Thanks to Davey for a new thread.
Laughing...........
And wondering, if Davey was not happy with the posts in the last thread and is going to make us try again?
“Keep doing it until you get if perfect”..........
Smile....
Thank you for the new thread, it is perfect.
The prior threads in this series are:
World Terrorism prior threads:
WT Thread #1: [Started on January 1, 2006]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1550424/posts?page=4809
WT Thread #2: [The communist manifesto, muslim manifesto and list of elected in U.S. who belong to the Socialist party, on the first page of the thread]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1607641/posts?q=1&&page=4951
Thread #3:
Beginning of Israel/Lebanon War and so much more.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1650751/posts?q=1&&page=4601
Thread #4:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1679491/posts?q=1&&page=1
Thread #5:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1711256/posts?q=1&&page=1
Thread #6:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1754972/posts?q=1&&page=5151
Thread #7:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1791631/posts?q=1&;page=1
Thread #8:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1817890/posts?q=1&;page=1
And wondering, if Davey was not happy with the posts in the last thread and is going to make us try again?
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=25898&only&rss
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=25898&only&rss
Islamists in Ohio
Patrick Poole exposes some of the latest activities of Siraj Wahhaj,
the
Brooklyn-based radical imam named as an unindicted co-conspirator in
the
1993 World Trade Center bombing; he’s been helping to raise funds for
the
Sunrise Academy Islamic school in Central Ohio: Hometown Jihad: The
School
Gym that Terror Built
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28778 .
[continues]
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=bomb+found+at+school&ei=utf-8
2 News Photos
* 1.
Bomb-scare culprits captured on video Open this result in new window
The Record - 23 minutes ago
Two people in white hooded sweat shirts were videotaped placing incendiary devices inside lockers at Wayne Valley High School shortly before the items were found by school staff Wednesday morning, police said Thursday.
* 2.
Suspicious Package Found Near Hyde Park School Bus Open this result in new window
WBZ Boston - Jun 19 11:34 AM
Boston Police and the bomb squad shut down a street in Hyde Park Tuesday afternoon to investigate a suspicious package near a school bus. More Massachusetts News
* 3.
Woman sentenced for bomb threats at school Open this result in new window
Sidney Herald-Leader - 2 hours, 49 minutes ago
The former Sidney High School student who confessed to making two bomb threats earlier this year has been sentenced to time in a state medical facility.
* 4.
Bainbridge student arrested after school death threats Open this result in new window
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 33 minutes ago
Police searching the home of a 17-year-old Bainbridge Island High School student suspected of leaving death threats at the school Monday found as many as 30 computers, bomb-making materials and a small marijuana-growing operation.
* 5.
Bomb scare at Joburg school Open this result in new window
iafrica.com - Jun 19 5:23 AM
Glenanda Primary School in Glenvista, south of Johannesburg, was evacuated after a bomb threat on Tuesday morning, school principal Graham King said.
* 6.
School evacuated after bomb threat Open this result in new window
Independent Online - Jun 19 4:56 AM
A Johannesburg primary school was forced to evacuate over a thousand of its pupils after an anonymous bomb threat was made.
* 7.
School closed after bomb threat Open this result in new window
News 24 South Africa - Jun 19 7:11 AM
A Johannesburg primary school has been evacuated after a man phoned the school and made a bomb threat.
* 8.
Cops quiz 22 kids in Wayne bomb scare Open this result in new window
The Record - Jun 19 4:43 AM
WAYNE — Having interviewed 22 students about a Wayne Valley High School bomb scare, police paused Monday to discuss what the children and their parents can expect when police invite them in for a talk.
* 9.
Pupils sent home after bomb threat Open this result in new window
Mail and Guardian - Jun 19 4:56 AM
Glenanda Primary School in Glenvista, south of Johannesburg, was evacuated after a bomb threat on Tuesday morning, principal Graham King said. He said 1 200 pupils were sent home after a telephone call by an anonymous man at 9am.
* 10.
19 Westchester students in court for fake bomb prank Open this result in new window
Kingston Daily Freeman - Jun 18 9:31 PM
CORTLANDT - Fifteen high school seniors pleaded not guilty Monday to bomb charges after duct-taping alarm clocks to the walls of their northern Westchester school.
Backyard bomb shelters now curiosities
By The Associated Press
Las Cruces Sun-News
Article Launched:
ALBUQUERQUE — Fay Barz wasn’t really looking for a place to hide from atomic bombs when she bought a home two years ago. But there it was, right there on the MLS listing: bomb shelter.
Barz wasn’t thrilled about the prospect — she thought a big hole in the ground might pose a safety issue for her son, Colin, now 7. But then she saw the shelter was covered by two heavy steel doors that no child could lift alone.
Now covered by an attractive, removable wooden deck, Barz’s backyard bomb shelter is an amazing monument to America’s Cold War-era faith in civil defense.
The shelter is 20 feet deep and about 120 feet in area, completely lined in cinder block and containing a bedroom, hallway and bathroom. The bed folds up and the space also contains a stove and toilet, said Barz. It used to be wired for electricity, but now you need a flashlight to find your way around.
It’s really just a damp, cramped place that attracts spiders, but it is a magnet to everyone who comes over, said Barz.
“People always end up going down there. I once had an entire Sunday school class of 17 people in there,” said Barz. “People go and stand in it, and then they can cross it off their life’s list: ‘OK, I’ve been in a bomb shelter.’ “
Barz is one of a handful of Albuquerqueans living with a backyard bomb shelter, a lasting relic of a time when people thought hiding in the ground could protect them from an apocalyptic blast.
There are no records showing how many people in Albuquerque built backyard shelters, but experts suspect the number here is higher than in the rest of the United States, said UNM history and science associate professor Timothy Moy.
Barz said she cannot see how anyone would think a bomb shelter could protect someone from a bomb blast.
“I really want to know what that guy was thinking. I just think you would have cooked like a chicken.”
Barz said she has no plans for the shelter, except to use it as a history lesson for her son.
“It’s really just for fun. All the men who visit say it’s just the coolest fort,” said Barz. “We also get tons of jokes about how we need to turn it into a wine cellar.”
Joe McKinney has a bomb shelter in the back yard of his historic Old Town home, and he’s heard a lot of wine cellar suggestions, too. So many, in fact, that a few years ago he finally did the research to see if it would work.
Not even close.
“We got a hydrometer and we found it heated up to 87 degrees and the humidity was well over 85 percent,” said McKinney. “At that level of humidity, the wine labels fall off the bottles.”
Unlike Barz, McKinney didn’t know his house had a bomb shelter when he bought it back in 1975. It was tucked away in the backyard, hidden by a chamisa bush. McKinney said he stumbled across it a few days after moving in.
“It’s a precast piece that looks like a septic tank,” he said. “It’s about 6 feet deep and 5 to 6 feet across.”
McKinney, who worked as a planner for the city of Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico, said his home was built in 1939 as the model home for the subdivision.
The builder, Leon Watson, used the bomb shelter as a marketing gimmick, said McKinney.
When McKinney’s son, Collin, was younger, he and his friends used the shelter as a clubhouse.
“It would have been really easy to fill it in,” said McKinney. “But that just didn’t seem right. This is a historical property.”
The McKinneys’ home and bomb shelter was featured in a 2003 episode of the HGTV remodeling show “Restore America.” The house is on the New Mexico state registry of historic homes.
There are no reliable records showing how many Americans built backyard bomb shelters during the Cold War era, but it is estimated that only about 1 percent of the population did, said Moy, who specializes in the history of the Cold War, civil defense, the arms race and nuclear age.
One of the most famous families ever to do it was the Chester and Harriet White family of Albuquerque, who built a shelter in the basement of their home. In 1961, amid massive television and print coverage, the Whites and their five children lived for a week in their underground bomb shelter, just to prove someone could.
Albuquerque was a hot spot for backyard bomb shelters, said Moy.
“With the military bases and the labs and the many elements of the nuclear weapons and military complex located here, I have no doubt that if we had a full-blown war with the Soviet Union, we would have a pretty significant number of nuclear weapons headed our way,” he said.
In the Cold War years, private citizens who chose to build shelters at home were often driven by a sense of duty, patriotism and the desire to avoid feeling helpless, explained Moy.
The U.S. government, concerned that people would be turned off by the prospect of an unwinnable nuclear war, eagerly encouraged civilians to take part in civil defense actions such as building and stocking their own shelters and participating in drills.
Another reason Albuquerque may have had more shelters than the rest of the United States was because the Albuquerque-based Lovelace Foundation was a major government contractor and manufacturer of prefabricated bomb shelters and supplies, said National Atomic Museum director Jim Walther.
Ultimately, the backyard bomb shelter craze didn’t last long, peaking from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, said Moy.
As the U.S.-Soviet arms race continued, the emphasis changed from a few hundred weapons on each side to overwhelming stockpiles of thermonuclear bombs that could destroy the Earth many times over, said Moy.
“By the ‘60s, people realized that (having a backyard shelter) wouldn’t make much of a difference.”Backyard bomb shelters now curiosities
http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_6166607?source=most_viewed
EGYPT QUIETLY SUPPORTS HAMAS TAKEOVER
LONDON [MENL] — Egypt has quietly supported the Hamas takeover of the
Gaza
Strip.
Western intelligence sources said Egypt cooperated with Hamas in
allowing
shipments of weapons, munitions and explosives that facilitated the
Islamic
takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The sources said Egypt concluded
that a
Hamas takeover would halt or reduce insurgency infiltration in the
Sinai
Peninsula.
“The Egyptians were in the picture as early as several weeks ago,” an
intelligence source said. “[Hamas leader Khaled] Masha’al discussed the
Fatah
strategic threat and said Hamas would stop [Fatah security chief
Mohammed]
Dahlan at any cost.”
