Former CBS News president Richard Salant (1961 - 64 and 1966 - 79) explained the major media's role: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." ...and to this very day most Americans haven't noticed they're being brained washed! ~ N. Hooben
The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist movement dedicated to the remaking of society and government according to the dictates of Islamic law, or sharia. Founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an Egyptian schoolteacher who famously asserted that “Islam is the solution,” the Brotherhood quickly became influential among Egypt’s poor by providing educational and health services alongside a steady diet of Islamist teachings. By the middle of the 20th century, it had established branches and affiliates across the Arab world. While not formally functioning as either a political party or an international organization, the Brotherhood has shaped Muslim communities across the Islamic world and beyond by matching its rigid Islamist ideology with tactical flexibility. In some contexts, it engages in violence and terrorism. In others, it participates in the political process, even competing in elections, although its dedication to democratic government remains suspect.
Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian educator whose writing remains a staple of the Brotherhood canon, even among those who reject his calls for violence. In 1948, Qutb spent two years in the United States to learn about the American educational system and returned to Egypt with a reinforced loathing of the West’s soullessness and materialism. He cited a church dance as an illustration of America’s “animal-like” mixing of genders and denounced modern societies as living in “jahiliyya” — a state of pre-Islamic ignorance. He even concluded that Muslim nations had succumbed to jahiliyya and that a revolutionary Islamic vanguard would have to wage jihad to restore Islam within the Muslim world. This warrant for violence against other Muslims was one of Qutb’s most radical innovations, laying the groundwork for generations of extremists, including al-Qaeda. Qutb would spend more than a decade in prison before his execution in 1966.
2. The Brotherhood’s worldview is hostile to moderate Muslims, religious minorities, women, LGBTQ, and liberal democratic values.
The Muslim Brotherhood sees itself as the embodiment of Islam itself — a vanguard of the Muslim society it seeks to establish. In its view, its path is the only straight path, and any deviation is a spiritual deviation. It has engineered its own insular society, with its own values and worldview that stands in opposition to national identity and more inclusive and pluralistic Muslim identities. The Brotherhood is hostile toward moderate Muslims — who reject rigid binaries and seek a faith lived through integration, not isolation. For the Brotherhood, moderation is a threat to its claim of religious monopoly. Though the Brotherhood often uses the language of social justice, its core ideology is exclusionary. It seeks to enforce patriarchal roles and opposes gender equality in the public sphere, restricting the participation of women in education and the workforce. The Brotherhood also legitimizes the violence of husbands towards wives; in 2013, it protested a UN declaration calling for an end to violence against women, saying, “This declaration, if ratified, would lead to the complete disintegration of society, and would certainly be the final step in the intellectual and cultural invasion of Muslim countries.” The Brotherhood also opposes LGBTQ rights, purposefully misrepresenting homosexuality as a moral and social illness and encouraging violence particularly towards gay men. Brotherhood rhetoric on religious minorities emanates from its theological supremacism, with non-Muslims regarded as, at best, second-class citizens under a future Islamic order.
3. Antisemitism is woven deeply into the Muslim Brotherhood’s worldview.
Brotherhood ideology integrates Islamic and European forms of antisemitism to blame the state of the world on Jewish perfidy. According to Sayyid Qutb, the Jews became undeserving of their theological status as ahl al-kitab (“People of the Book”). In his book Our Struggle With The Jews, he wrote “Everywhere the Jews have been, they have committed unprecedented abominations,” accusing “the agents of Zionism today” of seeking “the destruction of Islam at the first auspicious opportunity.” The Brotherhood further draws upon European influences, particularly “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fabrication of the Russian Tsarist secret police first published in 1903, which falsely claims to expose a global Jewish conspiracy.
The Brotherhood rejected the idea of Jewish statehood on theological grounds well before the establishment of the State of Israel. Consequently, there is little prospect of Brotherhood support for a lasting, authentic peace — as opposed to tactical ceasefires and truces — with Israel as a Jewish body politic.
