Obama Didn't Show Up For the Boy Scout Jamboree...But The Muslim Brotherhood Sure Did

This is almost too incredible for words. I'm sitting here and thinking about boys and young men from across America gathering in Virginia for the National Scout Jamboree and instead of a show of respect by the President of the United States, they are subjected to rubbing elbows with the likes of Muslim Brotherhood linked islamic organizations. Probably a good thing I'm not there.

The article comes from Family Security Matters.

Islamists At Boy Scout Jamboree


The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is reporting that it has joined with two other Islamic organizations in participating in the 18th National Scout Jamboree. According to the report:

The Islamic Society of North America, in partnership with the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) and the National Council on Islamic Scouting (NCIS) will join fellow Scouts and leaders at the 18th National Scout Jamboree which will be held from July 26 through August 4, 2010, at Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia, located near Fredericksburg and Washington D.C. in celebration of the first century of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

“Every Scout should have religion. Religion seems a very simple thing: First: Love and serve God. Second: Love and serve your neighbor,” said BSA founder Robert Baden-Powell.

ISNA and ADAMS will be co-sponsoring interfaith events which will be held during the jamboree. Imam Izak-EL Mu’eed Pasha, Resident Imam of Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, NICS member, will deliver the sermon and lead prayers at the Islamic congregational services on Friday, July 30th at 1pm.

Interfaith prayer services will be led by Rizwan Jaka, ADAMS/ISNA/IFCMW Board Member and ADAMS Scouts Chartered Organization Representative, on Sunday, August 1st, at 10:30am. Participants include Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and various other faith leaders and Scouts. Reverend Clark Lobenstine, Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFCMW) will be the special guest during the service.

The IFCMW, which was created in 1978, brings together the Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Latter-day Saints, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Sikh and Zoroastrian faith communities to promote dialogue, understanding and a sense of community among persons of different faiths in metropolitan Washington.

ADAMS Scouting leaders assisted NCIS in setting up an Islamic Scouting exhibit, which was also co-sponsored by ISNA, and constructing the 40 x 40 foot Gillwell Park Mosque complete with green rugs, a dome, and a minaret. Visitors to the mosque will be able to meet over 250 Muslim Scouts and leaders and share in the camaraderie of duty to God, honor to country, and service to others, thereby deepening mutual interfaith understanding.

This is also the first time in Jamboree history that halal meals are being provided to Muslim Jamboree attendees.

Earlier posts reported on the ties between European scouting organizations and the European Muslim Brotherhood and the use of Boy and Girl Scout scouts in political campaigns by the Muslim American Society (MAS), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood.

As documented in a Hudson Institute report, ISNA grew directly out of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The organization has a long history of fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and support for terrorism and during the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial, ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator as a result of what the government called “ISNA’s and NAIT’s intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case.” Although it is true that recently ISNA has issued condemnations of terrorism which for the first time identify Hamas and Hezbollah by name, there is no indication that the organization has ever addressed or acknowledged its history of support for terrorism. Also, as the Hudson Institute report observes, almost all of the ISNA founders remain active in the organization and ISNA maintains close relations with all other components of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.

The All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) is a prominent Muslim community organization in the Washington metropolitan area and a number of important U.S. Brotherhood leaders are known to have been members of ADAMS. The Imam and Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS)is also the Vice-President of ISNA.

Video: Angel Flight

Two Approaches To War On Terror: Pakistan Kills 1500 Taliban In 3 Weeks, U.N. Takes 5 Taliban Off Sanctions List

At the same time that Pakistan has decided enough is enough and have spent the last six months absolutely decimating the Taliban inside the NW quadrant of the country, the United Nations Security Council has decided to REWARD the Taliban in Afghanistan by removing five of the top brass from a sanctions list. The U.N. action is so bullshit that even the Russians were against it but of course, the Obama administration, after witnessing the most deadly month ever for U.S. troops in the Afghan War, think it's a real peachy idea.

From the report from the (gag me with a spoon) NYTimes:

The United Nations Security Council removed five members of the Taliban from its sanctions list on Friday, in a nod toward the kind of reconciliation considered crucial for Afghanistan’s future stability.

Among the five taken off the list Friday were Abdul Satar Paktin, a former deputy health minister; Abdul Salam Zaeef, a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan and a former deputy minister of mines; and Abdul Hakim Mujahed Awrang, a former unofficial representative to the United Nations. The two dead men removed were Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, the former governor of Bamian Province, and Abdul Samad Khaksar, the former deputy interior minister.

Russia has been the most reluctant to accept removing any of the Taliban from the list, worried that their resurgence could help fuel militant Islam in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and across the Caucasus. They contend even the assets of the dead might be put toward that end, diplomats said.

As is to be expected, the NYTimes writer also thinks this is a grand idea but the fact of the matter is that this whole idea of reaching out to the Taliban will backfire on the U.S., NATO and the Afghan government just like it did with the Pakistanis when they tried this week-kneed approach to this mongrel group of jihadi terrorists.

It's like no one involved in the War in Afghanistan even paid attention to what happened in Pakistan the past fucking two years! The Pakistani government and military must have tried over dozen peace agreements with the Taliban and countless reconciliations with Taliban leaders, only to see the Taliban disregard all agreements and kill - well, it finally got so bad that the Pakistani military went to the government and said, "enough is enough." And since then, the Pakistanis have been pounding the Taliban with airstrikes, artillery, attack helicopter operations and organized troop operations and the result? Well, Pakistan has killed thousands of Taliban and Taliban attacks and killings in Pakistan are WAY DOWN.

All this really takes in Afghanistan is a U.S. President who will meet with Karzai and say this..."you have no future with the Taliban here, so we intend to eliminate them from the landscape, no matter what you say. So sit the fuck down, shut your trap and listen to the sounds of war as the minions of Hell you want to appease bite the dust."

That's really all it would take.

U.N. Removes 5 Taliban From Its Sanctions List


UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council removed five members of the Taliban from its sanctions list on Friday, in a nod toward the kind of reconciliation considered crucial for Afghanistan’s future stability.

The five were hardly viewed as much of a threat: Three of them have already made peace with the Kabul government, and two of them are dead.

But they were among a list of 20 names that the government of President Hamid Karzai submitted several years ago to the Security Council committee responsible for maintaining the blacklist, diplomats said. Five others were removed in January, eight have been rejected for removal and two remain under review, they said.

Though many experts doubt it is possible, reconciliation with the Taliban is being widely discussed as the only way of resolving the Afghan war. President Karzai has spoken recently about removing all the Taliban members from the sanctions list, currently about 135 of them, but he has not formally submitted any further requests, diplomats said.

Among the five taken off the list Friday were Abdul Satar Paktin, a former deputy health minister; Abdul Salam Zaeef, a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan and a former deputy minister of mines; and Abdul Hakim Mujahed Awrang, a former unofficial representative to the United Nations. The two dead men removed were Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, the former governor of Bamian Province, and Abdul Samad Khaksar, the former deputy interior minister.

Russia has been the most reluctant to accept removing any of the Taliban from the list, worried that their resurgence could help fuel militant Islam in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and across the Caucasus. They contend even the assets of the dead might be put toward that end, diplomats said.

In Kabul, where he has been a channel to the Taliban for several years, Mr. Zaeef called the blacklist one of the major obstacles blocking peace talks. He joked, though, when asked about being taken off the list, saying, “Are you sure my name was removed?”

Mr. Zaeef, who spent more than four years in prison, including the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, wrote a memoir published earlier this year, “My Life with the Taliban.” He said that taking the names off the list constituted a good first step.

“It will build trust between both sides, but on one condition,” he said in a brief interview. “This process should continue and does not stop right here. They should remove the names of more and more people from this list — one or two or five names are not enough.”

