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Britain was told yesterday by a United Nations committee to take firm action to combat 'negative public attitudes' towards Muslims.
The nine-member human rights committee also criticised some of the UK's antiterror measures.
The body, which is composed of legal experts, said it was concerned ' negative public attitudes towards Muslim members of society' continued to develop in Britain. ...
If ignorance and poverty are responsible for the growth of extremist views in the Islamic world, someone needs ask Muslim students, privileged enough and bright enough to attend some of the United Kingdom's best universities, why one-in-three of them endorses killing in the name of Islam.
The report of this finding, based on a poll of 600 Muslim and 800 non-Muslim students at 12 universities in the UK, and conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Center for Social Cohesion, will be released tomorrow as "Islam on Campus."
Among its findings of Muslim beliefs:
"Significant numbers appear to hold beliefs which contravene democratic values," Hannah Stuart, one of the report's authors, told the London Times. "These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said there is no extremism in British universities."
The report echoes one released last year by the Policy Exchange which found 37% of all Muslims aged 16-24 would prefer to live under a sharia system.
In addition to polling of 1,400 students, the researchers visited more than 20 universities to interview students and listen to guest speakers brought on campus. The report notes radical Islamic preachers regularly deliver inflammatory speeches that target homosexuals and border on anti-Semitism.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran now possesses 6,000 centrifuges, a significant increase in the number of uranium-enriching machines in its nuclear program, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The new figure is double the 3,000 centrifuges Iran had previously said it was operating in its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.
"Islamic Iran today possesses 6,000 centrifuges," Ahmadinejad told university professors in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
In April, Ahmadinejad said Iran had begun installing 6,000 centrifuges at Natanz. His reported comments Saturday provided the first public assertion that Iran has reached that goal. ...
In its negotiation with Iran, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany have offered a package of technological, economic and political incentives in return for Iran's cooperation. A report by the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency delivered to the Security Council in May said Iran had 3,500 centrifuges, although a senior U.N. official said at the time that Iran's goal of 6,000 machines running by the summer was "pretty much plausible." Uranium can be used as nuclear reactor fuel or as the core for atomic warheads, depending on the degree of enrichment. Iran says it is interested in enrichment only for its nuclear power program. The workhorse of Iran's enrichment program is the P-1 centrifuge, which is run in cascades of 164 machines. But Iranian officials confirmed in February that they had started using the IR-2 centrifuge that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate. A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that surpasses the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough material for dozens of nuclear weapons. Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that ultimately will involve 54,000 centrifuges.
By Douglas Farah
A bipartisan group is urging that an arms dealer with strong terrorist connections be extradited quickly to the United States to stand trial…
Christopher G. Adamo
Forces are at work striving to achieve nothing less than a repeal of free speech - the cornerstone of American greatness - at the discretion of those in power...
As a Muslim, I am continually mystified by our nation’s inability to foster an environment conducive to a real “contest of ideas” between Muslims. This ‘”intra-Muslim contest” is arguably the linchpin of an effective counterterrorism strategy and possibly the most important debate of the 21st century. The infamous January 2008 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memorandum, “Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations of American Muslims” only stifles progress in this debate. It absurdly admonishes government employees and thought leaders to avoid terms like Jihadist, Islamist, and Salafist.
'Many people may die for lack of basic elements necessary'
A report from the federal Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack has painted a bleak picture for America under such attack: Electricity grids down, uncontrolled fires from exploding gas transport systems, no communication to summon firefighters and if they could come, no water to battle fires. All in city after city after city.
The 200-page report says Americans should look to past incidents, then multiply those impacts by the number of cities that could be hit by such an attack. For example:
San Diego County Water Authority and San Diego County Gas and Electric companies experienced severe electromagnetic interference. … Both companies found themselves unable to actuate critical valve openings and closings. This inability necessitated sending technicians to remote locations to manually open and close water and gas valves, averting, in the words of a subsequent letter of complaint by the San Diego County Water Authority to the Federal Communications Commission, a potential 'catastrophic failure' of the aqueduct system.
The report explained the potential impact could have included an "aqueduct rupture" with disruption of service, severe flooding and related damage to private and public property. The source of the 1999 problem? Errant radar on a ship 25 miles off the coast of San Diego, the report said.
The report, published on the commission website, cited other scenarios that should be expected to develop subsequent to an EMP attack on the U.S.
On Aug. 19, 2000, an explosion occurred on one of three adjacent large natural gas pipelines near Carlsbad, N.M., … Twelve people, including five children, died. The explosion left an 86-foot-long crater. … The explosion happened because of failures in maintenance and loss of situational awareness, conditions that would be replicated by data acquisition disruptions caused by an EMP event.
The report also cited a 1994 refinery disaster in the United Kingdom in which lightning strikes resulted in a half-second power loss.
"Consequently, numerous pumps and overhead fin-fan coolers tripped repeatedly, resulting in the main crude column pressure safety valves lifting and major upsets in the process units in other refinery units … There was an explosion in the FCC unit and a number of isolated fires. … As a result of this incident, an estimated 10 percent of the total refining capacity in the United Kingdom was lost until this complex was returned to service."
WND has reported several times on the threat of EMP attacks, including just two weeks ago when William R. Graham, chairman of the commission, told the House Armed Services Committee an EMP attack is "one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."
