Bartholomew's Notes

This one has been widely reported – from the Christian Post:

A 14-minute video clip showing Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church being crowned by Rabbi Ralph Messer during one of the church’s televised services has gone viral, with members of the Christian community expressing complete confusion over the video.

….Messer offered Long on air what he claimed was a 312-year-old priceless Hebrew scroll saved from the Auschwitz death camp after World War II. He then wrapped the New Birth minister in it as mood-enhancing music played in the background, and called for Long to be lifted up on a chair, similar to a throne. While Long was being carried across the podium, Messer spoke of biblical kingship, which Long was supposed to represent.

…New Birth’s charismatic preacher has battled accusations of sexual misconduct and financial shenanigans. In December, Long’s wife, Vanessa, filed for a divorce, which led the bishop to announce that he was stepping down for a brief time to focus on his family.

I blogged on the allegations against Long (who once declared that “the job of the preacher is to bring fresh sperm!”) here and here.

Messer’s own organisation is called Simchat Torah Beit Midrash (STBM), and he is an adherent of “Hebrew Roots” theology. “Hebrew Roots” theology is distinct from Messianic Judaism; from the AP:

Rabbi David Shiff of Congregation Beth Hallel, a Messianic Jewish synagogue in Roswell, condemned the actions in the video.

“Ralph Messer in no way represents Messianic Judaism,” Shiff said. “He is not affiliated with any legitimate branch of Messianic Judaism. His actions in no way reflect the position of Messianic Judaism. I found the presentation to be repulsive and inappropriate.”

(Another “Hebrew Roots” adherent is Jim Barfield, a former fire investigator from Oklahoma who received some attention in 2009 after he claimed to worked out the burial place of the treasure from the First Temple in Jerusalem; see here)

This is not the first time Messer and his scroll have come to the rescue of a beleaguered evangelist; in 2007 Tampa Bay Online reported from Randy White’s Without Walls International Church, following White’s split from church co-founder Paula White:

[Randy] White preached for a few minutes before turning over the pulpit to Ralph Messer, a Messianic rabbi from Denver who teaches about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith.

Messer preached about the Torah and Jewish entrepreneurship and spoke again at the 11 a.m. service, where he led the congregation in a prayer that ended emotionally for White.

“I declare today that my bishop has entered into a new season, a new season, a new season,” Messer intoned, prompting White’s followers. “Now, give him glory. Praise God.”

As emotions in the sanctuary reached a high point, Messer hugged White, telling him, “I love you. I love you so much.” White, a prayer shawl draped over his shoulders, stood clutching a Torah scroll, head bowed, with a pained expression on his face.

Alas, the “new season” was decidedly wintry – within two years the church was facing foreclosure and Randy had stepped down due to “stress”. His ex-wife Paula then returned to the pulpit.

UPDATE: At her blog (and at the Huffington Post), Rev. Dr Wil Gafney, Associate Professor of Biblical Hebrew and Jewish and Christian Scripture at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, has a comprehensive 27-point debunking of the various claims made by Messer at Long’s church. Her corrections include the following:

The Torah cover is not a “foreskin.”

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From OneNewsNow:

A retired Army general and terrorism expert says he decided it was in the best interest of all parties involved to voluntarily withdraw from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy.

…In an interview Tuesday morning, Boykin told OneNewsNow that the pressure on the Academy regarding his scheduled participation in the prayer breakfast was overpowering.

“It became very obvious that the stress on West Point was getting out of control to the point that was being a distraction for them,” says Boykin. “And I withdrew from the event, realizing that it had become so overpowering for them that quite frankly they couldn’t deal with the continued pressure from these organizations … so I withdrew.”

Boykin, who is both a retired general and a neo-Pentecostal minister, is primarily controversial for statements regarding his military career, which he apparently saw in terms of spiritual warfare against Islam; more recently, he’s called for all mosques to be banned in the USA. He is also a conspiracy monger, warning against Obama’s “Health Care Brownshirts” and the machinations of George Soros. In 2010, he co-signed a letter warning about Muslims taking over the world:

The Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security recently swore in two devout Muslims in senior posts…. Was it not “Devout Muslim men” that flew planes into U.S. buildings 9 years ago? Was it not a Devout Muslim who killed 14 at Fort Hood?

