America is on the brink of
another revolution. In a new
American
TEA Party,
citizens across the USA are beginning to protest
Obama's giant government programs that reach deep
into their pockets.
For
information on How to Organize you own "TEA Party"
Protest click
here
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11/20/09
The Cover Up Continues
Last Tuesday, Obama ordered his
National Security Council (NSC) take control of congressional briefings
on the Fort Hood killings, beginning the whitewash of the first
terror
attack on the American homeland in eight years. Now, the Telegraph (UK) is
reporting that Obama's Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has
appointed a special board to investigate the mass shooting of US
soldiers at Fort Hood by a US Army Major two weeks ago. But look
more closely at the details.
The investigation is to be led by
two retired senior officials, both Bill Clinton appointees, who made
pushing "affirmative action" and special status for minority groups in
the US military a central part of their careers. With former Army
Secretary Togo West and former Navy Chief of Operations Admiral Vernon
Clark at the helm of this investigation, no one should expect any
critical comment about the policies that allowed the career of an
extremist Muslim to flourish in the US military.
Togo West served
as an army lawyer from 1969 to 1973 and then entered the world of
politically connected Washington lawyers who spend the rest of their
careers in and out of Democratic Party administrations. He was
appointed to as the Navy’s General Counsel under President Carter and
then as Assistant to the Defense Secretary under Carter. When the
Democrats came back into power in 1993 he was appointed as Secretary of
the Army by Bill Clinton and served in that post until his appointment
as Secretary for Veteran’s Affairs in 1997.
Togo West never saw
an affirmative action policy or minority preference policy he didn’t
like. For decades the US military has been subject to yearly
political indoctrination in the form of special training to prevent the
"harassment" of minorities. Mostly, this means that soldiers are
subjected to training teams that present courses describing how deeply
racist US white people are. Any joke, look, friendly comment, or
official action made by a white person to a protected minority group
member can and should be treated as a racist action that merits official
complaint.
OK, I am exaggerating -- but only a bit. Under
West’s tenure as Secretary of the Army, the briefings and classes really
were a lot like this, and West encouraged an atmosphere in the US Army
in which even the silliest and most insignificant complaints by soldiers
belonging to minority groups immediately got the attention of top
officers. The attitude was "guilty until proven innocent" if a
minority group soldier made a complaint about a superior.
Naturally, a reluctance to criticize the performance of a minority group
soldier became an entrenched part of the US military culture.
Admiral Clark was a staunch supporter of special minority group programs
as senior officer of the US Navy (chief of naval operations) from 2000
to 2005. Clark was eager to increase the representation of
minority groups in the US Navy and in 2005 he directed that the Navy
increase the number of minority candidates for officer commissions by 25
per cent.
This led to a double standard program at places like
the Naval Academy at Annapolis, where the entry standards for minorities
are noticeably lower than for white applicants. Clark was such an
enthusiast for "diversity" in the Navy that in 2005 he redefined the
Navy’s concept of special minorities to include religious (read Muslim)
and ethnic groups as well.
At the core of the mass murder at Fort
Hood Texas is the question of how the decades-old policies of the US
Defense Department that have lowered standards in the name of
"affirmative action" and "diversity" may have contributed to the
retention of a clearly unfit officer and put him in the position to kill
13 American soldiers and wound another 28. For Togo West or Vernon
Clark to question such policies (which were largely of their own making)
would indicate a degree of intellectual openness and apolitical judgment
that they have never exhibited before. So my bet is a complete
gloss over the real questions at stake.
Gates will certainly earn
Obama’s approval for appointing as senior investigators two retirees who
can be assured not to question the Obama Party Line. But there are
the families of a few dozen dead and wounded soldiers involved here, and
many have congressmen and senators who will detect the slightest hint of
a whitewash. I predict that the Defense Department’s investigation
will be yet another major blunder by the Obama administration.
Military
11/20/09
I Can't Wait to Join You in Afterlife
Recently, Barack Obama
urged Americans not to dwell
on the Major Nidal Hasan’s religion, but now, ABC News is
reporting that Hasan told a radical cleric, considered by
authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, "I can't wait to join you" in
the afterlife.
"It sounds like code words," said Lt. Col. Tony
Shaffer, a military analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies.
"That he's actually either offering himself up or that he's already
crossed that line in his own mind."
Other messages include
questions, the official with access to the e-mails said, that include
when is jihad appropriate, and whether it is permissible if there are
innocents killed in a suicide attack. "Hasan told Awlaki he
couldn't wait to join him in the discussions they would having over
non-alcoholic wine in the afterlife."
Major Hasan also wrote,
"My strength is my financial capabilities."
Federal
investigators have found that Hasan donated $20,000 to $30,000 a year to
overseas Islamic "charities." As an Army major, his yearly salary,
including housing and food allowances, was approximately $92,000 before
taxes. So Hasan was sending half of his income to Islamic
charities, many of which have been identified by U.S. authorities as
conduits to terror groups.
Two FBI task forces, in Washington
and San Diego, received the intercepted messages, but deemed them
innocent. On Capitol Hill today, Senators questioned how that
could be -- (video at link).
"The choice of this recipient of
emails says a lot about what Hasan was looking for," said Senator Joseph
Lieberman, chair of the Senate's Homeland Security committee.
Lieberman's committee held a hearing on the Fort Hood shootings, and
announced that it was launching an investigation. "What I'm
getting at," said Lieberman, "Is he may have been looking for spiritual
sanctions for what he's accused of ultimately doing."
The
American-born Awlaki is considered a recruiter for al-Qaeda. He
has been in hiding since the shooting, but a Yemeni journalist told ABC
News today that the e-mails show Hasan was "almost a member of
al-Qaeda."
A blog entry posted on Awlaki's site after the Fort
Hood massacre praised Hasan as a "hero" and a "man of conscience who
could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in
an army that is fighting against his own people." The site has
since been taken down, as has a Facebook fan page devoted to Awlaki.
In a subsequent interview with the Washington Post, Awlaki described
himself as Hasan's "confidant."
In addition to his contacts with
Hasan, Awlaki served as an inspiration for men convicted in terror plots
in Toronto and Fort Dix, New Jersey, according to government officials
and court records reviewed by ABCNews.com. In Toronto, members of
the so-called Toronto 18 watched videos of Awlaki at a makeshift
training camp where they allegedly planned an attack on the Canadian
parliament and prime minister.
In Detroit, local and national Muslim leaders
condemned the Fort Hood "violence," saying "Islam in no way accepts
such violence and terror," and "Islam is a peaceful religion with great
reverence for human life."
What a hoot, these "Muslim leaders"
really expect you to believe this nonsense.
Nidal Hasan
11/20/09
A Dangerous Wanker
Rovin Dawson
says, as American Thinker's self-appointed "correspondent" in the
outpost that is the United Kingdom, I am filing a report on what the man
in the street here really thinks of Barack Obama.
The description
most often used by those of us when gathered in the local pub is: "a
dangerous wanker." For my American cousins, the definition of that
most English of insults is: "a highly offensive term for somebody
considered unpleasant, self indulgent, pretentious or arrogant."
Admittedly many of us Brits fell for the same "hope and change"
mantra that ensnared so many of you. God knows we have ample need
of "hope and change" in the United Kingdom. We are, and continue
to be, your most faithful of allies -- as both countries slide into an
economic abyss.
We turned the other cheek when Obama
unceremoniously returned the bust of Winston Churchill given to your
government. The continued mistreatment of our Prime Minister has
been dismissed as the mistake of someone new to the job. Your
Leader and his wife slap our Queen on the back and he bows from the
waist in subservience to the King of Saudi Arabia and the Emperor of
Japan. None of your previous Presidents did the same.
As
for those naive Poles and Czechs that believed the United States was a
nation of its word, the withdrawal of the missile shield was simply a
re-thinking of strategy in America's relationship with Russia. The
fact that the withdrawal was announced on the 70th anniversary of the
Russian invasion of Poland was just a coincidence. By the way, how
is the new "reset" policy toward Russia working out for America and
Europe?
We British are astounded as we watch Obama go around the
globe constantly denigrating and apologizing for the United States.
Many of us still remember, or were taught, how twice in the 20th century
the people of your country literally saved Europe from itself and freed
untold millions from oppression throughout the world ever the past 90
years. The United States has been the greatest force for good in
the history of mankind.
Despite the absolute disaster that is our
economy, our pound is up 23% in value to your dollar since Obama was
inaugurated. Even the most uneducated of us anchored to a bar
stool hoisting our pints understands that Americans cannot keep spending
enormous sums of money you don't have in the hope that the rest of the
world will continue to give the United States a blank cheque in
perpetuity -- or that the Obama administration can continue to print
dollars.
We in Europe are finally getting the message that Obama
just isn't that into us. But the question I have is: how much is
he into your country?
On the 5th of October last, in an excellent
article on the American Thinker website by Steve McCann entitled,
"Half A President," it was suggested that Obama was more interested in
being head of state for the world rather than just President of the
United States. It does appear on the surface that he has delegated
much of his responsibilities to others and, as in the case of
Afghanistan for example, he loathes the prospect of actually making a
decision.
I might also suggest that he is captive to a left wing
ideology more radical than most of the Socialist parties in Europe.
There appears to be an awakening among the citizens of United
States, similar to what is happening here. Hopefully that will
continue and expand and in your mid-term election in 2010. Perhaps
a brake can be applied to the destructive polices of Obama. A word
of warning my American friends -- and this is not an overstatement: the
future of the western world may well hang in the balance
The writer is being kind with his
definition of a "wanker." Here
is the real definition. The literal American translation is,
"jerk-off" -- and here's
the rationale for Obama's shabby treatment of the Brits.
Not Archived
11/20/09
Is This Tee-Shirt A Prayer For Obama's Assassination?
MSNBC has a
report about a new Biblical slogan making the rounds on conservative
T-shirts and bumper stickers. MSNBC is interpreting it as calling
for Obama's death.
Psalm 109:8 reads: "Let his days be few; and let another take his
office," a sentiment that is held by by most Americans who aren't
employed by an organization that has Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and
Rachel Maddow on their payroll.
MSNBC then goes on to include several other psalms
in their report, inferring it's all one, and to demonstrate how evil
conservatives are.
They include
109:9, "May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow."
Mind you, this is not psalm 109:8.
Then, MSNBC clearly lies in
this sentence: "Going beyond simple ill will, the psalm asks that that
the victim lose all his worldly goods, that his orphans be abandoned,
that his father be remembered as a sinner, and finally, that "his memory
be cut off from the earth."
No, that's a contracted and loose
interpretation of psalms 109:10 through 109.15, but it serves to support
MSNBC's hallucination.
The Christian Science Monitor asked a few
people if the slogan could be considered hate speech.
"Are we
concerned about real hostility towards [Obama]? Absolutely,"
Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights at the Anti-Defamation League
said. "Is this a part of that movement? It may be, but in
terms of this message itself, we would not criticize it."
"The
problem is you don’t know if people who are donning that message in a
shirt or on a bumper sticker are fully aware of the quote or what
follows. Obviously that message makes the ambiguity disappear.
If they’re just referring to him being out of office, that’s one thing.
If they’re referring to him being dead, that’s so offensive. It’s
protected speech, but it’s clearly offensive."
Is this Tee-shirt a prayer for
Obama's assassination? Of course not. Conservative,
independents and right-thinking Democrats just want to see Obama
replaced by an American in 2012 -- just like the tee-shirt says.
A distraught Oprah Winfreyis
telling pals her "thank you" for
helping Barack Obama win the presidency has been a knife in the back.
A jealous first lady has frozen
the talk queen out of the White
House inner circle, say insiders.
"Oprah is devastated," revealed a friend.
"She had no idea that Michelle
was so jealous about the influence she had on Barack. She hated
the way her husband would huddle with Oprah over strategy and jump when
she called.
"The jealousy and anger was eating up Michelle.
During the campaign, she vowed Oprah would not be a part of the new
administration.
"Oprah had visions of being a close adviser to the
president and a regular visitor to the White House. She was
actually planning to redecorate the famous Lincoln bedroom, which is
reserved for special guests of the first family.
"But in the
first 10 months of the Obama administration, Oprah has visited the White
House only twice, and one visit was for a business meeting to do an
interview with Michelle for O
magazine.
"And that was a disaster.
