By Debbie Schlussel
Recently, I wrote about how Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily “wrote” an article, which was actually a rewrite of an exact article I’d written 5 months earlier on Barack Obama’s Nation of Islam staffers. Some of it was almost word for word, and all of it was stolen. Klein’s version was labeled, “Exclusive” and “Breaking News,” and his sleazy PR person, Maria Sliwa sent out press releases saying the same thing, even though she knew otherwise.
As I noted, Klein and his site have a long record of plagiarizing–without credit–the work of others (including mine) and representing it as his own. And Maria Sliwa has a record of enabling the same with press releases to that effect, when she knows otherwise. After I wrote the piece I got a gazillion more examples of Aaron Klein’s plagiarism sent to me.
Now he’s done it . . . again.

Memo to Aaron Klein, WND:
Imitation is the Insincerest Form of Robbery
The other day, a friend forwarded me an article “by” Klein, in the Jewish Press, about Richard Gere and a campaign commercial Gere and two extremist Palestinian leaders, Sheikh Taissir Rajab Al-Tamimi and Atallah (a/k/a Theodosios) Hanna, made for the Palestinian elections in 2005. The article sounded exactly like my 2005 column on Gere and the commercial. And whaddya know? It was my column, down to a mistake I made in it. Sure, Klein left out a few things I wrote in the column and paraphrased a few things, but it was clear, he did no research of his own. He merely regurgitated what I wrote, without a single iota of credit to me.
And his repeat of a mistake I made when I originally wrote it is telling. Aaron Klein “wrote”–as I did in my original column that he ripped off:
Problem is, the businessman, Daniel Lubetzky, is not Israeli. He’s American and South American, which he wrote me after I posted the article. I would have corrected it, but since it’s from an old template of my website to which I no longer have access, I couldn’t correct this mistake. And Aaron Klein was so lazy and so hellbent on keeping up his thievery that he stole my article in whole, including the mistake:
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL in 2005:

“One Voice,” the sponsor of Gere’s ads is . . . the invention of a sleazy, far-left Israeli businessman, Daniel Lubetzky.

AARON KLEIN’s rip-off in 2008:

Gere’s appearance on Palestinian television was sponsored by One Voice, a far-left organization run by an Israeli businessman.

SCHLUSSEL:

Hanna was fired by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate because of his open support for terrorism.

KLEIN:

Hanna was fired from his church position after being accused of directly aiding terror organizations.

And there are several other, um, “similarities” between my column and what Aaron Klein presented as his own work. Except that Klein got the year of the commercial wrong. It was from 2005, NOT 2006, as he claimed. When you’re ripping off someone else’s work, you don’t always get the facts straight, especially when you’re not quite the expert on the Middle East or even Israel that you claim to be.
Anyone who knows anything about politics in Israel, knows that Arafat died in 2004 and that the first elections after his death were in 2005, NOT 2006. They also know that–contrary to Aaron Klein’s false claims–that election was not between HAMAS and Fatah, the 2006 election was. And experts know that Tamimi and Hanna both support HAMAS, NOT Fatah, as Klein claims.
Clearly, Aaron Klein doesn’t know what he’s talking about because he’s not a real expert . . . unless it’s an “expert” in plagiarism. And he’s really not good at that either.
And it’s not just an article. I’m told this column is a rehash of some of what’s in his book, “Schmoozing With Terrorists,” which might be better titled, “Schmoozing with Plagiarism of Debbie Schlussel and Israeli Newspapers,” since I’m told by intelligence analysts in Israel and America that Aaron Klein’s entire book is plagiarism of Israeli newspapers stories and fabricated information that he made up. I believe it, since he ripped me off for it and other articles and since he’s fabricated his whole persona. For example, he markets himself as an Orthodox Jews, but isn’t one–he doesn’t keep the Jewish Sabbath, the main requirement of Orthodox Judaism.
Here is what more than one intelligence expert here and in Israel sent me about Aaron Klein:

Those of us both in private work and in the Israeli secret services constantly suck air when Aaron Klein’s name is mentioned. They all say Aaron is a nice enough young guy whom they really want to like, but he makes this all but impossible. Little that he publishes under his own name is really his own material. “Schmoozing with Terrorists” was taken straight out of Israeli newspapers, with a sprinkle from Sherut Bitachon Klali [DS: Known as “ShaBaK,” it is Israelis “General Security Service,” like the FBI, but more secretive] internal reports to add a little spice.
My sympathies on the plagiarization.