4. Hamas is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Starting in the early 1970s, Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin established a network of mosques and social services in Gaza. He then cofounded Hamas in 1987, during the First Intifada, or “uprising,” against Israel. Hamas’s suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis helped derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace process of the mid-1990s. Through additional suicide bombings, shootings, and other attacks, Hamas killed hundreds of Israelis during the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005. The group then won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, defeating the corrupt and divided Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In 2007, Hamas violently seized the Gaza Strip. Its rule has been marked by repression, corruption, and four wars with Israel provoked by its relentless attacks on the Jewish state in 2008-09, 2014, 2021, and 2023. Hamas launched the current war with its massacre in Israel of more than 1,200 people and abduction of over 250 on October 7, 2023, amid atrocities that included mutilation and systematic rape.
A concern for stability and power has led several Arab governments to ban the Brotherhood. With its tendency to declare that even devout Muslim leaders have betrayed the faith, the Brotherhood poses a risk to those inside as well as outside Islam. The group has also demonstrated the patience necessary to spend decades building fervent grassroots support that authoritarian rulers often lack.
In Egypt, after the fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime in 2011, the Brotherhood prevailed in both presidential and parliamentary elections, yet the increasingly autocratic conduct of President Mohammed Morsi provoked a mass movement against the Brotherhood. The tensions culminated in a military coup that entailed massacres of Morsi supporters and the proscription of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
Saudi Arabia designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in March 2014, with the Emirates following in November. In both countries, religious institutions have played a central role in framing the Brotherhood not just as a political threat but also as a religious deviation. Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti declared the group a “terrorist organization that does not represent the true path of Islam, pursues partisan goals, hides behind religion, and engages in actions that contradict it — sowing division, inciting strife, and committing violence and terrorism.”
Qatar’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood dates to the 1950s when Doha welcomed the movement inside its borders. Qatar’s local Muslim Brotherhood chapter disbanded in 1999, but Doha directed its support to other branches. For example, Qatar pumped approximately $8 billion into Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government, which assumed power in 2012 under the leadership of Mohammed Morsi. After Morsi’s ouster in 2013, Qatar offered sanctuary to Egyptian Brotherhood members and to the movement’s de facto spiritual leader, the late Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Meanwhile, Doha threw its weight behind other Muslim Brotherhood branches during the Arab Spring, including in Tunisia and Libya. Qatar is likewise a patron of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian offshoot. Qatar has provided Hamas-run Gaza with over $1 billion while hosting Hamas’s political office and sheltering its leaders. The Qatari-owned Al Jazeera Media Network promotes Muslim Brotherhood ideology to audiences around the world.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a long-time champion of the Brotherhood and provided a base of operations for its leaders following the fall of Mohammed Morsi’s regime in Egypt in 2013. After the October 7 massacre, Erdogan intensified his public support for Hamas, refused to condemn its atrocities, and vociferously denied the organization’s terrorist nature. For years, Turkey has provided sanctuary to Hamas leaders and fostered a permissive environment for terror financing.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) is the Turkish arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, assisting the network’s establishment of television and radio channels, foundations, schools, and businesses throughout Turkey. The AKP supported Morsi’s election campaign in Egypt in 2012 and organized numerous public demonstrations inside Turkey to protest Morsi’s ouster by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in 2013. The AKP has inspired the formation of other ideologically congruent parties in the Middle East, including in Libya. Along with Qatar, Turkey is the main state advocate for the Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood adapts to survive, presenting itself as a local actor while retaining transnational Islamist ambitions. In some contexts, such as Syria in the 1970s and 1980s, it pursues violent revolution. In other cases, it accepts significant restraints on its pursuit of Islamist government.
In Tunisia, the Ennahda Movement, inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, shed its Islamist label after the Arab popular uprisings that emerged in 2010, embracing coalition politics, secular allies, and constitutional protections for civil liberties. Morocco’s Justice and Development Party took a similar path, avoiding direct confrontation with the monarchy while calling for accountability rooted in the Islamic values of justice and solidarity. In Jordan, the Islamic Action Front claimed to reject violence and emerged in 2024 as the largest bloc in parliament. Yet in April 2025, authorities exposed a Brotherhood network planning terror attacks, underscoring the tactical nature of the movement’s professions of moderation. Since its early days, the Muslim Brotherhood has deflected blame for violence committed by its members or affiliates. When its Egyptian branch created a secret armed wing that carried out assassinations — including the 1948 killing of Prime Minister Mahmoud El-Nokrashy — founder Hassan al-Banna responded to public outrage with a now famous line: “These are neither brothers nor Muslims.” That phrase became the Brotherhood’s go-to escape hatch, repeated whenever bloodshed pointed back to its ranks.