Not taking the steps necessary to reduce the threat in the next three to five years "can both invite and reward attack," Graham told the committee.
The scariest and most threatening kind of EMP attack is initiated by the detonation of a nuclear weapon at high altitude in the range of 25 to 250 miles above the Earth's surface. The immediate effects of EMP are disruption of, and damage to, electronic systems and electrical infrastructure. Such a detonation over the middle of the continental U.S. "has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures that support the fabric of U.S. society and the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power," said Graham.
"Several potential adversaries have the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse, and others appear to be pursuing efforts to obtain that capability," said Graham. "A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication. For example, an adversary would not have to have long-range ballistic missiles to conduct an EMP attack against the United States. Such an attack could be launched from a freighter off the U.S. coast using a short- or medium-range missile to loft a nuclear warhead to high altitude. Terrorists sponsored by a rogue state could attempt to execute such an attack without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States. While the commission does not know the intention of Iran in conducting these activities, we are disturbed by the capability that emerges when we connect the dots."
The committee's report analyzes the impact of an attack on electrical supplies, telecommunications, banking and finance, petroleum and natural gas, transportation, food, water, emergency services, space systems and government.
The news was dire throughout. The electrical grid, for example, is needed to distribute water, food, fuel, communications, transport, financial transactions, emergency services and government services.
"Should significant parts of the electrical power infrastructure be lost for any substantial period of time, the commission believes that the consequences are likely to be catastrophic, and many people may ultimately die for lack of the basic elements necessary to sustain life in dense urban and suburban communities," the report said.
"In fact, the commission is deeply concerned that such impacts are likely in the event of an EMP attack unless practical steps are taken to provide protection for critical elements of the electric system and for rapid restoration of electric power, particular to essential services," the report said.
Current disaster preparedness and recovery plans "may be of little or no value" under an EMP attack because of the length of time it would take to obtain and install replacement parts or repair other damage.
The cascade of trouble would be significant. No electricity would mean out-of-control water, natural gas or fuel flows through distribution systems. Some explosions likely would happen, fires could ignite. But no emergency services could be contacted for help, and if they already were on scene, it's unlikely water would be ready. Even worse, when such fires burn themselves out, and repairs are begun, supplies could neither be ordered nor delivered because of communications and fuel disruptions, and the critical workers needed for repairs might not be able to get to the location.
At some point, repair and recovery simply become impossible, the report said.
"There is a point in time at which the shortage or exhaustion of critical items like emergency power supply, batteries, standby fuel supplies, replacement parts, and manpower resources which can be coordinated and dispatched, together with the degradation of all other infrastructures and their systemic impact, all lead toward a collapse of restoration capability.
"Society will transition into a situation where restoration needs increase with time as resources degrade and disappear," the report warned.
It is the first report from the commission since 2004 and identifies vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructures, "which are essential to both our civilian and military capabilities."
Graham also had warned Congress such an attack could come without the backing of an international power, such as China or Russia.
 William R. Graham |
Theoretically, an EMP attack is devastating because of the unprecedented cascading failures of major infrastructures that could result. Because of America's heavy reliance on electricity and electronics, the impact would be far worse than on a country less advanced technologically
Graham took the EMP debate out of the realm of science fiction by reminding the committee that as recently as May 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Russian leaders threatened a U.S. congressional delegation with the specter of an attack that would paralyze the U.S.
He also quoted James J. Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security, who several weeks ago told the same House committee that China's arms buildup includes exotic experiments with electromagnetic weapons that can devastate electronics with bursts of energy similar to those produced by a nuclear blast.
"The consequence of EMP is that you destroy the communications network," Shinn said. "And we are, as you know, and as the Chinese know, heavily dependent on sophisticated communications, satellite communications, in the conduct of our forces. And so, whether it's from an EMP or it's some kind of a coordinated [anti-satellite] effort, we could be in a very bad place if the Chinese enhanced their capability in this area."
Graham says terrorists who get their hands on one or a few unsophisticated nuclear weapons might well calculate they could get the most bang for their buck from attempting an EMP attack.
Ultimate recovery from an EMP attack could end up taking years, during which time America very well may have to exist without many high-tech services, from cell phones inoperable due to damaged towers unrepaired because of parts shortages to a disruption in the food supply path because of fuel shortages.
"A serious national commitment to address the threat of an EMP attack can lead to a national posture that would significantly reduce the payoff for such an attack and allow the United States to recover from EMP, and from other threats, man-made and natural, to the critical infrastructures," Graham told the committee.
The Terror Finance Blog: Congress Should Protect Free Speech and those Exposing Terror Financiers
Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) argued in a WSJ the need for national legislation to protect free speech and those who expose sponsor of terrorism. “Our Constitution is one of our greatest assets in the fight against terrorism. A free-flowing marketplace of ideas, protected by the First Amendment, enables the ideals of democracy to defeat the totalitarian vision of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
That free marketplace faces a threat. Individuals with alleged connections to terrorist activity are filing libel suits and winning judgments in foreign courts against American researchers who publish on these matters. These suits intimidate and even silence writers and publishers. ...
Never mind Scrabulous, will there be a Halal or Haram application? "Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood goes on-line on Facebook," from Adnkronos International, July 25:
Cairo, 25 July (AKI) - The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has launched a discussion forum on Facebook, the popular social networking website.
