THE BROTHERS BEDIER OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
by Bernice Lipkin
Part 1: The CBS Video
Click to watch the CBS video
As one response to the Egypt Army removing Mohammed Morsi from the presidency, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) set up two encampments in Cairo to house MB demonstrators. The atmosphere was hardly peaceful. The inhabitants refused to disband. They refused to negotiate with the new administration or compromise any of their demands. As David D. Kirkpatrick described it:[1]
"The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist group behind Mr. Morsi, reiterated its rejection of violence but called on Egyptians across the country to rise up in protest, and its supporters marched toward the camps to battle the police with rocks and firebombs. Clashes and gunfire broke out even in well-heeled precincts of the capital far from the protest camps, leaving anxious residents huddled in their homes and the streets all but emptied of life. Angry Islamists attacked at least a dozen police stations around the country, according to the state news media, killing more than 40 police officers."And they lashed out at Christians, attacking or burning seven churches, according to the interior minister. Coptic Christian and human rights groups said the number was far higher."
The army didn't wait until the situation was irretrievable. They declared a state of emergency, imposed a curfew, curtailed north-south train service and gave the police full power to act. On August 14, 2013, the police cracked down on the demonstrators. Kirkpatrick wrote:
"the scale — lasting more than 12 hours, with armored vehicles, bulldozers, tear gas, birdshot, live ammunition and snipers — and the ferocity far exceeded the Interior Ministry's promises of a gradual and measured dispersal."
Egypt's Health Ministry said 235 civilians died and almost a thousand were wounded across Egypt.
The next day, August 15, 2013, CBS News aired a video entitled "Families search for loved ones among Egypt's dead." The caption reads, "One day after the violent crackdown on supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, the death toll continues to mount. Hundreds of bodies have been lined up at a Cairo mosque. Charlie D'Agata reports from Cairo."
Watch it casually and the presentation seems fair — the content is indeed distressing. Unless you have information not available in the video, you probably won't realize this distressing video narrated by a pleasant-sounding man who seems to have no personal involvement is very clever, well-constructed propaganda, First, you need to know who Ahmed Bedier is; and second, you need to know about his brother Amir.
Look at it critically, and the video's slant is almost immediately apparent. It isn't just that D'Agata uses phrases like "Lockdown...Curfew....Police can use lethal force to protect themselves ...". What makes this slanted reporting is that the narrator didn't use pejorative terms about the violence used by those in the Muslim Brotherhood or sympathetic to it. In fact, he ignored the murders, acts of terrorism and arson committed by pro-Brotherhood loyalists, and sanctioned by the Muslim Brotherhood, both when the Muslim Brotherhood was in control and after Morsi was removed from office. As part of the violence this time, Islamists attacked police stations around the country, and in Cairo managed to heave a heavy police van 50 feet over the railings of a bridge, and threw rocks at the police. And, as usual when they "demonstrate", they torched Coptic Christian churches.
Nor were the precipitating causes for banishing Morsi mentioned, yet they caused much suffering. As Arnold Ahlert wrote:[2]
"Mohamed Morsi has moved swiftly to consolidate his power. He has suppressed the media and the arts, and issued an edict boosting his power and sidelining the judiciary in the process. He removed key officers from the Egyptian military, and allowed Muslim Brotherhood loyalists to rewrite the nation's constitution. Attacks on Coptic Christian churches has occurred with alarming frequency, and women also face a dark future in a nation where sexual harassment is endemic, and Muslim Brotherhood members condemned a UN report that gave judges, rather than husbands, authority in cases of divorce while granting women full rights to file legal complaints against their husbands for rape or sexual harassment. As a result of his overreach, there is massive opposition to Morsi's oppressive regime. A liberal secular group known as the Rebels has collected 15 million signatures on petitions calling for Morsi's impeachment."
Instead, D'Agata pinned down the take-home message this way: "Inside the mosque, we saw the human face of the suffering caused by yesterday's brutal crackdown." Fair enough. But why not point out that the Muslim Brotherhood people had been occupying Nahda Square and sit-in encampments for some six weeks, refusing to leave and refusing to negotiate?
In the next scene, we see pictures of the rows and rows of the dead wrapped in plastic and distressed relatives looking for family members. Then D'Agata casually introduces Ahmed Bedier as an American from Florida in Cairo on a family visit, here to attend a wedding. We learn that Ahmed's brother Amir "the father of two young girls was among the protesters. This morning, Ahmed came to the mosque and saw Amir was also one of the victims."
At this point, the video shows us a photo of Amir Bedier sitting on a fence, wearing ordinary, casual clothes. Ah... the chat with Ahmed isn't casual. The tape has been edited — and Ahmed, despite his grief, just happened to have brought along some snaps of the family. At this point, I notice something that makes me suspicious. Amir is bearded. It is too often a sign that someone has become a Salafist, a religious purist, whose mission is to make Sharia law the law of the entire world. That doesn't match the western style of the brother living in Florida. Hmm.
Ahmed is crying, "He [Amir] was too young to die..." To gain possession of the body, Ahmed tell us he would have to sign that his brother died of natural causes. He is angry. He points out, "there was an obvious gunshot wound to his neck."
The CBS reporter tells us that many others have said the same thing. It is unlikely that he speaks Arabic, so I assume he was told this by Ahmed or someone else.
Part 2: A Pictorial History of Ahmed Bedier
On August 19 and 20, 2013, Tom Trento's TV show[3] devoted extensive time to Ahmed Bedier, asking: Is Ahmed Bedier an agent for the international Muslim Brotherhood? This below is Trento's initial report. It is in essence a pictorial biography of Ahmed Bedier.
