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Conducting radiation screens of small aircraft entering the
In testimony to the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff also worried that terrorists are recruiting new members with European Union passports that might receive less scrutiny at
Nile Gardiner, Ph.D.: Good morning. Welcome to the Heritage Foundation and the fifth Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture.
The Margaret Thatcher Lecture series began in September 2006, with a major speech by former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky on the subject, "Is Freedom for Everyone?" It was followed by lectures on economic freedom and religious freedom by Hernando de Soto and Michael Novak, and by Ambassador John Bolton's lecture "Does the United Nations Advance the Cause of Freedom?"
Our distinguished speaker today is Victor Davis Hanson, who will address the theme, "In Defense of Liberty: The Relationship Between Security and Freedom." ...
July 12, 2008
Israeli warplanes have been flying over Iraq and landing at US bases there in preparation for an attack on Iran, Israeli media reported yesterday.
Israeli defense ministry sources said that, for a month, the fighter jets have been practicing at night in Iraqi airspace.
Retired Iraqi army officers in the Anbar region reported that the jets were seen flying from Jordan and landing at an airport near Haditha.
Last month, US sources disclosed that more than 100 Israeli jets and other aircraft took part in practice runs to the eastern Mediterranean Sea that demonstrated Israel's ability to strike a target that far away, the same distance from Israel as Iran.
William Russell, a former Army lieutenant colonel who relocated to Murtha's district to run against him, raised nearly $670,000 in the fundraising quarter that ended June 30.
Murtha, a Democrat, raised more than $119,000. But overall for the campaign, Murtha has raised more than $1.6 million while Russell has raised more than $918,000.
Russell's campaign has more than $242,000 in debt. He has nearly $270,000 in cash, while Murtha has more than $644,000 in cash and about $3,700 in debt.
Russell left the Army two years short of retirement and moved from the Washington region to Johnstown, Pa., to challenge Murtha. But he had some early problems in his race.
In February, a state judge ruled he did not collect enough signatures to make the ballot. Russell blamed bad weather and other factors. He later received enough write-in votes in the April primary to get his name on the ballot for the November election.
Murtha, first elected in 1974, is a frequent target of Republicans because of his opposition to the Iraq war and the millions of federal dollars he's brought to his district.
Officials from the Government Accounting office are showing renewed concern about the potential for radioactive waste to get into the hands of terrorists, who might theoretically explode a device containing the requisite material and create a new 9/11 panic.
They are right to be concerned, especially considering how long the dithering has gone on to safeguard the huge stockpiles of this deadly stuff that is already virtually available for the terrorists' taking.
For decades now, Congress has allowed the national debate over the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuels, like those stored at Palisades, only 60 miles to Muskegon's south, to spin continuously in a circle. The result is that casks of deadly radioactive material, with half-lives measured in centuries, essentially lie exposed in place, vulnerable to either terrorism, mishap or natural disaster. ...
Max Obuszewski is a seasoned, nonviolent peace activist in Maryland. But to the Maryland State Police, he is suspected of committing the "primary crime" of "terrorism -- anti-war protestors" and the "secondary crime" of "terrorism -- anti-govern."
That is how the Maryland State Police designated him in internal documents that the ACLU of Maryland obtained through a lawsuit and released on July 17. The documents also show that the Maryland State Police entered his name into a database dealing with "high intensity drug activity." These documents reveal an elaborate undercover operation against peace groups and anti-capital-punishment groups.
"Agents collectively spent at least 288 hours on their surveillance over the 14-month period" in 2005 and 2006, the ACLU of Maryland says. Agents "monitored private organizing meetings, public forums, and events held in several churches, as well as anti-death penalty rallies outside the state's SuperMax facility and in Lawyer's Mall in Annapolis." ...
This now available from the U.S. State Department: "2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar: Limited Edition for Ramadan."
"Yep, you read that correctly. It's 'perfect for Muslim outreach efforts," according to a commentary at the Gates of Vienna blog. "Where's the ACLU on this one?"
This now available from the U.S. State Department: "2009 Mosques of America Wall Calendar: Limited Edition for Ramadan."
"Yep, you read that correctly. It's 'perfect for Muslim outreach efforts," according to a commentary at the Gates of Vienna blog. "Where's the ACLU on this one?"
 Screen capture of State Department's offering of "Mosques of America" calendar |
The product was being advertised by "Global Publishing Solutions," a division of the U.S. State Department, until bloggers started talking about it.
Officials then apparently hid the page behind the security of a password-protected wall. However, the page is still viewable in a Google cache of the website. ...
Most people don't stick out on the beaches of Gaza to the degree that Abu Mustafa does. He picks his way across the sand on crutches, his leg wrapped in a cast up to his thigh. The Pakistani clothes he wears are also foreign -- and the white shirt that hangs to his knees makes walking on crutches even more difficult. Finally he slumps in a plastic chair. "Peace be upon you," he says quietly, welcoming his guest.
Many people would like to speak with Abu Mustafa these days -- he guesses about 10 men call him each day. Abu Mustafa holds the key to an ideology that many are turning to in the Gaza Strip: Salafist jihadism, a belief in the most radical form of Islam. "We meet secretly in mosques and private homes," says Abu Mustafa, who has become an entry point to the movement for many. He says the Salafis now number up to 5,000 people, not counting the women and children.
'A Very Dangerous Man'
"We aren't well enough organized yet, but we are in the process of building networks," says the 33-year-old. Eventually, he hopes, a powerful movement will be born. Members are already receiving weapons training and are schooled in both dogma and strategy. "When the fight begins, they will show no mercy," said a middleman for the interview -- himself a fighter in an armed militia -- prior to the beach meeting. "Abu Mustafa is a very dangerous man."