Oprah arrived with her friend Gayle King, but was shocked to find
Michelle cold and distant. Worse, she all but ignored Oprah and
directed her attention to Gayle. It was as though Oprah wasn't
even there."
The meeting got off to a bad start when Oprah, 55,
greeted Michelle. The TV
host
leaned to kiss her cheek, but the first lady stepped back and extended
her hand instead.
Then Michelle, 45, seemed to ignore a question
Oprah asked about the Obama children, instead taking a question from an
aide and then returning only to chat with Gayle again - ignoring or
forgetting Oprah's question.
By the end of the day, Oprah
felt roundly snubbed.
"Since then, Oprah has tried again and again to
mend the rift," said the friend. "But she's had no luck.
Michelle has made it clear she is no longer interested in being friends
with Oprah and is going to block her from access to the President."
The Wife
11/20/09
A Nobel Peace Prize For Nothing, Now This
Andrew Malcolm
reports that even Obama himself, during his just-concluded trip to
Asia -- where, in a revealing comment, he said to US troops, "You guys
make a pretty good Photo-op." (video)
-- admitted that he was surprised to receive the Nobel Peace Prize
earlier this year without actually producing any peace. A Gallup
Poll showed 61% of Americans didn't think he deserved the prize.
Anyway, there he was in Seoul, Korea, the last stop of his Asian
journey, and out of the Seoul sky, President Lee Myung-bak gave a tae
kwon do outfit to Obama. And then Lee, who practices tae kwon do
himself, presented Obama with a coveted black belt.
After zero years of study -- but, he looks semi-deadly in
the accompanying photo -- amusing the heck out of Lee.
What would
Chuck Norris do? Probably bow. But never as low as Obama
bowed for Japan's emperor last weekend in Tokyo.
Not Archived
11/19/09
Most Powerful Man On Planet Bows To
Table
Not Archived
11/19/09
H.R. 1503
To
amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the
principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office
of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a
copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other
documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets
the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the
Constitution.
Last Action: Mar 12,
2009: Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
Write or fax your representative,
and urge them to get on board -- Members of Congress by state
-- no phone or email --Stop Obama in 2012.
The
National Review
summarized Obama's situation this way, "This is reminiscent of the
Jimmy Carter years -- the last time the U.S. was seen as weak -- unable
to move and coax other countries, unable to reassure dependent allies,
unable to have the respect of the world and, of course, unable to move
the mullocracy of Iran."
Hell, Carter had four years to screw up as badly as Obama has in just
nine months.
And then there's this -- Obama
says there's a
chance he won't run in 2012.
"You know, if -- if I feel like I've
made the very best decisions for the American people and three years
from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and
because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know,
politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll -- I'll feel all right about
myself."
Help Obama out here
-- write your Rep -- Obama's numbers are going in the right direction.
Not Archived
11/19/09
Not Archived
11/19/09
Obamateur Hour
Andy McCarthy is
reporting a meeting with the press in China, in which Obama said
that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be "convicted" and had "the death
penalty applied to him" . . . and then said he wasn't "pre-judging" the
case. He made the second statement after it was pointed out to him
-- by NBC's Chuck Todd -- that the first statement would be taken as his
interfering in the trial process. Obama said that wasn't his
intention. I'm sure it wasn't -- he's trying to contain the
political damage caused by his decision -- but that won't matter.
He has given the defense its first motion that the executive branch,
indeed Obama himself, is tainting the jury pool.
Besides, Holder
knows that the KSM trial is a "show trial" -- he admitted this fact
to Sen. Charles Grassley in this exchange:
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa: "I don’t
think you can say that failure to convict is not an option, when we
have juries in this country."
Attorney General Eric Holder:
"I have thought about that possibility. Congress has passed
legislation that would not allow the release of these individuals in
this country. If there is not a successful conclusion to this
trial, that would not mean that this person would be released into
this country…"
Grassley: "My understanding is that if
for some reason he’s not convicted, or a judge lets him off on a
technicality, he’ll be an enemy combatant, so you’re right back
where you started."
Not only will we be right back where we
started, it will expose the federal trial as nothing more than a show
trial. Show trials are conducted by despots and dictators to give
only a thin veneer of legality to political detentions and executions.
If the state isn’t prepared to abide by the decision of the court,
including dismissals and acquittals, then the use of the trial system is
worse than useless. It demeans the federal system needed for
Americans to seek unbiased justice.
Terrorism
11/19/09
Obama Rewards Big Donors With Plum Jobs
Politico says Obama may have promised to change Washington, but he
is continuing one of its most renowned patronage traditions: bestowing
prized ambassadorships on big donors.
Of the nearly 80
ambassadorship nominations or confirmations since Obama’s Inauguration,
56 percent were given to political appointees and 44 percent have gone
to career diplomats, according to records kept by the American Foreign
Service Association.
The latest nomination came this week, when
Beatrice Wilkinson Welters was nominated to serve as ambassador to the
island nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.
Welters,
a longtime advocate for underprivileged children, and her husband,
Anthony, an executive with UnitedHealth Group, generated between
$200,000 and $500,000 in donations to Obama’s presidential campaign and
an additional $100,000 for his Inauguration, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks political giving.
The Welters can be counted among the nearly two dozen Obama
bundlers -- fundraisers who together organized and solicited more than
$10 million in donations during the 2008 campaign -- who now are being
dispatched to some of the world’s greatest cities.
Payback, for
sure -- but I don't believe that Port of Spain, Trinidad, can be
correctly described as one of the world's greatest cities.
Supporters
11/19/09
Washington Post Urges Obama To Lie By Omission
Bill Tate
says that on the same day that the media elitists like Dana Milbank
at the Washington Post accused Republicans of supposed hypocrisy, they
exposed themselves as blatant hypocrites, arguing that the Obama
administration should hide important information from the public.
Of course, WaPo is trying to protect Obama: this time, from
criticism of the thousands of "ghost jobs" supposedly created by the
$800 billion pork-filled package Obama pushed through Congress last
spring.
With even Democrats beginning to challenge Obama's
self-serving claims that 600,000+ jobs were created and/or saved -- a
fraction of the 3.5 million jobs Obama claimed would result from his
spending spree -- the Post is, incredibly, advocating that Obama obscure
details of the program.
Alec McGillis of the Post writes:
Even advocates for government transparency
wonder whether the Obama administration would have been better off
not trying to provide actual job tallies, instead simply requiring
clear reports on how the money was spent -- information that is more
useful and reliable.
WaPo provided no proof of its
opening contention -- that transparency advocates want less information
-- only quoting Gary Bass, director of OMB Watch, as saying, "I would
not have framed it as a jobs bill or a jobs law, as they have done."
This one quote, used to rationalize WaPo's position, was a far cry
from urging that Obama not to release the figures.
Thus, the
Washington Post -- which reveled in disclosing secrets during the Bush
administration, consequences be damned -- finds itself, in effect,
advocating that the Obama administration hide information from the
public.
On the same day that they accuse Republicans of being
hypocritical.
Meanwhile, the
Obama administration's bogus numbers are still proudly displayed at
Recovery.gov.
For example, Hawaii, which has just two congressional districts, 1
and 2, received $2,284,000 million of federal stimulus funds for the
11the Congressional district; $40,903,941 million for the 15th
Congressional district; $1,651,811 for the "00" Congressional district;
and $799,656 in the 99th congressional district.
A combined 3.4
jobs or $13,423,355 per job -- in Congressional districts that don't
exist -- according to the federal government’s transparency web site for
stimulus funds.
Officials tell ABC News that, so far, they
found 700 bogus Congressional districts out of more than 130,000
stimulus grants -- so where did the money go -- maybe that's how Obama
is financing his eligibility battles -- there's a whole lotta judges to
pay off.
The Washington Times is reporting that The Obama administration on
Tuesday had Obama's National Security Council (NSC) take control of
congressional briefings on the Fort Hood killings and asked Democratic
leaders to delay a probe, as top Republicans said intelligence
shortcomings blamed for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks are
re-emerging.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the NSC had taken over the
briefings "due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the
tragic event at Fort Hood," and that Democratic leaders agreed to
postpone any congressional action on the shootings.
"This is a
somewhat complicated case," the Texas Democrat said of the Nov. 6 terror
attack, attributed to Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, that left 13 dead and
29 wounded on the country's largest Army post.
Reyes said
Congress should give "the guys who are charged with protecting this
country, protecting our national security" time to do their work and
"wait until all the facts are in."
But Rep. Peter Hoekstra of
Michigan, the ranking Republican on the intelligence committee, said the
country cannot afford to wait to find out if failures in the
intelligence community and the Pentagon are allowing other potential
attackers to fester within the military.
"The prosecutor in this
case is not assigned the responsibility to take a look into the process
of how to keep America safe. That is the responsibility of
Congress," he said. "It has to happen now. This is not
something we should take weeks or months to wait on."
Mr.
Hoekstra and the other eight Republicans on the committee outlined their
concerns in a letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California
Democrat, that called for an immediate investigation.
"The
future security of over 300 million Americans is far more pressing than
after-the-fact investigation of one man," the letter said.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the intelligence committee will
continue its oversight work of the Fort Hood tragedy.
"Chairman
Reyes remains committed to ensuring that the committee receives
pertinent and timely information from the Executive Branch," he said.
The end
result of the Democrat's investigation are easy to predict. A lone
gunman snapped due to the pressures of his job -- no terrorism here --
no jihad here -- nothing to see here -- just move on.
Reyes even
has the Moxie to describe the process -- the committee [will] receive
pertinent and timely information from the Executive Branch -- the
information coming to his committee will be filtered through the
Executive Branch -- that's the First Muslim -- that's Obama.
If
you don't believe the NSC investigation will be a whitewash, driven by
political correctness, just look at who is on the National Security
Council:
Members of the National Security Council:
•
President -- Barack Obama • Vice President -- Joe Biden
• Secretary of State -- Hillary Clinton •
Secretary of Defense -- Robert M. Gates • Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff -- ADM Michael Mullen • Director of
National Intelligence -- Dennis C. Blair
Regular Attendees:
• National Security Advisor -- James L. Jones •
Chief of Staff -- Rahm Emanuel • Deputy National Security
Advisor -- Thomas E. Donilon
Regular Participants:
•
Secretary of the Treasury -- Tim Geithner • Attorney
General -- Eric Holder • Secretary of Homeland Security --
Janet Napolitano • Counsel to the President -- Robert
Bauer • Assistant to the President -- Lawrence Summers
• Ambassador to the UN -- Susan Rice • OMB -- Peter
Orzag
Nidal Hasan
11/18/09
Trial and Terror
Andrew McCarthy says the decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
and four other top al-Qaeda terrorists to New York City for a civilian
trial is one of the most irresponsible ever made by a presidential
administration. That it is motivated by politics could not be more
obvious. That it spells unprecedented danger for our security will
soon become obvious.
The five 9/11 plotters were originally
charged in a military commission. Military commissions have been
approved by Congress and the courts. Eleven months ago, the
jihadists were prepared to end the military case by pleading guilty and
proceeding to execution. Plus, the Obama administration is
continuing the commission system for other enemy combatants accused of
war crimes. If we are going to have military commissions for any
war criminals, it is senseless not to have them for the worst war
criminals. In sum, there is no good legal or policy rationale for
transferring these barbarians to the civilian justice system.
Doing so will prompt a hugely costly three-ring circus of a trial,
provide a soapbox for al-Qaeda’s anti-American bile, and create a
public-safety nightmare for New York City.
There is, however, a
patent political rationale behind Obama’s decision.
The
terrorists are clearly committed members of the al-Qaeda conspiracy to
wage a terrorist war against the United States -- so much so that KSM
cannot help himself, bragging about his atrocities against our country,
including the 9/11 massacre of nearly 3,000 Americans. Further,
controversy surrounds the intelligence-collection measures used by the
Bush administration after 9/11 -- measures such as enhanced
interrogation that, though they saved countless lives, have been
stridently condemned by the antiwar Left. This antiwar Left,
Obama’s base, has demanded investigations and prosecutions against Bush
officials.
The Obama Justice Department teems with experienced
defense lawyers, many of whom (themselves personally or through their
firms) spent the last eight years volunteering their services to
America’s enemies in their lawsuits against the American people.
As experienced defense lawyers well know, when there is no mystery about
whether the defendants have committed the charged offenses, and when
there is controversy attendant to the government’s investigative
tactics, the standard defense strategy is to put the government on
trial.