In a recent telephone conversation with Egyptian intelligence chief
Gen. Omar
Suleiman, Masha’al said Dahlan and his allies were working with Al
Qaida-aligned groups to undermine Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The sources
quoted
Masha’al as saying that Fatah was allowing Al Qaida to infiltrate the
Sinai
Peninsula to facilitate attacks on the regime of President Hosni
Mubarak.
All part of al-Qaeda’s old and long-term plan. Nothing new here.
http://www.npr.org:80/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11173538
Groups Associated with Al-Qaida Grow
Since Sept. 11, 2001, dozens of radical groups have sprung up across
North
Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere that claim links to al-Qaida.
Some of these groups are new. Others are long-standing networks that
have
recently tacked the al-Qaida name onto their own.
Intelligence officials say some of these groups really are part of
al-Qaida,
while others are simply local bands of religious militants. Either way,
they
present worrying evidence of an expanding, revitalized al-Qaida.
For a local terrorist group, joining al-Qaida makes it harder for
members to
move around - and harder to raise funds openly. But, on the plus side,
publicity will increase, which is good for recruitment. A link to
al-Qaida
may bring other monetary investment. And, seen through the eyes of
would-be
jihadi, al-Qaida means prestige.
“Al-Qaida, because of its perceived success - especially in Iraq - is
the
team you want to be on,” said Daniel Benjamin, of the Brookings
Institution,
who was formerly a director for counterterrorism at the National
Security
Council.
The appearance of new offshoot groups across the Middle East and North
Africa is good news for al-Qaida’s core leadership, believed to be
holed up
in Pakistan, Benjamin said.
“Remember, what al-Qaida wants most is to mobilize the Muslim world.
And so
every time a new group signs on, particularly takes the name, then it’s
-
it’s a coup for them,” Benjamin said.
One of the most significant recent developments along these lines is
the
appearance, in Algeria, of “Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.” This is
not a
new group. Under its previous guise, the Salafist Group for Preaching
and
Combat, it worked for years to overthrow the Algerian government. But
this
past September brought a formal announcement that the group’s ambitions
were
about to widen.
Since Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s No. 2 official, announced that the
Algerian group had joined forces with Osama bin Laden, the group has
stepped
up attacks, including an April suicide bombing in Algiers that killed
some
30 people.
This is worrying enough. But the real fear among intelligence officials
and
analysts is that the new partnership with al-Qaida brings new
obligations to
attack what’s known as the “Far Enemy” - the West. This month, police
in
Milan arrested several members of the group, who were allegedly
planning
attacks in Italy.
Rob Richer, a former deputy director of the CIA’s clandestine service,
says
the advantage for would-be terrorists is that once you’re inside
Europe, you
can move around anywhere freely and with little notice.
“You disappear into these great North African basins of populations, of
second- and third-generation North Africans who are living in those
countries,” Richer said. “And you can’t be tracked. French security
services
will tell you, there are certain population areas of France they don’t
go
into! They can’t operate there. Well, I would say to you - if you’re
gonna
have a significant threat (to) an American embassy, an American
business -
it’s gonna come from that venue.”
Along with developments in Algeria, this spring also saw a pair of
explosions in neighboring Morocco. Richer says this area of the world -
North Africa - is his single greatest concern right now in the war on
terrorism. But he cautions against concluding that al-Qaida has
launched a
coordinated effort to destabilize North Africa.
“I don’t believe there’s a North Africa front leader who actually has
day-to-day command and control - and is saying, ‘OK, tomorrow it’s
Morocco.
0h, let’s do Algiers next.’ What I do believe is, there’s probably
someone
who’s got the portfolio. And he’s is in contact with cells, or cells
are in
contact with him. His agenda is to further al-Qaida’s efforts in North
Africa and probably into Europe,” Richer said.
One more place to watch: Libya. U.S. intelligence officials say the
Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group has been on the cusp of joining al-Qaida for
some
time. It hasn’t - yet - but Roger Cressey, a former White House
counterterrorism official, says more Libyans have been showing up in
senior
positions in the al-Qaida hierarchy.
“We’ve seen North Africans become significant operational players
within the
remnants of al-Qaida’s leadership,” Cressey said. “So, years ago, it
was
Egyptians and Saudis that ran the show. Now we’re seeing the North
Africans
taking a more prominent role.”
And, he said, this marks a real shift in patterns of global terrorism.
“For many years, we had worried about the east-west axis - the threat
coming
from the east, be it Afghanistan, Pakistan or, even now, Iraq and the
Gulf -
moving to the west,” Cressey said. “Now, what we’ve seen is a
north-south
axis - and that from North Africa, we’ve seen groups and individuals
moving
into Europe. So, in some respects, it’s the worst of both worlds.”
Indeed, the most talked about al-Qaida-inspired group in recent weeks
operates not from North Africa, but from a Palestinian refugee camp
inside
Lebanon. The group, Fatah al-Islam, emerged late last year. For more
than a
month now, it has been battling Lebanese security forces near Tripoli.
Fatah al-Islam’s leader has said he supports al-Qaida’s ideas. But
there’s
no evidence of direct contact with Osama bin Laden’s network.
A senior U.S. counterterrorism official, who asked not to be named
while
speaking on intelligence matters, told NPR, “Al-Qaida’s been eager to
merge
with groups far and wide. But you have to prove you’ll bring something
to
the relationship. Fatah al-Islam is too small and too unpredictable.
And
Lebanon is a quagmire even for al-Qaida, which is saying something.”
Meanwhile, there’s growing concern about a Palestinian al-Qaida cell
forming
inside Gaza.
“If Gaza descends into chaos, I would argue it would become much easier
for
al-Qaida-like-minded groups to establish networks in Gaza,” said Fawaz
Gerges, chair of international affairs and Middle Eastern studies at
Sarah
Lawrence College. Gerges has spent the past year traveling across the
Middle
East, collecting material for a new book on radical Islam. He argues
that
the fighting among rival Palestinian groups sets the stage for al-Qaida
to
move in.
“Remember, al-Qaida breeds on chaos and war,” Gerges said. “And if the
Palestinians descend into all-war, in the next few weeks we’ll likely
witness the emergence of new networks, who tend to subscribe to
al-Qaida
ideology.”
The senior U.S. counterterrorism official agreed, calling the situation
“worrisome.” He said, “There are early signs that Palestinians are more
interested in al-Qaida’s message than we’ve ever seen before.”
If so, the situation in Gaza would fit a pattern.
Benjamin said, al-Qaida’s appeal worldwide appears to be growing and
that
the core network has been revitalized.
“The jihadist movement, essentially, has been growing and strengthening
since the invasion of Iraq,” Benjamin said. “That, I think is clear.
It’s
also that their ambitions are intact, and their willingness to try big,
dangerous conspiracies is there.”
The good news in all this, Benjamin said, is that none of the new
offshoot
groups appear capable of directly threatening the United States. But
al-Qaida-linked groups are “ever more active in more parts of the
world,” he
said. “And that is not the outcome we wanted.”
SYRIA ORDERS MIG-31 FROM RUSSIA
MOSCOW [MENL] — Syria has ordered the advanced MiG-31E fighter-jet
from
Russia.
Industry sources said the Syrian contract was signed in early 2007 and
the
first aircraft delivery was expected over the next few months. The
sources
said the MiG-31E, with a configuration similar to that ordered by
India,
would provide Syria with a huge leap in air combat capability.
“The Syrians will be getting the top line of Russian aircraft through
financing by Iran and share some or most of the platforms with the
Iranian
Air Force,” a Russian industry source said. “This is the start of a new
era.”
The deal marked the first Syrian combat aircraft procurement since
Damascus
ordered the Su-24 Fencer in 1988. In December 2006, Syrian President
Bashar
Assad met Russian leaders in Moscow in an effort to replace Syria’s
aging
combat fleet.
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=plane+crash&ei=utf-8
1.
* .
Madison Doctor Dies In New Mexico Plane Crash Open this result in new window
WAPT Jackson - 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
New Mexico state police say a doctor from Mississippi was killed in a plane crash over the weekend.
* 2.
Inadequate oxygen, pilot error blamed in fatal crash of St. Paul man’s plane Open this result in new window
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune - Jun 19 11:15 AM
CHARLESTON, W.Va. Inadequate oxygen supplies and planning are being blamed for last year’s fatal crash of a plane that was hundreds of miles off course before it plummeted into the backyard of a Winfield home, says an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. William R. Cammack Jr., 56, of St. Paul, Minn., was flying from Montana to his home on March 17, 2006, when air traffic ...
* 3.
Freeway plane crash Pilot escapes wreckage unhurt; motorist hospitalized with moderate injuries Open this result in new window
San Diego Union-Tribune - Jun 19 3:43 AM
CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune A single-engine Cessna 177 made an emergency landing facing east in the westbound lanes of state Route 78 yesterday evening. Foam was sprayed on the freeway as a precaution against fire. Freeway plane crash
* 4.
Pair hurt in plane crash Open this result in new window
Washington Daily News - Jun 19 7:21 AM
A Washington man, involved in a plane crash Sunday near Washington’s Warren Field Airport, was listed in critical condition Monday at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.
* 5.
Four injured in plane crash near Homer Open this result in new window
KTUU Anchorage - 2 hours, 15 minutes ago
Four people were injured in a plane crash south of Homer on Yukon Island this morning. According to medical staff, one is listed in critical condition.
* 6.
Plane crash victim gets out of hospital Open this result in new window
The Idaho Statesman - Jun 18 11:14 PM
A California woman injured in a Valley County plane crash was released from the hospital Monday, a McCall Memorial Hospital official said. A search team found Suzanne Beers, 54, of Laytonville, Calif., Sunday afternoon, three days after sh
* 7.