A group of young Muslims decided to put the Muslim Brotherhood on Facebook after they received the go-ahead to do so from the Brotherhood's second-in-command, Muhammad Habib.
The creators of the project decided to call themselves an "electronic student cell of the Muslim Brotherhood" and their aim to to push for the return of an Islamic Caliphate [a Muslim state]."
The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed by the Egyptian government, which accuses the group of encouraging violence in order to establish an Islamic state.
This new youth wing decided to choose the Internet as a way to spread their message.
Their political activity is also not limited to Egypt either but is aimed at Muslims all around the world.
The new discussion forum on Facebook is based on five points.
The first is the organisation of protests in all Muslim countries for the salvation of Islam and issues of the Islamic nation.
The second issue refers to the spread of the stories of the Prophet Mohammad with regards to the caliphate and the third point is a request to all imams to talk about this issue in their sermons.
The fourth and fifth points are spreading of leaflets to remind Muslims of the importance of the caliphate and to sensitize all Islamic parties and organisations to support this initiative.
This forum on Facebook was endorsed by Habib, even if he believes that this group of young people are not actually militants of his movement.
"I do not think that the youth of the Muslim Brotherhood do something like this because they cannot think in this way," said Habib in an interview with Arab satellite television network Al-Arabiya.
"Our young people follow the direction of the management and they do not work separately, starting individual activities without waiting for the common decision of the movement," he said.
Despite the remarks by Habib, other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, such as the parliamentarian, Hamdi Hasan, have strongly criticised the initiative of the youth group.
"It is based on a campaign that does not have sense and could be read as an internal division of his movement promoted by the new generation," said Hasan.
SAN DIEGO — Charges have been dismissed against a Camp Pendleton Marine sniper accused in the shooting deaths of two Syrians in Iraq, Marine Corps officials said Thursday.
The charges against Sgt. John Winnick II were dismissed without prejudice by the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, meaning charges could be brought again at a later time.
Winnick, 24, was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter and failing to adhere to the military's rules of engagement by firing without reasonable certainty that his targets were hostile.
"In light of all of the circumstances, the commanding general has determined Sgt. Winnick's actions do not warrant referral of the charges to a military justice forum," said Marine Corps spokesman Mike Alvarez.
Alvarez said he didn't know why Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland left the door open for possible future prosecution.
An investigating officer had recommended that Winnick face a lesser charge of dereliction of duty for the June 17, 2007, shooting in Iraq's western Anbar province.
"This is the first I'm hearing of it," Winnick's attorney, Gary Myers, told The Associated Press when asked for reaction to the dismissal.
"We are obviously pleased, and it was the correct result," he said.
Myers said Winnick, of Del Mar, Calif., was not immediately aware of the dismissal of charges but believed he would be "relieved" by the news.
"Now he can go back to being a Marine," he said.
During an Article 32 hearing, similar to a preliminary hearing, to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to send the Marine to court-martial, Winnick testified that he shot the men because he believed he was protecting his comrades.
The shooting began after a soda delivery truck stopped near a sniper team hideout on a busy road near Lake Tharthar where roadside bombs were a common threat.
During the hearing, Winnick's comrades testified that the Marine fired a fatal sniper round at a man who hopped out of the cab, removed a container or bag from a side compartment, and appeared to begin digging at the ground. Winnick then killed a second man with a shotgun after the team stormed out of its hiding place, they testified.
Winnick had faced up to 40 years in prison and dishonorable discharge if convicted on all counts, which also included aggravated assault against two truck passengers who were injured in the fight.
(Compiler's note: I just can not remember, what was our "outreach" program for the Nazi during WWII? Some people just don't yet seem to understand we are now at war to the bitter end)
The U.S. State Department isn't explaining the production by the government of a calendar promoting Islamic mosques in America.
But there was no answer available as to whether any of those themes and outreaches include Christianity.
According to the Gates of Vienna blog, the government advertised:
In celebration of Ramadan, Global Publishing Solutions (GPS) is offering a limited edition of the 2009 Mosques in America Wall Calendar. This 12-month calendar is perfect for Muslim outreach efforts, as well as office and event giveaways.
The wall calendar features a vibrant photograph or photomontage for each month, displaying the beauty of mosques in America.
The upper half of the hanging calendar depicts mosque facades or interiors, and the lower half displays a monthly calendar grid. The 28-page calendar is saddle-stitched and measures 23 x 30 1/2 cm (9 x 12 inches)
This item is on sale until August 1st, 2008 in shrink-wrapped packs of 20 pieces.
 One page from the U.S. State Department's "Mosques of America" 2009 promotional calendar |
On the Gates of Vienna site, a reader posted a comment recommending the State Department "adorn the calendar with equally vibrant Quranic verses and hadiths, samples of what is preached in those mosques. For example: January: Kill the infidels wherever you find them. February: Allah's Apostle said: I've been made victorious with terror – and so on and so forth."
JihadWatch.org pointed out the page was pulled after the weblog Snapped Shot posted an image of it. Snapped Shot said it seems the public servants at State "get all nervous when We, The People actually notice" what they're doing.
JihadWatch also made available captured screen shots of the top half and the bottom half of the page.
The packed Quantas Boeing 747 was forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines today after the hole ripped through the plane’s belly.
Some passengers were so terrified they vomited when oxygen masks has to be used as the Melbourne-bound flight touched down. ...