That is, Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder,
experienced litigators, fully realize that in civilian court, the Qaeda
quintet can and will demand discovery of mountains of government
intelligence. They will demand disclosures about investigative
tactics; the methods and sources by which intelligence has been
obtained; the witnesses from the intelligence community, the military,
and law enforcement who interrogated witnesses, conducted searches,
secretly intercepted enemy communications, and employed other
investigative techniques. They will attempt to compel testimony
from officials who formulated U.S. counterterrorism strategy, in
addition to U.S. and foreign intelligence officers. As civilian
"defendants," these war criminals will put Bush-era counterterrorism
tactics under the brightest public spotlight in American legal history.
This is exactly what Obama and Holder know will happen. And
because it is unnecessary to have this civilian trial at all, one must
conclude that this is exactly what Obama and Holder want to see happen.
During the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama and his adviser, Holder,
rebuked the Bush counterterrorism policies and promised their base a
"reckoning." Since Obama took office, Holder has anxiously
shoveled into the public domain classified information relating to those
policies -- with the administration always at pains to claim that its
hand is being forced by court orders, even though Obama has had legal
grounds, which he has refrained from invoking, to decline to make those
disclosures. Moreover, during a trip to Germany in April, Holder
signaled his openness to turning over evidence that would assist
European investigations -- including one underway in Spain -- that seek
to charge Bush-administration officials with war crimes (which is the
transnational Left’s label for actions taken in defense of the United
States).
Now, we see the reckoning: Obama’s gratuitous transfer
of alien war criminals from a military court, where they were on the
verge of ending the proceedings, to the civilian justice system, where
they will be given the same rights and privileges as the American
citizens they are pledged to kill. This will give the hard Left
its promised feast. Its shock troops, such as the Center for
Constitutional Rights, will gather up each new disclosure and add it to
the purported war-crimes case they are urging foreign courts to bring
against President Bush, his subordinates, and U.S. intelligence agents.
Top Obama donor and fundraiser Jodie Evans met with
the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report
by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting
with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was
videotaped directly handing to Barack Obama a package of information
about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San
Francisco.
The meeting with the Taliban was kept secret by Evans
and her group Code Pink in
reports she and the group
posted from Kabul and in interviews with the
media and
bloggers about the trip. Fonda,
a close friend of Evans, let the secret meeting slip in an
account of her dinner with Evans at a
fundraiser for the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles:
Last Saturday, My dear friends
Jodie Evans and Max Palevsky, invited Richard and me to join them at
their table at a fundraiser at the Armand Hammer Museum in Westwood.
It was a good evening for lots of reasons. I had never been to the
museum and definitely want to go back. Clearly it is a courageous
place, very cutting edge. Then, too, I saw lots of friends I
hadn’t seen in a long time and I sat next to Jodie who told me a little
about her recent trip to Afghanistan with an American delegation that
included a retired colonel, and member the State Department
(Army
Reserves Col. (Ret.) and ex-diplomat Ann Wright).
While there, she met with people ranging from the brother of President
Karzai, Afghan members of Parliament, activists, to warlords and
members of the Taliban
(emphasis added.) Jodie is co-founder of the peace organization,
Code Pink, and always willing to go to any lengths to try and find out
what’s really going on. Bottom line: everyone she met with wants
the U.S. Military out of their country. They feel our presence
there has brought more violence rather than security. Please read
a short article she wrote about the trip which is on the
Women’s Media Center website.
There is precedent to suspect that Evans is acting as
a conduit for the Taliban to Obama. In June, her fellow Code Pink
co-founder Medea Benjamin hand carried a
letter out of Gaza from the terrorist group
Hamas addressed to Obama.
Fonda has her own history of working with America’s
enemies. During the Vietnam war
she visited North Vietnam in 1972
and was photographed manning an anti-aircraft battery used to shoot down
American planes. Fonda also recorded propaganda radio broadcasts
for the North Vietnamese communists. In 2007 Code Pink brought
Fonda out of protest retirement at a so-called antiwar demonstration
held at the
Navy Memorial in Washington,
D.C.
What was in the package that Evans gave Obama at the
San Francisco fundraiser? She describes what she gave Obama in an
article at the
Huffington Post:
…we were careful to make the
package very user and security friendly. It was filled with
photos, quotes, thousands of signatures (on a
petition against more troops for Afghanistan),
a copy of Rethink Afghanistan and our 25-minute interview with Afghan
MP, Dr. Roshanak Wardak from Wardak Province, who is adamant that the
U.S. should not send new troops and rather, must leave.
Evans notes that she gave a similar package to Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi who was also at the fundraiser being held in her city.
No mention is made by Evans on whether she relayed oral or written
messages from the Taliban to Obama. However, it is a strong possibility
given Fonda’s revelation and Code Pink’s history.
Code Pink’s image as kooky but well-meaning women
committed to peace is belied by their words and actions. At home
they work to
undermine morale in our soldiers,
their families and the American
public. Abroad they work with terrorist enemies of the United States.
And one of Code Pink’s co-founders, Jodie Evans, works
with Obama. Is anyone in our nation’s capital paying attention?
Terrorism
11/18/09
Obama Names Devout Muslims To Security Posts
IsraelNationalNews.com is
reporting that Barack Obama continues to "reach out to Muslims" by
appointing them to key security posts amid charges he wrongly ignored
internal Muslim terror. One recent appointee was harshly
criticized for appearing on a British-based television station whose
host is a member of a radical Muslim group.
Obama has continued
to "reach out Muslims," as he said in his keynote speech in Cairo last
June, and this past week he swore in a Muslim rights advocate to the
Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), shortly after the Fort Hood
massacre. HSAC members are involved in expertise on national
security.
The new member is Syrian-born Kareem Shora, who was the
national executive director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination
(ADC), which previously has called on the United States to stop
providing Israel with weapons because of alleged "atrocities" against
Arabs. Her background for her new security post is having been a
legal counsel and advocate for Muslim civil rights.
She also has
been a frequent guest on the pro-Hamas al-Jazeera satellite network.
Shora, who has been described as a "devout Muslim, joins another
devout member of the faith, Arif Alikhan, who was appointed as Assistant
Secretary for Policy Development in the Department of Homeland Security.
His qualifications for the job were listed as having been in charge of
public safety in Los Angeles during his term of deputy mayor. One
of his actions was to remove the plan that tracked Muslims in the city
who were suspected of terrorist activities.
Americans have been
jolted by several lethal attacks and confrontations with Muslims over
the past year, including a plot to attack synagogues and down U.S.
military aircraft, the manufacture of bombs, an alleged attempt to
explode a Texas skyscraper, a plot to blow up malls in Boston, and last
month’s Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim psychiatrist who was an officer
in the army.
A desire to avoid the appearance of labeling all
Muslims as terrorists lunged out from the shadows last month after Obama
faced criticism for not taking seriously the threat of Muslim terrorism
within American society as well as in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Several months ago, Obama appointed Dalia Mogahed, a "devout
Muslim," to his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
She quickly came under fire for appearing in a telephone interview on a
London-based Muslim television station, whose host is a member of an
extreme Islamic group.
She said was unaware of the affiliations
of her host, whose program included questions and comments favoring the
implementation of Islamic Law ("sharia").
Mogahed explained that
she did not hang up the phone in the middle of the interview because "I
assumed that very few people would watch this show but that doing
something more dramatic would bring more attention."
In the
current issue of Newsweek, columnist Jacob Weisberg, citing former
Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote that "Obama's [Muslim] heritage
feeds a broader suspicion that he is too casual about the threat from
America's Islamist enemies."
The journalist added, "With the
massacre in Texas, Obama now confronts something that George W. Bush did
not face in the years after September 11 -- not just a major act of
domestic terrorism, but one struck from inside our security apparatus….
America does not face a threat from the perversion of faith in general.
We face a threat from the perversion of one faith in particular."
Islam
11/18/09
Obama’s Bitter Half
Herb Denenberg says, I never thought I’d find as big a fraud, phony,
faker, fibber and hypocrite in high places as Barack Hussein Obama.
But I found one. Obama is married to her.
Of course, I know
that if you criticize the First Lady, the Obamas immediately go into
their standard mode, claiming victimhood and racism. Recall when
Mrs. Obama made her infamous remark about being proud of America but did
so only after her husband was running for president. After getting
hit with criticism, the Obamas went on ABC’s "Good Morning America" to
denounce "low class" and "detestable" criticism. Obama declared
his wife to be a "civilian" and exempt from such criticism, as she
"didn’t sign up for this." Of course, those that closely follow
the Obamas, get the feeling that they think they are above criticism,
and any criticism is illegitimate and quickly branded as part of the
"old politics" or "playing games."
Here’s the way Michelle Malkin
put it in her masterpiece on team Obama, entitled Culture of Corruption:
Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies: "Mrs. Obama most
certainly signed up for heightened public scrutiny of her public words
and deeds. She signed for it the minute she voluntarily stepped on
the campaign trail to sell her husband as America’s soul-fixer.
She signed up for it when she made herself a public spokesman for
working mothers and chief public surrogate for her husband’s legislative
agenda. She signed up for it when she consciously and continuously
milked liberal bitterness on the campaign trail to drum up votes for her
husband. If she couldn’t stand what little heat she was exposed to
during the presidential election season, she should have refrained from
grabbing the closest microphone to complain repeatedly about America’s
health care, lack of compassion and the evil lure of corporate America."
And, I might add, she also signed up for criticism when she speaks
to her husband about personnel decisions and White House management and
when she is her "husband’s chief interpreter of public sentiment" -- as
reported in the Obama campaign organ and lapdog also known as the New
York Times, now noted for its biased, dishonest and fraudulent
journalism.
Another standard Obama maneuver is to claim racism.
There is an example of this as far back as Mrs. Obama’s days as a
student at Princeton. As brilliantly documented by Ms. Malkin,
Mrs. Obama’s senior thesis at Princeton, titled Princeton-Educated
Blacks and the Black Community, showed her bemoaning "her racial
otherness." The aggrieved Ivy Leaguer accused her university of
pushing her down the dreaded path toward "further integration and/or
assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only
allow me to remain on the periphery of society, never becoming a full
participant."
She was offered every advantage America can offer,
but she still endlessly complained about her victimhood. Of
course, she was wrong about the white culture and social structure,
which almost immediately after her graduation from Princeton and then
Harvard Law School, gave her every insider advantage possible, and a
veritable flood of high-level opportunity. Even after she and her
husband had become millionaires, she was still complaining about her old
student loans and budgetary limitations.
Just how big is Obama's stimulus
package? Well for one, it has doubled the size of the House of
Representatives, according to Recovery.gov, that says funds were
distributed to 440
congressional districts that do not exist.
According to data retrieved from
recovery.gov, nearly $6.4 billion was used to "create or save" just
under 30,000 jobs in these phantom congressional districts -- almost
$225,000 per job. The web site operates on an $84
million budget and is tasked with monitoring
the distribution of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress
-- which, for the record, counts 435 members -- in early 2009.
The site’s monitors, however, are not
too savvy about America’s political or geographic landscape. More
than $2 million was given to the 99th
District of North Dakota, a state which has
only one congressional district. In order to qualify for 99
districts, North Dakota would have to have a
population of about 60 million
people, almost 24 million
more people than California.
The stimulus revived 8 recently retired congressional
districts. Pennsylvania’s 21st District has received just under $2
million in funds. Mississippi’s 5th District and Oklahoma’s 6th
received $1 million from the legislation, respectively. All three
were eliminated by the 2000 census.
Many other recipients carried the
banner for congressional districts that have been defunct for decades.
South Carolina’s 7th took the cake, garnering more than $27 million in
stimulus funds, despite being eliminated in 1930. And Virginia’s
12th District may have been written off at the start of the Civil War,
but it must carry some sentimental value in Old Dominion -- it received
more than $2 million, according to Recovery.gov.
The stimulus helped to create 35 congressional
districts in Washington D.C. and the four American territories, all of
which have no congressional districts. These areas received $5 of
the $6.4 billion distributed to the non-existent districts.
Thomas Sowell
says that in the string of amazing decisions made during the first
year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity
than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of
war against the United States, in federal court, as if they were
American citizens accused of crimes.
Terrorists are not even
entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention, much less the
Constitution of the United States. Terrorists have never observed,
nor even claimed to have observed, the Geneva Convention, nor are they
among those covered by it.
