Top 10 Intelligence Agencies of the World

A governmental agency that is devoted to gather information regarding national & defence matters is called intelligence agency. Intelligence agencies also interact with other national/governmental institutions about national security & can share materials. Some intelligence agencies are also involved in assassination, arm trafficking or dealing & spreading misinformation or propaganda to support their own or their governments’ benefits. Let’s have a list of top 10 intelligence agencies of the world. This list has been published on August 24, 2011

10. RAW (India)
Formed: 21 September 1968
Headquarters: New Delhi, India
Parent agency: Prime Minister’s Office, GoI

An effective instrument of India’s national power, Research and Analysis Wing has been always in limelight due to its relation with KGB and MOSSAD. RAW agents are considered as eyes of the king. It was formed in September 1968, after the newly independent Republic of India was faced with 2 consecutive wars, the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and the India-Pakistani war of 1965, as it was evident that a credible intelligence gathering setup was lacking. Working under ‘cover’ and aggressive intelligence are its primary weapon to destabilize the target country. Its primary function is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations. In addition, it is responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons, in order to advise Indian foreign policymakers. Until the creation of R&AW, the Intelligence Bureau handled both internal and external intelligence.


09. ASIS (Australia)
Formed: 13 May 1952
Headquarters: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Annual budget: $162.5m AUD (2007)
Minister responsible: Minister for Foreign Affairs

Mission is: To obtain and report information on the Southwest Pacific area. We aken the enemy by sabotage and destruction of morale. Render aid and assistance to locale efforts in enemy occupied territories. Step ahead for the war against terror. Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the Australian government intelligence agency responsible for collecting foreign intelligence, undertaking counter-intelligence activities and cooperation with other intelligence agencies overseas. For more than twenty years, the existence of the agency was a secret even from its own government. Its primary responsibility is gathering intelligence from mainly Asian and Pacific interests using agents stationed in a wide variety of areas. Its main purpose, as with most agencies, is to protect the country’s political and economic interests while ensuring safety for the people of Australia against national threats.


08. ISI (Pakistan)
Formed: 1948
Jurisdiction: Government of Pakistan
Headquarters: Islamabad, Pakistan

Established in 1948 for safeguarding Pakistan’s interest, monitoring opposition politician and sustaining military rule in Pakistan, ISI is one of the very well organized intelligence agency in world. Apart from its outstanding structure it is controversial too and once it was termed as state within a state due to its cross-purpose policies. The Inter-Services Intelligence was created as an independent unit in 1948 in order to strengthen the performance of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. Its success in achieving its goal without leading to a full scale invasion of Pakistan by the Soviets is a feat unmatched by any other through out the intelligence world. KGB, The best of its time, failed to counter ISI and protect Soviet interests in Central Asia. This GOLD MEDAL makes it rank higher than Mossad. It has had 0 double agents or Defectors through out its history, considering that in light of the whole war campaign it carried out from money earned by selling drugs bought from the very people it was bleeding, The Soviets. It has protected its Nuclear Weapons since formed and it has foiled Indian attempts to attain ultimate supremacy in the South-Asian theatres through internal destabilization of India. It is above All laws in its host country Pakistan ‘A State, with in a State’. Its policies are made ‘outside’ of all other institutions with the exception of The Army. Its personnel have never been caught on camera. Its is believed to have the highest number of agents worldwide, close to 10,000. The most striking thing is that its one of the least funded Intelligence agency out of the top 10 and still the strongest.


07. BND (Germany)
Formed: 1 April 1956
Employees: 6,050
Agency executive: Gehlen Organization
Parent agency: Central Intelligence Group

A lengthy track records of success by crafts of intelligence played in national and international politics. With specific means available solely to itself, the BND collects secret information which can’t be obtained otherwise. The fast supply of profound information to the political decision-makers. The Bundesnachrichtendienst is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Chancellor’s Office. The BND acts as an early warning system to alert the German government to threats to German interests from abroad. It depends heavily on wiretapping and electronic surveillance of international communications. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international terrorism, WMD proliferation and illegal transfer of technology, organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare. As Germany’s only overseas intelligence service, the BND gathers both military and civil intelligence.


