Florida man in Arab prison over Facebook

From the weblog files of Colonel Allen B. West

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One of my maxims is “when tolerance becomes a one way street, it leads to cultural suicide.” And it is playing out once again with horrific ramifications for a Florida man. Due to political correctness, we are constrained in what we say at home — even though we “supposedly” have a first amendment right to free speech.

Here’s what UN Resolution 16/18 would look like if it comes to pass. And if you don’t know what that resolution is – it’s not condemning ISIS — look it up.

As reported by Foxnews.com, “A hallmark of American life — griping about work — has landed a Florida man in a Middle Eastern jail. Ryan Pate, a helicopter mechanic from Belleair Bluffs, Florida, took to Facebook after a dispute over sick leave with the company he was working for in the United Arab Emirates.”

“He was home in Florida at the time, but when he returned to Abu Dhabi last month, he was told to report to the police station, where he was arrested for breaking an Emirates law on slandering his employer. He spent about 10 days in jail, he said, and is now free on bail awaiting a March 17 trial.

His supporters say he faces up to five years in prison and a steep fine if convicted.”

Apparently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) it is illegal to defame a person or a business even on the Internet, where it is referred to as cyber-slander. As well, any disparaging comments regarding Islam carries a punishment. Mind you, Mr. Pate committed these so-called offenses while here in Florida.

It’s funny how we’re in such a rush to release Islamic terrorists because their detention is cause for concern and hatred towards America — supposedly. They’ve done far more than make disparaging comments – they’ve participated in operations to kill Americans, but some feel their being kept off the battlefield is, well, not nice.

So here we have an American citizen potentially facing a prison sentence of five years? Now, I am going to ask a simple but rhetorical question, where are President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry? Then again, it was President Obama who stated at the United Nations that the future does not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Like I said, purely a rhetorical inquiry.

“I just couldn’t register it in my head because as an American growing up in the United States, the First Amendment right is just ingrained in my brain,” Pate said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I never even entertained the fact that I would wind up in prison out here for something I put on Facebook in the United States.”

“Pate, 30, said the incident stemmed from a trip to Florida in December. During his return, he spent the holidays with family and proposed to his girlfriend, Jillian Cardoza, but also was trying to get treatment for a back injury. There was disagreement with his bosses about extending his leave to see a doctor, he said, and after a particularly unsatisfactory phone call with them, he took to a Facebook. He says he can’t remember precisely what he wrote, but knows he called his bosses “backstabbers” and warned other contractors not to work for them.”

I just want everyone to consider the precedent and ramifications for Americans here. Basically what is being stated is that our freedom of speech and expression, our First Amendment rights do not carry forward with us.

It’s no different than our troops deployed in Muslim nations being told they cannot display or speak of their faith — meaning, their freedom of religion means nothing outside the United States. Yet, others come to America and we’re told to be tolerant and accepting of beliefs that are antithetical to our basic fundamental principles and values.

Let us never forget that Jews and Christians are not allowed anywhere near Mecca or Medina, yet we allow Muslim clerics in the National Cathedral, Muslim prayers to be given on the Capitol lawn, and even have Muslims with affiliations to the Muslim Brotherhood meeting with the president in the Oval Office.

Now, the Islamapologists will come back with the retort, “we’re better than they are.” Hmm, well, I don’t see it that way — and neither do they. The true perception is one of supremacy and surrender on our part.

We allow heads of state in certain Islamic nations to speak ill of America and yet they’re free to travel to this country — the current and past leader of Iran come to mind.

Fox news writes, “Pate’s congressman, Rep. David Jolly, intervened on his constituent’s behalf, lobbying the State Department and Emirates officials for help. In a letter to the Emirati attorney general, Jolly emphasized respect for the sovereignty of the country, but argued because the posts occurred while Pate was on American soil, those laws shouldn’t apply.”

“It is deeply troubling that Mr. Pate now faces judicial proceedings over an action that was done legally in his home country,” the Republican said. The Emirati Embassy in Washington said it did not have much information about the case and couldn’t comment. An after-hours email to the company, Global Aerospace Logistics, did not get an immediate reply.

A State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said a consular officer had visited Pate in prison and that the embassy in Abu Dhabi would continue providing assistance.”

Ok, let me digest this — an American citizen is arrested for something he posted on Facebook while in America in the UAE and the state department spokesperson says that he was visited and that assistance will be provided? There is only one answer: we are escorting Mr. Pate out of the UAE and he will be landing back in the United States within the next 12 hours.

If Mr. Pate had assaulted a UAE citizen in any manner, I wouldn’t think a second about his being detained, charged, and incarcerated — without bail. But this is unconscionable, an American is being arrested in a foreign country because his freedom of expression is not respected.

And I reject the notion of Mr. Pate having to apologize. How about the next time someone travels to America who refers to our Jewish allies as being descended from apes travels they’re detained? Now, just how well would that go over?

Did you read up on UN Resolution 16/18 as presented by the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC)? If you did you realize how it is materializing by way of this case. Locally here in Irving, Texas we have a Sharia law court being established — funny, I thought there was only one rule of law in America.

Do not portend to bore me with the typical progressive socialist left religious relativism argument. It holds no weight. As the Muslim Brotherhood’s Explanatory Memorandum states, they will destroy us by our own hand by way of using our own liberties and freedoms against us.

The case of Ryan Pate is chilling in that it says American freedom and liberties stop at water’s edge — in essence, we are prisoners in our own land. We are censored within and without — as groups like CAIR dictates who should be allowed to speak in our own doggone country.

