http://www.investigativeproject.org/4177/obama-linked-islamists-downplay-coptic-suffering
Dalia Moghaed, credited with helping President Obama draft his June 2009 Cairo speech about American relations with the Islamic world, recently downplayed attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians on a Facebook page.
More than 80 Coptic churches were burned by Brotherhood supporters after the Egyptian military's crackdown last month on Muslim Brotherhood encampments in Cairo. A local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party appeared to sanction violence in retaliation for the Coptic Church's backing of the Egyptian military.
Nonetheless, Mogahed pointed the finger at the Egyptian media.
"The Egyptian media took advantage of the Copts to achieve many personal/political gains, which has angered the West," Mogahed said in a Sept. 22 post which appeared on the Facebook page of the Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR).
The EADHR was founded by members of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which in turn was founded as an "overt arm" of the Egyptian Brotherhood.
Mogahed isn't the only American Islamist tied to the Obama administration to slam the Copts on social media.
In a Sept. 15 Twitter post, Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Advisory Council, accused American Coptic activists of fanning hatred of Islam.
"For >decade since 9/11 attack extremist American #Coptic activists have nurtured anti #Islam & anti #Muslim sentiments among AM RT wing," Elibiary wrote.
In earlier tweets, Elibiary attacked American Copts for protesting against how their relatives in Egypt have been treated by the Islamists.
"Good read by @mwhanna1 on need to reform #Coptic activism in #US including stop promoting #Islamophobia," Elibiary wrote Sept. 14.
"I think the Obama administration should be ashamed to have had someone like this in their administration," said Michael Meunier, president of Egypt's Al-Haya Party and a Coptic activist. "This underscores the thinking inside the Obama administration."
Brotherhood groups in the United States and their supporters are lashing out at the Copts, who have been among the Muslim Brotherhood's visceral critics, and dismiss their grievances as mere bigotry. Meunier charged that the Brotherhood is trying to slander the Copts to reduce their effectiveness.
"The Copts have nothing to be ashamed of. Morsi made the Copts' lives' hell, so they got together with the moderate Muslims to overthrow Morsi," Meunier said. "The Muslim Brotherhood victimized the Copts, and now it wants to blame them."
Related Topics: John Rossomando
Nairobi Attack Prompts Debate Over Shabaab's Reach
by IPT Newshttp://www.investigativeproject.org/4176/nairobi-attack-prompts-debate-over-shabaab-reach
There are still plenty of unanswered questions about al-Shabaab's weekend attack and siege at an upscale Nairobi mall. The death toll stands at 67 people as the search for victims continues.
While Kenya's foreign minister said two or three of the attackers – estimated at 10-15 in total – were Americans, U.S. officials say that remains unconfirmed. Twenty FBI agents are in Nairobi to help in the investigation. Whether Americans were part of the slaughter or not, the attack has some officials concerned that the al-Qaida-affiliated Somalia-based terrorist group is taking its jihad internationally.
The Kenya attack is seen as retaliation for the country's help in fighting al-Shabaab in Somalia. The United States has financed those operations with hundreds of millions of dollars, so "there is growing fear that the group could turn its sights on American interests more directly," the New York Times reports. With more than two dozen Somali-Americans believed to be in its ranks, there are concerns some might try to return to the United States and plot attacks here. Or, al-Shabaab could just target American interests in Africa, where American businesses have a growing presence and where American tourists are drawn.
In an interview with the Daily Beast's Josh Rogin, Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said al-Shabaab may be based in Somalia, but it has "an international agenda."
"It can happen here in the United States as it is now happening in Nairobi," Mohamud said.
The question of al-Shabaab's ability to strike American interests is not new. A House Homeland Security Committee staff report in 2011 said the group poses "a direct threat."
But not everyone buys that. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Cal., said there's no evidence indicating that al-Shabaab could attack within the United States despite the presence of Americans inside the group.
Similarly, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told The Hill that al-Shabaab is "on the verge of being defeated" despite the audacity of the Nairobi attack. "When you pin a rattlesnake into a corner, they are going to strike out," Thornberry said.
Mohamud agreed, but said al-Shabaab remains a danger.
"They are on the run," he said. "But their threat is not yet finished. They have still training camps. They have bomb factories in very remote areas… Even if we defeat [Shabaab] militarily completely, that's not the end of the war with [Shabaab]. They will continue suicide bombs, roadside bombs; this will go on for some time."
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