Salafis -- sometimes referred to as Wahhabis -- dream of a world before Islam became cluttered with new innovations and cultural influences. They seek to live a pious, god-fearing life governed by the laws of religion, a life resembling those of the original Muslims. At first glance, such a belief system doesn't differ much from that of other utopian sects -- were it not for their ideas related to holy war. To make their vision a reality, Abu Mustafa and his men are willing to fight -- and they are willing to slaughter innocent bystanders."Look," says Abu Mustafa, whose beard cascades down his chest, "there will be three possibilities. Some will find their way to Islam. Those who don't want to convert will be able to live in peace under the authority of Islam." For those who don't want to accept the hegemony of Islam, however, holy war is the only recipe. "Then we have to fight -- just like our brothers on Sept. 11," Abu Mustafa says.
The attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. seven years ago were a response to the contempt held for Islam by the Western world, he says. "If Muslims are attacked anywhere in the world, one has to hit back, and it doesn't matter where." Salafist Islam is like a cat, he says. "It is very friendly, but if it is attacked, it turns into a tiger."
The True Islam
"We feel just like al-Qaida and we think as they do," Abu Mustafa says. He won't say if he has contact with Osama bin Laden's terror group, but calls it vaguely "a possibility." He also dodges the question of whether foreigners have joined the Salafist movement in the Gaza Strip.
Abu Mustafa is not fond of speaking with journalists. It is still risky for the group to come out of hiding, since Hamas -- the Palestinian Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip -- views Salafis with suspicion. Both groups claim to represent true Islam, and both compete for the same followers. The fact that Abu Mustafa finally agreed to a meeting with SPIEGEL ONLINE comes out of gratitude, he says. "I owe the Germans a lot," he explains in his slow, careful German.
Abu Mustafa has a degree from the University of Saarbrücken in Germany's far west. For seven years, until 2000, he studied chemical engineering and led a largely normal student existence. He had periodic jobs with a moving company or in construction, and he occasionally cooked up Palestinian specialties for other students living in the dormitory. "I miss Germany," he says. He's even looked on Google Earth for the street where he used to live and the cafeteria where he used to eat.
He explains that he was largely accepted in Germany and found people there to be quite friendly. The only problems came about when he encountered scantily clad women or fellow students who spent much of their time in clubs and bars. He says such experiences rooted him even deeper in his beliefs. "It would be better for such people were they to follow the pure Islam," he says. "We are going to try and bring the faith to them."
The Salafi warns that Germany, by supporting Israel and participating in operations in Afghanistan, is a clear target for his fellow Islamists. He claims he himself would never move against his "second home," but he warns that "Germany should be afraid of being attacked."
Struggle for Global Influence
Salafis from the Gaza Strip first stepped into the global spotlight in March 2007, when jihadis from Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was based in the Gaza Strip. The group is a small faction among Salafis. They held Johnston hostage for four months, threatening to kill him and showing images of him wearing a suicide belt. Abu Mustafa says it was a legitimate tactic in the struggle for Islam. "It was nothing personal. It was a message to the West that they should release imprisoned Muslims." For the moment, he adds reassuringly, foreign journalists are not in danger in the Gaza Strip.
Indeed, Abu Mustafa says, he and his comrades in arms realize they need to be patient. There's a long way to go before they can begin their struggle for global influence. First, they have to take care of an enemy closer to home: Hamas.
So far, Hamas has done what it can to keep the Salafis under control. They know the ultra-radicals are just waiting to take over Hamas' position of leadership. "They are traitors," Abu Mustafa says of Hamas. "Compared to us, they are Islamism lite."
Nevertheless, he's willing to be merciful. "We will give them the chance to turn away from the false path," he says. And what happens if they don't take up the offer? "Then there will be confrontation," Abu Mustafa promises, bringing his fists together. Still, he doesn't think it likely that the Salafis will have to take up arms against Hamas. "It won't be necessary. They will destroy themselves."
Power Struggle
His explanation is clear. "For many people in Gaza, Hamas embodied the promise of a good, Islamic lifestyle," Abu Mustafa says. But once the group seized power in the Gaza Strip over a year ago, many were disappointed. Of the 10 defectors who call him everyday, many of them are Hamas fighters, he claims. "These are tough men and they have insider knowledge. They will be very useful should it come to a power struggle."
The group's greatest sin, says Abu Mustafa, who is also the father of two children, is its effort to bring Islam and democracy together. "Hamas represents an American style of Islam. They have tried to curry favor." Which is not such a bad thing for Abu Mustafa and his Salafis. "Hamas is like a block of ice in the sun," he says. "Every minute they get smaller -- and we get larger."Abu Mustafa's broken leg and the scars on his right hand are the result of an Israeli rocket attack. In January, he and a few of his comrades fired rockets across the border into Israel. Afterwards, as they were heading home, an Israeli missile hit them.
Four men were injured and one, as Abu Mustafa says, became a martyr. The fact that his leg still hurts six months later is something he bears with stoicism. "It is not important how one feels in this life, rather whether one enters paradise or hell after death," he says.
For his part, Abu Mustafa claims he is not afraid of death. He says he is not fighting for worldly things. And he hopes he will fall in the struggle for his beliefs.
"On the other hand," he says before pushing himself up and limping back to his car, "I would love to see my daughter wed. Maybe she will marry first, and then I will become a martyr."
In a recent article prompted by his reading of Joshua London’s Victory in Tripoli, Andrew Bostom, who compiled The Legacy of Jihad, adduces from London’s text a number of telling descriptions of Islam and of Muslims by some of the most important figures in American history. Two of them were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, in 1786 ambassadors (Jefferson in Paris, Adams in London) from the newly-established American Republic still under the Articles of Confederation (the Treaty of Paris had been signed in 1783, the Constitution was ratified only in 1787). They had a meeting with the representative of Tripolitania (present-day Libya) then in the Great Britain, Sidi Haji Rahmand Adja.
