The Intelligence Summit (TM)” tells us that:

Gordon Cucullu is a former Special Forces lieutenant colonel with more than four decades of experience dealing with the tumultuous region of East Asia, including North and South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Southeast Asia. He is Senior Non-resident Fellow at the Center for Security Policy…Gordon is recognized as one of the leading authorities on the complex, dangerous threat posed by North Korea through its deadly connections to other American enemies in the war for the free world.

He recently wrote a book entitled Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of Guantanamo Bay; this was puffed a few days ago by the good Christians at OneNewsNow. There are some interesting cross-overs between these kinds of characters and church groups in America – just a short time ago I noted Shoebat’s appearance at Messianic venue in Florida, where the organiser also runs “Terrorism Preparation & Disaster Relief” seminars.

According to the Kalamazoo News, Shoebat’s Michigan jaunt has been organised by a student group called International Conservatives, led by a certain Chris McCann; I’ve also seen that “advance work” was apparently undertaken by “investigative journalist” and Frontpage-r Lee Kaplan.

The Kalamazoo News laughably calls Shoebat a “peace activist”. Here’s a video that’s embedded on the “peace activist’s” website (made by his son), which invokes a militarised Christian fundamentalism to oppose Muslims and scientists (Charles Darwin appears, Emmanuel Goldstein-like, at 3:08, wreathed in flames and with the words “give them the ability to filter out evil” superimposed over his face) :

UPDATE: An account of the meeting, in a letter to the Western Herald from student Andrew Lennox:

The audience was fairly diverse showing the variety of students at WMU.  Beginning the presentation a former Special Forces officer led the audience in the pledge of allegiance, something I hadn’t done since middle school

…There was a certain undertone where each statement made Muslims seem worse and worse. I noticed the younger students begin to leave row by row; but being an anthropology student I was determined to stay.  Suddenly I looked around and the room was filled with older white people nodding their heads and saying god bless America.

By the end of the speeches the crowd was yelping and whistling with patriotism due to the presenter’s constant references to American pride.  I felt very uncomfortable feeling like I had just watched George Wallace speak in 1963, there was an ominous anti Muslim feeling in the room.  After one Arab student’s outburst, he was shoved by a white student, and when the Arab student asked, “Who are you?” The second student shouted, “I’m America!” and the Arab student was escorted out by police.

UPDATE: Lee Kaplan responds (see comments). He points out that he is a “wellpaid journalist” and that Shoebat is a “bestselling author”, whereas I am an “unpaid blogger”. Does this not therefore prove that everything Shoebat says is true and that any criticism I may have can be discounted?

13 Responses

  1. Hmmmmm. Walid Shoebat “milksmaniacly” terrorism
    that is killing people worldwide, and I am not an investigative journalist but an :”investigaative journalist.”

    Every day we read of terror attacks overseas and attempts to fund them from America, but geniuses like you tell evryone those of us who report on these thngs are merely fakes or opportnists. Well, thank goodness for blogs, for they give every nternet ass a chance to bray now, regardless of how naive they are. Let’s see if you print this. Meanwhile, Walid draws record crowds at the colleges which proves people appreciate his work. Why don’t you attend Tuesday night yourself, you might learn something outside your own keyboard., Walid is a published bestselling author, I am a wellpaid journalist. We don’t ge paid for nonsense. You on the other hand are an npaid blogger full of criticism for those of us (including Gen. Cucullu) who have some measure of accomplishment in what we do.

  2. Great points, Lee. Of course, Paul Krugman is better paid than you and Noam Chomsky sells more books than Shoebat. Does that mean they’re right?

  3. So you admit that Chomsky and Krugmn are wrong….
    Phew! For a minute there I thought you wee a bimbastic self-absorbed blogger….Shoebat’s disdain for errorism and militant Islam is not a coservative or liberal issue, it’s human righs issue for the victims.

  4. “So you admit that Chomsky and Krugmn are wrong….”

    No, I imply that their pay/sales don’t make them right.

    Phew! For a minute there I thought you wee a bimbastic self-absorbed blogger….

