A "Specific Sect" is behind Global Terrorism who even destroy Sufi Shrines & Kill Innocents

Read more about this "specific sect".

Heroic Tale of Holocaust, With a Twist

By ELAINE SCIOLINO

PARIS — The stories of the Holocaust have been documented, distorted, clarified and filtered through memory. Yet new stories keep coming, occasionally altering the grand, incomplete mosaic of Holocaust history.

One of them, dramatized in a French film released here last week, focuses on an unlikely savior of Jews during the Nazi occupation of France: the rector of a Paris mosque.

Muslims, it seems, rescued Jews from the Nazis.

“Les Hommes Libres” (“Free Men”) is a tale of courage not found in French textbooks. According to the story, Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the founder and rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, provided refuge and certificates of Muslim identity to a small number of Jews to allow them to evade arrest and deportation.

It was simpler than it sounds. In the early 1940s France was home to a large population of North Africans, including thousands of Sephardic Jews. The Jews spoke Arabic and shared many of the same traditions and everyday habits as the Arabs. Neither Muslims nor Jews ate pork. Both Muslim and Jewish men were circumcised. Muslim and Jewish names were often similar.

The mosque, a tiled, walled fortress the size of a city block on the Left Bank, served as a place to pray, certainly, but also as an oasis of calm where visitors were fed and clothed and could bathe, and where they could talk freely and rest in the garden.

It was possible for a Jew to pass.

“This film is an event,” said Benjamin Stora, France’s pre-eminent historian on North Africa and a consultant on the film. “Much has been written about Muslim collaboration with the Nazis. But it has not been widely known that Muslims helped Jews. There are still stories to be told, to be written.”

The film, directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi, is described as fiction inspired by real events and built around the stories of two real-life figures (along with a made-up black marketeer). The veteran French actor Michael Lonsdale plays Benghabrit, an Algerian-born religious leader and a clever political maneuverer who gave tours of the mosque to German officers and their wives even as he apparently used it to help Jews.

Mahmoud Shalaby, a Palestinian actor living in Israel, plays Salim — originally Simon — Hilali, who was Paris’s most popular Arabic-language singer, a Jew who survived the Holocaust by posing as a Muslim. (To make the assumed identity credible, Benghabrit had the name of Hilali’s grandfather engraved on a tombstone in the Muslim cemetery in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, according to French obituaries about the singer. In one tense scene in the film a German soldier intent on proving that Hilali is a Jew, takes him to the cemetery to identify it.)

The historical record remains incomplete, because documentation is sketchy. Help was provided to Jews on an ad hoc basis and was not part of any organized movement by the mosque. The number of Jews who benefited is not known. The most graphic account, never corroborated, was given by Albert Assouline, a North African Jew who escaped from a German prison camp. He claimed that more than 1,700 resistance fighters — including Jews but also a lesser number of Muslims and Christians — found refuge in the mosque’s underground caverns, and that the rector provided many Jews with certificates of Muslim identity.

In his 2006 book, “Among the Righteous,” Robert Satloff, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, uncovered stories of Arabs who saved Jews during the Holocaust, and included a chapter on the Grand Mosque. Dalil Boubakeur, the current rector, confirmed to him that some Jews — up to 100 perhaps — were given Muslim identity papers by the mosque, without specifying a number. Mr. Boubakeur said individual Muslims brought Jews they knew to the mosque for help, and the chief imam, not Benghabrit, was the man responsible.

Mr. Boubakeur showed Mr. Satloff a copy of a typewritten 1940 Foreign Ministry document from the French Archives. It stated that the occupation authorities suspected mosque personnel of delivering false Muslim identity papers to Jews. “The imam was summoned, in a threatening manner, to put an end to all such practices,” the document said.

Mr. Satloff said in a telephone interview: “One has to separate the myth from the fact. The number of Jews protected by the mosque was probably in the dozens, not the hundreds. But it is a story that carries a powerful political message and deserves to be told.”

A 1991 television documentary “Une Résistance Oubliée: La Mosquée de Paris” (“A Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris”) by Derri Berkani , and a children’s book “The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Saved Jews During the Holocaust,” published in 2007, also explore the events.

The latest film was made in an empty palace in Morocco, with the support of the Moroccan government. The Paris mosque refused to grant permission for any filming. “We’re a place of worship,” Mr. Boubakeur said in an interview. “There are prayers five times a day. Shooting a film would have been disruptive.”

Benghabrit fell out of favor with fellow Muslims because he opposed Algerian independence and stayed loyal to France’s occupation of his native country. He died in 1954.

