New Premises in Iraq

By Henry A. Kissinger

...Any appearance that radical Islamic forces were responsible for a U.S. defeat would have enormous destabilizing consequences far beyond the region. How and when to leave Iraq will therefore emerge as a principal decision for the new president.

...A strategic reserve can now be created by the United States out of some of the forces currently in Iraq, with some moving to other threatened areas and others returning to the United States. American deployment is transformed from abdication into part of a geopolitical design.

...Establishing a deadline is the surest way to undermine the hopeful prospects. It will encourage largely defeated internal groups to go underground until a world more congenial to their survival arises with the departure of American forces. Al-Qaeda will have a deadline against which to plan a full-scale resumption of operations. And it will give Iran an incentive to strengthen its supporters in the Shiite community for the period after the American withdrawal. Establishing a fixed deadline would also dissipate assets needed for the diplomatic endgame.

...The inherent contradictions of the proposed withdrawal schedule compound the difficulties. Under the fixed withdrawal scheme, combat troops are to be withdrawn, but sufficient forces would remain to protect the U.S. Embassy, fight a resumption of al-Qaeda and contribute to defense against outside intervention. But such tasks require combat, not support, forces, and the foreseeable controversy about the elusive distinction will distract from the overall diplomatic goal. Nor is withdrawal from Iraq necessary to free forces for operations in Afghanistan.

...In a positive gesture, leading advocates of a fixed deadline, including Sen. Barack Obama, have recently put forward the idea that both withdrawal and the residual force will be condition-based. But if that is the case, why establish a deadline at all? It would suggest shifting the debate to the conditions for withdrawal rather than its timing. These considerations explain Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's conduct on the occasion of Obama's visit to Iraq.

...The American presence in Iraq should not be presented as open-ended; this would not be supported by either Iraqi or American domestic opinion. But neither should it be put forward in terms of rigid deadlines. Striking this balance is a way for our country to come together as a constructive outcome emerges. Thirty years ago, Congress cut off aid to Vietnam and Cambodia two years after American troops had been withdrawn and local forces were still desperate to resist. Domestic divisions had overcome all other considerations. We must not repeat the tragedy that followed.

The next president has a great opportunity to stabilize Iraq and lay the basis for a decisive turn in the war against jihadist radicalism and for a more peaceful Middle East. Surely he will want to assess the situation on the ground before setting a strategy for his term. He should not be limited by rigid prescriptions to vindicate maxims of the past, no matter how plausible they once seemed. Withdrawal is a means; the end is a more peaceful and hopeful world.

The writer was secretary of state from 1973 to 1977.

Afghanistan: 5 year olds being recruited for jihad and "martyrdom"

Just when one thought al-Qaeda's jihadi recruiting prerequisites were set at age 15, now comes this. Wonder if suicidal bunnies, bees, or rats were used to recruit these children for the "great jihad"? "Child soldiers trained by the Taliban to kill British soldiers," by Nick Owens, for the Mirror, August 2:

CLUTCHING AK-47 rifles and marching to war... these chilling images (see the video player) show child soldiers on their way to fight British troops in Afghanistan.

The pictures come from a video filmed at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, where Taliban warlords are turning boys as young as FIVE into trained killers. Recorded only weeks ago, it captures a dozen nervous-looking boys in camouflage uniforms with headbands which say: There is no God but Allah. ...

Fast Forward for New Killer Drone?

BAE Systems' new Mantis killer drone may be on a fast track from technology demo straight to the battlefield. Even though the Predator-rival has yet to fly, it could be sent to Afghanistan in 2009, according to Flight International: ...

Muslim Woman Sues Oregon City For Private Swim Times

Lul Abdulle escaped from Somalia—she fled the country's civil war—and lived in Texas for 10 years before landing in the Northwest in 2003. Coming from a community of politically active Somalis in Texas.

Muslim Lul Abdulle is suing Portland for not providing private women-only swim times.
CBN News and Religion of Peace reported:

It's a growing conflict between Western society and Islamic culture in America. ...

Iraq: hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects arrested in recent raid

If accurate -- and, considering other reports indicate that jihadists have been fleeing Iraq for Afghanistan -- this may bode well for Iraq. "Iraq Nabs Hundreds of Al-Qaeda Suspects," from Alalam, August: 2

BAQUBA, Iraq, Aug 2--Iraq military backed by US forces arrested on Saturday hundreds of suspects during an offensive aimed at stamping out Al-Qaeda in a restive central province, officials said. ...

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Pakistan Intelligence Playing Both Sides

When Pakistan’s ISI operatives at lower levels weigh their loyalties, it will almost always be on the side of the Jihadists…

Paris, Britney, Obama: Where's the beef?

by Pat Boone

.... I'm wondering (the three network news anchors who trailed along in his retinue failed to report) whether the presumptive and self-announced Citizen of the World repeated to Gen. Petraeus what he promised here in no uncertain terms: "On the day I take office [obviously already predetermined in the heavens], I'll call together my military commanders and issue my orders to get all our troops out of Iraq in 16 months or less, starting with two battalions a month immediately. And then, of course, I'll listen to their recommendations on how they propose to carry out my orders."

Do you suppose this lean, slick orator gave the general who engineered the "surge" – credited by all with turning the war in Iraq around from apparent defeat to undeniable victory – a useful preview of what he was in for? That he would soon be taking direct orders from a kid who never wore a uniform or carried a gun?

...Dr. Jerome Corsi has done us all the service (glaringly neglected by the usually suspicious media) of doing extensive research into the young formative days and influences and mentors of this Pied Piper of Change. His just published book, "The Obama Nation," is just hitting the stores and will confirm what so many Americans have been feeling in their gut: Whatever this man's latent talents, he is terribly inexperienced, he is deeply steeped in ultra-liberal – yes, socialistic – political views, and he hasn't done anything like the giant, world-shaping things he so articulately promises he will do!

And another book, surprisingly ignored by media and book reviewers, is a must-read for future voters. Gen. Georges Sada, former air vice marshal to Saddam Hussein, has chronicled in minute detail the existence of the weapons of mass destruction, the labs, the gas, the nuclear supplies and plans – and how he helped Saddam airlift all the damning evidence and substance into northern Syria just as the allied troops were advancing on Baghdad. ...

Both books show, in footnoted and documented factual detail, all we really need to know about why this country must ignore all the manufactured, rehearsed and scripted blather and hype from a political and media mouthpiece – and elect a proven, experienced leader and patriot.

Hey, if we want to elect a president who's been nowhere and done nothing, why not Paris Hilton? She's prettier! rca

A German’s Point of View on Islam

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War ll owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.'Very few people were true Nazis 'he said,' but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.