But over and above the utter
inconsistency of what is being done is the utter recklessness it
represents. The last time an attack on the World Trade Center was
treated as a matter of domestic criminal justice was after a bomb was
exploded there in 1993. Under the rules of American criminal law,
the prosecution had to turn over all sorts of information to the defense
-- information that told the Al Qaeda international terrorist
network what we knew about them and how we knew it.
This was
nothing more and nothing less than giving away military secrets to an
enemy in wartime -- something for which people have been executed, as
they should have been. Secrecy in warfare is a matter of life and
death. Lives were risked and lost during World War II to prevent Nazi
Germany from discovering that Britain had broken its supposedly
unbreakable Enigma code and could read their military plans that were
being radioed in that code.
"Loose lips sink ships" was the World
War II motto in the United States. But loose lips are mandated
under the rules of criminal prosecutions.
Tragically, this
administration seems hell-bent to avoid seeing acts of terrorism against
the United States as acts of war. The very phrase "war on
terrorism" is avoided, as if that will stop the terrorists’ war on us.
The mindset of the left behind such thinking was spelled out in an
editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle, which said that "Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will
be tried the right way -- the American way, in a federal courtroom,
where the world will see both his guilt and the nation’s adherence to
the rule of law."
This is not the rule of law but the application
of laws to situations for which they were not designed.
How many
Americans may pay with their lives for the intelligence secrets and
methods that can forced to be disclosed to Al Qaeda was not mentioned.
Nor was there mention of how many foreign nations and individuals whose
cooperation with us in the war on terror have been involved in
countering Al Qaeda -- nor how many foreign nations and individuals will
have to think twice now, before cooperating with us again, when their
role can be revealed in court to our enemies, who can exact revenge on
them.
Behind this decision and others is the notion that we have
to demonstrate our good faith to other nations, sometimes called "world
opinion." Just who are these saintly nations whose favor we must
curry, at the risk of American lives and the national security of the
United States?
Internationally, the law of the jungle ultimately
prevails, despite pious talk about "the international community" and
"world opinion," or the pompous and corrupt farce of the United Nations.
Yet this is the gallery to which Barack Obama has been playing, both
before and after becoming President of the United States.
In the
wake of the obscenity of a trial of terrorists in federal court for an
act of war -- and the worldwide propaganda platform it will give them --
it may seem to be a small thing that Obama has been photographed yet
again bowing deeply to a foreign ruler. But how large or small an
act is depends on its actual consequences, not on whether the
politically correct intelligentsia think it is no big deal.
As a
private citizen, Barack Obama has a right to make as big a jackass of
himself as he wants to. But, as pResident of the United States,
his actions not only denigrate a nation that other nations rely on for
survival, but raise questions about how reliable our judgment and
resolve are -- which in turn raises questions about whether those
nations will consider themselves better off to make the best deal they
can with our enemies.
Update: No American president ever bowed to a
foreign leader -- until Obama.
Terrorism
11/17/09
The Whitewash Begins
Barack Obama
said on Saturday he would hold to account those who missed warning
signs that could have prevented a shooting rampage on a Texas army base
earlier this month that killed 13 people.
"If there was a failure
to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be
accountability," Obama said in his weekly address.
"Given the
potential warning signs that may have been known prior these shootings,
we must uncover what steps -- if any -- could have been taken to avert
this tragedy," he said.
"We must compile every piece of
information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was
done with that information. Once we have those facts, we must act
upon them."
That's the
ticket Obama, change the focus from an investigation into a terrorist
attack on your watch to a witch-hunt for the person who didn't report
Hasan.
Nowhere in Obama's remarks, does he use the words Muslim,
Islam, jihad, or terror. He chooses to use antiseptic words --
shooting -- tragedy -- gunman -- words that hide what happened at Ft.
Hood.
Obama is going to bury this entire incident -- another lone
gunman stressed out by the thoughts of war -- you just watch.
Terrorism
11/17/09
Obama's Jobs Claims Are "Wildly Exaggerated"
The Boston Globe has followed the $4 billion in federal stimulus
money sent to Massachusetts so far and found that the 12,374 jobs
reportedly saved or created in the state to be "wildly exaggerated."
The money went to state agencies, universities, hospitals,
businesses and nonprofit organizations. In some cases,
organizations and businesses "miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures,
or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started." In other
instances, no jobs at all were created.
Nationwide, more than ten
percent of the jobs the Obama administration has claimed were "created
or saved" by the $787 billion stimulus package are
doubtful or imaginary, according to reports compiled from eleven
major newspapers and the Associated Press.
Based only on our
analysis of stimulus media coverage in the last two weeks, The Examiner
has created
this interactive map to document exaggerated stimulus claims.
The map, which will be updated as new revelations appear, currently
reflects an exaggeration by the Obama administration of about 75,000
jobs, out of the 640,000 jobs supposedly "created or saved."
The
map reflects reports from The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, the
Sacramento Bee, The New York Times, USA Today, the Las Vegas Sun, the
Detroit Free Press, the New York Post, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,
the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, and the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. It remains a work in progress because
relatively few newspapers have scrutinized stimulus spending so far.
Obama has claimed that the $787 billion economic stimulus package
"saved or created" some 650,000 jobs. But almost as soon as the
White House trotted out this figure, news organizations found huge
exaggerations in the reported data. Many of the jobs reportedly
created do not exist or cannot be accounted for.
Obama is lying. He knows you
know he's lying, and he doesn't care.
Lies
11/17/09
Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions
Obama's
home Teleprompter malfunctions during family dinner
(02:31)
Videos
11/17/09
Was Obama's First Political Boss a Soviet "Agent of
Influence"
New Zeal blog draws our attention to
Alice Palmer, a Chicago based
academic, activist and former friend, employer and political ally of
Barack Obama.
In the mid 1990s Alice Palmer, then an Illinois
State Senator, employed Obama has her chief of staff, when she attempted
an ill-fated run for the US Congress.
Later Palmer introduced Obama
as designated successor to her Illinois State Senate seat, in the living
room of former Weather Underground terrorists
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,
while DSA member, former communist and long time Obama friend Quentin
Young looked on.
The Palmer/Obama relationship soured after
Obama refused to step down when Palmer decided she wanted her State
Senate seat back, after her Congressional bid failed.
Obama went
on to win the seat unopposed, after he knocked Palmer and his other
rivals off the ballot, by challenging the legitimacy of their nominating
signatures.
Alice Palmer was the first rung of Obama's ladder to
power.
It has long been known that Alice Palmer was a communist
front activist, as were many in Obama's orbit.
More seriously
however-new evidence shows that Alice Palmer had high level connections
behind the "Iron Curtain" and may have been a Soviet "agent of
influence" -- that is, a conduit of Soviet propaganda and policy, to the
US and the "third world".
CNN is
reporting that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney delivered a
scathing criticism of Obama's Afghanistan strategy Friday night,
accusing him of delivering rhetoric and not action in the war-torn
country.
Quoting from a speech Obama delivered in March, Romney
agreed with him "that 'we are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy
that threatens the United States, our friends and allies."' Romney
continued on seconding Obama: "I believe 'that to succeed, we and our
friends and allies must reverse the Taliban's gains, and promote a more
capable and accountable Afghan government.'"
But Romney went on
to criticize Obama for not holding enough meetings with top generals,
and inadequately preparing for the elections in Afghanistan.
"The
President has held his job for 10 months but does not yet have a
strategy," Romney said during his speech before the Young America's
Foundation in Santa Barbara, California. "What has he been doing
that is more important than protecting the lives of the troops of which
he is Commander-in-Chief? He has been campaigning -- rallying at
phony town meetings and making over 30 campaign stops for fellow
Democrats. This President's inattention and dereliction remind me
of those Northwest Airlines pilots who were so distracted from their
jobs that they lost their way. But in this case, the consequences
are far more severe."
Romney has been a constant critic of the
Obama administration. In March, Romney accused Obama of neglecting
the country's needs, while posing for magazine covers, and making
appearances on late night television during an interview with CNN's
Larry King.
"This is a president who is learning on the fly,"
Romney said. "He's never turned anything around before. He
hasn't had the experience of leading a nation or a business or a state
in trouble.
Military
11/16/09
Changing The Subject
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
comment on Obama's remarks as he flew to Asia on Saturday.
Obama told the media in Alaska that he opposes a congressional
investigation into the Fort Hood massacre, saying that we must "resist
the temptation to turn this tragic event into political theater."
Yet, even as he was posturing against political theatrics, he had just
decided that the prosecution of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
would proceed on the greatest of public stages -- New York City.
With the strict evidentiary rules in force in federal civilian
courts, it is easy to see how the prosecution of Mohammed could morph
into an indictment of the Bush administration's interrogation techniques
and waterboarding. As in rape trials, the magnitude of the
underlying crime (masterminding the 9/11 attacks) might well be lost as
the defense puts the victim (in this case, the government) on trial.
It is not political theater itself to which Obama objects -- but
theater that highlights issues that liberals would rather forget.
He is quite content to let the Mohammed trial become the theater of the
left. Perhaps even eager.
Obama and his handlers know that the
key to building favorable ratings is to control the agenda. And
the more the national discussion centers on national security and
terrorism, the more Republicans gain. So the Fort Hood terror
attack comes at an awful time for an administration trying to turn the
nation's attention away from the terrorist threat.
As soon as
the killing spree was over, Obama hastened to call it "an act of
violence" -- obscuring the obvious fact that it was the most serious
terror attack on US soil since 9/11. And, as evidence mounts that
the FBI was on to Major Nidal Malik Hasan for years, Obama is doing his
best to stop Congress from finding out why these warnings went unheeded.
Even as Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on
the House Intelligence Committee confirmed that the government knew of
10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam in Yemen -- who was
urging the killing of American troops -- starting last December, Obama
hastened to urge Congress to refrain from investigating why the danger
signs were ignored
The Obama administration has a clear agenda
here:
1) Stop people from focusing in how his
administration permitted the worst domestic terror attack in eight
years.
2) Avoid a national airing of how liberal
policies -- restraints on the intelligence community, political
correctness in the armed forces -- might have inhibited the military
from reining in Hasan.
3) Re-ignite a firestorm on the
left and abroad against the aggressive anti-terror policies of the
Bush administration.
Making all this particularly important for Obama are his other
political needs.
As he likely decides to send more troops to
Afghanistan and eyes abandoning the "public option" to secure Senate
passage of his health-care plan, Obama has to rebuild his credibility on
the left. A public circus that focuses on waterboarding and
interrogations could be just what he wants and needs.
Nidal Hasan
11/16/09
Diversity Is An Enabler, Indeed
As more information trickles out regarding the cold-blooded,
terrorist killing of 12 US Army soldiers and one civilian and the
wounding of dozens more at Fort Hood by US Army Major Nidal Hasan, it is
becoming increasingly clear that the insidious disease of political
correctness that has erased our borders, diluted our language and
stagnated our culture is one of the major contributing factors to this
terrorist rampage.
Reflecting back at us in the many pools of
blood spilled that day is the chilling reality that
political
correctness has also been infecting the nation’s law enforcement
agencies and armed forces, to such an extent that those who fill their
ranks are now paralyzed into silence out of fear of appearing
discriminatory.
Notwithstanding the mounting evidence of contacts
with known terrorists, the "Soldier of Allah" business cards and
everything else uncovered about terrorist Hasan, nearly all mainstream
network news editors, reporters and publishers have ignored, denied or
downplayed the Islamic terrorism angle and continue to do so.
Progressive liberals including the majority party and "Dear Leader"
MaoBama refuse to acknowledge that the terrorists’ bastardized belief
system is a direct threat to the security of the US and that Nidal Hasan
was indeed motivated by that sick ideology.
According to the FBI,
Hasan first came to their attention in December of 2008, during an
unrelated Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation. Unless and until the
contents of Hasan’s email communications become public, we won’t know
for certain, but it would seem to me that any communication of this
nature to a known associate of terrorists in Yemen should be considered
cause for alarm. But, the blame for alleged missed signals is
widespread; Nidal Hasan also came to the attention of his military
colleagues, who should have definitely known something wasn’t right.
Hasan made numerous statements to colleagues that some considered
jihadist propaganda and glorification of suicide bombers. A 2007
PowerPoint presentation by Hasan questioning the morality of Muslim
military service has also surfaced. The FBI also maintains that the
suspect emails from Hasan to Anwar al Awlaki were properly turned over
by the FBI to an Army JTTF investigator, who never forwarded them up the
chain of command, nor initiated an investigation. The question Americans
want answered is why?
