Anti-Islam Film Shown “On Continuous Loop” to NYPD Counterterrorism Trainees

January 2011:

This month, when a group of New York City police officers showed up for their required counter-terrorism training, they got to watch a movie.

…The film is called The Third Jihad. It is 72 minutes of gruesome footage of bombing carnage, frenzied crowds, burning American flags, flaming churches, and seething mullahs.

…Police officials agree that this is a “wacky movie,” as deputy commissioner Paul Browne said, that never should have been shown to officers. Browne initially insisted that cops had never seen the flick. “It was reviewed and found to be inappropriate,” he said. Further checking revealed that the movie had been aired for officers. It was a mistake, Browne said. “It was not approved for the curriculum. It’s not shown for any purpose now.”

January 2012:

The movie was shown on a continuous loop while officers were signing in for counterterrorism training sessions from October to December 2010, according to police documents obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank at New York University.

…Browne said that the police brass did not approve the use of the movie and that the decision to play it was made by a sergeant, who has since been reprimanded.

…The film was used as “intermission filler” and to “provide information for students during breaks to keep their attention focused on counterterrorism issues,” Assistant Chief George W. Anderson wrote in one of the documents obtained by the Brennan Center.

As was widely reported, the Third Jihad was produced by the Clarion Fund, which was also responsible for the documentary Obsession (the Fund also promoted the “Islam doll” conspiracy theory). At least one of the “experts” featured in the Obsession film – namely Walid Shoebat – has been known to promote the conspiracy theory that Obama is “really” a Muslim, and the Third Jihad DVD includes footage of Glenn Beck.

Improper counter-terrorism training is a subject that has come under increasing scrutiny over the past year: a critical article appeared in the Washington Post in December 2010, and there was a lengthy article in the Washington Monthly in March 2011 which prompted an expression of concern from Joe Lieberman, in his capacity as Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman, and from Ranking Member Susan Collins. A report by the progressive Political Research Associates also appeared in last spring, while the summer saw critical pieces on CNN and NPR, as well as a report in Wired. Wired also ran a second piece in October.

The police documents obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice can be seen here, and include the following from Anderson:

The video was not a part of the authorized curriculum in place for COBRA training; however, staff at the COBRA Unit indicated they obtained the video from DHS staff who are assigned to work with NYPD instructors in the COBRA program

…The identity of the DHS member who provided the video remains unknown. During the early inquiry into this matter, I contacted Arthur Collins, Assistant Eastern Regional Manager for SAIC Contractor Support to the Center for Domestic Preparedness (DHS), via telephone, to inquire about the video and the DHS position on its use in training programs. Mr. Collins supervises the DHS contract personnel who assist in COBRA training. Mr. Collins indicated in an email response that the video in fact is not an authorized video used by DHS personnel… I conclude that it is likely a DHS member did possess the video and shared it with COBRA staff, but not have official authorization to do so. As such, both the unidentified DHS member and Sgt. Walsh used this video in an unauthorized manner.

Collins confirmed to Anderson that

This video was not authorized to be used at any of the training deliveries either at the COBRA site in Brooklyn or at the CDP resident training program, by SAIC or FEMA.

SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) has a website here; according to a relevant blurb:

We have extensive experience with the component agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and have worked hand in hand with our agency customers to meet their important training, technical, and strategic requirements. 

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that there was involvement between the filmmakers and police:

The New York City police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, through a top aide, acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that he personally cooperated with the filmmakers of “The Third Jihad” — a decision the commissioner now describes as a mistake.

…Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne told The New York Times on Monday that the filmmakers had relied on old interview clips and had never spoken with the commissioner.

…On Tuesday, the film’s producer, Raphael Shore, e-mailed The Times and provided a date and time for their 90-minute interview with the commissioner at Police Headquarters on March 19, 2007. Told of this e-mail, Mr. Browne revised his account.

“He’s right,” Mr. Browne said Tuesday of the producer. “In fact, I recommended in February 2007 that Commissioner Kelly be interviewed.”

In an e-mail, Mr. Browne said that when he first saw the film in 2011, he assumed the commissioner’s interview was taken from old clips, even though the film referred to Mr. Kelly as an “interviewee.” He did not offer an explanation as to why he and the commissioner, on Tuesday, remembered so much of their decision.

