Free Republic

During an address on Thursday May 27, 2010 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan, the Obama administration’s lead counterterrorism adviser, provided a transparently bowdlerized perspective on jihad. Brennan’s statements were breathtaking in their profound cognitive dissonance regarding this uniquely Islamic institution, which continues to wreak daily havoc in our era. Despite over 15,350 jihad terror attacks by Muslims worldwide, since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism committed against the United States itself, on September 11, 2001, Brennan insisted, Nor do we describe our enemy as ‘jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate...

Instead of seeking victory in a war against radical Islamic terrorism, the Obama administration has framed our efforts as law enforcement. Whether in Mirandizing the would-be Christmas bomber, initially seeking to try Khalid Sheikh Muhammed in a New York City civilian courtroom, or engaging in a headlong rush to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, the president's Justice Department has politicized justice and imperiled national security. These misguided efforts, as Andrew McCarthy argues, are confusing, but even more, mark a security and constitutional crisis. Charting a different path, this talk will offer a preview of the speaker's forthcoming book, The Grand...

he prosecution team I led in 1995 convicted the notorious Blind Sheikh and 11 others for conspiring to wage a terrorist war that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and attempting (unsuccessfully) to attack New York City landmarks. Consequently, some observers seem puzzled that I'm a vocal critic of civilian trials for our terrorist enemies. But they are confusing litigation success with national-security success. So is the Obama administration in deciding to transfer Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters to federal court in Manhattan. We certainly can convict terrorists in civilian court. We've done it too many...

C-SPAN 2 is covering Accuracy in Media's 40th anniversary conference live today.Congratulations to our friends at AIM!

I can’t have any more bills. I’m out of checks.” It is a joke we used to hear all the time, back in the days before credit cards made it even easier to run up bills we can’t or won’t pay. Like all good jokes, it has a kernel of truth: a truth about the human mind’s capacity for self-delusion. In his important new book, Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West, Michael Ledeen describes this capacity as “that part of the spirit that shelters active thought from unpleasant truths.” Rarely has the talent for self-delusion been...

A little over six months into it and the Barack Hussein Obama presidency has been unmitigated mayhem. Obama-caused disasters befall the nation on a near daily basis that one can scarcely keep track anymore. We have endured his offensive schmoozing with the slave owners’ tour in the Arab states; punctuated by his contemptible speech in Cairo, in which the president spouted flagrant falsehoods about the charms of Islam while berating the United States for being a bit churlish about radical Muslim ideology after 9/11. As anticipated, Obama made apocryphal pledges to Muslims about the United States’ ability to constrain Israel....

Steve Hayes is getting lots of well deserved attention for his report at the Weekly Standard today about how the Obama/Holder Justice Department has quietly instructed the FBI to start giving Miranda warnings to captured alien combatant terrorists — the next logical move in the ongoing effort to move us away from a war approach and return us to the law-enforcement paradigm for dealing with international terrorism.

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General of the United States United States Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 Dear Attorney General Holder: This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President’s Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading. The invitation email (of April 14) indicates...

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General of the United States United States Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 Dear Attorney General Holder: This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President’s Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading. The invitation email (of April 14) indicates...

Greg Pollowitz points me to this report from the Anchorage Daily News, that the judge in the failed corruption prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens is still fuming at the Justice Department. The paper reports that Judge Emmet Sullivan, "on his own, without a request by either party" issued a pair of orders over the weekend, "indicating he may not be ready to give up jurisdiction of the case even as the government is asking for all charges to be dismissed." The report elaborates that the judge directed federal prosecutors to provide him copies of everything they had gathered in...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Posted By:MAF Blogger DannyPermalinkAndrew McCarthy Writes A Special Analysis for MAF This blog post is really special. We were doing the presser for our Gitmo ad and we really wanted and expert opinion so we asked Andrew McCarthy of National Review and he wrote us this amazing piece which gives us another perspective - this one coming from a policy expert - on Guantanamo Bay. If the Guantanamo Detainees Are Transferred Into the U.S.By Andrew C. McCarthyAt the moment, alien enemy combatants are being held by the military outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. courts. ...