The U.S. Senate soon could debate whether you, your spouse and each of your children – as well as your in-laws, parents, grandparents, neighbors and everyone else in America – each will spend $2,500 or more to reduce poverty around the world.
The plan sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is estimated to cost the U.S. some $845 billion over the coming few years in an effort to raise the standard of living around the globe.
 Barack Obama |
S.2433 already has been approved in one form by the U.S. House of Representatives and now has been placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar for pending debate. ...
Murtha’s challenger, staunch conservative Republican newcomer William Russell, raised nearly $670,000 in the second fundraising quarter. The 18-term earmark king Murtha scraped together a measly $119,000. Russell’s underdog campaign bested Murtha without the perks of incumbency, national name recognition, big PAC donations or mainstream media support.
Even more amazing: Russell, 45, a Desert Storm veteran, former Army lieutenant colonel and Army reservist who survived the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, was not even publicly campaigning during the quarter. He is on active duty with the Army until after Aug. 1 and is barred from actively campaigning until then.
If all that didn’t make this enough of an inspiring David and Goliath story: In February, a Pennsylvania judge ruled that Russell had failed to collect enough signatures to make the primary ballot. But Russell refused to give up on his goal of permanently redeploying Murtha from his entrenched seat of power in Washington. The GOP neophyte persevered on a shoestring budget and won more than 4,000 write-in votes in the spring to earn a spot on the general election ballot. According to Russell’s campaign manager and veteran GOP activist Peg Luksik, the bulk of contributions from about 16,000 donors in the second quarter were less than $50.
Russell’s clear on where he stands. No doubt Barack Obama would label him bitter and clingy. “I am a conservative,” he says in his defining campaign statement. “I believe in the sovereignty and security of this one nation, under God. I believe the primary role of government is to provide for the common defense and a legal framework to protect families and individual liberty. ... I believe that no one owes me anything just because I live and breathe.”
The excitement and buzz around Russell stand in stark contrast to grass-roots disgust on the right with Beltway Republicans who continue to push the party to the left in a brain-dead attempt to “rebrand” the GOP. He has united pro-troops families, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, Reagan Democrats and Independents fed up with Murtha’s culture of corruption dating back to his Abscam days in the 1980s. Murtha was not indicted in the infamous bribery probe, but he was videotaped entertaining a $50,000 bribe from undercover FBI agents posing as emissaries for Arab sheiks trying to enter our country illegally.
Russell decided to enter politics after hearing Murtha’s slanderous 2006 accusations that Marines in Haditha “overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” As I reported in June, seven Marines have been cleared or won case dismissals in the Iraq war incident Murtha recklessly adjudicated in the court of public opinion.
Perhaps that complicity explains the great media wall of silence around Russell’s upstart campaign. Republican Bill Russell offers ethical, freedom-enhancing, pro-responsibility, anti-retreat, unapologetically conservative change they don’t want to believe in.
Efforts to reauthorize E-Verify are under attack in the House and the Senate. In the House, business and open-borders groups who oppose E-Verify are trying to persuade Representatives to limit the term of its reauthorization to three years. In the Senate, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), also an E-Verify opponent, has placed a hold on reauthorization legislation until Congress submits to his demand to drastically increase the number of permanent, employment-based visas for foreign workers (see Roy Beck's blog on Menendez).
Business and open-borders groups now recognize it will be difficult to stop the reauthorization effort in the House, so they are seeking to limit its impact by limiting its term. These groups are trying to persuade House members to limit the term of its reauthorization to three years so they will have an early chance to weaken E-Verify in a political climate they hope is better for them.
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) have suggested the possibility of moving a bill to the House floor next week that would reauthorize E-Verify for 10 years. It is not known whether they will move a “clean” bill, i.e., one that reauthorizes E-Verify without making other changes, or attempt to incorporate measures that would weaken the program’s effectiveness.
NumbersUSA is seeking a permanent reauthorization of E-Verify, which is now set to expire in November, but could agree to a minimum renewal period of ten years for now. We also are pushing for a phased-in mandate for all employers to use E-Verify, as embodied in the SAVE Act.
The short-term extension proposed by business and open-borders groups is little more than a ploy to buy time to further weaken E-Verify and continue efforts behind the scenes to enact an amnesty during the next Congress. The best solution for Congress, and for the nation, is to pass a “clean” reauthorization before members break for their August recess, and then resume efforts to enact the SAVE Act in September.
Please call your U.S. Representative today (
202-224-3121
) to ask for a “clean” reauthorization of E-Verify, preferably with no sunset but for a minimum of ten years. NumbersUSA members can go to their Action Buffet corkboard to pick up additional instructions.
Senator Menendez has announced that he intends to hold reauthorization of E-Verify hostage until Congress submits to his demand to drastically increase the number of permanent, employment-based visas to be made available to US employers seeking to import foreign workers to permanently take American Jobs. He claims that he would do this by “recapturing unused” employment-based visas from as far back as 1991 and then add them to the current numerical cap of 140,000 employment-based visas that are available each year.
The State Department estimates that the Menendez plan would add 550,000 additional employment-based visas, which would remain available until they are all used. Current law, however, clearly states that any employment-based visas not used in one year are allocated to the family-preference categories in the following year. That means that there are no “unused” visas from past years to “recapture.” Sen. Menendez ignores this provision of law, though it is safe to say he would not ignore the part of the law that says that any family-based visas not used in one year are allocated to the employment-based category for the following year.
