Trying to Lose The War We're In

by Tom Donnelly

On Monday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave another in the remarkable series of speeches of recent months, laying out the course he believes the U.S. armed forces must follow to prepare themselves for the conflicts of the 21st century. Addressing the National Defense University, he again complained of “Next-War-itis,” and “the defense bureaucracy’s priorities and lack of urgency opposed to a wartime footing and a wartime mentality.” In marked contrast to Donald Rumsfeld, the man he replaced at the Pentagon, Gates described the war on terror not as a high-tech global manhunt but as “in grim reality, a prolonged, world-wide irregular campaign.”

Even as Gates was telling unpleasant truths to people in uniform--for it is they who will most bear the brunt of the Long War--congressional Democrats revealed how deeply they remain a state of denial. Rep. John Murtha, the chairman of the House appropriations defense subcommittee, announced his opposition to the Bush administration’s plan (and the supposed position of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama) to increase the size of the active-duty Army and Marine Corps. Taking a page out of the Rummy pre-9/11 playbook, Murtha told Congressional Quarterly's Josh Rogin that the Pentagon “is going to have to cut personnel in order to pay for procurement.”

To be sure, the Defense Department faces critical budget problems. Procurement needs are genuine: Most current major U.S. weapons systems are products of the Reagan build-up. But, as Gates puts it, you have to win the war you’re in. The Bush troop plan is, if anything, a belated half-measure, a snail-paced increase that would bring the combined size of the Army and Marine Corps to about 750,000 in 2013, just 10 percent more than it was in 2005. Sen. John McCain has called for a larger, longer-term surge that would bring total land-force strength to 900,000.

The theme of Gates’s NDU speech was a warning about the limits of wonder weapons. While lauding “advances in precision, sensor, information and satellite technology,” he admonished the military to “never neglect the psychological, cultural, political and human dimensions of warfare, which is inevitably tragic, inefficient and uncertain.” He concluded his talk with words from one of the greatest American practitioners of irregular warfare, Gen. “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, whose experience taught him “no matter how a war starts, it ends in mud. It has to be slugged out--there are no trick solutions or cheap shortcuts.” It is ironic that Gates, the soft-spoken former intelligence officer, better understands the need for boots on the ground than Murtha, the gruff former Marine.

But Murtha led the way when Democrats turned hard against the Iraq war in 2006; without his imprimatur, surely, Speaker Nancy Pelosi might have moderated her anti-war, San Francisco instincts. Apparently the Democratic strategy is now to limit the prospects for future mischief--that is, the prospects for successfully waging the Long War--by withholding the manpower that is needed. They’re doubling down on defeat

by Tom Donnelly

Johnstown-Democrat..still in bed with Murtha...

With regard to the pending lawsuit by PA-12 constituent Justin Sharratt against Jihad Jack Murtha, the editors at the Johnstown-Democrat no doubt had a huge lump in their throat and a scowl on their face when they begrudgingly wrote the following:

We certainly hope justice is done in this case.

That would mean that if Murtha truly damaged someone’s reputation with false accusations, that he face the music in court.

The rules should be no different for public officials than for the rest of us.

But the editors, still in love with their self-absorbed, repugnant, corrupt congressman from PA-12, couldn't help but add the following salt to the wounds of those already unjustly besmirched by Murtha:

We would also hope that the courts – military and civilian – are making every effort to be certain that those who are cleared of wrongdoing deserve that treatment. War means dangerous circumstances, but even in such a setting, crimes against civilians should not be tolerated.

There was no "crime" against civilians perpetrated by U.S. Marines. Period. If there was a crime against civilians, it was perpetrated by the terrorists, who, against the Geneva Convention and the rules of war, chose to utilize civilians as human shields in time of war and during a firefight. And the sycophant editors at the Tribune-Democrat go on to offer yet another "caveat" with regard to their faux consternation of Jihad Jack: ....

Muslims threaten Hindus in New York

From Jihad Watch

“We have freedom of religion, and we have the Constitution.” At least for now. But how many Islamic supremacists such as those who figure in this incident will be needed to change all that? And who is doing anything to stop them from coming into this country and spreading their views?

"Hindu-Muslim Family’s Choice of Cremation Arouses Anger," by Anne Barnard for the New York Times, October 3 (thanks to RG):

Friends and family remember Shafayet Reja as an affectionate young man who stayed up late to write poetry, danced exuberantly at weddings and explored the faiths of his father and mother with an openheartedness that led him to declare on his Facebook page, “I never get tired of learning the new things that life has to offer.”

But within hours of his death on Sept. 10 after a car accident, his memory — in fact, his very body — had become the object of a tug-of-war over religious freedom and obligation. It began when his mother, who was raised Hindu, and his father, who is Muslim, decided to have his body cremated in the Hindu tradition, rather than burying him in a shroud, as Islam prescribes.

His parents, Mina and Farhad Reja, say a small group of Muslims who do not understand their approach to religion are trying to intimidate them over the most private of family choices. “This is America,” Mrs. Reja said. “This is a family decision.”