06. DGSE (France)
Formed: April 2, 1982
Preceding agency: External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service
Minister responsible: Minister of Defence

One of the most extensive technological spy network ever uncovered in Europe and the United States. It is said that the agents of DGSE are not only resourceful but also the coolest cats around….Claim to fame. Directorate General for External Security is France’s external intelligence agency. Operating under the direction of the French ministry of defence, the agency works alongside the DCRI (the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence) in providing intelligence and national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. The General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) of France has a rather short history compared to other intelligence agencies in the region. It was officially founded in 1982 from a multitude of prior intelligence agencies in the country. Its primary focus is to gather intelligence from foreign sources to assist in military and strategic decisions for the country. The agency employs more than five thousand people.


5. MSS – China
Jurisdiction: People’s Republic of China
Headquarters: Beijing
Parent agency: State Council

Foreign as well as domestic intelligence agency of China. It’s mission is to ensure “the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies and counter-revolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China’s socialist system.” Ministry of State Security is the security agency of the People’s Republic of China. It is also probably the Chinese government’s largest and most active foreign intelligence agency, though it is also involved in domestic security matters. Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as regular police for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by the procuratorates and the courts. It is headquartered near the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. According to Liu Fuzhi, Secretary-General of the Commission for Politics and Law under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of Public Security, the mission of the MSS is to ensure “the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies, and counter-revolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China’s socialist system.” One of the primary missions of the MSS is undoubtedly to gather foreign intelligence from targets in various countries overseas. Many MSS agents are said to have operated in the Greater China region (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) and to have integrated themselves into the world’s numerous overseas Chinese communities. At one point, nearly 120 agents who had been operating under non-official cover in the U.S., Canada, Western and Northern Europe, and Japan as businessmen, bankers, scholars, and journalists were recalled to China, a fact that demonstrates the broad geographical scope of MSS agent coverage.


04. MI6 (United Kingdom)
Formed: 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau
Jurisdiction: Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters: Vauxhall Cross, London
Minister responsible: Foreign Secretary
Parent agency: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

If you like watching Hollywood movies then you must be knowing James Bond and his fondness of sophisticated guns, beautiful babes and Smirnoff. This British spy agency is popular for its notorious and daredevil agents with a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve. The British have had a long public perception of an effective intelligence agency (due to the success of the unrealistic, yet entertaining, James Bond movies). This perception matches reality. MI6, the British equivalent to the CIA, has had two big advantages in staying effective: The British Official Secrets Act and D notices can often prevent leaks (which have been the bane of the CIA’s existence). Some stories have emerged. In the Cold War, MI6 recruited Oleg Penkovsky, who played a key part in the favorable resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Oleg Gordievski, who operated for a decade before MI6 extracted him via Finland. The British were even aware of Norwood’s activities, but made the decision not to tip their hand. MI6 also is rumored to have sabotaged the Tu-144 supersonic airliner program by altering documents and making sure they fell into the hands of the KGB.


3. CIA – America
Formed: September 18, 1947
Employees: 20,000
Parent agency: Central Intelligence Group

CIA is the largest of the intelligence agencies and is responsible for gathering data from other countries that could impact U.S. policy. Familiar name between kids and movie lovers. We can notice almost flicks of Hollywood suffering from CIA syndrome but in real life epitome in its field. On it’s 50th anniversary, President Clinton said: By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one knows that what CIA really does. It is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States of America. The CIA’s primary function is to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and to advise public policymakers. The agency conducts covert operations and paramilitary actions, and exerts foreign political influence through its Special Activities Division. It has failed to control terrorism activities including 9/11, Not even a single top level Al-Queda leader captured own its own in the past 9 years – ‘they missed 1 Million’ Soviet troops marching into Afghanistan’. Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, Have the found them yet? -Number of defectors/ double agents numbers close to a thousand. On 50th anniversary of CIA, President Clinton said ”By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one knows that what CIA really does”. Highly funded and technologically most advanced Intelligence set-up in the world.


