Walid Shoebat travels around the US giving speeches to police departments, churches, and universities about terrorism. His qualifications? He says he was a terrorist for the PLO who helped firebomb a bank in Israel and spent time in an Israeli jail. This supposedly makes him an expert on terrorism.
The first question here is whether terrorists should be allowed to make money based on their former misdeeds. His speeches, books, and videos earned him more than half a million dollars in 2009 alone, some of it coming from state Homeland Security departments and other government sources.
But it gets worse, much worse.
Shoebat is virulently anti-Islam. At a recent speech to police and sheriff’s deputies he tells them “All Islamic organizations in America should be the No. 1 enemy. All of them.” He encourages ethnic and racial profiling, which is illegal. He tells people to be leery of Muslim doctors, engineers, students, and mosques. Speakers like Shoebat have raised concerns from the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Home Security Committee about “vitriolic diatribes” being delivered by “self-appointed counterterrorism experts” like Shoebat at these seminars.
But the worst part is that Shoebat appears to be a complete fraud. There is no record of the firebombing he claims to have taken part in. The Israeli jail has no record of his incarceration. He refers to counter-terrorism reports that don’t exist. He makes stupid claims, like saying there were 17 terrorists on 9/11 when there were 19, and talks about the TSA preventing 9/11 even though the TSA wasn’t created until after the attacks.
When charlatans can go around stirring up hatred and fear with lies and misinformation, to me that makes them terrorists. And in this case, the terrorists have won. Are we so desperate to believe that danger exists that we actually pay for it?
19 Comments
“Shoebat”!? Shoe Bat. You made up that name, Mr Irony.
I’m dying of curiousity — where does this guy pull his audience from?
Yes, I too am curious about how he is getting called in and who is paying for it.
“Are we so desperate to believe that danger exists that we actually pay for it?” Yes, it’s called Fox News. 😉
By the way, Benno Hansen has a point, IK. Did you forget a link somewhere to your source?
Am I just in need of coffee and didn’t see the link? 😉
Go get a fill up Thought Dancer 🙂 The problem is reference and background checking. Something that seems missing from our journalism and politians. The old well so and so used him so he must be legit. ie. Did i ever tell you about the time when I was playing cards with Yasser, Ghadaffi and Ghandi and Yasser said to Ghandi…..
George Bush Jr still makes money off telling people he lied about WMDs.
Just saying.
“Are we so desperate to believe that danger exists that we actually pay for it?” – perhaps this is another unintended consequence of turning News into self-supporting entertainment. We used to pay to see Norman Bates in a theatre. We’d scream and shiver then laugh at our silly reaction on the way home. Now we pay the cable company to bring nonfictional psychos into our homes. I miss the relieved laughter on the way home part.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walid_Shoebat
Are you guys going bat-shoe crazy on me? There is a link right there in the first paragraph to an article and video from CNN. I did NOT make up that name (Shoebat) or the story. I don’t make up any stories — reality is way more fun and bizarre than fiction.
IK: Yeah, sorry. I really needed that second cup of coffee. I just didn’t see the link until a minute or two after I posted.
“Are we so desperate to believe that danger exists that we actually pay for it?”
YES!
That was easy, do I win a prize?
First prize: a job at Fox News.
IK, isn’t that the booby prize.
Naw, the booby prize is two tickets to see Palin’s biopic.
IK, don’t you mean Palin’s myopic?
My-o-my pic? Me-me-me pic? Bye-pic? Buy-pic?
Isn’t biopic twice as bad as myopic? 🙂
Falkelord – I’m not sure what your point it. GWB was actually president and if he is actually saying he lied about WMDs in Iraq, at least he would be telling the truth. The point here seems to be that Shoebat doesn’t seem to be who he says he is and that he is not actually telling any truths.
What am I missing?