The couple say that people accosted them at their son’s funeral, that an angry crowd threatened to boycott a shopping center they own in Jackson Heights, Queens, and that on Sept. 13, two men they know threatened to bomb and burn down the building.

The men they accused in a complaint filed with the police — one is a doctor and the father of a close friend of Shafayet Reja, the other a Bangladeshi business leader — say that they made no threats and deny that they have called for a boycott. They say they and others simply expressed their concern about what they see as a deep violation of their religion and of the wishes of the son, who, according to some of his college friends, had recently chosen Islam as his sole religion.

The Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating whether the threats took place, whether they would constitute aggravated harassment, and whether they qualify as bias crimes, which carry tougher penalties, a spokesman for the department said. No charges have been filed.

What is not in doubt is that the episode is a source of consternation, from the Queens neighborhoods where Mr. Reja’s parents live and work to their native Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, where it has been national news.

The dispute has especially swept up several bustling blocks in Jackson Heights, where dozens of businesses are Bengali. It had business owners on edge during the busy shopping season before this week’s Id al-Fitr festival. The festival marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and brings throngs of shoppers to dine and to buy jewelry and sparkling traditional dresses.

The neighborhood is a place where business rivalries and family arguments often intersect with disputes over Bangladesh politics, especially in the case of Mrs. Reja, a prominent property owner and outspoken advocate of the rights of Bangladesh’s religious minorities. Her 1999 self-published book, “God on Trial,” angered some Muslims in the neighborhood with its critique of Islamic fundamentalism.

The cremation dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Muslims in America about what makes someone a Muslim — to some of the critics, the fact that Shafayet Reja listed Islam as his religion on Facebook is enough — and how to reconcile this country’s freedom of religion with what some Muslims see as a communal obligation to uphold religious observance.

But to the family, the dispute is a frightening imposition that they say violates their civil rights.

“We have freedom of religion, and we have the Constitution,” said the Rejas’ son Mishal, 19, who studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Why would they bother us? It’s none of their business. Even if he was the most hard-core Muslim.”...

GoldenEye: The Real Meltdown

(Compiler's note: Must read rca)

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Strategic Defense: A new report says the United States must develop robust missile and space defenses to counter China. If you think the current economic crisis is something, imagine the effects of a nuke over Iowa.


Imagine a world in which you can't get money from your bank or can't get a loan. You can't get money from your ATM even if it's within walking distance. You can't drive to one because your car won't work. No, it's not what would happen if the Congress doesn't pass a bailout bill.


This is a small snapshot of what would happen if a hostile power detonated a nuclear weapon high over the United States generating an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would fry virtually every circuit and electronic device in the U.S., sending America and its economy back a century or more in time.


In the 1995 James Bond flick "GoldenEye," Agent 007 fights to prevent an arms syndicate from hijacking a Russian "GoldenEye" satellite weapon to fire an electromagnetic pulse against London in order to cause a global financial meltdown. We may soon see life imitating art unless we heed the warning of a draft report by the secretary of state's International Security Advisory Board.



The ISAB report addresses the growing threat from China but could apply equally to a rearming and resurgent Russia and an ambitious and soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. To avoid increasing vulnerability, the report says, "the United States will need to pursue new missile defense capabilities, including taking full advantage of space."



There is also a new threat whereby a single nuclear weapon could paralyze the U.S.


In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in June, Assistant Secretary of Defense James Shinn noted that China is working on EMP weapons that can destroy electronic systems. Shinn told the committee that "We are, as you know, and as the Chinese also know, heavily dependent on sophisticated communications, satellite communications, in the conduct of our forces."


We are also dependent, as the Iranians also know, on electronics in the conduct of the world's largest economy. Iranian military literature is full of references to the damage a high-altitude nuclear blast could do to the U.S. and its economy.



"Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at the "World Without Zionism" Tehran conference in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization."


A simple Scud missile, with a nuclear warhead, could be fired from an inconspicuous freighter in international waters off our coast and detonated high above the U.S. It would wreak near-total devastation on America's technological, electrical and transportation infrastructure. With the explosion masked as a terrorist attack, Iran could plausibly deny any responsibility.



Iran has practiced launching and detonating Scuds in midflight, launched from ships in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile, a test consistent with an EMP attack. Iran only needs a nuke.



The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, established by unanimous consent of the House and Senate, released a report on the same day as the 9/11 Commission report, which blamed those attacks, in part, on a lack of imagination on our part.


The report told us of how millions could die as hospital systems shut down, as rail and air traffic control systems collapsed. Farmers would be unable to harvest crops and distributors couldn't get goods to market. Energy production would cease. Computers and PCs would become large paperweights. Telephones, even cell phones, wouldn't work. Food in refrigerated warehouses would rot, and clean water would be scarce.


It would indeed be the jihadist dream of "death to America." It could happen all too soon, unless we harden our infrastructure against EMP attack and develop a more robust multilayer missile defense.
An undefended EMP attack would make the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a fond memory. Is Congress listening?

U.S. sounds out Japan about security technology cooperation pact

TOKYO —

The United States has sounded out Japan about concluding a new pact on cooperation over national security technologies, including terrorism information exchanges and joint development of devices to detect dangerous materials, government sources said Thursday. The overture aims at cooperation not only in technological development but performance assessment and proof of the new technologies, the sources said.

