Eating Crow?

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

If the story below turns out to be substantiated, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors might want to reconsider their renewal of the lease to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia for the Islamic Saudi Academy.

Follow-up to this posting about the Islamic Saudi Academy, from NBC4 News in Washington, D.C.:

Islamic School Searched After Abuse Allegations Surface
Authorities Say School's Director Didn't Report Abuse Allegations

POSTED: 3:42 pm EDT June 3, 2008
UPDATED: 6:52 pm EDT June 3, 2008

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. -- Fairfax County police searched the Islamic Saudi Academy's west campus last month in connection with an investigation into child abuse allegations.

A 5-year old girl told a teacher in mid-May that her father was sexually abusing her, News4's James Adams reported. Two teachers and the principal at the west campus put together a report and forwarded it to the school's director general, Adams said.

According to court documents, the school's director, Adalla Al-Shabnan, did not believe the girl's complaint.

He later told investigators that he recommended psychological counseling for the girl after meeting with her parents.

Authorities said Al-Shabnan never reported the allegations of abuse to a child protective or law enforcement agency.

Virginia law requires abuse allegations to be reported within 72 hours.

Related: Watch The Report

On May 23, detectives searched and seized computers, notes and records from the school's Fairfax campus.

According to court documents, Al-Shabnan directed the original report to be deleted from the school's computers.

Calls to the academy's director were not returned.

Fairfax County police declined to comment on the investigation.

No charges have been filed.

Yet.

Surely, the school's director, Al-Shabnan, is aware of the strict laws about suspected child-abuse cases reported to a school! One has to wonder if perhaps he didn't file a police report because of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors May 19 hearing about renewing the school's lease. Did the girl tell of the abuse before the hearing regarding the Islamic Saudi Academy's lease? If so, this case could get very ugly.

How does the Board of Supervisors feel now about their pro forma hearing?

Officially, the Islamic Saudi Academy's lease renews for another year on June 30.

Virginia Tech massacre

Shortly after I made the two posts about "accomodations" of Muslims at colleges and universities, I learned about the massacre at Virginia Tech. 33 people died, with many more wounded. The victims from Northern Virginia are:

Daniel Perez Cueva, Woodbridge. Age 21. Junior, International Studies.
Erin Peterson, Chantilly. Age 18. Freshman.
Mary Read, Annandale. Age 19. Freshman.
Reema Samaha, Chantilly. Age 18. Freshman.
Leslie Sherman, Springfield. Age 20. Sophomore, History and International Studies
Maxine Turner, Vienna. Age 22. Senior, Chemical Engineering.

The lives of these young women and young man were senselessly cut short. I extend my sympathy and condolences to family and friends. May God provide you courage and strength in these difficult times.

Northern Virginiastan

UPDATE: We now know that the killer was Cho Seung-Hui, a Korean national from Centreville who graduated from Westfield High School. I am saddened for his family, who will have to carry the stigma of having the perpetrator of the worst massacre in U.S. history as family for the rest of their lives.

Cynical manipulation of Virginia Tech tragedy

News media broadcast cell phone video captured by student Jamal Al-Barghouti, who likened the violence to that "suffered" by the so-called Palestinians. The Baltimore Sun reports:

On CNN, the earliest on-scene pictures and words were provided by Jamal Albarghouti, a Virginia Tech graduate student from the West Bank. His cell phone pictures of police charging Norris Hall as shots rang out were broadcast and streamed over and over throughout the day.

By dinnertime, CNN was featuring Albarghouti standing on campus, microphone in hand, reporting from the scene as he talked with anchorman Wolf Blitzer, who was in the cable channel's Washington newsroom.

"Let's face it, right now, his material is still the best of the day in terms of capturing on video what took place there," Nancy Lane, CNN's vice president of domestic news, said last night.

As pointed out by Detroit-based commentator Debbie Schlussel, Al-Barghouti is of the same family as Marwan Barghouti, who is now in prison for planning terroirst attacks. Young Al-Barghouti was cynical in manipulating this tragedy, and CNN is complicit.