Well we all know that these fraud “ex-terrorists” are continuing to make the big bucks from the Islamophobic cash cow but this world must be crazy when I start citing JPost for exposing Islamophobes.
The Palestinian “terrorist” turned Zionist
by Jorg Luyken
When he was 16, says Walid Shoebat, he was recruited by a PLO operative by the name of Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem.
This is the story that Shoebat, who converted from Islam to Christianity in 1993 and has lived in the United States since the late 1970s, has told on tours around the US and Europe since 9/11 opened the West’s public consciousness to the dangers of Islamic extremism.
Shoebat’s Web site says his is an assumed name, used to protect him from reprisal attacks by his former terror chiefs, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head.
Shoebat is sometimes paid for his appearances, and he also solicits donations to a Walid Shoebat Foundation to help fund this work and to “fight for the Jewish people.”
The BBC, Fox News and CNN have all presented Shoebat as a terrorist turned peacemaker, interviewing him as someone uniquely capable of providing insight into the terrorist mindset.
Now he and two other former extremists are set to appear along with US Senator Joe Lieberman, Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor and other notables at an annual “Christians United For Israel” conference in Washington in July.
The three “ex-terrorists” have appeared previously at Harvard and Columbia universities and, most recently, at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, in February, at a conference whose findings, the organizers said, would be circulated at the Pentagon and among members of Congress and other influential figures.
Last year, Shoebat spoke to the BattleCry Christian gathering in San Francisco, which drew a reported 22,000 evangelical teenagers to what the San Francisco Chronicle described as “a mix of pep rally, rock concert and church service.”
The paper described Shoebat as a self-proclaimed “former Islamic terrorist” who said that Islam was a “satanic cult” and who told the crowd how he eventually accepted Jesus into his heart.
However, Shoebat’s claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is rejected by members of his family who still live in the area, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place.
His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of “Walid Shoebat” being an assumed name. And the Walid Shoebat Foundation’s working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat’s claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania being denied by the Pennsylvania State Attorney’s Office.
Shoebat’s claim to have been a terrorist rests on his account of the purported bombing of Bank Leumi. But after checking its files, the bank said it had no record of an attack on its Bethlehem branch anywhere in the relevant 1977-79 period.
Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage.
Asked whether word of the bombing made the news at the time, he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days.” (In 2004, he had told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph: “I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.”)
Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.
The Sunday Telegraph described Shoebat as a man who “for much of his life… was eager to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of his soul and the Palestinian cause.”
In that interview he described how he and his peers were indoctrinated as children “to believe that the fires of hell were an ever-present reality. We were all terrified of burning in hell when we died… The teachers told us that the only way we could certainly avoid that fate was to die in a martyrdom operation – to die for Islam.”
But an uncle and a cousin of Shoebat, who still live in Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area, where Shoebat grew up, said that Shoebat’s education was rather mild ideologically, and that religion did not play a dominant role.
The uncle, interviewed at his home, said he remembered little about his nephew, because Walid left for America at the age of 16, and because his American mother always kept a distance from the rest of the family. The uncle and his wife both said firmly that there was no attack on Bank Leumi.
When questioned on this discrepancy, Shoebat was adamant that he did carry out such a bombing, and that his relatives deny it to cover up for another cousin who was with him during the attack and still lives in Bethlehem.
Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.
Shoebat describes his conversion to Christianity as a transformation “from hate to love.” He told the Post that he believes “in a Greater Israel that includes Judea and Samaria, and by this I mean a Jewish state.”
He argued that Israel should retake the Gaza Strip and rehouse Jews there, regarding Gaza as Jewish by right. “If a Jew has no right to Gaza, then he has no right to Jaffa or Haifa either,” he said.
He advocates that the government of Greater Israel introduce a law providing for the exiling of anybody who denies its right to exist, “even if they were born there.”
He has little sympathy for the PLO or Hamas. “The Palestinians have not met a single demand from Israel,” he said, and added, “Both the PLO and Hamas have not given up the goal of destroying Israel.”
“The Jews are not aware of the true threat,” Shoebat said. “They are still fighting dead Nazis. It is easy to fight dead people. But they don’t have the will to fight the living Nazis, the Islamic radicals.”
