Taliban Seeks Better Relations with Surging Islamic State in Afghanistan

The Taliban reached out to Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi calling for unity between the two jihadist factions, a letter posted online Tuesday by a Taliban supporter shows. IS victories have translated into increasing appeal for its brand even in Afghanistan where the Taliban has been the leading jihadist group for the past two decades.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar refused to recognize Al-Baghdadi's caliphate after he announced its formation last year, but this letter likely comes as a result of Omar's realization that the Islamic State poses a threat to the Taliban.

IS established a base in southern Afghanistan under the leadership of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mullah Abdul Rauf and promised good wages for anyone willing to fight on behalf of IS.

IS fighters have engaged in their trademark brutality in Afghanistan since the terrorist group announced the establishment of its Khorasan province in January. An April 18 suicide bombing by IS terrorists at a bank in Jalalabad left 35 dead, including several children, and wounded 125. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack, calling it "an evil act."

Disenchanted Taliban members and other jihadist groups have been seduced into joining IS by the latter's slick online propaganda. IS also has attracted foreign jihadists from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Caucasus to its Afghan fight. Local Afghan officials say these fighters are even more brutal than the Taliban.

"Until now the Islamic Emirate has successfully eliminated all Fitnas (temptations) of disputes, conflicts and division by having unity," Mullah Omar's deputy Alhaj Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor wrote, suggesting that IS was dividing the forces of jihad in Afghanistan.

He added that "...unity of lines is a need, necessity and obligation, [e]specially when we are in war with American crusader Kuffar (Unbelievers). Therefore Jihad in Afghanistan against Occupier American Kuffar and Allies should be under [a] single banner and [a] single leadership."

Mansoor called on Al-Baghdadi to get into direct contact with Taliban leaders to resolve their disputes rather than rely on rumors passed along by sources with an ax to grind against the Taliban. He referred to Al-Baghdadi as a "brother in Islam," noting that the Taliban had not interfered in IS affairs and that Osama bin Laden had recognized the authority of the Taliban's emirate.

"We hope the same from you and [wish] you only goodness from your side due to our brotherhood relationship of Islam," Mansoor wrote.

Al-Baghdadi reportedly holds a dim view of Mullah Omar and referred to him as "a fool and illiterate warlord" who "does not deserve spiritual or political credibility."

IS-related Twitter accounts accuse the Taliban of being "apostates" under Pakistani control. Accusing fellow Muslims of apostasy is tantamount to saying they should be killed.

IS follower @ISIS_Med tweeted on May 22, "Taliban dogs attacked Islamic State bases in Afghanistan and killed some brothers. Caliph promised to wipe out Taliban apostates."

This letter shows the Taliban takes this threat seriously amid the rising popularity of IS among jihadists.

Indictment Alleges Garland Cartoon Contest Shooters Had Help

An Arizona man has been indicted in connection with the May 3 attempted attack on a "Draw Muhammad" contest in Garland, Texas. Elton Francis Simpson and Nadir Hamid Soofi opened fire on security personnel outside the contest in hopes of attacking participants inside. Both were shot and killed by police officers at the scene.

Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, also known as Decarus Thomas, is charged with transporting weapons and ammunition across state lines with the intent to commit crimes and then lying about his involvement.

Between Jan. 7 and May 3, Kareem hosted Simpson and Soofi (and possibly others) to plot their attack on the contest, the indictment alleges. He also supplied them with firearms and went with them to a remote desert to practice shooting. Between May 1 and May 3, Kareem allegedly transported the assault rifles from Arizona to Texas. He also is charged with lying to FBI agents about his involvement with the planned attack denying he even knew the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest was scheduled to take place.

The contest was in reaction to the massacre at the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by radicalized Islamists who said they were avenging Islam's prophet Muhammad after the magazine's repeated caricatures of him. The winning entry shows an image of the Muslim prophet Muhammad brandishing a sword, commanding, "You can't draw me!" The cartoonist's hand responds, "That's why I draw you."

So far Kareem is the only suspect charged in relation to the foiled attack, but the indictment reveals the possibility of others involved in the planning of the attack.

The Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks on its official radio channel, referring to Soofi and Simpson as "brothers" and "Al Khilafa," the name ISIS gives its soldiers. Minutes before the attack, Simpson expressed his allegiance to the group in a Twitter post.

