Items on this page are archived in alphabetic sequence . . .
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was born April 22, 1971 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He is a native American and an American Muslim lecturer, spiritual leader, and former imam who U.S. government officials and numerous sources say incites terrorism and is tied to the terrorist organization al- Qaeda. Barack Obama approved the targeted killing of al-Awlaki. That step required the consent of the United States National Security Council, and made al-Awlaki the first U.S. citizen ever to be placed on the list of those whom the CIA is allowed to kill. Apologist For Jihad
"...what has been remarkable...is the extraordinary accomplishments of American Muslims...how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation...fierce loyalty to America, their patriotism...blah, blah, blah..." -- Barack Hussein Obama II Barack And The Bad Guys
Barack Obamas belief that we should treat terrorists as nothing more than common criminals demonstrates a stunning and alarming misunderstanding of the threat we face from radical Islamic extremism. Obama holds up the prosecution of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 as a model for his administration, when in fact this failed approach of treating terrorism simply as a matter of law enforcement rather than a clear and present danger to the United States contributed to the tragedy of September 11th. This is change that will take us back to the failed policies of the past and every American should find this mindset troubling. Bin Laden Killed
It could be a scene from political drama The West Wing. Indeed, it took place in the White Houses west wing. But this was not fiction. From halfway around the world, Obama and members of the National Security Council huddled in front of a video screen on Sunday afternoon to follow the raid on Osama Bin Ladens Pakistan compound as it happened. Their faces, racked by tension, looked set in stone -- hardly surprising, given what was at stake.
CAIR
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presents itself as just another civil-rights group. According to its website, "CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding" -- certainly an image of moderation. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says spokesman Ibrahim Hooper. Crotch-Bomber
A 23 year-old Nigerian national, who is an engineering student at University College in London, UK, is the primary suspect in the attempt to detonate an explosive, a mix of powder and liquid, aboard Delta- Northwest Flight 253 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport just before noon today. The Nigerian Muslim said he was acting as an agent for al Qaeda, and tried to blow up the Northwest Airlines plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded like firecrackers rushed to subdue him. The device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used." Also know as "Christmas Bomber." Embassy Bomber
Ghailani is the first detainee from Guantanamo to face trial in the U.S. He is facing charges of conspiracy, murder, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and other charges stemming from two bombing attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 that killed 224 people and injured hundreds more. He has pled not guilty. Ft. Hood Massacre
In another major incidence of Jihad, Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan murdered 13 and wounded 30 others, as he screamed "Allahu Akbar!" Hasan repeatedly reloaded his two pistols as he calmly executed his victims, shooting many in the back, repeatedly. Obama's reaction to this terror attack on his watch was to urge Americans not to jump to conclusions and other than that, "I'd rather not comment on it." Obama
has refused to provide Congress with details of the attack since shortly after the incident. Islamic Victory Mosque
In an interview last night with CNNs Soledad O'Brien, the slimy Ground Zero Imam, Abdul Rauf, threatened violence against America and Americans if the Islamic victory mosque is not built at Ground Zero. Rauf, a supporter of the Iranian revolution, and world-wide sharia law, says the reason he cant move the Islamic center now is because of national security concerns, saying parts of the Muslim world would be violently inflamed at the news of the centers relocation. Homeland Security
In an interview, Janet Napolitano, Obamas Homeland Security Secretary, was asked why she did not use the word "terrorism" while addressing congress for the first time. She responded, "In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but 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." Islamization
Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system. It has religious, legal, political, economic and military components, and the religious component is a beard for all the other components.
Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called religious rights. When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to the reasonable Muslim demands for their religious rights, they also get the other components under the table. Click the link to see how it works. Jose Pimentel -- aka Muhammad Yusuf
Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday
because he was ready to carry out his plan. "He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb." Khalid Sheik Muhamed
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is al-Qaeda's most successful terrorist operator, having planned and executed the September 11 Attacks in the United States. Raised in Kuwait to a family from the Baluchi region of Pakistan, Mohammed was cousin or uncle to Ramzi Yousef. He said his willingness to attack the United States is a result of U.S. support of Israel. He graduated from North Carolina A&T University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986, and afterwards went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets there. In 1996, he went to Osama bin Laden and proposed what would become the 9-11 plot. Bin Laden approved the plan in late 1998 or early 1999, and Mohammed was in the al-Qaeda fold. He also took over the network's media committee. At the time of his capture in Pakistan (2003), he was plotting new attacks against the United States and United Kingdom. Little Rock Jihad
The American-born Muslim convert who shot and killed Army Pvt. William Long and wounded another soldier outside a Little Rock, Ark., mall on June 1, said the act was in retaliation for the US war on terror, "done for the sake of Allah, the lord of all the world."
Naturally, the authorities pegged the Memphis, Tennessee, native Abdulhakid Mujahid Mohammed, born Carlos "Corey" Bledsoe, as a "lone wolf" -- nothing to see here -- move on!
Lone Wolf Jihadii
The lone jihadi may act alone but receives ideological instruction from Islamic sources and may receive guidance on preparation from Islamic sources as noted below, even if not receiving specific targets or activation from others. These Muslims appear law-abiding and reasonable until they suddenly engage in physical, violent jihad; as opposed to suddenly converting to Islam and waging jihad. Again, learning about and preparing oneself for jihad may take place over years, without anyone noticing, until suddenly they act. New Jersey Jihad
Sharif Mobley, a Muslim who grew up in Buena, N.J., was among 11 al- Qaida suspects rounded up earlier this month in Yemen. He was taken to a hospital there over the weekend after he complained of feeling
ill. Yemeni officials said he snatched a gun and shot a security guard to death in an attempt to escape from the hospital. Nothing To See Here
Every time there is an incident involving adherents to a certain religious lifestyle, who can not be named because they will kill you, the FBI or some bureaucrat or politician announces that it's an "isolated incident" before the smoke clears. Terrorism And The Courts
A federal judge has tossed out most of the government's evidence against a terrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also said the government failed to establish that 23 statements the detainee made to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were untainted by the earlier coerced statements made while he was held under harsh conditions in Afghanistan. The judge said the government presented medical records about the detainee's debilitating physical and mental condition that confirm his claims of harsh treatment during the 40 days he spent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Terrorists In Charge
Walid Phares says even Obama has admitted that we're falling down on the job when it comes to fighting the war on terror. In this terror war, the jihadists have the upper hand. THEY are in charge. THEY are the ones who choose to use a new weapon and they are also the ones who -- by using simple logic -- have refrained from using the same terror weapons more than once. Times Square Jihad
Police officials said a witness reported a running Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square, New York, bearing Connecticut license plates. There was smoke coming out of the back. A bomb squad robot popped the back latch of the Pathfinder, and officers found what they initially believed was a bomb. The vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires, a Fire Department officer told Reuters. World-Wide Jihad
It is important that any whiff of the most obvious promoters of the worldwide Jihad, members of Al Qaeda, be kept from public view if they end up, as of course they have, in Gaza or in the "West Bank." In the
same way, the Uighurs have a vested interest in making sure that any Arab fighters or Arab funds or Arab propaganda (or Pakistani, or Iranian) are not found in Xinjiang. And the same is true for those Muslims conducting jihad in southern Thailand, or the southern Philippines. And so on, everywhere that Muslims are fighting against non-Muslims. Since North America and Western Europe are still, militarily, overwhelmingly more powerful than Muslim states, wiles and guiles must be employed to prevent Western Infidels from recognizing the truth about Islam. http://www.theobamafile.com/index_next_terrorism.htm
Items on this page are archived in chronological order . . . Born In The USA Anwar al-Awlaki was born April 22, 1971 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He is a native American and an American Muslim lecturer, spiritual leader, and former imam who U.S. government officials and numerous sources say incites terrorism and is tied to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. He is a child of wealth and privilege, and highly educated -- He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University (1994), which he attended on a foreign student visa and a government scholarship from Yemen, reportedly by claiming to be born in that country.
Obama approved the targeted killing of al-Awlaki. That step required the consent of the United States National Security Council, and made al-Awlaki the first U.S. citizen ever to be placed on the list of those whom the CIA is allowed to kill.
Al-Awlaki reportedly met privately with at least two of the 9/11 hijackers. Due to those contacts, investigators suspect al-Awlaki may have known about the 9/11 attacks in advance. In 2009, unnamed U.S. officials stated that he had been promoted to the rank of "regional commander" within al-Qaeda, acting as an inspirational, rather than an operational, leader.
U.S. intelligence intercepted emails between al-Awlaki and accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, and al-Awlaki praised Hasan's actions after the Fort Hood shooting. Crotch Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, implicated al-Awlaki in some elements of planning or preparing his failed attack, according to unnamed U.S. officials. The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2010, three months prior to Obama authorizing his targeted killing, that there was no indication al-Awlaki: "played a direct role in any of the attacks, and he has never been indicted in the U.S." As of early 2010, he was thought to be living in Yemen. In March 2010, al-Awlaki said in a videotape delivered to CNN that jihad against America was binding upon himself and every other able Muslim.
And we now know that Awlaki was behind the Times Square Bomber. That's 3 guided human missiles that Awlaki has fired at American civilian targets -- that we know of -- and we also know he's training more -- at this moment.
Wikipedia has a lot of stuff on this guy. Senate Probes Awlaki's Escape Stonewalled by the Justice Department in its efforts to get to the bottom of intelligence lapses that led to the Fort Hood massacre, the Senate Homeland Security Committee has broadened its probe to look into why Justice a year after 9/11 withdrew an arrest warrant for the radical American-born imam who corresponded with the Fort Hood terrorist.
WorldNetDaily has learned that the chief counsel for the Senate panel, led by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), has requested an interview with a federal agent who shortly after the 9/11 attacks worked with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego investigating Anwar al-Awlaki's ties there to two of the 9/11 hijackers.
The agent says prosecutors got cold feet and withdrew a felony arrest warrant for Awlaki even after a federal magistrate judge signed it. He and other investigators say his arrest and interrogation at the time may have stopped him from recruiting and radicalizing dozens of other terrorists, including the Fort Hood shooter.
The al-Qaida hijackers, both Saudi nationals, followed the radical cleric from his San Diego mosque, where he met with them in long, private sessions, to his mosque in the Washington suburbs, located not far from the Pentagon building they attacked.
At that Falls Church, Va., mosque -- Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center -- Awlaki also ministered to Nidal Malik Hasan, the jailed Army officer accused of murdering 13 and wounding 30 others in a jihad-inspired shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.
His Falls Church mosque handled the funeral services of Hasan's mother when she passed away in 2001. It was then that Hasan first fell under the spell of prayer leader Awlaki, who later would correspond with Hasan in some 20 e-mails in the months leading up to the Fort Hood massacre. Awlaki praised Hasan as "a hero" and blessed the attack on U.S. soldiers as a legimate form of jihad.
More recently, Awlaki allegedly directed the Crotch-Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and helped radicalize confessed Times Square car-bomber Faisal Shahzad.
With the Times Square plot, the New Mexico-born Muslim cleric is now linked to the last three terrorist plots designed to kill Americans at home. Awlaki, now hiding in Yemen, recently boasted to the Arab press that U.S.-based jihad is "becoming as American as apple pie."
Authorities believe Awlaki is al-Qaida's top recruiter in the West and poses a grave and immediate threat to America. The CIA has been authorized to kill him on sight.
Continue reading here . . .
Here is the release authorization document, that contains the names of the federal officers involved -- "pax" is the acronym for passenger/s. Be The First On Your Block To Own The Complete Awlaki Jihad Set
Al-Awlaki Dined At The Pentagon Fox News says Anwar Al-Awlaki may be the first American on the CIAs kill or capture list, but he was also a lunch guest of military brass at the Pentagon within months of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Documents exclusively obtained by Fox News, including an FBI interview conducted after the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009, state that Awlaki was taken to the Pentagon as part of the militarys outreach to the Muslim community in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
The incident was flagged by a current Defense Department employee who came forward and told investigators she helped arrange the meeting after she saw Awlaki speak in Alexandria, Va.
The employee "attended this talk and while she arrived late she recalls being impressed by this imam. He condemned Al Qaeda and the terrorist attacks. During his talk he was harassed by members of the audience and suffered it well," reads one document.
Awlaki, a Yemeni-American who was born in Las Cruces, N.M., was interviewed at least four times by the FBI in the first week after the attacks because of his ties to the three hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Hani Hanjour. The three hijackers were all onboard Flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon.
Awlaki is now believed to be hiding in Yemen after he was linked to the alleged Ft. Hood shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who e-mailed Awlaki prior to the attack.
Sources told Fox News that Awlaki, who is a former Muslim chaplain at George Washington University, met with the Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Yemen and was the middle-man between the young Nigerian and the bombmaker. Awlaki was also said to inspire would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.
Apparently, none of the FBIs information about Awlaki was shared with the Pentagon. Former Army Secretary Tommy White, who led the Army in 2001, said he doesnt have any recollection of the luncheon or any contact with Awlaki. Awlaqi Renews Call To Kill Americans DUBAI: US-Yemeni radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi has renewed a call to strike the American government and citizens, the SITE monitoring agency said on Sunday.
"Both the (US) government and private citizens should be targeted," he wrote in the latest edition of Inspire, the English-language e-magazine issued by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), US-based SITE said.
"America and Americans are the imams of kufr (leaders of disbelief) in this day and age," Awlaqi said.
"The American people who vote for war-mongering governments are intent on no good. Anyone who inflicts harm on them in any form is doing a favour to the ummah (Islamic nation)," he added.
Awlaqi also said it was permissible to snatch the wealth of the enemy through deception and urged Muslims to use stolen money to fund jihad, or holy war, SITE said.
The cleric, wanted in the United States on terrorism charges, in November called for the killing of Americans "without hesitation."
"Do not consult anyone in killing Americans," Awlaqi said in a 23-minute video posted at the time on jihadist websites.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and headquarters of AQAP, has been under intense pressure from Washington to hunt down Awlaqi.
He was charged in October in Yemen with alleged ties with Al-Qaeda and incitement to kill foreigners.
-- AFP/jl
This is a really bad guy and a native American citizen http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/Awlaki.htm
Items on this page are archived in the order of discovery . . . Obama's Legitimate Causes Obamas comments about "legitimate causes" of terror groups and "root problems of causes and dangers" seems to echo little-noticed remarks the presidential candidate made eight days after 9/11 in which he said the attacks were carried out because of a lack of "empathy for others" suffering on the part of al-Qaeda, whose terrorist ideology "grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair."
Obama went on to imply the Sept. 11 attacks were, in part, a result of U.S. policy, lecturing the American military to minimize civilian casualties in the Middle East and urging action opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle-Eastern descent.
"Even as I hope for some measure of peace and comfort to the bereaved families, I must also hope that we, as a nation, draw some measure of wisdom from this tragedy," Obama wrote in a piece about 9/11 published Sept. 19, 2001, in Chicagos Hyde Park Herald.
Obama may not be a Muslim, but he certainly is sympathetic. Obama's Empathy In this video, Obama comments on the five Muslim-American jihadists from the Washington, DC area, who were arrested in Pakistan, and who said they were on jihad.
"I prefer not to comment" (01:39)
"I prefer not to comment."
There he goes again, covering up for the brothers just like he did for the jihadist, Nidal Hassan, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Obama never has a bad word for Muslims. He's just one big apologist for jihad,
Sooner or later Obama's Muslim empathy and sympathy is going to blow up right in his face, and a lot more Americans will be dead. Just look at the recent instances of jihad provided by Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs -- no doubt Obama doesn't want to comment on these events either.
Just listen to Obama's comments:
"...what has been remarkable...is the extraordinary accomplishments of American Muslims...how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation...fierce loyalty to America, their patriotism...blah, blah, blah..."
What nonsense! Just check out these American Muslims protesting against America -- "fierce loyalty to America, their patriotism" -- just who does Obama think he's fooling?
The responsible party? Obama blames the world-wide web for American jihadiis.
Borrowing the tag line from Flip Wilson's Geraldine character -- "the debil made me do it" -- Obama apologizes -- "the Internet made them do it" -- this would be funny if it weren't so deadly serious.
Obama concludes:
"I think WE have a good story to tell here and one WE need to build on."
What's all this WE stuff? Has Obama got a mouse in his pocket? Just who is WE?
That pronoun could be interpreted to mean Americans -- it could also be interpreted to mean Muslims -- remember, "it all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." These pols are highly skilled at using the language to deceive.
For almost two years, I have resisted labeling Obama a Muslim -- even though Muslims think he's a Muslim -- but I'm 99% sure he's not a Christian.
There's no record of a baptism, anywhere, and strolling down the aisle of a black-nationalist church and pledging allegiance to the Black Value System does not a Christian make. At the core of Obama's faith -- whether lapsed Muslim, new Christian or some mixture of the two -- is African nativism. In the paperback version of "The Audacity of Hope," in the chapter entitled "Faith," beginning on page 195, and ending on page 208, Obama is telling us that he doesnt really have any profound religious belief, but that in his early Chicago days he felt he needed to acquire some spiritual "street cred."
The Jesuits would say, "Give me the child, and I will mold the man." Easy On The Enemy -- Obama's Attempt To Impress Liberals Just whom are we trying to impress?
That's a question that occurred to me when, on his second full day in the presidency, Barack Obama announced we would close the Guantanamo detainee facility within one year.
It's a question that has kept occurring to me over the last year and nine days, even though Obama and his administration have proved unable to keep that promise.
Whom are we trying to impress by ruling out enhanced interrogation techniques on unlawful combatants, techniques that produced valuable intelligence that saved American lives? Whom are we trying to impress by limiting questioning to the Army Field Manual?
That's a good guide for handling prisoners of war and other lawful combatants covered by international law. But whom are we trying to impress by extending those protections to those who are not covered by the Geneva Conventions or other treaties we have signed?
Whom are we trying to impress by trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed in civilian courts after he already pled guilty to a military tribunal? And trying him in New York City, where the trial will cost something like $1 billion and tie up Lower Manhattan for years?
Would these people we are trying to impress be that much less impressed if the administration belatedly follows the advice of Mayor Bloomberg and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and stages that trial on a military base or elsewhere outside of New York City?
And whom are we trying to impress by treating the failed Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab not as a military combatant but as a common civilian criminal, even though he launched an attack on America from outside the country? Whom are we trying to impress by administering Miranda warnings and telling him that he has a right to a lawyer and the right to remain silent?
If the answer to these questions is that we are trying to impress Islamist terrorists, we've clearly failed.
Continue reading Michael Barone here . . . Obama's P.R. Helps Terrorists Dick Morris and Eileen McGann say that when Obama's leading counter-terrorism staff member, John Brennan, says that "politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear- mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaida," he has it exactly backward.
It is Obama's efforts to crow about how effective he is in fighting terrorism that are helping al-Qaida. What kind of policy is it to announce to the world that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the Nigerian terrorist who attempted to blow up a plane as it approached Detroit this past Christmas, is talking to investigators and giving them much valuable information?
Obama's people put the story out to counter accusations that their decision to try Mutallab in a civilian court and to permit him access to an attorney jeopardized efforts to interrogate him. Stung by the charge that they were blowing a chance to learn about subsequent al- Qaida plans, they told the media that Mutallab was being very cooperative, especially after a visit from his family.
While releasing this information may help Obama politically and certainly pushes back those of us who criticized him for handling the Mutallab case civilly, it provides al-Qaida with a timely warning that we are on to their plans and that Mutallab has explained to us what they have up their sleeves. In counter-terrorism, knowing your enemy's plans is key to thwarting them. And, if al-Qaida knows that we are prepared, they will, obviously, change their plans.
Continue reading here . . . The Audacity Of Smoke Mike Adams says Obama is a dishonest man. He is also a poor excuse for a constitutional law scholar. Both of these accusations can be supported by looking at his handling of the recent controversies involving the Ground Zero mosque and an unhinged pastors planned burning of the Koran.
When the Ground Zero mosque controversy broke out, Obama had this to say about religious freedom:
"As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are."
A few weeks later, when the Koran-burning controversy broke out, Obama had this to say about religious freedom:
"If he's listening, I hope he understands that what hes proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans. That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance."
What Obama should have said was that Muslims a) Have a legal right to engage in offensive religious expression by building a mosque near Ground Zero but that b) It would be a very bad idea to do so because it would make Muslims look like uncouth barbarians.
Obama could have then maintained consistency by saying that Christians a) Have a legal right to engage in offensive religious expression by burning the Koran but that b) It would be a very bad idea to do so because it would make Christians look like uncouth barbarians.
Instead, Obama took the position that the Mosque building is a form of free religious expression while the Koran burning is an attack on free religious expression. Is there any explanation for holding these two positions simultaneously? Sure there is.
The common thread between Obamas two positions is favoritism of Islam. Barack Obama was educated in a Koranic school as a child in Indonesia. He subsequently claimed to have rejected Islam in favor of Christianity in what some consider to have been an insincere political move. That may sound harsh but consider this alternative: If Obama actually did convert to Christianity, the document he defends, The Koran, would call for his execution.
But Obama does not invoke allegiance to Islam as justification for his opposition to the burning of the Koran. Instead, he invokes fear of Islam. He suggests that Muslims may kill our troops in response to the Koran burning.
There are real reasons to question whether the burning of the Koran in Florida would actually endanger our troops by pushing potential extremists over the edge. But the real flaw in Obamas rhetoric is not factual. It is legal.
The mere suggestion that a potentially violent action in response to free speech can actually negate free speech is old. It is a notion known as the hecklers veto. As a constitutional law instructor, Obama knows that the U. S. Constitution does not allow a hecklers veto over free speech. The idea that there might be a violent response to free speech cannot be allowed to negate free speech. To rule otherwise would be to reward violence.
That is why Obama was wrong to say that Koran burning is contrary to our American values of freedom. Islamic violence in response to offensive speech is contrary to our American values of freedom. Obama Won't Condemn Jihad Jim Hoft says Barack Obama would not condemn "jihad" and said he regretted that the "great religion" of Islam has been distorted by a few extremists today.
Those "few extremists" have carried out 16,350 deadly attacks since 9-11.
The Hindu reports:
Barack Obama on Sunday regretted that the "great religion" of Islam has been distorted by a few extremists to justify violence towards innocent people and called for isolating these elements.
Obama also said that people will have to fundamentally reject the notion that violence is the way to mediate differences among them.
"I think all of us have to fundamentally reject the notion that violence is the way to mediate our differences," he added.
Obama expressed these views when a Muslim student A. Ansari lobbed a question asking for his views on jihad during his interaction with students of St Xaviers college here.
"I think all of us recognize that this great religion (Islam) in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence towards innocent people that is never justified," he said.
"So, one of the challenges the world faces is how to "isolate" those who have these distorted notions of religious warand reaffirm those who see faces of all sorts whether you are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian and a Jew or any other religion that we can all treat each other with respect and mutual dignity," he added.
Obama said the phrase "Jihad" has different interpretations. Islam is one of the great religions and majority of its one billion practices believe in peace, justice and tolerance, he added.
Daniel Pipes says jihad is "holy war." Or, more precisely: It means the legal, compulsory, communal effort to expand the territories ruled by Muslims at the expense of territories ruled by non-Muslims.
The purpose of jihad, in other words, is not directly to spread the Islamic faith but to extend sovereign Muslim power (faith, of course, often follows the flag). Jihad is thus unabashedly offensive in nature, with the eventual goal of achieving Muslim dominion over the entire globe.
Jihad did have two variant meanings through the centuries, one more radical, one less so. The first holds that Muslims who interpret their faith differently are infidels and therefore legitimate targets of jihad. (This is why Algerians, Egyptians and Afghans have found themselves, like Americans and Israelis, so often the victims of jihadist aggression.) The second meaning, associated with mystics, rejects the legal definition of jihad as armed conflict and tells Muslims to withdraw from the worldly concerns to achieve spiritual depth.
Jihad in the sense of territorial expansion has always been a central aspect of Muslim life. That's how Muslims came to rule much of the Arabian Peninsula by the time of the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632. It's how, a century later, Muslims had conquered a region from Afghanistan to Spain. Subsequently, jihad spurred and justified Muslim conquests of such territories as India, Sudan, Anatolia, and the Balkans.
Today, jihad is the world's foremost source of terrorism, inspiring a worldwide campaign of violence by self-proclaimed jihadist groups:
The International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders: Osama bin Laden's organization; Laskar Jihad: responsible for the murder of more than 10,000 Christians in Indonesia; Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami: a leading cause of violence in Kashmir; Palestinian Islamic Jihad: the most vicious anti-Israel terrorist group of them all; Egyptian Islamic Jihad: killed Anwar El-Sadat in 1981, many others since, and Yemeni Islamic Jihad: killed three American missionaries on Monday.
But jihad's most ghastly present reality is in Sudan, where until recently the ruling party bore the slogan "Jihad, Victory and Martyrdom." For two decades, under government auspices, jihadists there have physically attacked non-Muslims, looted their belongings and killed their males.
Jihadists then enslaved tens of thousands of females and children, forced them to convert to Islam, sent them on forced marches, beat them and set them to hard labor. The women and older girls also suffered ritual gang-rape, genital mutilation and a life of sexual servitude.
Sudan's state-sponsored jihad has caused about 2 million deaths and the displacement of another 4 million -- making it the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our era.
Despite jihad's record as a leading source of conflict for 14 centuries, causing untold human suffering, academic and Islamic apologists claim it permits only defensive fighting, or even that it is entirely non-violent.
Continue reading Pipes here . . . Bombs Don't Kill People -- Terrorists Do Bruce Walker says the Left's obsession with focusing on dangerous things, rather than dangerous people, shows up in different ways. Bombs, for example, are designed to be safe. My father served at Fort Sill Army Base during part of his time in military service. That base is home to the United States Army Field Artillery School. In addition, every Marine trains in field artillery trains at Fort Sill, as do friendly military forces from other nations. The sheer amount of potential destructive power in the hands of these young men dwarfs everything that each terrorist group in the Middle East could ever muster. Yet Fort Sill is a very safe place to be. Extreme caution is taken to make sure that the vast munitions at this base are no threat to anyone. Why? The people with artillery are the good guys. Artillery shells don't kill people; bad guys do.
The whole dreary debate over gun control smacks of the same tone-deaf Leftist foolishness. Americans grew up with guns, and often guns much less safe than those made today. Young boys went out and hunted game. Many families grew up with rifles or shotguns on racks in the living room. When people owned guns and knew how to use the guns safely, the danger of violent crime was much lower than today. The violent crime rate in America has increased by 170% since 1960 despite the increased number of federal and state gun control laws. Guns did not cause these crimes; criminals did. Treating all Americans like criminals did not make us safer at all.
The leftist lunacy when it comes to potentially dangerous things and genuinely dangerous people was rampant during the Cold War. Nuclear weapons, silly people across the Free World told us, were a grave danger to the survival of mankind. Yet what sane person lost a wink of sleep because France had 482 nuclear warheads, or because Britain had 200 nuclear warheads? It was inconceivable that either nation, which had the power to kill perhaps 100 million people in an hour, would ever do so. Israel has a significant number of nuclear weapons, and so does India. Those nations would use their weapons only as a last resort.
The danger during the Cold War was the result of a totalitarian power possessing large numbers of nuclear weapons. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the danger of nuclear war diminished astronomically. As North Korea increases its puny nuclear arsenal and delivery systems, the world faces real and great danger -- not because of the things (the nuclear weapons), but rather because of the people involved (tormented slaves of an erratic Eastern potentate garbed in the risible "science" of Karl Marx). The danger of fission weapons (atomic bombs), fusion weapons (hydrogen bombs), biological weapons, and chemical weapons is the malice of those who possess it. Weapons of mass destruction do not kill people; mad tyrants do.
This is precisely the disconnect which the Left faces with airport security and passenger examinations. The danger is not that someone will bring a handgun, a knife, or even an explosive on an airliner. Properly stored and maintained, none of these will do the slightest harm to anyone. In fact, if every passenger on September 11, 2001 had been armed, the terrorists would almost certainly have been stopped. Disarming the innocent never stops violence.
Moreover, the "things" which can be used to cause injury are as endless as human imagination, and in the hands of terrorists, almost anything can be used to murder large numbers of people. The variety of methods and tools of destruction are as broad as the bored minds of evil men. Anyone who has toured a prison can hear from guards about the remarkable ingenuity with which inmates can make real-looking "guns" or very real knives and other weapons.
The only way remove enough of the "things" which threaten air travel would be to strip- search every passenger, issue official garb (like inmates in prison or in a mental institution), and haul these passengers in an environment as sterile and as stark as the suicide watch cell of a county jail. We know, of course, the sane, humane, and easy way to make us safe: profile and research passengers. Before that happens, however, the Left must realize that life is full of "things" and that these are almost never the real problem. Neither the Holocaust nor the Gulag was a product of railroads and cattle cars. Those horrors were, as with the terrorists who would murder young children flying to Grandmother for Thanksgiving, the product of monsters. The way to end their evil is to defeat them. Obama's Cover-Up Of Jihad Pamela Geller has posted a video of the terrorist attack on a Christian church in Egypt that shows the car explosion and Muslims shouting "Allah Akbar"
Obama's condemnation of the Islamic attacks on Christmas and New Year's was grotesque, misleading and deceptive. This is the Obama's statement on the terrorist attacks in Egypt and Nigeria
"I strongly condemn the separate and outrageous terrorist bombing attacks in Egypt and Nigeria. The attack on a church in Alexandria, Egypt caused 21 reported deaths and dozens of injured from both the Christian and Muslim communities."
Geller says these were jihadist attacks against Christians. Islamic supremacists slaughtering non-Muslims, and asks, "Does Obama mourn the deaths of the homicide bombers as well?" This is a very dangerous man.
The Muslim authorities were in on it. Egyptian security guards withdrew one hour before the church blast, say eyewitnesses.
The car explosion that went off in front of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria killed 21 and injured 96 parishioners who were attending a New Year's Eve Mass. According to church officials and eyewitnesses, there are many more victims that are still unidentified and whose body parts were strewn all over the street outside the church. The body parts were covered with newspapers until they were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadist chants.
According to eyewitnesses, a green Skoda car pull up outside the church shortly after midnight. Two men got out, one of them talked shortly on his mobile phone, and the explosion occurred almost immediately after they left the scene. On the back of the Skoda was a sticker with the words "the rest is coming."
Continue reading here . . . Obama Flashback Remember this? On November 6, 2009, the day after Maj. Nidal Hasan's jihad on Ft. Hood, Barack Obama urged Americans not to jump to conclusions.
That was then. Now? After the Tucson Tragedy? Crickets . . . Obama's Islamic Tilt In Egypt Tom Tancredo says the difference between Jimmy Carter's mistakes in handling the 1979 revolution in Iran and Obama's handling of the 2011 revolution in Egypt is that Carter's team made mistakes out of ignorance and naivet. Thirty-one years later, Obama's diplomatic team cannot claim naivet in dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical Islamists. Obama is consciously supporting the Islamists in Egypt and facilitating their rise to power.
How else can one explain the extraordinary statements of James Clapper, Obama's director of national intelligence, in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, that the Muslim Brotherhood is a "secular organization" that has "eschewed violence?" They operate hospitals in Egypt, so they must be peace-loving humanitarians? Hamas operates charities in the Gaza territory, so they are not really dedicated to the destruction of Israel?
We might forgive some American citizens for being confused about the character and goals of some Islamic organizations disguised as charities, but don't we expect more from our intelligence community? As one wit has already observed following Clapper's testimony, we might as well abolish Clapper's agency and save the taxpayers $40 billion if this is the quality of intelligence our policymakers are getting from that bureaucracy.
Clapper's statements, made this past week at the height of the Egyptian crisis, might be excused or explained away if they were an isolated incident. But his statements are part of a pattern of mischaracterizing and underestimating the threat from radical Islam. Clapper's testimony can only be viewed as part of the Obama administration's persistent efforts to humanize the Muslim Brotherhood and prepare the ground for a new Islamist-run Egyptian government.
In his televised interview on Super Bowl Sunday with Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly, Obama specifically included the Muslim Brotherhood in the groups that must be included in any new Egyptian government. This is the equivalent of President Woodrow Wilson welcoming the Bolsheviks into the Russian government in 1917.
Obama went to Cairo in 2009 to deliver his first speech on foreign soil, a speech that was billed as his "outreach to the Muslim world." Obama specifically requested that representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood be invited to the speech.
In 2005 parliamentary elections in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 percent of the vote by putting on a moderate face and talking about social reforms and civil liberties. But in 2008 they replaced their leadership with a more fundamentalist, less secular group that has renewed the call for Shariah law and a turn away from Western civil institutions. Surely, our intelligence community knows this.
Today in Egypt, there are a dozen or more secular, reformist parties that will seek public support in the next elections. We have to ask, why is the Obama administration favoring the Muslim Brotherhood and insisting that they be included in any constitutional reform committee? Napolitano Covers For Jihad -- Again Republican lawmakers chided Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Wednesday for not being frank about the nature of the terrorist threat posed by radical Islamist groups and for allowing "political correctness" to hamper the work of her department.
"Weve got to focus on those people who are going to do us harm," Rep. Paul Broun, Georgia Republican, told a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, "And this administration and your department has seemed to be very averse to focusing on those."
Part of the problem, Broun said, was the departments apparent unwillingness to name "the ideological factor behind" the terrorist threat, "namely Islamic extremism."
Napolitano defended the Department of Homeland Security, saying, "Hundreds of thousands of men and women come to work every day to protect the American people."
Napolitano said the use of the term "violent extremism" rather than "jihadi" or "Islamist" to describe the terror threat was driven by concern that officials "not overlook other types of extremism that can be homegrown and that we, indeed, have experiences with."
In other responses, she emphasized that the administration sees Islamic extremists as only one among several terrorist threats to the U.S. homeland.
"Many kinds of violent motivations threaten our security," she said. "We see a variety of different types."
Her prepared testimony referenced a report last year by the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions that examined 86 U.S. terrorism cases between 1999 and 2009 and found that nearly half were related to al Qaeda or al Qaeda-inspired ideology, with the remainder a result of "a number of other violent extremist motivations" such as white supremacist, animal rights, anti-abortion or "militia/anti-government" ideologies.
Talk about comparing apples to oranges! Animal rights? What nonsense!
She told the hearing that her department is focused on giving tools to local law enforcement so they could spot "the tactics, the techniques, the behaviors that would indicate that a violent act, a terrorist act is impending," regardless of motivation.
"Some of those [attacks] are inspired by Islamist groups. Others can be inspired by, like, anti-government groups -- flying a plane into the [Internal Revenue Service] building, for example," she said, referring to an incident in February 2010 when software engineer Joseph Stack crashed a small plane into a federal building, killing himself and an IRS employee.
Continue reading here . . . Jihad? What Jihad? Obama Don't See No Jihad Peter Wilson says an Islamic terrorist described as a "21-year-old Kosovar who lives in Frankfurt," opened fire at the Frankfurt Airport, killing two American soldiers, and wounding two others. Kosovo's population is 80% Muslim. The New York Times reports that "the gunman first talked to the military personnel to find out who they were and then opened fire, shouting 'God is greatest' in Arabic."
Obama mentioned the incident at a press conference:
"I want to take a brief moment just to say a few words about a tragic event that took place earlier today in Frankfurt, Germany... We don't have all the information yet, and you will be fully briefed as we get more information, but this is a stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our men and women in uniform are making all around the world to keep us safe, and the dangers that they face all around the globe."
Once again, Obama and the ObamaMedia -- even the report on Fox News -- scrupulously avoid the words "Muslim," "Islam," or "jihad" and reference to any possible religious motive for the attack. It is true that we don't have "all the information" -- not that this has been any impediment in the past for Obama to shoot off his mouth -- but we do have some extremely strong evidence that the man was an Islamic terrorist. Obama however sticks to vague generalities and switches the focus away from the murderer toward the sacrifices of the victims.
"A tragic event?" "A stark reminder" of "sacrifices" to "keep us safe" from "dangers?" No, Mr. Obama, it's a stark reminder that the world is full of Muslim males in their twenties who believe that Allah has commanded them to murder Americans.
Obama will never point the finger at Islam, Muslims or jihad. Never! It doesn't matter how many times these 7th century savages kill Americans -- or others. Obama will continue to talk about the Muslim's contributions to "American Dream."
Remember Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Ft. Hood jihadist that handed out "Soldiers of Allah" business cards, and who murdered 13 and wounded 30 more while screaming "Allahu Akbar?"
His jihad attack was formally classified as "workplace violence," and there was no mention of jihad. None! According to the Obama administration, Hasan had a bad day. Obamas State Of Islamic Denial The Washington Times has a clue for Barack: "Allahu akbar" is the Islamists' war cry.
U.S. troops are gunned down by a shooter who screams "Allahu akbar!" before opening fire. Official statements are rushed out: The perpetrator was a lone wolf; his motive was unclear; there are no links to terrorism. Sound familiar? It should, because when Islam is the cause of American tragedy, Obama hides his head in the sand.
On Wednesday, a young Kosovar named Arif Uka opened fire on a bus load of U.S. Air Force personnel in Frankfurt, Germany, killing two and wounding two more. Witnesses say he repeatedly shouted the jihadist battle cry, "Allahu akbar" as he emptied his weapon and screamed "Jihad! Jihad!" when tackled by German police. Ukas victims had been heading to the fight in Afghanistan but because the jihadists have a global battlespace, the war came to them instead.
Obama made a typical noncommittal statement shortly after the shooting, saying it was a "stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our men and women in uniform are making all around the world to keep us safe, and the dangers that they face all around the globe." He made no mention of the nature of the threat or the reason for the sacrifices. In this respect, he was behaving true to form.
The Frankfurt shooting is the latest in a troubling series of jihadist terror attacks in which the Obama administration refuses to face reality. Among the first was the June 1, 2009, shooting at a recruiting station in Little Rock. Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Muslim convert who had recently travelled to Yemen, killed one U.S. Army recruiter and wounded another. Muhammad told police if other troops had been available, he would have shot them too. The White House waited two days before making a statement that omitted any reference to the attacker or his jihadist motives.
The Nov. 5, 2009, Fort Hood massacre, in which 14 were killed and 30 wounded, was given a persistent coat of whitewash from the Obama administration. The first coat was applied with initial statements that shooter Nidal Malik Hassan was a "lone wolf" and continued through the comprehensive "force protection review" that somehow omitted any reference to Hasans jihadist motives or contacts with al Qaeda.
The Obama team had a similarly slippery reaction to the Dec. 25, 2009, attempted "crotch bomber" attack on Northwest flight 253. Al Qaeda-linked bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was initially not even charged with attempting to commit an act of terrorism. Faisal Shahzad, who attempted the Times Square bombing in May 2010, was also called a lone wolf with no ties to terrorism and was even described as more a victim of the economic downturn than a committed Islamic extremist. In all these cases, the initial assessments turned out to be wrong, yet the White House still obstinately refuses to discuss the jihadist motives of the terrorists involved.
The Obama administrations knee-jerk instinct to deny reality in hopes it will go away is clearly not working. How many Americans have to die before Obama at long last admits the nature of the Islamist threat that killed them?
Related: Krauthammer criticizes Obama for treating U.S. troop shooting in Germany like "a bus accident."
Obama humbles himself to the Protector of the Two Holy Places. http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/ApologistForJihad.htm
Archived chronologically, in order of discovery -- first in, first out -- it's early in the year -- most of the stuff is at the "2009" button -- in the left column . . . It's The Enemy, Stupid Scott at PowerLine blog says Scott Brown's remarks at last night's victory celebration reiterated one of the winning themes of his campaign in a memorable fashion: "And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation -- they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them."
Obama's national security policy -- his treatment of enemy combatants as American citizens is indefensible. The case of Umar Abdulmutallab is a powerful example. The Obama administration has in fact put forth no principled defense of its endowment of enemy combatants such as Abdulmutallab with the rights of American citizens. Obama's irrationality on this point is obvious and devastating. Andrew McCarthy elaborates in, "It's the enemy, stupid." Wake Up And Smell The War The New York Daily News believes the evidence is mounting that Obama is following not merely an erroneous anti-terrorism strategy, but one that is increasingly incoherent and incompetent. Two recent developments highlight his failure:
First, senior administration intelligence and homeland security officials testified to Congress that they were not aware in advance that the Christmas Day terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, would be read Miranda rights, arrested and charged with crimes. Stunningly, it appears that these decisions were essentially made wholly inside the Justice Department.
Second, the administration has conceded that some 50 terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay could neither be safely released nor tried and would therefore be held indefinitely. This flatly contradicts repeated Obama promises to close Gitmo. It also undercuts the rationale for Obama's planned civilian trials for other terrorists and previous decisions -- including some by the Bush administration -- to release far too many who simply reverted to terrorism.
Obama has strained mightily to move away from former President George W. Bush's "global war on terror," changing many of its underlying policies and even sidelining the phrase "war on terror." That Obama has not fully succeeded in reversing Bush's policies is not for lack of trying, but only because global realities have made it impossible for even someone so determined to succeed in just one year.
However, make no mistake: Obama has not given up. He remains determined to revolutionize America's conceptual basis for dealing with terrorism. His approach is a throwback to the pre-9/11 paradigm of treating terrorism as a problem to be handled through conventional law enforcement channels. That means full constitutional rights, including Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections and evidence restrictions, public jury trials and more.
Continue reading here . . . Obama Earns An "F"' On Stopping WMD Attacks David A. Patten is reporting that the national weapons of mass destruction (WMD) commission established by Congress has given the Obama administration an "F" for failing to protect America from nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks.
"Nearly a decade after 9/11, one year after our original report, and one month after the Christmas Day bombing attempt, the United States is failing to address several urgent threats, especially bioterrorism," stated former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
The report charges the administration "is simply not paying consistent and urgent attention to the means of responding quickly and effectively so that [WMD attacks] no longer constitute a threat of mass destruction."
Surprisingly, the Commission concluded there still exists "no national plan to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts following a bioterror attack, and the United States lacks the technical and operational capabilities required for an adequate response."
An outgrowth of the 9/11 Commission report, the WMD Commission is charged with evaluating U.S. defenses against WMD attacks. The report issued Tuesday examines 17 areas deemed vital to defending against WMD.
The Commission gave the administration an F for not improving the nation's ability to respond rapidly to a biological attack inflicting mass casualties, and an F for poor implementation of the education and training programs needed to train national-security experts.
It also awarded Congress an F for poor oversight. Obama Won't Connect Terror Dots The Washington Times says the state of the Caliphate is better than it should be.
When a man is apprehended with a cache of weapons, body armor, a map of a military installation and jihadist personal effects, the natural response of most Americans is to assume the situation is terrorist-related. The Obama administration says otherwise.
Lloyd R. Woodson was arrested Jan. 25 in rural New Jersey. He had been observed behaving strangely, wearing military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest. He had a weapon modified to fire .50-caliber rounds from beneath his jacket. He had a hotel room full of weapons and ammunition. Despite all these warning signs, the immediate response from the government was that this was "not a terrorism thing."
Bureaucratic lack of concern raises a critical question: If this is not the behavior of a terrorist, what is?
It's not clear what Obama thinks terrorism is, if it thinks it exists at all. The administration doggedly maintains that political, especially jihadist, violence by individuals with no international linkage is not terrorism. This definition might come as a surprise to the Unabomber, who for years was the most sought-after terrorist in America.
Obama's knee-jerk response that the Christmas Day bombing plot was not terror-related was probably one of the factors that led Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to be Mirandized quickly and treated as a criminal suspect. It shouldn't matter that this was a domestic incident; he is a jihadist warrior, and the aircraft was his battlefield.
The same was the case with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, charged with killing 14 persons and wounding 31 in the Fort Hood massacre. America was assured that Maj. Hasan had no foreign terrorist links, and he was not charged with committing an act of terrorism. The Obama administration's report on the shooting, released three weeks ago, avoids mentioning radical Islam as a motivating factor in his rampage. However, both Maj. Hasan and Mr. Abdulmutallab had relationships with Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is a leading member of al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, and Abdulmutallab was trained by al Qaeda overseas.
Woodson also may have links to Islamic radicals. A report by the Northeast Intelligence Network reveals that, according to a member of New Jersey law enforcement, Woodson's personal effects "not only associate him with 'radical Islam,' but also with a 'militant Islamic group.'" But as the two cases mentioned above indicate, even this would not qualify him as a terrorist under the Obama administration's narrow definition.
In his State of the Union address, Obama bragged that in 2009, "hundreds of al Qaeda's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed -- far more than in 2008." He claims this is a metric of progress. However, if Taliban leader Mullah Omar gave a State of the Caliphate address, he could make the same claim. More Coalition forces are being killed in Afghanistan, and Taliban attacks are increasing in size, scope and frequency.
Analysts suggest that Osama bin Laden's audiotape released last week signals the potential for future attacks. An unusually high number of people on no-fly lists are trying to board aircraft. Increasing casualties and activity on both sides are not metrics of progress; they are signs that the war is heating up.
According to the Pew Research Center, terrorism ranks slightly below jobs and the economy as a top public priority. Americans know there is a problem. Official statements claiming that incidents are not terror-related will not change the fact that they are. Connect the dots, Mr. Obama. The war on terrorism is still on, and it's getting hotter. Obama Buys Prison Lynn Sweet is reporting that Obama budget includes $237 million to buy an Illinois prison for Guantanamo detainees.
Obama's proposed a $3.8-trillion fiscal 2011 federal budget that includes $237 million for the purchase and upgrading of a prison in Illinois to house detainees now at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.
Obama sends his spending blueprint to Congress, with the money to buy the nearly vacant Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois, 150 miles west of Chicago, in the Department of Justice funding request. The State of Illinois and the federal government are currently negotiating over the purchase price of Thomson.
Continue reading here . . .
And we have a perfect facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that functions perfectly well. This is nothing more than a $237 million kiss to Obama's cronies in Illinois. The Obama Democrats Have Outdone Themselves Andy McCarthy says that while the country and the Congress have their eyes on yesterday's dog-and-pony show on socialized medicine, House Democrats last night stashed a new provision in the intelligence bill which is to be voted on today. It is an attack on the CIA: the enactment of a criminal statute that would ban, "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." (See here, scroll to p. 32.)
The provision is impossibly vague -- who knows what "degrading" means? Proponents will say that they have itemized conduct that would trigger the statute (I'll get to that in a second), but it is not true. The proposal says the conduct reached by the statute "includes but is not limited to" the itemized conduct (McCarthy's italics). That means any interrogation tactic that a prosecutor subjectively believes is "degrading" (e.g., subjecting a Muslim detainee to interrogation by a female CIA officer) could be the basis for indicting a CIA interrogator.
The act goes on to make it a crime to use tactics that have been shown to be effective in obtaining life saving information and that are far removed from torture.
Continue reading here . . .
Update: Michelle Malkin is reporting that House Republicans were on the ball, they forced the Intel bill that contained the stealth measure to be pulled. Obama Authorizes Assassination Of U.S. Citizen The liberals at Salon have their panties all in a twist because both The New York Times and The Washington Post confirm that Barack Obama has now expressly authorized the CIA to kill the American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, no matter where he is found, no matter his distance from a battlefield.
Glenn Greenwald agonizesd at length about the extreme dangers and lawlessness of allowing the Executive Branch the power to murder U.S. citizens far away from a battlefield (i.e., while they're sleeping, at home, with their children, etc.) and with no due process of any kind. He won't repeat those arguments -- they're here and here -- but he does want to highlight how unbelievably Orwellian and tyrannical this is in light of these new articles today.
Read how the NYT reports on Obama's assassination order and how it is justified here . . .
There are plenty of us that think this is about time. Killing terrorists whenever, and wherever they are found is OK by me, and someone ought to inform Greenwald that it's not murder if deemed a legal killing -- and under the Rules of Land Warfare, killing the enemy is definitely legal. Obama's Jihad On "Jihad" The Washington Times editorializes, to Obama, there's no such thing as an Islamic extremist.
Obama's latest strategic innovation in the war on terrorism is to ignore jihad and maybe it will go away.
Obama is removing terms such as "jihad" and "Islamic extremism" from the U.S. National Security Strategy in an attempt to convince Muslim countries that America doesn't view them solely through the lens of counterterrorism. It's reasonable to look beyond terrorism in developing relationships with Islamic states. Our assistance programs are based on humanitarian motives, for example, so they need not explicitly draw links between promoting good will and hopefully making it less likely that people will fly aircraft into our buildings.
But the National Security Strategy is not some kind of outreach initiative, it is the framing document for America's global safety. The United States cannot effectively combat the root causes of Islamic extremism by ignoring them. The war on terror -- rather, the "overseas contingency operation," in O Force terminology -- won't be effective if this country overlooks the nature of the enemy and his motives. The U.S. strategic blueprint is not the proper place for a public-relations stunt.
Even the Muslim majority states in question understand the religious component of terrorism as a motivator, recruiting tool and strategic road map. They are threatened by Islamic extremism even more than the United States and have no problem describing the threat by its true nature, which must be understood if it is to be defeated.
The most troubling signal is the one being sent through the bureaucracy that any thoughtful discussion of Islamic radicalism and the global threat it poses will be hazardous to one's career. Analyses of the extremist Muslim threat will be increasingly deleted from briefing papers, assessments and planning documents. Those who continue to spread the alarm will be marginalized and ignored. Such sanitizing may please the White House, but it's likely to put the United States in more danger as threats that should have been detected in advance slip by because officials have been trained not to look for them.
The new development is a disturbing example of Obama's seeming obsession with all things Muslim. It's reminiscent of the Department of Homeland Security's 2009 draft glossary of domestic extremist groups that listed Christian and Jewish organizations as threats but didn't include any Muslim groups. Or the administration's obstinate unwillingness to describe the Fort Hood massacre as an example of Islamist terrorism, even though the shooter -- Nidal Malik Hasan -- clearly was wrapped up in that ideology and shouted the traditional jihadist war cry "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire.
Obama's Muslim mania increasingly pervades government and has yet to be adequately explained or even addressed. It places America in growing peril. Obama Caves To Islamic Groups Dictates Jim Kouri says that after more than a year of prodding by terrorism apologists and radicals, Barack Obama and his national security team are bending to their wishes.
For example, yesterday the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, released a statement that they "welcomed an announcement that the Obama administration will remove 'loaded' terms linking Islam to extremism" from a newly revised national security document.
The Obama White House claims the change would remove terms like "Islamic radicalism" from the National Security Strategy, a document that was created by the previous administration to outline the Bush doctrine, which CAIR and other suspicious groups opposed.