One dead in New Mexico plane crash (7:30 a.m.) Open this result in new window
Las Cruces Sun-News - Jun 18 11:01 PM
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — One person was killed in the crash of a small plane in the Sandia Mountains after a search that began after an emergency locator beacon signal was detected.
* 8.
Malawi plane crash Britons are named Open this result in new window
Guardian Unlimited - Jun 18 5:34 PM
Five British tourists who were killed in Malawi plane crash were on a two-week cycling tour of the African country.
* 9.
Preliminary report on plane crash completed Open this result in new window
The Daily News Transcript - Jun 18 10:31 PM
The National Transportation Safety Board has completed its preliminary investigation into the June 4 plane crash in Canton that killed Dover resident Agnes Imregh.
* 10.
Names of Valley County Plane Crash Victims Released Open this result in new window
FOX 12 Idaho - Jun 18 11:16 PM
Boise, Idaho — Iinvestigators have released the names of the pilot and passenger of a plane that crashed in Valley County over the weekend. The 55-year-old pilot, Berkeley Snow, was found dead at the crash scene.
Hamas Thanks Muslim Brotherhood for Weapons and Cash
Naturally, the Muslim Brotherhood is their ‘godfather’.
http://www.judeoscope.ca/article.php3?id_article=0614
Hamas Thanks Muslim Brotherhood for Weapons and Cash
Hamas newspaper editor Sheik Yazeeb Khader tells the Globe and Mail how
the
Palestnian Islamist terror organization acquires its weapons and thanks
Muslim Brotherhood for “never being stingy” in providing financial and
other
aid to its Palestinian wing. But don’t expect humanitarian NGOs like
Amnesty
International to change their
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE120051999?open&of=ENG-348
line
about how “The Muslim Brotherhood, [...] has renounced violence and has
consistently condemned the violent activities of armed Islamist groups”
or
Canada http://www.judeoscope.ca/breve.php3?id_breve=3591
‘s “Cairo
20”
anti-war (sic!) activists to withdraw their solidarity with the
international Islamist powerhouse.
Source: The
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070615.GAZATICKTOCK15/TPStory/TPInternational/Africa/
Globe and Mail
Sheik Yazeeb Khader, a Hamas newspaper editor who is now in hiding in
the
West Bank as Fatah steps up its retribution there, said that Hamas had
learned from the success of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.Hezbollah used
a
network of tunnels to smuggle weapons into position ahead of its war
last
summer against Israel.
“We buy weapons from every source. Everybody wonders where Hezbollah
gets
its weapons; same with the resistance in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Mr.
Khader
said. “Because we are a resistance movement, we can buy weapons from
the
devil. We buy weapons from every source, and we buy all the weapons we
can
get our hands on.”
Mr. Khader gave credit to the international Muslim Brotherhood, of
which
Hamas is an offshoot, for “never being stingy” in providing financial
and
other aid to the Palestinian wing. Hamas also makes its own weapons, he
said, including the Qassam rockets it uses to attack Israel.
http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/06/19/693412.html&cvqh=itn_bombing
http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/06/19/693412.html&cvqh=itn_bombing
75 Killed by Bombing at Baghdad Mosque
BAGHDAD - A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central
Baghdad,
killing 75 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S.
soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and
Bradley
fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary.
The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22
insurgents
in the offensive, the U.S. military said.
The thunderous explosion at the Khillani mosque in the capital’s
commercial
area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a
week
after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite
shrine in
the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a
curfew
aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.
Gunfire erupted shortly after the blast, which police said occurred in
a
parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just
inside it to crumble.
Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
because
they feared retribution, said at least 75 people were killed and 204
were
wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the
debris.
The mosque’s imam, Sheik Saleh al-Haidari, said it was a truck bomb and
the
explosion hit worshippers as they were leaving afternoon prayers.
“This attack was planned and carried out by sick souls, damaging the
mosque’s outer wall and collapsing my office and the room above it,”
al-Haidari told The Associated Press by telephone.
“There are number of bodies being pulled from the rubble and a number
of
worshippers were killed or injured,” he said, adding that he was not
inside
the mosque when the blast occurred.
The Khillani mosque is named after a much-revered Shiite figure who,
according to Shiite tradition, was one of four deputies anointed by the
Imam
Mohammed al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century and will return
to
restore justice to humanity.
AP Television News video showed a huge pile of rubble where the wall
used to
be, but its turquoise dome was intact. The Imam Ali hospital in the
Shiite
district of Sadr City was packed with victims, many badly burned.
Karim Abdullah, the 35-year-old owner of a clothing store, said he was
on
his way to pray at the mosque when the explosion caused his motorcycle
to
wobble, forcing him to pull over.
“I stopped in shock as I saw the smoke and people on the ground. I saw
two
or three men in flames as they were getting out of their car,” he
added.
The raids, dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” took place in Baqouba,
the
capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover
of
darkness, the military said. The operation was still in its opening
stages,
it added.
The commander of Iraqi military operations in Diyala, Maj. Gen.
Abdul-Karim
al-Rubaie, said handcuffs, swords and electricity cables _ apparently
used
as torture implements _ had been seized from militant safe houses in
the
area.
The operation was part of new U.S. and Iraqi attacks on Baghdad’s
northern
and southern flanks, which military officials said were aimed at
clearing
out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had
fled
the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.
A top U.S. military official said American forces were taking advantage
of
the arrival of the final brigade of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to
open
the concerted attacks.
“We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaida and
other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the
areas
clear and to really take on al-Qaida,” the senior official said on
condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the
operation.
“Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar
province
and specifically Diyala province.”
The hard-line Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars denounced the joint
operations in Diyala, calling them “barbaric acts” and promising they
“will
not stop the people from persisting in their efforts to gain their
liberty,
unity and independence.”
Al-Qaida has proven to be an extremely agile foe for U.S. and Iraqi
forces,
as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Baqouba from
Anbar
province, the sprawling desert region in western Iraq. There is no
guarantee
that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries would prevent
it
from migrating to other regions to continue the fight.
In recent months, the verdant orange and palm groves of Diyala have
become
one of the most fiercely contested regions in Iraq. The province is a
tangle
of Shiite and Sunni villages that has played into the hands of al-Qaida
and
allied militants who have melted into the tense region and sought to
inflame
existing sectarian troubles.
Al-Qaida has conducted public killings in the Baqouba main square and
otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code. The
terror organization’s actions in the province have caused some Sunni
militants, al-Qaida’s natural allies, to turn their guns on the group
with
U.S. assistance and blessing. Some militant Shiites are likewise
joining
government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim
extremists.
Separately, the U.S. military announced the death of an American
soldier in
Baghdad. The soldier was killed by small arms fire during combat in an
eastern section of the capital, a military statement said. No other
soldiers
were wounded in the attack, which took place Monday, it said.
The death brought to at least 3,528 the number of U.S. military
personnel
who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003,
according
to an AP count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least
2,889
died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s
numbers.
In southern Iraq, police and hospital officials said the death toll
reached
30 in clashes that continued into a second day between Mahdi Army
fighters
and Iraqi security forces in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of
Baghdad.
Some 150 people were wounded, authorities said. The officials, who
declined
to be identified because they feared retribution, said most of the
casualties were police officers or militiamen. A delegation from
radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s office arrived in the city to try to
end the
fighting, according to the city council.
A curfew was imposed on Nasiriyah on Monday, and remained in effect a
day
later.
Iranian-made rockets were seized in raids in central Nasiriyah, police
said.
In other violence reported by police, a roadside bomb killed the head
of a
Shiite tribe and two people traveling with him near Hillah, about 60
miles
south of Baghdad.
A roadside bomb also missed a police patrol but hit two civilian cars
in the
Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, killing two
people and wounding five.
[Many hidden urls in article]
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/003791.html
June 19, 2007
The Islamists’ Nuclear Terrorist Threat - 1 of 2
This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.
The Islamists’ Nuclear Terrorist Threat
Part One (of Two)
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference
On June 11 last week, a five-day conference began at the Intercontinental Miami Hotel, to discuss the threat of nuclear terrorism. The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference was attended by about 500 law enforcement officers. Speakers included Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Ms Frances Fragos Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to the President and Dr. Richard Falkenrath of the NYPD, Deputy Commissioner, Counterterrorism for the City of New York. Several US government agencies were represented at the conference. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union had also sent representatives to witness the proceedings. The meeting coincided with another conference in the same program, which took place simultaneously in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. There were satellite link-ups to the Kazakh convention, where representatives of 40 nations were present.
The Miami and Astana conferences were the latest to be held to discuss the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, a program which was officially announced on July 15, 2006, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Russia. Originally a joint US/Russian initiative, the program is now subscribed to by 50 other nations. On October 29-30, 2006, the inaugural conference of the program in Rabat, Morocco, was attended by representatives of 12 nations. That event saw Morocco becoming the 13th member of the program, and concluded with a resolution to fight the threat of nuclear terrorism from a broad front, involving other willing nations, to create a “vast alliance”. The second conference took place in Ankara, Turkey, in February.
MuellerThe opening speech of the Miami conference was made by the head of the FBI, Robert S. Mueller III. In this speech, Mr Mueller stated that the need to secure “loose nuclear material” was paramount. He said: “ Al Qaeda has demonstrated a clear intent to acquire weapons of mass destruction. In 1993, Osama bin Laden attempted to buy uranium from a source in the Sudan. He has stated that it is Al Qaeda’s duty to acquire weapons of mass destruction. And he has made repeated recruiting pitches for experts in chemistry, physics, and explosives to join his terrorist movement.... We have often said that the next terrorist attack is not a question of if, but when. If we up the ante to a nuclear terrorist attack, we know it is a question of if, but we cannot let it become a question of when. Now is the time to act.”
