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Locked on 02/01/2007 7:40:51 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
New thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1777773/posts |
Posted on 01/02/2007 7:23:18 PM PST by nwctwx
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=ellison
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=keithellison
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Off Topic.
Note: the following text is a quote:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014787.php
January 10, 2007
Ellison named to Judiciary Committee
Watch for legislation to outlaw "religious profiling." From Associated Press, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
WASHINGTON - Rep. Keith Ellison has been named to the House Judiciary Committee, a panel that has oversight over issues such as civil liberties, immigration and courts....
"I look forward to pursuing a progressive agenda in the committee, including the restoration of American citizen's civil liberties that have come under increasing attack over the past six years," said Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress.
Ellison, a freshman lawmaker, said this week he'd like to see a ban on racial profiling, an issue that could come up in the Judiciary Committee.
Posted by Robert at January 10, 2007 02:42 PM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1741897/posts?page=220#220
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014435.php
December 16, 2006
"Was the Flying Imam incident staged in order to get anti-profiling legislation passed?"
SNIPPET: "I have been saying for some time now that the Flying Imam rage incident was staged to help garner support for anti-profiling legislation."
Nope. Sharia law is basically what the Minneapolis taxicab drivers want to impose.
Ellison on the Judiciary Committee is extremely disconcerting.
Yep.
Yep.
KABUL, Jan 10 - As many as 25 Taliban, including two mid-level officials of the ousted regime, have surrendered under the government-backed National Reconciliation Programme (NSP) in western Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.
The two senior officials included Mullah Muhammad Gul, aide to the former governor of Herat and a key Taliban official Mullah Kherullah Kherkhwah, and Mullah Ziaul Haq, a district chief in the Taliban government before 2001.
Excerpted
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=941147
Italy: MP Receives Death Threats Over Her Anti-Veil Battle
Rome, 10 Jan. - Italian conservative MP Daniela Santanche has received death threats over her opposition to the Muslim veil, Italy's leading paper Corriere della Sera reported in a front-page article on Wednesday. Santanche reportedly received a letter in Arabic and English at her lower house office Tuesday night with pictures of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, murdered in 2004 by an Islamist fundamentalist for his movie Submission, which denounced violence on women in Muslim countries, and Dutch MP Hirsi Ali, the film's author, who has also received death threats.
"This is the hour of my liberation...your time has come," the note said. The message also carried a paragraph from the BBC World website on 23 October, describing Santanche as an MP who "has said the veil is not required by the Koran" and has been described as "an infidel by an imam."
Santanche, a leading member of the right-wing National Alliance Party in Italy's opposition, has been under police escort since late October last year, when her criticism of the Muslim veil led to threats which were considered serious by security officials, including those of Muslim cleric Aby Shwaima, the imam of the mosque of Segrate in Milan and one of the founders of Italy's largest Muslim group UCOII, who slammed her as an "infidel" during a television show on Sky Italia on 20 October.
Shwaima's outrage was sparked by two television interviews given by Santanche in which she had said that the Muslim veil "is not a religious symbol and it is not required by the Koran" and that "it is not a symbol of freedom."
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.374993235&par=0
Unfortunately, as of this moment Jewish Righter, I haven't been able to get a real firm confirmation that the "very good with computers" guy is dead. I'll post a confirmation when I find one.
---
http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/01/us_airstrikes_contin.php
"U.S. Airstrikes Continue in Southern Somalia"
"Reports of al-Qaeda operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed have yet to be confirmed"
---
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/01/10/report-embassy-bombing-mastermind-dead/
"Report: Embassy bombing mastermind dead; Update: U.S. officials doubt"
posted at 9:20 am on January 10, 2007 by Allahpundit
---
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=387&sid=708318
"U.S. Reportedly Targeted 20 in Somalia"
Jan 10th - 4:25pm
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The chief of staff for the Somali president claimed that a senior al-Qaida figure was killed in Monday's airstrike, although U.S. officials did not confirm it."
IRAN NUCLEAR: SEISMIC OBSTACLE TO PRESIDENT'S ATOMIC DREAMS-PART 2
Manila - A senior leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf group was killed in a clash with government troops on a southern Philippine island, the military chief said Wednesday.