In doing research for the film, Mr. Ferroukhi and even Mr. Stora learned new stories. At one screening a woman asked him why the film did not mention the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European origin who had been saved by the mosque. Mr. Stora said he explained that the mosque didn’t intervene on behalf of Ashkenazi Jews, who did not speak Arabic or know Arab culture.

“She told me: ‘That’s not true. My mother was protected and saved by a certificate from the mosque,’ ” Mr. Stora said.

On Wednesday, the day of the film’s release here, hundreds of students from three racially and ethnically mixed Paris-area high schools were invited to a special screening and question-and-answer session with Mr. Ferroukhi and some of his actors.

Some asked banal questions. Where did you find the old cars? (From an antique car rental agency.) Others reacted with curiosity and disbelief, wanting to know how much of the film was based on fact, and how it could have been possible that Jews mingled easily with Muslims. Some were stunned to hear that the Nazis persecuted only the Jews, and left the Muslims alone.

Reviews here were mixed on the film, which is to be released in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. (American rights have been sold as well.) The daily Le Figaro said it “reconstitutes an atmosphere and a period marvelously.” The weekly L’Express called it “ideal for a school outing, less for an evening at the movies.”

Mr. Ferroukhi does not care. He said he was lobbying the Culture and Education Ministries to get the film shown in schools. “It pays homage to the people of our history who have been invisible,” he said. “It shows another reality, that Muslims and Jews existed in peace. We have to remember that — with pride.”


SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/movies/how-a-paris-mosque-sheltered-jews-in-the-holocaust.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytimesarts&seid=auto

ALI SOUFAN: Muslim FBI agent's 'mental poker game' against al Qaeda

What Ali Soufan is doing to protect his nation, The United States, is real Jihad (The outward Jihad is called the "lesser Jihad", the greater Jihad is the one  within) and should be noted as the religious duty of every American Muslim to protect their nation from all threats foreign and domestic. The reason why Muslims have not been able to do their duty as well as they should has been two fold.  One of the things that has kept them back is the fear of backlash from their own communities based on false pretenses and the other is the suspicion and hate from the extreme right in our nation that calls all Muslims and Islam as a violent people and faith.  Take for example Pamela Geller and her associate John Jay who advocate mass murder against American Muslims!  Hopefully people like Ali Soufan are examples to extremists on all sides that we are here and we are not going anywhere...Know that your freedom and liberty depend on Muslims such as Ali Soufan who work tirelessly to stop new potential terror from any creed...


By Ashley Fantz, CNN

updated 5:10 PM EST, Fri September 30, 2011

Former FBI agent Ali Soufan interrogated terrorists, obtaining crucial intelligence related to 9/11.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• One of the FBI's former leading agent's new book argues against torture as a technique
• Ali Soufan bluffed significant intelligence from major al Qaeda operatives
• Soufan: Engaging detainees with 'mental poker' more effective than violence

CNN (CNN) -- The FBI interrogator who bluffed al Qaeda detainees into giving up significant intelligence began his career in an unusual way.

Ali Soufan's fraternity brothers bet him that the agency would never hire a guy like him.

A Lebanese-born American studying international relations at a Pennsylvania college, Soufan had just returned to his frat house after talking with a school official about what he should do with his life. It was 1994. His buddies gave him some good-natured ribbing. They said the agency would mark his application, "return to sender."

He laughs at the memory, joking that he thought the idea was crazy, too.

But Soufan's nature has always been to take the dare, he writes in his new memoir "The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda."

"I did some research (about the FBI) beyond 'The X-Files,' " he told CNN.com. He sent in his application. And to his shock, got a letter asking him to report to FBI training. It was the beginning of a storied career in intelligence.

During his FBI stint from 1997 to 2005, Soufan was the lead investigator on major terror investigations such as the October 2000 attack on the Navy's U.S.S. Cole which killed 17 sailors. He helped the agency investigate the attacks on U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in the late 1990s, and was a key interrogator of al Qaeda detainees after the 9/11 attacks. Read more about the global security firm he now leads.

Soufan's book details some of those interrogations of al Qaeda operatives, which he says led to the naming of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind of 9/11 and led to the arrest of alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla.

"The Black Banners" opens with his earliest memories of growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, clinging to his family's staircase as bombs exploded outside his home.

"Everybody is scared of things," he told CNN.com. "I'm not scared of the dark. ... I'm talking about growing up and you don't have (security) most of the time. You're not going to be scared of the dark. On a human level, I have a lot of fears, but you live with these fears everyday."