The Garland shooting was not the first sign of Simpson's radical leanings. In 2010 he was charged with lying to the FBI about his intentions to travel to Somalia to fight with the terrorist group Al Shabaab. He was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to three years probation.

Lawsuit: Al Jazeera America Misogynistic, Deliberately Pushing Anti-U.S., Anti-Israel Biases

Shannon High-Bassalik is not a journalist who buries the lead.

In a federal discrimination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Thursday against her former employers at Al Jazeera America (AJA), High-Bassalik starts by saying the network quickly abandoned its stated mission of providing "unbiased, fact-based, in-depth stories of U.S. and international news."

Her experience shows a network "where truth and objectivity are set aside to cater to the Company's pro-Arabic prejudices," the lawsuit says. "As ratings failed to live up to the expectations of management, Al Jazeera openly decided to abandon all pretense of neutrality in favor of putting the Arabic viewpoint front and center, openly demanding that programs be aired that criticized countries such as America, Israel and Egypt."

The government in Qatar bought the cable news out let to bring "the Arabic viewpoint to America," employees were told. Concerns about the reporting bias were turned away, often angrily.

The network dismissed the lawsuit's allegations as "unfounded." But some of the allegations are supported by internal emails obtained by the National Review just after the January shooting massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by radical Islamists taking revenge for the magazine's depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Al Jazeerah employees questioned whether it amounted to an attack on free speech and criticized the public's "Je Suis Charlie" signs offered in solidarity with the dead.

An earlier lawsuit by another former employee also alleged discriminatory and politically-driven management.

High-Bassalik says producers were instructed to treat conspiracy theories about a CIA role in the 9/11 attacks – popular among some in the Arab world – seriously. The head of the network's investigative unit allegedly likened Israelis to Adolph Hitler. Statements by network senior vice president that "Anyone who supports Israel should die a fiery death" went unpunished, while people who complained were fired.

Al Jazeera America "systematically favored its Arabic and male employees," the lawsuit alleges, while women and non-Arabs were treated "as second class citizens who are constant targets of abuse and degradation."

Internally, Arab employees received better performance evaluations and promotions. The marketing department hired a manager whose resume topped out with a position at a Sunglass Hut.

High-Bassalik was AJA's senior vice president of programming and documentaries before she was fired, in what she claims was in breach of her three-year guaranteed contract and the Civil Rights Act. The lawsuit also targets Interim Al Jazeera CEO Ehab al Shihabi, who also serves as its international operations chief.

Women were given inconsistent directions, belittled and left out of important meetings. High-Bassalik says her firing was an act of retaliation after she complained about AJA's "misogynistic and racist treatment of its employees."

The news bias is "often at the expense of Jewish people" especially during last summer's Gaza war between Hamas and Israel, when employees were "explicitly instructed" to "cast Israel as the villain" and the network aired anti-Israel programs.

Al Shihabi screamed at people who raised concerns, and said he was steering news content to please his bosses in Doha.

Read the full lawsuit here.

Turkish Official Blames "Jewish Lobby" and "Crusaders" for Election Failure

Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost a parliamentary majority it had enjoyed for 13 years in voting last Sunday.

Voters had many reasons to look to back candidates from other parties – including a desire to blunt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hopes of using Parliament to entrench his own power. Erdogan "asked the Turks to grant him 400 deputies – who would then rewrite the constitution to pave the way for his elected sultanate," Hürriyet Daily News columnist Burak Bekdil wrote in a column republished by the Middle East Forum, where he is a fellow.

But a senior member of Erdogan's party had another theory – it was the "Jewish lobby" and "Crusaders" who swayed Turkish voters.

"There's an economic lobby in the world, which is under the hand of the Jewish lobby, and these are the ones who want the AKP to fall," Muhammed Akar, chairman of AKP's Diyarbakir branch, said in an interview with Foreign Policy. "Not only the Jewish lobby, there is another movement – the Crusaders. Because the AKP government is the voice of the Muslims in Turkey, and all the world."

The magazine called the election results a "body blow" to Erdogan's party.

AKP officials frequently blame Jews and outside "lobbies" for internal woes and often resort to anti-Semitic propaganda and slogans.

During mass popular protests in July 2013, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay blamed Jews for fuelling the demonstrations.

