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Time magazine may think U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 2009’s “Person of the Year,” but Time is wrong: 2009 was dominated by Barack Obama, even though it wasn’t a great year for him. Obama’s human frailties surfaced. Words, not deeds, are his forte. Critics and fans tended to agree that, so far, his presidency is one of great intentions (if not great expectations). He’s good at saying what he’d like to do, but has difficulty doing (or being able to do) very much. Cheerleaders confuse rhetoric with results. Obama is the most accessible president in recent times. He’s...

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a former tax attorney, teams up with former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy to pen a piece in the National Review Online today calling on Congress to block the Obama administration’s decision to grant a civilian trial to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters. Bachmann, who has long been ringing alarm bells over importing terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joins a fresh chorus of conservative critics who oppose giving the self- acknowledged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks a crack at a civilian trial in New York City.

SNIPPET: "If a major homegrown terrorist attack happens on U.S. soil in the coming years, 2009 will be looked at as the year when the warning signs were missed. According to the Rand Corporation, the U.S. has experienced 30 homegrown terrorism plots since 9/11. One-third of these occurred in 2009; a frightening spike that warrants more attention than it is currently being given by public officials. The Obama Administration began its term by refusing to include terms like “radical Islam” as part of its lexicon. The Global War on Terrorism was alternatively called an “overseas contingency operation” or “a campaign...

Recently, I sat down with a friend who has spent almost three decades working as an intelligence operative in the defense of our nation. During the course of our conversation, I asked him what -- based on his vast experience -- was the number one threat facing our nation? Without even pausing to think about it, he forcefully answered, “Our mainstream media.” More than Al Qaeda, more than homegrown terrorists, more than heavily armed Mexican drug cartels, more than non-existent borders, more than out-of-control and extremely violent domestic gangs, and even more than biological and nuclear terrorism, this dedicated intelligence...

Iran confirmed Saturday that its forces had taken over East Maysan oil field, located on the Iran-Iraq border. The move caused a 2.4% spike in oil prices. "The Iranian forces are on Iranian soil, as defined by known international borders. This oil field is Iran's" said an Iranian armed forces statement quoted by the Islamic Republic Arab-language television station, al-Alam. Proprietary of the East Maysan oil field had been the center of a dispute between Tehran and Bagdad for a lengthy period of time. Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji said the move was the latest in a series...

Last week the House overwhelmingly approved a measure to put a new round of sanctions on Iran. If this measure passes the Senate, the United States could no longer do business with anyone who sold refined petroleum products to Iran or helped them develop their ability to refine their own petroleum. The sad thing is that many of my colleagues voted for this measure because they felt it would deflect a military engagement with Iran. I would put the question to them, how would Congress react if another government threatened our critical trading partners in this way? Would we not...

Showdown in Sterling on 12/22: rally against the jailhouse jihad moving north to Thomson No, al Qaeda will not break out of “beyond Supermax.” They’ll just wage jailhouse jihad at every opportunity and force guards to extract them from their cells when its feeding time. The slightest bruise will be dutifully reported to the press by their pro bono lawyers. Those indicted will have similar fun in lockups around the country for, in addition to Manhattan and Brooklyn, an additional 50 detainees will be farmed out for federal prosecution. Gitmo in the heartland Attorney General Eric Holder is, of course,...

Pakistan government has made it mandatory for all foreigners to have security clearance by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Government has declared that security clearance by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is a prerequisite for all foreigners entering Pakistan, a private TV channel was reported by Daily Times as stating on Friday. The decision is said to have been taken in the wake of prevailing law and order situation in Pakistan. 'The decision was made due to the prevailing law and order situation in the country. The decision is also applicable to all those people who have acquired other citizenships after...

Soldiers Christmas Project The Night Before Christmas is poetic reading for Families at Home to help support our troops on the front as well as those sent home. Support the Wounded Warrior Project.

Ramadi, Iraq Iraqis remain deeply concerned about Iranian influence in their country five months before the US begins the massive drawdown of its troops from Iraq. Next year, elections will be held in March, and the 112,000 American forces will shrink by more than half by the end of August. As that transition nears, Iraq has made significant progress toward greater security.

