Feds Arrest Al Qaeda Suspects With Plans to Poison Water Supplies on Them

fox ^ | 7/29/02

[knak]

WASHINGTON

[P-Marlowe]

James Ujaama's brother is Mustafa Ujaama, the founder of the now-closed Dar-us-Salaam Mosque in Seattle.

The Religion of Peace.

[BOBTHENAILER]

When they're gone, I'm not sure I want greater governmental efficiency.

I don't have a problem with it for present purposes. An extinguishing amendment, upon completion of the job, would be a good idea.

[otterpond]

The fact is that this will make 21 administrative departments and 98 congressional committees obsolete.

Smoke and mirrors, my Friend. Just changing the names on the doors. How many government employees will be laid off after this mega-agency is created? We both know the answer to that one. Plus, an agency of this complexity will need even more mid- and high-level supervisors to "coordinate" activities. Hell, the expansion in just government-employed IT folks needed just to get these disparate department systems talking to each other could be major!

As for the Congressional committees, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Congress take the "oversight" provision of the Constitution VERY seriously. Penis envy over the powers of the Executive Branch. You watch how quickly those committees get replaced by updated, 21st Century models. No Congresscritter is going to allow him/herself to lose power.

I do have a question you may be able to answer. I have not seen a comparison of the HSA budget and the budget of the 22 departments it is replacing. Have you? If it's smaller than the combined total, I might change my position.

[Texasforever]

I do have a question you may be able to answer. I have not seen a comparison of the HSA budget and the budget of the 22 departments it is replacing. Have you? If it's smaller than the combined total, I might change my position.

Each entity brings its own budget with it. Bush is threatening a veto of the new HSA bill if he does not get authority to fire people without congressional approval and to manage the budget between functions. I believe that the bill is being revised to give him that flexibility.

[BOBTHENAILER]

. But many believe this is sinister effort on Bush's part to create his own Gestapo.

Some people also believe Elvis is alive. Ya cain't please 'em all.

I feel that this admin, as much as I disagree on more than few things, has our best interests at heart. In that light, if they roll up al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Abu Sayaaf, PLF and other assorted worthless MFers, within the next 7 years, it would not surprise me to see them reorganize the whole security apparatus to assuage our mutual fears of the abusive potential herein.

[knighthawk]

The first thing that I could think of was the same thing that was planned in Italy.

[OrioleFan]

The Radical Cleric Network?

Like the Cleric News Network (CNN) site..."

[otterpond]

Bush is threatening a veto of the new HSA bill if he does not get authority to fire people without congressional approval and to manage the budget between functions. I believe that the bill is being revised to give him that flexibility.

Yes, but I think it is a watered-down version of what the President wanted. The firings can only occur in times when a national emergency has been declared. Otherwise, the federal union members are still protected from the results of their own incompetence. Unfortunately, we aren't.

[DeaconBenjamin]

We have been under a national emergency since Carter was president. That's not much of a limitation.

[otterpond]

We have been under a national emergency since Carter was president.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

H.L. Mencken said so many years ago that government controls the people by making up emergencies that only government can handle. Considering the performance of the government since and including Carter, guess they didn't have to try too hard.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Examples of some of the declarations of national emergencies by Carter, Reagan, George HW Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush can be seen at http://www.lawandfreedom.com/constitutional/emergencies.htm

[doug from upland]

Thanks for the heads up. Are we nuts that these people are allowed to be here?

[ladyinred]

Excellent! The war on terrorism is continuing, and as the President says it is not the kind of war we are accustomed to. Wonder how many more like these are out there?

[otterpond]

DB, I didn't doubt you for a moment. My point was simply that most of what is wrong in this country stems from trusting the government.

The rest comes from people discovering that they can vote themselves money and politicians who will promise to deliver it in exchange for power.

Meant you no offense.

[Chad Fairbanks]

And he was some type of refueler... didn't know they had a separate rate for that, but Semi's training was in fuel...

[Travis McGee]

There are a hundred thousand Mohammed Attas and LAX shooters already inside the USA.

Today they are just called "moderate muslims".

[Fizzie]

This may not be relevant, but extremely interesting. (Or it may be both, neither, or one of the two.) I did not crop the column in deference to the columnist Temple, so scroll to the bottom for the interesting stuff about Denver Mayor Wellington Webb's daughter being in the house at the time the suspected terrorist was arrested. Probably nothing.
Rocky Mountain News
Temple:
Coverage sometimes bruises egos
July 27, 2002

They seem so simple.