…It’s not just about ONE mosque being built near the 9-11 catastrophe, it is about Sharia Law not stopping until they overtake each and every government on this earth. That is what their own Qur’an orders them to do! Thank you so very much for your concern. 

That letter was sent to supporters by email as a fund-raiser for “the Knights of Malta – the Ecumenical Order”; this is a chivalric order of which Boykin is “Grand Chancellor” (more here).

There was a similar controversy a few days ago when Boykin spoke at the Ocean City Prayer Breakfast, although he took that opportunity to present an apparently more moderate message.

OneNewsNow is not the only Christian Right media outlet which Boykin has since spoken to since pulling out of the West Point event; he also appeared on Bryan Fischer’s radio show. Right Wing Watch has a transcript of Boykin’s statement:

First of all remember one of the tenets of our form of government is civilian control of the military, so a lot of what you see coming out of the military in terms of policies and procedures are because of the influence of the administration. I don’t think there is any question that the administration has shown favor to Islam at the same time that they have denigrated both Christianity and Judaism, for example, having an Eid dinner in the White House in the same week that they would not have an event for the National Day of Prayer. So I think that the military reflects the leadership of the country…. It’s a bad situation now that we are seeing so much effort to not only destroy the identity of the roots of the nation which is the Judeo-Christian base upon which were founded, but also the growing influence of Islam.

This isn’t anything much more than bluster: Boykin’s difficulties are caused not by “the administration”; rather, they are due to the  fact that when an individual engages in public controversy, other groups may find that offering a platform or entering into an association is itself a controversial decision best avoided. Sometimes this is unfair, but in other instances perfectly reasonable.

And as for the White House denigrating “both Christianity and Judaism” – if that is the case, why is Christmas at the White House recognised by carol singing and the lighting of a tree, and why is there is now even a White House Seder?

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A bizarre statement from the State of Delaware House of Representatives:

Tribute. Be it known to all that the House of Representatives recognizes Dr. C. Peter Wagner As an Apostle For the Occasion of Commissioning Apostles in the State of Delaware. On this special day of the Commissioning Service, we honor Dr. C. Peter Wagner for his many years of faithful service to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, and the advancement of His Kingdom…

The Tribute, “elegantly inscribed on 8 1/2″ x 14″ parchment-type paper and encased in a folder”, was presented to Wagner in a special ceremony, and Wagner has himself helpfully transcribed it in a message to his followers.

Wagner, as is well-known, heads a branch of neo-Pentecostalism known as the New Apostolic Reformation. Leaders of the movement claim to be empowered by God with spiritual gifts – for instance, Wagner receives regular messages from God. Rival perspectives on the world are placed within a demonology of malign supernatural forces, to be battled through spiritual warfare and deliverance: for example, Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary is in fact homage to a demon known as the “Queen of Heaven“, while economic woes in Japan are the result of ritual sex between the Emperor and the demonic sun goddess.

The Tribute was signed by

Robert F. Gilligan, Speaker of the House; Richard L. Puffer, Chief Clerk of the House, Representative Daniel B., Short, Sponsor.

Wagner also has details of the ceremony itself:

For a year or more I have been in touch with apostolic leadership in the state of Delaware, the first state admitted to the union, about the possibility of organizing key apostles in the state and having their government recognized by the state.

… Much to my surprise, a good bit of field work had been done to assure the approval of the State of Delaware. As part of the ceremony, I was officially welcomed as an apostle and authorized to help commission apostles to the state. The mayor of Seaford (a committed believer) read the Commendation from his office and presented me with the key to the city. This was followed by a Tribute complete with the seal of the Sussex County Council, a Tribute with the seal of the Senate of the State of Delaware, and a Tribute from the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware read personally by the representative of the district.

The mayor of Seaford is a certain Ed H. Butler; according to the Seaford Star, “he is a member of the Victory Tabernacle Church of God, Laurel”. The “representative of the district”, who read the Tribute, would have been Michael H. Vincent, who is also the Sussex County Council President.

Sussex County Council is currently in a dispute over prayer with American United; the AU website reported in September:

Each session at the Sussex County Administrative Office Building in Georgetown, Del., begins with Council President Michael H. Vincent leading a recitation of the Protestant version of the Lord’s Prayer over the chamber’s public-address system. Members of the audience stand and bow their heads during the Christian observance. Since 2009, the prayer has been included in the council minutes as an “invocation.”