At the end of an hour-long meeting Sunday evening with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that "Egypt has more to fear from Iran than we do." The foreign minister went on to stress that "The greatest danger in the Middle East today is Iran, which is a greater threat to moderate Arab nations than to Israel." Teheran, according to Lieberman, is "attempting to duplicate the model of Hizbullah in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen." Earlier on Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak welcomed Suleiman to Jerusalem, saying that Egypt is a "central player" in the Middle East....

If the intervention in Iraq was indeed "a war for oil," then some of that war's more positive consequences were to be seen in Baghdad last week. The country's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, presided over an auction at which development rights for seven major oil fields were awarded in competitive bidding among several international consortia. Three features of the outcome were worthy of note. The auction was to award service contracts rather than the production-sharing agreements that the major corporations prefer. The price was set at between $1.15 and $1.90 per barrel, as opposed to the $4 that the bidders...

In the latest of many shameful lapses, the federal agency in charge of securing the nation’s transportation system approved background checks for a dozen illegal immigrants working in sensitive areas of a busy U.S. airport. The illegal aliens, from Central America and Mexico, worked in operational areas of Stewart International Airport, a 2,400-acre facility located about 60 miles north of New York City. Stewart is a major passenger airport for the state’s mid-Hudson region that also handles large quantities of cargo and serves as a military field. The illegal aliens all had security badges approved by the Transportation Security Administration...

Not my video. Credit goes to those at Rebel Christmas Card.

UBL was 17th of 24 sons and 31 daughters. UBL has stated that it was "not a Koranic union", that (his mother) A'alia was only Mohammed’s maid and concubine (she was referred to by the other wives as “the slave”).UBL became boyhood friends with the future Crown Prince Abdul Rahman (currently 2nd in line for King).In 1967 UBL inherited $300 million. By 15, UBL was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.UBL set up at least three terrorist training camps in North Sudan. UBL established training bases in northern Yemen. 11 children by Najwa: Abdullah (1976), Abdul Rahman (1978), Sa’ad (1979), Osman...

Polish soldier killed in Afghanistan Associated Press 2009-12-19 11:58 PM A Polish soldier has been killed in fighting with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Dariusz Kacperczyk, an armed forces spokesman, says Private Michal Kolek was shot Saturday after he and other soldiers were called in to support a Polish patrol that was attacked in central Ghazni province. The death of the 22-year-old Kolek brings to 16 the number of Polish troops who have been killed in Afghanistan since their mission started in 2002. Poland is to reinforce its contingent of some 2,000 troops in Ghazni in March by adding...

President Obama's scramble to close Guantanamo is picking up speed as his arbitrary one-year deadline approaches, with Yemen and Illinois as the latest detainee destinations. Neither decision will enhance U.S. security. The government of Yemen announced yesterday that it will take six detainees, and more could follow if this transfer goes smoothly. Yemenis account for 97 of the 210 men still left at Gitmo, and 34 have been cleared for release. The problem is that Yemen is emerging as one of the world's sanctuaries for al Qaeda, and its government has essentially run a nonaggression pact with the terrorists.

Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization has become increasingly reliant on organized crime, including cocaine smuggling, human trafficking and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Manhattan's federal court. The charges filed against three alleged al-Qaeda associates by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is the latest chilling evidence of a convergence between terrorism and organized crime. Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman were snatched in Ghana on Wednesday by a Drug Enforcement Administration sting and shipped to New York, where they arrived on Friday to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and providing material support...

In an editorial column published on 18 December, the editors of The Toledo Blade point out that capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden would not defeat Al Qaeda and capturing or killing Mullah Omar would not defeat the Taliban. They are correct in this but their notions do not go far enough. The fact of the matter is, Al Qaeda and the Taliban could cease to exist tomorrow and the U.S. and Western civilization would still face a Jihadist threat...

I just finished reading Sarah Palin's excellent book (number one on the New York Times bestseller list), "Going Rogue - An American Life." In one of the last chapters, I came across a passage in which Palin references the writings of Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell is a well-known syndicated columnist and academic economist. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford. Palin writes about Sowell's book "A Conflict of Visions." In this publication, Sowell explains how "visions" shape our opinions and the way we look at social and political issues. Sowell calls these visions the "unconstrained"...

