"Axis of Idiots" as Seen by a Fellow U.S. Marine

(Analyst's note:  Must read and consider these remarks.  Sergeant Major, I salute you.  Thank you for your thoughts so clearly expressed.  And my thanks to another Marine for sharing this information.  Semper Fidelis) 



NOW HEAR THIS!  From the Podium: J. D. Pendry, Retired Sergeant Major, USMC

This retired USMC Sgt. Major has it together.

Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam . Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake! You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq . You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa . Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt, and washed up old fool. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's ass. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.

Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken, useless old fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your fat, gin-soaked ass in Washington

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.

American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.

You are America 's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.

Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.

Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within.

Semper Fi

"They think the implications of the possibility that the Koran teaches warfare against unbelievers are too terrible to even contemplate. Thus, many policymakers simply assume the Koran teaches peace without bothering to study the text."

(Analyst's note:  Want to know more about those who have declared war on this nation?  Then see this absolutely must read summary.)

by Robert Spencer

In FrontPage yesterday Jamie Glazov interviewed me about my new book, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran. Here is an excerpt:

FP: Tell us how and why political correctness has made it almost impossible to discuss what is really in the Koran and in other Islamic texts.

Spencer: Political correctness would have us believe that the Koran is a book of peace, and that anyone who says otherwise is "bigoted," "hateful," and "Islamophobic." But is it, really? What the Koran really says can easily be verified. If the Koran really curses Jews and Christians (9:30) and calls for warfare against them in order to bring about their subjugation (9:29), it is not "Islamophobic" to forewarn Infidels by pointing this out. It is simply a fact. And it should go without saying that it is not a fact that should move any reader of my book to hate anyone. The fact that the Koran counsels warfare against unbelievers should move readers to act in defense of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the legal equality of all people, before it is too late.

FP: How does the misinterpretation of what the Koran and other Muslim texts teach endanger our security?

Spencer: Most Western analysts dogmatically deny that the Koran teaches violence and supremacism. Yet Muslims who believe this comprise a global movement, active from Indonesia to Nigeria and extending into Europe and North America, that is dedicated to waging war against "unbelievers" - that is, non-Muslims - and subjugating them as inferiors under the rule of Islamic law. This movement sees in the Koran its divine mandate to wage that war.

In March 2009, five Muslims accused of helping plot the September 11 attacks, including the notorious Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, wrote an "Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations." In it they quote the Koran to justify their jihad war against the American Infidels. "In God's book," asserts the letter, "he ordered us to fight you everywhere we find you, even if you were inside the holiest of all holy cities, The Mosque in Mecca, and the holy city of Mecca, and even during sacred months. In God's book, verse 9 [actually verse 5], Al-Tawbah [the Koran's 9th chapter]: Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, and besiege them and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush."
Osama bin Laden's communiqués have also quoted the Koran copiously. In his 1996 "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places," he quotes seven Koran verses: 3:145; 47:4-6; 2:154; 9:14; 47:19; 8:72; and the notorious "Verse of the Sword," 9:5.[i] Bin Laden began his October 6, 2002, letter to the American people with two Koran quotations, both of a martial bent: "Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" (22:39) and "Those who believe, fight in the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve, fight in the cause of Taghut (anything worshipped other than Allah e.g. Satan). So fight you against the friends of Satan; ever feeble is indeed the plot of Satan" (4:76)."

In a sermon broadcast in 2003, bin Laden rejoiced in a Koranic exhortation to violence as being a means to establish the truth: "Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant and messenger [the Islamic Prophet Muhammad], in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood." The "Verse of the Sword" is Koran 9:5: "Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

The idea that the Koran commands them to do violence to unbelievers runs from the very top of the international jihadist movement - Osama bin Laden - down to the rank and file. Overall, it is extremely rare - if not impossible - to find a jihadist who does not cite the Koran to justify his actions. Britain-based jihadist preacher, Abu Yahya, asserts simply, "It says in the Koran that we must try as much as we can to terrorise the enemy." And Pakistani jihad leader Beitullah Mehsud claims that "Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfill God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world." He specified that his jihad - struggle in Arabic - was an offensive military operation: "We will continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out. Then we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jazia." The "jazia," or jizya, is a tax that the Koran (9:29) specifies must be levied on Jews, Christians, and some other non-Muslim faiths as a sign of their subjugation under the Islamic social order.

One pro-Osama website put it this way: "The truth is that a Muslim who reads the Koran with devotion is determined to reach the battlefield in order to attain the reality of Jihad. It is solely for this reason that the Kufaar [unbelievers] conspire to keep the Muslims far away from understanding the Koran, knowing that Muslims who understand the Koran will not distance themselves from Jihad."

Yet a huge number of policy decisions are predicated upon the assumption that the Koran teaches peace, and that those who brandish Korans and commit violence are misunderstanding their own religion and perverting the teachings of their own holy book. These include U.S. government postures toward Pakistan and Egypt; immigration matters; airport security procedures; military strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan; domestic anti-terror policies; and our acquiescence to Saudi Arabia's Islamic proselytizing campaign in America and many other countries.

But most government and media analysts dare not even question the assumption that the Koran is peaceful, for they believe that any insinuation to the contrary is racist, bigoted, and effectively brands all Muslims as terrorists. In other words, they think the implications of the possibility that the Koran teaches warfare against unbelievers are too terrible to even contemplate. Thus, many policymakers simply assume the Koran teaches peace without bothering to study the text. They do this to their own peril - and ours.

FP: What, in your view, is the Koran?

Spencer: It is the primary religious text of one of the world's most prominent and influential religions. For more than a billion Muslims, the Koran is the unadulterated, pure word of Allah, eternal and perfect, delivered though the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. For Infidels, it is a threat, a call for their destruction or subjugation. Consequently, every Infidel needs to know what is in it, and plan accordingly to defend himself.

There is much more. Read it all.