"World powers and the Jewish Diaspora prompted the unrest and have actively encouraged it," Atalay said.

At the time, AKP party mayor of Ankara also referred to the protests in Gezi as a "game of the Jewish lobby" in a Twitter message.

In the past, Erdogan has blamed the "interest-rate lobby" as a destabilizing force in Turkey in an apparent reference to Jewish global financiers.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also accused Jews of working to topple the Turkish regime.

"I announce it from here: we have not and will not succumb to the Jewish lobby, the Armenian lobby or the Turkish-Greek minority's lobbies," Davutoglu said at a party gathering in February.

Sunday's election results likely left Erdogan speechless, Bekdil wrote, and he won't take the results well. "He is the lone would-be sultan in a too-expensive and too-spacious Ankara palace. The next few years will see his existential war against real, quasi-real and phantom-like enemies."

Article to Criticize Israel for Excessive Warnings in Gaza

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) went too far beyond what is required to avoid civilian casualties in asymmetric conflict during last summer's Gaza war, some international legal experts say, according to an Israel National News report.

The criticism comes in an article to be published Monday by the Weekly Standard. In it, Vanderbilt University adjunct law Professor Willy Stern reviews Israel's actions after spending two weeks with the IDF's international law department. The IDF made thousands of phone calls, dropped leaflets, and broadcast TV and radio messages urging Gaza civilians to flee an area before Israel would strike structures used by Hamas for military purposes.

"It was abundantly clear that IDF commanders had gone beyond any mandates that international law requires to avoid civilian casualties," Stern writes. Its foes in Hamas went the opposite direction, urging terrorists to stay close to civilians, a manual that Israeli troops found in a Gaza neighborhood shows.

"Hamas's playbook calls for helping to kill its own civilians, while the IDF's playbook goes to extreme​ - ​some say inappropriate​ - ​lengths to protect innocent life in war," Stern's article will say.

Other legal experts featured in the upcoming Weekly Standard article expressed concern that Israel's exhaustive warnings create "an unreasonable precedent" for other democracies fighting terrorist groups.

"The IDF's warnings certainly go beyond what the law requires, but they also sometimes go beyond what would be operational good sense elsewhere," said Michael Schmitt, director of the Stockton Center for the Study for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College.

Rasmieh Odeh Appeal Likens Israeli Courts to Nazis

Attorneys for Rasmieh Odeh appealed her naturalization fraud conviction with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday, saying pre-trial rulings let in questionable evidence and improperly prevented testimony about claims she was tortured by Israeli authorities in 1969.

Odeh, an associate director of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago, was convicted last November and sentenced to 18 months in prison in March, though she is free pending the appeal. She also will be stripped of her citizenship and faces removal from the United States.

Her 2004 application to become an American citizen – and her claim she was never arrested, convicted or imprisoned – was the key element in the case. Odeh was convicted, and confessed, to a 1969 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine bombing of an Israeli grocery store that killed Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.

Defense attorneys wanted the Israeli records kept out of Odeh's trial, casting the Israeli courts as unreliable. They also wanted her to be able to testify about her unsubstantiated claims that her confession was the result of torture, and present a psychologist who would testify that her false answers on immigration forms were the product of post-traumatic stress.

The rulings left the defense "gutted at its core" and gave Odeh a "faux trial," defense attorney Michael Deutsch wrote.

"Certainly, a U.S. court would not have admitted documents created by a Nazi court operating in occupied France that convicted partisans resisting occupation," Deutsch's appeal brief said. "How then is it proper to allow, documents here which are similarly the product of torture and illegal occupation?"

While Odeh is the only source for the torture claim, other evidence connects her to the bombing. Israeli investigators found explosives in Odeh's home that were similar to those used at the grocery store.

And footage from a 2004 film, "Women in Struggle" showed Odeh and an accomplice discussing their roles in the bombing. Odeh became so revered as a result of the 1969 Jerusalem attack, footage from a 1993 video, "Tell Your Tale Little Bird," showed a female PFLP hijacker identifying her group in 1970 as "Task Force Rasmieh Odeh."

The most significant legal issue raised involves the nature of the crime and the burden of proof required to convict. U.S. District Judge Gershwin A. Drain reversed an earlier decision and found this was a "general intent" crime, which did not require proof Odeh had a specific intent to break the law by lying to immigration officials.