BEIJING - With 30,000 more United States troops on their way to Afghanistan, it is growing clearer that they will not suffice and that larger challenges loom. Afghanistan is also increasingly developing into a political proxy war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, which backed the mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s and offered a safe haven and breeding ground to the Taliban in the 1990s, is now looking askance at the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, which it sees as pro-India. Conversely, India has fond memories of the time when Kabul was firmly under Moscow's hands and...

Dr. Jones and the members of the Dove World Outreach Center, have found an innovative way to spread the word about Islam. They did it holiday style and they will obviously never back down in this war. I applaud them for their strength. To view this short video....

A new Islamic mosque will open its doors just steps from Ground Zero where Muslim terrorists murdered 2,751 people in the name of Allah on Sept. 11, 2001 – and its leading imam, who conducts sensitivity training sessions for the FBI, has reportedly blamed Christians for starting mass attacks on civilians. The five-story building at Park Place, just two blocks north of the former World Trade Center site, was the site of a Burlington Coat Factory. But a plane's landing-gear assembly crashed through the roof on the day 19 Muslim terrorists hijacked the airliners and flew them into the Twin...

New Obama Program Lets Illegal Alien Muslims Become U.S. Citizens In 10 Weeks! Fox Morning News just did a quick reader (non-visual story) on this. It will be developing hard during the day. I’ve done some research from other media and DOD news releases so FReepers can get ahead of the story. Details are still a bit sketchy, but this is what we know now. Expect this story can have real legs and will become another one of the Obama administration Friday release stories they hope will die over the weekend. The program has been in place for a few...

Cease and Desist any and all charges brought against the United States Navy Seals Listed Below. We the people feel as a collective that known terrorist Ahmed Hashim Abed injured himself after resisting arrest. Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for wilfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault. Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement. Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge...

A recent exchange of intelligence information between India and the U.S. revealed that an American Moslem (whose father was a Pakistani diplomat) under arrest for plotting Islamic terrorism, admitted that he had witnessed Pakistani Army officers working with Islamic terrorists, while he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan. While there have been many such reports, Pakistan always responds by claiming that they are "rogue officers." But American intelligence and military officials, who have worked have worked with the Pakistanis, report encountering many Pakistani officers who were openly favoring Islamic terrorism. Thus the Pakistani protests carry less and less weight. For...

The internal threat from Muslim extremists in the military extends to high-level Defense Department aides who have undermined military policy. In fact, one top Muslim adviser pushed out an intelligence analyst who warned of the sudden jihad syndrome that led to the Fort Hood terrorist attack. An honored guest of the Ramadan dinner at the Pentagon this September was Hesham Islam, who infiltrated the highest echelons of the Ring despite proven ties to U.S. terror front groups and a shady past in his native Egypt. As senior adviser for international affairs to former deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Islam ran...

UZBEEN VALLEY, Afghanistan (AFP) – More than 1,100 soldiers, including 800 French legionnaires as well as US and Afghan commandos, launched a major operation Thursday east of the Afghan capital, military officials said. Military officials said five US special forces were wounded in the fighting in the Uzbeen Valley, a Taliban stronghold where 10 French soldiers were killed in an ambush in August 2008.

WASHINGTON -- After nearly a year in office, the defining political image of President Barack Obama has yet to emerge. Is he a hawk or dove, a liberal or a moderate? His Nobel Peace prize speech exposed his ambivalence. He harkened back to the Roman Catholic theologians to defend his "just war" in Afghanistan -- but he also expressed his ideals for a better world. Measuring Obama’s performance is truly in the eyes of the beholder. To those who were enthralled with Obama’s eloquence in the presidential campaign, reality is setting in. News flash: He doesn’t walk on water. But...

Gitmo Does Not Cause Terrorism"Terrorism is caused, and terrorist recruitment is driven, by Islamist ideology and by American weakness in the face of terror attacks. In that sense, Senator Durbin causes more terrorism than Gitmo ever will. Terrorist organizations are encouraged when they come to believe they can win — when they come to believe they can outlast America because we lack resolve." -- Andy McCarthy 12/18/2009 Americans Oppose Closing Gitmo, Moving Prisoners to U.S."Americans remain opposed to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and moving some of the terrorist suspects being held there to U.S. prisons: 30% favor...