From the 1950s, when Muslims from the Middle East and Asia began emigrating en masse to Europe, the Brotherhood began focusing on the possibilities for Islamizing the West. Adjusting the traditional Islamist view of international relations that divides the world between a dar al-Islam (“domain of Islam”) and a dar al-harb (“domain of war”), Brotherhood ideologues like Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi determined that Europe — where sharia law does not prevail, but where Muslims are free to practice their faith — constituted a dar al-dawa (“domain of preaching”). Following the 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States, a “Red-Green Alliance” between Islamists and the far left began to coalesce in multiple European countries. The Brotherhood’s implacable anti-Communist ideology did not prevent Muslim communal organizations in Europe from joining with far-left groups to combat both “imperialism” and “Zionism.” A June 2025 report from the French interior ministry warned that organizations with close ties to the Brotherhood were attempting to influence European Union institutions through “significant lobbying activities,” noting that funding for these groups came from Qatar and Kuwait.
Even though the Brotherhood belongs to the Sunni branch of Islam and Tehran’s clerical regime belongs to the Shiite branch, the former has left a deep imprint on the latter. In the 1950s, translations into Persian of key Brotherhood texts began to be published in Iran, including many by Sayyid Qutb. In 1966, future Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei personally translated one of Qutb’s books, The Future in the Realm of Islam. Later, Khamenei would explain that he undertook the translation because Iran’s “newly emerged Islamic movement … had a pressing need for codified ideological fundamentals.” After the 1979 revolution in Iran, printing houses continued to churn out dozens of texts by Qutb and other Brotherhood authors. The Tehran regime also put Qutb’s portrait on a postage stamp. Like the Iranian Shiite revolutionaries, Qutb advocated taking power in the name of Islam, even if it required inflicting violence on others who professed to be faithful Muslims.
Ben Cohen is a senior analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and director of FDD’s rapid response outreach, specializing in global antisemitism, anti-Zionism and Middle East/European Union relations. Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Middle East affairs and Iranian Intervention in Arab Affairs.
Drug Interdiction on the High Seas
The ability to stop drugs entering the United States on the high seas is a major part of the government’s efforts to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. Most drugs entering the U.S. come by water on all types of vessels. Drug cartels trying to send large quantities of drugs must rely on shipping as a means of introducing contraband. There are dozens of major seaports along the east and west coast and the Gulf of Mexico that offer areas where concealed shipments can be snuck passed customs officials. There are too many cargo ships bring containers everyday and it is impossible for Customs to inspect every container and ship entering the U.S. Beyond the seaports where Customs inspectors are stationed, drug smugglers try to bring their contraband through unmonitored areas along the coast without detection.
In order to combat the flow of drugs coming into the U.S. on the high seas, Congress has passed a series of laws giving the Coast Guard, the federal law enforcement are charged with protecting the U.S. borders, authority to stop, search and seize boats that are carrying drugs or are suspected of operating as part of a drug smuggling ring.
Congress determined that trafficking in controlled substances aboard vessels is a serious international problem. It determined that drug trafficking aboard vessels presents a specific threat to the security and the well being of society. For this reason it passed laws regulating vessels that could be carrying drugs through international waters and enforcing drug importation laws against these vessels.
One law passed by Congress is called the Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act (“DTVIA”) which makes it a federal crime to distribute or possess drugs or a controlled substance aboard a vessel of the United States or a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. A vessel of the United States means any vessel registered in the U.S., any vessel owned by a U.S. citizen or U.S. corporation. A crime is committee on these U.S. vessels even if the vessel is found with drugs beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Drug laws of the United States prohibiting the possession and distribution of drugs can be applied to any vessel operating with any nationality. A vessel without any nationality is subject to U.S. jurisdiction. A vessel without nationality is a defined as follows::
1. A captain makes a claim of registry that is denied by that nation;
2. The captain fails to give the registry of the vessel; or
3. The claim of registry is not unequivocally affirmed.
A vessel that is registered to any other nation is subject to U.S. jurisdiction if the nation has consented or waived objection to the U.S. enforcement of its drug laws. This means that if the nation under the vessels is registers does not object, the Coast Guard can board the ship and search for drugs. If drugs are found on board, the crew or anyone on the boat can be prosecuted under U.S. drug laws. Any vessel no matter what country the boat is registered is subject to U.S. drug laws if it is found within the territorial waters of the U.S.