"Does anybody really seriously believe that Barack Obama is a secret left-wing radical?" You're right, David. Why would anyone think this guy is a left-wing radical? Just because sought (and got) an endorsement from the Chicago branch of the Socialist International, got his training from ACORN and a Saul Alinski outfit, wanted to surrender to terrorists, thinks the Constitution vests alien combatants with rights against the American people, fought a law prohibiting infanticide, praises Bill Ayers' views on education and the criminal justice system, approved millions in subsidies for hard Left education "reform" projects, wants to nationalize the healthcare industry...

You Guys Are Nuts [Andy McCarthy] We have a disaster here — which is what you should expect when you delegate a non-conservative to make the conservative (nay, the American) case. We can parse it eight ways to Sunday, but I think the commentary is missing the big picture. Here's what Obama needed to do tonight: Convince the country that he was an utterly safe, conventional, centrist politician who may have leftward leanings but will do the right thing when the crunch comes. Now, as the night went along, did you get the impression that Obama comes from the radical...

I'm posting because it is indicative of the anger in lots of reader email I'm seeing: The Ifill issue is front and center. Last night on Brit Hume's program, the consensus was that they all knew Gwen and she is a swell person, and of course she wouldn't do anything partisan. Just where the hell are these people coming from? Day in and day out, out here in the real world we see obvious bias, obvious double standards and yet the Republicans and a lot of the "conservative" media either don't see it, or if they do, they let it...

I'm posting because it is indicative of the anger in lots of reader email I'm seeing: The Ifill issue is front and center. Last night on Brit Hume's program, the consensus was that they all knew Gwen and she is a swell person, and of course she wouldn't do anything partisan. Just where the hell are these people coming from? Day in and day out, out here in the real world we see obvious bias, obvious double standards and yet the Republicans and a lot of the "conservative" media either don't see it, or if they do, they let it...

Much of the counter-argument on (a) seems to be that Obama is such a savvy politician it is hard to believe he would intentionally say something so stupid. I just don't think that's an accurate read of the away-from-the-teleprompter Obama we are finally coming to know. He's not that savvy. He's lucky — which, as they say, ain't nothin'. But he's like a guy who got called up for the World Series after winning the high school championship: now, suddenly, the fields are bigger, the crowds are enormous and more discerning, and the other team is accomplished, professional and comes...

US VISIT needs fixing — an opportunity for McCain. Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential hopeful, says he has learned his lesson on immigration. His vision of a “comprehensive reform” in which at least some illegal aliens would be rewarded with legal status must, he now knows, await major deposits in the credibility bank by a government Americans do not trust to enforce the law. He says it’s time to get serious, and that the way to do that is “Border Enforcement First.” Unfortunately, that’s not very serious. Long before September 11, 2001, the government well knew that smuggling across...

[snip] ....The sales job is a myth. In reality, a McCain presidency would promise an entirely conventional, center-left, multilateralism. If you liked the second Bush term, if you liked Clintonian foreign policy, you will find much to admire in a Commander-in-Chief McCain. There would be the same agonizing over European and Islamic perceptions of America; the same doctrinaire commitment to the alchemy of democracy promotion; and the same fondness for heaping more unaccountable bureaucratic sprawl atop the already counter-productive agencies and multinational institutions that frustrate the United States at every turn. Don’t take my word for it. Read McCain’s own...

McCain MirageThe senator is not ready-for-prime-time commander-in-chief.By Andrew C. McCarthySenator John McCain’s ascendancy in the Republican presidential race has been truly remarkable. Yet, it’s no groundswell. To this point, about two out of every three primary and caucus participants have voted against him. If the Democrats and independents some states permit to crash the Grand Old Party were factored out, his standing in the Republican base would be even less impressive. Still, you have to hand it to his admirers: They have parlayed his thin support into an aura of inevitability. The glow could intensify this week, when McCain is...

Lopez: “Militant Islam may actually pose an existential threat to the United States…” you write. What must be done? McCarthy: The first step is to recognize the threat and its source. If, as I contend, the doctrine is the source, then security policy has to direct itself to the doctrine. We can’t change the doctrine ourselves. But we can protect ourselves, and increase the pressure for reform, by refusing to tolerate terrorist safe-havens; punishing regimes that facilitate jihadist organizations, particularly by giving them safe-haven; imposing restrictions on business with and immigration from Islamic countries unless they reform; punishing regimes that...