"We welcome this change in language by the Obama administration as another step toward respectful and effective outreach to Muslims at home and abroad," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
"We hope this positive change in language will lead to policies that will deal more effectively with important issues such as peace with justice in the Middle East and withdrawal of our nations forces from Iraq and Afghanistan."
He recommended that media professionals and commentators adopt similarly neutral and objective language and avoid "loaded" terminology. Awad noted that "CAIR has been calling for changes in the use of terminology falsely linking Islam to terrorism for a number of years."
"CAIR is always playing the victim card, said a decorated police officer.
"In other words, soldiers, cops and politicians are supposed to ignore common sense so as to not hurt the feelings of terrorists? Catholics did not fly planes into the World Trade Center. Protestants didnt attempt to blow up a plane in Detroit. Jews didnt plot terrorist attacks on the New York City subway system and its passengers," said former intelligence officer and police detective Mike Snopes.
Continue reading here . . . Barry And The Pirates J.R. Dunn is reporting that the government of Kenya is no longer accepting pirates captured by the international task force operating in the Red Sea and approaches. Kenya claims that its justice system is overloaded with Somali pirates and that it just can't handle any more of them. This policy was initiated with no warning or even a public announcement.
The task force has already started cutting loose pirates caught in the act. A Dutch vessel did so early last week, followed by a U.S. Navy destroyer that tossed back a crew that had actually opened fire with RPGs.
This is obviously a situation that cannot be maintained. Those clowns have to be locked up somewhere. To do otherwise -- to continue throwing them back like so many underweight trout -- will turn the entire business into a game and simply encourage the vast punk population of Somalia to try their luck.
Which raises the question: what world leader happens to have close relatives serving in the government of Kenya? That's right -- none other than the Obamessiah himself. His father, Barack Sr., was an economist in the first post-colonial government. One of his half- brothers, Malik Obongo Obama, is a rising political star, and I'm sure you wouldn't have to throw many stones to hit a cousin or two employed by various ministries. And don't forget cousin Raila Odinga. Obama has more personal pull in Kenya than in any other country in the world.
Yet what has he done to address Kenya's sudden dash for the exit? Nothing at all, as far as can be seen. A number of possible solutions suggest themselves -- international funds to the cover the costs of imprisonment, private prison companies encouraged to open facilities in the area, the Organization of African States persuaded to step in. There are no doubt plenty of other possibilities that could be suggested by people more familiar with East Africa than I am.
And yet, it appears that Obama is simply going to ignore the entire impasse, to give it the silent treatment as he does with everything else that isn't of immediate benefit to him. Not a single word has been heard from the White House involving Kenya, and nobody from his lapdog media has seen fit to bring it up. Does anyone care to bet how long it will be before we see any action?
Of course, that's his prerogative. He's in the office, and presidents get to choose which battles they fight. But if he truly can't handle something so close to home, a problem where he has actual personal contacts to draw on, then maybe he should start thinking twice about posing as the grand redeemer where infinitely more difficult challenges such as Mideast peace and nuclear proliferation are concerned. Obama Ignores Islamic Extremist Threat James Zumwalt says in June 1876, U.S. Army General George Armstrong Custer was defeated by Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In what became known as "Custers Last Stand," defeat was attributed primarily to a false assumption. Custer expected to encounter an enemy force of approximately equal size; instead, he faced a force at least three times the strength of his. That false assumption cost the charismatic general his life -- as well as the lives of 267 men trusting in his leadership. Had Custer been better informed -- and the threat better understood -- disaster may well have been averted.
One hundred thirty-four years later, a false assumption and lack of understanding by Barack Obama for a threat of a new era could well spell similar disaster -- this time for an entire nation.
There is a common thread tying together most terrorist activity occurring around the world today. Whether it is Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, etc., that common thread is Islamic extremism. And, when Islamic extremism raises its ugly head, it matters not that most victims of its violence are fellow Muslims. As was the case in the 20th Century, more Muslims in the 21st Century are being killed by Islamic extremists than by non-Muslims. One can only imagine the threat posed to non-believers by an ideology whose believers do not hesitate to "eat their own" in this manner.
The Bush Doctrine correctly identified the threat by stating: "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict in the early years of the 21st Century." But Obama is issuing new national security guidelines from which any reference to religious terms such as "Islam," "Islamic extremism" and "jihad" is to be avoided.
According to a U.S. government official, the rationale for this is that there is "a very narrow segment" of the worlds population at risk of turning to extremism but, by using such terms in referencing terrorism, we "risk offending people by creating the impression that we think they are going to go that way, when in fact they dont."
By this logic, the administration worries more about offending Muslims -- clearly not prone to embracing extremism -- by avoiding any linkage between Islamic extremism and terrorism than it does about educating both Muslims and non-Muslims on what the real threat is. In other words, we dont want to run the risk of alienating non-extremist Muslims by pointing out the 800 pound Islamic extremist gorilla in the room disrupting everyones public order and safety.
This approach ignores a few important factors, described here . . . Jihadi Echoes Obama Pamela Geller says If you close your eyes and listen to Zarein Ahmedzay, the jihadist convicted Friday for his role in unleashing a bomb in the New York City subway system on the anniversary of the 9/11 Islamic jihad attacks on America, you would here disturbing echoes of the policy of Barack Obama and his dhimmi administration: "I strongly urge the American people to stop supporting the war against Islam. And this will be in their own interest. ... The real enemy of this country are the ones destroying the country from within ... I believe it's a special group, Zionist Jews, who want a permanent shadow government." Obama hasn't spoken about "Zionist Jews," but the underlying sentiments are similar.
Ahmedzay's narrative reflects Obama's policy on Islamic jihad. He urges America to stop defending herself against the global jihad. Like Obama and his silly Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Obama suggests that fighting jihad will only...create jihad. And as for all the jihadi attacks before Iraq and Afghanistan operations, well...that's irrelevant, an inconvenient truth. The left never lets logic and evidence get in the way of its anti- American narrative.
The day this New York subway jihad bomb plot was foiled, Obama was in New York addressing the United Nations. His speech was about the greatest threat facing mankind today: global warming. I kid you not. He said on that occasion, "We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations." He said that a failure to address the threat could lead to an "irreversible catastrophe." Time, he said, is "running out," but "we can reverse" the problem. "If things go business-as-usual, we will not live; we will die," he said. "Our country will not exist." He told us that it wouldn't be easy, but "I am here today to say that difficulty is no excuse for complacency. Unease is no excuse for inaction."
All that would have been true if he had been referring to the jihad against the United States. But his only response to that is to give the jihadis whatever they want.
Obama's strategy in dealing with Islam is summed up by a single word that is the very definition of Islam -- submission. His cover-up of the Islamic motivation and other aspects of the Fort Hood jihad massacre, the largest attack on a military base on American history, will go down in history as the most blatant act of subversion ever committed by a president of the United States.
And Friday, just as Obama points to Israel as the problem, an Islamic jihadist who wanted to commit mass murder with weapons of mass destruction in New York blamed the "Zionist Jews" as well. No jihadist rant is complete without full-on Islamic Jew-hatred. Ahmedzay stood up in court and said, "Your Honor, I would like to quote from the Qur'an." Then he quoted the passage of the Qur'an that Muslims use to justify suicide bombing: "Quote, Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their wealth for the price of Paradise, to fight in the way of Allah, to kill and get killed. It is a promise binding on the truth in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an. End of quote."
It isn't really in the Torah or Gospel at all, but it is in the Qur'an: the promise of Paradise to those who "fight in the way of Allah" and "kill and get killed." And Ahmedzay did more projecting, too: When he said that he believed that "Zionist Jews" want to establish "a permanent shadow government within the government of the United States of America," it sounded as if he were describing the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood at the senior levels of all branches of the U.S. government.
Nine years after 9/11, the image of the wrecked Pentagon has become iconic and metaphorical. After the Fort Hood report and the disinvite of Franklin Graham to the Pentagon at the demand of the un-indicted co-conspirator, Hamas-tied hate sponsor CAIR, the unforgettable image of the Pentagon destroyed by Muslims is quite fitting.
As for Zarein Ahmedzay, fifty years ago, this plotter to overthrow the American government would be put to death. And he should be. But he won't be.
Not in Barack Obama's America. Insanity Jim Hoft says the new Obama strategy refuses to blame Islamists as the root of terror.
A wise man once said -- If you cant identify the problem, you cant find the solution. Once again, the radical Obama shows that he is incapable problem solving and unable to break free from his Alinsky-Ayers-Wright-ACORN foundation.
And, once again, he puts America at risk.
The radical Obama Administration will soon release their first National Security Strategy (NSS) Report. The report will make clear that the US in not in a "War on Terror" and that Islamists are not the root of terror.
The Obama Administration will soon issue its first National Security Strategy ("NSS"). How will it compare with those issued in 2002 and 2006 by the Bush Administration?
The most fundamental US national security objectives are well established and bipartisan. The highest priority is always to keep America and its allies safe. This requires maintaining a strong military capacity; effective alliances; and policies that enhance economic and social well being at home and abroad. We encourage the spread of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law throughout the world. We strive to defeat terrorism and to stop the spread of WMD.
The Obama team will reconfirm all these objectives, but in different terms than those used by the Bush Administration.
"Leader" not Hegemon. The 2002 Bush NSS proclaimed Americas "unparalleled" power, eager to use alliances but able if required to act alone. Obamas NSS will promise America shall remain strong, but describe its role as "leader" of like-minded states and incapable of ensuring even its own security without the help of others.
No more "War" on terror. The Bush strategy statements proclaim that the US is in a worldwide "war" against terror. The Obama NSS will avoid using the "war" word, pleasing those who believe terrorism should be treated as criminal activity. But it will call for "defeating terrorism" worldwide.
Dropping the "Preventive Force" Doctrine. The most notorious aspect of the Bush strategy was the view that attacks of terrorist groups cannot be deterred and must be prevented, through force if necessary, and soon enough to stop threats before they are realized. The Obama NSS will drop this declaration and stress the need to prevent attacks through diplomacy and preparation. But it will continue to use force preventively when necessary to kill known enemies.
Adopting a "Multilateralist" Tone. The Bush strategy promised to act through existing multilateral institutions, including the UN, when possible; but it stressed its willingness to "act alone" if required. Obamas strategy will emphasize the importance of acting through the UN and alliances. But it will preserve the right to act alone, as NATO does, by affirming that the Security Council has "primary" (though not exclusive) responsibility for international security.
"Islamic Fundamentalists" become "Violent Extremists." The Bush Administration described the current terrorist threat as having been caused by Islamic Fundamentalists, while crediting Islam as one of the worlds great religions. Obama will describe all terrorists as "violent extremists," or with some such religiously neutral phrase. But his targeted killings have all been of Muslims.
Obama Unprepared For Emerging Homegrown Jihadist Threat While the Obama administration ties up resources investigating CIA interrogators and pushing civilian trials for terrorists, a new threat has emerged in the form of homegrown jihadists who are very hard to spot and stop. Yet Obama still doesnt understand that individuals like the suspected Times Square car bomber are the frontline troops in a global terrorist war threatening America, writes Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Ronald Kessler.
Continue reading here . . . Political Correctness Governs Obamas Counter-Terrorism Program James Corum says that the fact that the man accused of planting a large bomb in Times Square almost made it out of the US and to safety in the Middle East shows that the Obama administration cant get the most basic things right when confronted with a major terrorist incident.
The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, bought a ticket to Dubai under his own name, got on the plane, and was minutes from take-off before an alert customs agent looked over the flight manifest and spotted his name. This time we were fortunate that Americas number one terror suspect did not successfully flee the country. It also proves my long standing contention that we have plenty of dedicated and competent people in the war against terrorists -- the gross incompetence only comes into play as one moves up the leadership chain.
According to senior officials in the Obama administration, quoted on ABC News, the reason Faisal Shahzad was able to board the Emirates Airlines flight is that the airline periodically, but not frequently, updates its no-fly list with information from US intelligence agencies.
The obvious question to ask -- but one that the incredibly tame and uncritical mainstream media will not ask -- is why Emirates Airlines was not required by the Transportation Security Administration to constantly update its no-fly list. How can any airline with an apparently cavalier attitude towards security be allowed to fly in and out of American airports?
People from the Middle East often feel offended when they are required to screen passengers against a list of terrorist suspects. The Obama administration has forbidden government employees to use terms like "radical Islam" or "Jihad" for fear of offending Muslims. Did they ease off monitoring Middle Eastern airlines for the same reason?
Update: Gateway Pundit is reporting that the Obama Administration removed Faisal Shahzad from the Terror Surveillance List before attack, and that Faisal had contact with Awlaki, the Taliban chief, and Mumbai Massacre mastermind.
And Atlas Shrugs has posted an image of what it calls Faisal's motivation. Obama Is Stonewalling On Terror Cases Byron York says tensions are rising inside the House Intelligence Committee over the White House's refusal to fully brief lawmakers on events leading up to the arrest of accused Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. Angry at having been kept in the dark during previous terrorist incidents, all nine Republican members of the committee have sent a letter to Obama accusing the administration of withholding critical national security information. "A clear pattern has emerged," the lawmakers write, "of the administration refusing to provide requested briefings or information or to engage with us despite repeated requests on issues such as Guantanamo, the Fort Hood attack, the Crotch Bomber attack, Yemen, critical issues involving the FISA Court, and now the Times Square attack."
The GOP committee members say the law requires Obama to keep the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently" informed about intelligence matters. "The administration may not lawfully refuse to fully and currently inform the committee or instruct intelligence agencies not to provide requested information necessary to intelligence oversight," they write.
That is a clear reference to the unhappiness many members have felt in the days since the Times Square bombing attempt. Even though administration officials were holding news conferences highlighting their success in apprehending Shahzad, they ignored some congressional requests for briefings. On Wednesday, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who had requested and not been given a briefing on the Times Square matter, said the White House was preventing intelligence agencies from speaking to Congress -- a pattern Hoekstra said has been consistent through the Ft. Hood, Christmas Day, and now Times Square incidents. "There are some really good people in the intelligence community who have wanted to share information in all of those cases," Hoekstra said. "And they were just very frustrated by the clamps that the White House has put on them."
The letter to Obama was signed by Hoekstra and Reps. Elton Gallegly, Mac Thornberry, Mike Rogers, Sue Myrick, Roy Blunt, Jeff Miller, Michael Conaway and Peter King -- the entire Republican side of the Intelligence Committee. "We cannot work with you collaboratively to ensure our national security if you do not meet these fundamental obligations," they conclude.
Below is the entire text of the letter.
Dear Mr. President,
We are writing to express our significant concern at the affirmative efforts that the administration has repeatedly taken to withhold information from members of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on critical national security matters.
Unfortunately, a clear pattern has emerged of the administration refusing to provide requested briefings or information or to engage with us despite repeated requests on issues such as Guantanamo, the Fort Hood attack, the Christmas Day attack, Yemen, critical issues involving the FISA Court, and now the Times Square attack. The law unambiguously requires you personally to ensure that the congressional intelligences committees are kept "fully and currently informed" and that departments and agencies "furnish any information or material concerning intelligence activities." The administration may not lawfully refuse to fully and currently inform the committee or instruct intelligence agencies not to provide requested information necessary to intelligence oversight.
We cannot work with you collaboratively to ensure our national security if you do not meet these fundamental obligations.
Obama's "Good Luck" Terrorism Strategy The Washington Times says that Rep. Ike Skelton, the Missouri Democrat, responded to Republican charges that Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad's plot failed only because of luck, said, "What's wrong with being lucky?"
Nothing at all -- until the luck runs out.
Two potentially devastating terror attacks in five months failed only because of terrorist incompetence. The Crotch Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was unable to ignite his suicide bomb, sparing the lives of passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Had Mr. Shahzad's car bomb been assembled with greater care, hundreds of people at Times Square might have been killed or wounded. They were lucky, indeed.
There was only bad luck for the victims of Fort Hood jihadi, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Luck also ran out for the victims of Arkansas recruiting station shooter Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. Each of these recent incidents reminds us that policies pursued by the Obama administration have made the United States measurably less safe from terrorist attacks.
Consider the contribution administration policies may have made to the near success of Mr. Shahzad's attack. It was reported last week that Mr. Shahzad was on the Department of Homeland Security's Traveler Enforcement Compliance System list as late as 2008. The Obama administration removed him from that list. He also was under scrutiny of the national Joint Terrorism Task Force until the Obama administration waved it off the case.
Mr. Shahzad was being watched for very good reasons. Like Maj. Hasan and Mr. Abdulmutallab, he had ties to American-born Muslim radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. He had family connections to the Mehsud clan, which plays a leading role in the Pakistan Taliban. He traveled regularly to the Pakistani frontier area, which is the epicenter of violent religious extremism in that country. None of these things automatically made him a terrorist, but they did provide a rational basis for keeping a close watch on Mr. Shahzad. The Obama administration disagrees with the rationale, apparently obsessed with downplaying the possibility that any Muslim could ever be a domestic terrorist. It is the Obama team's perverse twist on racial and ethnic profiling.
These disturbing revelations about the case of Mr. Shahzad raise pertinent questions regarding U.S. domestic security. Who gave the order to shut down surveillance of Mr. Shahzad? Who removed him from the Traveler Enforcement Compliance System list? Who else has been removed from this and other lists and why? Were they removed simply because they were Muslims and the administration believed that ipso facto they were being persecuted unfairly? What have they been up to since being freed of government scrutiny?
A top-to-bottom review of all such actions taken by the Obama administration is in order. The public deserves to know whether policy directives given since Obama took office materially contributed to the near success of Mr. Shahzad's terror plot. There is nothing wrong with luck. With this president, America needs all the luck it can get. Obama Slashes New York's Anti-Terrorism Cash Michael Mcauliff says the White House slashed New York anti-terrorism funds amid buzz Obama will meet with NY Police Department Times Square heroes.
Eleven days after the botched plot to bomb Times Square, the Obama administration on Wednesday slashed some $53 million from the citys terror-fighting budget.
"For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just dont get it and are not doing right by New York City," fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
To top it off, the news arrives as Obama comes to town today amid buzz he will meet with the very cops who helped thwart the bombing.
Obama will also be tapping the citys deep pockets for the Democratic Party.
"The President seems more interested in raising money for political campaigns than providing New York the money it needs to defend itself against Islamic terrorism," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.
The cuts, to be announced today, target the annual allocations for transit and port security, legislators said.
Continue reading here . . . No Money For You, NY The New York Post editorializes -- Obama to New York: Drop dead. That was the message Team Obama sent -- loud and clear -- yesterday in slashing anti-terror funding for the city. But what do you expect?
The local congressional reps -- Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer and Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, etc. -- have been such lapdogs for Obama (at New York's expense), why wouldn't his team feel free to hang the city out to dry?
Under the plan, the feds will slice Gotham-area funds for transit and port security by $53 million -- 27 percent.
Never mind what happened less than two weeks ago -- when a terrorist parked a ticking bomb smack in the heart of Times Square. Never mind that the city suffered far more than anywhere else on 9/11 -- and today remains Target No. 1 for jihadists.
The Times Square attack -- if not the plots against local subways, bridges, synagogues, you name it -- should have reminded Obama & Co. where to set up its first line of defense. (Hint: It's not Pascagoula, Miss., which will get $1 million in port-security funding alone.)
Nor is there any doubt that terrorist operations aimed at New York are as broad-based as they are deadly. Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, for example, says he was trained in far-off Pakistan. And yesterday, FBI agents raided sites in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine in connection with Shahzad's attack. (Three people were arrested, though it wasn't clear if any played an active role in the Times Square plot. )
Obviously, local counterterror efforts require money. And since attacks on New York are meant to hurt the whole nation, Washington has a duty to provide it. Certainly the city's congressional delegation has an obligation to fight for it.
Yet Gillibrand, Schumer, Nadler & Co. have become so ineffective, Team Obama apparently thinks it can get more political mileage by spreading funds around.
Sure, Schumer griped about the funding, for whatever that was worth. (Mayor Bloomberg was so worried, he tried to personally get Obama to change course.)
How ironic: These Dems are supposed to have some sway over their party-mates in the White House. Yet Team Obama is taking New York for granted -- and New York's reps seem helpless to do much about it.
Which makes you wonder: What good are they to New York, anyway? A Morally Ill And Wholly Degenerate President Pamela Gellar says that if this doesn't unnerve you and turn your stomach .............. you are made of stone.
Obama: Daniel Pearl's Beheading "Captured the World's Imagination" (00:17)
The Daniel Pearl beheading "captured the world's imagination" -- spoken like an ..........anti- Semitic Muslim terrorist. Pearl was beheaded because of Islamic anti-Semitism and violent jihadi doctrine. Freedom of the press had nothing to do with it. And this coming from a plant who is attempting to restrict these freedoms ..............press and speech.
This is terrible. Obama is a sick man.
Jim Hoft adds thats crazy sick. Obama told reporters yesterday that the video of Islamic radicals sawing off a Daniel Pearls head with a butter knife "captured the worlds imagination."
"Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the worlds imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is."
No, Barack. It was horrifying.
And It had nothing to do with freedom of the press. They beheaded Daniel Pearl because he was an American and a Jew. They beheaded Daniel Pearl because they were Islamic radicals. Something you have not yet figured out.
I have not included the link to the brutal Pearl murder video. If your curious, it's at the first link, above. Obama Sides With Hamas Jim Hoft says the Obama White House is now siding with Hamas over Israel. Despite the documented ambush on the Israeli soldiers this week by radical Islamists in the Mediterranean, the White House is pressuring Israel to end its blockade of Gaza essentially undermining Israels last wall of defense against the Islamic killers of Hamas.
Obama refused to side with Israel after the attack and told Prime Minister Netanyahu to go back to Israel out of concern that the Israeli Prime Minister would use the White House as his backdrop while discussing the flotilla ambush.
Reuters reported:
The White House said on Friday Israels blockade of the Gaza Strip was unsustainable and urged a Gaza aid vessel sent by pro-Palestinian activists to divert to an Israeli port to reduce the risk of violence.
"We are working urgently with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza," said Mike Hammer, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
"The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed. For now, we call on all parties to join us in encouraging responsible decisions by all sides to avoid any unnecessary confrontations," Hammer said in a statement.
Israel was preparing to intercept the Irish-owned ship the Rachel Corrie, bound for Gaza with aid and activists, after its naval operation on Monday in which nine Turkish activists were killed on another ship when it was boarded by Israeli forces.
The White House is asking Hamas to act "responsibly?" Since when has Hamas acted responsibly?
As Charles Krauthammer wrote this week:
Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses -- a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimation. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished.
But, if none of these is permissible, whats left?
Exactly. Obama wants the Israelis defenseless. There can be no other explanation. Obama Still Mulling Where To Try 9/11 Plotters Agence France-Presse is reporting that the Obama administration is still mulling where to hold the trials of the alleged co-plotters behind the September 11 attacks, US attorney general Eric Holder said Sunday.
"We are still in the process of considering that," Holder said in an interview with CBS "Face The Nation," adding "No decision's been made yet as to exactly where the trial is going to occur."
Holder, who has vowed to push for the death penalty for the self-confessed mastermind of the 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, recalled he had recommended the trial should be held in civilian court.
But many are still pushing for the trial to be held in a military court, and the process has bogged down with no trial yet underway more than eight years after the attacks.
Continue reading here . . .
Obama is incapable of making a command decision on anything that doesn't directly affect him. He's busy golfing and campaigning. Obama Cleanses The Terrorism Glossary Rowan Scarborough says Obama and his cast of aides will lash out at Republicans, the Tea Party, banks, oil companies and Arizona, but when it comes to radical Islam, Obama and the Obots treat it with kid gloves or ignore it altogether.
Recent speeches show that -- rather than identifying the enemy for what it is, bands of Islamic extremists who use their religion to justify murder -- the administration searches for the root cause of terrorism, a "why do they hate us?" obsession, which serves only to paralyze a global war to defeat terrorist killers.
Islamic extremists use mosques to raise funds, recruit and plan attacks. In Pakistan tribal areas, Taliban and al Qaeda use mosques as safe havens and as munitions stockpiles. Imams, Muslim religious leaders, use their positions to preach hate and encourage violence, citing verses from the Koran.
When Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty this week to trying to blow up an SUV in Times' Square, he declared himself a "Muslim soldier."
The bottom line is that Islam and terrorism are intertwined. America will never understand its enemy, an enemy dedicated to its destruction, unless it comes to grips with that fact.
Continue reading here . . . Only A Terror Attack Can Save Obama Paul Watson says a former senior advisor to Bill Clinton says that the only thing which can rescue Barack Obamas increasingly tenuous grip on power as his approval figures continue to plunge is a terror attack on the scale of Oklahoma City or 9/11, another startling reminder that such events only ever serve to benefit those in authority.
Buried in a Financial Times article about Obamas "growing credibility crisis" and fears on behalf of Democrats that they could lose not only the White House but also the Senate to Republicans, Robert Shapiro makes it clear that Obama is relying on an October surprise in the form of a terror attack to rescue his presidency.
"The bottom line here is that Americans dont believe in President Obamas leadership," said Shapiro, adding, "He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I cant think of how he could do that."
Shapiros veiled warning should not be dismissed lightly. He was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs dung Clintons tenure in the Oval Office and also acted as principal economic adviser to Clinton in his 1991-1992 campaign. Shapiro is now Director of the Globalization Initiative of NDN and also Chair of the Climate Task Force. He is a prominent globalist who has attended numerous Bilderberg Group meetings over the past decade.
Shapiro is clearly communicating the necessity for a terror attack to be launched in order to give Obama the opportunity to unite the country around his agenda in the name of fighting terrorists, just as Bush did in the aftermath of 9/11 when his approval ratings shot up from around 50% to well above 80%.
Continue reading here . . .
C'mon Paul! Don't put any ideas in Obama's head.
Related: The October Surprise is coming. Obama Supported Libyan Terrorist Release Angry White Dude says in breaking news that will surprise no one, the UK Sunday Times reveals that the Obama administration was knee-deep in the freeing of the Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. Hes the murderer who blew up the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. In a letter to Scottish officials, which Obama has sought to keep secret, Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London wrote:
"Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."
Remember Obama saying that Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" after news of the release came to light? He was right. Americans were and are angry, but Obama is not. And once again Hussein keeps his perfect record of screwing America and Americans!
If you remember, al Megrahi is the terrorist who had only a few weeks left to live..many months ago. Mark my word, that piece of dirt Libyan will outlive all of us. He received a heros welcome in Libya that "shocked" Scotland and America, of course Makes me sick.
Al Megrahi's hero's welcome back in Libya following his transfer.
Im telling you, we could not do worse if Hugo Chavez was living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He basically is. Obama is the worst enemy America has ever had in a position to hurt us so deeply. AWD is spitting mad to find out Obama was complicit in this murderers release, but Im not surprised. Every day brings a new low to America under the Obama regime.
Related: Obama faces rising pressure to publish Lockerbie bomber release letter that Scottish officials say gives grudging support to the freeing of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
Related: Secret support for Lockerbie Bomber reveals the need for a "Lies Czar" in the White House.
"I will stand with them [Muslims] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." -- Barack Hussein Obama Just Like Bush/Cheney Only Worse Blogger "peeltheonion" says an A.C.L.U report on the furtherance of police state mentality and policy under the Obama administration, provide more reasons to impeach Obama now before the deteriorating economy and his Hitler-like mental state as his popularity evaporates and his policies make him more and more hated, push him to bipass [sic] strict constitutional limitations and move for one man one ruler.
In its July 22 report, "Establishing a New Normal," the American Civil Liberties Union establishes that the Obama administration has continued and even intensified many of the Bush-Cheney police-state measures, while adding a few of its own. They say, "on a range of issues including accountability for torture, detention of terrorism suspects, and use of lethal force against civilians, there is a very real danger that the Obama administration will enshrine permanently within the law, policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful during the Bush administration."
1. Government Secrecy -- The Obama administration has maintained and even intensified Bush-Cheney's illegal withholding of information, for example. "The administration has fought to keep secret hundreds of records relating to the Bush administrations rendition, detention, and interrogation policies.
2. Indefinite Detention Without Trial -- Obama asserts that he has the right to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial, even suspects captured far from a conventional battlefield.
3. Murder, Inc. -- Then there's Obama's "targeted killing" program for suspected terrorists -- including US citizens -- located far away from zones of actual armed conflict.
4. Illegal Spying on Americans -- The Obama administration has continued Bush-Cheney's illegal, warrantless FISA spying on Americans. And over the last eighteen months, Obama's administration has defended the FISA Amendments Act in the same way that the last administration did.
5. Freedom of Speech -- "In an important case that reached the Supreme Court, the Obama administration took the position that it could prosecute individuals under a statute that bars the provision of material support to terrorist organizations even if the support in question consists solely of speech.
Details here . . . Obama Pays Off Jihadists Barack Obama's advisers plan to remove terms such as "Islamic radicalism" from a document outlining national security strategy and will use the new version to emphasize that the U.S. does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terrorism, counterterrorism officials say.
The change would be a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventive war. It currently states, "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century."
The officials described the changes on condition of anonymity because the document is still being written and is unlikely to be released for weeks, and the White House would not discuss it. But rewriting the strategy document is the latest example of Obama putting his stamp on U.S. foreign policy, as with his promises to dismantle nuclear weapons and limit the situations in which they can be used.
The revisions are part of a larger effort about which the White House talks openly, one that seeks to change not just how the U.S. talks to Muslim nations, but also what it talks to them about, from health care and science to business startups and education.
That shift away from terrorism has been building for a year, since Obama went to Cairo and promised a "new beginning" in the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world. The White House believes the previous administration based that relationship entirely on fighting terrorism and winning the war of ideas.
"You take a country where the overwhelming majority are not going to become terrorists, and you go in and say, 'We're building you a hospital so you don't become terrorists.' That doesn't make much sense," National Security Council staffer Pradeep Ramamurthy said.
Ramamurthy runs the administration's Global Engagement Directorate, a four-person National Security Council team that Obama launched last May with little fanfare and a vague mission to use diplomacy and outreach "in pursuit of a host of national security objectives." Since then, the division has not only helped change the vocabulary of fighting terrorism, but also has shaped the way the country invests in Muslim businesses, studies global warming, supports scientific research and combats polio.
Before diplomats go abroad, they hear from the Ramamurthy or his deputy, Jenny Urizar. When officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration returned from Indonesia, the NSC got a rundown about research opportunities on global warming. Ramamurthy maintains a database of interviews conducted by 50 U.S. embassies worldwide. And business leaders from more than 40 countries head to Washington this month for an "entrepreneurship summit" for Muslim businesses.
Whether Obama is a Muslim is not determined. However he is clearly submitting to Islam, and "outreach" is Obama's code word for baksheesh, the lavish remuneration and bribes, rudely demanded but ever so graciously accepted by Muslims in return for little or no services rendered, and his "outreach" is coming from your pocket.
Our enemy will recognize Obama's weakness, take all he'll give, and still attack America and Americans at every opportunity.
You can't buy off a true believer. Obama Halts Prosecution Of USS Cole Bomber Andrew McCarthy says it's a sleepy Friday in late August, Obama is on another vacation, Congress is out of town, no one is paying much attention. What better time for the Obama administration to pull the plug, once again, on military commissions? This time, it has halted the case of top al-Qaeda operative Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was to be prosecuted by a military court for the Cole bombing.
None of this is terribly surprising. Prosecuting the Cole case by military commission sticks in the Left's craw because it shows the incoherence of the Obama/Holder position. They want to treat the war like a crime and endow our enemies with all the rights and advantages of civilian courts; yet, they went military in the Cole case, despite the fact that there is a pending Justice Department civilian indictment addressing that attack. There can be only one explanation for that: they are afraid the case against Nashiri is weak and might not hold up under (slightly) more exacting civilian court due process. That is, the Obama/Holder position is not principled -- for all their "rule of law" malarkey, they are willing to go where they have the best chance to win. But there were no military commissions when the Cole was bombed, so what is the basis for trying it militarily? Answer: the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war . . . except the Left doesn't accept that it's a war and the administration wants to prosecute the 9/11 plotters in civilian court. None of it makes any sense.
I have been saying for a while now: Keep your eye on the civilian prosecution against Ahmed Ghailani, one of the embassy bombers. That case is now pending in Manhattan federal court before Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has made significant rulings in favor of the government -- declining to throw the case out on the grounds of "torture" and delay. As I said back in May:
It is . . . worth noting that Ghailani is not charged just with blowing up the embassies. The indictment against him alleges the overarching al-Qaeda conspiracy to murder Americans -- going back to 1991. The same indictment, with a few tweaks to add the terrorist rampages that occurred after the embassy bombings, could easily be used to charge the 9/11 plotters, as well as other enemy combatants.
Despite all the outrage it stirred, Attorney General Holder has not abandoned his push for a civilian trial of [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 plotters] in New York. Don't be surprised if the Justice Department uses the Ghailani ruling to argue that the naysayers' concerns about giving KSM a soapbox are overblown. Don't be surprised if Justice tries to slide the 9/11 attacks right into the embassy-bombing indictment. That would land KSM squarely before Judge Kaplan.
What I said about the 9/11 plotters can also be said about Nashiri: the pending embassy bombing indictment could easily be adjusted to add the Cole attack. If I were Holder and Obama, and I were hell-bent on giving the top al-Qaeda terrorists civilian trials, I would supersede the embassy bombing indictment to add the terrorists involved in both the 9/11 and Cole attacks to the case before Judge Kaplan. But . . . I would delay announcing that I was doing this until after the November elections because of the uproar it would cause, and the hot seat on which it would put Democrats already beleaguered in their reelection bids.
But that's just me. I'm sure the administration wouldn't think of doing something like that, right? Obama Lifts Taliban Morale The Edmonton Journal says the announcement by Barack Obama that American troops will begin pulling out of Afghanistan in July 2011 has raised Taliban morale, according to the country's president, Hamid Karzai.
He also said there would be no progress in the nine-year campaign while insurgents still had safe havens in Pakistan.
Karzai told visiting U.S. congressmen that the date had boosted Taliban morale "to some extent."
"The lack of progress in the war on terror has two factors: one, the terror sanctuaries have not been addressed and second, because civilians were killed," he said.
Washington has emphasized that the deadline will only mark the start of a withdrawal and depends on progress in stabilizing the country.
Karzai has repeatedly voiced frustration that NATO is not doing enough to pursue Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Afghanistan's security adviser, said U.S. efforts in Afghanistan were being betrayed by Islamabad's support for terrorists.
"The terrorists' main mentor continues to receive billions of dollars in aid and assistance. How is this fundamental contradiction justified?" he said. "We Can Absorb A Terrorist Attack" Ace of Spades has an excerpt from Bob Woodward's new book, as quoted in the Washington Post:
"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger."
A little context here. Obama and the leftist media will attempt to spin this as merely descriptive, and as a tribute to America's resiliency. After all -- we did survive 9/11, didn't we? (Well, actually, 2996 of us did not survive 9/11, but apart from them, we survived.)
This is merely Obama talking up America's capacity to endure, they will say.
But it's not. This is a meme that has been circulating on the left for quite a while, usually secretly and among themselves only, but sometimes, ill-advisedly, being pushed out into public as a trial balloon.
The idea, of course, is that America overreacted to 9/11, and 50,000 people die every year in car crashes, and we don't freak out about that, do we? No, we accept these as acceptable losses in the bigger picture (that is, we want to drive places) and we take the exchange. We drive, some of us will die. Sound bargain.
That's the killer notion here -- the idea of bargain. Of what is being exchanged for these deaths. In the case of automobile collisions, well, sure, we have mobility and freedom. That's something.
But the left is pushing this idea that we can safely "absorb" many new 9/11's with an eye towards getting us to "accept" the greater bargain they fatuously offer -- peace, and a general wind-down of post-9/11 security "overreactions" like the FBI tracking Muslims suspected of terrorist ties. If only we didn't overreact to the occasional mass-murder, we could go about our business without war, without increased security measures, without "Islamophobia," without the rest of it.
The problem, you see, is primarily within us, those being targeted for murder. If only we understood that this was a good bargain in exchange for living in a multicultural country and global economy, then we could be good citizens of the world and not lash out so terribly and uselessly when some of the more aggressive proponents of multiculturalism blow up a few of our buildings.
They will spin this, but this is what Obama is getting at, what the left is constantly saying, but which leftist politicians are careful never to say publicly: for the good of relations with the Muslim world we're just going to have to be mature about mass murder. Obama Enabling Violent Jihad Connie Hair says the Obama administration's first show trial for a violent Guantanamo Bay jihadi in a civilian court -- a man who has never set foot in America -- and endowing this enemy combatant with full citizenship-level Fifth Amendment rights is unraveling in the courtroom and putting America at risk.
It would be a laughable, "I told you so" moment if it weren't so dangerous. Stopping these violent jihadis from killing Americans is the government's job. The Obama administration is putting American lives at risk and jeopardizing the integrity of our legal system which was not designed to handle war crimes.
Dealing with violent jihadists on the worldwide battlefield is a matter for military not civilian courts. Matters as simple as chains of custody for evidence take on different standard when dealing with America's civilian courts. Our soldiers are not law enforcement officers. They are paid to fight wars -- to kill people and blow things up -- not read Miranda rights and put evidence in baggies on the battlefield.
To left-wing elitists like Obama, acts of terrorism are matters for lawyers not soldiers. Now the first of these Gitmo detainee civilian court trials has been delayed this week because the star witness was barred from testifying by trial judge Lewis Kaplan.
Continue reading here . . . The Jihad Against America is Increasing Alan Caruba says, Muhammad, the self-proclaimed prophet of Allah, died in 632 AD. As historian James Carroll notes in his forthcoming book about Jerusalem, "The next year, only two years after the Byzantine Christians had reconquered Jerusalema mounted force of Bedouin fighters who revered the Prophet's memory invaded the Byzantine-controlled territory of Palestine, near Gaza." They called themselves Muslims.
Only five years after Muhammad's death, Umar ibn al-Khattab, his successor "led tribal bands as one army, quickly taking control of lands from Iraq to Egypt." In 637 AD, "Muslim forces laid siege to Jerusalem." With the exception of a brief period in the twelfth century, Muslim rule of Jerusalem, a city sacred to Jews and Christians, "would last one and a third millennia until 1917."
A recent survey taken in Islamic countries by the Pew Research foundation revealed that a majority in the Muslim world still favor cutting off hands for theft, stoning people to death for adultery, and insist that Islam play a major role in politics. What many in the West still fail to understand is that the grip of Islam and its seventh century mindset remains fully intact for many of the more than a billion Muslims worldwide.
The resurgence of a militant Islam threatens to drag the entire world back to an era of barbarity and ignorance banished by Western civilization, the enlightenment, and the spread of Democracy. The brief period of tolerance for other faiths exhibited during the Islamic conquest of Spain was the exception, not the rule.
In our era it was George W. Bush who thwarted Muslim dreams of world domination. Following 9/11 it was his resistance that protected Americans against further attacks during his two terms in office.
In a November commentary, Dr. Walid Phares, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and author of "Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America", noted that "Throughout the summer and fall, U.S. authorities witnessed a significant rise in jihadist activity, using increasingly sophisticated operational strategies."
"According to open-source reports, between 2001 and 2008, U.S. agencies stopped one or two terror attempts a year. However, from 2009 until today, the government has been uncovering one or two cases a month, a troubling growth in jihadist activities."
It should be lost on no one that the increase coincides with the advent of the Obama administration and his absurd claims that America is not a Christian nation or that Muslims played any role in its history other than as Barbary pirates.
Largely unreported, on a weekly basis throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, Islam's holy warriors continue to kill Muslims and Christians. In the West, they have perpetrated terrorist attacks in London, Madrid, and on 9/11 in New York.
On December 9, federal officials arrested a Maryland man and charged him with plotting to blow up an Army recruiting center near Baltimore. Antonio Martinez, a 21-year-old Muslim convert who calls himself Muhammed Hussain, wanted to kill as many U.S. soldiers as possible.
Earlier, in Portland, Oregon, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali youth, was thwarted from killing Americans during a Christmas tree lighting celebration. Farooque Ahmed, a Virginia man, was arrested in connection with a plot to attack the Washington, D.C. subway system; Ahmed, a native of Pakistan, had been granted U.S. citizenship.
Only the failure of his car bomb prevented Faisal Shahzad, also formerly of Pakistan and a U.S. citizen, from killing and injuring Americans in New York's Times Square. A trial is set for Najibullah Zazi, the father of Mohammad Wali Zazi who pled guilty to a terrorist plot involving the New York subway system.
It is folly to think that America will not continue to be subject to terror attacks, but the Obama administration has largely refused to publicly confront this reality except in the form of the intrusive and objectionable airport pat-downs and scans. If a commercial airliner is bombed, it will surely have begun its flight in a foreign airport.
Incredibly, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security recently announced that Ari Alikhan, who DHS identified as "a devout Muslim", as the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and swore in Kareem Shora, another "devout Muslim" born in Damascus, Syria, as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
How crazed is this? Or are we meant to wait until Obama is voted out of office until we can begin to feel safe anywhere in America?
Jihad?
Obama doesn't see it http://www.theobamafile.com/_year02/BarackBadGuys2010.htm
Items on this page are archived in order of discovery (except top photo) . . . Is This It?
Photo caption: "Osama Bin Laden Death Photo."
From An American Expat in Southeast Asia blog. I'm tried to find out the who, what, where, when stuff.
American Expat, is in SE Asia, but won't provide any additional information, so the photo can't be confirmed as the real deal. Details Of Raid -- Shootout, No Surrender David Gardner is reporting that almost ten years after the horror of 9/11, Osama bin Laden must have thought he was safe. He had moved from the remote, barren mountains on Afghanistans inhospitable border to a comfortable $1 million mansion in one of Pakistans most picturesque and affluent cities, Abbottabad -- named after James Abbott, the British major who founded the town in 1853 -- has such a pleasant climate that it is a major hub for tourists visiting the region. And the former home of the Gurkhas is still a major military base, so locals have no reason to feel threatened.
Behind the walls of his sprawling compound about 60 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Bin Laden had every reason to believe he was way beyond the searching eyes of the Americans he had taunted for so long. His family was with him and a parade of couriers would bring him everything he needed from the city outside of more than a million people. So confident was he that the huge three-storey house he was living in was eight times larger than most other homes in the area, hardly a low-profile hideaway for the most wanted man in the world.
But, according to U.S. intelligence sources, Bin Laden was taken completely by surprise by the special forces who had spent the best part of a decade stalking him. He had, after all, survived two wars launched with the aim of capturing him and his followers.
The last time the Americans and the British got as close -- a few months after the attacks on New York and Washington -- Bin Laden managed to elude them on horseback through the caves and gullies in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
For most of the past ten years, Bin Laden lived up to the nickname of "Elvis" he had been given by the CIA because there had been so many bogus and fanciful sightings. But as long ago as last August, Obama was told in an intelligence briefing that there was a possible lead that Bin Laden was hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad.
It took eight months for U.S. and Pakistani agents to confirm for certain that the information was accurate.
Deserted: Nestled among trees and in the shadow of Pakistan's mountains, Bin Laden's hideaway stands empty today after a helicopter raid by U.S. troops that killed the terror chief yesterday.
Hideout: A large sheet covers the U.S. helicopter that crashed in the grounds of the compound where Bin Laden lived with his youngest wife and his trusted aides.
After several run-throughs and the diplomatic blessing of the Pakistani government, a small special forces team of U.S. Navy SEALS landed in the compound grounds yesterday with the explicit instruction -- get Osama bin Laden, dead or alive.
The raid on the compound, which was just 100 yards from a Pakistani military academy, was launched at about 1.15 am in the morning, according to witnesses. Four U.S. helicopters took off from the Ghazi air base in northwest Pakistan. Bin Laden's guards opened fire from the roof and one of the helicopters crashed.
During an operation that took just 40 minutes from start to finish, Bin Laden was shot in the head in a firefight as he tried to evade capture. Three of his men were also killed along with a woman they tried to use as a human shield. One of Bin Laden's eleven sons was said to be among the dead.
Near miss: One of the U.S. helicopters crashed over a wall within the compound after coming under heavy fire from rocket propelled grenades. However, all special forces troops escaped safely
Clean up: The remains of the U.S. helicopter that crashed during the mission are driven away on a tractor through Abbottabad today. No Americans were hurt in the mission, but it didnt go without a hitch.
The helicopter they used to breach the mansion walls suffered a mechanical breakdown and couldnt fly the soldiers out. The SEALS burned the helicopter and had to carry Bin Ladens body out on foot, an ignominious ending for the terrorist chief after one of historys biggest manhunts. It was also a major triumph for a special CIA and special forces team of up to 100 whose mission since September 11 has been to find and kill Bin Laden.
For years, they have had to brave the jibes aimed at both the Bush and Obama administrations over the failure to track down the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.
Stormed: The image below from Geo TV shows flames from the compound where terror mastermind Bin Laden was shot
They worked closely with the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service for whom many CIA officials have a deep mistrust because of the agencys traditional ties with the Pashtuns of Waziristan, who were believed to have harbored Bin Laden for some of his years on the run. After he evaded capture in mid-December 1991, there were precious few credible leads of his whereabouts. But about four years ago, CIA agents managed to identify one of his most trusted couriers after a detainee at Guantanamo Bay gave them his nickname.
It took another two years for them to discover the area where the courier and his brother were operating. By January this year, they found out that the courier and his brother were living in a mansion that appeared to be much larger than anything they could afford. Suspicions were raised further by the thick walls around the compound. While other homes in the area put rubbish out to be collected, the trash was burned in the ground of the mansion, which did not have a telephone or internet service. By February, U.S. intelligence officials were confident that Bin Laden and his family were living there and by March, Obama was convening top secret meeting with his senior security staff.
The CIA believe that for many years before settling in Abbottabad, Bin Laden moved from village to village in Waziristan. He communicated only about once a month and never used a telephone. When he reached a village with his bodyguards he would request a meeting with the local tribal leader and a substantial bribe would be paid. Bin Laden would then be the guest of the village, where under Pashtun custom, he must be protected.
The main obstacle in finding him was that even if someone wanted to betray him and collect the $25 million reward -- there was no one to turn to. The local police would know Bin Laden was there and if anyone tried to report his presence they would quite likely be killed. One local mullah from Waziristan agreed to send information about Bin Ladens movements and his beheaded body was found several weeks later with a message that his was the fate of spies.
While Operation Enduring Freedom was successful in liberating Afghanistan from Taliban control after 9/11, there was no doubt that the real prize was Bin Laden himself. But the Al Qaeda chief had chosen his first redoubt with care. For several years before 2001, he had developed an intricate network of caves and dwellings 14,000ft up in the settlement known as Tora Bora.
The impenetrable mountains not only made it difficult for anybody to track him, they were also just a few miles from Pakistan, allowing him to escape easily as western troops moved in. The commander of one U.S. military force told the 60 Minutes news show how soldiers under his command found Bin Laden -- but let him slip through their fingers.
The commander, calling himself Dalton Fury, expressed his frustration at having known where Bin Laden was, but feeling he was powerless to do anything.
At one point, he said, his forces were closing in on Bin Laden's men -- but he decided to abort the mission because he did not have support from Afghan troops. And in another incident Delta soldiers actually saw a tall man dressed in camouflage that they believed was Bin Laden -- only to have the Al Qaeda leader escape their bombing campaign in the mountains. Fury talked about a book he has written entitled "Kill Bin Laden," detailing his memories of the campaign in Tora Bora in 2001.
"Our job was to go find him, capture or kill him, and we knew the writing on the wall was to kill him because nobody wanted to bring Osama bin Laden back to stand trial in the United States somewhere," the mission commander told his interviewer. He said the administration's strategy was to let Afghans do most of the fighting, however. Using radio intercepts and other intelligence, he said, the CIA pinpointed Bin Laden's location in the Tora Bora mountains near Pakistan.
Fury's Delta team joined the CIA and Afghan fighters and piled into pick-up trucks. He claimed their orders were to kill Bin Laden and leave the body with the Afghans, keeping an Afghan face on the war. However an audacious plan to come at Bin Laden from the back door was vetoed higher-up -- Fury claimed he was never sure who.
And a second plan to drop hundreds of landmines over any escape route into Pakistan was also vetoed, with Fury claiming he had no idea why.
The only option left was a frontal assault. Fury said he had 50 men in Delta force up against Bin Laden's 1,000 -- support from the Afghan forces was needed. But, he claimed, many of the Afghan soldiers were not on board -- seeing Bin Laden as a hero.
One night -- alone without his Afghan allies -- Fury said he was told Bin Laden was two kilometres away. Faced with overwhelming odds, he elected to stay away. But the decision always nagged him. He wrote in his book:
"My decision to abort that effort to kill or capture Bin Laden when we might have been within 2,000 metres of him, about 2,000 yards, still bothers me. It leaves me with a feeling of somehow letting down our nation at a critical time." But, he added, it wasn't worth the risk.
Fury had a second chance: Later, a Delta force named Jackal radioed they had Bin Laden in sight. He wrote: "The operation Jackal team observed 50 men moving into a cave that they hadn't seen before." The mujahideen said they saw an individual, a taller fellow, wearing a camouflage jacket. Everybody put two and two together, "okay, that's got to be Osama bin Laden egressing from the battlefield."
Patrols: Soldiers drive through Abbottabad where the Al Qaeda leader was living in a mansion
"They called up every available bomb in the air, took control of the airspace. And they dropped several hours of bombs on the cave he went into. We believe, it was our opinion at the time, that he died inside that cave."
Later, however, he was proven wrong, when American forces were unable to find Bin Laden's body and the Al Qaeda leader began releasing radio and video footage again. Fury told 60 Minutes he believes he knows what happened. He said Bin Laden was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel from an American bomb, and was then hidden a town next to the Al Qaeda cemetery.
'We believe a gentleman brought him in -- a gentleman, him and his family were supporting Al Qaeda during the battle. They were providing food, ammo, water. We think he went to that house, received medical attention for a few days then, and then we believe they put him in a vehicle and moved him back across the pass." Obama For Barack Obama, it is the image that he might want to define his presidency more than any other -- the grim-faced leader and his security team captured at the moment of the riskiest gamble of his administration.
It could be a scene from political drama The West Wing. Indeed, it took place in the White Houses west wing. But this was not fiction. From halfway around the world, Obama and members of the National Security Council huddled in front of a video screen on Sunday afternoon to follow the raid on Osama Bin Ladens Pakistan compound as it happened.