Sectarian prayer isn’t the only practice that sends a signal of government involvement with religion. A Ten Commandments display is prominent in the council chamber. And attendees at meetings are sometimes subjected to discussions about the council’s annual prayer breakfast.

According to Delmarvanow,

…The county has argued that the Lord’s Prayer is not an exclusively Christian prayer, so its public recitation by a government body is legal. An attorney for the county has described the prayer “as generic and universal a prayer as can be crafted.”

Whatever one’s views on that, arranging for the State of Delaware to formally recognize “Peter Wagner As an Apostle For the Occasion of Commissioning Apostles” is quite a robust way of giving the finger to those who have church-state qualms.

Meanwhile, Wagner gloats that

The Delaware Council of Apostles has formulated a charter document that is currently undergoing revision. When it is ready, I would hope that we could publicize it as a possible format for other states. I thought that the official sanction of the Government Mountain for this highly significant initiative in the Religion Mountain was notable. It would be interesting to know whether such a thing has happened in other states.

The “Government Mountain” is a reference to the seven domains in modern society (“government, business, education, arts and entertainment, family services, media, and the church”) of which Christians should seek to take control. Bruce Wilson has some background here, including links with Sarah Palin. Another “Seven Mountains” organisation is the Oak Initiative – this is a Christian Right outfit in which Gen William “Jerry” Boykin is a central figure.

UPDATE: The Delaware House Democratic Caucus has sent Right Wing Watch an official statement:

…Under the House tribute process, each individual Representative is responsible for making a request on behalf of his or her constituency.

Discretion for what constitutes an acceptable request is left to each individual Representative rather than subjecting each tribute to a review that could be interpreted as partisan or vindictive. The Speaker of the House is elected by the entire House and his signature appears on each tribute.

…To be clear, in no way does a tribute represent nor should it be interpreted as an endorsement by the Delaware House of Representatives. The House does not vote on tributes. They are requested and sponsored by a specific Representative or Representatives.

Unfortunately, Dr. Wagner seemingly has mischaracterized the intent of this tribute to be an endorsement by the Delaware House of Representatives. We want to be absolutely clear that the House of Representatives does not endorse Dr. Wagner or his organization.

So, the phrase “Be it hereby known to all that the House of Representatives recognizes” actually means… “Be it hereby known to all that one member of the House of Representatives recognizes”.

At Talk To Action, Rachel Tabachnick has a image of the actual document. A comment under her post from “Eleanor B” puts the award in context:

Bear in mind that the Texas Legislature once passed a resolution honoring Albert de Salvo for “his noted activities and unconventional techniques involving population control and applied psychology.” Albert de Salvo was, of course, convicted for being the Boston Strangler… http://www.snopes.com/legal/desalvo.asp

(Hat tip: Right Wing Watch and Sola Dei Gloria)

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Some months ago I noted a new initiative from the Walid Shoebat Foundation, entitled “Rescue Christians”. The new organisation stated that it was working on a number of high-profile cases in Pakistan, providing safe houses for Christians accused of blasphemy and their families. Although there is clearly a pressing need for such help, actual details about how these aims would be achieved and overseen were rather thin.

Since then, the Rescue Christians website has been overhauled, and there is now some further information:

Rescue Christians’ international partner World Vision In Progress (WVIP) has petitioned the Italian government concerning the plight of Pakistani Christians. We helped write the petition, which is now being sponsored by several Italian Members of Parliament. Based on our petition, we also know that the Vatican has indicated a possible interest to intervene and help. We have advised World Vision on what further measures of advocacy are required and we are following through. We hope and pray that the petition and subsequent advocacy will open doors for the ability to save many suffering people and allow them to rebuild their lives. We will keep you informed of any future developments.

…World Vision In Progress Foundation (WVIP), bearing Registration Number (kept private for security reasons) is working to help the persecuted Christian community in Pakistan. WVIP’s basic focus is to protest peacefully against the discriminatory laws such as Blasphemy Laws and Sharia Laws.

It should be noted that “World Vision in Progress” has no connection with the better-known organisation World Vision.

The director of WVIP is a man named Farrukh Harrison, and he contacted me privately a few months ago to confirm that he is working to protect Pakistani Christians – his correspondence included photos and a video in which Christians under his protection offered thanks to “Brother Walid” for providing support.