Those listed are subject to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo, although in Afghanistan the list is often interpreted as some kind of hit list for assassination. The conditions for being removed are renouncing violence, renouncing all ties to Al Qaeda and accepting the Afghan Constitution.

The sanctions committee has spent months reviewing the full list of about 500 names or organizations linked to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban, and is scheduled to release the full results on Monday, with fewer than 10 percent of the names likely to come off the combined list, diplomats said.

Israeli Air Strike, In Retaliation For Hamas Rocket Attack, Kills Top Level Hamas Commander

Yesssssssssss! One of the top five Hamas military commanders met his end last night as an Israeli air strike hit his convoy and ended his life of terror - the pig is dead and gone, good riddance. The Israeli response was due to a rocket attack on the Israeli city of Askelon and once again, we see the Netanyahu government wastes NO time in retaliating against Hamas or any other terrorist attack from Gaza.

From the article at Haaretz:

Hamas on Saturday vowed revenge after one of its senior commanders was killed in Israeli air strikes on Hamas-linked targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday night.

The Hamas operative, a 40-year-old member of Hamas' military wing, was killed in an explosion near the Nuseirat refugee camp south of Gaza City in the center of the Hamas-controlled strip. Another 13 Palestinians were hurt.

The dead man is believed to be Issa al-Batran, a commander of Hamas forces in the central Gaza region.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the air-strike, which the army said targeted a Hamas-linked site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons-manufacturing warehouse in the central Gaza Strip and a weapons-smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.

Now, first of all, I apologize for the ridiculous Haaretz article here - the pansy-assed, terrorist appeasing Israeli agency did a shit job on this attack but I had some issues with trying to load the other accounts of this successful retaliatory strike. But no matter how Haaretz wants to dress this thing up, the fact of the matter is this - Hamas lost a key operative commander that stings 'em bad.

The other effect of this strike by the Israelis is that seed of fear that is once again put into the minds of Hamas senior leaders - once the rocket attack occurred at Ashkelon, it wasn't long when all of a sudden al-Batran is taken out - as in the IDF knew EXACTLY where he was the whole time so if you are a Hamas leader today and some fly by night jihadi group fires a katyusha rocket into Israel, chances are good you've got a laser on your ass and the JDAM or hellfire isn't far behind. Comforting, isn't it? Mwahahahaha!

Hamas vows revenge after Israel kills commander in Gaza strike


Hamas on Saturday vowed revenge after one of its senior commanders was killed in Israeli air strikes on Hamas-linked targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday night.

"This new stupidity won't easily pass. We promise revenge for the blood of our martyr," the al-Qassam Brigades said in a leaflet faxed to reporters.

The Hamas operative, a 40-year-old member of Hamas' military wing, was killed in an explosion near the Nuseirat refugee camp south of Gaza City in the center of the Hamas-controlled strip. Another 13 Palestinians were hurt.

The dead man is believed to be Issa al-Batran, a commander of Hamas forces in the central Gaza region.

Batran, thought to have been involved in manufaturing rockets, has been the target of a number of Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent of which, in January, killed wife and five children.

The strikes on Gaza, which Palestinian sources described as the heaviest since Operation Cast Lead, Israel's two-week assault on the Gaza Strip a year and a half ago, came after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon earlier in the day.

The National Resistance Committee, a group which supports the Hamas government in Gaza, claimed reposnsbility for the rocket attack, Israel Radio reported on Saturday

Later in the day, the IDF shot at and wounded two Palestinians near the Erez crossing on Gaza border after they ignored warnings to retreat, the broadcaster said.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the air-strike, which the army said targeted a Hamas-linked site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons-manufacturing warehouse in the central Gaza Strip and a weapons-smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.

Earlier Friday, Israel lodged a complaint to the United Nations about rocket and mortar attacks launched from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

A Grad-type rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza struck close to an apartment building in a residential area of Ashkelon on Friday morning, while two mortar shells exploded in the western Negev just a few hours later.

"These recent attacks on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip seriously violate international law and should be adequately addressed and condemned by the international community," Israel's ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev wrote in a letter to UN chief Ban ki-Moon. "In response to the escalating threat of terrorism, Israel will exercise its right of self-defense and will continue to take all necessary measures to protect its citizens."

Shalev wrote that the attacks highlighted the dangers emanating from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The Katyusha rocket hit the populated neighborhood just after 8:30 A.M., causing some damage to the nearby building and to a number of parked cars. There were no casualties in the incident, but at least two people were treated for shock. Residents said that the Color Red rocket alert sounded prior to the explosion.

At around 12:30 P.M., two mortar shells hit the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.

The Israeli military believes that Hamas was not responsible for the Grad attack and that the Islamist organization which controls the Gaza Strip is not interested in escalating tensions in the area, Army Radio reported.

The attack on Ashkelon was one of the first to strike the city after months of quiet since Israel launched a three week military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in late 2008, called Operation Cast Lead in Israel.

"No doubt this is the most serious event that happened since Operation Cast Lead," Ashkelon mayor Benny Vaknin told Israel Radio. The city is located about 12 km (7 miles) up the coast from the Gaza Strip and has some 125,000 residents.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement from his office: "Israel takes the firing on Ashkelon very seriously."

While rocket fire has continued since the devastating war, much of it has targeted smaller towns closer to the border. Four Qassam rockets and two mortar shells were fired at Israel last weekend, none of them causing any casualties as they hit open areas of the western Negev.

Israel often carries out strikes against smuggling tunnels or outposts of Hamas after such attacks.

No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Hamas has said it is trying to stop militants from firing at Israel, but smaller groups have continued the attacks.

Video: Just An Old Fashioned F-16 Strike On An Insurgent Building

Video: Showdown....Who Wins? A 65,000 Pound Speeding Truck or a Concrete Barricade?

As Americans, We No Longer Have An Accountable Government

This article over at Family Security Matters takes a good close look at what many of us are waking up to realize...that our Federal government has gone rogue, that there really is no accountability back to the people and quite frankly, the representative Republic is transforming - you know, like that "transformational change" that Barack Hussein Obama promised us all.

Here's a bit from the article:

But there is a larger and more important point that the events surrounding Arizona law SB1070 have exposed, that We the People have no “accountable” government to speak of. Yes, we do have our “elected officials,” those we elect to office, to execute government and administer the services it has been authorized to provide, but, truth be told, once the political class gets “inside the beltway,” or within the confines of the many State Houses, they routinely abdicate their duty to their constituents and their responsibilities to the federal and state constitutions, only to take up the causes of their political parties and the cause of their political survival: re-election.

In reality, we have, on the one hand, a gaggle of professional politicians doing what’s best for the political class, special interests groups and like-minded ideologues and on the other a coven of political provocateurs who serve, exclusively, the agenda of their ideological addictions. Sequestered in the true minority of the halls of elected office are true citizen statesmen who champion the American philosophy while adhering to the limitations placed on government as set forth by the Framers of the United States Constitution.

I want to make a couple of observations here. First of all, I agree whole-heartedly in what the article describes as the "professional politician." How perverse is that terminology?! Not only are our politicians, more specifically our representatives, willing to do ANYTHING to remain in office, but they have become aliens to their own cities, districts and states. Think about your U.S. Senator for a moment - when was the last time your Senator was available to you physically at a town hall meeting or a rally or a state fair booth? The point of the matter is our representatives are sequestered in their castle up in D.C. They are not only insulated from your ire, but they are detached from the peoples' positions on important legislation. They feel that if they show their mug on Meet the Press or Fox News, that's all they need to do to "connect" with you.

Secondly, what's the price to pay for these elected officials even IF we do vote their asses out of office? Well, pretty much all of them have a cushy career just waiting for them - whether it be a lobbyist, a spokesman for another high paying organization, or a political pundit in the media. These people have no fear anymore of the people that elected them. Look at all of the Democrats this year that just decided not to run for reelection - they fucked us over, they bent us in two and fucked us from behind and they simply shrug their shoulders, don't run again and are off to their new six figure career. We the People has become "Piss on the People."