Their faces, racked by tension, looked set in stone -- hardly surprising, given what was at stake.
Tension: President Obama took 16 hours to decide whether to go with the mission. Hilary Clinton watches the dramatic moment unfold with apparent shock
Geronimo, the codename for Bin Laden, was the redoubtable Apache chief who famously evaded capture by American forces. But it is also the battlecry one shouts when making a brave leap, and this was certainly one of those.
Aides said there hadnt been an intelligence meeting in previous weeks where someone did not mention the Iran hostages debacle in 1980 or Black Hawk Down, the film about the disastrous U.S. helicopter-borne attempt to seize a Somali leader in 1993.
There had been deep disagreement among the security team, with half of them -- reportedly mainly the politicians -- opposing the assault, instead favouring waiting until they could be sure Bin Laden was definitely in the compound, or mounting a less risky bombing raid.
Presidential aides have given countless briefings presenting Barack Obama as a decisive commander in chief with a studied calm and steely resolve since Bin Laden was killed.
But fresh details emerged last night that it actually took 16 hours for him to decide that the worlds most wanted terrorist should be taken out. Far from making his mind up quickly, Mr Obama kept his top military officials waiting overnight before finally telling them: Its a go.
Presented with the latest intelligence last Friday, Mr Obama could only muster silence before telling his top military staff: Im not going to tell you what my decision is now -- Im going to go back and think about it some more. Im going to make a decision soon.
The following morning, a full 16 hours later, four senior aides were summoned to the White House Diplomatic Room to be told the operation could go ahead.
The delay meant that, in part due to bad weather, the earliest the attack could be carried out was Sunday.
Former vice president Dick Cheney said it would be a tragedy to spend so much time patting ourselves on the back that we miss the next attack. But he added: The administration clearly deserves credit for the success of the operation.
Mr Obama received extensive praise from the EU anti-terror chief, who went as far as saying he hoped the killing would lead to a second term for him. Gilles de Kerchove said: I hope that this will help him be re-elected.
But Obama took the decision to go in with the Navy SEALs after deliberating for 16 hours.
Officials said the photo, taken by the White House photographer in the buildings high-tech Situation Room communications nerve centre, was not choreographed.
But you can see why they chose to release this particular one. It shows a leader, who has been derided for his unemotive, overly detached demeanour, instead looking every inch the concerned commander-in-chief, his attention riveted on the fate of the men he has sent into battle.
It is possible to miss Barack Obama at first glance, his tall frame hunched in the corner in his golfing clothes (he had just played that Sunday morning), his trademark bottle of mineral water on the table in front of him.
That said, it is impossible not to recognise his intense gaze as, jaw clenched, he watched live video feeds of the attack. Reinforcing the reported blokey informality of which his fans are proud, he has given up the padded leather presidential chair for a uniformed underling, perhaps so Brigadier General Marshall Brad Webb -- the most junior man in the room -- can have space at the conference table to use his Hewlett Packard laptop.
Related:
Embarrassment grows for Pakistan security forces as 12-year-old reveals even he was a regular visitor to Al Qaeda boss's hideaway Obama watched Bin Laden die on live video as shoot-out beamed to White House Power of Team 6, the elite within the elite: Who are the silent warriors that took out Osama bin Laden? Tears for Bin Laden: Mourners take to the streets of Pakistan as furore grows over 650m we send to country that harboured terrorist mastermind Bin Laden's daughter, 12, sees her father shot as White House confirms the terrorist mastermind was NOT armed when he was killed NILE GARDINER: Will Osama's death save Obama's presidency? ANDREW ALEXANDER: Can Obama the dove change his plumage?
Indeed, the usual rules whereby National Security Council members sit closest to the President in strict order of seniority appear to have been junked in the crisis. Denis McDonough, the deputy national security adviser, has drawn up a chair between that of the President and Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State.
In her tweed jacket, Mrs. Clinton would look her usual composed self if it wasnt for the hand covering her mouth in apparent shock.
Across the table, Vice President Joe Biden looks more relaxed in his open collar but out of shot are the rosary beads that the staunchly Roman Catholic was playing with during the ordeal.
Others dealt with the tension in different ways, several pacing around the room. But Mr Obama barely moved, looking stone faced throughout, according to an aide.
The Situation Room, a highly secure suite of rooms on the ground floor of the White Houses west wing, was created in 1961 to address President Kennedys complaints about the supposed poor real-time information failures which hampered another U.S. surprise strike -- the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
On Sunday, officials had cancelled all White House tours to avoid the possibility of a tourist or visiting celebrity accidentally running into the security officials and their tense work.
The group gathered at noon without the President. A member of staff went to Costco, a local grocery, and returned with lunch -- turkey in pita bread wraps, prawns, crisps and fizzy drinks.
They spent the next two hours watching video and audio feeds from the CIA whose director, Leon Panetta, was connected to the Situation Room via a video link to his office at Langley, Virginia.
Just after 2pm, Mr Panetta outlined the raid for a last time and, within an hour, began talking them through the operation. And then, Theyre in Pakistan, he announced simply.
The raid lasted 40 nail-biting minutes. It was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time, I think, in the lives of the people who were assembled here. The minutes passed like days, said John Brennan, Mr Obamas chief counterterrorism advisor, who was standing behind Mrs Clinton during the operation. Both Mr Panetta and Mr Brennan had supported the ground strike over waiting.
The President, he said, was very concerned about the safety of the U.S. troops -- That was what was on his mind throughout. The watchers had an early jolt of fear on that front when one of the helicopters crashed over the compound, although all its occupants were safe.
The atmosphere was very tense, a lot of people holding their breath, Mr Brennan added. Nobody dared speak for fear of talking over one of the regular updates from Mr Panetta.
Minutes passed before Mr Panetta came on air again to say: We have a visual on Geronimo.
It took a few more nerve-racking minutes before he was on the line again. Geronimo EKIA [Enemy Killed in Action], he said.
Minutes after the successful mission Barack Obama tells to the world the good news at The White House
Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad where he was killed on Sunday night had a seven foot wall on one side where the terrorist mastermind could walk around
Pakistani Army soldiers secure the compound where Osama Bin Laden was killed in Abbotabad, Pakistan Confirmation that the Seals had found their quarry was greeted with a tremendous sigh of relief, said Mr Brennan. There was silence in the room. We got him, said Mr Obama.
But the ordeal was not over. Another stomach-lurching moment came when the Pakistanis scrambled jets after discovering the unauthorised helicopters in their airspace. Fortunately, the troops were over the border before there was any military contact.
Andy Card, the chief of staff to George Bush who was the first to tell him about the 9/11 attacks, spoke of the extreme tension his successors would have been under in that room.
You try to plan for every contingency, he told the BBC yesterday.
Its easy to plan for optimism. I would always try to make sure there were some sceptics in the room to ask challenging questions of those that were making the plans.
But then you watch with bated breath as the plan is implemented. I am sure there were some quiet prayers that this would go well -- there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong in this raid.
He added: Theres a lot of tension and ultimately the Presidents decision is a lonely decision.
Details Of Raid -- Shootout, No Surrender David Gardner is reporting that almost ten years after the horror of 9/11, Osama bin Laden must have thought he was safe. He had moved from the remote, barren mountains on Afghanistans inhospitable border to a comfortable $1 million mansion in one of Pakistans most picturesque and affluent cities, Abbottabad -- named after James Abbott, the British major who founded the town in 1853 -- has such a pleasant climate that it is a major hub for tourists visiting the region. And the former home of the Gurkhas is still a major military base, so locals have no reason to feel threatened.
Behind the walls of his sprawling compound about 60 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Bin Laden had every reason to believe he was way beyond the searching eyes of the Americans he had taunted for so long. His family was with him and a parade of couriers would bring him everything he needed from the city outside of more than a million people. So confident was he that the huge three-storey house he was living in was eight times larger than most other homes in the area, hardly a low-profile hideaway for the most wanted man in the world.
But, according to U.S. intelligence sources, Bin Laden was taken completely by surprise by the special forces who had spent the best part of a decade stalking him. He had, after all, survived two wars launched with the aim of capturing him and his followers.
The last time the Americans and the British got as close -- a few months after the attacks on New York and Washington -- Bin Laden managed to elude them on horseback through the caves and gullies in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
For most of the past ten years, Bin Laden lived up to the nickname of "Elvis" he had been given by the CIA because there had been so many bogus and fanciful sightings. But as long ago as last August, Obama was told in an intelligence briefing that there was a possible lead that Bin Laden was hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad.
It took eight months for U.S. and Pakistani agents to confirm for certain that the information was accurate.
After several run-throughs and the diplomatic blessing of the Pakistani government, a small special forces team of U.S. Navy Seals landed in the compound grounds yesterday with the explicit instruction -- get Osama bin Laden, dead or alive.
Continue reading here -- with recent photos . . . Osama Bin-Laden Dead Kimbrly Dozier and David Espo are reporting that Osama bin Laden, the face of global terrorism and architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in a firefight with elite American forces Monday, then quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run.
Long believed to be hiding in caves, bin Laden was tracked down in a costly, custom-built hideout not far from a Pakistani military academy.
"Justice has been done," Barack Obama said in a dramatic announcement at the White House while a crowd cheered outside and hundreds more gathered at ground zero in Manhattan to celebrate the news.
The military operation took mere minutes.
U.S. helicopters ferrying elite counter-terrorism troops -- Navy SEALS -- into the compound identified by the CIA as bin Laden's hideout -- and back out again in less than 40 minutes. Bin Laden was shot in the head, officials said, after he and his bodyguards resisted the assault.
Three adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons, whom officials did not name. One of bin Laden's sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al- Qaida. U.S. officials also said one woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, and two other women were injured.
The U.S. official who disclosed the burial at sea said it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. Obama said the remains had been handled in accordance with Islamic custom, which requires speedy burial.
"I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped. Then more thundering, then a big blast," said Mohammad Haroon Rasheed, a resident of Abbottobad, Pakistan, after the choppers had swooped in and then out again.
Continue reading here . . .
Related: 6 Children, two wives of Bin Laden arrested in Pakistan Senior Military/Intelligence Officials Overrule Obama Ulsterman says Obama was ultimately overridden by senior military and intelligence officials to finally take out terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
Newsflavor Note: This communication came from our long time D.C. Insider and details previous and ongoing conflicts surrounding the decision to assassinate terrorist Osama Bin Laden. This has been reproduced here as originally communicated to us.
Please get this out ASAP. Want specific people to know we know.
RE Osama Bin Laden. Significant push to take him out months ago. Senior WH staff resisted. This was cause of much strain between Hillary Clinton (HC) and Obama/Jarrett. HC and Leon Panetta (LP) were in constant communication over matter -- both attempted to convince administration to act. Administration feared failure and resulting negative impact on president. Intel disgusted over politics over national security. Staff resigned/left. Check timeline to corroborate.
Now Intel already leaking to media facts surrounding how info obtained. Namely from enhanced interrogation efforts via GITMO prisoners. Obama administration placed in corner on this. Some media aware of danger to president RE this and attempting protection. Others looking for further investigation. We are pushing for them to follow through and already meeting with some access.
Point of determination made FOR Obama not BY Obama. Will clarify as details become more clear. Very clear divide between Military and WH. Jarrett marginalized 100% on decision to take out OBL. She played no part. Bill Daley (BD) worked with LP and HC to form coalition to force Commander in Chief (CiC) to engage.
IMPORTANT SPECIFIC: When 48 hour go order issued, CiC was told, not requested. Administration scrambled to abort. That order was overruled. This order did not originate from CiC. Repeat -- this order did not originate from CiC. He complied, but did not originate.
Independent military contacts have confirmed. Stories corroborate one another. This is legit.
The killing of Osama Bin Laden was in fact a Coup within Obama WH.
Speaking with additional contacts RE info.
Stay safe.
Update: Just released photo of the white house "war room" during the Osama bin Laden assassination operation showing a seemingly angry Barack Obama still wearing his golf attire and Bill Daley, Hillary Clinton, and Robert Gates on opposite side of room. This photo appears to further support the description of that days events by insider.
Taiwanese View
Phone Call By Kuwaiti Courier Led To Bin Laden Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo are reporting that when one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted aides picked up the phone last year, he unknowingly led U.S. pursuers to the doorstep of his boss, the world's most wanted terrorist.
That monitored phone call, recounted Monday by a U.S. official, ended a years-long search for bin Laden's personal courier, the key break in a worldwide manhunt. The courier, in turn, led U.S. intelligence to a walled compound in northeast Pakistan, where a team of Navy SEALs shot bin Laden to death.
SEAL Team Sixs
The violent final minutes were the culmination of years of intelligence work. Inside the CIA team hunting bin Laden, it always was clear that bin Laden's vulnerability was his couriers. He was too smart to let al-Qaida foot soldiers, or even his senior commanders, know his hideout. But if he wanted to get his messages out, somebody had to carry them, someone bin Laden trusted with his life.
Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, detainees in the CIA's secret prison network told interrogators about an important courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti who was close to bin Laden. After the CIA captured al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he confirmed knowing al-Kuwaiti but denied he had anything to do with al-Qaida.
Then in 2004, top al-Qaida operative Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Ghul told the CIA that al-Kuwaiti was a courier, someone crucial to the terrorist organization. In particular, Ghul said, the courier was close to Faraj al-Libi, who replaced Mohammed as al-Qaida's operational commander. It was a key break in the hunt for in bin Laden's personal courier.
"Hassan Ghul was the linchpin," a U.S. official said.
Finally, in May 2005, al-Libi was captured. Under CIA interrogation, al-Libi admitted that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed, he received the word through a courier. But he made up a name for the courier and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti, a denial that was so adamant and unbelievable that the CIA took it as confirmation that he and Mohammed were protecting the courier. It only reinforced the idea that al-Kuwaiti was very important to al-Qaida.
If they could find the man known as al-Kuwaiti, they'd find bin Laden.
The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history.
"We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden.
Mohammed did not discuss al-Kuwaiti while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He acknowledged knowing him many months later under standard interrogation, they said, leaving it once again up for debate as to whether the harsh technique was a valuable tool or an unnecessarily violent tactic.
It took years of work before the CIA identified the courier's real name: Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait. When they did identify him, he was nowhere to be found. The CIA's sources didn't know where he was hiding. Bin Laden was famously insistent that no phones or computers be used near him, so the eavesdroppers at the National Security Agency kept coming up cold.
Continue reading here . . .
Related: Meet "Seal Team 6" -- The Bad-Asses Who Killed Osama Bin Laden
Related: ABC News Photos Inside the Compound Where Osama Bin Laden Was Killed
Related: Obama Knew OBLs Location Since August Voted Present Until May
Related: EU official hopes bin Laden killing will help Obama get re-elected We All Went To The Rest Room
But that's not what Brennan said in his Monday presser, and he was in the Situation Room with Team Obama:
"We were able to monitor in a real-time basis the progress of the operation from its commencement to its time on target to the extraction of the remains and to then the egress off of the target... We were able to monitor the situation in real time and were able to have regular updates and to ensure that we had real-time visibility into the progress of the operation. Im not going to go into details about what type of visuals we had or what type of feeds that were there, but it was -- it gave us the ability to actually track it on an ongoing basis."
Doesn't sound like Panetta's version of 25 minutes of not knowing what was going on inside the compound.
Related: The video footage captured by the "helmet cams" of the Navy SEALS who conducted the kill operation on Osama bin Laden may be released, a source told ABC News. Let Me Sleep On That The Daily Mail is reporting that Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would "sleep on it" before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound.
Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals -- who were not even told who they were preparing to capture -- had practiced the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound.
The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.
But Obama stunned officials when he told a national security meeting that he wanted more time to think -- and disappeared out of the room.
"I'm not going to tell you what my decision is now -- I'm going to go back and think about it some more," said Obama, according to the New York Times. He then added "I'm going to make a decision soon."
The head of the CIA and other senior intelligence officers who were keen to proceed were left tense as they waited for Obama's decision.
But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, Obama said it was a go.
Another view here . . . Obama Hesitated Ulsterman has another message from the White House Insider: Obama Hesitated -- Panetta issued order to kill Osama Bin Laden.
Note: This update comes some 24 hours after our longtime Washington D.C. Insider first outlined shocking details of an Obama administration having been "overruled" by senior military and intelligence officials leading up to the successful attack against terrorist Osama Bin Laden. What follows is further clarification of Insiders insights surrounding that event.
Q: You stated that Obama was "overruled" by military/intelligence officials regarding the decision to send in military specialists into the Osama Bin Laden compound. Was that accurate?
A: I was told -- in these exact terms, "we overruled him." (Obama) I have since followed up and received further details on exactly what that meant, as well as the specifics of how Leon Panetta worked around Obamas "persistent hesitation to act." There appears NOT to have been an outright overruling of any specific position by Obama, simply because there was no specific position from him to do so. Obama was, in this case, as in all others, working as an absentee president.
I was correct in stating there had been a push to invade the compound for several weeks if not months, primarily led by Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, David Petraeus, and Jim Clapper. The primary opposition to this plan originated from Valerie Jarrett, and it was her opposition that was enough to create uncertainty within Obama. Obama would meet with various components of the pro-invasion faction, almost always with Jarrett present, and then often fail to indicate his position. This situation continued for some time, though the division between Jarrett/Obama and the rest intensified more recently, most notably from Hillary Clinton. She was livid over Obamas failure to act, and her office began a campaign of anonymous leaks to the media indicating such. As for Jarrett, her concern rested on two primary fronts. One, that the military action could fail and harm Obamas already weakened standing with both the American public and the world. Second, that the attack would be viewed as an act of aggression against Muslims, and further destabilize conditions in the Middle East.
Q: What changed Obamas position and enabled the attack against Osama Bin Laden to proceed?
A: Nothing changed with Obamas opinion -- he continued to avoid having one. Every time military and intelligence officials appeared to make progress in forming a position, Jarrett would intervene and the stalling would begin again. Hillary started the ball really rolling as far as pressuring Obama began, but it was Panetta and Petraeus who ultimately pushed Obama to finally act -- sort of.
Continue reading here . . . "Osama Bin Laden Was Not A Muslim Leader" Zip reports the White House Propaganda Minister said at yesterday's briefing, "Osama bin Laden Was Not A Muslim Leader."
Jay Carney said:
"Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He he was a mass murderer. A mass murderer of people around the world, including Muslims."
And to prove it Obama had an U.S. Navy imam give Osama, who was known as "Shiek," a "strict" 40-minute Islamic funeral . . . no, wait?
Sheikh or sheik, sometimes rendered conservatively as shaykh, is a word or honorific term in the Arabic language that literally means "elder." It is commonly used to designate an elder of a tribe, a revered wise man, or an Islamic scholar.
Osama wasn't a Muslim leader. Islam is a religion of peace. Maj. Nidal Hasan wasn't a "Soldier of Allah." I am not a Muslim. Please, Release Me!
Zip is reporting Obama told 60 Minutes that he will not release the photos of Osama bin Laden after he was killed. Said Obama:
"The risks of release outweigh the benefits. Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East."
He added: "Imagine how the American people would react if Al Qaida killed one of our troops or military leaders, and put photos of the body on the internet [imagine]. Osama bin Laden is not a trophy -- he is dead and lets now focus on continuing the fight until Al Qaida has been eliminated."
The real dead guys -- click "volgende foto" to image 4, 5 and 6. Photos 1 through 3 are of the secret helicopter component left behind. The concern is that the Pakis will sell the parts to the Chinese. From Guys That Were There Sources involved in the operation that took down Usama bin Laden told Fox News the terrorist leader acted "scared" and "completely confused" in his final moments, "shoving his wife" at the Navy SEAL who ultimately shot him.
The information helps clarify the conflicting details about what exactly happened toward the end of the 40-minute raid on bin Laden's northern Pakistan compound. Sources, who were part of the mission, said bin Laden acted in a "cowardly manner" when confronted. Fox News has also learned that while bin Laden was unarmed, he was standing near the door within reach of two weapons -- an AK-47 and a Makarov handgun -- both are now in U.S. custody. The handgun is a 9mm semi-automatic Russian pistol, standard issue in the Russian military until 1991.
A senior U.S. official also told Fox News that only one of the five people killed in the raid was carrying a weapon and firing. The detail seemed at first to diverge from White House accounts claiming the Navy SEALs encountered resistance throughout the raid and were engaged in a firefight during much of the 40-minute operation. However, the scene was described as chaotic, with U.S. forces encountering barricades and women in the compound screaming and attacking the men.
Another U.S. official said there were "at least a half-dozen weapons" found at the compound. The first person the SEALs encountered at the guest house "immediately opened fire" before being killed, the official said. As the SEALs moved through the compound, bin Laden's son Khaled rushed down from the third floor to the second floor and confronted the SEALs, who killed him.
The U.S. team, in their training, had anticipated that bin Laden had a suicide vest and that the house was rigged. The official bristled at the notion that the compound was somehow an easy target with reports that only one person was armed.
"He was the one guy shot who had a gun in his hand and was firing when he was shot -- other weapons were at the scene," the official said. "When the SEALs reached the third floor, after resistance and physical barricades, Usama bin Laden did not immediately surrender. When someone like UBL who has said he wants to kill as many Americans as possible, doesn't 150 percent surrender, you have to assess as a threat."
Another source familiar with the operation said the first shot fired at bin Laden, when he poked his head out of his bedroom, missed. That detail was first revealed by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., based on information he got during a classified briefing to members of Congress. Afterward, two different SEALs fired on bin Laden, one hitting his chest and one hitting his forehead.
By Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Justin Fishel and Catherine Herridge Stop Digging! Please! John Hinderaker says someone needs to explain the First Rule of Holes to the Obama administration. Military and intelligence professionals executed an important mission brilliantly, carrying out their assigned task of killing Osama bin Laden and dumping his body into the ocean. Ever since, the administration has undercut the professionals' achievement with a succession of now-inoperative accounts of the raid's climactic moments.
First we had John Brennan spinning a tale about bin Laden blazing away at the SEALs while using his wife -- now deceased -- as a human shield. Many details of that story turned out to be false. Then the administration claimed that it looked as though Osama was reaching for a gun, so the SEALs had to shoot him. Next, the theory was that Osama was clothed, not naked, so he could have had a bomb under his clothes and had to be shot. Another iteration emerged this afternoon, as an administration official told AFP that guns were found in the room where Obama was shot, so he was a threat to the SEALs:
US Navy SEALs who led a raid on Osama bin Laden's compound found an AK-47 and a pistol in his room, a US official told AFP Thursday, offering more details about the operation.
"He had weapons in his room, more than one," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He was not compliant. He did not surrender," the official said. ...
Given the possible threats, the gunfire from the courier and Bin Laden's reputation, "the team made the right decision."
All of these narratives -- apart from the disadvantage, in some instances, of being untrue -- share a common defect. They assume that the SEALs are in the dock as accused murderers, and need to be seen as acting in self-defense. This is ridiculous. The SEALs may have acted in "national self defense," the doctrine that Eric Holder articulated to the Senate Judiciary Committee. But in the immediate context of the raid on bin Laden's compound, the SEALs were not defending themselves. They were on the attack, as they needed to be to carry out their orders. Whether bin Laden was shooting at them, reaching for a gun, clothed or naked, or in the same room with a weapon is irrelevant. The SEALs went into Pakistan to kill bin Laden, and succeeded brilliantly. The administration needs to forget about self-defense and stand behind the orders it gave the military. Team Obama Releases Version 29 Of Osama Raid Jim Hoft says, Good Grief! We now have 29 different versions of the Osama Bin Laden raid in Abbottabad by the Obama Administration.
1 through 26 are here. 28 is here.
This was number 27... The head of the CIA admitted this week that there was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound as further doubts emerged about the US version of events.
The White House released this photo of the security team watching the raid on the Osama compound in Abbottabad. Now we know the feed was not working.
But now, days later, Bob Woodward of Cheney assassination squad fame claims that the cameras were rolling the whole time. That makes version 29.
What incompetence. Justice For Osama
Osama Bin Laden Not Buried At Sea RT.com is reporting that the body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea, according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by WikiLeaks.
Stratfors vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, believes the body was bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane and then onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland], an email says.
The official version is that the body of Al-Qaedas top man, who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, was buried at an undisclosed location at sea in a proper Muslim ceremony.
"If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes," Burton commented in another email. Eichman was one of the masterminds of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany. He was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and, tried in Israel, found guilty and executed in 1962. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea over the Mediterranean.
"Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him. But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt eicjhman [sic]. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which i doubt happened [sic]," Stratfor CEO George Friedman replied.
"The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX's do, with OBL's pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck," Burton says in another message.
In another missive Burton says Osamas body is a crime scene and I dont see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen. WikiLeaks began publishing Stratfor emails in late February. The archive was obtained by the hacker group Anonymous, which successfully attacked one of the firms servers. More than 5 million emails were apparently stolen.
Stratfor is a US-based intelligence firm called the shadow CIA by some media. Among its clients are several US agencies and many big companies. The company relies on paid tips from informants placed in high circles of business, government and security all around the world. The Team That Got Bin Laden
See ya! http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/BinLadenKilled.htm
Council on American-Islamic Relations The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presents itself as just another civil-rights group. According to its website, "CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding" -- certainly an image of moderation. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
That reputation has permitted CAIR to prosper since its founding in 1994 by Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad and Ibrahim Hooper, garnering sizeable donations, invitations to the White House, respectful media citations and a serious hearing by corporations.
In reality, CAIR is something quite different. For starters, it's on the wrong side in the war on terrorism; is the mouthpiece for Islamic activism in America; is funded in significant part by sources with connections to Arab Middle Eastern governments and has been identified by the FBI as part of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee. Omar M. Ahmad Omar M. Ahmad, Chairman Emeritus of the Board is described as a well- known activist and community leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. He said the following at the Islamic Conference in Freemont, California, in July of 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." (.pdf cache)
CAIR national spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told the media that "he [Ahmad] never made the statement, and we have sought a retraction [from the San Ramon Valley Herald]." Pressed several times to specify whether CAIR already has contacted the newspaper, he repeated the statement then finally said someone from CAIR's California affiliate made the contact.
When confronted with the fact that the newspaper's editors say CAIR has not contacted them and the reporter stands by the story, Hooper ended the call with, "If you are going to use distortions, I can't stop you; it's a free country. Have a nice day."
CAIR's leadership has an Islamic totalitarian mindset just like their funders in Saudi Arabia and their friends in the Hamas terrorist group. Joseph Farah said, "These extremists like to try to intimidate people, but they can't stand up like men and take it. Now they are running to the Justice Department for help. Fortunately for us, we don't have Shariah law in this country; we live free under the U.S. Constitution." Nihad Awad Nihad Awad, the Executive Director, co-founder and close friend of U. S. Congressman, Keith Ellison, was captured live on videotape at Barry University in Florida in 1994, saying, Im in support of the Hamas movement. He is also quoted as saying, "The United States should and will be ruled by Sharia Law." (email: nawad@cair.com)
During the administration of Bill Clinton in 1997, Awad was appointed to the Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security -- talk about irony.
That same year, according to the Weekly Standard, when Mike Wallace of CBS's "60 Minutes" asked Awad if he supports the "military undertakings of Hamas," Awad stood up for the terrorist group and told Wallace, "The United Nations Charter grants people who are under occupation [the right] to defend themselves against illegal occupation."
Awad, was the public relations director of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), which was a front group for Hamas, with a long history of extremism. He openly praised Iran's notorious Ayatollah Khomeini. He blasted the trial and conviction of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, against whom the evidence of guilt was overwhelming, as "a travesty of justice." At a 1994 Barry University forum, he candidly stated, "I am in support of the Hamas movement."
As one can infer from the items above, Awad and CAIR appear to act as voices of the "Wahhabi lobby" and as a front for supporters of Islamist terrorism. This is a photo of Awad speaking on April 20, 2002 in Washington, D.C. on a stage bearing the flag of Hezbollah.
In an August 2006 interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Awad suggested that suicide bombings are understandable attempts to address political injustices and do not have any inherent connection to radical Islam. Ibrahim Hooper Ibrahim Hooper is an American convert to Islam and the National Communications Director for CAIR. He was also an un-indicted co- conspirator in the trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). (email: ihooper@cair.com)
During the late 80's and early 90's Hooper, then known as "Doug Hooper," worked as a news producer at the the ABC affiliate, KSTP-TV, in Minneapolis. He told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future, but I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."
To this day, Hooper refuses to publicly denounce Osama bin Laden. He euphemistically ascribed the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa to a "misunderstanding of both sides." He dismisses the Sudanese Islamic government's enslavement and torture of millions of black Christians and animists during the past two decades -- to say nothing of its slaughter of some two million more -- as mere "inter-tribal hostage-taking." Other CAIR Fifth Columnists Ihsan Bagby, a prominent black American convert to Islam and CAIR Board Member says of Muslims: "Ultimately we can never be full citizens of this country. . . because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country."
Five current or former CAIR officers or members have been arrested, convicted, or deported on terrorism-related charges:
Randall Royer, CAIR's communications specialist and civil rights coordinator, was indicted on charges of conspiring to help Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to battle American troops in Afghanistan. He later pled guilty to lesser firearms-related charges and was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, was convicted in July 2004 along with his four brothers of having illegally shipped computers from their Dallas-area business, InfoCom Corporation, to Libya and Syria, two designated state sponsors of terrorism. In April of 2005, Elashi and two brothers were also convicted of knowingly doing business with Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader and Specially Designated Terrorist. He continues to face charges that he provided more than $12.4 million to Hamas while he was running the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), America's largest Islamic charity.
Bassem Khafagi, CAIR's community relations director, pleaded guilty in September 2003 to lying on his visa application and for passing bad checks for substantial amounts in early 2001, for which he was deported. Khafagi was also a founding member and president of the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), an organization under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for terrorism-related activities.
Rabih Haddad, a CAIR fundraiser, was arrested on terrorism-related charges and deported from the United States due to his subsequent work as executive director of the Global Relief Foundation, a charity he co-founded; in October 2002, GRF was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department for financing Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. According to a CAIR complaint, Homam Albaroudi, a member of CAIR's Michigan chapter and also a founding member and executive director of the IANA also founded the Free Rabih Haddad Committee.
Siraj Wahhaj, a CAIR advisory board member, was named in 1995 by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as a possible unindicted co-conspirator in connection with the plot to blow up New York City landmarks led by the blind sheikh, Omar Abdul Rahman.
A dozen other men have been convicted of crimes in what was known as the "Virginia Paintball" case. Among them is Randall Royer, a former CAIR employee sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to weapons and explosives charges. The case centered around a group of men urged by their spiritual leader Ali Timimi to fight against American troops in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Jihad Network The Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), gave CAIR $250,000 in August 1999. The IDB also manages funds (Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa) which finance suicide bombings against Israeli civilians by providing funds to the families of Palestinian "martyrs."
A good portion of CAIR's funding came from a group called the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Yet when President Bush closed the HLF in December 2001 because it was raising money to support Hamas terror attacks, CAIR called Bush's move "unjust" and "disturbing." CAIR even circulated a petition asking the government to unfreeze HLF assets -- charging that "there has been a shift from a war on terrorism to an attack on Islam."
In a federal court filing from December, 2007, federal prosecutors have described CAIR as "having conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists." The government also stated that "proof that the conspirators used deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists was introduced" in the Dallas Holy Land Foundation trial last year and the Chicago trial of the Hamas men in 2006. Federal prosecutors used their response to the brief to remind the court of the both organizations' questionable stand on the issue of terrorism itself. In a footnote, the government brief points out:
In describing themselves, Amici Brief at 1, CAIR and MAS omit reference to a shared background that limits their membership to those of a particular political bent, and undercuts their credibility. The Muslim Brotherhood is a generally covert international organization whose credo is "Allah is our goal; the Qur'an is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; Struggle is our way; and death in the path of Allah is our highest aspiration. See, e.g., Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism, 208-09 (Yale University Press 2006).
MAS was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. See, e.g., Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Sam Roe and Laurie Cohen, The new face of the Muslim Brotherhood -- the Muslim American Society, CHI. TRIB., Sep. 19, 2004, available at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0409190261sep19,1,7870150,print.story
Moreover, from its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists. See Government's Memorandum in Opposition to CAIR's Motion for Leave to File a Brief, etc., in United States v. Holy Land Foundation . . . et al, Cr. No. 3-04-cr-240-G (N.D. Tx. September 4, 2007), available at http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/479.pdf. Proof that the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists was introduced at both the Texas trial in 2007 and also at a Chicago trial the previous year. United States v. Ashqar, et. al., No. 03-978 (N.D. Il. 2006).
In Decline Membership in the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has declined more than 90 percent since the 2001 terrorist attacks, Audrey Hudson will report in Tuesday's editions of The Washington Times.
According to tax documents obtained by The Washington Times, the number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, a loss of membership that caused the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues to drop from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35.
The organization instead is relying on about two dozen individual donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR's budget, which reached nearly $3 million last year.
I have some problems with the NAACP, but, in no way is CAIR similar to the NAACP. FBI Gets Muslim Mafia "Smoking-Gun" Documents Art Moore is reporting that 12,000 pages on Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) terror ties turned over in reply to subpoena.
Responding to a federal subpoena served by the FBI, lawyers for a former Air Force special agent who conducted a private undercover probe of the CAIR have turned over thousands of pages of internal documents that allegedly confirm the D.C.-based Muslim group's role as a front for terrorist groups that seek Islam's domination over the U.S.
FBI agents entered the capital law offices of Cozen O'Connor in the nation's capital Nov. 24 with a warrant to obtain 12,000 pages of documents gathered by P. David Gaubatz and his son Chris in a daring six-month undercover penetration of CAIR. The younger Gaubatz served as an unpaid intern for the group that was designated an unindicted terrorist co- conspirator in the trial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, the largest terrorist- finance case in U.S. history. Chris Gaubatz says he was able to collect the documents after CAIR leaders asked interns to shred them.
The FBI's move suggests the federal government wants to see the papers as part of its interest in CAIR, its founders and their Hamas terrorist links.
Among the documents, which are cited in "Muslim Mafia" by WND Books, is evidence CAIR works behind the scenes to mislead and deceive the FBI on behalf of terrorism suspects and has cultivated Muslim moles inside law enforcement who have tipped off FBI terror targets.
Continue reading here . . . CAIR Is Hamas WorldNetDaily is reporting that a federal judge has determined that the Justice Department provided "ample evidence" to designate the most prominent Muslim group in America as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator.
According to a federal court ruling unsealed Friday, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been involved in "a conspiracy to support Hamas," a federally designated terrorist group that has murdered at least 17 Americans and injured more than 100 U.S. citizens.
The 20-page order, signed by U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis, cites "ample evidence" that CAIR participated in a "criminal conspiracy" led by the Holy Land Foundation, Hamass main fundraising arm in the U.S. As a result, the judge refused CAIRs request to strike its name from documents listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.
"The four pieces of evidence the government relies on do create at least a prima facie case as to CAIRs involvement in a conspiracy to support Hamas," Solis wrote in his July 2009 ruling.
The evidence includes documents introduced by the government showing CAIR and its founding chairman Omar Ahmad have operated as key members of Hamas U.S. wing, known as the "Palestine Committee." In addition, FBI wiretaps and agent testimony have placed both Ahmad and CAIRs acting executive director -- Nihad Awad -- at a secret meeting last decade with Hamas leaders in Philadelphia. Meeting in a hotel room, participants hatched a scheme to disguise payments to Hamas suicide bombers and their families as charity.
"The attendees agreed not to mention the word Hamas, but to refer to Hamas as 'Samah,' which is Hamas spelled backwards," Solis said. "The Philadelphia conference essentially laid out the path that the Palestine Committee would take to accomplish its goal of supporting Hamas in the future."
During the meeting -- that was organized and led by CAIR founder Ahmad -- the Hamas operatives agreed to form CAIR as an outwardly benign front group skilled in media manipulation. "They did not want to be viewed as being aligned with terrorist groups," he said.
The judge did not dispute "press accounts and blog entries" that "CAIR is a criminal organization that supports terrorism," according to the ruling.
Continue reading here . . . CAIR Pushes For Shari'a Law In Indiana Pamela Geller says there is no more radical, extreme system of governance than Islamic law (examples of sharia -- warning, graphic images). Indiana is proposing a bill that would ban sharia. She hopes that they vet the language of the bill with legal experts on sharia (ie David Yerushalmi), so that they don't lose on a technicality. The Oklahoma ban was brilliant but poorly worded and had 70% of voters approving of it -- it is clear that American people understand the Islamic threat to our constitutional republic.
Check out the media's Muslim propaganda of a terror-supporting Hamas proxy as a "leading Muslim advocacy group" .... so is al Qaeda, for that matter.
INDIANAPOLIS -- A leading Muslim advocacy group is calling on Indiana legislators to reject a proposal a bill that would deny recognition of the Islamic legal system Sharia in the state.
The Tribune-Star of Terre Haute reports that Republican state Rep. Bruce Borders plans to introduce a bill saying the state "does not recognize Sharia law."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Tuesday that it has written all members of the Indiana General Assembly, urging them not to consider such a bill.
The group says the proposal is a "fear-mongering" attack on Islam and "un-American to its core." It says Sharia is a guide to Islamic religious practice and is similar to those of other religious traditions.
Busted! CAIR Removes Poster Fox News is reporting that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it will remove a poster from the group's website promoting an upcoming conference that encourages people not to talk to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The poster, which appeared on the website of CAIRs California chapter, features a sinister- looking FBI agent with the headlines "Build a Wall of Resistance" and "Dont Talk to the FBI." The poster was designed in the late 1970s or early 1980s and has been reproduced by various groups and activists since then in response to alleged harassment by the FBI and to protest grand jury subpoenas.
"I think its subject to misinterpretation," spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told Fox News Radio when speaking about the poster. "We decided out of extreme caution to take it down."
The poster was promoting a conference called "FBI Raids and Grand Jury Subpoenas: Know Your Rights and Defend Our Communities." The keynote speaker is Hatem Abudayyeh, identified by CAIR as an activist and Palestinian community leader whose home was allegedly raided by federal agents in September. The conference is scheduled for Feb. 9 at the East Side Cultural Center in Oakland.
Hooper conceded the poster "crosses the line," but refused to renounce the artwork and blamed critics for fomenting what he called a manufactured controversy.
"The entire American-Muslim community is under the microscope right now with a cottage industry of Muslim bashers," he said. "Were used to this kind of attack by the Islamophobic hate machine and in this case there is some justification in terms of the possibility of misinterpretation of this poster." FBI Chief Confirms Ties Cut With U.S. Muslim Group WorldNetDaily is reporting the agency has banned outreach to the Council on Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) due to terrorist links.
In stunning testimony on Capitol Hill, the head of the FBI explained his agency has cut off ties to the most influential Muslim organization in America due to concerns over its leaders' association with terrorism.
Since the Justice Department linked the Washington-based CAIR to a 2008 terror-finance case, the FBI has refused to work directly with the group's national office or any of its 30- plus chapters across the country.
Wednesday's hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee marked the first time FBI Director Robert Mueller has narrowed down the cause of concern to CAIR's "national leadership."
"We have no formal relationship with CAIR because of concerns with regard to the national leadership," Mueller testified.
CAIR's current executive director is Nihad Awad.
Wiretap evidence from the Holy Land Foundation terror-finance case put Awad at a Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders that was secretly recorded by the FBI. Participants hatched a plot to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charity. Wiretaps also record them stating the need to deceive Americans about their true aims.
Continue reading here . . .
Related: Stunning! White House Publicly Applauds Hamas-Linked CAIR For Its Work With MTV
Related: Missouri GOP lawmaker calls Sharia a "disease" like Polio, predictable CAIR outrage ensues Hooper Demonstrates Al-Taqiyya CAIR Chief Ibrahim Hooper speaking on Iranian State TV bashes the U.S. for "rising Islamophobia" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpg0OngpAlA&feature=player_embedded
Experts at al-Taqiyya http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/CAIR.htm
Items are archived in order of discovery . . . Passengers Prevent "Man-Caused Disaster" As Obama kicks back in Hawaii, brother Abdul Farouk Abdul-Mutallab (a/k/a Umar Farouk Abdul Mudallad), a 23 year-old Nigerian national, who is reportedly an engineering student at University College in London, UK, is the primary suspect in the attempt to detonate an explosive, a mix of powder and liquid, aboard Delta-Northwest Flight 253 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport just before noon on Christmas Day.
The Nigerian Muslim said he was acting as an agent for al Qaeda, and tried to blow up the Northwest Airlines plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded like firecrackers rushed to subdue him, passengers and federal officials said. The device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used," a federal situational awareness bulletin stated.
A senior U.S. counter-terror official said Abdul-Mutallab attempted to blow up the plane but the explosive device failed, burning his legs. Passengers vigorously subdued the man and may have prevented him from detonating the explosives, the officials said.
Law enforcement officials stated that federal officials are "extremely interested" in how the suspect was able to circumvent security and bring the explosive device aboard the aircraft. Although security in Nigeria and at European airports is less restrictive [than inside the U.S], "this is most definitely something that should have attracted the attention of airport security, without any doubt whatsoever." According to this source, federal authorities are looking at other possible scenarios on how the device made it aboard, and whether any of its components might have already been aboard the connecting flight.
An in-flight emergency was declared when a fire indicator light when on in the cockpit, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The pilot asked for airport rescue and firefighting services, and for law enforcement to meet the flight at gate, the TSA said.
Fox News reports that Barack Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, is keeping up to date on what's described as a terror attempt on board a Northwest Airlines plane that was about to land in Detroit.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton released a statement following the incident Friday, saying Obama, "...was notified of the incident this morning between 9:00 and 9:30 Hawaii time by the President's military aide. Obama subsequently convened a secure conference call with John Brennan, his Homeland Security and Counter-terrorism Adviser, and Denis McDonough, NSS Chief of Staff.
"He asked to arrange a subsequent secure call and in that call instructed that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel. The President is actively monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates. There is currently no change to his schedule."
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that Secretary Janet Napolitano is monitoring the situation "closely."
A White House official said the incident was an attempted act of terrorism -- naturally, not Janet Napolitano, who does not use the word "terrorism," preferring to refer to such events as "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that Napolitano wants to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur -- she really said that!
And, of course, Obama, had his usual jihad-related comment -- "I'm not commenting on that." Connect The Dots The Hill blog reports Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said that the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit should "connect the dots" for the Obama administration.
Hoekstra, on Fox News on Saturday, said his biggest concern is that the intelligence community seems to have missed "red flags" about the suspect's ties to al Qaeda and Yemen that had been known to U.S. officials for the past two years.
"The Fort Hood shooter had ties to Yemen. Are we starting to see a pattern here? Has the al Qaeda franchise made it part of their strategic plans to attack the United States however it can?"
"Are we seeing a breakdown in our intelligence community so that when we see these red flags we aren't recognizing them? That's something that's going to have to be investigated in our committees," he said.
When asked what the specific red flags were, Hoekstra said he didn't know yet. But he said the White House has "been totally unwilling" to share information with lawmakers about red flags that could have prevented terrorist acts. For example, Hoekstra said officials knew about emails sent from Army Major Nidal Hasan before he opened fire at Fort Hood.
"Congress needs to push to get access to this information to answer these questions," he said. "Al Qaeda doesn't take a holiday and neither should we." Why Was Abdulmutallab Flying? John at Powerline blog says we now know that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (spellings vary; all are phonetically derived from the Arabic) has been on a U.S. government list of persons with known or suspected ties to terrorist organizations for at least the past two years. This apparently has led the oh-so-cerebral Obama administration to engage in a bit of soul- searching:
Barack Obama's aides are pondering how the government is using terror watch lists after the botched airliner attack in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Obama's national security and policy advisers are asking questions such as: How is the intelligence community integrating itself? Did the assumptions used to make terror watch list choices lead to the correct decisions? Were the right criteria used to reach conclusions?
Such internal questions among Obama's team marked the informal start to what would likely become a formal executive branch inquiry into an attack that failed -- not because of the intelligence community but because, it appears, the suspect's material failed to ignite.
Pardon me if I'm being overly cynical here, but we know the Obama administration has backed off on any number of the Bush administration's anti-terror policies on the ground that they were too draconian. In pursuit of Obama's policy of "engagement" with those who hate us, has the administration loosened no-fly restrictions? Has it allowed people like Abdulmutallab to take international flights to the U.S. on the ground they are merely misunderstood ambassadors for a peaceful movement? Is the administration's soon to be embarked upon review of how the "intelligence community" is "integrating itself" the precursor to a massive transfer of blame from Obama's radical staffers to intelligence professionals?
Hey, at this point it's just a hunch. Stay tuned. Richy Rich Goes All Jihad Despite all the evidence to the contrary, one of the ObamaMedia's favorite memes is that poverty is driving jihad. Well here's another Muslim "Soldier of Allah," and this one comes from privilege with a capital "P."
With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain's leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet -- able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world.
Abdul's home in London
Instead, the son of one of Nigeria's most important figures opted to make his impact in a very different way -- by detonating 80 grams of explosives sewn into his underpants, and trying to destroy a passenger jet as it came in to land at Detroit Airport on Christmas Day.
With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain's leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet -- able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world.
Instead, the son of one of Nigeria's most important figures opted to make his impact in a very different way -- by detonating 80 grams of explosives sewn into his underpants, and trying to destroy a passenger jet as it came in to land at Detroit Airport on Christmas Day.
Abdulmutallab's father, Umaru, is the former economics minister of Nigeria. He retired earlier this month as the chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria but is still on the boards of several of Nigeria's biggest firms, including Jaiz International, a holding company for the Islamic Bank. The 70-year-old, who was also educated in London, holds the Commander of the Order of the Niger as well as the Italian Order of Merit.
Dr Mutallab said he was planning to meet with police in Nigeria last night after realizing his son had joined the notorious roster of al-Qa'ida terrorists, and is said to have warned the US authorities about his son's extreme views six months ago.
Complete account of the incident here . . .
Another Islamist terrorist attack and Obama is nowhere to be seen -- has no comment. Obama's Response To Terror Attack
The White House Web site has not been updated since Thursday, Christmas Eve.
Following the refusal of Barack Obama to personally address the Christmas Day terror attack on Northwest Airlines flight 253, the Obama administration has not posted one word about the attack at WhiteHouse.gov. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
It's like Obama can't be bothered. And really, he can't. Today, he played. The man has his priorities. He went to the gym, played basketball, had a picnic at the beach as part of his $4000 per day Hawaii vacation. In the evening, the Obamas had dinner at Alan Wong's restaurant on King Street, causing quite a stir on the Pali Highway. Some motorists reported they just shut off their engines while roads were closed along the way as Obama, in his larger than normal motorcade, made his way from Kailua to town.
The White House leaked to reporters this evening that Obama will make some remarks on the terror attack, oh, in a couple of days -- "You will see him out there in the course of the next couple of days," the official said, adding that Obama will address the attempted attack on an airliner as it landed in Detroit on Christmas day.
Well, that's mighty presidential of him.
Obama was celebrated by the media for his use of the Internet during his presidential campaign. Obama engaged his supporters with a steady stream of e-mail updates and video messages from his campaign -- and still do. He promised that his supporters would be the first to know his pick for vice president, via text message and e-mail.
But when faced with a terror attack that came within a moment of murdering 289 innocents, Obama's Web savviness is gone.
Three days of silence (now four) by Obama when our nation at war is attacked on the home front. This is a failure of leadership by a man who thinks he is too cool to be president. Reality Check Chalk up another outright failure for the Obama administration.
According to Brian Ross at ABC News in a report filed yesterday, the unsuccessful terrorist attack designed to bring down a Northwest Airlines Airbus 330 over Detroit, Michigan was planned and launched by Al Qaeda leaders in Yemen. Five days before the plan failed on Christmas Morning, Barack Obamas Justice Department approved the transfer and actually transferred a dozen terrorist detainees from the U.S. detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay -- according to a December 20 Bloomberg report, half of the 12 transferred terrorists went to Afghanistan and Somaliland, while the other half . . . you guessed it . . . went home to Yemen.
Even better, according to Politico, the administration was hoping to send 80 more Yemeni terrorist detainees back home to Yemen from Guantanamo Bay, the secure facility specifically designed to house such creatures. This, of course, will complicate things to say the least. From the Politico piece:
Since Yemenis represent almost half of the roughly 200 remaining prisoners at Gitmo, new hurdles to their resettlement could spell more trouble for President Barack Obamas plan to close the island prison while transferring a limited number of detainees to a prison in the U.S. Six Yemeni nationals were returned home earlier this month, and officials hoped more transfers would follow.
The relatively weak central government has been working, with U.S. military and diplomatic support, to counter two separate insurgencies, and the nation, Osama Bin Ladens ancestral home, has become a haven for some members of Al Qaeda. That instability has contributed to concerns within the Obama administration and from its domestic critics about returning prisoners there for repatriation.
The Nigerian man charged with the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, reportedly spent time in Yemen after graduating from a London university in 2008. According to ABC News, Abdulmutallab has told authorities that, while in Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives crafted the explosive device which was sewn into Abdulmutallabs underwear.
We know the recidivism rate among former inmates at Gitmo. We know that approximately one in every seven detainees released return to the battlefield to fight, hurt and kill Americans. We know this, and yet this administration still plans to carry out civilian show trials for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others in Lower Manhattan, and still aims to shutter the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay in favor of a retrofitted federal prison in Illinois -- a plan that would pose an increased security risk according to a senior Department of Defense official.
Good stuff -- continue reading here . . . Second Nigerian Arrested The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that a second Nigerian man has been arrested on a Northwest Airlines jet heading towards Detroit, just 48 hours after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up the same flight -- a day earlier.
Sunday's flight -- Northwest Airlines 253 -- was exactly the same route that Abdulmutallab targeted on Christmas Day -- and you know al-Qaeda likes to do things in bunches.
The pilot alerted the authorities and the plane made an emergency landing and was met by police on its arrival in Detroit. Police took the passenger, described as "verbally disruptive," into custody for questioning.
The man, who is in his 30s, reportedly locked himself in a toilet for more than an hour as the plane flew over the US. Before locking himself in to the toilet the man had already been up and down to the same cubicle several times. Cabin crew became increasingly suspicious, broke the door down and dragged him out. He is then said to have become irate and verbally aggressive. He was subdued and the pilot contacted the airport to say there was an emergency on board. Emergency vehicles gathered on the runway to meet the plane.
The passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane and the man was formally arrested. Officials said no explosive device had been found on the suspect, who had boarded the flight with no luggage.