'We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the 'peaceful majority', the 'silent majority', is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.The average Japanese individual prior to World War ll was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilian s; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghan is, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics who threaten our way of life. Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems of expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this - think about it - and send it on.

Emanuel Tanay,
M.D.Ann Arbor, MI

rca

Soldiers recount deadly attack on Afghanistan outpost

Project Hero: 9 funerals for 9 warriors

I’m sure you heard about 9 soldiers being killed in Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago. As AP reported it, it was a "setback", the "newly established base" there was ’abandoned’ by the Americans. That, of course, was the extent of their coverage.

Steve Mraz of Stars and Stripes and Jeff Emanuel tell the rest of the story. Emanuel, who went out and dug into the story sets the enemy force at 500 while AP sets it at 200. Frankly I'm much more inclined to believe Emanuel than AP.

July 13, 2008 was the date, and Jeff Emanuel, an independent combat reporter sets the scene:

Three days before the attack, 45 U.S. paratroopers from the 173d Airborne [Brigade Combat Team], accompanied by 25 Afghan soldiers, made their way to Kunar province, a remote area in the northeastern Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, and established the beginnings of a small Combat Outpost (COP). Their movement into the area was noticed, and their tiny numbers and incomplete fortifications were quickly taken advantage of.

A combined force of up to 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters quickly moved into the nearby village of Wanat and prepared for their assault by evicting unallied residents and according to an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry official, "us[ing] their houses to attack us."

Tribesmen in the town stayed behind "and helped the insurgents during the fight," the provincial police chief, told The Associated Press. Dug-in mortar firing positions were created, and with that indirect fire, as well as heavy machine gun and RPG fire from fixed positions, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters rushed the COP from three sides.

As Emanuel notes, the odds were set. 500 vs. 70. Even so, Emanuel entitled his article, "An Alamo With a Different Ending." The 500 terrorists apparently didn't realize they were attacking US Army paratroopers.

The unit in question was 2nd Platoon, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, led by 1LT Jonathan Brostrom.

The first RPG and machine gun fire came at dawn, strategically striking the forward operating base's mortar pit. The insurgents next sighted their RPGs on the tow truck inside the combat outpost, taking it out. That was around 4:30 a.m.

This was not a haphazard attack. The reportedly 500 insurgents fought from several positions. They aimed to overrun the new base. The U.S. soldiers knew it and fought like hell. They knew their lives were on the line.

The next target was the FOB's observation post, where nine soldiers were positioned on a tiny hill about 50 to 75 meters from the base. Of those nine, five died, and at least three others -- Spc. Tyler Stafford among them -- were wounded.

When the attack began, Stafford grabbed his M-240 machine gun off a north-facing sandbag wall and moved it to an east-facing sandbag wall. Moments later, RPGs struck the north-facing wall, knocking Stafford out of the fighting position and wounding another soldier.

Stafford thought he was on fire so he rolled around, regaining his senses. Nearby, Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling, who later died in the fight, had a stunned look on his face.

Immediately, a grenade exploded by Stafford, blowing him down to a lower terrace at the observation post and knocking his helmet off. Stafford put his helmet back on and noticed how badly he was bleeding.
Cpl. Matthew Phillips was close by, so Stafford called to him for help. Phillips was preparing to throw a grenade and shot a look at Stafford that said, "Give me a second. I gotta go kill these guys first."

This was only about 30 to 60 seconds into the attack.

Kneeling behind a sandbag wall, Phillips pulled the grenade pin, but just after he threw it an RPG exploded at his position. The tail of the RPG smacked Stafford's helmet. The dust cleared. Phillips was slumped over, his chest on his knees and his hands by his side. Stafford called out to his buddy three or four times, but Phillips never answered or moved.

"When I saw Phillips die, I looked down and was bleeding pretty good, that's probably the most scared I was at any point," Stafford said. "Then I kinda had to calm myself down and be like, 'All right, I gotta go try to do my job.' "

The soldier from Parker, Colo., loaded his 9 mm handgun, crawled up to their fighting position, stuck the pistol over the sandbags and fired.

Stafford saw Zwilling's M-4 rifle nearby so he loaded it, put it on top of the sandbag and fired. Another couple RPGs struck the sandbag wall Stafford used as cover. Shrapnel pierced his hands.

Stafford low-crawled to another fighting position where Cpl. Jason Bogar, Sgt. Matthew Gobble and Sgt. Ryan Pitts were located. Stafford told Pitts that the insurgents were within grenade-tossing range. That got Pitts' attention.

With blood running down his face, Pitts threw a grenade and then crawled to the position from where Stafford had just come. Pitts started chucking more grenades.

The firefight intensified. Bullets cut down tree limbs that fell on the soldiers. RPGs constantly exploded.

Back at Stafford's position, so many bullets were coming in that the soldiers could not poke their heads over their sandbag wall. Bogar stuck an M-249 machine gun above the wall and squeezed off rounds to keep fire on the insurgents. In about five minutes, Bogar fired about 600 rounds, causing the M-249 to seize up from heat.

At another spot on the observation post, Cpl. Jonathan Ayers laid down continuous fire from an M-240 machine gun, despite drawing small-arms and RPG fire from the enemy. Ayers kept firing until he was shot and killed. Cpl. Pruitt Rainey radioed the FOB with a casualty report, calling for help. Of the nine soldiers at the observation post, Ayers and Phillips were dead, Zwilling was unaccounted for, and three were wounded. Additionally, several of the soldiers' machine guns couldn't fire because of damage. And they needed more ammo.

Rainey, Bogar and another soldier jumped out of their fighting position with the third soldier of the group launching a shoulder-fired missile.

All this happened within the first 20 minutes of the fight.

Platoon leader 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and Cpl. Jason Hovater arrived at the observation post to reinforce the soldiers. By that time, the insurgents had breached the perimeter of the observation post. Gunfire rang out, and Rainey shouted, "He's right behind the sandbag." Brostrom could be heard shouting about the insurgent as well.

More gunfire and grenade explosions ensued. Back in the fighting position, Gobble fired a few quick rounds. Gobble then looked to where the soldiers were fighting and told Stafford the soldiers were dead. Of the nine soldiers who died in the battle, at least seven fell in fighting at the observation post.

The insurgents then started chucking rocks at Gobble and Stafford's fighting position, hoping that the soldiers might think the rocks were grenades, causing them to jump from the safety of their fighting hole. One rock hit a tree behind Stafford and landed directly between his legs. He braced himself for an explosion. He then realized it was a rock.

Stafford didn't have a weapon, and Gobble was low on ammo.