General Hermogenes Esperon said Binang Sali, chief of the Abu Sayyaf's urban terror unit, was killed late Tuesday in a brief firefight in Patikul town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila. "As the chief of the Abu Sayyaf urban terror group, Sali was largely responsible for the bombings in Jolo," he said in a statement.
Esperon said troops recovered the rebel's body and a pistol after the firefight. "His neutralization translates to one bomber less that could carry out an attack on any target during the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit," he added.
Excerpted
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=115913
86 air guns, air pistols seized
And a Koran in the same shipment - surprise, surprise
Kochi,India Jan. 10, 2007: In a major seizure, Customs have seized 86 air guns and pistols from a consignment which arrived here from Dubai.
In searches conducted throughout the last night, the officials opened up the 810 cartons and found 37 air rifles and 49 air guns, both gas powered, which were concealed along with plastic furniture, flowers, baby cots and blankets, Customs Commissioner D D Ingty told PTI.
The Air rifles are of the internationally reputed foreign brand names 'Diana Airking' and 'Diana Magnum', while air pistols are of 'Baretta', 'Walther' and 'Gamma' brands, he said. No arrests have been made while efforts are being made to trace R O Koya of Thrissur who is the importer, customs sources said.
Customs officials searched the consignment, which contained a variety of 19 goods. A copy of the Koran was also found along with the air pistols and air rifles, they said.
The seizure was from the consignment which was off-loaded from the vessel 'Ming Cheng', which arrived here on December 29, they said. The consignment was suspected to have been loaded into the vessel from Jabelali port, the last port of call of the vessel.
Speaking at the State Department in 1999, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi sheik and leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, sounded an alarm about Muslim houses of worship in the United States.
"The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques . . . is the extremists' ideology," he said. "Because they are very active, they took over the mosques; . . . they took over more than 80 percent of the mosques that have been established in the US." He warned ominously that "a danger might suddenly come that you are not looking for . . . we don't know where it is going to hit."
When Kabbani was condemned by other Muslim organizations, he stood his ground. His assessment of the leadership of US mosques, he said, was based on having visited scores of them, and in a subsequent interview he explained the extremists' pattern of infiltration.
Muslim immigrants to the United States "came with a good heart . . . and they wanted a place to pray," Kabbani told the Middle East Quarterly. "They collected money and they built mosques in their community. Slowly, certain Middle Eastern groups seized these mosques, promoting political and ideological agendas rooted in their home countries' problems. . . . Slowly, such groups took over many mosques either directly or by unseen pressure on the moderate board members, and now an antagonistic mentality controls them. The extremists -- not ordinary believers -- changed the use of American mosques into centers of intolerant political dogma."
At the time, Kabbani's charges may have seemed little more than inside Muslim baseball. After Sept. 11, it became clear that mosques dominated by radical clerics were a potentially lethal threat. Many such mosques are funded by Saudi Arabia, which spends heavily to propagate Wahhabism, a fanatic and aggressive strain of Islam. The Saudi government, reported the 9/11 Commission, "uses zakat" -- Islamic charity -- "and government funds to spread Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world, including in mosques and schools. . . . Some Wahhabi-funded organizations have been exploited by extremists to further their goal of violent jihad against non-Muslims." Its findings were reinforced by Freedom House, which in 2005 documented the penetration of US mosques by Saudi-supplied Wahhabi hate literature.
It is against this background that the $24 million mosque and cultural center being built by the Islamic Society of Boston has generated such controversy.
Excerpted
A Sarajevo court sentenced two Bosnians, a Dane and a Swede to jail terms from 2 1/2 to 15 years for terror-related crimes. The Bosnia-Herzegovina court in Sarajevo jailed Mirsad Bektasevic, 19-year-old Swede from Kungalv near Gothenburg, and the man with dual Danish and Turkish passports, to 15 years each, Sweden's TheLocal.online newspaper reported Wednesday.
The two Bosnians were sentenced to 8 years and 2 1/2 years imprisonment, respectively. The four men were charged with preparing terror attacks somewhere in Europe, the report said. Bosnian police arrested the two Scandinavians in October 2005 in a Sarajevo apartment, where they uncovered 44 pounds of explosives, hand grenades and guns.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20070110-014626-4790r.htm
Fundamentally Freund: Here Comes Muslim Europe
Jan 10, '07
The Muslim takeover of Europe is happening more quickly than people think. Just take a look at the demographic decline of traditional Europe and contrast it with the rapid growth of the continent's Muslim population. This trend has far-reaching consequences for the US and Israel, and it is time that our decision-makers start taking it into account as they plan for the future....