A senior US official told Fox News that the man arrested on Sunday was simply a "sick passenger." Another official told CNN the incident appeared to be "non-serious" and that the disruptive passenger, "does not appear to be a threat." The FBI gave the all-clear within hours of the latest alert. -- the usual stuff.
Like Abdulmutallab, the passenger had flown from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then picked up Flight 253 to Detroit. Abdulmutallab, who had studied engineering in London until last year, disappeared into a toilet for a long period of time before trying to set off his device.
The flight, which had 257 passengers and 12 crew on board, landed safely in Detroit at 12.35pm local time. The plane was removed to a secure area of the airport for additional searches by bomb experts. "More Like Me" The Sun (UK) reports failed plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West. The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.
The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.
They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of many ready to attack planes and kill tens of thousands. We know there are four or five radicalized British Muslim cells in the Yemen." -- and there's a couple or three American cells.
Yemen has become a principal al Qaeda training ground and the accused suicide bomber told the FBI he was trained for more than a month in Yemen, given 80 grams of a high explosive cleverly sewn into his underpants, undetected by standard security screening.
"They know that this is a weakness and an Achilles' heel in our airport security system," said ABC News consultant and former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke.
Law enforcement authorities say tragedy was averted only because the bomb's detonator did not work. Was It Really A "Failed" Attack? Debbie Schussel suggests people should stop calling Islamic Terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallabs attack on Northwest Flight 253 a "failed attack," or an "unsuccessful attack."
Abdulmutallab may not have taken any lives, but Al-Qaeda (which has come forward to claim credit) and Abdulmutallab seem to have been pretty successful to me. I think this picture shows just how successful.
Al-Qaedas "Failed," "Unsuccessful" Attack Was Pretty Damned Successful
Instead of profiling people -- especially Muslim and Arab people -- Americans all over the country missed their flights, missed out on cruises, and had to wait in line for hours, arriving at the airport hours ahead of flights and throwing out lip gloss, toothpaste, and orange juice.
So was it really a "failed" attack? Not really. It was actually pretty damn successful. Al-Qaeda Press Release The "Al Falojah" terrorist forum just posted a press release from "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," (Yemen and Saudi Arabia), taking responsibility for the terrorist attempt on the Northwest flight to Detroit.
Beginning of the translation by FReeper J Veritas:
The Operation by Brother Moujahed Omar Al Farouq Al Nigiree As A Retaliation Against the American Aggression Against Yemen
By the grace of Allah the brother and Moujahed hero Omar Al Farouq performed a quality act on the board of an American plane, taking off from the city of the Dutch city of Amsterdam to American city of Detroit, during the celebrations of "Christmas" holidays on Friday, December 25, 2009. He overcame all their advanced technological devices and security barriers installed in world airports and he did it with courage, bravery, and no fear of death, relying on Allah, destroying the great myth of U.S. and international intelligence, showing its fragility, forcing its nose in the dirt, making what they spent in the development of security techniques grief to them.
The unity of faith and Islamic brotherhood prompted this young rich man from Nigerian roots, brother Moujahedd Omar Al Farouq to retaliate directly against the oppressive American aggression against the Arabian Peninsula, and by the grace of Allah through direct coordination with the moujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula after the brutal bombing using cluster bombs and cruise missiles launched from U.S. ships territories which occupy the Gulf of Aden against the proud Yemeni tribes in Abeen, Arhabm and finally in Shibuwa, and killing dozens of Muslim women and children and where entire families were killed, and these operations were a Yemeni-US-Saudi coordination as well as coordination with a number of neighboring countries.
The brothers Moujahideen in the manufacturing department were able to manufacture by the grace of Allah an explosive device with advanced technology that has been tested and proven effective and has been able to overcome detectors. Borther Umar was able to reach his target by the grace of Allah, but by Allah will technical error prevented a full explosion but we will continue the way Allah willing until we get what we want, and religion is all for Allah.
We call on every Muslim who are zealots for their religion and dogma to remove the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula, by killing all the crusader working in the embassies and other places, and declare it a total war against each crusader on the island of Muhammad in the land, sea and air.
We call on every soldier working in the crusader armies and puppet governments to repent to Allah and follow the example of the hero Moujahid brother Nidal Hassan, and kill with all available tools every crusader to bring victory to religion of Allah and to keep his word in the land.
Therefore, we say to the American people that because you support your leaders and are standing behind them to kill our women and children then be ready for the worst we came to slaughter you and we prepared for you men love death as you love life, and Allah willing we will bring what you have not seen before, just as you kill you will be killed but tomorrow is very near.
Oh Allah strengthen brother Moujahed Omar Al Farouq to be on the side of the truth, and give him serenity and patience and persistence many folds of the suffering that fell upon him , Oh Allah take his worry and agony, and give him an relief soon. Oh Allah free him and the other Muslim prisoners from East to West, Oh Allah give victory to your moujahideen in every place and defeat the people of polytheism, and a prayer to thank Allah the lord of the universe.
Al Qaeda in The Arabian Peninsula
Saturday 9 Mouhrarem 1431 Hijra (Saturday December 26 2009)
End of the Translation Gitmo Grads Behind Crotch Bomber Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, ABC News is reporting, quoting American officials and citing Department of Defense documents.
American officials agreed to send the two terrorists to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials, ABC News reported.
Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari (on right), were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.
Read more at abcnews.go.com
According to Politico, Obama is planning to send 80 more Yemeni terrorist detainees back home to Yemen from Guantanamo Bay -- good plan Barry, just what Yemen needs, 80 more terrorists -- now go take some sun, where you can do limited damage -- besides, you're beginning to look a little pale -- and we can't have that. "Isolated Extremist" Obama's knee-jerk reaction to al Qaeda's attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was to minimize the threat -- again. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that the attempted bombing was not connected to a larger terrorist plot. Business as usual, nothing to see here, move along, happy holidays.
Not quite.
Obama's reference to the "alleged" Crotch Bomber as an "isolated extremist," and Napolitano saying there was "no indication" that the attack was "part of anything larger," seems to be Obama's default setting when faced with terrorism. He said as much about the Nov. 5 Fort Hood massacre, even though the FBI had previously monitored communications between shooter Nidal Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical imam and al Qaeda commander born in New Mexico and believed to be in Yemen.
The Crotch Bomber also reportedly is one of al-Awlaki's followers and said he was one of many bombers trained by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who will seek to attack the United States. Other evidence pointing to a larger plot includes a report that the Crotch Bomber had an accomplice in Amsterdam, the sophistication of the bomb design, and al Qaeda's admission that it was behind the attempt. Note also that the Crotch Bomber was placed on a terrorist watch list after his father reported to U.S. authorities in Nigeria that his son had fallen in with a group of dangerous radicals.
Somebody should tell Obama that the Crotch Bomber has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West. The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network of isolated extremists in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.
The impulse to deny that attacks such as the Crotch-Bomber's jihad and Fort Hood massacre are part of larger plots displays a shocking ignorance of the nature of 21st- century globally networked terrorism. Terrorists work through highly dispersed, decentralized cell structures that are designed to be difficult to track. Investigators probably won't find an operations order signed by Osama bin Laden directing an attack on Flight 253, but it is easy to connect the dots. Minimizing the threat won't make it go away. As recent history has shown, it may embolden the terrorists to keep trying.
So Obama pleaded, "let's not jump to any conclusions" -- lied, "the system worked" -- and deflected, "lax airport procedures are based on those approved by the previous administration" -- it's Bush's fault -- what a weasel.
And yes, Janet, there is terror, there are terrorists, they are waging war on all things not Islam, and they mean to murder as many Americans as they can. Yup! It's Al-Qaeda It only took a week for the Obamamessiah to come to the conclusion most thinking Americans reached almost immediately.
Yesterday, between the movies and the shaved ice, Barack Obama said it appeared the man suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas was a member of al Qaeda and had been trained and equipped by the Islamic militant network, and ordered into air travel screening procedures and a "terrorist watch list system."
He called for an immediate study of what he termed "human and systemic failures," and repeated his warning that anyone involved in the Christmas Day attack would be held accountable -- excepting only himself from repercussions.
Appearing on the defensive, Obama used much of his address to outline his administration's actions to keep the country safe, including withdrawing troops from Iraq, boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and strengthening ties with Yemen, where the suspect spent time before the attack.
"I've directed my counterterrorism and homeland security advisor at the White House, John Brennan, to lead these reviews going forward and to present the final results and recommendations to me in the days to come," Obama said. Report To Shock Americans Mark Hemingway says that national security adviser James Jones tells USA Today that a report to be released Thursday on the Christmas Day terrorist attack will "shock" the American people:
White House national security adviser James Jones says Americans will feel "a certain shock" when they read an account being released Thursday of the missed clues that could have prevented the alleged Christmas Day bomber from ever boarding the plane.
Obama "is legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behavior that were available, were not acted on," Jones said in an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY.
"That's two strikes," Obama's top White House aide on defense and foreign policy issues said, referring to the foiled bombing of the Detroit-bound airliner and the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in November. In that case, too, officials failed to act when red flags were raised about an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan. He has been charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32.
Jones said Obama "certainly doesn't want that third strike, and neither does anybody else."
It's hard to tell whether if the White House is trying to be forthright or manage expectations somehow with this announcement. Considering we already know that the TSA, CIA, DNI, State Department, and White House all appear to have had significant roles in what Obama pronounced a "catastrophic" national security failure, it's hard to tell how much more shocking information about the incident there is to reveal. But if there is even more damning information to come out, it will not reflect well on the White House and our already tarnished national security apparatus -- to put it mildly
Wooooa Nellie! Someone needs to remind national security adviser James Jones that the Crotch-Bomber was at least the third strike -- maybe the forty-third -- it's been going on for years.
Jones is conveniently forgetting the 23-year old Army recruiter who was murdered by a Muslim fanatic outside an army recruiting station in Arkansas in June. A fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits. The jihadist, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad was targeting U.S. soldiers, "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past," and was angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, Obama will use this "crisis" as cover for the Democrat's midnight passage of the hated ObamaCare. 100 Hours
Obama finally addresses the Christmas Day terror incident (01:17)
The ad shows Obama playing golf at key points during the 100 hours, and that he waited 97 hours to make any public statement about the Crotch-Bomber incident.
In fact, within three hours of making that statement, he was back on the links as if nothing ever happened. What Happened At The Airport Associated Content News is reporting that the Crotch Bomber was babysat by the Customs and Border Protection Police (CBP).
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was babysat by CBP police and whisked away immediately to the hospital at the University of Michigan Medical Center's burn unit after his terror attempt. These were the first, official (mis)judgments of the government's response (if you can call it that) to the Crotch Bomber's terror attack, in what has now been revealed to be a continuous series of failures.
In an exclusive interview with the AP -- using, however, anonymous law enforcement sources -- US officials detailed the specifics of the Crotch Bomber's arrest at Detroit Metro Airport.
Abdulmutallab was "badly burned and bleeding" and given to the CBP after he was stripped bare and restrained by the crew and passengers of the flight. However, what should really and instantly startle any reader who's serious about homeland security is that the first action these cops undertook after receiving Abdulmutallab was to -- I kid you not, though at this point I may well wish I was -- bring him to a hospital courtesy of an ambulance crew. The cops -- clearly not equipped to handle a proper response to a terror attempt since they're not the military -- were more concerned with his well-being than with...oh, I don't know...maybe handing him over to the military for interrogation to make sure every bit of intelligence is extracted from him!!
Once at the hospital, not only is Mr. Wannabe-terrorist given an actual guard consisting of CBP officers, but he's also spilling, apparently, all kinds of information concerning his terror attempt, yet no qualified interrogator/intel-gatherer is there because it's the cops, and they've decided to take him to the hospital instead! Wonderful...just wonderful! Another very important note of fact here is that even if qualified officials were there, because this whole "response" was maltreated as a domestic law enforcement matter, there would actually be legal problems for the prosecutor who would theoretically want to bring charges against Abdulmutallab. Because what Abdulmutallab spilled was information obtained while getting medical treatment, it could actually invalidate the admissibility of the information...at least according to some judges.
Finally, at about 2:15 PM, the Johnny-come-latelys at the FBI's Detroit bureau come to the hospital; waiting another hour or so (you know, it's never polite to interrupt terrorists with questioning when they're getting their medical treatment, darn it!!) until 3:30 PM, they then begin to ask Abdulmutallab some questions.
This "interview" lasted for about 50 minutes, and it's noteworthy to highlight that during this period, the FBI agents failed to give him his already undue Miranda rights. Good move, you opine? Terrorists don't deserve said Miranda rights after all, right? In this case, however, failing to read Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights would actually be counterproductive because as a criminal suspect in a law enforcement case, he's technically entitled to them. The overall point is that the 50 minutes of questioning can be basically rendered totally useless as there's a real jeopardy now that some judge would rule his statements inadmissible due to failure to have his Miranda warning. All this complicated drama could've been avoided, however, if the Obama Administration had just continued the Bush policy of treating terrorists like enemy combatants and recognizing that this is war, doggone it!
Confirming this system of thought, FBI bosses in Washington decided to withdraw this first team of FBI agents and send in a -- I kid you not -- so-called "clean team" to essentially try to erase the errancy of the first team's failure to provide Abdulmutallab with Miranda rights. Before that, though, Abdulmutallab was again, unduly, treated with kid gloves by the first team who actually ended their interview with him early so he could rest and have the effects of medication wear off! Again, what's with all this coddling of a terrorist who just tried to mass-murder hundreds of people?!
Despite the machinations of the FBI, all was for naught as when the second FBI team finally told Abdulmutallab about the Miranda rights, he naturally took them and stopped chatting and spilling information.
The moral of the story is that Abdulmutallab should never have been incorrectly treated as though he was a mere criminal suspect. He should've been handed over to the military immediately and interrogated, not treated like a little baby-waby who needed his little burns in his groin area tended to! Under Obama, terrorists are treated with kid gloves like this sorry shame of an episode proves, all because Obama refused to follow the successful, Bush standard of treating terrorists like enemy combatants. Remember when, under Bush, terrorists actually were scared, terror plots were actually foiled, and terrorists knew they would be treated as enemy combatants? I sure miss those days of a Republican president who was morally clear in the War on Terror. Terrorism? War? In Obama's delayed speech yesterday, I heard The Emasculated One use the "T" word. I heard Obama utter the word "terrorism." I heard Obama say, "we are at war?" Wow!
Terrorists have been attacking us for years, but, NOW, that terrorism has become a direct threat to Obama -- PERSONALLY -- it's terrorism -- it's war.
Its also bovine excrement.
If we are at war, then puzzle me this? Why is the Crotch-Bomber heading to court today with all the rights of an American citizen, and represented by a taxpayer-paid attorney?
The word is that the Crotch-Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, will be offered a plea deal. The prosecutor said her goal was to show the world that Abdulmutallab will get a fair trial -- she really said that.
We are so screwed. AlMaghrib Institute In August of 2008, Abdulmutallab, an Islamist student made his way from London to Houston to attend a two-week program put on by the AlMaghrib Institute. This was his third course with the Institute, including two in London. On Christmas Day 2009, the very same student, Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to blow up a transatlantic flight with a suicide bomb he had sewn into his underpants.
AlMaghrib's Houston-based director of the 2008 program and national Dean of Academic Affairs, Yasir Qadhi, expressed immediate concern for the aspiring terrorist's feelings of alienation and hatred of the West.
The AlMaghrib program offered "mainstream Islamic stuff," Qadhi told CNN in an interview that did not challenge the claim.
"At some level," he added, "we did not convince him of the validity of our views, and that is cause for regret."
An examination of the views expressed by Qadhi and others at AlMaghrib, however, shows that they are far from moderate and the institute exhorts followers to carry out jihad and not integrate with the West. Such views are exposed to a wide audience, as the CNN report noted that 30,000 students have attended AlMaghrib courses throughout the English- speaking world.
On one hand, Qadhi told CNN that he and AlMaghrib are "trying to carve out a Western Muslim identity among conservative Muslims -- for Muslims to integrate into Western society but maintain their Islamic identity." Yet such statements don't match the rhetoric heard on audio and video collected by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
The videos show Qadhi's hatred of non-Muslims, contempt for Western society, and glorification of jihad. Obama's Isolated Extremist -- Updated An "isolated extremist" -- that's how Barack Obama described the Crotch Bomber -- an "isolated extremist."
Janet Napolitano said there was "no indication" that the attack was "part of anything larger."
This seems to be Obama's default setting when faced with terrorism. He said as much about the Nov. 5 Fort Hood massacre.
The Crotch Bomber turns out to be one of al-Awlaki's followers and was just one of many bombers trained by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who, he says, will seek to attack the United States. Other evidence pointing to a larger plot includes a report that the Crotch Bomber had an accomplice in Amsterdam, the sophistication of the bomb design, and al Qaeda's admission that it was behind the attempt.
And, now, the AP is reporting that Osama bin Laden has surfaced again in a new audio tape, and claims responsibility for the failed bombing attempt of Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
Al Jazeera aired the tape on Sunday, in which a voice reported to be Osama bin Laden states: "The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of September 11," he said.
But, now that Osama bin Laden, himself, is claiming credit for Abdulmutallab's attack, Obama -- not to be confused with Osama -- will have to admit what the rest of us have know all along -- the Crotch Bomber incident was not an "isolated" anything -- it was just one more, of what will become an endless string of these jihad events.
Related: Associated Content News is reporting that the Crotch Bomber was babysat by the Customs and Border Protection Police (CBP) before being whisked away to the hospital for treatment after his bombing attempt.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was babysat by CBP police and whisked away immediately to the hospital at the University of Michigan Medical Center's burn unit after his terror attempt. These were the first, official (mis)judgments of the government's response to the terror attack, in what has now been revealed to have been a continuous series of blunders and failures.
You really need to read this AP exclusive interview here . . .
Update: 1/25/10 -- Flopping Aces reports that when the Crotch Bomber was taken into custody after his plot to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 over Detroit, he talked to local FBI agents, not terrorism experts, for only 50 minutes.
On Sunday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended the decision to read so- called Crotch Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, his Miranda rights after 50 minutes of interrogation, saying that "FBI interrogators believe they got valuable intelligence and were able to get all that they could out of him."
"That decision was made by the Justice Department -- that's Obama's guy, Eric Holder -- and the FBI by experienced FBI interrogators, Gibbs said on "Fox News Sunday." "But make no mistake Abdulmutallab was interrogated and valuable information was gotten by those experienced interrogators."
After he was read his rights, Abdulmutallab stopped cooperating with investigators. Holder Says He Made Crotch Bomber Decision 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America comment on Attorney General Eric Holder saying he made the decision to charge the Crotch Bomber terror suspect in the civilian system with no objection from all the other relevant departments of the government. In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the attorney general says that the FBI told its partners in the intelligence community on Christmas Day and again the next day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally.
Mr. Holder apparently misunderstands his oath of office:
"I (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
Nowhere within those words or our Constitution are the enemies of the United States afforded the rights of American citizens. It is reckless to unilaterally provide a fair fight to those waging war against our troops abroad and civilians here at home.
Holder should resign and Obama should replace him with someone with no interest in defending the enemys "rights."
In an interview with 60 Minutes last spring, Obama discussed the handling of captured terrorists and challenged those who claimed the "American system of justice was not up to the task of dealing with these terrorists." Obama said: "I fundamentally disagree with that. Now -- do these folks deserve Miranda rights? Do they deserve to be treated like a shoplifter -- down the block? Of course not."
I don't believe Holder made that decision. Holder, the Attorney General, and Gates, the Secretary of Defense are peers -- equals. Both report to Barack Obama. Gates can't order Holder to do anything. Holder can't order Gates to do anything.
This decision was made by Obama. Senator Kit Bond Questions Obama's Motivation February 4, 2010
The Honorable Barack H. Obama President of the United States White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
During my tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee, I have worked with the Executive Branch to stem the disclosure of sensitive information. In 2006, for example, I introduced legislation that would aid the Executive Branch in prosecuting individuals engaged in leaks of classified information. In the realm of national security, sometimes it is necessary to withhold critical information from the public that may be used by our enemies to harm the American people.
Accordingly, I am deeply disturbed with the official handling of vital national security information regarding the recent cooperation by the Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab. On Monday afternoon, the leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee received notification from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concerning Abdulmutallabs recent willingness to provide critical information. FBI officials stressed the importance of not disclosing the fact of his cooperation in order to protect on-going and follow-on operations to neutralize additional threats to the American public; FBI Director Bob Mueller personally stressed to me that keeping the fact of his cooperation quiet was vital to preventing future attacks against the United States. Handling this information in such a sensitive manner struck me as entirely appropriate.
Twenty-four hours later, however, White House staff assembled members of the media to announce Abdulmutallabs cooperation and to laud the events that led to his decision to cooperate with law enforcement personnel. This information immediately hit the air waves globally and, no doubt, reached the ears of our enemies abroad.
At the Senate Intelligence Committees Annual World Wide Threats Hearing Tuesday, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI Director, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency all stated they believe terrorists will attempt another attack on America within the next few months. I cannot understand, Mr. President, why the sudden cooperation by Abdulmutallab would be broadcast publicly to the media in detail when your intelligence chiefs are unanimously warning that another attack on our country is imminent. The release of this sensitive information has no doubt been helpful to his terrorist cohorts around the world.
It is deeply disturbing to me that the Intelligence Committee would be advised of sensitive information, and told of the vital imperative to keep such information secret for the sake of national security, only to see this information -- less than twenty-four hours later -- broadcast to the world from the White House. This distortion of the congressional notification process suggests that other considerations are taking precedence over keeping timely and sensitive information away from our enemies.
Some have tried to use Abdulmutallabs sudden cooperation as a justification for prosecuting this foreign terrorist in an Article III court, but I believe this development supports an opposing view. Because we treated him in this fashion, we followed Miranda and advised him of his right to remain silent, losing five crucial weeks for obtaining imminent threat information. Miranda is issued when statements from the accused are needed to obtain a conviction, but in this case we did not need his own statements as the chemical evidence he was wearing and over 200 witnesses would ably suffice; hence, the decision to mirandize made no sense on a practical or strategic level. Additionally, Abdulmutallabs family was key in gaining his cooperation, and in most cases the suicide bomber does not have a moderate Islamic family willing to work with the United States; in fact, the opposite is most often the case (as with the suicide bomber that killed seven CIA officers in Khost, whose wife applauded her husbands actions).
I urge you, Mr. President, to consider the consequences of publicly disseminating sensitive information vital to the defense of the American people. I do not believe the American people want this information jeopardized to further political arguments. The American people rightfully expect the governments first priority to be their security. It is also critical that our courageous law enforcement and intelligence professionals know that they can trust that sensitive information vital to their efforts to protect the American people will not be disclosed.
Sincerely,
Christopher S. Bond United States Senator Obama's Spook Lies Last Sunday, Obama's spook, John Brennan, who got his job because he scrubbed Obama's passport files, was interviewed by Fox News' Chris Wallace about the circumstances surrounding the events of Christmas and the Crotch Bomber (transcript).
Yesterday, Pete Hoekstra said Brennan lied about the facts in his interview with Wallace.
Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) disputes Brennan's claims about Christmas briefing (05:01)
At 3:29 in the video, during a previous interview (03:29) with Perky, Katie Couric asks Obama if he has ruled out conducting the KSM trial in the Big Apple. Obama responds, "I have not ruled it out."
He didn't say the attorney general has not ruled it out. I contend that confirms my opinion from the previous item. New Video Of Training, Martyrdom Statements ABC News reports that new videos produced by al Qaeda in Yemen show the accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and others in his training class firing weapons at a desert camp whose targets included the Jewish star, the British Union Jack and the letters "UN."
The videos, to be broadcast Monday on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, appear to support Abdulmutallab's statements to the FBI that there are "others like me" who also trained with him in Yemen to carry out attacks against U.S. and western targets.
The tape also includes an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the 23-year old Nigerian justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He says, "the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He reads several passages from the Koran and adds, "God said if you do not fight back, He will punish you and replace you."
Abdulmutallab was arrested on Christmas Day in Detroit after he allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines jet. He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges but U.S. authorities say he is now cooperating in the investigation. Its OK to kill infidels The Detroit Free press is reporting that The so-called crotch-bomber charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, with 279 passengers and 11 crew members on Christmas Day 2009 with a bomb in his underwear, is arguing for his prison release, claiming wrongful imprisonment by the American government.
In a handwritten court document filed today, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 24, asked the court to release him from prison, arguing that, "The defendant is being unjustly detained in the Unites States of America, and subjected to the Rule of Man," adding he should "only be judged and ruled by the law of the Quran."
In a separate, handwritten court filing, the Nigerian national also wrote that "excessive force" was used to restrain him while he was in his closed cell, during the "holy month of Ramadan." He wrote that, "in defense of Muhammad," he assaulted several officers from his cell, and that as a result, "excessive force" was used to restrain him.
Cry me a river -- I hope the officers gave him a good ass-kickin'.
Authorities have said that Abdulmutallab is an al-Qaida operative trained in Yemen for the suicide mission, which was foiled when a passenger subdued him. He is facing numerous criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit terrorism.
In September, Abdulmutallab fired his government-appointed lawyers and is acting as his own attorney in the case. He suggested that he wanted to plead guilty to some charges, and also asked the court to order that no excessive force be used on him. He has said nothing about a plea since. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds has appointed prominent criminal defense attorney Anthony Chambers as his standby attorney. Chambers has said that a plea is unlikely, that the case is headed for trial, and "We will challenge everything." Conclusion "In late 2009, in fulfillment of a religious obligation, I decided to participate in jihad against the United States. The Quran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah, those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them. Some parts of the Quran say, 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'
"I had an agreement with at least one person to attack the United States in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel and in retaliation of the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Palestine, especially in the blockade of Gaza, and in retaliation for the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and beyond, most of them women, children and noncombatants.
"As a result, I traveled to Yemen and eventually to the United States, and I agreed with at least one person to carry an explosive device onto an aircraft and attempt to kill those onboard and wreck the aircraft as an act of jihad against the United States for the U.S. killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters around the world.
"I was greatly inspired to participate in jihad by the lectures of the great and rightly guided mujahideen who is alive, Sheik Anwar al-Awlaki, may Allah preserve him and his family and give them victory, Amin, and Allah knows best.
"Participation in jihad against the United States is considered among the most virtuous of deeds in Islam and is highly encouraged in the Quran; however, according to U.S. law, which is unjust and oppressive according to the Quran, my actions make me guilty of a crime in the United States, in particular, the following counts in my indictment.
"Count 1: Conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. So by me traveling to Yemen, then to Djibouti, to Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, the Netherlands and eventually the United States, with an agreement with at least one person to carry an explosive device in an attempt to kill those onboard for the U.S. killing of innocent Muslims, I'm guilty in U.S. law of this count.
"Count 2: Possession of a firearm or destructive device in the furtherance of a crime of violence. I carried with me an explosive device onto Northwest 253, again, to avenge the killing of my innocent Muslim brothers and sisters by the U.S. So I am guilty in U.S. law of this count.
"Count 3: Attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, again, in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel and Israel massacres of innocent Palestinians, so I am guilty of this count, too.
"Count 4: Use and carrying of a firearm, destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence by carrying an explosive device and attempting to use it on Flight 253 for the U.S. killing of innocent Muslims. I am guilty of this count, too.
"Count 5: Willfully placing a destructive device in and upon, in proximity to a civil aircraft which was used and operated in interstate, overseas and foreign air commerce, which was likely to have endangered the safety of such aircraft. I intentionally carried an explosive device onto Flight 253 for the United States' tyranny and oppression of Muslims, so I am guilty of this count in U.S. law, but not in the Quran.
"Count 6: Possession of a firearm/destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence. I was in possession of an explosive device intended for use against the United States for U.S. interference in Muslim countries, so I am guilty in U.S. law of this count.
"Count 7: Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. I attempted to use an explosive device, which in the U.S. law is a weapon of mass destruction, which I call a blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims, for U.S. use of weapons of mass destruction on Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and beyond. So I am guilty in U.S. law of this count and innocent in Muslim law.
"Count 8: Willful attempt to destroy and wreck a civil aircraft. I intended to wreck a civil aircraft for the U.S. wreckage of Muslim lands and property, so I am guilty in U.S. law of this count.
"The United States -- the United States should be warned that if they continue and persist in promoting the blasphemy of Muhammad and the prophets, peace be upon them all, and the U.S. continues to kill and support those who kill innocent Muslims, then the U.S. should await a great calamity that will befall them through the hands of the mujahideen soon by God's willing permission. Or God will strike them directly with a great calamity soon by his will, Amin.
"If you laugh at us now, we will laugh at you later in this life and on the day of judgment by God's will, and our final call is all praise to Allah, the lord of the universe, Allahu Akbar."
80 Grams of explosives were sewn into Abdul's grundies http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/CrotchBomber.htm
Items on this page are archived in order of discovery . . . Judge Blocks Key Witness in Embassy-Bombing Case Chad Bray is reporting that a federal judge barred prosecutors from using a key witness in the trial of a Tanzanian man in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa because the witness's identity was discovered through questionable interrogation techniques used in secret CIA custody. The decision, which delays the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani until next week, marks a setback in a case that is seen as a major test for Obama's plan to try detainees who have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in civil courts rather than before military tribunals.
Ghailani is the first detainee from Guantanamo to face trial in the U.S. He is facing charges of conspiracy, murder, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and other charges stemming from two bombing attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 that killed 224 people and injured hundreds more. He has pleaded not guilty.
Federal prosecutors want to call Hussein Abebe, another Tanzanian man, to testify in the case. Prosecutors said they expected Abebe to tell the court that he sold dynamite that was ultimately used in the bombing to Ghailani and that he believed Ghailani planned to use the explosives for mining.
Defense lawyers argued that prosecutors learned of Abebe's identity as a result of statements made by Ghailani while he was in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency. While in CIA custody, Ghailani was subject to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which his lawyers have said equated to torture.
"This case will be tried upon lawful evidence," said Peter Quijano, Ghailani's lawyer, in a brief statement outside the courthouse Wednesday. "Not torture. Not coercion."
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, in a brief order Wednesday, essentially found that prosecutors failed to show that Abebe's potential testimony was sufficiently removed from Ghailani's statements while in CIA custody to be allowed into evidence at this time.
"The court has not reached this conclusion lightly, but the Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests. We must follow it not only when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction. To do less would diminish us and undermine the foundation upon which we stand."
We all knew this was going to happen, but it's interesting to note how the judiciary points to the Constitution to support defending our enemies.
Conveniently, the same judiciary forgets all about the Constitution when a certain person's eligibility to serve as Commander-in-Chief is questioned.
You know the rules, mustn't embarrass Obama.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/EmbassyBomber.htm
Items are archived in order of discovery. Blue titles are "hot links." The Ft. Hood Massacre
Sudden Jihad Syndrome -- Major Malik Nadal Hasan Kills 13 And Wounds 30 The shooter, who was wounded, was a major in the US Army from Virginia. The Army Times reports that Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, who Received a "Poor Performance" evaluation at Walter Reed Hospital.
Here is his Practitioner Info from Virginia Board of Medicine -- less than 1 year.
Here is Hasan's Officer Record Brief -- "No religious preference"
His cousin called into Fox News -- "always a Muslim" -- "a good American," but Col. Terry Lee (ret.), who worked with Hasan, quoted Hasan as saying, "Muslims should stand up against the aggressor" -- meaning the United States of America.
Maj. General Robert Scales (ret) is reporting that his sources inside the military say this was a deliberate act.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said the people killed were specifically targeted by the murderer.
It will be interesting to see how the mainstream media, and the Obama administration will spin this.
As usual, and before any investigation, the FBI said the shootings have nothing to do with terrorism.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama, reacting to the terror attack, said "blah, blah, blah, blah and blah . . ." The Firing Squad For Him The excuses for this jihadii are already coming from the sympathetic left. Then, there's the Obama-Left:
"Behavior of this sort is a regular occurrence in the US Armed Forces. However killing themselves, although it happens from time to time, is unusual. It is normally friendly troops, villages of indigenous peoples or schools, and wedding parties!
All over the Net sympathetic words provide a rationale for the murderer -- it was the wartime horror stories he heard from his patients that set him off -- someone keyed "Allah" into his car (not this bogus trick again?) -- because of his ethnicity -- because someone called him a "camel jockey." Everything but poor potty training.
All this stuff comes from a phone call from an alleged cousin, and none of it is a defense for his atrocities.
According to his aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va, Hasan was a devout Muslim who prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md. Hasan "did not make many friends" and "did not make friends fast," his aunt said. "He had no girlfriend and was not married. He steered clear of female colleagues."
Faizul Khan, the former imam at the center said, "He came to mosque one or two times to see if there were any suitable girls to marry." Khan said. "I don't think he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions. He wanted a girl who was very religious, prays five times a day.
Ironically, Hasan was brought down by a female police sergeant, Kim Munley. She was wounded by Hasan in an exchange of gunfire, but she got the bastard.
Atlas Shrugs is reporting that civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday.
Munley, who had been trained in active-response tactics, rushed into the building and confronted the shooter as he was turning a corner, Cone said.
"It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," Cone said. (Fox News says Hasan was shot him 4 times)
Munley was only a few feet from crazed Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan when she opened fire.
Ft. Hood hero -- Kim Munley
On the other hand, Col. Terry Lee (ret) who worked with Hasan quoted Hasan as saying, "Muslims should stand up against the aggressor," and also said Hasan often verbalized his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lee told Fox News that Hasan, "was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. ... When things weren't going that way, he became more agitated, more frustrated with the conflicts over there ... he made his views well known about how he felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"He said Muslims shouldn't be fighting Muslims," he added. " He was very clear on that."
This guy has a history. The AP is reporting that federal law enforcement officials say Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings he made. These postings related to suicide bombings and other threats. The Feds say an official investigation was not opened.
Hasan was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute's Presidential Transition Task Force last year. Hasan applied on the institute's website to attend the meeting and was accepted because of his professional credentials. He participated in disaster preparation -- he knew the drill. Here, he's listed on a page with the ironic title, "Thinking Anew -- Security Priorities For The Next Administration."
I have a security priority -- keep Muslims out of the military. There's plenty of Arab- speaking Christians in the country that can serve as translators. This episode is unsettling for a number of reasons, but most of all because it exposes the fact that political correctness has forced military commanders to ignore the presence of radical, anti-American Muslims in the ranks.
Hasan was a psychiatrist. The United States Army provided him that education. He gladly took that education, but when it came time for him to do his duty he murdered 13 human beings and wounded 30 more.
The above is a snapshot from a video obtained from the owner of a 7-Eleven at Fort Hood. He said Hasan -- whom he knows as "Major Nidal" -- came in for coffee and hash browns most mornings, including the morning of the shootings. The surveillance video shows Hasan at the cashier's counter at about 6:20 a.m. -- on his way home from morning prayers. He was carrying a beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb.
He went home, prepared his weapons, changed into his Army uniform, and about seven hours later, began his assault on the unarmed and defenseless soldiers -- several of whom he shot in the back.
This was premeditated, up-close murder. He took the time to load several magazines. The weapons he used accommodated 13 rounds -- he had two of them. He would have to reload. He gave his furniture to his neighbors. He handed out copies of the Quran. He took the time to put on his uniform. He took the time to drive, with his personal weapons to Ft. Hood. He had time to make a U-turn. He murdered those poor souls up close, and personal, inside buildings where they had nowhere to go. Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is great!" -- before opening fire, the base commander said Friday. Fox News is reporting that Hasan jumped up on a table and was shooting down at his victims -- some he shot multiple times. One of the soldiers said he was laying on the floor for cover, when Hasan shot him from 5 feet away.
This is treason. It was a slaughter. It was jihad, plain and simple -- just another example of Sudden Jihad Syndrome.
Right now Hasan is on a ventilator in a local civilian hospital under military and civilian guard. I sure hope they are withholding any and all pain medication.
The only logical and reasonable end to this horrible incident, the largest act of terror since 9/11, is to put this son-of-a-bitch up against the wall, and give him what he gave.
But you watch all the apologists from the Left -- they'll plead for mercy -- we will be told that this was the act of a lone gunman. It says nothing about any religion. We will be told about thousands of Muslims who do not believe that randomly killing innocent people leads to paradise.
Right away, the FBI said the attack was not terror-related -- as usual -- turnes out the FBI was sitting on evidence of Nidal's jihad.
And this morning, the military-loathing Obama, showing no emotion, said, "blah, blah, blah, . . . don't jump to conclusions . . . blah, blah, blah," and ran and hid in the White House, taking no questions from the press.
The NBC affiliate in Obama's home town of Chicago even commented on the Obamamessiah's indifference, with a headline that roared, "Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting." A Private Account Since I dont know when Ill sleep (its 4 am now) Ill write what happened (the abbreviated version.....the long one is already part of the investigation with more to come).
Ill not write about any part of the investigation that Ive learned about since (as a witness I know more than I should since inevitably my JAG brothers and sisters are deeply involved in the investigation).
Dont assume that most of the current media accounts are very accurate. Theyre not. Theyll improve with time. Only those of us who were there really know what went down. But as they collate our statements theyll get it right. Obama Urges Americans To Deny Reality It's been three days since the Muslim terrorist, Major Malik Nadal Hasan, calmly executed 12 soldiers and one civilian, and wounded 38 more people at Fort Hood, while chanting "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is [the] greatest." Our politically correct society has been excuse-making since -- except for those among us who are actually praising the jihadii's actions.
Right away, the empathetic Obama, who wasted no time in saying a Cambridge (MA) police sergeant "acted stupidly" when he arrested Obama buddy, Skip Gates," urged Americans not to jump to conclusions, and not to dwell on the suspects religion. He added, "We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing."
Yo! Odumbo, maybe it has something to do with this.
The ObamaMedia insist Hasan's terrorist attack is a tragedy, but it's not a tragedy, it's an act of war. Watch this soldier, shot in the back, describe Hasan calmly shooting while "screaming Allahu Akbar."
The ObamaMedia is twisting itself inside-out, to avoid using the term, "terrorism," but the more that is known about the murderer, the more it becomes clear that this premeditated and deadly attack on unarmed soldiers and civilians was driven by his belief that Islam should rule the world.
However, in politically correct America, this massacre will lead to intensified efforts to find explanations which fit into the progressive worldview. It just cant be true that a serious adult like Hasan starts killing because he feels justified to murder infidels.
Within hours, liberal commentators were able to find all kinds of explanations for his attack. The killer was a victim of verbal abuse or of a military that would send him, a soldier, to war. Or he was a victim of the insensitivity demonstrated by women (he wasnt able to find a wife who was as religious as he was). Or whatever they can dream up to deny the very core of this mans existence: his unshakable belief in Allah and His final Messenger. But a gunman who shouts "Allahu Akbar" while killing unarmed people is exactly what he purports to be: a killing warrior for his God.
MSNBC weasle, Chris Matthews, was on board. In this video, he says, "It's unclear if religion was a factor in this shooting," and then begins the excuse-making. And who is Matthews relying on for expert advice? -- Nihad Awad, a founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and who serves as its executive director. CAIR is a Muslim extremist front organization that was identified as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Hamas funding case, along with the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust.
Hasan worshipped at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque, named as the most dangerous mosque in America by Paul Sperry in his book "Infiltration" and is located in what he calls DC's "Wahhabi Corridor." The mosque was led by a radical imam who was a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001. Hasan attended the controversial mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as the three terrorists. His mothers funeral was held there in May that year.
The Imam at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London last August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organizations.
According to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood, Hasans eyes "lit up" when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlakis teachings.
Hasan was a first-generation American Muslim, living a life of dissonance between his identity as an American and his ideology as a Muslim who had accepted a literal, rigid interpretation of Islam, akin to the puritanical Wahhabi and Salafi interpretations of Islam that define the theology of militancy inside the Muslim world today, according to Golam Akhter, who knew Hasan.
"So many time I talked with him," said Akhter, a community leader who is sort of like a mosque gadfly, challenging congregants to reject literal, rigid interpretations of Islam. "I was trying to modernize him. I tried my best. He used to hate America as a whole. He was more anti-American than American."
Despite all the conversations, Akther said, "I couldnt get through to him. He was a typical fundamentalist Muslim."
Hasan has said Muslims should "rise up" and attack Americans in retaliation for the US war in Iraq, and that he was "happy" when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June, and "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square" in New York."
At Walter Reed, as an Army psychiatrist, Hasan was supposed to give a "grand round" -- a medical lecture. Instead, he treated medical personnel to a dawah session -- here's the presentation -- trying to frighten them into Islam with threats of hell. Hasan made four assertions about the Koran:
1. "If you don't believe, you are condemned to hell" -- Koran 4:140; Koran 9:49; Koran 9:68; Koran 9:73 2. If you don't believe, "your head is cut off" -- Koran 8:12; Koran 47:4 3. If you don't believe, "you're set on fire" -- Koran 33:64; Koran 48:13; Koran 76:4 4. If you don't believe, "burning oil is burned down your throat" -- Koran 18:29; Koran 44:43-46
Some of the men who had befriended Major Hasan at the mosque in Killeen, Texas, said it was the military's fault that caused Hasan to snap, saying, "...the command should be held accountable -- G.I.'s are like any equipment in the Army. When it breaks, those who were in charge of keeping it fit should be held responsible for it," and ""...when a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal, but when a Muslim does it, they call it jihad.
Well, duh! That's what the Muslims who do it call it.
Here's a round-up of Jihad in America just this past month -- and here's some more instance of "Sudden Jihad Syndrome."
As the ObamaMedia pussyfoots around calling Hasan's attack a jihad action, many in the Muslim community applaud his actions.
a Washington D.C. based Muslim named Khadeeja Nuur has created a FaceBook page offering prayers for the recovery of Ft. Hood jihadii:
Together we pray for the recovery of Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan, MD. May Allah see fit to return this loyal son of Islam back to perfect health. Sallalahu Alayhi Wa Sallam.
Muslims celebrating Hasans evil actions were leaving messages on her FaceBook pagei, hoping that Hasan gets well, agreeing with his actions, or at the very least justifying them. (once the page was publicized, real Americans started leaving a few choice comments)
And hold onto your shorts! -- here is a video of American Muslims publicly celebrated Hasan's jihad in New York City, and the NYPD could only watch. The cops said that as long as there is not a physical threat, there's nothing that they can do. It's a free-speech issue, although it looks like sedition to me.
Robert Spencer, an Islamic expert, said Major Hasans motive was perfectly clear -- but it was one that Political Correctness run amok and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened -- and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored.
David Horowitz, a rehabilitated Leftist, describes America as "our brain-dead country," arguing a Muslim fanatic with an Internet site praising Islamic suicide bombers as defenders of their comrades is a Major in the U.S. Army with access to military intelligence and lethal weaponry. And its not as though the army didnt know that he was a Muslim fanatic and supporter of the Islamic jihad against the West. He was under investigation for six months because of his anti-American, jihadist rants. He did not want to be deployed. He wanted to be discharged.
Obama will fight hard -- really hard -- to make sure Hasan's jihad is not described as a terrorist attack, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. Why? Because the last thing Obama wants is to follow George Bush's record of having prevented any further attacks on US soil by having one happen on his watch in the first year of his coup.
George Bush kept us safe for 8 years -- Obama, 9 months and 15 days.
Remember Obama said this -- "In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." Soldier of Allah Atlas Shrugs is reporting that this is the card that Major Nidal Hasan gave to the infidels along with a Quran before beginning his terror attack.
Pamel Geller asks if this lowlife jihadi be any more devout? He mosqued every day. Hated America. Hated the troops. Proselytized his co-workers. Planned his jihad and completed his mission. His head was shaved. What else was shaved? If his body was shaved like his head, then the military guys and law enforcement know and have known that this was jihad, and they are scamming us now.
Now look at Hasan's professional card:
Notice the "SoA" on the card? It stands for "Soldiers of Allah." SoA is followed by the abbreviation, "SWT."
When writing the name of their god, Allah, Muslims often follow it with the abbreviation "SWT." These letters stand for the Arabic words "Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala," or "Glory to Him, the Exalted." Muslims use these or similar words to glorify Allah when mentioning his name.
What is it with these "soldiers of god?' Just like the 9/11 terrorists, Hasan got ready for his jihad by frequenting a strip club and getting lap dances. Hasans Imam Praises Fort Hood Massacre Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is 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. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesnt exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.
Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.
The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidals operation.
The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -- rather the duty -- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.
Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment - - Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137)
The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.
May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act.
Ameen
Obama and the Obots refuse to call Hasan's jihad a terrorist attack -- Hasan's Imam is more forthright. U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda ABC News is reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.
In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).
Hoekstra said he is "absolutely furious" that the House Intel Committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan's attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.
"This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies -- not the CIA -- have the lead," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News." Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect."
However, Obozo continues to urge Americans not to jump to conclusions, and Homeland Security honcho Janet Napolitano and dhimmi Gen. George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, warned of a backlash against Muslims -- but Obama had no problem describing those "Tea-Bag People" as "extremists."
Casey said, "It would be a shame -- as great a tragedy as this was -- it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well." -- a statement that demonstrates his unsuitableness for his job -- there are already calls for the firing of Casey.
Diversity and Political Correctness are killing Americans. 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." Army Wasn't Told of Hasan's Emails 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 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. Red Flags
Obama Don't See No Terrorism 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."
Taliban Celebrate Massacre At Ft. Hood 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. The Unindicted Co-Conspirator
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 nations 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 Hasans email communications become public, we wont 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 wasnt right.
Hasan made numerous statements to colleagues that some considered jihadist propaganda and glorification of suicide bombers. A 2007 PowerPoint presentation (note: pages turn every 12 seconds) 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.
Continue reading here . . .
According to the New York Times, Obama urged Americans not to dwell on the suspects 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. 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. Obamas 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 Americas 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 Americas 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 Islams 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 dont 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.
Continue reading here . . . 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.
Continue reading here . . . 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. Calling It What It Is -- Terrorism
The Army was afraid to deal with Hasan because he was a Muslim (02:24)
The Cover Up Begins 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.
Continue reading here . . .
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 I Can't Wait to Join You in Afterlife Recently, Barack Obama urged Americans not to dwell on the Major Nidal Hasans 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."
Anwar al-Awlaki is from Las Cruces, NM, and is surfing the net looking for al-Qaeda wannabes. He organizes from and is based in Yemen. He lives and has lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the whole time.
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. 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 Navys 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 Veterans Affairs in 1997.
Togo West never saw an affirmative action policy or minority preference policy he didnt 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 Wests 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 Navys 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 Obamas 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 Departments investigation will be yet another major blunder by the Obama administration. Army Charges Fort Hood Shooting Suspect With 32 Counts Of Attempted Murder An Army psychiatrist who may face the death penalty after the mass shooting at Fort Hood was charged Wednesday with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder relating to the scores of soldiers and two civilian police officers injured in the attack, military officials said.
Maj. Nidal Hasan has already been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder after the Nov. 5 shooting in a building at the Texas Army post where soldiers must go before being deployed. Witnesses said he jumped on a desk and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is greatest!" Army officials have said he was armed with two pistols, one a semiautomatic capable of firing up to 20 rounds without reloading.
The additional charges come less than 24 hours after Hasan's civilian attorney was notified that the Army plans to evaluate Hasan to test his competency to stand trial as well as his mental state at the time of the shooting.
John Galligan, Hasan's attorney, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Army officials had not returned his calls so he did not know when or where the "mental responsibility" exam would take place. Galligan said he had filed an objection to the evaluation pointing out that Hasan was still in intensive care at a San Antonio military hospital recovering from gunshot wounds that left him paralyzed.
"I'm incensed at the way the military is handling this, serving additional charges on my client when he's in the hospital and defense attorneys are not present," Galligan told The AP by phone from his office near Fort Hood, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth. "And nobody will tell me what the plans are for the evaluation." The Whitewash Becomes Official 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. Why Isn't This Guy In Jail Morning America aired a short interview of an 18 year old friend of Nidal Hasan, the jihadii shooter at Fort Hood, named Duane Reasoner. Theres a sensational, almost exploitative quality to the coverage of Reasoner. He apparently was hanging out with Hasan and his Imam over regular dinners, discussing Islam -- and he was with Hasan the night before the murders.
Duane said some crazy, extremist sounding stuff to Gavin Lee of the BBC that is leaving everyone a little concerned, including:
Reasoner: "Im not going to condemn him for what he did. I dont know why he did it. I will not, absolutely not, condemn him for what he had done though. If he had done it for selfish reasons I still will not condemn him. Hes my brother in the end. I will never condemn him."
Lee: "There might be a lot of people shocked to hear you say that."
Reasoner: "Well, thats the way it is. I dont speak for the community here, but me personally I will not condemn him."
Lee: "What are your thoughts towards those that were victims in this?"
Reasoner: "They were, in the end, they were troops who were going to Afghanistan and Iraq to kill Muslims. I honestly have no pity for them. Its just like the majority of the people that will hear this. After five or six minutes theyll be shocked, after that theyll forget about them and go on their day."
Duane Reasoner clearly should be interrogated to better understand what he knew about Hasans plans before the shootings occurred. We need to know how extensive Reasoners relationships with others who advocate or tolerate violence are.
Why are these Muslim invaders allowed to carry on freely in this country?
Because they are protected by Barack Obama, and the false idols of political correctness and diversity.
Audio with photo of this traitor -- although he's probably correct about this: "Its just like the majority of the people that will hear this. After five or six minutes theyll be shocked, after that theyll forget about them and go on their day."
Reasoner, an American, will be ignored by the FBI, because there's a better than even chance that he knew of Hasan's plans. That knowledge would establish a conspiracy, and the last thing the Obama Justice Department wants is any hint of a jihadist conspiracy -- ESPECIALLY if there was one! One Soldier's Account Since I dont know when Ill sleep (its 4 am now) Ill write what happened (the abbreviated version.....the long one is already part of the investigation with more to come).
Ill not write about any part of the investigation that Ive learned about since (as a witness I know more than I should, since inevitably my JAG brothers and sisters are deeply involved in the investigation).
Dont assume that most of the current media accounts are very accurate. Theyre not. Theyll improve with time. Only those of us who were there really know what went down. But as they collate our statements theyll get it right.
I did my SRP last week (Soldier Readiness Processing) but youre supposed to come back a week later to have them look at the smallpox vaccination site (its this big itchy growth on your shoulder).
I am probably alive because I pulled a ---------- and entered the wrong building first (the main SRP building). The Medical SRP building is off to the side. Realizing my mistake I left the main building and walked down the sidewalk to the medical SRP building.
