Judge Rules Some Terror Detainees Can Challenge Detention

from Fox News

A federal judge ruled Thursday that some prisoners in the war on terror can use U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention at a military air base in Afghanistan, for the first time extending rights given to Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere in the world.

U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected U.S. arguments that three foreign detainees at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan should be denied the right. He said non-Afghan detainees captured outside the country and moved to Bagram for a lengthy detention should have access to the courts to prevent the United States from being able to "move detainees physically beyond the reach of the Constitution and detain them indefinitely."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in court. But the government had argued that it did not apply to those in Afghanistan.

Bates said the cases were essentially the same. He quoted the Supreme Court ruling repeatedly in his judgment and applied what he said was a test created by it to each detainee. It is the first time a federal judge has applied the ruling to detainees in Afghanistan.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the department is reviewing the ruling. He pointed out that President Barack Obama has ordered a review of detention policy, and that an interagency task force is working to finish a report by July that outlines the legal options for handling terror suspects in the future. Obama has also ordered that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year.

But the Obama administration sided with the Bush White House when it argued on Feb. 20 that detainees at Bagram cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their detention.

The Justice Department has argued that Bagram is different from Guantanamo Bay because it is in an overseas war zone and the prisoners there are being held as part of a military action. The government argues that releasing enemy combatants into the Afghan war zone, or even diverting U.S. personnel there to consider their legal cases, could threaten security.

The government also said if the Bagram detainees got access to the courts, it would allow all foreigners captured by the United States in conflicts worldwide to do the same.

Bates, a U.S. Army veteran and former career Justice Department official, was among the first district judges nominated by President George W. Bush. His 53-page decision was partially redacted to remove classified material.

The ruling drew criticism from some Republicans in Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the decision "dangerous and naive" and said it put troops at risk by allowing a judge to micromanage a war thousands of miles away.

"Using this logic in World War II would not have allowed us to capture Nazi operatives anywhere but in Germany," Graham said.

New York Rep. John M. McHugh, the leading Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said Obama's decision to jettison Bush detainee policy "left a policy vacuum that is now being filled by the courts. This turns warfare into lawfare, and could place lives at risk."

Bates considered motions to deny the requests of four detainees asking to be released, but he reserved judgment on one detainee, Haji Wazir, because he is an Afghan citizen and releasing him could create "practical obstacles in the form of friction with the host country." He ordered Wazir and the government to file memos addressing those issues.

The other three detainees are from outside Afghanistan -- Fadi al Maqaleh of Yemen, Amin al Bakri of Yemen and Redha al-Najar of Tunisia -- and say they were captured outside the country.

Bates also suggested that access to U.S. courts may not be available to Bagram detainees who were captured in Afghanistan.

"It is one thing to detain those captured on the surrounding battlefield at a place like Bagram, which respondents correctly maintain is in a theater of war," Bates wrote. "It is quite another thing to apprehend people in foreign countries -- far from any Afghan battlefield -- and then bring them to a theater of war, where the Constitution arguably may not reach. Such rendition resurrects the same specter of limitless executive power the Supreme Court sought to guard against."

All four of the detainees in this case have been held at the airfield for six years or more without access to the courts, which Bates called "an unreasonable amount of time." Bates wrote that the determination to hold them as enemy combatants is part of a process "plainly less sophisticated and more error-prone" at Bagram than it is at Guantanamo.

The Bush administration said in court filings last year that the enemy combatant status of the Bagram detainees is reviewed every six months, taking into consideration classified intelligence and testimony from those involved in their capture and interrogation.

Bates noted that Bagram detainees are not allowed any representation when their enemy combatant status comes up for review and they have no access to evidence used to classify them as such so they can defend themselves. Bates said they face language and cultural barriers and cannot even speak on their own behalf but only can submit a written statement.

The Justice Department said last month that they will no longer use the term "enemy combatant" to refer to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. But they said that new position does not apply to prisoners elsewhere.

In a separate ruling Thursday from the same Washington courthouse, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon declined to release a prisoner, Hedi Hammamy of Tusisia, who has been held for seven years at Guantanamo Bay.