Excerpted
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=119190
Hicks 'took orders from bin Laden'
January 11, 2007
US prosecutors say Australian terror suspect David Hicks was a fully-fledged member of al-Qaeda who took orders from Osama bin Laden, rather than a naive adventurer out of his depth.
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of Hicks's imprisonment without charge at Guantanamo Bay Colonel Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor for the US Office of Military Commissions, rejected the portrait of Hicks as merely someone in over his head.
The 31-year-old former Adelaide man has been held at the notorious US jail in Cuba since January 2002 after being captured a month earlier in Afghanistan. Col Davis said today the US believed it had a strong case against Hicks and he was not convinced of his innocence.
Hicks returned to Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US with the expressed purpose of fighting with al-Qaeda, he said. "He (Hicks) had experience in Kosovo, he had experience in Kashmir, he's been to a number of combat and terrorism training courses put on by al-Qaeda and from my understanding when 9/11 happened he was out of the country.
"But once he saw the US had been attacked he made a conscious choice to try to get back to Afghanistan, report in to a senior al-Qaeda leader and, in essence, say: `I'm David Hicks and I'm reporting for duty'," Col Davis said on ABC radio.
Excerpted
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21042091-5007133,00.html?from=public_rss
Around the Internet --- A LOOK AT SOMALIA:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=somalia
---
http://forums.islamicawakening.com/showthread.php?s=99470e933fefe22acba432c61a13ec41&t=838
"IA Forums > Main Topics > Jihad and Struggle
What do the Shuyuukh say about Somalia?"
---
http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/news/somalia/index.shtml
"War in Somalia"
---
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/59ffed1a-a0e4-11db-acff-0000779e2340.html
"Ethiopia ‘holding suspects’ after US air strike"
By Andrew England in Cairo
Published: January 10 2007 20:00 | Last updated: January 10 2007 20:00
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "On Tuesday the Pentagon confirmed that an AC130 aircraft was used to target “the principal al-Qaeda leadership in the region”. The attack in southern Somalia marked the first overt US military intervention in the lawless nation since its doomed invasion in the 1990s.
The Arab League criticised the US military action, claiming it had killed “many innocent victims” and demanding that Washington refrain from further attacks."
---
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=Arab%20League
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&client=news&ie=ISO-8859-1&scoring=d&q=%22Arab+League%22&btnG=Search+Blogs
Occupied Jerusalem: Al Qaeda has sent large numbers of people to Lebanon, Syria and Egpyt, according to a report in an Israeli newspaper. Israel's military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin told a meeting of the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that “dozens” of al Qaeda operatives had arrived in Lebanon.
He was quoted by the local paper Yedioth Ahronoth as saying: "Dozens, if not hundreds, of al-Qaida operatives arrived in Lebanon. “These operatives are trained and have terror knowledge. According to estimates, the organization's number two Ayman Al Zwahiri gave orders to operatives to spread in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt," he added.
He warned that there could be attacks in the near future on United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon as well as Western targets.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10095852.html
Note: The following text is a quote;
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=2645
Five Detained in Iraq; Council Meeting Continues Despite Explosions
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2007 – Five suspected terrorists were detained yesterday in Iraq, and this morning’s city council meeting in Mahmudiyah continued despite nearby explosions.
-- Paratroopers from Company D, 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and Iraqi police arrested three suspects yesterday near Haswah. The suspects were taken to the Iskandariyah police station for questioning.
-- Paratroopers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, and Iraqi Police arrested two suspects yesterday near Hay al Askeri.
-- Insurgents detonated explosives inside two trucks near a gas station today in Mahmudiyah, wounding two local residents. Despite the explosion, Mahmudiyah’s city council meeting to discuss security, reconciliation and essential service projects in the town continued as planned.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
AQ in Lebanon...yep.
I updated this threat in the wee hours today:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1765132/posts
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-7.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 10, 2007
Address by the President to the Nation
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION
The Library
9:01 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Tonight in Iraq, the Armed Forces of the United States are engaged in a struggle that will determine the direction of the global war on terror -- and our safety here at home. The new strategy I outline tonight will change America's course in Iraq, and help us succeed in the fight against terror.