02. KGB - FSB (Russia)
Formed: March 1954 (KGB) - Formed: 3 April, 1995 (FSB)
Employees: 350,000
Headquarters: Lubyanka Square
Preceding agency: KGB

One of the most dreaded player in the game of spying. It lives on the principle of – It is not sufficient to know, it is necessary to react. Their operations are preserved in number of novels, especially their game of cat and mouse with western spies. The Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSD) is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet-era Cheka, NKVD and KGB. The FSB is involved in counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance. Its headquarters are on Lubyanka Square, downtown Moscow, the same location as the former headquarters of the KGB. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under the guidance of FSB, if needed. For example, the GRU, spetsnaz and Internal Troops detachments of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs work together with the FSB in Chechnya. The FSB is responsible for internal security of the Russian state, counterespionage, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling. The number of FSB personnel and its budget remain state secrets, although the budget was reported to jump nearly 40% in 2006.


01. The Mossad
Formed: December 13, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination
Employees: 1,200 (est)
Parent agency: Office of the Prime Minister

Justice is the greatest concern of man on earth. The first thing we do, let’s kill all the miscreants. How can we forget the massacre of eleven Israeli Olympians in Munich Olympics 1972 by Palestinians and after that revenge of Mossad (entitled as wrath of God) in a much similar Hollywood style. Famous for their secret action and acute aim.
The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations including paramilitary activities. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. The list of its successes is long. Israel’s intelligence agency is most famous for having taken out a number of PLO operatives in retaliation for the attack that killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. However, this agency has other success to its name, including the acquisition of a MiG-21 prior to the Six-Day war of 1967 and the theft of the plans for the Mirage 5 after the deal with France went sour. Mossad also assisted the United States in supporting Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s.

UK to Check Islamic Schools After Sharia Claim and anti-Semitism

BBC says found network of more than 40 un-regulated weekend Islamic schools teaching anti-Semitic views, advocating extreme punishment for theft, sodomy

by Reuters

Britain's education department is to look at how it can check Islamic weekend schools after the BBC reported it had uncovered more than 40 of them teaching anti-Semitic views and extreme punishment for sodomy and theft.

The BBC said its "Panorama" program, which will air on Monday evening, had found a network of weekend Islamic schools in Britain were teaching children how to chop off the hands of thieves, that Zionists are trying to take over the world and that sodomy is punishable by death.

Currently the government does not regulate weekend, part-time teaching centers.

The Department for Education said it could not allow anti-Semitic material in English schools and that the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), which inspects schools, was looking into how to monitor the part-time centers.

"Ofsted are doing some work in this area. They'll be reporting to us shortly about how we can ensure that part-time provision is better registered and better inspected in the future," the department said in a statement.

Saudi national curriculum
Panorama said the centers fell under the umbrella of the Saudi Students' Schools and Clubs in the UK and Ireland and have been teaching the Saudi national curriculum to about 5,000 children.

It said the schools, which teach children between the ages of 6 and 18, have been using textbooks that contain diagrams showing the Sharia way to cut off the hands and feet of people convicted of theft and that Zionists are plotting to take over the world for Jews.

It said it had obtained a textbook that asked children to list the "reprehensible" qualities of Jews. It also said they were told the punishment for sodomy was death and that there is a difference of opinion on whether this should be by stoning, burning or throwing off a cliff.

The Saudi Students' Schools and Clubs group could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Saudi Embassy said it would not comment on the Panorama program until it had seen it, but the BBC said it had received a letter from the Saudi ambassador saying the network of weekend schools had nothing to do with the embassy.

Quilliam, a think-tank that studies radical Islamism, said Saudi Arabia had stopped using the textbooks that Panorama referred to as it took steps to modernize its religious education and that the Saudi government should try to persuade Islamic schools in Britain to stop "hate preaching".

"It is unfortunate that these so-called Saudi schools in Britain do not seem to have similarly moved with the times. The Saudi authorities need to use their influence to ensure that hate-preaching is fully tackled both at home and abroad," Quilliam spokesman Talal Rajab said.

20 Explosive Devices Suspected to be en Route to US

British, American press report security forces trying to trace parcels sent in last 48 hours via airmail to European destinations. It is feared packages scattered in various airports, may already be on US soil. Security beefed at airports

US and European security and intelligence forces are working to trace as many as 20 packages suspected to contain explosives which may have been sent to Jewish facilities, similar to the two devices found Friday in Dubai and Britain.

British and American press reported Saturday that intelligence agencies are trying to trace parcels sent in the 48 hours via airmail to various European destinations from Yemen. No additional devices have been found as of yet.

Meanwhile, comprehensive checks are being held at UPS and FedEx branches in US airports. Jewish facilities have also heightened security measures. It is feared that additional packages, if they indeed exist, are scattered around various airports and might already be on US oil.