The proposed pact would enable the United States to make use of Japanese technologies and allow Japan to have access to concrete information on the methods and type of explosives used in actual terrorist attacks, which have been kept confidential under current bilateral technological cooperation arrangements, they said.

Violent gangs are ‘spreading like a virus’

McALLEN - Gov. Rick Perry urged state legislators Tuesday to fund a $24 million initiative aimed at fighting international gangs along the Texas border with Mexico.

Citing groups with names like the Texas Syndicate and Barrio Azteca, he called such criminal organizations "the most important threat to our state's security." ....

Why a can of petrol is more dangerous than a dirty bomb

By Richard A. Muller

Intelligence experts reported recently that terrorist groups are taking advantage of the chaos in Pakistan to get radioactive material, and are hoping to use it to make a 'spectacular' attack on the West.

People fear they might explode such a weapon in London or another major city, kill hundreds, if not thousands, trigger widespread panic, and perhaps force an indefinite evacuation.

Much of this fear is unwarranted. Dirty bombs spread radioactivity, and that's bad - but true nuclear weapons, such as the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are much worse because of their enormous release of energy, the equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT for Nagasaki alone.

Fearful: Right At Your Door, a 2006 film in which dirty bombs are used to attack Western cities

Most of the deaths in these nuclear attacks came from blast and fire, and less than two per cent from lingering radioactivity.

Could terrorists make a true nuclear weapon completely on their own? Virtually all experts say no.

To do so requires either the enrichment of uranium, involving expensive high-tech methods, as Iran is doing with its centrifuges, or the tricky implosion of plutonium, the approach taken by North Korea.

Kim Jong Il spent billions on his bomb project, and the result was less than a kiloton of explosion - five per cent of the Nagasaki bomb. It's tough to make a dependable nuclear explosion.

Compared to a real nuclear bomb, a dirty bomb is easy, and certainly within the reach of a well-organised terrorist group. All it needs to do is get some radioactive material and blow it up with dynamite or another conventional explosive.

Terrorists could get radioactive materials from Pakistan, but they could also get them from hospitals, where radioactivity is used for everything from cancer therapy to CAT scans.

In 1987, scavengers opened a container they found in an abandoned hospital in Goiania, Brazil.

They didn't know it was radioactive until days later, and by then they had contaminated themselves and 200 others. Three adults and a child eventually died from radiation illness. Forty-one houses in the neighbourhood were evacuated. This was all inadvertent.

A full-scale nuclear blast packs vastly more power than dirty bomb could

Imagine what terrorists could do on purpose. Suppose they got a Goiania-type source and spread the radioactivity over a whole city - what would happen?

The answer is surprising. Spread out the radioactivity enough and the deaths from radiation illness disappear completely.

People exposed would have a slight increase in the risk of eventually contracting cancer, but there would be no dead bodies at the scene - except those killed by the dynamite. Diluted radiation loses its potency.

We measure radiation dose in units called rem. Above 1,000 rem, incapacitation occurs within minutes, followed by extreme fatigue and nausea, then death. For smaller doses, 300 to 500 rem, about half of the victims die within a month.

But reduce the dose a little more, down to 100 rem, and the effects are very mild. At 50 rem, nobody even gets sick.

This 'threshold effect' creates problems for the terrorist. He can put radioactive material into a bomb - but concentrated radioactivity kills fast, so he'll have to protect himself with a ton of lead.

Then he must deliver the bomb, take it out of the lead shield and explode it with dynamite so the radioactive material spreads into the air.

He wants the wind to carry it around the city, but has to hope it doesn't spread too much or it won't kill anyone.

If radioactivity comparable to that of the Goiania accident were spread over a square mile, the exposure to people - even if they stayed outdoors for a month - would have been only 10 rem, far below the lethal threshold. There would be no radiation illness, no dead bodies.

Low levels of radiation do cause harm, but it is hidden and delayed: tiny mutations in your DNA that increase your risk of cancer by a very small amount.

Would a terrorist be satisfied with the knowledge that his bomb might cause a small increase in cancer deaths among a small number of people in many years' time? Or would he pick an alternative attack?

Petrol bomb: The jet fuel in the planes that hit the World Trade Centre released the energy of 1.8 kilotons of TNT

Consider Jose Padilla, the Chicago thug who was trained by Al Qaeda and came to America planning to make a dirty bomb.

According to the US Justice Department, Al Qaeda had doubts about the practicability of such an attack, so it directed him to abandon the dirty bomb and blow up two apartment buildings using natural gas.

What worries me about this story is that it suggests Al Qaeda understands the limitations of dirty bombs better than government leaders and many scientists.

I suspect any well-organised terrorist organisation would pick a more reliable weapon, such as petrol or jet fuel. The 120 tons of jet fuel in the planes that hit the World Trade Centre released the energy of 1.8 kilotons of TNT - over twice the energy of the North Korean nuclear test.