Gobble told Stafford they had to get back to the FOB. They didn't realize that Pitts was still alive in another fighting position at the observation post. Gobble and Stafford crawled out of their fighting hole.. Gobble looked again to where the soldiers had been fighting and reconfirmed to Stafford that Brostrom, Rainey, Bogar and others were dead.

Gobble and Stafford low-crawled and ran back to the FOB. Coming into the FOB, Stafford was asked by a sergeant what was going on at the observation post. Stafford told him all the soldiers there were dead. Stafford lay against a wall, and his fellow soldiers put a tourniquet on him.

From the OP, Pitts got on the radio and told his comrades he was alone. Volunteers were asked for to go to the OP.

SSG Jesse Queck sums up the reaction to the call: "When you ask for volunteers to run across an open field to a reinforced OP that almost everybody is injured at, and everybody volunteers, it feels good. There were a lot of guys that made me proud, putting themselves and their lives on the line so their buddies could have a chance."

At least three soldiers went to the OP to rescue Pitts, but they suffered wounds after encountering RPG and small-arms fire, but Pitts survived the battle.

At that time, air support arrived in the form of Apache helicopters, A-10s and F-16s, performing bombing and strafing runs.

The whole FOB was covered in dust and smoke, looking like something out of an old Western movie.

"I've never seen the enemy do anything like that," said Sgt. Jacob Walker, who was medically evacuated off the FOB in one of the first helicopters to arrive. "It's usually three RPGs, some sporadic fire and then they're gone ... I don't where they got all those RPGs. That was crazy."

Two hours after the first shots were fired, Stafford made his way -- with help -- to the medevac helicopter that arrived.

"It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused "Normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do that -- getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head ... It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ' em off."

Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers fought so hard.

"Just hardcoreness I guess," he said. "Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don't want to come in and try to get us."

Jeff Emanuel summed the fight up very well:

"Perhaps the most important takeaway from that encounter, though, is the one that the mainstream media couldn't be bothered to pay attention long enough to learn: that, not for the first time, a contingent of American soldiers that was outnumbered by up to a twenty-to-one ratio soundly and completely repulsed a complex, pre-planned assault by those dedicated enough to their cause to kill themselves in its pursuit.

That kind of heroism and against-all-odds success is and has been a hallmark of America's fighting men and women, and it is one that is worthy of all attention we can possibly give it."

Of the original 45 paratroopers, 15 were wounded and The Sky Soldiers lost 9 killed in action in the attack. They were:

1LT Jonathan Brostrom of Aiea, Hawaii

SGT Israel Garcia of Long Beach, California

SPC Matthew Phillips of Jasper, Georgia

SPC Pruitt Rainey of Haw River, North Carolina

SPC Jonathan Ayers of Snellville, Georgia

SPC Jason Bogar of Seattle, Washington

SPC Sergio Abad of Morganfield, Kentucky

SPC Jason Hovater of Clinton, Tennessee

SPC Gunnar Zwilling of Florissant, Missouri

Of the 9 that were lost, Sgt Walker says:

"I just hope these guys' wives and their children understand how courageous their husbands and dads were. They fought like warriors."

They fought like warriors.

Last week, there were 9 funerals in the United States. 9 warriors were laid to rest. 9 warriors who had given their all for their country All proud members of a brotherhood that will carry on in their name. They fought and died in what most would consider impossible circumstances, and yet they succeeded. A nameless fight in a distant war which, until you understand the facts, could be spun as a defeat. It wasn't. And it is because of the pride, courage and fighting spirit of this small unit that it was, in fact, a victory against overwhelming odds. And there's little doubt, given that pride and given that fighting spirit, that they'll be back to reestablish the base, this time with quite a few more soldiers just like the ones who "kicked ass" the last time there.

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Christians, Jews praying on Temple Mount 'seek religious war'

Muslim authorities say even right to talk to God on holy site exclusively theirs

... In an interview with Israel Today, Azzam Khatib, director of the Islamic Trust (or Waqf) that safeguards the mosques that sit atop the Temple Mount, said that Jews and Christians who try to pray at the ancient holy site are effectively declaring war.

Any non-Muslim "who seeks such an approach is really seeking a religious war," said Khatib, who insisted that the Temple Mount is an exclusively Muslim site and that Jews and Christians should not even want to pray there.

Khatib even took issue with the use of the term "Temple Mount," angrily demanding the site be called al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Khatib refused to consider the possibility that the site was once home to the First and Second Jewish Temples, calling such claims unsubstantiated myths. When presented with a citation from a 1929 tourist guide published by the Supreme Muslim Council that acknowledged the Temple Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple, Khatib rejected the idea that such a book was ever published by a Muslim authority. ...

Iran Heads Toward Nuclear `Breakthrough,' Israel Says (Update2)

Iran is on a path toward a ``major breakthrough'' in its nuclear program that is ``unacceptable,'' Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told a Washington audience today.

``It is an existential threat,'' Mofaz said at a forum on Iran at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ``We have to make sure we are prepared for every option.'' ...

American people responsible for 'blood of Muslims'

A top commander for al-Qaida says American people are as responsible for the U.S. military's ability to "wage war and spill the blood of Muslims" as is the American government.

"Islam does not distinguish between the American people and the American government, since both are in a state of war with Islam," Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid said in a recent interview.

The comments came in a report from Pakistan's independent television network Geo News, which was monitored and translated the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The MEMRI report said al-Yazid is considered al-Qaida's No. 3 man and "top commander in Afghanistan." The interview was in Arabic and broadcast with a voiceover in Urdu, and later was posted on Islamic websites.

Joseph R. McCarthy: Time for Truth

In early 1950 Senator McCarthy made a speech in which he probably said that there were 57 Communists in the State Department. It was sometimes erroneously reported as 205 Communists; it probably should have been 56. Whatever he said, the truth as we now know it with access to Soviet and FBI files from the period is that substantially more than 57 Communist spies, Party members, and propagandists taking orders from the Soviet Union were working for the State Department, for international organizations after working for the State Department, or elsewhere in the government after working for the State Department.

State Department Risks
The espionage problem in the State Department was fairly severe. The FBI had put together a good espionage case (Amerasia), but the Truman administration through Tommy "The Cork" Cocoran had fixed the U.S. Attorney's office to prevent a successful prosecution.

The Democrats, who knew that the loyalty/security situation was far worse than reported, feared that a public discussion would lead to an electoral disaster for them. The administration feared that exposure of the extent of Communist influence in the China section of the State Department would jeopardize the pre-Korean War, Acheson-Truman Cold War strategy of setting up our Asian defenses much further East than Eisenhower eventually did.

