by Aaron Klein
The boasting of Abu Abdullah and his ilk should not be taken as rhetoric. These terrorists are not being sensationalist. They watched an American politician coddle Assad and call him peace loving, and they smell weakness. They taste the beginnings of a change in U.S. attitudes.
George Galloway boots me for calling Hamas "terrorists"
The coddling of Mideast dictators and terror groups is, of course, not limited to American politicians. There are some leaders in the West who defend terrorism so fiercely they will openly side with the jihadists without even creating the pretense of "dialogue."
One such politician, extreme leftist British Member of Parliament George Galloway, actually kicked me out of his office and deployed the London police because I called Hamas a terrorist group! That's right. The same Hamas whose charter calls for the murder of Jews, the same Hamas that is responsible for scores of deadly suicide bombings, shooting attacks, and rocket firings into Jewish population centers.
Together with my occasional partner in crime, U.S. radio host Rusty Humphries, I interviewed Galloway in his London parliamentary offices in June 2007. Galloway is known for his controversial views against the war on Islamic terror and his fierce opposition to the state of Israel. He made several high-profile solidarity visits to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and was friends with Arafat. He has defended Palestinian suicide bombings and has expressed support for Syria's previous occupation of Lebanon. The Scottish politician also has called President Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair "criminals." He even once told a magazine it would be "morally justified" to suicide bomb Blair.
Galloway has been embroiled in a U.S. and British investigation suspecting him of benefiting financially from the U.N. Oil for Food program. If indicted, he could lose his parliamentary seat.
My interview with Galloway was scheduled two weeks in advance through his assistant Kevin Ovenden, who was provided with the professional details for both myself and Rusty. I told Ovenden the interview would focus on Galloway's views regarding the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel.
When we arrived in his small parliamentary office, Galloway was sitting at his computer smoking a fat cigar. Rusty, a cigar afi cionado, commended Galloway on the politician's impressive collection.
"I don't have enough for everyone," Galloway snipped, even though Rusty didn't even imply he wanted a cigar.
I noticed Galloway's office was decorated with pictures of communist revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara -along with dolls resembling Castro and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
After introducing ourselves, we formally started the interview asking Galloway a few softball questions about his general feelings toward the war in Iraq. The entire interview and the ensuing drama was recorded using radio equipment.
Galloway called the Iraq war a "catastrophe" that "shattered Iraq as a society" and created "ten thousand new bin Ladens."
I asked Galloway whether he thinks Osama bin Laden is a terrorist. Galloway said the Al-Qaida chieftain is indeed a terrorist since bin Laden, whom he said was "armed and financed by the U.S." in the 1970s and 1980s, is a "pan-Islamic, nihilistic leader leading a nihilistic organization which seeks to bring about the collapse of national states and re-emergence of the caliphate."
But Galloway stated Hamas, by contrast, is not a terror group.
"[Hamas] wants to liberate their country, which has been illegally occupied, and to reassemble their nation, which has been scattered to the four winds. That's an entirely legitimate goal."
I tried to interject, explaining Hamas specifically targets civilians, which to me is the very definition of terrorism.
But Galloway cut me off, shouting, "Let me finish, please, because you're here obviously with an agenda, right down to the way you're holding the microphone as a kind of gun at my head."
Galloway, obviously annoyed that I disagreed with him, then argued that when it comes to determining who is a terrorist "what counts is not the firepower involved."
"You're not a terrorist because you've got X kind of weapons. .you're a terrorist if your goals are illegitimate," he said. "And the goals of the national liberation movements of Palestine are entirely legitimate. And, I've got news for you, are widely supported around the world."
The issue, he said, is who is the target and what is the purpose of the "military action."
"A suicide bombing of a group of Israeli soldiers in illegal occupation of Palestinian lands is an entirely legitimate military act," Galloway said. "A suicide bombing of a group of Israeli settlers illegally occupying Palestinian land is an entirely justifiable military action. A suicide bombing of a falafel stall in Tel Aviv is not. A bombing of a nightclub in Haifa is not. So there's your answer."