Aircraft attacks have worked for Al Qaeda in the past. They are far more straightforward to implement than a dirty bomb and the results are more predictable.

To my mind, the real terror weapon of choice is the one they can buy at the local petrol station.

• Richard Muller is Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. His book, Physics For Future Presidents, is published by Norton.

Michelle Malkin Was Right about ACORN, Of Course

By Michael J. Gaynor

ACORN, a key culprit in the current economic mess, made Obama a local, statewide and national political success, but awareness of what ACORN really is and how Obama has served it as organizer, trainer, lawyer and funder and received its political support (legal or not) in return can and should put an end to that political success.

Months before this year's national conventions, the prescient Michelle Malkin focused on what should now become Obama's albatross, the innocuously named ACORN.

Michelle, “The ACORN Obama Knows,” June 25, 2008:

“If you don't know what ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is all about, you better bone up. This left-wing group takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers -- you and me -- and has leveraged nearly four decades of government subsidies to fund affiliates that promote the welfare state and undermine capitalism and self-reliance, some of which have been implicated in perpetuating illegal immigration and encouraging voter fraud. A new whistleblower report from the Consumer Rights League claims that Chicago-based ACORN has commingled public tax dollars with political projects.

“Who in Washington will fight to ensure that your money isn't being spent on these radical activities?

“Don't bother asking Barack Obama. He cut his ideological teeth working with ACORN as a ‘community organizer’ and legal representative. Naturally, ACORN's political action committee has warmly endorsed his presidential candidacy. ACORN head Maude Hurd gushes that Obama is the candidate who ‘best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about’ -- like ensuring their massive pipeline to your hard-earned money.”

If you read Michelle, you were not surprised when ACORN, a key cause of the bad loans that ultimately resulted in the current financial crisis, shamelessly tried to become a big monetary beneficiary of the rescue/bailout bill.

The good news is that ACORN has not succeeded in that respect.

The best news is that the ATTEMPT to get the money for ACORN instead of to use it to reduce the national debt opened the door to scrutiny of ACORN and its long-term relationship with its favorite presidential candidate, Chicago’s own Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

Michelle on “The ACORN Obama Knows”: “Last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State. Seven ACORN workers had submitted nearly 2,000 bogus voter registration forms. According to case records, they flipped through phone books for names to use on the forms, including ‘Leon Spinks,’ ‘Frekkie Magoal’ and ‘Fruto Boy Crispila.’ Three ACORN election hoaxers pleaded guilty in October. A King County prosecutor called ACORN's criminal sabotage ‘an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls.’”

An isolated incident?

Hardly!

Michelle:

“The group's vandalism on electoral integrity is systemic. ACORN has been implicated in similar voter fraud schemes in Missouri, Ohio and at least 12 other states. The Wall Street Journal noted: ‘In Ohio in 2004, a worker for one affiliate was given crack cocaine in exchange for fraudulent registrations that included underage voters, dead voters and pillars of the community named Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Jive Turkey. During a congressional hearing in Ohio in the aftermath of the 2004 election, officials from several counties in the state explained ACORN's practice of dumping thousands of registration forms in their lap on the submission deadline, even though the forms had been collected months earlier.’

“In March, Philadelphia elections officials accused the nonprofit advocacy group of filing fraudulent voter registrations in advance of the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. The charges have been forwarded to the city district attorney's office.”

Nevertheless, ACORN has collected plenty of public money.

Michelle:

“Under the guise of ‘consumer advocacy,’ ACORN has received money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD funds hundreds, if not thousands, of left-wing ‘anti-poverty’ groups across the country led by ACORN. Last October, HUD announced more than $44 million in new housing counseling grants to over 400 state and local efforts. The White House has increased funding for housing counseling by 150 percent since taking office in 2001, despite the role most of these recipients play as activist satellites of the Democratic Party. The AARP scored nearly $400,000 for training; the National Council of La Raza (‘The Race’) scooped up more than $1.3 million; the National Urban League raked in nearly $1 million; and the ACORN Housing Corporation received more than $1.6 million.

“As the Consumer Rights League points out in its new expose, the ACORN Housing Corporation has worked to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens in partnership with Citibank. It relies on undocumented income, ‘under the table’ money, which may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Moreover, the group's ‘financial justice’ operations attack lenders for ‘exotic’ loans, while recommending 10-year interest-only loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and risky reverse mortgages. Whistleblower documents reveal internal discussions among the group that blur the lines between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive electioneering activities. The group appears to shake down corporate interests with relentless PR attacks, and then enters ‘no lobby’ agreements with targeted corporations after receiving payment.”

ACORN IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION!

Michelle lamented that ACORN’s thuggish tactics had worked well for it:, while acknowledging that might change: “Republicans have largely looked the other way as ACORN has expanded its government-funded empire. But finally, a few conservative voices in Congress have called for investigation of the group's apparent extortion schemes. This week, GOP Reps. Tom Feeney, Jeb Hensarling and Ed Royce called on Democrat Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, to convene a hearing to probe potential illegalities and abuse of taxpayer funds by ACORN's management and minions alike.”

Alas, Chairman Frank was a roadblock to Treasury oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and never convened such a hearing.