Consequently, US airports as well as several European sites, have beefed up security. Checks are mainly conducted on cargo planes. Two UPS planes were checked in Philadelphia but found to contain no explosives.

Despite the MI6's involvement in recieving initial information on the terror alert, there is mounting criticism in the UK regarding the handling of the affair. The Guardian reported that initial screening checks of the UPS facility in East Midlands were inconclusive and that only the discovery of a freight bomb in Dubai prompted an additional check.

The Daily Telegraph reported that British Prime Minister David Cameron was briefed about the incident only at 4 pm GMT – more than 18 hours after US President Barack Obama was informed of the affair by adviser John Bernnan.

Al-Qaeda connection
It was reported Saturday that Dubai police said that the parcel bound for the US contained a bomb hidden in a printer cartridge and bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.

The parcel contained explosive pentaerythritol trinitrate (PETN) in a printer cartridge, police said.

"The parcel was prepared in a professional way where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden inside the printer," the statement said. "This tactic carries the hallmarks of methods used previously by terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda."

The mail bomb plot reaffirms concerns regarding Yemen as being one of the most prominent centers of terror activity in the last few years. The New York Times reported Saturday that a connection has yet to be found between the current plot and former US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who is currently in hiding in Yemen.

Awlaki is a prominent figure in al-Qaeda online videos and is considered to have inspired the Texas shootings which killed 12 soldiers, the car bomb in Times Square and the terror plot in a Detroit airplane.

Device found in Dubai

Ynet News

Synagogues Targeted in Possible Terror Plot

US president says suspicious packages from Yemen found in UK, Dubai apparently contained explosives, adds US views case as 'credible terrorist threat' and security to be increased for as long as necessary.

US President Barack Obama said Friday that suspicious packages sent from Yemen to the US apparently contained explosives, and that they were intended for Jewish institutions in Chicago.

Obama said investigators had discovered a "credible terrorist threat" against the United States and that security would be increased in response to the incident for as long as it takes. He said the parcels were bound for "two places of Jewish worship in Chicago."

Speaking at the White House, Obama said Yemen's president had pledged to cooperate in the investigation. Obama expressed suspicions that a militant group called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is behind the incident, saying the group continues to plot attacks against the United States.

The packages were found in Dubai and the United Kingdom. Obama said an initial examination has determined that "they do apparently contain explosive material."

Obama pledged US officials will spare no effort to find the source of the packages and any additional plots.

Jewish groups warned ahead of time
Michael Kotzin, vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, told Ynet Friday that synagogues and other locations associated with Judaism were asked to check their mail with additional care even before the bomb threat surfaced.

Kotzin said the first warning came regarding packages originating in Yemen, and later came warnings regarding Saudi Arabia and additional countries.

"We need to be careful on all days of the year, not just today," he said. "We remind synagogues and Jewish institutions every once in a while to be alert and aware of the dangers, and provide lectures on this issue – how to act when such information is received."

The Anti-Defamation League also stated Friday that it had been notified by law enforcement officials that Jewish institutions may be targeted soon. The league also reported mention of warnings against packages arriving from Britain, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. In response, the organization ordered Jewish facilities to remain alert.

'Terrorists were performing trial run'
One of the suspicious packages was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, about 260 km north of London. The other was discovered at a FedEx Corp facility in Dubai.

British police said an item found on the UPS plane was sent for further testing. CNN said it was an ink toner cartridge converted into a bomb.

Before Obama spoke, an FBI source had told Reuters that initial tests in Britain revealed no explosives.

In the United States, UPS planes were checked in New Jersey and Philadelphia. The Transportation Security Administration said they were searched "out of an abundance of caution."

US officials and some analysts speculated that the suspicious parcels may have been a test of cargo screening procedures and the reaction of security officials.

"One possibility, if this is terrorism related, is that this may be a trial run," one US official said.

Intelligence about the possible plot had come from an ally abroad, the official said, without elaborating.

The US Department of Homeland Security said it was stepping up aviation security measures as a result of the scare. The British government said it was "too soon to say" whether it would follow suit but was "urgently considering" what steps to take about freight coming from Yemen.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan later told reporters that the explosives "were in a form that was designed to try to carry out some type of attack," but he provided no further details.

