April 30, 2008

Via CNN:

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- One person was killed and three were wounded Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting a metal shop in Rafah, according to Palestinian security and medical sources.

srael Defense Forces confirmed the airstrike.

The person killed was the deputy commander of the Islamic Jihad military wing, according to the Palestinian sources, who said he also served as a school headmaster at a the United Nations Relief and Works Agency school.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunnes said he could not immediately confirm that the person was employed by the United Nations, and added that said staff members who bring politics into U.N. institutions are fired immediately for violating staff rules.

The IDF has in the past targeted metal shops it said were being used to produce rockets.

Here's a video of some of these asshats firing rockets into Israel. Hope it was them.

Reminder: Why Gaza Was Closed

Shockingly evil, heinous, outrageous and painfully sad.

Last weekend, the story broke of a 73-year-old father, Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter, Elisabeth, as a sex slave for 24 years in a secret dungeon and fathered her seven children.

More ....

The idiotic theocrats ruling Iran have identified a new aspect of the Great Satan that chills their blood: Barbie.

From ABC News:

A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the "destructive" cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.

In the latest salvo in a more than decade-old government campaign against Barbie, Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the doll and other Western toys are a "danger" that need to be stopped.

"The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger," said the letter, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.

If true, this is outrageous!

MEMRI

The government of Pakistan has given cash compensation to more than 500 people for the Taliban fighters killed or wounded during the military operation in the tribal district of South Waziristan

Let me get this straight. You fight the Taliban and then turn around and compensate them for the harm done to them. Gawd, this is nuckin futz!

Oh the horror, poor Omar has "no place to call home".

Times

The son of Osama bin Laden has been banned from entering Britain to live with his new wife because of fears that his presence would cause “considerable public concern”.

Officials have told Omar Ossama bin Laden that there is evidence that he is still loyal to his father, who is held responsible for the deaths of 52 innocent people in the London bombings of July 7, 2005.

Mr bin Laden, 27, is appealing against the refusal to grant him a visa and says
that it is wrong to ban him from Britain on the basis of his parentage and inaccurate media reports about his beliefs.

"Inaccurate" media reports? Most were glorifying him.

His recent interview (memory lapse as to exact one) quoting the playbook of twoofers may have helped show the "real" Omar.

Lets see if the Brits stand their ground. Their batting average has been in a slump.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, pictured above, is the second carrier to be deployed to the Gulf.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says of the deployment:

"The second aircraft carrier to the Gulf should be seen as a "reminder" of US military power in the region".

Maybe Ahmadinejad and the mad mullah's are expecting a visit from someone and are getting a tad nervous. teh...

Asharaq Akawsat

Why is the leadership in Tehran anxious to give Russia the right to land troops in Iran? The question is not fanciful. The Islamic Republic is conducting a devious campaign to prepare public opinion for that eventuality.

The message is relayed through deliberately vague terms that diplomats understand immediately while the general public does not. The device is to revive two treaties that most students of Iranian history thought were dead and buried long ago.

The first is the 1921 Treaty that the government of Sayyed Ziauddin Tabatabai, soon after coming to power in a putsch, signed with Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik regime.

At the time the Bolsheviks had some troops in the Iranian province of Gilan on the Caspian Sea, supporting a rebellion led by a leftist mullah known as Mirza Kuchak Khan of the Jungle. At the same time, the British were using Iranian territory to ferry troops and materiel to anti-Bolshevik nationalist forces in Transcaucasia.

Under the treaty, Lenin agreed to cancel the debts Iran had accumulated towards the Tsarist Empire. He also undertook to withdraw his troops from Gilan. The treaty revised relations in the Caspian Sea, granting Iran greater rights of fishing and navigation. That amounted to a generous gesture towards Tabatabai’s new government that, still fragile, needed all the good news it could get in relations with the major powers.

Nevertheless, as always when a weak nation makes a pact with a much larger neighbour, the treaty had a sting in its tail. It gave the Russians the right to land troops in Iran when and if troops of any other foreign power arrived in Iran. At the time it was Britain that Lenin had in mind. For his part, Tabatabai wanted to use the threat of Russian military intervention as a means of forcing the British to end their military presence in Iran.

However, in one of those twists of history, the treaty was never used for its original purpose. The British soon abandoned their anti-Bolshevik allies whom they found too weak to defeat Lenin’s new empire. Lenin, for his part, believing he could add Iran to his empire through ideological agitation rather than conquest, abandoned the Mullah of the Jungle and withdrew the Soviet troops.

In 1941, however, Soviet troops, this time under Stalin, invaded Iran.

The legal pretext was the 1921 treaty. Soviet propaganda claimed that the presence of a few German military experts and, possibly, spies, in Tehran amounted to a foreign hostile force on Iranian soil. Reza Shah, the Iranian monarch, had refused to kick the Germans out, possibly in the hope that Hitler would defeat Russia and Britain, Iran’s two principal enemies for 150 years.

Within days of the Soviet invasion, backed by a British invasion of Iranian territory from Iraq, Reza Shah was forced into exile.

The new Iranian government, under Prime Minister Muhammad-Ali Forughi, had to accept the legality of the invasion under the 1921 Treaty.

Nevertheless, both sides felt that a new treaty was needed to determine the status of Soviet troops in Iran. Negotiations were railroaded at top speed, with the British supporting the Soviets in the name of their alliance against Nazi Germany.

The Iranian side, weak and disorganised in a country under foreign occupation, protested. But, with Soviet and British guns pointed at its head, it ended up signing the 1941 Treaty.

The new treaty, recalling that of 1921,reaffirmed the right of the USSR to send troops to Iran if and when Moscow felt it was threatened by a third power’s presence in Iran.[emphasis mine] more...

Be sure to read the rest of this most informative article. I was unaware of this treaty and find it quite disturbing.

Jihadi videos alone mean nothing. But add Jihadi videos, explosives in the trunk, and wandering two states out of your way to look at military bases, things seem pretty fishy to me.

Via Michelle Malkin:Here’s the latest on those two former University of South Florida students who were just driving around aimlessly with “fireworks” in South Carolina. It appears that one of the Goose Creek Two had tons of jihadi and bomb/ammo videos on his home computers, not just the one YouTube video that’s already been revealed.

But luck can only carry you so far.....

This Sun article certainly implies as much:

“I went on the film saying ‘I’m going to have an affair’, like it was a kiwi, an exotic fruit — because I’d never had one!”

She adds: “I had a crush on Harrison for sure. Harrison is great fun when he’s had a few drinks.”

Shaking her head and saying: “I’m going to get in so much trouble,” she adds: “Once I left the room and came back and he was in the closet not wearing a lot of clothes.”

But it does appear Leia wanted to get it on with Han. In the end that means all your fantasies about metal bikinis are par for the course, and isn't that what we're all looking for here? Justification for our own impure geeky thoughts?

Thanks to Chris who mentioned something about putting a "lightsaber" into a "Sarlacc pit" or some such in the e-mail.

When government can't even get it right when it comes to the things they should be doing, why are so many so willing and eager for government to do more of the things they shouldn't be doing?

WaTimes:

False identifications based on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address the problem.

I think the headline says it all. What's worse: the culture or the judicial system which condones honor killings?

Government: is there anything it can't do well?

My son played in the band and sang in the chorus tonight for the annual area concert.

The concert opened with The Star Spangled Banner and closed with God Bless America.

And now a NSFW message for the ACLU below the fold:

April 29, 2008

Join substitute host Bluto, Rusty and Vicki the Impaler as we discuss how to measure continental drift using only a compass, three hairpins, and some duct tape.

9 EDT, 8 CDT.

Show is archived.

The terrorists won't have the guts to do this again...teh

More cremation below fold

Sweet vid, 9 min worth of bad guys getting cremated.

Too close for comfort?

Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, wife of US Rep John Conyers, is questioned by Detroit Middle School children. They wanted to know why she called Detroit City Council President Kenneth Cochran, Jr. "shrek"

h/t insanity police

Well I'll be, exercise time for the force.

DBKP sez:

We didn’t think nearly enough attention has been paid to the problem of Star War addicts getting enough exercise.

Tom sends in this screenshot from Long War Journal. Compare and contrast:

Gotta love the Labour government's "tough" stance.

Pretty cool!

h/t maker of video jordanwilliam23 found at
LGF link viewer.

This Video took forever to assemble and complete. The first two shots of the film see Remarkably similar Young Soldiers Behaving in remarkably similar ways surrounded by remarkably similar themes.

(Brasov, Romania) A 43-year-old professor at the University of Transylvania, Angela Repanovici (pic), has been sacked from her position as chief librarian for doing a naughty, undulating striptease in front of her colleagues.

Repanovici was dismissed after a video showing her doing the Eastern European version of gal-gone-wild appeared on YouTube.

More here and here ....

And let Jimi Take over!

Via CNN

Vivid Entertainment is releasing a sex tape allegedly starring Jimi Hendrix...

...The footage features Hendrix engaging in various sexual acts with two women, according to a statement released by Vivid. The company said they consulted with several experts to authenticate the footage.

Help stop these brutal murder of the young in Iran. Please sign the petition to stop child executions

Child executions violate international law

[No] capital punishment... shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age Article 37(a) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

According to the United Nations, a child is a person under the age of 18. Despite the fact that the government of Iran has signed International Covenants that forbid them to execute anyone who has allegedly committed an offence before the age of 18, they continue to do so.

Amnesty International has documented 31 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In many cases, these minors have been imprisoned until the age of 18 and then executed. Currently, there are at least 95 minors on death row in Iran.

www.stopchildexecutions.com

This Wednesday, Americans for Prosperity will be kicking off the first leg of their "Hot Air Tour" to expose the high cost of global warming alarmism. They launched the tour last Monday in Washington, DC, with over 300 activists braving pouring rain to attend. Activists came from as far as North Carolina and New Jersey to take a stand against the disastrous economic consequences posed by so-called “solutions” to global warming. Pictures and video from the launch, as well as more information on the tour, can be found at www.CostofHotAir.com

Here's the schedule for the first leg of the tour:

Wednesday, April 30:
-Kansas City, MO – 5:30pm

Thursday, May 1:
-Wichita, KS – 8:00am
-Oklahoma City, OK – 5:00pm

Friday, May 2:
-Dallas, TX – 8:30am
-Houston, TX – 6:30pm

Saturday, May 3:
-Lafayette, LA – 11:00am

I got a kick out of this.

Just as the Olympic flame is about to reach Hong Kong and mainland China, the Guangdong province police have recently uncovered a case in which a cheap-rate factory in Guangdong was filling out orders by overseas Tibet splittist organizations to manufacture the snow-mountain-lion flags of Free Tibet.

The factory workers thought that they were just making some colorful flags. But some workers had watched Hong Kong television and seen the flag before. They also went on the Internet and checked. When they found out what the flags were, they called the police immediately.

A "crowded" weightlifting gym in Baghdad? Sweet!

Iraq’s Zekra Zaki believes she can win medal in Beijing Paralympic Games. When Iraq's Paralympic medal hope Zekra Zaki is furiously pumping iron at a crowded Baghdad gym[emphasis mine] she forgets that she has no legs. "I don't feel disabled at all," the long-haired athlete said after doing repetitive bench presses in training for the Beijing Paralympic Games later this year.

Competing in the 56 kilogrammes (123 pounds) category, she believes she can win a medal in China. "If I win a medal I will dedicate it to my father's spirit and to my country," said Zaki, 27, who lost her legs in a car accident at the age of two.[Defeatest you are out of luck on this one..ed]

"A victory will justify all the difficulties I have had to face to get this far," added the soft-spoken but powerfully built woman, perspiring from the exertion.

Zaki is Iraq's first disabled female athlete to qualify for the Paralympics[emphasis mine] which will be staged in September after the Beijing Olympic Games.

Six male weightlifters and a volleyball team will also be in Beijing to represent Iraq at the Paralympics.

Click image for more and notice the liveleak warning:

The media item you are about to see may contain MATURE elements. Agree to the text below or click out

God forbid if a good story comes out of Iraq.

I wish Zekra Zaki the best of luck in her competition. She is a survivor and one tough lady!

Richard Butler, a CBS reporter held hostage by Shia militiamen in Iraq, recounts his story. He tells of the horror of being sealed into a wall by his captors, being bound and blindfolded for months, being fed only one tangerine and four hardboiled eggs in 12 days, and yet he still says his treatment by these subhuman scumbags was better than that received by prisoners held at Guantanamo.

And we wonder why media reports are so hostile to the U.S. when douchebags like this are the main source of information? Does he actually believe this or is his hatred for America so deep that he's willing to lie?

AP:

Men wearing police fatigue uniforms and armed with AK-47's hustled him out of the room and into a car. He was first taken to a police station in Basra and then was held in different places — including three nights where he was sealed into a small room between two walls, he said....

He said he tried not to be belligerent and make a human connection with his captors.

"Straight away you assess the situation," he said. "I am standing there, in front of these eight guys with AK-47s, and I am in a pair of underpants and a T-shirt. The odds are not in my favor. so there is no point in trying to do anything heroic or stupid."

While he was held, he heard a lot of Hezbollah propaganda video and Hezbollah ringtones on mobile phones, but he can't be sure his captors were affiliated with the organization.

As time went on, his captors treated him better, but he was still held with a sack over his head and arm restraints. He eventually got the sense that his captors didn't intend to kill him, and had backed themselves into a corner...

Butler said he felt it was better to be kidnapped in Iraq then taken into custody by Americans in Afghanistan.

"I was pleased I wasn't being mortarboarded in Guantanamo or being held for six and a half years like an Al-Jazeera cameraman, for instance," he said.

Butler said he lost about 42 pounds and during the last 12 days of his captivity, ate one tangerine and four boiled eggs.

Shia terrorists in the same area murdered 6 other civilian hostages: Jonathon M. Cote, John Young, Ronald Withrow, Josh Munns, Paul Reuben, and Bert Nussbaumer. The name of that group also indicates that they were Hizbollah sympathizers.

He's lucky he wasn't one of them. They were first brutally beaten before being murdered. Better off than Guantanamo prisoners?

Five other British civilians were taken from the Basra area are still being held hostage by Shia terrorists. Some reports indicate that they have been taken over the border and into Iran. But I'm sure they're better off than prisoners at Guantanamo.

Thanks to Matt.

Israel's partner for peace, the Palestinian Authority, sentences a man to death for turning in four terrorists:

It is likely that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will approve a death sentence imposed on a Palestinian policeman convicted of "collaboration" with Israel, say Palestinian Authority officials.

The policeman, Imad Sa'ad, 25, was sentenced to death Monday by a PA military court in Hebron on charges of tipping Israel as to the whereabouts of four Palestinian gunmen, who were later killed by the IDF....

According to Palestinian human rights groups, more than 70 Palestinians have been sentenced to death since the establishment of the PA in 2005. However, fewer than 10 have been executed. Many others either were murdered while in PA detention or have gone missing. Others have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

Hat tip to someone.

We reported on Friday that al-al-Shabab's websites were offline. It appeared that maybe they had not paid their bill. But as of yesterday the site was back up. Which means its possible their host, Dotster, just violated the law by accepting a payment from a specially designated terrorist entity. Their mirror almujaahid.com is still dead.

The website is located here.

http://kataaib.net/

DNS and Hosting provided by Dotster of Vancouver Washington.

abuse@dotster.com
1-360-449-5985

From U.S. State Department:

On February 29, 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated al-Shabaab (aka al-Shabab, aka Shabaab, aka the Youth, aka Mujahidin al-Shabaab Movement, aka Mujahideen Youth Movement, aka Mujahidin Youth Movement, aka MYM, aka Harakat Shabab al-Mujahidin, aka Hizbul Shabaab, aka Hisb’ul Shabaab, aka al-Shabaab al-Islamiya, aka Youth Wing, aka al Shabaab al-Islaam, aka al-Shabaab al-Jihaad, aka the Unity of Islamic Youth) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as amended) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 (as amended).

The consequences of these designations include a prohibition against the provision of material support or resources to al-Shabaab and blocking of all property and interests in property of the organization that are in the United States, or come within the United States, or the control of U.S. persons. Secretary Rice took this action in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury. Designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to renounce terrorism.

Al-Shabaab is a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al-Qaida. Many of its senior leaders are believed to have trained and fought with al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Plus, how do you explain this contact e-mail?

almujaahid.shabab@hotmail.com

Translation: Of/from the fighters of shabab

On that same link, make sure to look at the group's banner. Specifically the upper left hand corner. Recognize that face?

Last, the website flies the official flag of al-Shabaab. Compare its logo to this one from the NEFA foundation. Or from this al-Shabaab video at YouTube.

Since I don't speak Somalian, I used to think the website belonged to al-Shabaab's sister organization, the Islamic Courts Union, but I was wrong. It's Shabaab.

Not the official website? Right.

Previous:
al Qaeda's Somalian affiliate, al-Shabab, Websites Dead
U.S. Designates Somalian Terror Group While U.S. Host's Official Website
Islamic Terrorists Behead 3 Somalian Soldiers & Have U.S. Based Website
Six Somali Terror Suspects Arrested in Scandinavian Internet Cafe Raid
GIMF: The AMERICAN Leader of al Qaeda in Somalia (& its U.S. Website)!!
African Taliban Desecrate Ethiopian Soldiers' Bodies
Florida, Michigan Companies Hosting African Taliban Website

Via Doubleplusundead:

On Sunday I asked for your prayers for a friend, noting that I would likely have more details in the week, and indeed I do. As I'm sure most of you know, I watch over the Moronosphere with a close eye, and was shocked to see this post at our friend Stashiu's, early this weekend....

...Stashiu is the proud father of two adopted daughters. Unfortunately, Stash later found that the lawyer who was supposed to square away all the legal paperwork for the adoption didn't quite get it right, so he has to now backtrack with new lawyers to get things right and finally seal the deal. The process is costing Stash and his family a king's ransom.

The tough financial situation and worry over the prospect of losing his two daughters is unsurprisingly starting to wear him down and take a toll on his health. Several people have been in contact with him over the weekend and suggested he start up a donation account. Stash now has an Amazon account, the Amazon widget should appear on his right sidebar, if you can help, it would be a wonderful thing. Even if you don't have the financial means to offer any any help, offer him your prayers and best wishes.

April 28, 2008

HOW MUCH ARE THE OIL COMPANIES PAYING YOU, DURBIN?

“I’ve supported ethanol from the beginning. The object of having homegrown fuel in America is a good goal, and it’s one we’re moving toward ever so slowly,” he said. “But we have to understand it’s had an impact on food prices. Even in the Corn Belt, we’d better be honest about it.”

Agriculture lobbyists say climbing oil and gas prices are more to blame for rising commodity prices. But because of biofuel mandates included in the 2005 energy bill, about one-third of the U.S. corn crop is expected to go toward ethanol production in the coming year.

... over one million dollars to John Boehner (R) for that whole illegal-tapping and-taping-of-Boehner's-cell-phone thingy.

Classy guy, that McDermott (D).

ht: JWF

********Sticky, Scroll Down for Newer Posts Please**********

Suicide bombers attacked the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen on October 12, 2000, killing seventeen US sailors and injuring forty-nine others. Two convicted masterminds of the terror plot escaped twice and now both are free in Yemen with the Yemeni government's approval.

Jawa earlier reported the release of Jamal al-Badawi on October 16, 2007. Now Newsweek reports that the US believes Fahd al-Quso is also free in Yemen. Both al-Quso and al-Badawi escaped from Yemeni jail in 2003. They were indicted in absentia in the US. The pair was charged with 50 offenses each including conspiracy to murder and the murder of U.S. nationals; conspiracy to murder, the murder and attempted murder of U.S. military personnel aboard the USS Cole and the USS The Sullivans; and providing material support to the al Qaeda terrorist organization.

Both later were "recaptured" in Yemen in 2004. A Yemeni court sentenced Al-Quso to ten years in connectionwith the Cole bombing and Al-Badawi was sentenced to death, which was later reduced to 15 years. Both escaped jail in 2006 and al-Quso remains free. President Saleh said at the time that he was in contact with all the escapees. Al-Badawi surrendered in October 2007 and was given loose house arrest. After strong US protests, al-Badawi was returned to jail, at least for a day where he was seen by US officials. When FBI Director inquired as to al-Badawi's status during a recent visit with Yemeni President Saleh, "Saleh gave no clear answers about the suspect, Jamal al-Badawi, leaving Mueller 'angry and very frustrated', said one (Newsweek) source, who added that he's rarely seen the normally taciturn FBI director so upset." Newsweek also notes, "U.S. officials only recently learned that another indicted Cole bomber, Fahed al-Quso, broke out of a Yemeni jail along with Badawi two years ago and remains a free man."

In January, Jawa was honored to publish a letter from Gary Swenchonis to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Gary is the father of Gary Swenchonis Jr. who was killed aboard the USS Cole. Mr. Swenchonis asked President Saleh to imprison his son's killers according to the Yemeni court's verdict. Apparently Saleh has greater loyalty to the these terrorists than to the US or to the concept of justice.

You just can't make this stuff up. Ashley Alexandra Dupré, who's already made loads of cash from online sales of her music and deals to tell her story, is suing Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis.

The $5,000 an hour whore became famous after she was outed as one of former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer's prostitutes. In my mind, he paid way too much. It looks like had he met her just a few years earlier, she would have settled on a three beers and a shot of Red Bull.

Ashley Alexandra Dupré claims in the lawsuit that she was only 17 years old at the time the GGW crew took topless video of her. She says that the crew got her drunk before asking her to flash her boobs. Her main arguments are that she was a) too young to consent to being videotaped b) too drunk to give consent.

There might be some merit to the argument that she was too young to legally flash her boobs, but the second argument? WTF?

If the GGW crew starts giving a hot young girl free beer, I wonder what on earth they'll be asking in return? Honestly, it's a mystery no one will be able to answer. Ever.

Ashley Alexandra Dupré is suing for $10 million.

What's the over/under on an Ashley Alexandra Dupré sex tape coming out within 12 months?

Double or nothing on her then suing Vivid Video.

Thanks to concerned netizen.

UPDATE: Guess who Ashley Alexandra Dupré is voting for? From her MySpace page.

I guess she didn't mind getting screwed by a Democrat. Only this time, she'll be the one paying to get screwed.

Related:
Pics of Ashley Alexandra Dupré
Ashley Alexandra Dupre GGW Pics
Spitzer's Playmate Identified

Nice puff piece by Herald Tribune.

Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public school like no other in New York City. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent in the language and groomed for the country's elite colleges. They would be ready, in Almontaser's words, to become "ambassadors of peace and hope."

Things have not gone according to plan. Only one-fifth of the 60 students at the Khalil Gibran International Academy are Arab-American. Since the school opened in New York last fall, children have been suspended for carrying weapons, repeatedly gotten into fights and taunted an Arabic teacher by calling her a "terrorist," staff members and students said in interviews.

The academy's troubles reach well beyond its cramped corridors in the Boerum Hill area of Brooklyn, New York. The school's creation provoked a controversy so incendiary that Almontaser stepped down as the founding principal just weeks before classes began last September. Almontaser, a teacher by training and an activist who had carefully built ties with Christians and Jews, said she was forced to resign by the mayor's office following a campaign that pitted her against a chorus of critics who claimed she had a militant Islamic agenda.

In newspaper articles and Internet postings, on television and talk radio, Almontaser was branded a "radical," a "jihadist" and a "9/11 denier." She stood accused of harboring unpatriotic leanings and of secretly planning to proselytize her students. Despite Almontaser's longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate, her critics quickly succeeded in recasting her image.

How dare we question the motives of Debbie Almontaser and her plans for the school.

How dare we question her for defending shirts that were for sale with the wording "Intifada NYC" written on them.

When asked about the slogan on the these T-shirts, Almontaser broke her self-imposed silence and downplayed its significance. "The word [intifada] basically means "shaking off." That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic. I understand it is developing a negative connotation due to the uprising in the Palestinian-Israeli areas. I don't believe the intention is to have any of that kind of [violence] in New York City. I think it's pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society . . . and shaking off oppression."

"Shaking off oppression" from NYC? Get real.

Almontaser denies that Arab Muslims carried out the 9/11 atrocities, telling sixth-graders she taught: "I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims."

Almontaser likened the American response to 9/11 to that of a totalitarian regime: "Right here in this community ...we stated to see people literally disappearing. ... The police came and took them in the middle of the night and we were, like, ‘What is going on?'"

If Almontaser doesn't believe Arab Muslims are responsible for 9/11 then this chick doesn't deserve to have her "Educator Dream" come true. Just sayin....

For a detailed background on the school and this "moderate muslim" Debbie Almontaser see Daniel Pipe's On New Yorks Khalil Gibran International Academy. Mr. Pipes has been quoted extensively in the Herald Tribune's article.

To some on the Left, Obama meeting Chris Wallace is worse than Obama meeting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For others, it's all the same: meeting with the enemy is okay.

Get that? Fox = enemy just like Iran = enemy.

Thanks to Larwyn.

It's an interesting piece by Fredrick Kagan. Here are Kagan's five points:

1) A stable state.
2) A representative state.
3) A state that controls its territory.
4) A state oriented toward the West.
5) An ally in the struggle against militant Islamism.

The major problem is that point 2 may conflict with points 5 or 6. For instance, what if Iraqis decided to elect a government which was hostile t the West? It's unlikely, but if Sunni Arabs and Kurds were ever to unite around some agreed upon Islamist agenda, they also could take over--through representative democracy.

This second war in Iraq--the first war was against the Hussein regime -- can be won, but does not depend in any way, shape, or form on Iraq becoming democratic. Winning must only be defined in terms our national interests. Those interests coincide only with three of Kagan's points, but which can be succinctly wrapped up into two:

1) A stable state that controls its own territory. After our allies in Afghanistan defeated the mighty Soviet Army, we abandoned them. As a result, years of civil war ensued in which the Taliban controlled some but not all of Afghanistan's territory. 9/11 is a testament to what can happen when conservative followers of Islam are given a quasi-state in which they allow their fellow travelers in the international Salafi Islamist movement to operate.

2) An ally in the struggle against militant Islamism. Our main enemy has been the Salafi movement, but the existence of thousands of Sadrists in Iraq is a testament to America's other global Islamist enemy: Khomeinism. They cannot be eliminated altogether, but must be neutralized.

We should not err in mixing up instrumental goals with ultimate goals. Democracy for Iraq is a goal only as long as that goal helps push Iraq towards a state which rejects Islamism and is able to keep out the agents of Salafi jihad and limit Iranian influence.

Thankfully, recent events in Iraq suggest that its elected government is doing just that. But governments come and go. The long term prospects for democracy in Iraq are not so clear.

Forced to look up at Hillary's ass, I can't help but feel Bill's pain.

UPDATE BUMPED: The people have spoken, CAPTION CONTEST!

Winners:

Oh God...not the ping-pong ball trick again...
Alex

She better have hot interns...she better have hot interns!
Catseye

Chelsea-Ass of Life
Hillary-Ass of Death
checkers

And they wonder why I have a "sex addiction"...
Rep J

Gratuitous South Park reference award:
Is that a Snuke?!
KaneKaizer

why u insult holy koran award:
Bill: Rusty hit it, why can't I?
Chelsea: Yay, I have a new step-dad!
Vinnie

(Video's added below the fold). Must watch.

FOX Rev. Jeremiah Wright was wooing the National Press Club this a.m. This is just a small snippet of the transcript:

It is those various streams of the black religious experience which will be addressed in summary form over the next two days, streams which require full courses at the university and graduate- school level, and cannot be fully addressed in a two-day symposium, and streams which tragically remain invisible in a dominant culture which knows nothing about those whom Langston Hughes calls “the darker brother and sister.”

It is all of those streams that make up this multilayered and rich tapestry of the black religious experience. And I stand before you to open up this two-day symposium with the hope that this most recent attack on the black church is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright; it is an attack on the black church.[Emphasis mine]

(APPLAUSE)

As the vice president told you, that applause comes from not the working press.

(LAUGHTER)

The most recent attack on the black church, it is our hope that this just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer be invisible.

Maybe now, as an honest dialogue about race in this country begins, a dialogue called for by Senator Obama and a dialogue to begin in the United Church of Christ among 5,700 congregations in just a few weeks, maybe now, as that dialogue begins, the religious tradition that has kept hope alive for people struggling to survive in countless hopeless situation, maybe that religious tradition will be understood, celebrated, and even embraced by a nation that seems not to have noticed why 11 o’clock on Sunday morning has been called the most segregated hour in America.

He added jokes during his question and answer period just to make all understand he is "just a regular guy".

One such "joke" stood out to me.

MODERATOR: What is your motivation for characterizing Senator Obama’s response to you as, quote, “what a politician had to say”? What do you mean by that?

WRIGHT: What I mean is what several of my white friends and several of my
white, Jewish friends have written me and said to me. They’ve said, “You’re a Christian. You understand forgiveness. We both know that, if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected.”

Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington, whoever’s doing the polls. Preachers say what they say because they’re pastors. They have a different person to whom they’re accountable.

As I said, whether he gets elected or not, I’m still going to have to be answerable to God November 5th and January 21st. That’s what I mean. I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do.

I am not running for office. I am hoping to be vice president.[emphasis mine]

(LAUGHTER)

h/t LGF

Updated - Videos added.