So, when you get all fired up to throw the bums out in November, just remember, those professional politicians don't give a shit. They used us for what they needed and they'll simply move on to greener pastures.

The United States, 2010: A Rogue Government?


With the recent ruling by US District Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, blocking the most contentious parts of Arizona law SB1070, we learn two things: One, that the federal government cannot be forced to enforce federal law, regardless of the fact that the law has been brought to legislation by the constitutional process, and two, that today, opportunistic political ideologues who have schemed their ways to power have all but extinguished good government in the United States of America; government that should be exclusively engaged in serving the best interests of the American people.

To be fair, Judge Bolton’s ruling does not end the issue, not by a long shot. In fact, there is a very good chance that the case surrounding Arizona law SB1070 will make it – and in an expedited manner – to the US Supreme Court. This actually bodes well for the American citizen primarily because today the US Supreme Court has a balance that actually gives an edge – even if ever so slightly – to the US Constitution and, thus, the American people. Judge Bolton’s ruling simply put those sections blocked – or deemed unlikely to withstand a challenge in the judicial system, be it from the ACLU, La Raza or the Holder/Obama Justice Department (which is tantamount to the ACLU and La Raza) – on hold until the courts resolve the issues.

But there is a larger and more important point that the events surrounding Arizona law SB1070 have exposed, that We the People have no “accountable” government to speak of. Yes, we do have our “elected officials,” those we elect to office, to execute government and administer the services it has been authorized to provide, but, truth be told, once the political class gets “inside the beltway,” or within the confines of the many State Houses, they routinely abdicate their duty to their constituents and their responsibilities to the federal and state constitutions, only to take up the causes of their political parties and the cause of their political survival: re-election.

In reality, we have, on the one hand, a gaggle of professional politicians doing what’s best for the political class, special interests groups and like-minded ideologues and on the other a coven of political provocateurs who serve, exclusively, the agenda of their ideological addictions. Sequestered in the true minority of the halls of elected office are true citizen statesmen who champion the American philosophy while adhering to the limitations placed on government as set forth by the Framers of the United States Constitution.

This lopsided mix of professional politicians, political provocateurs and – in the minority – true statesmen, leaves the American citizenry with no effective constitutional government to execute the laws of the land. Unless executing the laws of the land serves the best interests of the professional politicians and political provocateurs, we are all – including the true statesmen – held hostage to the whim of a political class, corrupted by the illusion of power. We have seen the execution of this tyranny over government, not only in this administration, but in past administrations from both sides of the aisle, in the issues of entitlement programs, special interest group bailouts, the institutionalization of class warfare (in both a racial and financial context), and, more recently, the governmental encroachment into the healthcare insurance industry, the politically correct and self-enriching green energy movement, the Gulf oil spill response, immigration and border security.

With regard to the issue of Arizona’s SB1070, a letter writer to The Washington Times points out that Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution states:

“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress...engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

With an illegally present population depleting the financial resources of the State of Arizona, with drug cartels routinely invading the State of Arizona, drug gangs murdering people in the streets of Douglas, Nogales, Naco and other border locales and with Phoenix being “fundamentally transformed” into the kidnapping capitol of the world, doesn’t the federal government have an obligation – and the State of Arizona the right – under the US Constitution, to fight back against these foreign invaders?

Of course, the answer, from a constitutional viewpoint – as well as a common sense viewpoint – is yes. But common sense and the US Constitution stand as casualties in the ideological and opportunistic “revolution” that Progressives and the professional politicians have waged against our nation. What we refer to as the federal government today, refuses to execute good government in order to protect the citizens of Arizona while using the full forces of the offices they have assumed to interfere with the Arizona government’s attempts to safeguard its own citizenry; a right reserved for each and every state government in the US Constitution and the many state constitutions.

When elections empower men with the ability to selectively enforce laws, our nation has ceased operating as a Constitutional Republic. When elections empower ideologues and provocateurs to pit citizen against citizen through the divisive and destructive employment of race-based politics, we have ceased to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. When professional politicians can feed from the taxpayer-filled public trough until their greedy bellies burst, we have ceased being the home of the free and the champions of liberty.

And so we arrive at this brutally accurate reality; that our government is not a government of laws, as John Adams and the Framers insisted that it should be, but a government of men; corrupt, selfish and egotistical men. The political class in America has unwittingly facilitated the agenda of the Progressive movement in marching toward a Democratic Socialist system of government, where democracy – which each and every Framer and Founder warned against – is celebrated as the Constitutional Republican form of government falls victim to constitutional illiteracy.

This morning my wife, Nancy, a veracious defender of the Charters of Freedom and the American philosophy, opined in a most serious tone that our Constitutional Republic is today held captive by an Oligarchy. Even the most elementary understanding of our Charters of Freedom, the Constitutional Republican system of government and the many other systems of government prove her to be correct. We the People have allowed the many professional politicians and provocateurs to establish an Oligarchy in the United States of America; a shadow government of elitist ideologues who raid the treasury to bribe the elite and the narcissistic and apathetic alike, in order to maintain the illusion of power.

I keep using the term “illusion of power” because the power that the professional politicians and ideological provocateurs have over the American people is just that: an illusion. The true power lies with the American people through the power of the ballot. We still have the ability to expunge the professional politicians and ideological provocateurs from the seats of power, through the power of the vote. We still have the power to make our peace with the next generation by righting the wrong we have perpetrated on our country in allowing nefarious men and women to attain power; in allowing for the establishment of this Progressive and opportunistic Oligarchy that stands in place of our Constitutional Republican system of government. We can make it right. We have the power.

Many believe that the second American Revolution has already begun in the quest of this noble goal through the rise of a great awakening of the American people – the Tea Party movement. This movement is awakening the American citizenry to their constitutional obligation to provide educated and meaningful governmental oversight; to provide a proper stewardship for the Charters of Freedom so that we might pass the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness to future generations. Truth be told, those average Americans who stand against the tyranny of today’s Oligarchs are – along with those who serve in the US military – the true patriots of our time.

In a soon to be released documentary addressing Black conservatism in America, titled, Runaway Slave, Pastor C.L. Bryant discusses the gifts of liberty and opportunity; gifts guaranteed in the Charters of Freedom to all men and women. He also talks about the slavery that tyranny affords; tyranny employed by today’s Oligarchs, professional politicians and provocateurs. Pastor Bryant is quoted as saying:

“Tyranny is colorblind. White or Black, it will control you. Run, America! Run faster! Don’t give up! Don’t give in! Are you tired yet? Run harder!!”

If not now...when?

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.” – Thomas Paine, The Crisis, December 23rd, 1776

Video: Islamic Nutjob Asks Allah To Kill You and Me

Islam Discovers the Problem With Converting American Women

The conversion of Americans over to islam has long been a goal of the islamists involved in the "Soft Jihad" against this country but now, it appears that the islamists overlooked something when converting American women - apparently, some of those American women don't care too much for the third class role of women in the realm of islam. This story, from the Wall Street Journal, details how a small faction of American women are revolting against the practice of segregating women from males inside of mosques at prayer time.

From the article:

Muslim feminists call it the "penalty box." It's the area of a mosque where women, segregated from the men, pray. In Islam, prayer is required five times a day and Muslims often pray in congregation at mosques. During these prayers, women usually are partitioned off in a separate room or behind a curtain, "like naughty children," one Muslim woman tells me, while men pray in a grand main hall.

One Muslim, Fatima Thompson, describes the penalty box at her mosque in Maryland as an overheated, dark back room. Another Muslim woman, Asra Nomani, tells me that at a major Washington D.C. mosque, the female section was in a trailer, where the voice of the imam (the prayer leader) came from a crackling speaker. "It was so humiliating I never went back," says Ms. Nomani, a former reporter for the Journal.