The United States says Hammamy fought against the United States at Tora Bora, was a member of an Italy-based terrorist cell that supported Islamic terrorist groups, attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and was involved in an organization in Pakistan with a classified identity.

Hammamy argued that all the government's allegations are false. But Leon said evidence, including reports that Hammamy's identification was found in an al-Qaida cave complex after the battle of Tora Bora, backed up the government's case that Hammamy supported terrorism.

New Video May Help FBI Solve Somali-American Terror Case

(Compiler's note: A must read)

Mike Levine and Catherine Herridge

A video posted on a jihadist Web site could help the FBI determine how a group of Somali-Americans was recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia.

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group known as al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006. At a Senate hearing on the issue last month, one top-ranking official said it's "clear" the Internet played a role in radizalizing and recruiting the young men.

VIDEO: Click here to watch Catherine Herridge's report.

The 30-minute video posted this week is a highly polished production, featuring anti-American hip-hop and sporadic images of Usama bin Laden. In much of the video, a man dubbed "The American" purportedly leads a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of Ethiopian forces, which oppose an Islamic state and have backed the new Somali government.

"The only reason we are staying here, away from our families, away from the cities, away from candy bars [and] all these other things is because we are waiting to meet with the enemy," he tells them in the video, first provided to FOX News by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "They're supposed to be coming anytime. We're going to set up the ambush, and by the will of [God] we're going to kill all of them.

FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said the FBI is "reviewing" the video.

MEMRI identified "The American" as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, and a law enforcement official said he is originally from the United States, but has been in Somalia "for some time." The official said al-Amriki is in his late 20s or early 30s. The official wouldn't offer any other identifying features, including whether he had converted to Islam.

MEMRI described the video as a "clear appeal to foreign youth, especially in English-speaking countries, to join the jihad in Somalia."

In the video, "The American" praises a man killed in the fight, saying, "We want to inform his family that he was one of the best brothers here. ... We need more like him, so if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad it would be a great asset for us."

Another man, with an accent and a wrap covering his face, says at the end of the video, "We're calling all the brothers overseas, all the Shabaab, wherever they are, to come and live the life of a [fighter], and they will ... love it."

The FBI investigation into how young American men were recruited to join al-Shabaab in Somalia is active in Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Boston; Seattle; and San Diego, according to testimony from counterterrorism officials and others at the Senate hearing last month.

But reports from around the world suggest young Muslims from other Western countries, namely Canada, Australia and England, are also being recruited to join the fight in Somalia.

U.S. officials declined to comment specifically on whether officials from those countries have been working with the FBI.

But at a State Department briefing today, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "Somalia would be one of those areas that we're concerned about with regard to Al Qaeda recruitment. This requires broad cooperation, the United States with other countries — not only in the Horn of Africa but outside of that region — to try to do what we can to prevent Al Qaeda from being successful in recruiting young people to their cause."

---

Click here to read previous reports:

• Grand Jury Convenes in FBI Terror Case Against Somali-Americans
• Source: Missing Somali-American Spotted at Minneapolis Shopping Mall
• Source: 'Several' Missing Somali-Americans Back in U.S. After Overseas Terror Mission
• Missing Somali-American Men Found...On Facebook
• Alleged Al Qaeda Sleeper Agent Ali al-Marri Won't Be Released on Bond

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott

You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.

-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.

-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States."

-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States."

There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

Video:Click here to watch more.

A Look at the Numbers

In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to have come from the U.S.

But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.

In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.

'These Don't Come From El Paso'

Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons considered "assault rifles" that are similar to those recovered in Mexico, but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.

"These kinds of guns -- the auto versions of these guns -- they are not coming from El Paso," he said. "They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don't get these guns from the U.S."

Some guns, he said, "are legitimately shipped to the government of Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns end up in Mexico that way -- the fully auto versions -- they are not smuggled in across the river."

Many of the fully automatic weapons that have been seized in Mexico cannot be found in the U.S., but they are not uncommon in the Third World.

The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two years -- but those grenades and the rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are unavailable in U.S. gun shops. The ones used in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey in October and a TV station in January were made in South Korea. Almost 70 similar grenades were seized in February in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.

"Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semi-automatic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Boatloads of Weapons

So why would the Mexican drug cartels, which last year grossed between $17 billion and $38 billion, bother buying single-shot rifles, and force thousands of unknown "straw" buyers in the U.S. through a government background check, when they can buy boatloads of fully automatic M-16s and assault rifles from China, Israel or South Africa?

Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government, says the drug cartels are using the Guatemalan border to move black market weapons. Some are left over from the Central American wars the United States helped fight; others, like the grenades and launchers, are South Korean, Israeli and Spanish. Some were legally supplied to the Mexican government; others were sold by corrupt military officers or officials.

The exaggeration of United States "responsibility" for the lawlessness in Mexico extends even beyond the "90-percent" falsehood -- and some Second Amendment activists believe it's designed to promote more restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.

In a remarkable claim, Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., said Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States -- 730,000 a year. That's a far cry from the official statistic from the Mexican attorney general's office, which says Mexico seized 29,000 weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.

Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, blames the media and anti-gun politicians in the U.S. for misrepresenting where Mexican weapons come from.

"Reporter after politician after news anchor just disregards the truth on this," Cox said. "The numbers are intentionally used to weaken the Second Amendment."

"The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America. You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It's estimated that over 100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?"

But Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, called the "90 percent" issue a red herring and said that it should not detract from the effort to stop gun trafficking into Mexico.

"Let's do what we can with what we know," he said. "We know that one hell of a lot of firearms come from the United States because our gun market is wide open."

ICE arrests 27 illegals then gives them permits

SEATTLE — The Department of Homeland Security freed 27 illegal immigrants arrested during a workplace raid in February and offered them legal work permits, signaling a major departure from the immigration enforcement policy of the Bush administration.

The Feb. 24 raid of an auto parts plant in Bellingham, Wash., netted 28 illegal immigrants. While one was deported, the remaining workers were released from custody and given employment authorization documents, or EADs, in exchange for cooperating with an ongoing investigation of their employer, Yamato Engine Specialists.

• Click here for video.

The EAD is a temporary work permit most commonly given to people applying for green cards or citizenship. It usually lasts for one year, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) sources tell FOX News that these work permits will expire when the case against Yamato is closed.

Immigrant rights activists support the move and the new direction Secretary Janet Napolitano is taking the Homeland Security Department with her focus on penalizing employers rather than the immigrants themselves.

"She is crafting and the people in her department are crafting a strategy that could target some people who are abusive and manipulative as employers," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of the Seattle-based immigrant aid group OneAmerica

But critics say the softened policy will increase the number of illegal immigrants entering the country.

"The signal that it sends to illegal immigrants is that if you can get here, you're pretty much home free," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The Bellingham raid was the first and only mass arrest of immigrants since President Obama took office and came as a shock to Napolitano, who ordered a review of the incident the day after.

"I didn't know about it beforehand," she told the House Homeland Security Committee the morning following the raid. "I want to get to the bottom of this as well."

The response from the Department of Homeland Security marks a major shift from the last years of the Bush administration, when workplace arrests of illegals were commonplace.

Criminal arrests of employers who hired illegal immigrants skyrocketed from 25 in 2002 to 1,103 in 2008. The number of deportations jumped from 485 to 5,184 over that same time period. The Obama administration has sought a freeze on immigrant arrests.

Enforcement advocates say Americans should be outraged by the government giving illegal immigrants a right to work when unemployment is so high for documented workers.

Unemployment in Whatcom County, home to the Yamato plant, has risen to 8.1 percent, and in the days after the Yamato raid, more than 150 people applied for the jobs made open by the arrests.

Immigrant groups say the release was a humane act that is keeping families together and allowing them to earn a decent living.

Secretary Napolitano is expected to soon formally announce new guidelines for workplace immigration enforcement.

An I.C.E source in Washington D.C. disputes the claim that this marks a new policy telling FOX News the work permits are issued as an investigative tool to get cooperation from the illegal immigrants.

US spy agencies hamstrung by turf battles: report

from AFP

US spy agencies are still hamstrung by the same turf battles and financial mismanagement that led to massive intelligence failures revealed by the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war, an internal report has found.