The book weaves vivid, inside details about the war on terror, and asserts that playing "mental poker" with terrorism suspects is far more effective at making them give up their secrets than being physically aggressive.

Do enhanced interrogations work?

"There is a difference between compliance and cooperation," he said. Compliance can result from torture -- a detainee will do anything to make the rough treatment end. But real cooperation, says Soufan, comes from engaging the detainee after learning everything possible about them.

Alternatives to interrogation

Soufan's opinion contrasts with the Bush administration's assertion that waterboarding and other harsh tactics was their best option with several al Qaeda operatives.

When Soufan finished training at Quantico in November 1997, he was assigned to one of the FBI's busiest field offices in New York. He was the only agent in the office who spoke Arabic at the time; one of only eight agents in the country who was fluent, he says.

A new job is an exciting time for anyone, and Soufan was thrilled and nervous.

"You want to talk about fear? I was scared, I was nervous on my first day," he said. "I thought, really, my God, how the heck did I end up here? It was fear mixed with excitement, mixed with adventure."

In his first months on the job, Soufan relied on his language ability and his personal interest in the Middle East and North Africa to keep close watch on what mattered in the region.

At the time, a Saudi millionaire named Osama bin Laden was consistently making news with his calls for jihad against the West.

In early 1998, the young agent wrote a paper urging the FBI to focus on bin Laden. His bosses noticed and told him about bureau investigations of bin Laden. "Unfortunately, politicians in Washington didn't want to discuss (bin Laden)," Soufan said.

The young agent attracted the attention of Special Agent John O'Neill, a legendary figure well known in the FBI who ran the New York office. O'Neill took Soufan to dinner. It became a tradition for the rookie and the veteran. They would talk late into the night about al Qaeda and what seemed to both of them to be America's most significant threat.

"He was the boss of the boss of the boss. John could be a very intimidating individual," Soufan recalled. "He saw of me a person who was genuinely hard working. ... These are the things, at least I hope, that he saw in me. He took me under his wing. He taught me a lot, and I am forever grateful."

O'Neill left the FBI in the summer of 2001, and became the chief of security at the World Trade Center. He died in the 9/11 attacks.

By that time, Soufan had been working the Cole case. On September 12, the agent opened a manila envelope from the CIA containing secret information on men involved in the Cole attack, he said. Soufan said he'd been asking for the intelligence in the Cole attack repeatedly for more than a year and had not gotten it.

And now it was September 12, 2001. The information in the envelope linked the Cole attack to 9/11 hijackers.

Soufan was stunned. He ran to the bathroom and vomited. "It wasn't easy. It was very hard moment. I hope I will never feel like this again in my life," he said. He couldn't talk to anyone that day about his anguish. His wife only knew that he was in Yemen working the Cole. He couldn't tell her anything more. He couldn't share anything with his family. But he was haunted. He wondered: If the FBI and the CIA had been more open with sharing intelligence, could the 9/11 attacks been thwarted?

In the years ahead, as the U.S. ratcheted up its campaign against al Qaeda and went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Soufan felt more determined than ever.

Soufan handled a key interrogation of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. Through what Soufan calls "mental poker," he got Abu Jandal to unwittingly give up the names of several 9/11 hijackers, he writes in his book.

Jandal, Soufan said, opened up to him after the agent engaged him in a long debate about theology.

Read an excerpt about the Jandal interrogation

"I never liked any of them (the detainees he interrogated)," Soufan said. "I think you have to put your emotions and feelings (aside). ...You have to have the empathy and knowledge of human nature. That's No. 1. No. 2 is you need to learn a lot about your cases and your target. If you'd put me in an interrogation room with a Chinese spy, I would go nowhere with it because I don't know the language, the threats."

Soufan said he wants a detainee to think he already knows what they're hiding, a tactic he learned from watching experienced interrogators.

In 2002, Soufan found himself in another al Qaeda interrogation, this time playing his hand against training camp chief Abu Zubaydah, who had been captured in a Pakistan firefight. Zubaydah was injured in the battle, and Soufan and his partner worked over many weeks to soften the detainee. It wasn't working. The terrorist continued to try to lie to his interrogators.

So the agent referred back to a detail he had read in intelligence files about Zubaydah.

"I said, 'OK, what if I call you Hani.'"

That was a nickname Zubaydah's mother called him, according to the terrorist's files. It seemed like a big turn in the interrogation. Zubaydah believed that his interrogators knew a lot about him. His ability to lie was significantly diminished, but Soufan didn't betray the victory on his face.

