Posted on 11/16/2001 1:25:24 PM PST by Who is George Salt?
One of the people identified by the US government as providing financial support to the al-Qaeda terrorist network is also a well-known figure in the European far-right political movement.
The link is likely to raise new concerns over ties between Islamic and right wing extremists.
Ahmed Huber, a 74-year-old Swiss businessman and former journalist who converted to Islam in the 1960s, is a board member of Nada Management, a financial services and consultancy company which is part of the international Al Taqwa group. The US says this group has long acted as financial advisers to al-Qaeda.
Mr Huber, who is based in Bern, is known in Switzerland and Germany as an Islamic fundamentalist who attempts to forge links to far-right and neo-Nazi movements.
A spokesman for Germany's office for the protection of the constitution, the internal intelligence agency, said yesterday that Mr Huber "sees himself as a mediator between Islam and right-wing groups". He also belongs to the revisionist movement, which believes the Holocaust did not take place, the spokesman said.
Klaus Beier, spokesman for the NPD, one of Germany's main far-right political parties, said Mr Huber has often addressed NPD events.
Mr Huber confirmed that he had had contact with associates of Osama bin Laden at an Islamic conference in Beirut. He is quoted in the Swiss media as saying that these people "are very discreet, well-educated, very intelligent people".
In interviews on Wednesday Mr Huber denied that Nada Management was linked to terrorism, although he admitted the company's sponsors were wealthy Muslims from Malaysia and the Gulf region. He said he had been interviewed on Wednesday by Swiss prosecutors but later released.
Two other board members of Nada Management, Youssef Nada and Ali Himmat, were also questioned by police in Lugano, Switzerland. Italian police searched their homes in Campione d'Italia, a tiny Italian enclave near Lugano long known as a tax haven. After September 11 several far-right leaders and associations in Germany welcomed publicly the terrorist attacks.
Intelligence experts say the Islamic and far-right movements often share a common hatred of the US and of Jews.
The National Alliance has also expressed its solidarity with Islamic radicals. Consider the following statement by Billy Roper, Deputy Membership Coordinator of the National Alliance:
“The enemy of our enemy is, for now at least, our friends. We may not want them marrying our daughters, just as they would not want us marrying theirs. We may not want them in our societies, just as they would not want us in theirs. But anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building to kill jews is alright by me. I wish our members had half as much testicular fortitude.”
Also check out James Ridgeway's article Possible Link Between Al Qaeda and Far-Right Racists.
The Nazis were a far-left group-- the National Socialist party. Calling them right-wing doesn't make it so. Fascists were also far-left. Both are in favor of government control of everything.
If you go all the way to the Far, Far Right, government dissolves into anarchy (every man for himself) and ceases to exist.
Well, as a matter of fact, THEY DO.
The "Institute for Historical Revision" is a main sponsor for such conventions. As reported by the SPLC's Intelligence Project:
"Earlier this year, the IHR was scheduled to hold its annual conference in Beirut, in conjunction with a Swiss denier named Jürgen Graf who has found asylum in nearby Iran. Lebanese authorities, responding to international pressure, ordered the meeting cancelled, but it was recently reported that new Syrian President Bashar Assad (who during a recent papal visit revived the accusation that the Jews had killed Christ) may approve such a meeting in Damascus before the end of the year."
William Pierce is known to attend IHR conferences.
The far right is pro-life!
Unless they perceive someone as an "abortionist," in which case the far-right is decidely pro-death.
Say "hello" to Eric Rudolph for me.
By James Hatfield
Editor's note: In light of last week's horrific events and the Bush administration's reaction to them, we are reprising the following from the last column Jim Hatfield wrote for Online Journal prior to his tragic death on July 18:
July 3, 2001—There may be fireworks in Genoa, Italy, this month, too.
A plot by Saudi master terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to assassinate Dubya during the July 20 economic summit of world leaders, was uncovered after dozens of suspected Islamic militants linked to bin Laden's international terror network were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, and Milan, Italy, in April.
German intelligence services have stated that bin Laden is covertly financing neo-Nazi skinhead groups throughout Europe to launch another terrorist attack at a high-profile American target—his first since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last October.
According to counter-terrorism experts quoted in Germany's largest newspaper, the attack on Dubya might be a James Bond-like aerial strike in the form of remote-controlled airplanes packed with plastic explosives.
Why would Osama bi Laden want to kill, Dubya, his former business partner?
I knew that bombshell would whip your heads around. So here's the straight scoop, folks.
In June 1977, Dubya formed his own drilling company, Arbusto Energy ("arbusto" means "bush" in Spanish), in Midland, Texas. Like his father before him, Dubya founded his oil business with the financial backing of investors, including James R. Bath, a Houston businessman whom Dubya apparently first met when they were in the same Texas Air National Guard unit. (Interestingly, both Dubya and Bath were both suspended from flying in August and September 1972, respectively, for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination.")