…”Commissioner Kelly told me today that the video was objectionable,” he said, “and that he should not have agreed to the interview five years ago, when I recommended it.”

This leaves an unfortunate impression. Paul Browne’s original public position was that this was a “wacky” film which had not been used. Then he admitted that it had been shown. Now it transpires that the film was shown on a “continuous loop” as an “intermission filler”, and that Browne had himself liaised with the film’s producer.

In 2008 I noted that the Third Jihad cover art had been tweaked a couple of times before the documentary came out, although at least one person who left comments wasn’t impressed by my suggestion about why this may have occured.

(H/T Islamophobia Watch)

10 Responses

  1. Just a small point Richard –

    Bob Pitt’s Islamophobia Watch is pro-Islamist and he is going along with the actions by the pro-Hamas CAIR group – who are condemning this movie. CAIR are trying to use this Third Jihad movie to get NYPD chief Ray Kelly removed from his post – for their own political reasons.

    I would like to know, Richard, if you have seen the movie? Relying upon the bigoted viewpoints of Bob Pitt is not the best way of making a decision.

    The Third Jihad can be seen online – it is introduced and narrated by M. Zuhdi Jasser, who is a Muslim who has been demonised by the Ikhwan/Wahhab lobby in America, of which CAIR is a part.

    Jasser is a practicing Muslim who wants to see reform of the more violent aspects of the religion – and to a Wahhabi/Ikhwan “purist”, talk of reform is heresy.

    The movie makes it plain right from the start that it is not against Islam, but against RADICAL ISLAM.

    I think you should at least inform yourself by seeing the movie before using misleading and false headlines like: “Anti-Islam Film Shown “On Continuous Loop” to NYPD Counterterrorism Trainees.”

    To call the movie “anti-Islam” only makes sense if you agree that a film condemning the Real IRA is “anti-Irish.”

    You are buying into the Islamists’ propaganda, to call it “anti-Islam.”

    • Islamophobia Watch simply drew my attention to the US sources I cite. I don’t regard the site uncritically, but it would be ungracious of me not to give credit given that they’ve linked to me more than once in the past.

      I judge the credibility of the film based on my general understanding of what the Clarion Fund stands for and some of the speakers and ideas they have been prepared to promote. If the film has a serious purpose, why does it need to use Glenn Beck? However, that doesn’t mean that everyone featured in the film is objectionable. I think that calls from CAIR for Kelly to resign are excessive.

  2. So – would I be wrong to assume you are judging a movie, not by its content, but by people who may have featured on it?

    This reminds me of the Daily Mail writers condemning programmes on TV not because they have seen them, but because they have a pre-formed opinion…

    Judging before examination is the very basis of the concept of “prejudice.”

  3. MOst intelligent and aware individuals no longer need to watch movies to have an idea of just how violent and primitive Muslims can be,

    When I woke up this morning and turned on the news, one of the first items mentioned was yet a bombing in Iraq in ongoing sunni/shia violence.

    Over thirty people killed…as they were on their way to collect the bodies of others killed just yesterday in a previous bombing.

    It isn’t the film or the footage that is “gruesome”, but rather the subject of the film.

  4. Third Jihad is a true documentary video based on the Islamic Radical point of view, while majority of American people never had a clue that the radical had declared religious war all over the world decades ago, through the duty of Jihad, westerners must wake up.

    It also pointed out that 1 of 4 Muslim youths supported suicide bombers and Jihad by targeting western civilization. Counter Terror Training for military, law enforcement and FBI, need this kind of true and reality video documentary. So they know who is the real enemy!

  5. […] astute blog Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, which doggedly follows such unappetizing arcana, provides some background on The Third Jihad: As […]

  6. Linking the Religion of Peace with religiously-motivated violence?

    What a leap of libelous imagination!

    Islamophobes!

  7. […] ran a second piece in October. This year has seen troubling stories involving the NYPD and the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department in […]

  8. […] ran a second piece in October. This year has seen troubling stories involving the NYPD and the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department in […]

  9. […] Silent Conquest was created by a weirdly anonymous outfit called “Sanctum Enterprises LLC”, registered to an office in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; however, when the film was released a year ago, Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy was given as the contact point. Presumably there’s some kind of overlap with the Clarion Project. […]

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