Like other Christian maritime powers, the American state had suffered from the state-piracy of Muslim corsairs. The word “piracy” implies mere seeking at random for booty, and is inadequate to describe the formal system by which Muslim corsairs had for centuries been making war on Christian shipping, with the foreknowledge (indeed, often registering in advance either the places their ships would be going, or what Infidel shipping they intended to attack) and support of the Muslim rulers of the North African states — which, in turn, were ostensibly under the control of the Ottoman rulers in Istanbul.
Both Jefferson and Adams were learned men. Take a tour in Quincy or at Monticello and look at their libraries, and then imagine the reading material that sustains the current, or the last few, American presidents. But they had no reason to know about Islam. They were interested in the civilization of the West, to which they belonged. Islam was merely a disturbing and violent intruder, to south and east, of that West. The notion that someday Muslims in the Western world would be insisting that the Western world owed so much to Islam, that the Renaissance was practically a Muslim invention, that without Islam the great civilization of the Western world was unthinkable, would have been regarded by them as what it is: absurdity, from first to last, a travesty of history.
But did they know much about what prompted Muslim behavior? No. So they asked why the Barbary states (present-day Morocco, Algerian, Tunisia, and Libya) would continually attack American and all other Infidel shipping, seize the cargoes and the sailors, taking both back to Islamic lands and enslaving those Christian seamen who sometimes could be ransomed, sometimes not. So they asked the ambassador, Mr. Adja, why the Muslims of the Maghrib, the “Barbary pirates” as they were known in the West, did as they did.
He had no trouble answering them, as the report written by Jefferson and Adams to the Continental Congress shows:
“…that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
Nothing surprising here to any contemporary Muslim, though many will wish that Americans will never read that paragraph above, especially since it was written by two of the Founders, two of the Framers of that Constitution which is so flatly contradicted by the principles and Holy Law of Islam. It is easy to denounce this or that truth-teller about Islam today, but not quite so easy for Muslims to denounce or attempt to belittle a report written by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
Bostom also quotes London’s excerpt from a report by William Eaton, a veteran of the Revolutionary War (who later became the U.S. consul in Tunis, and who in 1799) on his meeting with the Dey of Algiers, Bobba Mustafa:
“…we took off our shoes and entering the cave (for so it seemed), with small apertures of light with iron gates, we were shown to a huge shaggy beast, sitting on his rump upon a low bench covered with a cushion of embroidered velvet, with his hind legs gathered up like a tailor, or a bear. On our approach to him, he reached out his forepaw as if to receive something to eat. Our guide exclaimed, “Kiss the Dey’s hand!” The consul general bowed very elegantly, and kissed it, and we followed his example in succession. The animal seemed at that moment to be in a harmless mode; he grinned several times, but made very little noise. Having performed this ceremony, and standing a few moments in silent agony, we had leave to take our shoes and other property, and leave the den without any other injury than the humility of being obliged in this involuntary manner, to violate the second commandment of God and offend common decency. Can any man believe that this elevated brute has seven kings of Europe, two republics, and a continent tributary to him when his whole naval force is not equal to two line-of-battle ships? It is so.”
Not exactly one of those Western ambassadors – a John C. West or James Akins or an Andrew Kilgore or a Eugene Bird – full of salaam-aleikum lecca-leccas for their Arab counterparts. No, it was a no-nonsense early American, sure of himself, and equally sure that he could recognize a comical primitive when he saw one – and saw no need to pull any rhetorical punches. One wonders how many today would report back in a similar fashion on the absurdities, say, of Arafat and company, or the pretensions of the ludicrous Arab regimes and Arab-League officials who have been allowed to believe in their own significance and importance, when their only significance and importance is that supplied by an accident of geology and the complete failure of even these recipients of the largest unearned wealth in history to create modern polities and modern economies. The fact that these regimes remain morally and intellectually paralyzed should show those who, in the Western world, ought to know a little something about what makes the West the West, just a little something about what the civilizational fruits of Islam are – or rather, about the absence of those civilizational fruits.
In his review-article Bostom also spatchcocked on, from a period later than that of the Barbary Pirates episode in American geopolitical life, a piercing, no-nonsense quote from John Quincy Adams, writing in about 1829 after his retirement from public life:
“….he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind…The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God…the faithful follower of the prophet may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.”
The “command” to Believers to engage in “perpetual war” — performed “alike by fraud or by force” – against the Infidels, the Unbelievers, was no secret to the well-traveled (St. Petersburg, among other places he was stationed) and well-read John Quincy Adams. In a previous article Bostom had quoted John Quincy Adams comparing the essence of Christian doctrine with the essence of Islam.
This was John Quincy Adams on Christianity:
“And he [Jesus] declared, that the enjoyment of felicity in the world hereafter, would be reward of the practice of benevolence here. His whole law was resolvable into the precept of love; peace on earth – good will toward man…On the Christian system of morals, man is an immortal spirit, confined for a short space of time, in an earthly tabernacle. Kindness to his fellow mortals embraces the whole compass of his duties upon earth, and the whole promise of happiness to his spirit hereafter. THE ESSENCE OF THIS DOCTRINE IS, TO EXALT THE SPIRITUAL OVER THE BRUTAL PART OF HIS NATURE [Capitals in original].”
And this was John Quincy Adams on Islam:
“Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST; TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE (Capitals in original)…Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant…While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men.”
And Adams concluded:
“As the essential principle of his [Muhammad’s] faith is the subjugation of others by the sword; it is only by force, that his false doctrines can be dispelled, and his power annihilated.”