Another:

A retired top Israeli commander now working in private security consulting knows Aaron Klein fairly well. He seconds the opinions I gave you previously: friendly boy, immature, plagiarizes everything, does little original investigation and writing.

Another source:

I had an email run in with Aaron Klein a couple of years ago. I was getting increasingly turned off by his quoting terrorists of their future operational plans (which I thought was B.S. – why tell someone what you are going to do in advance?) and called him out on it, in essence that the Palestinians are blowhards and Bullshit artists. He wrote back that he found them to be more reliable then the Israelis. I wrote him back saying that I will tell the Israelis he said so. He is a self important ass.

The next time you see an Aaron Klein article or book, best to ignore it. What you’re reading is either made up . . . or flat-out stolen from someone else’s work written long ago.
The guy’s a sleazebag. And not to be believed.

By Debbie Schlussel
Yesterday, I posted a funny diagram of what is and isn’t allowed, ahem, under a saggy pants ordinance now being enforced in Flint, Michigan. And, as I said, I’m all for these ordinances. If you can’t cover up your underwear, don’t go outside.
Well, I’ve heard a lot from readers about this. Reader Bill sent this video, which I think is a very good demonstration of why we need these ordinances and why I feel for the police on this:

Apparently, the ACLU–which opposes the saggy pants ordinances–doesn’t think it’s a biggie that police have to touch criminals’, um, well, if you watched the video, you know . . . .
Another reader, a former police officer writes:

As a former cop I just thought I’d write to let you know where this mode of dress began. PRISON!!!
It started when prison staff began taking away colored hats, jackets, shirts, and bandanas from inmates who were showing they’re gang affiliation. Since they could no longer wear those items they wore colored underwear and allowed their pants to sag.
When those inmates were released they continued the tradition (and I use that word loosely) on the streets.
Of course, the wanna-be (and a lot of real life) thugs in the rap/hip-hop business immediately picked up on this mode of dress to help improve their “street-cred.” This helped it move more mainstream via the impressionable youth who listen to that form of music.
Interestingly enough, back when I was still on patrol, the baggy-saggy pants helped me out, much to the chagrin of several people I was in a foot pursuit with. It’s really hard to outrun a police officer when your pants keep slipping to your ankles as you run.

Oy.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE, 07/15/08: FOX News/NewsCorp’s Fanchon Stinger used Morning News Show as 20-minute Farrakhan Infomercial; did Pandering interview with Farrakhan at behest of Nation of Islam boyfriend, a key Farrakhan associate ****
Last night, FOX News/NewsCorp fired the unethical Muslim reporter and morning anchor, Fanchon Stinger.
As readers know, Stinger came under fire, after this site reported on her close dating and financial/asset co-mingling relationships with Rayford Jackson a/k/a Rayford Jackson Muhammad, a man at the center of an FBI investigation into bribery of the Detroit City Council in exchange for a $47 million sludge contract with a company called Synagro. It was this site that first disclosed her romantic involvement with Jackson Muhammad, that he put assets in her name, and that she had a financial interest in the Synagro sludge deal.
All of this was later reported–in the last week–in the two mainstream newspapers in Detroit, reporters from which both got much of their info from this site. But I was the driving force in getting her fired and getting the story out. They were forced to cover it because of me. And for at least the past week, a ton of media traffic–including traffic from the FOX 2 newsroom and other mainstream Detroit media sources–has been coming this way . . . to my site, to read the news here first.