A New York Times report last month on the Air Force Academy event, headlined “Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims,” noted that “Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem’s account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s.”
The Times quoted Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as saying after he heard Saleem speak last November at the college that he thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical organizations.
“It was just an old time gospel hour: ‘Jesus can change your life, he changed mine,'” Howard said.
The professor told the Times that his doubts about the authenticity of the three grew after he heard stories like that of the Golan Heights tunnels, “as well as something on Mr. Saleem’s Web site along the lines that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam. The grand wazir of Islam is a nonsensical term.”
The newspaper said Arab-American civil rights organizations have questioned “why, at a time when the United States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are allowed to circulate freely.”
A spokesman for the FBI, the paper reported, said there were no warrants for their arrest.
The Times said the three men were to be paid $13,000 for the Air Force Academy event.
Visitors to Shoebat’s Internet site are encouraged to make a donation to his foundation to enable him to disseminate his message. However, a notice on the page states that for “security reasons,” the money will not be debited to his foundation, but rather to a company called Top Executive Media. The name Top Executive Media is used by a greetings card firm from Pennsylvania called Top Executive Greetings, a company with an annual turnover of $500,000. When one makes a donation through the Shoebat Internet site, the Web address changes to topexecutivegreetings.com/shoebat.
This seems to be the only active page for the company; its homepage is blank.
Asked by the Post whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered charity, Shoebat replied that it is registered in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania State Attorney’s office said it had no record of a charity registered under this name.
Questioned further, Shoebat said it was registered under a different name, but that he was not aware of the details, which are handled by his manager.
“I remain separate to the running of the charity so that I am not constrained by church rules,” he explained, adding that the organization’s connection to certain churches meant it would be difficult for him to speak to secular audiences if he became too involved in running it.
Dr. Joel Fishman, of the Allegany County Law Library in Pennsylvania, expressed doubts about this donation process. If the money were being given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual reports to the state and federal government on how it was being spent, he noted.
Shoebat insisted donations were not being misused, however. “I survive by being an author,” he said. “I only get paid for being an author. All the money that is donated gets put back into events.”
If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however, it has plainly brought him some prominence and provided him with a means to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so.
April 1, 2008 at 11:43 am
The following is from Mr. Shoebat’s website
TO MY CRITICS WHO DENY MY STORY
GO TO HELL
First, if your intent is to smear, may I great you by telling you to go to hell or as Arafat says “drink the sea of Gaza,” I could care less about your stupid smear campaign, but before you publish your smear, read the evidence, then post your lies.
My story is a litany of personal accounts from imprisonment, an attempted lynching, a mother that was not permitted to leave to her country (U.S), an education on anti-Semitism, terror support in the U.S, and a connect to family well linked to terrorism as you shall see, as well as a failed bombing operation of an Israeli bank. These are well documented in my book “Why We Want To Kill You,” yet rest assured that nothing can be refuted in an entire book no matter what article you write. Everything is true.
First of all, please do not fail to mention the names of any family members of mine you wish to interview that are willing to defame my character, but first, please learn about their history as well. Most likely these would support and connect to financial and actual terrorism. False testimonies were made in the past by my uncle Salameh Daud Shu’aybat (and sons) who illegally funneled money from the United States by defrauding the Social Security system and held different identities that were obtained by fraud. In fact Eiad Salameh Shu’aybat my first cousin (Salameh’s son) is wanted by the United States for major financial fraud most likely linked to financial terrorism and was involved in a passport fraud operation and even illegally holds an Israeli passport that was fraudulently obtained to smuggle himself in and out of Israel proper. Israel has done nothing to capture this creep. His United States citizenship was also obtained by fraud by claiming to be a Mexican farm worker, yet the United States does nothing to revoke his citizenship. Instead of examining these or calling the Los Angeles Police Department or even view what I posted here publicly please do us a favor and assist our government in capturing and exposing such criminals instead of interviewing them and protect their identity, then choose to smear mine. Ok?