As one reads and ponders these remarks by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and John Quincy Adams, one is struck by the self-assurance that they represent civilization, and that Islam and its representatives did not, and it would have been ludicrous to pretend otherwise. Islam did not change between 1786 or 1805 or 1830 and today. The doctrine of Jihad did not change. The Qur’an was not a different Qur’an; the Hadith were not differently ranked from the way muhaddithin had ranked them, according to various levels of authenticity, nearly a thousand years before. If anything, the forces of Islam were far weaker then, and far less able, therefore, to conduct Jihad. The only instrument available was military, and in military matters the Muslims were hopelessly surpassed by the technology of a much more advanced civilization – more advanced in every possible way. So what happened? How is it that today no Western leader can bring himself to write about Islam as Jefferson, Adams, John Quincy Adams, or even in modern times, as Churchill did in The River War?
What happened are any number of things, beginning with an entirely different class of rulers. What a falling-off, intellectually, there has been since the days of the Founders and the Framers. The self-assurance and leisure necessary to learn about things, the absence of breathless, round-the-clock news, the fantastic piling-up of duties so that no leader can conceivably read, and take in, once he has risen to the top, the very things he most needs to know — all this has contributed to that falling off. And right now, of course, the thing that leaders and elites all over the Western world most need to know is all about Islam, its tenets, its history of Jihad-conquest, its subjugation of all conquered non-Muslims, and its recommended instruments of Jihad that go far beyond either “terror” or even military means. This conquest is promoted now in Western Europe mainly by demographics — the numbers of Muslims multiplying at a rate far faster than that of the indigenous Infidels — and Da’wa. That Da’wa is targeted at prisoners, and at others who are economically and psychically marginal, and inclined to embrace a belief-system that can be viewed as a vehicle of protest against “the System,” and also supplies, for those who need it, a Complete Regulation of Life and Total Explanation of the Universe. There are plenty of weak-minded people around, their numbers increased by the sometimes intolerable stress and stupidity of frantic getting and spending, or not getting, and not spending.
What happened? Why could Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and John Quincy Adams and so many others in American history have understood Islam, and also understood that there was no possibility of, and no need to even attempt, to “win hearts and minds” of Muslims, but rather to obtain their cooperation, to force changes in their behavior? The latter is a very different thing from winning hearts and minds, and is grounded in the reality of what Islam teaches its adherents to believe. When Theodore Roosevelt demanded from a Moroccan bandit chief the return of Ion Perdicaris (who at the time was not even an American citizen, though few paid attention to that — he did have a long American connection) with that famous phrase about “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead,” he too understood that dealing with such people required that kind of attitude.
Jefferson and Adams and Quincy Adams read. They thought. They studied. They learned things directly. They did not have staffs that attempted to supply their every mental need by supplying little 1- or 3- or 5-page summaries of information, offered up in bite-size bullets that were not even sentences. They were well-traveled. They all had the habit of study and of thought, and would not have wasted the kind of time that our leaders, in and out of office, waste on meetings, and meet-and-greet sessions, and smiles, and wiles, and all the intolerable nonsense that modern political life requires of those who can endure it, and that often drives away the best people because, in the end, they cannot.
Just imagine that in the previous administration, one of the “experts” called on for his “expertise” on Islam was that supreme and sinister apologist, John Esposito. Jefferson, Adams, and Quincy Adams would have seen through him in a moment’s time. When they were writing, they were not worried about “offending” Muslims. They could afford to speak the truth. But so could Western leaders today, if only they would begin to do it. The Muslims have very little hold over us. Yes, they have oil. And they desperately need to sell that oil. And they are terrified that the West could begin to find other sources of energy, or that the West could begin to tax oil use themselves in ways that would dampen demand. And the Arabs and other Muslims do not “have the Gatling-gun” and militarily could be laid waste overnight. They have money with which to buy influence, but if all over the Western world those on the take were relentlessly exposed, ridiculed, held up for inspection (and that would include a good many ex-diplomats, journalists, academics and others), then that army of apologists could lose its effectiveness. There is no “oil weapon” and never was. There is a financial weapon, but it is in Western and chiefly American hands. What would the rich Arabs do if the Western world decided to seize their property in the West as the assets of enemy aliens, just as was done to the property owned not only by the German government, but by individual Germans, during World War II? And what would they do if they were to be permanently deprived of easy access to Western medical care? (How would you feel if someone threatened to deprive you of the possibility of seeing your Western doctors or being treated in a Western hospital? That might get your attention.) What would they do if they were deprived of access to Western education (for their children, especially), or if they lost any chance of moving to the West? What would they do if they began to see a relentless campaign to remove, as a security threat, Muslims from within Dar al-Harb, where they have been allowed to settle, through negligence, by the tens of millions?
What has happened is not merely a kind of cretinising of our political class, but also a laziness. This can be seen from those who are not in the executive branch, and who could, if they chose, study the contents of Islam, learn about Jihad and about the dhimmi, and never be fooled again. But do you know of any Senators and Congressmen who, over the past few years, have decided to study such matters? Do you have the feeling that John Kerry, with no money worries whatsoever and a good deal of time, has been burning the midnight oil reading Robert Spencer, or Bat Ye’or, or Ibn Warraq’s Why I Am Not a Muslim, so that he won’t and can’t be fooled? Do you think any of the Democrats, so critical — for all the wrong reasons — of the war in Iraq, will ever be able to criticize the war for the right reasons, as has been done here for more than two years?
Sometimes it is fun to imagine a figure from the past suddenly coming to life. I have always imagined John Keats suddenly appearing, and my taking him to Macdonald’s, and trying to explain it to him. Imagine Jefferson and Adams coming to life. Imagine what they would make of all kinds of things, but imagine in particular what they would make of people all over the Western world who had now allowed, within their midst, millions of people who, as a matter of belief, were taught to hate those people among whom they lived, and to work to destroy those Infidel institutions, laws, customs, manners, until Islam dominated and some form of the Holy Law of Islam could be established? What would they make of this? What would they make of the $400 billion in sunk costs spent or committed in the near-term to the war in Iraq, as we try to create out of three separate groups of Muslims a nation-state that supposedly will serve as a “model” for other Arab Muslims, a kind of Light Unto the Muslim Nations? They would rub their eyes in disbelief. They would wonder – how did this happen to the country they helped to found and nurture? Where did things go wrong? And then they would have questions. “What’s a speechwriter?” “You mean, you actually have someone else write words you present as your own, fashion your thoughts, express what should be your views?” “And what are ‘bullets’ used in these pages of Daily Briefings?” “And what is a ‘Daily Briefing’”?