"The forensic analysis is under way," he said, adding, "Clearly from the initial observation, the initial analysis that was done, the materials that were found in the device that was uncovered was intended to do harm."





by Reuter

The Hidden Costs of Jew-Baiting in England

by Richard Landes

London is an amazing place, full of vitality, intensity, foreign tourists and residents, a patchwork of pluralism. Talk to the average person, and nothing seems amiss: this cab driver, having driven in London for 40 years, sees no significant change in the neighborhoods he travels through; this financier sees no signs of intimidation; this shopper, this tavern-hopper, this man on the bus, lives in an interesting and relatively normal world. A superficial walk through the [Regent's] park gives the distinct sense of normality.

But talk to the Jews, and you get a different story. The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists held a conference here this week. The topic: Democratic and Legal Norms in an Age of Terror. Panels discussed everything from the Goldstone Report, to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, to "universal jurisdiction" (lawfare against Israelis brought in foreign courts). Here, in the Khalili Lecture Theatre of the SOAS (School for Oriental and African Studies), Jewish lawyers discussed a grim reality whose only public appearance on an everyday basis is the drumbeat of calumny that a boisterous elite — NGOs, journalists, academics — rain down on Israel.

Perhaps the most startling of the sessions concerned the BDS movement. Jonathan Rynhold, from the BESA Center at Bar Ilan, and Anthony Julius, author of Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England, both presented a picture of British anti-Zionist activity whose intellectual and moral foundations were profoundly irrational, a dogmatic will to stigmatize and destroy Israel that responded to no argument about proportion (what about other places?) or reason (you make no moral demands of the Palestinians). And behind that lies a much weightier volume of negative feeling, a kind of unthinking animosity that expressed itself in its most banal form when a woman explained to Julius: "We all know why the Jews are hated: you marry among yourselves and live in ghettos like Golders Green and Vienna [sic]." In so doing, she put her finger on the most widespread subtext for hostility to Jews — "they think they're the chosen people."

Daniel Eilon, an English barrister, explained to me one of the mechanisms. It isn't real anti-Semitism. In fact, most of the stuff that comes out against Israel is intellectually hopeless — phony narratives based on fantasy "facts." This is really just good old-fashioned Jew-baiting. It's saying things in all righteous innocence that you know will hurt the Jews to whom you address the criticism. The problem for the Brits (and the Europeans in general), he pointed out, is that historically, there's never been a particularly high price to pay for Jew-baiting. Now there is.

What my friend referred to with this last remark is lucidly analyzed by Robin Shepherd in his recent book, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe's Problem with Israel. The elephant in the room, of course, is radical Islam — the people who interpret being "chosen" by Allah as a charter to dominate the world and submit everyone, willingly or not, to Islam. They're the people no one dares bait; and they're the folks who take full advantage of every deference to press for more. Daily aggressions from violent gangs constantly expand the territories where the Queen's writ does not run. In tempo with the retreat of British law and enforcement, Sharia advances from internal community affairs (explicitly on the model of Jewish religious courts) towards the policing of community boundaries and claims on the state for special treatment. The British — like so many other Western nations — mainstream the extremists and marginalize the moderates. As Nick Cohen put it: "The world faces a psychotic movement and won't admit it to themselves."

A documentary filmmaker reveals a double assault on freedom of speech: on the one hand, everyone is terrified of peers calling them Islamophobes; and on the other, anyone who does something negative on Islam puts his or her life in danger. When I respond animatedly to her point, she looks around nervously and signals for me to lower my voice. How often did my British informants tell me in hushed tones about being intimidated!

News agencies send their journalists to special courses in self-defense for how to deal with hostile situations. How much of this responds to the pervasive dangers of doing journalism in Muslim countries, and how often does it come up in those areas where the Queen's writ does not run? One such journalist who works for the BBC reports that when a mob turns ugly, they are told to stand back to back, palms open, pointing down and out — a posture of non-threat, but also one of subjection.

And of course, the best protection is positive coverage. Most of the time, "but we're from the BBC" works to allay Muslim hostility: it's code for "we're on your side." But for some crowds, even that's not enough.