Nidal, another son (a Red Crescent ambulance driver) was with me in the bombing operation of Bank Leumi and was injured years later when Israel killed Muhammad Abayat, one of the most wanted terrorists in Israel. My connection to family of terrorists is an iron-clad case. Evidence of family connection is publicly documented information. In fact, my relative Jawad Younis, whose brother Kamal Younis was inline to testify against me to the liberal media forgot to inform the media that his brother Jawad Younis was exiled by Israel for involvement in a terror ring, in fact he can be linked to supporting Hezbollah. Eileen Fleming, an idiot, who claims to be a reputable journalist and openly supports Hezbollah in one article stated “On Feb. 26, I phoned Walid’s relative Kamal Younis the good news that his name was mentioned from the King Center stage and filled him in that his brother Jawad is another supposed terrorist. Kamal laughed, “Walid is a master of spin! He takes one iota of truth and creates a fiction!” (Arabisto)
Fiction? Just like you, the evidence regarding my family was offered to her, yet she intentionally failed to include the facts. Jawad Younis the Al-Qaeda representative lawyer can be confirmed to have been extradited from Israel. In fact, a letter by my relative Jawad Younis to Hassan Nassrallah (Hezbollah’s leader himself) can be viewed on:
http://lejardinsecretdugeneralbenali.blogspot.com/
Jawad Younis writes “To His Excellency Mr. Nasrallah Secretary General of Hezbullah the Victorious by the will of Allah …We grip our hands with you, and all the Jihadists for the cause of Allah…as you lunge with your souls for the battle of the [Islamic] Umma (nation), to fight the demonic forces of the America and Zionisism, the sons of the great Satan.”
Signed as #4 of this delegation Jawad Younis.
In fact Jawad’s link to myself was confessed by such family members that she and others interviewed. Jawad was the defense attorney of Abu Zubaydah of Al-Qaeda who in fact was Jawad’s client in absentia. Of course Abu Zubayda is in U.S custody who later confessed against Khalid Sheik Muhammad the mastermind of 9/11 that killed 3000 Americans.
Such smear articles fail to mention what I provided them, that my cousin Raed Khaleel Awadallah Shoebat (Shu’aybat) was also killed during a terror operation to blow up Jews in Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem. His martyrdom record can even be accessed on the web:
http://www.ajjur.net/shuhada.htm
Sure, it’s in Arabic, but as usual, reporters who fail to understand what the Arabs say in Arabic are quick to smear me instead of bothering to get an interpreter. Once you obtain (an honest) interpreter, you will find the name is clear “Raed Khaleel Awadallah Shoebat (Shu’aybat)” martyred 1/2/1995. He is my first cousin. His brother (my other cousin) Mahmoud Khaleel Awadallah Shoebat (Shua’ybat) was also sentenced for life for bombing and attempting to kill Jews then released through an international deal. He is now free, willing and ready to testify against me that I was never a terrorist, yet he will deny that he ever was one himself.
Also, please do not fail to access the internet to find that another family member of mine, Arin Ahmed Shoebat (Shu’aybat) who was part of a suicide bombing operation in Rishon Letzion, when her colleague Mahmoud blew himself and killed innocent Jews. Anyone can plug “Arin Ahmed” can find this. If your too stupid and are not able to do that, then I suggest you take a computer course, or get out of the field of journalism altogether. Try McDonalds and flip burgers instead of attempting to flip simplistic western minds who are clueless on Middle Eastern style deception. As I always say–mediocre minds are no match to professional deception. If you are in the “professional deception” business, then you can go to hell.
Even the name in Arabic (Arin Shoebat (Shu’aybat) from Beit Sahur) was visited by Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer in prison, can be found on:
http://www.altareekh.com/vb/showthread.php?t=35122&page=2
Please make sure that your career as journalist is to smear terrorists and their supporters and not the very ones who are fighting terror.
If your question is the regular stupid one, as to why I am not in prison, after all I am a confessed terrorist, the answer is simple–your liberal media for years insisted that Israel release terrorists as a good gesture, as well as an effort was made forcing Israel to recognize the P.L.O terror organization as a legitimate entity to negotiate peace. Now that you got your way, and we are all free, you seem to want to only request that only repentant terrorists go to jail while active ones are released? Now you wonder why I think your stupid, or maybe evil, and why I think you should go to hell?
