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On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to question Attorney General Eric Holder about his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in criminal courts rather than military tribunals. As the father of Todd Beamer, who died on United Airlines Flight 93, I was able to attend that hearing. What transpired caused me great concern and shook my confidence in our current administration....How can we be assured that these enemies will be found guilty? Given that criminal courts are now the presumed venue for those captured on the battlefield, will soldiers need to read them their rights at...

For discussion only! Should the criminal case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (aka KSM) be dismissed? Some potential motions: 1) Judicial Misconduct: Violations of Miranda, violations of Escobedo, as stated by the President of the United States, KSM was "tortured". Violations of the right to a speedy trial. Detained by federal agents for more than 24 hours without being formally charged. 2) Double Jeopardy: In the case of Dr. Jeffrey McDonald: Source:http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/534614 Quote: "Since MacDonald was not put to trial before a military tribunal authorized to convict or acquit him, jeopardy never attached. Serfass v. United States, 420 U.S. 377, 387-89,...

Dear Friends, Today, Tuesday, November 24, 2009, it is with a heavy heart that we declare this election over. We will formally end this election and not ask for a recount. This was a difficult choice to make because so many people have put their faith, hope and aspirations into our campaign. Yes, there seem to have been many vote counting problems, missed vote counts and, as was recently reported by the Gouvernour Times, software problems in the computerized voting machines. Despite these incidents, I do not believe the voters of NY-23, or New Yorkers in general, would be well-served...

Man Survives 47 Minutes in Cardiac Arrest Doctors Wouldn't Give Up on N.Y. Man, Delivering 4,500 Chest Compressions and 8 Defibrillator Shocks to Save Him (WCBS)  What happens if your heart stops beating? Is it possible to survive? CBS station WCBS in New York recently met a Brooklyn man who lived after his heart quit for 47 minutes, and it's all thanks to a team of doctors who refused to give up until they brought him back from the dead. "These doctors did not stop," Joe Tiralosi said, fighting through tears to find the words to describe his experience....

NEW YORK -- Saying the state faces an unprecedented fiscal crisis, New York Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday sought emergency legislation that would give him authority to implement a one-time, across-the-board reduction in state payments to close a $3.2 billion budget gap for the current year. The proposed bill includes a legislative finding that the state's deficit "presents a genuine danger that the state will lack the funds necessary to make payments as they come due," Mr. Paterson said in a Web address. The state's "extremely precarious and worsening fiscal situation" necessitates the payment denials that the legislation would allow,...

Let it shut down. The state of New York. Let it run out of money, let the lights go out, let the IOUs roll. Sometimes to fix it, you’ve got to break it. And this is one of those times. New York needs tough love. In these waters, the best thing is to put the ship on the rocks and wade to shore. With a budget gap of $3.2 billion, an incompetent for a governor and a gaggle of moral crooks in the legislature, it’s time to take Grama off life support. Just let it shut down. Gov. David Paterson...

Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, November 23, 2009 Arms Dealer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Supply U.S. Fighter Jet Engines to Iran Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama to conspiracy to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the Untied States to Iran. Monsieur along with Dara Fotouhi, aka Dara Fatouhi, an Iranian national currently living in France, was charged in a...

China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest contractor in China, has bagged a subway ventilation project worth about $100 million in New York’s Manhattan area, marking the construction giant’s third order in the United States’ infrastructure space this year. The contract was given to China Construction American Co, a subsidiary, the Wall Street Journal quoted a source as saying. “The new project, along with the $410-million Hamilton Bridge project and a $1.7-billion entertainment project it won earlier this year, signals China State Construction’s ambition to tap the American construction market,” said Li Zhirui, an industry analyst at First Capital Securities....

Having friends over for dinner used to involve a minimal and fairly unremarkable to-do list: There were groceries to buy, along with flowers and a couple of bottles of semi-respectable wine. I would put out some guest towels and a collection of fancy soaps that were off limits to blood relatives, and then — voilà! — dinner was served. Preparing for a dinner party these days is far more complex, thanks to a vast and bewildering array of dietary needs that seem to have suddenly overtaken everyone I know. Complaint Box Steamed? Dish out the peeves. Send your essays —...