QUESTIONS AND FACTS ABOUT AHMED BEDIER
Why would Ahmed Bedier appear on several international news shows to display the body of his deceased brother in a mosque in Egypt?
During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution Ahmed and his brother Amir were involved in the Muslim Brotherhood overthrow of President Mubarak. In fact, Amir was shot in the face December 5, 2012 and almost killed during that uprising. [Joe Kaufman[4] writes that over the years, Amir has been involved in several Hamas-front organizations. His brother "Amir became very involved in Egypt's turmoil, so much so that he wound up getting shot in the face outside Mubarak's executive office, where many clashes between police and rioters took place." Why would Ahmed broadcast that his brother was dead because of the anti-Muslim Brotherhood forces? Describing his dead brother as a man of peace who didn't come to riot but to help the injured was a way to create sympathy for the brother, for Ahmed, and the side on which they fought: the Muslim Brotherhood.]
When Ahmed Bedier returned from Egypt in 2011 he made TWO visits to the White House at the same time President Obama was assisting the Muslim Brotherhood in taking over Egypt. Who did he visit and what was his purpose?
Currently Ahmed Bedier runs United Voices
which is his political organizing
front group for Muslim Brotherhood policies In
this capacity Bedier has tremendous influence
over many US politicians, including the
Democrat leadership in Florida.
The Critically Important Question For All Americans: Is Ahmed Bedier An Agent For The Muslim Brotherhood?
NB: Notwithstanding our serious ideological differences with Ahmed Bedier, The United West extends our condolences to the Bedier family on their lose of Amir.
Part 3: Why The CBS Report Is Propaganda And Not Straight Reporting
- Ahmed Bedier was introduced as an American on holiday, visiting his family. Nothing was said about his terrorist connections to CAIR, a Hamas front; or his advocacy for Florida terrorist, Sami Al-Arian. Nothing was said about his participating, as a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the overthrow of President Mubarak.
- There was no mention of the fact that Amir Bedier was a terrorist. He was portrayed as someone who was there to help and was shot by the repressive government. He was described by his brother as a man of peace, which makes it appear the Government's shooting him was a wanton crime. In an article entitled "Family Stain Removal",[5] Joe Kaufman writes, "On December 5, 2012, Amir Bedier, a Cairo accountant, was shot in the face outside the Egyptian presidential palace. His older brother, Ahmed, a Muslim activist from Florida, lauded him as a hero for risking his life to help others. Unfortunately for him, the man he was spinning as a hero is a follower of Osama bin Laden. When the information about this was exposed, within days, the two moved to delete the evidence. Yet, thanks to computer screenshots of the offenses and a need for the public to be educated on the matter, the information lives on."
- Accusing the Government of forcing people to say their relatives, dead by gun shot, had died natural deaths is incendiary. It is possible that it is true. But Amir's death is not evidence. Ahmed Bedier talked angrily and with righteous indignation about the Government refusing to release the Amir's body unless he signed that Amir died of natural causes. He said "there was an obvious gunshot wound to his neck." He didn't mention that there was already a gunshot wound in Amir's neck since December 2012, when Amir Bedier was almost killed when he attacked Government forces. He was shot in the face and the bullet lodged in his neck. It was not removed. It is improbable that Amir was shot in December and again in August, and both times in the same spot (Ahmed had talked of one gunshot wound). More likely, if he were shot in the neck both in December and August, there would be two different gunshot wounds in the neck. If that were the case, I don't think Ahmed could have resisted telling the reporter that the Government shot Amir two different times, both times aiming at the neck. Most likely, Ahmed coldbloodedly used his brother's old gunshot wound to stir up anger against the military government.[6]
- The CBS narrator seemed to see the government's actions in black and white terms, with the military government as all black. If so, it is unlikely that he knows much about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Stealth Jihad in the States, A few minutes with Google, he'd know Ahmed Bedier has been a leader in the USA of front groups for Muslim terrorism over the years — not exactly your typical Egyptian who came to the mosque looking for dead relatives. Did Ahmed suggest the interview? Did someone at CBS set it up? It was certainly disingenuous portraying Bedier as an ordinary tourist visiting the family.
End Notes
[1] David D, Kirkpatrick, August 15, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
[2] Arnold Ahlert, June 26, 2013,
frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/defending-an-islamofascist-with-u-s-troops/
[3] '; Part 1, "Secret Agent Man," is
at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_uhTx3V_9Q;
Part 2 is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY3obyjEffA/;
Part 3 is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg_qaxgfFiE/.
Tom Trento is the Director of The United West.
Contact him by email at tom@theunitedwest.org.
TrentoVision airs every day Monday through
Friday at 5-6pm, (E) and is simulcast on a
50,000 watt radio station in South Florida and
on the internet, worldwide. The radio
broadcast goes from north Miami to Orlando and
can be heard on: WNN-1470am -
http://wwnnradio.com/.
GET "I HEART
RADIO" FOR COVERAGE WORLDWIDE
http://www.iheart.com/ (search for WNN, south
Florida).
The Live Internet broadcast
can be watched worldwide on
www.trentovision.tv.
[4] The complete story is entitled "All In The Islamist-CAIR
Family, and was written by Joe Kaufman. It
appeared May 30, 2013 and is archived at
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joe-kaufman/ahmed-bediers-egyptian-family-jihad/.
[5] Joe Kaufman, June 14, 2013,
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joe-kaufman/ahmed-bediers-al-qaeda-family-stain-removal/
[6] In the video of the Trento TV show,
June 18, 2013,
http://solsticewitch13.blogspot.com/2013/06/ahmed-bedier-floridas-top-muslim-has-al.html
Bernice Lipkin is managing editor of Think-Israel. This article was submitted August 27, 2013 and is archived as http://www.think-israel.org/lipkin.bedierbrothers.html
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