They would be quite capable today, as they were in their own day, of reading and finding out about Islam – through books and through the evidence of their senses. They didn’t have CNN, Fox, spy satellites, and an army of CIA agents. But they knew what Islam was all about. It is we, with all that paraphernalia, seeking complexity when things are perhaps too obvious, too worrisomely simple for many to wish to grasp the matter, who are the innocent ones. It is Jefferson and Adams and Quincy Adams and many others, right up to Churchill, who had an unobnubilated grasp of Islam and of Muslims. They were not distracted. They were not charmed by a Saudi oil minister, or by someone at the “Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.” They had the leisure to read, to think, and even to ponder, slowly, what it was they read, and make it their own. The hectic vacancy of official Washington is scandalous — especially when one rises to the very top and learns only from those briefest of briefings, and even that only when it is too late, or treated as if it is too late, or perhaps beneath the dignity of the highest officials (“As for study, we’ll let our valets do that for us”).
And this is how it has become nearly impossible to get their attention, to get them to start making sense.
LONDON -- The British intelligence service MI6 says secret backroom meetings at the Mediterranean Nations summit in Paris earlier this month could lead to a dramatic shift of power in the Middle East, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
At the meetings attended by Syrian, Spanish, Italian and Israeli intelligence chiefs, it emerged that plans for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities will fail to destroy them because no Western intelligence service or Mossad knows where every facility is located. ...
Police ordered angry customers lined up outside an IndyMac Bank branch to remain calm or face arrest Tuesday as they tried to pull their money on the second day of the failed institution's federal takeover.
At least three police squad cars showed up early Tuesday as tensions rose outside the San Fernando Valley branch of Pasadena-based IndyMac.
Federal regulators seized Pasadena-based IndyMac on Friday and reopened the bank Monday under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Deposits to $100,000 are fully insured by the FDIC.
Worried customers with deposits in excess of insured limits flooded IndyMac Bank branches on Monday, demanding to withdraw as much money as they could or get answers about the fate of their funds. ...
The Senate approved by a 69-28 vote Wednesday a sweeping revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, giving the Bush administration long-sought spying powers and legal protections for telecommunications companies that have helped the government conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. residents without warrants. Enough Democrats joined Republicans to defeat three amendments to the bill that would have rolled back legal protections for the telecom firms. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, voted for all three amendments, while Arizona Sen. John McCain his presumptive Republican rival for the White House, was absent. President Bush is expected to sign the bill, ending nearly a year of bitter partisan wrangling in the House and Senate over modernizing FISA.
Under the bill, the government would not need to obtain warrants to monitor foreigners whose phone or e-mail conversations pass through or are stored by U.S. communications hubs. The government also would not need warrants to monitor the communications of U.S. residents who come into contact with suspected foreign terrorists as long as the U.S. resident is not the target of surveillance and his or her communications are minimized. Individual warrants would be needed if the target of surveillance is a U.S. resident or, for the first time, an American traveling abroad. The administration would have to submit its surveillance procedures to the secret FISA court for approval before surveillance could begin, except under exigent circumstances.
The bill would give telecom firms retroactive legal immunity from civil lawsuits if they can show a federal district court judge that they received written directives from the Bush administration that the National Security Agency's warrantless electronic surveillance program was authorized by Bush and determined to be legal. A Senate Intelligence Committee report made clear that the firms received such directives, essentially guaranteeing that about 40 civil lawsuits against them will be dismissed. In a 66-32 vote, senators defeated an amendment by Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., that would have stripped the immunity provision from the bill. It needed 50 votes to pass. Senators also defeated, 61-37, an amendment by Senate Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that would have required the district court to determine if the warrantless surveillance program was constitutional before granting immunity to the companies. It needed 60 votes to pass. On a 56-42 vote, the Senate also rejected an amendment from Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa., and Specter that would have stayed the lawsuits against the companies until Congress could review the findings of a comprehensive inspectors general report on the warrantless surveillance program. It needed 60 votes to pass. Senior Bush administration officials had said they would recommend the bill be vetoed if any of the amendments were approved. The bill includes language making FISA the exclusive means under which the administration can conduct surveillance. Additionally, all provisions in the bill will sunset at the end of 2012. ...
In what may long be remembered as a turning point in the Pentagon’s approach to investing in technology, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this year publicly questioned the Air Force’s commitment to its F-22 Raptor, a stealthy fighter that was built to win dogfights against a Soviet adversary.
“The reality is we are fighting two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the F-22 has not performed a single mission in either theater. So it is principally for use against a near peer in a conflict, and I think we all know who that is,” Gates told a congressional committee. “And looking at what I regard as the level of risk of conflict with one of those near peers over the next four or five years until the Joint Strike Fighter comes along, I think that something along the lines of 183 [planes] is a reasonable buy.” ...
Even as the Bush administration moved to rescue the nation's largest two mortgage companies, confidence in the banking sector spiraled downward Monday.
In the Los Angeles area, lines snaked around IndyMac Bancorp branches for blocks, as customers made withdrawals from the bank, which failed last week. In Cleveland, National City Corporation denied a rumor that its customers were also demanding their money.
In Washington, U.S. regulators tried to broadcast the message that plummeting stock prices should not cause consumers to panic about the safety of their savings. And on Wall Street, analysts began circulating lists of regional and local banks that might be next to fall....