Back to the evidence. My own family testified “In 1977 Walid was caught distributing Palestinian flags and was arrested and held for about two weeks in Mascubia Prison, until his mother went to the Embassy and got him released…..But, when he was in jail he met someone who invited him to join a group against Israel. In 1977 Walid and his friends put packages behind a bank, but there were no explosives in it.” (Eileen Fleming, a very stupid journalist writing for Opednews, Feb 2, 2008)
One can read through the lines, I was in prison and was involved with a terror group by my family‘s own words. Don’t get caught up with the words “there were no explosives in [the package]“ Why would my family remember an event in 1977 in which I planted a package without explosives? Why remember such an uneventful event? This attempt to discredit me is nothing new, yet these stories were never posted on mainstream media, why would you (if indeed you are honest) want to publish smear? You can also use the New York Times article as evidence, but remember, the credentials of that paper are questionable, not my story. They tried to smear McCain and they failed. No serious media believed the smear campaign in that paper which included CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations) as an accepted verifiable source? In fact this article written by the New York Times was clearly refuted by terror expert Steve Emerson:
http://grizzlygroundswell.com/archives/1401
The litany of accusation in the media came in sequence, first I was a Lebanese Falangist, when this was proven false, then denial of my connection to ever have lived in Israel, when this was proven false, then I was never in prison in Jerusalem. When this was proven false, then I was a Zionist agent doing this for money. You might hear that I do not have a charitable organization. F.F.M.U (Foundation For Middle East Understanding) was set up as a 501C3 to receive donations, please do not opt to include only the business aspect of our firm (Top Executive Media) that deals with our book sales and speaking fees. If you think collecting money for speaking or selling books is a sin, then again, I suggest you go to hell. There in hell, there is no books to read and there is no money. There you will only see billions complaining about a need for air conditioning.
If you want witnesses that can testify to my bomb operation, we will be glad to provide this. Make your request in writing. For additional evidence you can go to Daniel Pipes of Middle East Forum, a well respected and reputable expert analyst examined much of my records–my family’s American relationship with Winston Churchill, land deeds, birth certificates, newspaper reports on family connection to terror and such. Mr. Pipes showed no doubt to my credibility http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/27999
“Daniel Pipes replies: May 18, 2006 response: Walid Shoebat took the time to visit me in my office today and to show me proofs that his life story is a true one. I accept that it is.”
If you do not want to believe Daniel Pipes because he is right-wing, then go to hell where there will be many left wing extremists like yourself there.
If you are a “Christian” who want to complain about my harsh tone like “go to hell and such” may I suggest a baby bottle. Many Christians in the West are still not able to eat apple sauce, much chew on a serious T-Bone steak.
In my defense for Israel and my fight on Jew hatred I have addressed audiences at numerous government agencies, who always scrutinize my credentials and background, and they have cleared me each and every time. I have spoken to the Department of Homeland Security, and FBI Academy, to name only a few. My advisory board is comprised of Generals and other senior officers from the U.S. Military. It is a shame that some fell into this smear campaign made by armature journalists against my character and credentials.
Had any of the claims been true (that I was never a terrorist), why then would the Israeli government deny my entry into Israel?
If you are a Muslim extremist, I could understand why you think I am doing this for money–you think that the whole world must think like you. After all you want to go to heaven for one reason–to have lots of sex.
If you are Jewish and think that I am doing this for money, ask yourself, why should I die for you? Your pathetic stand against terrorists only encourages them. You seem to enjoy fighting dead Nazis, yet you fear the living Nazis–The Muslim radicals. Shame on you.
I would like to end this note by thanking you, but unfortunately I can find nothing to thank you for. Go out there and fight for a worthy cause and leave me alone–I have a country to save.
Walid Shoebat
April 1, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Marie- The charade is up. The game is done. The sun has set. The caravan has moved on. Walid “the clown” Shoebat has lied one too many times, stumbled one too many times and perpetuated one too many falsities. Jews, JPost for God sake, where many of D.Pipes articles are posted have even debunked your man.
This is what happens when you lie, you have to concoct more and more lies just like Walid’s lame attempt to recover proves. Marie stop drinking the kool-aid and come to your senses. The evidence is overwhelming!
February 26, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Check this out on this deciever who has been caught red handed.
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/wolves.html
His whole fraud is posted there. What a mean guy Walid