For these reasons and probably because of personal grudges, Democrats talked about things like expelling McCarthy. However, it turned out that he had more than 50 detailed files on Communists in the State Department. The Democrats had to back off for the moment. We now know that the FBI and the Truman White House had fierce battles over loyalty/security issues that were not made public at the time.

The loyalty/security problem had much more to do with dedicated Communist spies and propagandists than with people who were simply sympathizers. At that time, discipline within the Communist Party was extremely rigid. There were more than enough idiots around who thought it was fine to lend confidential, secret, and topsecret documents to their Communist friends or relatives. ...

Congressman wants Guantanamo moved, to Supreme Court

FORT WORTH, Texas -- An East Texas congressman wants Gitmo moved to Supreme Court grounds You can practically see the sarcasm dripping off the wording in this bill U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert of Tyler filed last week proposing a new location for Guantanamo Bay.

In light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that Gitmo detainees are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s habeas corpus protections, Gohmert wants to move the controversial jail to the Supreme Court grounds, "confined by adequate fencing."

"There can be no better way for the United States Supreme Court to exercise its new self-appointed war powers than to house the prisoners whom it has taken a greater role in overseeing," Gohmert writes.

It's impossible to miss Gohmert's feelings toward the justices when he offers, "Should the detainees need the use of restroom facilities, they shall use the facilities inside the United States Supreme Court building."

The bill also allows the justices to take over guard duty whenever they want and threatens to cut the court's budget in half if they don't follow the bill's guidelines.

British Fighters Helping The Taliban

British Muslims are actively helping the Taliban and al Qaida to attack coalition forces, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan has said.

Suspicions that Brits were fighting for the Taliban were raised earlier this year after that RAF experts overheard secret transmissions spoken in broad Midlands and Yorkshire accents.

Now Brigadier Ed Butler has also said militant Islamic groups in Helmand Province are suspected of assisting terrorist plots in the UK.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Brig Butler, who led British troops in Helmand Province for six months, said: "There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places like Kandahar.

"There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands, but the British public does not." ...

Exclusive: Al Qaeda No. 2 Injured?

(CBS) Ayman al-Zawahiri - the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's No. 2 - may be critically wounded and possibly dead, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports exclusively.

CBS News has obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from sources in Pakistan, which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. He's believed to be somewhere in Pakistan's remote tribal areas of Pakistan.

The letter refers to Sheikh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri by name - and says that he is in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected."

It is reportedly written by local Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, whose signature and seal are visible on the letter.

The Taliban logo and the Mehsud's seal have been confirmed by experts as legitimate.

The letter is dated July 29 - one day after a U.S. air strike that killed al Qaeda weapons expert Abu Khabab al-Masri, and five other Arabs in South Waziristan....

Captive accused of 'dirty bomb' plot

WASHINGTON --

Five days after the fact, the Pentagon disclosed Tuesday that it had sworn out war crimes charges against a former British resident now held at Guantánamo, alleging he discussed staging a radioactive ''dirty bomb'' attack to free captives at the remote U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 29, faces a maximum life in prison, if convicted of the terror charges. The charges were sworn out by the Pentagon case prosecutor on May 28 but posted for the first time on the Defense Department Web site on Tuesday.

The eight-page charge sheets allege that Mohamed convertedto Islam, trained as an al Qaeda bomb-maker in Afghanistan and then moved on to Pakistan, where in April 2002 he allegedly plotted a ''dirty bomb attack'' with the Brooklyn-born, former gang member José Padilla. ...

Japan warned of possible nuclear leak from US sub

TOKYO -

The U.S. Navy said that one of its nuclear-powered submarines had leaked minimally radioactive water earlier this year, threatening to cause a stir in Japan where both the U.S. military presence and its nuclear vessels are controversial.

The Navy said Friday it discovered the leak July 17 when a gallon of water spilled from a valve while the submarine was in dry dock for routine maintenance at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. An investigation showed water may have been slowly leaking from the valve since March as the Los Angeles-class submarine traveled around the Pacific.

The total amount of radioactivity released into the environment from the USS Houston at each stop was less than one half a microcurie, U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Scott Gureck said. ...

Tyson Foods drops Labor Day for Muslim holiday

(Compiler's note:

If this outrages you, contact the CEO, Richard (Dick) L. Bond:

Tyson Foods Inc.
2210 West Oaklawn Drive
Springdale, AR 72765 )

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHELBYVILLE — Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new 5-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

Tyson’s director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays — the same number as the old contract.

Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

"Give us money or we'll call you an Islamophobe"

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, responded yesterday to attempts by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) to discredit a panel on State Department outreach to Islamic groups that appear moderate but which seem likely to be anything but (including MPAC itself). He declared:

"This hearing will go on. We need to make sure that the State Department is not giving U.S. tax dollars to those on the other side in the war on terrorism." He added "The Muslim Public Affairs Council should apologize for the statements of its executive director on September 11, 2001."

MPAC, ISNA and a constellation of other radical groups and individuals have been supported by the State Department. Perhaps Thursday's testimony will signal a turning point, seeing the State Department implement stricter guidelines to avoid past mistakes and embarrassments, which have damaged America's national security.

It is encouraging to see someone in Sherman's position take the issue on so fearlessly and directly.

"I think one of the greatest fears of people in the United States is somebody may call you a racist...they may call you an Islamophobe," he said in the hearing. "And what we've seen with some of these organizations is their message is clear: ‘Give us money or we'll call you an Islamophobe'...that's what they say to the State Department. What they say to us in Congress is ‘Don't question the fact that we're getting money or we'll call you an Islamophobe.'"

Bravo, Sherman! Read it all: "Emerson Exposes Radical Ties of State Department Outreach Partners," from IPT News, July 31 (thanks to Andrew Bostom).

Making Black Magic

The world of illusion isn’t only for stage acts—old tricks can also make for dangerous new threats in the nation’s airports and beyond.

---

One night in the summer of 2005, I was having drinks with prestidigitator Harry Anderson at his club, Oswald’s, in New Orleans, discussing the finer points of sleights of hand and, more broadly, the legerdemain of magic. ...

I explained that counterterror intelligence analysts had examined information indicating Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations had studied the discipline of his craft at some point—techniques like classic misdirection, sleights, illusions and gaffed tricks. These counterterrorists were concerned that some terrorists had experimented with using parlor tricks to do things like sneak explosives on board an aircraft.

Given his long career in the arcane art of conjuring, I asked Harry if he thought it was possible that a highly motivated individual like a terrorist could train well enough to successfully employ some of these gimmicks for nefarious purposes. ...