The report, made public on Wednesday, was the most detailed of its kind on challenges facing the 16 spy agencies.

It came four years after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) was created to remedy them.

"The culture of protecting 'turf' remains a problem, and there are few, if any, consequences for failure to collaborate," said the report, which was completed by the DNI's inspector general in November, before President Barack Obama was sworn in as the new US president.

It also criticized what it called poor financial management by the DNI, saying that most of the intelligence agencies are "struggling to achieve auditable financial statements."

The US intelligence budget has seen a dramatic increase in recent years, and topped 43.5 billion dollars in fiscal 2007, which ended in September.

The report outlined the many challenges facing Obama's director of national intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair.

The agencies have complained that the Director of National Intelligence "sends duplicative taskings and conflicting messages to the IC (intelligence community), thereby undermining the ODNI's credibility and fueling assertions that the ODNI is just an 'additional layer of bureaucracy,'" the report said.

"The lack of clear communication to the IC of the ODNI staff's authorities has encouraged some agencies to go their own way, to the detriment of the unified and integrated intelligence enterprise."

The report also found that the intelligence office had failed to present a vision for how the spy agencies should function.

Lawmakers reacted with dismay at the findings.

"We have been repeatedly disappointed by the lack of clarity in the role of the DNI," said California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who chaired a hearing Wednesday by a House Intelligence subcommittee.

"There's still not a clear mission from ODNI, and this is one of the things that's concerned a lot of us," said Republican Congresswoman Sue Myrick.

DNI inspector general Edward Maguire told the congressional panel that the spy director's role as the top intelligence adviser to the president had hampered his management responsibilities.

"He doesn't have to do it personally every day and ... he could do this in more of an oversight type of capacity," Maguire said.

"In a way the creation of the ODNI was a little bit like, sort of like a corporate merger," Maguire explained. "When you do that, many, many mergers fail."

Government in the Red? No Pay for Congress or the White House

by Jonathan D. Strong

.... I have a bold but simple idea to help prevent the government from growing beyond the consent of the governed. This is not a cure all, but one aspect which I believe would assist in stemming the tide toward statism. If the government runs a deficit the elected representatives receive no pay.

The representatives would include members of the House of Representatives, Senators

, the President, VP, and the cabinet. Only when the government runs a surplus from year to year using the same accounting principles as the private sector will these representatives be eligible for their salary. ....

Eligibility judge backs off sanctions threat

By Bob Unruh

James Robertson

A federal judge who threw out a lawsuit by a retired military officer challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to be president because the subject had been "blogged, texted, twittered and otherwise massaged" now has backed off threats to impose financial sanctions on the officer's attorney.

The attorney, John D. Hemenway, "is 82 years old and takes considerable and justified pride in his patriotic public service and his status as a Rhodes Scholar," the judge wrote, according to a report on the Family Security Matters website written by Hemenway's daughter-in-law, Margaret Calhoun Hemenway.

The judge, James Robertson, opined that John D. Hemenway is "unlikely to repeat the conduct that gave rise to this proceeding, and in his case the permissible alternative sanction of a reprimand will be sufficient," she reported.

WND reported earlier on the case's dismissal and then when Hemenway responded by ripping the judge for using blog hearsay in his decision.

Robertson rejected the case brought on behalf of Gregory S. Hollister, a retired military officer who is subject to being recalled to duty and, therefore, would need to know the legitimacy of any order coming from Obama.

In his statement, Robertson ridiculed the complaint, which never had a court hearing, ruling that the eligibility issue had been "blogged, texted, twittered and otherwise massaged."

Hollister is represented by Philadelphia lawyer Philip Berg, who has brought several motions on the eligibility dispute to the U.S. Supreme Court that have been ignored. Hemenway acted as local counsel in filing the action on behalf of Hollister.

Robertson wrote: "The plaintiff says that he is a retired Air Force colonel who continues to owe fealty to his Commander-in-Chief (because he might possibly be recalled to duty) and who is tortured by uncertainty as to whether he would have to obey orders from Barack Obama because it has not been proven – to the colonel's satisfaction – that Mr. Obama is a native-born American citizen, qualified under the Constitution to be president.