The US military, the Army in particular,
has been infected by political correctness for the better part of two
decades. Diversity training has been instituted Army-wide. In response
to a search on the word "diversity", the Army website returned 650
unique articles.
According to the New York Times, Obama
urged Americans not to dwell on the suspect’s religion by reminding
the nation of the broad diversity of those who serve.
"They are
Americans of every race, faith and station," he said. "They are
Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are
descendants of immigrants, and immigrants themselves. They reflect
the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a
patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to
country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is
the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion and uncommon
camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Fort Hood showed America
and showed the world."
In a major speech in Cairo this year,
Obama called for a "new beginning" with the Muslim world. The
shootings at Fort Hood, however, pose a different problem for him, by
shining a spotlight on the tensions created by Muslims inside the United
States.
In a Rose Garden appearance on Friday, he urged Americans
not to "jump to conclusions" about the motives behind the shooting, a
theme he echoed on Saturday.
"We cannot fully know what leads a
man to do such a thing."
"Fully know" is a very high test, but we already know a lot.
We
do know:
Hasan attended a radical mosque.
Hasan admired a radical Imam. Hasan expressed anti-US and
pro-jihad sentiments to his colleagues. Hasan prosthelytized
his military patients. Hasan identified himself as a
"Soldier of Allah." Hasan was in communications with an al
Qaeda recruiter. Hasan sent money to Pakistan. Hasan
purchased weapons and ammunition. Hasan frequented lap-dance
clubs weeks before massacre. Hasan began wearing traditional
Pakistani garb in the weeks before attack. Hasan screamed "Alahu
Akbar!" during his rampage.
We also know he's going to be sitting
in a wheelchair -- forever -- no more lap dances -- and Obama will twist
himself into knots making excuses for what is clearly a terrorist attack
on a U. S. military installation -- inside the United States of America
-- and it's on Obama's watch.
He has to deny that reality or
admit failure -- which leads to the observation that the United States
is in the hands of someone who is capable of denying reality -- and
that's a scary thought.
Political Correctness
11/16/09
Obama’s Rose-Colored Glasses
Floyd and Mary Beth Brown say Obama needs to throw his "Muslims can
do no evil" rose-colored glasses off and see the real world. After
listening to remarks by Barack Hussein Obama in Fort Hood, Texas, we
were struck by how unemotional he is to tragedy. That is, Obama
appears to be genuinely mourning the victims of the brutal
jihad-inspired massacre that left 13 dead; but even now, he refuses to
understand the gravity of the events and underlying reasons that led to
this terrorist attack on America’s valiant soldiers.
To Obama,
terrorism and Islamist jihad are words stricken from his lexicon.
Without these words, you cannot adequately understand these brutal
events on America’s homeland. Jihad flows from very specific
Islamic teachings. This attack was a premeditated act of
unspeakable terrorism, including the ritual pre-jihad (pre-attack)
cleansing routine caught in part on convenience store cameras.
Politically correct denial of Islam’s role in this bloodletting is
foolish and dangerous. And Obama and his administration will not
be able to protect us against further similar acts if they continually
refuse to admit reality.
What is the evidence to substantiate our
claims?
The FBI knew that Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik
Hasan had communicated with a radical, extremist imam nearly a year
before the attack. Yet, they wrongly determined the Army officer
was no threat. Why was he categorized as no threat? What
official or officials cleared him? For what reason did they clear
him?
We have learned from Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top
Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, that the Obama
administration knew months ago that Hasan and the radical Yemeni imam
"had exchanged 10 to 20 e-mails."
The imam influencing the Muslim
shooter is Anwar al-Awlaki. He was released from a jail in Yemen
last year. Al-Awlaki writes an anti-American blog that repeatedly
denounces the war on terror. He presided at the mosque in Falls
Church, Va., that Hasan attended, a center known for radical Islamic
teaching.
When will these radical mosques on American soil be
shut down? We expect radical pro-jihad teaching and
Islamic-fascism in the Middle East, but we don’t need to accept it in
the suburbs of Washington, D.C. We all enjoy freedom of religion,
but not the freedom to incite others to violence, which is exactly what
is happening in some American mosques.
Col. Ralph Peters
says half a year ago in Cairo, Obama addressed the Muslim world.
Global leftists lauded the speech as heralding instant change in the
Middle East.
The Obama-adoring pundits were right. Change
came. But it's all bad.
Instead of listening to the
extravagant claims of our leftward-plunging media about how profoundly
that speech affected Muslims, let's look at what's actually happened
since Obama praised Islam and trashed America:
Iran:
No nukes? Strategic cooperation? Rule-of-law democracy?
Greater freedom for the Iranian people? Naw. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's
regime plays Obama like a card sharp working a hick who just showed up
with his life savings in his pocket. Iran's fanatical rulers make
a promise, break a promise, hint at another promise . . . all as their
nuclear-weapons program rolls along. Bewildered, the White House
warns that if those Iranians aren't careful, there just might be
sanctions, sometime in the future, maybe, if China, Russia and other
spoilers agree . . . Meanwhile, Obama still won't stand up for the
millions of Iranians struggling for freedom.
Iraq:
Al Qaeda suffered a catastrophic defeat and nearly disappeared from the
Iraqi landscape. Now it's resurgent -- encouraged by Obama's
determination to look away. Terror bombings are up. But US
troop levels are going down. That's all that matters to the
blinkered White House. Al Qaeda senses a comeback opportunity.
Obama's running away as fast as he can.
Afghanistan:
Encouraged by Obama's evident weakness, the Taliban redoubled its
efforts against the hated government of Hamid Karzai. Obama
dithers, Afghan leaders steal, our troops die protecting the thieves --
and the Taliban advances with fresh recruits. Our ambassador in
Kabul, retired Gen. Karl Eikenberry, took a courageous stand to warn
that sending more troops would only encourage Karzai's cabal to continue
to shirk responsibility. But don't expect similar courage from
this White House, which fears tough decisions the way medieval peasants
feared the Black Death.
Pakistan: For all
the fuss about how well-received Obama's Cairo confession was among
Muslims, anti-Americanism has increased in this conflict-torn state of
180 million. We pour in billions of dollars. The Pakistani
government, media and citizenry pour out anti-American rhetoric -- even
blaming us for Taliban terror bombings. And Obama's a deer in the
headlights of history again.
Turkey:
Advertised as a marvelous Muslim democracy and NATO member, Turkey has
taken another lurch toward Islamic fundamentalism, embracing radical
Arab states while slashing cooperation with Israel. Big win there,
Mr. Obama.
Yemen: The Great Muslim Civil
War between Sunni and Shia has a new theater, with Saudi Arabia and Iran
fighting a proxy campaign in the poorer-than-dirt-poor Yemeni
backcountry. A Shia tribal struggle for basic rights found a
cynical backer in Tehran; the Sunni-hardline Yemeni government unleashed
fundamentalist jihadis -- terror, butchery and rape -- against its Shia
minority.
Saudi Arabia: Nervous about its
own oppressed Shia population, Saudi Arabia attacked Yemeni territory
(with US-made weapons) to support its fellow Sunni fundamentalists.
The impoverished Shia suffer grimly as pawns between greater powers.
But, Obama, who bowed to a Saudi king, won't ask the Saudis to show
restraint.
IsPal: By betraying Israel and
glorifying the Palestinian cause in Cairo, Obama encouraged unrealistic
expectations among Palestinians and empowered Arab hardliners -- always
willing to fight to the last Palestinian. Obama's naive demand for a
total freeze on Israeli settlements created a flashpoint while
undercutting Palestinian and Israeli moderates. The situation's far more
explosive than it was when Obama took office.
Texas:
A Muslim-extremist US Army major expected Obama to end our efforts in
Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. Obama was too slow, and Maj.
Nidal Malik Hasan responded. Shouting "God is greatest!" he gunned
down 54 Americans. The Middle East is here, too.
Obama's
Cairo sermon was promptly praised as the greatest speech of our time.
Last week, we heard that, no, Obama's no-mention-of-terror remarks at
Fort Hood was his greatest speech.
Obama, it seems, just strolls
from greatness to greatness. Among world leaders, only North
Korea's Kim Jong-il commands such media adoration from his homies.
Not one establishment media outlet will weigh the obvious damage Obama's
ludicrous Cairo speech did to the Middle East and to our security.
Islam
11/16/09
Obama To Strip Abortion Language From ObamaCare
White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that Obama
will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting
federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care
reform legislation.
In doing so, Obama would be heeding the call
of abortion rights supporters like Planned Parenthood that have called
the White House their "strongest weapon" in keeping such restrictions
out of the bill.
The abortion amendment was tacked on to the
House health care bill and was a key factor in securing the votes of
moderate Democrats before the bill was approved by a narrow margin last
weekend. The amendment, authored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.,
went beyond preventing the proposed government-run plan from covering
abortion to restrict federal subsidies from going toward private plans
that offer abortion coverage.
Axelrod said in an interview
Sunday that the amendment changes the "status quo," something the Obama
cannot abide.
"The president has said repeatedly, and he said in
his speech to Congress, that he doesn't believe that this bill should
change the status quo as it relates to the issue of abortion," Axelrod
said. "This shouldn't be a debate about abortion. And he's
going to work with Senate and the House to try and ensure that at the
end of the day, the status quo is not changed ... I believe that there
are discussions ongoing to how to adjust it accordingly."
David Horowitz
believes the Obama administration has taken a giant step in its
march to throw in the towel in the war against radical Islam. On
FoxNews this morning, Peter King said of the decision to try the
soldiers of al-Qaeda -- who by their own account have no country but
their cause -- as civilians:
"may be the worst decision by a U.S.
president in history."
It certainly is. It sends a signal to terrorists everywhere to
attack civilians.
The administration is justifying its decisions
on the grounds that because the 9/11 attackers targeted civilians they
should be tried as civilians. This makes no sense unless you are a
Democrat who believes that the "holy war" that Islamic jihadists have
formally declared on us is no different from the acts of isolated
individuals who have decided to break the law. This is the
approach to the war on terror that John Kerry championed in 2004.
Now that Americans have had the poor judgment -- the suicidally poor
judgment -- to make a leftist their president, this is the strategy our
nation is set to pursue.
The decision to try the jihadists in a
civilian court is also a decision which will divulge America’s security
secrets to the enemy since civilian courts afford defendants the right
of discovery. It is also a propaganda gift to Islamic murderers
who will turn the courtroom into a media circus to promote their hatred
against the Great Satan -- a hatred shared by their apologists at the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the pro-Castro Center for
Constitutional Rights who have pioneered the campaign against Guantanamo
and whose influence in the Obama Administration is pervasive.
(BTW, The newly appointed lawyer for the president is the
husband of Obama’s recently
departed Maoist communications director
Anita Dunn.)
Finally,
this move continues and enlarges the refusal of Obama and the American
Left to recognize that:
1. We are in a war that has been declared
on us -- in which we, in other words, are the victims. 2.
That the war is conducted by religious armies whose war is inspired
by their reading of the Koran. 3. That the number of
Muslims who support their war plan is in the tens of millions 4.
That they are aided and abetted by many Islamic governments and by
the international Left.
Terrorism
11/15/09
Unconscionable
Kruathammer: Giving KSM the rights of an American citizen is
unconscionable (03:03)
Ahhhh!, the irony -- KSM receives the rights of an
American citizen from a guy whose own citizenship is uncertain.
Videos
11/15/09
Why Does Obama Hate Us?
Paul Mirengoff reflects on the morning after the deadliest instance
of Islamist terrorism in the United States since 9/11, when Obama warned
the American public not to "jump to conclusions" about the motives that
impelled Nidal Hasan's rampage of mass murder at Fort Hood.
By
the time Obama issued this warning, it had already been reported that
Hasan yelled "Allahu akbar" before he opened fire. This assertion
of the supremacy of Allah is invoked by Islamic terrorists worldwide
before they kill.
It was also known that Hasan's fellow
participants in an Army program on public health had complained to
military authorities about Hasan's anti-American propaganda. Hasan
had made a presentation that justified suicide bombing and argued that
the war on terror is a war against Islam.
Yet no conclusions
were warranted, as far as Obama was concerned. "We cannot fully
know what leads a man to do such a thing," our "philosopher in chief"
intoned.