Obama Declares War on Free Speech

(Analyst's note:  Must read and consider.)

by Robert Spencer

In Human Events today I discuss the latest bad news in the Obama Administration's ongoing quiet war against free speech:

The Obama Administration has now actually co-sponsored an anti-free speech resolution at the United Nations. Approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Friday, the resolution, cosponsored by the U.S. and Egypt, calls on states to condemn and criminalize "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence."

What could be wrong with that? Plenty.

First of all, there's that little matter of the First Amendment, which preserves Americans' right to free speech and freedom of the press, which are obviously mutually inclusive. Any law that infringed on speech at all -- far less in such vague and sweeping terms -- would be unconstitutional.

"Incitement" and "hatred" are in the eye of the beholder -- or more precisely, in the eye of those who make such determinations. The powerful can decide to silence the powerless by classifying their views as "hate speech." The Founding Fathers knew that the freedom of speech was an essential safeguard against tyranny: the ability to dissent, freely and publicly and without fear of imprisonment or other reprisal, is a cornerstone of any genuine republic. If some ideas cannot be heard and are proscribed from above, the ones in control are tyrants, however benevolent they may be.

Now no less distinguished a personage than the President of the United States has given his imprimatur to this tyranny; the implications are grave. The resolution also condemns "negative stereotyping of religions and racial groups," which is of course an oblique reference to accurate reporting about the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism -- for that, not actual negative stereotyping or hateful language, is always the focus of whining by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and allied groups. They never say anything when people like Osama bin Laden and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed issue detailed Koranic expositions justifying violence and hatred; but when people like Geert Wilders and others report about such expositions, that's "negative stereotyping."

But we still have the First Amendment, right? Legal expert Eugene Volokh, in an excellent analysis of the resolution, explains why it isn't that easy to dismiss this. "If the U.S. backs a resolution that urges the suppression of some speech," he explains, "presumably we are taking the view that all countries -- including the U.S. -- should adhere to this resolution. If we are constitutionally barred from adhering to it by our domestic constitution, then we're implicitly criticizing that constitution, and committing ourselves to do what we can to change it." He adds that in order to be consistent, "the Administration would presumably have to take what steps it can to ensure that supposed 'hate speech' that incites hostility will indeed be punished. It would presumably be committed to filing amicus briefs supporting changes in First Amendment law to allow such punishment, and in principle perhaps the appointment of Justices who would endorse such changes (or even the proposal of express constitutional amendments that would work such changes)."

Last year the Secretary General of the OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu issued a warning: "We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed" regarding free speech about Islam and terrorism. And he reported success: "The official West and its public opinion are all now well-aware of the sensitivities of these issues. They have also started to look seriously into the question of freedom of expression from the perspective of its inherent responsibility, which should not be overlooked."

For the first time, an American President has bowed to the OIC's demands and taken cognizance of that "responsibility" -- after years in which George W. Bush resisted such initiatives at the UN.

In October 2008, I wrote this in Human Events about early signs that Barack Obama had no great love for the freedom of speech: "If candidate Obama is willing to have people arrested when they say things about him that he doesn't like, will President Obama have the vision or courage or understanding to stand up against the OIC when it demands restrictions on freedom of speech at precisely the same time that he wants to build bridges to the Islamic world and demonstrate his power to restore hope and bring change to old stalemated conflicts?"

The answer is in. The answer is no.

Criminalizing everyone?! Needed: A 'clean line' to determine lawfulness!

[Analyst's note:  Very troubling.  This couple was importing and selling orchids! For this "offense," the disabled, frail husband was sentenced to 2 years in prison! ORCHIDS are now classified as 'criminal materials?'] 

By Brian W. Walsh

"You don't need to know. You can't know." That's what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.

The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris' longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor.

The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with - get this- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kathy and George Norris lived under the specter of a covert government investigation for almost six months before the government unsealed a secret indictment and revealed why the Fish and Wildlife Service had treated their family home as if it were a training base for suspected terrorists. Orchids.
That's right. Orchids.

By March 2004, federal prosecutors were well on their way to turning 66-year-old retiree George Norris into an inmate in a federal penitentiary - based on his home-based business of cultivating, importing and selling orchids.

Mrs. Norris testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime this summer. The hearing's topic: the rapid and dangerous expansion of federal criminal law, an expansion that is often unprincipled and highly partisan.

Chairman Robert C. Scott, Virginia Democrat, and ranking member Louie Gohmert, Texas Republican, conducted a truly bipartisan hearing (a D.C. rarity this year).

These two leaders have begun giving voice to the increasing number of experts who worry about "overcriminalization." Astronomical numbers of federal criminal laws lack specifics, can apply to almost anyone and fail to protect innocents by requiring substantial proof that an accused person acted with actual criminal intent.

Mr. Norris ended up spending almost two years in prison because he didn't have the proper paperwork for some of the many orchids he imported. The orchids were all legal - but Mr. Norris and the overseas shippers who had packaged the flowers had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treaty's new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora.

The judge who sentenced Mr. Norris had some advice for him and his wife: "Life sometimes presents us with lemons." Their job was, yes, to "turn lemons into lemonade."

The judge apparently failed to appreciate how difficult it is to run a successful lemonade stand when you're an elderly diabetic with coronary complications, arthritis and Parkinson's disease serving time in a federal penitentiary. If only Mr. Norris had been a Libyan terrorist, maybe some European official at least would have weighed in on his behalf to secure a health-based mercy release.

Krister Evertson, another victim of overcriminalization, told Congress, "What I have experienced in these past years is something that should scare you and all Americans." He's right. Evertson, a small-time entrepreneur and inventor, faced two separate federal prosecutions stemming from his work trying to develop clean-energy fuel cells.

The feds prosecuted Mr. Evertson the first time for failing to put a federally mandated sticker on an otherwise lawful UPS package in which he shipped some of his supplies. A jury acquitted him, so the feds brought new charges. This time they claimed he technically had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials - something he had no intention of doing - while defending himself against the first charges. Mr. Evertson, too, spent almost two years in federal prison.