As Im walking up to it the gunshots start. Slow and methodical. But continuous. Two ambulatory wounded came out. Then two soldiers dragging a third who was covered in blood.
Continue reading here . . . From Cover-Up To Stonewall CNSNews.com is reporting that Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says Obama is stalling in providing information to the leaders of the House and Senate and the congressional intelligence committees on the multiple murders committed by a radical Muslim Army officer at Fort Hood more than a month ago. So far, the committee chairman and congressional leaders have received no detailed, substantive briefing on the terror attack and what is known about its jihadi perpetrator.
"You know, they're playing out the string," Hoekstra said Thursday. " We're going home next week, (and) they will have effectively made it through three months with giving no substantive briefings on Fort Hood."
CNSNews.com asked Hoekstra whether it was "a constitutional affront not to have the Gang of 8 briefed on this?"
"Oh yeah, sure, absolutely," said Hoekstra.
The Gang of 8 is a group of leaders from the House and Senate who by law are supposed to be briefed on U.S. intelligence activities when the matter is too sensitive to share with the full intelligence committees. The group includes the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the majority and minority leaders of each chamber. Additionally, the law holds that the administration must "ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States."
"The committees were briefed on I believe it would be November 18, 19, preliminarily. It was a scripted presentation where most of the questions were answered with, 'We don't know,' 'We're checking into that,' 'We'll get back to you,' 'Let us finish our initial investigation here.''We don't want to jeopardize any criminal prosecutions,' and all those kinds of things," said Hoekstra.
Hoekstra said Obama was not being transparent. "It's now three and a half, four weeks later," said Hoekstra. "I would assume that in the last four weeks we've gathered lots of info that should be shared with the intelligence committees." There is a "lack of transparency here," Hoekstra said, and "it is unbelievable the material and the information that they're withholding from us, from the American people."
Hoekstra said, "I know that the (Fort Hood) report was delivered to the President on November 30, so I talked to director [of National Intelligence, Dennis] Blair last week and said, 'Hey, I'd just like an update,' you know? There are a lot -- potentially lots -- of areas that have ties to foreign intelligence and foreign threats -- international threats. Give us an update," said Hoekstra. "I'd like to know who Hasan was in contact with, what happened to his money and these types of things. Who else he might have been talking to in the United States? All of this kind of information. Supposedly we got access to his computers, supposedly we got access to his email, his phone records, financial records, all of these kinds of things," said Hoekstra.
Hoekstra said Blair has been putting off a meeting. "So I asked for a briefing last week," said Hoekstra. "Mr. Blair thought he'd be able to give me one. He was told, 'No,' and then he said, 'I'm not going to make a commitment, but I think that we'll be able to give you one next week,' which would be this week. Well, he's out of the country until late tomorrow (Friday). I talked to his (Blair's) office yesterday (last Wednesday), and you know the answer is now, 'No briefing this week.' It's unbelievable," said Hoekstra.
When Hoekstra was asked if he wanted to be briefed on Obama's report or on the Fort Hood incident in general, he said: "On anything -- on any intelligence that they've gathered! They are not willing to share it with the intelligence committee. Wouldn't it be nice to know what his -- shouldn't the intelligence committee know what his relationship was to Aulaqi [Anwar al-Awlaki], what other foreign people he would be talking to? No briefing."
Read about the jihad attack and Obama's subsequent cover-up here . . . General Boykin Comments On Maj. Nidal Hasan
"Nobody wanted to deal with the fact that he was a terrorist" (02:24)
Obama Stonewalls The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will begin hearings on the Ft. Hood attack Thursday. They won't be hearing from any members of Team Obama. Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) was rebuffed in his request. Let the cover up begin.
From the Washington Post:
The first public congressional hearing on the Fort Hood attack will not include testimony from any current federal law enforcement, military or intelligence officials because the Obama administration "declined to provide any" such witnesses, according to a Senate committee source.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has released the witness list for its hearing "The Fort Hood Attack: A Preliminary Assessment," scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. The list includes four experts on terrorism and intelligence issues: retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former U.S. Army vice chief of staff; Brian Jenkins, a senior advisor at the Rand Corp.; Mitchell Silber, the director of analysis for the New York City Police Departments Intelligence Division; and Juan Zarate, a senior advisor for the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But the list does not include anyone actively involved in investigating the Fort Hood attack, or anyone who might have been responsible for decisions made by various government agencies before the attack about whether to investigate the shooting suspect, Nidal Hasan. The Senate committee source said HSGAC Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) had hoped to have witnesses from the FBI and the U.S. Army, but was rebuffed in his requests.
Maj. Nidal Hasan's Imam Killed Reuters is reporting that the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a Muslim preacher linked by U.S. intelligence to deaths at a U.S. army base are believed to have died in a Yemen air strike, a security official said on Thursday.
Yemen said 30 militants were killed in the strike in the eastern province of Shabwa. Among those believed killed was the ex-American, Anwar al Awlaki, whom U.S. officials linked to Maj. Nidal Hasan, the jihadi gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas on November 5.
The air attack targeted a meeting of militants planning an attack on Yemeni and foreign oil targets, the official said. He added that the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Abu Basir Nasser al-Wahayshi, may also have been killed in the strikes but that there was no confirmation.
"We are still unsure if two of the top leaders have been killed or not. One of them is the...al Qaeda member Nasser al-Wahayshi," he said, declining to say whether more strikes would take place on Thursday.
Saudi and Yemeni militants said earlier this year they were uniting under the name Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, using Yemen as their base.
In a video announcement earlier this year, al-Wahayshi, a Yemeni, threatened attacks against Westerners in the oil-exporting region. The group has also called for the overthrow of the U.S.-allied Saudi royal family.
Al Arabiya television said there had been four air strikes.
Yemen's Supreme Security Committee issued a warning to citizens in the province of Shabwa not to aid the militants.
On Monday, Yemen said its security forces and war planes last week foiled a planned series of suicide bombings. About 30 al Qaeda militants were killed in those airstrikes with 17 arrested in Abyan and in Arhab, northeast of the capital Sanaa. Yemen, which has intensified its campaign against Al Qaeda militants over recent weeks, is also facing a Shi'ite rebellion in the north and secessionist violence in the south.
Makes one wonder, just how far will Obama go to cover up Hasan's jihad?
Update: Steve Emerson, appearing on Fox News, reported that al-Awlakii appeared on TV two days prior to the attack. In the interview, Awlaki said he sanctioned Hasan's jihad -- and two days later -- BOOOM!
This report turned out to be false. Al-Awlaki still plots. Pentagon Whitewash Bill Bennett says there are devastating and important things happening in the news. Lest we forget, though: We are still in a war against Islamic Terrorism. And it still happens in America. November is not so far away that it deserves forgetting or whitewashing: An Arab terrorist named Nidal Hasan went to a health-care center, in a fort -- at an Army base -- in Texas, and opened fire killing 14 people while he shouted "Allahu Akbar." But you would not know this if you read the Pentagon Report on the massacre released Friday.
Titled, "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood," this 80-plus page report mentions the words "Islam" and "Muslim" not once. Not once. It refers to Hasan as a "gunman." As Ralph Peters put it, the report is "not about what happened at Fort Hood." And "It avoids entirely the issue of why it happened."
You can read that "low self-esteem, depression, and anger are tied to many different types of violence" in the report. You can read about "workplace violence" and "disgruntled employees" in the report. You can read about "Motivations for domestic terrorism" such as "animal rights, "white supremacy," and "religious intolerance" thrown in on equal par among other factors that simply were not in play here in the report. And you can read the grand conclusion that "Religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor; most fundamentalist groups are not violent, and religious-based violence is not confined to members of fundamentalist groups."
But you would be reading a complete and total whitewash. You'd be reading a lie of a report. But that is what the Pentagon has produced.
Here was a situation where an Islamist reached out to Islamist imams like Anwar Awlaki who has worked with other terrorists, including 9/11 hijackers. Where he had a business card that read "Soldier of Allah." Where he yelled "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire on fellow soldiers and Americans. Where he delivered a lecture and said "non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire." Where he told his neighbor the morning he set off on his rampage that "I'm going to do good work for God." Where he said his allegiance was "to sharia law" not "American law" when asked by his colleagues. Where his classmates said "no one would . . . have trusted him with anything."
And yet he was made a major. And yet he was educated by the U.S. military. And yet he was kept in the U.S. military. And he then went to war with the United States.
You want to save time and money? Dispense with these reports from on high. Here's the report I'd write and I can do it on less than one page: An Islamic terrorist was raised in the United States and given a pass throughout his professional career in the United States military. His allegiance was not to his country but to his radical religion. He told his colleagues of this again and again. He didn't set off signals, he set off sirens. And nothing was done. The military leadership didn't take his words seriously, even as we were at war with people saying the exact same things he was saying. And the culture of the Army that coddled him was too well-represented by the Army chief of staff who, after the rampage, said, "As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."
It was this thinking that led to us keeping Major Hasan in the Army and that diminished force protection. It was this culture that allowed a terrorist into the Army. It was this political correctness that led to the deaths of 14 innocents. And if you want to prevent another tragedy like this, you must end this infection of the mindset. I call it a tragedy because it was preventable. That it was not prevented is a shame on our institutions and indicative of a preemptive cultural surrender that I never thought would affect the U.S. military but, sadly, dangerously, has.
But the solution to these problems remains elusive because the military will not even mention the problem. And that, as Winston Churchill once put it, is why we still have a "Gathering Storm" coming, and not a near-victory in this, the Global War Against Islamic Terrorism. Why No Mention of Islam? Time magazine says the U.S. military's just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect's view of his Muslim faith. And as Congress opens two days of hearings on Wednesday into the Pentagon probe of the Nov. 5 attack that left 13 dead, lawmakers want explanations for that omission.
John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 commission and Navy Secretary during the Reagan Administration, says a reluctance to cause offense by citing Hasan's view of his Muslim faith and the U.S. military's activities in Muslim countries as a possible trigger for his alleged rampage reflects a problem that has gotten worse in the 40 years that Lehman has spent in and around the U.S. military. The Pentagon report's silence on Islamic extremism "shows you how deeply entrenched the values of political correctness have become," he told TIME on Tuesday. "It's definitely getting worse, and is now so ingrained that people no longer smirk when it happens."
The apparent lack of curiosity into what allegedly drove Hasan to kill isn't in keeping with the military's ethos; it's a remarkable omission for the U.S. armed forces, whose young officers are often ordered to read Sun Tzu's The Art of War with its command to know your enemy. In midcareer, they study the contrast between capabilities and intentions, which is why they aren't afraid of a British nuclear weapon but do fear the prospect of Iran getting one.
Yet the leaders of the two-month Pentagon review, former Army Secretary Togo West and the Navy's onetime top admiral, Vernon Clark, told reporters last week that they didn't drill down into Hasan's motives. "Our concern is with actions and effects, not necessarily with motivations," West said. Added Clark: "We certainly do not cite a particular group." Part of their reticence, they said, was to avoid running afoul of the criminal probe of Hasan that is now under way. Both are declining interview requests before their congressional testimony, a Pentagon spokesman said.
But without a motive, there would have been no murder. Hasan wore his radical Islamic faith and its jihadist tendencies in the same way he wore his Army uniform. He allegedly proselytized within the ranks, spoke out against the wars his Army was waging in Muslim countries and shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) as he gunned down his fellow soldiers. Those who served alongside Hasan find the Pentagon review wanting. "The report demonstrates that we are unwilling to identify and confront the real enemy of political Islam," says a former military colleague of Hasan, speaking privately because he was ordered not to talk about the case. "Political correctness has brainwashed us to the point that we no longer understand our heritage and cannot admit who, or what, the enemy stands for."
The Department of Defense Independent Review Related to Fort Hood, ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is limited in scope. Despite the title of its report -- Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood -- there is only a single page dedicated to the chapter called "Oversight of the Alleged Perpetrator." Much more space is given to military personnel policies (11 pages), force protection (six pages) and the emergency response to the shootings (12 pages).
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said he was "disappointed" because the inquiry "does not adequately recognize the specific threat posed by violent Islamist extremism to our military," and added that the homeland-security panel he chairs will investigate. The Congressman whose district includes Fort Hood agrees. "The report ignores the elephant in the room -- radical Islamic terrorism is the enemy," says Republican Representative John Carter. "We should be able to speak honestly about good and bad without feeling like you've done something offensive to society."
The report lumps in radical Islam with other fundamentalist religious beliefs, saying that "religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor" and that "religious-based violence is not confined to members of fundamentalist groups." But to some, that sounds as if the lessons of 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq, where jihadist extremism has driven deadly violence against Americans, are being not merely overlooked but studiously ignored. Shoot Me Now An Iraqi doctor encouraged security officers at Brooke Army Medical Center to shoot him earlier this month after telling others that he planned to free accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a federal agent testified Monday.
FBI counterterrorism and military intelligence operatives took a hard look at Senan Kahtan Abrahem after he went to Fort Sam Houston on Jan. 6 and approached an information booth at BAMC about seeing Hasan, according to testimony at a bail hearing Monday for Abrahem.
Abrahem, an immigrant living in San Antonio, was indicted last week on a federal charge of making a false statement -- he allegedly claimed he was Hasan's lawyer so he could get access to Hasan.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo released Abrahem on unsecured bond after hearing that Abrahem, who is bipolar, has resumed taking medication, does not appear to be a flight risk and did not harm anyone.
Hasan's lawyer, John Galligan, said Abrahem has no connection to Hasan, who faces his own mental-competence review next month that Galligan has now asked the Army to postpone. Galligan said the military is rushing the so-called sanity board review before the defense has all the necessary paperwork and discovery to prepare for it.
U.S. Army counterintelligence agent Jeffrey Cram testified Monday about an errant pattern of activity by Abrahem that eventually had him under the watch of a counterterrorism and counterintelligence officials.
First, Abrahem left his car keys -- but not his car -- at a local mosque as a donation and claimed that he was going to free Hasan. The president of the mosque said in an interview that he reported the matter immediately to the FBI, and that Abrahem's wife picked up the keys two days later.
Cram testified Abrahem went to BAMC the morning of Jan. 6 and claimed he was the defense lawyer for "the individual who shot 13 people at Fort Hood."
Officials of the hospital and Fort Sam previously said Abrahem also claimed to be one of Hasan's doctors.
But when Abrahem was not allowed entry, and officers tried to get him to leave, he became belligerent and shouted "Allah Akbar (God is Greatest) and shoot me now," Cram said. He eventually left.
Later that night, San Antonio police went to Abrahem's house, and he again yelled "Allah Akbar" and told officers to shoot him, Cram said. He put his hand in his jacket as if to show he was armed, then spat at the officers, forcing them to put a mask over his face, Cram testified.
The officers took him to the psychiatric ward of a local hospital after Abrahem's wife told the officers that he had been off his medication for more than a month.
While he was at the hospital, Abrahem told a doctor that "he went to BAMC to free his Muslim brother," Cram testified.
"He said (Hasan) was shot by infidels," Cram testified. Hasan is paralyzed and recovering at BAMC.
Cram said Abrahem also "gestured" to nurses and doctors that they would be beheaded.
Prosecutor Mark Roomberg, head of the national security/anti-terrorism section for the U.S. attorney's office, opposed Abrahem's release, questioned his mental competence and argued that Abrahem could threaten witnesses in the case. Roomberg said Abrahem might flee because he faces deportation if convicted.
Abrahem's wife, Ruth Ann Davis, told the judge that Abrahem is a doctor who did not yet have his license to practice in the United States. The two married three years ago, and Abrahem recently obtained temporary resident status.
Afterward, she said: "My husband is not a terrorist. He's just a man who needs to be on his medicine." She declined further comment. Pentagon Whitewash Bill Bennett says there are devastating and important things happening in the news. Lest we forget, though: We are still in a war against Islamic Terrorism. And it still happens in America. November is not so far away that it deserves forgetting or whitewashing: An Arab terrorist named Nidal Hasan went to a health-care center, in a fort -- at an Army base -- in Texas, and opened fire killing 14 people while he shouted "Allahu Akbar." But you would not know this if you read the Pentagon Report on the massacre released Friday.
Titled, "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood," this 80-plus page report mentions the words "Islam" and "Muslim" not once. Not once. It refers to Hasan as a "gunman." As Ralph Peters put it, the report is "not about what happened at Fort Hood." And, "It avoids entirely the issue of why it happened."
You can read that "low self-esteem, depression, and anger are tied to many different types of violence" in the report. You can read about "workplace violence" and "disgruntled employees" in the report. You can read about "Motivations for domestic terrorism" such as "animal rights, "white supremacy," and "religious intolerance" thrown in on equal par among other factors that simply were not in play here in the report. And you can read the grand conclusion that "Religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor; most fundamentalist groups are not violent, and religious-based violence is not confined to members of fundamentalist groups."
But you would be reading a complete and total whitewash. You'd be reading a lie of a report. But that is what the Pentagon has produced.
Here was a situation where an Islamist reached out to Islamist imams like Anwar Awlaki who has worked with other terrorists, including 9/11 hijackers. Where he had a business card that read "Soldier of Allah." Where he yelled "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire on fellow soldiers and Americans. Where he delivered a lecture and said "non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire." Where he told his neighbor the morning he set off on his rampage that "I'm going to do good work for God." Where he said his allegiance was "to sharia law" not "American law" when asked by his colleagues. Where his classmates said "no one would . . . have trusted him with anything."
And yet he was made a major. And yet he was educated by the U.S. military. And yet he was kept in the U.S. military. And he then went to war with the United States.
You want to save time and money? Dispense with these reports from on high. Here's the report I'd write and I can do it on less than one page: An Islamic terrorist was raised in the United States and given a pass throughout his professional career in the United States military. His allegiance was not to his country but to his radical religion. He told his colleagues of this again and again. He didn't set off signals, he set off sirens. And nothing was done. The military leadership didn't take his words seriously, even as we were at war with people saying the exact same things he was saying. And the culture of the Army that coddled him was too well-represented by the Army chief of staff who, after the rampage, said, "As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."
It was this thinking that led to us keeping Major Hasan in the Army and that diminished force protection. It was this culture that allowed a terrorist into the Army. It was this political correctness that led to the deaths of 14 innocents. And if you want to prevent another tragedy like this, you must end this infection of the mindset. I call it a tragedy because it was preventable. That it was not prevented is a shame on our institutions and indicative of a preemptive cultural surrender that I never thought would affect the U.S. military but, sadly, dangerously, has.
But the solution to these problems remains elusive because the military will not even mention the problem. And that, as Winston Churchill once put it, is why we still have a "Gathering Storm" coming, and not a near-victory in this, the Global War Against Islamic Terrorism. Clueless! In the wake of a mass shooting by a military psychiatrist, the Army's top doctor acknowledged his service needs to improve how it manages medical officers, including using more candor in reviewing their officers' performance, but Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, told USA TODAY there's no evidence his staff "could have predicted" that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, "could have become a mass murderer."
In the 12 years that Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was trained and promoted to major, he may not have been "an ideal clinician, not an ideal professional soldier," Schoomaker said, but, "I don't see anywhere in there, and no one has ever intimated that we should have been able to see from what we saw that this man would have become the alleged mass murderer that he is or is accused of being."
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates released the findings of an independent review of the shooting conducted by former Army secretary Togo West and retired admiral Vern Clark. It recommends reviewing officer standards used by medical supervisors in Hasan's case -- "Some signs were clearly missed; others ignored," the review concludes, urging that officers who supervised Hasan be held accountable. Gates directed Army Secretary John McHugh to act on the recommendations.
Well, I guess that's the end of that. There's "no evidence" anyone "could have predicted that Maj. Nidal Hasan "could have become a mass murderer." The Army will do a formal review and produce an update to their standards.
And nowhere, in any of these voluminous reports are the words Islam or jihad -- and this stuff was overlooked:
Hasan attended a radical mosque. Hasan was communicating with a radical Imam tied to al-Qaeda. 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 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.
But, hey! Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, says there's no evidence his staff "could have predicted" that Maj. Nidal Hasan" could have become a mass murderer." Obama "Just Not Responding" To Ft. Hood Questions CNSNews.com is reporting that Sen. Kit Bond (R.-Mo.), the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told bloggers on a conference call on Wednesday, Feb. 3, that the Obama administration still had not provided his committee with all the information it had requested on the November terrorist attack at Fort Hood in Texas.
"They still havent come through with all the information that we need," Bond said.
And, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R.-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, issued two statements in January complaining that the administration had not been forthcoming on information about the Fort Hood attack. Hoekstra also pointed to parallels between the Fort Hood attack and the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
When asked if he believed the administration was withholding information about the incident from members of the intelligence committee, Bond replied, "Yes."
Bond added, "You know, as I said, I tried for a month and a half just to find what had previously been announced publicly, when I asked Director Blair what the recidivism rate was, and he had to wait until John Brennan released it -- when they released it to blame Bush for it. That was right before the hearing was the first time we got it. So, yes, there have been problems in the past, but I think the problems are greater. The holding classified -- some classified reports that the intelligence committee still has not received."
Bond said the administration ought to provide the intelligence committee with a classified report on what it has learned about Maj. Hasan. "There are more questions we asked about the background information on Maj. Hasan. What they did, why they didnt do it," said Sen. Bond. "They ought to give us a classified report on that. That would be step one."
Asked, "And thus far, they have not responded to those questions?"
"No," said Sen. Bond. "They just arent responding. "
Continue reading here . . . Ft. Hood Suspect Was Army Dilemma The Boston Globe is reporting that Maj. Nidal Hasan's extreme views were overlooked in favor of diversity.
Army superiors were warned about the radicalization of Major Nidal Malik Hasan years before he allegedly massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, but did not act in part because they valued the rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist, military investigators wrote in previously undisclosed reports.
An obvious "problem child" spouting extremist views, Hasan made numerous statements that were not protected by the First Amendment and were grounds for discharge by violating his military oath, investigators found.
Examples of Hasan's radical behavior have previously been disclosed in press accounts based on interviews with unnamed Army officials, including his defense of suicide bombings and assertions that Islamic law took priority over his allegiance to the United States.
But the Pentagon's careful documentation of individual episodes dating back to 2005 and the subsequent inaction of his superiors have not been made public before.
The Globe was permitted to review the Army's more complete findings on the condition that it not name supervisory officers who did not act, some of whom are facing possible disciplinary action.
In searching for explanations for why superiors did not move to revoke Hasan's security clearances or expel him from the Army, the report portrays colleagues and superiors as possibly reluctant to lose one of the Army's few Muslim mental health specialists.
The report concludes that because the Army had attracted only one Muslim psychiatrist in addition to Hasan since 2001, "it is possible some were afraid" of losing such diversity "and thus were willing to overlook Hasan's deficiencies as an officer."
There's more here . . .
Deficiencies? Only a liberal could consider Hasan's jihad a deficiency. That's an insane statement.
This is Defense Secretary Gates' doing. He's responsible. It's his Army, and his acceptance of Obama's agenda and priorities are going to get a lot of troopers killed. Senators Losing Patience In Fort Hood Probe Gordon Lubold says top congressional leaders are demanding the Obama administration cooperate with their investigation into the shooting at Fort Hood, threatening to subpoena officials if the government continues to "frustrate" their efforts.
Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I) of Connecticut and Susan Collins (R) of Maine, chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, are demanding records, witnesses, and other data to help them piece together how the government missed what some believe were clear warning signs that something was amiss.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has been charged in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage on Fort Hood army base that killed 13 service members.
While the FBI and Defense Department have provided the congressional committee with some information, it has been limited. Both Justice and Defense departments cite concerns that releasing certain information could undermine the integrity of the case against Hasan.
"The administration claims that this information could compromise its prosecution of Major Hasan and that congressional interviews of front-line agents would chill the conduct of intelligence and law enforcement activities," Senator Lieberman told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday. "We strenuously disagree."
Lieberman said the response from the Obama administration to provide the committee with additional records and witnesses to the event has been "inadequate and unreasonable."
"Congress must fully understand this example of home-based terrorism in order to find ways to help prevent it from occurring in the future," said Senator Collins. "And in order to perform our vital oversight function, we must have the cooperation of administration officials."
Continue reading here . . . Obama Continues To Defy Senate Craig Whitlock reports that the Obama administration said Tuesday that it will provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.
After days of negotiations, the Defense and Justice departments informed a Senate committee that they will not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records related to the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the alleged gunman.
The Pentagon said, however, that it will give the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs access to Hasan's personnel file, as well as part of an Army report that scrutinized why superiors did not intervene in Hasan's career as an Army psychiatrist, despite signs of his religious radicalization and shortcomings as a soldier.
Leslie Phillips, a committee spokeswoman, said the refusal to hand over all the material was "an affront" to Congress's duty "to conduct independent oversight of the executive branch."
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the agency has tried to cooperate as much as possible.
And the cover-up continues. Ft. Hood Shooter Continues To Get Paid Useful Info Nation blog is reporting that Ft. Hood jihadi, Maj. Nidal Hasan, is still being paid -- but no one will cash his checks. No bank will take his business, and his attorney says he's being discriminated against. Oh yeah, the Army discriminating against him by still paying him.
The attorney for the man charged with last year's deadly shooting rampage at Texas' Fort Hood Army post says his client, who is still on the military's payroll, can't find a bank willing to cash his checks.
For once, financial institutions are making good decisions.
While Maj. Nidal Hasan sits in Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas, waiting for his next hearing in October, his lawyer, John Galligan, has been shopping around to banks trying to find a financial institution willing to take on his client as a customer.
Given the people he chooses to associate with, perhaps Galligan can look up an old client with money laundering techniques.
"Various banks have refused, without any specificity, to permit Hasan to open a checking account where he can have his military pay deposited," Galligan told ABC News.
Any specificity? Is it possible the owners of these banks are protesting the fact that the murderer is still on the government payroll?
Hasan still is receiving payment from the U.S. military because, according to a spokesman, he is still a service member.
"He is a major in the United States Army and will therefore be paid until he is no longer a major," said Lt. Col. Chris Garver. "So yes, he's still receiving payment."
According to Army records, Hasan stands to receive a check for about $6,000 every month. He is also eligible for what the Army calls an "incentive pay" that could be as much as $15,000 annually. Galligan declined to comment on how much Hasan is worth.
That's $87,000 per year for a murderer who just happens to be Islamic. Does anybody think a Christian or Jew would still be receiving checks? No, because the Obama administration would have called it a terror attack from minute one. And whatever happened to "suspended without pay" -- at least "reduction in pay?"
Continue reading here . . . No Jihad In Jihad Attack Pamela Geller asks us to check out this Fox News story about the Pentagon's report on the Fort Hood attacks. She thinks it's the height of stupidity and suicidal policy -- all psychobabble, no jihad.
So crippled has our military (and other branches of government) become by this self imposed sharia (do not insult Islam!), that despite the staggering loss of US soldiers, the chief concern of Army chief Casey in the bloody aftermath of the Fort Hood jihad was that "speculation could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers and what happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here."
That was the concern.
On the day of Major Hasan's mass slaughter of US troops at Fort Hood in the bloodiest act of war on a military base in US history, Major Muslim Hasan distributed Qurans and his card, calling infidels to convert to Islam before his jihad.
Hasan screamed "Allahu Akbar"!!! as he mowed down US soldiers at Fort Hood.
Obama has continued to withhold evidence in the Fort Hood jihadist attack and continues to shield the Muslim terrorist. Senators have been forced to sue the White House for information. Fort Hood Massacre Classified As "Workplace Violence" The Jawa Report says this seems pretty idiotic. I haven't read the full Fort Hood report, but if the various news reports are accurate then it seems that the DOD investigation focuses on workplace safety issues and the disclosure of mental health problems rather than the obvious -- WTF was a guy in contact with a known terrorist leader doing in the military in the first place?
Some reports suggest that the FBI is going to be more forthcoming in sharing information about who it investigates with the military, but the media stories that I'm reading tend to throw in that fact way down in the story [the last paragraph from the AP here] which seems, to me, like evidence that they wish to continue the narrative that Nidal Hasan was a lunatic like any other lunatic and divert our attention from the plain facts of the case -- that he was inspired to jihad by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's Anwar al-Awlaki.
To construe Fort Hood as anything other than an act of terrorism is to whitewash one of the worst cases of terrorism since 9/11.
As I've said many many times in the past, mental illness and terrorism are not mutually exclusive categories. In fact, those with sympathies with non-hierarchical terrorist movements like al Qaeda are more likely to pull off a terrorist attack when they are mentally ill.
In my book the act of characterizing Nidal Hasan's as an incident of just another dude "going postal" can only be deliberate. Which means that 9 years after 9/11, and dozens and dozens of cases of attempted Islamist terror on our soil just isn't enough for them to overcome the prejudices learned in journalism school. I'd say it will take another 9/11 for them to get clued in but I'm pretty sure that we could have 100 attacks of the scale of 9/11 and they'd still operate under the illusion that adhering to political Islam is pretty much the same thing as being Amish.
Barack Obama and his fixer, Eric Holder, have buried the true cause of this Islamist attack, and actively covered up the facts of this case since the beginning. Read the whole story here . . . Ft. Hood Jihadi Trial Begins Today Ten minutes of terror, the bloodiest attack on a mainland U.S. military post, will begin to replay in slow motion this week as prosecutors present the case against accused Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
Many of the 32 survivors of the Nov. 5 massacre at Fort Hood are expected to testify about the carnage that ensued when Hasan opened fire at the post's soldier readiness center. Witnesses reported hearing Hasan yell, "Allahu akbar," or "God is greatest," before shooting more than 100 rounds from two pistols and killing 13 people. The attack ended when two civilian police officers shot Hasan four times, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
The preliminary hearing starting Tuesday is known as an Article 32 hearing. It is the first step in what is expected to be a death penalty case against the 40-year-old officer.
The prosecution team has declined to comment. Fort Hood spokesmen say prosecutors expect to take at least two weeks to lay out probable cause that Hasan committed 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder.
The defense team, led by retired Army Col. John Galligan, a former military judge now in private practice in Belton, Texas, says Hasan cannot get a fair trial at the Central Texas post. In a poll earlier this year, more than 1,100 people in the area reported being directly affected by the attack.
Galligan tried unsuccessfully to have the Article 32 hearing closed to the public, citing unrelenting community outrage. The defense lawyer also voiced concern that intense media coverage of the proceeding could make it difficult for Hasan to get a fair trial anywhere.
The closest civilian equivalent to the Article 32 hearing is a grand jury. Hasan's case involves lawyers and a forensic psychologist who are veterans of the most sensitive cases arising from U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. These include legal proceedings that spotlight uncomfortable questions about Islam and Muslim fears that their faith is under attack -- a view that Hasan has espoused.
Continue reading here . . . Ft. Hood Jihadi Puts On 4 Minute Defense My San Antonie News is reporting that prosecutors took nine days and 56 witnesses to finish their part of an evidentiary hearing for an Army psychiatrist charged with a shooting spree one year ago, but the defense took just four minutes.
The hearing wrapped up Monday morning shortly after Col. James Pohl, an Army judge who presided over a series of Abu Ghraib proceedings five years ago, asked Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan if he had anything to say.
"No," Hasan replied.
Pohl, the investigating officer for the Article 32 hearing, will recommend whether a trial should be ordered for Hasan, who is charged with 13 specifications of premeditated murder and could get the death penalty.
A post spokesman said a decision on a trial is expected at the beginning of next year.
Veteran defense attorney Frank Spinner was not surprised that Hasan's lawyers did not call witnesses to the stand and noted that the burden was on prosecutors.
"Typically the defense doesn't put on evidence," he said, calling the 10-day proceeding one of the longest he's seen in more than 30 years. "The prosecution has to establish probable cause that an offense was committed and the accused committed it."
The good news is Hasan is paralyzed from the chest down after being shot at the end of the melee -- no more lap dances from infidel females for him. Obama Aids Ft. Hood Jihadi Catherine Herridge says a key intelligence report that could aid accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan's defense is being withheld by the Obama administration, according to a letter obtained by Fox News as part of its ongoing investigation of a radical American cleric.
Intelligence officials do not deny that the report contains information about the cleric, Anwar Al-Awlaki, who is the first American on the CIAs kill or capture list.
The letter, dated Oct. 19, 2010, was sent by the general counsel for the national intelligence director -- the nations top intelligence official -- to the chief Army prosecutor, Col. Michael Mulligan. It states that the intelligence review requested by Obama immediately after the shooting last year "is not reasonably available."
Robert S. Litt, general counsel for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, cites "highly classified, compartmented, and sensitive information originating with a number of different executive branch agencies" as justification for withholding the document on the shooting, which left 13 dead and more than 30 injured.
In what may be a slight to the defense, the letter states a review of the material would be complicated and the DNI letter strongly hints it will never be produced for Hasans defense.
"The document you requested is an interagency joint response. ... Accordingly, we cannot produce the document (if ever) until after a detailed and time-consuming interagency coordination and consultation regarding the report and the underlying highly sensitive information it contains. ... As a result, we have determined that this report is not reasonably available"
Fox News Specials Unit reported earlier this year, as part of an hour-long documentary on Anwar al-Awlaki, that at least 18 e-mails were exchanged between Hasan and the cleric. In one e-mail exchange, two sources who have reviewed the e-mails confirm, Hasan asked Awlaki to appear as a guest presenter at a fundraising/scholarship event in the U.S. The cleric declined, adding that he doesnt visit the U.S. anymore.
Continue reading here . . .
Related: Gitmo Detainee Verdict Highlights Obama's Bad Judgment
Obama and Holder withheld key testimony in the Ghailani trial. Now they're doing it in the Hasan trial. They are clearly running interference for the Muslim brothers. Fort Hood Shooting Could Have Been Prevented
According to ABC, the Fort Hood Shooting could have been prevented.
A new Senate report on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting blames the FBI and Department of Defense for failing to recognize or act on alleged shooter Army Major Nidal Malik Hasans extremist views.
The report, released today by Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Joe Lieberman and ranking Republican Susan Collins, says the FBI and DoD could have prevented the shooting if they had identified Hasans radical Islamist views and disciplined or discharged him before the attack occurred.
"Our reports painful conclusion is that the Fort Hood massacre could have and should have been prevented," Lieberman said at a press conference today.
"The fact is that both the FBI and the Army were aware of Major Hasan," Collins said. "This is not a case where a lone wolf was unknown to the FBI, unknown to the military officials, until he struck -- and that is the tragedy of this case."
The November 2009 shooting killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.
And Bill O'Reilly is an idiot with that "fair and balanced" crap! Senate Fort Hood Report Whitewashes Obama's Culpability Alec Rawls noted one year ago that: "All three major domestic terror attacks of 2009 were directly enabled by Obama's reverse-profiling orders, exempting Muslims from scrutiny."
First was the shooting of two soldiers at a Little Rock Army recruiting office. Shortly after Obama ordered our intelligence agencies to "back off" from investigating black Muslims, a black Muslim who had previously been under surveillance killed one soldier and critically wounded another.
The case of the Christmas 2009 "Crotch Bomber" indicates that Obama's "back off" command extended to ALL Muslims. According to one State Department employee, watch- list monitors were: "encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims." The employee admitted that this policy was the reason Abdulmutallab was not flagged for scrutiny after the British denied him a visa for trying to attend a phony school in England, proving that State Department personnel understood Obama's policy as a general order not to investigate Muslims, even when they had cause that had nothing to do with a person being Muslim.
This reverse-discrimination goes beyond counter-terrorism. The recent Civil Rights Commission report on Obama's DOJ found a systematic refusal to enforce civil rights law against minority perpetrators on behalf of white victims, and Barack "I will stand with them... [Muslims]" Obama has made it perfectly clear that he places Muslims on the favored side of that unequal justice.
The Fort Hood massacre itself also suggests that Obama's counter-terrorism "back off" command extended to all Muslims. It came out in November 2009 that agents dropped their Nidal Hasan investigation because they deemed his communications with al Qaeda leader Awlaki to be protected speech:
U.S. officials now confirm Hasan sent as many as 20 e-mails to Awlaki. Authorities intercepted the e-mails but later deemed them innocent or protected by the first amendment.
Could such a glaring misapplication of the First Amendment have occurred if agents were not looking for ways to give Muslims special consideration? Not likely.
Continue reading here. There's a lot more . . . Is Obama Sabotaging The Ft. Hood Murder Case To Avoid Executing A Muslim? Coach Collins says the November 5, 2009, shooting rampage by the cowardly Muslim Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was wake-up call that has become an example of why America made a grave error in electing Barack Hussein Obama.
Hasan murdered 13 innocent people. All but one were soldiers either just returning from theaters of war or preparing to deploy to combat areas. One of the dead soldiers was pregnant. The remaining victim was an Army civilian employee.
Hassans guilt is indisputable. After being shot by an armed civilian guard the only armed personnel at the scene (thanks to Bill Clinton Military bases are "gun free zones"), Hassan was immediately taken into custody. His weapons were recovered. Eyewitness statements were taken, and then the unexpected happened. Nothing further has taken place.
The White House immediately set up whatever roadblocks it could to thwart the Armys case against Hassan. By December 2009 the ranking Republican member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-MI, had to publicly call Obama out to demand he quit stalling and release the necessary official report on the case so the prosecution could begin. That was 19 long months ago.
Last week Hassans civilian lawyer, John Galligan, who has since been fired by the murdering punk, also complained he was being denied access to a number of pertinent documents which could easily be delivered, but just as easily be withheld.
Information has surfaced that Intelligence agencies knew this Islamist terrorist Hasan was communicating with another terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi, who fled our shores to run a jihadist web site in Yeman. This begs the question: So what?
If Hassan and al-Aulaqi are connected that fact can be introduced during this punks trial. Holding up a final White House report for 19 months with no end of this delay in sight, to investigate this "connection" is only an excuse to slow this case down. Things like this are nothing new for this Chicago thug.
Weve seen this kind of subversion of justice to help Obama before. Remember Tony Rezko? Remember he was supposed to hand Obama up when he was finally sentenced? Not surprisingly Rezko has not been sentenced for his June 4, 2008, conviction of 16 federal crimes. Thats more than three years. Moreover, in last January his sentencing was postponed indefinitely.
Does anyone believe for a second that Rezko will allow himself to be sentenced without trying to sellout Obama? Does anyone believe for a second that Obama will allow Hassans case to conclude before next years election or ever? The Whitewashing Of Nidal Hasan's Terror Attack Continues In The Forum
Items on this page are archived in order of discovery . . . Who Is Imam Abdul Rauf Joy Tiz says the vetting of Flim Flam Imam and million dollar slumlord continues with no cooperation from the moribund mainstream media. Nonie Darwish, who escaped from Islam, has exhumed some off the record remarks by the Victory Mosque imam that will never find their way into dinosaur media reports.
The interview from June 20 th , 2006 unmasks Raufs long range goals for the United States. The great Bridge Builders game plan includes creating an Islamic State without borders, which Rauf believes would exist today if not for Western interference.
The Ground Zero mosque imam also discusses some of his other objectives which include: (1) manipulating U.S. foreign policy, (2) advocating for Hamas and (3) getting "power" on his side to push back the opposing "interests." In one part of the "post-interview," he also boasts that he advised and influenced former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and that he has a blurb on the back of one of her books. Raufs real feelings about 9/11 dont exactly line up with his image as the Great Moderate:
9/11 was a watershed, was a major catalytic force in, in catalyzing the attention towards the issue of Islam, its presence in the West. Once he was off mic, Rauf opened up about his advise and influence role with former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. When it comes to protecting the interests of the U.S., Albright has been one of the weaker links in the chain.
Albrights toady, Strobe Talbott earned himself "Special Unofficial Contact" status with Russian intelligence during the Clinton administration, right under Albrights nose; an honor Talbott shares with such luminaries as Raul Castro. Albright actually had to be told by the FBI to stop giving information to Talbott. Talbott may also have been a poor choice to send to Russia with George Soros. After Talbott and Soros looted the place, the taxpayers were out $100 billion.
Rauf would like us to be a bit nicer to Hamas.
How America should really engage with them [Hamas]Helping her [Madeline Albright] understand the role of religion. She supported a Jewish State in the Middle East; why not support an Islamic State? This is exactly the kind of moral equivalence liberals eagerly embrace.
It would appear that the mainstream press is taking orders from Rauf as well.
If the entertainment media, the news media, was broadcasted in print, describe and speak about the issues in a different way it can help change perceptions profoundly, because its the media, which helps shape perceptions to a great degree. Darwish sums up Raufs agenda quite adroitly.
Faisal Rauf is the typical double-faced Islamist who speaks from both sides of his mouth. Even his book has one "nice" title in English to fool the West, while in Arabic it advocates Sharia from Ground Zero. While claiming that his mission is non-political, just community building, his interview not only exposes him but more importantly exposes Islam's goals and the fact that "moderate" Islam can work in perfect harmony and in conjunction with radical Islam. Darwish also reminds us that our current State Department is hardly an improvement over the one run by the bungling Albright:
Imam Rauf is dangerous, but what is more dangerous is our State Department which has been facilitating the agenda of a clearly megalomaniacal stealth jihadist. Ground Zero Imam Threatens America In an interview last night with CNNs Soledad O'Brien, the slimy Ground Zero Imam, Abdul Rauf, threatened violence against America and Americans if the Islamic victory mosque is not built at Ground Zero.
Rauf, a supporter of the Iranian revolution, says the reason he cant move the Islamic center now is because of national security concerns, saying parts of the Muslim world would be violently inflamed at the news of the centers relocation.
"The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack (theres) the danger of the radicals in the Muslim world to our national security, to the national security of our troops," he said.
"If we do move," Rauf continued, "it will strengthen the argument of the radicals to recruit, their ability to recruit, and their increasing aggression and violence against our country."
"If this is not handled correctly, this crisis could become much bigger than the Danish cartoon crisis, which resulted in attacks on Danish embassies in various parts of the Muslim world," Rauf said later. ". If we don't handle this crisis correctly it could become something which could really become very, very, very dangerous indeed."
That's Islam. Don't do what they want, and they'll kill you. Do what they don't want, and they'll kill you.
And the concept that it's only "radical Muslims" that we have to fear is absolute nonsense. It wasn't "radical Muslims" that engaged in worldwide, violent rioting after the "Danish cartoon crisis." It was your average "Muzzie in the street."
It wasn't terrorists dancing in the streets on 9/11. It was your average "Muzzie in the street."
And it won't be terrorists rioting if this guy burns a Quran. It will be your average "Muzzie in the street."
The notion that only a "radical fringe" of Muzzies are extremists is total and absolute bullsh!t. Islam, by definition, by its scripture, by its law (sharia), and by its practice, is inherently hostile to the U.S. Constitutional principles of human liberty?
In this interview, Rauf says that Islam means peace. That's a lie (al-taqiyya). Islam means "submit." In truth, the Quran not only calls Muslims to submit to Allah, it also commands them to subdue people of other religions until they are in a full state of submission to Islamic rule. This has inspired the aggressive history of Islam and its success in conquering other cultures.
Upon subduing a people, Muslims build a "victory mosque." One of the most famous victory mosques is the Cordoba mosque, or the Mezquita. It was built by the Umayyad Moors on the site of a Visigothic Christian church.
And what does Rauf, a principal in the Shari'ah Index Project, call his Ground Zero victory mosque?
Cordoba House . . .
Related: U.S. military destroys soldier's Bibles
Related: Obama warns planned Koran burning is boosting al-Qaeda
Looks like Obama got the memo. Gingrich: Obama Must Nix Ground Zero Mosque NewsMax.com says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Barack Obama should speak as bluntly to the Islamists planning a mosque near the Sept. 11 attack site as he has to the minister threatening to burn the Quran.
The Republican told ABC's "Good Morning America" he believes "it's wrong to burn the Quran, and it's wrong to build the mosque at Ground Zero, and both should be stopped."
He said Americans want an even-handed approach to the controversy, but are ready to tell Obama: "Why don't you be just as blunt with the iman, and tell him, 'Don't do it.'" Obama demanded that the Rev. Terry Jones cancel his plan to carry out a Quran-burning protest.
Never gonna happen. Obama's all for it. Pastor Slams "Lying Imam" Jim Hoft says its on!
Pastor Terry Jones told reporters tonight that his planned bonfire is back on after he was "lied to" by a local imam. Jones said the imam told him the Ground Zero Victory Mosque would be moved even though it is not being moved.
The torching will continue. The AP reports:
An anti-Islamic preacher backed off and then threatened to reconsider burning the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, angrily accusing a Muslim leader of lying to him Thursday with a promise to move an Islamic center and mosque away from New Yorks ground zero. The imam planning the center denied there was ever such a deal.
The Rev. Terry Jones generated an international firestorm with his plan to burn the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and he has been under intense pressure to give it up. Barack Obama urged him to listen to "those better angels" and give up his "stunt," saying it would endanger U.S. troops and give Islamic terrorists a recruiting tool. Defense Secretary Robert Gates took the extraordinary step of calling Jones personally.
Standing outside his 50-member Pentecostal church, the Dove Outreach Center, alongside Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, Jones said he relented when Musri assured him that the New York mosque will be moved.
Musri, however, said after the news conference that the agreement was only for him and Jones to travel to New York and meet Saturday with the imam overseeing plans to build a mosque near ground zero.
Hours later, Jones said Musri "clearly, clearly lied to us."
Dont expect this story to go away for at least another 48 hours.
Related: Obama Speaks Out Against Burning Koran But Supports Ground Zero Victory Mosque
Related: Call Off the Suicide Bombers Pastor Cancels His Koranic Bonfire
Related: Citing Quran-Burning Threat, Islamic Body Wants U.N. to Outlaw "Offenses Against Religion"
Lying to infidels is perfectly OK with Muslims if it advances Islam. It even has a name -- taqiyya -- the Quran encourages it. One Khilafah -- One World
Shelomo Alfassa says the black & white flag is the flag of Islamic victory -- so Mr. Mayor, don't tell me they don't want jihad on America!
One is the Islamic Khilafah (state) and one is the flag of jihad.
This black flag with the Shahada in white on it is the Rayah, the flag of the Jihad in Islam. Not the banner of single group claiming for Jihad but the banner of the Jihad. The flag is Black and the Shahada always remains in white. Every Muslim fighting in Jihad will hold this flag.
They are coming (video).
Related: The "Pro-Mosque" Protest at Ground Zero Mosquerade Web Today blog asks, what is really behind the Ground Zero "Community Center?"
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has advertised the controversial Ground Zero mosque as an Islamic outreach to the community, a cultural center open and intended to unify all religions. Today, he still stands by that assertion, even as his proposed mosque continues to exact the opposite effect before its even built.
Now, harsh critics, such as Chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, William Murray, are presented with even more perplexing information in the form of Sharif El-Gamal (photo), the mysterious developer behind the mosque.
Reportedly a waiter by profession who suddenly "came into" the kind of money to spearhead a $100 million project like this, El-Gamal also has, not just a run-in with the law in his checkered past, but a proverbial rap sheet that includes assault, drunk driving and enough disorderly conducts to inspire a TV reality show. Not to mention he owes $227,000 in unpaid real estate taxes, compounded daily.
All this, and the organizers behind the mosque refuse to disclose the funding sources for the project.
In his day-to-day, what Murray finds most troubling about this already infamous mosque project is the double standard it represents on behalf of its supporters, including Mayor Bloomberg, who tout its construction as a case study in Americas exercise of religious freedom, in spite of the international target on the back of Christianity.
"The developers of the Ground Zero mosque refuse to even admit to the violence against Christianity in the name of Islam, much less condemn it," says Murray. "Halfway through the so-called 'holy month' of Ramadan there were more than 100 attacks by Muslims on civilian targets with more than 400 dead and thousands injured. How can it be claimed that the Ground Zero mosque is a tribute to tolerance and peace?" Ground Zero Imam Blackmailing America Bridget Johnson is reporting that the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee accused the imam behind the mosque project near Ground Zero of arm-twisting and "blackmailing" to push Park51, the Islamic victory mosque, through.
"To me, it's almost as if he's blackmailing and threatening the United States that somehow if the mosque is not approved or people speak out against his mosque, you have to worry about being attacked by Islamic terrorists," Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on Fox Business Network on Friday.
King said that the Islamic center was being "put their to make a statement, not to build bridges, but to make a statement."
"We don't have to prove ourselves to anyone and certainly don't have to measure up to some standard set by an imam who said that the U.S. was a co-conspirator of 9/11," King said.
This guy is evil -- just check out those eyes -- same as this guy -- he knows exactly what he is doing -- and it isn't building bridges. Obama Defends Ground Zero Mosque Jim Geraghty says he's had Obamas press conference on for the past hour or so, and much of the talk has been predictable -- we inherited economic problems, we never said we would solve it overnight, we never said the health-care bill would solve every problem immediately, blah, blah, blah.
Wendell Goler of Fox News asked Obama whether the mosque should be built at the site, two blocks from Ground Zero.
Obamas answer meandered like the Mississippi River, but eventually he made it clear: he has no objection to the Ground Zero Mosque.
"If we say that their religion is somehow offensive . . . what are we saying to them? Ive got Muslims fighting in the uniform of the armed services of the United States. Theyre putting their lives on the line for us. . . . There is no us and them. There is only us."
Thats actually the best answer Ive heard from a mosque defender. On CNN, theyre noting that this was Obamas most passionate answer.
Its a compelling answer, but in the end Im unconvinced. I would say to that Muslim serving in the Armed Forces, "First, thank you for what you do. Every American ought to honor your service. But on this proposal, I dont want a self-proclaimed Official Mosque of Ground Zero any more than I want a self-proclaimed Official Church of Ground Zero or Official Synagogue or other institutions of faith. The events of 9/11 are too big, and too deeply meaningful to too many people, to be shoehorned into one sects interpretation, even if it turns out to be a good one. This is separate from questions of the Imams . . . well, good faith, no pun intended; his viewpoint seems to be that no amount of intense public opposition, distrust, and resentment will deter him from his mission of promoting unity, trust, and healing. No matter how counterproductive his actions get, he never seems to be willing to reconsider what hes doing."
Imam Puts Confrontation First Ben Geman is reporting that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani strongly criticized Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam seeking to build an Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero. Giuliani said on NBCs "Meet the Press."
"He seems by his actions to be more interested in confrontation than in healing."
The former mayor alleged that the plan is hurtful to the vast majority of family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Giuliani also said the imam has not been transparent about the projects financing, and cited Raufs 2001 comment on CBSs 60 Minutes that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened."