The result of this pervasive intimidation that comes from both peers and enemies is a body politic that feels no pain. Like a victim of CIP (congenital insensitivity to pain), the British public receives only vague hints of the assaults on its body. A widespread omerta operates in the mainstream news media, guaranteeing that many, if not most aggressions go unreported, or in a code — Asian street gangs — that only those looking for clues will notice. Aggregator sites online offer deeply disturbing collections of news items.

As a result, Brits look away while their Muslim communities are taken over by fascist zealots who enforce dress and behavior codes, who silence dissent, and who mobilize a resentful youth with violent hatreds. For these men, infidels are by definition guilty, deserving rape and lethal assault, as part of Allah's justice. Douglas Murray's study of twenty-seven Muslims, targeted by zealots, reveals the workings of a community hijacked by thugs.

The trials and tribulations of Afshan Azad, the Bengali Muslim-born actress in the Harry Potter films, beaten and threatened with death by her family, illustrate the depth of the community pressures. Her brothers' failures to bring her to heel (or kill her) endanger their lives: "We are going to get trouble from the community now. It is bad news for our safety, her safety. My younger brother is going to get harassed at college. All our family is going to be harassed by the community because of this." The tribal community rules, even in college.

So while a large and growing population falls under the grip of a Mafioso culture with an imperialist ideology of world conquest, the British look away. The "prestigious" London School of Economics disinvited Douglas Murray from speaking, lest his presence provoke violence. Paralyzed by an inability to discuss the problem, they become a train-wreck in slow motion. The lavish expenses that the government has paid out to immigrant families, which has at once increased their numbers and stilled their rage, is now run out. Budget cuts of up to 40% across the board will only exacerbate the frictions, and if the government pours money into appeasing the Muslims, they will alienate the British working class losing their benefits.

Which brings us back to Jew-baiting. As Shepherd explains in his chapter on Islam in Europe, this is a European-wide phenomenon that is directly related to the fear of criticizing Muslims. Anti-Zionism is the key extremist discourse by which jihadis radicalize communities and mobilize warriors for Allah's armies. The disturbing figures for how many British Muslims support terror, think Muslims did not commit either 9-11 or 7-7, think the law should punish people who insult Islam, and think that apostates from Islam should die should not be read the way we read political polls in the West. These minorities are the dominant voices in their communities, if only because they use their terror tactics against fellow Muslims far more readily than against outsiders.

So while their enemies advance, the British elites are like deer in the headlights, incapable of speaking up for even their own principles of free speech and tolerance. Intimidated into silence about Muslims, somehow, they find their voice in denouncing the "real" genocidal evil empire: Israel. Thus some wax eloquent, like the Methodists with their thinly-disguised, resentful supersessionism; and others wax violent, like the anti-Zionist vandals, who damaged hundreds of thousands of pounds of property and got off scott free to the cheers of a Green MP.

Of course, every sin these brave ideologues accuse Israel of committing is done a thousand-fold by the very people who generate their demonizing narrative — the radical Muslims. It is these zealots who interpret their chosenness as a warrant to rape and massacre, to dominate and humiliate infidels. They are the toxic communitarians who believe in their side right or wrong, to the death — not the Jews, who can't stop publicly beating their breasts about all their sins. Indeed, one of the mysterious factors in this madness is the role played by Jewish anti-Zionists, who, in Julius' memorable phrase, are "proud to be ashamed to be Jewish."

Instead of taking note of such sobering perspectives, Western anti-Zionists shy away from the dangerous and painful but legitimate and necessary criticism of Muslim radicals. They prefer the easy, cost-free baiting of any Jew proud enough to feel that his or her own people deserve a state. Instead of turning to the Muslims and saying "why can't you express a fraction of the self-criticism of the Zionists?" they prefer to repeat the most toxic accusations against the Jews and claim: "I'm not saying anything that Jews haven't said."

They are the true Islamophobes — afraid to criticize Islam, eager to join in its chorus of hatred.

And in this act of demission before the Islamist challenge, British opinion makers and shapers also submit to their own bullies, their own zealots who push the Jew-baiting beyond the weekend sport of the salons, into the professional arena of anti-Zionist activism. When the founders of Hamas in 1988 penned their genocidal charter that explicitly targeted all infidels, little did they suspect that within twenty years, those infidels would chant "We are Hamas!" in the streets of London. Who could hope for a more useful infidel than that?

