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Comments (0)A recent CIA paper cited Jewish acts of terrorism in the West Bank in its analysis of whether the United States is an exporter of terrorism.
The papers were released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks Wednesday. They were classified under the relatively low-grade “secret.”
The documents analyze U.S.-backed Jewish, Muslim and Irish terrorist attacks. They conclude that international perceptions that the United States is an exporter of terrorism may lead to foreign countries’ non-cooperation in anti-terrorism operations and less willingness to share relevant intelligence. Those perceptions could even lead to the arrest of CIA or other American agents overseas, according to the documents.
The analysis cites the example of Jewish-American doctor Baruch Goldstein, among others, as an example that the U.S. exports terrorism. Goldstein emigrated from New York to the West Bank in 1994 and joined the extremist group Kach. In 1994, he killed 29 Palestinians praying at a mosque in Hebron.
The paper was released in February by the CIA’s Red Cell, a think tank set up by former CIA director George Tenet to analyze intelligence issues. Last month WikiLeaks published 76,000 classified U.S. military records and reports about the war in Afghanistan.
Jewish Republican Leader Comes Out as Gay
The first Jewish chief of the Republican Party came out as gay.
Ken Mehlman has told friends and family that he is gay, The Atlantic magazine reported online Wednesday.
“Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive,” Mehlman, who ran George W. Bush’s successful reelection campaign in 2004 and who led the Republican National Committee from 2005-2007, told The Atlantic. “The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”
Mehlman, 44, was a leading advocate in the party for reaching out to minorities, a cause also close to the heart of Bush, who mentored Mehlman.
One of the reasons Mehlman, now an executive with a private equity firm, left politics was his disappointment, as Bush became less influential, that the party adopted positions that alienated Hispanics, blacks and gays.
Z Street Alleges IRS Playing Politics
A pro-Israel activist group filed a lawsuit alleging that its application for U.S. tax-exempt status is being unduly scrutinized.
Z Street, a right-wing group intended to counterbalance J Street, said in its lawsuit that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service delayed and may deny their application for tax-exempt status because it was receiving further scrutiny over whether the organization would oppose the Obama administration’s policy on Israel. Z Street filed the complaint Wednesday in Pennsylvania against the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Experts in nonprofit law told the Forward that the allegations are unlikely to be true.
The complaint alleges that IRS agent Diane Gentry said applications from organizations dealing with Israel-related issues “are being sent to a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the administration’s public policies.”
Laura Rozen noted in her blog at Politico that the IRS may have been trying to determine whether or not Z Street was an educational organization, which is a requirement for tax exemption.
“Furthermore Agent Gentry advised Z Street’s counsel that she questioned whether Z Street’s activities were educational as described under Section 501(c)(3) of the Code, but instead might be lobbying, or that Z Street might be an ‘action organization,’ which is the case when the only way to accomplish the purpose of the organization is through legislation,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the Forward, applications for tax-exempt status are sent to the IRS’s quality assurance office in Washington if they involve terrorist countries or if the IRS receives a petition from a third party to deny the applicant tax-exempt status. Z Street’s petition could have been sent to Washington for either of those reasons.