The concept of terrorists as magicians was rekindled this past February when the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis issued an intelligence advisory warning about the possibility that Al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations might try to use women jihadists hiding explosives inside “pregnancy prosthetics … that mimic the look of a pregnant woman.” ...

Earlier this year, terrorists began to use a crude form of deception in their dispatching of female jihadists. In Iraq, Al Qaeda used Muslim women wearing suicide vests to carry out bombings after increased security and protective concrete walls made car bombings more difficult.

But as security authorities wise up to terrorists’ new ruses, the more astute among counterterrror intelligence authorities are pondering truly frightening scenarios terrorists are believed to have studied to hide explosives—like lining pregnancy prosthetics with sheet plastic explosives. They warn that the wearer may be able to get through airports that have no effective trace explosives sniffers or whole body imagers.

“This suddenly has become a very viable possibility,” said a veteran counterterrorist HSToday regularly talks to on background.

Combined with well-rehearsed misdirection and deception to cause momentary confusion and diversion, terrorists might be able to whisk any prosthetic-wearing jihadist past some airports’ security, the counterterrorist mused—“it would only take one.” ...

“Terrorists are getting exponentially smarter,” Kushner said. And according to counterterror experts, they’re coming up with more and more ways to slip past our first lines of defense. To do so, they’ve been experimenting with some really off the wall methods of deception to disguise their suicidal methodologies, like hiding upwards of three pounds of C-4, Semtex or some other plastic bonded explosive (PBX) rectally, vaginally and even surgically. The explosive could be remotely detonated while the bomb is inside terrorists’ bodies. ...

Philip Mudd, a high-ranking FBI counterterrorism official, told CBS news that European citizens of Pakistani descent and a few Americans were discovered to have been recruited as jihadists.

“They’ve realized that if they want to operate successfully they need to have people who look like us, act like us and are very difficult to find,” Mudd said.

“Whether it’s Americans or whether it’s people who can launch from Europe, because they have visas or passports that allow them to travel to the United States, [Al Qaeda is now] looking for people who can operate in the West.”

“…Or be recruited from the West,” another senior federal counterterror official told HSToday. ...

NOTE: This goes on, and on. Please go to the original source and read the entire article.

Barack Obama and Homeland Security

Who has the candidate’s ear on homeland security issues? A look at the roster of names and faces surrounding the senator from Illinois.

Over the past two years, as presidential campaign 2008 has ground on, the public has been constantly exposed to seemingly nanosecond-by-nanosecond saturation coverage. We’ve been subjected to nearly all aspects of political effluvia and arcana, from analyses of personality quirks and conflicts, image crafting, election tactics, opinion polls, fundraising, advertising spots and fine points of debating style and lapel pins.

Largely lost from view is the fact that political campaigns are primary vehicles for the creation of “brain trusts” which, in the case of winning campaigns, will generate many of the chief advisory posts of a new administration. ...

“Nonetheless,” he added, “if you look not so far beneath the surface, all of these issues are integrally connected to homeland security. So you can say that homeland security is an important subtext. ...

“One key thing that distinguishes Senator Obama’s approach as a candidate both from his Democratic rival[s] and, even more so from Senator McCain,” Michael Ortiz, Senator Obama’s communications director, told HSToday, “is his insistence on a pragmatic, analytical method in defining funding needs based on risk. In theory, everyone is in favor of prioritizing funding according to risk, but in practice homeland security funding has been politicized in a very counter-productive way so that every location, whether it warranted it or not, could get a piece of the pie.”

Obama sought to translate his rhetoric into legislation by co-sponsoring the Risk-Based Homeland Security Grants Act of 2007 (S. 608). Citing the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission that “homeland security assistance should not remain a program for general sharing,” Obama’s amendment to the bill called for decreasing the current minimum funding each state received under the state homeland security grant program to .25 percent, with an increase to .45 percent for border states. ...

One outspoken supporter whom Obama and his policy team have enlisted as a national and homeland security guru is Lee Hamilton, former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission. ...

Hamilton’s perspectives on the challenges ahead for homeland security can be seen in a commentary—titled “Reckoning with Radical Islam”—published last summer by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

“Our current counter-terror strategy is inadequate,” Hamilton wrote. ...

Another formal senior advisor to Obama and subject of speculation as an Obama vice-presidential running mate, Sam Nunn, former Democratic Georgia senator, has in public addresses and publications over the past year been laying out an agenda that places an emphasis on US diplomatic initiatives and leadership in multilateral projects to stem the global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. ...

Former Colorado senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart, an Obama supporter frequently mentioned as a likely high-level Cabinet member in an Obama administration, has described Obama as an ideal leader to forge the kind of multilateral security alliances critical to a truly international counterterror strategy. ...

In a book titled Under the Eagle’s Wing: A National Security Strategy of the United States for 2009 published in April, Hart outlined his current thinking on national and homeland security and on the priorities of a new administration. ...

Richard Clarke, an informal advisor on homeland security and related matters to the Obama campaign, has said he believes Obama “offers a comprehensive, sophisticated approach to terrorism, recognizing the importance of stopping repressive police and intelligence activities in countries threatened by Al Qaeda,” while also acknowledging, “that we are not at war with Islam but partners with Muslims threatened by Al Qaeda.” ...

Taken in tandem, these positions signal potentially large differences in policy priorities between the candidates.

The National Emergency Communications Plan

On July 31, 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the National Emergency Communications Plan. This plan comes out of DHS’s Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) and gives long and short term recommendations to address the problems with national emergency communication. Title XVII of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 requires that such a plan be developed, especially in light of recent terrorist attacks and significant natural disasters.

The press release reports that the ultimate goal of the NECP is to ensure that communications during emergency situations is efficient among all levels of government and private industry. Perhaps the best part of NECP is that it isn’t another “well this a list of the thing we want.” NECP gives a list of goals as well as a strategic look on how to accomplish those goals. To ensure smooth communications during disasters, the NECP gives the following three goals: ...

You can find the press release here. You can find the actual communication plan at this location. It will be intersting to see how the different levels of government and industry react to The National Emergency Communications Plan. It will be intersting to see if the NECP conflicts with existing plans and strategic goals. Please leave comments below if you can shed some light on the subject.

Obama's 'emergency' economic plan

(Compiler's note: By what authority? Better look into the detail on this one people. This is socialism at its best.)

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Friday announced an “Emergency Economic Plan” that would give families a stimulus check of $1,000 each, funded in part by what his presidential campaign calls “windfall profits from Big Oil.”

Details are in this six-page policy paper.

The first part of Obama’s plan is an emergency energy rebate ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families) as soon as this fall. ...

