Amplify’d from www.startribune.com

Vatican refused to be served with suit, lawyer says

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson's client accuses a now-deceased priest of sex abuse at a school for the deaf.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The attorney for a man who says he was sexually abused decades ago by a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf alleged Sunday that the Vatican refused to be served with a lawsuit over the matter.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who frequently clashes with the Catholic hierarchy over abuse allegations, said Sunday in a news release that his office tried to serve the lawsuit naming as defendants Pope Benedict and other high-ranking officials at the Vatican, but that it was returned via Federal Express.

Anderson's client, listed in court papers as John Doe, is a deaf man from Illinois who alleged in his lawsuit that the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy molested him for a number of years while Murphy worked at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf. The lawsuit contends that Pope Benedict and other Vatican officials conspired to keep quiet decades of abuse allegations against Murphy.

Anderson did not immediately return a call Sunday seeking comment. According to his release, he plans a news conference Monday in which he'll accuse the Vatican of "dragging out the healing of deaf victims."

Jeffrey Lena, the U.S.-based attorney for the Vatican, said in an e-mail Sunday that the lawsuit should have been served through diplomatic channels as would be done with any foreign state. He wrote that holding a news conference on such a matter "is really just a form of grandstanding by Mr. Anderson for the press and the public."

A U.S. federal judge had in October asked the Vatican to cooperate in serving court papers to the pope and two other Vatican officials, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The Vatican is not obliged to comply with such requests.

Murphy, who died in 1998, has been accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the deaf school from 1950 to 1974. In 1996, Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland had complained about Murphy in a letter to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the powerful Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from 1981 until he became pope in 2005.

That office initially ordered Weakland to hold a canonical trial against Murphy in 1997, but later changed course after a letter from the accused. The Vatican noted Murphy's advanced age, failing health and lack of further allegations.

The Vatican argues it's not liable for clerical sex-abuse cases under canon law and a church structure that holds bishops -- and not Rome -- responsible for disciplining pedophile priests. Read more at www.startribune.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeqz

INTERNATIONAL AID BUDGET SPENT ON VATICAN STATE VISIT

Amplify’d from munguinsrepublic.blogspot.com

INTERNATIONAL AID BUDGET SPENT ON VATICAN STATE VISIT

FMQ is over at Subrosa's place this week It seems that one of the countries that is in need of foreign aid is none other than the fabulously wealthy Vatican City. I know this because it has come to the notice of the Committee for International Development, chaired by Malcolm Bruce, who has asked how diverting money from the international aid budget to pay for the state visit of His Holiness the Pope would meet the requirements of global aid rules. Detailed examination of the accounts of the Department for International Development (DfID) show that £1.85 million of their fund money, was transferred from foreign aid to help pay for the expensive visit in June 2010. Mr Bruce quite rightly noted that many people would be as surprised as the committee to discover that UK aid money was used to fund the Pope's visit. He also asked that ministers should explain exactly what this was spent on and how it tallies with Britain’s commitments on overseas aid. Apparently DfID reckon that they were one of a number of government departments which part-funded the Pope's visit to the UK. The contribution, according to a spokesman, recognized the Catholic Church’s role as a major provider of health and education services in developing countries. Good heavens. I’ve heard some crummy excuses in my time, but this one is worthy of a satire show all on its own. The Catholic Church does a great deal of work in under-developed countries, including continuing to deny the inhabitants the luxury of contraception to control the every larger population. Good work. The spokesman said that the money did not constitute official development assistance and was therefore additional to the coalition government's historic commitment to meet the 0.7% UN aid target from 2013 (which is required to be met in order for the prime minister to retain his seat at the G8 table), although, I suspect that this has been hastily added now that the cat is out of the bag. How embarrassing for the government to be found to be pilfering from an aid budget, to subsidize celebrations for the great and the good. But how typical. But be aware that when you pay your higher taxes and get reduced services for them, that while this country blows hard about how much money it contributes to international aid, to helping the poorest people in the world, people hit by typhoons, earthquakes, disease and pestilence, that the government is just as likely to transfer the money to wining and dining heads of state, and laugh at you behind your back. Pics: (1) The Pope has a new hat Sophia! (2) Examples of aid that the Vatican has spread around the third world, thus rendering it deserving of our aid money to fund their state visit. (3) How the ordinary people of the Vatican City live. (4) The poor wee Pope's summer residence at Gandolfo, which, along with Vatican City remains a part of the Papal States. Read more at munguinsrepublic.blogspot.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeqm

Vatican at Center of Global Sexual Abuse Crisis: A Tsunami for the Catholic Church

Amplify’d from bridgetmarys.blogspot.com

Vatican at Center of Global Sexual Abuse Crisis: A Tsunami for the Catholic Church

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/04/scandal-sex-abuse-catholic-vatican-washington/1 "Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, 80, who once ran the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, was going to be the star celebrant at the first Latin Mass to be offered in half a century at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. But it came to light that the senior cardinal once praised a French bishop for protecting, not reporting, a pedophile priest. " By Massimo Sambucetti, Associated Press "Julia Duin reported in The Washington Times, "Cardinal Hoyos was exposed ...for lauding -- in a 2001 letter -- French Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux for refusing to denounce" a priest that the bishop knew was a pedophile. Duin writes that the priest was later convicted of rape and sexual assaults on 11 youngsters. ...Hoyos wrote Pican a letter that the cardinal claims was approved by the late Pope John Paul II: "I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration ... You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest." Bridget Mary's Reflection: One of the shocking revelations of the global sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is that Vatican officials played a major role in the coverup that protected priest pedophiles, not their innocent victims. Cardinal Hoyos was also at the center of the Irish sex abuse scandal. When the Irish bishops met with him in Rome. He resisted their efforts to removed an infamous pedophile from ministry." http://www.rte.ie/tv/wouldyoubelieve/av_index.html January 17, 2011 "The Pope has blamed Irish bishops for their mishandling of "unspeakable crimes" by priests, but reporter Mick Peelo reveals how not only did the Vatican secretly block the bishop's efforts to improve child protection and bring abuser priests to justice, but were every bit as inept in their own handling of abuse. " The Vatican, under Pope John Paul II, appointed Cardinal Law, who had kept priest pedophiles in ministry in the Boston Archdiocese, as Archpriest in charge of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Cardinal Ratzinger left Fr. Murphy who abused hundreds of deaf children in Wisconsin in the priesthood --in spite of the damage done to the youth and in spite of the local bishop's requests to defrock him. And the list goes on and on. The bottom line is that the Roman Catholic Church is in the middle of a tsumani. From worldwide news reports, investigative journalism, court records and personal testimonies we now know that the Vatican is at the epic center of the worldwide sexual abuse crisis. This tsnami appears to be uneneding and indicates that the clerical, hierarchial model must be dismantled if the institutional church is to survive as a credible witness to Christ in our world. Now there is some good news of new beginnings, rooted in a more community-empowered model of church that is chipping away at the clerical model of priestly ministry. In response to Jesus' call, women priests and married priests are bringing new life to our beloved church by founding inclusive grassroots communities where all are welcome to receive sacraments. It is a beginning and a blessing, a gift to the church we love. Bridget Mary Meehan RCWP http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/ Read more at bridgetmarys.blogspot.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeq6

'Vatican rejects sex abuse lawsuit' at a Wisconsin school

Amplify’d from clericalwhispers.blogspot.com

'Vatican rejects sex abuse lawsuit' at a Wisconsin school

The attorney for a man who says he was sexually abused decades ago by a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf says the Vatican has refused to be served with a lawsuit over the matter.

The Vatican rejected a lawsuit brought by a man who was allegedly sexually abused by a priest at St. John's School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, according to the victim's attorney.

According to the victim's attorney, the Vatican rejected a lawsuit brought by the man who was allegedly sexually abused.

HIGHLIGHTS

The suit requested to name Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinals Bertone and Sodano as defendants for allegedly covering up Father Lawrence Murphy's abuse, but the request was sent back.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said his firm tried to serve the lawsuit at the Vatican last week, but it was returned by Federal Express. forbes.com

The lawsuit contends Pope Benedict XVI and others conspired to keep quiet decades of abuse allegations against the Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

Anderson's client, 61-year-old Terry Kohut is one of up to 200 people allegedly abused by Murphy at the Milwaukee-area school between 1950 and 1974.