Now these Muslim feminists have had enough. Hoping to reform Islam by making it more women-friendly, Ms. Thompson—an American convert to Islam—has organized several "pray-ins" at mosques in the D.C. area. These include the Islamic Center of Washington and the Dar Al-Hijra Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., a mosque attended by several of the 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood mass killer Maj. Nidal Hasan. Ms. Thompson's next pray-in target is a mosque in Washington.

As for these American women who have converted to islam, one has to wonder about their intelligence on many levels but you can't tell me they join this moongod ideology without a clue about islam's treatment of women - no bloody way. This is like a person joining the military and then complaining because they don't like not being able to sleep in until noon.

But, in the end, the islamists will find many aspects of American culture that just don't mix well with their Dark Ages practices - these small revolt by the women is only a symptom of what will eventually work to tear at the seems of islam in this country, and one of the things I look forward to is the eventual exiting of islam by hundreds of these converts. They aren't going to fear the fatwa fate of apostates in other countries and once they are out of islam, there's going to be story after story of the evils, the hilarity and the quircks of following the pedophile prophet.

Islamic Feminists Storm Some Barricades


Muslim feminists call it the "penalty box." It's the area of a mosque where women, segregated from the men, pray. In Islam, prayer is required five times a day and Muslims often pray in congregation at mosques. During these prayers, women usually are partitioned off in a separate room or behind a curtain, "like naughty children," one Muslim woman tells me, while men pray in a grand main hall.

One Muslim, Fatima Thompson, describes the penalty box at her mosque in Maryland as an overheated, dark back room. Another Muslim woman, Asra Nomani, tells me that at a major Washington D.C. mosque, the female section was in a trailer, where the voice of the imam (the prayer leader) came from a crackling speaker. "It was so humiliating I never went back," says Ms. Nomani, a former reporter for the Journal.

Now these Muslim feminists have had enough. Hoping to reform Islam by making it more women-friendly, Ms. Thompson—an American convert to Islam—has organized several "pray-ins" at mosques in the D.C. area. These include the Islamic Center of Washington and the Dar Al-Hijra Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., a mosque attended by several of the 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood mass killer Maj. Nidal Hasan. Ms. Thompson's next pray-in target is a mosque in Washington.

Like the civil rights activists of the 1960s, whose "sit-ins" were part of a movement that ended racial segregation, Ms. Thompson hopes her peaceful pray-ins will help initiate a movement that ends overt sexism in Islam, despite the conventional wisdom that regards Islam and feminism as anathema. Her efforts come at a time when, as of a 2001 study, 66% of American mosques segregate men from women during prayer, an increase of 14% from 1994.

During the pray-ins, Ms. Nomani, Ms. Thompson, and several other women walk through the front door of the mosque—many require women to enter through a side or back door—and into the main hall. They then seat themselves behind the rows of men to pray.

The Muslim men get rattled. Ms. Nomani remembers one bearded man who "furrow[ed] his brows and scream[ed]… 'Sisters go over there!'"—indicating the dreaded penalty box. Ms. Nomani humorously refers to him as the mosque's "bouncer." At one pray-in, the women didn't budge when they were asked to move, and the service began with them praying with the men.

Though neither Ms. Thompson nor Ms. Nomani has been arrested, say, for trespassing, Ms. Nomani—who has been fighting sexism at her mosque in West Virginia for seven years—says she has received several death threats. Such violence-oriented intolerance, which in the West has become the public image of Islam, seems irreconcilably at odds with the moderate feminism of the pray-in group.

While people like Ms. Nomani work for reform, other women question whether it is possible. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali author of "Infidel" and a former-Muslim-turned-atheist, agrees with the Islamic feminists that a mosque is "an island of gender apartheid." To her, however, such practices represent Islam's essential sexism. Being a Muslim and a feminist, she told me, are inherently contradictory.

For her bold denunciations of Islam, Ms. Hirsi Ali lives under constant threats against her life by Muslim fanatics. But anyone who questions, even from within the faith, risks trouble, she says. "A single attempt to change things, to innovate, invites accusations of blasphemy" she notes, "because you're considered to be someone putting [yourself] on Allah's [God's] throne." Islam means submission. Muslims must submit to the Quran's God, not change him.

Yet, nowhere in the Quran does it say that women and men should be segregated during prayer. The Hadith, a large body of holy Islamic texts chronicling the life and attributed sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, notes that for women at prayer, the "best rows are the last rows." And even then, some scholars, like UCLA's Islamic law expert Khaled Abou El Fadl, don't see this as an admonition. After all, in the seventh century, at the Prophet's mosque, women did not pray behind a partition. And today in Islam's holiest spot, Mecca, women and men can pray side-by-side.

Still, there is an undeniable sexism that gnaws away at many Muslim communities—communities that center around the social space of the mosques. Whether the pray-in movement will encourage mosques to grant women more rights is yet to be determined. Until then, Ms. Thompson and Ms. Nomani are initiating a much-needed debate about the status of women in Islam.

No Jews Allowed!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Will be the motto of the Palestinian State. Not just living in the land, but no Jews are to visit, or be a part of the multinational force that Abu Mazen Mahmoud Abbas demands wants to defend patrol the borders. This mean the proposed international force would have to discriminate against its Jewish personal.

If a Palestinian Authority state is created in Judea and Samaria, no Israeli citizen will be allowed to set foot inside, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said this week in a meeting with members of the Arab League. The PA chairman also stated that he would block any Jewish soldiers from serving with an international force stationed on PA-controlled land.

"I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land,” Abbas declared.

Abbas addressed the Arab League during a discussion over the possibility of holding direct negotiations with Israel. Like Abbas, Arab League members agreed to direct talks in theory, but only if a number of “measures and conditions” were met.

"The agreement depends on what will be discussed [in Israel-PA talks] and the manner in which negotiations are conducted,” said Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin-Jassim bin-Jabor al-Thani.

Abbas has demanded that Israeli completely freeze construction for Jews in areas east of the 1949 armistice line, including north, south, and east Jerusalem, and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commit to creating a PA state with borders based on the armistice line. Until those conditions are met, Abbas has said, the PA will not negotiate.

Read the full story here.

Binyamin Netanyahu will sit down any time, any place. Abu Mazen Mahmoud Abbas demands concessions before hand. Not really wanting peace. Not wanting anything not handed to him on a silver platter.

And what did Barack Hussein Obama promise him? Everything he demands. I do believe so.

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Who Do You Trust About Al Qaeda in Afghanistan...the Obama administration or Bill Roggio?

Okay folks, as most of you know, I link to Bill Roggio's "The Long War Journal" site at least three times every single week - part of the reason I do that is because Bill Roggio has the best information about both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars as well as the status in Pakistan and the other reason is that Bill Roggio is NEVER wrong. So, today, at The Long War Journal, Bill Roggio reports that al Qaeda still has an extensive network across Afghanistan (you will see the documentation in the full article excerpted below) and on the same exact day of Roggio's report, we heard Joe Biden on television bragging about how much damage that we are doing to al Qaeda and just a month after Leon Panetta claimed that there are less than 50 al Qaeda in all of Afghanistan. So who do you believe? I'll tell you right now, put your money on Bill Roggio.

Here's some of the article:

On May 21 there was a suicide attack in Paktia province in Afghanistan that was initially claimed by the Taliban, but was later traced back to al Qaeda. The facts surrounding that strike and others, as well as information gleaned from US military press releases, paint a picture of al Qaeda that contradicts recent statements by top US intelligence officials who estimated al Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan as being limited to between 50 and 100 operatives.

"I think at most, we're looking at maybe 50 to 100 [al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan], maybe less," Panetta said on ABC News This Week on June 27. "It's in that vicinity. There's no question that the main location of al-Qaeda is in tribal areas of Pakistan."