The fact is that current law ensures that all visas are used by transferring them between the two major categories of legal, permanent visas: family-based and employment-based. Senator Menendez needs to understand that the only way to "recapture" 550,000 "unused" employment-based visas is to "recapture" them from the family-based category to which they were reallocated.
We urge those of you in New Jersey to call Sen. Menendez (202-224-3121) and tell him to stop blocking the reauthorization of the E-Verify program, immediately! There are no “unused” visas so his proposal will not do what he says it will do. NumbersUSA members can go to their Action Buffet corkboard to pick up additional instructions.
E-Verify (the effective program to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs) now is facing danger in the Senate, as well as the House (see my previous blogs on House troubles).
The NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team has been told that Sen. Menendez (D-N.J.) has put a "hold" on legislation to reauthorize the E-Verify workplace verification program. That means the Senate is barred from voting to keep it alive. Without a vote, E-Verify will die in November.
Our understanding is that Sen. Menendez is blocking the most effective tool against illegal immigration in order to get something else that he wants. He will allow an E-Verify vote if he is allowed to give hundreds of thousands of skilled American jobs permanently to hundreds of thousands of additional immigrants.
At a time when skilled Americans and students aspiring to those jobs are finding a depressed job market, Sen. Menendez is insisting on flooding their occupations with even more foreign workers. And if he doesn't get his way, he will take away the best tool that employers have to keep illegal foreign workers from taking jobs at every rung of the ladder, but especially at the lower-skilled job level. ...
Yesterday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 58 illegal aliens during eight enforcement actions in the Ohio towns of Ashland, Fremont, Norwalk, Oberlin, Oregon, Sandusky, Vermilion and Youngstown. All were employed in the Norwalk-based Casa Fiesta restaurant chain. Agents also searched a Norwalk home after a warrant was issued.
The raids were the result of a one-year criminal investigation, according to an ICE press release. The release notes that everyone detained was medically screened and interviewed by ICE agents to determine if they have medical, sole-caregiver, or other humanitarian issues. Three of the four women arrested were released on humanitarian grounds pending their appearance before an immigration judge, which will determine if they will be deported.
This is the second enforcement action related to suspected illegal staffing operations in Ohio this year. An April 16 raid of seven restaurants in Ohio and five other states netted 45 arrests of illegal aliens and criminal charges against employers for recruiting and harboring illegal aliens. ...
Among the more disturbing features of this adulation is its embarrassing effect on supposedly hard-nosed journalists. MSNBC News’ Lee Cowan aptly diagnosed the symptoms of Obamamania when he observed that “it’s almost hard to remain objective because it’s infectious. It’s almost not cool if you haven’t seen him in person.” One need only consider the sad case of Chris Matthews, who has gushed that Obama is “sort of a gift from the world to us in so many ways.” Hardball this is not.
With the media’s biases so starkly exposed, it’s little wonder that Americans have lost faith in their fourth estate’s ability to cover the presidential race fairly. A recent Rasmussen found that 49 percent of respondents believed reporters would favor Obama in their coverage this fall. Just 14 percent expected the media to back John McCain.
Such suspicions are warranted. For instance, a Project For Excellence In Journalism survey showed that Obama was a main figure in 78 per cent of newspaper, radio and television election reports in the six weeks since early June. By contrast, only 21 percent of reports focused on McCain. The Tyndall Report, which monitors the nightly newscasts of the three major American television networks, reported a similar bias. It found that CBS, NBC and ABC have expended 114 broadcasting minutes covering Obama since Hilary Clinton’s June withdrawal from the primaries, and only 48 minutes to McCain. On the media’s radar, the former Vietnam P.O.W. is M.I.A.
A stunning example of journalistic favoritism-in-action was furnished by the New York Times. Last week, the paper published an op-ed by Obama detailing his plan for Iraq. One might think that McCain would be similarly entitled to this highly desirable piece of media real-estate. Yet, when McCain submitted a rebuttal piece, criticizing Obama’s timetable for the withdrawal of American troops, the paper refused to publish it. A Times editor claimed that McCain’s submission did not have “enough new information,” and encouraged the senator to resubmit a new version. As critics noted, this was the kind of brush-off typically reserved for unwanted freelancers, not would-be presidents. (Interestingly, while the Times decreed McCain’s article unfit to print, a European paper, the Berliner Tagesspiegel published it this week.) ...
Although TSA insists Griffin's name is not on the list and pooh-poohs any possibility of retaliation for Griffin's negative reporting, the reporter has been hassled by various airlines on 11 flights since May. The airlines insist that Griffin's name is on the list.
Congress has asked TSA to look into the tribulations of this prominent passenger. ...
WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 16, 2007—“The government’s system for detaining terrorists without charge or trial has harmed the reputation of the United States, disrupted alliances, hurt us in the war of ideas with the Islamic world and been viewed skeptically by our own courts,” wrote Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor and assistant attorney general from 2003 to 2004, and Neal Katyal, a Georgetown law professor who represented the plaintiff in the 2006 Supreme Court case that struck down the Guantánamo tribunals, in a New York Times op-ed last Wednesday.
Goldsmith and Katyal’s observations pretty much sum up the plethora of problems the Bush administration has incurred in dealing with the enemy combatants captured on the battlefields of the war on terror, which the 9/11 attack inexorably forced us into. The principal problem of this war, though, is there has been no formal declaration of war by America, never mind that Al Qaeda declared war on us.