The petition followed other events in Italy; Agenzia Radicale has further details:

Domenica 22 gennaio lunedì 23, rispettivamente presso l’Università Urbaniana e presso la sala della Mercede alla Camera dei Deputati, promosso dall’Osservatorio del diritto italiano e internazionale e dal World Vision in Progress Foundation, si è tenuto il convegno “La persecuzione delle minorante cristiane un Pakistan“.

…La dr.ssa Adriana Bolchini – presidente nazionale dell”O.D.D.I.I. [Osservatorio del Diritto Italiano e Internazionale] assieme al sig. Farrukh Harrison, presidente nazionale della World Vision in Progress Foundation il dr. Paolo Valerio Mantellini – membro del consiglio direttivo dell’ODDII e il sig. 

…Erano presenti numerosi ospiti tra cui i deputati Souad Sbai e Antonio Mazzocchi e come il prof. Mobeen Shaihd di Pakistani cristiani in Italia, che si occupano della difesa dei cristiani perseguitati.

Sbai and Mazzocchi are with the centre-right PDL party;  Mazzocchi is founder and  president of an organisation called Cristiano Riformisti. Further reports can be found on the ODDII website (here and here).

These associations seem a world away from what Shoebat stands for, and I don’t just mean the well-known controversy around Shoebat’s past and activities. Shoebat has a history of excessive utterances: the Bible predicts a Muslim anti-Christ; Barack Obama is a Muslim terrorist working for al-Qaeda;  it’s a shame that there are more violent extremists so that “nukes” could be deployed against “the Muslim world”, and so on.

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From Interfax:

Representatives of Orthodox Resistance Movement to Murdering of Children conducted an action and conveyed a batch of tinned stewed meat to the Moscow Society for Krishna Conciseness [sic – obviously should be “Society for Krishna Consciousness”, also known as ISKCON and informally as “Hare Krishna”] .

…Earlier Russian Muslims also announced that they launch an action “of collecting and sending starving Indians humanitarian help in form of Halal canned stewed meat.”

Here, we see the religious virtue of charity being applied for the purposes of insult and revenge: the Russian Orthodox group claims that it is responding to a recent burning of the Russian flag by BJP militants in India, while some Russian Muslims believe that ISKCON’s provision of free vegetarian meals is an attempt to induce Muslims to eat non-Halal food. According to Albir Krganov, first deputy chairman of the Central Spiritual Board of Russian Muslims Mufti of Moscow and Russia’s Central Region:

“If the sect persists that when Krishnaites distributed their food they made a good deed then we’re ready to pay the debt and start delivering nutritious Halal stewed meat in cans to starving Krishnaites of India. We are ready to personally distribute this meat to Russian Krishnaites,” he said.

I haven’t been able to find any other reference to the alleged flag-burning, but it supposedly formed part of a protest against an attempt in Russia to ban ISKCON’s famous and distinctive version of the Bhagavad Gita, entitled The Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Forum 18 has the background:

On 28 December 2011, Judge Galina Butenko of Tomsk’s Lenin District Court rejected the prosecutor’s suit to have the third Russian edition of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is ruled extremist.

…An “expert analysis” completed in October 2010 by three academics at Tomsk State University at the request of FSB security service officer Dmitry Velikotsky found that the book “contains signs of incitement of religious hatred and humiliation of an individual based on gender, race, ethnicity, language, origin or attitude to religion”.

…In an analysis posted on his Livejournal blog on 2 January, Nikolai Karpitsky carefully reviewed all the evidence of possible initiators of the Tomsk case… He… discounts the idea that the three Tomsk University “experts” who conducted the initial 2010 analysis were behind it, given their surprise that it would be used in court to try to ban the book and their renunciation of their analysis in court.

Karpitsky believes Maksim Stepanenko, the head of the Tomsk Russian Orthodox Diocese’s Missionary Centre, is the “the remaining possibility” as the initiator of the case, although Stepanenko denies this. Karpitsky’s post can be seen here.

According to The Russia & India Report:

On January 16 Muhammedali Khuzin, head of the executive committee of the All-Russian muftiat, in Russian Perm city appealed to the Russian authorities “not to cede to any external provocation and pressure” and “to display principal inclemency” to the Krishnaits.