New York's Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer just doesn't know what to think about terrorism. He does, however, know what to say - whatever is politically convenient at the moment. That's not what New Yorkers need to hear with the trial of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed about to land on the docket. Immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Mr. Schumer chaired a Judiciary Committee hearing to figure out how to legally handle terrorist suspects. While smoke still hovered in the air over Ground Zero, the senator was all about being tough. His opening statement included his support for...

Note: The following news brief is a quote: http://ny1.com/8-queens-news-content/top_stories/109259/queens-imam-involved-in-terror-investigation-granted-holiday-travel 11/20/2009 09:14 AM Queens Imam Involved In Terror Investigation Granted Holiday Travel By: NY1 News The Queens imam under house arrest for allegedly interfering with a terror investigation will spend Thanksgiving in Virginia. According to reports, Ahmad Afzali was given permission to travel to his father’s home for the holiday. A federal judge in Brooklyn approved the trip after a request was filed by Afzali’s attorney. Federal prosecutors reportedly did not oppose the request, but the office of pretrial services was concerned his electronic ankle monitoring bracelet would be out of...

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor next year - but will run for U.S. Senate instead, sources told the Daily News. A source familiar with Giuliani's thinking said the failed presidential candidate has been telling people he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010 to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's term.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor next year - but will run for U.S. Senate instead, sources told the Daily News. A source familiar with Giuliani's thinking said the failed presidential candidate has been telling people he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010 to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's term. If elected, the source said, he could use that as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012 - rather than run for re-election to the Senate. A Giuliani spokeswoman downplayed the reports. "Rudy has a...

Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has decided not to run for governor of New York next year after months of mulling a candidacy, according to people who have been told of the decision. .. It remains unclear whether the former mayor is considering any other political race in 2010. Some have urged him to take on the newly installed Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who has never run statewide and is still introducing herself to voters in parts of the state. The decision will be a boon to other Republican contenders. So far, Rick Lazio, a former congressman from Long Island,...

Terrorists may have been upset over the treatment of their brothers-in-arms at Gitmo, but striking back at the naval base was a logistical impossibility. Not so with a city of endless subway tunnels, elevator shafts and an entire island that can be brought to a halt given the right combination of carnage and chaos. The Obama administration grossly underestimated the response of the American people when it announced its intentions last week to try battlefield combatants in criminal courts. We were also not impressed that President Obama ducked responsibility by simply calling it a "prosecutorial" decision. We see the harm...

After his Senate testimony today, Holder was confronted by a woman who lost a son Flight 93. She accused him of giving the military commissions short shrift and enabling a media circus in which KSM will be allowed to rant and put the country on trial. Once again, he failed to address the issue. He tells her he did not give them short shrift and that the defendants ranted in the commissions too. Funny, I don't recall breathless liberal news organizations gleefully giving endless blow-by-blow of those antics. Maybe that is because the military doesn't allow circuses to take place...

The eternal flame is not living up to its name — again. The Prison Ships Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park, a tribute to the nearly 12,000 prisoners of war who died on British ships in the East River during the Revolutionary War, has dimmed — and residents’ tempers are burning bright. “The monument is not getting the justice it deserves,” said Michael Molfetas, a Clinton Hill resident who was appalled that it had taken less than a year since the November, 2008 rededication ceremony for the supposedly eternal flame to go out. “It is here to show America’s strength...

Doug Hoffman picks up 20 votes so far in 23rd Congressional District recanvass By Mark Weiner / The Post-Standard November 17, 2009, 7:25PM Washington, D.c. -- Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman picked up a net gain of 20 votes Tuesday — far from what he needs to win — as the count of absentee ballots began in the 23rd Congressional District. Hoffman received the tiny boost after Madison, Oneida and Hamilton counties said they finished counting their absentee ballots Tuesday. The majority of the sprawling district – eight other counties – will finish the process this week. But if early...