As George Washington University law professor Stephen Saltzburg testified at the House hearing, cases like these "illustrate about as well as you can illustrate the overreach of federal criminal law." The Cato Institute's Timothy Lynch, an expert on overcriminalization, called for "a clean line between lawful conduct and unlawful conduct." A person should not be deemed a criminal unless that person "crossed over that line knowing what he or she was doing." Seems like common sense, but apparently it isn't to some federal officials.

Former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh's testimony captured the essence of the problems that worry so many criminal-law experts. "Those of us concerned about this subject," he testified, "share a common goal - to have criminal statutes that punish actual criminal acts and [that] do not seek to criminalize conduct that is better dealt with by the seeking of regulatory and civil remedies." Only when the conduct is sufficiently wrongful and severe, Mr. Thornburgh said, does it warrant the "stigma, public condemnation and potential deprivation of liberty that go along with [the criminal] sanction."

The Norrises' nightmare began with the search in October 2003. It didn't end until Mr. Norris was released from federal supervision in December 2008. His wife testified, however, that even after he came home, the man she had married was still gone. He was by then 71 years old. Unsurprisingly, serving two years as a federal convict - in addition to the years it took to defend unsuccessfully against the charges - had taken a severe toll on him mentally, emotionally and physically.

These are repressive consequences for an elderly man who made mistakes in a small business. The feds should be ashamed, and Mr. Evertson is right that everyone else should be scared. Far too many federal laws are far too broad.

Mr. Scott and Mr. Gohmert have set the stage for more hearings on why this places far too many Americans at risk of unjust punishment. Members of both parties in Congress should follow their lead.
Brian W. Walsh is senior legal research fellow in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Video: Barney Frank Compares American Immigration Policy Debate to Holocaust

Video: Mark Levin Outlines GOP Health Care Plan in Two Minutes

Intelligence Fiasco Footnote

from Nancy Kennon

The authors of the 2007 Iran NIE have some explaining to do.

When it comes to politicized intelligence in the Bush years, the critics may finally have a point. Perhaps the work of America's intelligence agencies was manipulated to suit the convenience of a small group of willful officials, intent on getting their way against the better judgment of their colleagues.

Except the intelligence was about Iran, not Iraq, and the manipulators weren't conniving neocons but rather the Administration's internal critics on the left.

That's one way to look at last month's revelation that Iran is building a secret second site to enrich uranium, among other emerging intelligence details.

Video: Rush Limbaugh - Higher Taxes in Healthcare Bill

American troops in Afghanistan losing heart, say army chaplains

(Analyst's note:  Strategy matters ...)

Holdren warned of coming ice age Science chief argued for population control to limit 'global cooling'

By Jerome R. Corsi

John Holdren

What is clear from the record going back over nearly four decades is that White House science czar John Holdren is a climate alarmist, even if he can't make up his mind whether the crisis is the Earth warming up or cooling down.
But long before Holdren was the global warming Cassandra he is today, he was a global cooling alarmist predicting a new ice age.

The only consistency seems to be that Holdren has always utilized climate hysteria to argue that government must mandate public policy measures to prevent imminent and otherwise unavoidable climate catastrophes.

In the 1970s, Holdren's theme was that government-mandated population control was essential to prevent "eco-disasters" such as the foreseen coming new ice age; today Holdren urges immediate passage of the Obama administration's proposed cap-and-trade legislation to control carbon emissions before it is too late to save the planet from global warming. ....

Congressman slams 'un-American' insurance mandates GOP's Shadegg: 'It's almost so shocking you can't believe it'

(Analyst's note:  Extremely troubling report.)

Taking the pill for past 40 years 'has put women off masculine men'

(Analyst's note:  Now we know ...  With this story, one only has to look at the pictures over time.  Simply click on the above title.)

Local Agents Bust Dozens in Major 'Phish Fry'

from KTLA News

LOS ANGELES -- Dozens of people are under arrest in Southern California, Nevada, North Carolina and Egypt in a major crackdown against identity theft.

The FBI launched "Operation Phish Fry" to bust an identity theft ring that has victimized thousands of people.

An FBI statement says an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Los Angeles charges more than 50 people in the United States with running the "phishing" scheme.

Egyptian authorities have charged another 47.

The FBI says it's the largest number of defendants ever charged in a cybercrime case.

Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles, says the suspects are accused of running a "phishing" scheme that used computer intrusion and fraud to obtain personal information that allowed them to withdraw money from bank accounts. Egyptian hackers used e-mails to direct victims to phony bank Web sites, where they were to asked to provide account numbers and passwords. Authorities say the thieves then raided their bank accounts.

A large number of marijuana plants were found during a raid of a home in Baldwin Village belonging to a "key" player in the phishing scheme.

The FBI says 33 people were arrested Wednesday morning, mostly in Southern California, Nevada and North Carolina.

Eimiller says victims lost about $2 million dollars.

2 Arrested After Connecticut Police Find Car Filled With Explosives

Two people were arrested after authorities in Connecticut stopped a car full of explosives in a New Haven residential neighborhood.

Police charged 38-year-old John Iannucci of Branford and 27-year-old Jessup Bollinger of New Haven with manufacture of bombs, illegal possession of explosives and other charges.

Both men were being held on $500,000 bond. It was unclear if they had attorneys.
New Haven Officer Joseph Avery says police don't know if the suspects planned to use the explosives, because they're not talking much to investigators.

FBI New Haven spokesman William Reiner told FOXNews.com that the bureau is now helping local police in the probe, but declined to elaborate.

Cops pulled over a motorist Tuesday night allegedly driving a car full of pipe bombs, rifles and a propane tank in New Haven around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to FOX 61.

SLIDESHOW: Bomb-Packed Car Case

A bomb squad was called in and a silver Mercedes was towed away, according to FOX 61. There have been no reports of injuries.

Authorities closed off a four-block area because of the danger posed by the explosives, but did not evacuate.

Click here for more from FOX 61.

