Quick Takes: <i>News You May Have Missed</i>

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

By: Aaron Klein

Published: November 18th, 2009

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A top Palestinian Authority official told this column that the PA reached an understanding with the Obama administration regarding a Palestinian threat to unilaterally ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel.

Ahmed Kurei, former PA prime minister and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, said in an interview that the PA “reached an understanding with important elements within the administration” to possibly bring to the UN Security Council a resolution to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.

Asked to which “elements” he was referring, Kurei would only say they were from the Obama administration.

Separately, a top PA negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity, named the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, and National Security Council member Samantha Power as among the Obama administration officials who were involved with the Palestinians’ UN threat.

Despite widespread assumptions that the U.S. would veto any such UN Security Council resolution, the PA negotiator said that in initial discussions, the Obama administration did not threaten to veto their potential unilateral resolution.

“The U.S. told us that they prefer a negotiated settlement with Israel, but if we insist on a resolution, the Americans will not necessarily reject it,” the PA negotiator said.

Freeman’s Israel

The Obama administration’s withdrawn nominee for a top intelligence post delivered a speech to a pro-Arab U.S. group in which he claimed that Israel has assassinated peace-loving Palestinian leaders.

He also falsely accused the Jewish state – which doesn’t publicly comment on its alleged nuclear weapons program – of threatening to nuke Iran.

Charles “Chas” Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, used the speech to the 18th Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference to suggest that America was attacked on 9/11 largely due to its support for Israel. He further stated that if the White House attempts to pressure Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “American lobby” will arrange for Congress to punish President Obama.

Freeman was slated to head the National Intelligence Council but withdrew his nomination in March following revelations – some first reported at this column – that he has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family and that he sits on the board of a major oil company owned by the Chinese government that had been in the midst of a multibillion-dollar deal with Iran that may violate U.S. sanctions.

This column also reportedthat Freeman once peddled a Saudi-funded book to U.S. public schools that falsely claims Muslims inhabited North America far before European explorers.

What A Robe Tells You

Does the traditional South Asian garb Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is wearing in a surveillance video provide a clue into his Islamic ideology, perhaps tying him to support for al Qaeda?

Hasan was videoed at a local 7-Eleven convenience store just seven hours before the attack in which he shot dead 13 and wounded dozens of others. He was seen wearing what has been broadly identified by much of the mainstream media as traditional Muslim garb.

Specifically, he was wearing a white shalwar camise, a traditional dress worn by both women and men in South Asia. It is particularly popular in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is also the traditional garb of al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood acolytes.

Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees terrorist group, which is allied with al Qaeda ideology, explained to this reporter that some Palestinians in Gaza are wearing the shalwar camise as a sign of solidarity with al Qaeda. He cited the trend as proof of the rise of this ideology in Gaza.

Abu Saqer, a Gazan Islamic cleric and leader of the Jihadiya Salifiya extremist movement, also affirmed that the shalwar camise was associated with al Qaeda ideology.

A Muslim cleric in Jaffa, however, explained that religious Palestinians consider the shalwar camise more comfortable than the djellaba, which is the traditional Muslim garb. The djellaba is a simple robe and does not include pants.

“While it is associated with al Qaeda, it’s also become a fashion trend. Many who wear it are doing so out of comfort. It absolutely does not mean they support any jihad movement,” explained the Jaffa cleric.

Ayers Plays The Race Card

Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination deliberately appealed to white supremacy, fear and anxiety, charge longtime Barack Obama colleague and Weatherman terrorist William Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn.

In a co-authored article in the socialist Monthly Review magazine, the two radicals argue that last year’s national elections had “racist” undertones and that President Obama’s ascent to power can be used to “build a new society.”

“[Hillary] Clinton flagrantly appealed to white voters’ identity as ‘workers’ or ‘women’ – offering white people any reason to vote against Obama without saying he’s black – and followed the ancient and dismal road of racial discourse that appeals to white supremacy, fear and anxiety,” wrote Ayers and Dohrn.

Ayers generated controversy in last year’s presidential campaign when it was disclosed the radical worked with Obama for years. Obama also was said to have launched his political career at a 1995 fundraiser in Ayers’ apartment.

Obama and Ayers sat together on the board of a Chicago nonprofit, the Woods Fund. Ayers also was a founder of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama was appointed as its first chairman in 1995. Ayers reportedly was involved in hiring Obama for the CAC- a job which the future president later touted as qualifying him to run for public office.

Ayers and his wife, Dohrn, were two of the main founders of the Weather Underground, which bombed the New York City police headquarters in 1970, the Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. The group was responsible for some 30 bombings aimed at destroying the defense and security infrastructures of the U.S.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com. He appears throughout the week on leading U.S. radio programs and is the author of the book “The Late Great State of Israel.” Follow Klein on Twitter under the name “AaronKleinWND.”

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About the Author: Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York's 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m (CHANGE TO 7-9 p.m.). His website is KleinOnline.com

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

Freeman’s Israel

What A Robe Tells You

Ayers Plays The Race Card

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