While the attack by the four al Qaeda operatives was a failure, as three of the suicide bombers were killed in a firefight with Afghan police and only one policeman was killed, the attack demonstrates that al Qaeda is still actively conducting operations inside Afghanistan.

Within the past eight months, Al Qaeda is known to have carried out several suicide attacks along the border. The most prominent attack was executed by Humam Khalil Muhammed Abu Mulal al Balawi, a Jordanian who was also known as Abu Dujanah al Khurasani, on Dec. 30, 2009.

And here's what Biden said today via the article at CBS News:

"I assure you, we are doing significant damage to al Qaeda in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan so we're making progress," Biden said. "But the truth of the matter is that there's more to go."

As you can see, both Panetta and Biden are relaying that al Qaeda is pretty much in just Pakistan and granted, there are greater numbers in Pakistan but they are certainly minimizing their presence in Afghanistan. Tell that minimization to the families of the CIA agents blown apart in Khost.

Here's the deal - when President Bush's team would report on the status of the Iraq War, people like Biden were ALL OVER those reports calling them false and misleading and outright lies. So, who is stepping up to call the likes of Biden and Panetta liars at this point? (Crickets).

I'll tell you this - the two greatest marketing jobs of false information in the history of Man are these: Number 1 - Islam is a religion Number 2 - Joe Biden knows what he's talking about when he discusses military strategy and foreign policy. I don't think I need to remind anyone of the fact that if we had listened to Joe Biden, Iraq would now be divided into three separate countries made up of Shia muslims, Sunni muslims and Kurds. That would have worked out beautifully, wouldn't it have? And that came out of Joe Biden's brilliance about the fact that the U.S. military was whooped in Iraq, that we couldn't possibly win. Piss off, Biden - not only are you a confirmed plagiarist, you're a mental midget when it comes to the military.

As an aside folks, when you go to the article at The Long War Journal link above, I'd encourage you to reward Bill Roggio for his impeccable work in reporting by clicking on his "Support The Long War Journal" button in the upper right hand corner.

Analysis: Al Qaeda maintains an extensive network in Afghanistan


On May 21 there was a suicide attack in Paktia province in Afghanistan that was initially claimed by the Taliban, but was later traced back to al Qaeda. The facts surrounding that strike and others, as well as information gleaned from US military press releases, paint a picture of al Qaeda that contradicts recent statements by top US intelligence officials who estimated al Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan as being limited to between 50 and 100 operatives.

"I think at most, we're looking at maybe 50 to 100 [al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan], maybe less," Panetta said on ABC News This Week on June 27. "It's in that vicinity. There's no question that the main location of al-Qaeda is in tribal areas of Pakistan."

Explicit confirmation of al Qaeda's recent activity in Afghanistan came in a propaganda video released by As Sahab, al Qaeda's media arm, stating that the May 21 suicide assault against an Afghan border police outpost in Urgun in Paktia province was carried out by four al Qaeda operatives.

The video, titled "The Raid of the Two Sheikhs; Abu Hamza al Muhajir and Abu Omar al Baghdadi, may Allah have mercy on them," shows the four al Qaeda operatives giving their martyrdom statements before carrying out the assault. The four al Qaeda operatives are identified as Luqman al Makki, from Mecca in Saudi Arabia; Na'imallah al Swati from the district of Swat in Pakistan; Mus'ab al Turki, from Turkey; and Musa al Afghani, from Afghanistan.

While the attack by the four al Qaeda operatives was a failure, as three of the suicide bombers were killed in a firefight with Afghan police and only one policeman was killed, the attack demonstrates that al Qaeda is still actively conducting operations inside Afghanistan.

Within the past eight months, Al Qaeda is known to have carried out several suicide attacks along the border. The most prominent attack was executed by Humam Khalil Muhammed Abu Mulal al Balawi, a Jordanian who was also known as Abu Dujanah al Khurasani, on Dec. 30, 2009. The Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents and security guards and a Jordanian intelligence official at Combat Outpost Chapman in Khost. COP Chapman was used to aid in the covert US Predator campaign that targets al Qaeda and Taliban operatives inside Pakistan's tribal areas.

Other recent attacks that can be directly traced to al Qaeda include an attack in the spring by Abi Zaid al Makki (another Saudi) on a Afghan outpost in Khost, and a failed attack by Abu Dijana San'aani, a Yemeni who served as a bomb maker for al Qaeda, near Kabul on May 9.

Further demonstrating al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan, over the past year Coalition and Afghan forces have killed numerous al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, as well as several other commanders who fought in Afghanistan but were based in Pakistan.

On May 25, Coalition and Afghan forces killed a "key al Qaeda leader" during a clash in the eastern province of Paktia. On Jan. 19, the Turkistan Islamic Party admitted that 15 of its members, including 13 Uighurs and two Turks, were killed during a Predator airstrike in Badghis province in northwestern Afghanistan. The group, which is closely allied to al Qaeda (Abdul Haq al Turkistani, the leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party, sits on al Qaeda's top shura), issued a statement confirming their deaths. And on Oct. 6, 2009, three al Qaeda embedded military trainers (these are al Qaeda operatives sent to Taliban units to impart tactics and skills) were killed in Herat.

As recently as June 27, in a single incident a total of 15 al Qaeda operatives, "including eight Arabs, five Pakistanis and two Afghans," were killed after an IED detonated prematurely in a compound in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.

In an attempt to disrupt al Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan, the US has also utilized targeted Predator strikes in Pakistan's bordering tribal areas to kill several top al Qaeda military leaders who fight in Afghanistan. Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's top leader for Afghanistan, was killed in a strike in North Waziristan on May 21. Al Qaeda quickly replaced Yazid by naming Sheikh Fateh al Masri as the new commander af Afghanistan.

More recently, on June 10, two Arab al Qaeda military commanders and a Turkish foreign fighter were killed in North Waziristan. Sheikh Ihsanullah was an "Arab al Qaeda military commander"; Ibrahim was the commander of the Fursan-i-Mohammed Group. On June 19, an al Qaeda commander named Abu Ahmed and 11 members of the Islamic Jihad Union were killed in North Waziristan.

Al Qaeda's extensive reach in Afghanistan is documented in the body of press releases issued in recent years by the International Security Assistance Force. Looking at press releases dating back to March 2007, The Long War Journal has been able to detect the presence of al Qaeda and affiliated groups such as the Islamic Jihad Union in 45 different districts in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

Al Qaeda operates in conjunction with the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and the Hizb-i-Islami Guldbuddin network throughout Afghanistan. Al Qaeda operatives often serve as embedded military trainers for Taliban field units and impart tactics and bomb-making skills to these forces. Al Qaeda often supports the Taliban by funding operations and providing weapons and other aid, according to classified military memos released by Wikileaks.

This picture is vastly different from the one painted by top Obama administration intelligence officials including CIA Director Leon Panetta and Nation Counterterrorism Center Director Michal Leiter.

Al Qaeda in Iraq Plants Al Qaeda Flag In Baghdad After Killing 16 Iraqi Security Forces

Granted, the al Qaea in Iraq flag didn't fly long in Baghdad but the fact that it stood waving in the breeze for more than 1 second is testament to the fact that the Iraqis will face years of bloodshed and turmoil after U.S. forces leave completely.

From the story at Breitbart:

Al-Qaida briefly planted its flag in Baghdad on Thursday as militants killed 23 members of Iraq's security forces across the country in a combination of shootings and roadside bombs demonstrating the dangers the country still faces.
The worst attack came in Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah when 16 Iraqi security forces were killed by what appeared to have been coordinated strikes by al-Qaida militants, who then planted their flag close to the blood-soaked site.