Giuliani also compared the imam to Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who had threatened to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 but backed off in recent days, saying:
"The imam has a right to put the mosque there. Freedom of religion gives him that right. The minister has the right to burn the Quran. The same amendment to the constitution gives him that right."
"In either case common sense and a real dedication to healing that these men of god would theoretically have would tell you not to do it because you are hurting too many people."
In the 2001 interview, Rauf said, "We have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA."
Rauf addressed the nine-year-old "accessory" comment -- which he says has been taken out of context -- in an interview on CNNs Larry King Live that aired last week.
"I was describing the fact that United States had actually worked with the Taliban, cooperated with the Mujahadin. The Mujahadin were VIPs in the Reagan White House administration. And Osama bin Laden was something that we -- the United States cooperated with in fighting the Soviet Union," he said in the Sept. 8, 2010 interview, according to a CNN transcript.
Related: Rauf will be given a forum this morning by the "one-worlders" at the Council of Foreign Relations.
Related: Figures -- ObamaMedia Compares Anti-Victory Mosque Sentiment to Japanese Internment Camps Ground Zero Is NOT Hallowed Ground Real Clear Politics has a video in which the Islamic victory mosque's, Imam Rauf, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, says:
"It is absolutely disingenuous to call this hallowed ground," referring to the Ground Zero site.
It is two blocks from ground zero, but the site of a proposed mosque and Islamic center shouldn't be seen as "hallowed ground" in a neighborhood that also contains a strip club and a betting parlor, the cleric leading the effort said Monday.
Making an ardent case for the compatibility of Islam and American values, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf reiterated that he is searching for a solution to the furor the project has created. But he left unanswered exactly what he had in mind.
And, once again, the radical imam thanked Barack Obama for his support on the victory mosque.
Related: Faiz Khan signed the 9-11 Truth.org petition
Related: NJ Town Files Suit Against Rat/Roach Slumlord Imam Feisal Raul of Ground Zero Mosque Infamy Rauf Is For Sharia Now this is a surprise! Not!
LogansWarning reports what Imam Rauf had to say about Sharia to the Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad.
"People asked me right after the 9/11 attacks as to why do movements with political agendas carry [Islamic] religious names? Why call it 'Muslim Brotherhood' or 'Hezbollah (Party of Allah)' or 'Hamas' or 'Islamic Resistance Movement'? I answer them this -- that the trend towards Islamic law and justice begins in religious movements, because secularism has failed to deliver what the Muslim wants, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. . . .The only law that the Muslim needs exists already in the Koran and the Hadith."
Related: Shariah a danger to U.S., security pros say
Related: Rauf Lecture Reveals Radicalism
Rauf is a principal in the Shari'ah Index Project, and is an evil, lying jihadi.
There is no "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in Islam. Islam is all-controlling and barbaric. Muslim Summit Planned Over NYC Islamic Center David Caruso says a proposed Islamic center near ground zero [sic] is slowly being embraced by some Muslims who initially were indifferent about the plan, partly in response to a sense that their faith is under attack.
Sweetness & Light adds -- You see, its the protesters fault.
A summit of U.S. Muslim organizations is scheduled to begin Sunday in New York City to address both the project and a rise in anti-Muslim sentiments and rhetoric that has accompanied the nationwide debate over the project.
At least the AP has stopped pretending that there has been an uptick in violence against the Mohammedans.
It has yet to be seen whether the groups will emerge with a firm stand on the proposed community center, dubbed Park51
But the AP has high hopes.
The primary purpose of the meeting is to talk about ways to combat religious bigotry
Hilarious. This from a the most bigoted "religion" in the history of the world.
Groups scheduled to participate in the summit include the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Alliance of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations
In other words, its just the usual terrorist enabling suspects. We have posted links to their backgrounds from Discover The Networks numerous times.
Suffice to say, most of these people should be behind bars, rather than preaching to us. Islamists Compare Ground Zero Mosque To Rosa Parks Jihad Watch asks, do you remember when Rosa Parks took down the Twin Towers? Remember when she murdered 13 Americans at Fort Hood? Remember her Times Square bomb plot? Remember her Christmas underwear plot? Remember when she murdered a soldier at a Little Rock Army recruiting center? Remember her London bombings? Her Madrid bombings? Her Mumbai bombings? Her Beslan massacres? Her Bali bombings?
Ah, there I go again, eh? Painting Muslims with a broad brush. Muslims didn't do any of those things, you see. Even though their perpetrators were all Muslims acting by their own word in the name of Islam, there are other Muslims who condemn them, and so the ones who condemn them cannot be made to share the responsibility for all those crimes and acts of war. Right?
Sure. Except for the fact that the objective of all these acts of violence was to weaken Infidel polities so as to hasten the imposition of Sharia, and Rauf, imam of the Ground Zero mosque, is a proponent of Sharia. And not to mention also that many of these groups are linked to Hamas. So are they really an alternative to the jihadis? Or is their difference with them more about means than about ends?
Anne Barnard, writing for The New York Times, disseminates Islamist propaganda in her essay, "Muslim Leaders Stand by Islamic Center Near Ground Zero"
Comparing the planners of the Muslim community center and mosque to be built two blocks from ground zero to Rosa Parks, leaders of numerous American Muslim organizations declared their strong support for the project on Monday, and said it should not move....
"We stand for the constitutional right of Muslims and Americans of all faiths to build houses of worship anywhere in our nation as allowed by local laws and regulations," said the statement read by Al-Amin Latif, president of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New York, also known as the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, which represents 55 mosques and Muslim groups. "Also, we stand against the racism, hatred, religious intolerance and ethnic bigotry directed against Islam and American Muslims."...
"Ground zero is all of ours," said Nihad Awad, the executive director of the [Hamas-linked] Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Ground zero does not belong to a specific group of people or religion. Ground zero belongs to all Americans, and we all share the grief, we all share the healing." He said it was unfair to associate the planned community center or all Muslims with 9/11.
Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Washington-based [Muslim Brotherhood front] Muslim American Society Freedom, the civil rights branch of the Muslim American Society , compared those who want the project built elsewhere to those who he said told Rosa Parks: "We want you to move. You offend us being where you are. This is not the right place for you to be."
Bizarroland Of The Bully Mosque Bigs Michael Goodwin says to mark this moment: The battle over the Ground Zero mosque has passed through the looking glass and into the wonderland of insanity.
Surprise, surprise, the "summit" of national and local Muslim organizations early this week turned into a rally-around-the-mosque gathering. While that was predictable, the logic justifying the move is as scrambled as the landscape Alice discovered behind the mirror.
It is now the "extremists" opposed to the mosque who are the reason why it must be built, according to the Muslim supporters. At least one of whom, not incidentally, is a big supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Growing out of the fetid swamps of moral equivalence, where extremism is in the eye of the beholder, the gathering illustrates how a preposterous sense of victimization is now the driving force behind the mosque. The initial vow that the facility would help heal the breach of 9/11 has vanished.
Instead of the interfaith bridge, developers and supporters delivered a superhighway of grievance and false claims of discrimination. In a flash, the mosque has gone from a plan to assertions of legal right and absolute moral authority.
To merely question it is to be a bigot. It must be built or the whole country will be labeled anti-Islam. And you know what that means -- kaboom!
They threaten violence, and we're accused of being intolerant.
In fairness, we can't blame this switcheroo only on the shady cast of slumlords and tax scofflaws behind the project. Mayor Bloomberg and then Obama showed them the way by foolishly inflating a fairly routine land-use controversy into a historic test of American values.
As I have noted, they were half-right -- the development is a test. But it is a test of Islamic values, and so far, they are being revealed as seriously deficient in matters of tolerance and manners. Those who claim to be representatives of Islam are acting in a bullying way to their downtown neighbors and, especially, the 9/11 families. They have created enormous bad blood, and are fueling a growing mistrust of Islam.
They are the villains of the piece.
Continue reading here . . . Email From A Moderate Muslim From: Malik Bawwab Date: Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 2:44 PM Subject: Coalition to Honor Ground Zero Contact: We Own You!!! To: Webmaster
From: Malik Bawwab malik_bawwab@hotmail.com
Message:
My name is Malik Bawwab and I am an Arab Muslim! And we will build our Victory Mosque wherever we want to build it! And there is nothing any of you damn infidels can do about it! We will even build it on top of your grave! You can cry all you want and complain like little babies, but WE OWN YOU!!! And all my Arab brothers and sisters spit on your grave!!!
Sent from (ip address): 128.208.125.114 (D-128-208-125-114.dhcp4.washington.edu)
And, it looks like this guy is an American. He's a member of the "Crew" team. And notice that he refers to the mosque as a "Victory" mosque.
Adding insult to injury, it is probable that the government is paying for a good piece of this guy's education at the very liberal University of Washington. Ground Zero Mosque Enters Alice In Wonderland Terrority Michael Goodwin says mark the moment: The battle over the Ground Zero mosque has passed through the looking glass and into the wonderland of insanity.
Surprise, surprise, the "summit" of national and local Muslim organizations early this week turned into a rally-around-the-mosque gathering. While that was predictable, the logic justifying the move is as scrambled as the landscape Alice discovered behind the mirror. It is now the "extremists" opposed to the mosque who are the reason why it must be built, according to the Muslim supporters. At least one of whom, not incidentally, is a big supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Growing out of the fetid swamps of moral equivalence, where extremism is in the eye of the beholder, the gathering illustrates how a preposterous sense of victimization is now the driving force behind the mosque. The initial vow that the facility would help heal the breach of 9/11 has vanished. Instead of the interfaith bridge, developers and supporters delivered a superhighway of grievance and false claims of discrimination. In a flash, the mosque has gone from a plan to assertions of legal right and absolute moral authority.
To merely question it is to be a bigot. It must be built or the whole country will be labeled anti-Islam. And you know what that means -- kaboom! -- they threaten violence, and we're accused of being intolerant.
In fairness, we can't blame this switcheroo only on the shady cast of slumlords and tax scofflaws behind the project. Bloomberg and then Obama showed them the way by foolishly inflating a fairly routine land-use controversy into a historic test of American values. As I have noted, they were half-right -- the development is a test. But it is a test of Islamic values, and so far, they are being revealed as seriously deficient in matters of tolerance and manners. Those who claim to be representatives of Islam are acting in a bullying way to their downtown neighbors and, especially, the 9/11 families. They have created enormous bad blood, and are fueling a growing mistrust of Islam.
They are the villains of the piece.
Meanwhile, America's commitment to freedom of religion is quietly attested to by the 1,000 or more mosques around the nation. And, despite a generational war with Islamic fanatics who have killed nearly 10,000 Americans and continuously try to launch more terror attacks, the United States continues to welcome with open arms Muslims from around the globe [a big mistake IMO -- more Muslims equal more voting power -- more Muslim politicians -- hello sharia].
As for the claims of harassment and violence against Muslims here, it's a jihadist fantasy. Yet it has become the rallying cry for mosque supporters and an excuse for increasingly open expressions of anti-Americanism. As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair argues, the false narrative that Islam is under attack, which fuels the terrorists, is being adopted by so-called "moderate" Muslims as well. The victimization card offers them a defense for their silence about terrorists, and helps create the conditions for the homegrown cells popping up throughout the Western world.
And you thought the mosque was just a mosque. Think again. The stakes are rising day by day. Imam Unmoved By Saudi Criticism Of NYC Mosque The imam co-leading a drive to build an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center politely brushed aside a suggestion by one of his past benefactors Thursday that the project be moved to a different spot.
"While we respect the points of view of other interested observers, we plan to build the community center in this location because we have been part of Lower Manhattan for decades and we want to better serve the needs of our neighbors of all faith traditions," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
Rauf was responding to a request for comment on remarks by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the world's richest men, who told a magazine based in the United Arab Emirates that he was against putting the center and mosque close to ground zero.
In interview excerpts published Thursday by Arabian Business, Prince Alwaleed urged the center's backers not to "agitate the wound" caused by the 9/11 attacks by building so close to ground zero.
"The wound is still there. Just because the wound is healing you can't say, 'Let's just go back to where we were pre-9/11,'" he said.
Continue reading here . . .
Rauf is on jihad, he doesn't care what some Saudi Prince says. Ground Zero Mosque Developers Want Tax Dollars The New York Post is reporting that the developers behind the proposed Islamic victory mosque have applied for about $5 million in federal grant money set aside for redeveloping downtown Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a new report.
The application was submitted as a "community and cultural enhancement" grant, which is a program run by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp.
Developer Sharif El-Gamal discussed the grant proposal in recent closed-door meetings, according to The Daily Beast.
The revelation that the developers have asked for this grant could reignite outrage about the mosque's proposed location.
"If Imam Feisal and his retinue want know why they're not trusted, here's yet another reason," Irshad Manji, author of "The Trouble with Islam" and director of the Moral Courage Project at NYU, told The Daily Beast. "The New Yorkers I speak with have questions about Park51. Requesting money from public coffers without engaging the public shows a staggering lack of empathy -- especially from a man who says he's all about dialogue."
The site of the proposed mosque and cultural center, two blocks from the Trade Center, already has seen frequent protests. National figures including Sarah Palin have spoken out against it.
Some have called the project an exercise in triumphalism, intended to plant Islam's flag at the scene of the attacks and deliberately provoke Americans.
Rauf told "60 Minutes" in September that to reduce fears that terror organizations would contribute to the project, he'll ask US officials to approve the sources of funding.
Unfreakin' believable! What gall! Anybody want to bet AGAINST these guys getting the money? I don't. That idiot Bloomberg will undoubtedly sign the check himself. Naked Hypocrisy JihadWatch.org says that everything the Ground Zero mosque organizers have done gives the lie to their claim to be fostering harmony by building the mosque.
A terrific New York Post editorial pulls no punches about the naked hypocrisy of the organizers of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero.
"No mosque money," from the New York Post, December 6:
[...] On its face, the use of federal funds for this project would be the height of irony. Picture it: an Islamic center hard by Ground Zero -- the very site where Islamists struck Americans on 9/11 -- built in part with post-9/11 money from . . . Americans.
Heck, if you're going to rub your victims' noses in the dirt, why not use their money to do it?
Could there be any more reason to oppose this project? [...]
Those who back the mosque, like Mayor Bloomberg, argue that supporting it is necessary to show tolerance for Islam and a commitment to constitutional freedoms of religion and speech.
But the mosque debate has never been about that. Rather, it's been about the intent of the project -- ostensibly, to foster greater understanding of Islam and improve ties between cultures.
Fact is, everything its backers have done to ram this project through -- from siting it near Ground Zero to this latest attempt to use 9/11 funds for, among other things, Arabic courses -- gives the lie to that goal.
If these folks get even one dime of US taxpayer funding, Americans will be taken for fools -- yet again....
Barack Obama's 911 Mosque Solution Is Suicidal
We only have to look at WW I and WW II to see where appeasement got us. Yet Obama bows to Muslim leaders and supports the 911 Mosque.
Cordoba House with falling Star of David design http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/IslamicVictoryMosque.htm
Items on this page are archived in order of discovery. Previous years in left column . . . Obama Jim Hoft says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended Obamas intelligence chief saying, "He didnt have to know about the London terror plot." Obama Intelligence Chief James Clapper was surprised in an interview last week to hear that several terror suspects had been arrested in Britain in an anti-terror sweep -- the largest counterterrorism raid in nearly two years.
James Clapper is the principal adviser to President Obama, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security.
FOX Nation reported this from Mediaite:
I knew. [Chief Counterterrorism Advisor] John Brennan knew. We also knew there was no connect that had been perceived to anything going on in the homeland and that we were in perfect connectivity with our colleagues in Britain. So one of the things I think that should be very clear to the American people is that those of us in homeland security who needed to know, we knew.
Its good to know that this guy is the principal advisor to Obama, huh?
Related: Napolitano says the U.S. is safer now than in 2009
Related: Dont Cross Big Sis: Agents Raid Home of Pilot Critical of TSA (Video) House Panel Wants Homeland Security Documents Alan Fram says a House committee has asked the Homeland Security Department to provide documents about an agency policy that required political appointees to review many Freedom of Information Act requests, according to a letter obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.
The letter to Homeland Security was sent late Friday by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It represents an early move by House Republicans who have vowed to launch numerous probes of Barack Obama's administration, ranging from its implementation of the new health care law to rules curbing air pollution to spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Associated Press reported in July that for at least a year, Homeland Security had sidetracked hundreds of requests for federal records to top political advisers to the department's secretary, Janet Napolitano. The political appointees wanted information about those requesting the materials, and in some cases the release of documents considered politically sensitive was delayed, according to numerous e-mails that were obtained by the AP.
The Freedom of Information Act is supposed to ensure the quick public release of requested government documents without political consideration. Obama has said his administration would emphasize openness in providing requested federal records.
According to Issa's letter, Homeland Security's chief privacy officer and FOIA official told committee staff in September that political appointees were simply made aware of "significant and potentially controversial requests."
Continue reading here . . . Laugher Of The Day Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued a stern warning to Mexican drug cartels on Monday.
The cartel leaders must be shaking in their boots.
Napolitano, speaking at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the southern U.S. border has never been more secure than in recent years and public officials who argue otherwise do so to "score political points."
Another of Napolitano's "the system worked" moments.
"It is inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border is overrun with violence and out of control." ... "This statement -- often made only to score political points -- is just plain wrong."
"Not only does it ignore all of the statistical evidence, it also belittles the significant progress that effective law enforcement has made to protect this border and the people who live alongside it."
Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
"Today I say to the cartels: Dont even think about bringing your violence and tactics across this border. You will be met by an overwhelming response. And were going to continue to work with our partners in Mexico to dismantle and defeat you.
Tee hee! Mental image of brutal cartel leaders rolling around on the floor, laughing.
"And that message extends to anyone considering coming across that border illegally, whether a smuggler, a human trafficker, or an unlawful immigrant seeking work."
Al Qaeda, Hezbolla, and Muslim Brotherhood members are, of course, welcome, so they may make what Obama refers to as another positive contribution to America by Muslims.
The nearly brain-dead Napolitano throws around a number of stats showing arrests are up, deportations are up, drug seizures are up, and monies seized are up, as evidence of things getting better.
A more skeptical view of those stats would indicate that not only is the border totally out of control, but the stats are up because more illegals are entering the country as Mexico nears anarchy, and as more cartels are smuggling more drugs and terrorists into the country.
Week after week, more and more Americans are kidnapped and murdered along Napolitano's "more secure" border.
This woman has to have pictures of Obama in bed with a nine year-old boy and a goat. It's the only reason I can think of that she still occupies that office. Shocker! Nukes Have Been Found In America
San Diego's 10News was granted access to San Diego's seaport for a firsthand look at how Customs and Border Protection officers safeguard against weapons of mass effect.
10News investigative reporter Mitch Blacher asked Al Hallor, who is the Assistant Port Director and an officer with Customs and Border Protection, "Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponized device?"
Hallor: "At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things,"
Blacher: "So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device?"
Hallor: "Correct. Weapons of mass effect."
Blacher: "You ever found one?"
Hallor: "Not at this location."
Blacher: "But they have found them?"
Hallor: "Yes."
Blacher: "You never found one in San Diego though?"
Hallor: "I would say at the port of San Diego we have not."
At this point, the interview was interrupted by the agency's public relations person.
There you go. An assistant port director has spilled the beans on a possible major government cover up. During the conversation the Port Authority's public relations person continually interrupted the officer in an attempt to get him to shut up.
Just five days ago, on February 9th, Janet Napolitano lied to Congress. She said that the Homeland Security department is more prepared than ever to deal with the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.
"I would say that we are more prepared now than we were two years ago, and two years ago we were more prepared than two years before then," Napolitano said in testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee.
This, and the next item are related. Under Obama there is no such thing as "national security." Where Did Obama Find This Liar? Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano lashed out at border critics, flatly denying claims that problems along the Southwestern border are "out of control."
"The border is simply not the same as it was two years ago," Napolitano said in a speech Friday at the Newseum in Washington.
Napolitano argued that these "misconceptions" are "just plain wrong," and touted the praises of the Obama administration's efforts to secure the area.
According to Napolitano, border security has increased under the Obama administration and said, "American border communities are safe and open for business."
Hey Janet! Tell it to these two guys.
A mixed martial arts fighter was one of two Americans gunned down in an execution-style killing near the San Ysidro border crossing Monday morning.
Mexican authorities say Sergio Salcido Luna and Kevin Joel Romero were waiting in their company truck while waiting to cross into the U.S. before dawn.
A gunman walked up to the white Mazda truck with California license plates and opened fire at least five times, killing both men as they sat in traffic.
Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for the killing. Salcido, 25, was a professional fighter who began his career in MMA in Bakersfield.
There are more killings along the American-Mexican border than in Afghanistan, but Napolitano prefers to lie to the American People. Muslims Arent Terrorists. You Are With the election approaching, Barack Hussein Obama has spared no effort in proclaiming his undying love of his country (the United States, we are told), his veneration of the Constitution, his enduring belief in the power of prayer, and the firm conviction that Americans have the right to keep and bear arms.
But we proletarians who manifest such sentiments had best beware of the Department of Homeland Security and its commandant, Big Sis Napolitano.
A proud assertion of patriotism by Americans who actually mean it may well succeed in marking one as a Suspected Domestic Terrorist.
Veteran law enforcement officer James Wesley Rawles has attended training classes throughout his 18 years of service. But he writes that, over the years "courses have moved away from a local community focus to a federally dominated model of complete social control." And the majority of these courses are sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, that is, the TSA and FEMA.
According to the Department, potentially dangerous types are members of militias and "extremists," so defined by their tendencies toward:
Libertarian views; Support for the Second Amendment; Stockpiling of food and ammo; Buying gold or silver; Fear of Big Brother and the overreach of government; Home schooling; Belief in ones Constitutional rights; and "Unacceptable" religious views
Not only are law enforcement officers told to develop relationships with small business owners in order to determine who might be "stockpiling," they are trained to manufacture evidence of terrorist intent. When "lengths of pipe, gunpowder, matches, flammable liquids and fireworks" are found at a residence, "officers are toldthey can be listed as 'bomb making materials,'" continues Rawles.
So reload ammunition, keep gasoline for your lawn mower, or smoke cigarettes and your terrorist credentials are certifiable.
Rawles also writes that one of his federal trainers warned of those who admire the Constitution. "These people actually believe the 2nd amendment gives them the personal right to own a gun," said this mental dwarf to a generally stunned audience.
He also recommended that officers "be cautious of anyone who quotes the Constitution and even worse, actually possesses a copy of this radical document."
That the United States and liberty of the American people are threatened by the Obama Regime is obvious understatement. Terrorist Group Setting Up Operations Near Border San Diego News is reporting a terrorist organization whose home base is in the Middle East has established another home base across the border in Mexico. "They are recognized by many experts as the 'A' team of Muslim terrorist organizations," a former U.S. intelligence agent told 10News. The former agent, referring to Shi'a Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, added, "They certainly have had successes in big-ticket bombings." Some of the group's bombings include the U.S. embassy in Beirut and Israeli embassy in Argentina.
However, the group is now active much closer to San Diego. "We are looking at 15 or 20 years that Hezbollah has been setting up shop in Mexico," the agent told 10News. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. policy has focused on al-Qaida and its offshoots. "They are more shooters than thinkers it's a lot of muscles, courage, desire but not a lot of training," the agent said, referring to al-Qaida. Hezbollah, he said, is far more advanced.
"Their operators are far more skilled they are the equals of Russians, Chinese or Cubans," he said. "I consider Hezbollah much more dangerous in that sense because of strategic thinking; they think more long-term." Hezbollah has operated in South America for decades and then Central America, along with their sometime rival, sometime ally Hamas.
Now, the group is blending into Shi'a Muslim communities in Mexico, including Tijuana. Other pockets along the U.S.-Mexico border region remain largely unidentified as U.S. intelligence agencies are focused on the drug trade. "They have had clandestine training in how to live in foreign hostile territories," the agent said.
The agent, who has spent years deep undercover in Mexico, said Hezbollah is partnering with drug organizations, but which ones is not clear at this time. He told 10News the group receives cartel cash and protection in exchange for Hezbollah expertise. "From money laundering to firearms training and explosives training," the agent said.
For example, he tracked, along with Mexican intelligence, two Hezbollah operatives in safe houses in Tijuana and Durango. "I confirmed the participation of cartel members as well as other Hezbollah individuals living and operating out of there," he said.
Tunnels the cartels have built that cross from Mexico into the U.S. have grown increasingly sophisticated. It is a learned skill, the agent said points to Hezbollah's involvement. "Where are the knowledgeable tunnel builders? Certainly in the Middle East," he said.
Why have Americans not heard more about Hezbollah's activities happening so close to the border? "If they really wanted to start blowing stuff up, they could do it," the agent said.
According to the agent, the organization sees the U.S. as their "cash cow," with illegal drug and immigration operations. Many senior Hezbollah leaders are wealthy businessmen, the agent said. "The money they are sending back to Lebanon is too important right now to jeopardize those operations," he said. The agent said the real concern is the group's long- term goal of radicalizing Muslim communities. "They're focusing on developing infiltrating communities within North America," the agent told 10News. The Person In Charge Of America's Security
According to Napolitano's Homeland Security Department, Muslim men under the age of 35 aren't the problem, potentially dangerous types are members of militias and "extremists," so defined by their tendencies toward:
Libertarian views; Support for the Second Amendment; Stockpiling of food and ammo; Buying gold or silver; Fear of Big Brother and the overreach of government; Home schooling; Belief in ones Constitutional rights; and "Unacceptable" religious views
Obama's crowd sees Americans as the enemy, not Muslims. What does that tell you?
"The system worked." http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/HomelandSecurity.htm
Items are archived randomly . . . Creeping Sharia Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system.
Islam has religious, legal, political, military, economic, and social components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components.
Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so- called religious rights.
When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to the reasonable Muslim demands for their religious rights, they also get the other components under the table.
Heres how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2010)).
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:
United States -- Muslim 0.6% (Dearborn, MI -- Muslim 40%) Australia -- Muslim 1.7% Canada -- Muslim 1.9% China -- Muslim 1%-2% Italy -- Muslim 1.5% Norway -- Muslim 1.8%
At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs and they begin to agitate for Sharia-compliance under the guise of "religious rights":
Denmark -- Muslim 2% Germany -- Muslim 3.7% United Kingdom -- Muslim 2.7% Spain -- Muslim 4% Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.
They will increase their demands for Sharia-compliance -- as an example they will push for the introduction of halaal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply.
They will demonstrate for perceived insults to Islam, the Quran or Muhammad. (United Kingdom, United States).
France -- Muslim 5% - 10% Philippines -- Muslim 5% Sweden -- Muslim 5% Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3% The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5% Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.
When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris -- car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam -- Mohammed cartoons).
France's run-down city suburbs have become "separate Islamic societies" cut off from the state. Arab communities are increasingly rejecting French values and identity to immerse themselves in Muslim culture and lifestyle. As a result, France -- whose five million Muslims make up Europes largest Islamic population -- was turning into a "divided nation," the study called Suburbs of the Republic found.
Guyana -- Muslim 10% India -- Muslim 13.4% Israel -- Muslim 16% Kenya -- Muslim 10% Russia -- Muslim 10-15%
After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:
Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%
At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:
Bosnia -- Muslim 40% Chad -- Muslim 53.1% Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%
From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:
Albania -- Muslim 70% Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4% Qatar -- Muslim 77.5% Sudan -- Muslim 70%
After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:
Bangladesh -- Muslim 83% Egypt -- Muslim 90% Gaza -- Muslim 99.3% Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1% Iran -- Muslim 98% Iraq -- Muslim 97% Jordan -- Muslim 92% Morocco -- Muslim 98.7% Pakistan -- Muslim 95% Palestinian Territories -- Muslim 99% Syria -- Muslim 90% Tajikistan -- Muslim 90% United Arab Emirates -- Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of "Dar-es-Salaam" -- the Islamic House of Peace -- there's supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:
Afghanistan -- Muslim 100% Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100% Somalia -- Muslim 100% Turkey -- Muslim 99.8% Yemen -- Muslim 100%
Of course, that's not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.
"Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world. And all of us against the infidel.
Leon Uris, "The Haj"
It is good to remember that in many, many countries, such as France, the Muslim populations are centered around ghettos based on their ethnicity. Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. Therefore, they exercise more power than their national average would indicate.
The framework has been adapted from Dr. Peter Hammonds book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.
Silent Conquest -- The Movie
The end of freedom of expression in the west
Click for full video
It's Like The Blob -- But It's Not Science Fiction
The most important video you'll ever watch (07:25) YouTube link
An Example Of Islamization WWJ.com (Detroit) reports that once again the thugs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demand that non-Muslims change their practices to conform to Islamic sensibilities, rather than calling upon Muslims in the United States to adapt to American culture. Do they really expect anyone to believe that McDonald's didn't hire this woman because it is "Islamophobic"? Their opposition to the hijab is, I am certain, entirely hygienic, and in a restaurant, that is something I am glad to see.
The Michigan Chapter of (CAIR) is accusing McDonald's of religious and ethnic discrimination, and has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against a McDonald's Restaurant in Rochester Hills. The complaint was filed on behalf of a Muslim woman who applied for a job at the restaurant.
During the interview, she says that one of the restaurant managers informed her that wearing an Islamic head scarf, or hijab, would be a problem.
In 2008, the EEOC issued new guidelines on accommodating religious beliefs and practices in the workplace. The guidelines offer protection for workers who wear religious attire such as a headscarf.
"We urge McDonald's to take immediate action to bring its hiring policies into compliance with long-established legal guidelines on reasonable religious accommodation in the workplace," said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid. Walid noted that in 2008, CAIR- MI raised concerns with McDonald's regarding two similar incidents in which Muslim women alleged being denied employment because of hijab. Words We Dare Not Speak NewsMax is reporting that Rush Limbaugh used his radio program Wednesday to lash out against Obamas plan to censor the word "Islamic radicalism" from a National Security document that deals with threats confronting America.
Obama advisers say the new version emphasizes that the U.S. does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terrorism.
But the change is a radical shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventive war. It currently states, "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century."
Limbaugh, Americas number one rated conservative host, thinks the Obama initiative is dangerous.
On his show Limbaugh said:
"Obama and his idealists, young whippersnappers, think the United States is the problem. We are attacked because we deserve to be. We have been imperialists, we've overstepped our bounds in the world, it's totally understandable why they would attack us and commit acts of terror against us. So what do we need to do? We need to go in there and build them schools, and we need to get them health care, and we need to talk to them about science. Meanwhile, we do not have the money for this."
"I ask a question? Maybe somebody can help me with this. What are we doing having relationships with the Muslim world anyway? Do we have a relationship with the Catholic world? Do we have a relationship with the Buddhist world? Do we have a relationship with the Jewish world? Well, if we did, Obama's taken care of that. But we don't have relations with religious worlds."
"If we can't call Islamic radicals 'Islamic radicals,' we shouldn't call rapists "rapists." We should call them 'uninvited perpetrators,' or 'penetrators,' if you wish. Murderer? Do you think people like being called a murderer, even if they are? Do you think that's going to forge a decent relationship with murderers?"
"So the premise is we deserve it. We should have been hit. It's time we face the facts, and to prevent them from hitting us again, we have to acknowledge that. Stop calling them Islamic radicals, stop calling them terrorists, instead build them hospitals. I can't imagine what it must be like to be in a family who lost someone in 9/11 to hear about this guy's plans for the Muslim world. I can't imagine what it was like when they found out that this government was willing to spend $200 million a year in security for the people who blew up the World Trade Center in a civil trial. I can't imagine the anger they must have felt." More Islamization From The White House NDTV.com says that a top official of the Obama Administration, tasked to improve ties with the Muslim world, said that Indian Muslims are not terrorists, even as many of them are increasingly tired of being defined as such.
"I talk about the bloggers that I meet in India who are tired of Muslims being defined as terrorists," Indian-origin Farah Pandith, the US Special Representative to the Muslim Community, said in a web video chat on Saturday.
"They're getting out there and talking about what's happening in India, with 160 million Muslims in India -- all of whom, by the way, are not terrorists, excuse me," asserted the Indian-American Pandith, who has travelled to more than two dozen Muslim countries and those having sizeable Muslim population, said that the Obama Administration is reaching out to this community across the world to change the widely held negative view about Islam and terrorism.
"The narrative has to change by the conversations that we are having, and not to put everything in one big bucket, just because, obviously, somebody maybe of one faith that does something bad does not mean that everybody of that faith is in that same bucket," she said in response to a question, adding that Muslims are trying very hard to push away any kind of narrative that would give that impression.
"We as Muslims do not support the use of violence in any way, shape or form," she said.
"You have seen cross-cultural responses to Muslims and non-Muslims working together to push back against any kind of violence," Pandith said. "We need to do more to engage and build dialogue. And what this president has said is that it is a priority for us to engage Muslims around the world," she said.
"Overseas we're trying to build bridges that have been broken and also want to restore opportunities for dialogue. We want to see where we can be more useful in partnering and building initiatives. And that requires us to put especial effort, right at this moment in time, to develop new relationships. So that's why we're doing this," Pandith said.
The Obama Administration official said the Muslim world is not monolith community, but very diverse.
"It's talking about diversity, and it's talking about things that this country stands for. When we talk about the West, Muslims are part of the West. There are 30 million Muslims in Western Europe. There are millions of Muslims in America," she said, adding that this is not a zero-sum game. "It's not us versus them. It sort of debunks the entire Samuel Huntington theory of 'The Clash of Civilizations'."
It's not the West versus the East. It's not America versus Islam. Obama has talked very clearly about the fact that Islam is part of America," she said.
More Islamization from the White House -- "Obama has talked very clearly about the fact that Islam is part of America."
Islam and the American way of life can never co-exist. It's impossible. The two are water and oil.
We need to remember that Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. It is a complete system. Islam has religious, social, dietary, legal, economic, political and military components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components.
When Muslims agitate for their "religious rights," they are really agitating for you to accept their social, legal, economic, and political practices, customs and laws under the guise of religious rights.
And Pandith talks about diversity -- race? maybe! -- but there is no diversity of thought in Islam. There is no diversity of lifestyle. There is no "pursuit of happiness" in Islam. Islam dictates every aspect of the Mohammedan's life.
There certainly is no diversity of religion. YOU can't even enter the cities of Mecca and Medina. There are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. You can go to jail for possessing a Bible. Saying there's diversity in Islam is a lie.
Even in America, living like a normal American can get you killed in Islam. There is no freedom in Islam. Islam is foreign to our way of life -- and you have to listen to that wailing five times a day -- every day. Three Things About Islam
Three surprising things you should know about Islam (08:10) YouTube link Islamization Of Paris -- A Warning To The West
Undercover video shows scenes from Paris that French leadership refuses to acknowledge (06:53)
An ordinary French citizen who has been watching the Islamization of Paris decided that the world needed to see what was happening to his city. He used a hidden camera to start posting videos on YouTube. His life has been threatened and so he uses the alias of "Maxime Lepante." AP Wont Report Korans Being Burned Memo sent to AP staff:
From: Kent, Tom Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 11:53 AM Subject: Standards Center guidance: Planned Sept. 11 Quran burning
Colleagues,
As you know, a group known as the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., has announced that it intends to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11.
In the runup to this event, we've seen a rush of stories, photos and video from points around the world. Let's keep our coverage in proportion. Although many are speculating on the effect the Quran burning could conceivably have, at the moment it's a proposal by a tiny group that may or may not happen.
We plan ONE main spot story on this issue a day. The News Center will coordinate where this story will originate from. Routine spot news -- for instance, comments about the plan by political or other public figures -- should be funneled to the point handling the main story. We should avoid a profusion of separates beyond what any newspaper, website or broadcaster would actually use. This includes stories, photos, audio and video that repeatedly make the same point, for or against the burning. Consult the News Center if you have questions on this.
The concept of this planned event is offensive to many Muslims worldwide.
Continue reading here . . .
Mustn't offend Muslims -- meanwhile:
From the U. S. State Department -- Saudi Arabia -- "Standards of Conduct and Religious Police: Islam is the official religion of the country and pervades all aspects of life in Saudi Arabia. Public display of non-Islamic religious articles such as crosses and Bibles is not permitted. Travel to Makkah (Mecca) and Medina, the cities where the two holiest mosques of Islam are located, is forbidden to non-Muslims."
Almost all Muslim countries forbid the building of churches. Many Muslim countries are burning them down as fast as they can find them. We have permitted them to build thousands of new mosques here in the US -- some of them incubators of terror -- but that hasn't and won't change a damned thing over there.
Almost all Muslim countries forbid Muslims from converting to another religion under threat of death -- thousands of non-Muslims are allowed to convert to Islam here in the US -- but that hasn't and won't change a damned thing over there.
Christians and Jews are asked, "How would you like it if Muslims burned the Bible?" Well, here's the problem: we haven't burned any Qurans for hundreds of years. But in that same period Muslims have burned millions of bibles. They still do it every day. Our own military recently burned bibles, so as to not "offend" Muslims.
The truth is, it happens every day somewhere in the world. Do you know why we don't hear of it here? Two reasons:
1. The Liberal Media does not like reporting anything critical of Islam (recall the cowardice of our newspapers in not publishing the Danish Cartoons)
2. If our newspapers had to print barbaric acts committed by Muslims on a daily basis there would be no room to print the local news.
In Saudi Arabia, Bibles are shredded. People caught inside Saudi Arabia who have more than one Bible are arrested. The penalty, lashing. Saudi Arabia, ruled by Shariah law, laws based on the interpretation of the Koran. The outrage from the Obama administration on the issue of the Saudi government confiscating Bibles owned by Christians, people arrested then sentenced to a public lashing: Zero, zilch, nada.
I have a single question for Barack Obama -- How can I respect a "religion" that holds as one of its basic tenets that I must submit to it or die? Walid Shoebat On The Islamization Of The United States Walid Shoebat, a convert from Islam to Christianity, speaks on the reality of the attempt to Islamize the United States of America. You will learn a lot from this 3-part speech. In particular, note his words that "Terrorism is not the explosion. Terrorism is a political act." Watch it, and then pass it on.
How Islamic Supremacism Is Overwhelming Democracy Robert Spencer says that after 9/11, you may recall, the United States was going to bring democracy to the Islamic world. Nine years later, we have Sharia Constitutions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. A Shi'ite client of the Iranian mullahs rules shakily in Iraq, while in Afghanistan the U.S.-backed president is increasingly hostile to America and even threatens to join the Taliban that he was supposed to be fighting against.
But that isn't even the worst of it. Paradoxically, instead of bringing democracy to the Islamic world, the years since 9/11 have seen only success after success in Islamic supremacist efforts to undermine democracy in the West. Bending over backwards not to appear "anti-Muslim" in their anti-terror efforts, the U.S. and Western Europe have allowed in large numbers of Muslim immigrants who hold to a radically undemocratic political ideology, one that is rooted in Islamic texts and teachings and thus is not susceptible to negotiation, compromise, or the gentle pressure of "assimilation."
It has all happened quite quickly, and yet gradually enough to have generally escaped the notice of those who have been living through it. Nonetheless, life in Western societies has already been utterly transformed, and more changes -- for the worse -- are certain to come. In the elegiac, insightful and sweeping new book Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West, the American expatriate Abigail R. Esman, who now lives in the Netherlands, surveys the damage.
It's a profoundly moving, personal account of how the stealth jihad has advanced in the Netherlands over the last decade and more, written by someone who was in the center of it all. Esman knew Theo van Gogh, murdered by Islamic jihadist Mohammed Bouyeri in 2004 for his film Submission about the plight of Muslim women, and was close friends with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the outspoken Somali ex-Muslim who served for a time in the Dutch Parliament and who collaborated with van Gogh on Submission, before death threats led her to flee the country. She watched as Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn rose to international prominence for his opposition to unrestricted Muslim immigration and the Islamization of the Netherlands -- and then was murdered by a Dutchman who said he did it out of sympathy for the nation's Muslims. Esman recalls: "There were those -- and I was one of them -- who thought Fortuyn was little more than a pretender, a narcissist with a big mouth and glib tongue who would quickly be exposed and then forgotten. We were the most wrong of all."
Esman details the horror of the murder of van Gogh, the bloody triumphalist Islamic boasts of his murderer, the supine reaction of Dutch authorities, and the indifference of self- proclaimed moderate Muslims. Noting their absence at a November 2005 memorial for van Gogh attended the Dutch prime minister and the mayor of Amsterdam, she writes: "Muslim moderates are part of 'us,' not 'them.'" Yet when they should have been there, just to make that simple statement, to present that one gesture of solidarity, they were not. And that they weren't makes me consider, on second thought, that maybe they aren't quite with us, after all."
But America has managed to assimilate its Muslim population much more successfully, hasn't it? After surveying a number of jihad terror plots perpetrated by both Muslim immigrants and homegrown converts to Islam, Esman concludes that that bit of conventional wisdom, like so much else in the popular understanding of the jihad terror threat, is simply wrong. Our freedoms are being eroded here no less unmistakably than they are being eroded in Europe. The consequences of the folly of our government and law enforcement officials may be less obvious to the general public than it is in Europe, but in the age of Obama that is rapidly changing.
So what is to be done? Must we choose between becoming an Islamic state or a totalitarian state imposed in the name of "security?" Esman contends that it is not too late to save our free societies, if we firmly reject the suicidal philosophy of multiculturalism and take other steps she outlines in Radical State. Radical State is a unique and powerful book because it brings to vivid life the human cost of the ongoing Islamization of Europe. Already the massive importation of Islamic supremacists with nothing but contempt for European civilization and an intention to replace it with Sharia at the earliest opportunity has been a catastrophe of incalculable proportions for European societies.
Abigail Esman has lived through the worst of it, or the worst so far, and shows all the large and small ways in which our lives, our joys, our freedoms, are diminished. If she is heeded now, it may not be too late to salvage at least some of what has made us so free and so alive for so long.
But that is a big "if." Brooklyn, NY -- 6 AM And, as Christmas trees are taken down, creches removed, and Santa Claus banned, we have this shiite!
Pamela Geller asks, "Aren't there nuisance laws, public ordinances, and disturbing the peace laws? I mean, really. This is harassment and attrition."
This is only the beginning. The True Face Of Islam
This video is 6 minutes long, but it is a must watch. If you don't have the time now, come back later.
These people will tell you what they want -- world-wide Shari'a -- all you have to do is listen to them. Geert Wilders Speech At His "Heresy" Trial The lights are going out all over Europe. All over the continent where our culture flourished and where man created freedom, prosperity and civilization. Everywhere the foundation of the West is under attack.
All over Europe the elites are acting as the protectors of an ideology that has been bent on destroying us since fourteen centuries. An ideology that has sprung from the desert and that can produce only deserts because it does not give people freedom. The Islamic Mozart, the Islamic Gerard Reve [a Dutch author], the Islamic Bill Gates; they do not exist because without freedom there is no creativity. The ideology of Islam is especially noted for killing and oppression and can only produce societies that are backward and impoverished. Surprisingly, the elites do not want to hear any criticism of this ideology.
My trial is not an isolated incident. Only fools believe it is. All over Europe multicultural elites are waging total war against their populations. Their goal is to continue the strategy of mass-immigration, which will ultimately result in an Islamic Europe -- a Europe without freedom: Eurabia.
The lights are going out all over Europe. Anyone who thinks or speaks individually is at risk. Freedom loving citizens who criticize Islam, or even merely suggest that there is a relationship between Islam and crime or honor killing, must suffer and are threatened or criminalized. Those who speak the truth are in danger.
The lights are going out all over Europe. Everywhere the Orwellian thought police are at work, on the lookout for thought crimes everywhere, casting the populace back within the confines where it is allowed to think.
This trial is not about me. It is about something much greater. Freedom of speech is not the property of those who happen to belong to the elites of a country. It is an inalienable right, the birthright of our people. For centuries battles have been fought for it, and now it is being sacrificed to please a totalitarian ideology.
Future generations will look back at this trial and wonder who was right. Who defended freedom and who wanted to get rid of it.
The lights are going out all over Europe. Our freedom is being restricted everywhere, so I repeat what I said here last year:
It is not only the privilege, but also the duty of free people -- and hence also my duty as a member of the Dutch Parliament -- to speak out against any ideology that threatens freedom. Hence it is a right and a duty to speak the truth about the evil ideology that is called islam. I hope that freedom of speech will emerge triumphant from this trial. I hope not only that I shall be acquitted, but especially that freedom of speech will continue to exist in the Netherlands and in Europe.
From Atlas Shrugs
Related: Top ten reasons why Sharia is bad for all societies
For all those who believe, "it can't happen here." The Organization of the Islamic Conference Propaganda Machine Camie Davis says Pavlov had dogs. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has the United Nations and Barack Obama.
The OIC, the largest voting bloc at the UN, has an agenda. Their agenda is a one-two punch. First, don't say anything negative about Islam. Second, blame all of the world's problems on Israel, specifically the Jewish communities called "settlements." The UN's and Obama's conditional responses to all things Islam and Israel are helping throw the OIC's one-two punch at the world hard and fast.
For over a decade, the OIC has systematically worked to criminalize the "defamation of Islam" and to protect Islam from "blasphemy." In yearly resolutions at the UN on "combating defamation of religions" the OIC complains "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism." Though the resolutions are touted as protecting all religions, there is only one religion mentioned by name. You guessed it. Islam.
Professor Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu, head of the OIC, said the issue of Islamophobia has been placed "at the top of our priorities and preoccupations, while conducting a large-scale worldwide effort to confront it."
After easily putting the UN on a leash, the OIC set its sights on its next Pavlovian subject. "We have established an OIC Group in Washington D.C. with the aim of playing a more active role in engaging American policy makers," said Ihsanoglu. Noting the OIC's accomplishments thus far in shaping public opinion, Ihsanoglu added, "In confronting the Danish cartoons and the Dutch film 'Fitna,' we sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed."
Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, warns of the OIC's plans. "Among other things, they seek to define slander according to Islamic Sharia law -- making Islamic 'slander' a serious crime in every jurisdiction in the world, including the United States."
Steven Groves, with The Heritage Foundation, summed up the actions of the OIC by saying, "In short, it is clear that one goal of the OIC is for national legislatures, including presumably the U.S. Congress, to enact legislation prohibiting the criticism of any religion, especially Islam, its prophet, and its practitioners."
Continue reading here . . .
Islamization is creeping Sharia http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/Islamization.htm
Items on this page are archived in order of discovery . . . Obama Tom McElroy is reporting that an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home remained in police custody after an arraignment on numerous terrorism-related charges.
Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Sunday news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.
"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."
Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 14 terrorist plots, including the latest alleged scheme, have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful, however. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.
Kelly said Sunday that Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.
An unemployed U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said.
He also talked of bombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., Kelly said.
New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the dhimmi mayor said.
"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."
At Pimentel's arraignment, his lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.
"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."
Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was denied bail and remained in custody. The bearded, bespectacled man wore a black T-shirt and black drawstring pants and smiled at times during the proceeding. His mother and brother attended the arraignment, Zablocki said.
Pimentel is accused of having an explosive device Saturday when he was arrested, one he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.
Bloomberg said at the news conference that Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.
"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.
Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.
Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.
Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."
The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady. He said police in the Albany area tipped New York City police off to Pimentel's activities.
Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."
About 1,000 of the city's roughly 35,000 officers are assigned each day to counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also sends officers overseas to report on how other cities deal with terrorism. Through federal grants and city funding, the NYPD has spent millions of dollars on technology to outfit the department with the latest tools -- from portable radiation detectors to the network of hundreds of cameras that can track suspicious activity.
Alexis Smith, 22, who lives in an apartment in the same building as Pimentel, said she was shocked that he was a suspect in a terrorist plot. "He was always very courteous to us," she said, adding that Pimentel helped her carry groceries and luggage into the building.
"It's nice to know he was only working alone," she said.
Archived chronologically or in order of discovery The Architect Of 9/11 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (known colloquially as KSM), was the military head of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Mohammed has been described by the the 9/11 Commission Report as a "terrorist entrepreneur" who "followed a rather tortuous path to his eventual membership in al Qaeda. Highly educated and equally comfortable in a government office or a terrorist safe house, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed applied his imagination, technical aptitude, and managerial skills to hatching and planning an extraordinary array of terrorist schemes. These ideas included murder, beheading, conventional car bombing, political assassination, aircraft bombing, hijacking, reservoir poisoning, and, ultimately, the use of aircraft as missiles guided by suicide operatives." 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 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.
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. The Worst Decision By A US President In History 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 Americas 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 Obamas recently departed Maoist communications director Anita Dunn.)
Finally, this move continues and enlarges the refusal of the President 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. 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-Qaedas anti-American bile, and create a public-safety nightmare for New York City.
There is, however, a patent political rationale behind Obamas 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, Obamas 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 Americas 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 governments 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 Lefts label for actions taken in defense of the United States).
Now, we see the reckoning: Obamas 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.
Continue reading here . . . 9/11 Terrorists Will Use Trial For Propaganda Breitbart is reporting that the five Islamofascists facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.
Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it."
The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering who murdered nearly 3,000 people, including Muslims, in the nation's deadliest terrorist attack will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the World Trade Center site.
Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain "their assessment of American foreign policy," Fenstermaker said.
"Their assessment is negative," he said.
Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He has not spoken with the others but said the men have discussed the trial among themselves.
Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder Barack Obama's decision to try the men in a New York City civilian courthouse have warned that the trial would provide the defendants with a propaganda platform.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said, "yada, yada, yada." Obama's Due Process Doctrine Wes Pruden writes: Willing student or not, reality continues to give Barack Obama a late education in how the world -- including the United States -- actually works. Obama and his attorney general are giving the rest of us an Ivy League tutorial in constitutional law.
When Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. awarded the Islamic radicals the opportunity to take their rhetorical carnival of murder and mayhem to New York City for the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 assault on America, Mr. Holder insisted that he was only acting in the American judicial tradition of due process. A military tribunal is OK for a GI in Afghanistan but not for a criminal the GI captures there. His prescription is actually more in the tradition of "Rules for Radicals," the manual of civic disorder and troublemaking written by Saul Alinsky, Mr. Obama's revered mentor in all the things not in the province of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers. Obama and the attorney general have had interesting instructors.
Neither Obama, nor the attorney general, were quite prepared for the overwhelming, bipartisan, transracial outrage over their remarkable doctrine of "due process." Obama, questioned by reporters in Asia, insisted that the noose was ready for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (or KSM in the helpful shorthand applied to unpronounceable names). The legal niceties were necessary, but the wait for the hangman -- or the needler, or electrician or whomever -- would make the anticipation all the merrier.