Ten months before Al Qaeda in 2001 struck a deathblow in the heart lower Manhattan, one of the terrorist group's founding members plunged a sharpened comb through Pepe's left eye and into his brain, blinding the 42-year-old prison guard and causing severe brain injuries that plague him to this day. Pepe told FoxNews.com he worries that sending Mohammed and four of his alleged fellow 9/11 conspirators to New York could compromise the safety of the guards at the MCC prison. Keeping the prisoners in one location, he said, was especially dangerous. Teaming up against Pepe, they beat and blinded him,...

President Obama’s decision to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in New York City along with four others accused of helping destroy the World Trade Center and attack the Pentagon on 9-11 paints a bull’s-eye for terrorists right on New York City, their favorite target. Now Obama has identified where the terrorists should focus their energies — on New York City.

Gov. David Paterson openly criticized the White House on Monday, saying he thought it was a terrible idea to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists to New York for trial.

Our guests from Gitmo are going to be tried in New York. The people of New York will again have to be exposed to Islamic Extremists. Fear and paranoia will grip some New Yorkers. Some feel that by bringing these guys in will bring added threats from those who sympathize with them. And for what? Aren’t trials for people who have been charged with crimes? If fighting against the U.S. is a crime that terrorists have to go to court over, then how much longer will it be, before this wacko politically correct attitude mandates that our boys also be...

SNIPPET: "TERROR mastermind Rashid Rauf has been linked to a fresh Al Qaida plot to launch attacks on the US. The Birmingham-born extremist has been named by witnesses due to testify against Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested for plotting suicide bombings in New York. MI6 officers have linked the plot to a complex terror network said to be directed from Pakistan by Rauf and fellow jihadists. Zazi, 24, was identified through an intercepted communication, and was further implicated by US national Bryant Neal Vinas, who was captured in Pakistan last November. Vinas, 26, allegedly admits meeting Rauf and receiving training...

President Obama’s decision to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in New York City along with four others accused of helping destroy the World Trade Center and attack the Pentagon on 9-11 paints a bulls-eye for terrorists right on New York City, their favorite target. Now Obama has identified where the terrorists should focus their energies – on New York City. His decision to bow to political correctness and not to try Mohammed at a secure military base and to try him in a civilian court, according him all the rights of an American citizen, raises important questions: Most importantly,...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted the Obama administration on Friday for its decision to try five Sept. 11 suspects in New York, saying that such a trial would only encourage terrorists to target the city once again. Earlier Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba would be transported onto U.S. soil to face justice in civilian court. "After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for that attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice," Holder said. "They...

...if one were to follow the logic of trying the Gitmo guys for trying to hurt us then why is it ok to fire back on them? Isn’t that wrong? In a Civil Court of law, what applies to one party, applies to the other. Aren’t the soldiers being fired on, taking justice into their own hands by firing back? I mean after all, according to the Civil Justice System that the Gitmo terrorists will be held to, isn’t a person considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law? And if they are innocent, then what right do...

New York State’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund hasn’t been all that dedicated. Since 1991, only 34.9 percent of the money in the fund went directly toward the repair and improvement of the state’s deteriorating roads and bridges. And over the next four years, that will shrink to about one fifth. It’s supposed to be a “locked box,” but apparently the lock wasn’t very strong. If only one-third of the money in the Highway and Bridge Trust Fund has actually been used to pay for highways and bridges, the question, is, where did the money go? The answer is...

SNIPPET: "Muthana is facing five counts of second-degree assault, DWI and reckless driving. He is accused of injuring six people. They are 21-year-old Dominick Nicholson, 20-year-old Tyrese Beard, 40-year-old James Pross, 50-year-old Debra Hollis, 25-year-old Luis Cruz and 49-year-old Diane Neil. All are Rochester residents." SNIPPET: "In his statement to police, he said he drank six cans of Budweiser in an hour. Then he started using swear words, cussing police and government. He said, "Ben Franklin was stupid. He should have made it so you *expletives* can't swerve the law. The Muslims will fix this country." When bail was being...