"You cannot have your ego take the best of you in an interrogation because you have to keep all options on the table," Soufan said.

Zubaydah, Soufan writes in his book, would go on to accidentally give up Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

The revelation came after Soufan's partner mistakenly printed a picture of Mohammed. Soufan showed the photo briefly.

Zubaydah saw it and startled Soufan when he indicated Mohammed was behind the attacks.

Soufan, once again, kept a stoic face.

In "The Black Banners," much of the chapter Soufan devotes to his time with Zubaydah is blacked out. And for those who might be concerned that the information in his book could be valuable to al Qaeda, it's important to note that much of what he reports is already extensively published in public record, in the "9/11 Commission Report," and in the book "The Looming Tower," which won a Pulitzer. "The Looming Tower" author Lawrence Wright wrote about Soufan in the story "The Agent" in the New Yorker in 2006.

After the FBI approved a copy, that copy was sent to the CIA which Soufan says ordered the redactions.

Most of a chapter called "The Contractors Take Over" -- which Soufan said details how Zubaydah's interrogation was taken out of his hands and given to a less experienced interrogator who used torture -- has been blacked out.

"It's unfortunate," Soufan said of the CIA's choice to redact. The redactions don't change the narrative, said Soufan. "They didn't take away from the points I'm trying to make in the book."

Blacking out passages, Soufan suggested, only gives his story more legitimacy.

"You only classify and redact stuff that's true. You don't classify and redact stuff that's not true."

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/world/meast/fbi-interrogator/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

U.S.-Born al Qaeda cleric (Wahabi Extremist) Anwar al-Awlaki killed

Officials: U.S.-born al Qaeda cleric (Wahabi Extremist) Anwar al-Awlaki killed

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 1:01 PM EST, Fri September 30, 2011

Anwar al-Awlaki was believed to be hiding in Yemen (file photo).

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Officials say a U.S. drone strike killed Anwar al-Awlaki
• NEW: Obama calls al-Awlaki's death a "major blow" to al Qaeda
• NEW: The ACLU slams the killing as a violation of both U.S. and international law
• Al-Awlaki, fluent in English and technology, preached to three of the 9/11 hijackers, a report says

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- an American whose fluency in English and technology made him one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world -- was killed Friday in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, U.S. and Yemeni government officials told CNN.

The strike also killed Samir Khan, an American of Pakistani origin, and two others who were in the same vehicle as al-Awlaki, said the U.S. official, who was briefed by the CIA. Khan specialized in computer programming for al Qaeda and authored the terror network's online magazine, Inspire.

President Barack Obama called al-Awlaki's death a "major blow" to al Qaeda, reeling still from the killing and capture this year of several top leaders, most notably Osama bin Laden.

"His hateful ideology and targeting of innocent civilians has been rejected by the vast majority of Muslims and people of all faiths and he has met his demise because the government and the people of Yemen have joined the international community in a common effort against al Qaeda," Obama said.

He said al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, remains a dangerous but weakened organization.

"Working with Yemen and our other allies and partners, we will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americans," Obama said.

A Yemeni government official told CNN that the killing was the result of a "successful joint intelligence-sharing operation" between Yemen and the United States. The official asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.

A senior U.S. defense official also called al-Awlaki's death a significant loss for al Qaeda, but the Pentagon was not providing any details of the operation.

The United States regarded al-Awlaki, the public face of AQAP, as a terrorist who posed a major threat to American homeland security. Western intelligence officials believe al-Awlaki was a senior leader of AQAP, one of the most active al Qaeda affiliates in the world. It has been linked to the attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit in December 2009 and a cargo plane plot last year.

Radical Muslim cleric killed in Yemen

Al-Awlaki death 'major blow' to al Qaeda

"Anwar al-Awlaki didn't need subtitles to indoctrinate," said Sajjan Gohel of the Asia Pacific Foundation, who called al-Awlaki's death significant. "He spoke English, he understood how to impact the Muslim diaspora in the West."

Public face of al Qaeda killed

Who is Anwar al-Awlaki?

Profile: Al-Awlaki understood the West

Al-Awlaki was killed about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Yemeni town of Khashef, east of the capital, Sanaa, said Mohammed Basha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. He said the operation was launched at 9:55 a.m.

The Yemeni government official said Yemeni intelligence recently located al-Awlaki's hideout in a house in Khashef, in Jawf province, which borders Saudi Arabia.

Al-Awlaki's father filed a lawsuit against Obama, then-CIA chief Leon Panetta and then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates last year to prevent the U.S. government from trying to target his son for assassination.