Michelle on Obama and ACORN: “Where does the candidate of Hope and Change -- the candidate of Reform and New Politics -- stand on the issue? Barack Obama, ACORN's senator, is for more of the same old, same old subsidizing of far-left politics in the name of fighting for the poor while enriching ideological cronies. It's the Chicago way.“

The Chicago way is NOT the American way!

ACORN, a key culprit in the current economic mess, made Obama a local, statewide and national political success, but awareness of what ACORN really is and how Obama has served it as organizer, trainer, lawyer and funder and received its political support (legal or not) in return can and should put an end to that political success in the nick of time.

Looming Security Threats for our Next President

By Douglas Farah

CIA director Mike Hayden gave an interesting interview to Fox News identifying the greatest security challenges to the next administration.

One of the identified threats (after the increasingly unstable but nuclear-armed North Korea) is what Hayden dubbed the “Axis of Oil,” that dangerous mix of petro-fueled dollars giving Russia, Iran and Venezuela the economic means to become increasingly reckless militarily.

This is correct, and, I believe, a healthy recognition that there are serious threats outside the Iraq and radical Sunni Islamist threat. The alliance of a radical Shiite Islamist state, a radical populist government and a nation correctly described as one that is reversing democratic gains and ruled by officially sanctioned organized crime, indeed poses a threat.

What gives that Axis its power is the money we pay for foreign oil. What binds them together is this money and their avowed and public desire to go after not just the United States, but Western democracies in other places.

None of them would be able to retain their oppressive state structures and fuel instability abroad (particularly aimed at Latin America) if they didn’t have the billions of petro-dollars to do it.

Unfortunately, a full transcript of Hayden’s remarks has not been posted, so all we have is a snippet of Hayden noting that oil prices, which are still hovering around $100 per barrel, have emboldened these oil-rich nations. “Oil, at its current price … gives the Russian state a degree of influence and power that it would have not otherwise had,” he said.

He noted that Russia’s invasion of Georgian territory in August and Iran’s continued work on acquiring nuclear weapons only compound the threat.

While this threat matrix seems obvious looking at it from the Latin American context, it is not a widely voice priority in the intelligence community. I have been to numerous events recently, hosted by an array of U.S. government agencies and departments, and have been baffled by the failure to look at the very matrix Hayden names.

Two of the countries, Iran and Venezuela, openly support terrorist groups that have a long history of striking at Americans. Russia has a long history (and now a rapidly-quickening pace) of arming both nations. Russia has nuclear weapons, Iran is working hard to get them, and Venezuela has the type of leader who would like to use one.

So it is heartening to see someone finally, if only briefly, acknowledging this threat exists and needs to be a priority for whoever wins in November.

'Bride,' 'groom' can't marry in California

By Bob Unruh

A man and woman have had to go to court in California because they want to be recognized as married after officials rejected their marriage license because it listed "bride" and "groom" instead of "Party A" and "Party B."

After the state Supreme Court in May expanded the rights enumerated in the state constitution and found same-sex couples couldn't be denied marriage rights, "Many thought we couldn't go any lower," said Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, which is working on the case. "We discovered actually we can."

Gideon Codding and Rachel Bird recently were married in Placer County, near Sacramento. However, surprised by new marriage license forms created by state bureaucrats with "Party A" and "Party B," they jotted an explanatory "Groom" and "Bride' next to "party" designations.

The couple soon discovered the strength of the pro-homosexual lobby in the state: The application was returned to Pastor Doug Bird, who officiated, with a form letter stating the license "does not comply with California State registration laws." ....

Hunt targets Iran's weapons suppliers

(Compiler's note: Another "must read" ....

From WorldNetDaily

LONDON -- On the day the British government increased the terror threat level from "severe" to the "upper end of severe," Britain's MI5 and MI6 intelligence services intensified a worldwide investigation to track the associates of three Englishmen alleged to be part of an international arms smuggling gang transporting vital military equipment to Iran, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Millions of dollars worth of sensitive items -- many still on the UK's Secret List -- have been sent to the Tehran regime. Part of the investigation is to discover how the gang avoided supposedly stringent export regulations.

The material includes batteries for surface-to-air missiles and vital parts for military aircraft.

One of the alleged gang members is Farshi Gillardian, a Pakistan-born salesman based in London who was arrested earlier this week -- on evidence provided by the FBI -- for "attempting to supply weapons components illegally to Iran and of helping Tehran to acquire weapons of mass destruction."

He faces extradition to the U.S. in the near future.

E-mails intercepted by MI5 indicate that the arms network is worldwide. It specializes in producing sophisticated electronic parts for roadside devices, which have killed hundreds of coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two members of the gang have vanished from the UK in the past month. One is Brian Woodford, a 77-year-old who runs a freight company from his 100-acre estate, Chalmington Manor, near Dorchester.

His wife, Laura, 63, was arrested by FBI agents last March in San Francisco coming off a flight from Hong Kong. She is now in custody awaiting trial in New York.

MI6 agents believe the two arms catalogues she was carrying were given to her by an arms salesman for the Chinese government. The documents are described as "containing weapons of mass destruction."

Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

For the complete report and full immediate access to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, ....

Islamic takeover of U.S. already under way

(Compiler's note: A "must read" and listen .... rca)

From WorldNetDaily

Expert warns 'mainstream media' providing 'talking points' of Arab countries

An expert on terrorism is warning the United States should be fighting Islamization, which she believes already is under way. And author Brigitte Gabriel should know: She watched it happen in her native Lebanon.

"Lebanon used to be the only majority Christian country in the Middle East," Gabriel told radio talk show host Andrea Shea King in a recent hour-long interview "Most people today do not know that. We were the majority, the Muslims were the minority, but as the years went by, the Muslims became the majority because of their birth rate, but also because of our open-border policy.

"We welcomed everyone into our country," Gabriel said, and people didn't realize that the "minority," the Muslims in the society, "was not tolerant" and "did not believe all people were equal."

"They tried to impose their way of thinking on us, and they succeeded," she said.

An excerpt of her interview can be heard here:

The result, Gabriel said, was that a radical terrorist organization tied to Islam, Hezbollah, now rules in Lebanon.

As WND reported, Gabriel is fearful that terrorists believe now is the time to strike at America, while it is distracted by financial tension and election turmoil. She expressed the concerns during an interview with KSFO's Barbara Simpson, when she also discussed her new book, "They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It

Gabriel's new interview with King is available on BlogTalkRadio.

She noted it's been seven years since the Sept. 11, 2001, act of war on U.S. soil by Islamists, but America is falling to Islam's attack, and the battle already is far advanced.

"They do not need to fire a single bullet to destroy us," she said. "They are taking over our country culturally, just like they have taken over Europe."

She said Islam is being taught across the U.S. as part of world history courses for seventh graders.

"A three-week course is teaching students to memorize and recite Islamic prayers and verses from the Quran," she said. "Students have to adopt Islamic names, fast for a day to experience Ramadan, the holiest of Islamic religious holidays, and write about their experience as a Muslim at the end of the program. The exercises during the class include encouraging students to incorporate Arabic phrases such as Allahu Akbar in their speeches, and for students to imagine they were meeting disciples on a pilgrimage to Mecca. This is a state-approved curriculum, using state-adopted textbooks that have been part of the instructional program in California for over a decade."

WND reported this week that a new study shows U.S. textbooks provide "information" such as that Jesus was a Palestinian and the nation of Israel imposes terrorism on others but is not a victim a terrorism.

"Now it is being rolled out nationwide. One book I discuss in particular is 'Across the Centuries,' published by Houghton Mifflin. The Muslim Council on Education has been busy working with the State Department of Education and America's top three publishers who …are literally rewriting history," Gabriel said.

"'Across the Centuries' is a staple in the State of California. This textbook is at best, a well of misinformation. It is 558 pages long and covers the 1500 years from the fall of the Roman Empire and the French Revolution. The text includes 55 pages devoted to Islam, seven pages noting the Middle Ages in Europe, and six pages of Christian history. The chapter on the Byzantine Empire received only six pages. The chapter on Islam accounts for 10 percent of the text, while Christianity and Judaism are almost entirely absent," she said.

"This is public education approved by the State Board of Education nationwide! Our students are being indoctrinated into Islam in our public schools and we don't even have a clue! How can this be allowed to be taught in public schools in America? Most people do not know about it because it is flying under the radar!" she said.

At the university level it's worse, she said.

"What's been happening for the last 16 years, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states ... because of the money coming from the oil, they have been pumping millions of dollars into our universities appointing Arab professors who are anti-American, anti-Israel, who have been basically brain-washing our students into believe we are the problem," she said.

"The children, who have been educated in American universities for the last 16 years, have graduated and are now working ... not influenced ... by our patriotic education as Americans, but they have been influenced by Arab thinking ... [and] hatred based on revenge," she said.

"The writing is on the wall. Who would have thought that Shariah would come to Harvard University with regulated women-only gym hours? That an imam in Des Moines, Iowa, gave an opening prayer at the 2007 Iowa Legislature's opening session in which he called on Allah to give victory over those who disbelieve? Muslim taxi drivers in Minnesota who refuse to pick up passengers carrying alcohol? The first Islamic public school, the Kahlil Gibran Academy, that opened in 2007, funded by tax dollars! American colleges designating Islamic prayer rooms on campus for use by Muslims only!" Gabriel said.

"Those of us who come from the Middle East and see what's happening in the U.S. ... shake our heads in amazement," she said, calling her book a warning. "We are coming up to a very important election. This is the time we need to understand what is at stake, why our voice counts, why we need togo out and vote. This is the time to make a difference before it is too late," she said.

She said that's why besides her book, she's launched the ActForAmerica.org website.

"We launched this out of American Congress for Truth as our activism and political lobbying arm because I realized talking by itself is only wasting hot air and is entertainment. Action is the only way that's going to make a difference," she said. "History reveals that the apathetic give way to the passionate, the complacent are subdued by the committed. ACT for America.org is mobilizing people all over the country and giving them the tools to resist the Islamic infiltration in our society on every level: schools, governments, universities and corporations.

"Our work is vital in educating the American public about what is happening behind the scenes," she said.

"I encourage people to go to our website Act for America.org. I know we have citizen action training seminars coming up in Kansas City and in Indianapolis within the next two weeks. Sign up and attend them if you are in those areas. And check where we have chapters across the country and either join a chapter, or if there's no chapter in your community, sign up to lead one. Organized power at the grass roots level trumps the voices of political correctness," Gabriel said.

"The radical Islamists promised to destroy us, and as you know from the recent war in Lebanon, that country is now nearly Islamic," she said.

"We are not waiting for this phenomenon to occur here in the war against Islamofascism. We are not simply hoping for spontaneous grassroots eruptions that may or may not come. We are making it occur by organizing grassroots chapters and supporters across America. We will force elected representatives to choose. To align themselves with the grassroots voices of America or the voice of political correctness."

Gabriel was born and raised in Lebanon. When she was 10, her home was bombed by radical Islamists. She spent two and a half months in a hospital with injuries, and then she survived with her parents for seven years hidden in an underground bomb shelter, subsisting without electricity or heat on a meager diet of rice, lentils and tufts of grass that grew outside the shelter. She crawled beneath sniper fire for sips of water from a nearby ditch.

Those who have lived through such experiences are horrified at Americans' attitudes, she said.

"I have two guests staying with me, also from Lebanon, who ran to Israel for their lives when Israel withdrew out of Lebanon. And this is their first trip to America. I took them to New York and to Washington, D.C., last week and we were walking around and they were stunned at the gullibility of Americans. I took them to an air show this past week and they saw Muslims in our military. They looked at me in utter shock and said, 'Do Americans know these same Muslims would turn their guns against their fellow Americans, military men and women in the same tents, and kill them in the name of Islam? What is America thinking?'" Gabriel said.

"We are not only fighting a military jihad, we are fighting a cultural jihad and we need to wake up. We are as much at war with the cultural jihad as we are with the military jihad," Gabriel said.

"Islam is coming to America while we are asleep at the wheel and only focusing on al-Qaida attacking us militarily. The Muslims are taking us over culturally and remember, they don't even have to fire one bullet," she said.

Gabriel's book, according to "American Jihad" author Steve Emerson, is "riveting, compelling and spellbinding. This is a must read for the entire American public."

"A compelling and captivating personal story with a powerful lesson about threats to freedom in our time," said R. James Woolsey, director of Central Intelligence from 1993-1995.

"There is a threat. We must do something about it. We must stop them," Gabriel said.

Earlier, in an interview with WND columnist Larry Elder published in two parts, "Because they hate," and "Because they hate, part 2," Gabriel said al-Qaida already is inside the U.S., as is Hezbollah.

"We estimate thousands have already been smuggled into America. ... Hamas is here. ... They have cells in over 40 states. ... We also need to reform our immigration and visa programs. We need to monitor who is coming into our country and why. ... We need to increase human intelligence. … I want everyone who fits the terrorist profile to be profiled. We have men between the ages of 16 and 40 who have committed terrorist acts around the world in the name of Islam. They are not little old ladies from Ohio with blue hair. They are not children going to Disney World on their Easter vacation," she said.

Elder asked: "What happens if a Democrat wins the 2008 election?"

"We are doomed. Our enemies want the Democrats to win. This last election, jihadist websites were playing victory songs and declaring the Democrats are our allies in the war against America," she said.

Rush: Watch out for 30% who pay no taxes

By WorldNetDaily

Talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh is warning Americans about the 30 percent of the people in the country who pay no federal income taxes, because they will forever be in favor of higher taxes on everyone else.

Limbaugh quoted extensively on his program today from an op-ed by Brad O'Leary, author of "The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values."

"The Audacity of Deceit", released by WND Books, has hit the nation's largest bookstores in a head-to-head clash with Obama's release of his campaign book, "Change We Can Believe In."

Eric M. Jackson, president of WND books, says it will "shed new light on a public figure who's enjoyed a meteoric rise with little scrutiny."

"The greatest find, the greatest discovery in the political world is a new voting bloc, and his book and his research here is targeted at proving that Obama's big voting bloc is the 30 percent-plus of Americans who pay no income taxes," Limbaugh said. "These people get polled a lot, they are played to constantly, and they are all for ever higher taxes on everybody else 'cause it means more for them, in their own version of 'trickle down.'"

Limbaugh said O'Leary's work is "fascinating," and he read extensively from O'Leary's op-ed published in Investors Business Daily.

Citing the article's title, "Forgotten Foot Soldiers In War On Success," Limbaugh said, "That's exactly what the Democrats are waging."

Limbaugh quoted from O'Leary: "When writing my latest book, 'The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values,' I discovered a relatively unknown constituency: the 30 percent of American voters who do not pay federal income taxes. These Americans are exempt from paying income taxes either because their income level is below the threshold that would require them to pay, or their total deductions leave them with no income-tax liability."