Obama has not always been cautious about jumping to
conclusions. When a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass.,
arrested Obama's African-American Harvard professor buddy, Obama was
quick to proclaim that the officer had "acted stupidly." Obama was
soon forced to back away from that statement, which was based on
ignorance of the facts.
There is no underlying inconsistency
between these seemingly divergent responses. Both are founded on
the same antipathy Obama harbors toward America.
Obama Urges Congress to Delay Fort Hood Investigation
Fox News is
reporting that Obama urged Congress to hold off on any investigation
of the Fort Hood terror attack until federal law enforcement and
military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at
the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.
Speaking from the
worlds largest Muslim country, Indonesia, Obama turned his attention
home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this
tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died
on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political
stagecraft.
"The stakes are far too high."
Obama already
had ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether
the information was properly shared and acted upon within government
agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep.
Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee,
have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about
Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of
concern to the U.S.
A joint terrorism task force overseen by the
FBI learned late last year of the 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the
radical imam, beginning in December 2008. The imam encouraged
Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force
did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it
concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.
In the Senate, Sen. Joe
Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said his Homeland Security
Committee was opening an investigation.
Obama said he was not
opposed to hearings -- eventually. But he strongly pressed
lawmakers to hold off until the probes now under way are completed.
"There is an ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy,"
Obama said. "That investigation will look at the motives of the
alleged gunman, including his views and contacts."
"We must
compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and
we must learn what was done with that information. Once we have
those facts, we must act upon them."
We must bury this incident in
process and minutiae, is what Obama really means. We wouldn't want
to come to the wrong conclusion -- just because a Soldier of Allah
murdered 13 and wounded 28 while screaming "Allahu Akbar" -- we wouldn't
want to judge harshly.
Identifying Hasan as a "gunman" tells you
that Obama has already come to his conclusion. He's going to do
his best to whitewash (no pun intended) the Ft. Hood Massacre and
exonerate Islam.
Obama intends to provide cover for Hasan's jihad
-- just watch.
Nidal Hasan
11/15/09
Obama’s Swelling Ego
Jeff Jacoby says Obama was too busy to attend the celebrations in
Germany this week marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.
But he did appear by video, delivering a few brief and bloodless remarks
about how the wall was "a painful barrier between family and friends"
that symbolized "a system that denied people the freedoms that should be
the right of every human being." He referred to "tyranny,"" but
never identified the tyrants -- he never uttered the words "Soviet
Union" or "communism," for example. He said nothing about the men
and women who died trying to cross the wall. Nor did he mention
Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan -- or even Mikhail Gorbachev.
He
did, however, talk about Barack Obama.
"Few would have
foreseen,"" declared Obama, "that a united Germany would be led by a
woman from [the former East German state of] Brandenburg or that their
American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human
destiny is what human beings make of it.""
As lofty rhetoric
goes, this was hardly a match for "Ich bin ein Berliner," still less
another "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." But as a specimen of
narcissism, it is hard to beat. Obama couldn"t be troubled to
visit Berlin to commemorate a momentous milestone in the history of
human liberty. But he was glad to explain to those who were there
why reflections on that milestone should inspire appreciation for the
self-made "destiny" of his own rise to power.
Jacoby asks, "was
there ever a president as deeply enamored of himself as Barack Obama?"
The Jerusalem Post is
reporting that Iran has completely rejected a UN-brokered nuclear
deal, but Barack Obama has postponed the official announcement on
Teheran's refusal due to internal political reasons, Israel Radio quoted
a senior western official as saying Saturday.
The deal would see
most of the Islamic Republic's uranium shipped to Russia and France for
further processing.
The official reportedly told journalists in
Paris that Iran has also refused to resume nuclear talks with the six
world powers.
Not Archived
11/14/09
How Low Can He Go?
Obama is in Japan and is not behaving very presidential.
The AP reported that upon arriving at the palace, Obama
greeted the Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko with a deep bow
and many subsequent smaller bows.
In Japan, bowing is used as a
way of greeting. The depth of the bow has a lot of meaning.
In this bow, Obama sent the signal that the Emperor is his superior,
whether he knows it or not, and by extension that Japan is the superior
to the U.S.
Foreigners should not bow in Japan until they learn
the rules, which takes a very long time. Obama's bow was a
grievous breach of protocol on Obama's part. It's almost like he
wants the world to know that he is a child.
The US Embassy here
should have had these fine points scripted for Obama.
American
leaders do not bow to foreigners. We are free, and it should show.
Other world leaders don't respect this kind of bowing and scraping.
It is not just a loss of face for Obama, but also for America.
Wait till the Chinese and the North Koreans see this picture.
There will be provocations from North Korea -- and soon.
To any
American soldier who gave his life at Pearl Harbor or throughout WWII at
the hands of the Japanese, this is treason.
It’s humiliating to
see an American leader do this to any foreigner, and it's just a
reminder of this.
For those
of us who thought White House press liaison Anita Dunn was just another
Obama moonbat, here is the evidence proving she was simply ahead of the
Chinese Communist curve:
"The Chinese
internet has been flooded with pages and pictures praising Obama and
comparing him to
Mao Zedong."
It seems Obama is huge
in China, with comparisons between America's dear leader and the
ruthless mass murderer who destroyed the Chinese economy and cultural
institutions during his absurdly misnamed Great Leap Forward and
subsequent Cultural Revolution.
See the
link to the
Polish news service for more examples of Chinese ObaMao posters.
Iconography
11/14/09
Birther Lawyer Is New White House Counsel
Robert Bauer, Obama’s "Birther" lawyer, will replace White House
counsel Gregory Craig, who took flak for his work on the Guantanamo
prison closure.
Politico
says
that the incoming White House counsel Bob Bauer is widely respected as a
skilled and pugnacious lawyer and has the unquestioned trust of Obama’s
inner circle and a deep knowledge of the ways of Washington.
But the
announcement Friday that he will take the place of Greg Craig, which had
been rumored for weeks, nonetheless prompted questions about whether his
experience as a campaign law expert and partisan warrior is appropriate
for a job dealing with some of the most sensitive constitutional and
national security issues in government.
Republicans moved quickly
to cast Bauer, a veteran Democratic campaign attorney with limited
government experience, as "hyperpartisan," with a former White House
counsel to President Ronald Reagan calling the pick "troubling."
Government watchdogs, who for years battled Bauer over their efforts
to reduce the role of money in politics, winced at the appointment,
fearing it would steer Obama further away from as-yet-unfulfilled
promises to bolster a campaign finance regime under attack from the
right.
Even some Democrats privately questioned whether Bauer’s
relatively specialized background and confrontational style are
well-suited to a post that requires both a familiarity with a wide range
of sensitive legal issues -- from national security to habeas corpus to
military law -- and finesse in dealing with stakeholders outside the
White House.
Bauer’s expertise is almost entirely in political
law -- including lobbying, campaign finance and ethics -- and he is
perhaps the leading attorney in that competitive and well-paying field.
A 1976 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, he
built the political law practice at Perkins Coie, a Seattle-based law
firm, into a powerhouse, hiring and grooming some of the top lawyers in
town.
Today, the firm has a near-stranglehold on some of the
biggest Democratic political accounts in town; it represents the party’s
two congressional committees -- the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- as well as
the individual campaigns and political action committees of many Senate
Democrats.
And Bauer landed the mother of all accounts --
Obama’s presidential campaign -- even before the campaign officially
began, which led to his being appointed this year to the coveted
position of lead counsel for the Democratic National Committee, a
position that also made him the lawyer for Obama’s political network,
Organizing for America.
Plus, he represents Obama and his family
in personal matters, such as the federal investigation of disgraced
former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but Bauer's number one priority is
to keep Obama's bona fides hidden from the American People.
Bauer
is married to recently resigned White House Communications Director,
Anita Dunn.
Tells you something
about where eligibility issues rank with Obama.
Cabinet
11/14/09
Eligibility Stories Lead To Lou Dobbs' Resignation
The New York Post is
reporting that Lou Dobbs was forced out of his $9 million CNN job,
ending a long-running clash that boiled over during a debate about
Obama's eligibility to serve as POTUS, sources said yesterday.
Dobbs, who will be replaced on the network by veteran Washington
political correspondent John King, abruptly announced his resignation on
air Wednesday night and offered no clue about what he planned to do
next.
But the beginning of the end really came in July, when CNN
President Jonathan Klein told Dobbs' staff in a memo to drop so-called
birther stories about conspiratorial doubts that Obama was US-born,
sources told The Post.
"It seems this story is dead because
anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate
beef," read Klein's memo to employees of "Lou Dobbs Tonight."
Klein's move incensed Dobbs, who wasn't shy about telling off his boss.
"They have been talking pretty regularly since then," a source
said. "And it's been pretty bad."
CNN had also long been asking
Dobbs, known for his tough stance on immigration, to tone down his harsh
rhetoric.
Intimidation
11/13/09
Obama Brings 9/11 Plotter To New York City
CNSNews.com is reporting that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be
sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama
administration official said Friday.
The official said Attorney
General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision, to bring the man who
decapitated Richard Pearl to New York City, later in the morning.
The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the
announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bringing such
notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in Obama's
plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the detention center by
Jan. 22, but he is no longer expected to meet that deadline
It is
also a major legal and political test of Obama's overall approach to
terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks, the administration
will face second-guessing from those who never wanted it in a civilian
courtroom. And if lawmakers get upset about notorious terrorists
being brought to their home regions, they may fight back against other
parts of Obama's agenda
And Obama is bringing four other
terrorists with him.
Update: Charles Krauthammer said, "Most Americans, we suspect,
can overlook the legal niceties and see this episode through the lens of
common sense. Foreign terrorists who wage war on America and
everything it stands for have no place sitting in a court of law born of
the values they so detest. Mr. Holder has
honored mass murder by treating it like any other crime."
And these 5 guys now have all
of the rights you do. The first thing the lawyers will do is ask
the judge to throw out all the evidence against them because it was
obtained through coercion.
Terrorism
11/13/09
Obama's Man-Caused Disaster Chickens Come Home To Roost
Neil Braithwaite
says that in her first testimony before Congress back in March of
this year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano laid the
groundwork for the Obama administration's new "politically correct"
Homeland Security doctrine. Without ever mentioning "terrorist" or
"terrorism" during her testimony, Secretary Napolitano put forth the
politically correct term for those two words: "man-caused disaster."
Defining the term as "nuance" to the German news site Spiegel Online,
Secretary Napolitano further stated, "...it demonstrates that we want to
move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared
for all risks that can occur." The "T"-word has been off limits by
the Obama administration ever since.
Noting Obama's new Homeland
Security doctrine as proffered by Secretary Napolitano, James Carafano
of the Heritage Foundation may not have known just how prophetic he was
when he stated, "By deliberately trying not to use the 'T'-word, they
[the Obama administration] run a serious political risk. If
something does happen, they'll be accused of taking their eye off the
ball and no amount of explanation after the fact will suffice."
Well, something did happen, and Carafano's prophecy has come true.
Obama's new Homeland Security doctrine has taken our country from
being the world's strongest and most intimidating superpower to a weak
and vulnerable nation being singled out by every terrorist organization
in the world. And make no mistake: Whether homegrown or
international, these terrorists want America destroyed at any cost.
The Obama administration's Homeland Security doctrine has become no more
than a politically correct welcome mat for every Muslim jihadist on the
planet.
Obama is willfully surrendering America's safety for the
sake of political correctness and tolerance. This comes on the
back of his selfish ambition to become the savior of the world, the
consequences of which are leaving America more vulnerable to attack at
home and abroad on every front, be it financial or military.
Terrorist organizations are taking advantage of Obama's perceived
weakness and ignorance. But the truly ignorant are our political
leaders -- and they should know better -- not to mention the ObamaMedia
and the millions of duped Americans who have turned a blind eye and deaf
ear to reality as they play in concert with Obama's insidious plan to
weaken and socialize America.
Furthermore, Obama's ceaseless
apologies for all the world's problems will have the exact opposite
effect of what he intends. His apologies for American "hate" will
only empower those who hate us. His apologies for American
"violence" will serve to invite violence from those who would do us
harm. His apologies for America's "oppression" will further
oppress all those living under the same dictatorial regimes he seeks to
appease and befriend. His apologies for America's "intolerance"
will insight a backlash of zero tolerance for everything American and
invoke calls for reparations from all who have been offended. .