Drill, Drill, Drill

Source: A friend

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I just sent the below missive to my elected representatives. Unfortunately, I don’t expect any action. They are busy as I write, changing into their ‘vacation’ attire. As you may discern from my tone, I think they are a bunch of dunderheads who are more interested in themselves than the needs of the Nation. I got the idea to do this from a retired soldier friend of mine, Bill XXXX. Thanks, Bill—I borrowed some of your words and added a few of my own. I am not so naive as to think that my e-mail will result in any action, but maybe someone else is expressing the same view.

Here is what I sent to each of them:

Dear Senator/Representative,

When can we out here in the hinter-lands expect the Congress to lift the ban on Off Shore Drilling? You have done nothing, but you are going to take a vacation?

It does not take a rocket scientist to realize increasing domestic supply will reduce the massive outflow of wealth, and, as evidenced by the market’s reaction to the President’s recent action in lifting the executive ban on offshore drilling, will reduce costs of fossil fuels while this nation gets moving on alternative energy sources.

I agree with a starting point recommended by Mr T. Boone Pickens. "Natural gas and wind generated electricity.” A friend of mine suggested to me the other day and I feel it merits passing along to you, maybe a good starting place for the wind generators might be in a close proximity to Capitol Hill, at least some of the ineffective rhetoric (hot air) coming out of that facility might be put to good use!

When will some meaningful business be conducted for the people of this Republic in that facility instead of the constant bipartisan bickering and profiling for reelection.

Bottom line is simple; do we need a massive changing of faces in the Congress to get anything accomplished? I am tired of hearing the old platitudes about having a ‘comprehensive plan’ before we do anything. That is just the traditional Washington cop-out.

One T-d off voter, (slight modification to this last sentence by this compiler)

Signed

Al-Arian defenders try to put his prosecutor on trial

It's not that Al-Arian has admitted to aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and has clearly been deeply involved in jihadist activity in the U.S. It's that his prosecutor is "anti-Muslim." This is another variation of the phenomenon I discussed here: if you tell the truth about jihad and Islamic supremacism, it must be because you "hate Muslims." The focus shifts from defendant to prosecutor -- which is just what the jihadists want to accomplish.

"A Prosecutor Is Called 'Relentless,'" by Josh Gerstein for the New York Sun, July 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A federal prosecutor who has led a series of investigations into Islamic militants and Muslim groups based in Virginia, Gordon Kromberg, may soon be facing a trial of sorts himself, if defense lawyers get their way.

Attorneys for a former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty two years ago to aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian, are asking a federal judge to hold a hearing on whether anti-Muslim bias led to the government's decision to obtain a new indictment of Al-Arian in June for contempt for refusing to testify before grand juries pursuing the Virginia organizations.

While the motion claims Muslim terrorism suspects are generally treated unfairly by the Justice Department, Al-Arian's lawyers argue that Mr. Kromberg, 51, has a particularly egregious record of intemperate statements and actions in a series of terrorism-related cases and investigations.

"Defense attorneys have objected for years that Mr. Kromberg, the lead counsel in many of these cases, has been using the Eastern District of Virginia to mete out his own brand of justice for Muslim terrorism subjects, often openly displaying his personal animus," Al-Arian's lead counsel, Jonathan Turley, wrote. "This long and controversial record forms the backdrop for the allegation of selective and malicious prosecution in this case." ...

Moonbats Threaten To Decapitate 11 Year-Old For Shooting Massive Hog

He killed a fat hog... Now he must die.

In this photo released by Melynne Stone, Jamison Stone, 11, poses with a wild pig he killed near Delta, Ala., May 3, 2007. Stone's father says the hog weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. The animal was larger than ``Hogzilla,'' the huge hog killed in Georgia in 2004. (Flickr)

Animal rights moonbats have threatened to decapitate a 11 year-old hunter for shooting a massive wild boar in Alabama.
FOX News and Power Line Forum reported: ...

Global Security Brief

By Professor Joseph B. Varner

American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.

The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region. The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. ...

Administration Asserts No Fourth Amendment for Domestic Military Operations

by Michael Ostrolenk

Posted by Kurt Opsahl (EFF Blog)

Today’s Washington Post reports on a newly released memo, “Memorandum for William J. Haynes II, General Counsel of the Department of Defense Re: Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States” (March 14, 2003) , which which was declassified and released publicly yesterday. Balkinization has commentary on the very troubling opinion.

While the newly released memo focuses on “asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators,” it contains a footnote referencing another Administration memo that caught our eye:

… our Office recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations. See Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, and William J. Haynes, II, General Counsel, Department of Defense, from John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Robert J. Delahunty, Special Counsel, Re: Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States at 25 (Oct 23, 2001). (emphasis added)

Full Story

What's the Coast Guard Doing in Africa?

Two months ago the Coast Guard cutter Dallas (pictured) sailed from Charleston, South Carolina. Rather than heading south to intercept drug runners and migrants -- two of the biggest Coastie missions -- the 40-year-old ship veered east ... and headed across the Atlantic to the West African coast.

Dallas' recently-wrapped deployment, though unusual for a quasi-military law enforcement agency, continues an accelerating trend in the U.S. sea services. The Navy and Coast Guard are shifting away from traditional missions in favor of "soft power" exercises in the the world's neglected shallow-water zones (aka "littorals"). Navy amphibious and hospital ships carry trainers, doctors, aid workers and scientists to Africa and South America, with the goal of alleviating environmental and humanitarian problems that could bloom into crises. Coast Guard cutters, Dallas included, bring law-enforcement training teams to developing countries in order to improve the countries' ability to police themselves.

Dallas skipper Captain Robert Wagner said the Coast Guard is perfect for the African mission. Dallas paid visits to Cape Verde, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, among other nations. ...

Obama and McCain and Iran

(Compiler's note: The article below the introduction needs to be read by all Americans. I have not seen it put so simply. Thomas Sowell has hit the nail on the head. A Must Read Article!!! rca)

By Thomas Sowell

Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober-- if not grim-- assessment of where we are.

Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When election day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.

This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world-- Iran-- is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.

The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran's nuclear bomb will be the terrorists' nuclear bomb-- and they can make 9/11 look like child's play.

All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand-- however outrageous those demands might be-- or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.

All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.

Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us.

They have already telegraphed their punches with their sadistic beheadings of innocent civilians, and with the popularity of videotapes of those beheadings in the Middle East.

They have already telegraphed their intention to dictate to us with such things as Osama bin Laden's threats to target those places in America that did not vote the way he prescribed in the 2004 elections. He could not back up those threats then but he may be able to in a very few years.

The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s-- and our "leaders" and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the "leaders" and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.

We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.

What does this have to do with today's presidential candidates? It has everything to do with them.