Part I

Part II

Part III

A complete transcript of the latest Zawahiri rant:

In my day I would walk to jihad in a blinding sandstorm. Uphill. Both ways.

Daily Mail via JWF

An Iraqi teenage girl was brutally murdered by her father in an "honour killing" after she fell in love with a British soldier in Basra.

Seventeen-year-old Rand Abdel-Qader told her best friend how she had fallen for Paul, a 22-year-old she met at a charity where she worked as a volunteer.

When her father learned she had been seen speaking to a foreigner he rushed home and butchered her, strangling and stabbing her while screaming that he was "cleansing his honour".

He was arrested, but Iraqi police took no action. His wife has since left him and is in hiding.

The Ministry of Defence was last night trying to trace the soldier. Officials stressed he appeared to have done nothing wrong by befriending the girl.

Such a sad story. When Rand's mother asked the brothers to intervene they instead helped murder their sister.

On March 16 - two months after Rand last saw Paul - her father Abdel-Qader Ali heard from a friend that his daughter had been seen speaking to the soldier at the charity project.

Recalling Rand's murder, her weeping mother Leila Hussein said: "I screamed and called out for her two brothers so they could get their father away. But when he told them the reason, instead of saving her they helped him end her life."

Abdel-Qader Ali stood on the girl's throat until she suffocated and then stabbed her, all the time shouting that his honour was being cleansed.

Two weeks later her mother demanded a divorce from Ali, and she now campaigns against honour killings.

She lives in fear of reprisals. "I was beaten and had my arm broken by him," she said. "No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq."

She was killed for having a "crush" on the British soldier. They only spoke to one another. Honour killings need to stop. There is no "honor" in killing.

The US has their share of honor killing such as the "publicized case" of Texas teenagers Amina and Sara Said. Their father murdered them on New Years Day 2008 for being normal "American" teenagers.

Unfortunately their great aunt Gail Gartrel is their only spokesperson. Their mother and brother as well as alot of their relatives remain silent and are more than likely helping to hide him.

Info on killer Yasir Said in video below fold
h/t Vicki no-veil

If you need something to wake you up and get your blood boiling, here it is. Highlights:

“Fuck the Troops”
By Ian Murphy.

So, 4000 rubes are dead. Cry me the Tigris. Another 30,000 have been seriously wounded. Boo fucking hoo. They got what they asked for—and cool robotic limbs, too.

As a society, we need to discard our blind deference to military service. There’s nothing admirable about volunteering to murder people. There’s nothing admirable about being rooked by obvious propaganda. There’s nothing admirable about doing what you’re told if what you’re told to do is terrible.

Take John McCain, or “McNasty,” as they called him in high school. While the conventional wisdom says that Obama gets a pass from the media, McCain is clearly the least scrutinized presidential candidate.

Thanks to Bash Man

Bos Smith recounts what happened this month when he and some friends tried to take some pictures at a Brooklyn mosque:

If you tarry in front of the Masjid At-Taqwa in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district and dare to take a photo, you might get hauled away by a group of angry Muslims in Islamic attire to the basement of the facility where a group of twenty “security guards” in karate suits will interrogate you.

This sounds preposterous.

But it happened on a weekend in late April at 3:00 in the afternoon.

Ali Kareem, the head of security for Siraj Wahaj’s mosque, conducted the grilling. A small, muscular man with a wispy black beard that has been dyed red with henna, Kareem demanded to know the reason why a trio of kafirs had dared to photograph the building on a public street without securing his permission.

He further insisted on securing our identities and obtaining our motives for such a violation of Islamic space.

Being surrounded by a group of militant guards in a mosque basement from which there is no means of escape is not a comforting place to be for a Wall Street financier.

We tried to explain that we found the neighborhood with its halal meat vendors and food stores; Islamic dress shops, featuring the latest styles in burqas and hijabs; Muslim souvenir outlets, replete with bumper stickers stating “Don’t Be Caught Dead Without Islam”; and Middle Eastern restaurants offering a variety of goat dishes to be rather quaint and interesting.

This explanation was not sufficient.

Kareem was impatient and did not want a detailed explanation of the reason for our excursion (simple sight-seeing) or a graphic account of the sights we had seen and photographed.

“I ask the questions here,” he said, “and you provide the answers.”

Realizing that we were in a bit of a pickle, my companion explained that we were interested in various religions and knew Siraj Wahaj, the imam of the mosque, was a prominent Muslim figure whom we would like to interview for a news outlet.

This didn’t work too well since we could not produce a business card from a wacko blog, let alone credentials from a national publication.

At last, we blurted out that we were admirers of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him) and wanted to obtain information about conversion. We were even knowledgeable enough to blurt out “Salaam” and “Allahu akbar.”

The last utterance seemed to be the “Open Sesame” that got us out of the basement and back to Bedford Street, where we managed to take a picture of the mosque before hailing a cab and making a getaway.

The experience was disconcerting. Surely, anyone who takes a picture of St. Patrick’s Cathedral or the Riverside Church is not hauled off to a basement for questioning by a threatening figure in a karate uniform and a band of Ninjas.

What is taking place within Masjid At-Taqwa?

Ten North Koreans may have been killed in the Israeli airstrike against Syria's nuclear plant last September.

Bloomberg bases this report on a Japanese language news-site:

The 10 people, whose remains were cremated and returned to North Korea in October, had been helping with the construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria, Japan's public broadcaster said. Some North Koreans probably survived the air attack, NHK said.

I'm not sure if all of the points made in this post by Larry Johnson hit the mark, but I did learn a few things about Barack Obama's relationship with Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.

For instance, I didn't know that Obama and Ayers served together on the board The Woods Fund nor did I know that the foundation gave a grant to Rashid Khalidi. There's a lot more connecting of the dots at the post.

If you're anywhere near UC Berkeley, the University of Maryland, NYU, or Harvard you might think of attending a lecture on the threat of totalitarian Islam on campus in the upcoming weeks. These kinds of lectures are usually open to the public, so no problem if you're not a student.

The lecturers include: Daniel Pipes, Robert Spence, and Victor Davis Hanson

Dates and times below.

UC Berkeley -- Berkeley, CA
"The Threat of Totalitarian Islam"
Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes and Victor Davis Hanson
April 29, 2008
Location: 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
Time: 7:00pm
Contact: kbrakora@gmail.com

University of Maryland -- College Park, MD
"Rational Egoism in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead"
Andrew Bernstein
May 1, 2008
Location: Arts Building, Room 2309
Time: 8:00pm
anyborgh@umd.edu

New York University -- New York, NY
"The Threat of Totalitarian Islam"
Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes, and Flemming Rose
May 5, 2008
Location: Kimmel Center, E&L Auditorium
Time: 8:00pm
*Attendees must RSVP to
nyuoc_president@yahoo.com

Harvard University -- Cambridge, MA
"The Threat of Totalitarian Islam"
Yaron Brook, Daniel Pipes, and Robert Spencer
May 6, 2008
Location: Emerson Hall, Room 105
Time: 8:00pm
Contact: hoc@hcs.harvard.edu
*Doors open at 7:30, event starts promptly at 8! Seating is limited!

University of Chicago -- Chicago, IL
"The Morality of Capitalism"
by Eric Daniels
May 8, 2008
Location: Harper Memorial Library, Room 140
Time: 7:00pm
Contact: mcraven@uchicago.edu

The first rule when discovering you've dug yourself into a hole: stop digging.

My fella Americans, I'm isking you to watch this video of Jeremiah Wright's speech in Detroit last night. Below is the entire speech. All of it.

After watching the whole thing is Wright's position that the widely circulated clips shown of him accusing America of being evil & racist are out of context, tenable? Sure the clips we've all seen of Wright speaking of the US of KKK, G*d damn America, and speaking of 9/11 as cosmic justice are probably the most inflamatory things he said, but they seem perfectly in context.

How does any one buy the argue that America is evil and racist for believing Jeremiah Wright believes America is evil and racist?

You'd think Wright was dumb, but he's not. His basic theory comes from highly reputable academic sources. Which says something not only about Jeremiah Wright, but about the academy and academics.

It also says something about Barack Obama. That he would attend Wright's sermons for 20 years and see nothing wrong with his vision of an evil and racist America is no big deal. Lots of people hold that position. What is a big deal is that he's running for President of the very country his pastor condemns as evil and racist.

Last: Irony? "They speak good English"

Can someone please explain to Wright and the ebonics crowd that accents and pronunciation are not the same as grammar.

Entire speech below. But first, here are a few of the oddest clips of Wright as seen on MSNBC this morning.

Entire speech in 6 parts

April 27, 2008

(Riverside County, California) Arrested in December 2006, twin female high school teachers, 27, and their roommate, 20, all pleaded guilty on Friday in a lesbian sex case involving the molestation of a 16-year-old girl.

The twins, Franca and Antonia Munoz-Juvera, and the roommate, Eileen Valerio, will be sentenced in June.

More ....

From the Timesonline:

Five British hostages who were kidnapped in Iraq almost a year ago are being held inside Iran by Revolutionary Guards, according to two separate sources in the Middle East and London.

The hostages were handed over to the Revolutionary Guards by their Iraqi kidnappers last November, the sources believe. One of the sources said they were being held in the western Iranian city of Hamadan.

Nor should it surprise anyone that the Iranian theocrats were stupid enough to let their perfidy be exposed.

TIM RUSSERT: "But Michigan and Florida are swing states."

HOWARD DEAN: "They're very important states, but they're not more important than anyone else."

April 26, 2008

The British hostages kidnapped from Baghdad in May 2007 are now thought to be held by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the city of Hamadan. This follows a report earlier this month that they had been taken from Iraq over the border to Iran, although at that time it was not clear if the Iranian government was aware of this. Via Times Online:

The hostages were handed over to the Revolutionary Guards by their Iraqi kidnappers last November, the sources believe. One of the sources said they were being held in the western Iranian city of Hamadan.

If confirmed, the involvement of Revolutionary Guards would be seen as evidence that senior figures in the Iranian government had backed the decision to hold them in the country.

More

Update 4/27/08: Iran denies holding hostages, blames Zionists (via Kuwait News Agency):

Spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Sunday denied that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had detained five British hostages kidnapped in Iraq nearly a year ago.

Hosseini told reporters in response to a report published by the British "Sunday Times" newspaper in this regard that this newspaper is one of the newspapers that advocate the pro-Zionist entity and usually broadcasts such false news.

Will the Zionist Crusaders stop at nothing? Now they are holding "Deborah" of the "Palestinian Royal family" hostage.

Forced into slave labor by her American tormentors , they chain her Royal Highness to a computer and force her to blog about her brothers in Guantanamo. The horror that is the American police state!

Fred Fry suggests that we trade her for Gilad Shalit. Not a bad idea.

Funny video. I know all of you read Hot Air, but that headline had to be posted.

Plus I get a chance to embed the vid below.

Is John McCain the anti-AC/DC? I'd suggest that size matters, but size is relative. By that metric, maybe Hillary wins? All signs point to her having the biggest balls of all!

If you can't get enough of this kind of lowbrow humor, check out Iowahawk's spinoff blog devoted entirely to balls.

Language warning.

Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk...whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop - Don Olbermann Corleone proposes that the mouthy broad currently troubling the Democratti Families be whacked:

Thanks to Director Blue.

Hat tip: larwyn.

I'm not sure what Islamophobia means, but I'm sure Berkeley didn't get it right in denouncing it.

Jammie Wearing Fool is reporting that Saudi blogger Fouad Farhan has been freed!

Fouad Farhan was detained in early December after running an online campaign over 10 men arrested since February 2007 on suspicion of financing militant groups, but whose supporters say they are being punished for pro-democracy activity.

A friend of Farhan who runs the blog Saudi Jeans wrote this.

I woke up around 5:30 this morning on the beeping of my iPhone which received a short message from the wife of my friend and fellow blogger Fouad al-Farhan telling me that Fouad has been released and that he is back home with his family now. That’s great news and this is just how I wanted to start my morning!

It will be nice no longer needing this and knowing he is free:[Update, while doing post, below image still was flashing Fouad's days in jail]

Awesome.

Don't laugh.

You could be next.

(Shickshinny, Pennsylvania) An area woman, Sarah Marie Myers (pic), was jailed this week for allegedly threatening to bomb the home of President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.

Eighteen-year-old Myers has been charged with retaliation against a judge, threatening with weapons of mass destruction and terroristic threats.

Interestingly, the WMD charge is only a misdemeanor which seems to downplay the historical significance of weapons of mass destruction. But, apparently, that's Pennsylvania law.

Frankly, a misdemeanor WMD charge seems to make as much sense as felony jaywalking.

More ....

"The Bin Ladens", a book by Steve Coll takes a look at the "real" Osama bin Laden. According to Mr Coll OBL became radicalized because of the death of his brother Salem. Salem died in 1988 in a plane crash.

Who would of thunk he was only a troubled youth?!?! Coll claims the West mistakenly portrays him as as a "incarnation of evil" but he really isn't. Tell that to the 9/11 victims families and the untold number who have died and are dying because of this "troubled youth".

Ottawa Citizen

LONDON (Reuters)
A new book looks at Osama bin Laden through the prism of his family, and suggests that the death of his extrovert playboy brother Salem in a 1988 plane crash was an important factor in his radicalization.

"The Bin Ladens," by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, traces the family's rise to prominence in Saudi society through the 20th century and how its fate, and that of Osama in particular, was inextricably linked with the royal family's.

By putting Osama's life in the context of his 53 globe trotting brothers and sisters and the upheavals facing Saudi Arabia, Coll seeks to dispel some of the myths surrounding a man often portrayed in the West as an incarnation of evil.[emphasis mine]

"I met so many friends of Salem who, without prompting, said if he had lived, 9/11 would not have happened, and you can see their case," Coll explained in an interview with Reuters.

Don't blame the left or their anti-human policies that all seem to bear an uncanny resemblance to world-wide socialism. They're just trying to save the world.

So starve, peasants. The world left has decided that you're the broken eggs in their FAILomlette.

The British press is under a gag order not to reveal the name of al Qaeda's main fundraiser and go between in Britain. The man, identified only as "G", was one of five who had successfully challenged in the British High Court the government's powers to freeze terrorist suspects assets.

For instance, this Times piece:

The man, who can be identified only as G, is one of five people who challenged the Treasury’s powers to freeze terrorist suspects’ bank accounts in a successful High Court action...

The judge banned publication of G’s name but The Times is aware of his identity, which is published on a United Nations Security Council list of terrorist suspects linked to al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

Under U.N. Resolution 1267 and its subsequent addendums, the Security Council:

obliged all States to freeze the assets, prevent the entry into or the transit through their territories, and prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer of arms and military equipment, technical advice, assistance or training related to military activities, with regard to the individuals and entities included on the Consolidated List.

Al Ghabra's activities are described by the U.S. Treasury Department:

Al Ghabra has organized travel to Pakistan for individuals seeking to meet with senior al Qaida individuals and to undertake jihad training. Several of these individuals have returned to the UK to engage in covert activity on behalf of al Qaida. Additionally, Al Ghabra has provided material support and facilitated the travel of UK-based individuals to Iraq to support the insurgents fight against coalition forces....

Apart from the financial and logistical support activities that led to his designation, Al Ghabra maintains contact with a significant number of terrorists, including senior al Qaida officials in Pakistan...

Al Ghabra is also in regular contact with UK-based Islamist extremists and has been involved in the radicalizing of individuals in the UK through the distribution of extremist media.

Why it is that a British judge ordered that al Ghabra and four others identity be kept secret when they are so well known is a mystery.

Al Ghabra's name appears on a list put together by the Security Council which directs that his assets are to be frozen and which Britain is obliged to follow. His passport number is even public information. Here is how that information appears on the list of individuals known to be al Qaeda or Taliban operatives:

QI.A.228.06. Name: 1: MOHAMMED 2: AL GHABRA 3: na 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: 1 Jun. 1980 POB: Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic Good quality a.k.a.: na Low quality a.k.a.: na Nationality: British Passport no.: British passport number 094629366 National identification no.: na Address: East London, United Kingdom Listed on: 12 Dec. 2006 Other information: na

The list may not be complete and some of the information as to their whereabouts may be outdated, but it is likely that the four other individuals involved in the lawsuit are on that list. Please feel free to leave corrections in the comments or e-mail me directly.

The fact that I was able to identify G so easily makes one wonder if these kind of gag orders are effective? And, in fact, doesn't the public have a right to know who the UN has designated a terrorist? Especially when that terrorist may be living next door or down the street?

April 25, 2008

Charles Johnson clarifies a point that some had made concerning an assertion he made about Michelle Obama's online relationship with terror fundraiser Hatem El-Hady. These some people had wanted to believe that Michelle Obama hadn't personally added el-Hady to her online "friends" list because these some people really don't want to see a troubling pattern emerging with Mr. & Mrs. Obama.

These some people were wrong. A troubling pattern is emerging. What that pattern means isn't quite clear.

By some of course CJ means me in my very public speculation that perhaps Michelle was to mybarackobama.com as "Tom" was to MySpace, but he just has way too much class to smack me down directly.

Well played, Chuck from South Central. Well played.

Now stop distracting the campaign from the real issues which consist of Obama's three point plan for America: hope, change, and surrendering Iraq to al Qaeda and Iran.

Robert Collins, the man who was successfully sued by the Saudis to prevent his book tying the Royal Family to terrorism from distribution, has passed away. RIP.

You will not find his book in stores, but you can find it here.

You can download or view online the entire book Alms for Jihad here. Try the first link, it was working as of 4/25/2008.

Any book the Saudis don't want you to read should be receive the widest possible circulation. Pass it on if for no other reason than to send a message to the House of Saud that we will not be intimidated by their legal extortion.

Thanks to Jerilyn.

A young Bolivian girl, Beatriz Porco Calle (pic), reportedly died of a rare illness while studying in Cuba. When the body of Beatriz, accompanied by all the other Bolivian students, was returned to her native land, her sister, Sofia Porco Calle, held a news conference.

The woman told the newspaper that several Cuban officials who came on the same flight wanted to take the body of her sister to another city to conduct an autopsy, but the family intervened and didn't allow the body to be moved.

"The autopsy was performed at the Hospital de Clinicas. My little sister's body didn't have any organs, teeth, eyes, it was without her tongue. There was a sponge in place of her brain and more sponges in her stomach," the woman said during the press conference.

The most incredible part of the story is that Cuban officials told the relatives of the dead student, that the deal that they signed with the Bolivian government says that those students who die while in Cuba will be sent back without their organs. [my bold]

What kind of deal is that? A foreigner dies and the Cuban government has blanket authority to perform an autopsy and harvest the organs? I don't believe it. There is no such deal because it doesn't make a lick of sense.

Adding to this disgusting episode is the report that the family of the dead girl was threatened with "reprisals" by Cuban officials if they made the case public.

Realistically, though, nobody should be surprised. It's just business as usual in your typical police-state socialist utopia.

To be honest, Paul Verhoeven's project about Jesus being conceived as the result of a Roman soldier raping Mary is a book not a film. But still, it's worth a chuckle for the photoshops alone. And the take out Muslim insert Christian into headline gag never really grows old.

And he's not convinced that Global Warming is caused by humans. Burn the witch.

From IdahoStatesman.com:

Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore says there is no proof global warming is caused by humans, but it is likely enough that the world should turn to nuclear power - a concept tied closely to the underground nuclear testing his former environmental group formed to oppose.

He says his change of heart comes from his background in science and a different approach to sustainability.

He sees a need for maintaining technologies that are not harmful while fixing or replacing those that are harmful.

"The only reason Patrick Moore is backing something as unsafe and risky as nuclear power is he is being paid by the nuclear industry to do so," [Andrea Shipley, executive director of the Snake River Alliance] said.

Who isn't an enemy of Islam these days? To these guys, even Muslims who oppose them are murtaad (apostates) and therefore enemies of the ummah.

AKI:

Al-Qaeda has released a new video attacking the US and Israel, as well as a photo display including an image ridiculing Pope Benedict XVI.

Both have been released on Islamic forums on the internet in response to the controversial short film Fitna produced by right-wing Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders....

Apart from the al-Qaeda video, there are images and photos. The first shows a star of David with a cross and a white dove and an inscription that reads: "Christians and Jews are terrorists and their presence is proof of it."

"The true enemies of Islam are the crusading Pope that Allah curses and the head of the crusading campaign, Bush," reads one caption over photo.

Expect an update.

UPDATE: Is this the video mentioned? Lame. I've seen like 10 "responses" to Fitna and this one certainly isn't an al Qaeda production, as described in the article, nor was it just posted. The argument in the film is that since the U.S. & the Jews were responsible for 9/11, then they are the real terrorists.

It's a truther film, but not just about 9/11. In the film all terrorist attacks are blamed on the West.

Update by Howie: I think this may be the correct film. I dunno, when it gets done cooking you can view it.

UPDATE by Rusty: Yeah, the video posted by Howie is the right one. But it's not an al Qaeda production. Still, lame. I'll go ahead and embed it below. It definitely has a Jihad Media Battalions feel to it.

Here's the original Truther Fitna response vid.

Here's part II

A few weeks ago I noticed that Big White Infidel, who lives in Indonesia, had started commenting once again. I was very relieved since the last time we had e-mailed back and forth things were not going well in his part of Indonesia. I feared for his life.

Today he sends this:

In Padang, capital of the province of West Sumatra, the atmosphere is increasingly that of an Islamic state. Female students who do not wear the headscarf (hijab) are frequently suspended from school. The requirement to observe Islamic customs, sanctioned by the controversial regional law of 2005, is also imposed on non-Muslim girls, and has generated an atmosphere of strong pressure on religious minorities....

The situation is not limited to Padang alone, where the most active promoter of Islamic laws is the mayor himself, Fauzi Bahar. In this province, which has an overwhelming Muslim majority, since 2002 more than 19 districts have ratified the so-called "perda syariat", norms that are, however, supposed to be applied only to Muslim citizens: some of them criminalise behaviours prohibited by Islamic law, like adultery, prostitution, games of chance, and consumption of alcohol, while others restrict the freedom of women. Men as well are required to wear Islamic dress: the traditional white robe called the "koko".

The true test of moderation is not really linked to a Muslim's personal practices, but whether or not they believe in sharia. A moderate Islamist is not moderate in any Western sense of the word.

Via The Buffalo News:

Horrific details about the deaths of four men who were taken hostage in Iraq with Jonathon M. Cote began to emerge Thursday, as his family called upon the federal government to expand efforts to capture the killers.

Francis L. Cote doesn’t know yet how his son died, but he fears that Jonathon was beaten and tortured, based on information he has received from the family members of other hostages who were killed.

“Based on the autopsies of the other victims, it appears that they were beaten to death, while their hands were tied behind them,” Cote said. “I don’t want our government ever to forget what happened to Jonathon or these other four men.”

On a day of grief for the Cotes, family members of the other victims told The Buffalo News horrible details about the other deaths:

• The men may have been killed more than two months ago, based on the decomposition of the remains. Their bodies were found in an undisclosed location in Iraq.

• The victims were savagely beaten to death, probably with their hands tied behind their backs.

• One of the men suffered neck wounds so severe that he was nearly decapitated.

• The men suffered severe internal trauma, according to autopsies.

• No bullet wounds were found in the corpses.

Sharon DeBrabander of Lee’s Summit, Mo., mother of hostage John Young, told The News that her son experienced an especially grisly death.

“His head was nearly cut off, but they all had a lot of trauma,” DeBrabander said. “From what I’m told, their hands were tied. My son not only had trauma to the head, but his chest. His ribs were broken, and there was internal bleeding.”

So, if you thought extremist Shia groups were any less brutal and savage than Sunni groups like al-Qaeda or Ansar al-Sunnah, you were wrong.

Please keep the families of these men on your prayers. We hope and pray that the murderous thugs who took them are found and justice is served.

Would this be hope and/or change? Certainly change, but hope? Not so much.

I wonder if Michelle distanced herself from Hatem El-Hady in the same way that Barack distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright?

UPDATE: Is the internet magic, or what? Google cache.

Breaking from Reuters:

A cargo ship contracted by the U.S Military Sealift Command has fired at least one shot toward an Iranian boat, a U.S. defense official said on Friday.

"It was an MSC vessel," the official said, confirming the ship fired on an Iranian boat.

I found this image at the Navy's website showing two MSC ships supplying the fleet. What kind of heat would a large cargo ship like that be packing?

So, are we guessing another Iranian speedboat making hostile gestures towards shipping tied to the U.S. presence in the Gulf?

UPDATE: So how does the Military Sealift Command work?

UPDATE II: Combat Wombat drops this:

US Government owned ships (not navy, naval auxillaries) manned by US Civilian Mariners (CIVMARS). They have force protection packages and often military riders to provide protection. They can pack quite a punch, depending on circumstances.

Scroll down to the pics of MSC ships here. I used to see ships like this all the time moored in San Diego and always wondered what their mission was.

I also added the above pic to show some of the important cargo the MSC hauls.

UPDATE III: Fox:

Crude oil spiked more than $3 in the wake of the news.

UPDATE IV: Interesting info about MSC protection in the 5th fleet:

Created in June 2004 under the umbrella of Operation Vigilant Mariner, eleven 12-person teams provide protection for Military Sealift Command ships and their civilian crews as they ferry food, equipment and other supplies destined for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A typical EST escort meets an MSC ship in the Mediterranean Sea and either embarks for the remainder of the ship's transit and disembarks in the Persian Gulf, or remains with the ship as she returns to the Mediterranean Sea....

"Anything that moves into and out of Afghanistan and Iraq comes in either via air or on these MSC ships," Young said. "So, not only are the teams supporting the maritime security operations, but they also are directly involved in supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan because everything that we are providing protection for is going directly into the combat zone in both areas."

The way this seems to work is that as the ships enter the Gulf, these Navy teams are added to existing security. So, whoever fired the shot knew what he was doing.

UPDATE V: Flares, .50 cals, and M-16s. Small Iranian Navy vessals look to be the culprits. The ship is the Western Venture.

Call it pre-emptive dhimmification. Even though no Muslim complained about the parade in honor of England's patron saint, and even though some Muslim leaders publicly supported it, authorities cancelled it for fear that it might just maybe offend some members of the religion of something something.

The U.S. Army's Center for Lethality wins organizational award. I'm happy to hear the center is well run, but I'm even happier to learn that we have a center for frikin lethality! I wonder if the center is looking for an in-house blogger?

What government should do: Kill our enemies, protect my property.

Thanks to Brad Thor for sending an advanced copy of The Last Patriot.

Just reading the little quote that comes between the title page and chapter one, I already have a prediction.

Once the usual suspects go all Salman Rushdie on Brad, how much do you think a signed advance reading copy of the book will fetch on eBay?

Youtube made the following statement to World Net Daily on April 9th regarding the removal of some Islamic Army in Iraq propaganda, specifically a copy of Juba the Baghdad Sniper showing the deaths of American Soldiers.

Via World Net Daily: Our community understands the rules and effectively polices the site for inappropriate material. The users can flag content that they feel is inappropriate and once it is flagged, YouTube reviews the content and removes it from the system within minutes if it violates our Terms of Use. This combined with our proprietary technology helps us to enforce the rules. We also disable the accounts of repeat offenders," YouTube tells users in its policy.

I thought so, so we notified Youtube of another Juba video on their service. The video shows American servicemen being killed and contains some of the same scenes as the video from the WND article. Which, by the way, had also been listed on Stop Internet Terror before WND contacted Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf8WQtw_OLs

It has now been about 27,360 minutes since Youtube was notified of this video, yet it remains!

Andrea maintains a complete list of all Juba videos on Youtube here.

User "JubaIAI continues to host videos from various terror groups on youtube here.

A Pakistani user is maintaining al-Qaeda's media wing as-Sahab's Youtube channel here.

Hamas in Iraq is still maintaining a Youtube Channel here. We only need to smack down one more of Hamas in Iraq's videos to suspend Hamas in Iraq. So lets concentrate our focus on this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdgIkJhaRw8

So I reckon Youtube is full of it. No?

Please flag the videos and email youtube.

abuse@youtube.com
editor@youtube.com

Click image for Youtube Smackdown!

Remember the primary reason Youtube removes videos is the number of complaints. Thanks in advance to all who participate.

Er, thanks to Vinnie for sending me an actual bottle of this.

The main website for what we call the African Taliban is down. Been that way for a few days now.

http://kataaib.net/

The same group also known as al-Shabab maintained a mirror site here.

almujaahid.com

Also down!

bonus email the African Taliban!

kataaib@yahoo.com

As always if you get a reply forward, do not cut and paste, to Rusty immediately.

Thanks to everyone who emailed the providers.

More at and a Hat Tip to: Report on Arrakis.

Related:
U.S. Designates Somalian Terror Group While U.S. Host's Official Website
Islamic Terrorists Behead 3 Somalian Soldiers & Have U.S. Based Website
Six Somali Terror Suspects Arrested in Scandinavian Internet Cafe Raid
GIMF: The AMERICAN Leader of al Qaeda in Somalia (& its U.S. Website)!!
African Taliban Desecrate Ethiopian Soldiers' Bodies
Florida, Michigan Companies Hosting African Taliban Website

April 24, 2008

What a fitting tribute to a truly inspiring hero of our time.

Update: Don't miss the memorial fund address at the bottom of the page.

