October 31, 2011
Gadi Adelman
Those that read my articles on a regular basis or are familiar with my work and my radio program know that I always deal with facts. Aside from checking my facts three or four times before putting them on paper, my articles always contain a multitude of links so that the reader can double check what facts I have stated.
The last few days I have read no less than 10 articles blasting Dr. Walid Phares. It is one thing to disagree with someone or their views; it’s something else when you blatantly lie, have no proof to back up what you are claiming and then you call it journalism.
What’s more, are those in the media that never bother to check something they have read and then they regurgitate it over and over without any basis whatsoever, write their own article using the original lies and still refer to it as “journalism”.
I could not possibly put his entire Bio here for lack of room, but it is impressive to say the least. Here are some facts for those that may not know who Dr. Walid Phares is.
Author of 12 books including a best seller, he has a degree in Political Science and another in Law from St Joseph University in Beirut and has a Masters in International Law from the Université de Lyons in France and a Ph.D. in International Relations and Strategic Studies from the University of Miami.
Professor Phares has been an advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives Caucus on Counter Terrorism since 2007 and has been the Co-Secretary General of the Trans-Atlantic Legislative Group on Counter Terrorism since 2008.
He has been teaching Global Strategies at the National Defense University in Washington DC since 2006 and he has been a Professor of Middle East Studies, Ethnic and Religious Conflict at the Department of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) from 1993 to 2006. Professor Phares has also been a senior lecturer on the War on Terror and Global Conflicts at the LLS Program of FAU and the IRP Program at the University of Miami. Previously he taught at Florida International University and at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.
He testifies and conducts briefings at the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament and Commission, and briefed UN Security Council missions, as well as to U.S. State Department and other foreign ministries worldwide as well as to officials on Counter Terrorism in Europe and the United States. Dr. Phares was an advisory board member of the Task Force on Future Terrorism of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2005-2007) and a member of the NSC advisory task force on Nuclear Terrorism (2006-2007)
After relocating to the United States in 1990, he taught at various universities and served with the media and as an expert at U.S. Immigration Courts since 1994.
Anyone in the counter-terror field knows of Dr. Phares his books, articles and lectures. But now that Mitt Romney named him as a member of his foreign policy team, his name and background have been slandered with lies and allegations.
Throughout the main stream media and left wing blogs he is now farmed as “linked to factions that perpetrated war crimes.” One article in the Daily Beast referred to him as a longtime “lightning rod for charges of Islamophobia and outright aggression toward Muslims”.
Another article The New Republic quotes Martha Crenshaw,
But Stanford terrorism expert Martha Crenshaw told me that the name did not ring a bell. “He’s not in the mainstream as an academic,” she said. “I’m not familiar with his work on terrorism.”
Crenshaw has never heard of Dr. Walid Phares? Since she is a so-called “expert” on terrorism it does not say much for her knowledge if she never heard of this man. Also, as a side note, I have spoken with a former student of hers who dropped her class because she was “always politically correct.” Political correctness and terrorism do not mix.
Interestingly, at the end of Crenshaw’s New Republic article they had to put in a correction,
*CORRECTION: This article originally identified Iowa Republican Steve King as having held congressional hearings on the dangers of Sharia law.
That would have been Rep. Peter King from New York. Such an error highlightsCrenshaw’s knowledge and research on the subject.
The article that appears to have started it all (as well as more lies than any other) was published in Salon.com and was written by As’asd AbuKhalil. According to real fact-checker and journalist lawyer John Hajjar,
As'ad AbuKhalil is not a typical left wing, anti-American, pro-Jihadist, anti-Israel instructor who misinforms students in the classrooms in which he lectures at a California college. Far worse than that, he is the top unofficial US-based propagandist for Hezbollah and its terrorist acolytes.
Is it any wonder that a propagandist for Hezbollah would blast someone like Walid Phares? Abukhalil’s article is full of wrong dates and places, as well as blatant lies.
Rather than regurgitating others’ points, I ask that you read the article “As'ad Abukhalil: America's Hezbollah Propagandist” by John Hajjar which explains with facts each of Abukhalil’s mistakes, misinformation and lies.
The bottom line is this; these people write about a war they know nothing about. They have no clue on its timeline or those involved. It was a changing war for 15 years with multiple protagonists and the actors often shifted.
The Lebanese Forces mentioned in these articles were not just a militia; they were a vast coalition of parties overseeing the defense forces of the Lebanese Christians. They were the local Government during the conflict when the central Government collapsed and were received by the international community and the Arab League. Two leaders from this coalition were elected Presidents of the Republic by the Lebanese Parliament.
Phares’ books and articles have spanned a decade; he has offered a thousand lectures and always promoted countering terrorism and promoting pluralist and federalist solutions, which started with his first book, Pluralism in Lebanon.
Phares’ intellectual experiences from his younger years in the Middle East were crucial for his career as a scholar and advisor in the U.S. to defend the country against the Jihadi terror threats.
He is targeted by these forces precisely because of his capacity as a strategic adviser, which is why as a U.S. citizen he was sought by members of Congress, the European Parliament and many think tanks for two decades. He is not an ordinary academic who repeats what others have written. Phares actually produces new and advanced ideas, hence the reaction of those who wants to mollify American readiness.
The real target of these journalists and attackers is not his time spent in Lebanon, which was never questioned because it was public knowledge and archived in the press. It is not because he is now advising a Presidential candidate. It is because of his books, which have constantly uncovered threats and have predicted events in the region long before they occur.
Each of the articles mentions that CAIR has asked Romney to drop Phares as an advisor. It quotes a letter that CAIR sent to the Romney campaign calling for his ouster. The letter refers to Phares as “an associate to war crimes” and a “conspiracy theorist,” citing ties to a violent anti-Muslim militia.
CAIR, the “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding case, doesn’t want a person such as Walid Phares advising a Presidential Candidate.
CAIR, whose founder Omar M. Ahmad, stated,
“Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
CAIR, the arm of the Muslim Brotherhood here in America doesn’t want an expert on Jihad and terrorism anywhere near the White House. Go figure.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Gadi Adelman is a freelance writer and lecturer on the history of terrorism and counterterrorism. He grew up in Israel, studying terrorism and Islam for 35 years after surviving a terrorist bomb in Jerusalem in which 7 children were killed. Since returning to the U. S., Gadi teaches and lectures to law enforcement agencies as well as high schools and colleges. He can be heard every Thursday night at 8PM est. on his own radio show “America Akbar” on Blog Talk Radio. He can be reached through his website gadiadelman.com.