One of these candidates will determine what we are going to do to stop Iran from going nuclear-- or whether we are going to do anything other than talk, as Western leaders talked in the 1930s.

There is one big difference between now and the 1930s. Although the West's lack of military preparedness and its political irresolution led to three solid years of devastating losses to Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, nevertheless when all the West's industrial and military forces were finally mobilized, the democracies were able to turn the tide and win decisively.

But you cannot lose a nuclear war for three years and then come back. You cannot even sustain the will to resist for three years when you are first broken down morally by threats and then devastated by nuclear bombs.

Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes President of the United States next January.

At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for some third party candidate to show our displeasure-- at the cost of putting someone in the White House who is not up to the job.

Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.

On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.

Change ....

Source: A friend -- and yes it does have national security implications

This has to make you think a little bit, if not then keep your blinders on!

George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine. A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%;
4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +
5) American's were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacations o'seas, living large!...

But American's wanted 'CHANGE'! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress & yep--we got 'CHANGE' all right. In the PAST YEAR:
1) Consumer confidence has plummeted ;
2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION
DOLLARS & prices still dropping;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6) As I write, THE DOW is down to about~~11,300--
$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM American’s
STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT
PORTFOLIOS!

YEP , IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE!...AND WE SURE AS X?!#*& GOT IT!!!....NOW OBAMA, the DEM'S CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT--AND THE POLLS SAY HE'S GONNA BE 'THE MAN'--CLAIMS HE'S GONNA REALLY GIVE US CHANGE!!....JUST HOW MUCH MORE 'CHANGE' DO YA THINK YOU CAN STAND???.....

It's Mea Culpa Week

By Michael Reagan

Like altar boys who used to strike their breasts and mutter "mea culpa" ("through my fault") during the beginning of the Latin mass while confessing that they had sinned, Democrats are in full confessional mode, apologizing for every real or imagined sin against a particular group they believe their country once offended.

In the latest example of sheer looniness that has marked the current Democrat-controlled Congress, surely the worst if not the craziest Congress in all U.S. history, the House officially sought forgiveness from Native Americans and the victims of Jim Crow-ism.

They did that in our name, laying upon our shoulders the alleged sins of long-dead Americans and having us cringe at the feet of today's casino-rich Native Americans, and our black brothers and sisters whose votes they lust after.

Just a minute here. Neither I nor any of my immediate ancestors ever lifted a finger against a single American Indian or black American. I have no apologies to make to people I have not offended. If offenses were committed they weren't my fault, or for that matter yours or that of any living Americans.

How dare these congressional demagogues associate us with alleged sins of the distant past committed by people who have long been gone from this world. ...

War of ideas

James K. Glassman, the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, has launched a more aggressive program to counter Islamist extremism through a war of ideas.

"The war of ideas is a very important aspect of the non-kinetic part of the war on terror," Mr. Glassman said in an interview this week. "In fact, it may be the most important aspect of the war on terror."

Mr. Glassman's office is the lead federal agency in organizing both policy and programs designed to "push back against violent extremist ideology." Most of the focus is on al Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups.

The war of ideas is supposed to be one of three equal components of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, after military operations and law enforcement and intelligence counterterrorism.

However, it is by far the least developed aspect, according to U.S. officials.

Mr. Glassman said the specific mission of the new programs is to "create an environment that is hostile to violent extremism." ...

One key aspect of the new campaign is to encourage credible voices from the Muslim world to speak out against extremism. ...

A second U.S. government effort involves ... educational and other programs to "divert" Muslims, especially young people, away from extremism. ...

Another U.S.-backed program is a Farsi-language social-networking site called Parsloop.com in which Farsi speakers in Iran and outside the country can discuss issues of importance to Iranians. A second "dot-gov" Farsi site directly promotes American messages and ideas. ...

NOTE: Be sure and read the rest of this report!!

The Greatest Swindle Ever!

Source: A friend

This is worth watching and thinking about. Maybe, just maybe, this will snowball enough to get changed back to what we once had.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MApnr5026M

Please distribute this far and wide to see if we can keep this up and running on Youtube. (The more that visit the site, the longer it stays up.) Please spread the word! It's the story of the broken promise made for a life time of healthcare to military retirees.

So many have completed their end of the deal and now they are without the promised healthcare.

Semper Fidelis,

XXXX Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

Busting the Anthrax Myth

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart -- STRATFOR

Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told a congressional subcommittee on July 22 that the risk of a large-scale biological attack on the nation is significant and that the U.S. government knows its terrorist enemies have sought to use biological agents as instruments of warfare. Runge also said that the United States believes that capability is within the terrorists’ reach.

Runge gave his testimony before a subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology that was holding a field hearing in Providence, R.I., to discuss the topic of “Emerging Biological Threats and Public Health Preparedness.”

During his testimony, Runge specifically pointed to al Qaeda as the most significant threat and testified that the United States had determined that the terrorist organization is seeking to develop and use a biological weapon to cause mass casualties in an attack. According to Runge, U.S. analysis indicates that anthrax is the most likely choice, and a successful single-city attack on an unprepared population could kill hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Later in his testimony, Runge remarked that many do not perceive the threat of bioterrorism to be as significant as that of a nuclear or conventional strike, even though such an attack could kill as many people as a nuclear detonation and have its own long-term environmental effects.

We must admit to being among those who do not perceive the threat of bioterrorism to be as significant as that posed by a nuclear strike. To be fair, it must be noted that we also do not see strikes using chemical or radiological weapons rising to the threshold of a true weapon of mass destruction either. The successful detonation of a nuclear weapon in an American city would be far more devastating than any of these other forms of attack.

In fact, based on the past history of nonstate actors conducting attacks using biological weapons, we remain skeptical that a nonstate actor could conduct a biological weapons strike capable of creating as many casualties as a large strike using conventional explosives — such as the October 2002 Bali bombings that resulted in 202 deaths or the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191.

We do not disagree with Runge’s statements that actors such as al Qaeda have demonstrated an interest in biological weapons. There is ample evidence that al Qaeda has a rudimentary biological weapons capability. However, there is a huge chasm of capability that separates intent and a rudimentary biological weapons program from a biological weapons program that is capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people. ...

NOTE: Please read the balance of this report.

Secret Nuclear Reactor Under Construction in Iran

By Cary Wesberry

They sure are busy in Iran. Full speed ahead to nuclear armament regardless of sanctions. Imagine that, sanctions failing against a regime comprised of Islamic fascist fanatics. I would have never guessed. It is true regardless. The peace-loving Iranians destroyed the homes of thousands of their own people and began construction starting between 2000 and 2003. The report below from MEMRI gives details:

On July 29, 2008, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reported that, according to “highly reliable sources,” Iranian authorities had begun construction of a secret nuclear reactor in the Al-Zarqan region close to the city of Ahwaz in southwest Iran, on the Iran-Iraq border.