FACTS & FIGURES

Vatican attorney Jeffrey Lena says the lawsuit should have been served through diplomatic channels.

Anderson's client is a deaf man from Illinois who alleged that the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy molested him while Murphy worked at a Milwaukee-area school for the deaf.

Murphy, who died in 1998, has been accused of sexually abusing about 200 boys at the school from 1950-1974. sctimes.com

The Catholic sex abuse cases are an ongoing series of scandals in the Catholic Church related to sex crimes committed by Catholic priests and members of religious orders.

In the United States, churches have paid more than $2 billion in compensation to victims.

SOURCE Read more at clericalwhispers.blogspot.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeps

Alex Jones Kisses The Anus Of Jesuit Trained Corporate Media Whore Propagandist Pat Buchanan - Roguegovernment.com - The news web site of radio host and film maker Lee Rogers

URL:  http://www.roguegovernment.com/Alex_Jones_Kisses_The_An...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeop

Amplify’d from www.aolnews.com

Ex-Priest Accused of Sexual Abuse at Exclusive School

Dana Chivvis Contributor

A former priest and teacher at the exclusive Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md., has been accused of sexually abusing students during his tenure there. Garrett Orr, 57, was charged with two counts of child abuse and one count of third-degree sexual offense by the Montgomery County Police last week. Two former students separately reported that Orr had inappropriately touched them on the school's grounds. One case allegedly occurred in 1989, Orr's first year at the school, and the other in 2002. Georgetown Prep learned of the alleged 1989 incident in December 2009, when an attorney for the accuser contacted the school. The school reported the incident to police but didn't hear anything more until news of Orr's arrest last week. The school learned of the alleged 2002 incident during the 2003–04 school year and reported it to police in 2004. An inquiry into the 2002 incident conducted by Jesuit authorities found the accusation to be "substantially true," according to a Washington Post article from 2006. Orr was defrocked in 2008. Georgetown Prep is a renowned private high school in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789 in conjunction with Georgetown University, it's the nation's oldest Jesuit school. This year, 480 students are enrolled, approximately 100 of whom board on campus. Its red-brick buildings are set on 92 acres of rolling fields, which include a nine-hole golf course. Orr taught religion, Latin and theater at Georgetown Prep from 1989 to 2003. He was arrested Jan. 19 in Pennsylvania, where he now lives, but was released. He turned himself in to Montgomery County police last week and was released on a $50,000 bond. Read more at www.aolnews.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeo9

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Ex-priest faces abuse charges

By Daniel de Vise Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 3, 2011

Garrett Orr taught religion, Latin and theater at the school.

Montgomery County police have charged a former priest with inappropriately touching students at Georgetown Preparatory School, the prestigious North Bethesda institution where he taught from 1989 to 2003.

Police said Wednesday that Garrett Orr, 57, is charged with two counts of child abuse and one count of third-degree sexual offense in the case, which arose after a former student came forward in 2009 with a report of sexual abuse.

This is not the first time that Orr has been investigated. An inquiry by his Jesuit overseers concluded in 2006 that he had inappropriately touched a student at the Jesuit-run boys' school, whose rolling campus sits off Rockville Pike.

The earlier allegation of abuse surfaced in May 2004 and was reported to police and Jesuit authorities. The Jesuits determined that the student's allegation was "substantially true," but police did not file charges at the time, according to a Washington Post account.

Orr left Georgetown Prep in June 2003, at the end of the academic year in which that alleged incident occurred. He taught religion, Latin and theater at the school.

School officials reached out to their community at the time and asked anyone else with a complaint against Orr to come forward. No one did, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the school. Orr could not be reached for comment.

The second allegation came to light in December 2009, when a lawyer contacted Georgetown Prep officials, saying a client had been abused by Orr in 1989, the school reported. This allegation, too, was forwarded to police, who then pursued both complaints.

Orr, who now lives in Pittsburgh, turned himself in Jan. 25, according to a police news release. He was released the next day on $50,000 bond.

Police and school officials asked that anyone with relevant information about Orr contact the school, the local Jesuit province or Montgomery police.