On Tuesday June 12, Dr. Richard Falkenrath addressed the conference and spoke of security agencies’ preoccupations with the dangers of shipping containers potentially carrying nuclear components. He said: “This is the big focus. I don’t know why they’ve gotten so much attention. They are important and I am not suggesting to ignore them, but they should not be the focus of attention above and beyond all others as a potential delivery vehicle.” He warned that trucks and vans (which are easy to acquire and pass unnoticed in large cities) and also small aircraft and light vessels, could become the vectors by which nuclear weapons could be transported.
On the same day, Vayl Oxford, Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office in the Department of Homeland Security, said that the US Coast Guard would be furnished with radiation detection technology. He said that more than 90% of all cargo entering the US is already being scanned for radiological content. He said that agents of the FBI are detailed full-time to the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office.
Dr Vahid Majidi, head of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate spoke of the conference’s success in “opening a dialogue with our partner agencies and the international community on the entire scope of weapons of mass destruction.” He mentioned bilateral agreements which took place last week between the US and five nations which would lead to greater intelligence cooperation. Those countries are Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Chile, and Mexico.
robotOn Wednesday at Miami’s Orange Bowl, delegates from 28 nations watched a demonstration of how law enforcement officers would tackle a radiological dispersal device (”dirty bomb” or RDD) being constructed in a mock warehouse. Two SWAT teams and a team from the Department of Energy Radiological Assistance Program descended on the scene. Once the radiological materials and “dirty bomb” were “discovered”, these were neutralized by a robot, which sprayed water onto them.
There is a real need for agencies to be prepared for the threat of a nuclear attack, but while making preparations to combat such a scenario, government agencies seem to be simultaneously trying to avoid spreading panic. The FBI writes on its website “even if the likelihood of such an attack in the near-term is fairly low”.
Fissile Nuclear Devices
There are valid reasons to be concerned about the plausibility of a nuclear attack, and particularly one aimed at the heart of a major US city, such as Washington DC or New York. The simplest nuclear fission device would involve highly enriched uranium (HEU), in a “gun-assembly” of the type used in Hiroshima. Essentially, the Hiroshima A-bomb comprised a six foot-long gun barrel, only six inches in diameter, and sealed at both ends. One end of the barrel contained a mass of Uranium-235, with a second mass housed in the center of the barrel. At the opposing end, sealed within the barrel, were conventional explosives. Once detonated, the conventional explosives propelled the central mass of uranium isotope into the mass at the opposing end, causing nuclear fission.
nukeThe minimum amount of HEU needed for a fissile device is far more than weapons-grade plutonium - about 25 kilograms or 55 pounds, though with a beryllium reflector less than 15 kilograms (33 pounds) is needed. Hiroshima’s “Little Boy” bomb is said to have contained 60 kilograms (132 lbs) of uranium-235. The “Fat Man” bomb which was detonated at Nagasaki contained 6.1 kilograms of plutonium-239. To extract 25 kilograms of easily fissionable HEU from natural uranium, a starting quantity of 3,570 kilograms or 7,860 pounds is required.
The “yield” of the Hiroshima bomb was about 10 kilotons - i.e. it had the destructive power of 10,000 tons of TNT. It detonated in mid-air and killed 66,000 people instantly. Half a mile from the explosion’s center, there was total vaporization, destruction within a mile radius, and within a two and a half mile radius, everything flammable caught fire. The HEU in the Hiroshima bomb was only 80% pure. About 12 kilograms of extremely pure HEU could feasibly produce a fissile device with a yield of 10-20 kilotons. Detonated from the ground, the most likely terrorist scenario, the extent of destruction from a 10-20 kilotons would not be as high as that witnessed at Hiroshima, but as I will explain in Part Two, it would still be catastrophic.
To prepare weapons-grade uranium-235, specialized centrifuges, uranium hexaflouride gas and other components are required. These components are strictly controlled in the West. Despite this, Abdul Qadeer Khan was able, with the assistance of Dutch citizen Henk Slebos, to import vital nuclear bomb components to Pakistan. A. Q. Khan went on to create Pakistan’s first nuclear bombs, which were detonated on May 28, 1998.
AQKhanA. Q. Khan admitted in February 2004 that he sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but was subsequently pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf. The fruits of Khan’s subterfuge have been devastating. In September 2005 Musharraf admitted that Khan had illegally sent centrifuges to North Korea, and on October 9, 2006 Pyongyang detonated its first nuclear bomb.
Shortly after Khan’s 2004 televised confession, Sri Lankan “middleman” Buhary Syed Abu Tahir stated that around 2001, Khan sent enriched uranium to Libya. Abu Tahir, who resides in Dubai and Malaysia, where he is married to a Malaysian national, was not prosecuted for his involvement in the illegal shipments. Malaysia claimed he had broken no national law. Around 1994-5, Khan had sent two containers of used centrifuge components to Iran. These had been shipped via Dubai, where Khan had an apartment. Iran paid $3 million for this consignment.
On Tuesday April 11, 2006 Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced on national TV that his country had enriched uranium to a level required for nuclear fuel, though only on a “laboratory scale”. While Ahmadinejad claimed that “our enemies cannot do a damned thing”, his audience chanted “Death to America”. At its nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Iran then had 164 enrichment centrifuges.
Mohammad Saeedi, Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, announced on April 12, 2006 that in the fall of 2006 the nation would begin to construct a 3,000-centrifuge plant, followed by a 54,000 centrifuge plant at an underground facility at Natanz. It is only a matter of time before Iran possesses the means to create its own uranium-235. As it already funds terror group Hamas, and is implacably hostile to Israel, it is likely that Iran will voluntarily donate uranium-235 to terrorist causes, if it does not attack Israel on its own initiative.
Uranium-235 is less detectable to radiological sensors than plutonium, particularly if it is surrounded by lead. The costs of producing this material are astronomical, but attempts to obtain such enriched uranium have been made on numerous occasions by members of Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden is on record as stating that obtaining nuclear weaponry is a “religious obligation”. In 2002, authors M & G Bunn produced a report for the International Atomic Energy Agency (pdf format) entitled “Reducing the Threat of Nuclear Theft and Sabotage”.
The authors stated (p 3) that “there have been a number of confirmed cases of theft of kilogram quantities of weapons-usable material in the former Soviet Union. Russian officials have confirmed that as recently as 1998, there was an insider conspiracy at one of Russia’s largest nuclear weapons facilities to steal 18.5 kilograms of HEU - one that was stopped before the material actually left the gates.”
The authors recommended that more cooperation was needed between Russia and America to consolidate their defenses against terrorists’ acquisition of nuclear materials, and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism certainly aims to fulfill that requirement. In June 2003, Jane’s Intelligence Digest reported that since 1992 there were 175 attempts by criminals and/or terrorists to acquire or smuggle radioactive substances.
In 1998 in Italy criminals were caught attempting to sell 19.9% enriched uranium, and in April 2000 Colombia, a small consignment of HEU - 66% of which contained uranium-235 - was discovered in the possession of an animal feed salesman. In the same month an amount of enriched uranium weighing 920 grams was seized in the former Soviet state of Georgia. In July 2001, a quantity of 1.7 kilograms of uranium-235 was discovered in Georgia, apparently on its way to Turkey. The material was thought at the time to have come from a Russian submarine. In the same month, five grams of enriched uranium were discovered in Paris, and in Germany, a man was arrested for stealing contaminated plutonium.
In 2004 in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, a smuggler was found to have kept 60 small containers of weapons-grade plutonium-239 in a sheepfold. Earlier in the same year, two Kyrgyz citizens were jailed for trying to sell 110 grams of the isotope cesium-137 (one of the radioactive byproducts released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident), which could have been used to create a “dirty bomb”.
In September 2004, a quantity of 15 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium-235 (enough to create small fissile device) was discovered in Sanliurfa, Turkey. The material was hidden under the seat of a taxi.
There will be obstacles for terrorists to overcome before a working fissile nuclear device is created, but with rogue Islamist states such as Iran close to preparing their own weapons grade HEU, such a scenario may be closer than we care to acknowledge. Pakistan was the latest nation to join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, and it maintains that its nuclear facilities are fully secured. However, should Pakistan fall to a Talibanized regime, the likelihood of such materials being sold or exported becomes high.
Another scenario discussed by Bunn and Bunn in 2002 was an attack upon an existing nuclear facility. Even if such an attack took place at a depot for spent nuclear fuel, depriving it of its water-cooling systems, a subsequent conflagration (if it reached 900 degrees Celsius) could cause a zirconium fire, leading to the release of radioactive cesium isotopes.
There have already been two thwarted attempts by Islamists to sabotage the nuclear research facility at Lucas Heights in Sydney, Australia, which could similarly lead to the release of isotopes such as those released at Chernobyl (cesium-134 and -137, and iodine-131). When this nuclear accident occurred in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986, these isotopes were carried 1,300 miles westward to north Wales. Here rain caused sheep-grazing land to be contaminated with isotopes of cesium which remain two decades later. The main regional economy of lamb production was devastated.
In Part Two, I will discuss the (perhaps more likely) scenario of an attack by an RDD or “dirty bomb”. I will also analyze the findings of various studies which detail the responses to, and likely outcomes of, attacks by both fissile devices and RDDs.
Adrian Morgan
© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved
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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 19, 2007
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June 17, 2007
Denmark: Islamists Seize Power In Kindergarten
In Denmark, the national branch of the international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir makes no secret of its contempt for Jews, Western values and the politics of the West. On August 17, 2006 Fadi Abdullatif, leader of Danish Hizb ut-Tahrir, was sentenced to three months’ jail for threatening the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen in leaflets which were distributed in 2004. These fliers had called for the elimination of any Western leaders who tried to prevent Muslims from going to Iraq to fight the coalition troops. Abdullatif was additionally found guilty under anti-racism laws of calling for the killing of Jews on the Hizb ut-Tahrir website.