Buh-Bye: FOX News/NewsCorp Finally Fires
Unethical Muslim “Reporter” Fanchon Stinger
But while the mainstream media refuse to acknowledge the person who did the real investigative work here and asked the questions they’re not asking (ie., me), that’s not the issue.
The issue is that even though Fanchon Stinger was fired, she is only the symptom, not the problem. The problem is a major newsroom in a major market infected with political correctness and corruption. As I’ve noted, the real villains here are FOX 2 General Manager Jeff Murri and FOX 2 News Director Dana Hahn. Both knew of Stinger’s relationship with Stinger–as did her fellow “Problem Solver” investigative reporters like the pseudonymmed “Scott Lewis”–and they did and said nothing.
They allowed her to report on and conduct interviews regarding the Bush-Kerry race, even though Stinger was a major contributor to the Bush campaign. They allowed her to gush over the Louis Farrakhan visit to town–and allowed not a word of criticism of vile racist and bigot Farrakhan–even though Stinger’s boyfriend, Jackson, was one of the nation’s top leaders in the Nation of Islam and a close Farrakhan associate. And they allowed Stinger to conduct a drooling, softball interview of extremely controversial Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, even though Conyers, Stinger, and Rayford Jackson were all involved in the illicit Synagro deal together.
And finally, FOX 2 News continues to send its reporters and anchors to host events of the openly pro-Hezbollah, pro-HAMAS, pro-illegal alien American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). It is a political advocacy group, and no newscast can claim it’s impartial or objective with any degree of credibility when it lends its news personnel to such an organization for the purpose of raising money to further that political agenda. It simply compromises the news operation. And as I’ve noted, at FOX 2, it has compromised the news operation, with FOX 2 personnel lying about stories they’ve done and reporting false press releases as real news.
That must end. And the only way it will end is with a full house-cleaning at the top of FOX’s Detroit news operation, and a new tightening of policies back to what would happen in a real newsroom–no outside business activities and clients for the well-compensated FOX News on-air staff, strict enforcement of its policy banning campaign contributions, and no hosting of events for advocacy and political groups.
Until that happens, the firing of Fanchon Stinger is only the killing of a single cancer cell in a body infected with the metastasized disease.

By Debbie Schlussel
Either Detroit is taking it’s nickname, “Motown,” a little too seriously (even though very few cars are actually made within the city limits), or it shows us why this People’s Republic of Kwame is a failure and will continue to go down the drain.
If you want to beat high gasoline prices and ride your bike, you might want to avoid it in Detroit. And not for the usual reasons: ie., it’s Detroit–you’ll be killed or beaten. Nope.
You see the City of Detroit has decided in its infinite anti-wisdom to require you to get your bike–that’s right, your bicycle–licensed, for which you must pay. And if you don’t, the city is now ticketing you, for which you must pay even more:

In a city that has one of the nation’s highest crime rates, Detroit cops have been given the order to start cracking down on unregistered bicycles.

Progress: Detroit Catches Up to the 19th Century

Starting Aug. 7, officers will start issuing $55 tickets if bikes are unregistered. The dollar-a-year licenses are good for five years. . . .
The ordinance requiring bicycle registration, rarely enforced, has been on the books since 1964.

Brilliant. Very “green” city–except that the only “green” in Detroit is what the Detroit City Council is bribed with.
No word on whether or not toddlers will be ticketed if they forgot to license their tricycles.
Well, at least now they are assured that Motown will never become Biketown.
Priorities.

By Debbie Schlussel
Is “Traitor“–the movie coming out in late August a/k/a movie hell, where all bad movies are sent–yet another movie, which blames America for Islamic terrorists? It looks like it based on the trailer (below) and the movie synopsis.
What do you think? It stars Don Cheadle as the U.S.-trained Islamic terrorist and Jeff Daniels as some shadow operative/U.S. government handler of Cheadle. (Full disclosure: For several years, I was a celebrity golfer at Daniels’ charity golf tournament benefitting his Purple Rose Theater. Another full disclosure: I stink at golf.)