Good news: Baitullah Mehsud, the man described as more dangerous than Osama bin Laden, claims he has reached a deal with the Pakistani government in which they withdraw from the region controlled by him. In return, he promises not to attack Pakistani troops elsewhere and then to promptly use his new found breathing space to continue to send fighters over the Afghan border to kill American, NATO, and Afghani troops.

Sounds like a reasonable compromise, wouldn't you say?

Upper right: Baitullah Mehsud pictured signing a previous peace treaty.

WaPo:

Baitullah Mehsud, leader of one of Pakistan's largest extremist forces, issued a pamphlet directing his fighters to end attacks on Pakistani security forces in the country's troubled tribal areas and North-West Frontier Province, according to a spokesman for Mehsud's Pakistani Taliban....

[Taliban spoksman] Omar vowed, however, to continue fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. "The presence of the U.S and NATO forces in Afghanistan is the mother of all ill and there will be no peace until their presence in the region has ended," he said.

UPDATE: Roggio has the details of the peace plan, none of which include stopping cross-border attacks in Afghnistan.

I'm sure every one, including Barack Obama, thinks that such a deal is unwise. Not only for us, but for the Pakistanis who've made such deals in the past only to have it bite them in the ass.

But aren't the Pakistanis doing exactly what the Left is always clamoring for? Engaging in dialog with the enemy and then reaching political solutions. This is diplomacy as applied to terrorists, Islamists, and thugs.

Via NewsBusters, a transcript of a recent episode of The View, the show in which three aesthetically-challenged Democrats gang up on a gorgeous blonde Republican:

SHERRI SHEPHERD: But you’ve seen, you know, your entire lifetime you’ve seen people in positions of power that look like you. I, I am- the first time in my life, I am seeing a man that’s running who looks like me.

ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: I’ve never seen a president that looks like me.

[laughter]

SHEPHERD: They look like you. They are white and they look like you. ...[Obama's candidacy] shows young black men that they can have a voice in politics. It shows my son Jeffrey that he can do the same thing too.

HASSELBECK: I’m not against the idea [of voting for a black candidate or female candidate]. I just- I’m against the idea of not just looking beyond the things which have prevented them from being in office. We need to step away from [race and gender] a little bit and look at the entire picture. That’s all I’m saying.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: It’s a very- and I say this with a huge amount of love. It’s a very white way to look at it.

HASSELBECK: What do you mean?

GOLDBERG: And I, I’m saying this with love, so I understand, because it’s never.

HASSELBECK: Let me take off my "white" goggles.

SHEPHERD: You can’t. I wish you could. You can’t.

GOLDBERG: But you can’t. That’s what I’m trying to explain.

Would it be acceptable, for example, for a white male to say that there are things that black women like Whoopi Goldberg are just incapable of understanding?

I'm thinking not. I'm thinking the race pimps would come out of the woodwork over that.

Double standard, much?

If Mike isn't going to post it, then I think he's forced my hand: Lesbian basketball coach arrested for getting it on with girl student. Presumably in the girls locker room.

Now how does this work again? Oh yeah, I'm outraged.

Part of me wants to cry for this child, the other part of me is just glad the SOB is dead. Too bad he had to kill so many before he sent himself to hell.

Inshalllah, the child's mom has remarried someone with an ounce of decency, will be a good father, and the kid will never know what a murderous monster her biological sperm donor really was.

Well, this isn't surprising.

Worth the read, if for nothing else than a fair description of how America's state and non-state enemies continue to increase their online warfare capabilities.

Heritage, actually summing up a U.S. Institute of Peace survey on the ways in which non-state enemies use the web:

* Wage psychological warfare by spreading disinfor­mation, delivering threats to instill fear and help­lessness, and disseminating horrific images. For example, the grisly murder of Daniel Pearl was videotaped by his captors and posted on several terrorist Web sites.

* Create publicity and spread propaganda.

* Gather intelligence. Details about potential targets-- such as transportation facilities, nuclear power plants, public buildings, ports, and airports-- and even counterterrorism measures are avail­able online. For example, the DHS maintains a password-protected online site called Tripwire, which provides information on how to counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

* Fundraise. Many Islamic charitable organizations allow users to make a zakat contribution online. Some terrorist organizations use front companies and charitable organizations under their control to receive such donations.

* Recruit and mobilize supporters through chat rooms, cybercafés, and bulletin boards.

* Communicate and coordinate with operatives and supporters. Two terrorist cells in Florida and Can­ada, which were recently disrupted, passed mes­sages via the Internet.

* Share information, such as how to manufacture and use weapons, including bomb-making techniques.

* Plan attacks.To preserve their anonymity, the 9/11 attackers used the public Internet services and sent messages via free Web-based e-mail accounts.

(Atlanta, Georgia) A 44-year-old woman, Georgia Thornton, barges into her daughter's classroom and starts beating the hell out of the teacher. Thornton (pic) reportedly grabbed teacher Felecia Williams' hair, swung her to the floor and commenced stomping.

Thornton said. "I raised my daughter not to disrespect adults, so I took care of this situation. Yes, I hit her. I do what I have to do to protect my child at all costs."

More.

And so the circle is complete. It was only a matter of time, really. This is the same webpage that reacted to the murder of American civilians in Iraq with, "Screw them". It's inevetable that next they'll begin speaking of the Iraqi intifada.

On the front page at DailyKos:

the next multi-billion dollar round of funding for the occupation we all (including the choreographers) oppose...

see who'll own the majority stake in this occupation come November...

even for those who oppose the occupation...

the only way Democrats can effectively end the occupation is to win the presidency themselves...

Otherwise a jovial enough Republican, but hardly typical of the other voters I met - none of whom approve of the war or occupation of Iraq....

Can you imagine if these people tried to change the lexicon and spoke of "the occupation of Afghanistan"?

There was a difference between why we went into Iraq and Afghanistan. But notice the past tense. The motivation for fighting has changed in both countries. Today, the two conflicts are essentially the same. On both fronts, we continue to fight al Qaeda, native Islamists, and nationalists.

To claim one is an "occupation" but the other is not when both fronts are now--in the present--essentially the same is to be so far out of touch with reality that it boggles the mind.

In Spokane, Washington, with an undisclosed illness.

Get well soon, Tony, you're needed.

Awww, isn't that precious. Look who has an online crush: Taliban webmaster Adil Watanmal, aka "Murchal", aka, "dr_talib_mujahid".

The object of "dr_talib_mujahid's" burning volcano of lust? Livespace user "always happy" a 19 year old from Saudi Arabia who wears the veil. This is her avatar.

Hot, no? I mean with so much nose, eye, and cheek showing, the photo is practically pornographic! And on her friends list:

Am I sure that this "dr_talib_mujahid" is the same dr_talib_mujahid who is really Adil Watanmal, official webmaster and online propagandist for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan--the group known to you and me as the Taliban? Yes I am.

Here's the note left by "dr_talib_mujahid" for "always_happy"

Don't bother clicking over to alemarah.org. It isn't there. We had something to do with that. Several times. But if you were to check it out, say, back in 2007, then this is what you would have seen at the English language link.

What's the point of all this? None, really. I just like to mess with the Taliban. They are such whiney bitches, and from what we've shown above, it's really hard to get laid when you're world is confined to caves between the Afghanistan & Pakistan borders.

So Adil Watanmal, who's main job it is to convey online messages from the Taliban to the rest of the world, has finally discovered why the internet was really invented: so that losers like him could try and score some online satisfaction.

It looks like Joe Taliban has a lot more in common with the average Jawa reader than we first thought.

Baghdad to open new development including skateboard park, dude.

I was going to ignore an attack from the George Soros funded Media Matters on several right-of-center blogs including The Jawa Report, but since I keep getting e-mails from people outraged by it, I feel I must say something.

Why was I going to ignore it? As CJ notes:

Since the Media Matters Eric Boehlert hit piece on “warbloggers” was posted this morning at 9:51 am Pacific, we’ve received exactly 36 hits from people who clicked one of the two links in Boehlert’s article....

George Soros isn’t getting a good return on his Media Matters investment.

In any event, the entire hit piece is about as dishonest as you can imagine. I'm not even going to link it. But if you want to read a response, see CJ's post here, but this line about sums it up:

Boehlert concludes by stating that Bilal Hussein was completely innocent of all the allegations against him. Boehlert’s source for this? Bilal Hussein’s AP-funded lawyer.

Now there’s an unbiased source.

It's circular logic, a resort to authority based on non-authoritative sources, and a violation of all standards of journalistic ethics.

If citing one's own organization as authoritative is now a generally acceptable practice then I have my own scoop: Bilal Hussein had deep connections to al Qaeda. Source? The Jawa Report.

Dude! Listen all the way to the end.

UPDATE: I'm removing the video. The version sent to me was highly edited to make it seem like these were muj working and the description posted at Liveleak described it that way. The longer original version, though, suggests that these were Iraqis working with the Coalition and a medivac is called in for them.

RIP

Alcohol + crutch + Star Wars obsession = teh funny. BBC:

A man posing as Darth Vader attacked a Star Wars fan, who had founded a Jedi Church, a court has heard.

Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, Anglesey, admitted assaulting Barney Jones and cousin Michael with a metal crutch. They suffered minor injuries. ...

Mrs Lloyd said: "He was wearing a black bin bag and a cape and had a metal crutch in his hand."

Building on Rusty's post below, we'd like to share our thoughts with the Taliban.

Ha! Who's yer daddy now, bitches!

April 23, 2008

Look no more.

Today is the Feast Day of St. George, the patron saint of England. I'm acquainted with far more sinners than saints, but each and every year the voices of Dhimmification clamor to appease Islamists who object to this great symbol of England's Christian heritage.

So, here it is. England's flag, the flag of St. George's Cross.

Are reports that Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri has been captured true? There's not much evidence, but I freakin I hope so.

If he is caught this is very good news. Sunni insurgents have broken into four distinct factions.

There is a faction led by al Qaeda under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq. Another faction is composed of Islamists sympathetic to al Qaeda's goals, such as Ansar al-Islam, but have broken with the group over tactics and leadership positions. The third group are Arab and Islamic nationalists, many of them under the banner of the Reform and Jihad Movement.

The last group are former nationalists who are now part of the Anbar awakening, such as most of the 1920s Revolution Brigades, and fighting with the U.S. and Iraqi government.

As al Qaeda has become less and less of a threat Arab and Islamic nationalists, have become the primary headache for U.S. forces in Northern and Western Iraq. Over the past few months the number of propaganda videos from al Qaeda in Iraq have decreased dramatically while the number of videos, most of them IED or other attacks against U.S. forces, have increased substantially.

What does this have to do with al-Douri? Al-Douri is said to head up at least one faction within the broader Arab/Islamic nationalist movement. If he is captured, this would be a major psychological blow to the remaining Sunni insurgents.

So, like I said, I hope he's been captured. Knock. On. Wood.

The news we've been dreading (via Free Cote):

At this hour, the Cote family has been notified by U. S. Officials that positive identification of the 6th body returned from Iraq was subsequently identified at Dover Air Force Base. The remains are of Jonathon Michael Cote’. The autopsy results have not yet been provided to the family.

Lulz

Post-Secondary Progressive Indoctrination Status: FAIL

And the lefty conformist hatefest is in full swing in the comments at YouTube, insulting Ryan's intelligence, questioning his sexual orientation, lobbing random insults - everything except a well-reasoned counter-argument.

Better keep an eye out on those sorcerers, they might steal or shrink "your personal" stuff.

Yahoo

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Oh, and watch out for those "gold rings" too. Sure sign of a penis thief?!?

Hillary Clinton wins Pennsylvania, Storm Troopers immediately invade Philadelphia. Coincidence, or something far more sinister?

Bonus: What would happen if Boba Fett had played Rocky Balboa? Rocky Wars.

Saw this on Drudge and felt important to pass along.

The "online retailer" they are speaking of is CarryaBigSticker.com. When clicking on the t-shirt for larger picture there is a long list of press releases regarding the use of soldiers names.

This reads under the shirt on the front page; "These shirts are illegal in five states and could soon be illegal nationwide. As seen on CNN, NPR, USA Today, and of course, FOX-News." Proud bastage isn't he. Spit

SmokinGun

The parents of a 21-year-old soldier killed in Iraq are suing an online retailer for including their son's name on antiwar t-shirts that list the names of thousands of military personnel killed in the war.

In a $10 million federal lawsuit, Michael and Robin Read allege that the manufacturer of the shirts is using their son Brandon's name in a commercial venture without their permission. The Reads's complaint, a copy of which you'll find below,[ here] was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Greeneville, Tennessee; it names Dan Frazier and his firm Lifeweaver, LLC as defendants.

While the lawsuit makes mention of Frazier's free speech right, the Reads contend that protection ended when the Arizona businessman used Brandon's name "for profit."

Last year the Reads lawyer asked Frazier to remove their son's name and provide proof of such. The request was ignored.

I certainly hope this lawsuit is won plus sends a message to those who use our fallen heroes for anti-war propaganda and profit. The scum of the earth they are.

I wish the Reads luck on their lawsuit. Last year Arizona passed a law barring anyone from using soldiers names on items for sale without permission from their legal representatives. The ACLU stepped in and cried foul resulting in a federal judge issuing a injunction halting enforcement of the law.

Another day, another terror supporter for Obama.

Front Page Mag:

Two years ago, Hatem El-Hady was the chairman of the Toledo, Ohio-based Islamic charity, Kindhearts, which was closed by the US government in February 2006 for terrorist fundraising and all its assets frozen. Today, El-Hady has redirected his fundraising efforts for his newest cause - Barack Obama for President.....

"KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving," said Stuart Levey, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Not only was Kindhearts engaged in providing funds for HAMAS in Lebanon and the West Bank, it had hired as a fundraising specialist the man identified as the designated HAMAS bag man in the US, Mohammed El-Mezain.

CJ points out that Michelle Obama is listed as a friend of el-Hady and concludes that :

In other words, Michelle Obama’s name isn’t there because El-Hady put it there — it’s there because she chose to be listed as his friend.

I dunno, it seems like if el-Hady was close enough to the Obamas that Michelle would go out of her way to specifically add herself as a "friend" that el-Hady would have a lot more friends than three.

But that's just me and I don't want to believe this even if it is the horrible truth.

Nevertheless, this is part of a general pattern: those who support terrorism also support Obama. Obama isn't responsible for every scumbag that supports him, but his stated goal of withdrawing from Iraq meshes perfectly with those of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations; and for a guy like el-Hady, his stated willingness to talk to the terrorists in Hamas and their paymasters in Iran, Obama would definitely be the candidate of choice.

Terrorists and their supporters tend to view Obama as a man willing to give them at least some of what they want. As I pointed out just a couple of days ago, a guy calling himself "JubaIAI"--named after the mythical Juba sniper of the Islamic Army in Iraq--flies this avatar over at YouTube.

UPDATE: Palis in Hamas controlled Gaza rally for Obama!

Good news! Now death can become an "art form".

Times

The prizewinning artist Gregor Schneider, enfant terrible of the German cultural scene, is looking for a volunteer who is willing to die for his – that is, Mr Schneider’s – art.

He wants someone whose dying hours will be spent in an art gallery with the public admiring the way the light plays on the flesh of a person gasping for the last breath.

“The dying person would determine everything in advance, he would be the absolute centre of attention,” said Mr Schneider. “Everything will be done in consultation with the relatives, and the public will watch the death in an appropriately private atmosphere.”

Mr Schneider is apparently obsessed with death. I wonder what his "dying" wish is.

He's earned it. In fact, if it wasn't so late in the game I'd suggest promoting him all the way to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or even SecDef.

Better yet, can you say Vice President Petraeus?

Too many links, not enough time between classes. Just click on over to Hot Air and follow the links.

Soldier was accidentally shot with a grenade launcher. Wow, what a story.

As war renews in Yemen's north and protests turn to riots in the south, terror attacks have hit the capital, and the opposition is boycotting upcoming elections. Civil liberties are under attack and traditionalism growing as the central government turns to hard liners for support and the population's basic needs go unmet.

Northern War

Despite a recent 1.4 million dollar donation from the UK, the WFP is facing an urgent shortage of funds to feed the 77,000 civilians displaced by the war in north Yemen. Several thousand have been killed in the war that began in 2004 and thousands of homes, mosques and businesses destroyed by government shelling. A cease fire agreement inked in June 2007 failed to stop the fighting and was renegotiated in January. Qatari mediators withdrew this week as both the Yemeni military and the northern Zaidi Shiite rebels refuse to abandon their positions as required. The UNHCR reported that 200 families arrived in Sa’ada City over the last week due to renewed fighting.

Southern Protests

Large protests continue in southern Yemen, and have become more frequent and heated. About 200 people are detained without charge in connection with the week long riots in early April. The protests began last year as demands for equal rights and morphed into calls for southern succession from the state which unified in 1990. Twenty demonstrators were killed since August. Flags of the former Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen are openly flown at the protests, unthinkable a year ago. Six university students were arrested on Monday. The regime accuses both the domestic opposition and expatriate Yemenis of instigating the protests which currently focus on the release of political prisoners.

Opposition Boycott

A new prohibition against demonstrations is an undeclared state of emergency, the opposition charged. The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) is an opposition coalition of the Islamic Reform party known as Islah, the Yemeni Socialist Party and some smaller parties. The JMP announced it will boycott gubernatorial elections in May, calling them a facade of democracy. Governors will be elected by local councils that are dominated by President Saleh’s ruling party, the General People‘s Congress (GPC). Parliamentary elections are slated for 2009. The opposition JMP is rejecting a draft law designating that the Supreme Electoral Commission will be comprised of judges. The judiciary in Yemen is highly subject to executive influence. This stalemate may result in an opposition boycott of the Parliamentary elections as well.

Terror Attacks

Three explosive devices were detonated near the exterior wall of the main police center in the eastern province of Hadramout late Tuesday evening . No one was wounded. It is the tenth incident of a small attack on government targets (police stations, government buildings and checkpoints) outside the capital since mid-March. Six soldiers were killed in four of the attacks, many of which took place at night. Both the US and UN withdrew non-essential personnel in the last weeks after a mortar attack targeting the US embassy killed one Yemeni policeman in March. In April a western residential compound was subject to mortar fire. No one was injured. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility in an internet posting for the mortar attacks and an earlier attack on a check point in Hadramout.

The Yemeni regime announced this week that it arrested a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Mohammed Yaqout, in connection with the attack on the US embassy. Senior al-Qaeda terrorist Abduallah al Reimi was reported arrested on April 7, but it was later found to be a case of mistaken identity, Al Reimi is wanted in the 2003 al Qaeda attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which killed 17 and wounded 120.

US/Yemeni Relations Strained

FBI Director Robert Mueller visited Yemen April 10 to discuss counter-terror cooperation between the two countries. Mueller repeated the US request for the extradition of Jamal al Badawi, convicted in the attack on the USS Cole, who escaped jail twice and surrendered in October 2007 to Yemeni officials. Al Badawi was later reported by local media to be living at home, although government officials claimed he was only visiting and is currently incarcerated. Seventeen US sailors were killed and 49 wounded in the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 in the port of Aden. After Mueller’s visit, a planned trip by Yemen’s foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qirby to the US was abruptly postponed. Al Badawi is one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, as is Yemeni-American Jaber Elbaneh.

Yemen also refuses to extradite Elbaneh to the US, citing a constitutional prohibition. Elbaneh attended the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan along with six of his friends from Lackawanna, New York. The Lackawanna Six all pleaded guilty to terror related charges after their return to the US. Elbaneh never returned to the US and escaped Yemeni jail in February 2006 along with al Badawi and 21 al Qaeda operatives. Elbaneh surrendered May 2007. In November 2007 Elbaneh was sentenced in absentia to ten years in jail for a terror attack. Elbaneh is free on bail and attended two appeal hearings this month. Elbaneh claim to the court that he reached an agreement directly with Yemeni president Saleh and the matter is finished. .

Civil Liberties Diminished

The trial of prominent activist and journalist Abdulkairm al-Khaiwani continues to infuriate Yemeni civil society, fellow journalists and rights organizations. Al Khaiwani is charged with terrorism and faces the death penalty for possessing information and photographs of the war in Sa’ada. (The Yemeni government calls the Sa’ada rebels “terrorists” although the war is a domestic rebellion and the rebels do not target civilians.) After a lengthy trial, a verdict is expected in May.

A leading independent weekly al Wasat was abruptly closed in April. In a statement, the paper’s staff noted, “While the country is facing a total collapse, the regime is sparing no chance to shutdown all means of expression and clamp on all free voices in the country.” Since the outbreak of the Saada war in 2004, and again with the growing protests in southern Yemen, the Yemeni government increasingly restricted and targeted the media and free expression. A slew of physical and judicial attacks on journalists and newspapers occurred with regularity. The government also blocked opposition and independent news websites and blogs. The internet news aggregator YemenPortal.net changed domain names several times and devised several tactics to circumvent the censorship including an RSS feed and a downloadable firefox extension.

Growing Traditionalism

In April, the GPC dominated Parliament refused to vote on a proposed bill outlawing female genital mutilation and another prohibiting the marriage of girls under fifteen. Underage marriage is common in Yemen with half of all women married before their 18th birthday and many bearing a child shortly after their first menstrual period. Population growth is among the highest in the region, straining the economy. Eight year old Nojoud Muhammed Nasser went to court last week requesting a divorce from her thirty year old husband who forced her to have sex with him when she preferred to play in the yard, she said. After an anonymous donor provided funds to repay her dowry, the marriage was dissolved. The regime is increasingly relying on the support of religious hardliners in response to pressures from northern Shiite rebels, southern Socialists and civil activists across the country. The government deploys takfiri terminology in state mosques and the official media, ex-communicating political rivals and according to some, legitimizing their deaths.

The Yemeni government is in part a criminalized regime, with drug and weapons smuggling and child trafficking accomplished with the coordination of administration affiliated persons. The government is highly corrupt, with the proceeds of oil revenues, donor grants and loans subject to elite capture. The regime does make public reform efforts in response to domestic and international pressure, but these are often superficial and accompanied by an equal amount of regression in practice. Rising food prices have erased years of small gains against poverty, and 46 per cent of Yemenis now live on under USD 2.00 per day. Public services including water, education, electricity, security and medical facilities are largely unavailable in rural Yemen where 70 per cent of the population resides, strengthening public reliance on tribal affiliation for survival.

- Jane

Buy Mark Steyn's America Alone today and 50% of the cover price will be given to Canadian bloggers for their defense against the dhimmi thought police.

(Jakarta, Indonesia) This is welcome news and about time.

THE Indonesian Government has endorsed a court's decision to outlaw the radical Jemaah Islamiah network, sparking intense debate about whether the move is a turning point in the region's battle against terrorism.

The ban needs to be confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Update by Howie: Speaking of Indonesia, Big White Infidel has much more here at Juba Sucks. Hes' been tearing it up over there. I should at least toss him a link eh?

Via Powerline:

When Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer decided to retire in 1995, she hand-picked local left-winger Barack Obama as her successor. In order to introduce Obama to influential liberals in the district, she held a function at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. This was, really, the beginning of Obama's political career, and it linked him forever with Ayers and Dohrn, with whom, as his campaign has acknowledged, he continues to have a friendly relationship.

The greatest Purveyor of violence on this earth is my own country... ....I think that's still true today(2007)... ... we have a special extraordinary responsibility, not necessarily the most enviable one, of how to act here inside the heart of the monster.

There is a certain consistency of perspective among Obama's friends and mentors, which can be summed up in Jeremiah Wright's memorable phrase: "God damn America."

Bernadine Dohrn via Discover the Networks: Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach! Wild!

UPDATE: How come Ayers isn't in jail? Blame deep throat says Nixon Blog.

UPDATE II: Friend-of-Barack -who-isn't-really-friend- since-it-became-widely-known- that-she-belonged-to- a-terrorist-organization- but-wasn't-a-big-deal- as-recently-as-last-year- so-stop-talking-about- his-association-with- terrorists-and-start-talking-about- the-real-issues- like-hope-and-or-change was on crime spree in to the 1980s.

Update III: Powerline has put up The Friends of Barack Obama, Part 2 here.

Confirmed: Rozita Swinton, the woman implicated as the hoaxter who placed a fraudulent phone call which led to the roundup of hundreds of children from the Texas polygamy cult ranch, is a Barack Obama delegate to the Colorado state Democratic convention.

Update within the post: Like I said, confirmed. WJACTV:

An affidavit made public Wednesday said a phone number Swinton had used previously was used for a call to a Texas crisis center before authorities conducted the raid and removed more than 400 children.

From the local party's website:

Stacey McCain digs this up:

After the El Paso County Democratic caucuses and convention, she was named one of the 360 delegates to the state convention at the World Arena on May 17, chosen to support Barack Obama.

Most of those in the comments still defending the raid seem to focus on the allegation that "girls as young as 13 are married and pregnant". One of the FLDS lawyers I keep seeing on TV says that this is patently false, and the claime made by the state is not that there are "13 year olds" but a single allegation that one 13 year old was pregnant 10 years ago.

If that is true would it change your perception that there is some justification for tearing hundreds of kids away from their families based on a search warrant executed on false grounds?

UPDATE: Some reaction to some of the comments.

--VN: First point about much of the info coming from a lawyer for the FLDS, that's a good one. The wording he used though was that this was the state's position, not his own. Since the DA's office isn't commenting, the only other info about this is coming from Nancy Grace.

As to your last accusation/question: hits.

--Janice: What little girls with their pregnant bellies? Again, the Nancy Gracing of the news.

--I think Mensem makes some great points:

In America it wasn't long ago that young women were married. My Pastor (Baptist) married his wife when she was 15 and his wife's mother was married when she was 13! I don't agree with marrying young, but at what point does you disagreeing with someone give you the right to exercise the power of the government to seize their children? ...

One man with several wives (while I don't agree with it) isn't any worse than the 25 year old single mother with 4 children from 3 different men on welfare. In the latter case we give them welfare, food stamps, and bring all the kids presents at Christmas. It just seems messed up to me! If there is a domestic dispute with a woman and her husband- ok, send in a police unit to investigate. Otherwise, leave these people alone.

As to the more general point that polygamy is illegal, therefore throw the book at these people: Polygamy shouldn't be illegal, it should be extra legal.

That is, polygamy should be in the same category as gay marriage. If you and your gay lover want to go down to the Unitarian church dressed as Darth Vadar and Princess Leah, be my guest (ed note: inside joke, go rent Clerks). When gays marry it's not illegal, it's simply an act not recognized by the state as a valid contract.

Bigamy should remain illegal, but there is an important distinction between bigamy and polygamy. Bigamy is when one spouse marries multiple partners on the sly. Go rent Fletch for an example.

UPDATE II: Welcome Sulli readers.

a) She is a Barrack Obama delegate to the STATE CONVENTION. Nothing "McTruthy" about it.

b) Like all candidates, Obama is supported by a number of nuts, including this one. Candidates cannot pick and choose who their supporters are. It's not his fault.

c) Unlike other candidates, though, there is only one candidate of choice for terrorists and their supporters: Barack Obama. This does not mean Obama is in favor of terrorists, only that his foreign policy stance on Iraq and Palestine is congruent with the interests of terrorists.

Palestinians in Hamas controlled Gaza support Obama.
JubaIAI supports Obama, which shouldn't be surprising given the convergence of the Islamic Army in Iraq with American peace activists for years.
Citizens of the largest state sponsors of terror claim about Obama, "He's with us."

No, Obama doesn't support terror, but terrorists certainly support Obama.

Wednesday morning fatwa bait.

UPDATE: When I posted this I had no idea it was going to have any kind of actual relevance. Apparently, it does. CNN:

The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it has evacuated its staff from embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan because of threats after newspapers reprinted a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Religion of Perpetual Outrage.

Thanks to HA's link thingy.

As a regular news consumer, I'm usually not surprised by cultural eccentricities in society, however, this week has produced two stories that have me shaking my head.

1) First, there's the reported case in Tennessee where a woman, Rebecca Bargy (pic), allegedly kills her 29-year-old husband, James Bargy, during a sex ritual.

According to the arrest warrant, 25-year-old Rebecca Bargy placed duct tape over James Bargy's mouth and eyes, put a ball gag in his mouth and then tied a bandage around his head, leaving only his nostrils showing.

She also tied his hands and legs behind his back.

Well, it turns out that the sex part happens when Rebecca Bargy leaves her husband bound and gagged and goes to a motel, meets a man and has continuous sex with him for nearly an entire calendar day. That's the sex part. He gets tied up, she has sex. Some ritual, eh?

After 20 hours, Rebecca returns and, unfortunately, finds James dead. Presumably, he wasn't supposed to die. Rather, on Rebecca's return he was likely supposed to be told the enjoyable details of the sex part of the sex ritual -- I guess. Hell, I don't know. None of this sex ritual makes a lick of sense to me.

In any event, after James was found, authorities were notified and Maury County Sheriff's deputies arrested Rebecca for reckless homicide. She was booked into the Maury County Jail without bond.

2) The second story involved the CNN celebrity guy, Richard Quest, prancing around Central Park in NYC at three o'clock in the morning with a rope tied to his genitals. See earlier entries here and here and if you can explain what was going on, please leave a comment. Previously, I would have wagered a paycheck that the words "rope" and "genitals" would never appear in the same sentence, at least not one written by me.

In conclusion, I have no idea what to think about these two stories.

It's all I've got, so I'm going to run with it.

