Victory Over Islamic Influence at the National Defense University Foundation
by Jerry Gordon (June 14, 2011)
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National Defense University – our nation's premier senior military education institution, established by the Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff (J-5). The NDUF board has 26 members, 18 of whom have voting rights. The result of the conflict was the decision by the board of directors to request the resignations of two of its members: R. Leslie Deak and Farouk Shami. R. Leslie Deak is the scion of the Deak Perera money exchange and gold trading fortune. He was accused of having had questionable links to the 13-story Ground Zero Mosque project in lower Manhattan sponsored by the Cordoba Initiative and of having held meetings with Muslim Brotherhood representatives in Egypt. Farouk Shami, a Palestinian American, originally from Ramallah on the West Bank is on the board of the American Task Force on Palestine and has had dealings with the Chief Representative of the PLO Delegation in Washington. Shami is a billionaire hair and salon products magnate. He ran for, but failed to obtain, the Democratic nomination for the Texas governorship in the 2010 primary.
American Patriots Award and the International Fellows program of the NDU. US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) are the 2011 American Patriot Awardees. The NDU has an annual operating budget of over $100 million and is currently headed by President Vice Admiral Ann Rondeau, a protégé of former J-5 chief Admiral Michael Mullins. Members of the board are required to make financial commitments to the Foundation. Deak had contributed over $100,000 during his ten years on the NDUF board. Texas billionaire Shami had also made significant contributions during his first term as an NDUF member of the Board of Directors.
American Task Force on Palestine. A board motion to replace both Deak and Shami with new candidates for three year terms was subsequently passed by a majority of the board.
Board of Visitors of NDU for support. It is alleged that Treaner, a former Wachovia Corporation general counsel, had been involved in easing out consultants to the NDUF for their national security views and support for America’s ally in the Middle East, Israel. Doubtless Deak will endeavor to use his network of connections in Washington to bring pressure on the NDUF board for his retention. Notwithstanding that, he might opt for an appointment to the NDU Board of Visitors.
a director. Shami subsequent to his approval by the board had invited NDUF members to a social function in Texas that also included Maen Rashid Areikat, the Chief Representative for the PLO Delegation in Washington, DC.
The Deak Family Heritage
Deak Perera, Inc. in New York. He and his Viennese wife Lisalotte raised their son, Robert Leslie, in suburban Scarsdale, New York. Nicholas Deak apparently kept up hi links to the US intelligence community via the OSS successor, the CIA. He reportedly was involved in providing funds for the US-backed Iran coup against Nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 that returned the late Shah to the Peacock Throne in Tehran. The younger Deak took a degree in International Affairs from Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia and joined the family firm at its world headquarters located at 29 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. He rose to the position of Senior Vice President, when in 1984 the firm was caught by a Reagan-appointed commission on money-laundering which accused Deak of laundering tens or hundreds of millions of Columbian drug money in exchange for gold. As a result, the Deak Perera firm subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection. Tragedy struck the family when the elder Deak was killed in a bizarre Wall Street murder in 1985, when a deranged woman from Seattle, apparently a psychotic schizophrenic, burst into the firm’s offices and first shot and killed a receptionist and when the 80-year Deak emerged from his office shot and killed him, as well.
headquartered in Maitland, Florida with additional offices in Tucson, Arizona. The company engages in “specialized training, operational support, and logistics to the United States government, military and law enforcement communities. Its specialized training services are also provided to friendly foreign governments in accordance with United States Department of State ITAR approvals or under the auspices of the United States Department of Defense, Foreign Military Sales Program.”
engineered a scheme to switch Muslims to former long-distance carrier MCI and take advantage of a 5% charitable contribution arrangement that funneled $150,000 in funds to a Muslim Charity under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department, Benevolence International Foundation (Benevolence). Benevolence was alleged to have passed on funds to Al Qaeda, Hamas and other designated terrorist groups. An MEF – related group, International Charity Network, Inc. of Winter Park, Florida contributed more than $300,000 to Benevolence in 1996 -1997. We note that Charani was a past President of the Islamic Center of Central Florida, an Orlando Mosque that figured in a scheme to raise funds for Hamas in 2009 with the assistance of former UK Parliamentarian George Galloway and Mahdi Bray, executive director for Muslim Brotherhood front, the Muslim American Society. The NER published an investigative report on this recent episode that led to requests by California Democratic Congressman, Brad Sherman for investigations by both the State Department and The Department of the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service about possible violations of the tax exempt status of participating organizations.
Contributing to Egyptian private sector/government education partnership initiative. Secure private donations to fund capital improvements, school supplies, and instructor training for schools in economically depressed areas. Identify USAID grant opportunities and advise on partnership models.
