Bartholomew's Notes

The Washington Monthly has a long article, by Meg Stalcup and Joshua Craze, that takes a critical look at the various experts currently providing “counter-terror” training to US police forces. The report complements a Washington Post piece from December (which I blogged here), and introduces some new individuals.

First up is a certain Sam Kharoba; Stalcup and Craze describe a lecture he gave to law enforcement officers at Broward College in December:

…jihadists telegraph their extremist intentions in altogether predictable ways. One only has to learn the signs. Take Mahmoud—Kharoba’s preferred name for a generic Muslim. Kharoba can tell whether Mahmoud is a Wahhabi… just by going through Mahmoud’s trash. There will be no pre-approved credit card offers, because interest is forbidden in Islam. There will be no brown wax fried-chicken bags, because fried chicken isn’t halal.

…”Would Islam be tolerated if everyone knew its true message?” he asked the class. “From a Muslim perspective, do you want non-Muslims to know the truth about Islam?”

“No!” came the audience reply.

…Sam Kharoba came to the United States from Jordan when he was seventeen to study computing at Louisiana State University. When the 9/11 attacks happened, he was working as a programmer… Kharoba quit his job and began work on a database of every jihadi website and name that he could find… He fell into teaching by chance, in 2002, when the Community Oriented Policing Services Program in Louisiana invited him to give a talk. Kharoba had no professional experience in law enforcement, no academic training in terrorism or national security, and is not himself a Muslim. But as a Jordanian-born Christian he was able to turn his place of birth into a selling point. When we asked the dean of the Institute of Public Safety why she recruited Kharoba to teach there, her answer was that Kharoba “put the flavor of Middle Eastern culture into it.”

…In November 2010, the St. Petersburg Times reported that the sheriff in Pasco County, Florida, planned to spend $45,000 of a $361,000 training budget teaching local officers how “radical Muslims groom their facial hair and wear their pants, as well as a ‘behavioral analysis technique to distinguish visually between moderates and radicals.’;” Those classes held at Pasco-Hernando Community College will be taught by Sam Kharoba.

Kharoba runs the “Counter Terrorism Operations Center”, which has a website here; the site’s front page includes a prominent link to an American Thinker article which warns that the USA is becoming “a de facto shariah state”. In 2008 he spoke at at two rallies organised by Americans Against Hate. The first was against CAIR and also featured Allen West, while the second was to demand the removal of a (since deceased) Islamist from the Broward County School Board’s Diversity Committee. According to the Canada Free Press:

The October 17 rally will include signs and will feature a number of prominent members of the community. They include: State House Majority Leader, Representative Adam Hasner; President of the Counter Terrorism Operations Center, Sam Kharoba; spiritual leader of Ramat Shalom, Andrew Jacobs; spiritual leader of the Worldwide Christian Center, Pastor O’Neal Dozier; co-founder of the Daniel Cantor Wultz Foundation, Tuly Wultz; and Chairman of Americans Against Hate, Joe Kaufman.

(Dozier previously featured on this blog here, and Kaufman here)

However, a 2008 outline of Kharoba’s course which can be seen here stresses that the War on Terror “is not a war against a religion, it is a war against terrorist organizations that hijacked Islam and mutated its harmony”. PDF outlines of Kharoba’s course can be found at various sites; some of these contain more detailed biographical profiles, such as this one:

Sam is a Christian Jordanian from Amman. His father worked in Jordan with the British Council. This allowed him exposure to both Western and Arabic cultures and languages while growing up. Sam received an Advanced Certificate of Education in Arabic Culture from the University of London, and a B.S. from LSU. He is a subject-matter expert in Middle-Eastern affairs. Currently, he provides consultation and training for the criminal justice sector. His in-depth studies of Arabic and Islamichistory and culture provide him a unique capacity, knowledge, and expertise that enable him to provide valuable and objective analysis on Middle-Eastern affairs and the problems associated with Islamistfundamentalism and terrorism.

Also:

Instructor Sam Kharoba, with First Capital Technologies, is a consultant trainer, born in Amman Jordan, studying Arabic culture at University of London, A-Level GCE in Arabic Culture. Inventor of UNIS, Unique Name Identification System.

“A-Levels”, as everyone in Britain knows, are pre-university level courses. His First Capital Technologies company provides name-matching software, and was discussed in 2007 by the Economist:

Sam Kharoba of First Capital Technologies, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, says his firm’s sales have doubled in each of the past three years. Its clients include America’s Defence Department and over 20 other government agencies… As watch-lists multiply beyond the realms of intelligence and international travel, demand for such software is likely to grow.

Also profiled by the Washington Monthly is John Giduck, a lawyer who has worked in Russia and who runs the Archangel Group:

…He claims to have trained with multiple Russian special forces units, and to be certified by the “Vityaz Special Forces Anti-Terror School.” In 2004, Giduck traveled to Russia immediately after the Beslan school massacre and wrote a book called Terror at Beslan. It was published in 2005, and it raised Giduck’s profile, earning him a guest appearance on the Glenn Beck show in the fall of 2007. Among the book’s most sensational allegations is that the terrorists at Beslan systematically raped their hostages, a claim that no other primary source account has made. In the meantime, Giduck has also become an in-demand counterterrorism trainer.

…In Terror at Beslan, Giduck recounts giving a presentation on the 2002 hostage crisis at the Nord-Ost Theater in Moscow. After most of the terrorists were knocked unconscious by the gas that security forces pumped into the building, Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces, came through, methodically shooting each of the terrorists once in the back of the head. Giduck is convinced that as Americans we could do better: we could shoot them twice.