Obama said anyone offended by the unprecedented legal privileges afforded KSM in a civilian trial, instead of submission to the usual military tribunal for criminals captured on the battlefield, "won't find it offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him."
The attorney general, sharply questioned by several senators at a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, with more than a hint of prosecutorial smugness, that "failure is not an option." Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a Republican, agreed. "I don't know how you could say failure is not an option. I'm a farmer, not a lawyer, but it seems to me ludicrous."
It's not clear whether this is constitutional law as taught at Harvard Law, but it sounds a lot like law once taught in the court of the infamous Judge Roy Bean, "the law west of the Pecos." Judge Bean held court in his saloon and, like Messrs Obama and Holder, made up his precedents as he needed them. Guaranteeing death for KSM, as much as the architect of 9/11 deserves it, sounds a lot like the Old West idea of frontier justice, as typically applied to a murderer or horse thief: "We're going to give you a fair trial and then we're going to hang your ornery hide." The judge usually put the carpenter at work on the gallows as part of the proceedings.
Obama, constitutional law instructor or not, and his administration of eager amateurs continue to demonstrate that they just don't understand the America that put them in office. Mr. Grassley's remark, that he's just a farmer but that the attorney general's guarantee of justice rigged sounds "ludicrous," shows just how out of touch the attorney general is with the traditions of due process. Holder's assurance that even if acquitted by a civilian jury KSM would never be "released into our country" betrays his silly assurance that "failure is not an option." Democrats Abandoning Obama Kasie Hunt is reporting that New York politicians were able to kick the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial out of Manhattan, but its becoming increasingly clear that not a single member of Congress wants the trial held in their home town either.
A growing coalition of lawmakers are saying "not in my back yard" to the terrorism trial, as even the most loyal Democrats are moving to block funding for any civilian trials. The pushback may represent yet another congressional rebellion against a high profile Obama White House terrorism decision, proving that even a persuasive Obama cant overcome the power of local politics.
"Were going to do everything we can to make sure they dont point at western Pennsylvania as a possible venue," said Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.). "We are all united, going to voice our opinion, both at the state level and at the congressional level."
These politics are playing out in several regions around the country, from western Pennsylvania to northern Virginia and other potential locations for a 9/11 trial. The National Republican Congressional Committee plans to use the issue to target Democratic representatives Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson in Illinois, Scott Murphy and Michael McMahon in New York, and Kathy Dahlkemper in Pennsylvania.
Virginia Sen. Jim Webb is leading Democrats' charge against the trials in the Senate. Webb favors military commissions, and he says Virginia lawmakers will be opposed to having a civilian trial in Alexandria.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is not opposing the trials "out of hand," his spokesman said, but "he would want an explanation as to why its any safer in western Pennsylvania than it is in New York City."
Obama is also going to face louder calls to move the trials out of the U.S. entirely. Democratic senators had an "intense discussion" about the administrations Guantanamo Bay policies during a policy lunch Tuesday, one senator said.
Eighteen senators -- including two Democrats -- have signed on to legislation backed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to strip funding for civilian trials for the accused 9/11 conspirators. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) will introduce a companion bill in the House.
"I believe these individuals are war criminals and that their alleged evils against our country warrant their trials in military courts," said Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who is facing a tough reelection battle this year. "Trying these conspirators in civilian court is giving them a public stage to advocate their cause."
Obama knows he has a problem, but still seems committed to finding a location for a federal trial.
"We've tried a lot of terrorists in our courts; we have them in our federal prisons; they've never escaped. And these folks are no different. It's been one of those things that's been subject to a lot of, in some cases, pretty rank politics," Obama said in an interview Monday on YouTube.
But the longer the local fights drag out, the more problematic the issue will be for Democrats in November. Obamas Revisionist History Of Terrorism Daniel Greenfield opines, that since taking office, Obamas key objective on terrorism has been to transform the public perception of it from an international military conflict, to a limited domestic criminal problem. Renaming terrorism to the bureaucratically euphonious term, "Man Caused Disasters" was straight out of the first rule in the textbook of organizational coverups, to phrase your sentences so that the identity of the perpetrators of the crisis remain as vague as possible. Focusing on everything but terrorism, while shutting down Gitmo and dispatching top Al Qaeda terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to civilian trials, was meant to restore the illusion of normalcy, while doing away with the terrorism focus of the Bush Administration.
There was a reason that once in office, Obama showed a very limited interest in pushing for the prosecutions of Bush Administration officials, as the left wing expected him to. Unlike them, Obama understood that the best way to shift the conversation was by avoiding the topic, not by confronting it head on because while the American people may have turned on the Republicans, they were more likely to support a tough on terror approach, than not. Main Street America was a long way from ACLU headquarters, and so Obama decided that the best way to win the debate on terrorism was not to have it all.
Seeing how fast Cheneys numbers shot up by simply calling him out on terrorism, could have only stiffened Obamas resolve to avoid the issue. But the issue refused to avoid him, whether it was demands that he come to a decision on Afghanistan, a renewed wave of terrorist attacks on American soil or a growing backlash from New York over holding the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trials in the city -- Islamic "man caused disasters" just refused to go away.
By moving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into the civilian legal system, Obama and Holder were undertaking to engineer a massive shift in how America dealt with terrorism. It was a shift that everyone from lawyers to liberal pundits to the nutroots had been pushing all along. It was the message on the earliest posters tacked up by left wing activists on the streets of Lower Manhattan, even as the ruins of the towers were still smoldering. The shift would transform terrorism from a conflict fought in defense of America, to an internal criminal matter for the legal system to deal with. The difference between the two lies in far more than just a matter of which judges get to sit on the bench and where the trial takes place, it cuts right to the issue of what is really happening here.
Treating Islamic terrorism as a criminal problem transforms it from an international threat, into something purely local, akin to an armed robbery or a murder or two. And as liberal doctrine would have it, crime is not really preventable except through social welfare policies. That is precisely the tack that European governments have taken on terrorism, working with Muslim communities to improve their economic and social status. That would have been the next stage for the Obama Administration, if a roadblock hadnt risen up on the road to the New York trial.
Continue reading here . . .
At least read the last paragraph.
Psychotic murderer and coward Khalid Sheikh Mohammed http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/KSM.htm
"Man Caused Disasters", Treating Islamic terrorism as a criminal problem transforms it from an international threat, into something purely local Obamas Revisionist History of Terrorism
By Daniel Greenfield (Bio and Archives) Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
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Since taking office, Obamas key objective on terrorism has been to transform the public perception of it from an international military conflict, to a limited domestic criminal problem. Renaming terrorism to the bureaucratically euphonious term, Man Caused Disasters was straight out of the first rule in the textbook of organizational coverups, to phrase your sentences so that the identity of the perpetrators of the crisis remain as vague as possible. Focusing on everything but terrorism, while shutting down Gitmo and dispatching top Al Qaeda terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to civilian trials, was meant to restore the illusion of normalcy, while doing away with the terrorism focus of the Bush Administration. There was a reason that once in office, Obama showed a very limited interest in pushing for the prosecutions of Bush Administration officials, as the left wing expected him to. Unlike them, Obama understood that the best way to shift the conversation was by avoiding the topic, not by confronting it head on because while the American people may have turned on the Republicans, they were more likely to support a tough on terror approach, than not. Main Street America was a long way from ACLU headquarters, and so Obama decided that the best way to win the debate on terrorism was not to have it all. Seeing how fast Cheneys numbers shot up by simply calling him out on terrorism, could have only stiffened Obamas resolve to avoid the issue. But the issue refused to avoid him, whether it was demands that he come to a decision on Afghanistan, a renewed wave of terrorist attacks on American soil or a growing backlash from New York over holding the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trials in the cityIslamic man caused disasters just refused to go away. By moving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into the civilian legal system, Obama and Holder were undertaking to engineer a massive shift in how America dealt with terrorism. It was a shift that everyone from lawyers to liberal pundits to the nutroots had been pushing all along. It was the message on the earliest posters tacked up by left wing activists on the streets of Lower Manhattan, even as the ruins of the towers were still smoldering. The shift would transform terrorism from a conflict fought in defense of America, to an internal criminal matter for the legal system to deal with. The difference between the two lies in far more than just a matter of which judges get to sit on the bench and where the trial takes place, it cuts right to the issue of what is really happening here. Treating Islamic terrorism as a criminal problem transforms it from an international threat, into something purely local, akin to an armed robbery or a murder or two. And as liberal doctrine would have it, crime is not really preventable except through social welfare policies. That is precisely the tack that European governments have taken on terrorism, working with Muslim communities to improve their economic and social status. That would have been the next stage for the Obama Administration, if a roadblock hadnt risen up on the road to the New York trial. Moving the trial into the legal system, transforms it from a popular campaign, into a technical matter for the courts. It denies the compelling interests of the American people in this trial, by making it an abstract thing, a matter of dueling legal citations. And what better way to deny the reality of the War on Terror, than by turning terrorists and their atrocities into abstract formulae for lawyers to pore over. The second rule of the organzational coverup, is to always make a crisis seem more abstract, and therefore less relevant. Holding a civilian trial for the planner of the attacks of September 11, in lower Manhattan, would not only close the circle with the original Twin Tower bombers trials, but would assert that terrorism is a criminal problem, that there is no war, that the issues will be settled by using the same procedures used for Americans charged with a crime. That the situation is complete normal, and that there is no War on Terror. In the Bush Administrations narrative, America was at war with international terrorism. In the Obama Administrations narrative, there was no war, only a legal matter for the courts to settle. In the Bush Administrations narrative, the conflict was being fought to protect Americans and American interests. In the Obama Administrations narrative, the case had nothing to do with Americans, only with processing a few more inmates through the bowels of the legal system.
The legal system is of course a wonderful thing. It is composed of abstract legal standards that are meant to provide indiscriminate equal justice to Americans. The reason we have a legal system is to protect the rights of Americans to a fair trial. Our legal system is an American institution. It exists as an extension of the local and national governing bodies and their governing documents. Which are themselves subsidiaries of the will of their local communities and the national will of the American people. In short the American legal establishment represents the interests of the American people in a fair and just legal system. A system that they created for their own interests. The American people have no interest in providing their enemies with the benefit of the same rights and legal standards that they enjoy. And no matter how much ACLU lawyers may tangle the issue, the fact is that the American people actually have a compelling interest in depriving their captured enemies of the benefits of any such process. While the lawyers may insist that the American legal system is a transcendent device that only takes into account the law, that law and the legal system in all its institutions cannot be divorced from its root origin in the rights of the American citizen. No American institution can. Of course this very idea is one of the greatest terrors of the legal establishment, which refuses to see itself as representative of a specific people or nation, but rather of abstract standards that they base on other abstract or philosophical transnational standards, with possibly a cite of some random line in the Constitution that usually has very little to do with the issue. To liberals the entire military infrastructure of the War on Terror threatened their own power bases in the civilian judiciary. It assigned the War on Terror firmly into the realm of warfighting and not social justice. And Obamas policy to slowly shift terrorism back into the realm of lawyers and social workers came up against a problematic reality, composed of his own cronyism and the watchfulness of the American people. Obamas cronyism led him to neglect and even show contempt for New York on numerous occasions. Despite winning the state, Obamas presence had never been strong here, and it has taken very little to summon up a backlash from even supposedly friendly Democrats. The Princess Caroline disaster alone demonstrated that had a special election been held, New York might have produced results rather similar to Massachusetts. By designating the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial for New York City, without showing any interest in covering the monumental costs of such an affair, estimated in the billions, Obama treated the city as he had all along. But this time taking New York for granted generated a backlash, which had both of the states Democratic Senators, the liberal Mayor who had campaigned for him, and even his own voters protesting in the streets against him in Lower Manhattan. Had Obama ponied up the money, its likely that the politicians would not have said Boo to the trials. But their protests alerted the public to the prospect of the trials here ahead of time. Which in turn helped create a startling alliance between Republicans, Conservative Democrats and New York politicians, angry over having a multi-billion dollar economic problem thrust on a city and state already deep in the red. The resulting circus helped bring the issue to national attention, at a time when terrorism was already in the news, and the perfect storm was born.
The key to burying terrorism as anything but an abstract legal issue was to ignore it. And it seems as if Obama seriously thought he could do that just as he did his best to ignore Afghanistan. But of course it didnt work. And Americans understood instinctively the problem with putting terrorists through a process with privileges such as a presumption of innocence, meant for them. Putting Islamic terrorists through the American legal process, was a statement that Americans had no more legal rights than captured terrorists do. A statement that can be read in more than one way. The American people in 2008 were not happy with the way the War on Terror was going, but neither were they on board with pretending that there was no war at all. And that was exactly what Obama was trying to accomplish. It is exactly what every critic of the idea of fighting a war on terrorism, from the left or the far right/ has worked to do. Reduce it to a legal problem. Deny theres a war on. And then address the crime problem by finding out what the criminals want and what we can do to make them happy. And while Obama may have hit a roadblock in lower Manhattan, but his agenda is still the same. A legal revisionism aimed at throwing a blanket over the War on Terror and lifting it to reveal only a social problem.
Daniel Greenfield is a New York City writer and columnist. He is a Shillman J ournalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and his articles appears at its Front Page Magazine site. Daniel can be reached at: sultanknish@yahoo.com http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/19861
The Little Rock Jihad The Associated Press says the man on trial for murdering U.S. Army Pvt. William Long at a recruiting center last June has now asked the judge to let him plead guilty to murder and attempted murder. He now claims he is "a soldier in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and called the shooting 'a Jihadi Attack'." Surprise, surprise.
The New York Times first reported the alleged shooters letter to the judge at its website on January 21 and today posted a follow-up report saying that the Little Rock prosecutor was cool to the plea shift because it would require waiving the death penalty.
The suspect was born Carlos Bledsoe, whose father owns a tour-bus company based in Memphis, with a branch in Little Rock. Apparently young Bledsoe was trained in the ways of jihad in Yemen, and his Muslim name became Abdulhakim Muhammad. According to the New York Times, Muhammad said in his letter, "I wasnt insane or post-traumatic, nor was I forced to do this act." Apparently this soldier of Allah does not want to be denied the promised rewards for killing an infidel. No, he wants full credit for his cowardly assault on non-combatants, although he may also want to plea himself out of the death sentence prosecutors seek. The Christmas bombing attempt in Detroit also had Yemeni roots.
According to the AP story, "Muhammad has called the shootings justified retaliation for U.S. military action in the Middle East." Since I have previously written that the United States has been in a religious war since September 11, 2001, I take all this as corroboration of my view. Even Muslim-born, Muslim-educated Barack Hussein Obama, who preferred to refer to our ongoing conflict as a human-caused disaster or some such thing, now admits that the United States is at war with Al Qaeda. The Authorities Refuse To Take His Plea -- "It Was A Jihadi Attack" A Tennessee man -- accused in a fatal attack at a military recruiting center in Arkansas in June -- wants to plead guilty and claims to have ties to al Qaeda in Yemen in a letter he wrote to the judge presiding over his case.
In the handwritten letter dated January 12, Abdul Hakim Muhammad said he did not want a trial and insisted the shooting was "justified" under jihad -- "This was a jihadi attack on infidel forces that didn't go as plan," he wrote. "Flat out truth."
It was not immediately clear whether the judge, Herbert Wright Jr., would accept the plea. Muhammad's lawyer, Claiborne Ferguson, called the letter "highly inappropriate."
"If my client had the intention of pleading guilty, it is misguided and misinformed as to Arkansas law," Ferguson said from Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday. "He can't plead guilty to a capital crime."
That response is why Muhammad said he decided to bypass his lawyer with a letter to Wright. He wrote that he believed it was "a lie" that he could not plead guilty.
Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, is charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. The attack happened on June 1 at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas. In June, Muhammad pleaded not guilty to one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act.
Before pleading not guilty, Muhammad waived his Miranda rights and gave a video statement indicating political and religious motives, authorities said. He "stated that he was a practicing Muslim ... that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past," Detective Tommy Hudson wrote in a police report at the time.
Muhammad told police, "he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them," according to Hudson's report.
In his letter to the judge, Muhammad claimed he had links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, a group that has claimed responsibility for the attempting bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
"My lawyer has no defense," he wrote. "I wasn't insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this act. Which I believe and it is justified according to Islamic laws and the Islamic religion jihad -- to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims." Muslim Wanted to Cause More Death Kristina Goetz says, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, an American-born convert to Islam laments:
What I had in mind didn't go as planned but Allah willing He will reward me for my intentions.
He planned for weeks, buying guns secondhand to avoid the FBI. Then, to test whether the feds were watching, he bought a .22-caliber rifle over the counter at Walmart. He stockpiled ammo and practiced target shooting at empty construction sites.
By his own account, he was preparing for jihad.
From a black Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Muhammad, a Memphis native, watched two soldiers in fatigues smoking outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. He aimed an assault rifle out the window and fired.
Muhammad sped away, hoping to flee 150 miles to Memphis where he would switch cars, but a wrong turn in a construction zone led him to police. He stepped out of the SUV wearing a green ammo belt around his waist.
"It's a war going on against Muslims, and that is why I did it," an officer heard him say. "You see how I gave up with no problem."
Much of this account emerges from police reports and an 18-page mental-health evaluation contained in court files. However, Muhammad tells a far broader, detailed story in seven handwritten letters to The Commercial Appeal. Taken together, those letters are not just an admission of guilt but a profession of failure for having not caused more death and destruction.
The letters, written in pencil between May and October, provide a rare glimpse into the thoughts of a self-described jihadist, according to one national security expert. Muhammad describes in his own words how he took his declaration of Muslim faith in a Memphis mosque; his motives for moving to Yemen and his attempt to travel to Somalia for weapons training; how and why he planned multiple attacks in the U.S, including ones in Nashville and Florence, Ky., that didn't go as intended; and how he allegedly executed the Little Rock assault.
In his own words:
It's a war out against Islam and Muslims and I'm on the side of the Muslims point blank ... The U.S. has to pay for the rape, murder, bloodshed, blasphemy it has done and still doing to the Muslims and Islam. So consider this a small retaliation the best is to come Allah willing. This is not the first attack and won't be the last.
Muhammad is yet to convince U.S. authorities he's anything other than the murderer of Pvt. William A. Long of Conway, Ark. He's being held on state charges, awaiting a February trial.
Continue reading about this dirtbag here . . .
Carlos Bledsoe aka Abdulhakim Muhammad http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/LittleRockJihad.htm
Items on this page are archived in order of discovery . . . Christmas Tree Bomber Politics Daily executive editor Carl Cannon asks what made the would-be Portland bomber Mohamed Mohamud hate enough to attempt the mass murder of fellow Americans. It's a good question, and I'm glad Cannon is asking it, but his answer is, as you might expect, a little obscure.
Cannon provides only one explicit answer: "The geographical answer is Somalia..." Well, okay, but what is it about Somalia? You wouldn't know from Cannon's column that Mohamud immigrated to the United States at the age of five.
What is it about Somalia that produced Mohamud's murderous rage? Cannon observes: "[T]he FBI affidavit filed Friday pursuant to Mohamud's arrest quoted the suspect as telling an undercover agent that he had been committed to jihad since he was 15 years of age."
Just as Cannon is getting warm, he moves on and slides into imbecility. Cannon approvingly quotes Shahriar Ahmed of the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton. "He's not alone," Ahmed says of Mohamud. You can say that again.
But wait! According to Ahmed, Mohamud has even more company than you might think: "[T]hat is the exact type of mentality that we are trying to stand against -- Christian, Muslim, Jew and reasonable people -- globally." Thanks, but no thanks.
Scott Johnson says, let us indeed take a stand. Let us take a stand against the mentality that inhibits us from talking seriously about the roots of Mohamud's hate.
UPDATE: Why is it so hard to tell the truth? The answer leaves Mona Charen unbollixed: "The truth is that while the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding, there is a powerful strain within the religion that encourages murder and mayhem. Muslims, sooner or later, must deal with this, along with the rest of the world."
The lone wolf jihadii has become the big threat http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/LoneWolfJihadii.htm
This page was started later than it should have been. It should have been initiated the day that "Big Sis" said, "the system worked..." Sharif Mobley Philly CBS News is reporting that the Al-Qaeda suspect from NJ worked at 6 nuke plants. Sharif Mobley is being held in Yemen and accused of being an al Qaeda member. The FBI is investigating the 26-year-old New Jersey man's case.
Mobley, 26, worked for contractors at plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland from 2002 to 2008, mostly hauling materials and setting up scaffolding, plant officials said.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said Friday that investigations are under way into which areas Mobley entered. But he noted that areas containing nuclear fuel are tightly controlled, and that a laborer typically would not have access to security information or other sensitive matters. The plants are also checking areas where Mobley worked to ensure everything is in order, said NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci.
Mobley, a U.S. citizen of Somali descent, has not been linked to any wrongdoing at any of the plants. And officials said nothing he did when he worked there aroused any suspicion. Officials said Mobley passed the necessary screenings, which include criminal background checks, drug testing, psychological assessments and identity verification.
Nevertheless, Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an industry watchdog, said the case raises questions about security at the nation's nuclear plants. "The real question is: Was there information that the NRC or utilities could have seen that would have led to his disqualification?" Lyman said.
Mobley, a Muslim who grew up in Buena, N.J., was among 11 al-Qaida suspects rounded up earlier this month in Yemen. He was taken to a hospital there over the weekend after he complained of feeling ill. Yemeni officials said he snatched a gun and shot a security guard to death in an attempt to escape from the hospital.
He has not been accused by authorities in the U.S. or Yemen of attempting to make a bomb or attack a nuclear plant.
His parents have said he is not a terrorist, though former friend Roman Castro said Mobley was becoming increasingly radical in his Muslim beliefs before he moved to Yemen about two years ago.
A law enforcement official says Mobley traveled to Yemen with the goal of joining a terrorist group. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still going on. A second official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, says the U.S. government was aware of Mobley's potential extremist ties long before his arrest. The official did not say how long the government had been paying attention to him.
Related: Mobley attended prayer services at West Philly Mosque
Items are archived in ordr of discovery . . . Molotov Cocktail In Philadelphia CBS' Philly 57 News is reporting that Philadelphia Police are investigating the discovery of a Molotov cocktail along with anti-Israeli-pro-Palestinian books and documentation, along with an Arabic dictionary inside a Center City parking garage.
The discovery was made at about 2:00 p.m. Wednesday inside a garage located at Callowhill and N. 16th Streets. The garage is in close proximity to the office of the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices.
Police initially responded to a report of a man sleeping next to a suspicious device in the office of the parking garage. "Before the police arrived, the male left the property. He left behind the Molotov cocktail and literature," Captain Dennis Wilson explained.
"It looks like a Molotov cocktail, some sort of accelerant in a bottle, sealed top, with a fuse," Captain Wilson said.
Captain Wilson said they know exactly who the individual is because he left behind his laptop and his identification. The incident remains under police investigation. Are These Guys Serious Or Delirious Democratic strategists Wednesday asserted Barack Obama "has been far more aggressive in fighting al Qaeda" than the previous administration .
In an e-mail this afternoon to supporters -- which incidentally excoriated Republicans for politicizing the attempted bombing of Flight 253 -- the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) stressed it was President George W. Bush, not his successor, who relegated the fight against the terrorist network to the back burner by turning "its focus from al Qaeda to Iraq."
More "it's Bush's fault." What a bunch of miserable incompetents. These guys know how to steal an election, but they haven't got a clue about governing.
Regarding the basic claim, "Obama 'has been far more aggressive in fighting al Qaeda,'" the DCCC, like Obama, has tunnel-vision and believes the only place al-Qaeda is, is in Af/Pak -- evidently they never heard of al-Qaeda in Iraq -- they're all dead now -- Bush killed them - - or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- or al-Qaeda in the Maghreb -- or worse, HERE -- and Obama and the DCCC barely acknowledge the simple fact -- al-Qaeda is everywhere.
Obama, and his crowd, won't even acknowledge that we're engaged in a war of survival. Obama's Dangerous Denial Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers.
Heck of a job, Brownie.
The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, Obama has relentlessly tried to play down and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York -- a trifecta of political correctness and image management.
And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over -- that is, if it ever existed.
Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately, al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare."
And produces linguistic -- and logical -- oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same man who, after the Fort Hood, Tex., shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" -- code for daring to associate the mass murder there with Nidal Hasan's Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the would-be bomber acted alone.
More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor."
Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged. Reassurance? Obama should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant -- an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians -- and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point -- surprise! -- he stops talking.
Continue reading Charles Krauthammer here . . .
Whether it's denial or running interference has yet to be determined. Rocket Launcher Found In Houston Apartment Police went to a southwest Houston apartment to break up a disturbance but ended up finding an AT-4, shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.
The woman tenant told police that the rocket launcher belonged to Nabilaye I. Yansane, someone whom she allowed to store items at her apartment. According to court documents, officers also found jihadist writings that allegedly belonged to Yansane.
Houston?
Did you know the Crotch Bomber spent some time in Houston before he went on his jihad? Debbie Schlussel places him in Houston in 2008. He attended seminars in "Islamic Studies" at the Al-Maghrib Institute there. Schlussel says, "You can bet this outfit is extremist." Might even have helped him out and had some tight connections with his Qaeda buddies in Yemen.
Sclussel has checked out the school, the Al-Maghrib Institute, and its clearly extremist pure Sunni extremism and hate. For those unfamiliar with the niceties (or, more appropriately, the not-niceties) of Islam, Maghrib (also Magreb) is the sunset prayer in Islam, the fourth out of five prayers in the day for Muslims.
It is tied to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the extremist organization that Bush administration members visited and spoke to. In case you forgot, like CAIR, ISNA was also an unindicted co-conspirator in funding HAMAS terrorism, as noted in the Holy Land Foundation trial.
The Al-Maghrib site notes that its students "sponsored 96 orphans" -- a/k/a the children of terrorist martyrs. Or sometimes there arent even those, and its just a straight out front funding terrorism. In this case, you can bet on that, since they sponsored the "orphans" through Islamic Relief, a HAMAS/Al-Qaeda charity.
Continue reading here . . .
From a second source: A cursory background investigation into Nabilaye I. Yansane, 39, (DOB October 7, 1970), a resident of the Bellaire Wood Apartments, 5414 Elm Street, Houston, Texas, found recent unrelated brushes with the law, including a misdemeanor charge of possession of a prohibited weapon accompanied by a drug possession charge-both filed on October 5, 2009. The drug possession charge was dismissed, while the weapons charge was adjudicated.
The misdemeanor charges notwithstanding, further investigation conducted over the last several days with area residents familiar with YANSANE indicates a possible "connection" with the Al-Maghrib Institute in Houston, an Islamic center located less than 6 miles from his home. According to two area residents, Yansane might have some level of involvement with the Institute, participating in classes or events at that location within the past year.
Oh, about that rocket launcher -- prosecutors said there are no state charges for having the unarmed launcher or possessing jihadist writings, unless they contain some type of threat -- and, get this -- Houston police said they did a thorough investigation and did not find any ties to terrorists or a terrorist network.
Yawn! Nothing to see here. Move on.
Good thing this guy was a Muslim, Holder burned down the Branch Davidian compound for less. Obama Aids The Enemy He Will Not Name Pamela Geller opines: White House National Security Adviser James Jones warned, Americans would feel "a certain shock" after reading the report on the Islamic jihadist who hid bombs in his crotch and tried to blow up Northwest Flight 253 in Detroit on Christmas Day. Well, I was shocked.
The loudest (deafening, actually) part of Obama's remarks Thursday on the war on the West is what he didn't say. Not once in Obama's self-aggrandizing speech on the Muslim Christmas bomber did he ever mention jihad or Islam -- and that is who we are at war with. To say that al-Qaeda alone is the enemy is just more obfuscation and deception. It's bureaucratic boilerplate.
Imagine, if you will, during, say, World War II, if the Axis press accounts of Allied military operations refused to use the word America or United States.
For example, a D-Day report would go like this: On June 6, 1944, nearly 160,000 Iowans, New Yorkers, Jerseyans, Alaskans, Texans, and some black and white folks landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified sandy coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft filled with all kinds of people supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end, Floridians had gained a foothold in Normandy.
Obama would speak only about "al-Qaeda."
Al-Qaeda is a manifestation of devout Islam. Just as Hamas, Hezb'allah, al-Muhajiroun, the Armed Islamic Group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, MILF, CAIR, ISNA, Fatah, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria -- it is Islam -- and by refusing to name the enemy, Obama has perpetrated yet another devastating attack on American security.
He is by far the most secretive and opaque man we have ever had the bad judgment to elect. While Obama and his gang of thieves hide behind closed doors to pass secret health care legislation that will enslave Americans under the Stalin-like propaganda chimera of "reform," he has opened to our mortal enemies a veritable treasure trove of intelligence.
On December 29, and very much under the radar, (he was sunnin' and funnin' in Hawaii at the time), Obama declassified just about everything he possibly could. All of it will help foreign governments and Obama's Communist-Socialist associates in the U.S. This executive order is a tsunami info-dump of newly declassified data -- material that was classified before June 29, 1985. It is all about to be made public -- despite the danger this poses to U.S. national security -- 180 days from the signing of the Executive Order.
The age of the documents doesn't automatically diminish the national security risk. Many of the individuals and organizations this material will cover are still very much with us, and Obama's new regulations also make it tougher to classify documents. "When determining to originally classify information, if there is significant doubt about the need to classify the information, it shall not be classified." Why not err on the side of caution, especially in a time of war?
The new rules stipulate that "information in permanently historically valuable records exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years must be declassified at 50 years unless it concerns: a confidential human source, a human intelligence source, or key design concepts of weapons of mass destruction." Reassured? Don't be. The definition of "weapons of mass destruction" has also been changed so as to allow for the declassification of more documents.
Obama will also establish a new National Declassification Center (NDC), whose job will be to "streamline declassification processes. ...Obama has committed the NDC to process over 400 million records by 2013 and so this center will be very large scale in nature."
Worst of all, the new regulations specifically describe processes by which "classified information originating in one agency may be disseminated by any other agency to which it has been made available" to foreign governments.
Imagine: We can't see health care legislation, but our enemies can see...everything from twenty-five years ago. This breach of national security is a treacherous act, a gift to our enemies, and fodder for a propaganda press.
Imagine such an action in a time of war, but since Obama won't even say who we're at war against, it isn't surprising. Obama Whitewashes Islamic Jihad Joseph Klein says the new buzz phrase in the Obama administration to describe our fight against radical Islamic terrorism is "countering violent extremism." Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair used the catch-phrase twice in a speech he delivered yesterday.
Notice that there is no reference to the source of most of the terrorist "violent extremism" around the world today -- radical Islam. This "soft power approach" is deliberately designed to avoid offending the Muslim world -- an extension of Obamas apologia last June in Cairo during which he told Muslims how sorry the United States was for all of the supposed wrongs we committed against them.
It is also forbidden in Obama-land to use the term "jihad" to describe the Islamic ideology we are fighting. Last year John Brennan, Obamas top counterterrorism adviser, said it was inappropriate to use "jihad" in such a negative context because in the Islam religion, he claims, jihad means "to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal."
But when one examines the real meaning of jihad according to Islams prophet Muhammad from primary sources such as Bukhari (the Hadith, which are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad), Brennans assertion is overwhelmingly disproved. The fact is that 97% of the jihad references are about war and 3% concern an inner struggle. Also, the Koran itself is full of hate-filled violent passages.
The Obama administration is helping to whitewash the words and deeds of the radical Islamists own warrior prophet, which these mass murderers of innocent civilians use today to justify their jihad of terror.
Laura Ingraham, who filled in for Bill OReilly on "The Factor" last night, minced no words in piercing through this semantical, politically correct nonsense. Her guest, Nancy Soderberg (who served in the Clinton administration, including as Alternate Representative to the United Nations), tried to defend the whitewash by dumping on the Bush administrations more direct approach to fighting the war against terror.
Not only did Ingraham point out that Bush had repeatedly gone out of his way to describe Islam -- rightly or wrongly -- as a peaceful faith. She also reminded Soderberg that Bush has been out of office for more than a year and that it was time for the Obama administration to be held accountable for its failures. Maybe Ingraham should host "The Factor" more often.
Nothing that Obama has done so far in trying to whitewash the radical Islamic source of the terrorist threat our country is facing today has worked. The problem has gotten worse. Before you can effectively fight the enemy -- whether on the military battlefield or in the war of ideas -- you have to understand who they really are and expose their true ideology to the world.
Brennan is full of baloney. This is what a real authority, the Ayatollah Khomeini says about Islam -- "Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless." -- and this -- "Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors!" Watch Out For Redacted Alec Rawls describes how the FBI Director tried to warn about home grown Islamic terrorists, without mentioning "Islam."
In Senate testimony, Robert Meuller does everything he can to suggest that he is talking about Islamic extremists. He cites Nidal Hasans mass murder of American soldiers at Fort Hood. He cites Mumbai attacks planner David Headley. But thanks to Obamas banning of any reference to Islam in relation to terror threats, Meuller is unable to specify that it isnt animal rights activists or disgruntled taxpayers who he is calling "an equally serious threat" as al Qaeda. He can only describe the danger as "US-born extremists," of no particular persuasion.
Not allowed to name the enemy, Meuller sounds like Ray Charles telling Stevie Wonder where to steer the car:
"These terrorist threats are diverse, far-reaching and ever-changing, and to combat these threats, the FBI must sustain our overseas contingency operations and engage our intelligence and law enforcement partners both here at home and abroad," he said.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. This intentionally stripped out language is how our intelligence analysts are now reduced to talking to each other internally as they try to conduct business, otherwise theyll get fired. They are commanded to turn a blind eye to Obamas relentless favoritism for everything Islamic, including Islamic terrorists, who can no longer be tracked as such. Muellers tongue-tied testimony is a glimpse of the barriers that Obama is putting in the way of daily intelligence operations.
President Clinton gave us Jamie Gorelicks "wall of separation" between intelligence and law enforcement. Obama has found an even more effective way to hamper national security: a wall of separation between each agents brain and his mouth. Taliban Not A Terrorist Organization Amanda Carey says a new State Department report designating terrorist organizations notably excludes one group: the Taliban. The U.S. has been fighting a war in Afghanistan for almost a decade aimed at "defeating the Taliban," Taliban members repeatedly have threatened and killed American citizens, and lawmakers have increased pressure on State to add the Taliban to the list.
Earlier this summer, a group of congressional Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton urging her to begin the process of categorizing the Taliban as a terrorist group. In June, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey proposed legislation that would immediately add the Taliban to the terrorist list.
Yet the State Departments report (due on April 30 but released last week), did not include the Taliban with groups such as al-Qaida, Hamas and the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA). To qualify, an organization must meet only three criteria: It must be foreign, it must engage in terrorist activity and its activity must threaten the security of the U.S. or its citizens.
"It is hard to imagine this agency can see fit to issue a report that doesnt include the Taliban groups," Fred Gedrich, a foreign policy analyst and former State Department employee, told The Daily Caller. "They have killed more Americans and conducted more terror attacks on innocent civilians during the past 12 months than any other terror group."
Gedrich and others troubled by the Talibans absence from the list note that the Taliban recruited and trained the failed Times Square bomber. Just days ago the Taliban claimed responsibility for the deaths of ten American medical missionaries in Afghanistan.
"Leaving these ruthless groups off the terror list undermines State Department credibility and could further endanger American troops, U.S. embassy personnel and others in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as Americans innocently going about their business in the United States," Gedrich said.
"Its insane, because we are talking about the most barbaric group in the world," said Gedrich.
Related: US State Department List of Terrorist Organizations
It Begins A federal judge has tossed out most of the government's evidence against a terrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.
In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also said the government failed to establish that 23 statements the detainee made to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were untainted by the earlier coerced statements made while he was held under harsh conditions in Afghanistan.
The judge said the government presented medical records about the detainee's debilitating physical and mental condition that confirm his claims of harsh treatment during the 40 days he spent in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Despite Hogan's concerns about the 23 statements, the judge relied on other evidence and three statements Al Madhwani made to a military tribunal and a review board to conclude that he trained, traveled and associated with members of al-Qaida, including high-level operatives. On those grounds, the judge ruled he is legally detained. I Know Why The Caged Bird Isn't Singing Scott at Powerline blog says Obama's decision to treat Umar Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant rather than an enemy combatant is indefensible on the merits. It is also incredibly costly in terms of foregone intelligence. The administration's combined arrogance and stupidity would be laughable if their consequences weren't so serious.
Today's Telegraph carries Philip Sherwell's article quoting former Senator and 9/11 Commission member Slade Gorton on the issue. Speaking of Abdulmutallab, Gorton says:
"He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up," Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph.
"I find it incomprehensible that this administration is treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue. The president has finally said that we are at war with al-Qaeda. Well, if this is a war, then Abdulmutallab should be treated as a combatant not a criminal."
Why is Obama treating Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant? It is an unbelievable fact that we have as yet no straightforward answer to this question. There is, in any event, no good answer to it. If we are at war with al Qaeda, as Obama himself asserted last week in the statement to which Gorton alludes, why are we treating Umar Abdulmutallab (not to mention Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) like John Gotti?
John Hinderaker adds: Check this out, too -- Marc Thiessen's excellent piece which explains the unique value of intelligence gained from captured al Qaeda terrorists. Obama Yields Last night, Obama ordered the Attorney General to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.
The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere" and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.
"It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters. "There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City."
State and city leaders have increasingly railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.
The order to consider new venues does not change the White House's position that Mohammed should be tried in civilian court.
"President Obama is still committed to trying Mohammed and four other terrorist detainees in federal court," spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday.
Continue reading here . . .
Half a loaf is better than none -- add this to the growing list of Obama defeats. Obama Officials Wrong on Padilla Thomas Joscelyn says al Qaeda terrorist Jose Padilla started talking only after he was designated an enemy combatant.
During an interview on MSNBC Thursday morning, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs defended the Obama administrations handling of the Crotch Bomber, bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Gibbels argued that the administration was right to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant, instead of as an enemy combatant. "Just because you make somebody an enemy combatant [it] doesnt make them talk," Gibbs argued. He then pointed to an example from the Bush years to supposedly support his point.
"Jose Padilla was made an enemy combatant so that we could get him to talk," Gibbels said. "And guess what happened when we made him an enemy combatant, he didn't talk. He did talk when he was transferred back into a civilian court."
Obamas top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, made the same point on Tuesday in an op-ed for USA Today. Brennan argued: "Terrorists such as Jose Padilla and Saleh al-Mari did not cooperate when transferred to military custody, which can harden one's determination to resist cooperation."
Brennan and Gibbels are wrong. In fact, Jose Padilla only started cooperating once he was transferred into the militarys custody and interrogated.
Continue reading here . . . Obama Will Choose KSM Trial Location Ryan J. Reilly is reporting that Obama will help select the location of the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) and insert himself into the process that has faced major political setbacks -- notice, the italicized word, "help."
At 3:29 in this video, Perky Katie Couric asks Obama if he has ruled out conducting the KSM trial in the Big Apple. Obama responds, "I have not ruled it out." -- notice, "I have not..." -- not "Holder hasn't ruled it out."
And, Fox News just broadcast a news alert (2/12/10 at 9:02 AM (EST)) that said Obama was personally going to Congress and get the money for the trial -- what's that they say about he who has the gold?
Anyone who has been following this page knows I strongly believe Obama has made all the decisions of the handling of KSM and his trial from the beginning -- he's calling the shots on the Black Panther case too.
This is just more evidence. Obama Wants Terror Trial In America Daniel Roberts says John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism aide, said Obama is committed to holding the 9/11 terror trial in the U.S., though he's not sure where.
Obama remains committed to trying accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in an American court -- although he remains unsure where, a top administration official said Saturday.
"As far as support from the community and funding requirement, the most important thing to keep in mind is we need to bring him to justice in an American court," said John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism aide.
"Whether it happens in New York, Pennsylvania or Virginia, where will funding come from?"
New York officials estimated the cost of holding a trial in Manhattan at $250 million. Mayor Bloomberg is among those opposed to a trial in lower Manhattan, just a few blocks from Ground Zero.
Brennan, appearing before a mostly Muslim audience at an NYU Islamic Center-sponsored event, avoided commenting on the controversy during his 45-minute speech, but addressed the issue after an audience member posed the question.
"Clearly, this is an issue people in the city feel strongly about," Brennan acknowledged.
"We are trying to push this forward as best we can, but we also need non-obstruction from certain forces in our government," he said later. "There are stiff winds delaying us from bringing this man to justice." Obama Open To Miranda Review NewsMax.com Barack reports Obama is open to the idea of reviewing Miranda warnings for terrorist suspects, Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said Monday.
Axelrod's comment came after Attorney General Eric Holder said changes by Congress may be needed to allow law enforcement more time to question suspected terrorists before being told about their right to a lawyer and their right to remain silent during interrogation.
Holder's weekend statements got a mixed reception from Republicans on Capitol Hill, with Sen. Lindsey Graham saying he was generally pleased with what he heard from the attorney general.
Graham said: "I've been advocating a long hard look at all of our laws regarding the threats we face."
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Holder's statements on Miranda were overdue.
"I would remind Attorney General Holder that we have been very much at war with international terrorism for a long time," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
In an interview with CNN, Axelrod said: "I think the president is open to looking at that issue. ... Certainly we're willing to talk to Congress about that." Axelrod said any changes would be in the area of adjustments, not a wholesale revision.
The New York Post reports that Holder said he wants legislation expanding an exemption to the rule, to apply when investigators interview terror suspects like Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized citizen.
Such authority would let cops immediately grill suspects about other plots and plotters -- without worrying that the questioning would harm their legal case.
It's certainly no coincidence that Holder also confirmed that the Pakistani Taliban was "intimately involved" in the bombing attempt. "We know they helped direct it, and I suspect that we are going to come up with evidence which shows that they helped to finance it," he said. Obama Gives Up On Gitmo Charlie Savage says that Obama, who has been stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, has sidelined efforts to close the Guantnamo prison, making it unlikely that he will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.
When the White House acknowledged last year that it would miss Obamas initial January 2010 deadline for shutting the prison, it also declared that the detainees would eventually be moved to one in Illinois. But impediments to that plan have mounted in Congress, and the administration is doing little to overcome them.
"There is a lot of inertia" against closing the prison, "and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that I can see," said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and supports the Illinois plan. He added that "the odds are that it will still be open" by the next presidential inauguration.
Continue reading here . . . Congressman King Rips Obama On Ghailani Verdict John McCormack says Peter King rips the Ghailani verdict as a "total miscarriage of justice today in Manhattans federal civilian court." He says it demonstrates the "absolute insanity of the Obama Administrations decision to try al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts."
"I am disgusted at the total miscarriage of justice today in Manhattans federal civilian court. In a case where Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was facing 285 criminal counts, including hundreds of murder charges, and where Attorney General Eric Holder assured us that 'failure is not an option,' the jury found him guilty on only one count and acquitted him of all other counts including every murder charge.
"This tragic verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama Administrations decision to try al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts.
"This case was doomed from the beginning when the judge excluded DOJs key witness who admitted selling the explosives to Ghailani. Where is the justice for the more than 200 people killed and 4,000 injured in the terrorist bombings of our U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania?
"This is a tragic wake-up call to the Obama Administration to immediately abandon its ill- advised plan to try Guantanamo terrorists like the admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal civilian courts. We must treat them as wartime enemies and try them in military commissions at Guantanamo.
"As the next Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, I intend to hold hearings and conduct the necessary oversight on this critical homeland security issue in the 112th Congress."
Related: State-Run Media Neglects to Report That Ahmed Ghailani Delivered Explosives That Killed 2oo Innocents
Related: Ahmed Ghailani, Gitmo detainee, acquitted of all but 1 charge in N.Y. (cleared on 285 counts)
Related: Obama Justice Department Says Its "Pleased" Ahmed Ghailani Acquitted on 285 of 286 Charges
The worst decision ever! http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/TerrorismAndTheCourts.htm Falling Down On The Job Walid Phares says even Obama has admitted that we're falling down on the job when it comes to fighting the war on terror.
In 2002, one would-be shoe bomber forced millions of travelers to take off their shoes. In 1996, terrorists planned to bring down aircraft on transatlantic flights by smuggling liquid explosives onto plane. They were thwarted but they succeeded in preventing passengers from bringing liquids into airline terminals.
Lesson number one: In this terror war, the jihadists have the upper hand. THEY are in charge. THEY are the ones who choose to use a new weapon and they are also the ones who -- by using simple logic -- have refrained from using the same terror weapons more than once. In fact, since September 2001, Al Qaedas henchmen have avoided rushing into the cockpit of an airliner with box cutters. Does this mean we were successful in deterring the terrorists? Of course: as long as we can prevent them from using the 9/11 methods, they won't be nave enough or foolish enough to repeat the same strategy. So are we winning the fight with Al Qaeda by using these measures? No, we are simply protecting our population until we win the war. But winning is not measured by surviving potential copycat attacks.
Instead, this war will be won by striking at the mechanism that produces the jihadists. And on that level, we havent won this war either under the previous administration nor under the incumbent one. For, as Obama admitted late last month after a near-terror attack on Northwest Flight 253, there is a "systemic failure" in our defense against the jihadi terrorists.
In my analysis, it has to do with the refusal by our leaders -- based on the opinion of their own experts -- to attack the factory that produces terrorists and instead to wait passively until the jihadists show up at our country's ports of entries.
We have been fighting this war inside our own trenches and often behind our own lines of defense. Preventing Al Qaedas zombies from killing our airline pilots and flight attendants by securing cabin doors with steel and installing machines to detect liquid, creams and potential explosives is like fighting an invading army inside our own trenches and neighborhoods with bayonets. If anything, it means that our strategists have no way to remotely detect this threat and they can't even decide what is and isn't a threat until it actually strikes us or is a few inches from us. It is a pretty ironic situation when the grand narrative of our government is that we are fighting terrorists or extremists (pick your word, it has the same conclusion) in Waziristan, Afghanistan, and beyond, so that our defense perimeters are thousands of miles away.
So are we wrong to institute any of the security measures? No, we need to take all possible measures to secure the population, but we also need to take them in the framework of a grand strategy to defeat the threat. And in this regard we do not have one. The jihadists are monitoring our actions, our measures and I do assume also are comfortably spying on us and looking into the deepest of our security mechanisms. After the Nada Prouty and Nidal Hasan penetration cases no one can convince me that neither Hezbollah nor Al Qaeda havent deployed more agents throughout our national security apparatus. The enemy knows our defense strategy, and some would argue that they are already inside our walls. As were learning -- constantly and dramatically -- the so-called "isolated extremists" are not that isolated and those believed to be "lone wolves" are in fact part of a much greater, well-camouflaged packs. The jihadists are way ahead of our security measures -- even though we need to apply them nevertheless.
In the wake of the Abdulmutalib terror act the Obama administration announced that any travelers flying into the United States from foreign countries will receive tightened random screening, and all passengers from "terrorism-prone countries" will be patted down and have their carry-on baggage searched before boarding U.S.-bound flights. The list includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as well as those travelling from Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen. But here is the problem: In the jihadi war room, this was duly noted. Thus, the next human missiles will be selected from the "other" countries, and there are many countries where combat Salafis are indoctrinated and readied: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Indonesia to name a few, by the way all U.S. allies. Even better, the jihadi strategists could task recruits with German, British, French as well as Australian and Canadian passports to wreck havoc in our cities. The past year has shown us that the jihadis can also emerge from North Carolina, Illinois, New York and other states all across the land. Most likely the "emirs" of Al Qaeda will recommend dumping the use of powder to blow up planes, and soon another Zawahiri tape will rail at us for spending millions on a path they wont use for a while.
As we move to implement our mammoth security measures, the swift men of jihadism are already mapping out the endlessly open areas of our underbellies. In strategic terms were not going even going anywhere near that direction, it is a dead end. The Al Qaeda jihadists will keep coming, each time from a different direction, background, with a new tactic. And they will surprise us. Unfortunately, that is the price of a national security policy that identifies terrorism as a "manmade disaster" and jihadism as form of yoga.
Dr. Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad Terror Attacks Raise Tension Between Obama And GOP Byron York says that while the White House celebrates the capture of accused Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, some of the people most involved in fighting terrorism in the United States are very, very worried.
On Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected the suggestion that Shahzad's ability to travel to and from Pakistan, train with the Taliban, and place a car bomb in the heart of New York City represented a "systemic failure" of the nation's security agencies. (That's what President Obama said happened in the case of Crotch Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.)
Far from seeing failure, Gibbs saw reason for celebration. Shahzad was found quickly, he pointed out, with federal, state and local authorities working together. "So in many ways, we want to celebrate the success of, rightly so, of what law enforcement was able to do," Gibbs said.
Tell that to Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "These guys continue to be in denial," Hoekstra says of the White House. "We're just a couple of smart people away from having 300, 400, 500 Americans killed. We have to express our appreciation to the FBI and the New York Police Department for capturing this guy, but our focus should be on how he got to Times Square and almost blew up an SUV loaded with explosives. That's not success in my book. Success would have been identifying this guy and making sure he didn't get to Times Square."
Particularly troubling to Hoekstra and other committee Republicans is the confusion over what U.S. authorities did or did not know about Shahzad before the bombing attempt. The New York Times reported that in 2004, after Shahzad sold a condominium, agents from the government's Joint Terrorism Task Force questioned the buyer about Shahzad. There have also been reports that Shahzad was in e-mail contact with radical Islamists abroad and was on a Department of Homeland Security travel watch list. But still other reports say American officials knew nothing about him.
What's the truth? "It's hard to believe that with this guy's profile, he didn't leave some kind of footprints in Pakistan that you would hope that we picked up somewhere along the line," Hoekstra says.
In other recent terrorist incidents, we learned from post-attack investigations that U.S. officials knew about the perpetrators beforehand. In the case of the Fort Hood shooting that left 13 people dead, officials knew Maj. Nidal Hasan had exchanged e-mails with radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al Awlaki, had written Internet postings justifying Muslim suicide bombings and had made troubling statements to co-workers. Yet even after Hasan went on his murderous rampage, Obama was slow to publicly recognize the attack as Islamist violence and the Pentagon later tried to whitewash the story in its official report.
After the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt, we learned that U.S. officials had received a tip from Abdulmutallab's father about his son's extremist views, that Abdulmutallab's name had been in a terrorist database and that U.S. officials knew he had been trained in Yemen.