Iran would "cut off the hands" of any enemy that attacks the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Sunday.
"Before the enemies touch the trigger, Iran's armed forces will cut off their hands," Ahmadinejad was quoted by the Islamic republic news agency as saying.
The president's remarks followed intensified threats by the US and Israel. Iran has repeatedly warned that its Armed Forces are fully prepared to immediately deliver a crushing response to any offensive on Iranian territory. ...
“My main goal is to go back and spread Islam all over USA.” ...
Troubles that caused low turnout in the past will be compounded by 11 late state-office primaries in September or October, which delays mailing absentee ballots. Efforts to expand electronic voting have slowed because of privacy concerns.
"It's going to be a harder year for our soldiers and military personnel and others who are overseas," Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said. ...
ALEXANDRIA,Va. – A federal judge has agreed to release Sami Al-Arian on bond while he awaits his August trial date for criminal contempt. But it remains uncertain whether the convicted terrorist will be released from custody.
Al-Arian has been ordered deported as part of his 2006 guilty plea for conspiring to provide goods and services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A 90-day removal period began June 27, argued federal prosecutor Gordon Kromberg, meaning Al-Arian cannot be released before the end of September.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema acknowledged that she may not have the power to force the government to release Al-Arian pending his August 13 trial. She emphasized that his plea agreement included a pledge from the government to expedite his removal from the United States after completing his criminal sentence.
However, the judge acknowledged having no authority over the immigration process. Pre-Trial Services staff did not recommend Al-Arian's release after a review of the case, Brinkema said. She assumed that was because Al Arian pled guilty to a "serious offense."
Al-Arian faces two counts of criminal contempt for his refusal to testify before federal grand juries investigating terror financing by a northern Virginia think tank, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), with which he had worked closely. Prosecutors granted him immunity in exchange for his truthful testimony and his defiance triggered two civil contempt orders. ...
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.
"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said Saturday. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."
The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has offered U.S. troops to strike at terror networks. Critics in Washington also have expressed frustration with the new Pakistani government's pursuit of peace deals in the region.
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere along the rugged and lawless Afghan-Pakistan border region.
Pakistan's newly elected civilian government is negotiating with tribal elders to secure peace with militants along the Afghan border in hopes of curbing a surge in violence. It is a step back from the heavy-handed tactics pursued by the previous government led by supporters of President Pervez Musharraf. ...
The author of the best-selling new thriller, "The Last Patriot," says his life already has been threatened for contending the Muslim holy book contains errors and is not based on the last revelations of Muhammad.
"I've already had multiple death threats come in, and that's something that we're taking very seriously with the tour coming up," said Brad Thor, whose "Patriot" already has climbed to No. 1 on the Amazon fiction list after its release last week.
Thor says he's adding security precautions as he goes forward with a national book tour. ...
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, called the weapon "the greatest threat right now that we face," and he likened the shadowy group behind it to the American military's elite Delta Force.
The weapon is particularly worrying because it is designed to cause catastrophic damage and cannot be stopped once it has been launched, Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said in an interview in his office at this U.S. military headquarters compound just west of the capital.
U.S. forces detained a man on Thursday who Hammond said could provide valuable insights into the group behind the bombmaking. "We think we have defined the network," he said. He would not elaborate, although other American officers said in interviews that the group is Shiite and may have links to Iran.
"We think we might have picked up a guy that could lead us — could be a big lead in this," Hammond said.
The weapon innovation has gained little public attention because it has yet to kill in large numbers.So far, in 11 attacks, three U.S. soldiers have been killed, Stover said. The three were killed April 28 — the same day as the Sadr City assault — in an attack on a larger U.S. base in eastern Baghdad.
At the Sadr City base, Grimsley consulted with Lt. Col. Brian Eifler, commander of 1st Battalion, 6th Armor, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, inside a newly constructed combat outpost near the damaged one. Eifler said he is focused heavily on the IRAM threat and how to minimize it.
Eifler estimated that a U.S. soldier who might be in position to witness the approach of a potential IRAM-bearing vehicle would have less then two seconds to decide whether the person emerging from it has just set it for firing or is simply getting out to change a tire.
"That's a call our young soldiers have to make when potentially 200 lives are at stake," Eifler said.
Hammond said the perpetrators are so skilled that he has likened their organization to the U.S. military's secretive and elite Delta Force. He said they have demonstrated an unusual degree of military skill.
Six months after it set up counterterrorism teams to screen passengers at busy East Coast stations, the rail company is expanding its security sweeps across the country with a new team of special agents in California.
"We want to show we're playing defense" against would-be terrorists, says Amtrak security chief Bill Rooney. "Our focus is counterterrorism. We're thinking along the lines of a Madrid or a London." ...
CBNNews.com - WASHINGTON - Anthrax. Smallpox… these words were commonplace following 9/11 as potential weapons of terror against the United States.
Some experts believe a bioterrorist attack or pandemic outbreak could be inevitable. So how would the U.S. fight back against an infectious disease outbreak?
... Since 2002, the Bush administration has spent billions preparing for the effects of a bioterrorist attack or infectious disease outbreak. The government wants to stifle any potential outbreak before it even starts.
High-tech sensors have been installed in several American cities that can detect harmful airborne pathogens. Early detection may be able to save lives.
But at the end of the day, state and local governments may play the biggest role.
"People can't wait for the federal government to protect them," Fischer said. "If there is a biological attack, or if there is a pandemic, people will have to take reasonable steps to take care of themselves.
That means stocking up on water, canned goods and medical supplies, and being aware of the emergency plan for your community.
"Bush lied, Americans died!"
Perhaps he did, but on the other hand-- it turns out that 550 metric tons of uranium yellow cake, the stuff of which "dirty bombs" can be made, have been found in Iraq.