However, Khuzin was opposed by Gulnur Gazieva, head of the press-office of the Russian Council of Muftis.

In 2004, an ISKCON temple in Moscow was demolished to make way for a city development, but a plot of land promised as a replacement was withdrawn by the mayor following complaints from the Orthodox Church. That decision, however, was itself overturned in June 2006, and a temple has existed in a Moscow suburb since 2008. The ISKCON website has an account here – the author lays on various chess metaphors, and the piece is perhaps unwisely entitled “Checkmate: ISKCON’s Victory in Russia”.

The “Orthodox Resistance Movement to Murdering of Children” has no other internet presence in English – from the name, it’s presumably an anti-abortion group which is branching out, and I suspect it’s linked with other nationalist Orthodox groups I’ve blogged about.

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Jerry Boykin, speaking yesterday at the Ocean City Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast (background here):

“The muslim people are a precious people and I respect them and their right to worship, so long as they don’t fall into the category of a radical who wants to destroy the constitution.”

Jerry Boykin, previously:

We need to recognize that Islam itself is not just a religion – it is a totalitarian way of life. It’s a legal system, sharia law; it’s a financial system; it’s a moral code; it’s a political system; it’s a military system. It should not be protected under the First Amendment, particularly given that those following the dictates of the Quran are under an obligation to destroy our Constitution and replace it with sharia law.

Plus:

No mosques in America…. A mosque is an embassy for Islam and they recognize only a global caliphate, not the sanctity or sovereignty of the United States.

Just a few days ago, the Tennessee Freedom Coalition posted a video in which Boykin warns about the “Muslim propaganda playbook”, that Muslims are “implementing their plan”, and that “the target is our constitution”. In that speech, Boykin identifies “the theology of Islam” and “authoritative Islam” as the enemies: no distinction is made between Muslims, Islamists, and Jihadis.

Perhaps Boykin has had a change of heart; more likely, though, is that he defines “the category of a radical” so broadly that a Muslim who doesn’t “want to destroy the constitution” is either uninformed about his or her own religion, or belongs to a fringe, “non-authoritative” form of Islam.

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Back in July 2010, I was surprised to find that I had provoked the wrath of bestselling conservative thriller author Brad Thor:

I guess with Instaputz, Bartholomew, and Media Matters on the scene, the rest of the milblogging community can finally hang up their cleats.

…Lefty journalism is only fun after all when you can selectively attack sources.  Behold the utter nihilism of the left – available at a progressive website near you.

This was a strangely thinned-skin response to a blog-post in which I had discussed Thor’s alleged scoop – published by Andrew Breitbart the preceding May – that Mullah Omar had been “captured” by Pakistani authorities. Thor announced that

At the end of March, US Military Intelligence was informed by US operatives working in the Af/Pak theater on behalf of the D.O.D. that Omar had been detained by Pakistani authorities. One would assume that this would be passed up the chain and that the Secretary of Defense would have been alerted immediately.  From what I am hearing, that may not have been the case.

When this explosive information was quietly confirmed to United States Intelligence ten days ago by Pakistani authorities, it appeared to take the Defense Department by surprise. No one, though, is going to be more surprised than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  It seems even with confirmation from the Pakistanis themselves, she was never brought up to speed.

I expressed some scepticism a few weeks later, although I thought I had been fair-minded enough: I noted that Jeremy Scahill at the Nation had tentatively suggested that there might be something in it, while David Horowitz’s Newsrealblog had been unimpressed.

Thor quietly modified his position soon after, quoting Bill Roggio’s suggestion that Omar “is thought to be in a safehouse in Karachi, under the protection of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate”:

We believe we have a semantic difference with Roggio: “captured” or “protected,” why hasn’t the U.S. gotten access to Omar?

That “semantic difference” amounted to something of an anti-climax: Thor’s “explosive information” was in fact a story which was already three-and-a-half years old. As the BBC reported January 2007:

Taleban leader Mullah Omar is living in Pakistan under the protection of its ISI intelligence agency, a captured Taleban spokesman has said.