However:

When we wanted to know more about Giduck’s time with the Russian special forces, Giduck wrote back to say that he had done a “series of trainings with Vityaz [a unit of Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces] at their special forces compound and training school on the Balashikha Army Base about 30 miles east of Moscow from 1999 to 2004” and had had close access to a series of elite Russian units, including Rus, another Spetsnaz division. When we made inquiries at the Russian Interior Ministry, we were informed that Giduck had not trained with Vityaz. Instead, he took a commercial course in extreme survival skills, with no counterterrorism component. Representatives from Rus said they had never heard of Giduck.

Giduck’s books include The Green Beret in You, which exists in audio-book form narrated by none other than thriller-writer Brad Thor; back in July Thor attacked this blog by name for “utter nihilism” when I noted some doubts being expressed about his “Mullah Omar in custody” story. Thor gushes that the book is “The essential guide to being a real man. If John Wayne had left a how-to manual on being a man, this would be it.”

Other figures mentioned by Stalcup and Craze include Joe Bierly of Counterterrorism Training and Consulting and Richard Hughbank of Extreme Terrorism Consulting, both of whom are combat veterans, and Keith Flannigan, certification chairman of the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board; Hughbank is an ATAB-certified “master anti-terrorism specialist” and a member of ATAB’s Standards Committee. As for Flannigan:

Flannigan claims numerous qualifications: a BA from Kent State University in 2008, an MA in psychology from the University of Frankfurt, likewise in 2008, and a PhD in philosophy from Northfield University—once again in 2008. However, the National Student Clearing House, a degree-verification service, was unable to find record of Flannigan at Kent State, nor did the University of Frankfurt find any evidence of attendance. When queried, Flannigan claimed that we couldn’t find his records because Keith Flannigan is not his legal name. Flannigan may well have a doctorate, for what it’s worth, from Northfield University, as it is run by the University Degree Program, described by Chronicle of Higher Education as “the granddaddy of diploma mill operations.”

Flannigan is also president of International Dynamics Research Corp., which was founded in 1979 by “former Intelligence and Law Enforcement Officers”.  According to its blurb, it conducts “international intelligence operations”, and has “successfully completed hundreds of asset searches, including searches on Noriega, Milliken, and Saddam Hussein”. Flannigan has also served as chairman of the Information Technology Security Council of the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), which is the recognised body for security professionals. Back in November, Flannigan made a personal response to a critical posting on a discussion forum:

…ATAB is not in an “Effort to make money”. We have no annual dues and the funds that come from the sale of training materials go back to train other responders. ATAB has trained over 49,000 responders for free since 2002.

…ASIS is one of the best security networking organizations in the world. I have been involved with them for over 20 years. ATAB does not try to compete with ASIS. ATAB fills a training void for people that can not afford to travel around the world to take training. 13 of the ATAB presentations were presented at the ASIS seminar in Dallas last month. ATAB has past ASIS Presidents, Board Members, VP’s, RVP’s and Council Chairs as members. They have Directors of Agencies, 4 Star Generals, Director’s of Security from all most every Federal Agency and Members in most Fortune 500 companies.

…ATAB Materials are being used at over 40 police academies, The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, FBI, ATF, West Point, SPAWARS, USMC, US Army, US Navy and many more.

I have blogged on various private intelligence organisations previously (see here, here, here, here, and here). Political Research Associates is also planning to release a report this month on anti-Islam rhetoric in counter-terrorism training.

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Glenn Beck’s “end-times prophet” Joel Richardson has a new article at WorldNetDaily, explaining how turmoil in Libya will lead to the rise of the “Neo-Ottoman Caliphate”, as facilitated by Obama. Although he avoids theological discussion this time, Richardson famously believes that this new Caliphate is predicted in the Bible as the means by which the world’s Muslims will be brought under the control of a coming Islamic Anti-Christ:

The World Tribune has reported that Turkey has floated the idea of invading Libya to establish peace and stability in that nation. According to the report, the one stipulation however, as set forth by Prime Minister Erdogan, is that the European Union must immediately welcome Turkey into its warm embrace. And then comes the zinger: “The sources said the United States, particularly President Barack Obama, supported the Turkish proposal.” Bingo. President Obama is virtually rolling out the red carpet for the emerging Neo-Ottoman Caliphate…

Richardson’s close associate Walid Shoebat concurs, quoting the same World Tribune report and adding:

For years, I have said that some day Turkey will invade Libya. Daniel 11 tells us:

“He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt with the Libyans and Nubians in submission.” (Daniel 11:43)

Turkey currently has its eye on Libya and is using Barack Hussein Obama to gain support for his invasion of Libya and he got it. Whether Turkey will invade or not is only a matter of time…

Various apocalyptically-minded websites have reposted this rumination.

Although the report cited by Shoebat and Richardson is billed as “special to the World Tribune“, the Tribune piece in turn credits the Middle East Newsline and it is essentially a cut-and-paste from an article there. This article is paywall-protected, but Middle East Newsline is unlikely to mind: the site is run by an Israel-based journalist named Steve Rodan, who is also the World Tribune’s Middle East editor.

Middle East Newsline’s information is purportedly from “diplomatic sources” and “a Western diplomat”. Along with details about Erdogan’s offer and Obama’s alleged support of it, we are also given information about a third president’s supposed reaction:

The sources said French President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed the Erdogan proposal despite U.S. pressure.

“What Sarkozy said is unprintable, but basically that the United States is not a member of the EU and cannot dictate who should be a member,” the diplomat said.

The fact that Obama and Sarkozy are at odds over Turkey’s membership of the EU is actually old news from 2009.