Islamophobes urge Canadian government to ban burqas, niqabs in public -- no, wait...

by Robert Spencer

Actually it was a Canadian Muslim group -- a group that knows full well what these garments mean for the subjugation of women. But our enlightened multicultural Western governments know better, of course. "Muslim group urges gov't to ban burkas, niqabs in public," from The Canadian Press, October 7 (thanks to Maxwell):

TORONTO -- Middle Eastern garments designed to cover a woman's face are "medieval" and "misogynist" symbols of extremism with no basis in Islam, a Canadian Muslim lobby group said Wednesday as it urged Ottawa to ban the burka and the niqab.

The Muslim Canadian Congress called on the federal government to prohibit the two garments in order to prevent women from covering their faces in public -- a practice the group said has no place in a society that supports gender equality.

"To cover your face is to conceal your identity," congress spokeswoman Farzana Hassan said in a telephone interview, describing the issue as a matter of public safety, since concealing one's identity is a common practice for criminals.

The tradition of Muslim women covering their faces in public is a tradition rooted more in Middle Eastern culture than in the Islamic faith, Hassan added.

There is nothing in any of the primary Islamic religious texts, including the Qur'an, that requires women to cover their faces, she said -- not even in the controversial, ultra-conservative tenets of Sharia law.

Considering the fact that women are in fact forbidden from wearing burkas in the grand mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, it hardly makes sense that the practice should be permitted in Canada, she said.

"If a government claims to uphold equality between men and women, there is no reason for them to support a practice that marginalizes women."...

Federal Reserve - The People's Gov't and Associates at Work

(Analyst's note: Just received an interesting, absolutely must read e-mail from a friend in Maryland and one of the responses of which he speaks.)

Last week I sent a question to Senator Mikulski, asking what happened to 2,000,000,000 dollars that apparently has gone missing from the Federal Reserve. And other question like who has the oversight, who monitors it, with what regularity, where can citizens go to see and read about the results, etc.

In return two days ago I received a stupid response telling me about the clean water act and how that was going. I have/had no interested in my question to the clean water act and it was the response from one of her staff, thinking that they were being funny.

So I answered the clean water response with a - OK let's see how funny I can be. I told them that I personally know several people who write for the Annapolis Newspaper and the Maryland Gazette. I explained that I have received several responses to my serious questions, with no related answers - and that I thought they were intentional ridicules of a Maryland Citizen. I have them all here on my computer and thought I would send them to the Newspapers, FOX and my entire distribution list on my Internet account. I told them that I will personally call the Senator and request a meeting and I will send that email into her "EYES ONLY" And I promise to get together the largest group in the state of Maryland to see that she and her staff are not around after 2010 to ridicule Maryland Citizens.

Thus far today, I have received two answers to previously asked questions giving me much better, although incomplete, answers to my emails to the Senator. I want to know where the missing 2 trillion dollars from the Federal Reserve is? Who spent it, By what Authority, where did it go, and who signed the authority document? It is taxpayers money and we are entitled to know that. Please write to your representatives and ask them where it went - it was our money. Did we send it to Iran to help them build the bomb faster, Did we send it to Palestine to help the needy there???? Like the man said, "Show me My Money!)"


My Friend's Name
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. ______:

Thank you for getting in touch with me about the Federal Reserve.  It's great to hear from you.

I appreciate hearing your views and I understand your concerns.  Congress created the Fed in 1913 to serve as the central bank and set monetary policy for the United States.  It has two equally critical goals: to promote full employment and contain inflation.  Pursuing these goals requires the Federal Reserve be insulated against political pressures so that it can make decisions in the long term best interests of the economy.  At the same time, the Fed must be accountable for its actions.  This is especially true now after the Fed has taken such dramatic and unprecedented steps to head off the collapse of the financial system and the economy.

I supported amendments to the Congressional Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 13) and the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (Public Law 111-22) that would have increased transparency at the Federal Reserve and required additional information about the Fed's use of monetary policy in response to the credit crisis.  But these amendments ultimately did not become law.

The Government Accountability Office currently audits the Fed, but it is prohibited from examining the agency's monetary policy actions.  The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act (S. 604) would provide additional authority to audit the entire Federal Reserve System by 2010 and report to Congress.

S. 604 is currently pending in the Senate Banking Committee.  Knowing of your views is helpful to me, and I will keep them in mind should this legislation come before the full Senate.

Again, thanks for contacting me.  Please let me know if I can be of assistance to you in the future.

Sincerely,
Barbara A. Mikulski
United States Senator


Please do not respond directly to this e-mail. The originating e-mail account is not monitored.
If you would like to get in touch with me again, please visit my Webform at http://mikulski.senate.gov/Contact/contact.cfm
 

Beck: US Newspapers Print More About ‘Jon and Kate’ Than Demise of the Dollar

Senate Health Bill Imposes $29B More in Taxes

Congressional tax experts (Congressional Budget Office) reported that the bill would impose more taxes on health care industries than originally thought -- levies that could be passed on to consumers

Riqa Bary Dependency Trial Court docs: Ohio terror imam Hany Saqr is Muslim Brotherhood leader

from the Jawa Report

One of the more interesting development that has come out of the Riqa Bary dependency trial thus far is the meticulously footnoted 35 page memorandum submitted to the Florida court by Rifqa's attorney, John Stemberger, concerning the Bary family mosque in Ohio, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center. According to Rifqa's affidavit, individuals from the mosque had reported her Christian faith to her father and the mosque leaders ordered him to get his daughter "in line", leading to the threats her parents have admitted to that prompted her to flee to Florida. Her affidavit also documents the Bary's families activity with the Noor Center.