Orr was "laicized" by the Jesuits in 2008, which "means he is no longer a Jesuit and he is no longer a priest," church spokeswoman Maureen Locher said in a June 2010 e-mail to The Washington Post, which was preparing a December report on the nebulous whereabouts of some accused priests.

Staff writer William Wan and staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoenq

Amplify’d from www.timesunion.com

Jurors hear former altar boys' stories of rape

By Bob Gardinier Staff Writer

5 of 11 View: Larger | Hide

Berkshire County, Mass., Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey checks evidence during a recess in ex-priest Gary Mercure's trial for the alleged sexual abuse of two boys in the 1980s. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- An alleged victim of Gary Mercure, a former Roman Catholic priest facing trial for raping two young altar boys, told a jury Thursday that Mercure would take him into the rectory and have him close his eyes and pray as the priest fondled and abused him.

Mercure, 62, is on trial in Berkshire County court on three counts of rape of a child with force and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14.

The first victim to take the stand was a 35-year-old man from North Creek who was an altar boy at Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Glens Falls when Mercure was stationed there. The man said Mercure started abusing him when he was 7 or 8 years old.

At around the age of 11, the man said Mercure would give him wine after Mass.

''Then we would go to the rectory and he would have me close my eyes and say these prayers over the old bones of the saints and touch me,'' the victim said.

The Times Union does not name rape or sexual assault victims.

All through the testimony of both alleged victims, Mercure sat calmly and looked straight at them nodding his head 'yes' or shaking his head 'no' at questions by First Assistant District Attorney Paul Caccaviello and responses by the witnesses.

During his opening statements, Caccaviello said one of the victims poked holes in his bedroom wall and for years hid the underwear he wore during the abuse incidents.

''Years later the parents are doing remodeling and find all of their son's underwear stuffed into a wall,'' Caccaviello said.

Jurors looked disturbed by some of the testimony and some leaned forward to get a better look at Mercure's reactions to the witnesses statements.

The second victim, now 34 and living in Glens Falls, said he also met Mercure and became an altar boy at the same church when he was 7 or 8 years old.

When he was 9, Mercure took him to a lake to swim and then allegedly attacked him when they got back to the car.

''I was raped,'' the man said. ''He physically had sex with me and hurt me. He said if my parents asked what happened to say I got hurt on the rocks.''

One victim said Mercure would touch him while they dressed before Mass.

''He grabbed my penis,'' the man said. ''I did not know what to say. I was confused and scared.''

Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan investigated the claims of the two victims and others against Mercure in 2008 but charges could not be brought because the statute of limitations in New York had elapsed.

During her investigation however, Hogan learned of separate trips the victims made with Mercure to Berkshire County, one victim in 1986 and the other in 1989. Under Massachusetts law, charges could be brought against Mercure for those incidents.

One victim said Mercure took him to a trail head in Berkshire County and allegedly raped him in the back seat of the car. The other victim recalled a ski outing to Brodie Mountain with Mercure when he was also allegedly raped in the back seat.

Mercure's attorney, Michael O. Jennings of Springfield, urged the jury in his opening arguments to ignore the testimony they will hear regarding incidents in New York.

''Through this all Mr. Mercure has been dragged into the public square and branded a rapist,'' Jennings said. ''You are going to here evidence that will disturb you, make you angry. You have to push that off to the side and keep an open mind.''

Mercure, who also served in two Troy parishes and at a church in Albany, was permanently suspended from ministry in August 2008, which means he can not dress as a priest or celebrate Mass. Mercure was not officially defrocked (permanently removed from the priesthood). Only the Vatican can make that decision, officials said.

The trial before Berkshire Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini continues Friday.

Reach Bob Gardinier at 454-5696 or bgardinier@timesunion.com. Read more at www.timesunion.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoeni

Egypt now fears Obama a 'Manchurian President' 'They are trying to understand why he is acting against U.S. inter

Amplify’d from www.wnd.com

Egypt now fears Obama a 'Manchurian President'

'They are trying to understand why he is acting against U.S. interests'

© 2011 WorldNetDaily

Top members of the Egyptian government say they feel betrayed by President Obama, charging that he is acting against American interests.

