WhatFinger


Dr. Richard Benkin

Dr. Richard L. Benkin is a human rights activist who most often finds himself battling America’s and Israel’s enemies. He is the foremost advocate fighting to stop the ethnic cleansing of Hindus by Islamists and their fellow travelers in Bangladesh. He earlier secured the release of an anti-jihadi journalist and stopped an anti-Israel conference at an official Australian statehouse. For more information, go to InterfaithStrength.com orForcefield.

Most Recent Articles by Dr. Richard Benkin:

Muslim Zionist, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, harassed by Bangladeshi Intelligence

Dhaka, Bangladesh—The Bangladeshi government resumed its harassment of pro-peace journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, despite repeated promises not to. Intelligence agents have been staking out his house the“past few days,” according to neighbors; and the family cornered a man insisting that he was from Bangladesh’s DGFI intelligence service.
- Thursday, June 4, 2009

Fawning Media will Ignore Obama’s Pakistan Disaster

The Obama Administration continues to say all the “correct” things about Pakistan and its fight against the Taliban. Yet, knowledgeable observers in South Asia give the country no more than twelve months to stave off the terror group’s inevitable takeover of that nuclear Islamic Republic.
- Monday, May 11, 2009

Obama domestic and foreign policy two sides of the same coin

imageThe Taliban are cutting through Pakistan like a knife through butter; the Pakistani government has responded by ceding parts of the country to the terrorists and ignoring the extensive Talibanization of its intelligence service, military, and bureaucracy. David Kilcullen, former adviser General David Petraeus, recently said that Pakistan could collapse within six months; and a February report from a task force chaired by no less than former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry said: “We are running out of time to help Pakistan change its present course toward increasing economic and political instability, and even ultimate failure.”
- Thursday, April 16, 2009

Those Wacky Moderate Taliban

Delhi, India. United States President Barack Hussein Obama unveiled his much awaited South Asian strategy in a globally televised speech last night (Indian time). Today many Indians told me, as one put it, that Obama “lived up to his middle name by showing the face of a pro-Pakistan US policy.” A critical component of that policy is to find “moderate Taliban” with whom the United States and its allies can negotiate a peace.
- Monday, March 30, 2009

Maybe I’m just dumb, but “Smart Power” makes no sense to me.

Perhaps the Obama-Clinton concept of Smart Power is just too sophisticated for my limited conservative brain. For there is nothing smart about it, and it seems like code for avoiding the use of any kind of power. The first tip off came from the fact that it is winning high praise among those who have long detested any manifestation of US power: the Europeans and the UN. The second tip off is that the earliest manifestations of Smart Power could not have been dumber.
- Monday, March 23, 2009

Obama’s inexperience deadly in South Asia

imageMarch 20, 2009 (Kolkata, India). While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still congratulating the Pakistani government for “resolving its crisis,” by which she means an internal political spat; the real crisis is only getting worse. The Taliban continues its march through Pakistan, imposing Sharia law and persecuting non-Muslims as it does, while President Barack Obama continues to happily search for the “moderate Taliban” among them. And that’s not all.
- Friday, March 20, 2009

Clinton Puts US Head in Pakistani Sand

imageRudrapur, India. If Americans (or anyone else) needed proof that our government is hopelessly lost in South Asia, this morning’s Indian papers provide all the confirmation they need. The article in question featured a beaming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praising the Pakistanis for “themselves resolving [their] difficulties.”
- Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Finding ‘Moderate Radicals’, Barack Obama style

imageThe words we use are important, and each has its own specific meaning. So when the Obama Administration says that it is open to dealing with “moderate Taliban,” people should ask what in the world it means. The Taliban is by definition a radical organization that is not about to give on its maximalist demand of imposing Sharia law wherever it attains power. It is in its very essence contrary to everything we believe in as Americans. When the US President, who considers himself a master of words, speaks about moderate radicals, he needs to be asked, “Are you crazy?”
- Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury Attacked by Goons

imageDhaka, Bangladesh—At 10 a.m. today, local time, internationally-acclaimed journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, was attacked as he was working in the office of his newspaper, Weekly Blitz, by “a gang of thugs” claiming to be from Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League. I spoke by telephone with Choudhury as he awaited medical treatment for eye, neck, and other injuries suffered in the attack. The renewed violence marks the first against him since he was abducted by Bangladesh’s dreaded Rapid Action Battalion a year ago.
- Sunday, February 22, 2009

Freedom Under Attack in India

image“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars but in ourselves.” When historians look back on our era and wonder how a relatively small group of Islamist radicals controlled the international agenda for great countries across the globe, they will ask why we failed to heed those words that William Shakespeare wrote four centuries earlier. They might also reprise the equally pertinent words of the cartoon character Pogo:
- Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Are my Sources Better than CNN’s

My sources of news and information must be so much better than those of the major news media because I keep coming across things that they do not have. The most recent item was the death of an Islamic clergyman this week in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Bangladesh, by the way, is the world’s third largest Islamic-majority country and a battleground between radical and moderate Islamic forces. What happens there is of more than marginal interest.
- Sunday, February 8, 2009

A Small Victory Down Under

imageAn anti-Israel conference scheduled to be held in an official Australian state building was canceled after a small group of dedicated individuals revealed the conference leader’s anti-Semitic motives. Maqsood Alshams, an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, planned the conference to debate the issue of charging Israel with war crimes for its recent actions in Gaza. Since arriving Down Under in the 1990s, Alshams had become a darling of the Australian left and became known as a “human rights” advocate. It is within that context that spews his relentless anti-Israel venom.
- Saturday, January 31, 2009

Obama-led Regional Solution for South Asia Should Scare the Heck out of Us

For many conservatives, the election of Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the United States gave cause for concern on many fronts. But perhaps the area for which Obama had the least experience and espoused the most dangerous ideas was that of foreign policy and in particular, the way he would approach international conflicts involving radical Islamists and their supporters.
- Saturday, December 27, 2008

Are Today’s would-be Peacemakers Really Blessed?

“Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) truly are inspiring words. Especially at this time of year we hear sermons and pious statements from religious and secular leaders on that very theme. Indeed, in light of the recent carnage in Mumbai, India, these words are particularly poignant. And what could be wrong with making peace? Nothing; so long as we understand that peace is not the mere cessation of hostilities; that peace without justice is a chimera; that a peace which does not address the difficult issues underlying the conflict is a temporary truce at best that actually encourages more war. Unfortunately, our contemporaries hunger for peace so terribly that our would-be peacemakers ignore these important distinctions with alacrity.
- Saturday, December 13, 2008

Causes of Mumbai Terror; Potential Reaction

Chicago, USA—Many journalists have referred to the recent Mumbai terror attacks as “India’s 9/11.” Noted anti-terrorist and human rights expert on South Asia, Dr. Richard Benkin, has been warning about the terrorist threat in India for years. “On my last trip there,” he said. “There was a terrorist attack or counter-terrorist action every day. The carnage in Mumbai was new only in the attention it received.”
- Sunday, November 30, 2008

Just what we Need, More Bias from USA Today

Once upon a time, people believed that newspapers maintained a firewall between news and editorials. The first was governed by the big “W’s,” which confined the articles to reporting What, When, Where, and Who. Only on the editorial page were readers to find the editors’ or individuals’ opinions, and they were identified as such. Perhaps it never existed in reality. Perhaps a pristine pure reporting of the news is not even possible, given the role of editorial decisions about what is and what is not included in newspapers. Even so, today’s news media go well beyond the inevitable judgments made by individual editors who must determine what information goes into the limited space at their disposal.
- Friday, November 21, 2008

What Happened to Border Control?

imageEven before the US economic crisis pushed all other issues out of the recent Presidential election, an issue that many thought would be a dominant one mysteriously dropped out of the public dialogue: illegal immigration and border control. Not only is that curious but dangerous as well. Most of the Democratic leaders who will try to shape US policy over the next four years have stated their preference for the sort of “comprehensive” immigration reform that a massive popular action defeated in the Senate last year. During the primaries, candidate Barack Obama charged the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement with “terrorizing” people when they crack down on illegal immigrants. The subsequent silence about this during the campaign, has given Obama and his allies a sense of entitlement to affect their agenda even though it is at odds with the sentiments of most Americans. In an August 2008 Rasmussen poll, 69 percent of Americans said that border enforcement is more important than legalizing aliens and only 14 percent thought the government is doing enough to secure the borders. The survey also showed that 56 percent of Americans favor an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform with no path to citizenship for illegal aliens.
- Monday, November 17, 2008

Fundamentalist Muslim wants Bangladeshi Government to end its ban on travel to Israel

Kazi Aziz HuqMeet Kazi Aziz Huq. While many Bangladeshis only whisper their support for anti-Islamist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, he shouts his! Kazi Aiz Huq has written to countless members of the government, calling the charges against Shoaib false and demanding that they be withdrawn. Almost alone in his country, he has sided publicly with Shoaib in calling on the government to end its ban on travel to Israel. He helped found the multi-religious Human Rights Forum, with a Hindu chairman, one of its goals being “the security and rights of the religious and ethnic minorities of” South Asia. And as such, they have unequivocally condemned Islamist violence against Bangladeshi Hindus and Christians, even joining forces with us in opposing these attacks and government inaction.
- Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Threats against Muslim Hero all too Common

Salah Uddin Shoaib ChoudhuryPicture the following scenario. You live in a country that long ago declared itself a “people’s republic” with Islam as its official religion. Although you are a Muslim, you have openly declared yourself to be a “Muslim Zionist” and are known for advocating relations with Israel and other positions that are very unpopular with the Islamic radicals who have accrued considerable power in your country. For your stance, you have been persecuted, jailed and tortured, your family harassed and your brother beaten, your place of business first bombed and later taken over by a mob that was allowed to do so with impunity. Earlier this year, a group known for its human rights violations took you into its custody and it required nothing short of an international outcry to force them to release you. Now, you find yourself on trial for “sedition, treason, and blasphemy” and could receive the death penalty (or more likely a very long prison term) if convicted.
- Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Obama Sides with Islamists in Choudhury Case

imageBarack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has touted himself as a friend to the oppressed, as a politician who stands up for justice and human rights. This is a cornerstone of his campaign to the American people. It’s easy enough, however, to define oneself in whatever way one wants; especially when no one in the media challenges you on it. The real test of moral courage is how one acts—not just talks—in real-life situations. And in the one concrete instance when the Illinois senator was called upon to stand up for justice, he was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Barack Obama demonstrated a level of moral cowardice unmatched by anyone in either the US House or Senate.
- Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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