Now, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark has shown its radical side in the way it has behaved in relation to a kindergarten. The following article appeared in Jyllands-Posten and Berlingske Tidende.
The translation was made by our good friend and contributor from Denmark, WIking.
**********
Hizb ut-Tahir seize power in Kindergarten
Men from Hizb ut-Tahir have seized power in a privately owned kindergarten in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen. They demand that children are not taught democratic values. The authorities threaten to close the institution down.
The municipal administration of Copenhagen has under dramatic circumstances taken over the administration of the institution and threatens to close it down, according to a report in the Danis newspaper ‘Berlingske Tidende’
This unusual step has been taken after parents and members of the Islamistic party Hizb ut-Tahir earlier this year have gained majority in the governing board and taken control over the institution named Salam, and demand that the children are not taught according to democratic values.
The parents have also demanded segregation, different playground for boys and girls. Last year, furious parents demanded the destruction of Christmas related items the children had picked up at a visit to the zoo, claiming the Santa Claus headgear represent Christian values.
In February, after Hizb ut-Tahir gained the upper hand in the board, the leader of the institution quit her job together with another pedagogue. The institution is now lead by a team of 6 believing Muslim women, which has lead the auditors of the municipality of Copenhagen to raise the alarm. The municipality has now taken direct control over the place until a new leadership has been appointed.
“It is unquestionably the tension between what is called pious or fundamentalistic Islam and traditional Danish democratic thought that is at the core of this conflict. The municipality has on other occasions experienced conflicts in its institutions, also religious conflicts, but never has the tension been as high as now”, says Jan Dehn of ‘Children and Youth office’.
One of the leading members of the parents group, the convert Abdul Hamid Henrik Lund, confirms his connection with Hizb ut-Tahir: “All the parents are what the Danes will call fanatics. We are Muslims and determined that ‘the brain of our children get the right programming’ (sic). We don’t want them to ‘run about on Blagards Plads (a square in Copenhagen), behaving like monkeys’ (sic). Those children cause trouble because they have neither Danish nor Muslim roots. To us it is important that children grow up with values - they must know what is halal and haram.”
Translation by Wiking.
**********
Wiking’s previous contributions can be found here:
June 6, 2007: Denmark: Muslim Headscarf May Be Worn By Judges
May 30, 2007: Opinion: An “Infidel’s Prayer To Allah”
September 24, 2006: Denmark: Muslim Anger At Cartoonist’s Lack Of Apology
October 18, 2006: Islam: A Danish Blogger’s Perspective
October 2, 2006: Denmark: Community Going Nuts Over Walnut Theft
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis
http://www.walidphares.com/artman/publish/cat_index_3.shtml#1330
Radio
Phares on Several different radio programs, links above.
http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/w_phares/print/06162007.htm
Syro-Iranian Massacre of Politicians in Lebanon
Terrorism Dr. Walid Phares
June 16, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/w_phares/06162007.htm
With the assassination of Lebanese MP Jebran Tueni in December 2006, months after the murder of political leaders George Hawi and Samir Qassir during the summer, the Syro-Iranian terror war room had opened a bloody hunt against the democratically elected Lebanese Parliament.
After the withdrawal of regular Syrian forces from Lebanon in April 2005, Bashar Assad and his allies in Tehran designed a counter offensive (which we described then and later) aiming at crumbling the Cedars Revolution. One of the main components of this strategy was (and remain) to use all intelligence and security assets of Syria and Iran in Lebanon in order to “reduce” the number of deputies who form the anti-Syrian majority in the Parliament. As simple as that: assassinate as many members as needed to flip the quantitative majority in the Legislative Assembly. And when that is done, the Seniora Government collapses and a Hezbollah-led cabinet forms. In addition, if the Terror war kills about 8 legislators, the remnant of the Parliament can elect a new President of the Republic who will move the country under the tutelage of the Assad regime.
As incredibly barbaric as it seems in the West, the genocide of the legislators in Lebanon at the hands of the Syrian regime and its allies is very “normal” by Baathist (and certainly by Jihadist) political culture. During the 1980s, Saddam Hussein executed a large segment of his own Party’s national assembly to maintain his regime intact. In the same decade, Hafez Assad eliminated systematically his political adversaries both inside Syria and across Syrian occupied Lebanon to secure his control over the two “sister” countries. So for Bashar to order the assassination of his opponents in Lebanon as of the fall of 2004 to perpetuate his domination of the little Baathist “empire” is not a stunning development: it is the standing procedure in Damascus since 1970.
And to “achieve” these goals, the junta in Syria has a plethora of tools and assets left in Lebanon. First, the vast Syrian intelligence networks still deeply rooted in the small country; second, the powerful Iranian-financed Hezbollah with its lethal security apparatus; third, the Syrian-controlled groups within the Palestinian camps from various ideological backgrounds including Baathists, Marxists, or even Islamist such as Fatah al Islam; fourth the pro-Syrian and Hezbollah sympathizers “inside” the Lebanese Army as well as the units and security services still under the control of General Emile Lahoud; fifth, the client militias and organizations remote-controlled by Syrian intelligence such as the Syrian National-Social Party; and sixth, operatives inserted within political groups gravitating around Damascus such as those of Sleiman Frangieh, Michel Aoun and Talal Arslan. In short, the Syro-Iranian axis has a wide array of security and intelligence assets from which it can select the most appropriate perpetrators for each “take down.” The Assad regime has its “own” Sunni operatives to kill Sunnis, Christians to murder Christians and Druze to eliminate Druze and has the full resources of Hezbollah terror to obstruct the Government of Lebanon and ultimately crumble it.
The “reduction” –both physical and political- of the Lebanese Parliamentary majority began as soon as the assembly was elected in the spring of 2005. The Lebanese opposition to Assad and Hezbollah got originally 72 seats out of the 128 members, a comfortable majority to resume the “liberation” of the country from occupation and Terrorism. In December of 2006 a car bomb kills MP Jebran Tueni bringing the majority to 71. Though he is quickly replaced by his father Ghassan, the latter’s old age and unwillingness to pursue the same anti-Terrorist activism is a negative in the big battle. In January 2006 a majority-MP Edmond Naim, dies of old age. The anti-Cedars revolution pressure brings in Pierre Daccache, “neutral” in principle, but essentially close to now Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun. Since, the majority has 71 seats. In December of 2006, majority-MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated by Syrian operatives. The number of dedicated MPs falls to 70. Few weeks ago, Syrian threats compel the Alawi MP from the north to quit the majority, bringing the number to 69. Today’s assassination of Sunni Walid Eido, a fierce opponent to the Syrian regime brings the number of MPs to 68. Four more assassinations and the Parliamentary majority in Lebanon would collapse, bringing back Ahmedinijad and Assad’s Terror power to the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean.
What can be done to stop the legislators’ massacre in Lebanon and its dramatic consequences?
The UN Security Council, under resolutions 1559 and 1701 should intervene massively by ordering and overseeing the following steps:
a) Put all remaining 68 MPs under direct international protection. A special international security force should be dispatched to Lebanon, gather the endangered legislators in one or several protected locations and escort them later to perform their constitutional duties.
b) Ask the Lebanese Government of Mr Seniora to organize the appropriate legislative elections in the districts of Matn and Beirut to replace the assassinated MPs Gemayel and Eido. Dispatch UN observers to oversee these elections.
c) Ask the Lebanese Parliament to elect a new President during the constitutional period beginning in August and escort the 68 endangered MPs (plus the two newly elected ones) to the location of the Presidential elections and provide security during the voting process.
By doing so, the UNSC would be implementing its own resolutions, fulfilling the democratic process in Lebanon and fighting back against Terrorism with the power of the people of Lebanon. For when a new democratically elected President is elected in Lebanon, the road –still very difficult and dangerous- to democracy will be paved.
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy and the author of the War of Ideas. Dr Phares was one of the architects of UNSCR 1559. He is also a Professor of Middle East Studies at Florida Atlantic University and a contributing expert to FOX News. The international version of Professor Walid Phares’ Future Jihad is now released. The new title is “Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West” Published by Palgrave/St Martin; New York and London (December 2006).
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, its editorial staff or its publisher. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Photographs featured in The New Media Journal are for educational purposes only. While some of them are factual in nature others are creations meant to incite thought to further the socio-political and ideological conversation amongst of our readers. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media or ideological organizations . The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a group of non-compensated, independent writers bringing researched, fact-based commentary to the public in the midst of the mainstream media’s blatant, agenda-driven bias. The New Media Journal is a non-profit educational effort.
The New Media Journal.us © 2007
Jihad Among Junipers & Mint Juleps
Terrorism Dr. Paul Williams, PhD
June 2, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/p_williams/06022007.htm
The Islamic practice of taqiyya, meaning “deception” or “concealment,” has been refined into an art-form at a jihad training compound for African American converts near the small town of Red House in Charlotte County, Virginia.
The fifty-acre compound is easy to find since the main road leading to it has been named Sheikh Gilani Lane in honor of the guru and founder of a terrorist organization with close ties to Osama bin Laden. The Board of Supervisors of Charlotte Country are either oblivious to the threat of radical Islam on American soil or clandestine advocates of the great jihad.
At the end Sheikh Gilani Lane is a sign – barely visible through the overgrown brush – that reads, “The Muslims of the Americas.” The sign serves to make the place appear as an innocuous religious settlement, until one realizes that The Muslims of the Americas is, in reality, an outgrowth of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, an alleged sister agency to al-Qaeda.
Several weeks before 9/11, a guard house and a gate had been erected at the entrance to the Red House compound.