The daylight attack on the northern district, once an insurgent stronghold, was the boldest move by militants since their commando-style assault on the Central Bank in June that left 26 people dead during morning rush hour.

It also suggests the insurgents are looking to regain some sort of foothold in at least part of the capital as the U.S. military presence diminishes and Iraqi security forces struggle to keep the peace without the promise of American backup.

That last paragraph you see there is the disturbing one - the fact is that the U.S. troops have been out of Baghdad for quite awhile now and as many of you will remember, clearing out Baghdad of the insurgents was a long, deadly process - if al Qaeda in Iraq is gaining traction there, I'm not sure that the Iraqis will have the fortitude OR the expertise to do what our guys did.

I'm not being a chicken little here in that yes, this is one day of carnage but let's face it...you don't send just a couple of insurgents into Baghdad on a driveby and get away with killing 16 pretty well trained security forces - this appears to me as a pretty solid cell inside of the city.

Al-Qaida plants flag in Baghdad as 23 die in Iraq


BAGHDAD (AP) - Al-Qaida briefly planted its flag in Baghdad on Thursday as militants killed 23 members of Iraq's security forces across the country in a combination of shootings and roadside bombs demonstrating the dangers the country still faces.
The worst attack came in Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah when 16 Iraqi security forces were killed by what appeared to have been coordinated strikes by al-Qaida militants, who then planted their flag close to the blood-soaked site.

The daylight attack on the northern district, once an insurgent stronghold, was the boldest move by militants since their commando-style assault on the Central Bank in June that left 26 people dead during morning rush hour.

It also suggests the insurgents are looking to regain some sort of foothold in at least part of the capital as the U.S. military presence diminishes and Iraqi security forces struggle to keep the peace without the promise of American backup.

Militants attacked an Azamiyah checkpoint and then set it on fire, burning several of the soldiers' bodies, according to an army officer who was on patrol in the neighborhood. Minutes later, attackers detonated three roadside bombs nearby, the officials said.

A large pool of blood and what appear to be char marks could be seen on the ground near an Iraqi army truck. Authorities immediately sealed off the area.

The Azamiyah attack came in what was already a deadly day for Iraq's security forces, which are increasingly being targeted by insurgents as all but 50,000 U.S. troops prepare to leave the country by the end of August.

All American troops are set to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

Earlier Thursday, a suicide bomber drove a minibus into the main gate of an Iraqi army base near Saddam Hussein's hometown north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding 10, said police and hospital officials.

In the western city of Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, two roadside bombs targeting Iraqi army patrols killed two soldiers and wounded eight others, police and hospital officials in the city said.

In the northern city of Mosul, a bomb attached to a police vehicle killed one policeman and injured two others, a police official said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The attacks underline the fact that militant groups can still strike with lethal force across Iraq, despite an improvement in the security situation over the last three years.

Also Thursday, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for a bombing earlier this week that targeted the Baghdad offices of a pan-Arab television station killing six people, describing it as a victory against a "corrupt channel."

The Arabic-language news channel Al-Arabiya is one of the most popular in the Middle East but is perceived by insurgents as being pro-Western.

"We take responsibility for targeting this corrupt channel, and we will not hesitate to hit any media office and chase its staffers if they insist on being a tool of war against almighty God and his prophet," the announcement said.

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47 Republican Congressmen Offer Up House Resolution That Israel Deserves the Right To Defend Herself From Iran

The pro-Iran lobby in Washington, D.C. is pulling its hair out today as 47 House Republicans have offered up House Resolution 1553 which states that Israel has every right to take offensive action against Iran in order to protect itself from nuclear attack.

From the article at Israel National News, we see part of the resolution:

“condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its threats of ‘annihilating’ the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism, and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people.”

It “supports using all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons” and pledges that the U.S. will ensure that Israel “continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed to address the threat of Iran.”

In addition, it “expresses support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time.”

And after that was publicized, the filthy pro-Iran lobby in America went on their rant with the following frothing at the mouth:

“Obviously we are reaching silly season in Washington with the elections in November,” NIAC's founder-president Trita Parsi told RN, a news venue that focuses on Russian issues. He added that “there have already been some signs that Israel is going to be a major element that some Republicans will use to get both voters as well as finance, donations to campaigns, away from the Democrats.”

NIAC warned that an attack on Iran would ignite a regional war that would put the lives of “innocent Americans, Iranians, and Israelis” in harm's way, as well as risking the pro-democracy movement in Iran, U.S. national security and the stability of Iraq and Afghanistan and the global economy, which relies on oil from the Persian Gulf.

Well, I have some brief words for the Iranian lobbyists - these Republican Congressmen are right, you are wrong and perhaps you should just waddle off to Tehran and embrace the murderers you see fit to defend here. I totally support this House Resolution and if this Resolution passes, I would say that not only does it give Israel the green light to do whatever it needs to do against Iran, but it also commits America to assist the Israelis in that effort.

House Republicans Giving Green Light for Israeli Strike on Iran


Nearly one third of the Republican congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a resolution that would support Israel's right to use “all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran”, including military force.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] and 46 co-sponsors.

House Resolution 1553 “condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its threats of ‘annihilating’ the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism, and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people.”

It “supports using all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons” and pledges that the U.S. will ensure that Israel “continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed to address the threat of Iran.”

In addition, it “expresses support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time.”

Iran lobby alarmed
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a pro-Iranian lobby group, is up in arms over the proposed resolution.

“Obviously we are reaching silly season in Washington with the elections in November,” NIAC's founder-president Trita Parsi told RN, a news venue that focuses on Russian issues. He added that “there have already been some signs that Israel is going to be a major element that some Republicans will use to get both voters as well as finance, donations to campaigns, away from the Democrats.”

However, Parsi said, “even silly season has real repercussions on the real world.” The resolution would send “a dangerous signal” to Israel, that some in congress would welcome military action by it against Iran, while the White House and U.S. military oppose such a strike, he argued.

NIAC's website warned that the “game plan” behind HR 1553 was spelled out earlier this month by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton in the Wall Street Journal, when he wrote: “Having visible congressional support in place at the outset [of an attack] will reassure the Israeli government, which is legitimately concerned about Mr. Obama's likely negative reaction to such an attack.”

“The Obama Administration quietly resisted Congressional efforts to pass unilateral economic sanctions for over a year, before ultimately giving in to Congressional pressure,” NIAC wrote. “Now that 'crippling' sanctions have been put in place, the far-right wing and Iran-hawks have begun openly advocating for what has always been their ultimate objective: war with Iran.”

NIAC warned that an attack on Iran would ignite a regional war that would put the lives of “innocent Americans, Iranians, and Israelis” in harm's way, as well as risking the pro-democracy movement in Iran, U.S. national security and the stability of Iraq and Afghanistan and the global economy, which relies on oil from the Persian Gulf.

NIAC denies allegations that it is used as a tool by the Iranian regime, citing its condemnations of human rights abuses in Iran.

Obama's Security Advisor All Excited That Some Taliban Say They Will Disavow Al Qaeda

You know, the brilliance and worldly experience of the Obama administration just keeps reinforcing itself (pardon me while I lay the sarcasm on, even thicker) as U.S. National Security Advisor, James Jones, is all excited that he has reports that some elements of the Taliban are willing to disavow al Qaeda being in Afghanistan! Yay! Let's all just celebrate this amazing transformation and get ready to usher in decades of peace in Afghanistan!

From the report at DAWN:

Elements within the Taliban appear willing to disavow Al Qaeda, says US National Security Adviser James Jones as the United States seeks an “acceptable end state” in Afghanistan.
US officials also have indicated that the White House would accept a patchwork process in Afghanistan if it brings peace to the war-ravaged country.

The proposed process is expected to bring together elements of the Taliban and the Afghan government in a new arrangement for peace.

Those Taliban groups who sever their links to Al Qaeda and renounce violence will be allowed to form tribal police forces in the areas under their control.