When strait [sic] arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle). A mysterous figure with a web of connections to terrorist organizations, Horn has a knack for emerging on the scene just as a major operation goes down. The task force links Horn to a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, but a tangle of contradictoy evidence emerges, forcing Clayton to question whether his quarry is a disaffected former military operative – or something far more complicated. Obsessed with discovering the truth, Clayton tracks Horn across the globe as the elusive ex-soldier burrows deeper and deeper into a world of shadows and intrigue.

As always, I will, G-d-willing, review it when it comes out. Stay tuned.

By Debbie Schlussel
In case you’re keeping score of only the scant few stories I’ve posted on today, this moderate, peaceful religion, loyal to the country in which it resides scored one Hezbo Chicago O’Hare airport worker who tried to smuggle arms to what he thought were Islamic terrorists, and now two Israeli Bedouin (a wandering/nomadic group) Arabs (I love how they identify, suddenly, as “Israelis” when they get caught, but other than that are “Palestinians”) helping Al-Qaeda:

Two residents of the southern Israeli town of Rahat were indicted Wednesday for allegedly being al-Qaeda operatives.
Taher and Omar Abu-Sakut, who are registered members of the Islamic Movement, were arrested following a joint Shin Bet, police and Border Guard operation that took place in June.

Taher and Omar Abu-Sakut: Latest Al-Qaeda Terrorists In Israel

According to Shin Bet records, Taher abu-Sakut’s interest in radical Islam began in 2006, when he became involved with the Islamic Movement. Soon after that, the Shin Bet says, he began surfing al-Qaeda-affiliated websites, as well as sites calling for the destruction of Israel.
According to the indictment, he then contacted several al-Qaeda operatives and provided them information about the location of various IDF bases and strategic facilities in Israel, in a bid to promote the terror organization’s plans to stage an attack in Israel.
Taher reportedly gave his handlers information about the location of the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport, and various routes in the West Bank, through which terrorists might be able to infiltrate Israel.
Taher and Omar Abu-Sakut were arrested in early June and reportedly confessed to the charges.
The two were arraigned at the Beersheba District Court. The indictment against them includes charges of affiliation with a known terror organization, aiding and abetting an enemy at war, and providing the enemy with intelligence intended to undermine national security.

It’s not the first time. We know that in 2002 and again in 2006, Al-Qaeda fighters were spotted on the ground in the so-called West Bank and in Ramallah.
But, it’s important to keep track. Our fight is also Israel’s fight, and Israel’s fight is also our fight. We have a common enemy, and our common enemy hates us both.
And another thing: Al-Qaeda is clearly building a base in Israel and in the so-called territories. Condi Clueless’ and Bush’s plan to give Palestinians more land will only help them enlarge their base and gain momentum and members, not stop it.
Remember, these Al-Qaeda terrorists are the types Israel is expected to make “peace” with. Yeah, pieces.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE, 07/11/08: Disturbing Video on why Saggy Pants Gotta Go, and also more info on Where the Saggy Pants Absurdity Came From ****
Don’t Do Crack.
Flint, Michigan police are enforcing laws against saggy pants and exposed underwear–the common “sartorial splendor” of the hip-hop gangsta posse. And I say, kudos to them. I’m tired of seeing it. If I really wanted to see men’s underwear, I’d go to a Joe Boxer fashion show, where hot (but gay) models are modeling it.
There is a reason it’s called UNDERwear. Duh. The only thing I like about people who walk about in this “fashion” is that it’s an overt signal the dummies in America are telegraphing to the rest of us, marking their irreversible brain cell-challenged condition. You walk around like that, and you ain’t a memba of the Einstein Crips.
So, now, the ACLU is swooping in to protect this overexposure as “freedom of expression.” But in the meantime, there’s this great diagram describing the various levels of sag and what is and isn’t allowed under the law. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t meant to be funny.

Insert Your Own Double Entendre Here
Read the full story on the City of Flint versus the male contingent of SAG. And in the meantime, meet the ladies auxiliary of SAG, the SAG Fan Club–Senita Abrams and Tia Cotton, who are SagHags a/k/a likers of the sag, and therefore, have declared to us their same level of taste and intelligence as the SAG members.