When I addressed you just over a year ago, nearly 12 million Iraqis had cast their ballots for a unified and democratic nation. The elections of 2005 were a stunning achievement. We thought that these elections would bring the Iraqis together, and that as we trained Iraqi security forces we could accomplish our mission with fewer American troops.
But in 2006, the opposite happened. The violence in Iraq -- particularly in Baghdad -- overwhelmed the political gains the Iraqis had made. Al Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents recognized the mortal danger that Iraq's elections posed for their cause, and they responded with outrageous acts of murder aimed at innocent Iraqis. They blew up one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam -- the Golden Mosque of Samarra -- in a calculated effort to provoke Iraq's Shia population to retaliate. Their strategy worked. Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran, formed death squads. And the result was a vicious cycle of sectarian violence that continues today.
The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people -- and it is unacceptable to me. Our troops in Iraq have fought bravely. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.
It is clear that we need to change our strategy in Iraq. So my national security team, military commanders, and diplomats conducted a comprehensive review. We consulted members of Congress from both parties, our allies abroad, and distinguished outside experts. We benefitted from the thoughtful recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton. In our discussions, we all agreed that there is no magic formula for success in Iraq. And one message came through loud and clear: Failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.
The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits. They would be in a better position to topple moderate governments, create chaos in the region, and use oil revenues to fund their ambitions. Iran would be emboldened in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Our enemies would have a safe haven from which to plan and launch attacks on the American people. On September the 11th, 2001, we saw what a refuge for extremists on the other side of the world could bring to the streets of our own cities. For the safety of our people, America must succeed in Iraq.
The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad. Eighty percent of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis. Only Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people. And their government has put forward an aggressive plan to do it.
Our past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principal reasons: There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents. And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have. Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does. They also report that this plan can work.
Now let me explain the main elements of this effort: The Iraqi government will appoint a military commander and two deputy commanders for their capital. The Iraqi government will deploy Iraqi Army and National Police brigades across Baghdad's nine districts. When these forces are fully deployed, there will be 18 Iraqi Army and National Police brigades committed to this effort, along with local police. These Iraqi forces will operate from local police stations -- conducting patrols and setting up checkpoints, and going door-to-door to gain the trust of Baghdad residents.
This is a strong commitment. But for it to succeed, our commanders say the Iraqis will need our help. So America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them -- five brigades -- will be deployed to Baghdad. These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs.
Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences: In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents, but when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned. This time, we'll have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared. In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods -- and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated.
I've made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people -- and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The Prime Minister understands this. Here is what he told his people just last week: "The Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation."
This new strategy will not yield an immediate end to suicide bombings, assassinations, or IED attacks. Our enemies in Iraq will make every effort to ensure that our television screens are filled with images of death and suffering. Yet over time, we can expect to see Iraqi troops chasing down murderers, fewer brazen acts of terror, and growing trust and cooperation from Baghdad's residents. When this happens, daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas. Most of Iraq's Sunni and Shia want to live together in peace -- and reducing the violence in Baghdad will help make reconciliation possible.
A successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations. Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities. So America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.
To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs. To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation's political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws, and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's constitution.
America will change our approach to help the Iraqi government as it works to meet these benchmarks. In keeping with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, we will increase the embedding of American advisers in Iraqi Army units, and partner a coalition brigade with every Iraqi Army division. We will help the Iraqis build a larger and better-equipped army, and we will accelerate the training of Iraqi forces, which remains the essential U.S. security mission in Iraq. We will give our commanders and civilians greater flexibility to spend funds for economic assistance. We will double the number of provincial reconstruction teams. These teams bring together military and civilian experts to help local Iraqi communities pursue reconciliation, strengthen the moderates, and speed the transition to Iraqi self-reliance. And Secretary Rice will soon appoint a reconstruction coordinator in Baghdad to ensure better results for economic assistance being spent in Iraq.
As we make these changes, we will continue to pursue al Qaeda and foreign fighters. Al Qaeda is still active in Iraq. Its home base is Anbar Province. Al Qaeda has helped make Anbar the most violent area of Iraq outside the capital. A captured al Qaeda document describes the terrorists' plan to infiltrate and seize control of the province. This would bring al Qaeda closer to its goals of taking down Iraq's democracy, building a radical Islamic empire, and launching new attacks on the United States at home and abroad.