Compounding this glaring oversight is the hastily constructed judicial process to imprison, charge and try the terrorists who are fighting this war – it’s in disarray, and, by most accounts, insufficient for adjudicating the fate of this war’s captured enemy combatants.
Consequently, a bipartisan cadre in Congress has begun to push legislation to halt funding for the Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) detention center and to grant habeas corpus rights to detainees, the latter of which are not rights afforded to prisoners of war under universally accepted conduct of war. ...
Criminal defense and immigration lawyers yesterday challenged the government's use of expedited trials to convict 306 illegal immigrant workers at a meat processing plant in Iowa in May, arguing that fast-tracked group trials violated defendants' rights.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's immigration panel, said after a day-long hearing that she found the Justice Department's actions against workers at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa, "to be unusual and provocative, and I do have questions about whether they meet the requirements of due process that is guaranteed in our Constitution." ...
In certain disasters, such as an anthrax exposure or pandemic flu outbreak, there may be antibiotics or vaccinations that could prevent or lessen a disease’s impact. The Health Department would be responsible for distributing these medications. OCHD has planned and practiced the distribution of emergency medications for Ogle County citizens. With the help of medical volunteers, they could more efficiently distribute needed medications or vaccinations. Points of distribution have been established in Rochelle and Oregon, with a backup site in Byron. During an emergency, the public would be directed to one of these sites.
If you are a nurse, physician, dentist, veterinarian or pharmacist, and would be interested in assisting with the distribution of medications during a disaster, OCHD would like to hear from you. At this time, you will be placed on a response list. No time will be required from you unless a disaster occurs. Information will be distributed periodically to keep you knowledgeable on current situations.
ALAMOGORDO — Bud Hertzner went to El Paso to take a medical stress test. On his way home, he and his wife, Sharon, received a surprise at a local Border Patrol checkpoint.
"I pulled up in the station at (U.S.) 70 and the guy had a thing on (his) belt like a cell phone," Hertzner, an Alamogordo resident, said. "It was blinking."
He was surprised when he was asked to provide paperwork to prove he had been to the doctor.
"Sharon and I looked at each other like, "What's going on here?'" Hertzner said.
The equipment on the officer's belt turned out to be a radiation detector and, because Hertzner's medical test involved nuclear medicine, he was slightly radioactive. The officer at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint asked for Hertzner's driver's license and for his letter of appointment to the doctor.
After verifying Hertzner's identity and glancing through his car, the Border Patrol officer waved him on through. ...
UNITED NATIONS — A Swiss-led, five-nation panel proposed Thursday that the United Nations assert itself as leader of a global fight against terrorism and establish a new agency or program to coordinate that effort.
U.N. ambassadors from Costa Rica, Japan, Slovakia, Switzerland and Turkey suggested that the U.N. General Assembly create an agency for counterterrorism along the lines of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It also recommended that the U.N. assist counterterrorism officials from individual nations in promoting "a human rights-based approach to counterterrorism" that disdains torture and preserves prisoners' rights.
The panel, launched by the Swiss U.N. mission in November, is an attempt to involve more of the General Assembly's 192 member nations in fighting terrorism. It also seeks to shift some of the emphasis away from military or police work and onto grappling with interrelated social, economic and health factors. ...
Responding to warnings in a government audit, congressional Democrats are calling on the Homeland Security Department to suspend a new threat alert system until the program is retooled to meet state and local needs.
Department spokesman Russ Knocke said Thursday that the department does not plan to put the program on hold.
The new system, which is to be the main way the department communicates regular threat information to local and private sector officials, has had a troubled history. The department scrapped a $91 million system, dubbed the Homeland Security Information Network or HSIN, after reports found that the program lacked critical security and structural functions that made it unworkable.
It’s been placed on life support until it can be replaced by “HSIN Next Gen,” which is due to be completed next September with an estimated price tag of $62 million.
Good news -- sabotage inside Iran?
"'Mysterious Iran blast likely an attack on Hizbullah arms convoy,'" from the Jerusalem Post, July 25 (thanks to Dennis):
A mysterious explosion in a suburb of Teheran that killed 15 people last Saturday was likely an attack on a Iranian military convoy carrying arms to Hizbullah, the Telegraph reported Friday.The Revolutionary Guards imposed a news black-out immediately after the blast, but the UK newspaper reported that it looked like sabotage was responsible for destroying the convoy as it traveled through Khavarshahar. ...
A growing, urgent and bipartisan consensus is emerging to demand that Congress implement the recommendation by the 9/11 Commission that it reform its maze of eighty-plus committees that set competing and often conflicting priorities. rca
Two must read articles include:
Sept. 11 commissioners said that if Congress wants to find an example of flagrant disregard for their recommendations, it needs only to look in the mirror.
They said Congress seems to have ignored a crucial recommendation in their report: consolidate DHS oversight to one authorizing committee and one appropriations subcommittee in each chamber.
“Congress needs to establish for the Department of Homeland Security the kind of clear authority and responsibility that exist to enable the Justice Department to deal with crime and the Defense Department to deal with threats to national security,” the report said.
[9/11 Commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton] said that just because DHS needs to step up its performance doesn’t let Congress off the hook.