Alas, however, the claim that Turkey plans to invade Libya has been contradicted by other reports that cite actual people, as opposed to shadowy “sources”. Richardson  nevertheless is undeterred:

Thankfully, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet has followed up with a report that both Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu have categorically ruled out such a Turkish-led invasion of Libya – but not before Obama had the opportunity to reflexively support such an idea.

In other words, the “sources” who revealed the “Turkish proposal” have turned out to have been wrong, but we should still believe the bit about Obama having “reflexively supported” the proposal that was never made.

Rodan writes for publications such as Jane’s Defence Weekly and the Jerusalem Post. World Tribune, meanwhile, was profiled by the New Yorker in 2003:

It is a Web site produced, more or less as a hobby, in Falls Church, Virginia… Its editor and publisher, Robert Morton, is an assistant managing editor at the Washington Times and a former “corporate editor” for News World Communications, the Times’ owner and the publishing arm of the Unification Church, led by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. (Morton and his wife, Choon Boon, are themselves followers of the Reverend Moon.)

…Morton said last week via e-mail that he founded the site as an experiment, back in 1998, while serving as a media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank.

…it is part of a loose network of mostly conservative sites… whose dispatches sometimes serve as the journalistic equivalent of trial balloons: a story may not be based on knowable facts, but it nevertheless may occasionally turn out to be right.

Also:

…World Tribune.com, in concert with the subscription-driven weekly intelligence briefing Geostrategy-Direct.com (a partner site), has paid for itself.

World Tribune describes itself, alongside this partner site and a third site called East-Asia-Intel.com, as belonging to the “media division” of a private company called East West Services, Inc (or EWS, Inc). The website’s footer contains a strange detail:

Legal Counsel: Roy M. Cohn (1927-1986) Backup Paralegals: Hammer, Rude, Hussein, Nasty and Tong

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From the AP:

Soldiers backing Ivory Coast’s defiant leader mowed down women protesting his refusal to leave power in a hail of gunfire Thursday, killing at least six and shocking a nation where women’s marches have historically been used as a last resort against an unrestrained army.

…Nearly 400 people have been killed in the west African country, including 32 in the last 24 hours, almost all of them men who had voted for opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, according to U.N. figures and combined with deaths confirmed by The Associated Press.

Last week, [Laurent] Gbagbo’s security forces entered the Abobo neighborhood and began shelling it with mortars, a shocking escalation indicating the army is willing to use war-grade weapons on its citizens. Before that, the bodies seen by reporters had bullet wounds where the point of impact was marked by a single stain of blood. Since the escalation, the bodies seen by reporters have arrived at the morgue in body bags dripping with blood.

…Gbagbo, a former history teacher, has refused to cede power, even though U.N.-certified results showed he had lost the race by half-a-million votes….

We look forward to how Pat Robertson’s CBN will report on all this. Back in January, I noted that CBN had conducted a softball interview with Gbagbo, which the station boasted had been “broadcast on Ivorian National Television”. The interview gave the Gbagbo a platform to discourse on his Christian faith, and CBN’s Gary Lane – aware of his brief to present Gbagbo as a Christian bulwark against Islam – didn’t spoil the mood by asking about Gbagbo’s polygamy or other awkward subjects. A follow-up segment on CBN suggested that Gbagbo had lost the election only because of “fraud” engineered by Saudi Arabia and “Muslims in France”.

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An announcement from Gary Foxcroft of Stepping Stones Nigeria concerning the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, a Nigerian organisation which runs a hostel for children who have suffered abuse as a result of witchcraft allegations:

As a valued supporter of Stepping Stones Nigeria, and in the spirit of openness and honesty, I have taken the decision to inform you of some unfortunate news. It is with great sadness in my heart that I need to inform you of the termination of the partnership between Stepping Stones Nigeria and our Nigerian partner agency- the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). This decision, which has not been taken lightly, was unanimously made by me and the SSN Board of Trustees on 17thFebruary. Out of gratitude and respect we then decided you should know this news as we felt that it may be important to you.

…Recently Stepping Stones Nigeria was deeply concerned to receive a number of  unproven but  very serious allegations regarding the conduct of one of CRARN’s senior staff members. In line with our child protection policy and Memorandum of Understanding SSN immediately demanded the suspension and removal of this staff member whilst an independent investigation took place to determine the truth behind the allegations. When it became clear that CRARN would not promptly and effectively comply with our requests the SSN Board of Trustees moved quickly to terminate the partnership with immediate effect. We regret this action has had to be taken; however we must ensure that all of our partners adhere to the highest standards of child protection, accountability and transparency…

The full statement can be seen here. NEXT has further details:

…the Director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, Gary Foxcroft, said that the recent allegations against the CRARN staff member and the organization’s failure to take appropriate action to enable an independent investigation to take place necessitated the termination of the partnership. “Stepping Stones Nigeria has invested significant effort and resources into our work with CRARN over the last 5 years… We are in no way prejudging the outcome of this situation, but we feel that swift action is required,” he said. “As Director of SSN (Stepping Stones Nigeria), I have no hesitation in giving this decision my full backing… We will now look forward to strengthening our existing partnerships and develop new ones to help more children in the Niger Delta access their rights and realise their full potential.”

…CRARN said that it appealed to officials of Stepping Stones Nigeria, who wanted to invite European Union human right lawyers for an investigation, to consider their memorandum of understanding before inviting any third party since it is a matter to concerns children.

CRARN does not explain why the plan to bring in an outside investigator should be unreasonable. Instead, it claims that SSN had planned to terminate the relationship before the allegation was made:

Bassey Ukang, CRARN’s administrative officer, said that plans by the UK group to sever ties with them had been hatched over a month ago according to a letter they received inviting them to a meeting in Ghana where one of the key agenda was the termination of the partnership. “CRARN actually did not buy this idea given the huge amount of money made on the heads of Akwa Ibom children, mostly those from the CRARN centre,” he said. “While trying to negotiate that, they came up with uncanny sorts of allegations which they claim involved some key staff and want those staff to relocate to an unknown place in Abuja while their phones and laptop confiscated….”

