Official Sept. 11 memorial called Obama 'whitewash'

The "official" memorial on Sunday for the nearly 3,000 victims of radical Islamists on Sept. 11, 2001, will be nothing more than a "whitewash" of the enemy trying to bring America down, so another event is planned, and at that one, the truth will be told, according to one organizer.

Pamela Geller, of Atlas Shrugs and a key leader in planning Sunday's second annual Freedom Rally at 3 p.m. at Park Place and West Broadway, told WND today tens of thousands, including first responders and members of the clergy, are expected to be in attendance.

Get your autographed copy of Pamela Geller's brand-new book, "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance."

The focal point will not be obfuscated, either, by high-sounding calls to "service" and advocacy for "tolerance," she warned.

"If we don't understand who wants to destroy our country, our way of life and civilization, how can we possibly be able to defeat them," she asked.

The event is being assembled by her American Freedom Defense Initiative, and its Stop Islamization of America Program, as well as Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch.

"We must show the jihadists we are unbowed in the defense of freedom," she said.

Back when she was being taught about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an event that brought the U.S. into World War II and eventual victory over both the Japanese and German behemoths, she said, there wasn't much discussion about either tolerance or service projects.

"I was taught about a resolve, a united America that by 10 years later had defeated the Japanese," she said. "Ten years after [the 9/11 attacks] you would think we lost the war. We've adopted the Muslim narrative."

The official memorial event in New York has been announced, but officials have confirmed it will not include members of the clergy and families of the first responders who died along with those they were trying to help were not invited, among other actions that leave an unwelcome flavor for those concerned about the U.S.

Geller told WND that one of the conclusions of the 9/11 commission assigned to review the attack found that a failure of "imagination" contributed to the success of the Muslim attackers.

"I posit that it's a failure of information. What we're clearly seeing is a whitewash of 9/11. ... Nine-eleven is not a day of 'service.' That's just a way of distracting from the message, the mourning the remembrance," she said.

She specifically cited Barack Obama, who said only days ago that "folks across the country – in all 50 states – will come together, in their communities and neighborhoods, to honor the victims of 9/11 and to reaffirm the strength of our nation with acts of service and charity."

He noted, "In Minneapolis, volunteers will help restore a community center. In Winston-Salem, N.C., they'll hammer shingles and lay floors to give families a new home. In Tallahassee, Fla., they'll assemble care packages for our troops overseas and their families here at home. In Orange County, Calif., they'll renovate homes for our veterans.

"There are so many ways to get involved, and every American can do something. To learn more about the opportunities where you live, just go online," he said.

Author Pamela Geller

That message, however, is a disservice to the nation and a distraction from the real point: that Muslim radicals attacked the U.S. and the same agenda is driving nations even today to create problems for America, Geller said.

"There is an enemy who is very much at war with us. We're in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the president never articulates why," she said.

"I'm deeply disturbed. ... This is part of the stealth jihad, the whitewashing of Islamic jihad," she said.

The issue is that the nation, and its centers of power, were targeted – the Pentagon for the military, New York for the financial interests and either the Capitol or the White House (apparently targeted by Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania) for the political system. All were in the bull's-eye of radical Islamists and such an attack needs an appropriate response, she said.

"The crew and passengers on Flight 93 ... that was the first American response [to the attacks]," she said. "A group of regular, average Americans wrestled control of the airplane. They took that plane and took it down."

Now, she said, "People need to know there will be patriots standing at Ground Zero."

Additional focal points will be to try to halt a project that has plans to put a mosque on the scene of one of the attacks during 9/11, as well as on an "anti-Semitic" Durban conference in the United Nations, she said.

Speakers at the really will include Alexander and Maureen Santora, who lost their son Christopher; Sally Regenhard, whose son was killed, and Nelly Braginsky, whose son Alexander died, among many others.

In a WND column by Jim Fletcher, Geller explained that the circumstance of denying culpability and using soft-sounding words to describe a brutal and bloody terror attack is one step toward the Islamization of the U.S.

"Under Shariah [Muslim religious law}, you cannot insult Islam, you cannot criticize Islam, you cannot defame Islam. And so this is what you witness with the media: I mean, they will not criticize Islam or offend Islam. Now, they have no problem offending Christianity or Judaism, so whether they are aware that they are being Shariah-complaint or not, they are!"

She also reveals in her new book, "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance," the Justice Department alone has some 14,100 documents – not just pages but entire documents – that pertain to government "outreach" to Muslims.

"This is astounding. I made a fairly narrow request, narrowed down to specific groups and carefully defined activity that the Civil Rights Division doesn't even have direct jurisdiction over – 'Muslim Outreach' – and they come up with 14,100 matching documents. A knowledgeable Justice Department insider told me: 'You couldn't generate 14,000 pages of documents if you asked for communications with lenders or apartment or hotels as part of the Housing Section enforcement activities. There are very few things in Civil Rights that would generate 14,000 pages of anything. It has got to be a treasure trove of information,'" she wrote.

It was the office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that confirmed there will be no clergy allowed at the city's Sunday observance of the 10th anniversary of the slaughter of innocent victims.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum said the precedent was "disconcerting."

"It is important to allow clergy to attend and take part in the memorial intended to bind the wounds of a still healing nation," he told The New American.

The decision also drew a sharply negative reaction from members of the evangelical community.