“When you have that many committees and subcommittees to report to, it’s an absurdity,” he said. “Congress has to get its part in order, too.”
In a city known for paralyzing bureaucratic turf fights, one of the most debilitating and potentially disastrous has received scant attention: it’s the Congressional mess that produces tangled homeland security laws. This tangle obstructs our ability to prioritize risks at the Department of Homeland Security, where I work alongside more than 200,000 colleagues, almost all of us civil servants (not political appointees) who will remain in place after the election.
Despite the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that Congress consolidate oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into a single, principal point of oversight, Congress has done little to implement this recommendation.
Congress’s commitment to the status quo threatens the DHS’s ability to identify and respond effectively to security threats. The current oversight system is impractical, constitutionally deficient, and simply poor management. Congress should immediately take steps to streamline oversight of the DHS.
Officials say three people were shot Thursday afternoon at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix.
The Phoenix Police Department said the shooting took place in the computing commons of the Technology Center building located at the southern end of the campus.
It took place around 4 p.m. when officers said the suspect walked into the computer lab and picked a fight with the 19-year-old victim. Police said it appears the men have a long-standing feud.
“This was not a random act against the school or a classroom,” said Phoenix Det. Reuben Gonzales.
After shooting the victim, the suspect then shot a 20 year-old female and a 17-year-old boy before leaving the area, police and witnesses said.
All three victims were transported to the Maricopa County Medical Center where the female and boy were listed in stable condition. The 19-year-old male is in critical condition.
The names of the victims are unavailable, but Jay Taylor, of Phoenix, said his younger brother Christopher is the 17-year-old victim.
Last summer, Iran's ally Hamas staged a coup that made it the absolute ruler of Gaza - which it has turned into a launching pad for rocket attacks in Israel. In January, Hamas demonstrated its ability to undermine stability in Egypt by destroying part of the border fence with Gaza and permitting hundreds of thousands of people to pour across the border into the Sinai Peninsula. And Iran has dispatched Hezbollah trainers to Gaza to assist Hamas.
All of this is occurring at a time when Iran lacks nuclear weapons. But, here again, time is on the mullahs' side. Iran is betting that it can successfully continue to stall the nuclear talks until it eventually gets nuclear weapons - and with them the ability to deter its mortal enemies: The United States and Israel.
Out here in West Texas we love our guns, we support our troops, and we treasure our freedom. We are an independent bunch and -- pardon me, Senator Obama -- fiercely but not bitterly so. We are proud to have our own things to do with as we choose to, as free people of the freest nation in the history of the world.
We also walk around on top of oil: yes it’s far beneath us, but it’s there. And all these aspects of West Texas come together to our astonishment and anger over the fact that our independence is limited by an intrusive federal government that tells us what oil we can and can’t access through drilling, and ultimately makes us dependent upon other nations for our own fuel supplies.
This dependence is made worse by the fact that it is arbitrary: that is, we don’t have to rely on foreign sources of oil because we lack our own but because our government has chosen foreign importation over domestic production. And we name names where I am from, so for clarity’s sake allow me to say that Senators Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson are not keeping us in this position, but are pushing for common sense changes in energy policies that will result in greatly expanded domestic production.
The two main culprits here are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who are currently enjoying a 9% favorable approvable rating among the American people. Perhaps you will remember Reid as the man who boldly declared we had lost the war in Iraq a year ago: the war we are clearly winning today. His poor judgment in war-fighting and his lack of faith in our troops are matched by his energy policies that keep us dependent on oil from the very parts of the world with which we are at war.
Reid, and his cohort Pelosi, mock Republicans like McConnell, Cornyn, and Hutchinson for their belief that we can “drill our way out of this energy crisis.” But why can’t we drill out way out? Is oil that much different than other commodities? It is traded on the futures market and its elevated prices currently result from a demand that promises to be greater than future supply. Gold is a commodity, what would happen to it if we suddenly realized it is more plentiful than needles on a pine tree? I can tell you what would happen -- the value of an ounce of gold would plummet: its value is directly linked to its scarcity.
Recently, President Bush did something that should have been done years ago: He lifted the Executive Ban on off-shore drilling. This means we not only have the oil deposits throughout the western United States which we could access in order to be energy dependent but the great oil deposits miles away from our shores as well.
In Colorado and Wyoming alone we have oil deposits sufficient to rival those of Saudi Arabia. Those, plus the use of ocean rigs, would easily result in over a hundred years of fuel for our nation. Yet Reid and Pelosi will not even consider removing the Congressional ban on offshore drilling. Rather, they spend their time talking about the current “energy crisis.” But with oil supplies such as those in Colorado, Wyoming, and the ocean untapped, this doesn’t really seem like an energy crisis as much as it seems like a concerted effort on the part of Reid and Pelosi to keep America from enjoying her independence.
And there’s more -- We also have a rock quarry named ANWR from which we could double the amount of the oil we would draw from the western U.S. and ocean rigs. (I know all of ANWR doesn’t look like a rock quarry; but the part we would drill in does.) And there is nothing pristine about a rock quarry; no viable reason for keeping our oil companies from drilling there. Yet Reid and Pelosi oppose President Bush’s attempts to let Exxon and others pull oil out of ANWR as well. What’s wrong with these people?