Obama has opened a giant Pandora's box, and from it flows an
evil stream of contempt, anger, hate, and danger aimed point-blank at
our great nation. There can be no better example of this than the
attack on American soil by a homegrown terrorist, Muslim jihadist Nidel
Malik Hasan. Hasan's calculated domestic terrorist attack at Fort Hood
can be directly traced to Obama's Homeland Security
doctrine.
Many Americans are now beginning to honestly wonder
about our country's future as they ask themselves a very disturbing
question...will America sleep safely tonight?
Terrorism
11/13/09
ObamaMedia Doesn't See Terrorism
Flopping Aces asks why was the ObamaMedia so reticent to call the Ft.
Hood Shooting a "terrorist attack?" Is it to shield Obama or
because they preferred to use the incident to bash the military?
Or both?
Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter made no secret of his radical
Islamic views. He passed out
business cards with the acronomyn SOA indicating he was a "soldier
of Allah." Hasan gave a bizzare
PowerPoint presentation in which he quoted the Koran (slide 43): "I
have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is
no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Mohammed is the
Messenger."
As Hasan began to fire on the unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood he
shouted the Jihadi war cry: "Allahu Akbar."
So why has it been so difficult for the ObamaMedia to call this a
terrorist act?
PC News: Networks Downplay Terrorism, Muslim
Connection in Ft. Hood Attack All three networks
mention ‘terror’ only after Obama hints at ideology during funeral
ceremony. By Carolyn Plocher and Dan Gainor
Culture and Media Institute November 11, 2009
Networks Decide Attack Wasn’t Terror: 85 percent
of the broadcast stories didn’t mention the word "terror." ABC, CBS,
and NBC evening news referenced terrorism connections to the Fort
Hood attack just seven times in 48 reports.
ABC, CBS, NBC Follow White House Line: Before
Obama’s Nov. 10 speech, 93 percent of the stories had ignored any
terror connection. But after Obama hinted at what ABC called
"Islamic extremist views," all three networks mentioned terrorism.
Alleged Attacker’s Muslim Faith Not Important
Either: Slightly more than one-fourth (29 percent) of evening news
reports mentioned that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a Muslim. Of
those, half (7 out of 14) defended the religion or included experts
to do so.
James Lewis says audacity is supposed to be a talent in great
generals -- at least some of them. That's where the phrase comes
from: "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!" It's attributed to
the Kaiser Friedrich der Grosse, to Georges Danton, (one of the big
head-choppers of the French Revolution), and to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Audacity can be effective in warfare, because surprise assaults can
break through a Maginot Line. But another word for audacity is
"gambling." The price you often have to pay is overreach and
defeat. Napoleon's audacity led straight to an historic defeat for
Imperial France in Russia. France never recovered -- it's had two
straight centuries of military defeats since Napoleon. His
invasion of Russia also caused unimaginable suffering, just like
Hitler's invasion a century later. Audacity is not necessarily a
good thing.
When Obama uses the phrase "The Audacity of Hope,"
we hope he's talking about peaceful audacity. But we can't be sure
-- because Obama and his inner circle are extremists in any reasonable
meaning of that word, certainly by the standards of normal American
politics. That's why Obama seems so foreign. That is what
"radical" means; it's another word for "extremist." These folks
love to preen themselves on being radical. Rules for Radicals is
their Bible, and it's Obama's manual for "community organizing" -- which
looks just like community destruction. Alinsky dedicated Rules for
Radicals to Lucifer, because Lucifer is the symbol of destructive
extremism. Don't tell me these folks are mainstream Americans.
No way.
Obama is running the most extremist administration in
American history. It's chockfull of wild-eyed bizarros like
Cass Sunstein, Patrick Gaspard, Kevin Jennings, Van Jones, Rahmbo,
and the whole Chicago Gang. How many presidential chiefs of staff
have publicly yelled "Dead! Dead! Dead!" while stabbing a
steak knife into a dinner table, just to show what he wanted to do to
his political enemies? Rahm Emanuel's the only one. How many
have done the Godfather schtick by sending a dead fish to a journalist?
Rahmbo wants to scare people, and Obama knew that when he hired him.
It can't be an accident that Rahm is Obama's Capo di tutti Capi.
That's extremism. Maybe it's normal in Moscow or Khazakstan.
In American politics it's extremist.
Following the courageous
expose by two young investigative journalists released on the
pages of this very blog, there were widespread calls for a U.S.
Department of Justice investigation into the
criminal enterprise that is ACORN. One would
think there would be swift, decisive action from the administration that
promised to be the most transparent in history. Despite the
urging
of some in congress and
action on the regional level, and an
internal investigation into funding,
terrorist sympathizer U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
refuses to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee a criminal
investigation of ACORN. There’s no evidence that any internal
investigation is ongoing or making any progress since a 2008
request from Indiana’s Secretary of State.
Instead, Obama’s political arm is
attempting to dismiss it as a "fear campaign" while
ACORN insinuates that it is racist. Yes, they are still playing
that card.
What’s Holder’s hold-up? One major factor of course is that
ACORN serves as a taxpayer-funded Democrat army.
As with unions, it behooves Democrats to ignore
corruption amongst the ranks of the powerful forces that
elect them. What appears on the surface to be mere
political payback for a job well done is in fact much more insidious.
One family’s involvement with ACORN and the Obama administration is of
particular interest and elucidates the complicated web of connections
and cash behind ACORN and Obama.
Meanwhile, ACORN is
suing
the federal government, saying that Congress violated the U.S.
Constitution when it barred the group from receiving federal funds --
only in America!
Cabinet
11/12/09
More Dithering
CNSNews.com is reporting that Barack Obama won't accept any of the
Afghanistan war options before him.
Obama's stance comes as his
own ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, is voicing strong
dissent about a U.S. troop increase, according to a second
administration official.
Eikenberry's misgivings center on a
concern that bolstering the American presence in Afghanistan could make
the country more reliant on the U.S., not less. He expressed them
in forcefully worded cables to Washington just ahead of Obama's latest
war meeting Wednesday.
Obama is still expected to send in more
troops to bolster a deteriorating war effort.
He remains close to
announcing his revamped war strategy -- troops are just one component --
and probably will do so shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia
that ends Nov. 19.
Yet in Wednesday's pivotal war council
meeting, Obama wasn't satisfied with any of the Afghanistan war options
presented by his national security team, one official said.
Obama
pushed for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over
responsibility to the Afghan government. In turn, that could
change the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to
Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war
zone, according to the official.
Military officials said Obama
has asked for a rewrite before and resisted what one official called a
one-way highway toward war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal's
recommendations for more troops. The sense that he was being
rushed and railroaded has stiffened Obama's resolve to seek information
and options beyond military planning, officials said, though a
substantial troop increase is still likely.
Obama is considering
options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. forces to take on the
Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan and to buy time for the Afghan
government's small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over.
The other three options on the table are ranges of troop increases, from
a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that
McChrystal prefers, according to military and other officials.
John Reiniers says, that in commenting upon Barak Obama's "Olympic
ego trip" to Copenhagen, George Will noted that Obama used the personal
pronoun 26 times in 46 sentences.
In
his first 41 speeches he mentioned himself 1,400 times.
Everyone needs to have a healthy ego if they assume they have
the experience and competency to be president of the United States.
But that ego needs to be coupled with a tinge of humility. And it
helps to make a distinction between two forms of egomania, given Obama's
admitted lack of experience, which is even more obvious now.
As to the first form of egomania, let me quote other
presidential figures to make the point. Those old enough to
remember will recall the time Lyndon Johnson (no shrinking violet, he)
was heading for the wrong helicopter when a young Air Force corporal
pointed to the presidential helicopter: "This is your helicopter sir,"
to which Johnson replied," They're all my helicopters, son." This
is the statement of a guy who exuded command authority from years of
experience of being boss. Ludwig Erhard, German chancellor said to
Johnson upon a visit to Texas, "I understand you where born in a log
cabin," to which Johnson said, "No, no, no! You have me confused with
Abe Lincoln. I was born in a manger." This was a quip by a
seasoned totally self-confident Democratic political veteran with a
healthy impression of himself.
But
now that other sort of ego that was present in Charles De Gaulle who
proclaimed, "When I want to know how France thinks, I ask myself."
Or a surprising statement by President Woodrow Wilson who unsuccessfully
championed our membership into the League of Nations: "Why has Jesus
Christ so far not succeeded in inducing the world to follow His
teachings in matters of world peace? It is because he taught the
ideal... That is why I am proposing a practical scheme to carry
out His aims." (A strange Pope-like comment, coming from a
progressive Democrat and former president of Princeton, whose racist
views were hardly a secret.)
Obama's
ego is more of the flavor of Wilson's and De Gaulle's.
Nevertheless, these guys at least had lots of high level mileage that
prompted their over-the-top egos. Obama's is more of an elitist
chutzpah that comes from being extremely clever, and being a performance
artist at the level of any of our great motivational speakers.
More than 215,000 Germans attended his speech in Berlin before he was
even elected pResident! ("People of Berlin -- people of the world
-- this is our moment. This is our time.") He won a Grammy
for the Best Spoken Word for the CD version of his autobiography,
"Dreams from my father." He won his second Grammy award for Best
Spoken Word album for "The Audacity of Hope." These were the
credentials that qualified him for the pResidency. Two books all
about himself. (His Nobel prize came later.) There really is
nothing else, because he started his campaign for the presidency the day
he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
He may be more clever than smart. He has chosen not to release his
SAT, LSAT, or his GPA scores. The Obama inner circle keeps these a
closely guarded secret,
We have seen this
show of indifference before -- remember
this?
Biography
11/11/09
The Man Who Despises America
Mark Hyman says the very next paragraph is going to make the nut
jobs on the far left excitable beyond belief.
I am not referring
to all Democrats or even a majority of liberals. I am singling out
the "they've-lost-all-touch-with-reality" crowd. This includes
Media Matters for America led by the admitted hit-and-run, drunk-driving
serial liar. The group includes the unshaven, bathrobe-clad
unemployed who live in their mother's basement and are devout followers
of MoveOn.Org. It is also the bitter, aging spinster working at
the New York Times, the morbidly obese documentary film maker, and cable
TV news' resident drama queen who hosts MSNBC's Countdown. They
are about to simultaneously suffer from brain aneurisms. So
without further delay, I'll say it.
Real Clear Politics has a
video of Obama making excuses for Major Nidal's terror attack.
OBAMA: "Well, look, we -- we have seen, in the past, rampages of
this sort. And in a country of 300 million people, there are going
to be acts of violence that are inexplicable. Even within the
extraordinary military that we have -- and I think everybody understands
how outstanding the young men and women in uniform are under the most
severe stress -- there are going to be instances in which an individual
cracks. I think the questions that we're asking now and we don't
have yet complete answers to is, is this an individual who's acting in
this way or is it some larger set of actors? You know, what are
the motivations? Those are all questions that I think we have to
ask ourselves. Until we have these answers buttoned down, I'd
rather not comment on it."
Obama sounds like Nidal's lawyer.
He doesn't want to talk about it. He wants it to go away. He
wants to talk about ObamaCare.
But there it is -- a domestic
terror event -- 13 dead -- 28 wounded -- the murder screaming "Allahu
Ahkbar" -- on his watch -- and Obama says, "I'd rather not comment on
it."
At the CounterTerrorism Blog, Evan Kohlmann is
reporting that the NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new
communique from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) in
response to the massacre at Ft. Hood, Texas that killed 13 people.
In a statement titled, "The Attack In Texas Is A Proof On The
Disagreement Among American Soldiers Over The War," the Taliban
celebrated the "fight and trance and enormous fears within the military
and civil circles in America" caused by the incident. The Taliban
noted, "the hero of the attack is the Muslim psychiatrist in the rank of
Major in the American Army, from Palestinian origin... Some of the
Western organizations and media sources say -- regarding the factors
that made the American soldier Nidal Hasan carry this attack -- it might
be caused by psychological illness and stress, which spread amongst the
soldiers in the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq... But, other
specialists, next to these factors, diagnosed another special factor;
that the oppression and the monstrosity and prisoner torture and air
raids and general killing, carried out by the American army in Iraq and
Afghanistan, have led to a situation of widespread dissonance and
exhaustion between the American soldiers, and the American military
bases.