Tax documents and other financial records show that Bath, an aircraft broker with controversial ties to Saudi Arabia sheiks, had invested $50,000 in Arbusto, granting him a 5 percent interest in two limited partnerships controlled by Dubya.
Time magazine described Bath in 1991 as "a deal broker whose alleged associations run from the CIA to a major shareholder and director of the Bank of Credit & Commerce." BCCI, as it was more commonly known, closed its doors in July 1991 amid charges of multibillion-dollar fraud and global news reports that the financial institution had been heavily involved in drug money laundering, arms brokering, covert intelligence work, bribery of government officials and—here's the kicker—aid to terrorists.
Bath was never directly implicated in the BCCI scandal, but according to The Outlaw Bank, an award-winning 1993 book by Time correspondents, Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, Bath originally "made his fortune by investing money for [Sheikh Kalid bin] Mahfouz and another BCCI-connected Saudi, Sheikh bin Laden," reportedly the brother of none other than Osama bin Laden, the man accused by the U.S. government of masterminding the August 1998 terrorist bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 250 people.
According to court documents, Bath swore that in 1977 he represented four prominent and wealthy Saudi Arabians as a trustee and used his name on their investments in the United States. In return, he received a 5 percent interest in their deals. Time reporters Beaty and Gwynne suggest in their book that the $50,000 Bath invested in Dubya's Arbusto Energy drilling company may have belonged to Bath's Saudi clients since the Houston businessman "had no substantial money of his own at the time."
The FBI and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network later investigated Bath after allegations were made by one of his American business partners that the Saudis were using Bath and their giant piggy bank to influence U.S. policy. (Dubya's father had been appointed by President Ford to head the CIA from 1976–77.)
So, folks, the Middle Eastern oil money used to underwrite the first business venture of our future president of the United States, may have been derived at least in part from the family fortune of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, who is now being accused of masterminding his assassination.
From the what-it's-worth-department: I think Dubya's handlers have fed disinformation through the CIA and other backdoor channels to German and Italian intelligence agencies about a possible hit on Dubya by the fugitive terrorist to gain public sympathy and concern for a U.S. president who has taken a nose-dive in the opinion polls.
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll showed Dubya's approval rating fell to 53 percent from 57 percent a few weeks ago, its lowest since he took office. Only 50 percent of those polled approved of his handling of the economy, while 47 percent approved of his foreign policy performances. Some 44 percent felt Dubya was not respected by foreign leaders, a mere 39 percent agreed with his policies on the environment, and a whopping 61 percent of Americans believed the new prez was not addressing the issues they care most about.
Obviously, the pollsters didn't call Dubya's sugar daddies—the oil and gas companies. Because he damn sure is taking care of their interests.
That was *darling*... the NON-intelligentsia. LOL!
Seriously, I've been waiting for this information to start coming out -- as there has to be SCADS of. The European neofascists DESPISE the USA, and just wait until all the nefarious connections are found in SOUTH AMERICA where al-Qaeda and other international terrorists have STRONG linkages to the Nazi community. Indeed, there were pictures found in Afghan safehouses of a Brazilian resort where al-Qaeda operatives vacationed. However, there was a lot of "BUSINESS" going on down in South America, lots; however, it is the European neofascist intelligentsia who have provided much of the PLANNING of the operations. That's another prediction of mine.
Since abortion is apparently your bag, you should check out:
FBI Probing Anthrax Threats to Abortion Clinics in 17 States
The Soviet Union and Red China were mortal enemies as well. Your point is?
The far right and fascism have the common element of maintaing power and control through force and fear.
Yeah, right. The right in this country is about individual and economic freedom - as opposed to the left, which denied Stalin had a mass-murder problem and cheered on state power.
The modern far-right is anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-civil rights, anti-abortion; hardly positions that can be ascribed to the modern left.
Also, there is a lot of syncretism and cross-pollination going occurring on the far-right. The racial theories of modern neo-Nazis (and the KKK) are drawn from Christian Identity pseudo-theology - again, something that one will not find in leftist circles. I'm not saying that leftists are not racists (many are) but modern neo-Nazis get their "talking points" from the extreme (pseudo)Christian right, not Karl Marx.
The Left has been working very hard to make this happen. WIth the horror of 9/11 still sharp in peoples' minds, making that association can cost the Right thousands of supporters.
But there is clearly no evidence to support this smear, nor is the "right-wing" in question any relation to the conservative movement in America. However, that won't stop folks like Hillary Clinton and Tom Daschle from making political mileage out of it. Just watch.
It's like the Holy Roman Empire, which was described (quite accurately!) by Voltaire as being neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. But that's what it was called, so go figure.
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