The common opposition given against drilling offshore is the fear of oil spills. Does anybody remember hurricane Katrina? The havoc she wreaked on oil rigs in the gulf was unbelievable. Some of these were so damaged that they are yet to be back online. Winds well over 70 miles an hour and the resulting ocean surges pummeled the oil rigs late in the night of August 28 and into the early morning hours of August 29, 2005. And how much oil was spilled? Not one drop. (I am sure that Reid and Pelosi believe President Bush, “an oil man,” orchestrated the hurricane in such a way as to displace a hundred thousand New Orleans’ residents while sparing the oil in the gulf.)
On the other hand, the opposition to drilling in ANWR is usually cited in terms of the damage it would do to the caribou. In all honesty, how out of whack can things get? My friends and I shoot animals as big as caribou in our part of the country every year. We shoot deer, elk, bear, antelope, and aoudad, yet guess what happens without fail? Every few years the hunting seasons are lengthened because the animal populations are still so great that they require more thinning. Add to this the fact that the caribou around the current Alaskan pipeline are thriving and the arguments against drilling in ANWR go from ridiculous to asinine.
I am worried about having politicians in office who are more concerned about hoofed creatures than they are about human beings. Like President Bush, we still read our Bibles in West Texas and from it we learn that mankind was placed over nature not under it. Our Founding Fathers concurred.
We need to drill here and we need to drill now, as Newt Gingrich, McConnell, Cornyn, Hutchinson, and others who value America’s independence assert. It’s not a question of whether the oil is or isn’t there -- we know it’s there -- the question is whether we as a people will muster the wherewithal to tell politicians like Reid and Pelosi to remove the Congressional ban on drilling because America, rather than the Democrat Party or the caribou, comes first. In the end, this is tantamount to saying people come first; people of all economic classes who need gasoline for their cars, diesel for their trucks, oils to heat their homes, and the natural gas required to produce the electricity we are accustomed to having at the flip of a switch.
Just what part of “drill now” do they not understand?
Russian officials and analysts yesterday blasted
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the matter with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday in
“We emphasized the necessity of actually bringing some clarity to the situation around the missile shield, in so much as the promises made to us by our U.S. colleagues for transparency and building trust have not as yet materialized into anything concrete and tangible,” he told reporters.
Citing concerns over
One analyst suggested that the
“I cannot see
“This is why there are suspicions that the silos that are being built will contain not antiballistic missiles, but medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads,” he added.
Another analyst was less dramatic, but still questioned
“The
By Diane Barnes
Global Security Newswire
The first such force would include specialists in responding to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks — such as Army chemical decontamination and biological defense personnel — who were originally charged with working on Cold War battlefields.
That group, the WMD Consequence Management Response Force, is set to begin operating its first unit on
“This is historic,” U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Paul McHale told Global Security Newswire. “When all of these units are combined for the first time in our nation’s history, we will have more than 20,000 men and women whose primary mission will be domestic catastrophic response.”
It would likely arrive at the site of a major attack after smaller teams provide reconnaissance and initial response services.
First to an attacked site would be a state-based WMD Civil Support Team run by the National Guard. These teams are designed to mobilize within two or three hours of an attack to gather information about possible chemical, biological or radiological contamination (see GSN, March 8).
Last December, the Pentagon certified the 53rd of 55 planned National Guard teams (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007). Congress has called for establishing at least one such team in each
Drawing from information gathered by civil support teams, the governor of the attacked state could then choose to deploy one of 17 National Guard WMD Emergency Response Force Packages, units of about 300 troops that can perform decontamination and provide medical services.
Elements of the National Guard units might later be reassigned to work within the larger federal response forces, enabling the Pentagon to assert control over normally state-administered forces, the Air Force Times reported last month.
“What you [would] see is a coordinated deployment of military forces, some within the National Guard, some within the active-duty military, in order to achieve a unified military response to the requirements of the WMD event,” McHale said, noting that the nature of an attack would determine which personnel are deployed.
“It is likely that the response of the [National Guard teams] would be measured in hours, it is probable that the main body of the [response force] would arrive within several days,” he said.
When the larger group arrives, they would bring permanently assigned aviation crews to carry out search-and-rescue activities as well as specialists for extracting people from debris and medical workers.
To meet what McHale described as “a sobering mission requirement,” mortuary specialists would be available to handle the contaminated remains of people killed in the attack (see GSN, Nov. 13, 2003).
McHale said the response forces would demonstrate great flexibility.
“It might be that we experience an attack, for instance a nuclear detonation, that might require the assistance of more than one [response force]” or “we might have multiple chemical attacks that would involve the capabilities of less than one [team],” he said. He added that additional
The Pentagon is still working on price estimates of the reorganization, but McHale said it cost roughly $19 million to stage a 2007 exercise that involving roughly one-third of the forces contained in a response force grouping.
The first grouping, ready to become operational in October, will probably incorporate more federal active-duty and reserve forces than the second and third groups, which would emphasize National Guard personnel. The Defense Department plans to prepare the second grouping in late 2009 followed by the third in late 2010, McHale said.
However, it remains uncertain whether personnel will be available to staff the second and third forces when the groups are scheduled to become operational, according to an April report by congressional investigators.
“Despite being the only set of capabilities dedicated to a [domestic] civil support plan, the [response force] has never been fully manned and equipped by the Defense Department because many of the units that would make up the force have been deployed to their wartime missions or because of other availability or sourcing issues,” the Government Accountability Office report states.
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