In the European past, Jew-baiting may have seemed relatively cost-free. After all, humiliate a Jew and the worst he'll do is hector you. Sure, sometimes the sport got out of hand, and killing Jews en masse, or forcing them to convert, or kicking them out may have deeply damaged the economy and empowered repressive forces, like the Inquisition, to go after other religious dissidents. But who really noticed?

Today, however, the situation has changed dramatically because Europe doesn't just run the risk of internal failure, but getting vanquished by an implacable and merciless foe. By failing to denounce toxic Muslim communitarianism and instead adopting its shrill discourse of demonization about Jews, Brits feed the monster that devours them. If it continues apace, if the British do not make Muslim civility towards Jews the shibboleth of assimilation to a free and democratic culture, they risk losing that civil polity entirely. As always with real anti-Semites, the Jews are only their first target.

Can Britain wake up in time? And if and when it does, can it swallow the painful price of giving up its addiction to Jew-baiting? Or will it be, as some close observers think, the first country in Europe to succumb to Islamism? Walking through the delightful streets of London, watching a brilliant performance of Henry IV Part II at the reconstituted Globe Theatre, passing by a multi-cultural mass of dancers by the embankment at night, viewing the vibrant energy of the city, one has little clue to the problem.

Or is watching this joyful celebration akin to seeing a fat man with a serious cholesterol problem dine on his deep-fried fish-and-chips and wash down those tasty truffles of moral Schadenfreude that so grieve the Jews and comfort the resentful?





Richard Landes is a Professor of History at Boston University. He blogs at The Augean Stables, and maintains The Second Draft as an archival site for all matters pertaining to Pallywood and al Durah. The Second Draft has recently been reorganized and relaunched with new features. This article was published July 10, 2010 on Pajamas Media

Mohammed is Most Popular Boys' Name in England

Two most common spellings of Muslim name came in at 16th and 36th place, a total of 7,549 baby boys, making it the most popular name overall in England, Wales.

Mohammed was the most popular name for newborn baby boys in England and Wales in 2009, according to official data released Wednesday.

The name, given to 7,364 children, ended Jack's 14-year reign at number one, with Harry, Alfie and Joshua rounding out the top five in the figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

The two most common spellings of the Muslim name came in at 16th and 36th place, a total of 7,549 baby boys, making it the most popular name overall.

The most common spelling, Mohammed, was the number one name in its own right in the West Midlands region of central England which includes the city of Birmingham, and number four in London.

Olivia, meanwhile, remained the most common girls' name with 5,201 children of that name, followed by Ruby, Chloe, Emily and Sophie.

UK Court Sentences Saudi Prince to at Least 20 Years

LONDON -- A British court sentenced a Saudi prince to at least 20 years in prison Wednesday for beating and strangling one of his servants at a swank British hotel.

Justice David Bean ordered Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud to serve a minimum of 20 years to life in prison, for the brutal assault at the Landmark Hotel in London on Feb. 15.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw says the prince had abused his aide in the past and that photographs stored on a mobile phone "plainly proved" that there was a "sexual element" to the abuse.

The sensational case had featured days of lurid testimony, complete with video images of the shaven-headed prince brutally assaulting his aide in a hotel elevator.

"No one in this country is above the law," Bean said. "It would be wrong for me to sentence you either more severely or more leniently because of your membership of the Saudi royal family."

The jury had deliberated just 95 minutes before returning its verdict. The prince was convicted of both murder and a second count of grievous bodily harm with intent relating to the attack in the elevator.

Al Saud originally told police that he and Abdulaziz had been swigging champagne into the early hours of the morning, and that when he awoke at 3 p.m. he could not rouse Abdulaziz.
Jurors rejected a claim by his defense lawyer John Kelsey-Fry that the prince was guilty only of manslaughter.

Since the prince's arrest, Saudi officials have said nothing about the case, and Saudi newspapers and television have not even mentioned it, a sign of how embarrassing the trial and sentencing are for the royal family.

Media in the kingdom strictly avoid any discussion of the private lives of members of the royal family -- particularly of anything that casts them in a negative light.

The prince's grandfather is the half-brother of the current king.

Britain has no prison transfer agreement with Saudi Arabia, so there is no possibility the prince could serve his sentence there.

Shaven-headed prince brutally assaulting his aide in a hotel elevator.

Fox News