That ruling led Drain to block testimony about alleged torture. During the trial, he said the case was not about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but whether Odeh lied in the naturalization process. He ruled that the prosecution "need only prove Defendant made a false statement knowing it to be false" saying he originally was misled about a precedent cited by the defense.

For more background on the case and Odeh's bombing conviction, see our five-part video series, "Spinning a Terrorist Into a Victim" and the post-conviction epilogue.

Egypt Summons U.S. Ambassador Over MB Visit

Egypt asked the U.S. ambassador in Cairo to account for the Obama administration's allowing Muslim Brotherhood officials to visit Washington for a private conference this week sponsored by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID).

Egypt sought the recent meeting with Ambassador Stephen Beecroft to show its displeasure with American policy toward the Brotherhood, which it labels a terrorist organization.

Delegation members include Amr Darrag, whose handling of drafting and ratifying Egypt's December 2012 constitution led to fears the Brotherhood aimed to impose a theocracy; and Wael Haddara, a Canadian Brotherhood member who served as an adviser to deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

The administration has no plans to meet with the delegation, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Tuesday. U.S. policy allowed for engagement with people from across Egypt's political spectrum, he said Monday.

Emails obtained by Middle East Briefing, a publication of the Dubai-based Orient Advisory Group, show that since 2010, Obama administration policy sought to support the Muslim Brotherhood under Presidential Study Directive 11.

State Department and White House officials met in January with a Muslim Brotherhood delegation whose trip had been partly funded by the Brotherhood-linked group Egyptian Americans for Freedom and Justice (EAFJ). EAFJ leader Mahmoud El Sharkawy is a member of the Brotherhood's international organization and serves as liaison between his group and Brotherhood members exiled in Turkey, Egypt's Al-Bawaba newspaper reported in April.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki downplayed the visit and denied it was a Brotherhood delegation, saying it was a delegation of former Egyptian parliamentarians which included members of the Freedom and Justice Party. Delegation member Waleed Sharaby said in a February interview with Egypt's Mekameleen TV that the State Department agreed with their position that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi had not brought stability and that his removal would pave the way for a transition to democracy.

Recent Muslim Brotherhood calls for violence have been reflected in the Facebook accounts of EAFJ members. El Sharkawy's Facebook page supports violence in Egypt in posts such as a Feb. 10 communiqué from the Popular Resistance Movement (PRM) which has launched attacks against Egyptian police and other targets. It features an image of a blood-red map of Egypt with a fist superimposed over it and claims responsibility on behalf of the PRM for targeting two police cars. It also stated the following motto in Arabic: "God, martyrs, Revolution."

Other members of EAFJ such as board member Hani Elkadi, who identified himself as a Brotherhood member in a March 9 post, have posted similar images on Facebook.

Maajid Nawaz Just Indirectly Called 2 CAIR Officials "Insane"

The National Union of Students, a confederation of 600 student unions representing more than 95 percent of all higher education unions in the United Kingdom, passed a motion Tuesday to align with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign as part of a worldwide effort to boycott Israel.

The same group rejected a motion in October condemning ISIS out of concerns it would "become a justification for war and blatant islamophobia." The failed motion called for support to "Iraqis trying to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide to fight for equality and democracy, including defence of the rights of the Christian and Yazidi-Kurd minorities." It also specifically condemned the Islamic State and expressed support for the Kurdish Peshmerga fighting it.

Seeing that fail, but a boycott of Israel pass, prompted Maajid Nawaz, a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2015 parliamentary elections and prominent anti-extremism activist, to tweet his disapproval, saying it represents "Everything wrong with the Modern Left." In a subsequent comment, Nawaz, a former recruiter for the radical Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir who now combats the Islamist narrative, said that anyone who "entertains the idea" that Israel is as bad as ISIS "is frankly insane."

As we reported in February, several prominent American Islamists have tried to push that very comparison. Two of them, Hussam Ayloush and Zahra Billoo run California chapters for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Ayloush, who runs CAIR's Los Angeles office, told an audience at the Islamic Center of Orange County in January that Muslims receive too much attention when it comes to extremism, especially involving foreign fighters. "So let's talk about the Jewish American kids who join the Jewish State before we talk about Muslim Americans who join the Islamic State. Neither one represents Judaism or Islam," he said.