We've reported on the Noor mosque previously, but there are important elements to the Stemberger memo worth additional attention concerns the head of the mosque, Hany Saqr, who is identified on the Noor website as the "founder, spiritual leader, administrator and chairman" of the mosque.
Saqr's name came up during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial (which resulted in convictions against the defendants on all counts) as one of the top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in North America. Specifically, he was identified in a 1992 Muslim Brotherhood phone directory entered into evidence by the Department of Justice as a member of the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, and the Eastern region "masul" for the group. The image below (taken from the illustrated memo on the Florida Security Council's website) shows the cover of the directory and Hany Saqr's name listed on the board of directors page:  (Note: click on title above to see this full picture)

As Fox News reported after the memo had been submitted to the court, Saqr denied all the charges. Presumably, this includes his denial that he was identified in the court documents. But not only was the home phone number listed in the directory registered to his home address at the time (as it appeared on his Ohio drivers license), but the office number also went to his office in the pathology department at Ohio State University according to university records. Additionally, the home phone listed in the court documents was registered for several years following that time, including to the address Saqr used when he and his colleagues incorporated the American Islamic Waqf - the parent corporation of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center.

We'll wait and see if his supporters show up in the comments to deny this.

In the next few days we will have more info on Dr. Saqr, but for anyone who isn't familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, we would recommend this 2004 Chicago Tribune article as an intro into the terrorist ties of the organization (that also came up during the Holy Land Foundation trial) and the secretive nature of their operations in the US. Stay tuned for more!

Jihad terror cell found in Hamburg, where 9/11 was plotted

(Analyst's note:  Remember the recent AQ warning to Germany found and posted here?  One can reason that it was more than just a warning.)

from Jihad Watch

"The danger is absolutely real."

"Terrorist cell found in Hamburg where 9/11 attacks conceived," from the Telegraph, October 7 (thanks to James):

An Islamic terrorist cell has been discovered in Hamburg, the city where the 9/11 attacks were planned eight years ago.

German intelligence services learned that a new militant group with ten members, headed by a German of Syrian origins, had sprung up in the port city....

The ten members are understood to have left Hamburg early this year to attend paramilitary camps in the Hindu Kush, however, two are thought to have recently returned.

All of them were said to have used Hamburg's Taiba Mosque as a meeting place, the same location frequented by the 9/11 leader Mohammed Atta and his accomplices. They went onto carry out the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and Washington.
"It is to be assumed that these persons are absolutely prepared to carry out suicide or other attacks at home or abroad," the report said, according to Die Welt and Report Mainz.
"The members of the group have a basic commitment to jihad and belong to Hamburg's potentially violent pro-jihad scene."...

Anti-terrorist police set up a security cordon around the Oktoberfest in Munich, the world's largest beer festival, and fighter jets were put on standby.

"The danger is absolutely real," said Joachim Hermann, the Bavarian Interior Minister. "We know that increasing numbers are attending these training camps."

Your health records available to millions Including sensitive details about diseases, prescriptions, addictions, mental illness

(Analyst's note:  Troubling.)


By Chelsea Schilling

Would American citizens object if they knew 4 million health-related businesses distributed private details about their mental illnesses, cancer diagnoses, sexually transmitted diseases, prescriptions, addictions and sensitive genetic information?

Psychoanalyst Dr. Deborah Peel told WND most patients don't know that their highly sensitive information is being shared with thousands of law-enforcement agencies, insurance brokers, life and health insurance companies, credit bureaus, transcription vendors, disease registries, employers and banks every day – and the data can be used to discriminate against Americans.

"Part of the language that keeps people assured is they say things like, 'No unauthorized users can see your information.' That sounds pretty good," she said. "The problem is, they don't tell you how many authorized users there are."

Peel, founder of Patient Privacy Rights, the nation's leading consumer health privacy advocacy organization, said patients often have a false sense of security when they sign Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, forms in doctors' offices. She warned that those forms only affirm that the patient has received notice that health-related businesses can share records.

PPR's website warns that this information sharing can effect Americans in a variety of ways. It posted the following list of examples:

• If a school or university learns your child has ADHD or is being treated for depression, they may deny admission.

• If a boss knows you take Xanax or Zoloft, they may reconsider your promotion.

• If you or your spouse have a serious or costly chronic illness, an employer may not hire you or your children. A bank may deny a loan or credit.

• If you get a genetic test, most researchers and companies claim to own your DNA. Hospitals freely use the DNA of all newborns. If you carry the breast cancer gene, you, your children and grandchildren may always be stigmatized, even if they aren't sick.....

Gulf officials deny plan to replace dollar

(Wall Street Journal) Arab officials in the Persian Gulf strongly denied a report that they're in secret talks to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies to price oil ...

Obama administration backs U.N. limits on free speech

(Anne Bayefsky) Islamic states quickly interpreted the president's penchant for "engagement" as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs ...

Surrendering U.S. Sovereignty at G-20 Summit

(Analyst's  note:  How is that change going?  This is a must read item.)


By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

While all eyes were on the rantings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations, the United States — under President Obama — was surrendering its economic sovereignty at the G-20 summit.

The result of this conclave, which France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy hailed as “revolutionary,” was that all the nations agreed to coordinate their economic policies and programs and to submit them to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for comment and approval.

While the G-20 nations and the IMF are, for now, only going to use “moral suasion” on those nations found not to be in compliance, talk of sanctions looms on the horizon.

While the specific policies to which the U.S. committed itself (reducing the deficit and strengthening regulatory oversight of financial institutions) are laudable in themselves, the process and the precedent are frightening.

We are to subject our most basic national economic policies to the review of a group of nations that includes autocratic Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Even though our gross domestic product is three times bigger than the second-largest economy (Japan) and equal to that of 13 of the G-20 nations combined, we are to sit politely by with our one vote and submit to the global consensus. Europe has five votes (Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the EU), while we have but one.

And the process will be administered by the IMF, whose counsel to less-developed nations over the past two decades has consistently called for social pain and economic austerity. The IMF’s misguided policies have been responsible for more revolutions than Marx, Engels, and Lenin combined. Its bureaucrats’ arrogance is legendary, and its search for appropriate punishments to fit the crime of spending too much on the poor smacks of colonialism and imperialism. They are our new overseers.
This combination of the IMF and the G-20 will not only work to structure national economic policies but to limit executive compensation at financial institutions. The watchful, wise leaders of such nations as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia — among others — will monitor Wall Street to assure themselves that their compensation is not out of line. One particularly looks forward to the views of the Saudi monarchy on this question of excessive personal enrichment.