But the guard house and the gate are now gone, and no sentries – armed or otherwise – are in sight, that is until you get well inside the complex of old trailers and pre-fab shanties. The only person to be seen in the the compound is an African American crone in a full black burqa sans the face cover known as a hijab. The day is hot and humid and the burqa serves to give the wizened old woman the appearance of a wayside witch from a Grimm’s fairy tale.
“The men are all gone,” the crone says from a park bench. “No one is here.”
The Red House compound certainly appears deserted. A few mobile homes, several rusty old trailers, and a few mounds of debris among waist-high weeds remain along an old dirt road that runs through the Islamic village, but there appears to be little of interest, let alone concern.
As soon as the investigators park their car and trek into compound, the old woman removes a mobile phone from a sachet and dials a number.
In a matter of minutes, a pick-up truck appears at the entranceway. Two young African Americans dressed in skull caps and jalabiyahs emerge from the vehicle. “What are you doing here?” they ask.
Jamal, an Egyptian journalist, says in Arabic, “I’m here to see the Imam. Where does he live?”
One of the young men, whose Arabic name translates as “Slave of God”, indicates that the Imam is not in and he should knock on the door of a ramshackle blue structure where he was told “Ahmed”, one of the Elders may be found.
Jamal proceeds to the structure and rings the bell, but no one answers. Another member of our investigative team knocks at the doors of the trailers and mobile homes but there is no response. Some of the windows to the homes have been holed up with bricks save for openings that are ideal for assault rifles.
The young African Americans, who have shown up on the scene, are becoming agitated. They begin to make calls on their cell phones.
Then something miraculous happens.
At the Imam’s residence, Muslim men begin to emerge in droves from a small storage shed attached to the house. It seems like a scene from a Marx Brothers movie in which dozens of people pour out of a closet. The investigators are suddenly surrounded by forty or fifty members of the complex in Islamic gowns and white skullcaps.
“What brings you here?” they ask.
“We heard about the village,” Jamal says, “and wanted to pay a visit. I thought I could stop by for evening prayers.”
“The evening prayers are over,” says one of the newly materialized men, who could be a professional body builder.
In the blink of an eye, another wondrous thing occurs.
Hundreds of more African Americans in Islamic garb materialize from the dense forests, the high grass of the open meadows, and the rusty trailers that just seconds ago appeared to be deserted.
A covey of late model cars and SUV’s converge on the compound from a network of dirt roads. The Muslims who emerge from the vehicles appear more affluent than the others. The men wear white halabiyahs with matching head coverings. The women are dressed in colorful caftans and flowing abayas. They seem to be models from the Crescent Moon boutique.
“Are you the police?” a female villager asks through the shaded window of the Imam’s residence.
“No,” Jamal answers. “We just stopped by to join in prayer.”
“This is not a place for tourists,” screeches the woman in the Imam’s house, “and we don’t like you taking pictures of our houses and automobiles.”
By this time, the Red House compound is swarming with hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children – and several appear to be deeply agitated by the intruders.
Jamal produces a card from a radical imam he had met the day before at the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. It serves as a ticket out of the place.
What is taking place in the Red House complex? Is the complex amidst the rolling hills of southern Virginia a peaceful Islamic village where devout Muslims have gathered to retreat from the hustle and bustle of contemporary American life in order to pray, meditate, and to live in strict accordance with the traditions of their faith? Or is it something more sinister – something that should alarm every American who is concerned about the threat of radical Islam?
These factors are clear:
1) There is an underground bunker at the complex that may be used for paramilitary training and possibly to harbor deadly weapons for use in the great jihad against Christians and Jews. Twenty-four members of this Jamaat ul-Fuqra complex already have been arrested for trafficking in illegal firearms, including the ammunition for AK-47s.
2) Members of the compound have been sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan for specialized training in guerilla warfare – a fact confirmed by Thomas P. Gallagher, a Special Agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
3) The Red House compound regularly receives visits from suspicious guests from Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
4) The Red House cell of ul-Fuqra has metastasized so that similar Islamic compounds have popped up in neighboring Prince George and Campbell Counties. The 25 acre facility in Prince George County is situated on Mahareen Road, a name selected by the Muslim newcomers and duly approved by the local ordinance officials. Mahareen is the plural of the Arabic mahar, meaning “clever one.” The facility in Campbell County is considerably larger, occupying more than 100 acres. An additional compound reportedly has materialized in Bedford County near the city of Roanoke.
5) Several Virginia compounds appear to possess obstacle courses, and firing ranges.
6) Members of the compounds have been known to refer to themselves as “soldiers of Allah” and “Mohammad’s commandos.”
7) What happens in the Red House compound stays in the Red House compound. The members of the radical Islamic community rarely appear in the nearby town; conduct little business with local merchants; and stay to themselves.
The Muslims of the Americas, the tax-exempt corporation which owns and operates the Red House compound, was formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. It is, according to an official report, a “front organization” for terrorist activities. A 2005 Homeland Security report predicts that the Muslims of the Americas will sponsor a major terrorist attack on American soil.
The parent organization of The Muslims of the Americas is Jamaat ul-Fuqra or “community of the impoverished” which retains headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan. The purpose of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, as established by Sheikh Gilani, is not to serve some beneficent good for the cause of the impoverished but rather to “purify” Islam through violence.
A quack practitioner of something called “Quranic psychiatry, Sheikh Gilani refers to himself as “the sixth Sultan ul Faqr.” The Sheikh claims to have supernatural powers and to receive regular visits from “non-human beings.” In 1979, Gilani came to believe that he could begin the processing of purifying Islam through violence with the aid of socially disgruntled and economically disenfranchised blacks within the inner cities of New York and New Jersey. The basis of this belief was Gilani conviction that a sizeable number of African Americans fostered an innate hatred of the United States and could be easily convinced to further the cause of global jihad. Many may have viewed Gilano’s mission as a cockamamie scheme that smacked of racism, but it worked like a hypnotic charm from Scheherazade.
At the al-Farouq mosque in Brooklyn, a dingy establishment at 554 Atlantic Avenue, Gilani, sporting ammunition belts, spoke of Islam as the cure for all societal ills and called upon the young men in attendance to take up arms in the holy war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Hundreds answered the call and headed off to a training camp in Abbotabad, Pakistan that had been established by Osama bin Laden and other members of the mujahadeen.
Knowing the need for new recruits, Gilani turned to the penal system and focused his attention on converting incarcerated blacks to his radical Islamic doctrine. Imams and religious instructors were dispatched to local, state, and federal prison facilities to accomplish this objective. The results were mind-boggling. Thousands converted on a weekly basis, drawn to the offers of protection, special meals, and release from work detail for daily prayers and the entire month of Ramadan.
Gilani soon came to the realization that it would be financially advantageous to train new recruits for the holy war on American soil rather than to pay the freight of sending them to Pakistan, and the sites of his other training camps throughout the world. And so, Islamberg in Hancock, New York came into being. Soon other hamaats were established in such places as Hyattsville, Maryland; Falls Church, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulane Country, California; Commerce, California; and Onalaska, Washington. The Red House compound cropped up in 1993. Others are under construction, including an expansive facility in Sherman, Pennsylvania. How many hamaats are now in place throughout the United States is anyone’s guess. A low-ball figure is 38.
Before becoming a citizen of the Red House compound or any of the other Fuqra communities, the recruits – primarily inner city black men who became converts in prison – are compelled to sign an oath that reads: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.” They are also obliged to contribute 70% of their welfare checks and other sources of income to Muslims of the Americas, Inc.
Mission accomplished among the African Americans, Sheikh Gilani returned to his native Lahore circa 1990. In December 1993, he was an honored guest at an international gathering of jihadis at the residence of Hassan al-Turabi in Khartoum. At the gathering, attended by members of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, Sheikh Gilani, Osama bin Laden, and other prominent terrorist leaders were caught on film chanting, “Down, down with the USA!” “Down, down with the CIA,” and “Death to the Jews.”
Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra have been convicted in US courts of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers’ compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen fire-bombings between 1979 and 1990. Associates of the group were also instrumental in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The criminal charges against the group and the criminal convictions are not things of the past. In 2001, a 19 year-old former resident of the Red House compound a California compound was charged with the first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy in California. By 2004 federal investigators uncovered evidence that linked both the DC “sniper killer” John Allen Muhammed and “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid to the group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded in the process of attempting to obtain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.
Even though Jamaat ul-Fuqra has been involved in bloody bombings and sundry criminal activities, recruited thousands of members from federal and state penal systems, and appears to be operating paramilitary facilities for militant Muslims, the terror organization remains to be placed on the official US Terror Watch List, and The Muslims of the Americas continue to operate, flourish, and expand as a legitimate nonprofit, tax-deductible charity.
Meanwhile, the hills of rural Virginia are alive with the sound of jihad.
But few, it seems, are listening.
Shawn Michaels, Jamal Babour and Dr. Hugh Cort contributed to this article.
Paul Williams is the author of “The Al Qaeda Connection” and forthcoming “The Day of Islam”.
American Muslims Ready to Attack USA?
Terrorism Sher Zieve
May 30, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/zieve/05302007.htm
I have waited for about a week to comment on a new Pew poll that queried over a thousand Muslims living in the United States. The reason I held back from commenting on the unnerving (some publications have called them hair-raising) results, is that I was waiting to see if ‘moderate’ Muslim leaders would officially comment. Sadly—as has become the norm—they have not done so in or with any large or even medium-sized numbers.
The mainstream media still largely continue to ignore the imminent threat posed by the terrorists in our midst. Instead, they report that a new Pew Poll suggests American Muslims are “largely assimilated, happy with their lives and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.” The dangerous and present problem with this is that the media discounts or ignores the intensely disturbing Pew Poll findings. Those findings include and divide out the response of 26% of American Muslims’—between 18 and 29 years of age—to one of the poll questions regarding the efficacy of homicide (AKA “suicide”) bombings.