A district court judge threw out the case last December, leaving open the question of whether the government has the right to kill Americans abroad without a trial.

Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the al-Awlaki killing was part of an American counterterrorism program that "violates both U.S. and international law.

"This is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process," said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer.

But Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Maryland, said al-Awlaki was on a "special list" of individuals attempting to attack the United States that is approved by the National Security Council and the president. Targeting those individuals is legal and legitimate, said Ruppersberger, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who was in Yemen two months ago.

Al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and lived in the United States until the age of 7, when his family returned to Yemen. He returned to the United States in 1991 for college and remained until 2002.

It was during that time that as an imam in California and Virginia, al-Awlaki preached to and interacted with three of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, according to the 9/11 Commission report. He publicly condemned the attack afterward.

Former CIA spy: Al-Awlaki "very narcissistic"

Al-Awlaki spent 18 months in a Yemeni prison from 2006 to 2007 on kidnapping charges, but was released without going to trial. Al-Awlaki claimed that he was imprisoned and held at the request of the United States.

U.S. officials say al-Awlaki helped recruit Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the Nigerian man known as the underwear bomber, who was charged with trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight as it landed in Detroit on December 25, 2009.

The militant cleric is also said to have exchanged e-mails with accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing a dozen fellow soldiers and a civilian in a rampage at the Texas Army post.

"If you put it into perspective, (Osama) bin Laden's death had global ramifications for the transnational terror movement. Anwar al-Awlaki's death will have equal implications for lone-wolf terrorism," Gohel said.

That's because al-Awlaki was articulate and he understood the Western mindset, Gohel said. He knew his way around the internet and was skilled in indoctrinating impressionable youth.

Al-Awlaki: the bin Laden of the Internet

Early this year, a Yemeni court sentenced al-Awlaki in absentia to 10 years in prison on charges of inciting to kill foreigners.

Prosecutors charged al-Awlaki and two others with "forming an armed gang" to target foreign officers and law enforcement in November.

At a U.S. congressional hearing this year, Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said, "I actually consider al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, with al-Awlaki as a leader within that organization, as probably the most significant threat to the U.S."

According to IntelCenter, which monitors jihadist propaganda, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who is responsible for expanding AQAP's focus on U.S. attacks, remains in charge of the group and further attempts to conduct attacks are expected.

In support of that goal, al-Awlaki was due to release an article in the next issue of AQAP's Inspire magazine on the justifications for attacking civilians in the West. The group announced the upcoming article -- "Targeting Populations of Countries at War with Muslims" -- this week but did not publish it in its latest edition.

Al-Awlaki narrowly survived a U.S. drone assault in May after he switched vehicles with a fellow jihadi, a senior security official told CNN.

Attorneys for al-Awlaki's father, Dr. Nasser al-Awlaki, tried to persuade U.S. District Court Judge John Bates in Washington to issue an injunction last year preventing the U.S. government from trying to kill al-Awlaki in Yemen.

Bates dismissed the case in December, ruling that Nasser al-Awlaki did not have standing to sue.

In a November hearing, lawyers for the U.S. government declined to confirm that the cleric was on a secret "kill list" or that such a list even exists.

Last year, YouTube removed a number of video clips featuring al-Awlaki that it found to be inciting violence.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called al-Awlaki's death a "great success" in the fight against al Qaeda.

"For the past several years, al-Awlaki has been more dangerous even than Osama bin Laden had been," the New York Republican said. "The killing of al-Awlaki is a tremendous tribute to President Obama and the men and women of our intelligence community.

"Despite this vital development today, we must remain as vigilant as ever, knowing that there are more Islamic terrorists who will gladly step forward to backfill this dangerous killer."

Al-Awlaki's death is the latest in a string of losses for al Qaeda.

According to Michael Vickers, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for intelligence, eight of the terror network's 20 key leaders have been killed this year. He cited the killing of Osama bin Laden in May, the death of al Qaeda second-in-command Atiya Abdul Rahman in August, and the capture of Younis Mauritani, a senior planner of operations, in Pakistan this month.

Only al Qaeda's current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remains active among those who were the top nine terrorists at the time of the 9/11 attacks against the United States in 2001.

But al Qaeda is far from dead, Vickers noted, and still poses a dangerous threat to the United States.

"It maintains a worldwide strength numbering in the low thousands. It has broadened its reach through affiliate organizations" in general, but in particular he mentioned al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which he said has been able to increase its operating space in Yemen.

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/world/africa/yemen-radical-cleric/index.html?hpt=hp_t1