Saggy Love: Senita Abrams & Tia Cotton Think the Look is Sag-alicious

By Debbie Schlussel
I love this video, but I hope their idea of “fighting back” is not the Jimmuh Carter bicycle solution. Try riding that in a suit to work for thirty miles on a 90-degree summer day or on a 9-degree winter day in the sleet. Nuh-uh.
My solution is making THIS affordable to the masses. 220 miles per charge, less than 2 cents per mile, and 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds, baby!

By Debbie Schlussel
On this site, I’ve repeatedly decried the fact that we don’t screen airport workers at all. They don’t go through security the way passengers do. This allowed airport workers to successfully smuggle arms and drugs on board planes without detection. And it’s a policy rife with opportunities for Muslim airport workers to take advantage of, to our peril.
Now, my stated fears have come to fruition. And if we don’t both screen these people and profile Muslims out of such jobs, we will get more and more of this:

It might have looked like easy money to O’Hare International Airport worker Riad Skaff: $26,500 to help smuggle night-vision goggles, rifle scopes and cash aboard Paris-bound jets.

But the payment was part of a federal sting operation that netted Skaff, 69, a two-year prison sentence handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall.
The judge brushed aside the claim by defense attorney Robert G. Clarke that Skaff was an unsophisticated laborer who didn’t belong in the same category with big-time international arms smugglers.
“I don’t see this offense as trivial – I see this as a very serious offense,” the judge said. She dismissed the claim that Skaff was merely trying to make money and did not intend to jeopardize national security by agreeing to help smuggle military scopes and goggles.
Skaff is a naturalized American citizen born in Lebanon. He formerly was employed by a company that services Air France jetliners.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in January 2007.
Federal prosecutors said he pocketed a total of $26,500 from an undercover ICE agent in return for agreeing to smuggle night-vision scopes, goggles, a cell phone jammer and $396,000 in cash, aboard three outbound planes.
Skaff pleaded guilty to all nine counts in the indictment.
His attorney lobbied for a sentence of probation with no prison time, saying that Skaff was in “delicate health and he is of very old age.” He said his client’s ailments include diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and swelling of the legs and feet.
The judge said she might have given Skaff a stiffer sentence if not for his health woes.

Kudos to the ICE agents involved in the sting, who showed up the incompetent TSA and its obvious vulnerability. This time it was, fortunately, ICE agents. Next time, it could be Hezbollah.
FYI, Skaff, is a Shi’ite Muslim surname, common to Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon. And apparently, this guy is not different from the rest of his family.

By Debbie Schlussel
I like to think of myself as a top opinion journalist, writer, and blogger, not just a top female opinoin journalist, writer, and blogger. Regardless, it’s an honor to report that this site, DebbieSchlussel.com is not only among–but toward the top–of the TOP 100 female-authored blogs on the Internet.
Enkay Blog–a site about making money online by blogging–compiled the list of the top 100 female bloggers, according to traffic, pageview, and link rankings. While this site is #14, there are a few above me on the list who do get less traffic than this site does. Enkay relies on Alexa, which has a weird formula that doesn’t always accurately rank (and undervalues) my actual traffic as recorded on SiteMeter.

As Maxwell Smart would say, “Missed it by that much.”
Michelle Malkin is the top female blogger, and our friend, the great Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs is lucky #7.
Thanks to Enkay for compiling the list. While it’s an honor to be #14, not good enough. But to paraphrase Avis rent-a-car, “We’re #14, We Try Harder.”
Also, don’t forget that this site is the 54th most popular political blog, according to Wikio, the site which ranks blogs throughout the Internet by their incoming links in the last 120 days. Again, not good enough (but I’ll take it . . . for now). I think I’d be ranked high for film blogs, too, but you can only be in one category.
Thanks, readers and fellow bloggers and columnists, for reading, linking to, and spreading the word about the content of this site.