I was reminded of all this recently when I came across last week’s New Yorker, which contains a long profile of Mullah Omar by Steve Coll. According to Coll:

Alex Strick van Linschoten [website here – RB], a Dutch scholar who has been based in Kandahar since 2007 and has conducted interviews with Taliban leaders and sympathizers, told me that he believes Mullah Omar is “in a safe house in Karachi”… and that Omar’s movements and activities are closely  monitored by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Strick van Linschoten’s informants describe Omar as “essentially a prisoner”. Coll also cites journalist Anand Gopal, who regards Omar as being “effectively under house arrest”, and he notes that an Indian official at a US-Indian counterterrorism meeting last year had described Omar as being under “Pakistani protection”. Coll also spoke with “half a dozen American officials”, whose

views range from a belief that Omar is essentially under house arrest to a judgement that he enjoys considerable freedom of movement and action within Pakistan.

However, nowhere in Coll’s extensive and definitive account is there any mention of a particular development that supposedly occurred in May 2010, let alone “explosive information” that had taken the US Defense Department “by surprise”.

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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)

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A dramatic story from retired General “Jerry” Boykin, former United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence:

A couple of years ago they arrested seven terrorists down in North Carolina. A good friend of mine who is very well placed in law enforcement in Virginia called me up and said ‘Sir, I need to meet you, sir I need to talk to you”. I had been mentoring him for a couple of years. I went over and met him in a Starbucks outside of Richmond. I live near Richmond. He said, “Sir, I just came back from the FBI academy”, and he said “those seven people down there that they arrested in North Carolina”, he said, “when they got into their computer they had your name on that computer, and they were going to capture you and torture you.” He said, “they were also going to go to Quantico marine base and they were going to try to just ambush some people and kill some people there.

Boykin is here discussing a terror ring which was uncovered during 2009 and which was led by Daniel Boyd. There were seven arrests, while an eighth member of the group fled to Pakistan. The AP has details of a recent trial related to the case:

Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and Hysen Sherifi… were part of a group of eight men who federal investigators say raised money, stockpiled weapons and trained in preparation for jihadist attacks against American military targets and others they deemed enemies of Islam.

…Yaghi was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism and conspiracy to carry out attacks overseas. Sherifi was convicted for both crimes, two counts of firearms possession, and conspiracy to kill federal officers or employees by discussing an attack on the Quantico, Va., Marine Corps base with ringleader Daniel Boyd, who had lived on the base as a child with his Marine officer father.

Presumably Boykin would come under “others they deemed enemies of Islam”, but it’s peculiar that the story hasn’t come out until now and that Boykin only got to hear about it due to a private source. There’s nothing about it in the indictment.

Boykin’s story appears in a video entitled “Gen. Jerry Boykin with the TFC”, which was posted to the website of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition on 22 January. The TFC has featured on this blog previously – it played a central role in November’s “Preserving Freedom” conference in Nashville. The TFC also has a couple of interesting British links: Paul Diamond and Andrea Williams of Christian Concern have attended TFC events, and Diamond recently announced that Christian Concern would be “coordinating their legal efforts” with the TFC. The TFC also supports the English Defence League, and the TFC’s Andy Miller calls Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and Paul Weston “Friends of Mine”. These links are discussed here.

Boykin is well-known for his anti-Islam views (in 2010 he led an event in Texas alongside Walid Shoebat and Robert Spencer), and for his claim that economic difficulties in the USA are a conspiracy enacted by George Soros so that Obama can use healthcare legislation to create “an army of brownshirts”. Boykin is closely associated with the neo-Pentecostal evangelist Rick Joyner, and with Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries and Oak Initiative.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of Boykin’s presentation is boilerplate: cultural jihad is “taking over our country”; media and politicians are acting in accordance with the “Muslim propaganda playbook”; Muslims are “implementing their plan”; the name “War on Terror” was a mistake because “terrorism is a tactic” while the real problem is “the theology of Islam” and “authoritative Islam”, and “the target is our constitution”.  Further, “our government is penetrated at every level”, while the Christian church is “compromising”. Boykin also cites the claim that “81 per cent” of mosques are extremist (I discussed the study from which this figure was derived here).

Meanwhile, Boykin is due to address the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in Ocean City, MD, on Thursday 26 January. People for the American Way and CAIR have issued statements asking the mayor to reconsider, and PFAW has also disseminated a statement from Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson, President of Auburn Theological Seminary.

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Seems to be working… (from 2009)

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