"The issue of the president's citizenship was raised, vetted, blogged, texted, twittered, and otherwise massaged by America's vigilant citizenry during Mr. Obama's two-year-campaign for the presidency, but this plaintiff wants it resolved by a court," Robertson wrote.

His dismissal ordered the attorney to respond immediately and explain why there should not be financial sanctions. Hemenway complied, correcting the judge on a series of statements.

"These are not frivolous matters, as the learned Judge Robertson has suggested. Possible illegal orders are a matter of great concern to officers in the armed forces. Undersigned counsel himself entered the Army of the United States during WWII and was promoted to Infantry Second Lieutenant preparing for the anticipated landings in Japan which were scheduled for November 1, 1945. But for President Truman’s use of nuclear weapons to end the war, this would have transpired. The legality of orders in and out of combat is of paramount importance," he wrote.

Where's the proof Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or that he fulfills the "natural-born American" clause in the Constitution? If you still want to see it, join more than 345,000 others and sign up now!

Hemenway continued with a "second point" Robertson raised.

That is, he said, that "the president of the United States had been properly vetted."

"This assumes facts not in evidence and was not addressed. It is clear that the constitutional qualifications of President Soetoro/Obama have not been properly vetted. Judge Robertson even cites an earlier case filed in Pennsylvania by one of the two lead attorneys in this case, in which the judge claimed candidates in the recent presidential election had never been more closely vetted. Nothing was further from the truth. Effectively, the Pennsylvania District Court judge was introducing his own hearsay and opinion into the case as if it were acceptable evidence," Hemenway wrote.

"It is sad to read this court's use of material from the Internet to imply that the issues in the numerous lawsuits filed have been resolved by the 'twittering and blogging' to determine that the litigants are invoking 'conspiracy theorists.' It suggests that the intellectual capacity of this court focused on the issues in the instant suit at a very low level, perhaps for political purposes, such as to win attention from the highest authority when a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States becomes vacant," Hemenway wrote.

In her report, his daughter-in-law said the judge, in his March 25 decision, still has trouble getting things right.

"Judge Robertson reconsidered his previous sanctions threat, possibly fearing monetary sanctions might spark a backlash and give a boost to the grassroots effort to force Mr. Obama to relinquish his records for public scrutiny," she wrote. "He errs in one key respect, alleging that Hemenway is 'unlikely to repeat the conduct that gave rise to this proceeding. …'

"Reprimand aside, Hemenway will continue to seek the truth about Obama's birthplace and citizenship, as will other patriotic citizens who believe no president and no future presidential candidate should be allowed to conceal documents that would prove that he or she is legally qualified to serve," she wrote.

"The judge errs in another respect, saying: 'Many people, perhaps as many as a couple of dozen, feel deeply about this issue, a strong indication that this judge feels he can dismiss the legal merits of the issue by pretending that there is no public interest at stake,'" she wrote.

"He must be unaware that an AOL poll, albeit admittedly unscientific, found that a majority of Americans believe Mr. Obama should release his records to determine his eligibility; that more than 345,000 U.S. citizens have signed an online petition demanding Obama's birth records be released; and that many more are blogging, calling, and writing congressional offices to ask their members of Congress to sign onto Congressman Bill Posey's bill," she wrote.

Posey's legislation would require future candidates for president to be vetted for eligibility, an admission that the last national election's screening process for candidates was substandard, she wrote.

"This is a judge who clearly is letting his skewed perception of public sentiment guide his judicial rulings. It would clearly have been judicially expedient, saving the taxpayers time and money, given the number of eligibility lawsuits filed across the country, simply to direct President Obama to produce an actual birth (or 'vault') certificate and not a COLB (Certification of Live Birth and one that lacks a doctor's signature or hospital name) that has been given to others not born on the island of Hawaii," she wrote.

John D. Hemenway also had suggested that if there were to be sanctions, court rules would allow him to require the release of Obama's birth information.

"If the court persists in pressing Rule 11 procedures against Hemenway, then Hemenway should be allowed all of the discovery pertinent to the procedures as court precedents have permitted in the past," he wrote to the judge.

"The court has referred to a number of facts outside of the record of this particular case and, therefore, the undersigned is particularly entitled to a hearing to get the truth of those matters into the record. This may require the court to authorize some discovery," Hemenway said.

WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

Some of the lawsuits question whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born. Further complicating the issue are the reports he was adopted by an Indonesia man during his childhood and moved to Indonesia and attended school there. There also are questions on what nation's passport he traveled to Pakistan.

Lawyers and plaintiffs in a multitude of lawsuits also have asked why, if a birth certificate actually reflects that Obama was born in Hawaii, has he spent sums estimated by observers of up to $1 million hiring various law firms to keep concealed his birth certificate, his college records and other documentation.

John Eidsmoe, an expert on the U.S. Constitution now working with the Foundation on Moral Law, told WND a demand for verification of Obama's eligibility appears to be legitimate.

Eidsmoe said it's clear that Obama has something in the documentation of his history, including his birth certificate, college records and other documents that "he does not want the public to know."

Although Obama officials have told WND all such allegations are "garbage," here is a partial listing and status update for some of the cases over Obama's eligibility:

• New Jersey attorney Mario Apuzzo has filed a case on behalf of Charles Kerchner and others alleging Congress didn't properly ascertain that Obama is qualified to hold the office of president.


• Pennsylvania Democrat Philip Berg has three cases pending, including Berg vs. Obama in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a separate Berg vs. Obama which is under seal at the U.S. District Court level and Hollister vs. Soetoro a/k/a Obama, (now dismissed) brought on behalf of a retired military member who could be facing recall to active duty by Obama.
  
  
• Leo Donofrio of New Jersey filed a lawsuit claiming Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court but denied a full hearing.


• Cort Wrotnowski filed suit against Connecticut's secretary of state, making a similar argument to Donofrio. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied a full hearing.


• Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California, in a case handled by the United States Justice Foundation, that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending, and lawyers are seeking the public's support.


• Chicago attorney Andy Martin sought legal action requiring Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to release Obama's vital statistics record. The case was dismissed by Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Bert Ayabe.
  
  
• Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Electoral College vote in North Carolina until Barack Obama's eligibility could be confirmed, alleging doubt about Obama's citizenship. His case was denied.
  
  
• In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.
  
  
• Also in Ohio, there was the Greenberg v. Brunner case which ended when the judge threatened to assess all case costs against the plaintiff.
  
  
• In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued the secretary of state seeking a determination on Obama's citizenship. The case was denied.
  
  
• In Georgia, Rev. Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama's birth certificate. His request for an injunction against Georgia's secretary of state was denied by Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter.


• California attorney Orly Taitz has brought a case, Lightfoot vs. Bowen, on behalf of Gail Lightfoot, the vice presidential candidate on the ballot with Ron Paul, four electors and two registered voters.

In addition, other cases cited on the RightSideofLife blog as raising questions about Obama's eligibility include:

• In Texas, Darrel Hunter vs. Obama later was dismissed.
  
  
• In Ohio, Gordon Stamper vs. U.S. later was dismissed.
  
  
• In Texas, Brockhausen vs. Andrade.
  
  
• In Washington, L. Charles Cohen vs. Obama.
  
  
• In Hawaii, Keyes vs. Lingle, dismissed.

N Korea warned over missile launch

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Mure Dickie in Tokyo and Christian Oliver in Seoul

The US and South Korea on Thursday warned North Korea not to proceed with a planned satellite launch, as Pyongyang threatened a “fiery bolt of retaliatory lightning” if Japan tried to shoot down the rocket.

North Korea says it will launch a satellite between April 4 and 8. The US, South Korea and Japan say the launch – even if the missile carries a satellite – would breach a United Nations resolution passed after North Korea tested a long-range Taepodong-2 without advance warning in 2006.

Barack Obama, US president, and Lee Myung-bak, South Korea’s president, agreed after their G20 meeting in London on the need for a “unified” international response if Pyongyang carried out the launch. South Korea said Mr Lee wanted a “stern response”.