Ukang also hints at legal action.

This news will of course delight certain powerful local evangelists who are keen to discredit anyone who speaks out against the idea of child-witches, as well as politicians and journalists who wish to downplay the consequences of child-witch stigmatisation. However, SSN has clearly made the right decision: we all know from bitter experience that any organisation which has access to children must remain extremely vigilant of unsuitable adults who might seek to involve themselves in its work. Attempting to gloss over a problem now would lead only to disaster – and tragedy – later.

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David Corn has some fun with conspiracy theorist Avi Lipkin:

…here’s the mother of all right-wing conspiracy theories: Obama is scheming to bring tens of millions of Muslims—perhaps up to 100 million—from the Middle East into the United States in order to turn this country into an Islamic nation by the end of his second term.

Fortunately, this diabolical plan has been exposed by an American-born Israeli named Avi Lipkin, who says he once was a translator for the Israeli government, and an outfit called Special Guests, which books conservative commentators and advocates on popular television and radio talk shows. Lipkin’s website claims that since 1990 he has lectured on various topics—including the threat of Islam and Israel—in over 1000 churches and synagogues in the United Sates, Canada, England, Greece, Israel, and other countries. His bio notes that he heads the Judeo-Christian Bible Bloc party in Israel.

I blogged on Lipkin and his “Judeo-Christian Bible Bloc” in 2006. Lipkin can be hired alone or as part of a double act with none other than Walid Shoebat; according to the Special Guests website:

This is an interview opportunity you do not want your audience to miss. Call Special Guests today. Walid Shoebat and Avi Lipkin are available as guests individually or together as a panel.

Shoebat and Lipkin were also co-promoted by Special Guests last month, alongside the former mayor of Shiloh in Israel, as pundits on Egypt:

CONTACT: Amy Reis or Lynne Campbell of Special Guests at: 630-848-0750. Avi is available by phone for radio or via satellite from Jerusalem for television.

…Conducting Talk Show interviews on this topic are a panel of guests (pick one, some, all or none) including Middle East policy analyst, Avi Lipkin, an Israeli citizen, former member of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and a former translator inside the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

…Regarding the recent so-called ‘leaderless’ protest in Egypt, Avi Lipkin stated, “There is no doubt that if the Mubarek regime falls, the only group powerful enough and cohesive enough to rule Egypt will be The Muslim Brotherhood.

This would be a repeat of Jimmy Carter’s toppling of the Shaw [sic] of Iran and the ushering in of a fanatic government with The Muslim Brotherhood who has promised a war with Israel.”

…And former terrorist Walid Shoebat, who discusses street protest through the eyes of a terrorist. He knows up front and personally just what the behind-the-scenes leaders are doing to fan the flames of the so-called leaderless protest.

Lipkin and Shoebat have appeared together before: in 2007 they were part of a “prophecy conference” alongside Jack Hibbs, John Higgins, David Hocking, and Jacob Prasch. As I’ve blogged previously, Shoebat, like Lipkin, claims that Obama is a Muslim: this is why Obama supports access to abortion, as part of a plot to weaken the USA. Shoebat has also worked with Glenn Beck’s “end times prophet” Joel Richardson to spread the idea that the Bible predicts the coming of a Muslim anti-Christ.

Corn also gives some background to the Special Guests PR outfit:

According to its website, the organization has collaborated with the National Right To Life Committee, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the Second Amendment Foundation, and other conservative groups. The site boasts, “We regularly place guests on radio shows including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity Radio, [and] Michael Savage.” The group says it only promotes causes that “are pleasing to The Maker, our Creator.” It asks potential clients, “What is your special message? Is it helpful to humanity? Is it God-honoring?” Apparently, it pleases God to accuse the president of covertly plotting—and implementing!—a Muslim takeover of the United States.

The organisation was also discussed by Karl Grossman of FAIR in 2006:

Speaking of the politics of media, it’s a clear and daily demonstration to me of how the right, far more than the left, realizes the importance of communication… The most active PR operation that pitches us is Special Guests.

…The president of Special Guests is Jerry McGlothlin who, he explained, at 22 got into “the art business printing lithographs of starving artists” and became a millionaire. After he utilized his intense energy to sell a lithograph to Thomas Madden, a former vice president of NBC who went into PR, “Tom told me, ‘You’re a natural for PR.'”

For a time he was partners with Madden, one-time PR director for ABC and author of the memoir Spin Man.

A key event for Special Guests occurred in 1988, two years after its founding, when McGlothlin was able to get Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry booked on the Oprah Winfrey Show. That national television exposure “launched” Terry and his anti-abortion drive as “a national movement,” said McGlothlin. This convinced him that he could not only “make money” through PR, but “you can move social causes! You can change the world!”

Since that TV appearance, he proudly noted, 80,000 people have been arrested in protests against abortion, twice the number, he said, arrested during the civil rights movement. One of those arrested was McGlothlin. He is not only a PR man but someone who believes in the causes and people he promotes.

He finds getting access to media “easy as pie for me now. I know the people; I know the producers.” He rattled off names of producers at the most popular TV and radio programs in the United States, and told of his clients in recent weeks getting on NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS’s Morning Show…

In July 2010, Joe Ciarallo of PRNewsner noted a “pay-per-placement” ad in a trade publication:

We’ve heard of “pay-per-placement” PR agencies before… Nothing new there.

