Posts
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Bombs or a Hoax? Suspicious - 'Bomb-Like' - Packages Reported at 3 Different Places in Minnesota
from FoxNews
FBI agents and bomb squads in Minnesota are hunting for explosives — or evidence of a hoax — at a high school and two other locations where suspicious packages were planted early Wednesday.
An official told FOX News that the devices found near the school, a postoffice
and a public utility center about 6:30 a.m. "look like" bombs. But authorities in Princeton, Minn., located about 50 miles north of Minneapolis, were trying to determine Wednesday whether they were real or part of an elaborate ruse.
FBI agents were on-scene at the three locations, a lawenforcement official told FOX.
The source said he was not aware of any threats that had been called in or made by whoever planted the packages.
Traffic in the area was blocked and diverted. Princeton High School and elementaryschool students were evacuated, and later all students from the district were sent home.
FBI agents and bomb squads in Minnesota are hunting for explosives — or evidence of a hoax — at a high school and two other locations where suspicious packages were planted early Wednesday.
An official told FOX News that the devices found near the school, a post
FBI agents were on-scene at the three locations, a law
The source said he was not aware of any threats that had been called in or made by whoever planted the packages.
Traffic in the area was blocked and diverted. Princeton High School and elementary
Dementia Risk Seen in Players in N.F.L. Study
By ALAN SCHWARZ
A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49. ....
A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49. ....
Forget the Nukes
(Analyst's note: Surely we can focus on two related items at once.)
by Robert Kagan
The past two weeks have been a big success for the rulers in Tehran, despite what many in the United States and Europe may think. The Obama administration, the Europeans and the media have been obsessively focused on Iranian missile launches and secret enrichment facilities, on Russia's body language, and on the likely success or failure of Thursday's talks in Geneva. What the world has not focused on is the one thing Iran's rulers care about: their own survival.
You have to give the clerics credit for keeping this grave matter off Western agendas. The fraudulent presidential election in June and the subsequent mass demonstrations produced the biggest regime crisis in years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must have been panicked at the prospect of losing control -- and with reason. Western democrats, not knowing what it is like to rule by fear and force, generally underestimate what a scary and uncertain business it can be, how a single wrong move, usually a too-timid response, can spell catastrophe. Even the masterful Deng Xiaoping, faced with much smaller opposition demonstrations in 1989, believed his Communist oligarchy could lose power absent a decisive show of force followed by a thorough purge of unreliable figures in the regime. In Iran, the regime's violent crackdown, its mass arrests of opposition figures -- including the children of high-ranking clerics -- and all the farcical show trials have been signs of weakness and anxiety, not confidence.
In such situations, an autocratic regime's biggest fear, well-grounded in history, is that domestic opponents may gain the support of powerful foreign patrons. ....
by Robert Kagan
The past two weeks have been a big success for the rulers in Tehran, despite what many in the United States and Europe may think. The Obama administration, the Europeans and the media have been obsessively focused on Iranian missile launches and secret enrichment facilities, on Russia's body language, and on the likely success or failure of Thursday's talks in Geneva. What the world has not focused on is the one thing Iran's rulers care about: their own survival.
You have to give the clerics credit for keeping this grave matter off Western agendas. The fraudulent presidential election in June and the subsequent mass demonstrations produced the biggest regime crisis in years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must have been panicked at the prospect of losing control -- and with reason. Western democrats, not knowing what it is like to rule by fear and force, generally underestimate what a scary and uncertain business it can be, how a single wrong move, usually a too-timid response, can spell catastrophe. Even the masterful Deng Xiaoping, faced with much smaller opposition demonstrations in 1989, believed his Communist oligarchy could lose power absent a decisive show of force followed by a thorough purge of unreliable figures in the regime. In Iran, the regime's violent crackdown, its mass arrests of opposition figures -- including the children of high-ranking clerics -- and all the farcical show trials have been signs of weakness and anxiety, not confidence.
In such situations, an autocratic regime's biggest fear, well-grounded in history, is that domestic opponents may gain the support of powerful foreign patrons. ....
In Dispute With Iran, Path to Iraq Is in Spotlight
(Analyst's note: This article clearly has a political slant and "agenda." Such doubt as expressed in this article is especially "true" if you've "drunk the cool aid" provided by the jihadist and their sympathizers within the U.S. Academia and other "elites" protecting major sources of their funding by Middle-Eastern money can be traced to the root cause of this failure to understand what is going on.)
WASHINGTON — To many Americans, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations on Iraq’s unconventional weapons was powerfully persuasive. It was a dazzling performance, featuring satellite images and intercepts of Iraqi communications, delivered by one of the most trusted figures in public life. .... Antiwar activists, with a fool-me-once skepticism, watch the dispute over the Qum plant with an alarmed sense of déjà vu. And some specialists on arms control and Iran are asking for more evidence and warning against hasty conclusions. ....
WASHINGTON — To many Americans, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations on Iraq’s unconventional weapons was powerfully persuasive. It was a dazzling performance, featuring satellite images and intercepts of Iraqi communications, delivered by one of the most trusted figures in public life. .... Antiwar activists, with a fool-me-once skepticism, watch the dispute over the Qum plant with an alarmed sense of déjà vu. And some specialists on arms control and Iran are asking for more evidence and warning against hasty conclusions. ....
Pentagon Set To Vaccinate Troops, Assist In Flu Crisis
.... The Pentagon has bought 2.7 million doses of vaccine, and 1.4 million of those will go to active-duty military personnel. National Guard troops on active duty are also required to receive the vaccine, as are civilian Defense Department employees who are in critical jobs.
As a result, the military is expected to provide health officials with an early assessment of the vaccine's efficacy.
.... Renuart said that more than two dozen troops have been dispatched so far to each of five regional headquarters to work with officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state leaders.
But the military presence could rise to 80 in each regional office if needed, he said.
For the general population, the first swine flu vaccine should be in some doctors' offices as early as Oct. 5, according to U.S. health officials.
The early batches will protect 6 million to 7 million people, but the government expects to eventually have 250 million doses of the new vaccine. About 10 percent of those have been promised to other countries.
.... Renuart said that more than two dozen troops have been dispatched so far to each of five regional headquarters to work with officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state leaders.
But the military presence could rise to 80 in each regional office if needed, he said.
For the general population, the first swine flu vaccine should be in some doctors' offices as early as Oct. 5, according to U.S. health officials.
The early batches will protect 6 million to 7 million people, but the government expects to eventually have 250 million doses of the new vaccine. About 10 percent of those have been promised to other countries.
Jihadi Groups Use Web 2.0 Social Media More Effectively Than Western Governments
by Mike Brennan
DEARORN – The Internet has become the platform of choice for extremist activities and in most cases these jihadi groups have use Web 2.0 technology more effectively than Western governments, Jeff Bardin, a Middle Eastern security expert told hundreds of attendees during the first day of the SecureWorld Expo Detroit 2009 conference at the Ford Conference & Event Center.
In his breakfast keynote, Bardin, a principal at Treadstone 71, took an in-depth look at the methods of information dissemination, recruitment, product development, hacking and propaganda examining their encryption tools, methods of dead drops, steganography, use of video, denial of service and online storage capabilities as their recruits access jihadi social networks directly.
They are adroit at using Twitter, Flicker, Facebook and other social networks to put their spin on stories in English and German to reach a Western audience.
Jihadi groups use online audio and video to provide training for everything from bomb making, to web site development, Bardin said. In the 2004 Madrid railroad bombings, Bardin speculated the jihadi groups had access to the security cameras that ringed the city to make sure the bombs killed the most possible people when they went off.
“They are using our web infrastructure against us,” he said. “They are using everything we have created in Web 2.0, but using it better than we are.”
They are so sophisticated that they use cloud storage sites to park their audio and video uploads, he said. They produce Taliban news flashes daily and get leadership videos posted about a week after they are shot in their mountain hideaways.
“They have something for everyone, including a hacked video game,” Bardin said. “They love to hack our security software for their own uses.”
Now their moving their message to mobile devices to protect the information they send, he said. They are also encrypting text messages in Arab, English and French.
Bardin has held CIO, CSO and CISO roles in Fortune 1000 companies and held Top Secret clearances while breaking codes & ciphers and performing Arabic language translations serving in the US Air Force and at the National Security Agency. He also has international experience in the greater Mediterranean region and the Middle East.
Day Two of the SecureWorld Expo Detroit Conference begins at 8:30 am with InfraGard Keynote: The Onerous Data Mountains Should be Our Tactical High-ground, a presentation of the art-of-the-possible in terms of mega source data presented in the context of a national ontology, presented by retired US Marine Major General Bradley Lott, the CEO of True North Logistics.
Lott just stepped down as Executive Director of the Defense Contract Coordination Center, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. For more information, click on SecureWorldExpo.Com
DEARORN – The Internet has become the platform of choice for extremist activities and in most cases these jihadi groups have use Web 2.0 technology more effectively than Western governments, Jeff Bardin, a Middle Eastern security expert told hundreds of attendees during the first day of the SecureWorld Expo Detroit 2009 conference at the Ford Conference & Event Center.
In his breakfast keynote, Bardin, a principal at Treadstone 71, took an in-depth look at the methods of information dissemination, recruitment, product development, hacking and propaganda examining their encryption tools, methods of dead drops, steganography, use of video, denial of service and online storage capabilities as their recruits access jihadi social networks directly.
They are adroit at using Twitter, Flicker, Facebook and other social networks to put their spin on stories in English and German to reach a Western audience.
Jihadi groups use online audio and video to provide training for everything from bomb making, to web site development, Bardin said. In the 2004 Madrid railroad bombings, Bardin speculated the jihadi groups had access to the security cameras that ringed the city to make sure the bombs killed the most possible people when they went off.
“They are using our web infrastructure against us,” he said. “They are using everything we have created in Web 2.0, but using it better than we are.”
They are so sophisticated that they use cloud storage sites to park their audio and video uploads, he said. They produce Taliban news flashes daily and get leadership videos posted about a week after they are shot in their mountain hideaways.
A popular new feature is listing the Top 10 martyrdom operations in video to highlight their terror tactics.
“They have something for everyone, including a hacked video game,” Bardin said. “They love to hack our security software for their own uses.”
Now their moving their message to mobile devices to protect the information they send, he said. They are also encrypting text messages in Arab, English and French.
Bardin has held CIO, CSO and CISO roles in Fortune 1000 companies and held Top Secret clearances while breaking codes & ciphers and performing Arabic language translations serving in the US Air Force and at the National Security Agency. He also has international experience in the greater Mediterranean region and the Middle East.
Day Two of the SecureWorld Expo Detroit Conference begins at 8:30 am with InfraGard Keynote: The Onerous Data Mountains Should be Our Tactical High-ground, a presentation of the art-of-the-possible in terms of mega source data presented in the context of a national ontology, presented by retired US Marine Major General Bradley Lott, the CEO of True North Logistics.
Lott just stepped down as Executive Director of the Defense Contract Coordination Center, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. For more information, click on SecureWorldExpo.Com
Community organizers 'pray' to president 'Hear our cry. Hear our cry. Deliver us'
from WorldNetDaily
A newly publicized video shows leaders of a Chicago-based community organizing group called the Gamaliel Foundation held a rally shortly after President Obama's election and "prayed" to him, seeking his intervention in their difficulties.
"Hear our Cry Obama. Deliver us Obama," the organizers chanted as a single leader recited the organization's perceived problems, based on the philosophies of Saul Alinsky, the radical father of community organizing.
The video has been posted on Breitbart.TV.
The video explains the event took place at a leadership conference just a few weeks after Obama's election in November.
The "leaders" enter a room chanting, "Everybody in, nobody out," apparently referring to health care
.
A newly publicized video shows leaders of a Chicago-based community organizing group called the Gamaliel Foundation held a rally shortly after President Obama's election and "prayed" to him, seeking his intervention in their difficulties.
"Hear our Cry Obama. Deliver us Obama," the organizers chanted as a single leader recited the organization's perceived problems, based on the philosophies of Saul Alinsky, the radical father of community organizing.
The video has been posted on Breitbart.TV.
The video explains the event took place at a leadership conference just a few weeks after Obama's election in November.
The "leaders" enter a room chanting, "Everybody in, nobody out," apparently referring to health care
.
L.A. Times still conceals Obama terror video Reportedly includes glowing testimonial for prof who excuses violence
(Analyst's note: Troubling - this should be a part of public information .)
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – The Los Angeles Times has no plan to ever release a video it stated it obtained of President Obama attending an anti-Israel event in which he delivered a glowing testimonial for Rashid Khalidi, a pro-Palestinian professor who excuses terrorism.
At the 2003 event, poetry reportedly was read comparing Israelis to Osama bin Laden and accusing the Jewish state of terrorism.
"The story ran in 2008 and we pretty much said everything we are going to say about that event," Peter Wallsten, the Times reporter who claimed to have obtained the video, told WND yesterday.
Asked for details of the footage captured in the video, Wallsten replied, "I wrote an extensive article that described the event."
Wallsten referred to a previous statement from the newspaper's editor, Russ Stanton, explaining, "The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it."
"The Times keeps its promises to sources," Stanton said. ....
By Aaron Klein
 Rashid Khalidi |
At the 2003 event, poetry reportedly was read comparing Israelis to Osama bin Laden and accusing the Jewish state of terrorism.
"The story ran in 2008 and we pretty much said everything we are going to say about that event," Peter Wallsten, the Times reporter who claimed to have obtained the video, told WND yesterday.
Asked for details of the footage captured in the video, Wallsten replied, "I wrote an extensive article that described the event."
Wallsten referred to a previous statement from the newspaper's editor, Russ Stanton, explaining, "The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it."
"The Times keeps its promises to sources," Stanton said. ....
Girl dies after receiving cervical cancer vaccine
(Reuters) The 14-year-old fell ill after she was given the Cervarix vaccination against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus at her school ...
Empire State Building celebrates communism
(Agence France-Presse) New York's iconic Empire State Building will light up red and yellow Wednesday in honor of the 60th anniversary of communist China ...
Hillary Clinton fundraiser heads to prison
(Associated Press) Former Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu is headed for a lengthy prison sentence after his conviction for violating campaign finance laws ...
Real hope: U.S. accelerates monster bunker busting bombs project
(Debka) The rush job was triggered by the discovery that Iran was hiding a second uranium enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom ...
Israel removes roadblocks for Palestinians, Palestinians shoot Israeli
by Robert Spencer
"This attack is a direct result of the removal of roadblocks." The Israelis removed 100 roadblocks a couple of weeks ago "to make life easier for Palestinians" and, apparently, to please George Mitchell and Barack Obama. "Israeli shot in West Bank," by Efrat Weiss for Ynet, September 29 (thanks to Pamela):
"This attack is a direct result of the removal of roadblocks." The Israelis removed 100 roadblocks a couple of weeks ago "to make life easier for Palestinians" and, apparently, to please George Mitchell and Barack Obama. "Israeli shot in West Bank," by Efrat Weiss for Ynet, September 29 (thanks to Pamela):
An Israeli citizen suffered mild to moderate gunshot wounds to his hand Tuesday evening near the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel, north of Jerusalem.
According to local settlers, at approximately 8 pm unknown assailants opened fire at an Israeli vehicle travelling east of Shvut Rachel....
The shots apparently came from terrorists positioned at the side of the road."This attack is a direct result of the removal of roadblocks. It's only by some miracle that the outcome of these attacks has been no worse than injuries, but you cannot base security policies on miracles."
"This is the fourth shooting in the area in the past four months," Binyamin Council Head Avi Roeh told Ynet.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
A virus called 'Shariah'
(Analyst's note: Absolutely must read item. Law enforcement authorities and many in the news media are going to great lengths to assert that there is no “connection” between the three recent terrorist plots uncovered in New York, Dallas and Springfield, Illinois.
This, once again, reveals how unprepared America’s political, law enforcement, and media leadership is to combat the threat of jihadist, radical Islam. The need to really understand this threat has never been more important.)
A Denver airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan who plotted to blow up subway trains in New York City. A Jordanian who tried to destroy one of Dallas' tallest skyscrapers. An American who thought he was detonating a truck bomb aimed at a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.
Law enforcement authorities who successfully stymied these alleged attacks have been at pains to emphasize that there are no connections between the three.
Of course there are.
Maybe it will prove to be the case that the three men at the heart of these interrupted plots - Najibullah Zazi, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi and Michael Finton (also known as Talib Islam) - had no connection in a tactical or operational sense.
Still, it is absurd, and extremely dangerous, to insist that they are not connected in at least one way: What apparently animated all three of these suspects (and perhaps a number of others believed to have been involved in the New York plot who are still at large) is the seditious, supremacist theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah."
Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad - the struggle to bring about the triumph of Islam worldwide through whatever means are available. Shariah explicitly calls for the use of violent techniques designed to instill terror in those who stand in the way of a global Muslim theocracy.
Lethal truck-bombs, pellet-laced explosive vests and backpacks and bombs or hijackers aboard aircraft have already been used for this purpose. It is a matter of time before vastly more destructive weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear) become available to jihadists who believe that, pursuant to Shariah, they are fulfilling Allah's will when they kill "infidels" or otherwise force them to submit to Islam.
Even more insidious, though, is what Robert Spencer calls "Stealth Jihad." This practice involves using myriad non-violent measures to insinuate Shariah into non-Muslim societies. Adherents demand such concessions as special treatment for them and their faith in public spaces, private corporations, schools, communities and government at every level.
The prime-mover behind these demands is the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that shares the violent jihadists' commitment to advance Shariah's end-state of a global caliphate, but seek (for the moment, at least) to do so non-violently. The successful prosecution last year of one Brotherhood front, the Holy Land Foundation, established that the organization's mission is "to destroy Western civilization from within...by its own miserable hand." (In the course of the trial, the government also identified virtually every prominent Muslim-American group as Brotherhood affiliates or "friendly" to its purposes.)
What happens as tolerant democratic societies try to accommodate themselves to the stealthy form of jihad, backed by the persistent threat of the violent form - if not its actual occurrence, can be seen in much of Western Europe. For example, France now has 751 zones urbaines sensibles - Muslim-only areas that amount to "no-go" zones for French authorities. In these zones, Shariah rules instead of the laws of the host government, at the expense most notably of women's rights, due process and public order (especially for Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims).
To be sure, accommodations to date to Shariah have not metastasized in the United States to nearly this extent. There are, however, numerous worrisome examples of concessions that have been made here, too. To cite a few: taxpayer-financed footbaths for Muslims installed at state universities; corporations providing Muslim-only prayer rooms and time off for prayers; government-sanctioned discrimination by taxi drivers against passengers deemed "impure" (haram) because they have alcohol or dogs; unhygenic practices in food plants to accommodate the preferences of Muslim workers; government-offered Shariah-compliant mortgages; Islamic proselytizing in public school curricula; etc.
The failure by U.S. and other governments' officials to recognize the connection between Shariah and jihad (of either the violent or stealthy kind) is like refusing to acknowledge that there is a common virus causing an outbreak of swine flu. How could the medical community hope to identify appropriate prophylactic measures (for instance: Keep kids in school or shut the schools down? Take antibiotics or not?) if it were not permitted to understand the nature of the virus. There would certainly be little chance of developing effective vaccines under those circumstances.
We face approximately the same problem if we require our law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security and military personnel to behave as though there is no toxic virus - think of it as the "anti-swine flu," since pork is the ultimate in haram under Shariah - animating those seeking to destroy us, our government and our freedom-loving way of life. At best, we will be able to stop some of the attacks the jihadists are plotting against us. We certainly will not be able to defeat the disease and thereby protect Western civilization from its potential for truly pandemic virulence.
Our natural allies in taking such a stance against Shariah are the many millions of Muslims around the world whose practice of their faith does not involve adherence to this medieval, barbaric and totalitarian program. Indeed, most Muslim immigrants in America came here to get away from Shariah in their native lands. Only by differentiating such Muslims from the carriers of this lethal virus can we hope to inoculate them against the spread of the disease - and enlist their help in protecting the rest of us by keeping American Shariah-free.
This, once again, reveals how unprepared America’s political, law enforcement, and media leadership is to combat the threat of jihadist, radical Islam. The need to really understand this threat has never been more important.)
A Denver airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan who plotted to blow up subway trains in New York City. A Jordanian who tried to destroy one of Dallas' tallest skyscrapers. An American who thought he was detonating a truck bomb aimed at a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.
Law enforcement authorities who successfully stymied these alleged attacks have been at pains to emphasize that there are no connections between the three.
Of course there are.
Maybe it will prove to be the case that the three men at the heart of these interrupted plots - Najibullah Zazi, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi and Michael Finton (also known as Talib Islam) - had no connection in a tactical or operational sense.
Still, it is absurd, and extremely dangerous, to insist that they are not connected in at least one way: What apparently animated all three of these suspects (and perhaps a number of others believed to have been involved in the New York plot who are still at large) is the seditious, supremacist theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah."
Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad - the struggle to bring about the triumph of Islam worldwide through whatever means are available. Shariah explicitly calls for the use of violent techniques designed to instill terror in those who stand in the way of a global Muslim theocracy.
Lethal truck-bombs, pellet-laced explosive vests and backpacks and bombs or hijackers aboard aircraft have already been used for this purpose. It is a matter of time before vastly more destructive weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear) become available to jihadists who believe that, pursuant to Shariah, they are fulfilling Allah's will when they kill "infidels" or otherwise force them to submit to Islam.
Even more insidious, though, is what Robert Spencer calls "Stealth Jihad." This practice involves using myriad non-violent measures to insinuate Shariah into non-Muslim societies. Adherents demand such concessions as special treatment for them and their faith in public spaces, private corporations, schools, communities and government at every level.
The prime-mover behind these demands is the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that shares the violent jihadists' commitment to advance Shariah's end-state of a global caliphate, but seek (for the moment, at least) to do so non-violently. The successful prosecution last year of one Brotherhood front, the Holy Land Foundation, established that the organization's mission is "to destroy Western civilization from within...by its own miserable hand." (In the course of the trial, the government also identified virtually every prominent Muslim-American group as Brotherhood affiliates or "friendly" to its purposes.)
What happens as tolerant democratic societies try to accommodate themselves to the stealthy form of jihad, backed by the persistent threat of the violent form - if not its actual occurrence, can be seen in much of Western Europe. For example, France now has 751 zones urbaines sensibles - Muslim-only areas that amount to "no-go" zones for French authorities. In these zones, Shariah rules instead of the laws of the host government, at the expense most notably of women's rights, due process and public order (especially for Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims).
To be sure, accommodations to date to Shariah have not metastasized in the United States to nearly this extent. There are, however, numerous worrisome examples of concessions that have been made here, too. To cite a few: taxpayer-financed footbaths for Muslims installed at state universities; corporations providing Muslim-only prayer rooms and time off for prayers; government-sanctioned discrimination by taxi drivers against passengers deemed "impure" (haram) because they have alcohol or dogs; unhygenic practices in food plants to accommodate the preferences of Muslim workers; government-offered Shariah-compliant mortgages; Islamic proselytizing in public school curricula; etc.
The failure by U.S. and other governments' officials to recognize the connection between Shariah and jihad (of either the violent or stealthy kind) is like refusing to acknowledge that there is a common virus causing an outbreak of swine flu. How could the medical community hope to identify appropriate prophylactic measures (for instance: Keep kids in school or shut the schools down? Take antibiotics or not?) if it were not permitted to understand the nature of the virus. There would certainly be little chance of developing effective vaccines under those circumstances.
We face approximately the same problem if we require our law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security and military personnel to behave as though there is no toxic virus - think of it as the "anti-swine flu," since pork is the ultimate in haram under Shariah - animating those seeking to destroy us, our government and our freedom-loving way of life. At best, we will be able to stop some of the attacks the jihadists are plotting against us. We certainly will not be able to defeat the disease and thereby protect Western civilization from its potential for truly pandemic virulence.
Our natural allies in taking such a stance against Shariah are the many millions of Muslims around the world whose practice of their faith does not involve adherence to this medieval, barbaric and totalitarian program. Indeed, most Muslim immigrants in America came here to get away from Shariah in their native lands. Only by differentiating such Muslims from the carriers of this lethal virus can we hope to inoculate them against the spread of the disease - and enlist their help in protecting the rest of us by keeping American Shariah-free.
Muslim 'apostates' in U.S. ask for protection Group says Shariah law poses threat
Co-Founder, Wafa Sultan
Five ex-Muslims who founded a group called Former Muslims United put out a public appeal Thursday to the U.S. government for protection, saying the lives of thousands of "apostates from Islam" are in peril. "We are going to have a lot more Rifqa Barys in America because the kids are rebelling," said Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-born director of the group.
Five ex-Muslims who founded a group called Former Muslims United put out a public appeal Thursday to the U.S. government for protection, saying the lives of thousands of "apostates from Islam" are in peril. "We are going to have a lot more Rifqa Barys in America because the kids are rebelling," said Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-born director of the group.
Is ‘Consumer Reports’ Engaging in Healthcare Fraud?
Peter Gadiel
In addition to the mainstream media, another “neutral observer” has become a propagandist for a particular political philosophy.
In addition to the mainstream media, another “neutral observer” has become a propagandist for a particular political philosophy.
McChrystal’s War Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal believes he can win in Afghanistan. It's the rest of the world that needs convincing.
By Evan Thomas
In Kabul, the entrance to the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force—the coalition of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan—is easy to miss. Ever since the Taliban blew up the main gate a month ago, visitors have been required to pass through a small metal door and down winding, dingy passageways topped with barbed wire. Inside the ISAF compound, grimy trailers, used to provide office space, are stacked up around a seedy, once grand building that was long ago a social club for officers of the British Empire. There was a bar, but a couple of weeks ago, Gen. Stanley McChrystal outlawed alcohol on the base, and he has indicated that he wants to turn a small, pretty garden, a tiny oasis of green, into a rifle range.
McChrystal, 55, is a purebred warrior, the son of a two-star general, West Point class of '76, a former commander of the elite Rangers Regiment, and, from 2003 to 2008, the head of hunter-killer black ops in Special Operations. He eats one meal a day, works out obsessively every morning at 5, and is so free of body fat that he looks gaunt. Lately, as commander of the war in Afghanistan, he has become a kind of Zen warrior, preaching that often "the shot you don't fire is more important than the one you do." He is a student of what he calls "counterinsurgency math." If you encounter 10 Taliban members and kill two, he says, you don't have eight remaining enemies. You have more like 20: the friends and relatives of the two you killed. ....
In Kabul, the entrance to the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force—the coalition of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan—is easy to miss. Ever since the Taliban blew up the main gate a month ago, visitors have been required to pass through a small metal door and down winding, dingy passageways topped with barbed wire. Inside the ISAF compound, grimy trailers, used to provide office space, are stacked up around a seedy, once grand building that was long ago a social club for officers of the British Empire. There was a bar, but a couple of weeks ago, Gen. Stanley McChrystal outlawed alcohol on the base, and he has indicated that he wants to turn a small, pretty garden, a tiny oasis of green, into a rifle range.
McChrystal, 55, is a purebred warrior, the son of a two-star general, West Point class of '76, a former commander of the elite Rangers Regiment, and, from 2003 to 2008, the head of hunter-killer black ops in Special Operations. He eats one meal a day, works out obsessively every morning at 5, and is so free of body fat that he looks gaunt. Lately, as commander of the war in Afghanistan, he has become a kind of Zen warrior, preaching that often "the shot you don't fire is more important than the one you do." He is a student of what he calls "counterinsurgency math." If you encounter 10 Taliban members and kill two, he says, you don't have eight remaining enemies. You have more like 20: the friends and relatives of the two you killed. ....
U.S. Says Taliban Has A New Haven in Pakistan
By Pamela Constable
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
But U.S. officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the Quetta Shura.
As a result, Pakistani and foreign analysts here said, Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, has suddenly emerged as an urgent but elusive new target as Washington grapples with the Taliban's rapidly spreading arc of influence and terror across Afghanistan. ....
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
But U.S. officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the Quetta Shura.
Pakistani officials, in turn, have been accused of allowing the Taliban movement to regroup in the Quetta area, viewing it as a strategic asset rather than a domestic threat, while the army has been heavily focused on curbing violent Islamist extremists in the northwest border region hundreds of miles away.
As a result, Pakistani and foreign analysts here said, Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, has suddenly emerged as an urgent but elusive new target as Washington grapples with the Taliban's rapidly spreading arc of influence and terror across Afghanistan. ....
Terror Arrests a Reminder of Patriot Act’s Importance
By: Ernest Istook
Federal agents have done something very good. They’ve thwarted three terrorist bombing plots in one week.
Yet the tools used to thwart plots that might have killed thousands may be taken away by Congress. The arrests came just as congressional committees are debating whether to renew the Patriot Act, which expanded America’s ability to detect and deter domestic terrorism.
It’s impossible to overstate the lives evidently saved by the FBI’s recent arrests in New York City, Dallas, and Springfield, Ill. The events re-affirmed the reality of danger from radical Islamic jihadists just as some Americans were de-emphasizing them. ....
Federal agents have done something very good. They’ve thwarted three terrorist bombing plots in one week.
Yet the tools used to thwart plots that might have killed thousands may be taken away by Congress. The arrests came just as congressional committees are debating whether to renew the Patriot Act, which expanded America’s ability to detect and deter domestic terrorism.
It’s impossible to overstate the lives evidently saved by the FBI’s recent arrests in New York City, Dallas, and Springfield, Ill. The events re-affirmed the reality of danger from radical Islamic jihadists just as some Americans were de-emphasizing them. ....
2 Canadian Men Killed Execution-Style at Mexican Beach Resort
from FoxNews
Witnesses told police that a gunman approached Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans outside the building they were staying in and shot Kendall, according to Jalisco state prosecutor Guillermo Diaz.
The gunman then chased Ivans to the pool area and shot him. Witnesses said two other gunmen arrived minutes later and repeatedly shot the dead or dying Canadians, Diaz said. The men fled and no arrests have been made. ....
Witnesses told police that a gunman approached Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans outside the building they were staying in and shot Kendall, according to Jalisco state prosecutor Guillermo Diaz.
The gunman then chased Ivans to the pool area and shot him. Witnesses said two other gunmen arrived minutes later and repeatedly shot the dead or dying Canadians, Diaz said. The men fled and no arrests have been made. ....
Health Care for ILLEGALS
If we ID ILLEGALS for insurance purposes - why not ID them and "boot" them out of the country?
World Bank Head Sees Dollar’s Role Diminishing
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON — The president of the World Bank said on Monday that America’s days as an unchallenged economic superpower might be numbered and that the dollar was likely to lose its favored position as the euro and the Chinese renminbi assume bigger roles.
“The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar’s place as the world’s predominant reserve currency,” the World Bank president, Robert B. Zoellick, said in a speech at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. “Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar.”
WASHINGTON — The president of the World Bank said on Monday that America’s days as an unchallenged economic superpower might be numbered and that the dollar was likely to lose its favored position as the euro and the Chinese renminbi assume bigger roles.
“The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar’s place as the world’s predominant reserve currency,” the World Bank president, Robert B. Zoellick, said in a speech at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. “Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar.”
Nuclear Debate Brews: Is Iran Designing Warheads?
by William J. Broad, Mark Mazzetti and David E. Sanger.
WASHINGTON — When President Obama stood last week with the leaders of Britain and France to denounce Iran’s construction of a secret nuclear plant, the Western powers all appeared to be on the same page.
The Israelis, who have delivered veiled threats of a military strike, say they believe that Iran has restarted these “weaponization” efforts, which would mark a final step in building a nuclear weapon. The Germans say they believe that the weapons work was never halted. The French have strongly suggested that independent international inspectors have more information about the weapons work than they have made public.
Meanwhile, in closed-door discussions, American spy agencies have stood firm in their conclusion that while Iran may ultimately want a bomb, the country halted work on weapons design in 2003 and probably has not restarted that effort — a judgment first made public in a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate.
WASHINGTON — When President Obama stood last week with the leaders of Britain and France to denounce Iran’s construction of a secret nuclear plant, the Western powers all appeared to be on the same page.
Behind their show of unity about Iran’s clandestine efforts to manufacture nuclear fuel, however, is a continuing debate among American, European and Israeli spies about a separate component of Iran’s nuclear program: its clandestine efforts to design a nuclear warhead.
The Israelis, who have delivered veiled threats of a military strike, say they believe that Iran has restarted these “weaponization” efforts, which would mark a final step in building a nuclear weapon. The Germans say they believe that the weapons work was never halted. The French have strongly suggested that independent international inspectors have more information about the weapons work than they have made public.
Meanwhile, in closed-door discussions, American spy agencies have stood firm in their conclusion that while Iran may ultimately want a bomb, the country halted work on weapons design in 2003 and probably has not restarted that effort — a judgment first made public in a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate.
2 US soldiers killed in Philippines blast
MANILA, Philippines – Two U.S. Navy construction troops and a Philippines marine were killed Tuesday in a roadside blast in the southern Philippines that officials said was likely an attack by suspected al-Qaida-linked militants.
It was believed to be just the second time U.S. soldiers have been killed in the southern Philippines in violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf group since American counterterrorism troops were deployed to the region in 2002, and the first fatalities in seven years.
One Philippine marine also was killed and two others were wounded in the blast on Jolo island, a poor, predominantly Muslim region where the Americans have been providing combat training and weapons to Filipino troops battling the Abu Sayyaf. ....
It was believed to be just the second time U.S. soldiers have been killed in the southern Philippines in violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf group since American counterterrorism troops were deployed to the region in 2002, and the first fatalities in seven years.
One Philippine marine also was killed and two others were wounded in the blast on Jolo island, a poor, predominantly Muslim region where the Americans have been providing combat training and weapons to Filipino troops battling the Abu Sayyaf. ....
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/09/28/milk-and-cookies-for-war-criminals-the-obama-recipe-for-diplomatic-success/
by Erick Erickson
There is one country on earth led by a war criminal — Sudan. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama condemned the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. In Washington, on a near daily basis, there is a vigil outside the Embassy of Sudan to call attention to the genocide.
But never mind the past and the rhetoric. Barack Obama has a new strategy in the Sudan — give the Sudanese genocidal dictator milk and cookies.
Seriously.
The Washington Post reports, “U.S. diplomacy has remained mostly in the hands of one man, Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who is pushing for normalizing relations with the only country in the world led by a president indicted for war crimes.”
Gration’s money quote: “We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration, who was appointed in March. “Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.”
With diplomatic skills and rhetoric like this, we can only expect that the genocide in Sudan will spread.
I must ask again: how many Americans are going to die because of the foreign policy and national security incompetence of the Obama administration?
There is one country on earth led by a war criminal — Sudan. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama condemned the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. In Washington, on a near daily basis, there is a vigil outside the Embassy of Sudan to call attention to the genocide.
But never mind the past and the rhetoric. Barack Obama has a new strategy in the Sudan — give the Sudanese genocidal dictator milk and cookies.
Seriously.
The Washington Post reports, “U.S. diplomacy has remained mostly in the hands of one man, Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who is pushing for normalizing relations with the only country in the world led by a president indicted for war crimes.”
Gration’s money quote: “We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration, who was appointed in March. “Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.”
With diplomatic skills and rhetoric like this, we can only expect that the genocide in Sudan will spread.
I must ask again: how many Americans are going to die because of the foreign policy and national security incompetence of the Obama administration?
What’s Hiding in the Health-Care Bill?
By Mark Hemingway
Congressional Democrats are proposing a sweeping overhaul of the American health-care system, which represents about 17 percent of the U.S. economy. You might think they would feel a responsibility to explain the precise implications of this legislation to the American people before it comes to a vote.
But after one week of hearings in the Senate Finance Committee — presided over by the legislation’s principal author, committee chair Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) — it’s become obvious that Senate Democrats want to pass this bill in a hurry, and that hiding the contents from the American people is an instrumental part of their attempt to do so.
The lack of transparency is stunning. Let us count the ways. ....
Congressional Democrats are proposing a sweeping overhaul of the American health-care system, which represents about 17 percent of the U.S. economy. You might think they would feel a responsibility to explain the precise implications of this legislation to the American people before it comes to a vote.
But after one week of hearings in the Senate Finance Committee — presided over by the legislation’s principal author, committee chair Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) — it’s become obvious that Senate Democrats want to pass this bill in a hurry, and that hiding the contents from the American people is an instrumental part of their attempt to do so.
The lack of transparency is stunning. Let us count the ways. ....
VIDEO -- U.S. May Hit Iran in the Pocket
Video from FoxNews
Sanctions MUST absolutely be enforced to be effective. Go for Iran's banking system to bring their economy to a hold within two weeks .... do we really have an alternative?
Sanctions MUST absolutely be enforced to be effective. Go for Iran's banking system to bring their economy to a hold within two weeks .... do we really have an alternative?
Gov't Forces Elders to Medicare Now sees Medicare as a "piggy bank"
Medicare is looking like a big fat piggy bank for health care overhaul.
President Barack Obama and the Democrats want to pay for much of their plan to cover the uninsured by cutting hundreds of billions from the Medicare budget over the next 10 years.
From its inception, the health plan for seniors has been kept afloat by taxes out of workers' paychecks. Now, Medicare savings would count toward helping uninsured working-age children and grandchildren afford their own coverage. ....
ons and answers on how the health care overhaul would affect Medicare beneficiaries: ....
Oklahoma City bomb tapes appear edited
OKLAHOMA CITY – Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.
The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.
"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said. ....
...
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.
The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.
...
Training scholars or breeding terrorists? Egypt suspects European students studying Arabic linked to terrorism
from ABC News
Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo. Women wearing concealing black garments and veils over their faces scurried around the small dusty streets between their apartments and the neighborhood shops. They were not from here and they barely spoke any Arabic. Asking around revealed that every one of them came from Europe and most of them have North African roots.
In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders. Ashraf, a 26-year-old Dutchman of Moroccan descent, came to Cairo a year ago. "To learn Arabic," he says, "the language of my religion." He had just visited the mosque, where many kindred spirits go to pray five times a day. A not-so-secret agent of the security service stood outside the mosque. The house of prayer is under surveillance. "We aren't hurting anyone," says Ashraf, whose apartment was recently searched. "We only come to study and pray."
Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo. Women wearing concealing black garments and veils over their faces scurried around the small dusty streets between their apartments and the neighborhood shops. They were not from here and they barely spoke any Arabic. Asking around revealed that every one of them came from Europe and most of them have North African roots.
Muslim students study the Koran in the Fatimid 10th century Mosque of al-Azhar, one of the oldest universities and which is considered the foremost center of theology in the Islamic world, in this file photo in Cairo, Egypt.
(David Silverman/Getty Images)In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders. Ashraf, a 26-year-old Dutchman of Moroccan descent, came to Cairo a year ago. "To learn Arabic," he says, "the language of my religion." He had just visited the mosque, where many kindred spirits go to pray five times a day. A not-so-secret agent of the security service stood outside the mosque. The house of prayer is under surveillance. "We aren't hurting anyone," says Ashraf, whose apartment was recently searched. "We only come to study and pray."
Slippery tactics: Obama declares war on oil Calls to end 'fossil-fuel' subsidies, impose new tax
from Jerome Corsi
President Obama declared war on oil and natural gas at the United Nations global warming summit, and he made the same pitch to the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
"I will work with my colleagues at the G20 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies so that we can better address our climate challenge," he told the U.N.
In the draft final communiqué, the G20 nations agreed to phase out government subsidies to such fuels in the "medium term," without specifying target dates, according to a report published by Bloomberg.
The G20 draft document also asked the finance ministers to keep working on the "climate finance" issue as part of the preparation for the global climate summit scheduled for Copenhagen in December.
The Environmental Law Institute estimated that in the U.S., the biggest fuel subsidies are tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels that added up to $72 billion over the seven year period studied, 2002 to 2008.
"Should Obama succeed, the end result will be tantamount to imposing a new tax on oil and natural gas production, with the outcome being that U.S. energy consumers will see energy price increases," Corsi warned.
"The Obama administration's budget request would strip essential capital from new American natural gas and oil investment by radically raising taxes on American production," Buddy Kleemeier, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the chief executive of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Company, told the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 10.
Corsi wrote, "Obama's actions are based on what Red Alert believes amounts to nothing more than 'junk science,' arguing that manmade carbon-dioxide emissions from the burning of oil and natural gas cause global warming."
He continued, "Unilaterally ending U.S. fossil fuel tax subsidies would have a seriously negative impact on the U.S. economy."
"Simply put, why the Obama administration would shut down 20 percent of our nation's oil production and 12 percent of its natural gas is unfathomable," wrote Barry Russell, president and chief executive of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
"Why it would seek to take away 25 to 40 percent of the capital that finds and produces American natural gas – half of which comes from wells developed in the last four years – is undecipherable," Russell continued. "Why it would choose to hand the nation's energy future to foreign leaders like Hugo Chavez, whose hatred for our country is as clear as the glistening spittle he spews in his anti-American speeches, is clearly a tragic miscalculation."
Yet International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol claimed an agreement by the G20 to eliminate subsidies on such fuels to fight climate change would be good news and should not take long to implement.
"This will improve energy efficiency and therefore energy security, lifting the burden on government budgets and reducing carbon dioxide emissions," Birol told the press.
"Yet, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies as part of a global-warming ideological agenda seems a particularly strange way to stimulate the economy out of a recession," he wrote. "Eliminating tax provisions that encourage U.S. investment in oil and gas technology, exploration and production will certainly increase U.S. dependence on foreign oil, with the resultant negative impact on our already negative balance of international trade." ....
President Obama declared war on oil and natural gas at the United Nations global warming summit, and he made the same pitch to the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
"I will work with my colleagues at the G20 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies so that we can better address our climate challenge," he told the U.N.
In the draft final communiqué, the G20 nations agreed to phase out government subsidies to such fuels in the "medium term," without specifying target dates, according to a report published by Bloomberg.
The Environmental Law Institute estimated that in the U.S., the biggest fuel subsidies are tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels that added up to $72 billion over the seven year period studied, 2002 to 2008.
"Should Obama succeed, the end result will be tantamount to imposing a new tax on oil and natural gas production, with the outcome being that U.S. energy consumers will see energy price increases," Corsi warned.
"The Obama administration's budget request would strip essential capital from new American natural gas and oil investment by radically raising taxes on American production," Buddy Kleemeier, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the chief executive of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Company, told the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 10.
Corsi wrote, "Obama's actions are based on what Red Alert believes amounts to nothing more than 'junk science,' arguing that manmade carbon-dioxide emissions from the burning of oil and natural gas cause global warming."
He continued, "Unilaterally ending U.S. fossil fuel tax subsidies would have a seriously negative impact on the U.S. economy."
Approximately 85 percent of the energy that drives the U.S. economy still comes from oil and natural gas.
"Simply put, why the Obama administration would shut down 20 percent of our nation's oil production and 12 percent of its natural gas is unfathomable," wrote Barry Russell, president and chief executive of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
"Why it would seek to take away 25 to 40 percent of the capital that finds and produces American natural gas – half of which comes from wells developed in the last four years – is undecipherable," Russell continued. "Why it would choose to hand the nation's energy future to foreign leaders like Hugo Chavez, whose hatred for our country is as clear as the glistening spittle he spews in his anti-American speeches, is clearly a tragic miscalculation."
Yet International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol claimed an agreement by the G20 to eliminate subsidies on such fuels to fight climate change would be good news and should not take long to implement.
"This will improve energy efficiency and therefore energy security, lifting the burden on government budgets and reducing carbon dioxide emissions," Birol told the press.
Corsi said he believes Obama may be desperate for tax revenue to cover the projected trillion-dollar federal budget deficits the administration is planning to incur in the foreseeable future.
"Yet, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies as part of a global-warming ideological agenda seems a particularly strange way to stimulate the economy out of a recession," he wrote. "Eliminating tax provisions that encourage U.S. investment in oil and gas technology, exploration and production will certainly increase U.S. dependence on foreign oil, with the resultant negative impact on our already negative balance of international trade." ....
'WHY ISRAEL CAN'T WAIT' -- Excerpt: 'Iran threatens our survival' Jewish state reluctantly preparing military strike – with or without U.S.
from Jerome R. Corsi's
"For us, a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat," Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon told the author in a private audio-recorded interview in his Jerusalem office on June 14, 2009. "We have to be ready to defend ourselves."
What I was next told by Yaalon was confirmed to me by virtually all Israeli officials in the Netanyahu government that I interviewed: Iran's nuclear weapons program is an existential threat to the survival of Israel, to the extent that Israel is reluctantly prepared to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran, with or without the approval of the United States, as early as the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, if the United States and the world community fail to stop Iran. ....
"For us, a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat," Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon told the author in a private audio-recorded interview in his Jerusalem office on June 14, 2009. "We have to be ready to defend ourselves."
What I was next told by Yaalon was confirmed to me by virtually all Israeli officials in the Netanyahu government that I interviewed: Iran's nuclear weapons program is an existential threat to the survival of Israel, to the extent that Israel is reluctantly prepared to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran, with or without the approval of the United States, as early as the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, if the United States and the world community fail to stop Iran. ....
5 more nuke plants spotted in Iran Intel agents describe guarded operations buried in mountains
(Analyst's note: Absolutely must read report.)
from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin
LONDON – Deep-cover MI6 agents who have described the workings of the once-secret underground uranium enrichment plant near the Iranian city of Qom now have discovered a staggering five more similar operations, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
They, like the Qom facility, are buried deep inside the mountains of north Iran and are guarded by divisions of Revolutionary Guards. ....
The MI6 agents have established that, like Qom, the new plants are staffed by nuclear scientists from Iran's main weaponization program. It is known by the acronym Metfaz, and is headquartered at 180 Western Avenue in the Pars district of eastern Tehran.
The highly unusual indication of the source material is seen as a deliberate attempt by Western intelligence to rattle the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a further vital part of his nuclear plan has been discovered. ....
from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin
LONDON – Deep-cover MI6 agents who have described the workings of the once-secret underground uranium enrichment plant near the Iranian city of Qom now have discovered a staggering five more similar operations, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
They, like the Qom facility, are buried deep inside the mountains of north Iran and are guarded by divisions of Revolutionary Guards. ....
The MI6 agents have established that, like Qom, the new plants are staffed by nuclear scientists from Iran's main weaponization program. It is known by the acronym Metfaz, and is headquartered at 180 Western Avenue in the Pars district of eastern Tehran.
Details of the MI6 discovery were hand-delivered to Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, over the weekend by Sir John Scarlett. They contained a detailed picture of what was being built at the five new plants.
A senior intelligence source said the data came from "an Iranian nuclear scientist's smuggled laptop, defectors and satellite imagery."
The highly unusual indication of the source material is seen as a deliberate attempt by Western intelligence to rattle the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a further vital part of his nuclear plan has been discovered. ....
Congressman: Obama has something to hide It's not citizenship, but 'there's some other issue there'
By Bob Unruh
A congressman who once considered a lawsuit over Barack Obama's eligibility to be president says he's convinced the president doesn't have a problem with that issue. But there is something else Obama desperately wants to keep concealed, according to Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., ,,,,
 Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. |
A congressman who once considered a lawsuit over Barack Obama's eligibility to be president says he's convinced the president doesn't have a problem with that issue. But there is something else Obama desperately wants to keep concealed, according to Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., ,,,,
NYC police covering up assault by Iran official? Member of Ahmadinejad's entourage at U.N. allegedly attacked protester
....
A WND request for comment from the U.S. Secret Service generated a "no comment." The New York City Police Department did not reply to requests for comment.
But a reporter with Washington International Network, an English-Farsi language news service, was on the scene and immediately captured video images, interviewing people in both languages:
The reporter, Rod Baharloo, identified the woman as Persian.
A WND request for comment from the U.S. Secret Service generated a "no comment." The New York City Police Department did not reply to requests for comment.
But a reporter with Washington International Network, an English-Farsi language news service, was on the scene and immediately captured video images, interviewing people in both languages:
The reporter, Rod Baharloo, identified the woman as Persian.
U.S. Northeast May Have Coldest Winter in a Decade (Update2)
By Todd Zeranski and Erik Schatzker
The U.S. Northeast may have the coldest winter in a decade because of a weak El Nino, a warming current in the Pacific Ocean, according to Matt Rogers, a forecaster at Commodity Weather Group.
“Weak El Ninos are notorious for cold and snowy weather on the Eastern seaboard,” Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Washington. “About 70 percent to 75 percent of the time a weak El Nino will deliver the goods in terms of above-normal heating demand and cold weather. It’s pretty good odds.” ....
The U.S. Northeast may have the coldest winter in a decade because of a weak El Nino, a warming current in the Pacific Ocean, according to Matt Rogers, a forecaster at Commodity Weather Group.
“Weak El Ninos are notorious for cold and snowy weather on the Eastern seaboard,” Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Washington. “About 70 percent to 75 percent of the time a weak El Nino will deliver the goods in terms of above-normal heating demand and cold weather. It’s pretty good odds.” ....
Federal Agents Identify Terror Accomplices
MYFOXNY.COM/AP - Investigators believe they know possible accomplices of Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, who is accused of plotting a terrorist attack against New York City, according to an Associated Press report, which cites a law enforcement source.
A federal indictment mentions at least three people helping Zazi buy peroxide and acetone in suburban Denver from beauty supply stores. According to security experts, those chemicals can be used to make explosives. ....
A federal indictment mentions at least three people helping Zazi buy peroxide and acetone in suburban Denver from beauty supply stores. According to security experts, those chemicals can be used to make explosives. ....
The DHS QHSR is nearly finished – Participate in the National Dialogue
Your participation in the two previous dialogues has helped inform the goals, objectives, and outcomes DHS has developed for the four mission areas, and DHS now wants your feedback on the final proposals.
In this final phase of the dialogue you can:
In this final phase of the dialogue you can:
- Read and review the final goals, objectives and outcomes developed by DHS for each of the four mission areas.
- Submit your feedback on the final products of each mission area.
- Rate, comment and tag other’s responses to ensure the best ideas “rise to the top”.
U.S. Attorney Charges 12 In NY With Colombian Terrorism Link
from National Terror Alert
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Michael J. Folmar, the Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Miami Division of the FBI, announced today the unsealing of two indictments charging a total of 12 members and associates of the 57th Front of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a Colombian terrorist group, with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and taking a U.S. citizen hostage. ....
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s International Narcotics Trafficking Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Rebecca M. Ricigliano and Jeffrey A. Brown are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the indictments are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Michael J. Folmar, the Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Miami Division of the FBI, announced today the unsealing of two indictments charging a total of 12 members and associates of the 57th Front of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a Colombian terrorist group, with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and taking a U.S. citizen hostage. ....
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s International Narcotics Trafficking Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Rebecca M. Ricigliano and Jeffrey A. Brown are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the indictments are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Watchdog Finds Shortcomings With FBI's WMD-Tracking Unit
from FoxNews
The FBI unit tasked with tracking threats from weapons of mass destruction suffers from several operational problems, the Justice Department's top watchdog said in a report Monday, one week after federal authorities charged three people with WMD-related offenses.
Inspector General Glenn Fine, in an audit, reported that many inside the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinator Program were not able to identify "the top specific WMD threats and vulnerabilities that faced their particular field division."
The audit said the FBI also had not established adequate training programs to educate its analysts on the subject or established "specific qualifications" that the WMD coordinators should have. ....
The FBI unit tasked with tracking threats from weapons of mass destruction suffers from several operational problems, the Justice Department's top watchdog said in a report Monday, one week after federal authorities charged three people with WMD-related offenses.
Inspector General Glenn Fine, in an audit, reported that many inside the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinator Program were not able to identify "the top specific WMD threats and vulnerabilities that faced their particular field division."
The audit said the FBI also had not established adequate training programs to educate its analysts on the subject or established "specific qualifications" that the WMD coordinators should have. ....
Joint Chiefs chairman seeks brain-injury limit
By Gregg Zoroya
WASHINGTON — U.S. servicemembers who suffer up to three mild traumatic brain injuries or concussions during a deployment — typically from roadside bombs — could be pulled out of combat for the duration of their tour, according to a policy being pushed by Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Mullen has spoken out more in the last year about the risks of mild TBI caused by roadside bombs, often invoking a story of a young soldier who endured 30 blasts and is now suffering significant brain damage. ....
Warning: The Jihadists are Mushrooming Inside America
It is unprecedented in American counterterrorism annals: in one day, the nation was dealing with three separate jihadist plots to blow up civilian and other targets inside the homeland. Although the cases were addressed at different time periods by the FBI and other agencies, nevertheless, the thickening web of terror attempts breached the crossing line of U.S. national security.
This past week, authorities revealed three conspiracies by American jihadists: Michael C. Finton, a 29-year-old man who wished to follow the steps of American-born Taliban John Walker Lindh, was arrested after trying to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian national, was arrested after placing what he believed was a bomb at a downtown Dallas skyscraper. But perhaps the most troubling case is of Afghan-born Najibullah Zazi, who set up shop in suburban Denver, scouting the Web and visiting beauty supply stores in a hunt for chemicals needed to build bombs for al Qaeda. Sources called the alleged plot one of the most significant terror threats to the U.S. since 9/11. Add to the list the North Carolina Jihad cell, led by Daniel Patrick “Saifullah” Boyd, which was planning on attacking civilian and military targets across the country.
The immediate question being raised by an increasingly worried public regarding all of these terror cases is: are they all connected? While law enforcement and certainly judicial authorities proceed in a bottom up reasoning – that is, to build the case for a global connection between all what is happening with the help of legal evidence – analysts in the field of counterterrorism and conflict are already realizing the meaning of what is happening inside America.
In my book Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America (2005-2006), I clearly projected that jihadists, individuals and cells will be mushrooming and expanding inside the United States within few years from that writing and that they would do precisely what they are trying to do now. I also projected how large a group they will become with time. It was a simple deduction: if the government doesn’t counter this ideological growth, jihadists will keep coming. And in fact, they are coming, spreading crossing the barriers of ethnicities, races, nationalities and geographical frontiers. The jihadists are committed to harming the U.S., and are now based inside our borders by the hundreds. When I suggested this fact on CNN in 2006, and reiterated it on Oprah Winfrey’s show so that the public would realize what is to come, I raised a few eyebrows. Now, unfortunately, we are discovering the cells of jihadism in our cities and little towns and sadly, the expectation is that we will see more. We may not be able to stop them all from reaching their goals.
The North Carolina cell, the New York subway plot, the Dallas attempt, the Illinois case, and the previous cases of the shooting of a soldier in Arkansas, the New York cells, Georgia’s young jihadists (all the way back to the infamous Virginia paintball network). If anything gives us the genome of what is morphing inside the country – a vast body of dispersed cells with at least one binding force – the jihadi ideology. We must find out who is propagating the doctrines of jihadism: who is funding it; who is protecting the indoctrination operation which leads naturally to the rise of homegrown or foreign linked jihad, lone wolves or packs of jihadist terrorists. That is the real question: where is the factory?
What should the U.S. government do? It must first face the threat and lead the nation against it. This is not a matter of just local police or law enforcement efforts. President Obama and Congressional leaders from both parties must give this spreading plague a top priority. For if one of these groups is successful, our national economy will crumble again, or at least will be wounded even more severely – not to mention the human consequences of terror. Americans are watching these terror plots being revealed with great concern. They expect their elected officials to address these fears before the worst happens.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr Walid Phares is the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad. He is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy. He also serves as a Co-Secretary General of the Trans Atlantic Legislative Group on Counterterrorism.
(Analyst's note: Absolutely must read.)
Iran given "one last chance" to come clean on nuclear program -- really?
from Jihad Watch
How many chances has Iran had? How many deadlines has it ignored in the past? There's nothing to suggest this time will be different, and deadlines seem to be in plentiful supply -- certainly more so than backbones. "Iran given one last chance to talk on nuclear programme," by Richard Spencer and Alex Spillius for the Telegraph, September 29:
How many chances has Iran had? How many deadlines has it ignored in the past? There's nothing to suggest this time will be different, and deadlines seem to be in plentiful supply -- certainly more so than backbones. "Iran given one last chance to talk on nuclear programme," by Richard Spencer and Alex Spillius for the Telegraph, September 29:
Report: Foreign Donations Are Single Largest Source of Taliban's Funding
from FoxNews
Afghanistan's Taliban-led insurgency is so heavily funded by foreign donations that U.S. and Afghan officials say it may be impossible to obstruct the group's money supply, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The Obama administration said the group's single largest source of funding comes from foreign donations -- not drugs like opium -- according to the newspaper.The CIA reportedly estimates that the Taliban received $106 billion in foreign money last year alone -- making it difficult for intelligence officials to track the terrorist group's money flow.
United Nations' Taliban and Al Qaeda Monitoring Team Coordinator Richard Barrett, told the Washington Post that Taliban supporters have grown much more skillful at masking their donations. ....
Data-Mining Project Could Strengthen Fight Against Terror
(Analyst's note: Could this be one of the ways the FBI caught the latest jihadis that were in the news last week? Hmmmm)
from National Terror Alert
Last week I received an email from someone asking why the FBI and DHS aren’t using data-mining more extensively to look for activities that might preclude an act of terrorism. They apparently are, and while I understand the privacy concerns, given last weeks events it’s probably a good thing. It sounds cliche, but if you’re not doing anything wrong, you probably don’t have much to worry about.
From Wired.com
A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store, declassified documents obtained by Wired.com show.
Headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, just outside Washington, the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) maintains a hodgepodge of data sets packed with more than 1.5 billion government and private-sector records about citizens and foreigners, the documents show, bringing the government closer than ever to implementing the “Total Information Awareness” system first dreamed up by the Pentagon in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.
But the proposal has long been criticized by privacy groups as ineffective and invasive. Critics say the new documents show that the government is proceeding with the plan in private, and without sufficient oversight.
Source
from National Terror Alert
Last week I received an email from someone asking why the FBI and DHS aren’t using data-mining more extensively to look for activities that might preclude an act of terrorism. They apparently are, and while I understand the privacy concerns, given last weeks events it’s probably a good thing. It sounds cliche, but if you’re not doing anything wrong, you probably don’t have much to worry about.
From Wired.com
A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store, declassified documents obtained by Wired.com show.
Headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, just outside Washington, the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) maintains a hodgepodge of data sets packed with more than 1.5 billion government and private-sector records about citizens and foreigners, the documents show, bringing the government closer than ever to implementing the “Total Information Awareness” system first dreamed up by the Pentagon in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Such a system, if successful, would correlate data from scores of different sources to automatically identify terrorists and other threats before they could strike. The FBI is seeking to quadruple the known staff of the program.
But the proposal has long been criticized by privacy groups as ineffective and invasive. Critics say the new documents show that the government is proceeding with the plan in private, and without sufficient oversight.
Source
NewsReal Sunday: Michael Moore uses Democracy and Finds Jesus – for socialism propaganda.
Michael Moore’s new film, “Capitalism: A Love Story” is garnering a lot of media attention and plenty of media praise. In his interviews he reveals his strategy to destroy capitalism and insert socialism. He uses techniques right out of the pages of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. He takes the resentment of the corruption and failures related to Wall Street this past year as a platform to push for radical change.
As Alinsky wrote, the organizer
“must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act.”
Moore takes this public anger at Wall Street corruption and jumps the shark to say that the culprit of this evil greed is capitalism itself. For Moore capitalism = greed. Here is one exchange he had on primetime television with Jay Leno:
LENO: Well, it’s interesting in the film. You say capitalism is evil. I think greed is evil, but I think capitalism is OK as long as you, I mean, moderation in all things. I mean, uh, explain.Michael Moore, like Alinsky taught, believes that the end goal is “the radicalization of the middle class”. To get to that goal the organizer must learn “to talk the language of those with whom one is trying to converse.” Use whatever language works and make sure it centers around morality. Moore has chosen two ways of doing that. Instead of calling for socialism by name, he calls for democracy. And to convince people of the morality of it, Moore manipulates the teachings of Jesus in a way that makes Jesus sound like a socialist (without using that word of course). So Moore’s plan of attack is to turn socialism into simply democracy and the values of Jesus.
MOORE: Yeah, well, capitalism, capitalism is actually legalized greed.
Instead of Christianity being the enemy of the left — Alinsky understood that would turn people off as we see with Bill Maher’s work — Moore decides to pervert Christianity as a tool for socialistic propaganda. It’s been tried many times before, but not so often with film.
Here is Moore on Larry King on Wednesday giving his not-so new economic theology:
In this clip notice how he calls capitalism a system that is both “anti-democracy” and also something Jesus would not approve of. Moore says we aren’t a democracy, because we can vote. We are only a democracy and a Judeo-Christian nation if “we come up with a new economic order that is fair”. Of course, all this is a coded and homogenized way of slipping in socialism.
Here is Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
Notice on left-wing Olbermann he drops almost all pretense that he cares so much about democracy or Christianity (because the regular middle-class that he wishes to radicalize doesn’t watch Olbermann). It’s all anti-Reagan, anti-Bush, anti-Republican, and anti-conservative courts. He even says at the end of the interview that the goal is to see the “people revolting”!
Back on Leno, Moore was talking about democracy and morality:
MOORE: No, not right. It’s wrong. Some things are just wrong. And this capitalist economic system that we have, it might have been right at one point, it’s not right now. And I don’t think we’re ever gonna put the genie back in the bottle. So we need to come up with something new to replace it. And I’m not talking about… This isn’t a debate between capitalism versus socialism.Leftist magazine The Nation (which has often been a proponent of communism) treats the interview on Leno as one of the greatest moments in television history. They claim if you missed that interview you “missed one of those rare moments when the vast wasteland gives way to an oasis of realism.”
LENO: Right.
MOORE: I’m actually suggesting go back to our roots of this country, democracy. What if we had an economy that you and I had a say in? Right now, we all don’t have much of a say in this economy. What if we applied our democratic principles and said, ‘We, the people, have a right to determine how this economy is run.’
Friday on The View, while talking to middle America once again, Michael Moore actually paraphrased the teachings of Jesus multiple times to help make his case for socialism by another name. He has relabeled an old (and false) economic system to look new. How did he come up with it? Does he have a degree in either economics or seminary? No, Moore was a college drop out with no experience with economics, and his only seminary experience was to join a Catholic Seminary after 8th grade. “He admired the Berrigan brothers [radical anti-Vietnam War Catholic priests Daniel Berrigan and Philip Berrigan] and thought that the priesthood was the way to effect social change,” wrote The New Yorker’s Larissa MacFarquhar in February 2004. “This resolve lasted only through his first year, though, after the Detroit Tigers made it to the World Series for the first time in Moore’s life and the seminary wouldn’t allow him to watch the games.”
Moore offers old wine in new wineskins. There is nothing new in his attack on capitalism and perversion of New Testament scripture to support socialism. It’s been done for decades. Leftists, communists, socialists, and radicals have attempted to use Jesus as a god of their own socialist image. The only thing new is that Moore is using film and popular television interview shows to push his drivel, and he is attaching it to a concept of “democracy” that sounds like good old fashioned socialism.
I would suggest anyone that starts to fall for Moore’s tactics read Poverty and Wealth: Why Socialism Doesn’t Work. In that book, philosophy and theology professor Ronald Nash breaks down all the false arguments of socialism being the economic system of Jesus and the New Testament. He writes,
“Unfortunately, many Christians act as though the only thing that counts is intention. But when good intentions are not wedded to sound theory, especially sound economic theory, good intentions can result in actions that produce consequences directly opposite to those we planned. This is precisely what has happened in the case of the social policies to help the poor adopted in the United States since 1965.”Nash reveals in his books that people attempting to use Christ for leftist economics have no understanding of basic economics and “use the Bible as a weapon against capitalism.” Some use it to push for a very liberal Democrat form of government, while others “use the Bible to show that God is a Marxist.” And the result has been that such policies meant to help the poor have actually kept them in poverty. Moore, for example, in his interviews uses the idea that our economy is a fixed pie. And the rich take 9 slices and only leave us one. He thinks that isn’t fair. He has a false understanding of free enterprise. In capitalism, that pie exists because of bold free marketeers. And the pie size is not fixed. In fact, the better the entrepreneurs do in creating wealth, the bigger the pie gets for everyone. Moore would rather the government steal the whole pie and then hand it out evenly until there is no more pie left.
Jesus did condemn making wealth your God. And many of the problems we saw in the economy this past year stem from that very problem. However, it is error to then make a jump that Jesus condemned all wealth. He never did. Jesus had great friends and followers who were wealthy (Luke 14:1). He stayed and ate with wealthy people (Luke 11:37). He even was buried in the tomb of a rich man.
Jesus also used parables that told his feelings on wealth. Many of them centered on the call for Christians to use their privately owned wealth as stewards for good things (Luke 12 and 16). He at no times suggests that we give our private wealth to the government, so that they can redistribute it. To make that conclusion from the New Testament is a misrepresentation at best, and in the case of Moore, plain old manipulation.
Moore, we know your strategy. We are calling you out. Instead of making movies trying to convince us all to be radicals like you, why don’t you just share that $50 million plus personal empire you have with the poor of our society. Set an example instead of shoving propaganda.
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