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

Home » News » News Briefs »

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

By: Aaron Klein

Published: June 7th, 2011

tell a friend

Activists Name Flotilla Ship

‘The Audacity of Hope’

The organizers of an American activist flotilla setting sail later this month for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have appealed to President Obama to “protect” their ship.

The ship is named “The Audacity of Hope,” the namesake of Obama’s 2006 book and his 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention. Obama himself took the name from the title of a sermon, “Audacity to Hope,” given by his controversial pastor for more than 20 years, Jeremiah Wright.

Several of the ship’s endorsers and fundraisers have been close associates of Obama’s.

The new flotilla is attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Jewish state maintains the blockade to ensure against Hamas arming itself at sea. The terrorist group has been caught several times attempting to smuggle weapons, including rockets and advanced missiles, into Gaza by sea.

In a letter to Obama, flotilla organizer Ray McGovern writes that the president’s major Middle East address three weeks ago “emboldens me to claim your protection as we set out to put flesh on your rhetoric.”

“I write you for assurance of your support and protection as we try to embody your rhetoric,” the letter states.

Continued McGovern: “You spoke eloquently about ‘times in the course of history when the action of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years.’ And you lamented ‘failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people.’

“We, the passengers and crew of ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ sailing to Gaza in June together with the 2nd International Freedom Flotilla, represent ordinary Americans determined to speak to the aspirations of the 1.5 million ordinary Gazans yearning to be free.”

The “Audacity of Hope” boat is slated to be one of the approximately 15 boats that will sail to Gaza with people from over 22 countries

The U.S. branch of the flotilla project is endorsed by several Obama associates, including Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, who reported helped raise $370,000 to finance the purchase of a U.S. ship for the cause.

This reporter was the first to expose Obama’s close relationship with Khalidi, who has been tied to the Palestinian Liberation Organization and who has described Israel as a “racist” state with an “apartheid” system.

Also endorsing the “Audacity” ship is Code Pink, co-founded by Jodie Evans. The group previously met with Hamas and with leaders of the Taliban.

Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama’s presidential campaign.

In January, Evans and other Obama associates provoked chaos in Egypt in an attempt to enter the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to join in solidarity with the territory’s population and leadership.

Among those associates were former Weather Underground terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. The duo are both leaders of the Free Gaza Movement, which also endorsed the “Audacity of Hope” ship.

Prominent Israeli Archeologist:

Treasures Lie Buried Beneath Temple Mount

One of the most prominent Israeli archaeologists declared that remains from the First and Second Jewish Temple period – including the Second Temple itself – lie underneath the Temple Mount surface, just waiting to be excavated.

Dr. Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University accused the site’s Islamic custodians of destroying Jewish artifacts while attempting to turn the Temple Mount into a “giant mosque.”

“I think we will find all the remains starting from the First Temple period and remains of the Temple itself,” said Mazar, a third-generation archeologist. “I mean, no one took it out, it’s there.”

Mazar said she is “absolutely sure” remains from the First and Second Temple periods, including “the Second Temple itself,” as well as later remains from the Byzentine and early Islamic periods, are just under the surface of the Temple Mount.

Continued Mazar: “I am absolutely sure, in light of my very rich experience excavating Jerusalem for 30 years now, all these remains are waiting to be revealed. And if it can’t be done nowadays because of all kinds of sensitivities, at least we should take care that it won’t be ruined for future excavations when time comes.”

Mazar heads the excavation department at the City of David, an archaeological village at the foot of the Temple Mount said to be the place where King David built his palace and established his capital.

Mazar was speaking in an interview with “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio”on New York’s WABC Radio.

New Documents Reveal Government

Collusion With Soros-Funded Organization

The Federal Communications Commission colluded with a George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization to publicly push a new plan to regulate the Internet under the government’s “net neutrality” program, according to just released documents.

The material was released in response to a Freedom of Information request from Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.

The released documents include internal correspondence and e-mails evidencing some coordination between FCC officials and leaders of Free Press, a controversial nonprofit which petitions for more government control of the Internet and news media.

The contact largely involved pushing the “net neutrality” agenda in the run up to an FCC vote last December to advance the “net neutrality program.”

This column has reported numerous times on the connections between the Obama administration, including the FCC, and Free Press.

Among the material uncovered by Judicial Watch was correspondence between FCC Special Counsel David Tannenbaum and then-Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott, now a State Department official, in working together to establish a lists of speakers for FCC “internet workshops.”

Tannenbaum even asked Scott about inviting a speaker from Color for Change, an environmental activist group founded by Van Jones, Obama’s former green jobs adviser. Jones resigned in September 2009 after media exposed the fact that he founded a communist revolutionary organization and called for “resistance” against the U.S. government and police.

Jones served on the Free Press board.

In May 2010 Scott was named a policy adviser for innovation at the State Department. He previously served as director of Free Press.

Scott authored a book, The Future of Media, which was edited by Free Press Founder Robert W. McChesney, an avowed Marxist activist who has called for the dismantlement “brick-by-brick” of the U.S. capitalist system, with America being rebuilt as a socialist society.

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.

tell a friend

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

You might also be interested in: