Climate cooperation to help ties, Hu tells Obama

By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao has told his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama that closer cooperation on fighting climate change could help improve overall ties between the world's top two greenhouse gas polluters.

Hu also said he was optimistic about U.N.-led talks on a new global framework to tackle climate change, even though the latest round of negotiations ran into trouble.

"Developing cooperation between the two sides on climate change issues would not only benefit the international community in its efforts to tackle climate change, but also have great significance for promoting the development of China-U.S. ties," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying.

The leaders spoke by telephone on Wednesday morning Beijing time. Hu said "the two sides face common challenges in the field of climate change, and shared common interests".

Obama is due to make his first presidential visit to China next month, when he will also attend the APEC regional summit in Singapore and visit Japan and South Korea.

Officials have touted climate change as an area where both sides have much to gain from working together and much to lose if they cannot reach a deal to limit the production of gases that scientists say are warming the atmosphere.

Beijing and Washington also face contention over trade, military plans, and human rights -- all issues likely to be discussed when Hu sits down with Obama in Beijing.

OVERALL TALKS COULD HELP PRODUCE CLIMATE AGREEMENT

But potential give-and-take across these issues may also help create room for some agreement on climate change, said Wang Ke, an expert on global warming at Beijing's Renmin University.

"China may be able to make more concessions over climate change if it feels it's gaining more in other areas of the relationship, such as trade," Wang told Reuters.

"Balancing across a whole range of issues may be easier than trying for a one-dimensional agreement on climate change."

China and the United States together account for about 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but China's average emissions per person are much lower.

In 2008, fast-growing China's emissions of carbon dioxide reached 6.8 billion tonnes, an increase of 178 percent over 1990 levels, according to the IWR, a German energy institute. U.S. emissions rose 17 percent to 6.4 billion tonnes.

Chinese scientists say higher global temperatures will cause more flooding in the south, droughts in the north and smaller harvests.

But despite growing concern among politicians and the public of many countries, U.N. climate talks on expanding the fight against global warming have largely stalled, making the outcome of a climate summit in Copenhagen in December uncertain.

Talks in Bangkok narrowed the options in a draft text of a likely agreement but failed to break the deadlock on key areas.

With less than 50 days to the Copenhagen meeting, negotiators face serious obstacles to getting the United States and large developing nations to sign up to a deal that would lead to big reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Hu said China remained optimistic about the summit.

Quoted by Xinhua, he said that if all sides worked towards "implementing the basic principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, we can lock in gains already achieved in the negotiation of the Bali Roadmap".

He was referring to an action plan agreed at U.N. climate talks in Dec 2007 that launched two years of negotiations to try to finalise a broader framework to expand or replace the Kyoto Protocol. That process is meant to conclude in Copenhagen.

The report also quoted Obama as saying that the United States wanted to work with all sides to push for success in Copenhagen. (Additional reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Damaging Disclosures in Van Jones Scandal

(Analyst's note: Van Jones the presidential adviser that just keeps giving.  Troubling.)

October 22, 2009

by Cliff Kincaid

When Van Jones resigned his White House job, under fire for his pro-communist views, White House adviser David Axelrod said that Jones had himself made the decision to leave the administration. But new documents indicate that Jones didn’t even write his own resignation letter. It is now abundantly clear that he was pushed out because the scandal threatened to implicate Obama friend and White House adviser Valerie Jarrett in the scandal that gave him a critical White House position without proper vetting. 

Jones, a self-identified communist, was an anti-police activist in Oakland, California, before an extreme makeover landed him at the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. as a “senior fellow.” This is the entity that has provided a number of top officials for the Obama Administration and even sponsored public appearances by cop-killer apologist Marc Lamont Hill, the fired Fox News analyst who appeared regularly on The O’Reilly Factor.

....  The mounting controversy over his role in the administration and the attention being given to his communist background was something that greatly concerned Obama’s top advisers.

The focus, as noted by New Zealand blogger Trevor Loudon, who broke the story of Jones’ communist connections, was going to the question of “who hired him and why an easily identifiable communist revolutionary with a police record could serve as a presidential adviser.”

As this attention was building, AIM released a column, “Van Jones Scandal Threatens the Obama Presidency,” on the late afternoon of September 5th, in which we pointed out that “…if Jones’ background can sink Jones, the President himself is in trouble. Obama has decades of friendly associations with communists and terrorists, ranging from Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis in his youth in Hawaii to communist terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in Chicago when he was doing community organizing and running for political office. By comparison to Obama, when it comes to nefarious connections, Jones is a piker.” ....

 

Video: Cheney hits Obama on war

Obama Nominee to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Argued 'Gay Sex Is Morally Good’

(CNSNews.com) – Chai R. Feldblum, nominated by President Barack Obama to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), has argued that homosexual sex is “morally good” and that government should foster all types of domestic partnerships, including “non-sexual” ones. ....

Epilogue for a lost U.S. Marine found deep in China

(Analyst's note:  Our respects to Staff Sergeant Billy Lynch, USMC.  Semper Fidelis.)

By Kevin Cullen

... He left Neponset for the Marines in 1937, right out of high school, and never came back. He was stationed in China when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and then went to the Philippines and was there when the Japanese invaded. After the battle of Corregidor in 1942, the Japanese took him prisoner.

They beat him but couldn’t break him. As soon as he could run, Billy Lynch ran from the prison camp. The Japanese caught him and beat him again, worse, and then they put him on a “hell ship’’ to China, with no ventilation, no toilet, no water, no food. It was a death march at sea.

A lot of POWs died on the hell ships, but Billy Lynch wouldn’t give his captors the satisfaction. They stuck him in a prison camp called Mukden and he escaped again. Some of the local Chinese hid him, but a 6-foot white guy from Dorchester stood out in Manchuria, and the Japanese recaptured him.

They beat him again, and there would be no third escape for Billy Lynch. He was sent to another camp, Port Arthur, now known by its Chinese name, Lushun. Billy Lynch’s captors tortured him, peeling the skin from his body before killing him, cutting him up, and stuffing his remains in a barrel that was sealed.


.... Professor Yang found three elderly Chinese men who were slave laborers at Port Arthur and knew about the murder, dismemberment, and burial of Staff Sergeant Billy Lynch.

.... If, as they believe, their dig next spring yields Billy Lynch’s bones, he will come home, finally, first to St. Ann’s Church, where he made his First Communion, then on to Arlington National Cemetery.

“He deserves to be home,’’ Judy Armour said of the uncle she never met and never forgot. “That’s why he kept escaping. He kept trying, no matter what they did to him. He wanted to come home.’’

China Expands Cyberspying in U.S., Report Says

(Analyst's note:  Troubling.)

By SIOBHAN GORMAN

WASHINGTON -- The Chinese government is ratcheting up its cyberspying operations against the U.S., a congressional advisory panel found, citing an example of a carefully orchestrated campaign against one U.S. company that appears to have been sponsored by Beijing.

The unnamed company was just one of several successfully penetrated by a campaign of cyberespionage, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report to be released Thursday. Chinese espionage operations are "straining the U.S. capacity to respond," the report concludes. ....


Attacks like that cited in the report hew closely to a blueprint frequently used by Chinese cyberspies, who in total steal $40 billion to $50 billion in intellectual property from U.S. organizations each year, according to U.S. intelligence agency estimates provided by a person familiar with them.


"Modern-day espionage doesn't involve cloak and dagger anymore," said Tom Kellermann, a vice president at Core Security Technologies, a cybersecurity company. "It's all electronic."


China is among more than 100 countries that have the capability to conduct cyberspying operations. ....


The PLA has also been creating a number of cyberwarfare militia units, which draw on civilians in the telecommunications and technology sectors, as well as academia, the report found.

Cyberwarfare Needs Damage Assessment Tools

Although today’s rudimentary non-kinetic weaponry can incapacitate a surface-to-air missile, radar, or even a tank, cyberwarriors still lack the tools necessary to determine right away if an attack has been effective. ....

Arizona: Muslim ran down daughter for being "too Westernized," Islamic apologist hauls out usual denial and deception

by Robert Spencer

Denial and deception instead of any honest effort to come to grips with the root causes of honor killing. "Arizona Police Hunt for Dad Accused of Running Over Daughter: Police Say Faleh Hassan Almaleki Believed His Daughter Was 'Too Westernized,'" by Sarah Netter for ABC News, October 22 (thanks to James):  sharia

Police in Arizona are hunting for an Iraqi-American father who they say ran over his daughter with his car to punish her for becoming "too Westernized" and rebuffing the conservative ways he valued.

Memo to ABC News: "conservatives" don't generally run over their daughters with their cars for any reason at all.

Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, was last seen fleeing the parking lot of the Department of Economic Development in Peoria, Ariz., Tuesday after hitting his 20-year-old daughter and her boyfriend's mother with his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Noor Faleh Almaleki is in "life-threatening condition," Peoria Police spokesman Mike Tellef told ABCNews.com today. Her boyfriend's mother, 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, is also still hospitalized, but with non-life threatening injuries. "It occured because her not following traditional family values. We've been told that by everybody," Tellef said. "He felt she was becoming too westernized and he didn't like that." [...]

Not "traditional family values." Western non-Muslims who adhere to "traditional family values" do not generally run down their wayward daughters with their cars.

Noor Almaleki had backed out of an arranged marriage about a year ago, police learned, and had been living with Khalaf and her son in a nearby town. Tellef said the young woman dressed in American clothing and was wearing typical Western attire when she was struck.

The family were all American citizens, though Tallef believes the parents were born in Iraq.

He said it was unclear if Faleh Almaleki intended to kill his daughter, but "it was definitely intentional that he ran them down." [...]

While Tellef had heard of so-called "honor killings" in other parts of the United States, this was the first such crime in Peoria.

Ibrahim Ramey, human and civil rights director for the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, told ABCNews.com that whenever this type of crime involves a Muslim it can serve to elevate the fears of people who may already harbor misconceptions about Islam.

Typical denial and deception.

In the first place, what is the Muslim American Society?
"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004.

And what is the Muslim Brotherhood?

The Muslim Brotherhood "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

And secondly, instead of worrying about people getting "misconceptions of Islam," he should be working in the Islamic community to root out the assumptions that lead to honor killing. But you'll notice that he says nothing about that.

"It's reprehensible," he said of honor killings. "It's wrong." Ramey pointed out that a verse in the Koran specifically states that there is no compulsion in religion, meaning that people can not be compelled or coerced into being Muslim or adhering to a certain set of rules.
"People have to obey or adhere to Islam ... according to the dictates of their own conscience," he said.

Yet despite the fact that Koran 2:256 -- "There is no compulsion in religion" -- is in the Koran, honor killing is broadly tolerated in the Islamic world. No one, of course, dares to confront the root of the problem by pointing out such inconvenient truths as the fact that a manual of Islamic law certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).

In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. In accord with this, in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

Then this ABC story drags in Rifqa Bary:

Honor Killings Unfairly Cast Negative Light on Islam

The notion of an honor killing -- Muslim men murdering female relatives for dishonoring the family by violating Islamic tenets -- made the news over the summer when 17-year-old Rifqa Bary ran away from her parents in Ohio and turned up in the Florida home of Christian pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz. Rafqa Barry [sic] claimed that her Muslim father had threatened to kill her for converting to Christianity.

Rifqa made tearful television appearance, crying on the Lorenzes shoulders, describing how she had to sneak around to attend church.

"They have to kill me because I'm a Christian. It's an honor [killing]. If they love me more than God, then they have to kill me," she told ABC's Orlando affiliate WFTV last month.

Blake Lorenz pointed to other honor killings, including the January 2008 murders of two Texas sisters who were believed to have been murdered by their Muslim father in a religion-fueld [sic] rage.

But Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary, denied the accusation and said that while he preferred his daughter be a Muslim, she was free to practice whatever religion she chose.

"I don't believe my daughter would say this," Bary told "Good Morning America." "She's completely being coached -- I mean trained, influenced by these people. It's so sad."

An assertion without evidence, contradicted by the fact that she was a Christian for several years before she met those who allegedly coached her.

A Florida judge this month said he planned to send Rifqa back to Ohio after determining there was no evidence that her life was in danger.

See here for the facts.

Ramey said it's expected that incidents such as these will cause some backlash against the Muslim community, especially among Americans who have become fearful of Islam in the years since the war on terror and conflicts in places like Somalia.

But they can also open a door for discussion and questions so the community can understand that Islam is not a violent religion.

"It's certainly not part of the religion," he said," to run people down with vehicles."

That is merely a statement about the manner of killing, not about the killing itself.

Al-Shabaab's Tentacles Extend West: a Geospatial View - by John Solomon, Head of Terrorism Research, World-Check

This month's Expert Talk visually reveals the terrorist supply chain which comprises two primary components: money and recruits.

Understanding the geographic dimension of these components is crucial for security, intelligence and compliance professionals with counter-terrorism responsibilities.

Abducted and tortured terrorism suspect claims compensation

from World-Check

A Muslim cleric and his wife are seeking damages of US$10 million and US$7.5 million respectively after the cleric was abducted in Milan, Italy in 2003, and then reportedly detained and tortured in Egypt. This case marks the biggest challenge to extra-judicial transfers known as renditions practiced by the former US administration as a counter-terrorism strategy. Twenty-six Americans are being tried in absentia in Milan and four Italians have been charged for their involvement in the case.

US Government says foreign donations fund the Taliban

from World-Check

US Government says foreign donations fund the Taliban 

Recent reports point to foreign funding as the largest revenue source for the Taliban. Once thought to rely mostly on opium trade for funds, the Taliban has now built an array of revenue sources that include criminal rackets, donations, taxes, shakedowns, among other schemes, which makes it difficult to block the money supply according to US and Afghan officials. The CIA estimates that the Taliban received $106 million in 2008 from supporters outside Afghanistan. Richard Barrett, the UN coordinator of the Taliban and Al-Qaida Monitoring Team says that Taliban sympathizers are much more skillful today at masking their donations and ensuring that the money cannot be traced back to them.

Terrorism financier pleads guilty

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari (UID 571572) has pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism financing and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Alishtari has been accused of facilitating the transfer of US$152,000 with the understanding that the money would be used to fund training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also pleaded guilty to stealing money through the operation of a fraudulent loan investment programme. ....

Report: Secret Service strained to protect Obama

An internal congressional report questioning the ability of the Secret Service to continue fulfilling its duties was leaked to the Boston Globe. The report says the Secret Service is strained by a drastic increase in threats to President Obama, coupled with deep budget cuts. Some are speculating that the agency may need to relinquish all or part of its roles in protecting the country's financial machinery in order to focus resources on the protection of the president and other high-profile leaders.

The report, issued in August by the Congressional Research Service, claimed that if "an evaluation of the service's two missions" were to be done at this time, there's a good possibility that "it might be determined that it is ineffective...to conduct its protection mission and investigate financial crimes." Additionally, an anonymously quoted government official said that many inside the halls of Congress and within the Secret Service itself are questioning whether or not the agency's effectiveness wouldn't be enhanced by transferring some of its responsibilities regarding the investigation of financial crimes over to the Treasury Department ....

Afghan success depends on understanding the enemy

Knowing your enemy, as ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu said, is essential to winning any battle. Yet as President Obama decides on an Afghanistan strategy, and on whether to send more U.S. troops, there's a lack of clarity about the nature of the opposition. ...

The Patriot Act: Does it actually work?

Today's topic: Where can you point to the Patriot Act's success in stopping terrorists? Wednesday through Friday, Jena Baker McNeill and Julian Sanchez discuss the Patriot Act, portions of which Congress is considering reauthorizing. ....

Net neutrality is "fairness doctrine for the Internet"

By Kim Hart  

Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) spoke against net neutrality regulations today at an event put on by the Safe Internet Alliance. Representing the songwriters, singers, actors, producers and other entertainers in Memphis and Nashville, she said the creative community does not want the federal government to interfere with how they are able to get content to consumers via the Internet.

"Net neutrality, as I see it, is the fairness doctrine for the Internet," she said. 

The creators "fully understand what the fairness doctrine would be when it applies to TV or radio. What they do not want is the federal government policing how they deploy their content over the Internet and they want the ISPs to manage their networks and deploy the content however they have agreed on with ISP. They do not want a czar of the Internet to determine when they can deploy their creativity over the Internet. "They do not want a czar to determine what speeds will be available....We are watching the FCC very closely as it relates to that issue."

When it comes to broadband expansion, she said, she wants to make sure "all individuals' rights are respected and that we look at the freedom of all broadband participants." She said Congress needs to make sure the groups receiving stimulus funds for broadband expansion are able to deploy reasonable and effective network management tools so they can be helpful in tracking down illegal activity."

"We shouldn't look at technology as how do we punish and impede, but how do we encourage innovation," she said.  "That needs to be a key thought as we move forward... How do we encourage that innovation and not impede it?"

Danger: U.s. Food supply vulnerable to terrorism

(Analyst's note: Troubling.)

BY Jim Kouri

 

Imported food makes up a substantial and growing portion of the U.S. food supply and, considering the health and safety concerns of keeping American's safe, Washington insiders seem oblivious to that part of protecting American citizens. 

To ensure imported food safety, federal agencies must focus their resources on high risk foods and coordinate efforts, according to a report released last week by the Government Accountability Office.

The report, submitted to the US Congress and obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, assesses how the Department of Homeland Security's  Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service are addressing challenges in overseeing the safety of imported food. 

It also assesses how the FDA utilizes resources by working with other entities, such as state and foreign governments, and attempts to determine how the FDA is using its Predictive Risk-Based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting system to oversee imported food safety.

US agriculture generates more than $1.5 trillion per year in economic activity and provides an abundant food supply for Americans and others. There are continuing concerns about the vulnerability of US agriculture to the deliberate introduction of animal and plant diseases by those wishing to harm American citizens.

"The big problem is money be spent to monitor food products being imported into the United States. So far, the budget for food safety is minimal when compared to other government programs. For example, politicians push for vaccinating millions of Americans against what they characterize as a deadly flu epidemic, yet they do not seem concerned over a very real threat to all Americans -- contaminated food," said political strategist Mike Baker.

Federal agencies also have been conducting vulnerability assessments of the agriculture infrastructure; have created networks of laboratories capable of diagnosing animal, plant, and human diseases; have begun efforts to develop a national veterinary stockpile that intends to include vaccines against foreign animal diseases; and have created new federal emergency coordinator positions to help states develop emergency response plans for the agriculture sector. However, the United States still faces complex challenges that limit the nation’s ability to respond effectively to an attack against livestock.

CBP, FDA, and FSIS claim they have taken steps to address challenges in ensuring the safety of the increasing volume of imported food. For example, CBP maintains that the system importers use to provide information to FDA on food shipments; FDA electronically reviews food imports and inspects some foreign food production facilities to prevent contaminated food from reaching U.S. shores; and FSIS employs an equivalency system that requires countries to demonstrate that their food safety systems provide the same level of protection as the U.S. system.

However, gaps in enforcement and collaboration undermine these efforts. First, CBP's computer system does not currently notify FDA or FSIS when imported food shipments arrive at U.S. ports, although efforts are underway to provide this information to FDA for air and truck shipments.

"This is a problem we see with law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies and other government entities," claims former police detective and Marine intelligence officer Sidney Frances.

"Whenever we see multiple government agencies involved in one single function, there will almost certainly be some kind of Snafu," he added.

This lack of communication may potentially increase the risk that unsafe food could enter U.S. commerce without FDA review, particularly at truck ports. Second, FDA has limited authority to ensure importers' compliance with its regulations. Third, CBP and FDA do not identify importers with a unique number; as a result, FDA cannot always target food shipments originating from high risk importers.

Finally, CBP faces challenges in managing in-bond shipments--those that move within the United States without formally entering U.S. commerce--and such shipments possibly could be diverted into commerce. FDA generally collaborates with select states and foreign governments on imported food safety. FDA has entered into a contract, several cooperative agreements, and informal partnerships for imported food with certain states, and some state officials told GAO that they would like to collaborate further with FDA on food imports.

However, citing legal restrictions, FDA does not fully share certain information, such as product distribution lists, with states during a recall. This impedes states' efforts to quickly remove contaminated products from grocery stores and warehouses. FSIS has begun to make available to the public a list of retail establishments that have likely received food products that are subject to a serious recall. FDA is also expanding efforts to coordinate with other countries.

In particular, through its Beyond Our Borders initiative, FDA is pushing the US government to station investigators and technical experts in China, Europe, and India, to provide technical assistance and gather information about food manufacturing practices to improve risk-based screening at U.S. ports.

According to FDA, inspectors will analyze food shipments using criteria that include a product's inherent food safety risk and the importer's violative history, among other things, to estimate each shipment's risk. A 2007 pilot test indicated that the system improved FDA's ability to identify products it considers to be high risk while allowing a greater percentage of products it considers low risk to enter U.S. commerce without a manual review.

State launches boycott of 'unconstitutional' federal laws Urges 49 others to join in combating government's 'abuse of authority'

Tennessee is urging 49 other states to come together and create a "joint working group between the states" to combat unconstitutional federal legislation and assert state rights.....

Muslim leader: Sue the public, sue the press CAIR chief revealed strategy for winning notorious 'flying imams' case

(Analyst's note:  Troubling.)


By David Kupelian

Declaring the "flying imams" case – settled out-of-court yesterday in favor of the imams – to be as important to Muslims as the iconic Rosa Parks case was to blacks during the 1950s, the head of a controversial Islamic nonprofit organization in the nation's capital revealed the strategy his organization embraced in pursuing the imam's legal case: Sue everyone in sight, including passengers who, frightened by what they considered bizarre behavior, alerted authorities that a terror attack might be imminent.

When terrified passengers reported suspicious behavior on the part of seemingly unruly Muslims onboard the a US Airways Minneapolis-to-Phoenix flight, what they did "was uncalled for, it is pure discrimination, and pure prejudice on the part of those who reported the case, pure prejudice, and discriminatory attitude on the part of those who decided to inform the authorities to come and arrest them," insisted Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The comments were made at the Adams Center in Herndon Virginia, at an April 2007 meeting at which Awad and CAIR'S legal director were speaking about the six imams case. (Listen to audio of some of Awad's comments below, courtesy of CSP-TV.)

The notorious case resulted when six Muslim clerics were booted off the Nov. 20, 2006, flight after engaging in behavior that alarmed passengers and crew members alike prior to takeoff. The imams reportedly prayed loudly in Arabic in the departure lounge, then once on board refused to sit in their assigned seats, instead fanning out in the cabin in pairs to occupy the front, middle and rear exit rows, ordered seat-belt extenders that weren't needed, criticized President Bush and the Iraq war, talked about al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden and so on.

After being asked to deplane, missing their flight, being detained and questioned by law enforcement

authorities for several hours and denied service on a later US Airways flight, the imams struck back.


In a high-profile lawsuit strategized and promoted by CAIR, as well as argued by a CAIR board-member attorney, Omar T. Mahammedi, the "flying imams" sued not only US Airways and the Minneapolis airport authority, but even the fearful passengers, or "John Does," who had simply reported the suspicious activity.

After a congressional bill – drawn up specifically in response to CAIR's and the imams' insistence on suing regular citizens reporting suspicious activity – was passed, the passengers were dropped from the case. But Awad wasn't too happy about that, condemning the bill's sponsor, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.:

Nihad Awad

"Now the allegation is that we are targeting innocent civilians," Awad said. "What we are trying to do is target those that knowingly made false allegations because of their anti-Muslim sentiments. …

"Today you have people like Peter King, a Republican congressman, in the Congress, who after we filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Imams, issued a bill, protecting John Does, regular passengers, from being sued, if they, falsely even, falsely claim that a Muslim is suspect and has to be removed from a plane because they are praying … And he has some supporters in the Congress, to muddy the waters of this lawsuit …"

Although details of yesterday's settlement are confidential, attorneys for both sides acknowledged that payment will be made to the imams. ....

Pethokoukis: America’s Banana Republic Economy

by Dan Perrin 

James Pethokoukis (Reuters) cites two examples of why America is well down the road of a banana republic economy. Our record debt levels and deficits, combined the fiscal fantasy land the White House and Congress work and live in are writ large in both examples.

First, the White House announces a $250 payment to every senior for inflation that didn’t exist. “In effect, a COLA was paid on inflation that no longer existed,” notes Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute.

Second, the White House in its desperate attempts to get its health reform passed, has tasked the all-too-willing Majority Leader Reid to walk the plank by convincing him to push a $247 billion portion of health reform as an off-budget item, in a separate bill, to be on the Senate floor this week before moving to the merged ObamaCare bill. Even the Washington Post editorial board said “Mr. Reid proposes not to pay for any of it, not even $11 billion, but simply to write a $247 billion IOU.”

Pethokoukis correctly notes the considerable spin associated with JPMorgan Chase economist Jim Glassman’s attempt to convince the world that the falling dollar should rightly be interpreted as a sign of “new economic optimism” because dollar flight means the world economy is getting better and the world is pulling its money out of a safe investment. Really?

Pethokoukis writes the dollar flight is likely exactly the opposite — the world is pulling its money out of a highly unsafe investment — examples one and two above show a White House and Congress which cannot help spending more and more, and piling up more and more debt — all the while insisting with passion and a strained voice that they really do care about the deficit and America’s debt and are for a strong dollar.

But the world is not fooled. America keeps spending and spending. When Speaker Pelosi announces that her ObamaCare bill is only $900 billion it feeds the perception that America’s Congress and White House are continuing to live off the Chinese and Japanese credit card — especially when the White House and the U.S. Senate Majority Leader tell the world that they will not increase the deficit under ObamaCare, but then want to spend $247 billion on health reform off-budget, so it does not count towards the deficit.

The credibility of the U.S. dollar is tied to the credibility of the fiscal discipline of the White House and the U.S. Congress. The world does not think either are credible is evidenced by the decline in the U.S. dollar. And as Pethokoukis says:

Two examples [the $247 billion off budget health spending and the $250 per senior check] — one ridiculously expensive, one just ridiculous. But both reveal a nation completely unwilling to deal with current trillion-dollar deficits or long-term shortfalls many multiples of that number.

What confidence should dollar investors have that America will really cut entitlement spending? Very little. Instead, we are more likely to see huge tax increases that could cripple productivity, or further dollar neglect, or a central bank that turns dovish on inflation. Or perhaps all three.

If Washington doesn’t care to support the dollar, why should investors?

And on the front page of the Drudge Report you will find this little item, titled “We are ‘worried’ about weak dollar: Eurogroup chief” — after all, if you are Senator Reid, you can spend a quarter of a trillion dollars without counting it in the budget. Neat trick, huh?

Senator Gregg warned a few days ago that the U.S. could be headed towards a “banana republic situation” and Pethokoukis is simply pointing out two examples — the most expensive of which is happening now right now — of why we are well down that road.

Remember the TARP Money? Yeah, It’s Gone.

by Leon H. Wolf

Via USA Today, TARP IG Neil Barofsky has some harsh words for the way the TARP funds have been handled:

A Treasury Department watchdog is warning that a key $700 billion bailout program has damaged the government’s credibility, won’t earn taxpayers all their money back and has done little to change a culture of recklessness on Wall Street.

“The American people’s belief that the funds went into a black hole, or that there was a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to Wall Street, is one of the worst outcomes of this program, and that is the reputational damage to the government,” said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), in an interview.

***

“We don’t even know where the money went,” says Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., who recently called for TARP assistance to end in December, when it’s set to expire. The Treasury has the authority to extend the program until next October.

The report criticized Treasury’s implementation of the program and its lack of transparency, making 41 recommendations, 18 of which were implemented. Barofsky says it’s “extremely unlikely” that taxpayers will recover the $77 billion committed to the ailing auto industry or the $60 billion in TARP assistance to American International Group as part of a pledge of up to $180 billion in aid. An additional $50 billion to modify unaffordable home mortgages “will yield no direct return.”

I counted myself among the supporters of TARP as it was described and sold to the public; i.e., as a program whereby the government would purchase troubled assets that were causing liquidity problems that threatened economic stability. Neither I nor anyone else I have ever met supported the way TARP has been implemented; as a massive slush fund boondoggle for corporations favored by the White House. And now, mere months after throwing all this money around, the oversight body for the program is frankly admitting that we’re never going to see most of this money ever again (but in exchange, we did buy government control over Corvette production!). What a crock.

Democrats in Congress have a chance to end Geithner’s reckless control over billions of dollars of taxpayer money, but they must act fast. My guess is that they’ll be too busy trying to give the Obama administration control over trillions more taxpayer dollars through his healthcare plan to even try.

SIBEL EDMONDS' DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED

(Analyst's note:  Here you get full insight into the article posted here on Ms. Edmonds.  Absolutely worth your time to hear and see her speak -- from early August 2009.)

By Brad Friedman

... FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was finally allowed to speak about much of what the Bush Administration spent years trying to keep her from discussing publicly on the record. Twice gagged by the Bush Dept. of Justice's invocation of the so-called "State Secrets Privilege," Edmonds has been attempting to tell her story, about the crimes she became aware of while working for the FBI, for years.

Thanks to a subpoena issued by the campaign of Ohio's 2nd District Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate David Krikorian, her remarkable allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, and criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of the government of Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the first time, in her under-oath deposition. Both the complete video tape and transcript of the deposition follow below.

Though there was much concern, prior to her testimony, that the Obama Dept. of Justice might re-invoke the "State Secrets Privilege" to keep her from speaking, they did not do so. Nor did they choose to be present at the Washington D.C. deposition.

The BRAD BLOG covered details of some of Edmonds' startling disclosures made during the deposition, as it happened, in our live blog coverage from August 8th. The deposition included criminal allegations against specifically named members of Congress. Among those named by Edmonds as part of a broad criminal conspiracy: Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Dan Burton (R-IN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Livingston (R-LA), Stephen Solarz (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA), as well as an unnamed, still-serving Congresswoman (D) said to have been secretly videotaped, for blackmail purposes, during a lesbian affair.

High-ranking officials from the Bush Administration named in her testimony, as part of the criminal conspiracy on behalf of agents of the Government of Turkey, include Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman, and others.

During the deposition --- which we are still going through ourselves --- Edmonds discusses covert "activities" by Turkish entities "that would involve trying to obtain very sensitive, classified, highly classified U.S. intelligence information, weapons technology information, classified Congressional records...recruiting key U.S. individuals with access to highly sensitive information, blackmailing, bribery."

Speaking about current members of Congress during a break in the testimony, Krikorian told The BRAD BLOG that "for people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don't take action against it, in my opinion, it's negligence." (More video statements from Krikorian, Edmonds and attorneys from all parties, taped before, during, and after the 8/8/09 testimony, are available here.)

Edmonds' on-the-record disclosures also include bombshell details concerning outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's front company, Brewster Jennings. Edmonds alleges the front company had actually been shut down in August of 2001 --- three years prior to Bob Novak's public disclosure of the covert operative's identity --- following a tip-off to a wire-tap target about the true nature of the CIA front company. The cover was blown, Edmonds alleges, by Marc Grossman, who was, at the time, the third highest-ranking official in the U.S. State Department. Prior to that, Grossman served as ambassador to Turkey. He now works "for a Turkish company called Ihals Holding," according to Edmonds' testimony.

An unclassified FBI Inspector General's report, released on her case in 2005, declared Edmonds' classified allegations to be "credible," "serious," and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI." In 2002, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), then the senior members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, co-wrote letters on Edmonds' behalf to Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and DoJ Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, calling on all of them to take action in respect to her allegations. And in a 2002 60 Minutes report on Edmonds' case, Grassley noted: "Absolutely, she's credible...And the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."

The 8/8/09 deposition was brought by Krikorian as part of his defense in a case filed against him before the Ohio Election Commission (OEC) by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH). The 2nd district Congresswoman has accused Krikorian, an Armenian-American who ran against her as an independent in 2008, of "false statements" during the campaign last year alleging that she had accepted "blood money" from Turkish interests. Krikorian says that Schmidt, co-chair of the Congressional Turkish Committee, accepted more money from Turkish interests during last year's campaign than any other member of Congress, despite few, if any, ethnic Turks among her local constituency. He has suggested she may have been instrumental in helping to hold off a Congressional vote on a long-proposed, much-disputed resolution declaring the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI as a "genocide" by the Turks.

Edmonds herself happens to be a Turkish-American, though she was recently attacked by the Turkish Lobby, following her long-sought, long-blocked testimony.

The complete transcript of Sibel Edmonds' under-oath testimony, may now be downloaded here [PDF]. The complete video-taped testimony follows, in five parts, below...







PART 1 (appx. 51 mins) - Direct
PART 2 (appx. 35 mins) - Direct continues PART 3 (appx. 17 mins) - Direct continues PART 4 (appx. 43 mins) - Cross PART 5 (appx. 54 mins) - Redirect & Recross

* * *

Recently related at The BRAD BLOG...

• 8/5/09: Sibel Edmonds Subpoenaed, To 'Break' Gag Order
• 8/8/09: EDMONDS UNDER OATH: BLACKMAIL, BRIBERY, ESPIONAGE BOMBSHELLS
• 8/9/09: VIDEO: Whistles Blow - Scenes From Outside Deposition
• 8/12/09: House Candidate on Edmonds Depo, Google Blocks 'Denial' Ads
• 8/14/09: Turkish Lobby 'Declares War' on Sibel Edmonds Following Under Oath Deposition
• 8/14/09: Several Charges Dropped in OH Election Case After Tetsimony