April 22, 2008

It's not so much that Mudassar Arani defends terrorists--even terrorists need a lawyer. It's not so much that Mudassar Arani's firms has made millions of dollars defending terrorists--what's wrong with making a buck? It's not so much that Mudassar Arani supports terrorism--at least she believes in her client's cause.

I think what really bothers me is the fact that British taxpayers are footing the bill for this terror loving bottom feeder!

The Sun:

A LAWYER whose firm has raked in £2.4million representing terror suspects appeared at a rally alongside extremists...

She gave a speech minutes after hate preacher Choudary, 41, gleefully told followers an Islamic flag would one day “fly over the White House and Downing Street” when martyrs triumphed in a holy war.

Arani’s firm, which has acted for hook-handed Abu Hamza and the 21/7 bombers, has coined in a fortune in taxpayers’ cash through legal aid in the past.

Brian Ross is like the anti-Lou Dobbs. Instead of blaming all of America's problems on Mexicans, he blames all of Mexico's problems on Americans.

Bob Owens: ABC News Caught Lying About Guns... Again

I don't think there is a better headline than the one on this post. I really don't know.

Join us tonight for a fun discussion with Ace.

9 EDT, 8 CDT.

Live with chat.

Live without chat.

Archive is live at both links.

Ron Paul has beat John McCain in a stunning upset in Pennsylvania! More election night coverage below.

Suckas!

This video pretty much sums up our feelings about the election.

Olivier Guitta in the Middle East Times:

A few months ago Bernard Squarcini the head of the DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire), the French equivalent of the FBI, told the French daily Libération regarding Islamic radicalization: "An ideological transformation can be done in three months on the Web. An individual can at night auto-radicalize himself via the Web and get in touch with leaders of terrorist organizations." This assessment shows how dire the situation is in Europe when it comes to al-Qaida's use of the Web.

Al-Qaida uses the web for four different tasks: propaganda; communication, mostly to instruct those in the field; training future combatants, a kind of online university of terrorism; and to send messages to the enemy, mostly to the West.

But, go read it for yourself. It's worth your time.

Question: Eugene Stoner's AR-15 and its progeny have come under considerable criticism over the years for their tendency to jam at inopportunte times, which many critics attribute to the AR-15's employment of an unconventional "direct impingement" bolt cycling mechanism. Critics point, as evidence, to the fact that Eugene Stoner himself abandoned the direct impingement concept in his subsequent rifle designs.

Contrary to popular belief, however, the AR-15 family is not the only semi-automatic firearm design to feature direct impingement. Can you name another semi-automatic rifle design employing direct impingement for bolt cycling?

The British are gangbusters for research to create human sperm from females. The goal is to create babies without any male involvement. It's an initiative promoted by the same-sex community.

Sperm derived from females would logically have to be renamed, don't you think? How about spermella? Or spermeoba? Matrisperm? Spermette? Femsperm? Honeysperm? Autosperm? Instasperm? Spermoselle?

I can see it now -- inside an incubator in a laboratory, surrounded by other petrie dishes. The temperature is controlled at 98.6 degrees and the room lighting is subdued, coming from a lone Bunsen burner. A sound system plays Barbra Striesand's People over and over. Spermella slowly advances to a real human egg -- and then ....

Oh, the mind wanders. Honestly, though, I think sperm derived from females is a lousy idea. They wouldn't swim as fast nor as powerfully as male sperm and they would likely want to stop for directions. Real sperm don't ask for directions.

Remember United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 *cough*hudna*cough* that resulted in the end of the 2006 conflict between Hizballah and Israel? The idea was that a force of UN peace keepers called UNIFIL would oversee the withdraw of Israeli troops and the disarmament of Hizballah.

When UNIFIL recently caught Hizballah smuggling arms into south Lebanon they confronted the militants by stopping their truck. At which point at least two armed Hizballah terrorists jumped out and threatened the UNIFIL force. UNIFIL responded by retreating back to their base, no air strike to destroy the illegal weapons, no response what so ever but to bury the incident deep inside a UN report.

Haaretz Via LGF:

Armed Hezbollah militants warded off members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last month when the peacekeepers discovered a truck carrying weapons and ammunition belonging to the Lebanon-based guerilla group.

The incident was referred to briefly in a semi-yearly report submitted to the UN Security Council by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The incident was the first time that UNIFIL forces were confronted by armed Hezbollah men south of Lebanon’s Litani River, an area which Security Council resolution 1701 prohibits Hezbollah from entering.

According to a government source in Jerusalem, the incident caused great embarrassment for UNIFIL. The source described the incident, explaining that UNIFIL troops on patrol discovered the truck and chased it down and pulled it over. When the UNIFIL troops approached the vehicle, the source said, armed Hezbollah men exited the truck and threatened the troops at gunpoint. The UNIFIL patrol then went back into their cars, according to the source, and returned to their base.

Italy's Prime minister is threatening to pull their troops out of UNIFIL due to the highly restrictive rules of engagement. Hizballah says that any change in teh rules of engagement would make UNIFIL and occupying force and target of Hizballah.

Iraqi Translator Marine brings this footage of a Sunni insurgent caught wearing women's clothing. If you listen carefully you can hear him pleading, "By Allah I swear I was just going to the Tri-Delta's spring kegger!"

Today's crunch time, y'all. Hillary's making her stand in the bitter, God-clingin', gun-totin', brown-people-hatin' inbred backwoods of Pennsylvania, and I wish her the best in her campaign to stop the Liberal Jesus.

At this point in the game, the Dems probably can't afford to nominate anyone but Barack Obama. Still, it's good to see Hillary keeping up the fight.

If worse came to worse and we were to end up with one of these two Dems as president of this country, we'd be a whole lot better off with Hillary than Obama. We don't like to talk about it at cocktail parties, but the primary job responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief is to kill people and break things. Yes, the goal is to only kill the bad guys, but sometimes when you're killing bad guys, innocent people (and sometimes lots of them) will get caught in the crossfire. I'm sure this fact weighs on everyone in the Oval Office, but there's a difference between being burdened by that fact and being paralyzed by it. If the shit were to seriously hit the fan, I really don't have that much difficulty visualizing Hillary giving an order to incinerate a foreign capital if she felt it necessary and/or helpful to her poll numbers. The Boy Wonder? Dhimmi Carter 2.0? I just don't see that happening. Even if all hell were to break loose and the zombies were climbing the fences along Pennsylvania Avenue, can you really visualize the Liberal Jesus pushing the button? Nope, me neither.

My concerns about Hillary stem more from my fear that she might just firebomb Waco than that she might fail to nuke Tehran.

(Note to self : dont' forget to fireproof the compound)

"Does the Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms?"

Please take time to vote on this important issue here. h/t LGF link thingy.

Apparently Al Sadr's family has a problem with him.

"Iraq’s Josef Alsadar said that Muqtada Alsadar has tainted our family reputation; we will deal with him internally.

Thanks to Infidels Are Cool.

UPDATE: Apparently there's some new footage in the video which seems to contradict Obama's claim that he had no idea Wright was such a barking moonbat.

Hey Kid. Would you like a Waffle?

I think we've seen this game before. Negotiations with the Taliban just don't work. In return for a temporary cease fire, a whole lot of people are going to die in years to come.

Sufi Mohammed is the leader of Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Mohammadi (TNSM), the group that inspired the Taliban. His release in return for "peace" is not welcome news.

Long War Journal:

The Pakistani government signed a peace agreement with the TNSM in Bajaur in March 2007, but the agreement failed to curb attacks in Bajaur and the wider Northwest Frontier Province. The TNSM’s takeover in Swat and Shangla was facilitated by the TNSM in Bajaur and in other tribal agencies and provincial districts.

Similar peace accords were signed with the Taliban in North and South Waziristan tribal agencies and in the district of Swat. The Taliban used these peace accords to consolidate power throughout northwestern Pakistan. This allowed al Qaeda to establish training camps throughout the region.

We can has leen rokitz on rockz.

*sigh* Just click the image.

If you don't say it, it doesn't exist. Robert Spencer:

A reliable source has informed me that Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms "jihad" and "jihadist" by any State Department official.

I expect the State Department to lie. I want them to lie.

My only concern is that that the institution itself might eventually believe the lie. I'm afraid that at the State Department, the lie often becomes conventional wisdom.

From Last of the Few, thanks to Snapped Shot.

April 21, 2008

EPIC WIN over at the People's Cube.

Where news breaks (hint: not that much in Jesusland, according to the map, because there aren't as many journalists buzzing around).

It has to be read to be believed.

Olberdouche whines incessantly about political partisanship in the presidential campaign.

Olberdouche then proceeds to engage in rabid political advocacy and partisanship on a nightly basis.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Ayman Zawahiri has just released part 2 of his "town hall" meeting with the e-hadis over at al Qaeda's #1 fan club. That would be the same website that has recently taken an interest in The Jawa Report.

It's in Arabic only. Again. Laura Mansfield should have a translation up soon.

Be on the lookout for the cocksucker below. If you see him in anything other than non-corporeal spectral form, contact local law enforcement immediately.

I belong to several e-mail groups, one of which had Brutally Honest comparing the MSNBC definition of 'hudna' with that of the BBC.

To which Bill Faith responded with his own definition of 'hudna':

(Arabic) "Let's you and me quit shooting at each other while I send off for more bullets."

Hudna perfectly reconciles the two accounts of what Jimmy Carter is offering Israel on behalf of Hamas with Hamas' rejoinder. Hamas can both offer a strategic truce for ten years while it gains legitimacy in the eyes of the world, thus freely buying bigger and better arms, while at the same time vowing to never recognize Israel's right to exist; and even better, implicitly threatening to wipe the 'Zionist entity' off the face of the map after the 10 year truce is over!

Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed will be tried separately. If I'm reading this right, it looks like Mohamed is in deeper trouble than Megahed and the latter is trying to make sure he's far enough away from the crap that he doesn't catch all the stink.

Thanks to Mrs Abe Froman

Apache takes out two insurgents placing an IED.

User "JubaIAI" claims he "doesn't support terror". I guess it's all in how you define "terror", isn't it? His chosen name is an homage to The Islamic Army in Iraq's (IAI) "Juba the Baghdad Sniper". I think Ronald Schultz and Enzo Baldoni would beg to differ over whether or not the IAI is a terrorist organization.

Guess who else IAIJuba supports?

Obama can't control who supports him. But since his own stated goal of ending the war against Islamist terrorists in Iraq aligns perfectly with the stated goal of those terrorists, then it's a no brainer who those terrorists are going to support.

UPDATE: Check out his video "Free Iraq" which begins with "Obama '08". Free Iraq from whom and for what purpose Juba? Here's a little window into "Juba's" intentions: on another forum he proclaims Sunnis who fight for the Iraq government traitors & kuffars. Elsewhere he urges that readers should pray for the mujahideen.

Are we clear now on why so many Islamist extremists want to "end the Iraq war" and thus are Barack Obama enthusiasts?

UPDATE: Largest state-sponsors of terror on Earth on Obama, "He's with us." Thanks to HA.

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

This report is disturbing.

James Gilchrist, the founder of the anti-illegal alien Minuteman Project, has filed defamation lawsuits against 100 of the people he organized to stop illegals, claiming that they have said bad things about him and damaged his reputation.

The truth is that Gilchrist has acted contrary to the beliefs of most people in the Minuteman Project and he has been questioned about his apparent departure from the fold. For example, Gilchrist came out and endorsed Mike Huckabee for President when everyone can see that Huckabee's record is pro-illegal alien.

Naturally, border enforcement advocates were jolted and immediately asked Gilchrist what he was thinking. In response, Gilchrist sent emails dripping with hate and accusations of treason.

And now, the first few in a series of 100 summons have been sent out.

On April 16, 2008 the first of the summons for the lawsuits were received by Brook Young of Immigration Watchdog, Chelene Nightingale of Save Our State, Barbara Coe of CCIR, Minuteman Project Treasurer Deborah Courtney, and Minuteman Project President Marvin Stewart.

Follow the link for much more on the story. Help with legal representation for the respondents would also be appreciated.

Geert Wilder's unknowingly used a copyright photo of rapper Salah Edin in "Fitna the Movie". Wilder had mistaken the rapper for Mohammed Bouyer. Bouyer murdered Theo van Gogh because of his movie "Submission".

Dutch News

MP Geert Wilders has to pay compensation to rap singer Abid Tounssi. In his anti Islam film Fitna, Wilders mistakenly used a picture of the Moroccan.

On an album cover, Tounssi, who goes under the artist name Salah Edin, had himself pictured as Mohammed Bouyeri. It was his way of honouring the terrorist who in 2004 murdered Islam critic Theo van Gogh in a brutal manner in an Amsterdam street.

Due to the strong resemblance, Wilders mistakenly used the picture of Tounssi in his film Fitna when he intended to show Bouyeri. As soon as he had discovered the mistake, Wilders replaced the photograph of Tounssi for one of Bouyeri. Tounssi nevertheless instigated legal proceedings for compensation.

Posing as a brutal murderer is sick, damn sick. Let's hope karma catches up with him.

h/t LGF link thingy.

The little whore deserved death for having a boy in her bedroom, or so says the grandmother.

You. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up.

Recognize this guy from CNN?

Now, would you recognize him hopped up on goofballs, with a rope connecting his nether regions to his neck, and a sex toy in his boot?

Missing stories like this: it's why I should never go 48 hours offline again!

ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) is a North American affiliate of the Muslim brotherhood. The goal of ISNA is to establish sharia law.

Washington Times

A coalition of American Muslim groups is demanding that Sen. John McCain stop using the adjective "Islamic" to describe terrorists and extremist enemies of the United States.

Muneer Fareed, who heads the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), told The Washington Times that his group is beginning a campaign to persuade Mr. McCain to rephrase his descriptions of the enemy[...]

Steve Schmidt, a former Bush White House aide who is now a McCain media strategist, told The Times that the use of the word is appropriate and that the candidate will continue to define the enemy that way.

ISNA has been investigated for links to terrorism. It is no wonder they want McCain to drop the Islam part. I hope McCain stands by this and doesn't give in to their demands.

Related:
Move to Cut off ISNA funding

A woman talking about her encounter with the former first daughter at a lesbian bar:

I grabbed [Chelsea Clinton's] Ass!

Via TNYF: Kieth Olbermann quizzes Jimmah Cahtah on the consessions he gained from Hamas during his visit. Including the pledge to remove the harsh language from Hamas' charter. Replacing

, Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.

Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam will Annihilate it, just as it Annihilated others before it.

Other terms being considered are, "decimate" and "irradiate",. You know irradiate, just like they do to the meat at the supermarket.

Though Hamas did say the irradiate option is dependent on several pre-conditions, the greatest of which is the delivery of the Holy Land Disinfectant Irradiation Device currently under development in Iran.

Read the rest.

Daily News

If radical Muslims judge a book by its cover, there could be trouble this week when "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out" hits shelves.

WND Books has emblazoned a picture of the prophet Muhammed torn in half across the front of the book, written by British journalist Susan Crimp and Islam expert Joel Richardson, using a pseudonym because he already has a fatwa out against him.

Muslims rioted around the world after a Danish newspaper published a political cartoon making fun of Muhammed.

Islamists might not be too happy with the book's contents, either. It's filled with first-person stories of former radicals who began to question the Koran, Islam's holy book, and who have changed their lives.

I suggest Islamists not judge a book by its cover and read it.

Click image for more.

Just click on over to SeeDub's post. I just wanted to write the headline and then link the video.

I remember the first time I saw the video, a buddy was yelling at me from the other room, "Dude, these guys have cheerleaders sporting Anarchy symbols!"

Apparently this "God" worshiped by Fred Phelps & the Westboro Baptist Church hates the Pope.

Oddly, this whole thing seems rather familiar.

Phelp's God and The Islamic Thinkers Society's Allah, two peas in a pod?

What youngster's look forward to in these schools. Sad.

The number of Palestinians who support terrorist attacks against Israel continues to rise:

Palestinians who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006 and to 50.7% now.

Support for [Fatah leader] Abbas fell from 18.3% in November to 11.7% this month. The poll also showed that fewer Palestinians are satisfied with Abbas's performance.

Support for [Hamas leader] Haniyeh also went down, from 16.3% in November to 13.3% this month. The same applies to Fatah's imprisoned leader, Marwan Barghouti, whose popularity moved down from 14.3% to 12.8% during the same period.

President Peanut thinks he can make everything all better. Just like he did with that other sick, violent culture in Iran.

Please sir, can I have some more? AP:

It's big business in Senegal. In the capital of Dakar alone, at least 7,600 child beggars work the streets, according to a study released in February by the ILO, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank. The children collect an average of 300 African francs a day, just 72 cents, reaping their keepers $2 million a year.

Most of the boys — 90 percent, the study found — are sent out to beg under the cover of Islam, placing the problem at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition. For among the cruelest facts of Coli's life is that he was not stolen from his family. He was brought to Dakar with their blessing to learn Islam's holy book.

In the name of religion, Coli spent two hours a day memorizing verses from the Quran and over nine hours begging to pad the pockets of the man he called his teacher.

Thanks to Barry.

Omar Fadhil, from Iraq the Model, has this analysis of the latest al Qaeda propaganda from al Furqan (Iraq) and as Sahab (Afghanistan/Pakistan). PJM:

The latest three messages from al-Qaeda addressing the Sunni community uncover the depth of the crisis that al-Qaeda is facing in its former host community.

The threatening tone of the missives from the alleged Abu Omar Baghdadi and Aby Ayyub, and the insulting tone of the second by Zawahiri, reflect mistrust, anxiety and a dire need to retrieve what was lost.

Death threats do not represent a serious call for cooperation on an achievable objective. This “work-for-me-or-I-kill-you” tone is completely different from the usual recruiting slogans that have focused on the ideology of fighting for absolute truth against absolute evil.

Those slogans have failed, which is why they have been discarded and replaced by threats and an effort to seek out third parties to render verdicts on disagreements, which is what Baghdadi alluded to when he proposed that some (not all!) Sunni clerics come forward to mediate between al-Qaeda and the public.

Jimmy Carter's new friends and potential 'partners for peace' in Hamas air this TV show which claims the infamously fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion is true. The book routinely vies for first place on the bestseller list with the Quran and Mein Kampf in Arab and Muslim countries.

Click the image to head over and watch the video.

April 20, 2008

From the Wikio site Charles linked to. Category was most influential blogs, 1 - 100 for April 2008. Down four places from last month.

Cool, but take it with a grain of salt.

Need some lulz?

In presidential perference polls, "Generic Democrat" generally blows away "Generic Republican." When the generic candidates are replaced with actual candidate names, however, the Democrat advantage drops precipitously. If the Democrats could just run "generic" candidates in place of their actual candidates, they'd win these elections in a walk!

The difference puzzles the pollsters and professional commentators, but I suspect that the difference arises out of a failure to communicate. When pollsters ASK the "generic vs. generic" question, I suspect they're THINKING they're asking about something like this:

When poll respondents HEAR the "generic vs. generic" question, I suspect an awful lot of them THINK they're being asked about something like this:

If this is correct, the difference in the polling results should be of no surprise to anyone. When people are asked about "Generic Republican President," I suspect a substantial number envision the most recent elected Republican President, and the same goes on the Democrat side. The Democrat brand is certainly tarnished, but it's still LESS tarnished than the Republican brand, and the "Bill Clinton" brand is a whole lot more marketable than the "George W. Bush" brand. Thus, "Generic Democrat" (Bill Clinton) fairly well waxes "Generic Republican" (George W. Bush) in a matchup.

In other words, I'm saying these "generic vs. generic" poll questions tell you almost nothing about what actual voters are likely do in actual voting booths.

(Santa Cruz, California) Heads up, everybody! Today's the day.

UC Santa Cruz is on lockdown this weekend in anticipation of thousands of unmanageable students gathering for the "4/20 cannabis culture holiday."

The university sent emails to all the students indicating that it does not condone the event and reminding everyone that they might get a citation for smoking marijuana. Air pollution is not a concern since many of the dope smokers are also draft mules for the carbon-footprint bandwagon. Their smoke doesn't pollute.

Note, Virginia Slims and Marlboro smokers, the 4/20 gathering is a very promising opportunity to blend in with the dopers and illegally puff a butt. However, be cautious, the dopers may very well point in your direction if the anti-tobacco nazis show up.

And, lastly, be prepared to walk. City bus service on campus has been suspended for the weekend.

More tragic news from Basra: the family of kidnapped contractor and Army veteran Jonathon Cote has been told that a 6th body has been recovered in the same area where the bodies of 5 other missing men were found last month. Via Free Cote:

We were visited today by U.S. Officials today who told us that a 6th body has been recovered in the Basra area of Southern Iraq. The body will be flown to Dover Air Force Base just as the 5 other bodies of US Citizens recovered in March. There the body will be identified and an autopsy will be performed.

At this point we have nothing else to report. We will update this website as soon as we have further information.

Please continue the prayers.

Please continue to pray for Jon's family as they go through this agonizing period of waiting for the third time. May God comfort them, and may He continue to comfort the families of the other 5 men --- John Young, Ronald Withrow, Josh Munns, Paul Reuben, and Bert Nussbaumer --- as they mourn their terrible losses.

April 19, 2008

More evidence suggesting that Rozita Swinton made the phone call that led to the Texas Polygamy cult raid. Most likely this is the same Rozita E. Swinton who is a Barack Obama delegate from Colorado Springs.

McCain has an update and links this Houston Chronicle piece:

The Rangers are "actively pursuing Rozita Swinton as a person of interest regarding telephone calls placed to a crisis center hotline in San Angelo," the DPS said....

"In her little baby voice, she said, 'If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me?' " Walker said. "She had done her homework. She knew it was a racist cult. We know that these kids are very frightened of black people.

"The Texas Rangers told us she was obsessed with the FLDS. They confiscated tons of material on the FLDS (in the search of Swinton's home). She even gave real addresses and real names of FLDS people."

Check out the rest of McCain's post for his take on the race angle.

But there's more:

“There is no verbage or terminology used that leads me to believe the statements were made by someone inside,” said Ezra Draper of Hildale, Utah, who left the FLDS sect six years ago. “I think it’s bunk.”

Examples: The term FLDS use to describe other people is “gentiles,” not outsiders, and they don’t observe such holidays as Easter Sunday, when the alleged victim claimed she was last beaten.

Susan Risdon, the crisis shelter spokeswoman, said the calls to the shelter were not recorded but that the two employees who spoke with the girl wrote down what she said.

“I think it’s the exact language,” Risdon said.

He points out that only the most worthy among the FLDS were called to live at the ranch. Those “FLDS wouldn’t have tolerated any abuse like that [the girl’s broken ribs] within their society,” he says.

Draper also wonders how the girl knew to call the shelter, given the isolation and control that authorities say those at the ranch experienced.

UPDATE: As I said earlier: Another example of a Democratic activist making up a fake but accurate story? Sure, she lied about everything, but isn't the goal of removing children from parents who's lifestyle we don't approve of trump truth?

As to Gd. Lt's point in the comments, er, so? Let's just go into any community and take away all the kids since we know that some of them are abused, some get knocked up young, and some are molested. In some communities, these phenomena are pervasive.

No one is saying that the FLDS cult is a great environment to grow up in, but that seems to entirely miss the point. There is a bright line which government cannot cross under normal circumstances. That line is the home.

A raid on an entire community, without probable cause, in peace time is tyranny, plain and simple.

What next, raiding a hippie commune because we know they must smoke dope and we know they practice free love?

UPDATE 1a (Good Lt): Rather than rehash my position on this bizarre story here at length, I'll just reprint the response I wrote in the comments that I think best summarizes my take:

I agree that this has been handled poorly by the authorities from the get go, and I do have a twinge of skepticism at the heavy-handedness of the response. I'm sure we're all thankful this didn't turn into Waco II, but now there's a whole hell of a mess to clear up in the legal system.

And Rusty and yourself are also correct that the constitutional question should be raised and factored in here.

My stance is more from reading testimonials, seeing interviews and hearing the stories from former members of this cult. They are not allowed to leave the cult, but when they do or when they're excommunicated, they usually end up telling the same stories independently of each other to anyone that will listen - sexual abuse, physical abuse, rupturing of families, neglect, poor living conditions fostered by welfare abuse, stories of abuse of women, children and individuals by cult leaders, etc.

When those women come out of that cult and tell us what is actually going on in it (after a lifetime of brainwashing forcing them to "keep sweet" and not speak out), I believe them. I don't think they have a reason to make it up, and the stories have been coming out of this particular group for a long time.

Don't interpret this as my advocacy of rampant government intervention in the affairs of strange religious groups. Let's just say that I'm with the former child brides and ex-FLDS members on this one, and other anecdotal and historical evidence - including the leader of the cult being convicted of accomplice to rape of a 14 year old with previous members of the cult being convicted of similar crimes in the past - establishes a pattern of alleged and confirmed abuses by this group that are cause enough to err on the side of the kids and women locked up behind the fences.

I know, you think it should read, "Code Pnk Protests Marines", but not this time. Giving Code Pink a taste of their own medicine.

Posted by Jon Henke at QandO:

[T]he Leftosphere continues to have an impact, with the Leftroots effectively (and regularly) pressuring politicians and candidates to adopt the agenda they create and promote.

So why - with very rare exceptions - can't the Rightosphere do that? Fundamentally, the Rightosphere can't do that (effectively) because the Right doesn't have the gravitational pull to draw candidates to its agenda. The Left has a well-organized blogosphere that can do three things for Progressive candidates...

Clilck on over the the BBC's website and watch the video. The whole thing. Near the end you'll notice a video shown to the BBC by Glen Jenvey of a radical Muslim who is was also a baggage screener at an airport in Britain. He suggests that if a terrorist ever came through his line with a bomb, he'd wave said terrorist through. Scary, no?

Some of you might recognize the website referred to in the video, Sawt ul Islam, as we've discussed it here from time to time. It's run by the followers of Omar Bakri Mohammad.

UPDATE: The security guard segment of the video added.

If you don't get around to watching the entire BBC video above, it pretty much blows away the notion that big brother is watching all radical Islamist websites, let alone your porn viewing habits. They just don't have the manpower. The very video used to convict Abu Izzadeen which prosecutors claimed they found on a DVD had been widely available on the al Muhajaroun website for years before the police "found" it.

But it gets worse. Jenvey actually gave the video to the police. They ignored him.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that leftists like Barack Obama and George Lakoff have conversations about "the great unwashed masses," and how they might somehow succeed in communicating with us using sounds and images our primitive brains might understand.

They continue to believe, against all available evidence, that deep down we are just like them--albeit with lower intelligence and less sophistication. They continue to believe that we would embrace their socialist vision of the world with both arms if they could just manage to break it down into simple terms our simple minds could grasp. So, they talk about "pie." Even the mentally retarded understand PIE, right? Michelle Obama's sales pitch for socialism has gotten to this level. It goes something like this:

"See, the problem with the world is that the rich have all the pie. Barack will take the pie from the rich and give a big piece of it to you! Doesn't that sound tasty?"

I guess I wish I could say it surprises me that they have these conversations on broadcast television, as if we don't have televisions or we can't understand the multi-syllable words they use. Sadly, that's not even surprising anymore.

Let me spell it out for you leftists in the simple language we common folks use:

We don't want you to "fix the economy." We want you to leave it the hell alone. Ever heard the term "laissez nous faire?" It's French. (If you don't know French, ask your buddy John F'n Kerry to translate.) The term comes from a time when French businessmen had their heads screwed on a bit straighter. Please write this down: we're not waiting for you to "save" us. We don't want you to go steal some pie for us. If you would pretty much forget we existed, that would be just fine with us. You really wanna help? Just get out of our lives and let us live them. We'll bake our own pie.

We don't need freedom of speech so that we can make art exhibits out of urine and used tampons. We need freedom of speech so that we can remind our neighbors how shitty you leftist elites are and how much socialism sucks.

We don't need freedom of religion out of some need to have some kind of drug we can take in to remove ourselves from the realities of our sorry lives. Marx and Nietzsche didn't understand this fact, but why would anyone expect them to? If you truly understood and embraced Christianity, as so many of you claim to, you would understand this, and you wouldn't recycle German atheist talking points as a substitute for genuine comprehension of what is going on in the mind of a conservative Christian.

We don't need the Second Amendment so that we can forget our sad lives by going shooting at squirrels with our kinfolk. We "cling" to our weapons because there may come a time when we'll need those weapons to protect ourselves from an out-of-control government. Leftist icons Huey Newton, William Ayers and Mumia Abu-Jamal seem to grasp the general concept of guns vs. "the man." Now, these particular men may very well have taken to arms because the government didn't give them enough stolen pie. Let me suggest that the motivations of William Ayers don't tell you a whole lot about the motivations of your normal Republican voter in rural Pensylvania. You keep your pie. We'll keep our guns.

Contrary to your claims, most of those of us who oppose amnesty don't harbor "anti-immigrant" sentiment. Many of our most outspoken members are immigrants. Most of us have friends who are immigrants, and even if we didn't, we're only a few generations away from our proud immigrant ancestors. Most of us "cling" deeply to the idea of America as, in the words of John Winthrop, "A shining city upon a hill." Most of us believe that America should continue to be a place where people who want to be Americans and embrace American values can come and make their lives. If you think the debate over amnesty is a debate over these basic principles, that only goes to show how very much out of touch you are. The debate over amnesty is a debate over whether we can even have meaningful borders. It is a debate over whether we can even have meaningful immigration laws. You start from the basic assumption that we can have neither borders nor laws, and then you call us racists and bigots when we refuse to accept this ridiculous proposition. What we "cling" to is belief in the rule of law and of national sovereignty. If you think some stolen pie is going to cure us of that characteristic, good luck with that.

