CIA reaches out to Muslims

Dinner in Dearborn will come on 'wrong night' amid Ramadan

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

Dearborn -- CIA Director Leon Panetta plans to visit Dearborn on Sept. 16 for an invitation-only dinner and speech with 150 leaders of the Arab and Muslim communities, officials confirmed Tuesday.
The visit comes amid an unprecedented outreach effort by the Central Intelligence Agency and as Panetta seeks to double the number of CIA analysts who are proficient in Arabic and other Mideast languages.
But the date chosen for the meeting -- the 27th night of Ramadan or "night of power," when many devout Muslims and imams spend the entire night worshiping in the mosque -- is drawing criticism.

"They picked the entirely wrong night on this," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This is our leading intelligence agency who doesn't know this."
Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, acknowledged the sensitivity of the night but said he and other community leaders, not the CIA, should take any blame because the agency consulted with the community before choosing the date. [the community does deserve blame because it should have scheduled the CIA visit a week later, on Eid, a joyous celebration during which sacrifices are made to whomever you worship.]
"It's a simple miscall," said Hamad, who added that most Muslims would break their fast before going to the mosque on the night of power. [If the CIA wants us to skip prayer on the night of power, surely God will understand]
Once among the most secret of agencies, the CIA has been setting up booths at events in Dearborn and Detroit and spending tens of thousands of dollars annually sponsoring galas and other events and scholarships. CIA spokesman George Little said Tuesday the agency's outreach to "first- and second-generation Americans" in Dearborn and elsewhere began about five years ago.
"These individuals have the kinds of skills, knowledge and experiences that can strongly advance our vital intelligence mission and protect the nation's security," Little said. "The number of job applications from the Detroit area has risen steadily over that time period."
The CIA was a platinum sponsor -- representing a contribution of at least $10,000 -- to the ADC's 29th annual fundraising gala in December, according to the committee's Web site. The CIA also contributes about $10,000 to the annual gala of the Arab American and Chaldean Council, said Executive Director Radwan Khoury. The agency also is a sponsor of the Arab International Festival and the Arab American Scholarship Foundation, according to the Web site of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce and Hamad.
In March, the CIA hosted an appreciation dinner for leaders of the Arab American and Chaldean communities at the Westin Hotel in Southfield. Top CIA officials, but not the director, attended.
Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, said the CIA also spends money on image and recruitment advertisements in his newspaper. [and boasting about it]
"I don't know that they're recruiting people, but I know that they're making a great effort," Siblani said.
Walid said his organization has never sought sponsorship money from the CIA and would not accept it. "We would lose our credibility as an advocacy agency," he said. "We've criticized openly some of the tactics of the CIA, particularly under the previous administration."
Hamad said the CIA's outreach shows his community is as valued and as American as apple pie. ["and as Israeli as falafel"]
"We'd rather have the CIA, like the FBI or other government agencies, do their work in the open," he said. "The CIA did its job years and years ago, and we didn't meet any of them one to one." [did you get that, Lynndie? Torture Iraqis on an outdoor plaza in downtown Dearborn, not behind the walls of Abu Ghraib]

Labels: Islam, Khawla, quislings, religion

Professor As'ad Abu Khalil of California State University translated Iraqi poet Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab's poem about quislings, which Al-Sayyab described as invaders' shoe shiners.

The following actions probably don't rise to quisling-type behavior, treason or selling out, but still demonstrate a low level of self-respect.

1. The University of Michigan's Muslim Students Association is collaborating (no pun intended) with Hillel to help out Katrina victims. If the MSA wants to help out the displaced of Katrina, couldn't it find a more qualified partner than an organization that supports the displacement of Palestinians?
2. The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee collaborated (again, pun unintended) with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on February 12, 2008 to host a panel on dispelling myths and stereotypes in the Arab and Muslim communities at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. The panel included an ADC board member. The discussion focused on the demographics of local Arab and Muslim-American communities, and the issues that have affected these communities since 9/11. If the ADC has no idea what the ADL is about, it isn't qualified to do civil rights advocacy on behalf of Arabs. I couldn't find a website that stated this, but it was in an ADC-Michigan email sent out on February 13, 2008.

I'm all for helping out displaced people and exposing racist stereotypes, but not with the wolves who advocate displacement and spread stereotypes in the first place. Collaborating with those who caused your misery is immoral, self-defeating and stupid:

Sunni Militia Ends Cooperation with U.S. over Civilian Deaths
In Iraq, a U.S.-allied militia staged a massive walkout from its guard posts this weekend in protest of U.S. attacks that have killed twelve civilians this month. Members of the group, known as Sons of Iraq, are paid ten dollars a day and issued military vests to fight alongside U.S. forces. But nearly two thousand members abandoned their positions Saturday following a U.S. attack on a town south of Baghdad the day before. Militia members say U.S. forces deliberately opened fire after landing in a helicopter. The group says they will no longer work with the U.S. military.

Labels: Iraq, Khawla, quislings