If you or someone you know is accused of a being on or using a boat for a drug-related crime, call Miami attorney Ken Swartz at the Swartz Law Firm to schedule a consultation with an experienced, board certified criminal trial attorney.
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S. 3598
One Hundred Tenth Congress of the United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, the third day of January, two thousand and eight
An Act To amend titles 46 and 18, United States Code, with respect to the operation of submersible vessels and semi-submersible vessels without nationality.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdic-
tion Act of 2008’’.
TITLE I—CRIMINAL PROHIBITION
SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS.
Congress finds and declares that operating or embarking in a submersible vessel or semi-submersible vessel without nationality and on an international voyage is a serious international problem, facilitates transnational crime, including drug trafficking, and terrorism, and presents a specific threat to the safety of maritime navigation and the security of the United States.
SEC. 102. OPERATION OF SUBMERSIBLE VESSEL OR SEMI-SUBMERS-
IBLE VESSEL WITHOUT NATIONALITY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 111 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
‘‘§ 2285. OPERATION OF SUBMERSIBLE VESSEL OR SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE VESSEL WITHOUT NATIONALITY.
‘‘(a) OFFENSE.—Whoever knowingly operates, or attempts or.conspires to operate, by any means, or embarks in any submersible vessel or semi-submersible vessel that is without nationality and that is navigating or has navigated into, through, or from waters beyond the outer limit of the territorial sea of a single country or a lateral limit of that country’s territorial sea with an adjacent country, with the intent to evade detection, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.
‘‘(b) EVIDENCE OF INTENT TO EVADE DETECTION.—For purposes of subsection (a), the presence of any of the indicia described in paragraph (1)(A), (E), (F), or (G), or in paragraph (4), (5), or (6), of section 70507(b) of title 46 may be considered, in the totality of the circumstances, to be prima facie evidence of intent to evade.detection.
‘‘(c) EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION.—There is extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over an offense under this section, including an attempt or conspiracy to commit such an offense.
S. 3598—2
‘‘(d) CLAIM OF NATIONALITY OR REGISTRY.—A claim of nationality or registry under this section includes only—
‘‘(1) possession on board the vessel and production of documents evidencing the vessel’s nationality as provided in article 5 of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas;
‘‘(2) flying its nation’s ensign or flag; or
‘‘(3) a verbal claim of nationality or registry by the master or individual in charge of the vessel.
‘‘(e) AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution for a violation of subsection (a), which the defendant has the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence, that the submersible vessel or semi-submersible vessel involved was, at the time of the offense—
‘‘(A) a vessel of the United States or lawfully registered in a foreign nation as claimed by the master or individual in charge of the vessel when requested to make a claim by an officer of the United States authorized to enforce applicable provisions of United States law;
‘‘(B) classed by and designed in accordance with the rules of a classification society;
‘‘(C) lawfully operated in government-regulated or licensed activity, including commerce, research, or exploration; or
‘‘(D) equipped with and using an operable automatic identification system, vessel monitoring system, or long range identification and tracking system.
‘‘(2) PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS.—The affirmative defenses provided by this subsection are proved conclusively by theproduction of—‘‘(A) government documents evidencing the vessel’s nationality at the time of the offense, as provided in article 5 of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas;
‘‘(B) a certificate of classification issued by the vessel’s classification society upon completion of relevant classification surveys and valid at the time of the offense; or ‘‘(C) government documents evidencing licensure, regulation, or registration for commerce, research, or exploration.
‘‘(f) FEDERAL ACTIVITIES EXCEPTED.—Nothing in this section
applies to lawfully authorized activities carried out by or at the direction of the United States Government.
‘‘(g) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER PROVISIONS.—Sections 70504 and 70505 of title 46 apply to offenses under this section in the same manner as they apply to offenses under section 70503 of such title.
‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘submersible vessel’, ‘semi-submersible vessel’, ‘vessel of the United States’, and ‘vessel without nationality’ have the meaning given those terms in section 70502 of title 46.’’.
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