"Mubarak's regime feels Obama is pushing the advancement of the Muslim Brotherhood against U.S. interests," said WND's Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter Aaron Klein. "They are genuinely trying to understand why Obama is seemingly championing the anti-regime protests."

Klein said that a top Egyptian diplomat with whom he has developed a rapport over the last few years asked him earlier this week to explain Obama's motivation to support the opposition to Mubarak.

"I told him none of this should be a surprise," said Klein, "that the Obama administration has developed an extensive relationship over the last few years with allies of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Get the comprehensive probe that exposes Obama's Marxist, anti-American past – and present, in "Manchurian Present."

"That my investigating has proven that Obama has been closely associated throughout his political career with radical-left elements who have long petitioned for policies many believe are aimed at weakening the American enterprise both domestically and internationally."

"The Egyptian diplomat seemed surprised," said Klein. "I told him this material was thoroughly documented in my latest book."

The diplomat requested 20 copies of Klein's New York Times bestselling book investigating Obama, "The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's ties to communists, socialists, and other anti-American extremists."

The diplomat said he would deliver the book, which was co-authored by Brenda J. Elliott, to senior officials in Mubarak's embattled government.

Obama in recent days urged Mubarak to give up power in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood forms the main opposition.

Mubarak has been a staunch U.S. ally and a recipient of billions of dollars in military aid. His regime has long been considered a stabilizing force in the Arab world.

The Obama administration's support for the unrest is strikingly reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's support of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, which marked the birth of modern Islamist expansion.

Some Muslim clerics are already calling the riots in Egypt simply an extension of 1979's Islamist conquests.

"Thirty-one years after the victory of the Islamic Republic, we are faced with the obvious fact that these movements are the aftershocks of the Islamic revolution," said Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, as reported by Iran's Radio Zamaneh. "The fate of those who challenge [our] religion is destruction."

Speaking of media and government leaders, Khatami added, "They want to highlight the labor, liberal and democratic issues, but the most important issue, which is the religious streak of these protests, [is] being denied."

The leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Saeed, warned that the unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast until Arabs succeed at toppling leaders allied with the United States.

"The Americans and Obama must be losing sleep over the popular revolt in Egypt," Saeed said at a sympathy protest held outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman. "Now, Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing."

And on the Internet, the Middle East Media Research Institute reports, prominent Salafi cleric Abu Mundhir Al-Shinqiti issued a fatwa on the website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal Jihad encouraging the protests in Egypt, claiming Islamist jihadis are now on the verge of a historic moment, an "earthquake" he likened to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City.

Obama pushes Egyptian 'reform'

According to a senior Egyptian diplomat speaking to WND, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Frank Wisner, specifically told Mubarak on Tuesday the U.S. would not continue to support his rule and he must step down.

Hours later, Mubarak announced he would not seek another term in office.

The Obama administration dispatched Wisner to Egypt last weekend to report to the State Department and White House a general sense of the situation in the country.

WND broke the story yesterday that the Egyptian government has information Wisner secretly met earlier this week with a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Issam El-Erian.

The Muslim Brotherhood seeks to spread Islam around the world, in large part using nonviolent means. Hamas and al-Qaida are violent Brotherhood offshoots.

Muslim Brotherhood declares war on U.S.

Prominent U.S. commentators also have been claiming the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate organization and denying there is any Islamist plot to seize power.

Last Friday, President George W. Bush's former press spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told Fox News, "Don't be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This has nothing to do with religion."

Bruce Reidel, a former CIA analyst and adviser to President Obama, wrote a Daily Beast article in which he claimed, "The Egyptian Brotherhood renounced violence years ago. … Its relative moderation has made it the target of extreme vilification by more radical Islamists."

Reidel's assertion the Brotherhood renounced violence, however, is contradicted by its own statements in recent months, including a call to arms against the West.

In November, the Brotherhood's new supreme guide, Muhammad Badi, delivered a sermon entitled "How Islam Confronts the Oppression and Tyranny."

"Resistance is the only solution," stated Badi. "The United States cannot impose an agreement upon the Palestinians, despite all the power at its disposal. [Today] it is withdrawing from Iraq, defeated and wounded, and is also on the verge of withdrawing from Afghanistan because it has been defeated by Islamist warriors."