Yes, it has occurred, speaking against Islam is becoming a crime — punishable by imprisonment. Mr. Pate should be immediately redeployed out of the UAE and not stand some kangaroo court of 7th century origin.

I suppose my ever visiting Dubai again or Abu Dhabi is now off the table — unless I do so enjoying another fundamental American right — the right to keep and bear arms, which is even under attack here at home.

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U.S. officially irrelevant says Allen West

Egypt and UAE bomb Libya without informing Obama from the files of Colonel Allen B. West


Once upon a time the global standing of the United States was respected, regarded and was credible. Of course, Barack Hussein Obama said he would restore America’s reputation and felt the George W. Bush administration had severely damaged our position.

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What Obama really meant was having more countries “like” America, as if our nation were a Facebook page — which amounts to nothing in a world of despots, dictators, theocrats and autocrats. Furthermore, it means your allies become confused and your enemies become emboldened — your trustworthiness plummets as your word means nothing.

And so against that backdrop we learn Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took action against Islamist forces in Libya and thought nothing of informing the United States. Officials: Egypt, UAE Behind Airstrikes In Libya Egypt and the United Arab Emirates secretly carried out airstrikes against Islamist militias inside Libya, U.S. officials said Tuesday, decrying the intervention as an escalation of the North African country's already debilitating turmoil. They said...

As reported by The Guardian in the UK, “US officials claim the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were behind several air strikes on Islamist militias in Libya last week, in what would be an escalation of a regional power-play between Islamists and opposing governments across the Middle East.

UAE pilots flying out of Egyptian airbases allegedly twice targeted Islamist fighters vying for control of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, last week, US officials claimed to the New York Times and later to the AFP news agency. Speaking to the Guardian, a US official confirmed the reports were plausible.

The air strikes failed to stop Islamist militias from capturing Tripoli later in the week and announcing a new breakaway regime, forcing Libya’s elected government to flee to the eastern city of Tobruk.”

The Guardian reports, “The contested strikes came in two waves. The first arrived on 17 August and hit more than a dozen targets in Tripoli held by Operation Dawn, a coalition of Islamist militias and their allies from the city of Misrata battling against nationalists for control of the city.

The precision of the attacks immediately triggered speculation that foreign jets were involved, prompting denials from France, Italy and Nato. A second wave hit in the early hours of 23 August, killing 17 Misratans and hitting ammunition dumps and the interior ministry building, captured by the Misratans the day before.”

And just who was it who destabilized Libya and handed it over to Islamists? Yep, you guessed it, Barack Hussein Obama — hence why I have referred to him as an Islamist sympathizer. It was Obama who went into Libya and armed Islamist militias and provided them U.S. air support — and now look at the results.

The 2012 attack on the Benghazi Special Mission Compound (SMC) and the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Ty Woods, and Glenn Doherty. We just abandoned the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli as a result of increasing advances of the Islamist militias Obama armed and supported.

And the same group that attacked the SMC, the al-Qaida offshoot — I guess another JV team — Ansar al-Sharia, has claimed an Islamic caliphate in eastern Libya centered in Benghazi. So now you have Egypt, Libya’s neighbor, taking action itself along with the UAE — and remember, as we reported, this same Egyptian government was shunned by the Obama administration because it overthrew the Obama-supported Muslim Brotherhood government.

And it was Obama, who in 2009, ordered Muslim Brotherhood members be seated front and center for his Cairo University speech. As the Guardian says, “Egypt’s military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood – an Islamist group – and has since been cracking down internally on its activities, a tactic pursued for years in the UAE.

Now if indeed Egypt and the UAE have joined to conduct airstrikes in Libya, it means both countries now want to expand the campaign beyond their borders, seeking to curb the rise of brotherhood-affiliated militias threatening to take over Libya. The move could turn Libya into a proxy war between the country’s elected government, backed by UAE and Egypt, and Islamists backed by Qatar, another Gulf state.”

And surprise, surprise — who has been embracing and supporting Qatar? Why, the Obama administration, of course. It’s no secret Qatar has been and continues to be the major bankroller for Islamists in the Middle East — including ISIS. Don’t forget Obama released five senior Taliban leaders to Qatar, and Obama dispatched John Kerry to negotiate with Turkey and Qatar for a Hamas ceasefire. And where does the leader of Hamas reside? Yep, Doha, Qatar.

So what message does Obama send to Egypt and the UAE? That the U.S. supports Islamists and cannot be trusted — hence why they did not advise the Obama administration of their intent and strikes. I say again, Egypt and the UAE does not trust the Obama administration.

As the Guardian says, “the UAE is home to Libya’s foremost nationalist politician, Mahmoud Jibril, while its rival Qatar hosts Ali Salabi, arguably Libya’s most influential Islamist and a backer of the Muslim Brotherhood.

From their respective exiles, Jibril and Salabi have directed an Islamist-nationalist rivalry that has been at the heart of Libya’s politics since the death of Gaddafi in October 2011. Salabi’s Qatari allies trained the Islamist February 17 militia which is now battling nationalist forces in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.”

And who was it that the Obama administration contracted out to guard the Benghazi SMC? Yep, the February 17 militia, which we reported here.

Folks, this is all the honest truth.

Obama can shovel all the bovine excrement speeches he wants – like the one he just dumped on the American Legion.

But the facts are clear, we have a treasonous individual residing in the White House who is enabling the Islamist movement in the Middle East. Egypt and the UAE clearly realize that. The question is, when will we?

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