While North Korea says the missile – which satellite imagery shows on the launch pad at Musudan-ri – will carry a communications satellite, the US and its Asian allies see the launch as a pretext to test the Taepodong-2. When North Korea first tested the intercontinental ballistic missile, which has the ability to reach the continental US, in 2006 it failed shortly after launch.

The US has sent navy ships to the region that could be used in any attempt to shoot down the missile. In an interview with the Financial Times, Robert Gates, US defence secretary, said he was “pretty confident that this is a space shot, a satellite shot” .

“If it is a space shot – and we will know that pretty early on after launch – then there would be no need [to shoot it down],” said Mr Gates. “Our concern is principally if it does go astray, or is some kind of a failure, that looks like it is potentially a danger to Japan or to Hawaii, that we would contemplate doing something.”

Tokyo has deployed anti-missile forces created after the 1998 Taepodong “shock” when Pyongyang fired an earlier version of its missile over Japan in what it claimed was an effort to put a satellite into orbit.

Officials say Japan can legally order its military to use its naval Standard Missile 3 or Patriot Pac-3s only in the highly unlikely event that the rocket, or parts of the it, clearly heads for Japanese territory.

Even in the latter case, attempting to destroy a missile fragment would be technically difficult and could even make it more dangerous by widening the area of possible damage – but having invested huge sums on US-led missile defence systems, it would be difficult for the government not to at least try to use it to counter a threat.

South Korea’s armed forces are permanently ready for an attack from the North and are also armed with Patriot missiles in case a ballistic weapon heads south.

However, the navy last week said US and Japanese warships would take primary responsibility for any ballistic threat to Japan.

James Shinn, a former senior Pentagon official for Asia who served as the top CIA intelligence officer for Asia when North Korea first tested the Taepodong-2, said North Korea was “trying to get attention”.

“With the financial crisis, and Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, nobody has much time for Pyongyang or their antics,” said Mr Shinn. “They would like to get the new Obama team to focus on the six-party talks again. Now that [US nuclear envoy] Chris Hill is gone from that account, Pyongyang may be feeling unloved.”

Mr Shinn said North Korea was also calculating that the US tends to become “flexible” in any nuclear talks after Pyongyang has conducted a missile or nuclear test.

David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said US political leaders should be careful not to jump to conclusions if the launch is successful.

”A successful satellite launch would show that North Korea has increased its missile capabilities,” said Mr Wright. “ But it would not necessarily demonstrate that North Korea could launch a nuclear warhead to intercontinental range. North Korea may not yet have the technical ability to modify the launcher to give it long-range capability.”

Despite the relatively minor risk posed by the launch to individual Japanese, it has been given widespread coverage and local media have reported that some fisherman are too worried to put to sea.

Authorities in some prefectures have put emergency services on alert and plan to issue early warnings of any threat, with state broadcaster NHK saying on Thursday that northern Akita would deployed riot police to deal with any problems caused by falling debris.

Some residents have complained that such orders and warning alerts leave unclear what they might practically do to protect themselves if the launch creates real danger.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday said ”We will call on all parties to stay calm...and contribute to peace and stability in the region.”

Additional reporting by Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Italian authorities carry out raids against "Islamist radicals" across country

from Jihad Watch

"The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta."

Eurabia Alert: "Misunderstanding" of Islam breaking out all over again. "Italy: Police carry out anti-terror raids across country," from AdnKronos International, April 2:

Rome, 2 April (AKI) - Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities.

The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta.

The anti-terrorism and organised crime investigators in March 2007 began probing alleged Islamic fundamentalists attending the Via Dei Mille mosque in Vicenza in the northern Veneto region.

The mosque was led by a Yemeni imam, who is also being investigated for terror links.

However, most of the 26 foreigners arrested are Algerian.

Three of them, who lived in Naples, are though to be Islamist radicals sympathetic to the radical 'Takfiri' ideology.

The three radicals had already been involved in falsifying documents to aid jihadist groups.

Takfiris believe contemporary Muslim society has reverted to a state of unbelief ('kufr') and thus considers legitimate both rebellions against the state and acts of violence against Muslim citizens.