So we’re going to shut down the detention center at the U.S. naval base on Guantanamo Bay and move the 200-plus terrorists detained there to a seldom-used civilian correctional center in Thomson, Ill. And we’re doing it, the Obama administration and Sen. Dick Durbin assure us, not because they want to use federal money to indemnify their home state for a white-elephant prison Illinois taxpayers should never have built, but because Guantanamo Bay simply must be closed. Gitmo, they say, causes terrorism. It’s worth remembering that the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman, perhaps the world’s most influential jihadist, was never...

By now everyone with an opinion about the viability of President Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan has proffered it to anyone who would listen. But here's one important complication that has received no air time: In both countries, they despise us. ....... In Pakistan, the problem is worse. ........ The only Pakistanis who showed any generosity toward the U.S. were government officials who depend on American aid to make their auto payments and pay their children's private-school bills. (This fall, the Associated Press reported that only $500 million of $6.6 billion in U.S. aid from 2002 to 2008...

A chilling new video released by the Christian Action Network shows Muslim women at a compound in New York State practicing throat cutting techniques and assault weapons training.

A new video released by the Christian Action Network shows Muslim women at a compound in New York state practicing throat-slitting techniques and assault weapons attacks. The video was distributed by the makers of the movie "Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.," which documents how a jihadist group has developed dozens of training camps across the nation. WND reported at the time how Jamaat ul-Fuqra has built 35 compounds – mostly in the northeastern corridor of the U.S. Now the organization has posted on YouTube a "chilling" training video provided to CAN by an unnamed law enforcement source...

(Chicago-based terrorist causes India to revise its visa rules with U.S.) India is taking some precautionary measures after the arrest of Chicagoan David Coleman Headley as a terror suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The Asian country has revised its tourist-visa regulations, affecting those with long-term tourist visas, the India Times reports. “Americans with five- or ten-year tourist visas will no longer be allowed to enter India within two months of their last departure from India if their last visit was longer than 90 days or if they have stayed longer than 180 days during the past year,” an advisory...

Politically, no Israeli prime minister could survive the fact that Iran became a nuclear-armed state, officially or unofficially, on his watch. The pressure on the Israeli government to do something to counter Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be so strong that it could well be tempted to play a desperate gamble, regardless of any security guaranties that the U.S. might offer. Similarly, no U.S. president (especially one endowed with a Nobel Prize) could escape blame for having let Iran become a nuclear-weapon state by consistently underestimating its ability to conceal its preparations. The intelligence community's credibility would be devastated,...

U.S. President Barack Obama has scaled back the scope of the Afghan war, now about to enter its ninth year, to a limited military objective: deny al-Qaida a safe haven. And since we are now told there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan — the rest are in Pakistan's tribal areas — a three-way deal between the Karzai government, powerful warlords and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar would seem to be the better part of valor. After Iraq, we cannot afford another trillion-dollar war. It took the United States 233 years (1776-2009) to amass a national debt of...

While the detonation of a nuclear weapon in the United States is considered highly unlikely, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities are preparing for such a disaster by assessing old bomb shelters and preparing emergency response plans, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Monday.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday praised President Barack Obama for heeding his advice to bypass the naval brig in Charleston, S.C., and transfer terror suspects instead to an Illinois prison from the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he spoke with Obama recently and reiterated his strong opposition to moving the Guantanamo detainees to the medium-security brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston. "I spoke to the president about Charleston a couple weeks ago," Graham told McClatchy. "He listened intently as I said I thought Charleston is not an appropriate...