O'Leary continued, "So I set out to determine exactly who these people are and what makes them tick. In conjunction with Zogby America, I conducted a series of carefully orchestrated polls. For more results than I can write about here, you'll have to buy my book or go to www.BarackObamaTest.com. First, I found that 60 percent of likely voters among non-taxpaying Americans favor Obama for president, whereas only 31 percent favor John McCain. In addition, a majority of the 30 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes agree with Obama's $65 billion plan to institute taxpayer-funded, universal health coverage. On the other side, a majority of the 70 percent of Americans who pay federal income taxes (i.e., the folks who would have to foot the bill for this boondoggle) are opposed to Obama's health care plan."

Limbaugh said O'Leary was on point when he wrote, "[I]f Barack Obama and his legions of non-taxpaying supporters are allowed to set America's economic policies and priorities, a wrench will be thrown into the gears of our remarkable economic machine. America will face a new war. Call it Obama's 'war on success.' In this war, there will be no winners – only losers – taxpayers and non-taxpayers alike."

O'Leary's work found that 70 percent of Americans shoulder the majority of the federal budgetary burden for all Americans now, so Obama's claim for a plan to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans is a logical impossibility.

"Is he going to give more money to nontaxpayers?" O'Leary questioned. "You can't give a tax cut to 95 percent of Americans if only 70 percent of them pay federal income taxes in the first place. Then again, math may not be Obama's strong suit."

O'Leary, former president of the American Association of Political Consultants, is the author of 11 books, a former talk radio host with millions of listeners and the award-winning television producer of "Ronald Reagan: An American President."

O'Leary's book contends Obama's vision for change, if exposed, would not come close to what Americans hope for.

"Obama has written multiple books and no major legislation, but that's not a coincidence," says O'Leary. "He's tried to hide his true beliefs from the American people behind soaring oratory promising 'hope' and 'change,' but that's just a smokescreen, and one that's been very effective. Until now."

DNC steps in to silence lawsuit over Obama birth certificate

By Drew Zahn

Philip J. Berg

The man suing Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee for proof of Obama's American citizenship is outraged that his own party – rather than just providing the birth certificate he seeks – would step in to silence him by filing a motion to dismiss his lawsuit.

As WND reported, prominent Pennsylvania Democrat and attorney Philip J. Berg filed suit in U.S. District Court two months ago claiming Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and therefore not eligible to be elected president. Berg has since challenged Obama publicly that if the candidate will simply produce authorized proof of citizenship, he'll drop the suit.

Berg told WND the longer the DNC tries to ignore his lawsuit or make it go away – instead of just providing the documents – the more convinced he is that his accusations are correct.

Despite assertions by the Washington Post, FactChecker.org and other organizations that Obama has produced a certified Hawaiian birth certificate, Berg told WND he remains "99.99 percent sure" that the certificate is a fake and he wants a court, not a website, to determine its validity.

Earlier last week, lawyers for Obama and the DNC filed a joint motion to dismiss Berg's lawsuit. The fact that the DNC joined in the dismissal request has Berg fuming, believing his party's leaders have ignored his pleas for proof in order to favor their chosen candidate over a rank-and-file constituent.

"I think it's outrageous," Berg said. "The Democratic National Committee should be ensuring the Democratic Party and the public that they have a qualified candidate up there. To file a joint motion is like they're in cahoots.

"Since then, I have asked by way of press release that Howard Dean resign, because (the DNC members) are not fulfilling their duties," Berg said.

"The DNC has a responsibility to all Democrats in this country to make sure that all of their candidates are properly vetted and properly qualified," Berg added. "I think it's really an outrage to the 18-plus million people who voted for Obama and the people who donated more than $425 million to him under false pretenses."

"I should also be suing the national media and their disgrace for not properly vetting, inspecting or checking on Barack Obama.

"Look what they're doing to Governor Palin: They're opening up her closet doors, they're going through everything personal, but no one has ever gone after Obama. It doesn't make sense," Berg said.

Obama's website counters Berg's claims with links to articles that affirm the validity of his citizenship and an image of a Hawaiian birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, born in Honolulu, Aug. 4, 1961. The webpage is part of the Obama campaign website's "Fight the Smears" section, an effort to prevent reports that Obama claims are false from disseminating as damaging rumors.

Berg acknowledges that as long as his lawsuit remains outstanding, the public will talk, and he told WND he wants Obama to quickly prove him wrong or the court to quickly prove him right.

"I've been on about 50 radio shows around the country," Berg said, "and on every one I've put out a challenge: Barack Obama, if I'm wrong, just come forth with certified copies of these documents and I'll close down the case."

Berg told WND, "I've had 19 million hits on my website. …Those people talk to other people, now we're up to 20, 30, 40 million people who are aware of this controversy, and it's going to drastically affect the entire election."

When asked what he would do if the DNC succeeded in getting his case dismissed, Berg said he would "immediately file an appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and if we don't get a fair ruling there, immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court."

"We're dealing with the U.S. Constitution and it must be followed," Berg explained. "I want the Constitution enforced; that's my main reason for doing this.

"The real outrage is that there's nothing in our system that provides that a candidate must provide that his qualifications are true and correct before he or she runs, and that safeguard should be put into our system by law," Berg said.