Billoo, who runs the CAIR San Francisco office, made similar arguments in Twitter posts in September and again in February.

"Is one genocidal group different than the other?" her Feb. 16 post read.

It's remarkable that she sees that as a legitimate question. Or, as Nawaz sees it, "frankly insane."

Hamas-Affiliated Group Wins Seat on UN Body

A United Nations (UN) committee on Monday awarded "observer" status to a UK-based Palestinian organization, which advocates for Israel's destruction, Fox News reports.

The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), which allegedly serves as a Hamas front, earned the important designation on the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), enabling the radical group to receive official UN badges and complete access to UN facilities. The PRC's new status also allows it to partake in UN debates in New York, Geneva, and Vienna.

The UN Committee features a 19-member panel including countries notorious for committing human rights violations such as Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, Venezuela, Russian, and China.

The move prompted harsh criticism from Israel, pointing out the PRC has direct ties to Hamas.

"According to this script, one day we may find Hezbollah sitting at the Security Council and ISIS voting at the Human Rights Council...This is the peak season for the UN's Theatre of the Absurd," said Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to the UN.

Israel banned the PRC in 2010 when then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that the PRC acts as a Hamas wing in Europe, promoting the designated terrorist organization's activities and worldview while maintaining direct contact with senior Hamas officials.

UN Watch asserts that the group regularly hosted Hamas officials at its annual conferences, including leader Ismail Haniyeh.

"Despite its pose as pro-Palestinian human rights group, the PRC is one of the few Palestinian advocacy groups to have been banned by Israel, on account of its deep entanglement with top leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization based in Gaza and abroad," read a UN Watch statement in a news release.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center produced a report outlining PRC's Hamas ties, featuring photos of PRC leadership with Hamas officials.

The extensive report concludes that the PRC is devoted to the destruction of the Jewish state and serves as a propaganda wing of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

CAIR's Ayloush Considers Hizballah "Terrorists" in Syria, But Not Israel

The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Los Angeles office, Hussam Ayloush, continues to exhibit double standards when it comes to Israel's terrorist enemies. Ayloush openly calls Hizballah's fighters as "terrorists" when referring to the group's involvement in the Syrian civil war, however avoids invoking the "terrorist" label when Hizballah intentionally kills Israeli civilians.

"#Nasrallah, hiding like a rat, sends his #Hizbullah terrorists to die while killing Syrians, just to help the Assad tyrant," Ayloush tweeted Sunday.

He was responding to a commentary by the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, which claims that Hizballah's leader Hassan Nasrallah is fighting an "immoral" and "losing" battle against Syria's rebels.

"[Has] Nasrallah lost his senses or is it just cheap talk when he compares resisting the Israeli occupation to fighting against the rebels in Syria?" Badr Jamous asks in the commentary.

Ayloush clearly agrees that Hizballah's involvement in Syria is immoral and considers Hizballah "terrorists" only because of his anti-Assad view. But his criticism was absent when Hizballah fired rockets at Israeli civilian communities in 2006 or after any of the Lebanese-based terrorist groups attacks against Israel.

By avoiding reference to Hizballah as a terrorist organization in context of its violent operations against Israel, Ayloush is arguably justifying terrorism that targets the Jewish state.

Ayloush has avoided condemning terrorist organizations targeting Israelis in the past.

In 2013, Ayloush was confronted outside a CAIR-LA annual fundraising banquet and asked to condemn Hamas terrorism. Ayloush issued a standard CAIR response saying that he condemns "any group...who engages in the harming of civilians, innocent people."

He avoided addressing Hamas specifically and then proceeded to claim that his "civil rights organization" refrained from providing any comments related to Middle East developments.

"But as a civil rights organization we're not here in the business of being dragged into the Middle East affairs and the conflicts of the Middle East," Ayloush said. "We are an American organization." The question itself is "not acceptable," and "proves that you have nothing but bigotry in you."

Such a heated response is full of hypocrisy, especially considering that CAIR consistently condemns Israel's counterterrorism operations.

During a 2008 press conference, Ayloush demanded that the U.S. "government take immediate steps to end the immoral and illegal Israeli bombardment of Gaza." Hamas, again, is never mentioned despite incessant rocket fire that sparked the conflict.

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