Although there is no "reliable source" to quote on this shocker, we do have a report from the Associated Press which, despite being a wing of the DNC, nevertheless reported the following:
"The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
"The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellow cake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions."
So, if one is willing to take a risk by believing an AP story, one might conclude that there was indeed yellow cake in Iraq.
One might extrapolate even further and conclude that Bush did not, in fact, lie after all.
Quite apart from the fact that such a lie would make no logical sense, many prominent Democrats have made strong public statements in the past proclaiming their belief that Saddam did indeed have WMD.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is among those who expressed such a belief.
In addition to the new "Queen of Mean," the following leftist luminaries weighed in against Saddam before deciding that George W. Bush was the greater evil:
Ted Kennedy, John Rockefeller, Al Gore, Carl Levin, Patty Murray, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Liberman, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, Wesley Clark, Bill Clinton, Tom Daschle, John Edwards, Dick Gephart, Sandy Berger, Madeline Albright, Tom Larkin, Harry Ford, and Diane Feinstein.
The exact quotes of these political luminaries follow.
Did they all lie?
"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." -- From a letter signed by Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Milulski, Tom Daschle, & John Kerry among others on October 9, 1998
"This December will mark three years since United Nations inspectors last visited Iraq. There is no doubt that since that time, Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to refine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer- range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies." -- From a December 6, 2001 letter signed by Bob Graham, Joe Lieberman, Harold Ford, & Tom Lantos among others
"Whereas Iraq has consistently breached its cease-fire agreement between Iraq and the United States, entered into on March 3, 1991, by failing to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction program, and refusing to permit monitoring and verification by United Nations inspections; Whereas Iraq has developed weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological capabilities, and has made positive progress toward developing nuclear weapons capabilities" -- From a joint resolution submitted by Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter on July 18, 2002
"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998
"(Saddam) will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983" -- National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Feb 18, 1998
"Iraq made commitments after the Gulf War to completely dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, and unfortunately, Iraq has not lived up to its agreement." -- Barbara Boxer, November 8, 2002
"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retained some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capability. Intelligence reports also indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons, but has not yet achieved nuclear capability." -- Robert Byrd, October 2002
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat... Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had those for a long time. But the United States right now is on a very much different defensive posture than we were before September 11th of 2001... He is, as far as we know, actively pursuing nuclear capabilities, though he doesn't have nuclear warheads yet. If he were to acquire nuclear weapons, I think our friends in the region would face greatly increased risks as would we." -- Wesley Clark on September 26, 2002
"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security." -- Hillary Clinton, October 10, 2002
"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998
"Saddam Hussein's regime represents a grave threat to America and our allies, including our vital ally, Israel. For more than two decades, Saddam Hussein has sought weapons of mass destruction through every available means. We know that he has chemical and biological weapons. He has already used them against his neighbors and his own people, and is trying to build more. We know that he is doing everything he can to build nuclear weapons, and we know that each day he gets closer to achieving that goal." -- John Edwards, Oct 10, 2002
"The debate over Iraq is not about politics. It is about national security. It should be clear that our national security requires Congress to send a clear message to Iraq and the world: America is united in its determination to eliminate forever the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." -- John Edwards, Oct 10, 2002
"I share the administration's goals in dealing with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction." -- Dick Gephardt in September of 2002
"Iraq does pose a serious threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf and we should organize an international coalition to eliminate his access to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." -- Al Gore, 2002
"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." -- Bob Graham, December 2002
"Saddam Hussein is not the only deranged dictator who is willing to deprive his people in order to acquire weapons of mass destruction." -- Jim Jeffords, October 8, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." -- Ted Kennedy, September 27, 2002
"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is a serious danger, that he is a tyrant, and that his pursuit of lethal weapons of mass destruction cannot be tolerated. He must be disarmed." -- Ted Kennedy, Sept 27, 2002
"I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." -- John F. Kerry, Oct 2002
"The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation." -- John Kerry, October 9, 2002
"(W)e need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime. We all know the litany of his offenses. He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. ...And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. That is why the world, through the United Nations Security Council, has spoken with one voice, demanding that Iraq disclose its weapons programs and disarm. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but it is not new. It has been with us since the end of the Persian Gulf War." -- John Kerry, Jan 23, 2003
"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandates of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them." -- Carl Levin, Sept 19, 2002
"Every day Saddam remains in power with chemical weapons, biological weapons, and the development of nuclear weapons is a day of danger for the United States." -- Joe Lieberman, August, 2002
"Over the years, Iraq has worked to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. During 1991 - 1994, despite Iraq's denials, U.N. inspectors discovered and dismantled a large network of nuclear facilities that Iraq was using to develop nuclear weapons. Various reports indicate that Iraq is still actively pursuing nuclear weapons capability. There is no reason to think otherwise. Beyond nuclear weapons, Iraq has actively pursued biological and chemical weapons.U.N. inspectors have said that Iraq's claims about biological weapons is neither credible nor verifiable. In 1986, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran, and later, against its own Kurdish population. While weapons inspections have been successful in the past, there have been no inspections since the end of 1998. There can be no doubt that Iraq has continued to pursue its goal of obtaining weapons of mass destruction." -- Patty Murray, October 9, 2002
"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998
"Even today, Iraq is not nearly disarmed. Based on highly credible intelligence, UNSCOM [the U.N. weapons inspectors] suspects that Iraq still has biological agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, and clostridium perfringens in sufficient quantity to fill several dozen bombs and ballistic missile warheads, as well as the means to continue manufacturing these deadly agents. Iraq probably retains several tons of the highly toxic VX substance, as well as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas. This agent is stored in artillery shells, bombs, and ballistic missile warheads. And Iraq retains significant dual-use industrial infrastructure that can be used to rapidly reconstitute large-scale chemical weapons production." -- Ex-Un Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter in 1998
"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years. And that may happen sooner if he can obtain access to enriched uranium from foreign sources -- something that is not that difficult in the current world. We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." -- John Rockefeller, Oct 10, 2002
"Saddam's existing biological and chemical weapons capabilities pose a very real threat to America, now. Saddam has used chemical weapons before, both against Iraq's enemies and against his own people. He is working to develop delivery systems like missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that could bring these deadly weapons against U.S. forces and U.S. facilities in the Middle East." -- John Rockefeller, Oct 10, 2002
"Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Administration's policy towards Iraq, I don't think there can be any question about Saddam's conduct. He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do. He lies and cheats; he snubs the mandate and authority of international weapons inspectors; and he games the system to keep buying time against enforcement of the just and legitimate demands of the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States and our allies. Those are simply the facts." -- Henry Waxman, Oct 10, 2002
Why did all of those Democrats lie?