Our military forces in Anbar are killing and capturing al Qaeda leaders, and they are protecting the local population. Recently, local tribal leaders have begun to show their willingness to take on al Qaeda. And as a result, our commanders believe we have an opportunity to deal a serious blow to the terrorists. So I have given orders to increase American forces in Anbar Province by 4,000 troops. These troops will work with Iraqi and tribal forces to keep up the pressure on the terrorists. America's men and women in uniform took away al Qaeda's safe haven in Afghanistan -- and we will not allow them to re-establish it in Iraq.
Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.
We're also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region. We will expand intelligence-sharing and deploy Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies. We will work with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along their border. And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region.
We will use America's full diplomatic resources to rally support for Iraq from nations throughout the Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf States need to understand that an American defeat in Iraq would create a new sanctuary for extremists and a strategic threat to their survival. These nations have a stake in a successful Iraq that is at peace with its neighbors, and they must step up their support for Iraq's unity government. We endorse the Iraqi government's call to finalize an International Compact that will bring new economic assistance in exchange for greater economic reform. And on Friday, Secretary Rice will leave for the region, to build support for Iraq and continue the urgent diplomacy required to help bring peace to the Middle East.
The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time. On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life. In the long run, the most realistic way to protect the American people is to provide a hopeful alternative to the hateful ideology of the enemy, by advancing liberty across a troubled region. It is in the interests of the United States to stand with the brave men and women who are risking their lives to claim their freedom, and to help them as they work to raise up just and hopeful societies across the Middle East.
From Afghanistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian Territories, millions of ordinary people are sick of the violence, and want a future of peace and opportunity for their children. And they are looking at Iraq. They want to know: Will America withdraw and yield the future of that country to the extremists, or will we stand with the Iraqis who have made the choice for freedom?
The changes I have outlined tonight are aimed at ensuring the survival of a young democracy that is fighting for its life in a part of the world of enormous importance to American security. Let me be clear: The terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are without conscience, and they will make the year ahead bloody and violent. Even if our new strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue -- and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties. The question is whether our new strategy will bring us closer to success. I believe that it will.
Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship. But victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world -- a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties, and answers to its people. A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights terrorists instead of harboring them -- and it will help bring a future of peace and security for our children and our grandchildren.
This new approach comes after consultations with Congress about the different courses we could take in Iraq. Many are concerned that the Iraqis are becoming too dependent on the United States, and therefore, our policy should focus on protecting Iraq's borders and hunting down al Qaeda. Their solution is to scale back America's efforts in Baghdad -- or announce the phased withdrawal of our combat forces. We carefully considered these proposals. And we concluded that to step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government, tear the country apart, and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale. Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer, and confront an enemy that is even more lethal. If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home.
In the days ahead, my national security team will fully brief Congress on our new strategy. If members have improvements that can be made, we will make them. If circumstances change, we will adjust. Honorable people have different views, and they will voice their criticisms. It is fair to hold our views up to scrutiny. And all involved have a responsibility to explain how the path they propose would be more likely to succeed.
Acting on the good advice of Senator Joe Lieberman and other key members of Congress, we will form a new, bipartisan working group that will help us come together across party lines to win the war on terror. This group will meet regularly with me and my administration; it will help strengthen our relationship with Congress. We can begin by working together to increase the size of the active Army and Marine Corps, so that America has the Armed Forces we need for the 21st century. We also need to examine ways to mobilize talented American civilians to deploy overseas, where they can help build democratic institutions in communities and nations recovering from war and tyranny.
In these dangerous times, the United States is blessed to have extraordinary and selfless men and women willing to step forward and defend us. These young Americans understand that our cause in Iraq is noble and necessary -- and that the advance of freedom is the calling of our time. They serve far from their families, who make the quiet sacrifices of lonely holidays and empty chairs at the dinner table. They have watched their comrades give their lives to ensure our liberty. We mourn the loss of every fallen American -- and we owe it to them to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.
Fellow citizens: The year ahead will demand more patience, sacrifice, and resolve. It can be tempting to think that America can put aside the burdens of freedom. Yet times of testing reveal the character of a nation. And throughout our history, Americans have always defied the pessimists and seen our faith in freedom redeemed. Now America is engaged in a new struggle that will set the course for a new century. We can, and we will, prevail.
We go forward with trust that the Author of Liberty will guide us through these trying hours. Thank you and good night.
END 9:21 P.M. EST
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