Now Galloway got me really upset. I have good friends who are "Israeli settlers." This jihad-loving politician just called those friends legitimate targets.
I retorted by stating Hamas is not a local resistance movement but a terror group allied with the global jihad. Hamas leaders, including the group's chief in Gaza, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, featured in this book, regularly state they are seeking to impose a worldwide Islamic caliphate.
Galloway angrily asked me, "Is this an interview or a political broadcast on behalf of the Zionist movement?"
Sounding paranoid, he then lied:
"I didn't even know that you were coming here; you've actually got this interview under false pretenses."
"I most certainly did not," I responded, taken aback.
Not only did I coordinate the interview beforehand with Galloway's assistant Ovenden, but anyone who listens to the beginning of the recorded interview, which will be made readily available on the Internet, can hear Rusty and I discuss with Galloway exactly who we are.
Galloway quickly announced the end of the interview.
"I think that we should conclude this interview now. I told you at the beginning, before we started, I don't speak to the Israeli media."
"I'm not the Israeli media," I shot back, explaining I was a foreign correspondent based in Israel, which was exactly what I told Galloway's assistant two weeks prior and which is what I told Galloway at the start of our conversation.
"Well you might as well be [the Israeli media]. I have no intention of talking to either of you any further. So, good afternoon gentlemen," Galloway stated firmly, standing up and pointing to the door.
As I was gathering my equipment Galloway told Rusty and I to leave immediately or he would call the police. I was stupefied by that statement-what would he tell the police, that I called Hamas a terror group? So I laughed and invited Galloway to phone the police, not thinking he actually would.
Galloway then said, "I think I'm going to do exactly that before you leave." He then proceeded to call the parliamentary security team, who in turn dispatched the London police.
Not wanting to get into any trouble, Rusty and I rushed out of Galloway's office without realizing I had left my laptop and a bag with my personal items near his computer.
Galloway's assistant Ovenden escorted us into the elevator and down to the first floor lobby, where security is stationed. On the audio record, Ovenden can be heard telling Rusty and I, "Because you came in under false pretenses you won't set foot" in Westminster again.
Rusty and I repeatedly asked Ovenden to explain which false pretences he was referring to.
When we reached the lobby a team of security officers awaited us. We were told the London police were on their way. Ovenden proceeded to lie to the officers, claiming we entered Galloway's office "under false pretenses."
Rusty and I were told to wait in the lobby for the arrival of the police. Minutes later, a London officer detained and questioned us.
In a conversation caught on our tape, I asked the police officer what exactly we did wrong. The officer replied that according to Galloway's assistant Ovenden, after a few minutes my interview with Galloway came to a "question that wasn't something that perhaps they were expecting."
I replie
d, "But that isn't illegal."
"I'm not disagreeing with you, alright," the officer said, "but I know for a fact that somebody like Mr. Galloway, if he doesn't think the interview is going to be to his advantage, probably, is not going to want to speak to you."
When he confirmed Rusty and I were indeed members of the news media and not Zionist agents sent to infiltrate Galloway's offices, we were let go. But we were informed the police prepared an "intelligence report" on the incident. The officers explained to us that this didn't necessarily mean trouble for us but that our "personal details" and the Galloway incident would be made available to parliamentary security in association with any future visit.
On that note, Rusty and I departed the parliamentary office building. I told Rusty that I felt bad because he didn't get to talk much with Galloway. We had scheduled the interview for both my reporting and to conduct an interview for Rusty's radio show. Before we interviewed Galloway, the radio talker ironically had asked me to start the interview because he was certain I'd be nice. He was afraid if he began the interview, he'd piss off the Scottish politician and I wouldn't have a chance to talk.
Walking down the street, I soon realized I had left my laptop in Galloway's office.
I quickly phoned Galloway. A female assistant who had witnessed the entire ordeal answered. I requested to coordinate the return of my laptop. She replied, "Ha. I don't think so," and then abruptly ended the call.