Perhaps as part of his public spasm of apology, President Obama also strove successfully to increase the voting strength of the debtor nations on the IMF from the current 43 percent to 48 percent. This is the economic equivalent of giving deadbeat debtors more votes on their bank’s governing board of directors.

Thus, the world’s most successful economy, ours — which is the only one that has produced reliable economic growth for three decades and has lifted real personal incomes almost every year — is going to subject itself to the burden of justifying its own economic policies in front of a global community of 20 nations, some of which do not even embrace free-market economies in the first place.

Indeed, it is only through access to our markets that nations have been able to escape poverty. Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China and India have sequentially trod this path into prosperity.

Obviously, we live in a global economy. But the United States is 24 percent of it. We are entitled to more than one-twentieth of a voice, and it is the world that should be following our policies — not the other way around.

Much of the damage of the Obama administration can be undone at the next election. But such grants of sovereignty to autocratic, backward, bureaucratic and even communist nations will be hard to undo.

The world is recovering from its leftist obsession — e.g., the Angela Merkel victory in Germany. But by the time the voters discover how phony, failed and fraudulent these policies are, we may have given it all away already. Irrevocably.

Silent-but-deadly jihad: Al-Qaeda increasing use of suppository bombs

(Analyst's note:  Troubling.  How about simply running everyone through a bomb proof booth that is saturated with phone frequencies.  We might need more than one booth - giving us time to hose out those "caught in the act" of jihad.  Just a thought ... )

from Jihad Watch

No, we didn't get this story from The Onion. But the humorous potential is tempered by the fact that this tactic is already precipitating yet another wave of costly, inconvenient, and possibly even unhealthful security measures for travelers, as security agencies ponder the inclusion of full-body X-Rays at security checkpoints to catch devices such as these, as well as possible surgically implanted bombs.
"France: Daily reports Al-Qaeda 'suppository bomb'," from AdnKronos International, October 6 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Paris, 6 October (AKI) - Al-Qaeda-linked suicide bombers are now using 'suppository bombs' to evade stringent security checks at airports and elsewhere, according to a report in French daily Le Figaro. The paper cites information from France's newly formed DCRI anti-terrorist services.

The devices are undetectable and were used in an assassination attempt in Saudi Arabia in late August, according to DCRI.

The target of the attack, prince Mohammed bin Nayef, son of the Saudi interior minister, suffered only minor injuries when his attacker, wanted Islamist Abul Khair detonated the bomb using a mobile phone. The attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda.

"Khair either swallowed the explosives or inserted them as a suppository," said senior French interior ministry official, quoted by Le Figaro.

The officials said palace security guards in Saudi Arabia had failed to remove Khair's mobile phone.

Security officials worldwide are now considering how to tackle the new threat.

Only X-ray's would have been able to detect the 'suppository bomb' device, but these are not being considered for general security controls, according to officials.

X-ray's are not used for general security scanning due to radiation risks as well cost.

One solution could be to detect and remove the cell phones needed to detonate the 'explosive suppositories', according to a police scientific expert quoted by Le Figaro.

More on potential security measures: "Travellers to Europe face full body X-rays after Al Qaeda suicide bombers ploy to hide devices INSIDE their bodies," from the Daily Mail, October 6:

Travellers to Europe face being treated like drug smugglers as security chiefs are expected to recommend new intrusive security measures.

French anti-terror chiefs are expected to propose the new measures, such as full body X-rays or handing in all electronic devices, after a terrorist tried to kill a Saudi prince with a bomb he had inserted into his body.

Al Qaeda's latest ploy was first pioneered by Abdullah Hassan al Asiri, who blew himself apart in Jeddah in late August in an attack on Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi anti-terrorism chief.

The 23-year-old terrorist blew himself into 70 pieces when he detonated the bomb - inserted into his rectum - with a mobile phone.

His body was said to have absorbed some of the impact of the explosion, however, leaving the prince only slightly injured.

However experts claimed such a blast would be catastrophic in the pressurised atmosphere of a passenger jet.

Now President Nicolas Sarkozy's new domestic intelligence directorate (DCRI) is considering draconian measures, police commanders told Le Figaro newspaper.

But some in the government are already slamming measures that would leave passengers being treated as drug smugglers.

'It is unthinkable when you think about the frequency with which some people fly,' a senior Interior Ministry official told Le Figaro. 'The health risks would be too high.'...

Feds Strip Sheriff Joe of Immigration Enforcement Authority, But Decline to Require Him Wear Pink Underwear

from ImmigrationProf Blog






Dawnt for Daily Kos reports that "America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio announced yesterday that the U.S. government has removed Maricopa County, Arizona's authorization to assist in the enforcement of the U.S. immigration laws.  Why you might ask?  "Arpaio is currently under investigation by the Dept of Justice for civil rights violations, and by the Dept of Labor for labor violations. He is being sued by a number of individuals, organizations, and fellow local officials. 

The mayors of two cities in Maricopa County have called him out for what they allege is racial profiling."  ....

----------------------------------------------------
I just received these comments from Brittanicus which are too good to leave "buried" in the comments section of this article summary which one has to click to see.  Thus, I've incorporated them within the post.  My thanks to Brittanicus.

"The usual suspects are defying--THE AMERICAN PEOPLE--and are implicit in this weakening of our laws is Janet Napolitano, head of the Homeland Security. We all must realize with BLANKET AMNESTY on the immediate horizon, their using all the stops to collapse anything that smells of immigration enforcement. Anybody who has investigated the Democratic leadership would slowly weaken 287 G, that gave regular police training to question suspicious people about their immigrant status? Arizona County Sheriff Joe Ariapo was sure to be marked by Napolitano, because his deputies were having a incredulous success rate, in apprehending illegal aliens in his jurisdiction. However the corrupt lawmakers around the nation, have not been able to crush E-Verify? AS YET?