However, we can’t recall seeing an advertisement that implies in such a direct manner that one can pay to get on big name TV and radio shows such as those hosted by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, as well as conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

…When asked if he needed permission to use the media personality’s pictures in his advertisement, which basically implies that you can pay to be on their shows, McGlothlin responded, “I really don’t know.”

McGlothlin did say his company has booked a couple hundred thousand placements per year, including affiliates. “We book very frequently on ‘Fox and Friends’ and other programs on Fox News,” he said.

“We book time to time on CNN and MSNBC, although most of our guests run right of center so it’s easier for us to place them on Fox News,” he continued.

McGlothlin clarified further in the comments under the post:

At Special Guests we do not guarantee any particular show on any particular day, but if we don’t book it, the client doesn’t pay a cent.

…Major book publishers outsource publicity work to us since they know they have a fixed flat rate for the work we do, either on a ‘per interview’ basis or on a flat weekly or monthly basis. No expenses, no hidden fees, no bad surprises and no long term commitment. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed or give a 7-day notice to quit. But with clients who have been with us longer than 15 years, it shows that sometimes the best binding long term agreement is no long term agreement at all!

Pay for play PR? Think of it like this: People scoffed at ‘penny ante; keyword search marketing in its infancy but Google and Yahoo are now mainstream (our ‘keywords’ are: politics, breaking news, Obama and religion!) players in the advertising industry.

Perhaps the future of PR is what Special Guests has been doing for the past 22 years: Charging a fair price per interview and NOT CHARGING A DIME unless we deliver.

A December 2010 press release announced that

Jerry McGlothlin president of Special Guests Inc… announced the release of a new public relations guide entitled: How to Become a ‘Special Guest’on Television & Radio Talk Shows and Turn it into A Personal Gold Mine.

…Since his public relations firm Special Guests, which specializes in placing clients as guests on popular radio and television talk shows began in 1984, McGlothlin has represented and booked a virtual who’s who of well known newsmakers, politicians and celebrities.

Everyone from George Foreman, Deborah Norville, The Duchess of York – Sarah Ferguson, Johnny Carson side kick the late Ed McMahon, as well as former president George W. Bush. CEO’s from fortune 500 corporations have also made splashes on network shows like Oprah, The Today Show, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Rush Limbaugh among others, thanks to McGlothlin.

…Special Guests is considered by industry insiders as the top Talk Show PR firm in the United States.

Special Guests also has a  “television division” called CleanTV, where McGlothlin presents news items such as “John McTernan documents how disasters of biblical proportions happen in the United States each time our nation’s leadership pressures Israel to give up their God-given Promised Land”. As Gerald B McGlothlin, he is the registered owner of 888WebToday, which describes itself as “Your Daily Conservative and Christian Online Daily News Resource”, and of Faith Issues. Both sites offer boilerplate populist-conservative religious and general commentary, with 888WebToday also publishing various press releases.

Back in 2004, another person named Jerry McGlothlin found fame as the “Napkin Man” after attempting to sell a napkin made moist from Alan Keyes’ sweat. However, this Special Guests page shows that the PR-man McGlothlin curiously became his namesake’s promoter.

Name variation: Gerald McGlothlin

(H/T Ed Brayton)

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The BBC’s interview programme HARDtalk has just featured Ibrahim Shekarau, Governor of Kano State in northern Nigeria and current presidential candidate. Among the issues discussed was Shekarau’s suspension of Kano’s polio vaccination programme, which had tragic results both in Nigeria and other countries. Interviewer Zeinab Badawi reminded the governor of a 2004 quote:

It is a lesser of two evils to sacrifice two, three, four, five, even 10 children (to polio) than allow hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of girl-children likely to be rendered infertile.

Badawi sources this to the Vanguard newspaper, although a BBC report from the time cites the AP. Either way, though, Shekarau now claims this was a misquote. He explains that he had never claimed that the polio vaccine could render children infertile – rather, he simply acknowledged that the conspiracy theory was widespread in rural areas and that he had so suspend the vaccination to maintain public confidence in wider health programmes:

I was misquoted…. I said it is a lesser evil compared with the fact that if we do not take any action to convince the general public of the safety of the vaccine, after going through all the processes of explanation, then there will be millions of children that will be affected by polio. We never raised [infertility].

This is shameless spin. As I blogged at the time, the federal government was also aware of the Islamist-fuelled hysteria over the vaccine, and sent  a committee to South Africa to look into the issue. This committee, which included representatives of Jama’atul Nnasril Islam and was chaired by Sheik Umar El-Kanemi, declared that the vaccine was completely safe. However, rather than support this effort “to convince the general public of the safety of the vaccine”, Shekarau instead used his position to undermine the committee’s work. He wilfully misinterpreted its findings, claiming that there was indeed “contamination”, and he made the lame objection that the Christian Association of Nigeria had not been included – even though neither CAN nor local Christians had raised any complaints.

Eventually, and after an excruciating delay, an alternative vaccine was imported from Indonesia. We don’t know who profited from this, although then-President Obasanjo alleged that “one of the Muslim leaders opposing the immunisation programme had unsuccessfully sought a government contract to import new vaccines.”

See here for the full interview, and here for just the segment on the vaccine.

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From the Houston Chronicle, 2005:

[Benny] Hinn, 52, is one of the most popular – and controversial – evangelist-healers in the nation. His daily This is Your Day! half-hour TV program is broadcast throughout the United States and 217 countries. His crusades regularly draw standing-room-only crowds.

“I have a great deal of respect for his ministry,” said Stephen Strang, a nationally known Christian publisher.

Strang has known Hinn since 1977, when the evangelist began his rise to national recognition.