Still recording the incident, Rusty and I ran back to the British parliamentary office building to a surprised security team and asked to file a report against Galloway for my stolen laptop. A security officer called Galloway's office about the return of my equipment. A few minutes later Ovenden emerged. Refusing to look at us, Galloway's assistant coldly placed my laptop on the floor, turned his back to us and departed without saying a word.
CONCLUSION
JEW WHO BELIEVES in the present Torah is a non-believer who cannot be accepted into heaven. In order to enter heaven you should be Muslim," said Sheikh Salem Abu Muumen, a prominent religious leader in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
"Jews are condemned to hell," he said.
Muumen, presented in Chapter Three, was the final terror interview I conducted for the book.
With his remarks about Judaism in tow, I departed Jenin and drove from the city of suicide bombers back to real life in Tel Aviv. Blasting Pearl Jam-I cannot drive in war zones without rock music-I passed through Jenin's final checkpoint feeling like Alice emerging from Wonderland. The world of terror is a fantasy island. Each man thinks his relationship with Allah justifies any conduct, any excuse, any lie. In the terror community night is day; antagonists are victims; women, senior citizens, and babies are military targets; reality and history are completely discarded in the most absurd of manners; and of course, Jews and Crusaders are the sources of all evil on earth.
Most of the Islamist arguments and conspiracies can be so easily deflated if anyone actually bothered to try. Their explanations, excuses and claimed justifications for jihad are ridiculous, but their lies are repeated so often we've come to believe them. We now accept as fact that the major gripes the global terrorists have with us are our troops in the Middle East and our support for Israel, when indeed their problem is our existence, our freedom, and our values, and the fact that we stand in the way of their creating an Islamic universe.
When you get down to it, the terrorists' lines of thinking are delusional. When terrorists tell me a targeted nightclub filled with teenagers really was a meeting place for Zionist and Ameri can secret service agents; or watermelons imported from Israel are infected with the AIDS virus to kill Muslims; or Jews secretly control Christianity and the world's churches as part of their plot for world domination, it's hard to talk to the jihadists with a straight face. These terrorists are not credible as adults. Not credible as leaders.
It would almost be impossible to take the terrorists seriously except that they are serious about spreading Islam through massacre and innocents worldwide are being murdered as a result.
People think the rules of terrorism are complicated, but talking with the terrorists the past few years I learned things are quite simple. If you hand over territory to terrorists bent on your destruction, they'll use the land to attack you. If you sign a ceasefire with the terrorists, they'll use the truce to rearm, regroup, and strengthen their forces to attack you. If you restrain your army when your country is at war with attacking terrorists, they will smell weakness and will attack you. If you provide weapons to terror groups, they'll use the arms to attack you.
If politicians call for concessions to terrorists and terror supporters, the terrorists will be emboldened and will attack you. If your media justifies terrorism and uses the terrorists' supposed grievances to legitimize jihad, the terrorists will be emboldened and will attack you. If your celebrities side with the enemy, if your people elect leaders hell-bent on accommodation with evil, the terrorists will believe they're winning and they will attack you.
As terrible as this may sound, I don't entirely blame the terrorists for their increased violence against us worldwide. I met our enemies. I stared into the eyes of men who carry out shootings and rocket attacks and send suicide bombers into civilian population centers. These people are pure evil. There is not an ounce of humanity in their bones. Their goal is our destruction. Nothing more. Nothing less.
When we present the terrorists with weakness, they would be fools not to exploit it. When we cower at their threats, when we retreat at their advances, when we restrain our troops during battle, when we announce we are "not winning," we are throwing raw meat at the global jihad monster and more Americans will die as a result.
While writing this book, while schmoozing with terrorists, one thing above all else was brought home to me repeatedlywith these people there is no room for negotiation or ideological modification. There is no room for reason. For Muhammad Abdel-El, Mahmoud al-Zahar, Ala Zenakreh and their comrades in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, the West Bank, Gaza, London, Madrid, and New York, this is a war to the finish. It's a war for our existence whether we admit it or not. And in such a war only one side can win.
INDEX