    Flies like a Rhino, stings like a balm.

    Shoebat’s disdain for errorism…

    I don’t think that Shoebat has a disdain for errorism. I mean, he makes errors all the time…Oh, terrorism…Well, yes, he sure doesn’t like Islamic terrorism.

    “…and militant Islam is not a coservative or liberal issue, it’s human righs issue for the victims.”

    Well, no, I don’t know whether Shoebat is conservative or liberal, though he promotes neoconservative fanatics such as Frank Gaffney. His bizarre pronouncements – such as, of Palestinian children, “the eggs are hatching and what’s coming out is literally something from Nazi Germany“* – play right into the hands of expansionists, and he’s happy to stand alongside several of them on the board of EMET.

    [*] Verbatim from Obsession.

  5. Frank Gaffney is a “neoconservative fanatic”?Gaffney has worked in geopoitics and is respected by universities and the government. Oh! i forgot! You write a blog!!!! Ergo, you are the expert on national security threats. You’re open-minded too because you think terrorism is no threat but the fault of America. You’re neither conservative nor liberal my friend. Just ignorant.
    WAtch Obsession again and count how many terrorn attacks have taken place worldwide. You really need to get out more, you live too much in your own head and sadly think this blog represents some real intellectual discussion. Shoebat got one of the largest crowds in WMU history for a speaker. People like you were in the very small minority and unable to riot to silence him simply left.

  6. “Frank Gaffney is a “neoconservative fanatic”?”

    Yes; he’s a signatory to PNAC’s Statement of Principles. Moreover, he defends torture, and his ludicrously hawkish Centre for Security Policy has received funding from defense contractors.

    “Gaffney has worked in geopoitics and is respected by universities and the government.”

    Chomsky and Krugman are respected by universities and governments. That doesn’t automatically make them right.

    Oh! i forgot! You write a blog!!!!

    Do the exclamation marks represent hyperventilation?

    You’re open-minded too because you think terrorism is no threat but the fault of America.

    No, I think that some terrorism has been stoked by the actions of Britain and America, and that some of the “threat” has been inflated or fictionalised. That doesn’t mean that fundamentalist Islamism doesn’t pose a danger to millions of people (almost all of whom are Muslims, living in nations ruled by radical Islamists). Obsession, those behind it and those like it won’t recognise this, because they prefer to claim that “Islam” or “Islamism” represents a monolith.

    WAtch Obsession again and count how many terrorn attacks have taken place worldwide.

    I’m afraid I’ll decline that offer, thank you, as I’m not sure my brain could handle another dose of external stupidity. However, Obsession didn’t just argue that there’s lots of international terrorism – which, evidently, there is – but that there is a “global Jihad“, and that acts of terrorism are “part of a single threat”. Shoebat even went so far as to argue that this “threat” is worse than that which was posed by Nazi Germany.

    You really need to get out more, you live too much in your own head and sadly think this blog represents some real intellectual discussion.

    I can assure you that I don’t think I’m in an intellectual discussion.

    Shoebat got one of the largest crowds in WMU history for a speaker. People like you were in the very small minority and unable to riot to silence him simply left.

    I’m sure he was delighted.

  7. The misspellings and erratic punctuation make it really hard to believe that’s the real Lee Kaplan, well paid journalist.
    Or did I fall victim to a parody, again?

  8. Yeesh, sorry, the html in my last post was all over the place.

  9. Walid must me a huge threat to you guys, we love the attention, as long as you spell his name right then keep up the “great” work.

  10. Hey, Davies, you never did answer my question about why Shoebat was dropped from CUFI’s “Night to Honor Israel”. Care to enlighten us?

  11. “we love the attention…”

    Walid Shoebat loves attention? Why, I’d never have guessed.

  12. […] also co-written a book defending the prison at Guantanamo Bay with Gordon Cucullu, whom I blogged here. However, the speakers on the cruise appear to have been professionals rather than the usual […]

  13. […] says that Davies (who occasionally stops by this blog to post goading comments) eventually came up with the name of a pilot, who did not respond calls for confirmation. It seems […]

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