“He helps lots of people and he has always been arrow straight,” Strang said. “Hinn has the ability, in my opinion, unlike anybody else in America to take people into God’s presence in worship. That is really why people come to the meetings more than the healings.”

Hinn first featured on the cover of Strang’s Charisma magazine in 1979, the two men have shared the stage at particular events, and in 1993 Hinn revealed in an interview with Strang that he was moving away from Prosperity Gospel teachings.

Alas, however, the Vancouver Sun now reports:

A Lake Mary book publisher is suing televangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn, saying he violated a morality clause in their contract when he began an “inappropriate relationship” with another evangelist, and thus, must pay $250,000.

…In a letter attached to the suit, Strang also accused Hinn of violated the contract by failing to work hard enough to market Blood in the Sand.

He failed to make television appearances to promote it, including several on 700 Club, wrote Strang attorney Chris Vlahos.

Blood in the Sand, according to its blurb, is a guide to “Understanding the Middle East Conflict – the Stakes, the Dangers, and What the Bible Says about the Future”; apparently there aren’t quite enough paperbacks that purport to do this already. The book comes with endorsements from Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye; there is also a Foreword by Ehud Olmert, who tells us with a straight face that Hinn’s

writings and teaching through the years relfect the knowledge, wisdom and concern that are founded on a lifetime of historical, philosophical, and theological study.

The book was published in 2009 by FrontLine, which is Strang’s political imprint.

Hinn’s alleged “inappropriate relationship” was with Paula White, and their private association was widely reported last year. According to Strang’s Charisma News last summer:

Evangelist Benny Hinn recently admitted at a crusade in Oakland, Calif., to having a “friendship” with fellow minister Paula White while he’s still married after a tabloid pictured them holding hands in Rome on July 13. But the well-known healing minister says the relationship is over.

“A friendship did develop,” Hinn said of White in Oakland on July 30. “Hear this: No immorality whatsoever. These people out there are making it sound like we had an affair. That’s a lie.”

…Hinn told the crowd in Oakland that the Vatican made him a Patron of the Arts and invited him to visit Rome. He said patrons are asked to find donors to help maintain the Vatican’s art collections, and he wanted White to become a donor.

“I let her come with me to Rome so she can donate money,” Hinn said. “That was stupid on my part. And for that I do ask forgiveness.”

The tabloid was the National Enquirer, which claimed there was a “torrid affair” going on and that Hinn had used the pseudonym “David Salomon” to book into their hotel. Curiously, the Vatican apparently did not know about Hinn’s visit; according to Father Mark Haydu, International Coordinator of The Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums:

To my knowledge, Paula White or Benny Hinn were not invited to the Vatican Museums in any official context, nor did we find anyone on our donors database of Patrons under those names.

Back in September, I noted that Strang’s Creation House imprint had quietly withdrawn – with no explanation – Pastor Terry Jones’ opus Islam is of the Devil.

UPDATE: Hinn has responded to Strang’s filing – with a threat of scandal. According to the Christian Post:

Hinn, through his lawyer, told CP that he “hopes that revealing the true facts of the actions of Mr. Strang and Strang Communications will not become necessary as a result of the regrettable course of action he has undertaken.”…

“Pastor Hinn remains optimistic that a resolution can be reached without causing unwanted harm to his publisher and long-time acquaintance,” [Miles Archer] Woodlief relayed to CP.

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As is being widely reported, one of the USA’s top-selling titles at the moment a book called Heaven is for Real, which purports to describe how a 4-year-old boy named Colton Burpo had a near-death experience in hospital in 2003, thus proving Christianity:

While in heaven Colton says he saw many things and met many people including pop, his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born. But Colton says he didn’t look like the photo in his house. A picture sent months later by his grandma was more like the man he met, a young man without glasses. And perhaps the most shocking part of Colton’s story. “He came to his mom and said mom I have 2 sisters,” said [has father] Todd Burpo.

But he only has one sister. “You had a baby die in your tummy didn’t you?” said Todd Burpo.

His parents never told him about the miscarriage.

Over time this young man’s visions became more real. From his description of Jesus to his talks with God, even a description of Armageddon.

“Over time” may be the operative phrase here: Colton’s father is a pastor, and the details of his son’s vision emerged through their conversations. The tale has now been further packaged by Sarah Palin’s ghostwriter. A December 2010 piece in the Imperial Republican, the Coltons’ local newspaper, has some background (link added):

In an interview this week, Todd Burpo said he has no doubt his son made the heavenly visit.

While Todd, pastor of Imperial’s Crossroads Wesleyan Church, says he and wife Sonja originally weren’t sure about it, he is now.

“I am 100% convinced he was in heaven,” he said.

…He believes God had a part in the encouragement they had from a pastor friend to write the book. That friend, Phil McCallum, made some introductions and introduced them to the right people, Todd said.

It eventually led to the book deal with Thomas Nelson of Nashville, a 200-year-old company that publishes a lot of Christian books.

He worked with author Lynn Vincent, who most recently collaborated with Sarah Palin on her book, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

Various sites have discussed the book’s content; one Reformed pastor, while not dismissing the entire book, writes that:

In Burpo’s book, I’m especially skeptical as I read the chapter on “The Throne Room of God.” Jesus’ Dad sits in a big chair, with Jesus on his right and the angel Gabriel on his left.  The Holy Spirit is a blue light in the throne room, and they brought in a little chair for Colton to sit in.  I’m kind of wondering where were the other millions of believers in heaven besides Colton, Pop, and his unborn sister.

