Posted on 07/25/2007 6:16:10 PM PDT by goldstategop
He hasn't yet entered the Presidential race, and yet Fred Thompson, yesterday, showed us why he's the scariest Republican Presidential candidate. And maybe the scariest of both parties.
Don't believe Thompson's claim that he understands the Islamist jihadist threat to America. His announcement, yesterday, of his choice of Spencer Abraham as campaign manager, told us everything we need to know. Although Abraham, of Lebanese descent, is a Maronite Christian, he is a career water carrier for Islamists of the most extremist stripe and made that the cornerstone of his failed, one-term Senate career and equally lousy tenure as Energy Secretary.
Spencer Abraham: Former Bush Energy Secretary, Current Pan-Islamist & Fred Thompson Campaign Manager
As a conservative--but more important, as an American concerned about the future of this country in the face of a terrorist threat--Thompson's choice of Spencer Abraham was the nail in the coffin for me in opposing Fred Thompson's quest for the White House.
I know Spencer Abraham. He wrote one of my recommendations for law school. And the Spencer Abraham that I and all of America have since experienced is bad news for everyone except CAIR, ADC, MPAC, ISNA, and all Islamists who want to endanger America.
In 2003, I wrote the definitive column on Spencer Abraham a/k/a Spence a/k/a Edward Spencer Abraham (which was quoted in The Washington Post), and I re-publish it below, with several additions I've made, updating it. At the time Spence was still Energy Secretary, but he left to become a lobbyist for Islamist countries.
As a Senator, he took marching orders from James Zogby of the pan-Islamist Arab American Institute, opposing profiling of Arabs, the use of secret evidence against Muslims (at the behest of Muslim groups), attempting to repeal the Clinton counterterrorism package, refusing to fund computer tracking of student and other foreign aliens, giving millions in our tax money right to Hezbollah, and putting CAIR on the map on Capitol Hill (taking the group's officials around to meet other Senators and Members of Congress). He took campaign contributions from the relatives of Hezbollah-backed top Lebanese officials after he got the group millions in our tax money.
Spence was one of only two Senators in the entire U.S. Senate who refused to sign a letter calling on President Clinton to condemn Palestinian terrorism and Yasser Arafat. This was at the height of a series of homicide bombings in 1999 and 2000.
As Energy Secretary, he gave top secret tours of nuclear facilities, as well as detailed information on how we secure them to Muslim nations who are our enemies. And he gave out undue post-9/11 awards to Al-Qaeda money-launderers . . . at the White House. The money launderers were raided by U.S. Customs Service agents.
After he left the Bush cabinet, Spence became a lobbyist for Mid-Eastern Muslim countries that practice the Arab boycott of Israel and don't really like us too much either. He took their money and until the Thompson race, did their bidding.
Do you really support a guy, Fred Thompson, who picked this man to head up his team? Either Thompson is clueless about Abraham, which should immediately disqualify him for the White House and frighten all of us about how he makes decisions. Or he knows about Abraham, and went with him anyway. Just as bad.
If you want to say no to jihad, you WILL say NO to Fred Thompson. He chose, and now we must choose against him:
JIHAD SPENCE: Bush's Dangerous Energy Secretary is Now Fred Thompson's Campaign Manager
By Debbie Schlussel
Since the Blackout of 2003, he's gotten lots of TV face time. But should U.S. energy policy be entrusted to Spencer Abraham?
In 2000, President Bush said his Cabinet would "look like America," nominating Abraham, the defeated Lebanese-American Senator from Michigan, to Energy Secretary--part of the Bush strategy targeting the Arab vote.
But was this political strategy in the best interest of the country? Abraham's record suggests otherwise.
In the two years since 9/11, Abraham did absolutely nothing to improve our precarious electric power situation.
That would be bad enough.
But, since 9/11, Abraham continued a controversial UN-sponsored program allowing foreign visitors from countries on the State Department terrorist list to tour U.S. nuclear reactors. A course sponsored by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, taught by U.S. nuclear weapons lab security personnel, gives tours of Nuclear Regulatory Commission facilities and teaches participants from 57 countries--including Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia--security techniques employed at American nuclear sites. "They were teaching them to black out systems, which they could use against us at labs," an official told a popular newssite.
The Clinton Administration taught the course to foreign representatives, too. But that was pre-9/11. In the post-9/11 era, Abraham irresponsibly continued it, despite protests.