By now most business are conscious of the federal program E-Verify? It distinguishes US citizens and legal residents from illegal labor. Although not seamless, it has a 99.6 success rate and obviously will overtime become even more constructive to business that believes in the "Rule of Law." Opponents in both the business sector and even on Capitol Hill have released a torrent of abuse against the application. That includes its function is blind to counterfeit documentation and spurious ID and that even legal individuals can be rejected? SO--YOU GO TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE TO BE EXONERATED? ONLY ILLEGAL WORKERS WILL SHUN TURNING TO SSA FOR RESOLVING THIS ISSUE.

The open border conspirators are losing, as they did in a federal Maryland court a week previous. As E-Verify are perfected it needs to become a permanent tool in the incomplete arsenal of immigration enforcement. It needs to reach out to every company, big and small, in our country and every individual who works there? E-Verify eventually will expel foreign national from the workplace, without financial appropriations on a large scale. These people will self-deport when they cannot be hired anymore. Businesses facing huge fines and prison will be the ultimate deterrent. In time it will save our ailing schools, health care, home mortgages and government welfare system. Look to NUMBERSUSA for honest an answer, that includes costs to taxpayers for the new blanket AMNESTY. Which Senators and Republicans are anti-US American Worker and their immigration grades?

For an example Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has a miserable enforcement grade of "C-". He was out to erase E-Verify, under fund the border fence from the beginning of the Democratic administration. Then JUDICIAL WATCH is a public watchdog group Promoting Integrity, Transparency and Accountability in Government, Politics and the Law. They uncover misconduct by government officials and litigation to hold to account politicians and public officials who engage in corrupt activities. Finally CAPSWEB informs the public about the coming nightmare of OVERPOPULATION that is already exhibiting itself in our deteriorating infrastructure. TELL YOUR POLITICIANS YOU HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE AT 202-224-3121

SAY NO PRO –ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LIBERAL SOCIALIST--SANCTUARY CITY--MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA.

Incidentally regarding the 2010 Census? Small states will miss out big time on federal dollars, while mass illegal immigrant states will gain more seats in Congress and too much power and influence? Of course ICE could check the immigration status of those who are counted, even though it's supposedly against US law? Or is counting 20 million plus (?) non-legal residence against the US Constitution?"

Press Release: Rep. Myrick Connects the Dots of the Recent US Terror Plots

 (Analyst's note:  Absolutely must read.  Eleven days ago Rep. Sue Myrick, co-chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Anti-Terrorism Caucus, put out the release below, connecting the dots between the spate of recently-foiled terrorist plots. Rep. Myrick is one of many in the House and Senate who do in fact now “get it.” )

“There is no current evidence that materially connects any of the terror plots recently revealed.  However, I have taken sentences directly from FBI press releases, and FBI investigative documents, and highlighted the clear connection below .  These plots are all tied together by one thing: a global ideology that is self-identified by its believers as jihadist, or “jihadiyya”.   It is hard to ignore this fact  when in these cases below several of these men very clearly, and very directly, state that they followed this ideology (jihad), and wanted to kill.

I find this connection disturbing seeing as these plots come on the heels of the Administration's efforts to rename 'jihadists' - which is what they call themselves - 'violent extremists'." 

- US Rep. Sue Myrick 

 

FBI Arrests Jordanian Citizen for Attempting to Bomb Skyscraper in Downtown Dallas: http://dallas.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/dl092409.htm  “Smadi made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Usama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, and to conduct violent jihad.”

 

Illinois Man Arrested in Plot to Bomb Courthouse and Murder Federal Employees: http://springfield.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2009/si092409.htm “…Finton expressed his desire to receive military training and to travel to Gaza or other overseas locations to become a jihadist fighter.”

 

NC Boyd Case—New Charges…Possible Target was Marine Corps Base Quantico: http://charlotte.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2009/ce092409.htm “According to the indictment, during the period from 1989 through 1992, Daniel Boyd traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.”

 

NY Transit Terror Case- indictment handed down- conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction—explosive bombs—in the United States: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/sept09/zazi_092409.html    Zazi has told FBI investigators that he "attended courses at an al Qaeda training facility" while in Pakistan.

Brooklyn Resident Indicted for the Conspiracy to Commit Murder Overseas and Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorists: http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo092409a.htm   “According to the indictment and other documents filed by the government, in early January 2009, Kaziu devised a plan to travel abroad for the purpose of joining a radical foreign fighter group and to take up arms against perceived enemies of Islam.”

FTC to Regulate Blogging

Print Texas terror suspect made video for bin Laden, FBI says

Biowatch Quietly Protects Nation From Biological Terror Threat

from National Terror Alert

I’m always impressed by the countless men and women who quietly work behind the scenes to protect this nation from the threat of terrorism. It’s not often that you get even a small glimpse into the vital role many of them play, yet for every investigation and every plot that is thwarted there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, who played a crucial role. One such group, Biowatch, is featured in a USA today article.

Behind the scenes, system sniffs for biological attacks
A ringing telephone startled Tom Slezak from a sound sleep. It was 1 a.m. on Oct. 6, 2001. The caller gave Slezak three hours to pack for a chilling, top-secret mission: to protect Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities from a major bioterror attack.

For all Slezak knew, an attack had begun. Hours earlier, a Florida photo editor named Bob Stevens had died after inhaling anthrax powder sent by mail, jolting a nation that was still reeling from the 9/11 hijackings. At the time, the scope of the anthrax attacks that eventually killed five people and sickened 17 others wasn’t clear.

Slezak got the call because he helped pioneer the genetic analysis of biological agents at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Today, eight years after the anthrax attacks, the system Slezak’s research team started, known as BioWatch, is quietly operating in more than 30 cities.

A federally funded, locally run program with an $80 million annual budget, it depends on a network of vacuum pumps that draw surrounding air through filters, sniffing for signs of biological agents.

[...]

The scenarios envisioned by Hooks and other Homeland Security officials are enough to keep anyone awake at night: A terrorist in a pickup in Charlotte, spewing a biological agent through an agricultural sprayer. A small plane releasing microbes into night skies upwind of Washington, D.C. Someone spraying anthrax from a briefcase in Pennsylvania Station in New York, the busiest transit hub in the USA, with 600,000 people streaming through each day.

