Qatar to be stripped of 2022 World Cup?
A whistle blower who is living in the United States under FBI protection believes that FIFA President Sepp Blatter will attempt to save his position by
stripping Qatar of the 2022 World Cup.
Phaedra Almajid says the weight of evidence of wrongdoing from her and others will be so overwhelming that FIFA will be left with no option but to find another host.
Almajid has been under protective custody of the FBI and she fears her safety will be compromised further if the tournament is taken away from the tiny oil-rich state, who shocked the world by winning the right to stage the 2022 event in 2010.
While hoping justice is done, Almajid admits that the prospect ‘scares me a lot’ because some ‘extremists’ may feel she played a role in that happening.
She said: ‘There are people who are p***** off with me [for speaking out], and what really p***** them off is that I’m a female, Muslim whistleblower.’
Another consequence of recent events, Almajid believes, is that outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter may try to take 2022 from Qatar as part of a radical reform agenda designed to win him praise ‘and save his skin.’
...
Almajid, an Arab-American now based in the US, worked for Qatar’s 2022 bid team until early 2010.
She told the Mail on Sunday last year that a subsequent retraction of her allegations was coerced. In fear of her safety for herself and her family - she has two children, one of them severely disabled - she was taken into the protective custody of the FBI.
The FBI are leading the investigation which has led to 14 arrests, with even more expected. ‘The FBI have everything,’ she said.
Almajid also co-operated fully with a FIFA-funded probe led by Michael Garcia, a former US attorney for New York.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: corruption, FIFA, Qatar, World Cup
'Palestinians' withdraw bid to have Israel suspended from FIFA
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Labels: anti-Semitism, epic fail, FIFA, Gaza, Jibril Rajoub, Qatar, Russia, soccer
Will Israel be suspended from FIFA?
I'm going to guess that many of my US readers never heard of FIFA, the international soccer federation several of whose officials were
indicted on bribery charges in the US earlier this week. Here in Israel, we are
all too familiar with them.
'Palestinian'
terrorist and
soccer federation chairman
Jibril Rajoub is seeking to have Israel
expelled from FIFA, which would bar the world's only Jewish state from international soccer competitions like the World Cup. As you can see from the tweet above, the Israeli government believes it's on the verge of a 'compromise' (can't wait to hear what that would entail) that would avert the expulsion.
But not everyone believes that a compromise is in the offing.
If it comes to a vote, it probably goes without saying that Israel
will not get a fair hearing.
Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, arrested in Trinidad and Tobago
on Wednesday on bribery charges as part of a massive bust of top soccer
officials, previously blamed “Zionism” for a bribery scandal which saw
him forced from the world soccer body in 2011.
Warner surrendered to authorities late
Wednesday in his native Trinidad and Tobago after his name appeared on a
list of nine current or former FIFA officials and five business
executives who “abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of
dollars in bribes and kickbacks,” according to US Attorney General
Loretta Lynch.
Warner resigned from FIFA in 2011 after the
organization opened an ethics investigation into the vice president for
receiving cash “gifts” from former Asian Football Confederation chief
Mohammed Bin Hammam, ahead of the organization’s elections for
president.
After FIFA handed Qatar’s Bin Hammam a
lifetime ban from the soccer governing body for his role in the affair,
Warner lashed out at the soccer body for what he said were various
shortcomings, and vowed to bring down FIFA head Sepp Blatter.
“I will talk about the racism that is within
FIFA. I will talk about the levels of religious discrimination which I
sought to correct. I will talk about the Zionism, which probably is the
most important reason why this acrid attack on Bin Hammam and me was
mounted,” Warner wrote at the time in a 1,400 word letter to the
Trinidad Guardian.
And if you followed the links above, you already know that Blatter isn't exactly fair to Israel either.
Meanwhile, FIFA and the media continue to ignore the real story to which they ought to be paying attention: The 'Palestinian Authority's use of sports to
promote terrorism rather than peace.
And the saga continues:
Labels: anti-Semitism, FIFA, Gaza, Jibril Rajoub, Qatar, Russia, soccer
'Club Med for terrorists'
In the New York Times, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, refers to Doha, Qatar as '
Club Med for terrorists.'
Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has dragged us into
three rounds of major assaults, and more than 14,800 rockets have been
fired into Israel by the group or its proxies. The discovery of dozens
of tunnels packed with explosives, tranquilizers and handcuffs that end
at the doorsteps of Israeli communities should be enough to convince
anyone that Hamas has no interest in bringing quiet to Gaza or residing
alongside Israel in peace.
It says a great deal that Hamas’s
former Arab backers, which historically have included Egypt, Syria and
Saudi Arabia, long ago abandoned the terrorist group. Only a few nations
still stand by Hamas. Among the most prominent is the tiny Persian Gulf
emirate Qatar.
In recent years, the sheikhs of Doha, Qatar’s capital, have
funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza. Every one of Hamas’s
tunnels and rockets might as well have had a sign that read “Made
possible through a kind donation from the emir of Qatar.”
...
This hasn’t stopped the Persian Gulf monarchy from serving
as a Club Med for terrorists. It harbors leading Islamist radicals like
the spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, who issued a religious fatwa endorsing suicide attacks, and the Doha-based history professor Abdul Rahman Omeir al-Naimi, whom the United States Department of Treasury has named as a “terrorist financier” for Al Qaeda. Qatar also funds a life of luxury for Khaled Meshal, the fugitive leader of Hamas.
Mr.
Meshal’s uncompromising stance — he has vowed never to recognize Israel
— has long been an obstacle to reaching a peace deal. But behind Hamas,
Qatar is pulling the strings. According to a report last week in the
pan-Arab daily newspaper Al Hayat, Qatar even threatened to expel Mr.
Meshal if Hamas accepted Egyptian proposals for a long-term cease-fire
in Gaza. All because Doha wants a starring role in any cease-fire
agreement between Hamas and Israel.
It is time for the
world to wake up and smell the gas fumes. Qatar has spared no cost to
dress up its country as a liberal, progressive society, yet at its core,
the micro monarchy is aggressively financing radical Islamist
movements. In light of the emirate’s unabashed support for terrorism,
one has to question FIFA’s decision to reward Qatar with the 2022 World
Cup.
Qatar’s continued sponsorship of Hamas all but guarantees that, whatever
happens in this round of hostilities, the terrorist group will rearm
and renew hostilities with Israel. The only way forward is to isolate
Hamas’s last major backer. Given Qatar’s considerable affluence and
influence, this is an uncomfortable prospect for many Western nations,
yet they must recognize that Qatar is not a part of the solution but a
significant part of the problem. To bring about a sustained calm, the
message to Qatar should be clear: Stop financing Hamas.
Indeed.
Labels: Emir of Qatar, FIFA, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Qatar, Ron Prosor, World Cup
Why Israel doesn't let 'Palestinian' soccer players travel
FIFA - the international soccer federation - is once again pressuring Israel to
loosen travel restrictions on 'Palestinian' soccer players.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter and delegates at the FIFA Congress called
on the Israeli government on Wednesday to fully commit to FIFA's plans
to ease restrictions on movement for Palestinian footballers.
"I
call on the Israeli government to facilitate this movement and I go so
far as to say its co-operation is crucial," Blatter told delegates who
roundly applauded him.
...
After Blatter spoke, Jibril Rajoub, the president of the Palestine FA
said they would not be calling for any sanctions against Israel as he
had implied a month ago, but that the suffering of Palestine football
had to end.
"I
call on those who are causing the suffering to stop and those that are
suffering not to lose hope as they are part of the FIFA family," he told
delegates from all 209 of FIFA's members including Israel.
After
Rajoub's speech, Blatter congratulated the Israeli delegation for not
responding negatively to Rajoub's pleas saying: "Israeli football, you
are not abandoned and I congratulate today for keeping silent in the
spirit of sportsmanship fair play."
Yes, yes, sports uber alles, just like in Munich 42 years ago.
Whatever FIFA's plans are, I would bet that they have zero chance of adoption after
this incident.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Wednesday announced that it
had provided the IDF’s legal division with evidence to indict a
Palestinian soccer player for meetings with a Hamas terrorist in Qatar,
which he covered up as part of his team’s soccer tour.
The
statement said that Samah Fares Muhamed Marava, 22, and Kalkilya
resident, left Israel with his team on their soccer tour on April 15.