Maybe this incident was a reaction to these injustices, and disowning
them." The Taliban statement further warned that if the U.S. fails
to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan "it will become normal for
incidents and attacks similar to Texas’ to expand to the Pentagon and
the rest of the American military bases, and it is inevitable that those
with a spark of self-awareness to react with fundamentalist rebellion."
A complete English
translation of the Taliban statement can be accessed on the NEFA
Foundation website.
Robin of Berkeley writes: I used to have a friend with a few screws loose.
But you'd never know it.
Barbara would dress impeccably in
designer wear, and her house resembled a museum. She was a
professor, tops in her field.
But behind the impressive image,
all wasn't right. She said she loved her son, Noah, but acted like
he didn't exist. A single parent, Barbara wouldn't hesitate to
introduce Noah to her boyfriend of the month. She skipped some of
his meals, claiming that she was too busy to cook.
Barbara called
me her best friend. But she'd cancel dates at the last minute for
no good reason. And she always flaked when I needed her.
Even though Barbara looked perfectly normal, there was something awry.
Perhaps the neurons in her brain weren't firing properly.
I've
been thinking about Barbara since Obama came on the scene. Like
Barbara, Obama professes concern for people, but treats many with utter
disregard. Since both are charismatic and successful, it's easy to
get fooled.
Some would say Obama's cool detachment is narcissism.
But narcissists are charmers; they know exactly what to say and do, even
it's all hot air.
Others think that Obama is disengaged because
he's elitist, arrogant. The day to day grunt work is beneath him.
His motto: I'd rather be golfing.
All of the above may be true,
but it's something else: he seems off to me.
The Pentagon
said it was never notified by U.S. intelligence agencies that they
had intercepted emails between the alleged Fort Hood shooter and an
extremist imam until after last week's bloody assaults, raising new
questions about whether the government could have helped prevent the
attack.
A top defense official said federal investigators didn't
tell the Pentagon they were looking into months of contacts between Maj.
Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki. The imam knew three of the
Sept. 11 hijackers and hailed Maj. Hasan as a "hero" after the shooting
last week at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead.
"Based on what
we know now, neither the United States Army nor any other organization
within the Department of Defense knew of Maj. Hasan's contacts with any
Muslim extremists," the official said.
A person familiar with the
matter said a Pentagon worker on a terrorism task force overseen by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation was told about the intercepted emails
several months ago. But members of terror task forces aren't
allowed to share such information with their agencies, unless they get
permission from the FBI, which leads the task forces.
In this
case, the Pentagon worker, an employee from the Defense Criminal
Investigative Service, helped make the assessment that Maj. Hasan wasn't
a threat, and the FBI's "procedures for sharing the information were
never used," said the person familiar with the matter.
Maj.
Hasan's emails to Mr. Awlaki were intercepted as part of a continuing
National Security Agency effort to monitor the electronic communications
of suspected Islamic extremists world-wide. The emails were
seeking "spiritual and religious guidance.
A federal
investigator said the FBI contacted Maj. Hasan's then-employers at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to find out more about his
background and professional occupation, but acknowledged that such
background checks were fairly routine and that the emails in question
appeared benign.
Army officials declined to comment about whether
officials at Walter Reed conducted a follow-up investigation into Maj.
Hasan or alerted others within the Army hierarchy after they had
received the FBI inquiry.
"That's all part of the investigation,"
said Col. Catherine Abbott, an Army spokeswoman.
Two events tell you all you need to know about Obama.
The
Berlin Wall -- Obama's absent -- the end of the Soviet Union is not an
anniversary a Marxist and fellow traveler, like Obama, would want to
celebrate.
The Ft. Hood Attack -- Obama's absent -- his disdain for
the military and affection for all things Islam have been demonstrated
by his cold and detached reaction to the terrorist attack. Almost
a week later, he is forced to make an appearance -- for appearances
sake. He'll read a politically correct speech, written by someone
else and fed to him by his crutch, the ever-present TOTUS.
What
more do you need to know about the guy?
Hildabeast was dispatched
to Berlin to show the flag, but Obama, who thought it important to
campaign in Berlin, certainly should have been there for the anniversary
of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Obama is going to finally make a
trip to Texas, but George and Laura Bush went to Ft. Hood immediately --
and privately -- without the cameras. Obama will bring
dozens of boot-lickers from the ObamaMedia.
And is he going to Ft. Hood to morn with the
families and troopers, or to make excuses for Major Hasan's jihad?
Will Obama again urge Americans not to jump to conclusions as the
evidence of jihad continues to grow? Will he again tell us how
wonderful Islam is? Will he again shed a false tear like he did at
Dover?
Obama is a new kind of American who has already
dispatched his Attorney General to Detroit to assure the terrorist
apologists at CAIR that Obama still
has every intention of standing
with them.
The idiot, that Obama put in charge of the Department
of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano,
says her agency is working with (Muslim) groups across the United
States to try to deflect any backlash against American Muslims following
Thursday's rampage by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who is a damned jihadii.
There has never been any backlash against Muslims --
not after 9/11 -- not now, but Obama's narrative is that the only people
that America needs to fear are conservatives and Christians.
Yesterday, Obama said he
wanted to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the cities leveled by U.S.
atomic bombs -- the action prevented an assault on the Japanese homeland,
saving millions of lives, and ending
World War II -- he'll make another apology for the evils of the United
States of America, no doubt.
Opinion
11/10/09
Obama Withholding Information On Fort Hood Attack
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Monday that the Obama
administration has been
withholding
"critical information" on the Fort Hood murders committed by Army Major
Nidal Malik Hasan.
Hoekstra is demanding that the Central
Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National
Security Agency and the Director of National Intelligence preserve
documents relating to the incident for use in possible future
congressional investigation.
"...Obama said people should not
jump to conclusions about what happened at Fort Hood, but the
administration is in possession of critical information related to the
attack that they are refusing to release to Congress or the American
people," Hoekstra said in a statement. "I intend to push for
intense review of this and other issues related to the performance of
the intelligence community and whether or not information necessary for
military, state and local officials to provide for the security of the
post was provided to them."
The Michigan lawmaker sent a letter
Saturday to the top administration intelligence officials, saying he saw
"serious issues" with their performance related to the Fort Hood
murders, and indicating that the intelligence community had refused to
comply with his request to review certain information related to the
case.
As the ranking member on the House intelligence committee,
Hoekstra is one of the so-called Gang of Eight -- a group of lawmakers
that included the leaders of the House and Senate and the leaders of the
House and Senate intelligence committees -- who are briefed on
intelligence activities deemed too sensitive to share with the full
intelligence committees.
"Over the past 24 hours, I have been
made aware of information from the intelligence community that suggests
the possibility that serious issues exist with respect to the
performance of U.S. intelligence agencies in connection with what
appears to have been a terrorism-related attack on Fort Hood, Texas by
Nidal Malik Hasan," Hoekstra wrote. "I am disappointed that the
administration has not been more transparent with the American people."
Not Archived
11/10/09
Denial Ain’t Just A Birth Certificate
Ambassador Alan Keyes
says, this morning, in an
article by Lt. Colonel Allen B. West (US Army, ret.) about the Ft.
Hood terrorist attack, a phrase arrested my attention: "The Saudis are
not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is
delusional." It took my mind back to the days when I was hosting a
commentary show on MSNBC. I remember on several occasions
presenting thoughts based on the theme, "the Saudis are not our
friends." (Not long after came the events that led to the demise
of the show.) And that was before the current corrupt Party system
produced an election outcome allowing someone to occupy the Oval Office
who could not suppress the urge to do public obeisance to the Saudi
Monarch.
In his comments Lt. Col. West accurately
assesses th Saudi role in developing the cadre of Islamic
fundamentalists from whose ranks Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups
recruit their dedicated assassins. "Saudi Arabia is sponsoring
radical Imams who enter into our prisons and convert young men into a
virulent Wahabbist ideology… They are sponsoring textbooks which present
Islamic centric revisionist history in our schools."
Now it appears that the preparation and
recruitment of Islamic jihad kamikazes has been successfully extended
into the ranks of our military, endangering the lives of our personnel
on and off the battlefield (as well as the lives of their dependents.)
As an "Army brat" I spent the bulk of my early years living on one Army
base or another. Though it was part of my father's profession to
risk his life for the country, as a dependent I don't recall feeling
that my life was at risk on base for even one moment the whole time I
was growing up. Can the children of our troops today say the same?
Though not on the scale of the events of 9/11,
the attack at Ft. Hood sharply conveys the same message those attacks
were meant to convey -- the terrorists can get past all our defenses to
take people out in the very circumstances where life ought to be most
secure. Indeed, the message of Ft. Hood is intended to go further,
casting doubt on the reliability of all the instruments we use to defend
the nation's security.
It is (tragically?) ironic that as we consider
that message, the man who claims to be Commander-in-Chief seems more
concerned with protecting the assailant from the bad opinion of the
nation he assaulted than with protecting the nation and its warriors
from future such attacks. I'm sure Obama thinks we shouldn't make
too much of the fact that Major Nidal Malik Hasan attended a mosque;
"controlled
by the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a Saudi-funded worldwide jihadist
movement which controls many of the mosques in America….Before attending
Muslim Community Center, Hasan worshiped with his mother at the
ultra-radical Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic center in Falls Church, Va.
While there he worshiped alongside some of the hijackers who attacked
the Pentagon on 9/11. He reportedly came under the spell of the
mosque's imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who ministered privately to the
hijackers."
After all, why assume that attending a
hate-filled mosque had a bad influence on Hasan when attending Jeremiah
Wright's hate-filled church left Obama filled with love and hope, all
primed for the Nobel Peace prize? Why assume that imbibing the
teachings of a radical imam affected Hasan's actions when we are
supposed to go along with the notion that, despite his many years of
admiring and studying radical socialists and communists only fringe
loonies would suggest Obama is one of them?
Does the sacrifice of truth involved in treating
Obama as though he were just another true blue American politico mean
that we must close our eyes to facts on which the physical security,
indeed the very survival of our country may depend? Will the
political cowardice that refuses to see and answer the many questions
about his background also refuse to seek answers about the questionable
backgrounds of others who, like him, are in a position to do our nation
grievous harm?
Not Archived
11/10/09
Obama's New Man At State
Ed Lasky is reporting that Obama has
assigned John
Limbert as the senior Iran official at the State Department, replacing
Dennis Ross, who has moved to the National Security Council (and who has
not been heard from publicly since). Should America be concerned?
Yes. Limbert is not a neutral arbiter; he serves on the advisory
board of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
What is
the National Iranian American Council?
The Council is widely
considered the de facto lobby for the Iranian regime in America.
It opposes sanctions on Iran, soft-pedals any controversial events in
Iran, and counsels "patience" regarding Iran's stance towards its
nuclear program. The NIAC has been at the forefront of
lobbying against continued congressional funding of the Voice of
America Persia service, Radio Farad, and grants for Iranian civil
society. To top it off, the NIAC has reportedly
received
funding from anti-Israel advocate George Soros, who at the very least
was an
honored guest and speaker at one of its symposiums. (He called
for a more equitable Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and advocated for
America to renounce regime-change as a goal).
The NIAC staunchly
opposes any military attacks on Iran. In other words, it all but
serves as Iran's embassy in Washington -- though the NIAC vociferously
disputes this characterization. However, there is very little
sunlight between the views of the regime and the NIAC.
The NIAC
is also headed by the controversial Trita Parsi. Who is Trita
Parsi?
He was born in Iran, but moved to Sweden at the age of
four. He pursued a career in international relations, eventually
leading him to found the National Iranian American Council (more on that
tie later).
Parsi serves as an adjunct scholar at the Middle East
Institute, a "think-tank" that serves as one of the public-relations
agencies for the Muslim world in Washington. The Middle East
Institute is headed by Wyche Fowler, who has a string of what Lasky
called "Fowler Howlers" when he wrote about the Middle East Institute
years ago. The Fowler Howlers were statements to the media that
were so glowing regarding the Muslim world as to be synonymous with
mirages.
The NIAC also has an ambitious plan that it unwittingly
disclosed just a few years ago: enhance its power in Washington in order
to help steer American foreign policy.
But the
announcement Friday that he will take the place of Greg Craig, which had
been rumored for weeks, nonetheless prompted questions about whether his
experience as a campaign law expert and partisan warrior is appropriate
for a job dealing with some of the most sensitive constitutional and
national security issues in government.