I only have one problem with our astute National Security Advisor's take on things here....that is.....the fricking Taliban ....ARE LYING! I mean, seriously, is this fool really that naive? I have a suggestion for Mr. Jones: pick up the damn phone and call your counterparts in Pakistan who tried about two dozen times to sign peace agreements deals with the Taliban in that country and ask those Pakistani officials how good the Taliban are at honoring their agreements or telling the truth. One phone call, Mr. Jones, is all it will take.

Now, I don't begrudge someone for trying all angles to find a peaceful solution but for an official in the Obama administration to look this damn stupid, is beyond me. The thought of all of the young men and women we have lost in Afghanistan being cheapened by a fool hardy negotiation by an administration of amatuers simply boils my blood.

I have a better suggestion for Mr. Jones. Why don't you pull up your pants from down around your ankles, storm into your boss' office and tell him that it's time to win this fucking war. It's time you agree that our troops and those of NATO are the best in the world and if finally loosed to do their job, will decimate the Taliban in Afghanistan. It's time you give up your petty politics, reflect upon the victory our troops executed in Iraq and tell the country that you have confidence in them they can repeat it in Afghanistan. Remove the grounding order on our F-16's and AH-64's in Afghanistan, take the bridle off our troops on the ground and reinvigorate our special forces and I guarantee that we will see a Taliban fleeing that country.

But hey, if the Obama administration wants to buy into this Leftist, defeatest opinion that since the drunk, uninspired Russian troops of 20 years ago couldn't win in Afghanistan so we can't either, then we will get what we will get. The Taliban back in power, al Qaeda back in their training camps and more buildings coming down in America.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Jones....if I agree to "disavow" Rush Limbaugh, you will see that Barack Hussein Obama resigns? Hey, sign me up for it! :wink:

US seeks ‘acceptable end state’ in Afghanistan


WASHINGTON: Elements within the Taliban appear willing to disavow Al Qaeda, says US National Security Adviser James Jones as the United States seeks an “acceptable end state” in Afghanistan.
US officials also have indicated that the White House would accept a patchwork process in Afghanistan if it brings peace to the war-ravaged country.

The proposed process is expected to bring together elements of the Taliban and the Afghan government in a new arrangement for peace.

Those Taliban groups who sever their links to Al Qaeda and renounce violence will be allowed to form tribal police forces in the areas under their control.

Pakistan is expected to play a crucial role in brokering such a deal, although its favourite Taliban group – the Haqqani network – may be kept out of this arrangement.

In an interview to a Washington Post columnist after the publication of the Afghan war logs, Gen Jones noted that some Taliban might be willing to meet one US condition for talks, which is to disavow Al Qaeda. “The Taliban generally as a group has never signed on to the global Jihad business and doesn’t seem to have ambitions beyond its region,” he said.

Mr Jones praised the Pakistani military for stepping up its operations in the border region over the past 18 months, but he stressed: “There’s much more to do and not a lot of time to do it.”

The US media noted that the disclosure of the Afghan war logs by a whistleblowers site called Wikileaks came at a time when the Washington mood about Afghanistan was already darkening.

“Even hawkish officials have become increasingly concerned that success – even a minimal ‘C-plus’ version – may not be possible within a realistic time-frame,” the Post noted.

The leaked US military documents have created a new dilemma for the Obama administration by highlighting ISI’s alleged links to the Taliban.

Diplomatic observers in Washington say that now is when the Obama administration needs the Pakistani intelligence agency to broker “a patchwork deal” with some Taliban groups. But the leaks made it difficult for the US administration to hold such negotiations with the ISI, at least publicly.

The leaks also have made it difficult for Washington to balance its relations with India and Pakistan.

Apparently, the Indians want the US to thwart Pakistan’s efforts to expand its influence in Afghanistan but the Americans realise that the Pakistanis can only be pushed so far.

US scholars, while commenting on the Wikileaks papers, acknowledged that for Pakistan, Afghanistan was an area of fundamental strategic interest.

“It is irrational to expect the Pakistanis to halt collaboration with the force that they expect to be a major part of the government of Afghanistan when the United States leaves,” said George Friedman, founder of strategic think tank Stratfor.

“The Pakistanis never expected the United States to maintain a presence in Afghanistan permanently … they don’t expect the Taliban to be defeated … and are not interested in chaos in Afghanistan,” he noted. “It follows that they will maintain close relations with and support for the Taliban.”

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Taliban Supreme Leader, Mullah Omar, Issues Command For Taliban To Capture and Kill Afghan Civilians Including Women Who Help Coalition Forces

Whoa. Apparently Mullah Omar, the top leader of the Taliban, has decided that his order last year to not harm Afghan civilians wasn't working so now he has reversed himself and is calling upon his fighters to capture and kill all Afghans that have cooperated with coalition forces, including Afghan women found aiding enemy forces.

Here's some of the article at The Long War Journal along with the actual terms of the directive:

The battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan has taken a new turn in the past two months. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has ordered his forces to kill or capture any civilians, including Afghan women, who cooperate with Coalition forces. Omar’s latest directive contradicts his marching orders from just one year ago, when he told his Taliban commanders to refrain from harming civilians working with the Coalition.

Omar reportedly issued his latest order in June. NATO announced that it had recovered a copy of the directive in July. Since then, Afghan press outlets have published a translation of Omar’s five-point order.

According to the translation, Mullah Omar’s five-point directive reads:

1. Fight coalition forces to the death without withdrawing or surrendering; attempt to capture coalition forces whenever possible.
2. Capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

3. Capture and kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces.

4. Recruit anyone that has access to coalition force bases and have the ability to collect detailed information about coalition forces.

5. Purchase or obtain more heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns.

Now, I ask you...can you imagine what the litmus test is going to be for Taliban jihadis in the field for determining just who has been helping coalition forces? I mean these are Taliban jihadis - they live to kill stuff. I can imagine an entire village being killed because they suspect a number of people helped U.S. and NATO troops.

This reminds me of the edicts that came out of Al Qaeda in Iraq when they decided to ratchet up the violence in Iraq and ended up torturing and killing many civilians - that change for al Qaeda in Iraq worked out very poorly for them as that behavior turned thousands of Sunni tribesman against them.

Well, I don't know what Omar is thinking but apparently he doesn't feel that Afghan tribesman will follow suit. Let's hope he is wrong.

Now for the irony of all of this - when the U.S. troops in Afghanistan are suffering from the insane rules of engagement that Barack Hussein Obama has set up in which Afghan civilians have to be protected even at the risk of American life, the Taliban are opening up their sites on those same civilians. If some Congressmen don't get in Obama's face over this and DEMAND that the ROE in this war change immediately, there will be blood on their hands.

Mullah Omar orders Taliban to attack civilians, Afghan women


The battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan has taken a new turn in the past two months. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has ordered his forces to kill or capture any civilians, including Afghan women, who cooperate with Coalition forces. Omar’s latest directive contradicts his marching orders from just one year ago, when he told his Taliban commanders to refrain from harming civilians working with the Coalition.

Omar reportedly issued his latest order in June. NATO announced that it had recovered a copy of the directive in July. Since then, Afghan press outlets have published a translation of Omar’s five-point order.

The Long War Journal has received a translation of Omar’s order, as it appeared in the Afghan press, from US intelligence sources. Senior US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal say the order is most likely genuine.

According to the translation, Mullah Omar’s five-point directive reads:

1. Fight coalition forces to the death without withdrawing or surrendering; attempt to capture coalition forces whenever possible.
2. Capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

3. Capture and kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces.

4. Recruit anyone that has access to coalition force bases and have the ability to collect detailed information about coalition forces.