The pro-Sharia organization Hizb ut-Tahrir America, is holding another conference in Illinois this weekend. This organization is a prime example of how the Islamic enemy uses our freedoms against us to promote their agenda. Fighting them over there, and allowing the enemy to setup shop here makes little sense and is not the answer. The game plan must change. Hat tip to The Jawa Report. EVENT: CRISIS IN PAKISTAN – Current Events & Future Direction Friday, 11 December 2009 18:31 Hizb ut-Tahrir America invites you to a discussion on Pakistan. Crisis in Pakistan: Current Events and Future Direction Sunday, December...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Troops are being sent to war zones without proper training and suitable gear, according to two senior Democratic lawmakers who say they've been told by soldiers about problems ranging from their backpacks to their rifles. In a Dec. 10 letter to the Pentagon's top leaders, Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Solomon Ortiz, who heads the subcommittee on military readiness, said they are "greatly troubled" by what they learned as the Obama White House begins escalating the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

A painted marker in a recreation yard points the direction to Mecca at Camp Delta where detainees are held at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, January 18, 2006. REUTERS/Joe Skipper This is nothing more than a bait-and-switch in order to keep a campaign promise...Guantanamo isn't shutting down; just transferring locations: Dozens of terrorism suspects being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be moved to a little-used Illinois state prison that will be acquired and upgraded by the federal government, an Obama administration official said. The critical step toward fulfilling President Obama's...

President Obama has lost his 2012 bid for re-election. He has made key decisions in three areas that, unless he alters his approach (not likely), could well guarantee a Republican victory: an embarrassingly rolled-out, badly-compromised health-care reform bill; his continuing slavish subservience to those on Wall Street that took the country into the economic toilet; and his sad imitation of CheneyBush's imperial campaign in Afghanistan. (Obama's only hope for 2012 may depend on Sarah Palin getting the GOP nomination. Even better if Glenn Beck or Dick Cheney is her running mate -- been mentioned seriously. The Democrats can only hope...

When you study the incident of Major Hasan at Fort Hood, you realize that there were some questions that needed to have been asked. But, no one knew what to ask, since the wrong questions might seem, well, politically incorrect. No one wants to be politically incorrect. We don't want to offend. If you look around you will find that no one is asking any Muslims hard questions. Never mind the Major Hasan types, no one asks questions to the Muslim at work. It turns out that there are many questions that each and every Muslim should be asked. These...

With the expected announcement of the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, a Republican-driven hysteria is virtually guaranteed. That’s as empty as it is uninteresting. What’s interesting is whether the Republicans’ 2008 presidential nominee and national security elder statesman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), joins in the action. McCain, recall, has long advocated shuttering the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Back on the 2008 campaign trail, he said bluntly, “I believe we should close Guantanamo,” as the United States’ “great power does not mean that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want.” Spoken like a...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1338.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 14, 2009 Terrorism Defendants Sentenced in Atlanta Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Receives 17 Years in Prison; Co-defendant Syed Haris Ahmed Receives 13 Years Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 25, of Atlanta, were sentenced today in federal court following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials, the Justice Department announced. "With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people...

Justice: A leaked memo exposes the hypocrisy of those who opposed indefinite detention of terrorists without trial at Guantanamo. For the right price, they're willing to hold detainees without trial indefinitely in America's heartland. The plan to ship as many as 100 unidentified terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a little used prison in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town of 450 people near the Mississippi River about 150 miles west of Chicago, is well under way, according to a Justice Department memo unearthed by Andrew Breitbart and biggovernment.com. The memo allegedly from Eric Holder's Department of Justice to Defense Secretary...

BASRA, Iraq — The small group of American troops and Iraqi Catholics held hands around a table heaped with dishes of rice, chicken, lamb and pizza. "Our Father," began the archbishop of Basra, the Most Rev. Imad Aziz al-Banna, before continuing the prayer in Aramaic, a version of the ancient language likely spoken by Jesus Christ. In the next room at Basra’s Chaldean Catholic Church, a plastic Christmas tree twinkled amid graying photographs of old patriarchs and a newer shot of Pope Benedict XVI. Several of the Americans said while assembling and decorating the tree that it was likely the...

The United States has asked NATO member Bulgaria to house detainees from its prison camp at Guantanamo in Cuba, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on Saturday.

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it rejected an appeal by four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners arguing that they should be able to proceed with their lawsuit against top Pentagon officials for torture and religious abuse. The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the four British citizens over their treatment at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on the grounds the officials enjoyed immunity. The four men -- Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal al-Harith -- were captured in late 2001 in Afghanistan and were...