However, it’s the apocalyptic message which particularly interests me. In a chapter called “The Coming War”, Todd tells us that he’s “not one of those pastors who camps out on end-times prophecy”, but according to his son:

“there’s going to be a war, and it’s going to destroy this world. Jesus and the angels and the good people are going to fight against  Satan and the monsters and the bad people. I saw it.”

…”in heaven, the women and the children got to stand back and watch… But the men, they had to fight. And Dad. I watched you. You have to fight too.

Todd will apparently fight with “a sword or a bow and arrow”. Pondering the Book of Revelation, Todd opines that “maybe we sophisticated grown-ups have tried to make things more complicated than they are” in looking for a symbolic interpretation. Clunkily literalistic readings of the text are in fashion right now: recently there was speculation that the book’s “pale rider” had been caught on camera in Egypt.

This isn’t the first popular book to claim that special revelations given to children offer evidence for Christianity: in the 1920s a Pentecostal missionary working in China named HA Baker claimed that children in a orphanage in Yunnan had experienced a series of visions following an “outpouring of the Holy Spirit”.

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A statement from the English Defence League:

Another week another story wound up into a frenzy by the far left[;] as a recent blog qui[te] rightly pointed out the EDL is a wet dream for the purposeless lefties…

The ejaculatory and “purposeless lefties” in this instance would be, erm, the Jewish Chronicle, which recently reported that

The head of the EDL’s Jewish division Roberta Moore has announced a partnership with far-right American group the Jewish Task Force on the EDL Facebook page.

The rest of the EDL, though, are not so keen; the EDL statement continues:

…A member of the Jewish Division this week decided to link herself with terrorist organisation JTF. This was the decision and wishes of one single individual within the EDL, and does not in any way shape or form mean that the EDL is linked with this movement. We would like to make it clear that the decision to release a statement of this fact was done so without any consultation or agreement with anyone in the EDL leadership team.

The EDL will never be associated with something that it was formed and exists to eradicate ‘TERRORISM’, and hopes its members understand and realise this.

…There are also a number of pictures that have been ‘exposed’ by the left of people wearing JTF jackets at the Luton demonstration. With over 5000 people in attendance again this is something impossible to police, and again doe not mean the EDL support this group.

Alas, however, much of the “exposing” is being done by Moore rather than “the left”. She has posted two photos to the Jewish Division blog, one showing “a member of the UKIP, a member of the EDL admin, and a member of the JTF – in Amsterdam – 2010”, and the other showing “Jewish task force at EDL demo.” She adds:

So, let’s hear it from the “admin” or “leadership” of the EDL. What was all this hysteria about? Was it because  it was ME who contacted Chaim ben Pesach and not “the admin”?

Own up! I know that idiotic statement did not come from Tommy, Kevin, or Amit, or any of the decent guys there. Someone is trying to make the EDL look stupid. Remove this imbecile at once, or risk the ridicule.

The EDL is already working with the JTF, and the JDL. They have been since last year!

But there are a few individuals in the “admin” who have an issue with me, perhaps because I am a woman, and a Jew…

One can see Moore’s point: the EDL doesn’t appear to have a problem with the Kahanist far right in itself. Last month, a live message from EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) was broadcast via the internet to a Jewish Defense League meeting in Toronto, and Nachum Shifren, the California-based “Surfing Rabbi” who addressed the EDL in London in October, used to be JDL founder Meir Kahane’s driver (although he was “excommunicated” from the JDL in 2005 for supporting Pat Buchanan).

However, the Jewish Task Force is particularly hard core: its leader, Victor Vancier (also known as Chaim Ben Pesach) is a terrorist who went to prison in the 1980s following a bombing campaign. Moore, though, explains it all away:

We contacted the JTF because the JTF is an organisation that has done outstanding work for persecuted Jews.  Unlike some comments and media reports we have seen around, the JTF is NOT a terrorist organization. In fact, they have never attempted to kill or maim anyone. And the only “terrorism” they have committed was to coerce the corrupted Kremlin tryrants (By blowing up EMPTY CARS OF KREMLIN DIPLOMATS) to allow the Jews to emigrate to the Land of Israel, which until then was PROHIBITED to them. The Soviets committed pogroms against Jews for years and years, and only those who know Jewish History will understand the atrocities the Jews were subjected to… So as far as we are concerned, this is not terrorism. There was a genuine threat against Jews in the Soviet Union and what the JDL did was nothing short of miraculous, for when this happened, the Soviet Jews were finally allowed to escape persecution.

Today, Vancier brags about his actions, although at the time of his trial in 1987 he repudiated them in a bid to escape punishment; the New York Times reported:

”I have no justification for what I did,” Mr. Vancier said before his sentence was imposed. He said he realized that his actions had not helped his cause. And he asked for a new chance to build a constructive life.

His court-appointed lawyer, Thomas Concannon, described his client as ”a tragic figure” and ”an empty vessel but for his J.D.L. life.”

”It’s fair to say he’s a little bit nuts,” the lawyer said.

And his terrorism did not just include empty cars or Soviets: the Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center was firebombed to protest against a concert by the Moscow State Symphony, and a rival JDL leader was also targeted. The Anti-Defamation League has a chronology of events.

Moore goes on to hint that it might be appropriate for Pakistani Christians to blow up the cars of Pakistani diplomats in the UK – a scattering of question marks probably just about keeps her on the right side of the law here:

Pakistani Christians are currently undergoing the same atrocities Jews have undergone in Soviet times. Religious Blasphemy Laws have been plaguing the country and claiming numerous lives. Again, this is a matter of life and death. Not a joke. How will Pakistanis fight against these laws? How will Pakistanis defend their people against these sporadic and unlawful killings? What would YOU, PEOPLE OF BRITAIN DO??