5. Purchase or obtain more heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns.



Points 2 and 3 are a dramatic about-face for the Taliban leader. In the summer of 2009, Omar issued a Code of Conduct for Taliban forces that explicitly commanded his shadow governors and other Taliban leaders to do the opposite.

“Governors, district chiefs and line commanders and every member of the Mujahideen must do their best to avoid civilian deaths, civilian injuries and damage to civilian property. Great care must be taken,” the Taliban’s Code of Conduct reads, according to a translation available on al Jazeera’s web site.

Coalition military officials have been quick to cite Mullah Omar’s most recent order, highlighting its impact on the Afghan people. On Tuesday, ISAF issued a press release describing a Taliban attack in which six Afghan civilians were killed, two more were wounded, and an Afghan government official was kidnapped in the Siahgird district of Parwan province.

"These insurgents have chosen to follow Mullah Omar’s recent guidance of attempting to capture or kill innocent civilians who are working for the coalition or government," Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF Joint Command’s Combined Joint Operations Center director, is quoted as saying in the press release. "Meanwhile, Omar is directing these attacks from the relative safety of his hiding place in Pakistan."

A July 19 news release on the Defense Department’s web site includes a summary of Mullah Omar’s order that is nearly identical to the language cited above. In that release, ISAF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz references Mullah Omar’s five-point directive in the context of another attack on Afghan civilians, pointing out that the 2009 Code of Conduct is apparently no longer binding.

"This [order] proves the Taliban are willing to ignore their own Code of Conduct when they sense they are losing influence and control, as today's attack [July 18] against several Afghan civilians [who] were killed and injured by a suicide attack in a residential area in Kabul today demonstrates," Blotz explained.

The Taliban's use of suicide bombers against civilian targets, highlighted in the July 19 DOD release, is another reversal in Taliban policy. The Taliban's 2009 Code of Conduct called for limiting the use of suicide bombers in attacks against civilians. "A brave son of Islam should not be used for lower and useless targets. The utmost effort should be made to avoid civilian casualties," the document reads.

Up until Mullah Omar’s June directive, it was widely thought that the Taliban would try to limit civilian casualties in order to compete with ISAF’s counterinsurgency strategy. American-led forces in Afghanistan treat the Afghan populace as the center of gravity and are trying to win their support by limiting civilian casualties and extending good governance.

The Taliban, as evidenced by its 2009 Code of Conduct, initially adopted a similar strategy. But Mullah Omar has now abandoned that effort in favor a more violent course. It remains to be seen whether Omar and the Taliban stick to the new strategy, or revert back to a more civilian-friendly approach.

Did the Iranians Attack a Japanese Ship In the Strait of Hormuz?

A lot of unanswered questions right now are swirling around concrete evidence that a Japanese tanker that was maneuvering through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf was damaged by what is being described by the crew as an "explosion."

From the article at Breitbart:

A Japanese shipping line raised alarm Wednesday that one of its supertankers was damaged by an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf, but authorities on both sides of the tense waterway denied that any strike occurred.
Details of what happened as the hulking M. Star tanker steered its way through the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz remain murky. The U.S. Navy fleet that patrols the region acknowledged reports of an explosion aboard the ship but said the cause of the blast is unclear.

Mitsui said the explosion seemed to be caused by "an attack from external sources" while the tanker passed through Omani waters in the western part of the vital waterway, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran at the Gulf's mouth.

"We believe it's highly likely an attack," Mitsui spokeswoman Eiko Mizuno said. "There is nothing that can explode in that part of the vessel."

Now pardon my rush to judgement against the Iranians but at the Strait of Hormuz, on one side you have Iran and on the other you have Oman and the United Arab Emirates - last time I checked, Oman and the UAE were not exactly involved in terrorism or global jihad nor have they threatened half the world with destruction. At the same time, last time I checked, Somali pirates aren't exactly zipping around in the Persian Gulf. So that leaves us with Iran.

So what happened? Well, I would guess that the possibilities would be a mine that had been laid by the Iranians or a small craft did a U.S.S. Cole number on the Japanese ship. I would guess that if the Iranians had actually rammed the ship with a small craft loaded with explosives there would be some debris evidence of that but at the same time, this happened at midnight and who knows how far the Japanese vessel continued on until stopping to check things out. At the same time, I have no way of know what part of the Strait they were in but a mine is a possibility but by the looks of the damage to the ship in the photo supplies here, the damage seems to be well above the water line.

Obviously, I'm no expert on this kind of thing but I do feel I know the Iranians pretty well and I am convinced they were behind this, whatever it was. Hopefully, further examination of this vessel will turn up some clues.

Supertanker damage raises alarm in Persian Gulf


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A Japanese shipping line raised alarm Wednesday that one of its supertankers was damaged by an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf, but authorities on both sides of the tense waterway denied that any strike occurred.
Details of what happened as the hulking M. Star tanker steered its way through the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz remain murky. The U.S. Navy fleet that patrols the region acknowledged reports of an explosion aboard the ship but said the cause of the blast is unclear.

Local officials cited natural causes, such as an unusually strong wave that slammed into the side of the ship.

A photo released by the Emirates state news agency WAM after the tanker arrived in Fujairah port for inspections showed a large, square-shaped dent beginning near the waterline on the rear starboard side of the ship's hull.

The incident happened shortly after midnight as the M. Star entered the strait, heading out of the Gulf, Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said.

Mitsui said the explosion seemed to be caused by "an attack from external sources" while the tanker passed through Omani waters in the western part of the vital waterway, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran at the Gulf's mouth.

"We believe it's highly likely an attack," Mitsui spokeswoman Eiko Mizuno said. "There is nothing that can explode in that part of the vessel."

One of the ship's 31 crew members noticed a flash of light right before the explosion, she said, suggesting something may have struck the vessel. The explosion occurred at the back of the tanker, near an area where lifeboats are stored, causing cuts to a crew member who was struck with broken glass.

If the tanker was attacked, it would be a rare assault on a merchant ship in the Gulf or at the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for about 40 percent of oil shipped by tankers worldwide.

Al-Qaida has in the past carried out attacks on oil infrastructure on land in nearby Saudi Arabia, as well as a 2002 suicide bombing against a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

Yuki Shimoda, an official at Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said the ministry did not immediately suspect an attack, but added that the possibility cannot be ruled out.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, loaded with 270,000 tons of oil, was heading from the petroleum port of Das Island in the United Arab Emirates to the Japanese port of Chiba outside Tokyo, the ministry said. After the blast, the tanker made its way the Emirati port of Fujairah under its own power, where it dropped anchor late Wednesday.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping lane for crude oil, natural gas and other goods headed out of the Persian Gulf. It is far from areas where Somali pirates typically prey on slow-moving ships, though smugglers are known to operate in the area between Iran and an enclave of Oman on the other side of the strait.

The Japanese ministry said none of the country's ships has been attacked by pirates in the area.

Iran has in the past threatened to close the strait if the United States attacks it over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, though there were no immediate signs of Iranian involvement.

The Emirates' official state news agency WAM quoted Fujairah port director Musa Murad as saying the tanker sustained damage when it was hit by a large wave caused by a tremor. WAM separately quoted an "official source" who ruled out the possibility the tanker had been attacked.

Ataollah Sadr, an Iranian shipping official, also said the damage was likely caused as a result of an earthquake and rejected the possibility of a terrorist attack, according to Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it has not had any reports of recent earthquakes in the area, which is prone to seismic activity. Mizuno said the shipping company had no reason to believe a large wave or earthquake was to blame.

Omani officials couldn't immediately be reached.

The U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols the region, said it is investigating the explosion but does not know what caused it. Initial reports from the ship's owner say one lifeboat was blown off the ship, and some starboard hatches were damaged, according to the Navy. It said it offered to assist the tanker after the explosion but was told no help was needed.

Motivational Poster of the Day: Mistakes

(Hat tip: Henry Bowman)