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Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

By: Aaron Klein

Published: February 16th, 2011

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Gaza’s Hamas Chief Hails Shariah Law,

Says Americans Live Like Animals

The American empire is in decline and will fall because of the country’s “immorality,” promotion of “open sexuality” and political “injustice,” argues Mahmoud al-Zahar, the chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

He also predicts the rise of China and India as new superpowers, while hailing the revolution in Egypt that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, a staunch U.S. ally.

Zahar made these statements on this reporter’s investigative program on New York’s WABC Radio. It was the Hamas chieftain’s first public comments on the recent chaos in Egypt.

After claiming Americans “live like animals,” Zahar stated that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – the most organized opposition in Cairo – is the “most moderate organization, the most democratic organization, even more than the Western people.”

Hamas is an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Egypt.

Zahar stated that the West can learn from Islamic law: “Ask the Christian people in Egypt and the Christian people in Gaza about the Islamic law, that is the only law that protected the minority whether they are Jews or Christian,” he stated.

This reporter confronted Zahar about reports of persecution of Christians in the Gaza Strip under the rule of Hamas.

“What about taking a look at Hamas in the Gaza Strip?” Zahar was asked. “Since you came to power, Christians in Gaza have been targeted. We’ve had churches firebombed, we’ve had Christian leaders complain they cannot celebrate the Christmas. We had the sole Bible store in Gaza firebombed, its owner murdered. We’ve had Christians complain of rampant persecution and intimidation in Gaza.”

Zahar countered, “This is one case killed. Now how many Christians [were] killed by the hands of the Christians in America? How many bodies went to the schools and shot the students in America? These are the crimes, but it is not the Islamic tradition.”

George Soros Invests In

Siraj Fund Management Company

In partnership with a government fund initiated by President Obama, philanthropist and billionaire activist George Soros is investing in a private equity company that just launched in the Palestinian territories.

The company, Siraj Fund Management Company, says it was created “for the sole purpose of managing investment funds in Palestine.”

The new company’s website repeatedly refers to what it calls the “country” of “Palestine.” There is, however, no such country as Palestine. Siraj is apparently referring to territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

“Siraj has plans to launch future funds focused on the Palestinian market thereby contributing to the sustainable development of the country,” states the website.

George Soros’s Economic Development Fund invested in the new group alongside the U.S. government-owned Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC. OPIC is an independent agency of the US government that mobilizes private sector investment in new and emerging markets overseas.

In 2009, OPIC created its Global Technology and Innovation Fund, which invested in Siraj, in response to an initiative by Obama to launch an investment group to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries.

The initiative followed Obama’s historic address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt in June 2009.

Radical Muslim Group Reorganizing

In Wake Of Mubarak’s Downfall

An Egyptian Islamist terrorist organization founded by the Muslim Brotherhood is re-establishing itself amid the political upheaval in Cairo, this column has learned.

Both Egyptian and Israeli security officials said the group, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, is being reconstituted at the direction of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The officials affirmed that Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya serves as the de facto “military” wing of the Brotherhood, which originally founded Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.

Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya is suspected of involvement in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and it took credit for the 1995 attempted killing of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. It has carried out scores of deadly terrorist attacks, some targeting foreign tourists, including a massacre in Luxor in 1997 that killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians.

Last week, an Egyptian security official was quoted in the news media stating that Egyptian troops had arrested two armed Palestinians from Hamas who entered the country illegally from the Gaza Strip.

The security official told reporters the men had crossed from Gaza into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula using smuggling tunnels and that they were arrested in a stolen car in the town of el-Arish, near the border, along with three Egyptian smugglers.

The official told the Associated Press the two Hamas men were caught with weapons, hand grenades, two RPGs and about $8,600 in cash.

A senior Egyptian security official speaking to this column said an investigation found that the two Hamas men were aiding in the reorganization of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, which, he said, is attempting to reconstitute itself under the direction of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Egyptian security official said Hamas is helping Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya organize into divisions and arm itself with weapons currently in the Sinai waiting to be smuggled into Gaza.

Both Israel and Egypt say Hamas has amassed a large quantity of weapons in the Sinai Peninsula, where the Islamist group has been attempting to smuggle the weaponry into Gaza. Now, the Egyptian security official said, some of those weapons are going to arm the reconstituted Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.

Hizbullah Terrorists Escape Egyptian Prison

Members of a vast Hizbullah terrorist cell suspected of planning attacks against tourist sites and economic targets in the Suez Canal have escaped from Egyptian prison, according to informed Egyptian security sources speaking to this reporter.

The event raises the prospect of further instability in the Suez region, which carries about eight percent of global seaborne trade.

The cell was arrested in June 2009. At the time, Egypt’s public prosecutor, Abdel-Magid Mohammed, announced the country had arrested 13 alleged Hizbullah agents on suspicion of planning attacks inside Egypt.

The agents are suspected of establishing a vast terrorist network in Egypt focusing on targets inside the country as well as aiding Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip.

According to Egyptian security sources, 10 members of the cell, which the sources said included Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, escaped from Egyptian prison in recent days amid the chaos that has engulfed the nation and distracted Egyptian forces.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant 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.

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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

George Soros Invests In

Radical Muslim Group Reorganizing

Hizbullah Terrorists Escape Egyptian Prison

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