Would you be called a terrorist for blowing up the empty cars of your diplomats in order to raise awareness? Perhaps so. But would you believe yourself guilty of terrorism? Would your “terrorist” act be worse than the acts of those who are killing your people for something as banal as Blasphemy?

According to the Jewish Chronicle, Vancier has issued a podcast in which he discusses the EDL:

“We were contacted by the English Defence League last few weeks and we have agreed we want to work together on joint projects. They are a major organisation, with mass media coverage.

“I wanted to be sure they were not the BNP, we would never work Holocaust deniers or Nazis. They wave Israeli flags, they support the Jewish people. They want Jewish members. We are happy to work with them to save England from the millions of Muslim invaders. We want to work as a united front.”

He added: “The Jewish establishment in the UK, the ‘self hating Jews’ have condemned the EDL because they support the Muslim invasion. It’s pathetic, including the so-called Orthodox. They have to be politically correct, as we go to the gas chambers. We are not interested in this, and neither is the EDL. This will turn into something big.

I haven’t been able to find the podcast, although I’ve trawled through several videos and messages that represent the “constructive” way he has spent his post-prison life. They are unsurprisingly belligerent and vicious, and include mocking references to black people as “swinging through trees”.

(H/T: Darcy Jones)

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Joel Richardson has finally made it onto Glenn Beck’s show – WorldNetDaily reports:

Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck today said Americans should be alarmed over the revelations of a WND Books product, The Islamic Antichrist, in which author Joel Richardson documents the similarities between the “bad guy” of the Bible, the Antichrist, and the “good guy” of the Quran, the Mahdi.

Richardson’s book discusses his analysis of the Bible’s account of the end times and that of the Quran, including his conclusions about the “Antichrist,” who is described by the Bible as the ultimate enemy of God and His people, the Jews and Christians. The Mahdi, meanwhile, in Islam is forecast to be someone who comes to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate.

The book has a cover blurb from Robert Spencer, and WND has puffed it on numerous occasions. Further:

Media Matters for America launched an immediate response, called, “Who is Joel Richardson, Beck’s End Times Prophet?”

The Media Matters article can be seen here; it includes as a subheading “Beck’s Media Empire Increasingly Promoting Richardson”, and there is a partial transcript of an interview with Sid Roth, in which Richardson explains the supernatural inspiration that guides his Biblical exegesis:

…Just before my wife and I met, there was a prophetess that prayed over my wife and one of the things she said, was she said, “Your husband, you will marry someone that will have significant insight into the end times, and he’ll release new prophetic understanding concerning the end times to the church and to the world.” And so my wife and I are sitting in this meeting, 7,000 people, large civic center type of situation, in the very back. And before he spoke, he said, “I want to share a prophetic word in order to show that what I want to speak on is from the Lord.” He called us out by name, and then he spoke things to us that no man could know. Things that we had been praying about. Things that only we know, that only the Lord, only God could reveal to a man. And that gets your attention.

Media Matters also notes that Richardson agrees that “Islam is of the Devil“, although it should be made clear that he wrote against Pastor Terry Jones’ plan to burn the Koran. But what of Beck’s Mormonism? Is that “of the Devil”, too? Richardson is personable, and he has occasionally left comments on this blog. He explained his position to me back in July:

As an orthdox Christian, obviously I do not agree with various tenets of Mormon theology. However (in exchange for your reliability with regard to drawing more attention to my writings, I will supply you with an excellent quote for future use) Glenn Beck is one of the most genuinely prophetic voices to have emerged in this nation in many years. If your opinion of him however is formed largely through such biased and extremist outlets such as Media Matters or the Huffington Post (Gog and Demagogue) and if you don’t watch his show regularly, you will certainly fail to see this. End quote.

Of course, Richardson is far from unique in his enthusiasm: most Christian Right leaders in the USA have a symbiotic relationship with Beck, in which they promote him, and, in return, receive huge publicity boosts for themselves. This was seen most clearly at the end of last August, at Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally.

However, while Richardson takes a relaxed view of Mormonism, even though it rejects fundamental aspects of historic Christian theology, he takes a sterner line with Christians who have socio-economic views that he finds uncongenial: Christians with a concern for “social justice” are actually Marxist infiltrators working for the anti-Christ.

WorldNetDaily adds:

Richardson’s book also takes on the popular assumption among Christians that the Antichrist will come from a revived Roman Empire, which many have assumed is associated with the Roman Catholic Church and the European Union.

“The Bible abounds with proofs that the Antichrist’s empire will consist only of nations that are, today,Islamic,” Richardson explains. “Despite the numerous prevailing arguments for the emergence of a revived European Roman empire as the Antichrist’s power base, the specific nations the Bible identifies as comprising his empire are today all Muslim.”

Richardson believes the key error of many previous prophecy scholars involves the misinterpretation of a prediction by Daniel to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel describes the rise and fall of empires of the future, leading to the end times. Western Christians have viewed one of those empires as Rome, when, claims Richardson, Rome never actually conquered Babylon and was thus disqualified as a possibility.

This is all absolute rubbish. As I’ve written previously, the Book of Daniel, like the other books of the Bible, was written with a contemporary audience in mind; it does not contain secrets that make sense only thousands of years later. The various empires that concern the author end with that of his own time and location: the Hellenistic kingdoms of the post-Alexander period. The author is not interested in Rome, and shows no knowledge of any kind of “Islamic Empire” hundreds of years in the future.  Babylon as a city had already lost much of its historical significance by the time the book was composed, and by the Islamic period the town itself was largely a ruin.

But then again, God hasn’t “released” to me a “new prophetic understanding concerning the end times” that would obviate the need to consider the Bible in historical or literary context – or to use a bit of reason.

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