“How many people would be infected? How far would it spread? They’d go right through there, jump on a train and be gone,” Hooks says. “Those are the kinds of things I worry about.”

The only way to know the detection system is capable of picking up such threats is to test it, says Omberg of Los Alamos. BioWatch analysts have released benign microbes upwind of likely terrorist targets and population centers. BioWatch sensors in the Washington, D.C., area have reliably picked up bacteria released near the Pentagon and Tysons Corner, a close-in office and retail hub in Virginia.

Real-world alerts, such as the tularemia incident in Washington, D.C., also have helped some cities gear up for a biological incident. Houston, even more than Washington, is home to the bacteria that cause tularemia, Francisella tularensis, which regularly triggers BioWatch alerts.

Read the full article

Good News for Terrorists: Democrat Revisions to the Patriot Act

If only terrorists would be so accommodating as not to change cell phones, the new curbs on the Patriot Act being pushed by Democrats in Congress would not be so dangerous. ....

New Shar'iah Charity Fund: Underwriting Radical Islam?

by Hana Levi Julian

A new global Islamic charity fund set to launch in early 2010 may become the vehicle to support something entirely different, according to Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, who warned that the new charity must be watched carefully. sharia

In an exclusive interview Monday with Israel National News, Jasser expressed deep concern that the World Zakat Fund, established in part by the Malaysian government, may be "nothing more than a ruse to give transnational Islamist movements and their controlling Muslim theocrats an economic power base."

The new fund will collect donations from the 2.5 percent "zakat" set aside under Shar'iah law by observant Muslims who have the wherewithal to save money. According to a statement released to the media, it is the first Islamic charity fund ever to be established.

The fund is hoping to raise nearly a billion dollars by the end of its first year. Humayon Dar, CEO of BMB Islamic, the Shar'iah adviser to the fund, said last week that donors have made soft commitments of approximately $50 million thus far.

That could grow to as much as $10 billion within the first decade, however: Dar estimated there are some 40,000 high-net-worth Muslims in the Middle East alone, including 400 billionaires. He added that between $20 billion to $30 billion in zakat is distributed in the Muslim world each year.
'Giving the Fox the Keys to the Henhouse'

Jasser told INN that he believes the fund would simply serve to consolidate financial power "in vast orders of magnitude" and then hand it over to the member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

These are countries that have refused to abide by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, he pointed out, "and do not adhere to the same standards of human rights as Western nations."

Moreover, he said, "As far as I know, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mohamed Mahathir, has never retracted his comment from 2002 where he stated, 'A universal Islamic banking system is a jihad worth pursuing to abolish this slavery [to the West].'"

Giving OIC nations the collective ability to determine the distribution of "Muslim charity," he said, is "the epitome of giving the 'fox the keys to the henhouse.'"

'Benign Distribution of Funds by Radical Islamists?'
It is not yet clear where and how the funds from the new charity will be distributed, Jasser noted. "At this point, the effort is in its infancy, and the important details of where their monies will go is unknown."

However, he said, the controlling members of the fund's Shar'iah finance board merit some concern:

Dr. Ali al-Quradaghi is a member of the European Council of Fatwa Research, and a colleague of the global spiritual guide of the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Yusuf Qaradawi, who has sanctioned terrorist activity in Israel and Iraq. Qaradawi has also called for the murder of Muslim apostates, and has expressed the intention of replacing Western capitalism with "integrated Islamic philosophy."
Syria's Abdul Sattar Abu Guddah, is closely affiliated with Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who has been removed from numerous boards of Western banks, according to Jasser. Abu Guddah was on the board of the al-Baraka Bank, which was implicated in the financing of the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States. The allegations against the bank were later dismissed.

Abdul-aziz Fawzan Saleh Al-Fawzan is a Saudi Arabia-based Wahabi Islamist whom Jasser calls "a self-proclaimed hater of Christians."

In addition, the management board of BMB Islamic includes three members who hail from the International Islamic University in Pakistan. Jasser noted that in a seminar held recently by the university on Israel and Gaza, "The speaker provided an interpretation of the Koran, Chapter 5, which is anti-Semitic and incites violence."

University president Anwar Siddiqui led a discussion at the same conference with a panel of radical Islamists, Jasser said, "who called for the Islamic state in Gaza and the West Bank and for a boycott of America and Israel," among others.

"I cannot imagine how individuals as radical as this are going to distribute billions in funds in a 'benign' method globally," he said pointedly.

White House angry at General Stanley McChrystal speech on Afghanistan

The relationship between President Barack Obama and the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has been put under severe strain by Gen Stanley McChrystal's comments on strategy for the war.

Will Social Security survive the recession? Tax revenue plummets while retirees seek early benefits

Gen. Petraeus Was Treated for Prostate Cancer

Petraeus underwent two months of radiation treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, and the treatment was successful, a spokesman says.

No Rush to Escalate

By E.J. Dionne Jr.

 At a White House dinner with a group of historians at the beginning of the summer, Robert Dallek, a shrewd student of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, offered a chilling comment to President Obama.

 "In my judgment," he recalls saying, "war kills off great reform movements." The American record is pretty clear: World War I brought the Progressive Era to a close. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was waging World War II, he was candid in saying that "Dr. New Deal" had given way to "Dr. Win the War." Korea ended Harry Truman's Fair Deal, and Vietnam brought Lyndon Johnson's Great Society to an abrupt halt.

Dallek is not a pacifist, and he does not pretend that his observation settles the question against war in every case. Of the four he mentioned, I think World War II and Korea were certainly necessary fights.

But Dallek's point helps explain why Obama is right to have grave qualms about an extended commitment of many more American troops to Afghanistan. Obama was elected not to escalate a war but to end one. The change and hope he promised did not involve a vast new campaign to transform Afghanistan. ....

Billions in U.S. Aid Never Reached Pakistan Army

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India.