This middle-class American Muslim population said that suicide bombings on US soil could be justified! Some have calculated that the Pew poll-cited 26% of these 18-29 year old Muslims currently living in the US constitutes a minimum of 200,000 individuals who currently believe that the bombings are not only acceptable to them but, necessary if meant to ‘protect’ their religion. However, having no truly accurate figures as to how many Muslims are now in the United States—let alone those between 18 and 29—this figure is highly speculative and may even be higher.
In an apparent attempt to lull the public into a life-threatening complacency, the consistently left-leaning mainstream media has chosen to play these facts down—or not report them at all. They, instead, choose to run stories on ‘Islamophobia’. Sorry old media but, a fear based upon the worldwide substantive perpetrations of horrific acts upon others by adherents of Islam and the Muslim religion is not irrational.
Do these Pew poll data mean that this group of young American Muslims is ready to attack the USA? No—not by these data, alone. But, this poll is not the only indicator of the growing in-country threat from Islamists.
For years, something very alarming has been steadily growing upon the shores of the United States. It is the development and expansion of Islamic paramilitary compounds. Three of these, according to Greg Copley President of the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), include “Islamberg in New York, Ahmedabad in Virginia, and Holy Islamville in South Carolina, and so on are places which have been formed largely by Jamaat ul-Fuqra—which is a fundamentalist jihadist movement, which has been involved in terrorist activity and supporting terrorist activity.”
Copley continues with: “The U.S. government, for example, claimed that ul-Fuqra members were involved in more than a dozen bombings and arson attacks during the 1980s and 1990s” and adds that members were “possibly responsible for a couple dozen homicides, and possibly linked to the murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was killed in Pakistan.” These fortresses are closed to the public and consist of Muslims from Pakistan, men who are said to have converted to Islam while in US prisons and their families. In Paul Williams’ compelling article “Springtime in Islamberg”, a sentry at the fortification is quoted as saying: “Our community is not open to visitors!”
These strongholds are also said to consist of many who have threatened the US with violent acts and were, or are currently, on terrorist watch lists. And, apparently, their children are being raised to embrace and emulate the hatreds and radical tenets of their parents. It is unclear how many of these paramilitary enclosures exist throughout the country and/or where they are strategically located. But, considering the ideologies of those who operate them the purpose and mission seem clear. And their goals do not give the impression of being at all positive to or for non-Muslim US citizens.
The areas involving violence perpetrated by the group Jamaat ul-Fuqra is shown here.
With Islamic separatist militaristic training compounds appearing across the country, we can only guess at when their followers will begin to implement their training. One item, however, remains extremely curious. In the past, the US government has arrested, burned out or blown up other militaristic compounds on US soil. The most recent notable example is the Clinton Administration’s burning of the Branch Davidians religious cult headquarters. Yet, this in-the-USA reported Islamic multi-branch paramilitary movement is allowed to continue. What’s that all about? Do you think Pew’s 26% figure might actually be low?
One thing that is a certainty is that young terrorists or terrorist-supporting individuals are now being raised, taught and trained on American soil. Considering the fact that radical Islam has loudly sworn time and time again that it will destroy us, does the fact that this is being allowed to occur make any sense—any at all—to you? Perhaps radical American Muslims won’t attack today. But, from all challenge indications being thrown down in front of us, they certainly seem to be gearing up for tomorrow. And while our courageous and dedicated men and women overseas are fighting and dying to keep them there, we are letting the terrorists in through our back door and, all too often, even the front.
Sher Zieve is an author, political commentator, Staff Writer and Program Director for The New Media Alliance a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. Zieve’s Op/Ed columns are widely carried by multiple Internet Journals and sites and she also writes hard news. Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Boston Star, Massachusetts Sun, Sacramento Sun, in International news publications and on multiple University websites.
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, its editorial staff or its publisher. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Photographs featured in The New Media Journal are for educational purposes only. While some of them are factual in nature others are creations meant to incite thought to further the socio-political and ideological conversation amongst of our readers. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media or ideological organizations . The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a group of non-compensated, independent writers bringing researched, fact-based commentary to the public in the midst of the mainstream media’s blatant, agenda-driven bias. The New Media Journal is a non-profit educational effort.
Socialists in Democrat Clothing
Politics Lance Fairchok, Senior Writer
June 19, 2007 URL: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/l_fairchok/06192007.htm
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism,” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
Seven years into the twenty-first century, Mr. Thomas’ prediction is coming close to fruition; the presidential elections of 2008 may well validate his faith in “liberalism” and its Trojan horse delivery of Socialism. After decades of slow yet persistent desensitization to Socialism in our schools, in our media and in government policy, Americans have become complacent to what the ramifications of Socialism would be upon our prosperity, our individual freedoms and our national identity. Political candidates espouse openly socialist policies without eliciting the slightest outrage or significant comment, so successfully have the philosophies of Marx and Lenin permeated the national debate.
“Many of you are well enough off that the tax cuts may have helped you. We’re saying that for America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” – Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate
Karl Marx could have written those words, for he was certainly part of their inspiration:
“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need.”
This statement on its face seems a reasonable philosophy, charitable and humane. However, the hard lessons of history have taught us otherwise; the application of utopian ideals by those who would govern using them has always led to disaster and ruin.
The ideology originates from a profoundly mistaken understanding of human nature, one that misinterprets human self-interest as greed and holds human altruism in distain, assuming it is calculated by self-interest alone. Communism, Socialisms most virulent strain, has been so spectacular a failure it is hard to fathom how anyone could continue to excuse its excesses. Yet, we still see Communist leaders idolized with the same adolescent leftist naiveté that made Pol Pot, Ayatollah Khomeini and Fidel Castro palatable in the West. As is always the case, their depredations shock and embarrass their apologists and quickly disappear from our newspapers and television sets, if they can be found there at all.
Socialists are ever mutable, shifting and accommodating in the winds of political change. They quickly forget the often-horrific consequences of their advocacy. The death of Venezuela’s democracy is now a very real possibility, but few will point to former President Carter for enabling a dictator by validating an obviously rigged election. This amnesia is one of the consistent afflictions of Socialism and the left.
Let us dissect Senator Clinton’s statement, and examine not what is said, but what is inferred. Sometimes a very few words can reveal a great deal. Perhaps we can gain insight into what would be in store for America under a new Clinton administration.
“Many of you are well enough off that the tax cuts may have helped you.”
The persistent theme from the Democrats is that only the rich benefited from tax cuts, and one is to conclude that those with low incomes did not. The sentence uses a clever rhetorical tool to cover what is a lie. The overwhelming evidence is that the tax cuts worked wonders, significantly increasing revenues, reducing unemployment, expanding the economy and reducing the deficit. Even low income households benefited, with millions having their tax burden erased. [1] Unless one knew that those 20% of Americans with the lowest income only pay 1% of taxes, her claim might make sense. In fact, the 20% with the highest income, the “rich,” contribute almost 70% of tax revenues. The “tax cut for the rich” claims are propaganda resurrected from a by-gone era, one where exacerbating class differences could get votes.
But, who thinks in terms of “class” anymore? Socialists do. It has been their fertile political ground for many decades, a fall back position for everything from Hurricane Katrina to voting fraud. The “disenfranchised,” the poor, the old, the “undocumented Americans” are the proletarian victims of the bourgeois exploiters. As an ideology, it is frayed at the seams in a country overwhelmingly middle class and upwardly mobile.
The National Center for Policy Analysis observed in 2004 that:
“The U.S. Department of the Treasury estimates that repealing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would raise taxes an average of $1,544 for more than 100 million Americans and cost a married couple with an income of $40,000 and two children $1,933 annually.“
In 2007, those numbers almost certainly will have gone up. The Democrat claim that the tax cuts benefited only the rich is demonstrably false.
NEW YORK (AP) — Dow, S&P 500 Hit Record Highs on Data
Wall Street carved out a solid advance Friday after data on job creation, manufacturing and inflation injected the market with renewed confidence about the economy and sent major indexes to record closes. (Associated Press 1 June 2007)
Let’s look at the next sentence.
We’re saying that for America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut that short and not give it to you.
She fully intends to rescind or fail to renew the tax cuts. Using “probably” makes the statement more palatable by taking of the definitive edge. Doing so would allow “for America to get back on track.” That statement begs the question, back on track to where? What is Senator Clinton’s vision for America? With a vigorous economy and a highly productive middle class, what problems does she see that need fixing? Health Care? Poverty? Immigration? Iraq? We can only wonder. Repealing the cuts would go a long way in making our economy actually match the lefts negative propaganda.
“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”
Where have we heard “the common good” before? It is the title of a book written by radical anti-American leftist Noam Chomsky. Web search the phrase and you get 1,290,000 hits, mostly on the sites of religious organizations, colleges and universities, leftist and Socialist groups. The phrase has been used by well-intentioned religious and political figures for centuries, a disarming platitude that hides all the hideous potentiality of despots and dictators. It usually means “the common good” that they envision with the insufferable arrogance of those who anoint themselves as enlightened.
Let us return to Marx for a moment. “From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” and compare that to Hillary Clinton, “We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.” Of course, “what is best for society” is never defined, but as the proletariat unfairly suffers under the abuses of the bourgeoisie Senator Clinton believes government should make things fair…
“Fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right government policies.” – Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate, May 29, 2007
How does one ensure “fairness” for over 300 million Americans? Everyone has a story of something that unfairly happened to him or her. Personalize the politics; distill them down to a very common, common denominator. We promise to be “fair”! When has big government ever ensured fairness?