A few words strung together to give the main point of a story - to tell readers why they should be interested.

But headlines are an art.

And often the cause of much consternation.

By their very nature, headlines must simplify. They can't include all the facts.

Last week, I heard from public officials upset over two headlines because they thought the headlines were unfair at best - or even worse, mean-spirited. They raised serious issues, and I thought you might be interested in them.

Bruce Caughey, spokesman for the Douglas County School District, wrote about our coverage of the retirement of Superintendent Rick O'Connell after 21 years.

The Denver Post wrote a story in which they interviewed O'Connell and the president of the school board. So naturally, it was all positive.

The Rocky's Robert Sanchez actually did some work. He interviewed four people, including three outside the district. He also went back into the files and recapped the accomplishments - as well as the controversy - of O'Connell's tenure, producing a box listing his legacy.

The main headline said, "Seasoned superintendent to retire," with smaller type reading, "O'Connell's tenure with Douglas County an anomaly in field." It was the headline on the jump page that galled Bruce. It simply said, "O'Connell: Target of criticism during tenure."

"Sanchez left the mistaken impression that O'Connell's career was rife with conflict, and your headline writer shored up this misconception," Bruce wrote.

"I thought you would want to know that I believe 99 percent of the education and business leaders in this state would not concur with the Rocky Mountain News headline nor the tenor of the story."

I've got two bits of news for Bruce, a travel writer who's contributed to the News in the past.

After 21 years in a high-profile job, if somebody hasn't been the target of criticism, he hasn't been alive. The public recognizes that goes with the territory. It doesn't mean that a person hasn't done a good job.

But most important, at the Rocky, we don't write our stories and headlines for the state's education and business leaders.

We know what most of them would like us to say.

They're great, and their friends in these professions are great, too.

We write for our readers. They're the folks who send their children to the schools and pay the taxes to support them.

The other complaint this week came from Mayor Wellington Webb.

He called me, very unhappy with the front-page headlines about the arrest of a Denver native in the war on terror. The banner wasn't the problem. But a smaller headline below said "FBI detains former relative of Mayor Webb in connection with alleged ties to bin Laden."

Now the reality is that I like the mayor. He was a good friend to Gene Amole in his final months, and his aide, Andrew Hudson, was instrumental in organizing the celebration of Gene's life and the renaming of Elati Street outside our building in Gene's honor.

But that doesn't mean we always agree.

And one thing the mayor definitely disagrees with me on is the relevance of his relationship to the terror suspect.

The mayor told me he thinks we intentionally stretch as far we can to make him look bad. It's the way the mayor has felt for years - so I knew his call would be coming.

Andrew wrote me that the headline was "hurtful and completely unnecessary."

"I'm just terribly disappointed and surprised that you would allow this to happen."

I feel differently. You see, I think it's pretty darn interesting that the raid occurred in a home now maintained by the ex-wife of the mayor's son, Allen Sr. We're talking about a terror suspect here. Not a burglar.

What made the connection even more unusual was that the mayor's granddaughter, cousin to James Ujaama, was in the house.

"Neighbors said the mayor's 15-year-old granddaughter, Jaime, ran out of the surrounded home," our story reported.

The teen-ager was hysterical and alleged that officers had put a gun to her head, neighbors said. (Police later denied that.)

"She was crying and really scared."

So: Cops put a gun to the head of the mayor's granddaughter in a house belonging to the family of her mother, who is the ex-wife of the mayor's son.

Seems pretty interesting to me.

You see, that's what headlines are about. Of course they're supposed to be clear. And sometimes ours are rightly criticized because they're not. Or they're criticized because they're too cute. Or, worst of all, because they're wrong.

But they're not supposed to make the news dull. They are supposed to grab you with reasons to read the story. They're what you might talk about over the breakfast table.

We don't produce the paper to make public officials happy.

We produce the paper for you.

And sometimes that means we make people mad.

I think it's worth the price.

[Travis McGee]

My guess is a dozen to two dozen, and all are very scared right now.

Folks who plan to ultimately blow themselves up in an act of mass murder of infidels don't get "scared".

[Travis McGee]

England still isn't serious. I guess they will have to lose Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and Parliament to get serious about this war.

[Fizzie]

Sorry, very sorry. Meant Mayor Wellington Webb's GRANDdaughter