News today that the Obama administration will be bringing five terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay prison to New York is causing outrage and concern. This is not the first time, however, that the Obama administration has brought a terrorist to the United States mainland, and it promises not to be the last. Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid promised this would not happen! News reports indicate President Obama previously told others he did not want terrorists in the United States! Now the welcome mat is out?! This is a HUGE FLIP FLOP!... It gets worse. Attorney General Eric Holder has also...

This memorandum is to inform you that effective November 30, 2009 Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services, Inc. (SREMS) will no longer be able to continue operations. We were notified our contract is currently pending Office of State Comptroller approval contingent upon New York State Division of Budget (DOB) allocating funds to support it. The Department of Health does not know when DOB will make funds available and SREMS was asked to forward a continuity of operations plan related to the effects of no funding. SREMS conducted a fiscal and operational analysis which concluded that SREMS’s Program Agency funds would be...

In what could be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, federal prosecutors sought to take over four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a Muslim organization suspected of being controlled by the Iranian government. Prosecutors on Thursday filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets. The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story Manhattan office tower. Confiscating the properties would...

Source: 9/11 Terror Detainees Face Trial in N.Y. Friday, November 13, 2009 WASHINGTON — Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday. The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Democrat's Winning Margin in Upstate New York House Race in DoubtUpdated November 12, 2009 by AP Though Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted. The special election last week for the 23rd Congressional District seat in New York may not be over after all. Though Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes...

Wall Street is not done pounding on Eliot Spitzer, but NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may be attempting to protect Spitzer from the rest of the world finding out how a sleazeball politician really operates. Cuomo, who appeared to never spot a television camera he didn't like, has apparently found one. Any camera with a reporter that wants to know more about Spitzer's secret email account where he laid the dirt out on his aggressive tactics to gain high-profile fame. Lawyers for insurance mogul Hank Greenberg have sought e-mails that Spitzer used in his 2005 prosecution of Greenberg for alleged...

On election night, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman conceded defeat to Democratic candidate Bill Owens after dramatically under-performing in key counties and deciding that he couldn’t overcome the gap. Today, the campaign is “looking very closely” at a recanvass of the district that has revealed, as recanvasses often do, screw-ups in the initial count. What was a 5,335-vote margin for Owens on election night is now a 3,026-vote margin, due largely to initial under-reporting of Hoffman votes in Oswego County and Jefferson County. According to Mark Weiner’s report, the Hoffman campaign is leaving open the option of legal challenges if...

Washington -- Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County. As it turns out, neither was true. But Hoffman’s concession -- based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted -- set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill....

A prominent Columbia architecture professor punched a female university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations, cops said yesterday. Police busted Lionel McIntyre, 59, for assault yesterday after his bruised victim, Camille Davis, filed charges. McIntyre and Davis, who works as a production manager in the school's theater department, are both regulars at Toast, a popular university bar on Broadway and 125th Street, sources said. The professor, who is black, had been engaged in a fiery discussion about "white privilege" with Davis, who is white, and another male regular, who is also...

After the first day of recounting votes from Election Day, Nassau County Executive GOP candidate Ed Mangano leads incumbent Tom Suozzi by 24 votes. The number is small but could paint a troubling scenario for Suozzi, who is seeking a third term in office. According to sources the votes counted were from the 14th Legislative District, where Democratic Legislator Dave Mejias is also hoping the recount puts him on top of his challenger Republican Joe Belesi, Long Beach and most of Suozzi’s hometown of Glen Cove. More than 1,000 voting machines were taken to the Nassau County Board of Elections...

