Bin Laden-Iran Collaboration

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BIN LADEN-IRAN COLLABORATION A POSSIBILITY,
TERROR EXPERT WARNS

Release of new audiotape says al-Qaida preparing attacks on U.S.

By Mark Ellis

Friday, January 20, 2006

NEW YORK (ANS) -- She’s a one-woman tour de force in a personal crusade to expose the dark nether world of terror financing. Growing up in Israel, she personally experienced a hatred fueled by radical propagandists that has only increased today, leaving her very concerned about the future of the U.S. and the Middle East.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld

“There is a long term strategy started by the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates that puts us in great danger,” says Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center for Democracy. “We’ve been infiltrated heavily in the United States,” she maintains. Dr. Ehrenfeld, author of “Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop it” is a widely sought commentator and consultant on the problem of international terrorism. She’s currently working on a new book exposing radical Islam’s penetration of the U.S. and other Western economies.

Dr. Ehrenfeld believes the release of a new audiotape from Osama bin Laden raises the possibility that bin Laden is collaborating with Iran. “If a dirty bomb or a nuclear device is used in the near future to attack America or its interests, the blame would go to bin Laden, thus, providing Iran with deniability,” she says. “The Islamist enemies of the U.S. have the same agenda—to destroy the biggest democracy, freedom and the Judeo-Christian way of life. It is time to acknowledge that they work together and do all it takes to preempt their attacks.”

Saudi Arabia is often the object of her special interest and attention. “When I read that as a sign of friendship, thousands of more Saudi students are coming here I get really worried,” Dr. Ehrenfeld notes. “They have been indoctrinated in Saudi Arabia with the same ideology that the attackers of 911 also practiced,” she says. While there are a few in Saudi Arabia who emulate and admire the culture of the West, the vast majority are Wahabi Sunnis holding a much different mindset.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s worst records on religious freedom and human rights. It is one of the least evangelized nations in the world, with Christian workers and Bibles banned. Christians are not even permitted to set foot in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca.

“Last year in Saudi Arabia they were holding fundraisers for the martyrs of Hamas,” Dr. Ehrenfeld observes. While lacking hard numbers, Dr. Ehrenfeld estimates billions of dollars are flowing out of Saudi Arabia to fund terrorism. “It amounts to billions of dollars, but there are many more hundreds of billions they are spending expanding the base of radical Islam around the world—including the U.S.”

The Muslim World League coordinates a colossal Islamic missionary effort, with some of the largest printing presses in the world located in Mecca printing tens of millions of Qur’ans for worldwide distribution.

Part of the Saudi strategy is to seek weak governments in Third World countries, where they invest heavily building hospitals, schools, and mosques. “They provide services to the population to buy their loyalty--and it’s working,” Dr. Ehrenfeld notes.

The result of their spending campaign also buys antagonism toward the U.S. and Israel. “Look at how much the U.S. is hated in these countries,” she says. “All their propaganda efforts are bearing fruit now.” Children hear a message of hate in school, they hear it from the imam in the mosque, on the radio, watch it on TV, read it on the internet, and in the books they’re reading.

In Dr. Ehrenfeld’s book, she provides substantial evidence drug money also funds terrorism. “The Saudi and Iranian imams have given fatwahs to allow their believers to use drug trafficking to support their activities,” Dr. Ehrenfeld says. Drugs can generate income and clients anywhere in the world. “It’s better than cash,” she notes.

“It corrupts the society you want to attack,” Dr. Ehrenfeld says. “So it’s a weapon similar to what the communists used.” Part of the propaganda message is: ‘Look at the enemy; see how drug use caused a degenerate society-- these are the corrupt people we need to eliminate.’

Because of the dependency of the U.S. on oil from the Middle East, as well as the disinformation campaign directed against the U.S. and the West, Dr. Ehrenfeld sees a future erosion of U.S. loyalty and support for Israel. “When Blair appointed a task force to examine the Muslim population in the U.K. following the subway bombings in London, it concluded that nothing is wrong with Muslims in Britain. They said what is wrong is Britain’s foreign policy toward Israel.”

With Iran developing nuclear capabilities and displaying a belligerent attitude, and the attitudes of many around the world being shaped by Saudi propaganda, Dr. Ehrenfeld is hardly sanguine about the future. “I want to have hope but I’m very concerned,” she says. “It doesn’t look very good.”

More information about the American Center for Democracy may be found at www.public-integrity.org.

Mark Ellis is a Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service. He is also an assistant pastor in Laguna Beach, CA. Contact Ellis at marsalis@fea.net