It's not that complicated. We don't want your help. We don't want your stolen pie. We already ARE voting our interests, and we'll be keeping our guns, our God and our respect for law and order whether you like it or not. Thanks for your concern. Now please go away.

Cross-posted at The Arsenal.

Came across this at Liveleak:

A Proposed Constitutional Amendment

Background and justification to Amendment 28
(self-defense/survival measure)

Click image for more.

I smell a fatwa in 4...3...2...

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist attack on April 19, 1995 aimed at the U.S. government in which the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed in an office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured. Until the September 11,2001 attacks, it was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.[see Wiki.]

Timothy McVeigh was charged and put to death by lethal injection June 11, 2001(See death certificate)

Terry Nichols is currently serving 161 consecutive life terms and is currently held in the ADX Florence Federal Prison.

Michael Fortier served served 85% of his sentenced and was released for good behavior into the Witness Protection Program.

No "John Doe #2" was ever identified. No recent investigation, to my knowledge, has been done in finding this "John Doe".

TBO

Oklahomans paused Saturday morning at the Oklahoma City National Memorial to remember the 168 people who died 13 years ago in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

The attack on April 19, 1995, remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

As has become custom, the anniversary service held at the memorial - part of which sits on the site of the former federal building - was both simple and poignant.

"We are here today to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever," said Oklahoma City Police chaplain Jack Poe. "May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity."

At 9:02 a.m., the exact moment of the bombing, those attending the service observed 168 seconds of silence for each of the bombing's victims. The names of each of those killed in the bombing were also read aloud.

Before the ceremony, family members of the victims placed wreaths and mementos on the permanent chairs, each one representing a victim of the bombing.

"The evil act perpetrated here illustrated the depths of human depravity," Gov. Brad Henry said. "But Oklahomans met tragedy with triumph. From such a horrible crime came tales of astounding goodness.

He added, "That aftermath came to show the innate goodness of humanity."

Rudy Guzman of Castro Valley, Calif., is the brother of Marine Capt. Randolph A. Guzman, who died on the sixth floor of the building in the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office.

"It felt good being up there saying my brother's name," Rudy Guzman said. "It was a great way to honor him."

As Guzman stood by a chair bearing his brother's name, he said he has had to learn how to deal with the tragedy. "Day by day you think of the good things," he said.

Guzman said family members and survivors have developed a sense of family over the years. He said, "It's a family brought together in tragedy, but we're here to help each other out."

There are several theories on this that I won't go into at this time. Today is a day for remembering those who were brutally murdered 13 yrs ago as well as family and friends affected by this horrible "terrorist" attack.

Special interactive Oklahoma City Bombing website here

News Observer

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan appeared on a video aired Saturday by an Arab satellite channel, saying he was kidnapped by Taliban militants more than two months ago.

Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin, flanked by his driver and his bodyguard, was shown sitting on the ground amid green brush in front of three masked men wearing traditional robes and holding automatic weapons.

"For 27 days, we have lived comfortably ... They take care of us and they respect us," Azizuddin said, in comments dubbed over in Arabic. The roughly two-minute clip appeared on Al-Arabiya television [See English version here]

It was the first word from Azizuddin since he disappeared Feb. 11 near Pakistan's volatile border with Afghanistan. But his reference to having been held for 27 days suggests that the video was made more than a month ago.

"We don't have any problems but I suffer from health issues such as hypertension and heart pain," the white-bearded Azizuddin said.

None of the other five men pictured in the video - Azizuddin's driver and bodyguard, plus three apparent militants - speak on camera.

Pakistani authorities have said Azizuddin was heading to the Afghan capital, Kabul, from the northwestern Pakistani town of Peshawar when he went missing. He disappeared just seven days before Pakistan's parliamentary elections, which brought heightened tension and security.

The "video was made over a month ago". Why are they releasing it now? Hmmm. Taliban thugs.

Well, this is probably the only time so far during the war a mainstream press outlet has distorted and blatantly taken quotes out of context of a government report on the war.

The Miami Herald story ("Pentagon Study: War is a 'Debacle' ") distorts the nature of and intent of my personal research project. It was not an NDU study, nor was it a Pentagon study. Indeed, the implication of the Herald story was that this study was mostly about current events. Such is not the case. It was mainly about the period 2002-04. The story also hypes a number of paragraphs, many of which are quoted out of context. The study does not "lay much of the blame" on Secretary Rumsfeld for problems in the conduct of the war, nor does it say that he "bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff." It does not single out "Condoleeza Rice and Stephen Hadley" for criticism.

Nothing to see here. The dog barks, but the caravan moves on.

You know what this blog needs? More war porn!

I won't be around much today, so just watch this over and over and over.......

Ibrahim Al-Shammar, information minister for the terrorist group The Islamic Army In Iraq, (IAI) claims 44,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq. He says the, "US doesn't count those carrying green cards". He also claims to have proof of mass graves of US soldiers. This revelation was told in an interview today on Aljezzera TV.

Crosswalk

Ibrahim Al-Shammari, spokesman for the Islamic Army of Iraq, told Al Jazeera that the discrepancy between the 4,000 casualties reported by Western news agencies and the 44,000 claimed by his group was caused by the U.S. not counting the deaths of soldiers "who have Green Cards."

"Dr. Al-Shammari, what does it mean to you that 4,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq?" a moderator on Al Jazeera asked Al- Shammari during a March 24 broadcast translated by the BBC.

"This figure means a lot to us because it is the first time the number of U.S. deaths amounts to 4,000. This means a lot to the American people," said Al-Shammari. "The figure we have is 4,000 plus 40,000, and not 4,000 as they claim. This shows the deep trouble the U.S. Administration engaged-"

At this point, according to the BBC translation, the moderator interrupted Al-Shammari. "Excuse me, the figure you have is 44,000?" the moderator asked.

"The Americans do not count those who have Green Cards," explained Al-Shammari.

"The Americans do not count those who die in explosions on a daily basis. The Americans do not count deaths among the logistic support teams and other Green Card holders, as I said," he added.

"They only count holders of U.S. nationality. Our people in the Islamic Army had found earlier some of the mass graves for U.S. soldiers in Al-Iskandariyah area, Al-Habbaniyah, and elsewhere; and there are recorded videos of these," he said.

The IAI is responsible for the fictional character "Juba the Baghdad Sniper". They use sniper videos as propaganda and recruitment for their cause and are loathed by Jawas and Andrea of YouTube Smackdown.

Andrea has a separate site especially for smacking down Juba videos; Stop Internet Terrorists.

If you are so inclined hop on over to Andrea's and help our cause. You will be glad you did.

Sadly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly divorced his wife of 25 years, Ludmilla, 50. Apparently, the magic has disappeared from their marriage although there has been no news of the exact basis. It's speculated that the breakup may be related to mileage.

Vladimir and Ludmilla

Vladimir and Alina

April 18, 2008

Long time Jawa Report readers know that we have a standing feud with the Taliban 's online spokesman Adil Watanmal who runs Qari Mohammad Yousef's (aka, "Yousef Ahmadi", aka "Ahmadi") websites. Intermittently. When they aren't offline thanks to the efforts of our loyal readers. Like right now.

Isn't it about time some one tracked down Yousef Ahmadi, gave him a waterboard bath, and had a little chat with him? If you can't capture him because he's too far inside Pakistan, could you at least do me a favor and kill him?

We know where he is. We have his e-mail address. We have his phone number. If you won't kill him for me, how about killing him for Dutch NATO commander General Peter van Uhm, who's son was killed by the Taliban today?

Ahmadi claims that Lieutenant Dennis van Uhm was killed in retribution for Geert Wilders' movie Fitna. The Taliban were so offended that Wilders linked Islam to violence, that they killed two Dutch troops over it.

Proving definitively that Islam is in no way, shape , or form an inspiration for violent actions.

Robert Spencer quotes this from the AFP:

"We knew that the son of Dutch chief of staff was in the vehicle," rebel spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP, changing his account from an earlier statement that the militant group did not know who was in the car.

"This (attack) was part of our operation against the Dutch. First it was because they have occupied our country and secondly it was in retaliation to the Dutch insult to our great prophet Mohammed," Ahmadi said.

Oh, and a special note to "Zabihullah Mujahid", the other official spokesman for the Taliban:

I know who you are, I know where you are. I know you read this blog. I'd warn you to watch your back, but when the end comes it won't come from behind.

Keep looking upward.

Thanks to Hot Air's headline thingy.

25 years ago today the Iranian backed Hizbullah terrorist group attacked the sovereign soil of the United States of America, killing 63 including 17 Americans at the American embassy in Beirut.

A description of the scene as related by Claude Salhani:

Or maybe I should say to what was left of the embassy. The scene was apocalyptic. There were mutilated bodies littering the sidewalks. People staring at them in utter shock and disbelief. Clouds of smoke and fire was coming out from one side of the embassy building....

Walking around the corner toward the front of the building offered a scene of additional desolation. Its multistoried front façade had collapsed like a house of cards. Trapped between two of the upper floors, part of a man's body could be seen. It took more than a day for rescue crews to get to it.

Jammie Wearing Fools reminds us that Jimmy Carter is in the region today meeting with the leaders of Hamas, Hizbollah's Palestinian counterpart.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Will Breazeale, an Iraqi Vet running for Congress, relates this anecdote about Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer who were getting briefed just prior to meeting troops in Iraq. RWN:

And they got so frustrated from their lack of knowledge of military operations, like the acronyms we use or even what an up armored Humvee was, between level 2 or 3 armor, that they got frustrated, got up in the middle of this briefing with Lt. General Whitcomb, commander of Third Army, and left in disgust.

You know who they remind me of? This guy.

I'm suggesting that you leave before I have to get snooty.

It's understanding that makes it possible for people like us to tolerate a person like Harry Reid or Barbara Boxer.

h/t The Big Feed

Quite a mouth on this kid.

This is effed up right here. Coalition Against Israeli Appartheid:

CAIA extends its warm congratulations to the delegates of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers national convention held in Ottawa, Canada, April 13-17th 2008. At the convention, CUPW passed an historic resolution, Resolution 338/339, in support of the global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli Apartheid. This resolution is an extremely significant landmark for the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada. It represents the first time in North American history that a national union has passed a BDS resolution. The resolution recognizes Israel as an apartheid state and expresses CUPW’s support for boycott and divestment from Israel. It was passed almost unanimously after nearly one hour of discussion on the convention floor.

You also gotta love the logic of the Palestinian propaganda machine. They insist that the West Bank should be a separate country, but when Israel builds a wall between themselves and this proposed Palestinian state they call it "apartheid".

This is awesome. Our finest and bravest certainly deserve this. Kudo's to Philadelphia Cosmetic Dentists!

PR Web

Absolute Smile announced today a new initiative to help American soldiers get their perfect smiles back. This new program provides pro bono cosmetic dental services to U.S. veterans who may have suffered serious dental trauma while serving their country in the war on terror.

"U.S. soldiers fighting terror overseas should not struggle to receive quality cosmetic dental care," said Dr. Eric Friedman and Dr. Boris Friedman, Founders of ASHP. "The formation of this comprehensive program is our way of giving back to the community. We are dedicated to providing personalized high quality pro bono dental care to honor America's true heroes."

For more information visit myabsolutesmile.com or call Dr. Eric Friedman at (215) 355-4007

Ah, Omar Bin Laden is a twoofer!

Omar; "Maybe they make copy of my father and they say he says this and he says that".

At first I thought this was about recent releases of OBL, but no I was wrong. Omar is trying to do some PR work for his alive/dead? father.

Image stolen from Ace

UPDATE: Rozita Swinton, the woman arrested today for falsely tipping off the police that she was an abused child bride at the FLDS polygamy cult in Texas is a PLEDGED BARACK OBAMA STATE DELEGATE!!

It was her initial false report that started the investigation which has led to the removal of 400 children from their parents' custody.

Patterico:

In an odd coincidence, a person named Rozita E. Swinton of Colorado Springs is listed on the El Paso County Democratic Party website as an Obama delegate.

How many Rozita Swintons can there be in Colorado Springs?

Another example of a Democratic activist making up a fake but accurate story? Sure, she lied about everything, but isn't the goal of removing children from parents who's lifestyle we don't approve of trump truth?

Thanks to RedHatRob in the comments.

UPDATE II: I'm going to put this in it's own post, but thought some latecomers (not from Ace's link since the morons are generally earlycomer, except maybe Slu) might benefit from seeing the added info.

McCain has an update and links this Houston Chronicle piece:

The Rangers are "actively pursuing Rozita Swinton as a person of interest regarding telephone calls placed to a crisis center hotline in San Angelo," the DPS said....

"In her little baby voice, she said, 'If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me?' " Walker said. "She had done her homework. She knew it was a racist cult. We know that these kids are very frightened of black people.

"The Texas Rangers told us she was obsessed with the FLDS. They confiscated tons of material on the FLDS (in the search of Swinton's home). She even gave real addresses and real names of FLDS people."

But there's more:

“There is no verbage or terminology used that leads me to believe the statements were made by someone inside,” said Ezra Draper of Hildale, Utah, who left the FLDS sect six years ago. “I think it’s bunk.”

Examples: The term FLDS use to describe other people is “gentiles,” not outsiders, and they don’t observe such holidays as Easter Sunday, when the alleged victim claimed she was last beaten.

Susan Risdon, the crisis shelter spokeswoman, said the calls to the shelter were not recorded but that the two employees who spoke with the girl wrote down what she said.

“I think it’s the exact language,” Risdon said.

He points out that only the most worthy among the FLDS were called to live at the ranch. Those “FLDS wouldn’t have tolerated any abuse like that [the girl’s broken ribs] within their society,” he says.

Draper also wonders how the girl knew to call the shelter, given the isolation and control that authorities say those at the ranch experienced.

------------- Begin original post -------------

Stacey McCain notes that I'm a god. To quote Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, "I'm a god. I'm not the God, I don't think."

Remember the FLDS polygamy cult story that I've been saying sounds so bogus?

A Colorado woman named Rozita Swinton has been arrested for pretending to be an abused child bride on the Texas FLDS compound. ABC:

Texas Rangers participated in the arrest of a Colorado woman who allegedly pretended to be a girl locked in a basement. The Rangers were in the state as part of their investigation into the Texas polygamy custody battle, local police told ABC News....

But ABC News has learned that Texas Rangers flew to Colorado Springs, Colo., and participated in the arrest of a 33-year-old woman who was charged with filing a false report.

The FBI also told ABC News it is assisting local police in the investigation. Colorado Springs police said in a statement that "The Texas Rangers were in Colorado Springs Wednesday as part of their investigation involving the compound in Texas."

If not a god, can we at least agree that I'm a on the scene like a sex machine?

Sensationalist stories are like The Boy Who Cried Wolf: sometimes true, but 2 out of 3 times just a lot of hype.

UPDATE II: I'm going to put this in it's own post, but thought some latecomers (not from Ace's link since the morons are generally earlycomer, except maybe Slu) might benefit from seeing the added info.

McCain has an update and links this Houston Chronicle piece:

The Rangers are "actively pursuing Rozita Swinton as a person of interest regarding telephone calls placed to a crisis center hotline in San Angelo," the DPS said....

"In her little baby voice, she said, 'If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me?' " Walker said. "She had done her homework. She knew it was a racist cult. We know that these kids are very frightened of black people.

"The Texas Rangers told us she was obsessed with the FLDS. They confiscated tons of material on the FLDS (in the search of Swinton's home). She even gave real addresses and real names of FLDS people."

But there's more:

“There is no verbage or terminology used that leads me to believe the statements were made by someone inside,” said Ezra Draper of Hildale, Utah, who left the FLDS sect six years ago. “I think it’s bunk.”

Examples: The term FLDS use to describe other people is “gentiles,” not outsiders, and they don’t observe such holidays as Easter Sunday, when the alleged victim claimed she was last beaten.

Susan Risdon, the crisis shelter spokeswoman, said the calls to the shelter were not recorded but that the two employees who spoke with the girl wrote down what she said.

“I think it’s the exact language,” Risdon said.

He points out that only the most worthy among the FLDS were called to live at the ranch. Those “FLDS wouldn’t have tolerated any abuse like that [the girl’s broken ribs] within their society,” he says.

Draper also wonders how the girl knew to call the shelter, given the isolation and control that authorities say those at the ranch experienced.

A cover up at the AP about Bilal Hussein's innocence? Yes:

Hussein’s release was hardly unique, as he was one of 300 detainees released Wednesday from Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca detention facilities under the new amnesty law.

Multi-National Forces-Iraq maintains that it has “convincing evidence” of Hussein’s involvement in the insurgency, and still considers him to be a “terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP,” though one that is no longer a threat.

Maj. Matt Morgan, USMC TF-134 - Detainee Operations, stated that the military disclosed the specific evidence against Bilal Hussein to the Associated Press so that the news organization “would fully understand the situation,” but there is no indication that the Associated Press has published or will publish this information.

Every time the AP claims that Bilal Hussein is an innocent reporter being unfairly treated by the Bush Administration check the sources. You'll find that in every case it's the AP or Hussein himself making the claim.

When a news organization becomes the source of their own story, don't you have a major conflict of interest on your hands?

The evidence against Hussein include bomb making materials at his home. I also have sources close to the case that claim there is other evidence against Hussein which has not been publicly disclosed because to do so would jeopardize the means and methods by which it was collected.

The case against Hussein is pretty damning. For the AP to claim that his release along with 300 other prisoners as part of a general amnesty proves that he is "innocent" is to lie in a manner that would put even the slickest politician to shame.

NY Post

April 18, 2008 --

It's a good thing Osama wasn't walking through SoHo yesterday morning.

Two sets of confidential blueprints for the planned Freedom Tower, which is set to rise at Ground Zero, were carelessly dumped in a city garbage can on the corner of West Houston and Sullivan streets, The Post has learned.

Experts said the detailed, floor-by-floor schematics contain enough detail for terrorists to plot a devastating attack.

"Secure Document - Confidential," warns the title page on each of the two copies of the 150-page schematic that a homeless, recovering drug addict discovered in the public trash can.

What is even more troubling is one of the identical sets was missing the first 14 pages. Heads need to roll on this careless blunder.

Time's turns an unforgettable historic image into propaganda for their "Special Environmental Issue" cover.

Business & Media

For only the second time in 85 years, Time magazine abandoned the traditional red border it uses on its cover. The occasion – to push more global warming alarmism.

The cover of the April 21 issue of Time took the famous Iwo Jima photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Marines raising the American flag and replaced the flag with a tree. The cover story by Bryan Walsh calls green “the new red, white and blue.”

Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, told the Business & Media Institute on April 17 that using that photograph for that cause was a “disgrace.”

All six of those sentenced today by a British court are traitors. Each of them was found guilty not of supporting or fund raising for violent jihad abroad in general, but for supporting and fund raising for violent jihad against the British government.

For the two who raised funds for terrorists to kill British troops, Abu Izzadeen and Suliman Keeler, that would be treason.

For those who encouraged British Muslims to participate in violent jihad against British soldiers, that would be sedition.

Omar Brooks, aka "Abu Izzadeen": 4.5 years
Simon Keeler, aka "Suliman Keeler": 4.5 years
Abdul Saleem: 3 years, 9 months
Shah Jalal Hussain: 2 years, 5 months
Ibrahim Hassan: 2 years, 9 months
Abdul Muhid: 2 years

The gallows would be too good for Izzadeen and Keeler. Remember the good old days when British traitors were drawn and quartered?

Video below of Abu Izzadeen calling for the beheading of Muslims who join the British Army.

The report quoted by AJ Strata seems to suggest, yes. Fewer than 75 Arabs fighting for al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

I'm skeptical, but even if it's true I'd be much more worried about Pashtuns than Arabs. The Taliban have always been a greater threat than al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The NEFA Foundation has obtained a copy of video footage of a terrorist training camp run by the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) inside northwestern Pakistan.

The Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), also known as Islamic Jihad Group (IJG), is a terrorist organization which splintered from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and has conducted several attacks in Uzbekistan.

The terror group is responsible for bombings in July 2004 at the U.S. and Israeli embassies in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

The following image of another video gives you some idea how the young are exploited by the terrorists. It appears some of the training footage was taken from the above video NEFA has.

Related: Three Germans Arrested In Bomb Plot

Word has it that radical peace (?) groups are planning to create monumental tumult during the August Democrat National Convention in Denver.

The goal is a media-frenzied series of public disturbances similar to the disorder which occurred in the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention. However, the current plan is more extreme. They plan to throw bags of urine and blood on cops at the DNC protests. Pretty disgusting, eh?

Under the name ReCreate 68 and led by Ward Churchill supporter, Glenn Spagnuolo, the group wants to choreograph the actions of various anti-American, anti-capitalist and socialist throngs such as Code Pink, Food Not Bombs, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Green Peace, Scholars for Peace and Justice, and other radical festerings.

ReCreate 68, recreate68.org, bills itself as the place for grassroots people who have been sold out by the Democrats. Members meet every Thursday at the Gypsy House Cafe in Denver.

Law enforcement and area hospitals have been given a heads up to prepare for violence, terrorism and possible mass riots.

Yesterday we reported that Abu Izzadeen and six other men were found guilty in the UK on terror related charges. One of those convicted, though, had skipped bail, fled, and went into hiding. Shah Jalal Hussain turned himself in today.

BBC:

Shah Jalal Hussain, 25, was found guilty of terrorist fund-raising on Thursday and will be sentenced alongside five other men shortly.

He surrendered at Kingston Crown Court a day after his conviction and was arrested by police.

He had been given bail but went missing from his home when the jury began deliberations on 8 April....

He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment after a court heard of his support, in November 2004, for al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

He was also recorded calling for a jihad-style war against coalition forces occupying Iraq.

He can be seen in the following video speaking on 9/11. He laughs at the thought of people jumping to their deaths from the Towers. It's too bad the Brits don't have the death penalty any longer

April 17, 2008

A new audio from al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, just hit the forums. It's called, "Iraq: Five Years Later".

It's an audio speech, and it's available only in Arabic. I expect an English transcript will be released in the next few days.

Which leads me, once again, to wonder: where the hell is Adam Gadahn, al Qaeda's chief English language propagandist? He's either dead, as I've been hearing, or alive, and very dangerous. Why so? Because if he's no longer in charge of propaganda then he's moved to the operational side of things. And that means al Qaeda has a Jewish kid from Southern California available as a human bomb.

AFP:

l-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri said that building Iraq as a "fortress of Islam" is the "most important duty" for Muslims, in an audio message released Thursday according to the SITE monitoring service...

Zawahiri's talk, titled "Five years after the Invasion of Iraq and Decades of Injustice by the Tyrants," contains references to US Iraqi commander General David Petraeus's April 8 testimony to the US Congress, and to a textile worker strike in Egypt on April 6 as evidence that it was a recent recording, according to SITE....

"The United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims: it is the one which codified and legitimized the setting up of the state of Israel and its taking over of the Muslims' lands," Zawahiri said in that recorded talk.

Bush screwed the pooch in Iraq. There is a good argument to be made that we should not have invaded in the first place.* There is no good argument that we should leave.

This conclusion is inevitable when one comes to the same realization as me. There was a war in Iraq and there is a war in Iraq. In fact, we've had two wars in Iraq: Iraq War I & Iraq War II.

The war now is not the same as that war. The first war in Iraq was against Saddam Hussein, the second war is against Islamists of various stripes, but mainly al Qaeda.

Many of the arguments used by those who keep reminding us that Bush's decision to invade Iraq was a mistake are valid. While Saddam Hussein strategically supported groups linked to Osama bin Laden, there was not a substantial al Qaeda presence in Iraq prior to the invasion. Ansar al Islam, the main Sunni Islamist group in Iraq prior to the invasion that would eventually morph into al Qaeda in Iraq, operated nearly exclusively in the Kurdish north---a zone not firmly under Hussein's sovereignty.

All would agree that the invasion liberated Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. That was the First Iraq War.** It ended the day Saddam Hussein was captured.

The post-invasion period subjected Iraqis to the tyranny of chaos. The vacuum left by the Baathist police state was filled by yet another tyranny: the tyranny of Sunni Islamists, like al Qaeda; and the tyranny of Shia Islamists, like those following Muqtada al Sadr. This is when the Second Iraq War started.

The first war was against Iraq, a nation-state. The second war is against terrorists and Islamist rebels.

It is true that mistakes made in the first war led to the second war. It may also be true that our national security was not enhanced by that first war.

But the first war is over. We won. Handily. Easily. It's history.

Failing to see the two war distinction is critical. From Obama we hear that he was "against the war" from the beginning. From Clinton we hear that she "changed her mind on the war sometime after she realized that the war was a mistake."

Continuing to allow politicians to criticize the war in Iraq by criticizing the decision to topple the Hussein regime is to allow them to conflate two very separate issues: 1) should we have invaded Iraq? 2) should we now give up fighting al Qaeda and anti-government Islamist elements in Iraq?

Answering no to question number one says nothing about how question two should be answered. Nothing.

The Second Iraq War may have been of our own making, but it is the very war the Democrats say they want to fight: a war against terrorists.

In fact, until recently our greatest enemy in this Second Iraq War has been al Qaeda, the very people that all Americans claim as common enemies.

Failing to see the two war distinction has led to much confusion and obfuscation. The vast majority of criticisms about Bush's handling of post-war Iraq can be equally leveled at Bush's handling of post-war Afghanistan.

In both countries there is a weak central government engaged in a protracted civil war against Islamist rebels with no end in sight. In both countries the removal of U.S., Coalition, and NATO forces would almost certainly lead to a failed state and return to anarchy. In turn this would lead to pockets where Islamist friendly to al Qaeda would give them free reign to open training camps. The exact conditions that existed in Afghanistan just prior to 9/11 and which existed in Iraq from the fall of the Baathist state until last year!

If the results of a U.S. withdrawal would be the same in both Afghanistan and Iraq, then why is there so much focus on removing troops from Iraq and not Afghanistan? Partly it is because we continue to speak of the war in Iraq as a mistake because we should not have invaded in the first place. While we continue to speak of the war in Afghanistan in terms of the decision to invade being correct.

Many in American cannot get over that initial mistake. And because we lack the vocabulary to distinguish between the initial mistake leading to the First Iraq War, we are unable to separate our feelings about it from the Second Iraq War.

After years of support for the war, some in the center and on the right have decided that the initial invasion of Iraq was a mistake. They feel like their initial support was in error or that they were duped [notoriously, John Cole]. Lacking any other vocabulary, they lash out at the war or at the Bush Administration for starting it.

Because McCain supports the war in Iraq they have no other recourse than to support Obama who was against the war. A vote for McCain is a vote in support of the war, which they now see as a mistake.

What they do not see-- and in fact cannot see, because how can you see what you cannot articulate? -- is that they are voting to end a war that is already over! Simultaneously, a vote for Obama is a vote to end the very war on terror that they claim they fully support!

It may seem hypocritical that one could support the war against terrorists in Afghanistan but not the war against terrorists in Iraq, but it's not. As long as we continue to speak of the war in Iraq a large proportion of people will conceive of it in terms of the same war as the one to topple Saddam Hussein. They are not being internally inconsistent, but completely consistent. They do not support the war in Iraq because it is the same war they believe was a mistake.

We must begin to speak of two Iraq wars. The two wars conception is more precise. It describes what has happened and what is happening in Iraq more fully than speaking of the war. It clarifies many of the debates surrounding the present war as well as allows us to conceptually think more clearly.

Further, the only way to convince war skeptics that winning the present war in Iraq is in our national interests is to give them the linguistic tools for being able to conceive of it as separate from the first war, even if it flows from it.

The First Iraq War may have been "optional", as many of the critics say; but the Second Iraq war is not. We must win it. The price of victory may be high, but the price of defeat is higher.

*There are also good arguments, in my estimation, that the decision to invade Iraq was correct.

**There may be an argument that Iraq I was an extension of the Gulf War in the same way that some view WWII was an extension of WWI.

YouTube user sworb10 filmed a series "From LA to Israel" in 2006. Yousef's interview in Jerusalem was part of it Note at the end Joey(our nickname for Yousef born Joseph Cohen) adds "please don't add me to your no-fly list".

The author states after; "I was surprised he(Joey) didn't want freedom and democracy and would rather live under tyranny and Islam."

From LA to Israel below the fold.

If you get a chance please rate and favor the vids. Anyone who exposes the "real" Joey deserves credit.

Yousef al-Khattab archives

Holy schneike! You mean to tell me they're still protesting the Mohammad cartoons in Pakistan?

Supporters of Pakistani religious parties rally against the republishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers in Karachi, Pakistan on Thursday, April 17, 2008. [full size photo here]

Snapped Shot also finds a photo of Islamic Rage Boy's twin brother.

Seriously, don't these Talibs have something better to do? I dunno, like going to work? Or maybe just making sweet-sweet love with a sheep down by the fire?