Now there is Shahzad. While the White House suggests that Americans "celebrate" his capture, Hoekstra and fellow Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are growing increasingly frustrated about what they see as the administration's refusal to tell Congress what's going on. On Wednesday, all nine Republican members sent a letter to Obama protesting what they called the White House's deliberate withholding of critical national security information.
"A clear pattern has emerged," the GOP lawmakers wrote, "of the administration refusing to provide requested briefings or information or to engage with us despite repeated requests on issues such as Guantanamo, the Fort Hood attack, the Christmas Day attack, Yemen, critical issues involving the [foreign intelligence surveillance court], and now the Times Square attack."
Obama has made a new approach to terrorism one of the key features of his presidency. He no longer calls the nation's anti-terror effort the War on Terror. He has reached out to the Muslim world. He has banned what the Bush administration called "enhanced interrogation techniques." He has vowed to close Guantanamo and supports granting full American constitutional rights to foreign terrorists.
Yet the attacks and attempted attacks continue. And everyone knows it was luck, and not anti-terror work, that prevented American deaths on Christmas Day and in Times Square. Republicans want to know what went wrong and are becoming increasingly angry at a White House that is keeping details of the case to itself.
And the author forgets to mention the Little Rock and Bronx Bombers jihadis. The jihadi attacks and conspiracies are occurring at a rate of one per month. Sooner or later Americans are going to die -- and Obama will be directly responsible. Barack Obama Chamberlain Allen Hunt says that in the words of Dr. Phil, "How's that working out for you?" Someone in Obama's inner circle of advisors needs to ask the president that question and soon. In the wake of a new immigration policy debacle, and yet another homeland security collapse, how's that policy of appeasement of Islam working out for you? In Barack Obama, we are witnessing the second coming, not of Christ, but of Neville Chamberlain himself, the embodiment of appeasement.
In the 1930's, Neville Chamberlain earned great praise from his own party and from large numbers of the British people for his earnest willingness to avoid war by believing Adolf Hitler. Each time Hitler proclaimed like a child before a plate of Oreo cookies that one more piece of land would sate his appetite, Chamberlain accepted Hitler at his word and patted himself on the back for avoiding armed conflict. As Hitler moved in to seize Austria, Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of England, acquiesced. As Hitler set his sights on the Sudetenland, Chamberlain negotiated a worthless settlement that he presented as a basis for "peace in our time."
Unfortunately, Chamberlain's appeasement policy left England weak and unprepared for war, thereby making Churchill's task of waging war against Hitler all the more difficult. Crafting foreign policy, combating tyranny, and staring down evil are not for the faint-hearted. Wishing away a problem rarely works; ask any addict. Relying solely on one's supernatural powers of persuasion usually leads to delusion, failure, or worse, collapse. In fact, this tall task of confronting evil requires a strategy of strength rather than a policy of appeasement. Regrettably, the latter seems to be the bailiwick of Obama.
We have now witnessed a supposed "re-booting of America's image" in the Muslim world as inaugurated by Obama's much ballyhooed Cairo speech. He and the First Lady have treated us to Muslim celebrations and declarations in the White House for Ramadan. Obama has hosted an "Entrepreneur Summit" for Muslim leaders. He has issued paeans on the inspiring splendors of Islam, "one of the world's great religions." Obama has even gone to great lengths to praise an Islamic cartoonist for creating pretend superheroes skilled in the art of collaboration and peace, skills supposedly rooted in the Koran. Meanwhile, American cartoonists at South Park live in fear of actual violence and censorship as Comedy Central quivers at the mere threat of terrorist loons like RevolutionMuslim.com and Faisal Shahzad. Perhaps Mr. Obama could help inspire cartoonists in his own country not to fear telling the truth about Islam rather than encouraging a Kuwaiti cartoonist.
Thus far, it looks very much like Barack Obama is channeling his inner Neville Chamberlain. Appease and wish the problem away. So far, not so good.
In the past six months, to name just a few examples, America has experienced:
A full-frontal terrorist assault on one of our own military bases by Major Nidal Hasan. This attack occurred in spite of the numerous red flags over the past decade as Hasan made his way through American government-provided education and military training.
A near disastrous airline terror attack by Umar the Crotch Bomber on Christmas as his plane prepared to land in Detroit. The savior from that attack was a Dutchman who dove across the aisle of the plane to smother Umar and his flaming underwear. Never mind that Umar had purchased a one-way ticket with cash, carried no luggage, and had spent time in terrorist training. Secretary Napolitano's team somehow had allowed him on a plane and never given it a second thought -- "the system worked.".
The planting of a car bomb in Times Square by a man who had been on our watch list for ten years, had received citizenship from our immigration bureaucracy, had recently spent five months in Pakistan, and had trained with terrorist groups. Somehow, Napolitano's excellent leadership allowed the team at JFK airport to screen thousands of passengers on a day while failing to detain Faisal Shahzad, a wanted terrorist who walked right through security and onto a plane to head home to the Middle East.
So what Obama and his team bring to national security and the struggle against Islamic terror is a combination that spells danger. First, an executive leader who naively thinks the problem of terror can be wished away by summits and speeches. Second, a government bureaucracy that is always modifying its policies AFTER each security failure. A deadly cocktail.
What an odd nation we are as we pursue our mindless quest for PCness when what we need is an education and a dose of critical thinking. We can thank God that the Islamists thus far have sent Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle to attack us. Ineptitude has been our primary savior: bombers who do not know what they are doing -- only matched by our own ineptitude at naming the problem (radical Islam's inability to adapt to Western mores) and dealing with it (with real immigration policies and strong security strategies). Frankenbombers James White says Al-Qaeda fanatics may be planning a horrific "Frankenbomber" suicide attack by implanting explosives into a human body.
Defense analysts logged conversations between users of a online forum in which Muslim extremists debate terrorism methods which could beat new US aviation security checks.
The alarming posts included one by a user who claimed to be a surgeon, promising a "new kind of terrorism." It called on bomb makers and doctors to create the perfect solution to murder "larger numbers of unbelievers and apostates."
The post said: "What is your opinion about surgeries through which I can implant the bomb... inside the operative's body? I am waiting for the interaction of the experienced brothers to connect the two sciences together and produce a new kind of terrorism, Allah willing."
Monitoring of the site by the SITE Intelligence Group also revealed that stitching a bomb into the abdominal cavity made of plastic or liquid explosives -- such as Semtex or PETN -- was judged the best method.
"It must be planted near the surface of the body, because the human body absorbs shocks," advised one terrorist.
The forum discussion comes as US passengers reacted angrily to "intrusive body searches" involve pat-downs and scanners in a security crackdown.
Such searches would not detect a "Frankenbomber" implanted with explosives, it is believed.
Mark Rossini, a former senior FBI counter-terror expert told the New York Daily News: "In the same way that drug smugglers have placed bags of narcotics in the body cavities of animals and had people ingest condoms filled with drugs, it would not be out of the realm of Al Qaeda operational planners to conceive of such a technique. No technique is off-limits to Al Qaeda to achieve its destructive goals."
In August last year, Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef was injured when a suicide bomber with explosives carried inside his body managed to breach security and detonate the device. Do You Believe The People Running This Country? Zip has a video of an Obama Regime Official saying, "We Actually Expected" released Gitmo detainees would return to fighting Jihad.
On the recently announced soaring recidivism rate for Gitmo detainees returning to terror, Soros' lackey and State Department spokesman, P. J. Crowley, said on Fox News that "we actually expected this to happen."
I watch this guy and Janet Napolitano doing interviews on TV and I just have to shake my head.
Jihad is forever. Obama and his crowd won't even admit there is a jihad. They refuse to use the word. They have to let terrorists go or admit their view of jihad is absurd. U. S. In Direct Talks With Taliban AFP is reporting the Obama administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban officials, The New Yorker magazine reports.
The talks were characterized in the story as an attempt by the Obama administration "to assess which figures in the Taliban's leadership, if any, might be willing to engage in formal Afghan peace negotiations, and under what conditions".
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll wrote that several sources, which were not identified in the story, briefed him about the talks.
Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that only a political solution will end the war in Afghanistan.
"We will never kill enough insurgents to end this war outright," Ms. Clinton said during a speech in New York, and voiced hope for splitting off rank-and-file Taliban from al-Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan.
She said the surge in US-led troops over the past year was part of a strategy to "split the weakened Taliban off from al-Qaeda and reconcile those who will renounce violence and accept the Afghan constitution".
The late Richard Holbrooke, who served as Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was a leading advocate for a political settlement. Holbrooke died December 13.
And it was notions that you can split the rank-and-file jihadists from the college-educated jihadists that killed him.
Evidently our State Department forgets that the Taliban were as 7th century as it gets long before we went to Afghanistan. The Silent Moderates An American Expat in Southeast Asia says that while the initial reaction to Osama Bin Laden's death throughout Southeast Asia was surprisingly muted with many expressing disbelief on his demise, the general mood is disturbingly changing. Yesterday afternoon the mosques were packed full from Indonesia and Malaysia to the Philippines with thousands of Al Qaeda supporters and sympathizers taking to the streets afterwards protesting and marching on the respective United States embassies.
The show of sympathy for Al Qaeda's leader was stunning with many shocked at the large number of supporters who came out. To those in America and Europe who still think that Al Qaeda's virulent strain of Islam had but a few supporters, yesterday was an eye- opener. Manila's Golden Mosque which normally attracts only around 500 worshipers for Friday prayers was filled to the brim with over 5000 worshipers yesterday afternoon. In Malaysia, Al Qaeda's sympathizers took to the streets and in Indonesia posters were put up denouncing Obama as a terrorist and Osama as a mujahid.
In provocative displays of religious chauvinism Islam's fieriest orators took this unique opportunity to stoke the flames of recrudescent radicalism from a vast new contingent of self-radicalized moderates, by denouncing the West and praising Osama Bin Laden. It is this new contingent, the "silent moderates" who will seek no rapprochement and offer no quarter with the West. Emboldened by the West's appeasement, deference and lack of resolve, they number in the millions and range from bomb-makers to home-makers but each one shares a common goal and that is absolute victory.
While our adversaries overseas are plotting to one day soon deliver the nuclear coup de grce -- our TSA agents are back home are either busy groping preteens in the nation's airports or attending Muslim sensitivity classes. Time is not on our side and neither will be victory if we don't pull our heads out of the sand.
To paraphrase Churchill, the West has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war. Obama's Cultural Sensitivity Judicial Watch says that in the Obama Administrations shameless effort to appease Muslims, an FBI raid on a south Florida mosque with terrorist ties was conducted under new rules of engagement to assure cultural sensitivity towards Islam.
The culturally sensitive raid led to the arrest of a Pakistani imam (Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan) at a Miami mosque and five others, including his sons, daughter and grandson. All were charged with providing financial and material support for the Pakistani Taliban. The terrorist organization is associated with Al-Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against American interests, including a 2009 suicide bombing at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
Khan founded an Islamic school that supports the Talibans jihad while living in Pakistan and continued controlling and funding it as an imam in Miami, according to the federal indictment. He used the school to provide shelter and support for Taliban soldiers and to train children how to kill Americans in Afghanistan, the indictment says. The rest of the family helped create a network that flowed money from the U.S. to Pakistan to purchase guns for the Taliban, according to the feds.
Considering the seriousness of the charges its inconceivable that federal agents made cultural sensitivity a priority during arrests. The unbelievable details of how the "kindler, gentler arrests" went down are featured in a local newspaper that reports federal agents actually waited for prayer service to end before moving in out of respect for Muslims. They also took their shoes off before entering the mosque as per Islamic tradition.
The Obama-appointed federal prosecutor in charge of the area, U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer, went out of his way to assure that the case has been handled under the administrations new rules of engagement to show more sensitivity toward religious practices. He stressed that most Muslims are "as American as apple pie" and should not be branded by the alleged terrorist actions of just a few.
As part of its nationwide outreach efforts, the Obama Administration has conducted a series of meetings with Muslim groups throughout Florida, including training workshops to help law enforcement officers become more sensitive about Arab, Muslim and Sikh communities. Ferrer, who prosecutes federal crimes in the entire region, says Muslims shouldnt feel isolated because hes their U.S. Attorney too.
While reading this, the lack of "cultural sensitivity" shown in the Branch Davidians raid came to mind. Lawmakers Resist Obama's $2B To Egypt Fox News is reporting that Obama's call for $2 billion in loan assistance to Egypt has left many political figures scratching their heads as they try to figure out why a debt-ridden U.S. would commit that much money to a country whose new government may not end up friendly to America.
In Thursday's sweeping address on the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, Obama said he wants the U.S. to forgive roughly $1 billion in debt owed by Egypt and to provide another $1 billion in loan guarantees to free up money for job-creation efforts there.
But with the U.S. grappling with more than $14 trillion in debt and lawmakers fighting over the terms for increasing the nation's own ability to borrow money, Obama's call to help Egypt has face resistance in Congress.
"Considering our own national debt, we cannot afford to forgive up to $1 billion of Egypt's debt," said Rep. Elena Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I am deeply concerned that the president did not rule out providing aid to Egypt if the Muslim Brotherhood is part of the government," she said. "The U.S. should only provide assistance to Egypt after we know that Egypt's new government will not include the Muslim Brotherhood and will be democratic, pro-American and committed to abiding by peace agreements with Israel."
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is running for president, posted this message on his Twitter account: "Pres. Obama: $2B in loan guarantees for Egypt'. Guaranteed with WHAT?? We're broke. Who will guarantee our guarantee??"
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, had a similar reaction.
"Where are we going to get $1 billion?" he said to Dow Jones News Service. "If we give them $1 billion, we're going to borrow $400 million from the Chinese."
Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which would have to allocate the funds, told Dow Jones News Service, "I don't know where this money is going to come from. Two billion dollars, when everything is getting cut to the bone, is going to be difficult." Obama's Servile Negotiations With The Taliban Tara Servatius says most Americans dont realize how far Obama has bowed down to the Taliban -- and how he is potentially setting them up to rule Afghanistan.
While the fact that we are negotiating with the Taliban has been fleetingly covered here in America, a search using LexisNexis shows that the rest of the story about the concessions we have offered them has been virtually blacked out by the mainstream media in the U.S. Things are so bad that we now arent even requiring that they renounce their ties to al-Qaeda before we negotiate with them.
Youd have to read British newspapers to learn that, and about how they have humiliated our Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron on the national stage in negotiations.
The Obama administration is so desperate to appease the Islamic savages and cut a peace deal with them that U.S. negotiators no longer require preconditions of Taliban fighters we negotiate with -- like that they halt the killing of innocent civilians and our troops or break with al-Qaeda, the Telegraph of London reported.
Apparently, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil arent off-limits either. Incredibly, these "negotiations" with the Taliban began last fall, just five months after the attempted Times Square bombing attack by Faisal Shahzad, which was funded by the Taliban.
U.S. negotiators and their British counterparts arent even requiring that the Taliban embrace the Afghan constitution that our troops and many Afghans paid for with blood. Worse yet, they are aiming to turn control of the county at least partly over to the Taliban in a "shared power" deal, essentially throwing the Afghan people to the wolves.
Meanwhile our troops take bullets enforcing the Afghan constitution and continue to die fighting for what the Obama administration is giving away at the negotiating table. The Taliban killed four U.S. soldiers and 42 innocent civilians in bombings at hospital and construction sites this month, and was recently caught attempting to smuggle suicide bombers as young as 9 years old into the country.
If the American public got the full story on this, theyd be outraged. The Taliban is so emboldened that it has even demanded we release 20 prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay holding facility as part of negotiations, one of the few details of these talks that has actually been reported by the U.S. press.
Continue reading here . .
The United States has always reacted to terrorism http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/TerroristInCharge.htm
Items are archived in chronological order . . . Faisal Shahzad -- The Times Square Bomber Hot Air blog has the minute-by-minute account of the events that occurred when a suspicious vehicle in the heart of Times Square led the police to clear thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening, May 1, 2010
Police officials said a witness reported a running Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates, with smoke coming out of the back. A bomb squad robot popped the back latch of the Pathfinder, and officers found what they initially believed was a bomb. The vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires, a Fire Department officer told Reuters.
The officer, who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that a man was seen fleeing the S.U.V. and that the police evacuated the area in case there were other threats nearby.
The officer said that the police were treating the vehicle as a "failed device." The police were searching for a suspect. That suspect would be identified as Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen, originally from Pakistan. Faisal At The Fireworks Store
Shahzad Was Connected
ABC News is reporting that Shahzad had contact with Awlaki, Taliban Chief, and Mumbai Massacre Mastermind.
Accused Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad linked up with the Pakistani Taliban through the internet, ABC News has been told by law enforcement and intelligence sources close to the investigation. Once the Taliban identified him as more valuable in the U.S. than in Pakistan, they trained him to return to execute his bomb attack.
But according to these sources, Shahzad also had a web of jihadist contacts that included big names tied to terror attacks in the U.S. and abroad, including the figure who has emerged as a central figure in many recent domestic terror attempts -- radical American- born Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki.
Besides Awlaki, sources say Shahzad was also linked to a key figure in the Pakistani Taliban, its Emir Beitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a drone missile strike in 2009. The Mehsuds had been family friends of Shahzad, who is the son of a former high-ranking Pakistani military officer.
Sources told ABC News that Shahzad was childhood friends with one of the alleged masterminds of the Mumbai massacre of 2008, in which more than 170 people died.
Shahzad is also said to be linked to a man named Muhammed Rehan, whom Pakistani authorities reportedly have in custody. Sources said Rehan helped Shahzad travel to Peshawar and then to Waziristan and made introductions to the Taliban.
According to a person briefed on the FBI interrogation, Shahzad has told federal agents that he was angry at the CIA missile strikes carried out in Pakistan and suffered a personal crisis in his life. He has reportedly said he carried out the attempted bombing because he was under duress and that he feared for his family's safety if he didn't fulfill the mission.
Shahzad has admitted to receiving bomb-making training and to loading a car with explosives and driving it into Times Square, say U.S. authorities, and is providing valuable information that is helping officials round up possible accomplices.
Seven men have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the failed car bombing, including two in Karachi and five in Punjab Province. Shahzad's faither-in-law has also been detained, and Shahzad's father, wife and children may be in protective custody.
Shahzad, whose father was a high-ranking officer in the Pakistani Air Force, moved to the United States in 1998. Married with two daughters, he worked as a financial analyst and lived in Connecticut.
In 2009, Shahzad's life began unraveling. He had been working as a junior financial analyst in the Stamford, Connecticut office of the Affinion Group, an international marketing firm, But in May he left his job, abandoned his $200,000 home to foreclosure and returned to Pakistan.
Federal officials alleged that while in Pakistan he learned bomb-making with the Taliban and received money for his plot.
Shahzad returned to the U.S. in February 2010. The Courier
Are the NYTs and James Risen at fault here?
Investigators of the failed car bombing in Times Square are looking for a money courier they say helped funnel cash from overseas to finance a Pakistani-Americans preparations to blow up the crude gasoline-and-propane bomb in the heart of New York, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Investigators have the name of the courier they believe helped Faisal Shahzad pay for the used SUV and other materials to rig up a car bomb that would have caused a huge fireball in Times Square if it had gone off, the official told the AP. The official didnt know how much money may have changed hands. A money courier?
Now where would they have learned that this money couldnt be tracked?
From Powerline:
"First, Shahzad used a disposable cell phone to communicate -- the NSA leak may very well explain why he did that. Second, according to the AP this morning, he received funds from abroad via a courier. A courier!!! The SWIFT leak is almost certainly implicated here." As I wrote in 2006:
The complete arrogance and stupidity of the press is mindboggling. The arrogance to believe that they should be the keepers of secrets. They should decide what to disclose and what not to. The stupidity in believing that printing a article which describes a secret tracking program will not affect our war against terror. It HAS affected it, and by pure luck many deaths were averted.
Times Square Bomber's Mosque Identified WorldNetDaily has learned that federal agents investigating the alleged car bomber paid a visit to a radical mosque in Bridgeport, Conn., with ties to terrorism. Shahzad has lived in the Bridgeport area for nearly a decade.
FBI agents questioned leaders of the Masjid An-Noor, also known as the Bridgeport Islamic Society, after arresting Shahzad on terrorism charges. The mosque serves a sizable population of Pakistani immigrants in the area, and Shahzad, recently naturalized as a U.S. citizen, was born and raised in Pakistan.
Masjid An-Noor's imam, Hasan Abunar, did not deny Shahzad attended his mosque, arguing only that he did not attend regularly. He allowed that he may have turned up a few times to pray.
Investigators say the Bridgeport Islamic Society and Masjid An-Noor are owned and controlled by a pro-jihad front group for Hamas, a federally designated terrorist group and its radical parent, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The front group, North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), holds title to the large Bridgeport mosque. NAIT is the financial arm of the Islamic Society of North America. Both entities have been blacklisted by the U.S. government as unindicted co-conspirators in a criminal plot to underwrite Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombings that have killed Americans.
NAIT also holds the deed to Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, the large mosque outside Washington where the Fort Hood terrorist and some of the 9/11 hijackers worshipped.
This radical custodian of the Bridgeport Islamic Society also publishes and distributes jihadi literature that exhorts Muslims to "kill" any Westerners who get in the way of spreading Islam "No political system or material power should put hindrances in the way of preaching Islam," asserts one Islamic book distributed by NAIT. "If someone does this, then it is the duty of Islam to fight him until either he is killed or until he declares his submission."
Current NAIT Trustee Gaddoor Saidi was individually listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case -- the largest terror finance trial in U.S. history, which ended in guilty verdicts on all 108 counts.
Chicago-based NAIT also handles the finances for CAIR, which along with NAIT has been criminally implicated in the Hamas terror conspiracy, according to the book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."
CAIR has vehemently protested the FBI's use of undercover informants in mosques and its recent seizure of several mosques in America. Last year, a Detroit mosque leader supported by CAIR was fatally wounded in a shootout with FBI agents who sought his arrest on felony charges. CAIR's claims that Shahzad was not religious and lacked ties to the Muslim community do not square with evidence found in his apartment or with accounts by neighbors and witnesses canvassed by FBI agents.
Federal investigators say one of the sole possessions found in Shahzad's apartment was a copy of the Quran. Found alongside it were prayer beads. He was also working on a scale wooden model of a mosque in his hobby room.
Shahzad shopped at a neighborhood Islamic grocery, Fresh Halal Meat and International Food. His wife used halal cosmetics, investigators say.
Neighbors say Shahzad, who wore a full beard, was seen wearing traditional Muslim robes at his home. And his wife, they say, often wore a veil.
While media reports say Shahzad only recently turned orthodox, investigators say he was schooled in a radical madrassa growing up in the Pakistani city of Karachi, a Taliban and al- Qaida hotbed.
Abunar condemned the failed car-bomb plot and says he lectures against violence at the Bridgeport mosque, which requires women to worship separately from men.
The imam recently lectured at events to support the pro-jihad Muslim American Society's youth programs. MAS, a front for the radical Muslim Brotherhood, runs "jihad camps" for Muslim boys. MAS's tarbiya (indoctrination) guide exhorts Muslim youth to "wage war," according to former FBI agent Johh Guandolo, quoted in "Muslim Mafia," until the U.S. is "wiped out" and only the law of Allah reigns supreme. MAS youth indoctrination is steeped in the teachings of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna, who argued for "increasing the number of youth groups (and) igniting in them the spirit of Islamic jihad."
Abunar is also listed as a member of the North American Imam Federation, a sister organization to CAIR, ISNA and NAIT, and another American front for the radical Muslim Brotherhood. The NAIF directory, in fact, lists Abunar on the same page with Luqman Abdullah, the Detroit imam recently gunned down in a firefight with the FBI. Time Square Bomber A Democrat Flopping Aces is still tracking down that news but one thing is clear: he wasnt a Tea Partier!
There are reports that Faisal Shahzad, the failed Time Square bomber was a registered Democrat in Connecticut and may be a donor to Obamas campaign.
This comes after the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg openly speculated that the bomber might be "somebody with a political agenda who doesnt like the health care bill or something." Contessa Brewer, a "reporter" for MSNBC went further, actually hoping the terrorist here wasnt Islamic and was disappointed that it wasnt a right winger.
Coming on the heels of repeated warnings from Obama, Bill Clinton and others that Tea Parties might lead to violence it was only natural for libs to assume this attack may have been inspired by opposition to Obama. But like the other baseless charges in Obamas political repertoire, this one turned out to be false as well.
Homeland Security almost let terrorist slip away?
Whats worse than the overt profiling of Tea Partiers is the sheer incompetence of the Obama Administration which nearly let Faisal Shahzad get away. While security at the JFK airport in New York City was busy patting down little old ladies, Shahzad boarded his flight to the Middle East, the plane had began to pull away from the gate and only at the last second was the suspect caught.
How is it that a man whose name should have immediately placed him on a "no fly" list would be allowed to board a plane? Were counter terrorism agents spending too much time tracking down Tea Partiers?
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has a "boot to the throat" of British Petroleum ten days AFTER the oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico yet they dont seem to be paying much attention to the growing problem of terrorism in the U.S.! Pakistan Taliban Behind NY Bomb Anne Flaherty says Obamas homeland security and counterterrorism adviser said Sunday that authorities believe the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted bombing at Times Square.
White House adviser John Brennan said that while the investigation is ongoing, it appears that accused bomber Faisal Shahzad was working for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The militant group is believed to be hiding senior al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
Brennan said the finding "underscores the serious threat that we face from a very determined enemy."
The conclusion seemed to contradict a recent statement by Gen. David Petraeus, who said Shahzad apparently operated as a "lone wolf." Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement Friday to The Associated Press that while Shahzad was inspired by militants in Pakistan, he didnt necessarily have direct contact with them.
Brennans comments come after speculation that TTP had orchestrated the attack. Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, spent five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack
Related: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban directed the Times Square car-bomb plot and is actively recruiting more agents to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.
"We know that they helped facilitate it; we know that they probably helped finance it, and that [the suspect] was working at their direction," Holder said in an appearance on ABC News' "This Week."
Gee, what was their first hint?
Still, we cant be absolutely certain until Secretary Janet Napolitano makes her pronouncement. Why Obama Wanted Times Square Bomber To Be A Lone Nut Ben Shapiro says, that on May 1, 2010, Pakistani-born, naturalized American citizen Faisal Shahzad drove a green SUV into Times Square, parked it there, and walked away. Inside the SUV were explosives and a jerry-rigged timing device. Fortunately, the bomb didnt go off, and the authorities captured Shahzad just before his plane took off for Dubai.
After his detention, members of the Obama clique immediately put out the misinformation that Shahzad had acted alone. On May 6, The Associated Press reported that law enforcement officials were virtually certain he had been an isolated actor. On May 7, Gen. Petraeus -- who has proved himself to be a lackey to the Obama administration -- told The AP that Shahzad was a "lone wolf" who had been "inspired by militants in Pakistan but didnt have direct contact with them."
Meanwhile, the press leaped on the "lone wolf" meme to suggest that Shahzad wasnt a radical Muslim -- he was a sad little man who had been crushed by the disappointments of capitalism.
Continue reading here . . . Times Square Denial Stephen Brown says that before any real investigation had been carried out into the attempted terrorist bombing on New Yorks Times Square last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano had almost immediately dismissed it as a "one-off" thing. General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, was also quick off the mark, saying the terrorist behind the plot, Faisal Shahzad, 30, who traded his Pakistani citizenship for American last year, was a "lone wolf."
But last weekend the truth came out when Attorney-General Eric Holder was forced to admit what many suspected all along. It was another act of international Islamic jihad against the United States, and faceless murderers in Taliban/al-Qaeda terrorist organizations, based in Pakistan and motivated by their undying resolve to kill as many Americans, were the string- pullers.
"Weve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistan Taliban was behind the attack," Holder said on the ABC program, This Week. "We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he (Shahzad) was working at their direction."
With Holders admission, the question remains as to why a government that told people not to jump to conclusions concerning a connection between the Fort Hood massacre and Islamist terrorism was so quick to erroneously declare the Times Square bombing a solo, one-time operation? In the Fort Hood killings, Major Nidal Malik Hasan was also initially described as a lone gunman, whose motives were unclear, although he was shouting "Allahu Akbar" during his murderous rampage. Obama himself cautioned against any premature judgment, even though his own intelligence agencies knew for months that Hasan had been trying to make contact with al Qaeda-connected people.
"We dont know all the answers yet," Obama said at the time. "And I would caution against jumping to any conclusions until we have all the facts."
But in the case of the failed Times Square bombing the facts were already in, some of them for a long time. The United States is in a worldwide war with radical Islam, a concept some still have difficulty with. As a result of this war, according to one analyst, America was the target of about a dozen terrorist attacks within its borders last year alone. Only the Fort Hood massacre was successful, costing 13 lives while another 30 were wounded.
Continue reading here . . . Feds Nab Three More Anti ObamaCare Pakistanis Joy Tiz says those Pakistanis with subprime mortgages who hate ObamaCare are really starting to get the government's attention:
Federal authorities have arrested three men living in the greater Boston area in connection with the attempted Times Square bombing, Fox News has learned.
But don't worry, we are assured that there is no immediate threat or active plot:
Officials said the searches "do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States."
What, then were they looking for? Overdue parking tickets?
Making an excellent case for tougher enforcement of our immigration laws:
One of the men arrested Thursday has been charged with overstaying his visa, and another, identified as Pir Khan, has been charged with staying in the country despite an order of removal, according to one source. The third man was also arrested for alleged immigration violations, a source said.
Reflecting the administration's recent discovery of terrorism:
The Boston-area men have been arrested on "administrative charges," which means federal authorities will not advise them of Miranda rights to question them, as is required in criminal cases.
Obama Knew! FReeper Kristinn says three months before the Times Square terror bombing by a Pakistani- American with ties to terrorists in Pakistan, the Obama administration knew the style of attack, the type of explosives to be used and when the attack would come, yet when the attack happened the administration played dumb with its initial reaction being to downplay the attack as an unsophisticated "one-off" that was a "potential" terror attack.
On February 10, I wrote an article at FR based on Vice President Joe Biden's comments about coming terror attacks on the U.S. that were broadcast later that day on CNN's Larry King Live.
King mentioned to Biden that U.S. intelligence chiefs had recently told Sen. Diane Feinstein that terror attacks on the U.S. mainland in the next few months were "certain," prompting Biden to describe the coming attacks as being by lone attackers with "indigenous" explosives.
The very next morning after the Times Square attack, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano downplayed the terror attack as a "one-off" and not "very sophisticated" even though it was exactly the type of attack that Obama was warned of by his intelligence chiefs.
TAPPER...this attempted attack resembles car bomb attempts in London and Scotland in 2007. How concerned are you that this is not an isolated incident?
NAPOLITANO: Well, right now, we have no evidence that it is anything other than a one-off, but we are alerting state, local officials around the country, letting them know what is going on...
Here's what was said on CNN three months before:
KING: Terror -- last week on terrorism, the heads of the major U.S. intelligence agencies told Dianne Feinstein that another attempted terrorist attack on the United States is coming certain in the next few months.
BIDEN: Well...
KING: What do you make of that?
BIDEN: Well, look, let me put it this way. The idea of there being a massive attack in the United States like 9/11 is unlikely, in my view.
But if you see what's happening, particularly with al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula, they have decided to move in the direction of much more small bore but devastatingly frightening attacks.
KING: Detroit?
BIDEN: Detroit. But I think what you're seeing morphing here -- and it's a concern to us -- is you'll see the -- the concern relates to somebody like a shoe bomber or the underpants bomber, the Christmas attack or someone just strapping a backpack on them with weapons that are indigenous and blowing up, you know, walking into (INAUDIBLE)...
KING: So that's going to happen?
BIDEN: Well, I -- I think there are going to be an attempts. I hope we've been -- I've been really impressed. As I said, I've been here for eight presidents. I used to be in the Intelligence Committee. I was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. It's something I spent my professional life doing. I've been really impressed with the success we've had, building on the last administration, in dealing with these.
Well, Mr. Vice President, many Americans are not impressed since the Obama administration has allowed four terrorist attacks on American soil within the past year. It is especially unimpressive that the administration missed it when the Times Square bomber was on the terrorist radar and was getting training and funding in Pakistan.
The bottom line is Obama knew this type of attack was coming and was too busy partying and golfing to stop it. Terror By Lawsuit Bill Burck and Dana Perino say that the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was presented to a judge this past Tuesday, after being held in custody, incommunicado from everyone except his interrogators, for two weeks. According to reports, the interrogators included federal prosecutors and agents from Manhattan, as well as members of Obamas newly minted High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG).
Infamously, the HIG was not deployed by the Obama administration to question Crotch Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, back in December -- because (unbeknownst to the recently resigned director of national intelligence Dennis Blair) it did not actually exist yet, even though it had been announced with fanfare late last summer.
This time, the administration sprang into action much more spryly, taking its lead from Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, and others in law enforcement who prioritize public safety over safely covering their butts. Shahzads two weeks in custody without appearing before a judge is almost unprecedented and reflects the interrogators determination to get intelligence about other plots and prevent future attacks. Had the prosecutors followed the usual criminal-justice playbook, Shahzad would have been presented to a judge and given a lawyer as soon as possible after arrest, or at most 24 or 48 hours after arrest -- even though he waived his rights to appear before a judge and have a lawyer. Instead, the prosecutors accepted Shahzads waivers so that his interrogation would not be disrupted, informing a judge during the interrogation that "uninterrupted access [to Shahzad] has been, and continues to be, extremely beneficial, if not essential, to the investigation."
The interrogation has produced results, including raids of possible co-conspirators, search warrants, and overseas arrests of Shahzads bomb trainers, and it has made us safer. As we wrote last week, the prosecutors handling Shahzad deserve our praise and gratitude for taking the risk of a judges rebuke to gain knowledge about Shahzads co-conspirators.
But there remains the chance that a court might suppress Shahzads statements so they cannot be used against him at trial. The court might decide, essentially, that Shahzads two weeks in custody without appearing before a judge or getting a lawyer were so inherently coercive that his waivers should not be accepted as "knowing and voluntary."
Continue reading here . . .
Faisal Shahzad Naturalized American Citizen and terrorist http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/TimesSquareBomber.htm
Items on this page are archived alphabetically . . . A World-Wide Religious War
Abu Sayyaf Group
The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is a violent Muslim terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines. Some ASG leaders allegedly fought in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and are students and proponents of radical Islamic teachings. The group split from the much larger Moro National Liberation Front in the early 1990s under the leadership of Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who was killed in a clash with Philippine police in December 1998. His younger brother, Khadaffy Janjalani, replaced him as the nominal leader of the group. In September 2006, Janjalani was killed in a gun battle with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Radullah Sahiron is assumed to be the new ASG leader. Al-Jihad
This Egyptian Islamic extremist group merged with Usama Bin Ladin's al- Qaida organization in 2001. Usama Bin Ladin's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was the former head of AJ. Active since the 1970s, AJ's primary goal has been the overthrow of the Egyptian government and the establishment of an Islamic state. The group's targets, historically, have been high-level Egyptian government officials as well as U.S. and Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad. Regular Egyptian crackdowns on extremists have greatly reduced AJ capabilities in Egypt. Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda was established by Usama bin Ladin in 1988 with Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. The group, now headquartered in Pakistan, helped finance, recruit, transport, and train Sunni Islamic extremists for the Afghan resistance. Al-Qaeda's goal is uniting Muslims to fight the United States and its allies, overthrowing regimes it deems "non-Islamic," and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. Its ultimate goal is the establishment of a pan- Islamic caliphate throughout the world. Al-Qaeda leaders issued a statement in February 1998 under the banner of "The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens, civilian and military, and their allies everywhere. Al-Qaeda merged with al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) in June 2001, renaming itself "Qaedat al-Jihad." Al-Qaeda in Iraq
In an attempt to unify Sunni jihadists in Iraq, in January 2006, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) created the Mujahidin Shura Council (MSC), an umbrella organization meant to encompass the various Sunni jihadist groups in Iraq. AQI claimed its attacks under the MSC until mid-October, when Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, took the first step toward al-Qaeda's goal of establishing a caliphate in the region by declaring the "Islamic State of Iraq" (ISI), under which AQI now claims its attacks. On June 7, 2006, AQI leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike. Following his death, the MSC announced Abu Hamza al- Muhajir, also known at Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as Zarqawi's successor. Abu Ayyub promptly issued a statement pledging to continue what Zarqawi had started, and AQI has continued its strategy of targeting Coalition Forces and Shi'a civilians in an attempt to foment sectarian strife. Although Coalition and Iraqi security force operations also have cost AQI dozens of lieutenants and high-ranking network members, overall violence in Iraq is at a higher level than it was while Zarqawi was alive. Al-Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsula
The al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, headquartered in Yemen, and lead by Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin, issued calls for the Saudi royal family to be overthrown. Conquering Saudi Arabia would be the first step towards establishing a Caliphate that would liberate the third holy place [Jerusalem] and unite all the Muslims of the world. The nightmare scenario for the West in one in which Saudi oil production (10% of world output) is taken out by terrorist attacks or by regime change. The Saudi ruling family is stuck between two contradictory policies: appeasement of puritanical Islam and alliance with America.
Until 2003, the Saudi government played down evidence that Islamic radicals were posing a threat to security. That changed after a series of deadly attacks in early 2003. The six million expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia are vital to the smooth functioning of the world economy. They run the country's oil industry and other sectors. Al-Qaeda In The Islamic Maghreb
Terrorist activity in North Africa has been reinvigorated in the last few years by a local Algerian Islamist group turned pan-Maghreb jihadi organization: al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). A Sunni group that previously called itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the organization has taken responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks in the region, declared its intention to attack Western targets, and sent a squad of jihadis to Iraq. Experts believe these actions suggest widening ambitions within the group's leadership, now pursuing a more global, sophisticated, and better-financed direction. Long categorized as part of a strictly domestic insurgency against Algeria's military government, AQIM claims to be the local franchise operation for al-Qaeda, a worrying development for a region that has been relatively peaceful since the bloody Algerian civil war of the 1990s drew to a close. Ansar al-Sunna
Ansar al-Sunna (AS) is a Salafi terrorist group whose goals include expelling the U.S.-led Coalition from Iraq and establishing an independent Islamic Iraqi state. This amorphous group has changed its name several times over the years and was last known as Ansar al-Islam. AS announced its creation in 2003 by posting a statement to the Internet calling all extremists in Iraq to unite under the new name. The bid to become a jihadist umbrella organization failed, but the name AS stuck. AS has ties to the al-Qaida central leadership and al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI); it has a competitive relationship with AQI, and did not join the AQI-dominated "Islamic State of Iraq." Some members of AS trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, and the group provided safe haven to al-Qaida fighters before Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Since OIF, AS has become the second- most prominent group engaged in anti-Coalition attacks in Iraq behind AQI and has maintained a strong propaganda campaign. Asbat al-Ansar
Asbat al-Ansar, the League of the Followers or Partisans' League, is a Lebanon-based Sunni extremist group composed primarily of Palestinians with links to Usama bin Ladin's al-Qaida organization and other Sunni extremist groups. Asbat is well positioned to play an important role should al-Qaida attempt to expand further its terrorist operations to Lebanon. The group follows an extremist interpretation of Islam that justifies violence against civilian targets to achieve political ends. Some of the group's goals include overthrowing the Lebanese government and thwarting perceived anti-Islamic and pro-Western influences in the country. Asbat al-Ansar has carried out multiple terrorist attacks in Lebanon since it first emerged in the early 1990s. The group assassinated Lebanese religious leaders and bombed nightclubs, theaters, and liquor stores in the mid-1990s. The group raised its operational profile in 2000 with two attacks against Lebanese and international targets. It was involved in clashes in northern Lebanon in December 1999 and carried out a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut in January 2000. Asbat al-Ansars leader, Abu Muhjin, remains at large despite being sentenced to death in absentia for the murder in 1994 of a Muslim cleric. Gama'at al-Islamiyya
The IG, Egypt's largest militant group, has been active since the late 1970s and is a loosely organized network, whose primary goal is to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with an Islamic state. It has an external wing with supporters in several countries. The group's issuance of a cease-fire in 1997 led to a split into two factions: one, led by Mustafa Hamza, supported the cease-fire; the other, led by Rifa'i Taha Musa, called for a return to armed operations. The IG issued another ceasefire in March 1999, but its spiritual leader, Shaykh Umar Abd al- Rahman, sentenced to life in prison in January 1996 for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and incarcerated in the United States, rescinded his support for the cease-fire in June 2000. IG has not conducted an attack inside Egypt since the 1997 Luxor attack, which killed 58 tourists, four Egyptians, and wounded dozens more. In February 1998, a senior member signed Usama bin Ladin's fatwa calling for attacks against the United States. In early 2001, Taha Musa published a book in which he attempted to justify terrorist attacks that would cause mass casualties. Taha Musa disappeared several months thereafter, and there is no information as to his current whereabouts. In March 2002, members of the group's historic leadership in Egypt declared use of violence misguided and renounced its future use, prompting denunciations by much of the leadership abroad. The Egyptian government continues to release IG members from prison; approximately 900 were released in 2003, and most of the 700 persons released in 2004 at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan were IG members. Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in August 2006 that IG had merged with al-Qaida, but the group quickly denied this claim. Hamas
Hamas, headquartered in Gaza, includes military and political wings, was formed at the onset of the first Palestinian uprising or Intifadah in late 1987, as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The armed element, called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, conducts anti-Israeli attacks, including suicide bombings against civilian targets inside Israel. Social-political elements engage in "Dawa" or ministry activities, which include running charities and schools, fund-raising and political activities. A Shura council based in Damascus, Syria, sets overall policy. Since winning Palestinian Authority (PA) elections in 2006, HAMAS has taken control of significant PA ministries, including the Ministry of Interior. HAMAS formed an expanded, overt militia called the Executive Force, subordinate to the Ministry. Harakat ul-Mujahedin
HUM, an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan, is politically aligned with the radical political party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam's Fazlur Rehman faction (JUI-F), and operates primarily in Kashmir. Reportedly under pressure from the Government of Pakistan, HUM's long time leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil stepped down and, in January 2005, was replaced by Dr. Badr Munir as the head of HUM. Khalil has been linked to Usama bin Ladin, and his signature was found on Bin Ladin's fatwa in February 1998 calling
for attacks on U.S. and Western interests.
HUM operated terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan until Coalition air strikes destroyed them in autumn 2001. Khalil was detained by Pakistani authorities in mid-2004 and subsequently released in late December.In 2003, HUM began using the name Jamiat ul-Ansar (JUA). Pakistan banned JUA in November 2003. Hezbollah
Hezbollah is a Lebanese umbrella organization of radical Islamic Shiite groups and organizations. It opposes the West, seeks to create a Muslim fundamentalist state modeled on Iran, and is a bitter foe of Israel. Hezbollah, whose name means party of God, is a terrorist group believed responsible for nearly 200 attacks since 1982 that have killed more than 800 people, according to the Terrorism Knowledge Base. Experts say Hezbollah is also a significant force in Lebanons politics and a major provider of social services, operating schools, hospitals, and agricultural services, for thousands of Lebanese Shiites. It also operates the al-Manar satellite television channel and broadcast station. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
Since Operation Enduring Freedom, the IMU has been predominantly occupied with attacks on U.S. and Coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. Although it is difficult to differentiate between IMU and Islamic Jihad Union members, Pakistani security forces continue to arrest probable IMU operatives in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The IMU was active in terrorist operations in Central Asia. Tajikistan arrested several IMU members in 2005. In November 2004, the IMU was blamed for an explosion in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh that killed one police officer and one terrorist. In May 2003, Kyrgyz security forces disrupted an IMU cell that was seeking to bomb the U.S. Embassy and a nearby hotel in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The IMU was also responsible for explosions in Bishkek in December 2002 and Osh in May 2003 that killed eight people. The IMU primarily targeted Uzbekistan interests before October 2001, and is believed to have been responsible for several explosions in Tashkent in February 1999. IMU militants took foreigners hostage in Kyrgyzstan for two consecutive years: in August 1999, IMU militants took four Japanese geologists and eight Kyrgyz soldiers hostage, and in August 2000, they took four U.S. mountain climbers hostage. Jamaat ul-Fuqra
Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a terrorist organization with headquarters in Pakistan, has established over 45 compounds in rural areas throughout the United States of America. The compounds are providing paramilitary training to new recruits for the great jihad against the USA under the not-so-watchful eye of federal law enforcement officials. Most of the recruits are African Americans who converted to Islam while doing hard time in federal prison.
These compounds, which contain firing ranges and obstacle courses, are located at such places as Hancock, New York; Hyattsville, Maryland; Falls Church, Virginia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulane Country, California; and Squaw Valley, California. Multiple compounds have been established on the rural outskirts of Macon, Georgia and Red House, Virginia. Several of these sites contain landing strips and elaborate networks of underground bunkers. The group has also set up basic training camps throughout Canada, including two near Toronto.
Under the name of "The Muslims of the Americas," a so-called "charitable institution," ul-Fuqra maintains offices in Tallahassee, Florida; Binghamton, New York; Springfield, Massachusetts; Dover, Delaware; and Roanoke, Virginia. Jamaat al Muslimeen
Jamaat al Muslimeen, or JAM, a Muslim organization based in Trinidad is a known violent group involved in killings, kidnappings and weapons trafficking over the past two decades. The group staged a coup attempt in 1990, storming the Trinidad Parliament building and taking the prime minister hostage. This coup attempt was underwritten by Momar Khadafi who supplied this terrorist group with money, arms and ammunition.
whose leader, 64-year old Yasin Abu Bakr is still awaiting trial. He is accused of terrorism, sedition, inciting larceny and breaching the peace, and in a separate case, he is also awaiting a retrial for a case in which he is accused of conspiring to have two former members of his group to be murdered on June 4, 2003 in Diego Martin.
Four of the men charged in an alleged plot to blow up John F Kennedy airport in New York have connections with Muslim extremists, including Jamaat al Muslimeen. Jemaah Islamiya (JI)
The Southeast Asia-based Jemaah Islamiya (JI) is a terrorist group that seeks the establishment of an Islamic caliphate spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, and the southern Philippines. More than 300 JI operatives, including operations chief Hambali, have been captured since 2002. Several are no longer incarcerated, however, including JI emir Abu Bakar Bashir who was released from prison in 2006 after serving a 25-month sentence for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings. The death of top JI bombmaker Azahari bin Husin in November 2005, and further arrests of several close associates of senior JI operative Noordin Mat Top in 2006 likely disrupted JI's anti-Western attacks that occurred annually from 2002-2005. Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) emerged in the early 1990s among Libyans who had fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan and the Qadhafi regime in Libya. The LIFG declared Libyan President Muammar Qadhafi un-Islamic and pledged to overthrow him. Some members maintain a strictly anti-Qadhafi focus and organize against Libyan government interests, but others, such as Abu al-Faraj al-Libi, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2005, are aligned with Usama bin Ladin and believed
to be part of al-Qaida's leadership structure or active in the international terrorist network. The United States designated the LIFG a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2004. The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM)
The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) is a clandestine transnational terrorist group currently centered in the Moroccan diaspora communities of Western Europe. Its goals include establishing an Islamic state in Morocco and supporting al-Qaida's war against the West by assisting in the assimilation of al-Qaida operatives into Moroccan and then European society. The group appears to have emerged in the 1990s and is comprised of Moroccan recruits who trained in armed camps in Afghanistan, including some who fought in the Soviet Afghan war. GICM members interact with other North African extremists, particularly in Europe. In November 2002, the United States designated the GICM for asset freeze under EO 13224 following the group's submission to the UNSCR 1267 Sanctions Committee. The United States designated GICM as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 11, 2005. Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is a religious and political organization. Close to the Muslim World League of the Muslim Brotherhood, it shares the Brotherhood's strategic and cultural vision: that of a universal religious community, the Ummah, based upon the Koran, the Sunna, and the canonical orthodoxy of shari'a. The OIC represents 56 countries and the Palestinian Authority (considered a state), the whole constituting the universal Ummah with a community of more than one billion three to six hundred million Muslims.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Formerly a part of the PLO, the Marxist-Leninist, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was founded by George Habash when it broke away from the Arab Nationalist Movement in 1967. The PFLP, headquartered in the Palestinian Territory, does not view the Palestinian struggle as solely religious, seeing it instead as a broader revolution against Western imperialism. The group earned a reputation for spectacular international attacks in the 1960s and 1970s, including airline hijackings that killed at least 20 U.S. citizens.
The PFLP has stepped up its operational activity since the start of the current intifada, highlighted by at least two suicide bombings since 2003, multiple joint operations with other Palestinian terrorist groups, and the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001, to avenge Israel's killing of the PFLP Secretary General earlier that year. In March 2006, the PFLP's current Secretary General, Ahmed Sa'adat, who had been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for his involvement in the Ze'evi assassination, was seized from the Jericho prison compound by Israeli forces and is now awaiting trial. Salafists
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a splinter group of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), seeks to overthrow the Algerian Government with the goal of installing an Islamic regime. GSPC eclipsed
the GIA arround 1998, and is currently the most effective and largest armed group inside Algeria. In contrast to the GIA, the GSPC pledged to avoid civilian attacks inside Algeria. Taliban
The Taliban first appeared on the political scene of Afghanistan in September, 1994 in the southern Province of Kandhar, and have since taken about 90% of Afghanistan. Never has any group been more controversial then the Taliban of Afghanistan. Patrolling the streets in the pickup trucks, the Taliban members, under the General Department for the Preservation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Amr-bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkar), search houses and destroy any television sets, radios, cassettes, and photographs. The bands of Taliban thugs roam the streets beating those they deem to be violators of the Shariah (Islamic code of Law) [2]. The Taliban's harsh fundamentalist rule has dismantled all civil institutions, and closed all women Institutions. Their leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, cloaks himself in secrecy, refusing to grant interviews or allow his photo to be taken. Uighurs
The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), a territory in western China, accounts for one-sixth of China's land and is home to about 20 million people from thirteen major ethnic groups. The largest of these groups is the Uighurs [PRON: WEE-gurs], a predominantly Muslim community with ties to Central Asia. Some Uighurs call China's presence in Xinjiang a form of imperialism, and they stepped up calls for independencesometimes violentlyin the 1990s through separatist groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The Chinese government has reacted by promoting the migration of China's ethnic majority, the Han, to Xinjiang. Beijing has also strengthened economic ties with the area and tried to cut off potential sources of separatist support from neighboring states that are linguistically and ethnically linked with the Uighurs.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra has established over 45 compounds in rural areas throughout America. http://www.theobamafile.com/_terror/WorldWideJihad.htm