The paper said that according to sources, Iran was working to distance its nuclear installations from international oversight. The English version of the report, published in the Kuwaiti Arab Times, said, “Disclosing [that] Tehran directed international A-bomb inspectors to other places, sources warned [that] the project poses a very serious threat to international security.”

Also according to the sources, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not know about this site at all, since it was not included in negotiations with Iran in Geneva held in early July.

According to the report, the sources said that during 2000-2003, Iran expropriated the lands and homes of thousands of Arab citizens from the Al-Zarqan region, destroying homes of thousands of Arab citizens from the Al-Zarqan region.

Destroyed homes, fields, orchards, and wells, and built a three-meter-high wall around the project site, which allegedly measures hundreds of kilometers.

The report also said that “the construction of the reactor began with the laying of a pipeline for fresh water from the [nearby] Karoun River to the site, and the expansion of the Al-Zarqan power station.”

Also, the sources said that “the construction works seem to be routine and do not arouse attention, but the tight security around the region is what arouses suspicions regarding the nature of the work.” They added that the site is guarded by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) personnel, reflecting its importance and sensitivity.

Continue reading the entire report by following the link above to Front Page Magazine. No rest for the wicked, truly a way of life for the Iranian regime in Tehran. Sanctions from the UN or the so-called “responsible nations of the world” in Europe have not and will not have any effect on Iran’s progress towards weaponizing their nuclear programs. It is vitally important to remember that Iran is not doing this for money like North Korea. When Iran executes their underground nuclear bomb tests the leaders in the Western world had better wake-up.

New Terrorist Weapon: Suicide Underwear?

Just when you thought you'd seen it all. Talk about "death from below." From Pakistan's Daily Times:

RAWALPINDI: Would-be suicide bombers could be using explosives “underwear briefs” rather than explosives jackets to evade “conservative” body searches, sources said on Wednesday.

Sihala Police College forensic lab sources told Daily Times that the study of recent suicide attacks showed that suicide bombers used “explosives-laden” under-garments, briefs in particular, to carry out the attacks.

The sources said that the explosives could weigh between five kilogrammes to seven kilogrammes, made deadly by adding glass splinters, metal ball bearings and bullets. The law enforcers normally search upper body parts sparing the “privates”, the sources said, hence assailants are increasingly using the lower body parts to dodge the searches...

Talk about sacrifice. But hey, no one said the path to jihad and global domination was going to be pretty, right, fellas?

Bush Unveils Spy Guidelines, Angering House Overseers

The Bush administration unveiled new operating guidelines for the nation's intelligence community yesterday in a move that boosted the authority of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) while triggering protests from lawmakers who complained that they weren't properly consulted.

... The changes were part of a long-awaited overhaul of Executive Order 12333, a Reagan-era document that establishes the powers and responsibilities of U.S. intelligence services. Most of the revisions merely reflect changes already in place since the DNI was established by Congress three years ago, partly as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Although the revamped order had been in the works for a year, its formal unveiling prompted a rare revolt from congressional Republicans, some of whom walked out on Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell during a morning briefing. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, led several GOP colleagues to the exit after complaining that the administration had made the changes secretly without consulting with congressional overseers -- part of a pattern dating to the beginning of the Bush presidency, Hoekstra said.

"Given the impact that this order will have on America's intelligence community, and this committee's responsibility to oversee intelligence activities, this cannot be seen as anything other than an attempt to undercut congressional oversight," Hoekstra said in a statement afterward. ...

Army scientist commits suicide; Brothers say scientist was pursued on anthrax attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A top U.S. biodefense researcher whose brother says was being aggressively pursued by the FBI in connection with a series of anthrax mailings after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks apparently committed suicide.

Criminal charges were about to be filed against Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland of an apparent overdose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, the Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's editions.

Ivins, who had worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had been told about the impending prosecution, the newspaper said.

The Maryland laboratory has been at the center of the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people. ...

Indoctrination in Public Schools Leads to Rise in Home Schooling

Renee Taylor

Can we expect the next generation to be competent leaders of our nation if they're learning less about fact and more about feeling in public schools? ...

This year in our home school, our child will learn from the example of Capt. John Smith, who took the failed communal system of the Pilgrims and turned it around into a flourishing capitalist system, while scores of future “comrades” will continue to bussed to their government indoctrination centers, identical pencils and notebooks in hand, to be fed a failed Marxist theology of equality and redistribution of wealth for all. While government indoctrination center children will be passing around the “talking stick” to explore the feelings of others, our home school child will be learning how to tune up his own car, how to read and write proficiently in English and other life skills necessary to be a responsible adult. While the ‘60s liberal hippies now instructing your child will be reliving their “free love” days at Woodstock, promoting homosexuality to elementary age children and teen sexual behavior responsible for out of wedlock births and reliance on Federal and state welfare, our home school child will learn the Ten Commandments, Biblical principles regarding relationships and responsibility.

While American parents submerged themselves into two income families in order to pay increasing tax burdens and to acquire more “stuff” they “deserve,” their children became potential members of the potential Communist future of the United States of Amerika. However, tens of thousands of parents have refused – choosing like us to make the sacrifices necessary for a one-income household and home school, providing their children with a real education with real life principles that will be the saving grace of the United States of America.

Ignorance about the Enemy's Ideology Is the Problem

by Jeffrey Imm

In fighting Jihad, America's greatest challenge remains understanding and confronting the ideology that provides the basis for Jihadist terrorism. Efforts to clearly define this enemy ideology recently have been undermined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and the State Department in promoting a "terror lexicon" that recommends federal government employees avoid terms such as "jihad," "jihadist," "Islamist," "mujahideen," and "caliphate" when addressing issues involving terrorism. The argument made by the DHS, NCTC, and others is that the use of such terms will aid in the "recruitment" of Muslims to join terrorist organizations, or will alternatively provide "legitimacy" to religious aspects of terrorist efforts.

However, this tactical approach to create a "terror lexicon" to ban such terms used in federal government terrorism reports and the 9/11 Commission report undermines the strategic efforts to identify, understand, and confront the ideology that is the root challenge in a war of ideas against Jihad. And, as Bill West points out, it can also open the door to some unintended consequences for law enforcement.

....to address this strategic war of ideas, America needs to be willing to recognize that we should not grant special treatment to those hostile to our values. In facing the challenge of Jihadist terrorism, we need to be able to name and discuss the enemy's ideology.

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