Then there's Jamal Barzinji. Abraham enlisted him to find parties who helped and reached out to Muslims after 9/11, with Abraham hosting an awards ceremony for them. Problem is, Barzinji is an officer and/or director in SAFA Trust, Mar-Jac Poultry, and International Institute for Islamic Thought, all raided by Customs in March 2002 for laundering over $1.7 billion to Al-Quaida and Islamic Jihad (through indicted University of South Florida professor and alleged Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian).
More troubling is Abraham's Senate record, ignored by his former Senate colleagues in an easy confirmation hearing.
Should a Senator who deliberately endangered national security for Arab/Muslim votes and campaign money be entrusted to oversee U.S. energy policy and access?
Abraham's frightening national security record included:
Liberal immigration policy, including lax foreign visitor tracking, at the behest of Arab/Muslim groups; Tried to End Profiling, Secret Evidence Use Against Terrorists
Abraham was Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman through the end of 2000. Abraham routinely caved to the demands of Arab/Muslim leaders, such as the Arab American Institute's James Zogby, on national security matters, especially immigration.
"Ever since (I first met) him, Abraham has been coming to us and giving advice, support and the benefits of his leadership," Zogby told The Detroit News.
And taking Zogby's advice, too.
Abraham actively worked to delay computer systems to track foreign visitors, which Arab/Muslim groups, including Zogby's, strongly opposed. 1996 immigration law required computerized entry and exit tracking of all temporary visas, but was gutted by Abraham and other legislators. They refused to allocate money for the program and delayed its full implementation until 2005. In 2000, Abraham, as Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, delayed implementation of other requirements of the 1996 immigration measure, including university-assisted enforcement student visa laws and collection of fees from foreign students to pay for computer tracking.
These programs might have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks. But Abraham desperately craved the Arab/Muslim vote in Michigan.
Abraham also sponsored and pushed for the repeal of the use of secret evidence against terrorists, a vital portion of the Clinton counterterrorism package. He also sought to outlaw profiling of Arabs and Muslims by federal law enforcement.
Foreign aid funding for Hezbollah, rewarded by pseudo-foreign campaign contributions
In July 2000, Abraham sought over $268 million in tax-funded USAID grants for Hezbollah terrorist-controlled Southern Lebanon, at Arab American Institute's Zogby's request. Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, has targeted and murdered many Americans. Millions in similar USAID grants (which have scant strings and accountability attached) to Afghanistan were misspent on Taliban terrorist activities. Abraham enlisted Michigan Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg, on the House International Relations Committee, to push the questionable aid package in the House. They ended up obtaining $86 million, which went straight to Hezbollah and which was never tracked thereafter. They knew this, and that's why they and Zogby sought the money for their Hezbollah friends.
Abraham and Knollenberg were repaid for their efforts, receiving thousands in campaign contributions from Nijad Fares, the Houston-based greencard-holding son of Syrian-backed Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares.
Soft on terrorism
Abraham was one of only two U.S. Senators who refused to sign an October 2000 letter to President Clinton condemning terrorist acts by Yasser Arafat and the P.L.O.
Abraham led the nearly successful June 2001 attempt to reverse the use of classified evidence against terrorists, sponsoring the legislation at the behest of Islamist groups, including the American Muslim Association (AMA) and the American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC), both headed by Agha Saeed.
In July 1999, Abraham wrote to Saeed, AMA, and AMPCC asking their support: "Your efforts are truly needed in the political arena. . . . You can truly make a difference in the political and policy arenas, and I remain committed to helping you achieve that goal."
But Saeed openly praised Palestinian terrorism as "armed resistance" and appeared at lectures and events sponsored by Hamas front groups, including one panel, in which he was joined by the indicted Al-Arian, entitled: "Zionism: A Racist and Colonialist Ideology." AMA-sponsored events featured these exhortations: "The trees and the stones will say, oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him!" "Victory comes from Allah and Hezbollah is our model." "Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas."
Given Spencer Abraham's record of kowtowing to Arab, Muslim, and foreign interests on virtually every national security issue, his hegemony at Energy is disturbing. He should control no form of power--political or electric.
I heard Duncan Hunter on a talk show today, and the host said the so-called 2nd tier candidates are better than the 1st tier candidates, and told Duncan Hunter that he is amazed at his capacity to understand the “bad guys.”