Which reminds me, I was watching a TCM interview with Gene Wilder the other night. Do you think his character in "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but were Afraid to Ask" might have been a Taliban sympathizer?

Yeah, you know what is coming below the fold: Gene Wilder's "sheep scene". Stick with it to the end. If you can. Probably NSFW.

Just what is this world coming to?:

The Dallas City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to prevent underage girls from working at sexually oriented businesses.

The change in the law comes after protesters brought it to the council's attention that earlier this year a 12-year-old girl was found dancing topless at the adult club Diamond's Cabaret.

City council members say the new ordinance closes a loophole. Under the new law, if a minor is found dancing at a sexually oriented business again, that business could lose their license for a year.

Are London jurors smarter than those in Miami? Apparantly, Yes.

Omar Bakri Mohammad follower Abu Izzadeen [aka: Abu Omar], who was born Trevor Brooks, has finally been convicted on terror related charges! With the help of Glen Jenvey, we've been following this guy for years.

UPDATE: Hammer time!

Telegraph:

A Muslim preacher who barracked former Home Secretary John Reid faces life in jail after he was found guilty of calling on his followers to train to be terrorists and telling them to kill non-believers to get to heaven....

Izzadeen was found guilty of incitement to terrorism abroad along with three of his associates, Abdul Rehman Saleem, also known as Abu Yahya, the convert Simon Keeler, also known as Suliman Keeler, and Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan.

Brooks, Keeler and two other men, Shah Jalal Hussain and Abdul Muhid were found guilty of collecting money for terrorists in Iraq.

Hussain skipped bail while the jury were deliberating and is now on the run....

Brooks told his followers: “Allah will remove all the kufr [disbelief] from the earth, and how? With dua [prayers] or with some books? No my dear Muslim brothers with jihad for the sake of Allah...So we are terrorists, terrify the enemies of Allah.” ...

Brooks asked his audience; “Are you ready for another 7/7?”

The case of the eight Muslims who were convicted today at Kingston Crown Court of inciting terrorism abroad and raising funds for terrorism abroad is oppression at the highest level which only the blind in heart and in mind will not see.....

If any Muslim speaks out against tyranny, oppression and injustices then he is automatically labelled as a terrorist by the British regime and their kangaroo courts.

Yup, they're all victims.

Videos of Izzadeen below. UPDATE: Charles has another vid of Izzadeen. Classic.

Here's Izzadeen claiming Islam = terrorism

And here's the video where Izzadeen asks when another 7/7 will happen.

In this one he calls for the beheading of Muslims who join the British army.

YouTube user "alimasharli" has many more.

Update on "Coalition Accidentally Drops Weapons and Supplies" to Taliban

Nato had previously denied they had anything to do with the incident. Now it comes out a private helicopter company was contracted by NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Very interesting development.

Yahoo KABUL (AFP)

NATO admitted on Thursday that a helicopter mistakenly dropped military supplies in the wrong place in southern Afghanistan and that they had subsequently disappeared[...]

"On March 25, a private helicopter company was contracted, on behalf of an ISAF unit, to resupply an Afghan National Police (ANP) outpost located in a remote mountain area" of Zabul provine, an ISAF statement said.

They didn't mention which helicopter it was and said it was just a "human error"
in longitude and latitude placement. Call me skeptical but I don't buy it.

And, yes, as a matter of fact, I do feel just a bit guilty for posting it, but I will have to live the rest of my life with this image seared into my memory, and I just didn't think it fair for me to be alone in that experience...

The Islamic State of Losers Iraq doing what they do best....losing.

Via DOD's Defenselink:

Bergner told reporters that coalition forces had captured or killed 53 al-Qaida in Iraq leaders since his most recent news conference early this month.

The 10 most significant targets, according to Bergner, were:

-- Abd-al-Rahman Ibrahim Jasim Thair, the military emir responsible for al-Qaida’s operations in Mosul. Thair is the former emir in Beiji, who moved to Mosul because of the city’s importance to al-Qaida.

-- Muhammad Fathi Hammad Husayn, an al-Qaida cell leader in Sharqat. Like Thair, he also moved from Beiji, where he was formerly the emir in charge of assassinations.

-- Jasim Najm Khalaf Muhammad, a leader in al-Qaida’s network in Khark who was attempting to reconstitute terrorist networks around Baghdad when coalition forces captured him in Tarmiyah.

-- Ali Mustashar Ali, a car bomb network operative in Baghdad. He and his associates moved explosives, vehicles and suicide bombers throughout the Iraqi capital.

-- Hamid Awayd Muhammad, a car- and truck-bomb attack operative in Baghdad. Once the al-Qaida emir responsible for Anbar province, he handled the logistics for vehicle-bomb attacks north of Baghdad at the time of his capture.

-- Ahmad Husayn Ghanim Ali, the security emir for eastern Mosul.

-- Abu Mansur, al-Qaida’s deputy emir for Mosul, who acted as a judge in the terror network’s illegal courts. The role of Mansur, who died March 8, was to “cloak their corrupt ideology with religious sanction.”

-- Tumah Khalaf Mutar Hassan, the leader of al-Qaida’s cell in Samarra, who worked closely with the area’s emir. Coalition forces captured him in Samarra in early March.

-- Muqdad Ibrahim Abbas Husayn, al-Qaida’s military emir for Jalam, located east of Baghdad. He coordinated terror operations with counterparts from Tikrit, Samarra and Mosul, and arranged al-Qaida leadership meetings in the Tigris River valley. Husayn also oversaw kidnappings for ransom that terrorists relied on for operational funding.

-- Mahmud Abd-al-Hamid Isa Aaywi, al-Qaida’s military emir for southern Karkh. His operations focused on trying to use car and truck bombs in Rashid, Karrada and Mansour.

Apparently the high level of losses by al-Qaeda stems from a letter to Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda's Emir in Iraq that was intercepted when a terrorist called Abu Safyan was killed. In the letter Abu Safyan calls for al-Qaeda to attack the Sons of Iraq.

The letter advises that a chemical offensive can inflict both physical and mental harm. Contaminating Iraqis’ water can produce “killing and dangerous illness,” and also convince the enemy “that we have a dangerous chemical weapon,” Safyan wrote. “But in fact,” he continues, “it’s a psychological war that places fear in the enemy.”

Page 8 of the document focuses on instigating fights between coalition forces and Iraqi groups, especially Sunnis who have rejected foreign extremism and terrorism in droves in what has been referred to as “Awakening Groups.” Safyan suggested infiltrating the Sunni cadres before planting and detonating mines “in their villages and streets.”

High resolution image of the letter.
MNF-Iraq's translation of the letter here.
Transcript of Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner's April 16th news conference.

According to the Village Voice's "Election-Season Guide to the Right Wing Blogosphere" the right wingers are a "Confederacy of Dunces" If you are unlucky enough you even get your own "stupid/evil image".

Ace was unlucky enough to get his.

ACE OF SPADES (Ace of Spades HQ; ace.mu.nu)

ORIENTATION: Fratboytarian

TONE: Retarded

>FUN FACT: Scrupulously conceals his true identity, but accepted the Blogger of the Year award from 2008 Conservative Political Action Conference in person, looking rather less butch than advertised. Recently celebrated in Time magazine's "First Annual Blog Index" as the "conservative/libertarian answer to the Daily Kos," with sample quote about how "large segments of the black population" are anti-Semitic.

CANDIDATE: Undeclared

STUPID/EVIL RATIO: 99/1

h/t The Evil Charles Johnson

Click on both images for more on this far left garbage.

Remember the UC Irvine MSU fundraiser for Sami Al-Arian that got canceled? Well, it's back and at a bigger venue: an Edward's Theater in Irvine.

Edward's is a nationwide movie theater chain that is not going to want to be associated with this. Click on the link and follow the instructions on where to direct complaints.

Why am I skeptical of some claims being made against that FLDS polygamy cult in Texas? For the same reason that AllahP is skeptical of the claims being made by a Yale student who's senior art project, she claims, is made from fetuses she intentionally aborted. AllahP:

It’s too broadly parodic of too many things: the trivialization of abortion, modern art’s fascination with effluvium, amoral academic culture justified as a form of faux-profound “consciousness-raising,” etc etc etc.

[UPDATE: Yuval Levin also finds the claim hard to believe. Thanks to Insty.

UPDATE II: Oh gawd, video! h/t Michelle]

Stories like this seem believable only because an "artist" such as this is a conservative's worst nightmare. The "artist" is a caricature of all that is wrong in the world of art. A person which we can project our pent up hatred.

I think the same is true of the FLDS polygamy cultists. If the claim had been simply that there was statutory rape going on in the compound, that's believable. I would remind readers, though, that this practice was culturally normal until very recently--hence, why I find it believable.

[In fact, doesn't Barack Obama believe that rural Pennsylvanians marry their young cousins out of bitterness?]

I'm sorry, many of the charges being laid at the feet of the polygamy cult are just way too over the top to believe and I've been saying this from the beginning. Young girls forced to have sex ... in the compound's temple... while others watched [and I'm getting this from TV reports] ... doesn't this sound like something out of a bad move made for Lifetime T?

Yet, a lot of people are going to believe this because we know that's what must be going on with those people!

We tend to believe reports that reinforce our own world view and disbelieve those that go against them. This is the reason why I'm always skeptical of war crimes claims against our soldiers. The same applies to many on the Left who are quick to believe those same soldiers routinely rape, murder, & torture.

That's why my Father continues to believe to this day that Satanic cults routinely rape and murder children--because that's what Satanic cults do, right?

It could turn out that some of the allegations against the FLDS are true, such as claims of widespread statutory rape. But I have a pretty strong feeling that most, if not all, of the more sensationalist stories will turn out to be just that: sensationalist stories.

I could be wrong. Sometimes even the most sensationalist claims are true. After all, the moral of the Boy Who Cried Wolf story is not that there are no wolves, but rather that sometimes the wolf really is after the sheep. But 2 out of 3 times it just aint so.

Most Afghanis love Indian soap operas, but Muslim cleric's are crying foul. The clerics are accusing TV station Tolo of showing a program that may "corrupt" the populace of Afghanistan.

Yahoo

Branding the programmes immoral and against Islamic culture, the critics have launched a campaign to press the private channels to pull the plug on the soaps.

At Friday prayers at Kabul's largest mosque, Enayatullah Balegh, an influential cleric and university teacher, told reporters he and his followers were adamant.

"We are 6,000 people in this mosque, our intention ... is to go and blow up all the TV antennas if they do not stop it," Balegh said in front of his congregation.

"God is greatest, we are ready," the congregation chanted in response.

The clerics' campaign gained traction this month when some members of parliament, supported by the Ministry of Information and Culture, issued a declaration to private TV channels to stop broadcasting five Indian soaps.

But the television stations appear defiant.

"It is against the media law," Masoud Qiam, a senior presenter for Tolo TV, told Reuters, referring to the declaration.

"We will not stop the airing of the soap operas," he said.

God forbid if women have the same rights as men! Next thing you know they will be burning their burqas. They may even discard their burqinis and wear a real swimsuit. The shame.

"These programmes have changed the behaviour of our women and children, we don't want them. All Muslims know that these things are not allowed in Islam," said Gullab Khan, who was attending Balegh's Friday prayers.

Afghan law forbids publication of material "contrary to the principles of Islam." Problems arise in the interpretation of the law.

Despite a wave of unprecedented freedom since the overthrow of the puritanical Taliban, Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative Islamic society.

But more and more Afghans are returning from exile, bringing back new ideas. A large youthful population, particularly in the cities, is eager for new ways.

To kill or not to kill, that is the question?

Arab News:

Officials at the Jeddah General Court confirmed yesterday that they are dealing with the case of a Turkish barber who is allegedly facing the death penalty after being tried for swearing at God....

According to the Turkish press, the barber, Sabri Bogday, had an argument with a neighbor, an Egyptian tailor, and was arrested by police after the tailor filed a complaint that he had sworn at God. Bogday has reportedly been in prison for 13 months, while his accuser has disappeared.

Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, a Riyadh-based lawyer, said rulings in such cases depend on judges’ own interpretations of the Islamic Shariah.

“Some judges consider it heresy and infidelity, and say that the accused cannot repent and so faces death penalty. Others consider the statement to be disbelief, thus allow the accused to retract what he has said and repent and then set him free,” said Al-Lahem.

Long time friend of the Jawa Bill Ardolino is heading to Iraq on an embed with the 2/1 Stryker Calvary Regiment operating in Sadr City. If you have some extra cash, you might think of helping fund his trip.

Totten interviews Marine Captain Quintin Jones, commanding officer at Outpost Delta in the city of Karmah:

I wish more Americans knew about the good things Marines are doing at the lower levels. They see a lot of things we're doing at the general level, but they don't see what the privates and lance corporals are doing to further this relationship with the Iraqis and help the Iraqi people. We came here in part to liberate the Iraqi people and help the Iraqi people. And truly we have, at the lowest level. As we move away from kinetic warfare, we have those diplomats if you will, the strategic corporals, who is out there every day, helping Iraqis paint their businesses, helping Iraqis open their businesses, helping disabled people out of their own pockets, starting the Adopt a School programs because they can't get school supplies through the Iraqi chain.

Yes, that's M&M.

I tried to think of something funny to say about this, but the story itself has all the elements of classic humor. Inmate runs against Hill and Obama in Democratic primary.

(Bharatpur, India) A roadside cluster of young girls, heavily made-up and dressed beautifully, attract the attention of travelers in passing vehicles. The girls' maidenheads are offered for sale to the highest bidder.

Nita (pic) is a pretty 13-year-old virgin who will follow her four sisters into the prostitution trade. One sister said Nita is particularly pretty and should command a high price. And Nita is willing, saying she doesn't like housework.

Nita's family is one of 59 who populate the roadside collection, all members of the Bedia tribe.

The Bedias are regarded as a 'warrior' caste, which initially took to prostitution, hunting and illicit brewing after suffering a series of military defeats in earlier times. It is said that to a member of the warrior caste, robbery or prostitution is preferable to manual labour.

[Note: Readers are cautioned not to confuse the Bedia tribe with the U.S. Congress since the Washingtonians, arguably quite adept at robbery and prostitution, have ceased to be recognized as a warrior caste.]

John McCain.

At about 3:50 these Democrat focus groupers are asked how many would vote for John McCain if their candidate loses the Democratic nomination. D'oh!

Thanks to Jay at Stop the ACLU.

April 16, 2008

Jurors, are they all this stupid or is low IQ a qualification reserved only in high-profile terrorism trials? Jurist:

US District Judge Joan A. Lenard Wednesday declared a second mistrial in a terrorism prosecution of six men charged with conspiring to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI headquarters in Miami after the jury was unable to reach a verdict after 13 days of deliberations.

Batiste sought out the help of al Qaeda, the rest of them took the oath, and the jury was split? AP:

The case was built on hundreds of FBI audio and video recordings and the testimony of two paid FBI informants, one of whom posed as an al-Qaida operative sent from overseas to help the group put together its plan. One key video recording showed the informant, known to the group as Brother Mohammed, having the men make an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida.

I need a drink. Yeah, I don't drink, but this is enough to drive me to it.

I hope all Florida juries aren't filled with the same kind of morons as this, because in related news more charges have been filed against Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed. Click on over to Michelle's for all the details, but the indictment against the pair now has 5 more counts than it did yesterday.

I'm guessing the two will be convicted on the minor counts, be released after time already served is counted, then deported to Egypt where they'll be national celebrities. A year from now expect a BBC documentary on how the two were tortured by the evil Bush regime because the orange uniforms they were forced to wear made their asses look fat.

Did I call this or what? [Clears throat for triumphant self-congratulatory quote of self] Self:

To be honest, I have a feeling this is all bogus, any way. The sources on this story don't sound that credible to me. Color me skeptical.

So, I guess you morons are out of luck. Don't worry pervs, it can't be long until the first Lindsay Lohan sex tape hits. Until then you'll just have to stick with that Screech "comeback video" you have safely tucked away under your mattresses.

Thanks to HA.

An old blog friend and one time mentor has returned to his roots. He's collecting photos and information on airplanes. All of them. Ever. My favorite?

No, not really. I just like to say it.

KCTV5

KANSAS CITY, Mo

Federal prosecutors have accused two Lake City Army Ammunition plant workers of stealing bullet cups from the facility and selling them for their copper.

"These little bullet cups … were taken to a salvage yard in Moberly, Mo., according to the indictment, and instead of being used for ammunition, and that's a very serious federal offense," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cowles.

Charles Dale Osborn, 45, of Odessa, Mo., and Timothy Duane Langevin, 36, of Independence, Mo., could spend multiple 30-year terms in a penitentiary if convicted.

The amount stolen was over 8 tons that could have produced about 1.5 million rounds of ammunition. I wonder if the stolen copper ended up in the hands of a terrorist IED factory. The ammo meant for the troops could have been used against them. Scums they are.

Be sure to read the rest and view video at above link.

h/t GIM

Turn it up loud and watch the Progressives run away just like vampires from sunlight or hippies from bath water.

This is the Syracuse Symphony playing in Rome, New York in 2006.

He goes totally nutz when he mentions the wests laws against "pedophilles"; "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". Say what?!?!

Bilal Hussein wasn't set free because he was innocent, he was set free because his case was part of a general amnesty for insurgents. Minor insignificant detail someone forgot to mention in the story or intentionally misleading the public?

Yahoo

BLACKSBURG, Va.

A sea of people wearing orange and maroon flowed onto the main lawn at Virginia Tech on Wednesday, some clutching single roses, to remember the victims of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

They gathered on the same field where a white candle lit at midnight began a day of mourning for the 32 people killed a year ago by a student gunman who shot himself as police closed in.

"We remain deeply and profoundly saddened by the events of that tragic day," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger told the crowd. "Indeed, all our lives were changed on that day."

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends affected by this horrendous massacre.

A member of a terrorist sympathizers forum had this to say:

Seung Hui Cho was a product of US capitalism, they create workaholics out of human beings whose sole purpose is feeding the state officials and they tell the people that they are worth nothing when they don't work and generate profit for huge companies, so when people fail they fall into emptyness, their whole world is collapsing.

What a bastage.

Bwahahahaha. How sweet it is to hear this. Hope he suffered before he croaked.

CBS

A senior Taliban commander who became a hero to Islamic militants for his role in shooting down a U.S. helicopter in 2005, killing all 16 special forces troops aboard, has been killed by Pakistani security forces, officials and Taliban militants tell CBS News.

Mullah Ismail, a notorious Taliban commander from the Afghan province of Kunar, was killed in a shootout with Pakistani police as he traveled with a kidnapped trader, a local police officer said Wednesday. He was apparently on his way into the lawless Northwest Frontier Province along the Afghan border.

Officer Mukarma Khan said Ismail, also known as Mullah Ahmad Shah, had kidnapped the trader from a camp for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and was trying to transport him back to the border when he failed to stop at the checkpoint. He apparently opened fire on the police and was killed in the following exchange of gunfire.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the death of the key commander and said he was a prominent Taliban figure in the area.

(Batu, Indonesia) Vacationers and travelers to Batu in Muslim Indonesia, attention! Be advised that massage parlor masseuses wearing padlocks on skirts (pic) and pants are presumptive prostitutes.

MASSAGE parlours are asking their female masseuses to padlock their skirts and pants to make it clear that sex is not on offer.

But the move in an Indonesian town, has been opposed by the country's women's affairs minister, where massage parlours are often a front for prostitution.

TV footage and photos have shown several masseuses with small padlocks in the zip of their pants or skirts in recent days.

"The padlocking phenomena has been seen at various parlours and it is something we like," said Imam Suryono, the head of the town's public order authority.

From The Church Of Mothra

The Values Voters Debate was an attempt by Fundamentalist US voters to find a leader they can really get behind: one with a consistent world view, determination, and someone with a strong moral streak that runs against the mainstream. It's unfortunate that the three best candidates I can think of didn't show up.

Here are actual questions from the debate, followed by actual movie-quote answers:Q: There is no question that Jihadists have as their goal the harming of America and its citizens. What would your strategy be to protect our streets, our people, and our American way of life from the designs of radical Islam? more..

My favorite:

VADER: "The Emperor will show you the true nature of the Force. He is your master now."

Yes, never underestimate the power of the force.

MEMRI

In an article posted December 7, 2007, on the leftist website www.ahewar.org, 'Aref 'Alwan, an Iraqi author and playwright who resides in London and is the author of 12 novels, states that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine because their presence there preceded the Arab conquest and has continued to this day.

In the article, titled "Do the Jews Have Any Less Right to Palestine than the Arabs?" 'Alwan called on the Arab world to acknowledge the Jews' right to Palestine, because justice demanded it and also because doing so would end the violence and the killing of Arabs, as well as intra-Arab strife. He added that such a move would also open up new avenues for the Arab world that would be more consistent with the values and needs of modern society.

'Alwan writes that the Arab League is to blame for the refusal to recognize the 1947 U.N. partition plan, for starting a war to prevent its implementation, and for the results of that war, which the Arabs call the Nakba (disaster).

He points an accusing finger at the Arab regimes, the Arab League, and the educated circles in the Arab world, saying that they had all used the term "nakba" to direct popular consciousness toward a cultural tradition that neither accepts the other side nor recognizes its rights - thereby promoting bigotry, violence and extremism. He also claims that there have been attempts to rewrite Palestinian history, in order to deny any connection between it and the Jewish people.

'Alwan contends that the "Nakba mentality" among Arabs has boomeranged, giving rise to tyrannical rulers, extremist clerics, and religious zealots of every description. In his view, the Arab world will never shed the stigma of terrorism in the West unless it abandons this concept and all that it entails.

To boost his claim that the Jews have an historic right to Palestine, 'Alwan provides an overview of Jewish history in the land of Israel. He questions the validity of the Islamic traditions underpinning the Arab claim to Palestine, Jerusalem, and the TempleMount, and presents evidence that religions that preceded Islam had conducted rituals on the TempleMount.

Wow, excellent article. Be sure to read the excerpts here

h/t LGF link viewer thingy.

During the next two weeks Front Page Magazine will be publishing profiles of individual chapters of the Muslim Students Association and Muslim Student Union on a variety of campuses around the country.

Jerusalem Bureau Chief for WorldNetDaily Aaron Klein went undercover at one of the QCC's MSA meetings. What he heard is not surprising.

In March 2003, QCC’s Muslim Students Association sponsored a closed meeting on the Queensborough campus.

The event was secretly infiltrated and monitored by WorldNetDaily journalist Aaron Klein, who afterward reported on what he had observed there. According to Klein, the MSA QCC event featured a presentation by American-born Abu Yousuf (age 20) and Pakistani-born Muhammad Faheed (age 23), both of whom were U.S. leaders of Al-Muhajiroun,91(*emphasis mine) an international Islamic fundamentalist organization (closely allied to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda) whose overriding aim was to restore and expand, by means of violent jihad, a Muslim Caliphate (empire) that would operate according to the principles of Sharia, or Islamic law.

Yousuf, who spoke first, began by saying in Arabic: “With thanks to Allah we are here. I testify that there is no God but Allah ... May Allah grant that I speak only the truth.” He then switched to English, and charged that America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq was part of a well-orchestrated “Christian crusade to rid the world of Islam”; was rooted in the West’s lust for oil and for dominance over Muslim nations; and would undoubtedly be followed by further U.S. attacks against Arab countries. He accused American soldiers of seeking to “starve, rape and murder our brothers and sisters.”

When Faheed stepped to the podium next, he declared that Christians and Jews were conspiring against Islam, and told his listeners that “we must not recognize any government authority, or any authority at all besides Allah.” “We are not Americans,” he shouted. “We are Muslims. The U.S. is going to deport and attack us! It is us vs. them! Truth against falsehood! The colonizers and masters against the oppressed, and we will burn down the master’s house! … The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!”

A note to MSA, we will not let you take over America!

*Regular Jawa readers will remember Al-Muhajiroun founder Omar Bakri Mohammed (Omar the goathumper). Numerous articles have been written here about him.

I will link to the archives for those of you who are unaware of the connection between Omar and al-Qaeda supporters New York Jewish convert to Islam Joseph Cohen aka Yousef al-Khattab and North Carolina resident Samir Khan aka Inshallahshaheed who is currently using the alias "revolution".

Omar The Goat Humping Bakri Mohammed

A mediator involved in negotiating the release of kidnapped Austrian tourists Andrea Kloiber and Wolfgang Ebner has been murdered in Mali, where the captives are believed to be held. Via AKI:

Algiers, 16 April (AKI) - A mediator involved in negotiations to free two Austrian tourists kidnapped by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Tunisia is believed to have been killed.

According to an Algerian source quoted in the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Tuareg mediator was murdered in a region on the border of Mali and Algeria.

His death has reportedly brought a stalemate in negotiations between Austrian authorities and representatives of Abdel Hamid Abu Zayd, local head of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.

Our "partner in peace" Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will give the Al Kuds Mark of Honor, the PLO's highest honor, to two women. One of them helped in the Sbarro's pizza bombing which killed 15 people, including 7 children. The other used the internet to lure an Israeli to his eventual murder.

Peace in our time.

Herb and blow a Jedi may do, but down the path of the Dark Side heroin leads.

Hawkins has Barack Obama in quotes. Gotta love this one:

"I had learned not to care. I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though. ..."

Via Time:

"[T]he only common denominator in these [mass killing] tragedies is the use of guns. There is no other weapon that is legally available that can kill so many in such a short period of time. It's amazing that more people don't make that simple acknowledgment."

And, as we know, all mass killings--or at least the worst ones--are perpetrated with guns, right? Nothing else can cause mass death in a short time, apparently. Nothing at all. After all, it's not like you could go up to a corner gas station, buy a gallon of gasoline, and kill 87 people in a fire, or run down to the local co-op, buy a truckload of fertilizer, and kill 168 people. It's not like you could walk up to the airline ticket counter, buy an airplane ticket and kill 3000 people with a hijacked airplane. It's not like you could kill 45 people with homemade bombs or something. No, the politically-correct truth is that the one and only way to kill a bunch of people in a short amount of time is with a gun, and guns are the only common denominator in mass killings.

Why won't people simply acknowledge these "undeniable," politically-correct "facts?"

April 15, 2008

Strange combination plus it's in English.

The Leningrad Cowboys is a Finnish rock and roll band famous for its humorous songs and concerts featuring the Soviet Red Army Choir.

Currently, the band has eleven Cowboys and two Leningrad Ladies. The songs, all somewhat influenced by polka and progressive rock, and performed in English, have themes such as 'vodka', 'tractors', 'rockets', and 'Genghis Khan', as well as folkloric Russian songs, rock and roll ballads and covers from bands as diverse as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, all with lots of humor.

The Red Army Choir (Choir Aleksandrov) is a performing ensemble that served as the official army choir of the former Soviet Union's Red Army. The choir consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble. The songs they perform range from Russian folk tunes to Church hymns, operatic arias and popular music.

h/t To The Point News

Hindustan Times

Iran on Tuesday strongly criticised Google Earth, the virtual globe programme of the US-based search engine, for using term "Arabian Gulf" to show the water body historically known as the Persian Gulf, official IRNA news agency reported.

Speaking to reporters, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said the use of different name by the map programme was a desperate attempt to
falsify historical facts.

"Forging a name for the Persian Gulf will definitely tarnish the reputation of the website in the eyes of Iranians and other nations worldwide," he told reporters.

Google Earth has been known for a few controversies

Related from Tehran Times:
Iran Censures Google Earth

Also "To Be or Not to Be" is a petition started to have the name changed back to Persian Gulf:

If you want to know why they are doing this, it is probably for the same reason the French Louvre removed the “Persian” from the “Persian Gulf” right before they signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi to open a copy of the museum in that Emirate as you can find here:

"France’s celebrated art and antiquities museum, the Louvre, has deleted the word “Persian” from descriptions of the Persian Gulf in its map guides. It is an act against established United Nations guidelines, and can be viewed as a diplomatic gesture of frowning at Iran while winking at the Arab world."

Frowning at Iran?

Click image for more about Ron Paul happenings in Washington DC.

Yes, I played with the Obama Subtext generator thingy.

The Italian police said what? AGI:

Al Qaeda announced the opening of a web site in Italian aimed at recruiting new members. Postal police is looking into the matter. Investigators say that "At the moment it has only been announced, but we have found no trace of a new Italian website on the internet. We are looking for it and in the event that we find it we will monitor access to blogs and will adopt relative measures in the event of any breach of law"

Please let the Italian police only seem incompetent. Otherwise:

Thanks to Dinah Lord.

Archive is up.

Next week we welcome Ace.

BYOVRV*

*Bring Your Own Valu Rite Vodka

I have no idea what happened all day. My guess is that we were under a DDOS attack from the e-hadis. Yesterday I had a little back and forth with al Qaeda's online minions and swapped out some pictures they were hotlinking for a couple I knew they'd appreciate.

I should have known they'd try something like this. It's the same forum where all the official al Qaeda propaganda is channeled through and the same forum which put together al Qaeda's "online brigades" and instruct their members how to conduct targeted DDOS attacks.

I could be wrong, but the way the website was acting combined with the timing of the site outage leads me to believe this. I'll know more tomorrow, after Pixie wakes up.

In the meantime, it's good to be back. What did I miss?

UPDATE: Post hoc ergo propter hoc! Apparently the two events had nothing to do with each other. The hard drive on the server melted.