The Shin Bet said that while in Qatar, Marava met with Talal Ibrahim
Abd al-Rahman Sarim, part of Hamas’ military wing, who was previously
sentenced to life in prison in Israel, but released and deported as part
of the Schalit prisoner exchange.
The statement said that since
his release, Sarim has reconnected with Hamas and is involved with its
military operations in the field.
During his interrogation, Marava
said that before he left for Qatar, Muad Yusef Hasan Sarim, a senior
Hamas operative in Kalkilya, approached him about meeting with Talal
Sarim during his trip, the Shin Bet said.
During Marava’s meeting with Talal Sarim, said the statement, Marava
received money, a cellphone and written messages that Talal Sarim asked
him to bring to Hamas operatives in Kalkilya. This was later confirmed
by Muad Sarim who was arrested on May 21.
The Shin Bet accused
Marava of “cynically exploiting” his status as a soccer player to leave
the country and make contacts with foreign Hamas agents and arrested him
on April 28, upon his return to Israel.
Great sportsmanship, huh? Don't bet on those travel restrictions being lifted anytime soon.
Labels: FIFA, Hamas, Palestinian terrorists, Qatar, soccer
Visa and FIFA sponsoring Egyptian blood libel
The
Eretz Yisrael blog quotes a translation from MEMRI of a
new blood libel published in Egypt (Hat Tip:
Jack W).
In another stage of the Passover celebrations, [the Jews]
combined the preparation of matzas and the offering up of sacrifices
with their enmity towards non-Jews, especially Christians, and mixed the
blood of one of their victims into the matza [dough. This was done]
especially on Passover, Purim and circumcision rituals. They also used
blood in acts of sorcery and witchcraft…
…The draining of the
victims’ blood is done in [several ways. One method is] by means of a
barrel lined with needles. This is a barrel the size of the victim’s
body, with sharp needles that stick into all his limbs when he is placed
in it, so that his blood slowly trickles down from every part of his
body. This entails excruciating torment, which gives pleasure to the
Jews who become drunk with joy at the sight of the blood dripping from
the victim’s [body] to the bottom of the barrel and into a container
placed there to collect it. [Another method] is to slaughter the victim
like a sheep and collecting his blood in a vessel, or else slashing the
victim’s veins in numerous places so that the blood flows from the
wounds into the vessels. Then the blood is handed to a rabbi who
prepares a matza laced with human blood in order to please the Jewish
god, Jehovah, who thirsts for blood.
The Jews can rejoice in their holidays only if they eat matza laced with the blood of non-Jews.
...
…The Jewish crimes which came to light throughout history and which were investigated and tried are a drop in the ocean compared to the Jewish crimes that no one knows about. The
thousands of children and others who vanish around the world are
probably victims of Jewish rituals. Their blood surely lies in Jewish
stomachs along with the holiday matzas.
...
As part of the efforts to deny [the Jewish crimes], Jewish
Americans wrote stories about vampires in the 1970s, in order to
disassociate themselves from the accusation of sucking human blood and
deceive [the mechanisms of] justice. During that period they
spent millions on Dracula films, in order to deceive world public
opinion. They claimed that those who slaughter children and adults and
suck their blood are lunatics and that all this has nothing to do with
them and their religious rituals. On February 14, 1964, the [Egyptian]
magazine Al-Musawwar published a story about vampires in Colombia after
many [Colombian] children had been slaughtered to shed their blood.
Neither the magazine nor the investigators in Colombia dreamed that the
vampires might be Jews, rather than [people who] sell blood to
hospitals.
Nasty stuff.... But what's truly shocking about this is what the Eretz Yisrael blog discovered about its sponsorship.
We know from past experience that such naked antisemitism in
Arab media cannot be solved by merely publicizing it. Most Arabs are not
even aware that there is anything offensive about describing Jews as
murderous bloodsuckers.
However, a major advertiser for Al Kibar is Visa, with this ad popping up on most articles and shown on the main page:
The ad is the one at the top of this post.
Given
FIFA's
past history, we can't be too surprised to see them involved in this. But Visa?
Labels: blood libel, Egyptian blood libels, FIFA, soccer