For Democrats, the current prosperity is a troublesome dilemma, for how does one point to the disadvantaged and poor to fuel populist moral campaigns, when there are so few? How does one use economics in campaign rhetoric when unemployment is below 4.5 percent? By finding a new group to campaign for such as “undocumented Americans” and demeaning the jobs people have, promising better ones in a never-ending cascade of opportunistic promises that are never fulfilled, yet somehow, astonishingly, are believed. Socialist goals of income redistribution, profit caps, increased tax rates and programs to fix every real or imagined ill in American society are waiting in the wings.
Socialists reject the fundamental premise of a Democratic society; things work best with the least possible government interference. The Socialist formula is government involvement in all aspects of the lives of its citizens. This is called Statism and it inevitably leads to a society controlled by political elites where citizens loose their voice and then their freedom. The Socialist state assumes it can solve societal problems and shape that society through its policies and taxes. European Socialist “Democracies” tax their citizens as high as 60%. Small businesses are folding from excessive regulation and taxes. Unemployment is high and social problems, rather than being corrected from government involvement, are exacerbated.
Socialism bleeds the vitality from a nation; it dilutes the national will, and lulls the citizenry into fatal complacency that makes it ill suited to survival. Existential threats are ignored as social programs progressively consume larger and larger portions of national budgets. Simply put, Socialism is a disaster.
Senator Clinton carefully constructs her public statements to obscure her foundational beliefs, but as you see, they still leak through. The Democrats have embraced Socialism. She may be unaware how obvious it is to those who study history, or she may think the public is desensitized enough that it no longer matters. Democrat “spokespersons” deny it even as the party pushes for policies that are clearly Socialist, policies that have a disturbing record of failure, of increasing spending far out of proportion with benefits, and doing the exact opposite of what the proponents promise. The utopian delusions of Socialism have always induced this dangerous myopia. It is as if they are afflicted with a pathological inability to see the historical consequences or are made so shortsighted by their desire for power they are oblivious to those consequences.
“...because an uninsured person who goes to the hospital is more likely to die than an insured person. I mean, that is a fact. So what do we do? We have to build a political consensus and that requires people giving up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground. The same with energy. You know, we can’t keep talking about our dependence on foreign oil and the need to deal with global warming and the challenge that it poses to our climate and to God’s creation and just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people.” – Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate, June 3, 2007
The American love of individual freedom combined with our willingness, even eagerness, to contribute to our communities with our time, labor and money makes our nation a singular achievement in human history. Our Founding Fathers created a system that understood what best motivates its citizens: a desire to better their lives and the lives of their families. Our willingness to forgo easy comfort and short-term gain for a greater and more lasting prosperity has made us what we are. We expect to work for what we have. We take pride in our labors. We expect our fellow citizens to do the same. We are generous with our charity precisely because it is voluntary. We bridle under oppressive government regulation. We know that utopias are a fairytale, and thankfully, a significant majority of us can still spot a charlatan.
Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 presidential candidate, said in 1992:
“The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they’re not.”
For once, I agree.
Vladimir Lenin wrote that, “A lie told often enough becomes truth.” In the struggle for the soul of America, the Socialists are counting on it.
“The past shows unvaryingly that when a people’s freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not long be found at all.” – Richard Weaver, 1962
1. The Tax Foundation, August 17, 2004, Fiscal Fact No. 14 Bush Tax Cuts Erased Income Tax Burden for 7.8 Million Families
Lance Fairchok is a senior writer for The New Media Journal. He is a retired Air Force Intelligence professional with many years of service in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. His travels left him fascinated by the wide differences in human cultural perceptions and how ideas spread in diverse populations. He writes and does research on a variety of subjects to include totalitarian ideologies, radical Islam and press accuracy. He currently teaches and writes on the Emerald Coast of Florida.
Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of The New Media Journal, its editorial staff or its publisher. Reprint inquiries should be directed to the author of the article. Photographs featured in The New Media Journal are for educational purposes only. While some of them are factual in nature others are creations meant to incite thought to further the socio-political and ideological conversation amongst of our readers. Contact the editor for a link request to The New Media Journal. The New Media Journal is not affiliated with any mainstream media or ideological organizations . The New Media Journal is not supported by any political organization. The New Media Journal is a group of non-compensated, independent writers bringing researched, fact-based commentary to the public in the midst of the mainstream media’s blatant, agenda-driven bias. The New Media Journal is a non-profit educational effort.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Former Y-12 Personnel Kept Security Clearances
A U.S. Energy Department audit found that more than 100 one-time workers at two nuclear weapons sites in Tennessee were allowed to keep top-security clearances after leaving those facilities, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 18, 2006).
The investigation by the DOE inspector general’s office followed up on a 2003 review of security access and security badge issues at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and the former K-25 uranium enrichment site, which is now the East Tennessee Technology Park.
“Our recent analysis … indicates that these issues persist,” stated Inspector General Gregory Friedman in the May 24 report.
“We identified 142 employees (at Y-12) who were no longer associated with the department but still maintained an active security clearance. All except two … had ‘Q’ (top-security) clearances,” the report states.
Thirty-four more people “who had reportedly worked at ETTP and should have had their security clearances terminated or transferred were still listed as active,” it adds. Eighteen of those people had top-security clearances.
There have also been problems at the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories since 2003 in collecting security badges from exiting personnel, the report stated.
“It is not a good news story when you have badges floating around,” said Peter Stockton, a senior investigator at the Project on Government Oversight watchdog group.
Standard protocols were followed regarding clearances at the Oak Ridge sites, and there were no security issues, according to government and contractor officials. Personnel shifting to other high-security work could maintain their clearances while those not returning had to turn in their badges, they said.
“There was no problem. There is no problem,” said Mike Monnett of Y-12 managing contractor BWX Technologies.
“The IG report made a claim about security clearances for people who no longer work here,” he added. “Those people have valid requirements for those clearances.”
None had been fired, Monnett said (Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press/The Knoxville News Sentinel, June 18).
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2007_6_19.html
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June 18, 2007
Planes, Mercedes, Iran and Oil-for-Food-for-Sudan
Planes
I see that Victor Davis Hanson is blogging about the miseries of modern air travel. I’ll chime in to say that I’ve just been in Paris to cover a meeting of Iranian dissidents (more on that below) and the trip from New York felt longer than the three-day meeting itself. What was supposed to be an 8 hour 10 minute route, with a quick connection in Zurich, turned into a 19 hour extravaganza — plus the two-hour advance check-in time to wait in the snaking line (airlines operate as if perpetually surprised that customers would show up at all; in delicatessens, by contrast, they at least let you take a number and browse during rush hours) and then go to security and start hopping around on one foot while shucking gear into those little tubs (where are the ergonomists of America? surely there’s a better way). All-in-all, including a hopelessly missed connection, and further delays, the trip was about 24-hours door-to-door.
But the enduring memory — and in the event it did seem to last forever — was the delay at JFK after we had boarded the plane and left the gate for an early evening takeoff. A 10 minute delay became an hour. Then that turned into another hour. Then the pilot announced he was waiting to hear from the control tower, and had no idea when we would go. He turned off the seatbelt sign and the crew — hallelujah — began passing out snack packets of Soletti Happy Mix. The plane was still sitting on the apron. There was no bad weather. There was no mechanical problem. There was just an amazing airplane jam at JFK. Another hour went by. The plane rolled into a queue that stretched as far as we could see. Another hour went by. Finally, a bit after 10 PM, we took off. Crew members said this has become routine at JFK. One steward said that out of 17 flights he had worked in previous weeks, only one had made the trip on time — the problem being that JFK just can’t deal with the traffic.
Iranians for Regime Change, and a Note on North Korea
In Paris, the news was all about the French legislative elections (and the Hamas coup in Gaza), but my main interest — along with a few other items — was in the 200 or so Iranian-born exiled dissidents meeting in a nondescript basement conference hall to launch a movement they are calling Solidarity Iran. I filed an article about it last night, and have already heard from other Iranian dissidents, saying this group can’t get anywhere, is full of has-beens, some of whom helped bring the Islamic Republic to power in the first place, and isn’t worth listening to. Possibly, but even if they get nothing else right, these folks have an aim that our own government seems to have dropped — they want an end to the Islamic regime in Tehran. Not negotiations, not Condi Rice meeting with bagmen for the mullahs, not a Libya solution focused on the nuclear program while giving the tyrants a pass. The Iranian exiles in that Paris basement had plenty to say about why the only real answer in Iran is to bring down the regime. That’s a message worth paying attention to. If Jimmy Carter himself were to utter it, I’d listen.
The same message applies to North Korea. We have now allowed Kim Jong Il to extort help in his money laundering from what is arguably the most powerful institution on earth after the U.S. mililtary: the Federal Reserve. We will pay dearly for that.
And Yes, In the Oil-for-Food Sludge, Another Mercedes Bobs to the Surface
Just when you thought you’d heard it all, the same United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal which led to investigations that outed Kojo Annan’s tax-free and duty-free Mercedes (bought in Europe and shipped to Ghana under false use of Kofi Annan’s UN Secretary-General status) has now led to allegations in India about another Mercedes, this one allegedly connected to kickbacks via a New Delhi connection with UN relief activities in Iraq. Here’s a link to the story, complete with photos of the alleged documentation, found in a pen drive.
Sudan
And of course we have recently heard the proposal from a former member of Paul Volcker’s inquiry into Oil-for-Food, Richard Goldstone, to set up a UN Oil-for-Food program in Sudan. Goldstone’s assumption, I guess, is that based on the lessons of Oil-for-Food, this could now be well run. Not a chance. But I suppose it could be more efficiently run. Instead of pretending to manage a relief program, the UN could cut the middlemen, ship luxury cars in bulk to whomever, and oversee the direct deposit of kickbacks into private accounts. If it’s too much for the UN to handle, maybe the Fed can help out?