I hope that old man got that tractor beam out of commission or this is going to be a real short trip.

Tehran authorities want to "renovate" the neighborhood by removing historic synagogues. Shame on those jooooos for building them to begin with.

AKI

Tehran

Seven ancient synagogues in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been destroyed by local authorities.

The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live.

"These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground," said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums’ (ICOM) office in Tehran.

"With the excuse of renovating this ancient quarter, they are erasing a part of our history," said Tabatabaii.

That is exactly what Tehran is doing Mr. Tabatabaii, erasing Jewish history.

Demoralized, defeated, and nowhere left to run, al Qaeda in Iraq is left with blowing up large crowds of civilians and audio messages calling for Sunni unity against the apostates (Shia) and crusaders.

AKI:

In an audio recording released on Islamic forums on the Internet on Tuesday, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the Islamic State of Iraq, called on Sunnis in the Iraqi army, police and the so-called Awakening Councils to return to al-Qaeda and fight against US forces in the country....

The United States has reportedly described al-Baghdadi, as a fictitious character, used to give an Iraqi face to an organisation dominated by foreigner al-Qaeda fighters....

"How many of their men are currently detained in the jails of the Islamic State of Iraq or al-Qaeda and how many of your men are detained in the jails of the American forces and of the Iraqi government?" he said.

He also asked why the Sunni tribes "signed a ceasefire with the Sadrist Shia militias" and continue "to fight against us who are Sunnis".

UPDATE: Visual added

Someone remind al Qaeda why they have "no prisoners" again. They made the video this image came from. They used to be proud of how they tortured and executed prisoners. The new softer side of al Qaeda?

G*d, I hate Europe and their fascist speech police more and more every day. Yeah, I get it, the holocaust started with hate speech. But this? Come on! What gets you prosecuted for "inciting racial hatred" in France? Brigitte Bardot says:

I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts

Not that he needs a link from me anymore, but AP gets an automatic one for the title alone: Porn, Wahhabi style.

While AP's link is to a MEMRI clip of a Salafi preacher extolling the virtues of hot virgin babes in paradise, it should be noted that pornography is widely available in Saudi Arabia.

People like Dinesh D'Souza argue that porn is a cause of terrorism. Terrorism, in his view, is partially a cultural reaction to all the decadent garbage we send to Muslim societies. I think Robert Spencer's rejoinders to D'Souza are sufficient to put that extremely naive argument to rest.

But what if pornography and other of the less palatable cultural products of a free society (any Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake song comes immediately to mind) actually reduces the threat of Islamic terrorism? Can more porn = less violence? All the studies I've seen seem to suggest yes.

This is not to suggest that pornography is healthy. It's not. I'm only suggesting that it doesn't lead to all of the negative outcomes that some people claim are associated with it. I'm also suggesting that pornography, like all vices, may have some potential benefits--like less terror.

I'd much rather see an epidemic of porn addiction in Saudi Arabia than an epidemic of jihad support.

Well of course, we aren't a Muslim country...yet. I will take America over ANY Arab country. I enjoy freedom which some in the Arab world will, sadly, never experience.

Yahoo

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Eight out of 10 Arabs have an unfavorable view of the United States and only six percent believe the U.S. troop build-up in Iraq in the last year has worked, said a poll of six Arab countries released on Monday.

"There is a growing mistrust and lack of confidence in the United States," said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor in charge of the annual poll.

The survey canvassed the opinions of about 4,000 people over the past month in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. It has a margin of error of about 1.6 percent.

Of those polled, 83 percent had an unfavorable view of the United States and 70 percent had no confidence in the superpower.

Sounds like Democrat talking points.

Does someone in Washington get it?

John McCain called Tuesday for the federal government to free people from paying gasoline taxes this summer and ensure that college students can secure loans this fall, proposals aimed at stemming the public's pain now from the troubled economy.

In the longer-term, the certain Republican presidential nominee said he would double the tax exemption for dependent children and offer people the option of choosing a simpler tax system.

Lower taxes = lower prices. YES, WE CAN!

I've been trying to avoid posting this, but the people have spoken. Let mob rule prevail. Here it is, the Marilyn Monroe sex video.

Scroll to the end of post to see video.

But first, I'll send you over to Jules Crittenden's for some discussion of the Marilyn Monroe sex video since he hit me up for a link this morning. Like Jules, I'm less than morally outraged. Monroe used sex to further her own career, so it's hardly surprising that she was giving BJs to film execs on film. She certainly wasn't a victim.

What a lot are missing in the discussion over the vid is that the guy that bought the Marilyn Monroe sex film claims he's not going to sell it or allow it to be distributed over the internet. He says he's doing it out of 'respect'. Right.

He can call it what he wants, I call it selfishness. He wants the Marilyn Monro porno all to himself. The masses? Let them eat cake.

So, without further discussion here it is: The Marilyn Monroe Sex Video.

Suckas!

Really, get a freaking life you moronic pervs.

To be honest, I have a feeling this is all bogus, any way. The sources on this story don't sound that credible to me. Color me skeptical. I'll believe it when I see it. Actually, I probably won't ever be seeing it, so I'll believe it when enough of you pervs see it and testify to its authenticity.

Speaking of the Kennedy clan, how much of that Kennedy estate fortune was wasted wining and dining starlets like Monroe I wonder?

Eric Breininger (L) & Houssain al-Malla (R)

A Muslim terrorist named Eric Breininger? It took less than a year from Breininger to go from a loser who had just knocked up his girlfriend to calling himself "Abdul Rafar" and heading to Pakistan to fight the apostates and infidels.

Welcome to the brave new world of Western converts to the Religion of Peace.

Breininger and Houssain al-Malla, an immigrant from Lebanon, are said to be members of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). The IJU can be thought of as the Uzbek Taliban. The group has close ties to al Qaeda.

Catch and release goes terribly wrong: al-Malla was arrested trying to enter Pakistan last year and deported back to Germany where he was promptly released, went to Egypt where he met up with Breininger. The pair then hopped a flight to Iran en route right back into Pakistan.

Stars and Stripes:

German federal police have sent out “wanted” posters for two Germans who they say are training at a Pakistan terrorist camp and planning suicide attacks such as one carried out in Afghanistan last month that killed two U.S. soldiers, according to German media...

The two men in the posters — one a German, the other born in Lebanon but a resident of Germany — have been in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan for several months, German authorities told Spiegel magazine...

The two men were thought to be planning an attack on German soldiers in Afghanistan, the newspaper and other German media reported over the past two weeks. “Wanted” posters of the two have been circulating there since the beginning of the month, the reports said. The posters are in English and warn that each man is suspected of planning bomb attacks, and authorities have said that they might also try to bomb other NATO troops.

Focus magazine identified them as Eric Breininger, 20, and Houssain al-Malla, 23.

The two had been living in Neunkirchen, a town near Saarbrücken.

Breininger and al-Malla are “known followers of the IJU (Islamic Jihad Union) and are considered very dangerous and fanatic,” according to the Saarbrückner Zeitung....

Breininger, who was born in Neunkirchen, had been a roommate of Daniel Schneider, one of two Germans who were arrested along with a Turkish-born German resident in September for allegedly plotting to bomb several U.S. military targets in Germany and Frankfurt International Airport.

What worries me is that the posters seem to be primarily targeted at U.S. soldiers on German soil. Which means the Germans suspect that the pair may be heading back home in an attempt to target American bases in Germany.

Keep an eye out.

Thanks to Cindy and to R. Reynolds for digging up the wanted posters.

Lots of lulz here. The generator is here. (ht: MM) Here are some of my favorites:

How bad is it in the UK? Bad enough that MI5 needs domestic spies to keep tabs on terrorists in Scotland.

I'll be heading to Scotland next month. Since Nessie sightings are becoming increasingly rare, maybe I should spend my time trolling for jihadis?

April 14, 2008

Two mentions in a single day on al Qaeda's favorite e-zine? That's a new record. We're flattered, really.

Note to Careful and Commander: The "Israeli thugs" at The Jawa Report have a message for you.

The first rule of e-had club is we don't mention the Zionist internet overlords. The second rule of -ehad club is we don't mention the Zionist internet overlords.

Ali ali oxen free!

Thanks to Bride of Franken-irhab.

UPDATE: Well, lookee here. Validation.

We all know this is a trick by "the deniers" to destroy and discredit the most altruistic, most well-thought-through, least-hysterical, most perfect, most sustainable government powergrab ever conceived.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The EU Commission on Monday rejected claims that producing biofuels is a "crime against humanity" that threatens food supplies, and vowed to stick to its goals as part of a climate change package.

The bull-headed, irony-laden Euronitwits appear positively determined to run the human race in to the ground in the name of "saving" humanity (which they were never doing anyway). And guess who's hardest hit? The poor, women and minorities.

(golf clap). Hurrah, socialism!

"There is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels," said Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

"You can't change a political objective without risking a debate on all the other objectives," which could see the EU landmark climate change and energy package disintegrate, an EU official said.

Their comments came amid growing unease over the planting of biofuel crops as food prices rocket and riots against poverty and hunger multiply worldwide.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told German radio Monday that the production of biofuels is "a crime against humanity" because of its impact on global food prices.

The European Environment Agency, advisors to the European Commission, on Friday recommended that the EU suspend its 10 percent biofuels target.

It argued that the target would require large amounts of additional imports of biofuels leading to the accelerated destruction of rain forests. The agency also questioned the environmental benefits of biofuels.

Also in a recent report the World Bank said bluntly "biofuel production has pushed up feedstock prices".

Predictable, though. When the only solution the left has is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

When can the world start suing Algore for initiating and driving this bout of worldwide starvation and price gouging in the name of Gaia?

Reap the whirlwind, environuts. You created the problem, you get to fix it - without taking more of everybody's income and food.

And you too, Bush, although I don't think you're going to stick around to see this one through.

Following dismissal of charges under a general amnesty law by an Iraqi court, Multi-National Force Iraq has determined that Associated Press employee Bilal Hussein "...no longer presents an imperative threat to security," and will be released on April 16.

From the MNFI press release:

According to MNF-I officials, Hussein was alleged to have possessed bomb-making materials, conspired with insurgents to photograph explosions directed at Iraqi Security and Coalition forces, and offered to forge an identification card for a wanted terrorist who was being pursued by Coalition forces. The allegations and evidence provided by MNF-I supported the main charge against Hussein, that of terrorism under Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law. Under this law, as under the terrorism laws of many countries, journalistic motives are not a legal defense.

Over at the New Media Journal, JB Williams presses the case for McCain from a "true conservative" perspective.

Williams writes to counter the "anger driven lies" that are being spread to the effect that John McCain would not be head and shoulders above Hillary or Obama. Based on a grid laying out the issues, Williams asserts that the case for John McCain should be clear to any "true conservative," and closes with the following:

If conservatives don't lay their temper tantrums aside and think clearly, they can lose this election as well as this nation. They already lost control of their party and unless they have the guts to cut their losses until they can take it back, they will never regain control of anything.

There may be a "true conservative" case to be made for John McCain, but if the issues laid out in this article sum it up, the case for McCain is even weaker than I thought.

For starters, McCain may indeed be "more conservative" on a whole bunch of issues he'll never have to deal with in the oval office, but what do I care about that? How many people are really staying up late worrying about the President's position on death penalties or "three-strikes" laws? How many times has George W. sat down with his top staffers to work through the appropriate federal policy on these state-level issues? The same goes for school prayer, school choice and "abortion on demand," which McCain (apparently) opposes but Hillary and Obama (apparently) support. Important issues? Certainly. Important in picking a President? Not so much.

There's a second group of issues for which the position identified as "conservative" is the one which requires a larger, more expansive federal government, while the "liberal" position is the one which calls for a more limited federal role. McCain (apparently) supports expanded federal spending to churches, which makes him the "conservative" of the group, while Hillary and Obama are (apparently) opposed to this type of welfare, which makes them "liberals." McCain supports the Patriot Act, the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, which makes him the "conservative," while Hillary and Obama (supposedly) don't, which makes them the "liberals." Given the number of conservatives on both sides of these issues, none can be considered a "conservative/liberal" litmus test. McCain's positions do align with the "true blue" Republican positions, but McCain isn't going to have a problem with that group.

Now, support for private gun ownership actually is a very good conservative/liberal litmus test, but McCain is, more often than not, on the wrong side of that issue. If we put McCain in office, I think we can expect to say "hello" to the "Assault Weapon Ban of 2009." The truth is, McCain would be free to support gun control in a way that a Democrat President would not be. It astounds me that some people have so much difficulty understanding this fact.

McCain supports "free trade" while Hillary and Obama are (supposedly) against it? Let's get real. The debate over the philosophy of free trade is (for better or worse) long since over. We have two "free trade" parties in this country. Debates over specific implementations of the concept are rarely even attempted as they (more often than not) sail through the House and Senate. There is simply not a "conservative" position on this issue.

The Good News: McCain is on the legitimate "conservative" side on restricting the expansion of socialized medicine, privatizing social security and keeping federal taxes under control. This is all good stuff in theory, but privatization of social security is a conservative pipe dream, just as a vast expansion of socialized medicine is a liberal pipe dream. Neither is going to happen in the next four years, no matter who is in the Oval office. That leaves federal taxes, and McCain can probably be counted on to keep taxes down. Score one for McCain.

The last four issues are "homosexual rights," "restrictive energy policy," "restrict campaign funding" and "illegal immigration." On each of these, Williams concedes that McCain is on the "liberal" side of the issue.

Given all of the above, what I take away from the article is that McCain will be more conservative than Hillary or Obama when it comes to a whole bunch of issues that don't matter much at the federal level and equally liberal to Obama and Hillary on a whole list of issues that do matter at the federal level and probably will come up. And McCain will be better on taxes. That's something, I suppose. Not much, but something...

h/t : Larwyn

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters)

Somali Islamist militants killed two Somalis holding British passports and two Kenyans at a school in the central town of Baladwayne overnight, local residents said on Monday.

"Al Shaabab fighters entered the town and suddenly attacked houses of government officials," resident Ahmed Elmi told Reuters. "Then they attacked a school where they killed two Kenyans, a British woman and a Somali man with a British passport."

Al Shabaab is a militant Islamist group that the United States put on its list of foreign terrorist organizations in late February, for what Washington says is links to al Qaeda.

Attacking a school is al Qaeda's modus operandi. The slain British man was an ethnic Somalian who had returned to build a school. My thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of this brutal attack.

Face melting irony alert. AKI:

One of the most popular Jihadist web forums, the al-Qaeda linked Ekhlas website, has launched a section in Italian....

Among the forum participants is a posting from Brahim33 who, writing in ungrammatical Italian, talks about the "lives of Arab Muslims in this country [Italy], where there are few who love [al-Qaeda leader] Bin Laden and who love the mujahadeen."

He talks about how "they have fear when I speak to them of Jihad in Afghanistan, in Iraq. They give you a look and they think that you're a terrorist."

A Canadian blogger has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against an imam calling for the imposition of Islamic law. Dust My Broom:

If the CHRC refuse to investigate my complaint, the public will be free to conclude that an institution meant to promote human rights is practicing a form of one-way absurd censorship. As a result, legitimate criticism of Islam is discouraged, while those who advocate the destruction of democracy and freedoms are protected. If the CHRC agrees to open an investigation, the writings of the imam will be exposed and scrutinized and, hopefully, discredited by the media. In the future, the media and the public will feel free to denounce subversive and hateful preachers without having to resort to the CHRC.

Thanks to Flea.

Yeah, I know I'm late to the game. Watch below. UPDATED: Falcon spotted over Italy!

Thanks to DCA. Come on people, send those links in!

UPDATE: Millennium Falcon over Milan. Thanks to Marked Manner.

Good news from MSM?

REUTERS

KABUL - Al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan-Pakistani border are increasingly facing pressure on two fronts and they can be squeezed with more coordination between the neighbors, a U.S. official said on Monday.

The Taliban have been battling U.S. and other foreign troops in Afghanistan since 2001.

Pakistani forces have also been fighting the militants, based in semi-autonomous tribal regions along the border, who have unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence in Pakistan since the middle of last year.

"To some extent, the extremists in those areas are now fighting on two fronts," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told a news conference in Kabul.

"They have to deal with pressures from the Pakistan side and the pressure from the Afghan side. The more we can do that in concert with each other, the more squeezed the al Qaeda and Taliban supporters in those areas will feel," said Boucher who makes regular trips to both Pakistan and Afghanistan. More

h/t Morning Coffee

Barack Obama seems to think so. Make sure to read Amy Proctor's comments as well. I think she gets some key points wrong, but they're worth the read.

Obama may be right, but I have serious reservations. It's something that Muslims are going to have to work out themselves.

Certainly I think that Islam will have a much harder time coming to terms with modernity than Western civilization did. And to think the transition was easy for us is to overlook several hundred years of bloodshed.

For Christians a move towards a more fundamentalist understanding of their roots was a move toward separation of church and state. For Muslims it is a move away from it.

It is this very basic problematic that makes equivocations between the two faiths so ill informed.

Nevertheless, I don't fault Obama for making the statement. Our politicians have to lie. It's called diplomacy.

Our political leaders have to say that Islam is peaceful and that Samuel Huntington's civilizational clash thesis is wrong. I expect them to say this. I want them to say this.

Because every time any one--let alone a political or religious leader--suggests otherwise, Muslims around the world erupt into violence, call for a return to the Dark Ages, and their governments promptly threaten a clash of civilizations if we don't take it back!

I only hope and pray that our leaders know they're not telling the truth. Because if they actually believe the garbage that routinely comes out of the mouths of both Republican and Democratic politicians, then we're screwed.

It's odd, too, that Obama uses his time in Indonesia [he was there under the successive secular dictatorships of Sukarno then Suharto] as a measure of how moderate & compatible with modern values Islam really is. For that matter it's not even fair to argue that since most Muslims just want the same things that you and I want--food, clothing, shelter, raising a family--that Islam itself isn't potentially dangerous.

Of course the vast majority of Muslims just want to raise their families, but so do the vast majority of communists, the vast majority of fascists, etc. It is not Islam as a religious movement that I object to, it is Islam as a political movement which is a problem.

An episode of Red Dwarf perfectly illustrates what Hannah Arendt termed the banality of evil when the crew went back in time to have dinner with the Hitlers. The Hitlers were described as throwing the most fabulous dinner parties.

I'll go to a ball game with a communist, hang out with them, compare notes on hot celebrity babes--and in fact, frequently do just this! I'm in academia, remember? A communist might be cool, but communism has been the source of more death, destruction, and oppression than any other political system of the 20th Century.

It's not how Muslims, as individuals, worship God that worries me. It's not how Muslims, as individuals, treat me that is a problem. It's what happens when Muslims, acting through the power of the state, trample on the most basic tenets of religious and speech freedoms that I fear.

Islam will remain in the same category as fascism and communism as long as even 'moderate' & 'secular' Muslims demand legal penalties for criticizing Muhammad & leaving the faith.

How nice. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert granted amnesty to terrorists on condition that said terrorists repent of their wicked ways. Doesn't look like that idea worked out quite the way he had planned.

From Aaron Klein of WND

JERUSALEM – The terrorist cell that planned to poison an Israeli restaurant this month was led by jihadists who were recently granted amnesty by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, WND has learned.

The pardoned terrorists, members of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, were directly involved in orchestrating the foiled attack, according to defense sources. They were granted amnesty in October as a stated Israeli gesture to help bolster Palestinian Authority President and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The terrorists were given amnesty on condition they disarm, refrain from attacks and spend three months in PA detention facilities and another three months confined to Nablus, the northern West Bank city in which they reside. More...

Why have Sunnis in Iraq gone from our enemies to our allies? They've tasted what it's like to live under a Taliban-like state. Totten:

Many Fallujans initially welcomed Zarqawi and his lieutenants as liberators from the hated American occupiers. But the jihadists did not fight for freedom. Instead, they enforced Islamic law at the point of a gun, establishing a brand of fascism even worse than Saddam’s. They murdered sheikhs who opposed them. They butchered their enemies’ families, burning women alive and slashing children’s throats with kitchen knives, and massacred other families for accepting food from Marines. City officials, tribal authorities, police officers—anyone in charge of anything was targeted for destruction.

Terrorist group Hamas is holding back 1 million litres of needed fuel for Gaza residents and at the same time crying fowl over Israel's recent closing of the Nahal Oz crossing. The fuel terminal had been shut down after a terrorist attack killed two Israeli employees.

Palestinian media claimed the attack was meant to throw blame at Israel for dwindling fuel supplies in Gaza, but in fact the operation was a well planned terror attack on the fueling station that supplies Gaza with gas. A video was obtained by Infolive.tv from Islamic Jihad's al Quds brigade showing the attack.

Mail & Guardian

Jerusalem, Israel

Hamas is holding back the distribution of one million litres of fuel in the Gaza Strip, a United Nations official said on Monday, joining Israeli claims that the Islamists were stage-managing a crisis.

However, the official, who requested anonymity, added that the current quantities of fuel and industrial gasoline stored in Gaza are sufficient for only several days.

"The general petroleum association refuses to distribute in protest at the lack of supply of fuel by Israel," he said, referring to the union of Gaza petrol-station owners.

Israel shut the Nahal Oz crossing and fuel terminal on Wednesday after a raid by Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli employees and shattered a month-long lull in violence.

Looks like Gaza residents need to hang those blankets back up in their windows to hide outside lights.

Hippies. The good kind: Sunni, Shia Peace March in Iraq.

Sucks to be the followers of Omar Bakri Mohammed today:

THIS CONFERENCE HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

“May Allah (swt) reward all those who worked in organising the conference, as well as those who made the intention to attend the conference.

The cancelation was not in our hands, rather in the hands of those we had booked the venue with. Unfortunatly this is the reality of such people who cannot accept the truth.”

Michael Yon is asking for you to help get Moment of Truth in Iraq in your bookstore. Print this flyer out and give it to your librarian.

Bad: Pakistan prosecuted 13 blasphemers last year. Worse: Most of the blasphemers were Muslim. FUBAR: Pakistani Islamists want international blasphemy laws:

Similarly, Mufti Sarfaraz Naeemi, a Sunni scholar, said that Section 295-C -- which refers to the use of derogatory remarks in respect of the holy Prophet (PTUI) -- had been inducted into Pakistan’s legal system with great effort. He said that the law was in complete accordance with Sharia and anyone convicted of blasphemy against the prophet or holy book of any religion should be awarded the maximum punishment. “We want such laws to exist at the international level so that anyone who commits blasphemy can be given the harshest punishment,” he added.

A London public pool is now scheduling times when only Christian men are allowed. No women. No Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, or Muslims. Just Christian men.

Yes. Israellycool has the photos to prove it.

Hat tip: Marked Manner for the e-mail.

We must not only win in Iraq but crush our enemies there. The Islamist world view is that America lacks the will to fight. Those fighting us in Iraq and Afghanistan believe they can win. And when they drive us out, they believe that there ranks will only grow. Osama bin Laden's theory of public support must always be taken into account:

When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.

They were willing to help us, but they are not a stupid people. They know that if they commit to the American side and the Americans abandon them as we did in 1991, it means death for them and their families. They know this, and it is real. It is not an abstract idea for them.

Most Iraqis don’t support Al-Qaida and the militias, but when our commitment to stay in Iraq and finish the job is in doubt — as it was when Sen. Harry Reid went on TV and said, “this war is lost” — Iraqis are going to hedge their bets. They may not support the militias, but when they are betting their lives, most of them are not going to commit to America unless they are assured that America is committed to them.

I get the argument for why we should not have fought the first war. I get the blame game of those wanting to place responsibility of the second war on an unprepared administration.

What I don't get are those who argue that since the first war did not improve U.S. security that the second war should not be fought. That calling it quits against Islamist insurgents is somehow in our national interests. It's not. Retreat from Iraq is a clear signal to Islamists that Osama bin Laden's view of a weak America unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary for winning the long struggle is correct. And that will only lead to more attacks.

*Just to clarify, by the First Iraq War I mean the 2003 conflict which saw the successful invasion of Iraq and overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime. The liberation of Kuwait is generally referred to as 'The Gulf War' in the West or "The Gulf War II' in the Middle East [the Iran-Iraq war is usually called 'The Gulf War' there].

Good news out of Basra: Photojournalist Richard Butler, who was kidnapped from his hotel February 11, and was feared to have been taken into Iran by his captors, has been rescued in a military raid by Iraqi forces. Via Times Online:

Iraqi forces have freed a British journalist kidnapped in the southern city of Basra in February.

Major-General Mohammed al-Askary told Reuters news agency that Richard Butler, a photographer for the US network CBS, was well.

“He is in good health. He is fine. He’s here with me,” General Askary said from Basra.

Thank God for this answer to prayers. Please continue to pray for Jonathon Cote who is still missing in Basra, and for the other hostages in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

UPDATE: Richard Butler Describes His Rescue

UPDATE II: The video of Richard Butler's news conference after his rescue earlier this morning is posted above. Thanks to Mrs. Abe Froman for the video link!

April 13, 2008

I have no idea what the hell this statement from America's only Muslim congressman means:

Ellison went on to say if more people knew of what Islam had to teach, the controversy created by statements from presidential candidate Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, might not have occurred.

Seriously, is this just a stupid non-sequitur about Islam teaching us to tolerate assholes like Jeremiah Wright or was Keith Ellison actually trying to say something more nefarious--like Islam teaches these things so chill out America??

Or maybe he's referring to Wright's church honoring Louis Farrakhan? So, more Islam and less thinking racist antisemites are cool?

Or his publication of a Hamas manifesto? More understanding of Islam, less objection to terrorists? Which would be, I dunno, ironic.

I have no freaking clue!

The troopers certainly have a sick sense of humor or they are pro KKK.
This KKK ceremony picture below reminds me of jihadi's with their covered faces. Disgusting group of people.

TBO SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP)

A highway patrolman who was photographed in a handmade Ku Klux Klan costume while on duty the day before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday has been suspended without pay, authorities said.

A fellow trooper who transmitted the cell-phone photo of white-masked lawman has been demoted.

Craig Franklin, a 12-year veteran of the Ohio Highway Patrol, is pictured in the Jan. 20 photo with a white cone on his head, white paper mask and a white cloth covering his shoulders, according to a highway patrol report.

Franklin is otherwise in trooper uniform. A handgun holster, a radio normally issued by the patrol and other police equipment can be seen in the photo, the report said.

Sick stunt.

Click the image to be taken to the video. What else is there to add? The video pretty much speaks for itself.

So freaky deaky, it must be right!

Thanks to Imperial Minister of all things freaky deaky Flea.

Zombie has images of Obama's recent fundraiser at Billionaires Row in SF, Ca. showing the hypocrisy of Michele Obama's comment:

"When you're given the gift of advocacy, you don't sell it to the highest bidder," Mrs. Obama said. Mrs. Obama stressed how her husband has relied on "regular folks" instead of big donors. Instead of thousand-dollar donations, the Obama campaign has raised millions on small checks of $20 to $50. Mrs. Obama sees this participatory attitude as a new trend.

h/t Noam Sayin'

Found this cool IMB (International Maritime Bureau) live piracy attacks map. Has current map and others dating back to 2005. The attacks are more numerous than I had originally thought.

Piracy attacks map

Key:
1. All positions are as received by the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. If exact coordinates are not provided, estimated positions are shown based on information provided . This is particularly relevant to attacks within port limits.
2. Please zoom-in to high risk areas to see individual attacks. In the zoom-out mode, the pointers may appear superimposed on each other because of the close proximity of the attacks.
3. Click on each marker to see brief details about the corresponding attack.

h/t JHW at LGF's link viewer

Irish Examiner

Afghanistan’s intelligence chief said today a coalition helicopter accidentally dropped food and weapons in a remote area of southern Afghanistan where Taliban fighters recovered the supplies.

Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, told members of parliament the supplies were intended for police at a checkpoint in the southern province of Zabul.

US and Nato forces said it wasn't one of their helicopters. If article is true, how can one "accidentally" do this. Could it be accidentally on purpose? Or could the accusation be aimed at discrediting the coalition forces. Inquiring minds want to know.

Update: All Taliban sites removed, thanks so much to everyone who helped out.

***Sticky, scroll down for new***

Sites removed by hosts thanks to your complaints:
http://www.freewebtown.com/wewrwr/
http://www.freewebtown.com/mickpoor/
Arabic(?): http://www.geocities.com/belallasdw/
Arabic(?):http://www.geocities.com/preytursei/

RELATED CONTENT SERVERS:
http://www.geocities.com/adasaqr/
http://www.geocities.com/djfdeeerhue/
http://www.geocities.com/addssdd_fdgdfg/
Pashtun: http://www.alemarah.110mb.com/
http://www.freewebtown.com/colonpoul/
http://www.freewebtown.com/mickmoon/
English: http://www.engl.110mb.com/indexeng.htm
Urdu: http://www.urdo.110mb.com/indexurdu.html

The OFFICIAL websites of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the group more commonly known as the Taliban, are once again being hosted on servers in the United States, Australia, & the Netherlands. The websites are used as press release outlets for two of the Taliban's top spokesmen. One of the websites is in English.

The English language website was updated as recently as today with "press releases" from the Taliban including "Puppet police commander among 10 gourd police were killed in Kandahar" & "Martyrdom Operation At Military convoy of Canadian soldiers in Kandahar" [sic].