Badi went on to declare the U.S. is easy to defeat through violence, since it is "experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading toward its demise."

Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, noted Badi's speech showed "the likelihood that more Brotherhood supporters in the West will turn to violence and fund-raising for terrorism."

Frank Gaffney, president of the American Center for Security Policy, takes it a step further.

"In short, the Muslim Brotherhood – whether it is operating in Egypt, elsewhere in the world or here – is our enemy," he wrote.

Obama quietly builds ties to Muslim Brotherhood

Klein reported for WND yesterday that Obama and top administration officials have troubling relationships with the Muslim Brotherhood and its worldwide allies.

Muslim Brotherhood members were reportedly invited to attend Obama's 2009 address to the Muslim world from Cairo. Khaled Hamza, editor of the Muslim Brotherhood website, confirmed at the time that 10 members of the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc received official invitations to attend Obama's historic speech.

Also in 2009, the Egyptian daily newspaper Almasry Alyoum ran a report claiming Obama had met with U.S. and European-based representatives of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that year

According to the report, the Brotherhood members requested that news of the meeting not be publicized. They expressed to Obama their support for democracy and the war on terror.

The newspaper also reported Brotherhood members communicated to Obama their position that they would abide by all agreements Egypt has signed with foreign countries, implying that if they took power in Egypt they would continue that country's peace treaty with Israel.

Besides contact with the Muslim Brotherhood itself, there have been reports the past two years of behind-the-scenes contact with Hamas, which was founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas maintains a close alliance with the Brotherhood; the Brotherhood's new leader, Muhammad Badi, serves as a de facto lead spiritual guide for Hamas.

Top leaders of Hamas in Gaza claimed to WND several times they passed messages to Obama through dignitaries who visited the Gaza Strip, including Jimmy Carter and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., – both of whom have a close relationship with the White House.

Kerry, for example, reportedly accepted a letter for Obama from Hamas leaders in Gaza during a February 2009 visit to U.N. installations in the coastal territory.

U.N. relief agency chief in Gaza Karen Abu Zayd told the BBC the Hamas letter had been received by his agency and passed on to an unnamed American official.

In November, 2008, WND first quoted Hamas officials stating they would be sending a letter to Obama.

Immediately after that month's elections, Ahmed Yousef , Hamas' chief political adviser in Gaza, called Obama's win a "historic victory" for the world and told WND that Hamas was sending a letter of congratulation to the president-elect.

Obama ties to Brotherhood's U.S. allies

It is not just Obama's reported contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood and the group's allies in the Middle East that are of concern.

The Obama administration also has evidenced a working relationship with several U.S.-based Islamist organizations that are listed by the Brotherhood as "likeminded" organizations.

One such group is the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, a radical Muslim group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas.

ISNA was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document – "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America" – as one of the Brotherhood's likeminded "organizations of our friends" who shared the common goal of transforming countries into Muslim nations.

The White House relationship with ISNA began even before Obama took office. One week before the presidential inauguration, Sayyid Syeed, national director of the ISNA Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, was part of a delegation that met with the directors of Obama's transition team. The delegation discussed a request for an executive order ending "torture."

ISNA President Ingrid Mattson represented American Muslims at Obama's inauguration, where she offered a prayer during the televised event.

Mattson also has represented ISNA at Obama's annual Ramadan dinners, including the last such event in which Obama announced support for the rights of Muslims to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks.

In June 2009, Obama's top aide, Valerie Jarrett, invited Mattson to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls, which Jarrett leads.

That July, the Justice Department sponsored an information booth at an ISNA bazaar in Washington, D.C.

Also that month, Jarrett addressed ISNA's 46th annual convention. According to the White House, Jarrett attended as part of Obama's outreach to Muslims.

ISNA sponsored a February 2010 question-and-answer session in which Obama's top adviser on counter-terrorism, John Brennan, came under fire for controversial remarks to Muslim law students. Read more at www.wnd.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoal9

These Are They 144,000: Internet Shutdown

http://thesearethey.blogspot.com/2011/02/internet-shutdown.html

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/aoaeh