Governor David Paterson called an unusual joint session of the Legislature Monday to implore recalcitrant lawmakers to close the state's huge budget gap before New York runs out of money. To some lawmakers it's nothing more than a photo op to help Paterson get re-elected. But the governor is dead serious. He said if the Legislature doesn't cut the budget now the state could run out of money by next month

Obama said the main message he took from last week’s election results – with Republicans winning gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia – was that Americans are “nervous, and they’re worried and they’re anxious.” “I don't think there's any denying the fact that people are worried out there,” he said in an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper today. Obama said Democrat Bill Owens victory in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district, the one bright spot for the president’s party last Tuesday, “sent an important signal.”

LEWISBORO, NY -- The voters' revolt against high taxes and a deep recession was so intense that even community leaders of New York's sleepiest hamlets got tossed. Nowhere was this more evident than in the tiny town of Lewisboro -- a northern Westchester municipality of 12,000 near the Connecticut border. Mirroring the upheavals in higher-profile races, like the defeat of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, cranky voters in Lewisboro threw out their own Democratic leaders.

Julian Robertson wins one for taxpayers. For every Sunbelt refugee who has tried to leave high tax bills behind in the cold Northeast, Julian Robertson scored a victory this week. By proving that he was outside New York City for half the days in the year 2000, the former hedge-fund titan avoided $27 million in city taxes, thanks to a ruling by New York's tax court. No thanks are due the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, which had ruled he was a resident and therefore liable for the multimillion-dollar tab. In the upside-down world of tax law,...

(The following is an extrapolation from the article.) A spokesman for Congressman Owens stated the following: Mr. Owens has recanted his solid positions on the following; he now supports the public option in the Health Reform bill; he will support cutting Medicare benefits; he supports taxing health care benefits; and will support increased taxes on the middle class.

November 05, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Republican Civil War?Our experts respond. An NRO Symposium The NY-23 race has political commentators abuzz: Is there a Republican civil war going on? If so, who started it, and can there be a truce? If not, why is everyone saying there is one? National Review Online asked a few close observers of the Right to report in on these rumors of war. KEN BLACKWELLDede Scozzafava’s record in the New York State legislature was pro-tax, pro-abortion, and anti-marriage. She even accepted the endorsement of ACORN. But she got the local party elders’ support, based on...

I just got through to my Congressman, Eric Massa (D-NY). I asked if he had made up his mind on Nancy Pelosi's health care bill and the staffer tole me he was voting NO, and was committed to that position.

To the list of hundreds of schools, hospitals, and community health centers that have received limited allocations of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, you can now add some of New York's largest employers. In the past week or so 13 companies, including Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS), have begun receiving small quantities of the vaccine, according to city health authorities.

Riyadh, Nov 5 (DPA) Around 5,480 people converted to Islam in Saudi Arabia through the ‘Bring me to Islam’ cell phone hotline service, media reports said Thursday. The service, provided in 12 languages, was launched to raise awareness among foreign communities in the kingdom, the Saudi daily Okaz reported. Any person can suggest names of non-Muslims he thinks might convert to Islam through text messages to the hotline, along with their phone numbers and the language they speak. Later, preachers would call these non-Muslims and try to introduce them to Islam, without revealing the number of the person who suggested...

Note: Video included. Peaceful preaching inside, violent message outside a New York mosque New York (CNN) -- SNIPPET: "Protected by the Constitution of the country they detest, radical Muslim converts like Yousef al-Khattab and Younes Abdullah Mohammed preach that the killing of U.S. troops overseas is justified. In their thinking, so were the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States -- and so are attacks on almost any American. "Americans will always be a target -- and a legitimate target -- until America changes its nature in the international arena," Mohammed said in an interview to air on tonight's...

In the midst of New York's 23rd District race, a disturbing amendment allowing inmates to volunteer for non-profits was given the thumbs up from New York voters by an overwhelming 67 percent. According to the New York Times, The amendement would allow New York's State Legislature to write a law allowing prisoners to volunteer at churches, social service groups, and other nonprofit organizations. As of December of 2008, around 60,000 inmates are currently serving time in the state's correctional facilities, according to New York's Department of Correction