Hosting these websites violates U.S. & international law. You can help by following the instructions below on how to complain to the service providers.

These free hosting companies have been responsive to complaints & have removed Taliban websites from their servers in the past. Because of the large volume of websites hosted by these companies, there is very little chance that they know they are providing services to the Taliban. As always, the number of complaints is directly correlated to how quickly the websites come down.

Please link this post or send it along to every one you know. Those who have friends or relatives fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan might be especially troubled to learn that the very people that are trying to kill their loved ones maintain a business relationship with domestic companies.

Here is a sample e-mail that should be the e-mail addresses included in the letter. The letter to the 110mb.com should be self explanatory, but the letter to the Tulix address goes to Freewebtown (always very responsive to complaints) while the letter to yahoo-inc.com goes to Yahoo!, the parent company of Geocities.com (usually very slow to respond to complaints):

UPDATE: As expected, the folks at Tulix took down the Freewebtown sites almost immediately, so I've removed their abuse e-mail and the associated websites from the sample letter below. The PWNage has begun!

UPDATE II: 110mb sites have also been removed, PWNage continues!

UPDATE III: 110mb failed to take down the MAIN PAGE, so their e-mail is back in. This is an Australian company with servers in The Netherlands.

UPDATE IV: All but the main Pashtun language site are down. I never thought I'd see the day where Yahoo!Geocities responded more quickly than other providers. Please e-mail the final service provider, 110mb.com and let them know they are violating Australian law. They took down the Taliban's English language website, but left up their Pashtun page, which is their main outlet. And it's not like they have the excuse that since they can't read Pashtun they can't verify if this is really the Taliban--the header reads "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" in English:

Update V: Last site removed, PWNage complete! 110mb.server@gmail.com

I am writing to inform you that your company is illegally hosting one or more websites from the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", the group more commonly known as the TALIBAN.

Providing business services, even free ones, to the Taliban violates Dutch, Australian, EU, U.S. and international law as per UN Resolutions. Please cease and desist immediately and report all relevant information, including IP logs, to law enforcement.

In the U.S. providing business services, even free ones, to the Taliban violates the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Each IEEPA violation carries a fine of up to $250,000.

In Australia providing webhosting to the Taliban violates the Section 80.2 of the Criminal Code which defines "sedition" as "the assistance of an enemy
engaged in armed hostilities with the Australian Defence Force."

In all other countries providing business services to the Taliban violates the Charter of the United Nations (Anti-terrorism — Persons and Entities) List, under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 & UN Security Council Eesolution 1267 which says, "Asset holders are under an obligation to freeze the assets or economic resources of persons involved in terrorism as listed in the Consolidated List", of which the Taliban are listed.

Your company is hosting one or more of the following websites belonging to the Taliban:

Personal note to Adil Watanmal, Qari Muhammad Yussuf (Ahmadi) & Zabihullah Mujahid: Today cyber war, tomorrow a Predator.

Telegraph

Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres linked to British universities and backed by multi-million-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organisations, a new report claims.

Eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, with much of the money going to Islamic study centres, according to the report.

The total sum, revealed by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, amounts to the largest source of external funding to UK

Arab donors have argued that their gifts to academic institutions help to promote understanding between the West and the Islamic world. However, Prof Glees claims in his unpublished report that the propagation of one-sided views of Islam and the Middle East at universities amounts to anti-Western propaganda.

Prof Glees attracted controversy in 2005 when he claimed that up to 48 universities had been infiltrated by fundamentalists and warned that the threat posed by radical groups should be "urgently addressed".

At a conference in London on Thursday, the Government is expected to call for the opening of more Islamic study centres at British universities. Last year, ministers declared Islamic studies a "strategically important subject" and put aside £1 million for the teaching of the subject, as part of a counter-radicalisation drive.

Universities that have accepted donations from Saudi royals and other Arab sources include Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University College London, the London School of Economics, Exeter, Dundee and City. Prof Glees says Government policies "push the wrong sort of education by the wrong sort of people, funded by the wrong sorts of donor".

Teaching anti-western, extremist views with Saudi funding. The three "r's" in reversion. Muslim's believe all are born Muslim and when one converts to Islam they are actually reverting back. Just some food for thought.

April 12, 2008

Mark Steyn doing what he does best. Watch it all - you'll be glad you did.

Pope Will Pray Jihadis Convert to Christianity at Ground Zero

As a fan of both Radiohead and Muse, I can safely say that Muse kicks Radiohead's ass. But that's just me.

Encore - Plug In Baby:

When evil grows and no one acts, the common people take it in the neck.

The Afghan medical director of a German NGO, Kinderberg International, and his driver disappeared on the road from Kabul to Kunduz in the north of Afghanistan and are feared to be kidnapped (via AFP):

KABUL - An Afghan doctor and a driver from a German aid group are missing in northern Afghanistan and police are investigating whether they have been kidnapped, a police commander said today.

KinderBerg International, which helps disabled Afghan children, said two of its workers had disappeared while travelling between the capital Kabul and the northern province of Kunduz.

The pair’s vehicle was found abandoned in Chaharikar, the capital of Parawan province, about 60 kilometres north of Kabul, police said.

"We found the vehicle of the NGO workers and they were missing. Right now we don’t know what has happened to them," provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziayee told AFP. "We’ve launched an investigation into the case and are trying to find out whether they have been kidnapped or not. There’s a strong possibility that they’ve been kidnapped," the police chief added.

He did not say who would be the likely culprits if they had been snatched, but Taliban militants have abducted foreign nationals and those Afghans working with them in the past. The aid group named the pair as Abdul Rab, a 44-year-old doctor and his driver, Abdul Hafiz.

Prayers for Dr. Rab and Mr. Hafiz's protection and for the safety of all those "ministering angels" who risk their lives daily to help the weak and defenseless in some of the most brutal regions of the world.

Click here for more, including a chronology of recent kidnappings in Afghanistan.

Thanks to Stable Hand

They're coming for you next.

When it's all said and done, don't say we smokers didn't warn you.

Glen Beck and Mark Steyn discuss Michelle Obama's undertones in her recent speech on the campaign trail.

h/t Stop The ACLU

No wonder al Qaeda has moved from being the number one threat in Iraq to the number two slot: they're a bunch of retards. Watch this "attack on a column of security guards in Ninevah". First one to notice the rather obvious and glaring problem gets 72 virgins. Never mind the shooting at moving targets way out of range problem, focus instead on the IED.

Like I said retards.

UPDATE: Members of the "Shield of Islam Brigades" show similar brilliance in the second video of an IED attack against a Kurdish vehicle in Kirkuk.

A collectible so wrong, it must be right.

Thanks to Jason.

While posting this my mind was playing tricks on me. I was visualizing all the "white people" sitting behind Obama during his recent speech. One excited lady looked like she was about have to a ummm, never mind. The staffers picked the backdrop well.

h/t LGF link thingy.

Up close and personal. Good job IDF! These Palestinian terrorists were responsible for killing two Israeli fuel terminal workers.

h/t Weasel Zippers

The something about Barack Obama is that he just doesn't get it when he tries to relate to people whose American experience is different from his.

Obama on rural Americans:

And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Look Barack, you and Michelle grew up in primarily urban environments, and it seems that silver spoons were never far from your mouths. The rural American experience is alien to you. Now, you're trying to relate, and I give you some credit for that, though trying to pound the round peg of country life into the square hole of the nanny state isn't the way to do it.

Let's take that clinging to guns thing, for instance.

Now, I grew up in a rural hamlet in upstate New York. A hamlet is a place so small that it has a name, but the only local "government" is maybe a volunteer fire department, if that.

Apart from the fact that we use our guns to hunt game, both big and small, there's another issue. Something that might not occur to you high-falutin' city folk.

Let's say that you, Barry, suddenly find yourself in need of assistance from the police. A typical white, born-again, drunken, anti-trade bigot who hates illegal immigrants is banging on the door to your mansion and you're afraid for the safety of your family. Why, I'll bet the Chicago police are there inside of five minutes with bells on and whistles blowing. And it probably will be quicker than that; it'll just seem like five minutes to you.

Back in the sticks, where us rubes hang out swilling beer, ogling cousins, and shooting up road signs, it's a different story.

Let's say that a woman who lives where I grew up has kicked her man out because he developed the habit of knocking her around a little bit whenever he got the right mix of intoxicating spirits into himself. One night around two AM he starts banging on her door and shouting that he's going to wring her neck.

She can't call the local police, because there aren't any local police. It's a hamlet, dude.

She's got two choices: she could call the state police substation, which is a few minutes closer than the sheriff, but there isn't always someone there; in fact, two in the AM isn't a good time to even hope that anyone's there. So she calls the county sheriff.

Now, since the sheriff is located in the county seat on the other side of the county, it's going to be at least a half hour before help shows up at her not-a-mansion door. Maybe she'll get lucky and a deputy will be on road patrol somewhere closer, say, only twenty minutes away, or so.

Mr. Obama, sir, can you see why this poor woman might need an equalizer?

Over at Power Line, John Hinderaker is wondering if Barack has just scuttled his whole campaign with this misstep.

April 11, 2008

She sounds like Obama's stark raving lunatic pastor:

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

Keys, 27, said she's read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead," according to an interview in the magazine's May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."

I'm just wondering who she might be voting for. I'll let you all know when I find out.

Bet it's McCain.

Check out some of the others, too. There are many, and most of them are hilarious.

Titanic, with the melodrama boiled down to its essential elements:

How about Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

Last taste- The Empire Strikes Back:

OK - one more. The Big Lebowski (my personal favorite):

Bonus Video: Mahdi Army Blows up Again!

Allah Akbar weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thanks to Kafir.

Update: more fun from Vinnie

Via Michelle:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them...it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

I can't speak for rural Pennsylvanians, but I myself "cling" to my guns because I know that gun-hating bastards like Obama are trying to take them. I neither feel nor express "anti-immigrant" sentiments, though I do believe in the rule of law. Thus, I both feel and express "anti-illegal" sentiments. I'm a big believer in the importance of trade, but I also believe in national sovereignty and national security, both of which, in my opinion, sometimes have to trump the almighty dollar.

I have a job, so my "bitterness" must have some other explanation.

Some of what Jesse Petrilla describes in his article about a trip he took to see how the Christian minority in Egypt were faring is typical of the third world and doesn't necessarily reflect Islamist oppression. For instance, while I wouldn't say it was 'routine' that I got the shake down from corrupt cops while living in Russia, it did happen once or twice. Same thing happens in Mexico all the time, or so I'm told.

Other stories, such as mosques interrupting Christian prayers? Not so much:

I met with many people during my trip, and I learned a great deal about what it is like to live as a minority under Islam. I spoke with a priest who told me how he can see the younger generation of Christians there becoming more and more Islamized. I spoke with a man who told me how his young Christian children are taught in public schools there that they are going to hell if they do not become Muslims. I saw brutal intimidation and oppression, and a life dictated by Islamic law that many Americans don’t realize but are slowly beginning to see. Before we left, our guide showed us his ID card which had a glaring number 2 in the corner. He told me that Christians are required to have that number on their IDs. I asked if Muslims were required to have a number as well. “Yes,” he responded. “Number 1.”

From FM News Talk 100.3 KTLK

Need a question answered by Obama? "Obama knows all, tells all."

Just ask the Obama magic 8 ball!

Thanks to Paul's link in comments on Barack Obama's Jedi Mind Trick

CNBC

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial)

Iranian boats engaged in a "mild" and "taunting" confrontation with a US warship in the Gulf, CNN television reported Friday.

Late Thursday the three small Iranian boats approached the U.S.S. Typhoon, the report said.

"One of those Iranian boats coming within 200 yards of the navy boat," CNN reported, "leading the crew onboard the 'Typhoon' to fire a warning flare." "The Iranians were manning in a taunting manner," CNN said citing an unnamed US official.

The Iranian Mullas keep pushing and pushing. Thugs

WaTimes:

The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) now will automatically review nearly 500,000 names on its watch list that are frequently matched during airport screenings and other law-enforcement encounters with the general public and remove those names that don't belong to actual suspects.

If any one can put in the good word for me at Randolph College let them know I'm totally in to the whole field trip thing.

Update on Vicki's post Al Qaeda Says It's Not Responsible For Fate Of Hostages

NEFA

The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated an April 7, 2008 communiqué issued by "the Al-Qaida Network in the Islamic Maghreb" (formerly known as the Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat, GSPC)[...]

According to the statement, the AQIM is now offering to exchange the lives of the two Austrian hostages for the release of two Muslim residents of Vienna prosecuted for distributing jihad propaganda on the Internet—and the immediate withdrawal of a token Austrian military delegation from international peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan.

Related:
Austrian Terrorist Tries To Play The Nice Guy
Austria: Attack On US Embassy In Vienna Foiled

Seriously, this guy needs therapy. Or a medal. I don't know which.

Thanks to DCA for doing what all of you should be doing: watching my back.

This is a slap in the face to everyone affected by 9/11.

Telegraph

A German opera house is to unveil a provocative new production staged in the ruins of New York's World Trade Centre.

It features naked pensioners and Mickey Mouse masks, Hitler salutes and Elvis impersonators. The self-consciously outrageous September 11th staging of Verdi's 'A Masked Ball' has been dreamed up by Austrian director Johann Kresnik.

"It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre," he told reporters before Saturday's premiere. “The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don’t have anything anymore."

Rehearsals suggest that Mr Kresnik's anti-capitalist staging is unlikely to be celebrated for its subtlety.

Some of the cast are dressed in soldiers uniforms, or in the red white and blue of Uncle Sam, or in day-glow pink Elvis costumes, slashed to the waist. Many, however, appear to spend their time on stage not wearing anything at all.

He has described the concoction as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor, which attracting a large audience.

Mr Kresnik must frequent SF moonbat sites as well as Bezerkeley.

Read the rest. WARNING bare nekkid ugly people.

Warning: Some strong language.

Sweeeet! You just have no idea how much Howie enjoyed that ;)

Hat Tip: Turin.

Honestly, you people suck. How come I have to find out about this through AllahP? Let me remind you how this shtick works: Star Wars themed stuff, send to me; D&D related stuff, send to Ace; all other uber geeky related stuff, send to AllahP. Capiche?

Below: Barack Obama secures the crucial Luke Skywalker vote.

Press release Via the Jeff Ake website jeffake.com

Jeffrey Ake of LaPorte, Indiana was abducted by terrorists while working on a private reconstruction project in Iraq on April 11th 2005. Mr. Ake has been held longer than any other U.S. citizen in Iraq. At this time there is no information about his whereabouts or status. After three years his wife and four children still remain hopeful that he will return home soon. Liliana Ake, Mr. Ake's wife said, "We continue to pray for Jeff's safe return, as well as the safe return of all other hostages. I once again ask anyone who may have information about Jeff to please contact the local authorities."

The Friends of Jeff, a group of Mr. Ake's friends from Downers Grove North High School, have come together to provide support for Liliana Ake and the children. A website, www.jeffake.com has been established to provide information and an avenue for people to donate funds to help the family through this difficult time. Due to Mr. Ake's prolonged absence, the company, which had been the family's sole source of income and benefits, was not able to continue. "When people hear about Jeff and Lilly's story, they always ask if there is anything they can do to help. We have established the Jeff Ake Family Trust to provide financial support for Lilly and the children, so people can help the family through this tragic situation," remarked David Dlesk, one of the Friends of Jeff. "It has been wonderful to see the generous response of so many people. We encourage everyone to reach out and help someone who may be having difficulties as a result of the turmoil in Iraq, whether it is the family of a hostage, a member of the military or the people of Iraq. No matter what your political position may be on the war, we all need to take responsibility to help improve the situations of those who are suffering from the effects of terrorism." Liliana Ake said ''We appreciate all the loving support we have received during the past three years from many family and friends and many people we have never met.''

In April of 2005, Mr. Ake was in Iraq installing a bottled water line that his company, Equipment Express, had manufactured. He was abducted directly from the plant where he was working. On a video released shortly after his abduction, Mr. Ake was shown being held by armed gunmen. His abductors contacted the family shortly after he was taken, but there have been no further communications.

In the time that we have been covering the Jeff Ake story, it is good to see how much everyone has participated in trying to help Jeff's family. I can't describe how it feels to know that in some small way we have helped a little. Even if it's only forwarding a little crazy blog money or a blog post to bring attention to this story. Letting Jeff's family know we remember Jeff and we care makes blogging all worth it.

We pray that Jeff is found and returned to his family and that justice comes the terrorist who kidnapped him. We pray for God to comfort his family and watch over them.

Not much else to say on this sad anniversary.

Hat Tip: Dave.

Who do right-of-center bloggers want John McCain to choose as a running mate? Mitt Romney Least desired? Click on over to see. I didn't participate in the poll this time around, but we're pretty much on the same page.

Our prayers go out to Kenny Baker, the man inside R2-D2 in the first three Star Wars films, who has been hospitalized for asthma related problems. May the force be with him.

In an interview this week, Sen. Barack Obama was questioned about his support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. In response, he expressed his strong desire for "full equality" to all homosexuals.

In particular, after he is elected, President Obama will eliminate the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the U.S. military and he will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Also, Obama wants to give same-sex couples in the federal government the same health and pension benefits that married couples enjoy. He believes that changes in the federal employee benefit structure will provide impetus for changes in states throughout the nation.

"So I actually have been much more vocal on gay issues to general audiences than any other presidential candidate probably in history. What I probably haven't done as much as the press would like is to put out as many specialized interviews. But that has more to do with our focus on general press than it does on ... I promise you the African-American press says the same thing."

"I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

In any event, Sen. Obama declares himself as a strong shaker and mover for homosexual interests.

At a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton on Wednesday night, popular music hall-of-famer Elton John expressed amazement at what he perceives as a high level of misogyny in the U.S.

"Having said that, I never cease to be amazed at the misogynistic attitude of some people in this country. And I say to hell with them," he said, drawing cheers from the crowd at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan."

Elton John is officially recognized as disliking women and, therefore, the last guy to be speaking out against misogyny.

Not only that but what about Elton John throwing the memory of Marilyn Monroe under the bus for the sake of Princess Diana in the lyrics to Candle in the Wind? Are women interchangeable to Elton John? And, is he going to throw Princess Diana's memory under the bus when he gets the opportunity to re-re-market his catchy tune?

April 10, 2008

Ass Pennies:

Awesome 4 year old child prodigy drummer:

Hat tips for both: Ace and Ace

Like I was saying, freaking morons: Twenty Hizbullah Terrorists Killed During Training

This as Sahab production shows al Qaeda fighters firing a rocket at a "Crusader" base near Khost. They take 107 mm rockets, of the type commonly exported from Iran to insurgents in Iraq, lean them up against rocks, & fire them.

A) What is the point of such stupid videos other than to show the world that a few al Qaeda fighters are not dead yet? B) Do these morons really think that using a device to help set the arc is going to have anything more than marginal effect when the rockets are then leaned on rocks.

Freaking morons. If these guys aren't dead already, they soon will be.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center for Law and Counterterrorism and the New Criterion co-hosted a conference in New York on Free Speech in an Age of Jihad. At the event were a number of Jawa regulars: Ezra Levant, Robert Spencer, Stanley Kurtz, Steven Emerson, Ibn Warraq, Andrew C. McCarthy, and Mark Steyn.

Pamela from Atlas Shrugs was liveblogging the event with pictures and should have video up soon.

Who does Samir Khan, the Charlotte Muslim who once went by the name "inshallahshaheed" [trans: "a martyr, God willing"], think is worthy of emulation? Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the dead leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who became an icon among young jihadis for distributing videos of himself beheading civilian hostages.

Khan notes in a post about why Muslim comedians need to stop making jokes and start killing infidels:

That’s why the Mujaahideen today are excellent examples for us to follow since they show us the way of the Sahaabah [ed note: = Muhammad's companions]. A Mujaahid described the face of Shaykh Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi (rahimahullah)[ed note: = an utterance of blessing] as if you were looking directly at a Sahaabi; he never laughed exceedingly, he was always seen in a state of humbleness around others, and was in a constant state of sorrow for his Ummah and Akhirah, and when he smiled, the strangers around him wanted to know who he was. Here you have a man [ed note: ie, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi] that took the Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wassallam) and the Sahaabah as his role models; so chose between the one who appears as a donkey in public and the one who appears as a honorable slave of Allah, Ta’aala.

And just in case all of the Arabic and Islamic jargon in the above post was just too difficult to figure out, Samir puts it in much simpler terms in this one:

As long as the Muslims take the Mujaahideen of Afghanistan as their role models (as well as the Islamic State of ‘Iraaq), then this is a step forward in the right direction:

And yes, this guy actually lives in his parent's basement in a middle class Charlotte neighborhood.

UPDATE: I switched the Zarqawi image since some of you may not know just how bad this guy is. The guy in the middle holding the knife to Nicholas Berg's neck? Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

UPDATE II: I can't believe I forgot about this from Samir's "about us" page. Scroll down to very end and you'll notice this statement: "Some of the Scholars of Islām in this age whom we follow and support are as follows".

You'll notice one thing in common: all of them are former, present, or dead members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, or otherwise hostile to the US.

Some screenshots of the page below:

Here we go again, "make love not war" complete with free love in the park "as long as it is consensual". Everything will be free as in the name "Free City". Geesh crazy moonbats.

MyFox Colorado via Slapstick Politics

(FOX) A small collection of political activists pounded a homemade sign into the soil of Denver's Civic Center Park on Wednesday, claiming it for their own the week of the Democratic National Convention.

From this point forward, Civic Center Park will be considered the property of the people, and it will thus be renamed Free City," said Glenn Spagnuolo, spokesman for Recreate 68, which is coordinating protest efforts with a variety of activist groups for the Democratic National Convention week.[...]

"Regardless of the city's claims, we're going to be having free housing here in the park," said Spagnuolo. "We are going to be having free housing here in the park. We will stay past the curfew, we will enjoy each other's company."

He also said, "We will be putting up a tent city here that's going to include space for homeless people, too."

Spagnuolo also claimed that at some point there will be a "nude-in," in which demonstrators will spell out the word "PEACE," using naked bodies.

The activists said "Free City" will operate based on a 10-point program that supports a life without authority.

"Free City is also free of borders," said Zoe Williams, a member of a group called Colorado Street Medics. "We welcome all people as immigrants, largely, to this country to be a part of Free City."

Adam Jung, representing the group Tent State, added, "Free City is also going to free for political thought, free of commercialism, free of cages and prisons for political prisoners.

"And yes, one of the most fun ones, there will be free love - as long as it's consensual."

Democrats must be really excited about this. teh.

A memorial service was held today for Matt Maupin who was abducted by terrorists in 2004, forced to appear in a hostage video, subsequently murdered, but who's body wasn't recovered until late last month. RIP.

Why does Umar Islam claim he wanted to blow up civilian airlines over the Atlantic in 2006? I'm quoting his own words here:

Allah (SWT) loves us to die and to kill in his path. And any one who tries to deny this better read their Quran and they will not be able to deny this.

Video & commentary below.

It kind of makes the whole the-Bible-has-violence-too equivocation argument rather moot, doesn't it? It seems to me that Saudi bloggers interested in refuting that Islam inspires violence could better spend their time and efforts convincing their co-religionists and compatriots of this proposition rather than calling Westerners 'racist' [whatever that means when applied to followers of a belief system] who make the same point.

And as I mentioned in my post about Schism earlier, Abu Islam isn't some lone nut: between March 29 and April 4th there were 33 attacks in the name of Islam killing 133 people

Thanks to Mrs Abe Froman

Must make everyone in Minnesota happy knowing their taxes are going to a state funded madrassa. When checking the TIZA website I came across a jobs list. It stresses the importance of fluency in English. The last paragraph states; "Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy can process H-1 visa applications on behalf of qualified applicants." Hmmm

Channel 5 News

"Metro Charter School Accused of Teaching Islam"

A Star Tribune newspaper column has prompted a state investigation into a charter school. A substitute teacher said a school in Inver Grove Heights is blurring the line of separation of church and state.

Being a charter school Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TIZA, is supported by tax dollars. The teacher told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the presence of religion she observed at the school took her by surprise.

TIZA Executive Director Azad Zaman insisted the school follows with state and federal laws. "TIZA does not endorse any religion," he said.

However, TIZA Academy is sponsored by Islamic Relief USA, based in California.

Interesting tidbit on this:

State law requires the school to fly an American flag during school hours, however no flag flies outside of TIZA Academy.

Zaman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he didn’t know how to work the flagpole.

Doesn't know "how to work the flagpole"? I say he is speaking taqiyya.

Hot Air seems to agree TIZA Headmaster: We're too Incompetent to Operate a Flagpole

Acme Pest Control US troops fire a TOW missile at a Taliban hideout.

I really didn't want to write anything about this. From the beginning my 'something not right about the way this is being reported' detector has been going off. But I'll direct you to Stacey McCain's TEXAS TEEN SEX CULT EXPOSED! if you want the sensationalist view.

U.N. officials say the darnedest things:

WASHINGTON — A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"Neocon," of course, is code for "teh J-O-O-S."

This guy should be booted forthwith from his U.N. position, but he won't be. He should probably be placed in an institution as well, but that's not going to happen either. Not when he makes crazy talk lofty intellectual statements like this:

On March 24 in an interview with a radio host and former University of Wisconsin instructor, Kevin Barrett, Mr. Falk said, "It is possibly true that especially the neoconservatives thought there was a situation in the country and in the world where something had to happen to wake up the American people. Whether they are innocent about the contention that they made that something happen or not, I don't think we can answer definitively at this point. All we can say is there is a lot of grounds for suspicion, there should be an official investigation of the sort the 9/11 commission did not engage in and that the failure to do these things is cheating the American people and in some sense the people of the world of a greater confidence in what really happened than they presently possess."

I'd like the last act of the Bush Administration to be tearing up the U.N. lease and kicking them across the pond, but I can only dare to dream.

stein hoist: CJ

If you're looking for something to listen to, why not download the latest edition of the Shire News Network's podcast? I did last night and mowing the lawn never went so quickly.

I'll send you over to Weasel Zippers to watch the video 'Schism' by Saudi blogger Raid Al-Saeed. Saeed claims that he's only doing to the Bible what Geert Wilders did to the Koran: taking violent passages out of context.

Of course, the last time we saw a film using this same tactic, half of it ended up being a long discourse on why Geert Wilders was a Mossad agent.

I always thought the equivocation game was funny. Or maybe not so funny given that between March 29 and April 4th there were 33 attacks in the name of Islam killing 133 people.

Nazal Sabar al-Jughaify, aka Abu al-Jarrah, was arrested in the town of Haditha a couple of days ago by Iraqi police. He is described as a "top al Qaeda financier".

Honestly I've no idea. AJ Strata e-mails with commentary and a link to this post from Bill Roggio.

The glass half full view emphasizes that we have a statement from Muqtada al Sadr that he'd disband the Mahdi Army if Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani order it. Then a statement from Sistani that Maliki was in the right demanding Mahdi members to turn in their weapons. Sounds like a check mate on Sadrist power, right?

The glass half empty view: Sistani is leaving it up to al Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army himself.

After five years of dealing with these douchebags you can call me a pessimist if you want, but let's just say I'm skeptical that the Shia militia problem is going to go away any time soon.

UPDATE: Great minds think alike?

Yemen is ranked number one in the world in gender inequality. One study found that rural women work 17 hours a day on average. Domestic abuse is not considered a crime nor is it socially unacceptable. Women are required by law to submit to their husband's sexual demands-ie, there is no such thing as marital rape in Yemen. Rape is a largely under-reported crime because social mores blame the victim.

The laws do not criminalize underage marriage. In rural areas, the marriage age for females is often 10 to 14. In cities, the marriage age rises to a whopping 14 to 16. Children over the age of seven automatically are awarded to the husband in a divorce, and many wives stay in an abusive marriage in order not to lose their children. Efforts to change the laws are repeatedly thwarted by the government which relies on the support of Salafi hardliners in order to retain power. Some fundamentalists advance the idea that women should leave their homes only twice, once to marry and once to go to the graveyard.

Women often have problems taking possession of their legal inheritances, which are confiscated by male relatives. Genital female mutilation is a regular practice, found mostly in the countryside. One method includes placing hot stones on an infant girl's genitalia for several weeks. Women in the work place face discrimination and harassment. Few women work outside the home, except for domestic farming which is the primarily an unpaid position. Women less than fully veiled face discrimination and harassment. Female activists are regularly slandered by the government media as immoral.

Female illiteracy is over 50% and highest in rural areas. One reason girls drop out of school is that they are needed to haul water, which is in short supply. A shortage of female teachers and segregated classrooms is another factor. Several schools for girls have been attacked by extremists who oppose the idea of education for women. The level of medical care for pregnant and postpartum women is extremely low, with many women never seeing a doctor and delivering with the help of neighbors. Newborns die at high rate, often from diseases like tetanus which are preventable with a vaccine.

In sum, women have little legal rights. The laws in existence are infrequently enforced. Women are expected to work and serve men. They have few opportunities to develop their education, talents or job skills or to achieve financial independence.

Now on to our story, an eight year old girl went to court, alone, to seek a divorce from her 30 year old husband who was repeatedly raping her. Kudos to the Yemen Times for running the story.

SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man..."My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said.

Nasser said that she was exposed to sexual abuse and domestic violence by her husband. “He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. One day I ran away from him and came to the court and talked to them. Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him."