But then, Hunter did a great job when he Chaired of the House Armed Services Committee, and was a Vietnam veteran who served in the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers, and I heard a caller on a talk show say that Hunter was very brave when he served, but Hunter was modest about that.
Also, Hunter went to Iraq five times, has a son who served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine, and will be serving a third tour this time in Afghanistan.
“REP. HUNTER: Chris, thanks very much. John’s not the only guy with a defense background. I’ve been chairman of the Armed Services Committee for the last four years. I’ve helped to rebuild national defense. We have worked hard to make sure that our people have enough pay, that they’ve got the ammunition, that they’ve got the equipment, while at the same time looking over the horizon to look at the new threat of an emerging China and an Iran that is pursuing nuclear weapons and a Korea that already has some and is moving to get the means for delivery. So a strong national defense, the trademark of Ronald Reagan, is what I would pursue.
....
“You know, right now, right now, Iran is moving equipment into Iraq that is being used to kill Americans. Iran has crossed the line, and the United States has absolute license at this point to take whatever actions are necessary to stop those deadly instruments from being moved across the line, being used in explosives, roadside bombs, inside Iraq.”
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=5562636
Hunter knows his miliary and will be the BEST to fight the war on terror, imo.
I find it hard to fathom how Abraham is going to run "a new kind of campaign". He's a quintessential insider with few ties to the conservative base. If Fred thinks that he can act like Bush and take for granted all those who got him into the position he is now in so he can focus on the "middle", he will not be successful. He's had a chance to bring conservatives screaming and marching in his behalf, instead he appears to be making decisions based on the old, tired campaign paradigms. I believe Fred is the only chance to unite Republicans and defeat the Democrats. He will not do this, however, by running a status quo campaign with political retreads with discarded 910 outlooks.
What's the other thing that Schlussel's wrong about in this article?
fyi ping to #83
They portend trouble.
We did the "let's win at all costs" thingy in 2000 and again in 2004, and look what we got.
At the end of the day, I cannot bear the thought of another 8 years of Jorge W. Bush let alone of Hitlery nor Os(b)ama.
“Fred Thompson was to be my backup choice, my “main main”, if Duncan Hunter defaulted by poor numbers, cash and showing. :-(”
Mine too! I have had the same tagline for 6 months : )
I thought he answered the CFR/NAU question pretty well. Give him a chance to answer for Spence.
I am not thrilled with this choice, to say the least, but, he is a campaign advisor, not policy.
Worded like a troll.
Goodbye.
main main = main man (oh, “main main” is OK, too, I guess). however, I am getting a bit wobbly about this whole “Fred Thompson As The Supreme Savior For Conservatives” simplistic bandwagon of late.
so doea tancredo and he’s not a gun grabber,he’s not arrogant and he isn’t afraid to give straight answers-i’ve spoken with him twice on call in shows and he seems okay-duncan hunter is just as good-but this country’s sheeple are being mesmerized by hollyweird and the msm to commit mass suicide and vote for hildebeast or obama-(he’s not nauseating like hildebeast,but he is hard left wing)
>>>Can we at least wait until the man announces?<<<
Are you privy to something the rest of us aren’t? When the heck is that going to be?
I don't know the lady from Adam's housecat, but she did get Abraham's religion wrong. I found out from a Freeper's post earlier today that he is Orthodox, and a little research on my part verified that. Maybe she should consult FR more often.
You don't have a single point to back your own stupid remarks, so you poke fun at my screenname and allude to some articles that don't exist? How very intelligent.
He is not as cute and a metroman like the breck girl. But then again his haircuts only cost 1% of the trial lawyer stud cuts.
If what Schlussel says is true, I’m no longer behind Fred.
Perhaps. OTOH, I don’t like the fact that Fred is in with the globalists, and I find greater flaws with someone being a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. That already casts doubt on his ability to surround himself with better company.
Neurosis.
I agree with you in a lot of ways. George W. Bush’s presidency lost its wheels because he was unable and unwilling to communicate his core principles.
I’ve been saying it for a long time: part of a President’s job is being a fabulous salesman. I’ve caught a lot of flack for saying that around here, but as an executive, you have to sell an idea and rally those around you. You have to think on the cuff. You need to know and utliize all of the facts.
Thompson is a fabulous orator with a script, but on the fly??? Yes, the George W Bush comparisons, while overstateed, resurface.
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