JStreet PAC. The JStreet PAC is President Obama's ‘go to’ Jewish lobby group eclipsing AIPAC, the alleged all powerful Jewish lobby group. J Street’s mantra, “pro-Peace, pro Israel” masks its real objective of declaring an immediate Palestinian state. This is also an objective that the PA authority in its new alignment with Hamas, hopes to realize in a vote for the declaration of a Palestinian state at the upcoming fall 2011 UN General Assembly Meeting in Manhattan. The UN General Assembly with 193 member countries is heavily influenced by the 56 members of the Organization of Islamic Conference headquartered in Saudi Arabia. An NER interview with Lori Lowenthal Marcus, President of the pro-Israel group, Z Street, noted the significant funding of J Street by George Soros and the presence of pro-Palestinian advocates who orchestrated a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Some of whom spoke at the J Street policy conference in February, 2011 in Washington, DC.
. . . an organization of Muslims, Christians and Jews from a variety of backgrounds and professions who are dedicated to building understanding and dialogue among their respective communities. Such dialogue must go beyond superficial exchanges that, while socially comforting, are ultimately insufficient and are easily undone when conflict arises.
The Deak presentation to the Buxton Initiative panel promoted his informed citizen role and other views that surfaced later in the confrontation with members of the NDUF board.
The Buxton Initiative blog post on the panel contrasted the views of Deak versus Hamid.
President of the Islamic Society of North America, a Muslim Brotherhood front group designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Federal Holy Land Foundation trial and convictions. Time Magazine noted Magid’s award by the FBI in 2005. In the article he stated that “as far as he knew his Mosque had not been infiltrated by terrorists.” Note this comment from Militant Islam Monitor:
Cordoba Initiative founded by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf that Deak had joined in 2004 and and provided financial support.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, and the American Society for Muslim Advancement founded by Ms. Daisy Kahn, Imam Rauf’s wife.
Ground Zero mosque:
$1.3 million in funding from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Libya. The late Rauf long retained some of that land in a personal trust. But when construction started on the $17 million mosque in 1984, it had received funding from 46 Islamic nations
interview he espoused the ‘truther’ view that somehow US actions in the Muslim ummah gave rise to the devastating attacks that killed more than 3,000 on 9/11. Rauf conveyed this insensitive view while millions in this country were still in deep shock and grief over this Jihadist terror attack on America.
Pajamas media article by Walid Shoebat:
Oh, really?
NER/Iconoclast blogpost</a>;
posted, most recently from a Jordanian newspaper in an article authored by the Imam, currently traveling in the Middle East on a goodwill mission sponsored by our State Department. Shoebat noted his translation from the Al-Ghad Newspaper in Jordan, 5/9/2009
New York Observer expose in September 2010 about his donations and efforts on behalf of the Cordoba Initiative. His rationale was based on an alleged J-5 support of Islamic Sharia studies by Imam Rauf:
This is a bizarre explanation of why he dropped his support for the Cordoba Initiative and who he blames for the Ground Zero Mosque controversy and their alleged nefarious motivations:
I am also enclosing a report delivered in person last week to the Joint Chiefs Staff. It was also forwarded by NDU to OSD and was delivered by Rep. Gary Ackerman to both the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees. It is representative of the type of work I have been doing. The report is confidential but not classified since I am a civilian.
[. . .]
Except for the MB, there is no organization with the capability to get out the vote. The opposition is highly fragmented and disorganized. There is a possibility that the old parliamentarians may run for election independently and serve to weaken the MB, but it is unlikely.
The MB has indicated that they will not run, but they are negotiating with the candidates and will throw their weight behind the one that will assure their interests.
The recent issue with the Salafis is largely viewed as manufactured by the MB in order to make the MB appear more moderate. I would personally expect that the MB and the military will resolve the Salafi problem once it has served its purpose.
First, that Muslim money buys influence even at institutions that support national security education for senior military personnel at the most strategic level in the Pentagon.
Third that our national security apparatus, as exemplified by the J-5 in the Pentagon, has to drop the veil from their eyes about accommodating Islamic initiatives.
Hesham Islam, Muslim outreach aide to former Bush Deputy Defense Undersecretary Gordon English that he was “a Christian fanatic with a pen.” Islam left his position only after it was revealed that he had embroidered his resume. In another example, the Pentagon had American- born Imam, Anwar al-Awlaki in for lunch in 2002 to talk about outreach to Muslims. Al-Awlaki had slipped out of the US and wasn’t detained even after FBI questioning concerning movements of several 9/11 perpetrators who met him in San Diego and subsequently in Northern Virginia at the Dar al Hijrah Mosque. Al-Awlaki left for strife torn Yemen to head Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and inspire the Underwear and Times Square Bombers, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Faisal Shazad to become Jihadists and attack us.
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Kersten Gillibrand.
Buxton Initiative concerning what would follow in Egypt in the wake of the fall of the Mubarak regime. The topic was “What’s next for Egypt: Is Democracy Possible?” The core of the discussion was about an assessment of the emerging role of the Muslim Brotherhood in light of Parliamentary and Presidential elections scheduled for the fall of 2011. Hamid was in a unique position to opine on this topic. He was an Egyptian physician and former associate of Number 2 in al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri. Hamid, now an American citizen, now actively opposes the global terrorist group, al Qaeda, and its connections to Salafist doctrine which also lies behind the Muslim Brotherhood.
NDUF Board Challenge of Deak and His Responses
What can we conclude from this kerfuffle at the NDUF board meeting?