By william matthews -- Once again, a congressional commission is warning that an electromagnetic pulse attack against the United States could wipe out the nation's electronics-dependent civilization. And again, hardly anyone is listening.
Only a handful of the 60 members of the House Armed Services Committee showed up for a hearing on the EMP threat July 10, and most didn't stick around for the whole two-hour session.
"It's obvious that there's not very much interest in it," said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who asked for the hearing. "There are lots of seats vacant," he lamented.
But Bartlett is a believer. He warns that an EMP attack could shut down the U.S. electric grid, destroy communications and disrupt electronically-controlled elements of society from financial services to running water.
If a nuclear weapon is detonated 200 miles over Iowa or Nebraska, the electromagnetic pulse would fry electronics from coast to coast, Bartlett said.
"You could only talk to the person who was next to you," and only old-fashioned vehicles without electronic ignitions would work after the blast, he said. Ham radios with vacuum tubes would also survive.
After consuming their city's three-day supply of food, New Yorkers would begin to starve, Bartlett said. And over the course of a year, 80 percent or more of the rest of us might too.
The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack is another believer. The congressionally appointed panel has been studying that subject since 2001, reported to Congress in 2004, and is preparing another report to be delivered in November.
Commissioner William Graham offered lawmakers both calamity and hope.
There is "a high likelihood" than an EMP attack would damage the "electrical power systems, electronics and information systems upon which American society depends." The effect "on critical infrastructures could be sufficient to qualify as catastrophic to the nation," Graham said.
But disaster need not occur.
Large-scale, long-term disastrous consequences can be limited if the U.S. government and critical industries would spend three to five years and billions of dollars hardening power grids and electronic equipment to withstand large electromagnetic pulses, he said.
By itself, that's "no magic bullet," Graham said.
"A balance of prevention, planning, training, maintaining situational awareness, protection and preparations for recovery from an EMP attack" are needed, he said.
In a March report to lawmakers, the Congressional Research Service said, "the threat of an EMP attack against the United States is hard to assess." The CRS did not dispute claims about the catastrophic nature of an EMP attack.
Potential adversaries such as Russia and China are believed to have the capability to launch an EMP strike. Indeed, according to Bartlett, Russia has developed a "super EMP" weapon.
Lesser military powers are also worrisome. Iran has developed missiles that can loft the nuclear weapon needed for an EMP attack. And terrorist organizations with nuclear ambitions are a growing worry.
Graham said the U.S. military's strategic forces have begun to take steps to thwart an EMP attack, but other parts of the U.S. Defense Department have done little.
Despite urging from the commission, the Department of Homeland Security has declined to add EMP attacks to the list of disaster scenarios for which it plans, Graham said.
The commission is also urging utility companies to take steps to protect the electric grid.
"A serious national commitment to address the threat of an EMP attack can lead to a national posture that would significantly reduce" the damage that an attack would cause, Graham said.
But as Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., noted, "No one seems to be concerned about it."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------More on this subject:
Electromagnetic Pulse comes out of Sci-Fi into reality
Talk Radio News Service - Washington,DC,USA
The House Armed Services Committee met to discuss the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the US Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo. ...
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Scientist to Congress: US risks 'catastrophe' in nuke EMP attack
WorldNetDaily - Grants Pass,OR,USA
William R. Graham, chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack and the former national ...
See all stories on this topic
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Investor's Business Daily (subscription) - USA
... President Reagan's top science adviser and the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), ...
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Scary stuff
By Joseph Gelfuso
Graham, President Reagan’s top science adviser and the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, will update the committee Thursday morning. ...
Fighting the good fight - http://jfgelfuso.wordpress.com
Wall Street Journal Describes Same EMP Scenario Wohlstetter Warns ...
Discovery fellow John Wohlstetter opens his book, The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us, with a catastrophy scenario in which the Iranians use EMP – electromagnetic pulse – technology against the United States. ...
Discovery Blog - http://www.discovery.org/blogs/discoveryblog/
EMP Risk Follow-Up: Blather O’Plenty, No Action
As we discussed yesterday, it’s been four years since Congress was fully briefed on our nation’s vulnerability to an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, and the debilitating impact it would have on our electro-dependent society. ...
Pass Over Site - http://www.passoversite.org
MISSILES AND THE MESSIAH ARE MAKING NEWS
By Joel C. Rosenberg(Joel C. Rosenberg)
This would be especially troubling if Tehran is developing EMP – electromagnetic pulse – technology. A nuclear weapon detonated a hundred miles over US territory would create an electromagnetic pulse that would virtually shut down the ...
JOEL C. ROSENBERG - http://joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/
The Iran Threat is Real and Directed Toward the US
By Yid With Lid(Yid With Lid)
On Thursday, while these missile tests were under way, William Graham, President Reagan's top science adviser and the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), established by ...
YID With LID - http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/
EP 1110-3-2 (31 December 1990)
Title: Engineering and Design - Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and Tempest Protection for Facilities Proponent: CEMP-ET Publication Date: 31 December 1990 ...
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