Adéu a Nihil Obstat | Hola a The Catalan Analyst

Després de 13 anys d'escriure en aquest bloc pràcticament sense interrumpció, avui el dono per clausurat. Això no vol dir que m'hagi jubilat de la xarxa, sinó que he passat el relleu a un altra bloc que segueix la mateixa línia del Nihil Obstat. Es tracta del bloc The Catalan Analyst i del compte de Twitter del mateix nom: @CatalanAnalyst Us recomano que els seguiu.

Moltes gràcies a tots per haver-me seguit amb tanta fidelitat durant tots aquests anys.

dilluns, 19 d’octubre del 2009

Els secrets de la CAIR

Acaba de publicar-se el llibre «Muslim Mafia : Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America» sobre les activitats del CAIR, el Consell de Relacions Americano-Islàmiques. Escrit per P. David Gaubatz i Paul Sperry, la investigació es fonamenta en gran part en el treball clandestí de Chris Gaubatz, fill d'un dels autors del llibre, que va estar sis mesos com a becari a la seu del CAIR a Washington l'any 2008.  En tot aquest temps va tenir accés a 12.000 pàgines de documents i va enregistrar 300 hores de vídeo.La informació de Chris Gaubatz revela moltes coses sobre el que l'enigmàtic CAIR vol amagar, incloent la seva estratègia, els recursos financers, els seus membres i els seus debats interns, que treuren a la llum els seus mètodes dubtosos i potencialment il legals. El llibre conté molta informació inèdita, que Daniel Pipes ha resumit parcialment en un article.
Claim 1: According to Ibrahim Hooper, the organization's communications director, "CAIR has some 50,000 members." Fact: An internal memo prepared in June 2007 for a staff meeting reports that the organization had precisely 5,133 members, about one-tenth Hooper's exaggerated number.

Claim 2: CAIR is a "grass-roots organization" that depends financially on its members. Fact: According to an internal 2002 board meeting report, the organization received $33,000 in dues and $1,071,000 in donations. In other words, under 3 percent of its income derives from membership dues.

Claim 3: CAIR receives "no support from any overseas group or government." Fact: Gaubatz and Sperry report that 60 percent of CAIR's income derives from two dozen donors, most of whom live outside the United States. Specifically: $978,000 from the ruler of Dubai in 2002 in exchange for controlling interest in its headquarters property on New Jersey Avenue, a $500,000 gift from Saudi prince al-Waleed bin Talal and $112,000 in 2007 from Saudi prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad, at least $300,000 from the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, $250,000 from the Islamic Development Bank, and at least $17,000 from the American office of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization.

Claim 4: CAIR is an independent, domestic human rights group "similar to a Muslim NAACP." Fact: In a desperate search for funding, CAIR has offered its services to forward the commercial interests of foreign firms. This came to light in the aftermath of Dubai Ports World's failed effort to purchase six U.S. harbors in 2006 due to security fears. In response, CAIR's chairman traveled to Dubai and suggested to businessmen there: "Do not think about your contributions [to CAIR] as donations. Think about it from the perspective of rate of return. The investment of $50 million will give you billions of dollars in return for fifty years."